USA > Wyoming > History of Wyoming, Volume I > Part 16
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He sold his survey notes, filings and water rights to Lingle & Company who began the construction, but they afterward sold to the United States Government which has completed here one of the great irrigation enterprises of the West with canals extending into Nebraska and watering one hundred thousand acres of land in Wyoming and much more in Nebraska.
Among other pioneers and builders of Wyoming who were contemporary with Mr. Hunton and often connected with him in business enterprises, were Colin Hunter, E. W. Whitcomb, H. B. Kelley, and Dan McUlvan. Hunter and Whitcomb have crossed the divide within the past two years, but Kelley and McUlvan are still living and in vigorous health at the time of this writing.
E. W. WHITCOMB
E. W. Whitcomb came to Wyoming in 1868 from New England. Being of a fearless and venturesome disposition he went out on the old California Trail where it crosses Horse Shoe Creek, east of the present Town of Glendo and started a trading station. About as soon as he got in his supplies, built his cabin, Slade's men robbed his store and burned up everything except a team and wagon he had up the creek. He then went to Box Elder Creek and settled there for several years along in the '70's. At one time Whitcomb and Hi Kelley went to Elk Mountain where a railroad supply and lumber camp had been established and engaged in business there. Afterward he took up a land claim on Crow Creek a few miles above Cheyenne. He also huilt a ranch on the Chugwater and engaged largely in the cattle business. Later he sold out his interests on the Chugwater and established ranches on the Belle Fourche.
In the meantime he had built a fine residence at Cheyenne, where he made his home with his family. After reaching the age of eighty-five years he was killed by lightning while on a visit to his Belle Fourche Ranch. While living in Cheyenne he was elected one of the commissioners of Laramie County. He was a gentleman of ability and honor and in every respect a fine example of the character of our best pioneers.
Vol. I-10
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COLIN HUNTER
Many of the most sturdy and enterprising pioneers of Wyoming were Scotch- men. Robert Campbell, the great fur trader, made his headquarters at Fort Laramie. Colin Hunter came from Scotland in the early '6os and was first employed by the United States Government at Fort Jackson near the mouth of the Missis- sippi. From there he was transferred to Wyoming in 1866, going to Fort Laramie where he remained as a civilian employee of the Government till the fall of 1867. From Fort Laramie he went to Elk Mountain, where a busy lumber and tie camp had been established in connection with the building of the Union Pacific Railroad, remaining till the spring of 1870, when he went to Fort Laramie and engaged in hauling wood for John Hunton who had a contract to supply the fort. For several years he worked teams with a partner named Cush Abbott on Government contracts for hay and wood. About the year 1873 they bought one hundred head of cattle and started a ranch just above Chimney Rock on the Chugwater, in the meantime keeping their freight teams at work on Government contracts. In 1877 Mr. Hunter sold his teams to John Hunton and went to Montana to engage in the cattle business exclusively. Later he sold out his Montana holdings and came to Cheyenne to reside, but invested largely in the ranch and cattle business at various points in Wyoming. He bought the Horse Creek Ranch of Gordon & Campbell and went into partnership with John Hunton at the Bullock ranch on Laramie River. Mr. Hunter was a prominent leader in the democratic party of the state. He held many positions of public trust, including that of state senator. He died at Cheyenne August 30, 1916, at the age of sixty- eight years.
DANIEL MC ULVAN
What Dan McUlvan knows about the early days of Wyoming and won't tell, would fill a good sized volume. He lives in Cheyenne in the enjoyment of an ample fortune and while he enjoys the memory of those early days when he lived an open air life on the plains and in the mountains as a roustabout, miner. tie- cutter, freighter, bridge-tender, etc., he keeps the enjoyment to himself and cannot be induced to talk for publication. From one of his old friends we learn that he came to Wyoming in 1865 and for sometime ran Bridger's Ferry at a crossing near what is now Orin Junction. In 1867, in company with a Mr. McFarlane, he was engaged in working a gold mine for Mr. Bullock on the Horseshoe in the Laramie Peak region, until the Indians drove them out and they were obliged to abandon the enterprise. The fights they had with the Indians and their narrow escapes would make an interesting story. From there he went to the tie camp at Elk Mountain and worked for the Union Pacific Railroad. Back to Fort Laramie in 1870, he engaged with McFarlane in putting in wood for Mr. Hunton, and after- ward freighted goods for the Indian department. In 1872 he went into the cattle business establishing a ranch north of Chimney Rock, which was later purchased by Erasmus Nagle. About 1885, he went to Cheyenne and in company with Henry Altman organized the famous Hereford Ranch on Crow Creek a few miles east of Cheyenne, for the raising of high grade, pedigreed cattle. In this business ยท he accumulated a fortune. Selling out his interest a few years ago he retired from
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business and enjoys a well earned rest while still in possession of vigorous health and an iron constitution gained in the sunshine and ozone of a Wyoming climate.
FRANK GROUARD-THE FAMOUS SCOUT
The editor of this volume, while on a prospecting trip in the Laramie mountains with his sons in the summer of 1899, made the acquaintance of Frank Grouard. We camped near the beautiful Horse Shoe Park, where Grouard was in charge of a copper and lead mine. The evening we pitched our tent he came over and introduced himself and offered us the hospitalities of the camp. On our invitation he spent the evening with us smoking and swapping stories, but principally talking about the ores and mineral prospects in that vicinity. For the few days we were camped there we interchanged visits and took many meals together. A few months later, Grouard made us a week's visit at our headquarters camp at Hart- ville and our acquaintance ripened into friendship.
Grouard was one of the most interesting men that I have ever met, and had the most thrilling and adventurous life of any of the great scouts known to western history. He had lived six years among the Indians as the adopted brother of Sitting Bull, where he gained the respect and admiration of the whole Sioux tribe and visiting tribes, for his achievements as hunter and marksman, athletic powers and feats of dare-devil bravery. As a scout and Indian trailer he never had a superior, his endurance was wonderful, when on expeditions in pursuit of Indians he was always accurate and unerring in his knowledge of their location, and in his advice as to the best method of approaching and fighting them. Generals Sheridan, Crook, Merritt and other noted commanders have testified to Grouard's remarkable genius as a scout, and various correspondents and newspaper men like Gen. James S. Brisbin, Capt. John G. Bourke, Capt. Jack Crawford, John F. Finnerty, have been on expeditions with him and importuned him for the story of his life without success.
He was naturally reticent and as modest as he was brave. General Crook, in his correspondence with the war department in 1876, referring to Grouard and his valuable services, said: "I would sooner lose a third of my command than Frank Grouard."
His affection for, and confidence in, Grouard was reciprocated and they became firm and steadfast friends. During Grouard's stay in our camp at different times he overcame his reticence and told us many events of his life. His ancestors were French Huguenots who fled to America and settled near Portsmouth, N. H. His father was born there and at the age of twenty went to the South Sea Islands as a missionary and married there a native woman, daughter of a chief. Frank was the second son and was therefore half French and half Malay. As he seldom referred to his childhood, his companions generally thought him to be a full or part Indian. Indeed he might be mistaken for a full-blooded Sioux, except he was handsomer than any Indian. He was six feet in height, weighed two hundred and thirty pounds, had broad shoulders and a heavy growth of black hair. He was straight and symmetrical, had handsome dark brown eyes. His habits were temperate so that he retained his strength, vigor and athletic powers at all times.
Frank's father brought his family to California where his wife left him and returned to the Islands. Frank was left in the family of Addison Pratt at Beaver,
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Utah. He ran away from the Pratts and got a job as bull-whacker, hauling freight from San Bernardino to Helena, Mont. This was in 1865 when he was about fifteen years of age. A few years later he got a job breaking horses for the Holliday Stage Company and soon after was put in the Pony Express service from Diamond City to Fort Hall on the Missouri River. On his fourth trip the Indians captured him. He was suddenly surrounded by twenty Blackfeet who pulled him off his horse and stripped him entirely naked and told him to go back. Then they began to lash him with quirts following him for several miles as he ran over a country covered with patches of cactus. He was not long in reaching Fort Hall, seventy miles away.
He was next put on the mail line from Fort Hall to Fort Peck at the mouth of Milk River. He was then a boy nineteen years of age. The Sioux were getting ugly and committing depredations throughout that region. It was winter time and while making a trip, going through a gulch in a snow storm, without thought of anyone being near he was suddenly hit on the back of the head and knocked from his horse. A band of Sioux warriors surrounded him and began to quarrel over him, as to who should have his guns, his fur coat, gloves and leggings. During the quarrel another Indian rode up. He seemed to have great authority. He stopped the quarrel and knocked down the one who had taken the rifle. He then took Grouard to the Indian Village. During the three days travel before reaching the hostile camp he learned that his captor was the famous Indian Chief, "Sitting Bull," who, on arriving took Grouard to his own tent and motioned him to sit down on a pile of buffalo robes. He fell asleep from pure exhaustion, although he fully expected to be tortured and killed very soon. While he slept the Indians held a council to decide his fate. Chiefs Gall and No-Neck declared for his im- mediate execution and they had a majority of the tribe with them. Sitting Bull almost alone refused to consent to Grouard's death and he declared he would make him his "brother." His public adoption into Sitting Bull's family saved him from a cruel death. The chief had taken a great fancy to Grouard, named him "Standing Bear," and called him brother. The name, Standing Bear, was soon known to all the surrounding tribes. This name was given him because when captured he wore a heavy fur coat, fur leggings, cap and gloves, and was so bundled up, prepared for the storm, that he resembled a bear.
He lived with Sitting Bull for six years, during which time he became thoroughly acquainted with their language and traditions, their manners and customs in war and peace and he so excelled the best of them in athletic exercises, markmanship, running and wrestling that he was looked upon with superstitious fear as a superior being. He studied and made notes of the legends and mythology of the Sioux tribes and had prepared a very complete history which was destroyed in a fire which burned his residence near Buffalo, Wyo.
He described the torture test he had to undergo as a Sioux warrior. All the village was assembled. He was taken by four chiefs and stripped naked. His flesh was raised by pricking him with needles. Pieces about the size of a pea were cut out with sharp knives, from each arm, in all over four hundred pieces. They pulled out his eyebrows and eyelashes one by one. They set fire to pieces of the pith of the sunflower which burned like punk, and held them against his wrist until they burned out. Although he endured untold agony he did not flinch and gave no sign of his distress. The ceremonies lasted four hours and he
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was declared a good Indian. Then he was put through the "sweat" as a sort of a healing process. During the latter part of his captivity he was entrusted with peace negotiations 'and on account of Sitting Bull breaking his agreement with him and the whites he determined to give up his Indian life.
For a long time he had been allowed his freedom and on one trip he went to visit a white friend on Snake River, Neb. An expedition against the Indians was being organized. Orders were sent out for scouts who knew the country and he was persuaded to go to the camp where the troops were gathered. They told him to go and see General Crook, who was then at Fort Laramie, ninety miles away. He started at night and reached there the next morning. Crook questioned him very closely about the chance of getting at the Indians, engaged him as a scout at $125 a month, and they went back to the Red Cloud Agency. They went on an expedition to Tongue River and camped at the present site of Dayton. Here he assisted in making a treaty with Crazy Horse, for which service the Government paid him $500. It was three months before he could talk good English. During this period he wore Indian costume and long hair and to all appearances was a genuine Indian. He then had his hair cut and adopted a white man's dress and customs.
After that he was made chief of scouts and accompanied General Crook on his various expeditions, and was also with General Mackenzie, General Merritt and General Sheridan at different periods. He was with Crook's command in the campaign which resulted in the Custer massacre, was on the Custer battlefield the next morning after the fight and saw the bodies of the newly slain men. Grouard says Custer must have killed himself as his body was not harmed. The Indians will not touch the body of a suicide. He rode around their villages and estimated that they had nine thousand fighting men. He was with Merritt in the Nez Perce campaign, took a prominent part in suppressing the ghost dance and Messiah outbreaks at the Pine Ridge Agency, and made all the plans for the arrest of Sitting Bull which practically ended the Indian troubles of that time.
He was given a life position by the United States Government with a good salary whether on duty or not, but he was too proud to accept pay when he was rendering no service, and early in the 'gos resigned and went into business for himself. He settled near Buffalo, Wyo., engaged in ranching and mining and while employed in the latter occupation we made his acquaintance. The details of his life and adventures have been told in an interesting volume written by Joe De Barth, a well known writer and newspaper man of Buffalo where Grouard spent his later years.
SACAJAWEA
The name of Sacajawea, enrolled as a pathfinder on the pages of the early history of the Northwest, has given an added lustre to the womanhood of the Indian race. A bill was introduced in the Wyoming Legislature in February, 1907, appropriating $500 to mark the grave of this remarkable Indian girl, who with singular fidelity, keen insight and unsurpassed endurance and bravery, guided the Lewis and Clark expedition across the western continent to the Pacific coast. The same year the North Dakota Legislature appropriated $15,000 for a founda- tion and pedestal upon which to erect a statue in her honor to be erected at
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Bismarck, the design to be made by Leonard Crunille. There is also a project being undertaken in Montana to erect a monument to Sacajawea at Three Forks. It is a fine thing even after more than a hundred years have elapsed that the busy, money-making people of this generation have at last begun to recognize the greatness of her achievement and desire to do honor to her memory.
Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard, of the Wyoming State University, in her very interesting account of Sacajawea's services, says: "It was an epoch-making jour- ney, a journey that moved the world along; that pushed the boundary of the United States from the Mississippi River to the Pacific; that gave us the breadth of the hemisphere from ocean to ocean; the command of its rivers and harbors; the wealth of the mountains, plains and valleys-a domain rich enough for the ambition of kings."
Sacajawea was a Shoshone Indian girl, the wife of Toissant Charbonneau. She was engaged as guide by Lewis and Clark when they reached the Mandan Indian village where she resided. Her husband, Charbonneau was first em- ployed as an interpreter. He had two wives, the youngest being Sacajawea, who was sold to him as a slave when about fourteen years old. The following year, 1805, she gave birth to a child and this child she took with her on the long jour- ney, strapped to her back. The babe grew up to become a skilled guide and scout and was known as "Baptiste." Before this time Sacajawea had been a captive for five years and had accompanied her captors over much of the ground over which the expedition went, and so by her knowledge and natural instinct in selecting trails she led the explorers on their way. . That summer the party camped on the exact spot, at the junction of the Madison, Jefferson and Gallatin rivers, where as a child captive she had camped and played years be- fore. She was the one who found the pass through the mountains and saved the party from long wanderings in an unknown wilderness.
Many dramatic incidents attended the trip. On one occasion when crossing a swollen stream one of their boats containing their valuable records was over- turned and the records were floating away when she plunged into the dangerous stream and rescued the papers before they sank. On another occasion she found a brother who had been separated from the family many years had be- come an Indian chief. Neither recognized the other until the family relations were explained when they had a most affectionate reunion. The brother gave much assistance to the party in purchasing horses and supplies. She even assisted her husband in interpreting as she knew some Indian dialects better than he did. When starvation threatened them she collected artichokes and other nutritious plants and seeds which kept them alive till they reached places where better food could be had.
Lewis and Clark reached the coast December 7, 1805, and remained till March, 1806, when they began to retrace their journey to Mandan which they reached in August. Referring to Sacajawea, Lewis and Clark's Journal says :
"We found Charbonneau's wife particularly useful. Indeed she endured with a patience truly admirable the fatigues of so long a route incumbered with an infant now only nineteen months old. She was very observant, remembering locations not seen since her childhood.
"In trouble she was full of resources, plucky and determined. With her helpless infant she rode with the men, guiding us unerringly through mountain
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passes and lonely places. Intelligent, cheerful, resourceful, tireless and faithful, she inspired us all."
No better eulogium could be written of her personal character of the great service she rendered not only to the explorers but through them to our country. Her name is said to be derived from Sac, a canoe or raft, a-the, jawea, launcher- a launcher or paddler of canoes.
She was short of stature and was handsome in her girlhood days. She spoke French as well as several Indian tongues. She lived to a great age and during her whole life was wonderfully active and intelligent. She died at the Shoshone Agency near Lander, April 9, 1884, and was buried in the burial ground of the agency where her grave was marked by a small slab. The grave has been identified by her children and grandchildren, a fact ascertained and certified to, by Rev. John Roberts, who was a missionary at the reservation from 1883 to 1906. If the State of Wyoming ever becomes mindful of its patriotic and historic obligations it will erect a fitting memorial monument to Sacajawea, the brave pathfinding Indian girl, and also one to Chief Washakie, the greatest of Indian warriors and statesmen.
CASPAR COLLINS, THE HERO OF OLD PLATTE BRIDGE
The management of the State Industrial Convention held at Casper in Sep- tember, 1905, offered a prize for the best poem on Caspar Collins. The award was made to I. S. Bartlett of Cheyenne, who contributed the following :
Ah, sad the need and sad the day, When Caspar Collins rode away And in the battle's fiery breath Rode undismayed and captured death.
With courage rare his brave young heart Impelled to take a soldier's part And save his comrades on the trail, He counted no such word as fail.
He rode to death nor cared to know The fearful numbers of his foe, How great the odds, how sure his fate; He rode to lead and not to wait.
Where Casper's church spires pierce the ambient air And the young city rises proud and fair, Where children's voices mingle with the bells And sound of happy industry, that tells The story of a new and better life, We turn our memory to red-blooded strife, The toilsome march, the ambuscade, the yell Of painted savages and battle's hell,
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That made our pioneers a sturdy race Of iron blood and nerves of steel, to face The storms and dangers of the wilderness, A future race, a future land to bless.
We tread historic ground; Casper's old fort And old Platte Bridge, were once resort Of men who braved the perils of the trail And perished there with none to tell the tale ; Hunters and trappers, Uncle Samuel's troops, Gold seekers, Mormons, men in motley groups With prairie schooners, mounts and caravans, Trailed o'er the plains; 'twas in the Almighty's plans For they were empire builders, who should rear The splendid commonwealth that we find here ; Thus Casper in the path of empire lies Bound to old memories with historic ties.
In 'sixty-five one July day Near Casper's site the old fort lay ; Thousands of Indians swarmed around, The hills near by with yells resound; Few were the garrison but brave, Hemmed in they sought all means to save Their little band; but worse than all A wagon train was due that day And even then was on its way From Sweetwater with twenty men; How could they reach the fort? 'twas then A terror new burst on their view ; Could they be saved? Oh, who would dare To fight 2,000 Indians there?
Their force was small and great their fear, But five and twenty volunteer To march at once, to do or die; But who will lead them was the cry; Old officers declined; too late They said, to challenge fate.
Young Caspar Collins, a mere boy, Stepped to the front with courage grand And volunteered to lead the band, The mission to him was a joy.
"Trot, gallop, charge," the order came, The troopers rode to death and fame, They dashed across the old Platte Bridge
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But met upon the frowning ridge Two thousand Indians swarming there ; With yells resounding through the air They sprang from many an ambuscade And overwhelmed the cavalcade. Hot raged the battle; it was hell Transferred to earth and none could tell What man alone could save his life In that unequal, maddening strife. They fought retreating to the fort To reach there with a good report, But Collins turned to help a man Wounded and dying in the van, Alas for him, alas the fate That made his effort all too late,
He rode with courage undismayed Into the Indian bands, arrayed In mad revenge; and met his death
Fighting alone to his last breath.
Thus Caspar Collins in the thrilling fray Died gloriously and left a name Written in letters bright as day Upon the annals of Wyoming fame. While Casper Mountain shadows fall at night,
Or the keen lances of the morning light
Dart o'er the foothills, or the light breeze blows Along the valley where the North Platte flows, The name of Caspar Collins will abide, Written with those who grandly strove and died
To save their fellowmen and build a state Of happy homes, proud, prosperous and great.
LUKE VOORHEES AND EARLY STAGE COACH DAYS
No story of the frontier days of Wyoming and the Mountain West would be complete without a sketch of the life and experiences of Luke Voorhees, now receiver of the United States land office at Cheyenne. Probably no man living could give such a rich store of personal experiences and adventures pertaining to the pioneer days of the western wilderness.
He was born at Belvidere, N. J., November 29, 1838, and the next year his parents moved to Michigan where he lived till 1857. On March Ioth of that year, his spirit of adventure and thirst for "the wild," led him to start for Leavenworth, Kan., as he expresses it, "to hunt buffalo, scalp Indians and get a piece of land to farm."
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