up and down the valley, and their wigwams were pitched sometimes near the foot of a cañon or gulch, but more often close to the bank of the river, convenient to some trading post. There were many nice things to admire on the long stage ride. Much of the scenery was picturesque beyond description. In a good many places there was much sameness, but the monotony was broken by the large number of charming landscapes; the rolling prairies, decked with a profusion of lovely wild flowers; the broad Platte, with such a large number of islands, many of which were covered with a grove of willows and young cottonwoods; the bluffs at the far edge of the valley, near the crests of which was an occasional growth of cedar; cañons and gulches at intervals, down which coursed lovely streams of various sizes; the alkali plains, along which were visible thousands of bleached-white skulls and skeletons of the buffalo; numerous prairie-dog towns, living in which were countless numbers of the harmless little animals; ranches and trading posts at convenient distances; Indian tepees scattered for hundreds of miles along the Platte valley; the grand old Rocky Mountains, gazing on which none would tire, their sides verdant with evergreens, their lofty summits crowned with perpetual snow. The sights were so grand that no one could fail to admire them. For tourists and travelers it was a genuine feast, and they greatly enjoyed it; the artist never failed to find something about it useful for the brush; and the invalid seemed to recuperate, slowly gaining renewed strength while moving along and gazing upon the beauties presented in nature's grand panorama. The Indian troubles along the overland mail route in August, 1864, the worst experienced on the line, were largely confined to the Platte valley, They extended from Junction, on the upper South Platte, within eighty-five miles of Denver, for over 300 miles down the valley, and about 100 miles southeast of Fort Kearney, on the Little Blue river--a distance of over 400 miles east and west. The attacks were made by bands of Cheyennes, Sioux, Kiowas, and Arapahoes. On the Little Blue, in southern Nebraska, an entire family of ten persons were massacred and scalped. One of the women, after enduring inhuman barbarity, finally suffered a death of the worst horrible torture imaginable. Other fiendish butcheries were also committed along the Little Blue at Liberty Farm, |
Pawnee Station, and near Oak Grove, their field of operation, extending east to Big Sandy, within about 150 miles west of Atchison. West of Fort Kearney some thirty-five miles nine persons were murdered, and two women and two children captured and carried away by the savages. Their train, consisting of ten wagons, was burnt. Four men were killed ten or twelve miles east of Cottonwood Springs and about a dozen wagon's captured, a portion of the goods plundered, and the balance, with all the wagons, destroyed. The cattle and other stock were stampeded and driven off by the Indians. In the several depredations committed along the Platte, in which so many people were killed by the savages, a vast amount of merchandise of all kinds was destroyed. Besides, the fiendish red devils stole and ran off several thousand head of cattle and mules. The amount of stock and property taken and burned was variously estimated at near one million dollars. On the eastern division of the stage line, between Big Sandy and Thirty-two-mile Creek, every station but one was burnt by the Indians. This was a terrible visitation, and in justice to the large number of employees of the stage line, as well as for the safety of the stock and other movable property, the company was obliged for several weeks to abandon the stage route for fully 500 miles, leaving their hay, grain, provisions, household furniture, etc., a prey to the savages. Nearly every ranchman's house between old Julesburg and Big Sandy was deserted, and the old Indian traders, who were familiar with the dark, peculiar ways of the treacherous butchers, were forced to leave their places and hurriedly join the ranchmen who, with their families, were taking refuge at the nearest forts along the Platte, leaving their cabins and other property to the mercy of the fiendish murderers. Nothing could be done at the time looking to the early opening of the stage line for traffic. Nearly all the stations having been burnt, no stages could run until new ones were built, and before this could be done it was necessary to make a number of important changes in the route. Along the Little Blue river in southern Nebraska a new station was built at the west end of Nine-mile ridge and the name of Buffalo Ranch was given it. Another station was put in called Pawnee Ranch, and accordingly Liberty Farm was abandoned. Lone Tree was likewise discontinued and Elm Creek made a new station. It was deemed |
 A FAMILY RETURNING TO "THE STATES" BY THE PLATTE ROUTE. Page 245. |
advisable, also, to dispense with Thirty-two-mile Creek station, and a new one called Muddy was substituted. Summit was also abandoned, and the stages westbound afterward ran through to Hook's (Valley City post-office), the first station reached on the Platte, a distance of about fourteen miles, without a change. These troubles caused by the Indian raids proved a terrible blow to the commerce of the plains. The great overland California mail, which for over three years had been. running daily with almost the regularity of clockwork, was now seriously interrupted. Hundreds of wagons loaded with grain, provisions, merchandise, etc., were obliged to corral at convenient places and remain for weeks along the route. The flow of emigration westward suddenly stopped, and business of nearly every description along the overland route for several weeks was at a standstill. It was learned at the time from a few friendly Indians who had straggled into the forts that they had met and conversed with marauding bands of hostiles, from whom the information was gleaned that they were fearful of the enormous paleface emigration westward, and that they (the Indians) would soon lose all their land. The land, they declared, belonged to them exclusively, and it was their intention to again get possession of it and hold it, even if they had to kill every white man, woman and child to accomplish their purpose. But those days of trouble and danger from Indian raids are long since passed. As early as 1869 there was an agitation for the removal of the national capital to Fort Kearney, an account of which we take from the graphic pen of Mr. M. H. Sydenham: "About the years 1869 and 1870, the question of changing the site of the United States capital was largely agitated in the Eastern states, and various cities were putting forth claims for consideration to have the nation's capital located in their neighborhood, among which were St. Louis, MO, Keokuk, Iowa, Council Bluffs, Iowa, Chicago, Ill., etc. "As I was then publishing the Central Star at Fort Kearney, to make known to civilized people in eastern lands the merits of western and central Nebraska as a suitable land for settlement and development, the idea came to me that I ought to advocate the Fort Kearney military reservation as the most suitable site for a new national capital, it being just the size of the District of Columbia--ten miles square. I therefore set forth and published the suitability of the reservation for that purpose, with all the reasons why, defining my position with explanatory maps, etc. "To bring the matter squarely before the Congress and people of the |
United States, I placed the subject in the form of a proposition to our statesmen in Congress, making every allowance for the fact that they would doubtless do something different to the proposition, if any action was taken on the subject at all. I proposed that, if they would pass an act locating the United States capital on the Fort Kearney military reservation, and make me special commissioner to put up new public buildings, and grant for the purpose the Fort Kearney military reservation (which was about to be abandoned for military purposes) and 64,000 sections of unclaimed lands from any portion of the public domain for sale or use, I would lay out the city of 'New Washington' on the site of the military reservation, and put up all the necessary or required public buildings out of the proceeds of the sale of the lots and lands, and have a large overplus to deposit besides in the United States treasury--I to receive, as compensation, one per cent. of all money received from said sale of lots and lands outside of those for public use as stated. "I advocated the policy of changing the capital from the circumference to the center of the republic in my paper, the Central Star, copies thereof being sent to all our members of Congress and to all leading and influential public men throughout the nation, as well as to leading newspapers. "Public sentiment was soon worked up on the subject. A national capital removal convention was called to meet at Louisville, Ky. I was appointed by Governor Furman a delegate to that convention from Nebraska. The result of the convention was the bringing up of the matter in Congress, its reference to a committee--the report of which was a majority against the removal at that time. This was the last time that any action has been taken by Congress on the subject of national capital removal. "My proposition to change the capital and make the city of New Washington on the site of the Fort Kearney reservation was based partly on the following grounds, viz.: "First. It would give an immense impetus to the development and settlement of the central plains of the republic, then unoccupied, as also of the great mountain regions of the West. "Second. It would greatly stimulate the business of our Eastern cities, as all have grown up on the development of the West, and they would all equally grow and thrive. "Third. It would be a means of creating a new capital, more conveniently situated for all people, without any money expended, and also put money into the national treasury. "Fourth. It would be entirely safe from bombardment by a hostile Power, it having been destroyed once before, and in possible danger of a similar fate again. "Fifth. It would draw closer together in bonds of harmonious unity all sections of the republic. "Letters from leading public men from various parts of the country were received by me, in which they expressed themselves as well pleased with the measure. Governor Gilpin, of Colorado, who also had previously advocated Denver for the national capital, expressed himself as well pleased with my proposition, it being the most feasible and acceptable of any. |
"Leading editors spoke encouragingly of it. The Chicago Times, the Cincinnati Times and other papers gave long articles on the subject of a favorable character. "The publishers of the Land Owner, of Chicago, the then most prominent real-estate journal in the United States, sent on for my engravings to insert in their journal, and gave a full-page article on the subject. "The agitation of the question drew attention to this part of Nebraska, some people settling here and others purchasing lands. I remember one very enthusiastic gentleman. While visiting me he told me his faith in the removal of the capital was so strong that he had purchased two sections of land of the Union Pacific Railroad Company on the strength of it. "And another good accomplished by the agitation of the question was, that by my showing up the bad condition of the streets, roads, parks, etc. in the city of Washington, its narrow streets and stagnant ponds, Governor Shepherd immediately went to work to renovate, remodel and reform the material aspect of the city. At great expense, the streets were widened, rows of trees planted, and the city made more beautiful and attractive in every respect, insomuch that the citizens charged him with wasteful extravagance. Public opinion was so strong against him, by reason of his wise expenditures, which in the eyes of some parsimonious citizens was such a great fault and the cause of so much ill will against him, that he had to leave the city under a cloud of displeasure. Many years afterwards--after the governor had won riches and honor in Mexico, where he had made his home--he revisited Washington; in acknowledgment of the good he had done that city by his improvements the citizens tendered him a banquet, and he was lionized by those who years before had denounced him. "Of course my agitation of the capital removal question had to come to an end, which was most effectually done when the Fort Kearney reservation was thrown open to homestead settlement by act of Congress. When Senator Hitchcock introduced the bill for the final disposition of the reservation, he sent me a copy of it, with a laconic letter attached, which read: 'How do you like this ?-- P. W. HITCHCOCK, U. S. S .' He must have thought I would feel bad about the disposition of the land, but I was not that kind of material. Public sentiment was not up to a capital removal point. The land had to be used in some other way. "Had the measure been a success, through the timely and favorable action of Congress, one of the largest cities in the United States would have arisen as if by magic. Railroads would have centered from all points of the compass; a large canal would have been cut on the south side of the Platte river, to furnish power and water for the city, the streets of which would have been supplied with running water, as it is in Salt Lake City; the best talent would have been put to work in creating public improvements which tend to modernize a first-class city, making it a credit to the nation, a center of business, thought and intelligence for a republican people; a city of pleasant homes; a city of which people from all parts of the republic might have been delighted with and proud of--the city of New Washington, in the heart of the republic." (See note at bottom of page 262.) |
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"UNCLE SAM" GUARDS THE OVERLAND MAIL. Page 242. |
The oldest and one of the best-known ranches on the South Platte, in the later '50's and early '60's, was BEAUVAIS. it, was located on the old overland route, a few rods from the river, about 428 miles northwest of Atchison. The place in early days was known as "Old California Crossing." It was thus named because nearly all the travel overland after the California gold discoveries of 1848 that went west on the south side of the Platte crossed the great stream at that point. During the immense travel occasioned by the gold excitement, however, the place was known as "Ash Hollow Crossing." Some of the Mormons also forded there when they emigrated to "Zion," in the early days. In fact, nearly all the travel to Utah, California and Oregon forded at this point, there being no other crossing known on the South Platte west of there at that time. Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, when he took his army across the plains from Fort Leavenworth, in the summer and fall of 1857, to put down the Mormon rebellion, also forded at this crossing. Subsequently the late Gen. F. W. Lander crossed there on NOTE.-In Bancroft's History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, page 532, credit is given the man whom the historian supposed started the first newspaper on the frontier, as follows: "In connection with the newspaper history of the country, L. R. Freeman should be mentioned. In 1850 he took the first printing-press that crossed the Missouri river above St. Louis to Fort Kearney, on the Platte. With the advance of the Pacific railroad he pursued his way westward, publishing his paper, The Frontier Index, at Kearney, North Platte, Julesburg, Laramie, Bear River, and Ogden. In 1855 he was at Yakima, in Washington, making his way to Puget sound. No other newspaper in the United States has so varied a history as The Index." Mr. Sydenham explains this matter as follows: "The above statement is all false from top to bottom, and from the beginning to the end. Here you have the positive facts--for I am personally knowing to everything. I was the first publisher of a newspaper west of the Missouri valley in Nebraska; anyway, west of Fremont, which is situated about forty miles west of the Missouri river. I am not certain whether there was a paper there then or not in 1862--the year I published my Kearney Herald, at old Fort Kearney. Mr. Leigh R. Freeman came to Fort Kearney about the year 1864 or 1865, just after the war was over; for he had been an operator within the Confederate lines, and he and his brother were Democrats of the strongest secessionist kind. I was the very opposite in politics. Freeman came to take charge of the telegraph office at Fort Kearney. He was not even a printer, and had no press or type whatever to cross the Missouri with. Before he came to Fort Kearney I had sold my press and printing outfit to Seth P. Mobley, of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry, who purchased it to do printing for the army and publish a paper besides. L. R. Freeman purchased the outfit of Mobley, and then started his paper The Frontier Index, which was published for a while at Fort Kearney and Kearney City (old Dobytown), and then started it along at the terminal stations of the Union Pacific railroad--for a time at Plum Creek, then at North Platte, and then at Julesburg, Laramie., etc., till he finally stopped at Butte, Mont. Until that time, while on the railroad, his paper was named The Frontier Index on Wheels. When he arrived at Butte, or some time after, I think he changed the name of his paper to The Inter-Mountain, or something like that." |
his return from an expedition overland late in the fall of 1858, in charge of a Government party sent out to look up and locate a military wagon road from some point on the upper Missouri to Oregon. The ranch was also used as one of the early stations of the Jones-Russell Pike's Peak stage line in 1859, and, at this crossing, the John Hockaday mail and express coach, drawn by six mules, between Atchison and Salt Lake City, also forded, in the later '50's and early '60's. It was also a station for the pony express, and it finally became one of the most widely known ranches on the overland route. The South Platte, at Beauvais, was just half a mile across from bank to bank. Fifteen miles north of this is Ash Hollow, where General Harney slaughtered the Brule Sioux Indians in 1855. It is a mile through that memorable hollow to the north fork of the Platte; thence the road ran up the south side of that stream, via Court-house Rock, Chimney Rock, Scott's Bluffs, and the mouth of Horse creek, to Fort Laramie. The river was always fordable at Beauvais, but difficult to cross in the spring, from the annual rise caused by melting snow in the mountains. Usually there was not much trouble in fording except from quicksands. During August, September, and October, 1857, Hon. P. G. Lowe, of Leavenworth, a pioneer Kansan and a veteran frontier plainsman, was wagon master, and camped at Beauvais and escorted most of the troops and trains that went out with General Johnston on the Mormon expedition, in the fall of 1857. Mr. Lowe was familiar with every rod of the river in that vicinity, having frequently measured the fording places and safely piloted the train over. Beauvais's name was known on the plains all the way from the Missouri river to the Pacific. He was a Frenchman, from St. Louis, who went on the frontier among the Indians at a very early day, and traded with them wherever the business proved profitable. He finally settled on the South Platte, after the breaking out of the Pike's Peak gold excitement, and put up his trading post at that crossing in 1859. This was ten years after the date of the California gold excitement. When he settled on the Platte he was about forty years of age; a large, fine-looking man; very reticent, even to moroseness. Though intelligent and pleasant with his friends, he was sullen when bored by emigrants. He was on the plains, as those who frequently met him could see, |
for business only. He took the leading St. Louis papers, and fully intended to close his life in the great metropolis, after accumulating a fortune on the plains. He succeeded in the latter, and returned to his old home after the completion of the railroad to the Pacific, which had ruined his trade of pioneer days along the Platte. He may have been a Mormon and a polygamist, for he appeared to be a muchly married man, and no less than three squaws and a large number of half-breed papooses running about the premises indicated that he had accepted the Mormon faith as to plurality of wives. The immense travel to Denver and other points in Colorado, as well as the vast immigration that had set in for the great Northwest, was the opportunity for this pioneer trader of the South Platte to amass a considerable fortune. His building as originally put up was a square, hewn-log structure, but in the early '60's it had been considerably enlarged, to meet the increasing demands of his trade. In it was a large stock of buffalo robes, elk and antelope skins, furs, and such other goods as he could get by trading coffee, sugar, blankets, tobacco, beads, trinkets, etc., with the various tribes of Indians that roamed up and down the Platte and occupied the gulches and cañons some distance away from the river. His was one of the most prominent trading posts in the Platte valley, and in it he kept one of the best stocks to be found along the overland route. He was well equipped for trading with the Indians, as well as for supplying the needs of parties on the plains. Nearly all the crossing of the overland emigration and freighting was done at Beauvais until Lieutenant Bryon, of the United States topographical engineers, was sent out and went up the Lodge Pole Creek route, in 1857; and but very little travel went the new route until 1861, when Government established the first daily overland mail on the central route, and it ran for a time over this road. While crossing the South Platte near O'Fallon's Bluffs, some miles below this point, early in the summer of 1852--seven years before Beauvais established his trading post--John H. Clark (late a citizen of Clay county, Kansas, and postmaster at Fancy Creek),* in charge of a company of twenty men from Cincinnati, whom he was taking overland to California, wrote in his journal *Died at the age of 88 years in Clay county, Kansas, December 26, 1900. |
as follows: "There is perhaps more fun, more excitement, more whipping, more swearing and more whisky drank at this place than at any other point on the Platte river. Many head of cattle were being driven over when we crossed, and the dumb brutes seemed to have an inclination to go any way but the right one. Loose cattle, teams, horses, mules, oxen, men and boys all in a muss; the men swearing and whipping, the cattle bellowing, the horses neighing and the boys shouting made music for the multitude. It was an interesting scene. Guittard's Station. South view. Page 199. |
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