Fifty years and over of Akron and Summit County : embellished by nearly six hundred engravings--portraits of pioneer settlers, prominent citizens, business, official and professional--ancient and modern views, etc.; nine-tenth's of a century of solid local history--pioneer incidents, interesting events--industrial, commercial, financial and educational progress, biographies, etc., Part 139

Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department
Number of Pages: 1228

USA > Ohio > Summit County > Akron > Fifty years and over of Akron and Summit County : embellished by nearly six hundred engravings--portraits of pioneer settlers, prominent citizens, business, official and professional--ancient and modern views, etc.; nine-tenth's of a century of solid local history--pioneer incidents, interesting events--industrial, commercial, financial and educational progress, biographies, etc. > Part 139

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

At eight o'clock the stock is gathered up and securely picketed inside the ring, and then to bed. And we had beds, too. First rubber blankets spread upon the ground, then light cotton mat- tresses, woolen blankets, comforters, feather pillows, etc., and making it a rule to regularly undress, as if at home, except in cases- of supposed danger, stress of weather, etc.

The night was divided into three watches -from eight till eleven, eleven till two, and from two till daylight-when the camp was aroused by the firing off of the guns. Regular beats were maintained around the camp, at times a very hazardous operation, as was evidenced by the fact that a number of the guards of other trains were killed by Indians while thus on duty, either from sheer savage wantonness, or for purposes of plunder by stampeding the stock, as was frequently done.

The routine duty of the morning was, first, for the teamsters to get the stock to the feeding grounds, the cook meantime preparing

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AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

breakfast, while the " chambermaid" rolled up the bedding, struck the tent, packed the wagon, set the table, etc. The morning meal over, the dishes were washed and packed, the animals gathered in and tackled, and everything made ready for a start-the team first in readiness being the leader for the day; a halt of from one to two hours being made in the middle of the day for baiting our animals . and ourselves.

COMMISSARY STORES, FUEL, COOKING, ETC .- Our main reliance, in the provision line, was cured side pork and sea biscuit, what have since, in war parlance, come to be known as " sow-belly" and "hard-tack," though each company was provided with such " luxuries," as the taste and purses of its members might suggest or warrant-corn meal, flour, dried beef, dried apples and peaches, coffee, tea, sugar, cheese, etc.

The most of the cooking was done over the open camp-fire, and was, of course, more or less seasoned with flying dust, and flavored by odors of the different kinds of fuel accessible to us-dry grass, weeds, green sage-brush, buffalo "chips," etc., for often, for hun- dreds of miles, not a twig or splinter of wood was within our reach; the "chips," by the by, being about the best fuel encountered upon the journey.

The writer's own mess was provided with a small two-story sheet-iron stove, with oven, boiler holes, etc., by which we were enabled to provide a variety of bakery goods-biscuits, short-cake, gingerbread, apple-pies, etc, that but few of our neighbors could indulge in-the writer officiating as cook through Missouri, and Mr. James Holmes upon the plains.

INCIDENTS OF THE JOURNEY .-. To re-produce even the brief daily record of the journal kept by the writer, would occupy more space than could be given to it here. A few of the more salient incidents therefore must suffice. We left our camp upon the bluffs at pre- cisely 10 o'clock on the first day of May, to the pluck-inspiring music of the fife and drum, our first objective point being Fort Kearney, 300 miles distant, on the Platte River, which we reached May 16, having averaged about 20 miles a day. Though we were almost at the head of the emigration that year, a record kept at the fort showed that 1,952 wagons and 6,152 souls had preceded us.

For the first two weeks, so backward was the season, we had to rely principally upon the corn and other feed carried with us, by the aid of sickles, hatchets, knives, etc., converting the prairie grass of the year before, mixed with middlings, into "chop" which the animals devoured with great avidity and seeming relish. Those who did not thus take along feed, had to depend solely upon this dry grass for the subsistence of their stock, which soon began to be painfully manifest by the constantly increasing number of dead animals along the route.

DEATH ON THE TRAIL .- On our fourth day out we saw our first grave, that of a man from Michigan, who died the year before. At the head of the grave was a small board giv- ing name, age, residence, date of death, etc., the mnound being surmounted by the huge branching antlers of a prai- rie elk, with its prongs firmly implanted in the ground. This grave, on a knoll several rods from the road, had a deep-worn path to, and from it, indicating that nearly every passing pilgrim to the land of gold, paid a visit thereto, an unavoidable sadness pervading

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INCIDENTS UPON THE PLAINS.

the minds of all who viewed it, lest in the long and perilous jour- ney before them, they or their friends might share the fate of the one who had thus fallen at the very outset of the journey. The sight became a very familiar one, however, as we proceeded, many others of those who died the year before, from cholera and other diseases, with many fresh mounds under which were quietly sleep- ing those who, but a few days before, were as eagerly pursuing their quest for gold as ourselves.

BUFFALOES BY THE MILLION .- Soon after leaving Fort Kearney, we struck the buffalo pasture grounds, "chips" for fuel being plenty, but for several days none of the animals in sight, except an occasional herd in the distance, seen from the bluffs. The day after leaving the fort, towards night, a solitary buffalo was descried a mile or two to the left, towards the bluffs, and our cook shoul- dered his rifle and sauntered off that way, thinking to get a crack at him, and then make his way towards the train. We went into camp at about the usual hour, in a small ravine, a short distance from the road, but no Holmes put in an appearance. The " chambermaid " got supper, the animals were duly cared for, bed- time arrived, but still no Holmes. By this time the camp was thoroughly alarmed. The drum was beaten and guns were fired to guide the wanderer into camp, but still he came not. Thinking that he might have got bewildered in some of the gulches of the bluffs, a searching party was organized, which, armed with lan- terns, guns, drum, fife, etc., started for the bluffs. Finally, at about eleven o'clock, and just before the return of the searching party, the lost one came slowly marching into camp, almost utterly exhausted. It appeared that on returning to the road about where we would be likely to be encamped, we were not in sight, being in a ravine as before stated. Inquiring at another camp for the " mili- tary train," he was told that we were behind, and back he walked several miles, when he was told that we were ahead, and ahead he went to be again and again told that we were to the right or to the left, finally striking a company who told him that early in the evening the beating of a drum and the firing of guns was heard in a given direction, when he marched right into camp. The unsuccessful searching party soon returned with sorrowful coun- tenances, but when they learned that the lost was found, their sor- row was turned to joy, and tired as he was, and as we all were, an impromptu midnight jollification was held over the happy out- come of the adventure. Holmes kept pretty near home after that.

ANIMALS FRIGHTENED OFF .- Three days later, while lying by for lunch, an immense herd of buffaloes was discovered to be bearing directly down upon us from the north. All hands made a rush for the teams, but before all could be secured six head had pulled their lariat pins and escaped-two mules belonging to Mills and Anson, and two mules and two horses belonging to Kuhner and Dugan. The two former were recovered during the afternoon, but the four latter, after a thorough search of a day and a half, being nowhere to be found or even seen, it being stated by old buffalo hunters, that domestic animals thus frightened, will run with, and become merged in the herd from which they are endeavoring to escape. Having two large horses left, by such aid as was afforded them by other members of the train, the unfortunate couple, with

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AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

their wives, were enabled to pursue their journey without much inconvenience.

A NEAT MECHANICAL OPERATION .- We were now far enough upon our journey to require occasional repairs upon our wagons. Several spokes had been broken out of one of the hind wheels of Wheeler's wagon, while it was becoming musically evident that the tires upon all of the wheels of our wagon needed to be re-set; but how could it be done, with no wood or coal, no bellows or anvil or other appliances with which to cut and shut the tire? But the skill of the practical carriage-maker and blacksmith at the head of the Tallmadge mess, Mr. Ira P. Sperry, was adequate to the occa- sion. Having previously supplied ourselves with the necessary timber from the crippled wagon of another train which was being dismantled, taking advantage of our involuntary delay while searching for the missing stock, stripping the tire from the wheels in question, new spokes were speedily adjusted to the one, and to compensate for our inability to contract the diameter of the tire, the diameter of the wheel itself was increased by tacking thin tapering strips to the outer surface of the felloes. Then the proper expansion of the tire was effected by the use of buffalo "chips" for fuel, and, when in place, contracted by the waters of the near-by creek, giving to the wheels, when cooled, as sound a ring as when first turned from the shop in old Tallmadge.

"SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS."-During our day and a half sojourn, as stated, numerous buffaloes passed near us, and the hunters of our party gave chase, killing from twelve to fifteen of them, so that our entire train fared sumptuously upon fresh beef, so long as it could be kept from spoiling with the appliances we had. Of course we could use but a small portion of the slaugh- tered animals, some of them being too far from camp to be brought in, while other portions were given to the members of contiguous trains. Immense herds were also seen browsing upon the north side of the Platte, while many similar herds crossed our path, and were seen upon either hand, for several days, so that it is safe to say that we saw millions of the shaggy-maned bovines within the distance of 100 miles on this portion of our journey.

PERILS OF THE MURKY DEEP. - About 100 miles from Fort Kearney we came to the forks of the Platte, and passing up the left bank of the South fork about forty miles, crossed the river, and over a succession of steep ridges into Ash Hollow, on the North Platte. The South Platte, where we crossed it, was about half a mile in width, but the ford being diagonally across, just about doubled the distance. The water was about three feet deep, and extremely muddy, from the washings of the soft rocky-earthy bluffs through which it runs higher up. It is the South Platte that gives its muddy character to the main Platte, which, in turn dis- colors the Missouri and the Mississippi, both the North Platte and the upper Missouri and Mississippi, being as clear as crystal.

The South Platte, at the crossing, had a rapid current and a quick-sand bottom, with the exception of narrow bars of solid ground from fiteen to twenty rods apart. Once in the stream, men and animals had to keep moving, from one bar to another, or the sand would wash out from under their feet and down they would go. The animals, as well as the humans, instinctively realized the danger, and pulled for dear life, though an occasional one,

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"DISTANCE LENDS ENCHANTMENT TO THE VIEW."

weakened by travel and poor care, would sink down exhausted, and have to be pulled through by his companions, being some- times drowned in the operation.

SUBLIMELY BEAUTIFUL .- The country between Ash Hollow and Fort Laramie, 150 miles, was lovely in the extreme, the broad and fertile valley of the river, being flanked on either side by high bluffs, to which, in the clear atmosphere of the region, distance lent the most delightful enchantment. These bluffs, as we approached and passed them, presented the appearance of turreted castles, handsome villas and magnificent cities, with their domes and spires, but a few miles distant, but which in reality were from twenty-five to fifty miles away. An occasional isolated fragment, standing out in bold'relief, would attract the curiosity and incite a visit from the emigrant.

The first of these was called "Court House Rock," which, as we approached, strikingly resembled the regulation stone court house, with a lofty dome upon its summit, two or three miles from the road, over a seemingly perfect level prairie. It was visited by thousands, mostly on foot, who found that instead of two or three, it was seven or eight miles from the road, with deep ravines, and one or two considerable streams of water intervening. With several of our company, on muleback, I visited the " Court House." We found it to be an irregular soft, clayey lime-stone formation, three-fourths of a mile around the base, and from 150 to 200 feet high, the "dome" being an almost perpendicular shaft of some forty-five or fifty feet in height, and fifteen feet across the top. Thousands of names of emigrants were carved upon the surface of this rock, from base to top of dome, the only one recognized by the writer being that of "William Smagg, Akron, Ohio, May 17, 1850," just ten days before our visit, indicating that our train and Garrett's were making about the same time.

Thirteen miles beyond, "Chimney Rock," five or six miles from the road, is also visited by thousands. This was a conical mass of rock, about 150 feet in height, with a perpendicular shaft of 100 feet or more rising from its center, giving it, from a distance, the appearance of a huge factory smoke-stack.

Thirty miles beyond, we arrive at and pass through, a romantic chain, called " Scott's Bluff," which has been seemingly but a few miles ahead for four or five days, and twenty miles further brings us to Fort Laramie, 600 miles from St. Joseph, which we reached on the morning of May 30, having maintained an average of twenty miles per day, including the Sundays and other occasional days that we did not travel.

Though for the most part our road has thus far been seem- ingly almost upon a dead level, along the valley of the Platte and its tributaries, we have been gradually going up hill, Fort Laramie being 4,770 feet higher than the Gulf of Mexico, and at the base of the far-famed Rocky Mountains.

PROPERTY VALUES UPON THE PLAINS .- About fifeen miles this side of Fort Laramie, by the sliding of our wagon, in passing over a sideling gulley, one of our hind wheels was turned inside out, but we were fortunate in securing another wagon, from another company, for the moderate sum of $20. Transferring our luggage to the new purchase, we hauled the crippled wagon to the fort, with the view of getting it repaired, if possible. We indeed found

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AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

a repair shop there, but as the fellows running it wanted $20 for filling the wheel, and would not promise to do it for two or three days at that, we sold them the wagon that we had paid $90 for, three months before, for the paltry pittance of $12, and pushed ahead, with the plainer and lighter, but stronger one purchased as above stated. A few days later we had the pleasure of seeing our familiar old wagon pass our camp, and on inquiry learned that its then owners had traded a still heavier wagon for it, and paid $35. to boot.

THE JOURNEY A TEMPER TESTER. - The overland journey was admirably calculated to develop the perverse and selfish instincts of human nature. If, as was often the case, companies found them- selves overloaded with provisions or articles which they had thought to carry through for use on the other side, or concluded to abandon their wagons, tents, etc., and pack the rest of the journey, the universal practice was to destroy what they could not sell. Wagons would be chopped to pieces or burned; tents torn into shreds, gun-barrels bent, chains, and iron and steel implements sunk in the streams, etc., it being reported of a well known Akron lady, that, finding she must dispense with her cherished flat-irons, she hurled them with her own hand, into the middle of a near-by river.

So, too, little differences of opinion in regard to train manage- ment, care of stock, selection of camping ground, lying by or going ahead on Sunday, etc., would develop into angry quarrels, that would not only cause some very circumspect people, when at home, to use extremely " sulphurous" language, but to frequently break up messes, and sometimes entire companies, each member thereafter going it upon his own hook; broils of that character not infrequently terminating in bloody and fatal fights, or life-long bitter enmities.

Our little company was comparatively exempt from that class of disasters, and though splits were sometimes imminent, with a single exception the messes of "Military Train" remained intact to the end. The exception alluded to was the sudden falling out between Mr. and Mrs. Kuhner and Mr. and Mrs. Dugan, the cause of which was never fully apparent to the rest of us.

On the Sunday morning after the unfortunate loss of their animals, as above detailed, while we were encamped on the Platte river, getting into some trivial controversy, Kuhner's "Dutch" became excited and Dugan got his "Irish" up to such an extent that, before any of us were aware of what was going on, they had divided all of their effects, cutting and sawing right down through the center of the top and body of their splendid rubber-top wagon and converting it into a couple of bob-tailed carts. Pre- vious to the loss of their animals, as stated, Kuhner had purchased from an Indian trader, for his wife to ride on, an Indian pony, which he now harnessed up with his large horse to the cart, made from the forward portion of the wagon, "while Dugan, mounting his horse, rode some ten miles to the bluffs, where he secured a couple of pine poles, out of which he constructed shafts to the hinder portion, and with these unique rigs they continued on with the train, the rest of us giving the women frequent rides on our own wagons, and also helping the late belligerents over the hard . spots on the journey.

1121 .

POISONOUS WATERS AND GRASSES.

CALIFORNIA PRICES ALREADY .- From Fort Laramie, the snow- capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains are distinctly visible, and their chilling influence, these last days of May and first days of June, uncomfortably apparent, for though in midday the sun shines bright and warm, the nights are sufficiently cool to form 'ice from an eighth to a quarter inch in thickness upon our water- buckets and the shallower streams of water of the vicinity. Pass- ing over a spur of the Black Hills, forty miles brings us again to the valley of the North Platte, which we follow, between lofty ranges of solid granite, about eighty-five or ninety miles.

At this point, 125 miles from Fort Laramie, we cross the river, which, earlier and later in the season, is easily fordable, but during the melting of snow in the mountains the current attains a depth and velocity that renders the fording process impracticable. Hitherto, in such an emergency, emigrants had, at great risk, fer- ried themselves and their effects over in wagon boxes, or on impro- vised rafts, as best as they could, the animals and many of the men, having to swim for it, many lives and much property being lost in the operation. But this year parties from the fort had established a ferry here, having five boats rudely constructed front the large trees found along the river bank at this point, and propelled across by the current, by means of cables stretched across the stream, and kept in proper tension by windlasses on either side,-the width of the river being about 300 feet. The ferriage fee was only four dollars per wagon, and twenty-five cents for each animal, the humans being generously crossed without charge.

At the ferry we found, upon a tree, the names of Hallet Kil- bourn, Frederick Wadsworth, David H. Bliss, and several other Akronians, under date of May 27, showing that we were all mak- ing about the same speed, as it will be remembered that Garrett's train started ten days ahead of us, and it is now the 6th day of June. Many other names and messages were here and elsewhere inscribed upon the trees and rocks, indicating to following friends the progress that was being inade, and the welfare of those ahead of them.

POISONOUS WATERS, GRASSES, ETC .- A few miles from the ferry we started upon our heaviest climb, thus far, over the divide between the Platte and the Sweetwater, a distance of about sixty miles. In the intervening valleys between the two rivers, we for the first time strike the poisonous alkaline springs and meadows, so fatal to the animals of the emigrants. In one place we passed what, as we approached, looked like a lake of milk, but which proved to be a solid bed of what was found, by experiment, to be a fair quality of saleratus. In these valleys were innumerable poisonous springs, almost side by side with springs of pure and wholesome water, requiring the utmost vigilance, on the part of emigrants, to prevent disaster to themselves and stock, as evi- denced by the hundreds of dead horses, mules and oxen visible to both the optic and the olfactory organs, on every hand. Emi- grants of the year before, who had suffered from this cause, had thoughtfully posted cards indicating the more prominent of these poisonous spots, but many others were not thus indicated. One afternoon, while riding one of our ponies and leading two of our mules, I turned aside into what appeared to be a patch of nutritious

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AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

meadow grass, while the train passed on. Allowing the ani- mals to graze half or three-quarters of an hour, I started forward to overtake the train. Soon after reaching the road, I discovered that the pony I was riding was sick. He would stop, crouch nearly to the ground, retch as if trying to vomit, and groan as if in great distress. Hastily transferring the saddle to one of the mules, I pushed on as rapidly as possible, but soon found that both of the inules were affected the same way. Thanks to Mr. Russell Abbey, from his experience of the year before, we had provided ourselves with antidotes-tartaric and citric acids. On reaching the train, which had gone into camp, we drenched the three animals with a solution of the acid, and in fifteen minutes the mules were apparently as well as ever, and the pony a good deal better, though it was several days before he entirely recov- ered. Later on, when the very best water we could procure was more or less impregnated with alkali, we made free use of the acids in question, with great benefit to our animals and ourselves, our company getting through with every head of stock we started with, excepting those frightened off by buffaloes, as heretofore stated.

"INDEPENDENCE ROCK"-"DEVIL'S GATE," ETC .- Soon after reaching the Sweetwater, a beautiful stream about six or eight rods wide, and from two to four feet deep, we cross to the north bank, and halt for lunch under the shadow of "Independence Rock"-a solitary mass of granite 1,800 feet long, 360 feet wide, and from 300 to 400 feet high, so named not only because of its standing on the level plain of the valley, independent of the neigh- boring chain of mountains, but also because one of the earliest trains that went through to Oregon celebrated the Fourth of July at its base, and planted the Stars and Stripes upon its summit.

This rock was literally covered-not with patent medicine advertisements, as perchance it may be now-but with the names of thousands of emigrants, inscribed in every variety of style, color and material-white, red and black paint, tar, lampblack and grease, chalk, charcoal, etc., some being even chiseled into the hard granite.

A short distance beyond Independence Rock, is what is denominated the "Devil's Gate." A sharp spur of the mountain, around which the river originally ran, perhaps being undermined by the current, had apparently split off, the outer portion filling up the bed of the river, and forcing the water through the cleft in the rock. The sides of the cleft were some 400 feet in height, and, being considerably narrower than the channel of the river on either side, the water rushes through with considerable force, and a roar resembling that of Niagara Falls at a distance.

MOUNTAIN SHEEP, GOATS, ETC .- Camping over Sunday, just beyond the "Devil's Gate," a number of our boys clambered to the top of the mountain, several thousand feet, where they saw range on range beyond, with broad, heavy timbered valleys between, which seemed the more singular from the fact that there was not a tree or shrub in the valley of the Sweetwater, except the odorif- erous sage-brush. Many mountain sheep and goats were seen by the boys, but they were unable to approach sufficiently near to get a shot at them.

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ON THE SUMMIT OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

GOLD EXCITEMENT EXTRAORDINARY .- At this point, also, great excitement was produced by the discovery of what seemed like innumerable particles of gold among the sands of the Sweet- water. The first impulse was to wash out a few thousands and return, but when it was found that the shining particles were much lighter than the sand, and would all float off on attempting a separation by washing, that project was abandoned and we con- cluded to push forward to the Pacific slope, where we could shovel up the big lumps.

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Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905 Publication date: 1892 Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department Number of Pages: 1228

Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department
Number of Pages: 1228