JUDGE WILLIAM LITTLEBURY KUYKENDALL
A PIONEER OF THREE TERRITORIES
| Timeline of William Littlebury Kuykendall's Life | From: History of the Kuykendall Family | Frontier Days |
Timeline of W. L. Kuykendall's life:
[The following information is taken from History of the Kuykendall Family by George Benson Kuykendall, 1919.]
Judge William L. Kuykendall, late of Saratoga, Wyoming, was much interested in the past history of the Kuykendall family, and we corresponded on the subject, occasionally for years. Excerpts from this correspondence will now be given:
"My great grandfather lived in South Carolina, near the foot of King's Mountain, where my grandfather was born. The former was killed in the battle of that name, his house and household goods, and the family records were burned soon afterwards, by the Tories, followed directly afterwards by the death of my great grandmother. My grandfather, Richmond Kuykendall was, at the time, a very small boy, absolutely poverty stricken and too small to remember afterwards, whether or not he had any relatives in that part of the country. A kind neighbor cared for him, and very soon afterwards moved to Barren county, Kentucky, where my grandfather reached maturity, married, and where my father was born and grew to almost maturity, before my grandfather
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moved to Garrard county, Kentucky. By this time, 35 or 40 years had intervened since my grandfather left South Carolina. Father commenced an investigation, as soon as he could, after reaching manhood, and found that all the Kuykendalls that he could hear of in North and South Carolina, especially those living near King's Mountain, spelled the name as you and I do, and that it was pronounced by some Kikendall and by others Kirkendall, which accounts for my father and his next older brother spelling the name correctly, as you and as I do, while his two younger brothers spelled it Kirkendall. I have no doubt whatever that the King's Mountain Kuykendalls of the present time, one of whom (Dr. John C. Kuykendall), of Yorkville, S. C., are distant, if not comparatively near relatives of mine. You will notice that they have dropped one 1 from the name.
My grandfather's name was Richmond, and my father's name was James. The latter had three brothers, John, Jacob and Joseph. They are long since dead, and I know nothing of my uncle's families. My father, James Kuykendall, and mother, Celia (Thompson) Kuykendall's children were: ELIZA A., SARAH J., RICHMOND, WILLIAM L., and ROBERT G., all of whom are dead except myself. My brother James M. left only one son named John, who had a son named James M., born about 1891. My sons are John M. and Harry Lee, both of whom live in Denver, Colorado."
WILLIAM LITTLEBURY KUYKENDALL was born December 13, 1835, and after reaching maturity he was always prominent and actively connected with public affairs in every community
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in which he lived. He held numerous offices and places of trust. He was Justice of the Peace, County Clerk, Deputy Clerk of the District Court, United States Commissioner, Judge of Probate, and was a member of the legislature several times. He held the position of Grand Sire of the I. O. O. F. of the World, and was Grand Secretary of the A. F. & A. M. of Wyoming for over twenty-five years.
The Judge led a varied and active life, and all of it was in the frontier parts of the country, of which he was no small factor in the development. He was in Kansas during the stirring and stormy events preceding the Civil war.
His superabundant energy always found him "doing something." In 1870 he organized a large expedition for prospecting the Big Horn country. This expedition was stopped by the United States troops, but in 1876 he organized and led another company into that country that was successful, and that led to the opening up of the rich mines of the Black Hills country.
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Though in the Civil war he was found on the side of the South, there was no man, perhaps, that was more glad to see sectional bitterness pass away and the country united again. He was a man of great energy, strict integrity and great force of character, and wielded a potent influence in the building up of the country wherever he lived.
MR. JOHN M. KUYKENDALL, of Denver, Colorado, son of Judge W. L. Kuykendall, like his father, has been very much interested in the history of the K family.
The tragic fate of his great grandfather and mother, and the great obscurity connected with their earlier residence in South Carolina, would naturally arouse his interest and create a wish that he might know more of those worthy ancestors. His branch of the family like nearly all the others have from the beginning, been path makers for civilization. Mr. John M. inherited from his father a large measure of energy and business capacity, which he has used with marked success in life. He was born in Platte county, Missouri, April 25, 1860. He attended the public schools of Cheyenne, Wyoming, and later completed his eduction in Racine College, Wisconsin. His first experience with the business activities of life was with his father in the sheep business, during about twelve years. His first business undertaking of considerable magnitude was in 1875, when he organized the Wisconsin-Wyoming Land and Cattle Company, of the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Co., with a capital stock of $145,000, J. I. Case as President, and J. M. Kuykendall as General Manager. Ten years later he organized a cattle company operated on Medicine Bow, in the same county, which was known as the J. M. Kuykendall Company, with a capital stock of $60,000, of which he was President and General Manager. In the year 1892 he organized the Columbia Coach Company, capital stock, $60,000, which was operated in Chicago during the World's Fair. Of this company he was President and Manager. In the year 1890, he organized the Denver Omnibus and Cab Company with a capital of $100,000 and in 1910 he reorganized the Denver Omnibus and Cab Company under the laws of Wyoming, and increased the capital stock to $525,000, and since then has increased the assets of the company to over $1,000,000. The business has gone on increasing from year to year, and he still continues to be president and manager. He has besides these, business interests in other large enterprises in mining and irrigation operations.
While he has been engrossed in business he has found time to look after social amenities. He is director of the Denver Club, the Overland Park Country Club, Denver Athletic Club, Chamber of Commerce, and numerous other organizations.
He was elected in 1887 member of the Territorial Legislature of Wyoming, when he was about twenty-seven years of age. His first experience in a legislature was as page of the first Territorial Legislature of Wyoming, when he was nine years old. He saved up a little money this way, and put it into sheep with his father's business.
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He married Miss Anna Thomason, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, January 1, 1889, who was at the time an orphan, the daughter of Zechariah Thomason, one of the pioneer cattle men of Wyoming. They have never had any children.
All Mr. Kuykendall's life has been spent in the west, mostly on the frontier.
He has been successful in his business undertakings and naturally feels a great attachment to the Colorado country. He sees Denver as the fairest spot in all the earth to him, and believes in its future and the future of the great state of which it is the metropolis. Here he has put in the best energies of the prime of life, and has seen a great and beautiful city spring up from a mere village and become a charming metropolis, the center of trade of an intermountain empire. He is happy to have done his part in the great transformation.
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[Following is a beginning transcription of the book by W. L. Kuykendall, 1917.]
A True Narrative of Striking Events on the Western Frontier
By Judge W. L. Kuykendall
1917
J. M. and H. L. Kuykendall
Publishers
Copyright, 1917, by J. M. Kuykendall
DEDICATORY
TO THE MEMORY OF MY WIFE, who departed this life on the twenty-first day of December, 1898, who for more than forty years traveled along life's pathway by my side, through sunshine and through storm unwaveringly; sharing in all the grief and hardships of life on the Western Border, as a Pioneer Woman in Kansas, Colorado, Dakota and Wyoming - this book is lovingly dedicated.
William L. Kuykendall
FOREWARD
The quaint and unique style characteristic of Judge William Littlebury Kuykendall has been carefully preserved in the editing of this remarkable biography. He was a well educated, widely read, courteous gentleman of the old school and he had a vocabulary which belonged to the strenuous days and environment in which he lived. He died before the publication of his autobiography and therefore never wrote the expose of the political life to which he refers in this manuscript.
This book makes no pretense of carrying a continuous story, or of writing history in a chronological sequence. It is a group of incidents well told but hung loosely together, the only thing binding them being the sturdy character of the Judge himself.
Incidentally it deals with the dramatic story of the Kansas and Missouri Border trouble, the birth of the Civil War and the early pioneer history of Wyoming and the Dakotas, with marvelous pen sketches of western Indians, empire builders, the vultures of mining camps, and the life of new and raw communities, better than it could ever be told except by one who had lived the life and who could write in the language of those who had lived it.
He has put wonderful "splotches" of local color into the story of his adventures.
CHAPTER TITLE PAGE
III MISSOURIANS IN THE MEXICAN WAR AND INCIDENTS OF 1846 19
IV A FEW PRACTICAL JOKERS OF MY BOYHOOD 26
V EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF THE MORMONS, THE FIRST WAR WITH THE BRULE SIOUX INDIANS 33
VI MY FIRST OFFICE AND THE SETTLEMENT OF KANSAS 39
VII RECOLLECTIONS OF EVENTS IN THE KANSAS WAR 46
VIII JOHN BROWN, THE ENGAGEMENTS AT OSAWATOMIE AND OTHER EXCITING EVENTS 52
X A FEW OF THE MANY VIVID RECOLLECTIONS OF THE CIVIL WAR OR THE WAR OF REBELLION 70
XI THE FIGHTS AT CAMDEN POINT, AT THE WIDOW CONDROW'S HOUSE AND OTHER THRILLING EVENTS 78
XIII THE INDIAN RAID ALONG THE OVERLAND STAGE ROAD 92
XIV THE LOCATION OF FORT SAUNDERS NEAR THE PRESENT CITY OF LARAMIE 99
XV THE FETTERMAN AND OTHER MASSACRES. KILLINGS AND ESCAPES 104
XVI INDIAN TROUBLES CONNECTED WITH THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD. THE BIRTH OF CHEYENNE 109
XVII JULESBURG AND THE CHILDHOOD OF CHEYENNE 114
XVIII THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. ORGANIZATION OF CITY AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT AND SCHOOL DISTRICT 119
XIX LARAMIE CITY, FORT STEELE, BENTON, RAWLINS, GREEN RIVER, BEAR RIVER CITY AND FIRST REGULAR ELECTION 124
XX THE FIRST LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF WYOMING PASSES FIRST WOMAN SUFFRAGE BILL 131
XXI THE FIRST BIG HORN AND BLACK HILLS ASSOCIATION, EXPEDITION AND SOME OF THE RESULTS 137
XXII OLD COLOROW AND CAPTAIN JACK. TWO BAD UTE INDIANS. KILLING OF TWO WOMEN AT OLD CAMP BROWN 144
XXIII A CORONER'S INQUEST. THE MILLION DOLLAR COAL MINE AND OTHER PECULIAR AND COMICAL EVENTS 150
XXV THE ODD FELLOWS SOCIETY, THE KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS AND MASONIC FRATERNITY. TWO PECULIAR ADVENTURES 162
XXVI THE FIRST RED CLOUD AGENCY AND SUPPLY DEPOT 168
XXVII SOME EARLY HISTORY CONNECTED WITH THE BLACK HILLS OF SOUTH DAKOTA 174
XXVIII DEADWOOD IN 1876 180
XXX THE INDIANS KILL THE STREET PREACHER SMITH 192
XXXI SETTLEMENT OF SPEARFISH VALLEY BEGINS. INDIAN FIGHTS AND A CAT STORY 198
XXXII ORGANIZATION OF LAWRENCE AND TWO OTHER COUNTIES IN THE HILLS. FIRST ELECTION AND MORE EXCITEMENT 204
XXXIV ROAD AGENTS AND THE KILLING OF JOHNNY SLAUGHTER, A STAGE DRIVER 219
XXXV HAPPENINGS ON THE STAGE LINE. "BIG NOSE GEORGE." THE STONEVILLE FIGHTS AND A BEAR STORY 225
XXXVI RETURN TO DEADWOOD AND OTHER EVENTS OF A STRENUOUS CHARACTER 233
XXXVIII ENGAGE IN THE CATTLE BUSINESS, CHANGE RESIDENCE AND OTHER EVENTS 241
XXXIX TO MY ASSOCIATES, THE PEOPLE GENERALLY AND MY BOY AND GIRL FRIENDS 246
APPENDIX 250
Early Recollections
In the following pages the reader will find a truthful account of the events occurring in the long and eventful life of the writer, Judge W. L. Kuykendall, a Pioneer of three Territories.
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I was born in Clay County, Missouri, on the thirteenth day of December, 1835. At that time Clay County was situated on the extreme western border of the State, and, so far as settlement was concerned, practically marked the western border of our entire country. It adjoined the Reservation of the Sac, Fox and Iowa tribes of Indians, whose agency buildings were located twelve miles south of Roubideaux's Trading Post - now the beautiful and prosperous city of Saint Joseph.
During the year 1837 the land included in the Reservation was acquired by the United States Government through a treaty with the Indians. It then became a part of the State of Missouri and was declared open for settlement.
My father, Judge James Kuykendall, moved from Clay County, when I was but four years old, and located in Platte County, opposite and across the river from Fort Leavenworth. In this county he served as one of the early County Judges, the first Judge of Probate, and was the first Sheriff elected.
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When this county first opened for settlement, it was covered with a thick growth of hardwood timber. Truly a country calling for the best of manhood - a country in which man had literally to hew his way to comfort and success.
Roads had to be cut, water-, grist- and sawmills had to be erected, land fenced, timber cleared away so land might be cultivated, school-houses, farm-houses and churches built. But the spirit of independence which filled the hearts of so many hardy, healthy Kentuckians, Virginians and Tennesseeans quickly filled up the county with a race which knew not the word "failure." The soil was the finest in the land, and in less than six years Platte County ranked second to Saint Louis in wealth and population.
The first building erected in the neighborhood into which we had moved, after suitable housing had been provided for the families and stock, was a log schoolhouse. For in those days children were numerous. Means of running short, and not long, on children had not then been discovered.
The first school I attended was in a log cabin having a great, wide fireplace at one end. The furniture consisted of a long rough board table and three benches. These benches were of split logs, hewed and smoothed on the split side, with four pegs driven into the under side for legs. On them we sat, dressed in home-made jeans and tow shirts - with our bare feet swinging clear of the floor as we worked over our problems in the three R's.
And how we did our very best to get our lessons thoroughly! In those days the switch was a part of the teacher's paraphernalia and it was used to good advantage. A little "essense of hickory" would work wonders. It is my honest belief that we learned more, in a shorter period of time, in those little rustic school-houses
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under what is now termed an erroneous system of teaching than do the children of the present generation.
It was on one of my trips of a mile and a half, through the heavy forest, to school, that I had my first Indian experience. I had often listened to my mother relate the troubles the settlers in Kentucky had with the Indians, until all the Indians were the same to us. As I was walking along, barefooted, making the dust of the road squdge up in litle puff clouds between my toes, I happened to glance toward the top of the hill. There came the advance of two or three hundred Indians riding peacefully along. My little heart seemed at first to go up into my throat, but flight was useless and so I screwed my courage up to its highest pitch and marched boldly past them. Many times since that day I have met hostile Indians upon the warpath, but never have I been so badly frightened as upon that occasion.1
In those early days the children aided the parents in every way possible. It was a matter of necessity. There was but little money in circulation and times were very hard. With all that, happy home scenes are all well remembered.
From the time I was six years until I had reached ten, my time was well occupied, in going to school, helping around the farm, and each Saturday fastening a large sack of grain upon the back of a gentle horse and climbing aboard for an eight-mile ride to the water-mill.
Then it was good fun to help mother with the handloom in preparing to weave the cloth and other material for our clothing - or hauling lumber and firewood with
1 These Indians were doubtless traveling peacefully into the Indian Territory, the area in which in 1854 embraced 68,991 square miles west of Missouri. The Shawnees were the first Indians to journey into the new Indian territory to live on the lands given them by the U. S. government. They were peaceful enough then, as they had no anticipation of the injustice which was later meted out to them.
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a yoke of oxen. Once because we ran over and stirred up a nest of yellow jackets, the oxen ran away with me. The yellow jackets made it mighty warm for us in our ludicrous flight. I always believed my brother steered me that way purposely.
Years afterward that scene was vividly recalled when, in forming a line of battle under heavy fire, one company was completely routed for the time being by yellow jackets. This rendered the regiment useless for a few minutes because of the cheering of the "circus performances" by other comrades.
When I was ten years of age my father was elected Sheriff and we moved to the county seat. It was there I first saw a gunsmith making the famous Squirrel rifle - so named because it was used at that time for killing the squirrels which were very destructive to the crops. Nearly every Saturday parties of young men would congregate and soon the crack of their rifles would be heard all over the country. In these shooting matches since squirrels shot through the head would count in the scores, heads were always hit. Jim Denver, after whom the City of Denver was named, was one of the most expert shots.
James Whitcomb Riley's "The Ole Swimmin' Hole" could not compare with our Millpond, with its fine sandy bottom - and the sawlog rafts along its banks which were just the thing for our spring boards after we learned to swim.
There was much grief among us boys in the earlier stages of our attempts to master the water. The fear of our drowning so worked upon our mothers as to impel them to use the rod generously and lavishly, and to adopt plans for catching us "red-handed." For instance, my mother - and no boy ever had a better one - hit upon the plan of sewing up the collars and wristbands of our shirts instead of using buttons. We pro-
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cured the same kind of thread and after a swim sewed up each other's shirts, dried our hair, and appeared at home looking as innocent as lambs and passing inspection without question. But when mother accidentally heard we could swim the Missouri River, the embargo was removed and the buttons were restored. Whilst I have never been much of a believer in deception, I have always felt that we were justified in practicing it in that case.
One of the features of our school life was the Friday afternoon exercises. We always looked forward to this with much acclaim for it meant a cessation from hard study, an opportunity to forget the birch and an early dismissal for the day. These exercises would usually close with two of the larger pupils making choice alternately of the others until all were chosen. Then would come the spelling-match, the teacher pronouncing the words from Webster's old spelling book.
I was generally among the last, and often the last left standing. One occasion, when I was but a little tyke, all had gone down but a beautiful girl of fifteen years, whom I dearly loved, and myself. After rattling ahead for some time, amid subdued excitement, she missed a word. She looked at me appealingly. The teacher knew I could spell it. Duty, pity and my boyish love with an innate chivalrous feeling for the sex struggled for mastery. Duty triumphed. I spelled the word. She cried and I followed suit. That was my first heart-breaking experience.
In the country, I had, though small for my age, been rated well up in running, jumping and wrestling. But I had never seen men or boys fight. I was not in the county seat long before I was initiated in how it was done.
One Christmas vacation, being with a party of boys, I laid my knife down for a moment. Some one pocketed
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it. A much heavier boy than I was pointed out as the one having it. I accused him, he denied it, and I jumped on him and threw him but could not hold him. As ill-luck would have it I rolled into a little washout just fitting my body. Then he sailed in to give me a good thrashing. Although underneath, and helpless as far as turning him was concerned, I managed to keep him from hurting me very much until a young man came along and pulled him off with a jerk, saying he should be ashamed of himself to jump on such a little boy. The joke was, I did the jumping and when thus released was on my feet in an instant and made a spring for my adversary. But the young man caught me and held us both. He made the other boy go home and then released me.
I afterwards found that a young fellow, nearly grown, had taken the knife, and that was my first lesson in the methods of deceit, for the one who had pointed out the boy with whom I fought was the culprit.
Among the first notable events of my boyhood recollections was the congregating of a large party of men, women and children of our county together with other Missourians for a great overland journey to the Oregon country. Some of these were restless spirits who had failed to secure a tract of land or did not feel like clearing off the heavy timber for a farm. As Congress had passed an act assuring a liberal gift of land in the Oregon Territory for every new settler, these people loaded their worldly goods into wagons and started on the long journey across the Great American Desert and the Rocky Mountains, thus marking out the Oregon Trail up the Platte, North Platte and Sweetwater Rivers.
This trail had been plainly marked by other Missourians, hastening to Oregon to get good homes in 1844 and 8145, and by the first party of Mormons in 1848
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and 1850 and during the following years by the wonderful migration of gold seekers to California.
Many of those who left our county for the long journey to Oregon, and whose wagons broke down the sage brush in making that trail, are well remembered, particularly one man named Dougherty who carried with him the first charter for a Masonic Lodge ever taken across the Plains. That lodge still exists in Portland.
The descendants of many of these Missourians are located in the valley of the Willamette and are enjoying the fine homes provided them by their forefathers - homes won through hardship, toil and danger, by men who accomplished one of the greatest feats of pioneering in the history of our country.
While they were not the first white people to cross the Plains, it was their wagons that first passed over the dim trails of the trappers who had penetrated the Mountain wilderness.
When we consider that they went with all kinds of domestic animals, and household utensils sufficient to commence life in a new settlement in a wilderness two thousand miles from American civilization, that the country into which they were going was at that time but little known, that it was through a trackless desert beset by Indians and many other dangers all the way, that they had to open up farms and wait for crops to grow, that they had to erect houses and mills and make other necessary improvements, far from the base of supplies - then we must realize and admit the achievement to be truly wonderful.
It is true that they had the promise of the Government that at the end of their journey, they, and each member of their respective families, could enter upon and acquire title to a large body of land as a free gift. The promise was fulfilled - and was a just compensation
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for the bravery displayed by this hardy clan of pioneers, for the dangers and privations, for the many weary miles of slow-going travel. But it was not the promise alone that buoyed them up and held them fast to their course and their resolve. It was the spirit of indomitable will and the independent homing instinct which possessed them.
When the promise which was made to these people by the Government - and splendidly kept - is contrasted with the present attempted conservation of public lands suitable for agriculture, by which settlers are to be handicapped through rules, the latter become odious. Such reservations are certainly not in keeping with the reward clearly due every settler on the public domain - the reward which is his due for the hardships and privations he and his family have to undergo in the attempt to make two blades of grass grow where one existed before.
When in Portland, Oregon, a few years ago I visited the collection of relics in the old City Hall. There were ancient wooden churns, tin lanterns, spinning wheels, flax-hackles, antiquated firearms and many things which reminded me of the pioneer days of my boyhood in what was then the western border of our country. These old relics had formed a part of the equipment of those who established the Oregon Trail.
The Custodian said I was one in a thousand who was able to point out and name the flax-hackle, and was therefore entitled to be enrolled as an honorary member of the Pioneer Association. This fact alone shows the wonderful change from the primitive manner of living in the West fifty or sixty years ago and now.
Prior to the lcoation of the Oregon Trail, which I have just described, and between 1820 and 1830, if not earlier, the Chouteau, St. Vrain, the Bents and Sublettes, of St. Louis, Missouri, and others occupied the mountain
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streams from Canada to Mexico by locating trappers everywhere.
The love of adventure and the call of the wild caused Kit Carson and Jim Bridger, both Missourians, Jim Beckworth, Jim Baker and many others of lesser note, to locate in and along the Rocky Mountains, thereby becoming familiar with the whole country now comprised in the States of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah and other extreme Western States. This especially fitted them in after years to be guides for emigrant and military expeditiions. Carson and Bridger were specially famous for such work. Most of the old roads on the Plains and through the mountains were marked by one or the other of those two great men, and it was the Missourians' wagons that made such marking definite.
Many of those who now travel in luxurious Pullman cars to Oregon and California over the Union Pacific and the Oregon Short Line do not know, or even think, that they are traveling near the Oregon and California trails all the way, through a country made historic by the dangers, privations and hardships encountered by those brave pioneers. It was certainly these early emigrants who paved the way for others to follow - who laid permanently the foundation for our mountain commonwealth - who fell victim to the scalping knives of the Indians that contested the effort, for many years, to settle and reclaim the country from its wild state.
After the establishment of the settlements in Oregon, the United States Government proceeded to establish connecting links between that Territory and the Missouri River. This is did by having a battalion of volunteers Missourians erect Forts Kearney and Hall on the Oregon Trail, and to secure from Laramie and Bridger the fortified trading posts bearing their names, which
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were located at about equal distance between the other two thus forming a chain of military forts between Leavenworth and the settlements in Oregon.
There is good reason to believe that this was mainly accomplished through the efforts of Tom Benton, Missouri's great senator. It was his son-in-law, Fremont, sho, with an exploring expedition following the trail of the Sublettes and other trappers, demonstrated the feasibility of, not only a wagon-road, but a railroad as well across the supposed desert to the Pacific Ocean. in the early forties Benton, with prophetic eye advocated the exploration and settlement of the far West and was opposed by Webster and other public men, who ridiculed the idea that anything existed or ever would exist west of the Missouri River justifying any attempt at occupancy by white people.
It is said that Fremont, in his report to the War Department, mentioned the presence of a honey-bee on top of Fremont's Peak - now in Fremont County, Wyoming - when they ascended it. As it is not probable that one isolated bee came hundreds of miles to grace that occasion, it is believed that the Presidential Bee then and there entered his bonnet, and that the real insect was a case of imagination.1
1Strange to relate, the story of the "lonely bee" is substantiated by historians who can be relied upon. It is related that swarms of bees were found in Wyoming at a time and in places where it seemed impossible for them to live.
EARLY PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF PROMINENT MISSOURIANS WHO SETTLED IN OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. OLD MOUNTAINEERS
During the year 1843 a number of men from the western border of Missouri, afflicted with asthma and tuberculosis, accompanied the Sublettes to the Rocky Mountains. Many of them were wonderfully helped by the pure light air of the mountains - some were entirely cured - but some had suffered the ravages of disease too long and never returned to tell wonderful tales of the great country across the Plains.
There was one young lawyer who came back and had many stories to relate. One was of an encounter with a grizzly bear which he claimed to have met on a trail. He was unarmed, but fortunately he remembered having heard that a steady gaze in the eyes would cause wild animals to run away. He tried it successfully on the bear, and thus escaped.
Almost every third year a wiry little mountaineer would return to spend the winter and would stop for several days in our town. His name is now forgotten but the memory of his tales is not. His face was badly disfigured. This was caused by a fight with a bear afterward found dead a few feet from the plucky little fighter, who lay there unconscious for hours and afterward hovered between life and death for many days.
During one of his stops the town jokers, who had become tired of his oft repeated, miraculous stories of the lawyer, steered him up against the little fellow. The
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little mountaineer listened for some time to the lawyer's recitations of wonderful deeds and then remarked that he, too, had met with a number of thrilling experiences, the most remarkable one being a time when he was lost on the plains. After wandering about until both he and his horse had become exhausted and famished for water, he was several times deceived by mirage forests. Finally, in the distance he saw a forest which was not a mirage to which he wound his way. But upon reaching it he discovered it to be petrified, with petrified birds sitting on the limbs of petrified trees, singing petrified songs.
Without a word our lawyer friend got up and walked out. That was the last we ever heard of his mountain stories. They, too, had become petrified.
Among the more prominent men, who emigrated from our section of the country to Oregon in 1842 or 1843, were two who reached high up on the ladder of fame. Not satisfied with the country in the north they went to California, then a Mexican State, where they secured grants of land.
One of them, Peter S. Burnett, who had been a resident of our country, and Circuit Attorney of our Judicial Circuit, was the first civil Governor of California after it became United States territory. He followed General Riley, the Military Governor of that country after the Mexican War.
The other was Sutter, who went from the hamlet of what is now Kansas City. He acquired fame through the discovery of placer gold while excavating a ditch for his mill in California. This was the cause of the wonderful stampede of men to that country in 1849-1850 and the following years, thereby changing it in reality from a Mexican to an American country.
The far-reaching effect of Sutter's discovery can be readily seen when it is remembered that the influx of
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white men into California was immediately followed by the establishment of the Pony-express, the Overland Stage Line and finally by the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, a combination of fast succeeding events which rapidly changed the face of nature, of political activities and of religious, social, financial, business and educational conditions from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean.
Some of the men who were in the van in all this rapid change became men of national reputation - others died with their boots on - others weakened owing to the strenuous life and returned to more peaceful conditions in States east of the Missouri River - while others of the real great empire builders, although often hampered by the Government, especially in Wyoming, went quietly about the business of settling the country.
These men and their descendants have a right to be proud of their achievements. The people who have been the beneficiaries of their labors, sacrifices, dangers, hardships and privations should not forget to honor them for the great work they have accomplished. It is said, however, that republics are ungrateful, and experience teaches that many people are forgetful.
Among the many young men who went from our town in the first rush to the gold fields of California was a young lawyer, the editor of our town newspaper, namely, James W. Denver, generally known as "Jim" Denver. Denver had enlisted and commanded a company of infantry from our country in the Mexican War, going with General Scott from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico, then being attached to General Riley's Brigade and participating in all the battles of that campaign.
On his trip to the gold fields of California, whenever opportunity afforded, he would send back letters to friends in our town, describing items of interest along
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the route. Descriptions of Court House and Chimney Rocks near the present Wyoming and Nebraska line, Independence Rock, Forts Laramie and Bridger, and Salt Lake were among them. In describing the latter, he truthfully stated the water was so salty that a person could not sink in it.
When his old friends read that, many of them shook their heads and all agreed that some of his other stories appeared fishy but the last one was too salty for belief. One of them, who seemed to be more seriously effected than the rest, said, "What could have happened to Jim Denver in so short a time? When he left here his word was good and now he has turned out to be a famous liar - for who would believe that story? It is too bad that Jim's reputation for truth and veracity is forever ruined."
Upon the arrival of Denver in California, Governor Burnett made him a Commissioner and he was sent with a wagon loaded with provisions to relieve a stranded train of emigrants on the Humboldt desert. They had lost their stock and were nearly starved. Denver reached them in the nick of time, and helped them into California. At that time political feeling between Whigs and Democrats often reached the fighting and boiling points. Upon his return from the relief expedition he was attacked in the Whig paper by one of its editors or writers. He made a reply in the same spirit, the result being that he was challenged to fight a duel. This he honorably tried to avoid but could not. Then he chose the dead center Squirrel rifle for weapons - distance, sixty paces.
Denver was a large, fine looking, young man overburdened with fighting sand. It is related that as soon as the parties were on the ground, Denver tried to settle the matter. His efforts were unavailing. At the command "Fire" Denver fired into the air. His opponent missed
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him and demanded another shot. Denver, seeing that the other man would continue to demand another shot until he had scored a hit, said he would not throw another bullet away. The other man was killed on the second shot, Denver remaining untouched.
Later, Denver was elected to Congress from California. Next, he was appointed Governor of Kansas during the latter days of its Territorial existence. At this time Kansas extended to the summit of the Rocky Mountains, and all of what is now Colorado east of the summit was known as Arapahoe County, with Kansas designated as "unorganized."
Therefore when the original townsite of the present city of Denver was being staked the question of a name was canvassed. The suggestion was made to name it "Denver," in honor of the Governor of Kansas, and it was so ordered. When the war between the States broke out, Denver was made a Brigadier General, but, as I now recall, he was stationed in the North and never went to the front. As a man of national reputation, Jim Denver is an example of what a combination of circumstances will often do in turning the tide of a man's affairs and changing his life's work. In his case, the fact of his having been defeated for Judge of Probate in our county by my father, on the eve of the discovery of gold in California, was the real cause of his being among the first to depart for that new Eldorado, never to renew his citizenship anywhere in Missouri.
F. X. Aubrey was another Missourian who became famous. His first fame was based upon a remarkable horse-back ride made between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Independence, Missouri - a distance of eight hundred miles - in five days and thirteen hours. For speed and endurance this feat has probably never been equaled in this or any other country. Later one of the finest steamboats on the Missouri River was named in his honor
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Aubrey was killed in Santa Fe by Captain Weightman, who commanded the Battery under Doniphan at the Battle of Sacramento in the Mexican War. Weightman was killed in the Battle of Wilson's Creek during the Civil War while acting as Chief of Artillery under General Price.
Among the many stories in which Jim Bridger was a character, there are two or three worth relating herein.
During one of his early trips to his home near Independence, Missouri, he gave the editor of the paper at that place a description of the country now comprised in the Yellowstone National Park. He described in detail Yellowstone Lake, the geysers, Obsidian Hill and all the other marvels of that wonderland. The editor wrote it up, intending to publish it, but happened to read it to several of his old farmer friends. They ridiculed the idea, asserting that he was an easy victim of Jim's imagination, that the whole story was simply one of his big lies and that the editor would be the laughing stock of the country round if he published it. He listened to their advice and thus lost one of the biggest "scoops" falling to the lot of a newspaper man.
When the Surveyor General of Montana and his party visited the Park in 1877 and published the seemingly miraculous account of the geysers, the Independence editor pulled the old Bridger story of thirty-five or forty years priority from a pigeon-hole and found it was nearly a duplicate of the published account. Thus, after many years, was Jim's veracity as a story teller vindicated.
Obsidian Hill was, no doubt, the foundation of Bridger's glass mountain story. In this one he claimed that on one of his trips he camped in a section he had never seen before. The next morning, being out of meat for breakfast, he approached within easy range of a band of antelope and shot at a fine buck. He was very much surprised when they kept right on feeding. So care-
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fully loading his gun, he fired again, with the same result. Then he walked towards them - and ran right up against a glass mountain, so pure and clear that he could see the antelope feeding on the other side. Upon investigation he found it was three miles through that glassy crystal mountain.
On another occasion nearly all his comrades complained that the cooking and other camp utensils were becoming leaky. Bridger said he knew where there were great chunks of copper in a creek which would be the very thing for mending everything, and that he would bring some in. He brought them in, but for some reason the mending was put off and finally the chunks were thrown out behind the stage station. Some time afterwards they were discovered by a passenger on the coach who declared them to be gold nuggets! Such a yarn is on a par with the California story of the man who found a nugget so large that he could not lift it out of the hole and carry it away. He was loath to leave it for fear others would find it before his return, so he just sat down on it and starved to death.
Such stories account for stampedes to reported new diggings which often had as much foundation in fact as Jim's chunks of copper and the California nugget. Their widespread publicity kept the gold excitement of those days at fever heat, and the ever alluring hope of quick riches uppermost in the minds of the pioneer gold hunters and others. For the fever was contagious and spread like wild-fire.
About the last of Bridger's attempted road making for civilian and not for military expeditions was in 1863 or 1864, when he and Bozeman competed for new trails from Fort Laramie into Montana. The latter, with a large number of people and many wagons made the trail north to Powder River, thence along the east base of the Big Horn Mountains to and up the Yellowstone River
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and on to the town of Bozeman, which placed them in touch with the scattered settlements and mines of the rest of Montana.
On this trail were afterward located Forts Reno, Phil Kearney and C. F. Smith. On account of the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians, whose hearts and medicine were both bad at that time and for many years after, that route was impracticable, or nearly so, for emigrants. It was virtually abandoned until after the Indian difficulties were settled by placing Sitting Bull and all the Indians with him on a reservation.
Bridger, with his large party of emigrants, left the Oregon Trail near where Casper is located, moved through the Big Horn Mountains northeast of the present town of Shoshone and a few miles east of the Hot Springs where Thermopolis now is, crossing the Big Horn River not far from the present town of Basin. He passed through the center of the Big Horn Basin and not far from the present site of Cody, finally winding up in the town of Bozeman, very soon after the man for whom it was named had reached it with his party.
Whilst his trail was much the safest, and probably somewhat shorter, it never was used to any extent. The removal of the Overland Stage line from the Oregon Trail to the road up the South Platte to Denver and thence west over a new route, marked out by Bridger years before, had turned the tide of emigration to the west and northwest, because of additional factors of safety. So, Bridger's and Bozeman's attempt to divert the travel away from the route through Denver was a failure.
MISSOURIANS IN THE MEXICAN WAR AND INCIDENTS OF 1846
When the call for volunteers for the Mexican War of 1846 reached Missouri a regiment of cavalry was quickly raised and mustered in at Fort Leavenworth. A brilliant Clay County lawyer, A. W. Doniphan, was named as its Colonel. The mustering in of the second Cavalry regiment with Sterling Price as Colonel immediately followed, together with a battalion of cavalry consisting of four companies under Major Willock.
Our county furnished one of the four companies, consisting of one hundred and ten men, under Captain Jesse Morin. Of this company there were twenty-eight who fell in action and never returned to us. In those days it was a common expression that "a Missiourian would walk two miles for a horse to ride a mile."e; In many cases this was undoubtedly true and in some measure accounts for the speedy mustering in of the Cavalry mentioned. Companies of Artillery and Infantry were rapidly mustered in, soon filling Missouri's quota of troops for the war.
It is doubtful if any soldiers of like number ever accomplished as much in the way of marching and fighting as Doniphan's Regiment. It marched eight hundred miles, across the then so-called Great American Desert, and captured Santa Fe; thereby placing New Mexico under the United States flag, where it has ever since remained.
Upon arrival of Price's regiment, Colonel Doniphan
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was ordered to move his troops south along the Rio Grande and form a junction with General Wool in Chihuahua. The plan was to capture and hold the estates of Chihuahua and Sonora - both of which have again come prominently into the limelight during the recent revolutionary fighting in Mexico. Before reaching El Paso the regiment was attacked by a large force of Mexican Lancers, who were quickly whipped, in what was afterward named the Battle of Brazito.
At El Paso a priest tried to dissuade the Colonel from crossing the river, truthfully representing that twenty miles north of Chihuahua breastworks had been constructed across the only road. This breastwork was defended, he said, by twenty-five hundred Mexican soldiers and twenty pieces of artillery. The warning of the priest was of no avail, for the gallant Colonel with six hundred men crossed the river and resumed the march toward Chihuahua.
Arriving at a point outside of the range of the Mexican artillery, the baggage and merchant train of Sam Owens, of Independence, Missouri, an old Santa Fe and Chihuahua trader, were parked. Captain Weightman with his battery of six-pounders was ordered to take a position. This he did, on the run and in a cloud of dust, until he was within three hundred yards of the enemy. With "grape and canister," in a very few minutes he created a panic which turned into a rout. Then that "Rough, Ready and Ragged Regiment" charged and captured the works, the artillery and several hundred Mexicans. This was known as the Battle of Sacramento. One "twelve-pounder" captured there was one of the guns in Bledsoe's Confederate Battery during the Civil War. The Mexican loss in killed and wounded in that battle was heavy. The regiment lost but few men. Owens, although not a soldier, led the charge, because he was better mounted. He was one of the first to be killed.
Page 21
Chihuahua was captured and held without opposition for some time until thirty picked men scouted through the heart of Old Mexico to General Taylor at Buena Vista. Upon the return of the scouting expedition the regiment marched to that famous battle ground, thence to the Gulf of Mexico and back home again.
To get some idea of this achievement - an idea that will serve to show its immensity - the reader should trace the route of the regiment from Fort Leavenworth back to its starting point. This is but a condensed account - with many details not enumerated - gathered from several members of the regiment after their return. Colonel John T. Hughes, Regimental Adjutant, has also contributed to the historical records of the event.
One of the survivors, in describing the battery going into action, said it looked to him as though guns and all were going over the works before commencing business. No doubt this impression and the apparently headlong flight of the battery toward the enemies' works had much to do with the creation of the panic among the Mexicans.
Another survivor told the tale of his being one of the first to get into a church in Chihuahua, in which were a number of small, pure gold images and two large ones. He and a comrade seized the larger one but it fell to the floor, and before they could escape with it the Provost Guard captured them. In the meantime, the others had escaped with the tall image. In telling this story, he always closed with the words, "It is bad policy to be a human hog," which is very true and often exemplified.
While this regiment was making history for our country, Price was busy with Indian Marauders and unruly Mexicans in New Mexico. These marauding bands finally started an insurrection by assassinating Governor Bent - of the fur trading Bent family of St. Louis, Missouri - as well as other Americans; and also by a general
Page 22
uprising and concentration of a large armed force between Santa Fe and Taos. This concentration Price quickly attacked and routed at Canyada. They were finally driven into Taos, where they made use of the adobe convent or church and other adobe buildings, from which they kept up an incessant fire through small port holes. Finally Price placed a squirrel-hunter opposite each hole, with instructions that he was to fire a bullet into that hole every time it was darkened by a human shadow.
Finally the artillery made a sufficient breach and the charge was hastened through a bullet striking the Colonel in the foot as he rode to and fro directing affairs. The convent was taken and the survivors surrendered. After the surrender, three or four dead Mexicans were found lying opposite each port hole, all shot through the head.
It became evident after the surrender that many of the prisoners had knowledge of the identity of the ringleaders and instigators of the insurrection and of the turbulent lawlessness which had over-run that portion of the country. A general court-martial was convened, which, after full investigation, found twenty-eight Mexicans and Indians guilty and they hung on a long pole. Thereafter peace and quiet was the rule.
This account, shorn of many details, was obtained first hand from a relative who was Sergeant Major of Willock's Battalion. Many of the survivors, of this battalion, and of the regiment, became famous soldiers during the Civil War - nearly all of them serving in the Confederate Army.
It was my most earnest desire to go with the battalion of Colonel Denver as a drummer boy. This my father vetoed on the ground that he was raising a company and I could go with him. However, this company never materialized, for when the number was completed
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and ready for mustering in, orders came not to accept any more volunteers from Missouri, as the State had furnished more than its quota of troops. Thus, for the time being, my ambition to become a soldier was suppressed.
The close proximity of Fort Leavenworth was of financial benefit to the farmers and traders of our County at all times, most especially during that war. Ben Holladay, of our County, reaped a harvest by furnishing the Government with cattle, horses and mules. These contracts laid the foundation for his ownership and operation of the famous Overland Stage line from Atchison, Kansas, to San Francisco, California, during the 60's - a more particular account of which will appear under another heading.
Nearly all of the Missouri Volunteers marched through our town to be mustered in, and most of them came through there when they returned. They furnished us boys in the town many details, which were not forgotten in after years when we became soldiers in the Civil War. We were captivated with the new dark blue and in some cases gray uniforms they wore, nearly all of which were hurriedly made by the hands of the mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts of men so proudly wearing them.
I have heard it claimed by members of the Doniphan Regiment that they all furnished their own horses, uniforms and most of their own camp equipment, for which the Government never allowed them anything, nor reimbursed them for transportation from Vera Cruz to their homes. Such the reward of patriotism seldom - if ever - equaled! I believe that the same claims may be applied to the Price Regiment and the Willock Battalion, who generally furnished in like manner their own horses, uniforms and camp equipage, and only in recent years have the survivors drawn a pension.
One of our farmers was a successful horse trader. A
Page 24
regular Army Officer, who remained during the Mexican War at the Fort, fancied one of his horses and offered a big price for him and a mate of the same size, color and gait. Our trader had such a horse at home, except he had white hind feet, which he dyed black - being the color to match. The officer paid him a fancy price therefor and he was not long in getting across the river and home; but it was a year before he dared to visit the Fort, as the dye came off the first time the horse was taken to the river to water.
The same farmer was an enthusiastic Whig, and with others of the faithful of our county, chartered a steamboat to take them to a great Whig convention in Jefferson City, the Capitol of the State. In those days oratory and whiskey flowed in about equal measure at such political gatherings. Our friend, having a strong inclination in both directions, was soon tuned up to the proper gait to loosen his tongue and was - through the aid of a few jokers - placed on the head of a whiskey barrel where he made one of the most notable speeches ever heard at a political meeting. It was a little bit of everything under the sun, outside of any direct political point. Cheers were nearly incessant, which urged him to greater efforts and being in the open air, his voice finally fell to a whisper. He was lifted to the shoulders of a burly negro and in that position was carried around through the great gathering of excited and enthusiastic men and women. His voice failed entirely, but he had thus created more excitement than all the real spell-binders who had congregated on that occasion.
Very soon after this instance, he became a Whig candidate for the legislature in our County. In one of his oratorical efforts, held in the southern part of the County, he declared himself to be in favor of a law creating common schools. A man in the audience asked him to define what kind of a common school he favored.
Page 25
For a wonder and as quick as though he had it all planned beforehand, he replied by saying, "My friend, I am in favor of just such common schools as your father and mine failed to send us to." He never made a chance to show what he could do in the Legislature for he was badly defeated.
A FEW PRACTICAL JOKERS OF MY BOYHOOD
During my boyhood one of the best men and citizens whom I ever knew kept a hotel in our town. He was known far and wide as General Dicky Gaines. He was kind and often too good hearted. There was also another citizen, an impecunious lawyer, known as the Colonel, in some respects a brilliant man, who enjoyed a joke on himself as well as those he perpetrated on others. He was a guest at the hotel until his bill became quite large. After frequent reminders and finally threats to shut him out, he managed to square the account; and while our old friend, Gaines, was feeling good over getting the money, the lawyer proposed that for all meals he ate he was to be charged a certain amount, but when absent from any meal he should be credited at the same rate. An agreement was accordingly drawn and signed. In due course of time one bill after another was presented to the Colonel, until he knew the limit was about reached. He then sprung a set-off under the agreement, and as he had been absent at Court and elsewhere more than half the time, the General appeared to be in his debt. On that basis they settled, the General paying the balance, but the Colonel ceased to dine at that hotel. A year or two afterwards, the Colonel eloped with and married an heiress, then squared himself with the General by paying what he honestly owed and with a few congenial friends they celebrated the joke.
There was another old joker in our town. He kept
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the other hotel, but made his home on a farm near "the narrows," between our Platte and the Missouri River. His nearest neighbor was an Irishman, who also dearly loved to joke. They were great friends but were victims of many jokes, perpetrated by each other.
The old farmer, in tramping around through the timber, saw the Irishman's big black dog crawl into a hollow log. After the dog disappeared within, he stopped up both ends. Some time previously, this dog had chewed one of his legs, but the Irishman at that time refused to kill the beast. He went to his Hibernian friend and told him he had trapped a big black wolf in the log and induced him to bring his axe, so they could get him. The joker then secured a long pole, which he pushed into the log, telling the Irishman - who stood at the other end, with axe upraised - to make sure work of it. This he did as soon as the dog's head emerged from the hole. Then, seeing what he had done, he fiercely turned upon the man who had induced him to kill his favorite dog, but by that time the joking partner was running at top speed through the woods for home - which he reached safely. This caused a break in their friendship for a while, but the old relations were soon renewed.
In the course of time, the old joker discovered a cotton-wood tree, that had been cut down years before and had fallen out over the river, which at that point was very deep and had a perpendicular bank about twenty feet high. The tree, or log, was nearly equally balanced over the edge of the bank and he conceived the idea of steering his Irish friend around to look at it. In this he succeeded.
Knowing him to be a good swimmer, he wagered him five dollars that he could not walk out to the end of the log over the water and return without its tipping up. The Irishman, having determined that much of the
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greater part of the log was on the bank, walked boldly out and when he was near the end of the log, the joker grasped the butt and by a powerful effort lifted it sufficiently to cause it to fall into the river, carrying the Irishman with it. He waited long enough to see his friend come up and strike for the shore, then he made a bee line for home on the run.
This old joker was always on the lookout for easy marks and as his new hotel in the city had just been completed, the visitors offered him a generous supply. One morning, during a very cold and snowy winter, there came into the barroom a man whose jowl was big with toothache. This man was obsessed with the idea that it was necessary for him to have an eye-opener every morning, but on this particular morning he was so racked with the pain of the toothache that he was looking instead for an efficacious remedy. The hotel proprietor informed him that he had a fine remedy for toothache and if he would come around on horseback after breakfast and go with him to the country, he would see that he was thoroughly cured.
Upon their arrival in the woods, where the old joker had been hauling wood, they dismounted. Procuring an auger, and also making a peg, he made his victim - who had very long hair - stand up against the tree. Boring a hole in the tree, about five feet from the ground, he gathered up a lock of the hair of his friend and shoved it into the hole, then drove the peg in hard and fast - mounted his horse and galloped away for town.
The victim raged and swore at such a rate that he forgot all about the toothache and finally whipping out his knife, cut himself loose (thereby greatly damaging the appearance of his flowing locks) mounted his horse, with dire threats of vengeance, and went in pursuit of the old joker, but without success.
After having nursed his wrath for several days,
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mutual friends interceded, convinced him that the hair would grow again, that the remedy had cured him, and that it was all a joke anyhow. This intercession, coupled with hankering after those fine morning eye-openers which his friend knew so well how to concoct, inspired within him the spirit of forgiveness and soon the old friendly relations were resumed.
In the early days of the settlement of this country it sometimes happened that two men had filed claims on the same one hundred and sixty acres, in which event the man who settled down first would get the claim, the other generally moving away to an adjoining county, where he could select another place. But there were two men so situated, who would not agree to this customary arrangement. They were named Ben Bowlin and William Bayne, and were both giants in strength and stature. When it was discovered that they had settled upon the same quarter section, they agree to a rough and tumble fight to decide which should have the land.
Quite a crowd of brawny relatives and friends of both parties gathered to see that fair play was maintained. Among the great fistic battles in the early days of the County, there probably was never such a fight as that turned to be. Finally Bayne was victor, and Bowlin moved to an adjoining county and secured a fine farm.
This memory of Bayne recalls to mind an incident whereby he worked for the moral regeneration of one of the best farmers of the community.
Bayne became a saloonkeeper and a professional gambler in our town. In the back room of his saloon four rich old farmers of the neighborhood gathered at least once a week and played poker all night. They could not resist the lure of the game and always it was daylight before they could be seen riding back to their respective homes. One of these men was a farmer when
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Bayne generally respected and liked as a friend, but who was nearly always the loser in one of these all-night sessions. Bayne realized that his friend could not continue to stand these losses, without incurring bankruptcy and tried very hard to persuade him to give up the play.
After trying persuasion without effect he conceived and executed a plan to break him of the habit. He sent to the next county for Pompey Smash and three other professionals with whom he made an arrangement to fleece his friend. He was to sit by the latter and give his hand away during the game, with the understanding that all of the money won was to be turned over to Bayne after the session. They fleeced the farmer out of eight hundred dollars, which Bayne took possession of after his friend's departure. He then quietly informed a man, whom he knew would lose no time in telling the farmer how the job had been framed, but made no mention of the money held in reserve. This information had the expected effect, for the farmer suddenly appeared at the saloon with blood in his eyes and heaped all kinds of abuse on Bayne.
Bayne calmly listened to the tirade for some time and then quietly asked if it were not possible that there might be another side to the story, saying, "Friend of mine, although you are an easy mark, and the greatest fool about poker I have ever known, come with me into the back room and I will convince you that swift decisions should not always be made on hearing but one side of the story."
In the privacy of the back room, he called his farmer friend's attention to the fact that he had one of the nicest families in the county, with one or two daughters verging on womanhood; drew a picture of his handicapping them through his drinking, gambling and wasting his sustenance, winding up his lecture with an appeal for a promise or pledge to quit it all and turn over
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a new leaf. Finally the pledge was given by the farmer and because Bayne knew that his pledge would be respected, he opened his safe and handed him back his eight hundred dollars, saying it was part of the other side of the question.
The reformation was complete and the pledge strictly adhered to by the man who had been saved financially, morally and socially. Bayne's two boys and I were school-mates and when he would go away on his gambling trips, he would ask me to stay with them at night. When he started to California - among the first - in 1849, he advised me never to play cards for money or anything else and I never have.
He was only absent a few months - came home a great winner, prepared a fine outfit of two or three wagons and, with his family returned to California in 1850. There he quit gambling entirely, became a farmer and church member and it was said that he ultimately became a preacher.
One of the early residents - who was said to be the homeliest man in the county - was known as "Ugly Bill Lewis," so named to distinguish him from a rather handsome man of the same name, known as Billy Lewis. &qhot;Ugly Bill" conceiving the idea that he wanted to see some of the outside world, procured passage on a steamboat to St. Louis. On the boat he noticed a very large bell, which was rung for some time when the boat approached a town where a stop was to be made.
As he had never had an opportunity of ringing such a bell, he begged the captain to allow him to do so, offering to pay five dollars for the pleasure and privilege. This, the captain as a joke accepted. Bill shed his coat and kept the bell in such motion that it attracted the people on both sides of the river as the boat proceeded on its way. It was related that many along the river, especially the negroes, fled to the brush and timber, be-
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lieving that the continued tolling of the bell was a warning that cholera had broken out on board and would overtake them if they did not hide. What had seemed to be a joke to the captain and the passengers soon became a great nuisance and the captain protested with "Ugly Bill,&qhot; but he protested in vain; he tried soft talk and coaxing, without effect. Bill informed him that he was simply ringing the bell in accordance with their agreement and insisted that the agreement be maintained.
Louder and louder grew the protests from the passengers until the captain agreed to return to Bill his five dollars, his fare to St. Louis, and return home on the boat without additional charge. With much reluctance %quot;Ugly Bill" accepted this proposition, to the great relief of all on the boat, not excepting the captain, who never heard the last of the yarn.
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF THE MORMONS, THE FIRST WAR WITH THE BRULE SIOUX INDIANS
About the time of my birth, a great many - if not all - of the Mormon faith, congregated and took up residence in the several counties adjoining Price. Their principal settlement was in Jackson County, where they contemplated building their great central temple in Independence, which is now the county seat, situated on the out-skirts of Kansas City.
In Independence they erected a church building in which they have continued to worship with little or no intermission up to the present time. Because this was the first church building erected, it is generally believed that the heads of the church are committed, through Revelations, to return and erect their great temple at that point, thus making that location, which is within a few miles of the geographical center of our country, the Mecca of the faithful of the Mormon Church. The ground upon which this temple is to be erected is still held in readiness for the proposed building. The Mormons, who make Independence their center are not nor have ever been polygamists.
It was not long before disputes leading to disagreements with their Gentile neighbors in that county occurred, and during the cold winter, many of them were driven across the Missouri River. Many of the farmers in our county, realizing their suffering condition, allowed them the use of their out-buildings until they could find better homes.
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To one of the refuge Mormon women, my fate as a new born infant was confided, because my mother was too ill to care for me. The name of that good woman who cared for me I do not remember, but her kind and loving actions have not and never will be forgotten.
The next move of the Prophet, Joe Smith, and many of his followers, was to Caldwell County, Missouri, where the erection of a temple was commenced. Great quantities of fine limestone were accumulated, some of which are there to this day. But very soon strife with neighbors occurred and some one shot the Governor of the State. The head of the church was accused of this act and it was seized upon as a cause for calling out the militia and the expulsion of the Latter Day Saints and Mormons from the State.
Nearly all of the Mormons left Caldwell County, Missouri, and located at or near Nauvoo, Illinois, where a temple was erected. The erection of this temple was soon followed by the tragedy at the jail in Carthage, in which Joe Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed, and in the expulsion of his followers from that State. The Mormons then moved to Kanesville, another point on the Missouri River, in Iowa.
About that time the war with Mexico occurred and the Government being aware of the destitute condition of the Mormons, rendered them aid and mustered in what was known as "The Mormon Battalion" for service in California. This Mormon Battalion was mustered out after the expiration of the Mexican War, as I now recall, and its members returned from California to Utah, whence the Mormons remaining in Missouri had meanwhile preceded them. There they were re-united with their families and friends.
The first parties of Mormons who crossed the plains, tarried for a while near where the town of Glenrock, Wyoming is now located; with the evident intention of
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making that their initial settlement, far removed from civilation, as a base for other settlements to be projected therefrom. Evidence of this intention is shown by the numerous remains, which may be seen there to the present day. It is related that a party was sent west from that point over the Oregon trail and, penetrating the valley of Salt Lake, decided upon that as the proper location for their initial settlement.
These Mormon pioneers with their families worked their way to the promised land over a new and rough road of twelve hundred miles, some in wagons and carts, while others used hand carts and wheel-barrows. From 1847 to 1868, the latter year being the year of the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad, great numbers of Mormons, mainly from Europe, made up trains at the Missouri River, composed of similar vehicles and journeyed to Utah. In the early days, I have seen many of these trains and remember passing through one corralled near Fort Leavenworth in 1854, in which cholera had broken out, resulting in the loss of many lives. I saw two or three bodies laid out on wagon tongues when we drove through.
The first massacre of soldiers on the plains by Indians in what is now Wyoming, was caused by young Brule Sioux warriors killing a Mormon's cow near Fort Laramie, where there was a large encampment of that tribe. In this relation, I may mention that in the soil of Wyoming there are buried many more men, women and children who were killed by the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians than in all the other mountain States combined.
Lieutenant Grattan, a new arrival from West Point, was ordered out with twenty-five or thirty men to arrest the three young warriors who had killed the cow. At the encampment they found a long line of warriors drawn up. The chief claimed he could not deliver the
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guilty parties, because they had left the camp. Lieutenant Grattan gave him fifteen minutes to deliver them or be fired upon by the soldiers.
MY FIRST OFFICE AND THE SETTLEMENT OF KANSAS
The day I reached the age of seventeen years, I was appointed Deputy Clerk for the Circuit Court and Deputy Recorder of Peace for Platte County, Missouri. In this capacity I served for more than two years or until Kansas was made a territory in 1854.
During the time of tenure of this office, I devoted every spare moment to the reading of law and pursuing other studies generally. This study, coupled with the advantages which I secured in the office, enabled me to become very well educated in mathematics and other English branches without continuing to attend school. Being in this office also brought me in close contact with many attorneys and politicians, a number of whom were of national reputation. Others became famous in after years as soldiers and statesmen.
Early in 1854, what is known in the history of the country as The Kansas-Nebraska Act, passed Congress. At that time Arkansas, Missouri and Iowa were the border states, hence the word "border ruffians" as applied to Missourians during the Kansas struggles which were precipitated immediately after the settlement of Kansas began.1
For a long time prior to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Government had been removing
1The wild and vicious fight growing out of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise after years of passionate quarreling and murderous action resulted in the birth of Kansas and later the terrible Civil War.
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Indian tribes from the States east of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and allotting them reservations west of the Missouri and Arkansas, south of Kansas City. None of these reservations extended further west than sixty miles of the boundaries mentioned, all beyond being then considered and called the "Great American Desert."
The Government had treated with some of the tribes of Indians for the whole of their reservation, with others for a portion only, the Indians retaining part and remaining therein. After these settlements were negotiated, what is now Kansas, Nebraska and a part of Colorado and Wyoming was opened for settlement to the whites.
When it became evident that the Kansas-Nebraska Act would become a law, I accompanied my father on a trip into Kansas, where we visited the homestead of Louis Pappan. Pappan, who was married to a half-breed Kaw or Kansas Indian woman, was the owner of a section of land in what is now North Topeka and he operated a ferry on the road from Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fe, at the crossing of the Kaw River at his place.1
1A. C. Dodge of Iowa offered a bill for the organization of Nebraska, accompanied by an elaborate disquisition upon the status of slavery in the public domain. This was considered by the Senate in January under the vigilant eye of Stephen A. Douglas. By the terms of this adjustment Missouri came into the Union as a slave state, except north of parallel 36o30'. Thus it was that Judge Kuykendall and his family - people of brilliant minds and keen observation of the national questions so volcanic at that time, became fairly saturated with patriotism and the spirit of state pride.
This bit of history is told merely to show the early influences of his life and the passions of the hour and to explain a little more fully the exact mental condition of the country in which he lived. It must be borne in mind that the beginning of his
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He had one child, a daughter then eighteen years of age, who was attending school at the Pottawatomie Mission, a few miles away. Upon our arrival he sent for her and offered to sign for the land, his cattle, horses and surrey if I would marry her. She was a good girl with a fair education and I was a boy then with no matrimonial intentions and not at all inclined, any more than I am at the present time, to inter-marriage between people of well defined and different races. So I regretfully declined the proposition and two or three years afterwards the young lady married a man named Curtis, father of Senator Curtis of Kansas.
Early in August, 1854, immediately after my father and I had returned from this excursion, our entire family - consisting of my father, mother, younger brother and myself moved into Kansas and settled four miles east of Topeka, on the north bank of the Kaw or Kansas River.
I was then about nineteen years of age and there was my first experience in hard manual labor. Houses, barns and other out-houses had to be erected before winter, and rails had to be split to fence in the farm. There was not a saw or grist mill within sixty miles and not a neighbor within twenty miles. All supplies had to be hauled from the Missouri River.
Realizing if all this was to be accomplished, with no one to perform it save my younger brother, then about sixteen years old, and myself, all idea of hunting the shady side of trees and logs had to be abandoned, we proceeded to map out the work. I chopped the logs, and my brother hauled them, with some assistance from
eventful manhood - that is in 1854, the territories of Kansas and Nebraska were created and human slavery was legalized north of latitude 36o30' opening to that institution 500,000 square miles east of the Rocky Mountains which had previously been shielded by the compromise of 1820.
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father. We hewed enough for a large two story house, which we erected and completed in time for winter. The barn and other out-houses we built out of round black jack logs. During the winter we split and hauled the rails for fencing the farm, becoming expert rail splitters before the spring.
During the two years which we spent developing this homestead, my experiences with the actual hardships of life first became apparent to myself. As I say, I had become an expert in breaking prairie and general farm work, as well as with the ax. These duties, together with taking part in the Kansas troubles with the militiamen, and acting as the first county clerk of Calhoun, now Jackson County, kept me very well occupied. I was also Deputy Clerk of the District Court of that county, as can be determined by old records at Holton.
As we had to haul our supplies about seventy miles, we contemplated the establishment of a ferry across the river, the second spring following the occupation of our place. I was sent to Parkville, Missouri, near Kansas City, to get a flat or ferry boat. This I secured and loaded it too heavily with lumber and other supplies and came near being wrecked on a sand bar before entering the mouth of the Kaw River at Kansas City.
After two days of towing and pulling up that river, I found a bar over which it was impossible to force the boat and owing to that factor and the cold November weather, I returned to Wyandotte and induced a Delaware Indian to let me have teams to haul the supplies home. Thus ended my first adventure as Captain of a boat. I succeeded better with the Indian wagons and the cattle.
In the spring of 1855 we broke the sod and put in cultivation forty acres of land. During this year the first Legislature met and passed the first code of laws
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and provided for the organization of Counties. At the age of twenty, I was made County Clerk of Calhoun County and all the first records in that office were opened by me.
At the close of this year it became evident that a collision was imminent between the Pro-slavery and the Free State men in that territory. The latter had positively refused to participate in the election of members to the Legislature when the laws were promulgated and the machinery of the territorial and the County Government thereunder, were put in motion. Hundreds of rifles and much ammunition was shipped from New York, and the New England States, being marked "Teachers Bibles," through which we of the pro-slavery persuasion were to be converted.1
After some delay and with nothing save Squatter law in effect, the Governor, A. H. Reeder, arrived and with him came a number of office seekers and land and townsite speculators. 2 In the absence of any laws it was expected the Governor would immediately call an election for members of the Legislature. For several months he was too busy in town-site and other speculations and in political maneuvers to do so and during this time Squatter Law had full play. Under the leadership of ex-Governor Robinson, Jim Lane, "Old Pomeroy" and a few others, a rough Legislature and government was set up, as against the legal one that had been established in accordance with the organic acts of the territory.
1Eli Thayer organized a $5,000,000 company to assist in settling Kansas. The New York Tribune spent millions in Emigrant Aid Societies.
2By means of Squatter Sovereignty, Kansas could have slavery or not as she pleased. Therefore it is easy to see that this borderland in which the Judge spent his young manhood was of vital importance. It was the battlefield on which the North and South started to fight each for its own principles.
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Then the real trouble began. Counties were legally organized, but officials were handicapped in many ways, for it early developed that a part of the population was composed of obstructioners who refused to participate in elections or aid in enforcing the laws, and claimed to hold allegiance to the rough Government.1
This rough Government, which had never had a legal leg to stand upon, defied the regularly constituted territorial and United States authorities. Lawrence was the hot bed and seat of the trouble and at this point large bodies of armed men began to concentrate during the early part of the winter of 1855. 2 The lawful Governor, the acting Governor of the territory, called out the militia to suppress the insurrection and enable the United States Marshal to arrest certain law-breakers.
I raised a small Company under the call for militia and marched to the town of Franklin, three miles below and in view of Lawrence, where one or two companies of militia was camped in the timber along Waukarusha Creek, three miles back. Here we camped, playing soldier for several days, expecting every night the enemy would sally out and attack our small force in Franklin, as we were evidently stationed there to draw them out, the idea being that an attack would be an overt act of war.
However, it was believed that with the sod and log houses and other natural advantages for defe
