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 140

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 140

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SNOW-CLAD MOUNTAINS .-- Leaving the " Devil's Gate" on Mon- day morning, June 10, we follow the general course of the Sweet- water nearly three days, fording it several times, passing between snow-capped mountains, and over a number of high ranges, on the top of one of which we found an almost level sandy plain, sixteen miles, without water; on another of about the same dimensions, several creeks and marshes, and snow drifts.

On the night of June 12, while encamped on Willow creek, we were visited with a furious storm of sleet and snow, and on the morning of June 13, found the water in our half-filled tin water- dish frozen solid. It was a curious sight, that, to see bright and fragrant flowers sweetly blooming on the icy margins of these slowly melting snow-banks, where a person could easily gather a snow-ball with one hand and a beautiful bouquet with the other.

"SQUEEZING THROUGH" THE SOUTH PASS .- Crossing the Sweet- water for the last time, a short ten miles brings us to what was then, and perhaps still is, known as the "South Pass" of the Rocky Mountains, and, what may seem singular, the five miles on either side is almost a dead level, and the road quite sandy. Indeed, so gradual is the ascent and descent, that the emigrant only knows that he has really passed the summit, when he finds the waters of Pacific creek running in the opposite direction from those he has lately been traversing.

And what of the pass itself? Instead of a narrow, rough, zig- zag fissure through craggy rocks, it is a broad plain, eighteen or twenty miles in extent, north and south, our road being near its southern verge, and skirting along huge drifts of snow on the northern slope of the lofty mountain range to the south of us.

At this point we are 960 miles from St. Joseph, and 7,490 feet higher than the Gulf of Mexico, the extreme rarefaction of the atmosphere not only rendering it extremely difficult for men and animals to properly inflate their lungs, or to walk or work without panting, but also making it almost impossible to do any cooking, particularly beans and rice, water boiling at so low a temperature, as to have very little impression on that class of edibles.

DIVERGING ROUTES .- Eighteen miles beyond the pass, the road forks, the right being the old Oregon trail, via Fort Hall, and the left the Salt Lake road, the travel being about equally divided between the two routes. The most of Garrett's train, as we learned by cards posted at the fork, had taken the Salt Lake route, but our train, by a nearly unanimous vote, kept the old trail.

Three miles from the fork is the Little Sandy river, and six miles beyond the Big Sandy, after crossing which is a stretch of fifty miles, without water, and called a desert, though grass is abundant. Kept advised as to what was before us, by guide- books, compiled by parties who made the journey the year previous,

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we took along as much water as our rubber tanks and other vessels could contain, thus obviating the serious suffering from thirst that would otherwise have occurred to ourselves and stock.

MORE JUMBO FERRIAGE CHARGES .- Getting down, by steep and difficult grades, from the plateau just described, we came to Green river, one of the principal tributaries of the Rio Colorado. The river was sixteen rods wide, and ordinarily fordable, though dan- gerous at the best, from the rapidity of the current, but now, from the melting snows, it was from twenty-five to thirty feet deep. Here, ten days before, Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Herrick, of Akron, lost their entire stock of provisions and other property, as did also many others, together with considerable loss of animal and human life.

But this year, just before our arrival, some Mormons from Salt Lake, and an Indian trader, had established a ferry here, with two boats, or rafts. Unlike the North Platte ferrymen, they had no cables, steering their crafts across with paddles, as best they could, landing fully a quarter of a mile below, and, after unload- ing, towing the boats up stream, with a yoke of oxen, a sufficient distance to enable them to strike the landing from whence they started. The process was slow, from two to four days being required for the several companies to reach their turns. We reached the ferry on Sunday, June 16, about 1 o'clock P. M., not being able to remain in camp through the day, as was our cus- tom, for lack of water as above stated, and our turn at the boats did not come until Tuesday morning.

The ferry charges were $7 for each wagon, and $1 for each head of stock, owners gratis. There being no feed along the nar- row margin on the east side, the stock had to be taken to the west side for pasturage, the larger portion being made to swim the river, though inany of the weaker animals were thereby lost, the tendency being to get confused, on reaching the middle of the rapid current, swimming round and round until exhausted. Our mess had taken along a small cow-bell, by the sound of which such of our animals as were permitted to run loose were taught to follow. Taking this bell across to a spot where we wanted our stock to land, and gently tinkling it as the animals were headed into the stream, they followed the sound straight across, and landed without an accident or hitch.

SNOW-STORM-PACKING MANIA, ETC .- On this Sunday night, June 16, though we have descended 1,240 feet, since leaving the South Pass, there is a fall of about five inches of snow, though the most of it disappears in the warm sunlight of the following day. It is now forty-seven days since we left St. Jo, and we are just about half way. Feeling that his progress is too slow, a sort of mania here seizes the emigrant to abandon his wagons, and tents, and pack, or else to lighten them up to the narrowest verge of safety, so as to enable him to increase his speed. Hence, not only large numbers of wagons, harnesses, tents, etc., were con- verted into pack-saddles and fuel, but clothing and other necessa- ries and conveniencies thrown away, and surplus provisions sold to such as were already short, the supposition being that by per- forming the last half of the journey in thirty days, instead of consuming a month and a half, as on the first half, a third less pro- visions would be needed to carry them through. On this

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hypothesis, though still retaining their wagons, several of the messes of our train sold considerable quantities of pork, hard bread, etc., at fifty or sixty cents per pound, which, being six or eight times their cost, was supposed to be a good speculation. Whether such was the case, we shall see before we get through.

All safely across the river, and somewhat refreshed by our three days' rest, we pluckily resumed our journey. A succession of rugged hills, the last range being the Bear River Mountains, with intervening muddy valleys, and difficult crossings of creeks, · brings us to Bear river, which, where we struck it, runs about northwest, but sixty-five miles further on turns abruptly to the south and empties into the Great Salt Lake, 150, miles to the southward.

AN INDIAN PHILOSOPHER .- A few miles before reaching the bend of Bear river, we passed a number of now celebrated soda springs, and geysers, including steamboat spring, in the bank of the river, ejecting at intervals of a second or two jets of water and vapor, with a sound resembling the puffing of a low-pressure steamboat.

From the bend of Bear river, the old Oregon trail runs in a northerly direction, through a fertile valley, about twenty miles, and then over a low divide into the valley of Lewis' Fork, of the Columbia river, on which Fort Hall is situated, the road forking a few miles beyond the fort, the right keeping on northwesterly into Oregon and the left running southwesterly towards California.

The year before, as above stated, about one-half of the emi- grants went via Fort Hall, the balance by Salt Lake. This year, however, an early emigrant, by the name of Sublette, had discov- ered a so-called "cut-off," by which, proceeding due west from the bend of Beaver river, over a succession of rugged mountain ranges intersecting the regular trail on the other side, about one-half of the distance, could be saved. Imbued with the desire to "get there " as quickly as possible, nearly the entire northern wing went that way.

Having been advised by Captain Grant, an agent of the Hudson Bay Company, whom we met here, to go by Fort Hall, instead of by this "cut-off," when we reached the diverging point we stopped to hold a " council of war." The train was about evenly divided in sentiment, when an old Snake Indian, who seemed to comprehend the situation, volunteered to enlighten us upon the subject. Pointing westward, by a motion of his hand, he indicated the number of high mountain ranges we would have to climb and descend, with rapid intervening streams to cross, as well as the scarcity of feed, by the Sublette route, and, by similar signs, the avoidance of difficult hills with plenty of feed, by the Fort Hall route, clinching his pantomimic argument by raising the bail of one of our water-buckets, to a perpendicular and tracing the circumn- ference with his hand, and then laying it down on the edge of the bucket, going through the same motion, indicating that it really was no further to go around the hills than to go over them, while the labor for both men and teams would be less and feed far better.

We finally took the old Indian's advice, and though rather · lonesome, until we again fell in with the Grand Procession, we had no reason to regret our choice, besides lying by a day or two 011 account of sickness, actually reaching the junction ahead of many

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who left the bend of Bear river about the same time we did, thus demonstrating, anew, the old adage that "the longest way around is the shortest way home."

A CHARACTERISTIC INCIDENT .- In crossing Ham's Fork of Bear river, a narrow but rapid stream, on descending the steep bank, by the mismanagement of our driver, John Mckibben, the off hind mule became entangled in the evener and whippletrees of the leaders, and was thrown beneath the pole with his head under water. Holmes, who was on the wagon, and Carson and myself, who were horse-back, rushed to the rescue, and by "sloshing around," waist-deep. in the muddy water ten or fifteen minutes, succeeded in straightening out the tangle and saving the animal's life.

THE MAGIC CHEESE .- Among the provisions taken from home by our mess, was a rich, fifty-five pound Tallmadge-built cheese. This, in a closely-fitting box, was packed in the bottom of the wagon. There it remained undisturbed for about three weeks, when, get- ting cheese hungry, I cut out a wedge of five or six pounds for present use, replacing the balance in the box. Two weeks later, in seeking to replenish our provision chest, on opening the box, I found the cheese apparently as perfect as when taken from the press. By brushing off the mould which had gathered upon the surface, I found where the cut had been made, took another wedge, precisely the same size, and replaced the box, as before. Another fortnight passes by, when a third requisition on the supply finds the cheese again whole, though by this time quite a visible diminu- tion in the thickness of the oleaginous product is apparent, the constant motion of the wagon causing the pulpy substance of the cheese to settle and adjust itself to the dimensions of the box. Measures were then taken to prevent its further spread, a pre- caution that would scarcely be necessary with most of the cheese product of the present day.

A "PALE" , BRANDY EPISODE .- While many emigrants took along, as a prime necessity, a good supply of whisky and other liquors-generally to their detriment-very little was taken or used by the members of our train. Holmes, however, as purveyor for our mess, purchased, at St. Louis, a half gallon of pure pale brandy, for use in case of sickness or accident, the precious fluid being stored in a tin canteen. Stowed away in the lower depths of our wagon box, the "medicine" remained intact for about six weeks, when, unfortunately, the stifle joint of one of our mules. became dislocated. Thinking that bathing it with brandy might aid in keeping the weakened joint in place, when re-set, I extracted the canteen from the wagon, our good-natured mess-mate, McKib- ben-who with several others were watching the operation with watering mouths-saying: "Wull, I'm bound to have one good swug at it, onyhow!" But lo! and behold! on uncorking the can- teen, the ,"pale" brandy panned out as black as ink-the fiery liquid having, by corrosion, been converted into a very pronounced solution of tin and iron. The swiggers declined to swig, and finding no further use for it, as an external remedy, the residue was poured upon the ground.

SOMETHING ABOUT INDIANS .- After passing the Indian agency and mission school for the Sac, Fox and Iowa tribes, thirty miles west of St. Joseph, the entire country traversed, before crossing

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INDIAN BEGGARY, COOKERY, ETC.

the South Platte, was inhabited by Pawnees, though many of them having taken the cholera from the later emigration of the year before, they fought shy of us, and excepting a few about Fort Kearney, were only seen at a distance.

Beyond the junction of the north and south branches of the Platte, however, Indians were abundant. At the head of Ash Hol- low, was a small village of the Sioux (Soo) variety, the stalwart chief greeting the emigrants with: "How! How! How! Do! Do! Do!" and an affectionate shake of the hand, and presenting a paper from a government agent asking for contributions to com- pensate the Indians for the loss of their cattle (buffalo, elk, etc.), grass and fuel, and nearly every mess chipped in a little pork, bread, beans, rice, sugar, matches, tobacco, etc., the collections for the day being stored on buffalo robes spread upon the ground. A few miles further on was a much larger town, with a herd of sev- eral hundred head of horses and mules and some oxen feeding upon the plains near by, many of which were undoubtedly stolen from the emigrants, for we had already met several companies returning home on account of having lost their stock. Quite a traffic was carried on here, a small quantity of provisions, tobacco, blankets, etc., purchasing a pretty good horse or mule, though they didn't seem to understand much about the value of money, and wouldn't pay any attention whatever to the cheap brass rings and trinkets, taken along by many of the emigrants for the purpose of traffic.

MODEL CULINARY OPERATIONS .- And then, such arrant beggars! Scarcely would we get our camp-fires kindled, than, if permitted to approach, would a hungry-looking squaw, with two or three still hungrier-looking youngsters, squat themselves down near-by, and watch our every movement while cooking and eating our meals, and by signs make known their anxiety to secure a portion of the savory viands, every morsel thrown to them being devoured with the greatest avidity.

And their manner of cooking! In the absence of larger fresh game, the prairie gopher-a little burrower between a squirrel and a rat-was found to make quite a palatable stew. Hunting for a mess one day, Holmes only succeeded in bagging one, which was thrown aside as not worth dressing and cooking. A full grown young Indian, by signs, asking if he might have it, on being answered in the affirmative, went to a neighboring camp fire, cov- ered said gopher with hot ashes and embers for fifteen or twenty minutes, when raking it out and scraping off the ashes and singed hair with his fingers, he devoured the entire rodent, hide, entrails and all, with great gusto.

One Sunday, when encamped on Ham's Fork of Bear river, several members of our train visited one of the numerous villages of the Snake Indians found in the vicinity. While there, our wonderment at the large number of wolf-looking dogs they kept was solved by an old squaw knocking one of them on the head with a club, and, almost before it had done kicking, singeing off the hair, over the fire, and without further dressing, placing it in a large stone kettle to boil! I didn't star to dinner.

UNIQUE AND FANCIFUL TOILETS .- The earlier tribes passed were much better dressed than those encountered later-the adults among the latter being rather sparsely clad in dirty blankets, while

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many of the juveniles were entirely naked. Some of the adults, however, had become possessed of sundry cast-off " civilized " gar- ments, the novel modes of wearing which, very greatly amused the emigrants. If a stalwart buck could secure a high plug hat, he cared for little else. A sleeveless shirt, a ragged coat, vest or pair of pants were to them mines of wealth. One strapping fellow had his long arms stuck through the legs of a dilapidated pair of pants, with the waistband buttoned around his neck, while a gay and fes- tive young squaw had thrust her legs through the sleeves of an old red and white blanket coat, with the skirts fastened about her waist-her head being adorned with a rimless and crownless chip hat.

MURDERS, STRATAGEMS AND SPOILS. - Notices were found posted, from time to time, warning us of depredations committed by Indians-stealing stock, and provision, killing guards, etc. As before stated, through our extreme vigilance, we were not seriously incommoded, but came very near it one night. There being no feed near the road, our entire stock was taken to a large meadow or swale, about a mile from camp, and picketed there for the night, with an extra large guard for their protection. Though the night was bright starlight, the dense forest surrounding the meadow created intense darkness. Having eaten their fill the animals laid down to rest, about midnight, and soon not a sound was to be heard, save the tread of the guards, with an occasional word on meeting at the end of their respective beats. Just before daylight, without an object having been seen or a sound heard by the guards to produce such a result, every animal at the same instant sprang to its feet and made a frantic effort to escape, all in the same direction. Fortunately, however, the lariat pins all held, and not one of the seventy-five or eighty animals thus tethered, escaped. Lighting their lanterns and circulating among the stock, the boys -- little less frightened than the animals themselves-soon restored them to quiet, though many frightened glances were pointed in the direction from whence the alarm had apparently come.

Though nothing had been seen or heard by the guards, it was supposed to have been an Indian stratagem to stampede the stock, to be gathered in by them in the neighboring woods the next day. Many animals were thus lost, and hundred of emigrants compelled to abandon their wagons, and other effects, and with such subsistence as they could carry upon their backs, foot it the last 500 or 600 miles of their journey.

FORTS, TROOPS, SHIPWRECK, ETC .- At Fort Kearney there were 175 soldiers, besides the officers and their families, and at Fort Laramie 200 soldiers with the usual complement of officers, women, and children, and quite a number of government teamsters, mechanics, etc .- about 250 souls in all. The new government buildings and property at Fort Hall, were guarded by a single soldier, only, the troops, owing to change of the current of emigra- tion this year, and the trouble made by the Indians on that route, having been transferred to Fort Bridger, on the Salt Lake route. The original Fort Hall was then merely a trading station, occupied by agents of the Hudson Bay and American Fur Companies and their families, from whom we obtained a limited supply of milk and butter, the first at 10 cents per quart, and the latter at 50 cents per pound. .

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SERIOUS ILLNESS FROM MOUNTAIN FEVER.

The representatives of several tribes of Indians were found here, the Snakes predominating. Just beyond the fort were a couple of difficult rivers to cross, the Port Neuff, 300 feet wide, and the Pannack, 350 feet, both rising in the " Cut-off " Mountains and emptying into Lewis' Fork of the Columbia river.

An old Walla-Walla Indian and his son, mounted on excellent horses, volunteered to pilot us across these streams. Plunging into the Port Neuff, they showed us that the water would reach about six inches above the bottom of the wagon boxes, making it neces- sary to raise the box up on blocks, resting upon the rocker and bolster, to prevent our supplies from getting wet, as we had often had occasion to do. Arrived at the Pannack, by the same process they showed us that to go straight across at that stage of the water, our animals would have to swim, in the rapidest part of the stream, but by heading up stream after getting into the water, and making a long circuit, it could be readily waded. All our wagons got safely over but that of Mills and Anson. The driver, William Denaple, inadvertently driving too far out; before turning up stream, the wagon box was lifted from the blocks, and becoming capsized, floated down the river. By rushing down the river bank and plunging in, on either side, the boys succeeded in saving nearly everything, though in a decidedly moist condition.

DENTISTRY EXTRAORDINARY .- Compensating our tawny guides with liberal contributions of bread, sugar, tobacco, matches, etc., we soon after went into camp to give our water-soaked comrades an opportunity to "dry-up;" the rest of us exchanging as much of our hard-bread for their soft-bread, as we could consume before it would be likely to sour or mould.

Eight yea's before, the late well-known dentist, Dr. I. E. Carter, had inserted four nice porcelain teeth in the upper jaw of the writer, on hickory pegs. A too ravenous attack on a piece of our hard-bread had twisted off one of the pegs aforesaid, and while the drying process was going forward I thought I would see if I could not remedy the inconvenience occasioned by the absence of said porcelain incisor. Splitting off a fragment from the but-end of our well-seasoned hickory whip-stock, I carefully adjusted one end to the orifice in the tooth, and the other to the orifice in the jaw, and, after extracting the moisture with a little cotton batting purloined from a bed-comforter, on the point of my darning-needle, I placed the tooth in position and drove it home with a horse- shoeing hammer, where it firmly remained for some eight or ten years thereafter.

Many other mechanical and "professional" operations were performed upon that journey, without either proper materials or tools, that would do credit to home skill and ingenuity, again and again demonstrating. the well-worn truism, that "necessity is the mother of invention."

ILLNESS OF MR. SPERRY .- The so-called mountain fever, after getting fairly among the " Rockies," became quite prevalent, and many deaths from that cause occurred among the emigrants. Several of the members of our own company were more or less affected, the most serious case being that of our well-known fellow- citizen, Hon. Ira P. Sperry, of Tallmadge. The second morning after the mishap above recorded, Mr. Sperry was found to be too ill to travel, and the train remained in camp, a few miles below the

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American Falls, on Lewis' Fork of the Columbia river, three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Impatient at the delay, the majority of our men voted to move forward, on Monday morning, whether Mr. S. was able to travel or not. Monday morning came and the patient was apparently no better. The balance of the train accordingly pulled out-some of us with sad hearts-leaving Mr. S. and his mess alone in camp, excepting that Mr. James M. Mills took the place of Mr. Philo Wright, who was also quite unwell, transferring Mr. W. to his own wagon; Mr. Jonathan F. Fenn, of Tallmadge, and his man, Leonard Root, also remaining behind.

It was understood that we should travel slowly, so that if Mr. S. did get better they could overtake us, notwithstanding which, and the difficult nature of the roads, the end of the week found us on the further side of "Thousand Spring Valley," fully 150 miles from the point where we had left our sick friend, on Monday morning.

THE FEVER BROKEN .- Fortunately, the day we left him, Mr. Sperry's fever abated-possibly from the copious draughts of cold citric-acid "lemonade," administered to him by the writer, while watching with him the night before-and early on Tuesday morn- ing, at his urgent request, making as comfortable a bed for him as possible in the wagon, his attendants again started forward with him, making such good time-keeping advised of our movements . by the notices posted from point to point-that they came up with us at the place indicated above, about 5 o'clock on Sunday after- noon.

Mr. Sperry has since told me that he never before or since experienced such pleasurable emotions as were produced by the motion of the wagon as they started from that lonely camp. And no wonder! For three or four days he had been lying there, upon the hard earth, with a reasonable prospect that it would soon open to receive his lifeless body-away from his wife and children and every civilized comfort; abandoned by those whom he had so often laid under especial obligations, in the earlier stages of the journey; and now to feel that he was once more in motion; that though still very weak, he was improving; that his destination might possibly be reached; and above all, that he might once more be permitted to join his family and friends in old Tallmadge, were certainly emotions far more easily imagined than described.

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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