History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 159

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198

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One thousand or more miners have made their way into the hills in the face of the most stringent orders of the military. These miners have organized into an association for mutual protection, and have adopted laws and regulations ; have staked out and reserved

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their claims in the right to which they expect hereafter to be protected. In this complication of affairs there is but one alternative for the Government : either to increase the military force so as to compel a strict observance of the treaty rights of the Sioux by preventing all intrusion, or to put such restrictions upon the exercise of the large bounty now granted to the Sioux as to form an argument that will be likely to procure their assent to the cession of this country. Unwilling as 1 may be to confess it, the experience of the past summer proves the utter impracticability of keeping American citizens out of a country where geld exists by any fear of a cavalry patrol or by any consideration of the rights of Indian s. The occupation and possession of the Back Ilills by white men is inevitable, but no reason exists for making this inevitability an occasion of wrong or injury to the Sioux. li the Sioux were an independent and self-supporting people, able to claim that hereafter the United States Government should leave them alone in possession of their own country, and in yearly receipt until 1898 of such annuities as the treaty of 1868 guaranteed them, there would be a show of wrong, which is not now so clear, in our persistently asking i r a portion of their country. As original proprietors of the land, and as occupants in per- petuam by formal contract on the part of the United States, the Sioux would be entitled to be let alone; but unfortunately for the Indians, the facts are otherwise. They are by no means capable of any support. The withdrawal of Government rations for a single season would reduce them to starvation or to a life by marauding. While they are pen- sioners upon the bounty of the Government in the sum of $1.250,000 annually above all amounts specified by treaty stipulations, the Sioux are not in a position to be let alone li the Government is obliged from considerations of humanity and the protection bi the frontier, to supply the necessities of these Indians by rations, it may properly be asked if the Government shall have an equivalent in gold fields. A cession produced in this manner would be far preferable to a continuation of the present disturbed condition of affairs

The secretary of the interior, Hon. Zach Chandler, in whose department Indian affairs were controlled, endorsed the views and also the recommendations of the commissioner :

The peace policy of the Government in dealing with the Indians had been found to work advantageously, and coupled therewith was the industrial system which had been partially established among the Sioux. This had been found to work well wherever the Indians were so environed that the inducements of the chase were taken away, and in their place encouragement given to plant, and raise cattle and horses. The time Lad come when it became necessary to bring a certain compulsion upon the Indians to induce them to labor, and this the Government was in position to do by requiring the Indians to perform . me kind of manual labor in return for the rations and clothing furnished by the Government. The welfare of the Indians, as well as justice, demanded a persistent and humane p licy of this kind. There can be no doubt whatever that so long as the great bulk &t the Sioux Indians are encouraged to occupy their present locations near the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies, and allowed to roam at will over their vast reservation, and west anl n rth- west to the Big Horn mountains and to the Powder River and to the Yellowst ne, they can make no progress whatever, and must be fed year after year by the Government.

The failure of the negotiations by the commissioners necessitates the adoption of s me measures to relieve the department of the great embarrassment resulting from the evilent determination of a large number of citizens to enter upon that portion of the Six Resery i- tion to obtain the precious metals which the official report of the geologist sent out by the Government shows to exist therein. The very measures now taken In the Government to prevent the influx of miners into the Black Hills, by means of the display et military tirce. operate as the surest safeguard of the miners against the attacks of Indians The arts expels the miners, and, while doing so, protects them from Indians The nummers return as soon as the military surveillance is withdrawn, and the same steps are taken akain an l again. Some of the miners have brought suits against the miltary officers tor talse imprisonment, and much embarrassment to both army and the intergr department is the result. The preliminary report of Professor Jenney, which accompanies the report of le Indian commissioner, in regard to the geological and agricultural wealth of the Black Hills. indicates clearly the great temptation held out to nummers and emigrants towecups theat country, and will greatly enhance the difficulties which have already surrounded the cu st n of protecting the Sioux in their treaty rights to that territory. The ping of the post summer season will undoubtedly witness a great increase of emiraten thither, aund t question urges itself upon the attention of the department and of Congress for carl tion. It is true that the Indians occupy that reservation under the painnici ties with the United States. It is also true, as a general proposition, that treat maintained inviolate, and the Indians protected in their rights thereus ler years the Government has been appropriating about one million tw . hu ured pl sand dollars for the subsistence of Sioux of various tribes, which amount i Government is under no obligations to give them, and tur which it re care for advantage. The amount thus appropriated is 5 per cent per annum. Government is giving without an equivalent This mo it must Act

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years to come, or they will starve. It is submitted, therefore, under these circumstances, for the consideration of Congress, whether it would not be justifiable and proper to make future appropriations for supplies to this people, contingent on the relinquishment of the gold fields in the Black Hills and the right of way thereto.

President Grant, in his annual message to Congress, December 7, 1875, briefly alludes to the Black Hills problem in these words :

The discovery of gold in the Black Hills, a portion of the Sioux Reservation, lias had the effect to induce a large emigration of miners to that point. Thus far the efforts to protect the treaty rights of the Indians in that section have been successful, but the next year will certainly witness a large increase of such emigration. The negotiations for the relinquishment of the gold fields having failed, it will be necessary for Congress to adopt some measures to relieve the embarrassment growing out of the causes named. The secre- tary of the interior suggests that the supplies now appropriated for the sustenance of that people, being no longer obligatory under the treaty of 1868, but simply a gratuity, may be issued or withheld at his discretion.

EXPEDITION FROM YANKTON

The Black Hills fever prevailed quite generally throughout the towns and settlements of Dakota in 1875-76. In the winter an organization was formed in Yankton, having for its purpose a reconnoitering survey of the best routes from Yankton to the hills. William Leeper, H. C. Ash, who was a deputy United States marshal; W. P. Lyman, A. M. English, Charles H. Bates, Fred Edgar and William James, were selected and employed by the association, with George Heinckle, a surveyor and frontiersman, to make the trip and find the shortest and most practicable route. Parties from Union and Clay counties joined this expedition, which left on the 8th of February, and were joined a day later by a party composed of M. A. Baker, George W. Smith, Al F. Wood, Will Brisbine, Nelson Smith, Frank Coulson and Harry Ash.

A portion of the party, including Messrs. Leeper, Ash, Bates, Lyman, English and James, returned late in March, having gone through to Custer City by a route from near Fort Pierre, quite direct to the crossing of the South Cheyenne, thence to their destination. They found an abundance of wood and water, and considerable cured buffalo grass on the light snow-covered plains.

At Custer Deputy United States Marshal Ash arrested Fritz Drogmond, or Draughmond, for selling liquor on an Indian reservation, and had not paid his special Government tax, and brought the prisoner back to Yankton for trial, where he was indicted by a United States grand jury the following April, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to pay $30 fine and to be imprisoned twenty-four hours. There were extenuating circumstances connected with the case, and the prisoner from the time of liis arrest had conducted himself in a manner that had won the sympathy and respect of the officers of the court, who were all very much gratified at the mild sentence. This was the first legal arrest made in the Black Hills.

A Union County party, led by Charles Brughier, a half-breed son of Theoph- ilus Brughier, made a successful journey to the hills in April, 1875.

WV. T. Mckay, of Bijou Hills, Dak., who was employed by Custer as a miner to accompany his expedition to the Black Hills in 1874, was a member of the Dakota Legislature the following winter, and talked quite freely of that country. He had visited various points and under instructions from the scientific parties accompanying Custer had prospected for placer gold with fair success on Elk Creek, Box Elder Creek, Swift Water, Burntwood, Putty Creck, Creek of Many Springs, Frenchman's Creek (Custer's Gulch), and right north of Harney's Peak on what he believed to be the Swift Water. Mckay, with Maj. W. P. Lyman, of Yankton, led a party of Dakotans to the hills in the spring of 1875.

EXPEDITION FROM BISMARCK

A party of about thirty, headed by H. N. Ross, who was with Custer as a mineralogist and prospector, left Bismarck for the gold fields of the Black Hills

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in December, 1875. Six months' provisions were taken along. the party intend- ing not only to spend the winter in the auriferous region, but make a permanent settlement unless disturbed in their plans by the military. Benj. C. Ash, formerly of Yankton, with a small force, had preceded this party from Bismarck for the purpose of laying out a practicable route. The Ash party met with no oppo- sition from the Indians nor military, and found a good route to Hill City, that being one of the thriving camps at the time; and Deadwood and its environs, being at the time either unexplored or not sufficiently known to attract the emi- gration of that winter. The Ash party made the return trip to Bismarck in seventy-two hours' traveling time; estimated that the length of their road was about two hundred and fifty miles. The names of the Ross party, which started out in December, prior to Ash's return, were :

H. N. Ross, William Boughton, T. G. Jones, William Burcher, J. J. Suther- land, George Anderson, Nathan Brosier, Isadore Belanguiet, Joseph Smith, George Catlin, Roger Bacon, George W. Stone, Oscar Brackett, Mike Smith, Adam Cable. William Harvey, Theo Shenkenberg. John Kennedy, Henry Dion, John McClellan, H. Tousley, Frank Stone, Robert Hams or llarris, Louis Constenois.

The Ash party referred to was composed of Ben C. Ash, J. Dodge, Ed Donahue, W. H. Stimpson, R. R. Marsh.

The outpouring for the Black Hills as early as February, 1876, is well illus- trated by the following, published in the Bismarck Tribune of February 8th of that year :

Forty-seven teams, loaded with provisions and passengers, left with the steam sawmill outfit for the Black Hills yesterday and today. Thirty more will leave Wednesday with freight and passengers, among which are several families. California Joe pilots the party, assisted by Ed Donahue and Tom Winston, as scouts. The party is well armed and several are well mounted, so Mr. Lo had better keep clear of the boys. Several teams arrived last evening from Standing Rock, and from up the river, to join the party. At least seventy- five teams and 150 persons will leave during the week. Fred Hollemback goes out with a herd of cows to start a ranch; Joe Pennell, Thos. Madden, Bob Roberts and others go as traders ; W'm. Smith and family go to settle permanently. O. Nicholson, of the firm of J. W. Raymond & Co., goes out with a stock of miner's goods to locate and establish a wholesale and retail commission house; George Gibbs to start a blacksmith shop; Thomas Winston, Ed Donahue, W. B. Shaw & Co., are the Black Hills Lumber Company ; Mr Gates sends the mill through on contract for Mr. Hobart, who takes out a large lot of sash and glass. Mr. Hobart also takes a shingle mill. Mr. Downing takes out fresh pork, butter. lard, sausage, etc. The trip will be made in fourteen days.

The two Black Hills parties organized by Scott Goodwin and A. F. Grav lett Yankton for the Black Hills, February 24, 1876. The names of the company were A. F. Gray, O. Il. Platt, Israel Volin, Drew Palmer, Martin Dutcher, James Gill, Walter Turner, Martin Kilbridge, Alex Smith, James Magnei. William F. Lyon, George Hughes, Capt. James Hughes, James Cranty. John Hattnel, Mr. Erskine, Martin Kilbride, Mitchell Magnei, Dana Todd, 1 .. 1 .. Hatch, Eugene Little, James McCormick, Patrick Rois. Aug. Nichols, Frank Vesina, John Walsh. James Walsh, Peter Lynch, James McKay, James Munkhouse, Wilt Brisbine, E. J. Walsh, Matt Murray, John Magnei, Wm. Tarrant, 1 Smith, & Smith. W. H. Frederickson, John Crantz, Frank Gill, Joseph Dupuis. J. ( Sherman, Aug. Kibs. D. B. Benedict, Scott Goodwin, Win. Ferguson, Michael Bray. Louis Dewitt, Vincent Earle, George Jones, John Ingwersen. T. Rumsy. J. Liener, Philson Davis. L. A. Carney, M. H. Kendig. J. P. Mercier. Joseph Jelbricks. Joseph Vyboning, Frank Lenger, R. Whaley, George Ranes, D Hawkes, an l J. S. Phillips.

BLACK HILLS LETTERS

In giving place to the letters and other testimonials of early picker work in the Black Hills, the purpose is to give credit to those Dakotans sho were

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foremost in the enterprises, and at the same time furnish testimony from first hands which can be relied upon as authentic.

Nothing of consequence appears to have been heard from any reliable sources regarding the hills country north of the Little Rapid Creek, until late in the winter of 1875-76; but when the earliest information reached the public it appeared that considerable prospecting had been done possibly as early as the fall of 1875 on Whitewood and Deadwood creeks and by far the richest placers in the hills known at the time had been partially opened up and were yielding much gold.

A letter written from "Deadwood Creek, Lost District," March 31, 1876, by I'm. Gay to J. W. Crawford ( Captain Jack ), at Omaha, gives an early view of conditions in the Deadwood Gulch and the regions in the vicinity of what has since become the richest of the gold producing country. The writer says :

1 arrived here yesterday and found everything all right. We had a very hard trip. The snow is about three feet deep and still snowing. There is quite a change here since I left. Instead of eighteen men there are several hundred. There has been a number of discoveries made since I left, both in placer and quartz. The weather has been so cold that prospecting has been very difficult, but wherever it has been tried they got good prospects. Prospects on Deadwood and Whitewood are from ten to twenty-five cents, and as high as $1.30 to the pan, while on some of the side gulches emptying into Deadwood, there has been as much as $5.00 to the pan. There have been a number of claims sold at prices varying from $500 to $4,000.

When I got here the townsites I spoke to you about had all been taken up and all the Jots taken. One is at the mouth of Whitewood, and is called Creek City; the other is a short distance below the mouth of Deadwood, on Whitewood Creek, and is called White- wood City. We are going to lay off a town here on Deadwood to be called Gay City. I will reserve a lot for you. Tell Curran that if he had come over with me he could have had a chance to get a good elaim on shares, but they are all taken now. Old Dan had sold his discovery claim before I got here. We have particularly developed some of the ledges we had staked. and two of them proved to be very good. I send you a specimen from the "Giant" lode, owned by Wm. Gay, A. H. Gay, M. J. Ingoldsby, E. D. Haggard, D. Meekles, and J. B. Pearson. We have another ledge that we consider better, called the "Blacktail," owned by the same parties. We propose to start on a prospecting expedition as soon as the snow leaves sufficiently, and if I find anything I will try and give you a show.

The Indians have made several attacks at the month of Whitewood, and have succeeded in running off about one hundred head of horses. There have been two men wounded by them, but neither of them seriously. Last night they made an attack at the mouth of Bear Butte Creek and run off seven horses. We expect more trouble with them when the snow leaves, as they. we suppose, will come with more force. As yet none have been seen far in the hills, as they cannot ride in. They have confined their operations to the foothills.

Yours truly, WM. GAY. Deadwood Creek, B. H.

J. B. PEARSON'S STATEMENT

The following statement of a year's experience in the hills from June, 1875, to June. 1876, being prior to the making of the treaty with the Sioux for the Black Hills country. The statement was made to the editor of The Daily Press and Dakotan, June 7. 1876, and was the first authentic intelligence given to the public concerning the mineral resources of that portion of the hills, since become famous as the Deadwood mining regions and the Homestake mine. It is probable that the quartz lodes named and mentioned by Mr. Pearson, or a portion of them, subsequently came into the possession of the owners and organiz- ers of the Homestake Mining Company. The General Terry Lode was without doubt absorbed by the Homestake and also the Big Giant. As one of the earliest authentic reports from that country, Mr. Pearson's statement is entitled to a place in history.

Mr. John B. Pearson's mining experience commenced in California in 1852. Since that time he had worked at placer and quarts mining in British Columbia, on Frazer River and Caribou, in Australia, in Idaho and Montana, and was, perhaps, as competent to speak of the mineral resources of the Black IIills as any man living. He had resided in Yankton

FAMOUS FRONTIERSMEN OF DAKOTA TERRITORY DURING THE BLACK HILLS OPENING YEARS AND LATER

Left to right: Lige Green; James B. Hiscock (Wild Bill) ; W. F. Cody ( Butlalo Bill) : J. B. Omshindro (Texas Jack) ; Gene Overton

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for many years and was known as perfectly trustworthy and reliable. His wife and daugliter remained at Yankton during Mr. Pearson's sojourn in the hills.

Mr. Pearson left Yankton for the Black Hills, May 4, 1875, arriving there August roth, having been turned back once by the military. He crossed the Missouri River nitecn miles below Fort Pierre, instead of at that place, in order to avoid the soldiers. He was accompanied by Dick Low, Jim Pierman, Thos. Moore, Frank Bryan and two others. They went in with ponies, taking their provisions on pack animals. Struck the hills at the head of Elk Creek, and crossed the range till they came to Whitewood, where he found goud prospects-twenty to forty cents to the pan. Remained there for some time subsisting on jerked deer meat straight, and finally in company with one other party went out to Fert Laramie and purchased six months' supplies, returning to the hills with a train of twelve wagons, a portion of which belonged to men who joined him at that post.

Mr. Pearson, with five companions, namely : Dan Meckles, Joe Inglesby, A Gay and William Gay of Yankton, and Dad Haggart, settled in the Whitewood region on Dead- wood. They organized a sort of co-partnership under which they took placer claim, and quartz lodes. Their placers were taken as individual property, but their quartz discoveries were company affairs. These six remained together until the spring; in the meantime, during the winter, each of the party wrote to friends in Yankton guaranteeing them $10.00 a day Not doubting but what the Yankton parties would come on, Pearson made two trips during the winter to meet them, but was obliged to return to his cabin disappointed. Finally the party abandoned the hope of inducing their friends there, and believing their own security required more people, they let it be generally known that rich mines had been discovered in the Whitewood region and in a very few weeks their numbers had increased from a half dozen to 3.000 men.

"Actual work did not commence in the Whitewood section until in April. 1876. Since that time about two thousand claims have been located, and 350 of these opened and are now being worked with profit. On the remainder the owners are now at work opening them, and will soon begin to realize profits.

"The Whitewood rich gold producing region embraces an area that will average eight miles in width by twenty in length, its largest area extending north and south. H embraces a number of streams and gulches, known as Deadwood, Bob Tail, Gold Run, Two Ba Split Tail, Cape Horn and others, and has been divided by the miners into four districts called Cape Horn District, Whitewood District, Lost District, which includes Deadwood, and Gold Run."

Mr. Pearson's operations had been principally confined to Lost District on Deadwood Creek, though he has prospected every section with good success. At present he was working three placer claims and two quartz lodes. His placers are yielding from twenty to forty dollars a day to the man. His quartz lodes are paying nothing, but the prospe t 1s unmistakably good, and he is sinking a 75-foot shaft on each of the lodes. There are about two thousand men engaged in the Whitewood region. Concerning the yield of gold in special cases, Mr. Pearson gave the following :

"Wheeler & Co., Montana men, in Lost District, are taking out from $todo to $1 700 a day to 8 men.

"Bob Kenyon, in the same district, is taking out $200 to $300 a day with 4 men.

Claim No. 8, on Deadwood, is yielding $80 to $too a day to Į men.

"James Scott and Parker & Co., Manitowoc. Wis., parties, have claim No. 2, on Blick Tail in Lost District, and are taking out from $40 to Sho a day to 4 men. These parties run three claims. Dad llaggart sold three placers and an interest in a quartz lode for Sz" A claim is 300 feet in length and extends on either side of the gulch to what is known as the second rim of the bedrock. Above these are the hill claims.

Mr. Pearson estimated that the placers in the Whitewood region were at that time yielding $10,000 a day and not one claim in ten is being worked for pay. When the White wood region is fairly opened it will employ over five thousand men and will yield a duly average of $100,000. It will take from eight to ten years to exhaust the placers already located, while quartz mining of the most productive character will form a lucrative, and be the permanent, industry of the country, giving employment to thousands of miners

Provisions were scarce. When Pearson left the hills there was not to exceed two weeks' supply of provisions on hand and in sight. About twenty parties came with him all of whom are out solely for supplies. Two parties, Capt. C. H McKinness and Mr Wood, came in to Pierre with eight teams each, and have from seven thousand to co ht thousand dollars to invest in supplies. Pearson brought in $1.250 in gold dust and hit the greater part of it with Edmunds & Wynn, bankers of Yankton, who shipped it to the U'nun d States mint at Philadelphia to be coined.

The comparative value of the Black Hills gold mines, Whitewood region, was Live In Mr. Pearson, in these words :

"It lays over Alder Gulch, Montana, the richest placer mines ever before dieteril because the Alder Gulch was spotted while the Deadwood is regular and the straat w IF and is the richest and most extensive placer gold field that has ever been struck.

Mr. Pearson brought with him a number of specimens of quartz taken frar I Ar bus on the divide between Deadwood and Blacktad. From fifteen too twenty 1 "located" in that locality and all show good prospects. The specimens br 1

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Pearson were taken from the Big Giant, Black Tail, Gold Run, and General Terry lodes. The first three named are the property of Pearson and partners, while the latter belongs to another party named in the following note, who sent out a piece of the quartz weighing several pounds to be assayed :

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History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 159

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1198

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198