USA > Wyoming > The history of Wyoming from the earliest known discoveries > Part 20
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took a new guide and started for Fort Uncompahgra, sit- uated on the waters of Grand River, in the Spanish country. Here our stay was very short.
"We took a new guide and started for Taos. After be- ing out some four or five days we encountered a terrible snow storm, which forced us to seek shelter in a deep ravine, where we remained snowed in four days, at which time the storm had somewhat abated, and we attemped to make our way out upon the high lands, but the snow was so deep and the winds so piercing and cold we were compelled to return to camp and wait a few days for a change of weather.
"Our next effort to reach the high lands was more suc- cessful; but after spending several days wandering around in the snow without making much headway, our guide told us that the deep snow had so changed the face of the coun- try that he was completely lost and could take us no farther. This was a terrible blow to the doctor, but he was deter- mined not to give it up without another effort. We at once agreed that he should take the guide and return to Fort Uncompahgra and get a new guide, and I remain in camp with the animals until he could return; which he did in seven days with our new guide, and we were now on our route again. Nothing of much importance occurred but hard and slow traveling through deep snow until we reached Grand River, which was frozen on either side about one- third across. Although so intensely cold, the current was so very rapid, about one-third of the river in the center was not frozen. Our guide thought it would be dangerous to attempt to cross the river in its present condition, but the doctor, nothing daunted, was the first to take the water. He mounted his horse and the guide and myself shoved the doctor and his animal off the ice into the foaming stream. Away he went, completely under water, horse and all, but directly came up and after buffeting the rapid, foaming current, he reached the ice on the opposite shore, a long way down the stream. He leaped from his horse upon the ice and soon had his noble animal by his side. The guide and myself forced in the pack animals and followed the doctor's exam- ple and were soon on the opposite shore drying our frozen clothes by a comfortable fire. We reached Taos in about thirty days, suffering greatly from cold and scarcity of pro- visions. We were compelled to use mule meat, dogs and such other animals as came in our reach. We remained at Taos a few days only and started for Bent's and Savery's Fort on the headwaters of the Arkansas River. When we
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had been out some fifteen or twenty days we met George Bent, a brother of Governor Bent, on his way to Taos. He told us that a party of mountain men would leave Bent's Fort in a few days for St. Louis, but said we would not reach the fort with our pack animals in time to join the party. The doctor, being very anxious to join the party so he could push on as rapidly as possible to Washington, concluded to leave myself and guide with the animals, and he himself, taking the best animal with some bedding and a small al- lowance of provisions, started alone, hoping by rapid travel to reach the fort in time to join the St. Louis party, but to do so he would have to travel on the Sabbath, something we had not done before. Myself and guide traveled on slowly and reached the fort in four days, but imagine our astonish- ment when on making inquiry about the doctor, we were told that he had not arrived, nor had he been heard of.
"I learned that the party for St. Louis was camped at the Big Cottonwood, forty miles from the fort, and at my request, Mr. Savery sent an express telling the party not to proceed any farther until we learned something of Dr. Whitman's whereabouts, as he wished to accompany them to St. Louis. Being furnished by the gentlemen of the fort with a suitable guide, I started in search of the doctor and traveled up the river about one hundred miles. I learned from the Indians that a man had been there who was lost and was trying to find Bent's Fort. They said they had di- rected him to go down the river, and how to find the fort. I knew from their description it was the doctor. I returned to the fort as rapidly as possible, but the doctor had not arrived. We had all become very anxious about him.
"Late in the afternoon he came in, very much fatigued and desponding; said he knew that God had bewildered him to punish him for traveling on the Sabbath. During the whole trip he was very regular in his morning and even. ing devotions, and that was the only time I ever knew him to travel on the Sabbath. The doctor remained all night at the fort, starting early on the following morning to join the St. Louis party. Here we parted. Dr. Whitman proceeded to Washington. I remained at Bent's Fort until spring and joined the doctor the following July, near Fort Laramie, on his way to Oregon in company with a train of emigrants. He often expressed himself to me about the remainder of his journey and the manner in which he was received at Washington and by the Board of Foreign Missions at Bos- ton. He had several interviews with President Tyler, Sec-
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retary Webster and a good many members of Congress, which was in session at that time. He urged the imme- diate termination of the treaty with Great Britain rela- tive to this country, and begged them to extend the laws of the United States over Oregon, and asked for liberal in- ducements to emigrants to come to this coast. He was very cordially and kindly received by the President and mem- bers of Congress, and without doubt all these interviews resulted greatly to the benefit of Oregon and to this coast. But his reception at the Board of Foreign Missions was not so cordial. The board was inclined to censure him for leav- ing his post. The doctor came to the frontier settlement, urging the citizens to emigrate to the Pacific. He left Inde- pendence, Missouri, in the month of May, 1843, with an emigrant train of about one thousand souls for Oregon. With his energy and knowledge of the country, he rendered them great assistance in fording the many dangerous and rapid streams they had to cross, and in finding a wagon road through many of the narrow, rugged passes of the moun- tains. He arrived at Waiilatpui about one year from the time he left, to find his home sadly dilapidated, his flouring mill burned. The Indians were very hostile to the doctor for leaving them, and without doubt, owing to his absence, the seeds of assassination were sown by these haughty Cayuse Indians which resulted in his and Mrs. Whitman's death, with many others, although it did not take place until four years later."
General Lovejoy leaves little to tell except in regard to the journey of Dr. Whitman and one thousand men, women and children making their way over the trail which had now become familiar to him. This was the first great train to wend its way westward and leave behind a broad highway over which Oregon, Utah and California were to be popu- lated. The Sublettes had penetrated to the mouth of the Popo Agie with wagons in 1829, and Captain Bonneville reached the Green River with his wagons in 1832, and Fre- mont had taken his wagon trains as far as the South Pass in 1842, but Dr. Marcus Whitman outstripped them all on his wedding journey in 1836, when he carried his bride in a wagon across the continent. That historic wagon should have been preserved for all time, for its track across the mountains marked the road which Elijah White and his one
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hundred and twenty followers took in 1842, and this road was made a grand highway in 1843 when Whitman and his followers, one thousand strong, went out with the avowed purpose of saving Oregon to the Union. The east had been unmindful of the wealth that lay beyond the mountains and it was not until Dr. Marcus Whitman stood before President John Tyler and Secretary of State Daniel Web- ster, in his coarse fur garments and his frozen feet, and pleaded with them for Oregon and for the privilege of lead- ing to his chosen land a band of patriotic Americans who should in effect settle the vexed Oregon question. Daniel Webster said in after years that the ride of Marcus Whit- man through the awful defiles of the Rocky Mountains in mid-winter saved Oregon to the United States. Such hero- ism, when we consider that there was not a single selfish motive, is the grandest in the world's history. I will not take space to tell the story in detail, but let me quote what Dr. H. H. Spalding says of that memorable journey up the Platte River, across Wyoming and down the Columbia during the summer of 1843: "And through that whole sum- mer Dr. Whitman was everywhere present; the minister- ing angel to the sick, helping the weary, encouraging the wavering, cheering the tired mothers, setting broken bones and mending wagons. He was in front, in the center, and in the rear. He was in the river hunting out fords through the quicksand; in the desert places looking for water and grass; among the mountains looking for passes never before trodden by white men; at noontide and at midnight he was on the alert as if the whole line was his own family, and as if all the flocks and herds were his own. For all this he neither asked nor expected a dollar from any source, and es- pecially did he feel repaid at the end, when, standing at his mission home, hundreds of his fellow pilgrims took him by the hand and thanked him with tears in their eyes for all that he had done."
Dr. Whitman, after leading his colony into Oregon, went to his mission and commenced the old routine of build- ing, sowing, planting and teaching until on the 29th of No-
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Opening of First Highway.
vember, 1847, when he and his wife were killed by praying Indians; that is, the class who had been converted by the missionaries. There had been much sickness that season among the Indians and the converted savages regarded the missionaries as responsible for it. Another cause of com- plaint was, Dr. Whitman had been trying to induce the In- dians to cultivate the ground and raise crops. The noble red man has always been opposed to work, leaving this to be done by his squaw. It is a matter of principle with him to be above work. No amount of religion will induce him to neglect an opportunity to take scalps or steal horses. In Dr. Whitman's case, he had fed hundreds of them for years, and while pretending the greatest love for him, as well as the Savior, suddenly, without warning, one of the Indians drove a tomahawk into his brain, while others shot Mrs. Whitman with a rifle and killed twelve more people about the mission. Forty women and children were taken captives at the same time. Among those captured were three young women who were forced to become the wives of the mur- derers of their parents.
Thus died the man who heads the list of western heroes, but before closing the story of Dr. Whitman, I must refer to a letter written by him on June 22, 1844, addressed to Hon. James M. Porter, Secretary of War. Dr. Whitman had, on his visit to Washington during the winter of 1843, been asked to make suggestions as to the necessary aid the government could give to those going to Oregon. In re- sponse to this, he suggested the establishing of posts along the route to protect mountain travelers, these posts to be supplied with provisions for sale. Among other places, he urged that a settlement be made on Horse Shoe Creek, in what is now Wyoming, also at Laramie's Fork, another on the North Platte west of this point, on the Sweetwater, and on Green River. In his letter he says that at these places there is good land for cultivation and irrigation. It may be said to the credit of the government that it did, in part, a few years later, carry out the plans of Dr. Whitman by the purchase of the trading posts known as Fort Laramie and
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Fort Bridger. On October 14, 1847, Dr. Whitman wrote an- other letter to the Secretary of War. This communication is filled with important suggestions, and among others, a mail route across the continent. I quote the letter in full, as it contains the advanced thought of the time on the sub- jects discussed. The letter was written only about a month before Dr. Whitman was killed.
"Waiilatpui, October 16th, 1847.
"To the Honorable Secretary of War, to the Commit- tee on Indian Affairs and Oregon in the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, the following sug. gestions are respectfully submitted :
"1st. That all stations of the United States for troops be kept upon the borders of some state or territory, when designed for the protection and regulation of Indian ter. ritory.
"2nd. That a line of posts be established along the traveled route to Oregon, at a distance, so far as practicable, of not more than fifty miles. That these posts be located so as to afford the best opportunity for agriculture and graz- ing, to facilitate the production of provisions, and the care of horses and cattle, for the use and support of said posts and to furnish supplies to all passers through Indian terri- tory, especially to mail carriers and troops. These posts should be placed wherever a bridge or ferry would be re- quired to facilitate the transport of the mail, and travel of troops or immigrants through the country.
"In all fertile places these posts would support them. selves and give facilities for the several objects just named in transit. The other posts, situated where the soil would not admit of cultivation, would still be useful, as they afford the means of taking care of horses and other facilities for transporting the mails.
"These posts could be supplied with provisions from others in the vicinity. A few large posts in the more fertile regions could supply those more in the mountains.
"On the other hand, military posts can only be well supplied when near the settlements. In this way all trans- ports for the supply of interior military posts would be su- perseded.
"The number of men at these posts might vary from five to twenty-five.
"In the interior the buildings may be built with adobes, that is, large unburnt bricks; and in form and size should
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Opening of First Highway.
much resemble the common Indian trading posts, with outer walls and bastions.
"They would thus afford the same protection in any part of the territory as the common trading posts.
"If provided with a small amount of goods, such goods could be bartered with the Indians for necessary supplies, as well as, on proper occasions, given to chiefs as a reward for punishing those who disturb or offend against the peace of the territory.
"By these means the Indians would become the protect- ors of those stations.
"At the same time, by being under one general super- intendent, subject to the inspection of the government, the Indians may be concentrated under one general influence.
"By such a superintendence the Indians would be pre- vented from fleeing from one place to another to secrete themselves from justice. By this simple arrangement, all the need of the troops in the interior would be obviated, unless in some instance when the Indians fail to co-operate with the superintendent of the post or posts for the promo- tion of peace.
"When the troops shall be called for, to visit the inte- rior, the farming posts will be able to furnish them with supplies in passing so as to make their movements speedy and efficient.
"A code of laws for the Indian territory might consti- tute as civil magistrates the first or second in command of these posts.
"The same arrangement would be equally well adapted for the respective routes to California and New Mexico. Many reasons may be urged for the establishment of these posts, among which are the following:
"1st. By means of such posts all acts of the Indians would be under a full and complete inspection. All cases of murder, theft or other outrage would be brought to light and the proper punishment inflicted.
"2nd. In most cases this may be done by giving the chiefs a small fee, that they may either punish the offend- ers themselves or deliver them up to the commander of the post. In such cases it should be held that their peers have adjudged them guilty before punishment is inflicted.
"3rd. By means of these posts it will become safe and easy for the smallest number to pass and repass from Ore- gon to the states; and with a civil magistrate at each sta- -(15)
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tion, all idle wandering white men without passports can be sent out of the territory.
"4th. In this way all banditti for robbing the mails or travelers would be prevented, as well as all vagabonds re- moved from among the Indians.
"5th. Immigrants now lose horses and other stock by the Indians, commencing from the border of the states to the Willamette. It is much to the praise of our countrymen that they bear so long with the Indians when our govern- ment has done so little to enable them to pass in safety. For one man to lose five or six horses is not a rare occurrence, which loss is felt heavily, when most of the family are com- pelled to walk to favor a reduced and failing team.
"6th. The Indians along the line take courage from the forbearance of the immigrants. The timid Indians on the Columbia have this year in open day attacked several par- ties of wagons, numbering from two to seven, and robbed them, being armed with guns, bows and arrows, knives and axes. Mr. Glenday, from St. Charles, Missouri, the bearer of this communication to the states, with Mr. Bear, his companion, rescued seven wagons from being plundered, and the people from gross insults, rescuing one woman when the Indians were in the act of taking all the clothes from her person. The men were mostly stripped of their shirts and pantaloons at the time.
"7th. The occasional supplies to passing immigrants, as well as the aid which may be afforded to the sick and needy, are not the least of the important results to follow from these establishments. A profitable exchange to the posts and immigrants, as also to others journeying through the country, can be made by exchanging worn-out horses and cattle for fresh ones.
"8th. It scarcely need be mentioned what advantage the government will derive by a similar exchange for the transport of the mail, as also for the use of troops passing through.
"9th. To suppress the use of ardent spirits among the Indians, it will be requisite to regard the giving or furnish- ing of it in any manner as a breach of the laws and peace of the territory. All superintendents of posts, traders and responsible persons, should be charged on oath that they will not sell, give or furnish in any manner, ardent spirits to the Indians.
"10th. Traders should be regarded, by reason of the license they have to trade in the territory, as receiving a
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privilege, and therefore should be required to give and maintain good credentials of character. For this reason they may be required to send in the testimony of all their clerks and assistants of all ranks, to show under the solem- nity of an oath that the laws in this respect have not been violated or evaded. If at any time it becomes apparent to the superintendent of any post that the laws have been violated, he might be required to make full inquiry of all in any way connected with or assisting in the trade to as certain whether the laws were broken or their breach con- nived at. This will avail for the regular licensed trader.
"11th. For illicit traders and smugglers, it will suffice to instruct commanders of posts to offer a reward to the Iu- dians for the safe delivery of any and all such persons as bring liquors among them, together with the liquors thus brought. It is only on the borders of the respective states and territories that any interruption will be found in the operation of these principles.
"12th. Here also a modification of the same principle enacted by the several states and territories might produce equally happy results.
"13th. The mail may, with a change of horses every fifty miles, be carried at the rate of one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles in twenty-four hours.
"14th. The leading reason in favor of adopting the aforesaid regulations would be, that by this means the In- dians would become our faithful allies. In fact, they will be the best possible police for such a territory. This police can safely be relied upon when under a good supervision. Troops will only be required to correct their faults in case of extreme misconduct.
"15th. In closing, I would remark that I have con- versed with many of the principal fur traders of the Ameri- can and Hudson Bay Companies, all of whom agree that the several regulations suggested in this communication will accomplish the object proposed, were suitable men appointed for its management and execution.
"Respectfully yours, "MARCUS WHITMAN."
The story of Dr. Marcus Whitman has been told, but the influence of the man on western civilization can never be estimated by the historian. His deeds performed and suggestions made had their influence in the formation and settlement of these western states. Wherever we be-
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hold him-let it be at South Pass reverently taking posses- sion of the country in the name of God and the United States; teaching the Indians at the Waiilatpui Mission; crossing the Rocky Mountains at the dead of winter; pursu- ing his way across Grand River, in spite of ice and deep water; pleading before President Tyler and Daniel Web- ster; leading his caravan across the mountains and desert, or giving advice to the leading statesmen of the land-he is the same earnest, patriotic, God-fearing man of deeds, and the world is better for his example. Great leaders have been the salvation of armies, states and nations, and great minds have in all ages benefited their fellow men. Though at the time of his death he was only forty-five years old, he had done more for his country than most great men ac- complish in a life of three-score and ten.
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Father Peter De Smet.
CHAPTER XVIII.
FATHER PETER DE SMET.
HIS ARRIVAL IN WYOMING AND PASSAGE UP THE NORTH PLATTE AND SWEETWATER-THE FLATHEADS MEET HIM AT GREEN RIVER-WON- DERFUL INTEREST SHOWN BY THE INDIANS IN THIS PRIEST-HE TELLS OF HIS EXPERIENCES AND FUTURE LABORS-MANY VISITS TO WYOMING-INCIDENT AMONG THE CROWS-SUPPOSED KNOWLEDGE OF GOLD IN THE BIG HORN MOUNTAINS-HIS DEATH AT ST. LOUIS -- WHAT IS THOUGHT OF FATHER DE SMET IN WYOMING.
In the regular order of progress of the missionaries through Wyoming came Father Peter De Smet. He ar- rived six years later than Lee and five years later than Par- ker and Whitman, but he was no less worthy of the cause of religion. I am glad that I have been fortunate enough to procure a portrait of this remarkable man. A study of the lines of character to be found in his face will to some extent reveal his strength and courage. See portrait in this volume. With the contentions of the Protestants and Catholics regarding the call by the Flathead Indians I have nothing to do. I will simply tell the story of the arrival of Father De Smet and his labors in what is now the State of Wyoming. This good priest was born in Termonde, Bel- gium, on January 31, 1801. At an early age he entered the Society of Jesus and in due time was sent to America to work in the missionary field. He served in Missouri and Kansas for some time, but his health giving way he returned to his native land. In the year 1837 he again came to this country and on April 5, 1840, left St. Louis for the west, joining at Westport the annual expedition of the American Fur Company when it was ready to depart for the Rocky Mountains. In this expedition were thirty trappers and an Iroquois Indian named Ignace. Father De Smet was in the special care of this Indian, who had promised to conduct him to the Flathead tribe. Peter, another Iroquois, had
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departed for the west some months before and had carried the news to the Flatheads that the "Black Robe" would be at Green River in the spring, accompanied by Ignace. The Flatheads were camped that season on Eight Mile Creek, Bitter Root Valley. The chief, when the time came for the arrival of the train from Westport, detailed ten of his trust- ed warriors to meet the man of God and bring him to camp, and at the same time announced that he with the whole tribe would follow on.
On June 30th the caravan with which Father De Smet was traveling reached Green River, and here the meeting between the Flathead warriors and "Black Robe" took place. This was on Tuesday, and Father De Smet spent the balance of the week visiting among the Indian traders and trappers, of which there were great numbers at the ren- dezvous that season.
Here, on the following Sunday, July 5, Father De Smet celebrated mass before a motley, yet most respectful, crowd of Indians, whites, fur traders, hunters and trappers. The altar was erected on a little elevation on the prairie and was decorated with boughs and garlands of wild flow- ers. The temple was the most magnificent of God's own making, having for its vault the azure sky and for space and floor the vast, boundless expanse of wilderness. The spot was afterward known and pointed out by the Indians as "The Prairie of the Mass."
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