Company's route from St. Louis through northern Texas, New Mexico and Arizona to San Francisco, he built the first telegraph line from St. Louis to Fort Smith, Ark., in 1858-'59; also the line up the Missouri river, via Kansas City, Leavenworth, and Atchison, to Nebraska City and Omaha. Next, he began the construction of the line up the Platte west to Fort Kearney and on to old Julesburg, in 1860-'61. A considerable portion of this route was the trail taken by the Mormons in the later '40's and the pony express in the early '60's, and, as work progressed on the line, the pony ride was frequently shortened from twenty to forty miles. The second division of the great transcontinental enterterprise (sic) was built by Edward Creighton, one of the pioneers in telegraphy on the frontier, who completed the line to Salt Lake. The third division--from Salt Lake to California--was built by James Street. Mr. Porter experienced a rough time in the construction of the line from Sedalia, Mo., to Kansas City. Numerous obstacles from time to time came up which impeded the work, some of them attended with great danger. It was before the civil war, during the period of the historic border strife, while the Missouri "bushwhackers" and the Kansas "jayhawkers," bitter political enemies, were the thickest in that region. Afterwards, during the ravages of the civil war, it was with difficulty that the line was kept open. Frequently it was cut down and had to be rebuilt. In the spring of 1862 he was engaged on an important Government line from Pilot Knob to Cape Girardeau and New Madrid, Mo., at the time General Pope was closely pressing General Pillow, resulting in the evacuation of Island No. 10. In the fall of 1862 Mr. Porter located in Denver, and there engaged extensively in the grocery business, Stebbins & Porter being the name of the well-known firm. During the overland freighting period he was several years engaged in banking at Atchison. For almost four decades he has been a wide-awake, public-spirited, honored, upright, useful citizen of the Colorado capital. He located there when it contained less than 2000 people, freighting for years--before the advent of railroads on the Plains--all his goods across the country by ox train, being five weeks on the road from the Missouri river. Frequently, when business was urgent, he made trips between Denver and Atchison on the overland California stage. In those days Denver was |
a town composed largely of tents, log houses, adobe and rough-board shanties. As one of the early settlers he has seen the squalid little place, started by a party of prospectors on the banks of Cherry Creek in 1858-'59, become a great metropolis. Steadily he has watched its unparalleled growth, until it is now an important railroad point, a great educational and political center, one of the wealthiest and (of its size) one of the most imposing and magnificently built cities in existence. Early in December, 1858, little more than four years before I first crossed the plains, I met COL. FRED. W. LANDER and his party at the only hotel in Highland, Doniphan county, Kansas. He was just returning to Washington from a long overland exploring trip to Oregon, having been sent by the war department, during the administration of James Buchanan, to lay out a military wagon road to the Pacific. The expedition in charge of Colonel Lander left Independence, Mo., May 1, 1858, and went to the South Pass via the old emigrant road and mail route laid out a decade before. The work of building the new road commenced at the pass, going via Soda Springs and Honey Lake to Oregon and California, for the construction of which the sum of $300,000 had, in 1857, been appropriated by Congress. There were several men with Colonel Lander, who was splendidly equipped for such an undertaking. In his outfit were eight six-mule Government wagons and a small detachment of soldiers. The day, I well remember, was cold, very disagreeable for traveling, owing to a drizzling rain, and the distinguished party seemed glad, after being so long on the frontier, to stop a day at a Kansas hotel and rest themselves as well as their tired teams. In stature Colonel Lander was rather tall, somewhat spare, but a noble-looking man. He had piercing dark eyes, and his long dark hair rolled under around the back of his neck, just above his shoulders. His face was covered with a full brown beard and mustache. He was considerable of an explorer, having conducted three important expeditions across the continent, making two surveys to determine the practicability of a railroad route to the Pacific. The great overland wagon route to Oregon was surveyed and constructed by him. While engaged in this work his party of seventy-five men had a fight with the Piute Indians, and won a |
decisive victory. In all he made five transcontinental explorations, as engineer, chief engineer, or superintendent. While Colonel Lander and his party were at the hotel there were quite a number of Highland's prominent citizens present, including Col. Thomas P. Herrick, editor of the Highlander, the first number of whose paper did not appear until two or three weeks after this visit. Nearly all those at the hotel were engaged in pleasant conversation, when the talk naturally drifted into politics. Colonel Lander was from New England, having been born in Salem, Mass., December 17, 1822. Colonel Herrick, several years younger, was a graduate from Amherst College, in the same state, and the two men greatly enjoyed themselves together, talking on matters connected with "way down East." At that time the name of Kansas was in the minds of every one. Colonel Herrick, an earnest free-state Kansan, was anxious to know of the great explorer how, as an employee of the Government, he stood, on the then all-important question of the day. The explorer smiled good-naturedly, but promptly replied, saying, "Well, I suppose I ought to be a good administration man; but," he continued, "I am not." Colonel Lander, who later distinguished himself in the civil war and was made a brigadier general and placed at the head of an army, fell in an engagement at Paw Paw, Va., March 2, 1862. JAMES H. BRIDGER. An important stage station in the Rockies was Fort Bridger, the third military post established on the great overland route. It consisted of two log houses with dirt roofs, and was located 478 miles northwest of Denver and 124 miles northeast of Salt Lake, its altitude being about 7000 feet. It was nestled in the mountains, in the center of green pastures, and was well watered. Black's Fork, a large, clear, running stream, a prominent tributary of Green river, flows near it. It was an important station. Here was the home of James H. Bridger (Jim Bridger for short, also known as Colonel Bridger,) after whom Bridger's Pass was named many years ago. He was the discoverer of this pass into the Salt Lake valley, and is believed to have been the first white man to sail on Great Salt Lake, in 1824-'25. He was a member of General Ashley's expedition in 1826, and it was probably in the '30's that he located permanently at this place. |
Bridger was a renowned hunter, trapper, guide, and scout. At his ranch he had a large store, in the '50's, stocked with dry-goods, groceries, liquor, tobacco, ammunition, etc. He had a space of perhaps two acres surrounded by a stockade--timbers set in the ground elevated eight or ten feet above the surface. Inside this stockade was his residence on one side and his trading post diagonally across from it in one corner. Large swinging gates were in the center of the front, through which teams and cattle could be driven, safe from Indians and renegade white thieves. He kept house with no less than two squaws and had about him quite a number of half-breed papooses. He owned a large number of cattle, horses, and mules, and his place was so situated that he enjoyed a large trade with the Mormons, gold hunters, pilgrims, mountaineers, and Indians. As early as 1847, before the advance guard of the "saints," arrived there Bridger claimed to have made fifty trips from his place to Salt Lake, but did not then know the exact distance. In their pilgrimage to the "land of Zion," the Mormons camped a few days at Bridger's, in July, 1847, for rest. Here they shod their stock, made repairs on the wagons, and did other necessary work, before proceeding on their journey into the Great Salt Lake valley, their destination and future home. They afterwards built a stone fort at Bridger's. In 1858, after the place fell into the hands of "Uncle Sam," a strong frontier military post was established, and the name Fort Bridger retained, as a compliment to the noted early pioneer. It was here that Col. A. S. Johnston--who employed Bridger as guide--wintered his little army, in 1857-'58, en route to Salt Lake City.* *Describing the march of Government troops from Fort Leavenwarth to Salt Lake City, in the autumn of 1857 and winter of 1857-'58, to suppress the "Mormon rebellion," Gen. F. V. Greene, in his history of the United States Army, says "Fort Bridger is about 1100 miles west of Fort Leavenworth, at an altitude of near 7000 feet above the sea, on the  JAMES H. BRIDGER. |
Jim Bridger was long a conspicuous figure in the West, having taken up his residence in Utah some time in the early '20's. He made his home nearly all his life in the Rockies. He was in every sense a pioneer and trapper, and, as early as 1824, was known quite well on the upper Missouri and Mississippi, having carried a load of furs to St Louis that year via the Missouri river. Later, in the '50's and '60's, he was a faithful, trusted guide in the employ of the Government. For a time in the spring of 1865, during the closing year of the civil war, he was employed as guide and scout for Col. Preston B. Plumb, of the Eleventh Kansas Volunteers, while this gallant officer, at the bead of his regiment, was doing duty against the Indians along the stage route in that part of the West. In January, 1866, I met the jolly old frontiersman at Atchison, just as he had come down by the overland stage-coach from his home in the mountains, on his way to Westport, Mo., to visit the scones of his boyhood days. He was then in the employ of Government as guide and interpreter. In 1865 he was on General Connor's staff. He was a native of Virginia, but settled in western Missouri when very young. During his long pioneer life in the mountains he had become a shrewd trader, a good judge of stock, and few, apparently, could get the better of him in a horse or mule trade. In the later years of his life he was rather uncouth in dress, not very polite in manners, extremely western side of the Rocky Mountains. In this remote spot Col. A. S. Johnston's little army passed the winter in tents," not in Fort Bridger, but on Black's Fork, about three miles south, where they herded their animals in the valley. "In the fort and vicinity were entrenched about 2700 armed Mormons, but there were no hostilities, although the Mormons frequently tried to steal the cattle or stampede the herds." The thermometer sometimes registered thirty degrees below zero, and frequently ten below. "Sage-brush for fuel had to be hauled five miles through deep snow." From the 1st of November to the 19th, when they went into winter quarters, according to Lieutenant Colonel Cooke, who commanded the Second Dragoons, the little army suffered awful hardships, marching through deep snow and camping nights in tents. On November 11 the guides reported "no grass to be found" and they had "only one day's corn after that night." That night was "intensely cold," and Colonel Cooke says "the mules were ordered to be tied to the wagons. They gnawed and destroyed four wagon tongues, a number of wagon covers, ate their ropes, and, getting loose, ate the sage fuel collected at the tents; some tents were also attacked." Nine mules died that night. On November 19 he reports: "I have 144 horses and have lost 134. It has been of starvation." How they managed to live through that terrible winter, sheltered only by tents and wagons, is told by Colonel Brackett in his "History of the United States Cavalry." Early in the following June the Mormons evacuated the fort, retreated towards Salt Lake City, and Johnston and his army followed them, entering the city without opposition on June 10, 1858. From that date Fort Bridger, originally a Mormon outpost, became an important United States military post, and still retain's its place on the map, in the southwest corner of Wyoming, though of little consequence now. The Colonel Johnston of this expedition is none other than Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, who achieved military fame during the civil war of 1861-'65. |
fond of tobacco, and would occasionally take a drink "for his stomach's sake." He was a good talker, with a wonderful memory, could tell lots of interesting stories, and those intimately acquainted with him said it was a pleasure to sit and converse with him about early days on the plains and life in the Rocky Mountains. In all respects Jim Bridger was a far-westerner, and, up to the '60's, when the overland stages were running, his visits to the States had been few and far between. JACK SLADE. No one knows how many men Slade had killed, but he had a large number of victims placed to his credit when I first went on the "Overland," in the early part of 1863. Nearly all of the boys employed on the stage line feared him. Few cared to get his ill will. I never heard much about the fellow until I made my first trip across the plains by the old Concord stage. When I got in sight of old Julesburg and commenced to talk about the place, then it was that I began to hear so much about Slade and the difficulty that arose between him and the Frenchman, "Old Jules," who was superseded by Slade, who afterward brutally murdered him. Jules had left the overland line the year before I engaged with the company and had taken up his abode in Montana, in the heart of the new gold region, which offered a better field for future operations. Slade had killed a man in Illinois when he was a young man and fled West to the Missouri valley. At St. Joseph he joined a California-bound wagon-train, and was given the position of train-master. While out on the plains he became involved in a quarrel with one of the wagon drivers and, at the same instant, both drew their revolvers. The driver, however, had his weapon cocked first, and Slade cunningly intimated that it was not worth while to waste ammunition and life on so small a matter. As a compromise, he proposed that their guns be dropped to the ground and the difficulty settled by their fists. This was perfectly satistory (sic) to the unsuspecting driver, who instantly threw down his weapon. Slade then had the drop on him; he held fast to his gun and, laughing in the face of his innocent enemy, then shot him dead in his tracks. Slade, soon after the cowardly murder, made his escape. He divided his time between making "good Indians" and steering clear of an Illinois sheriff, armed with a warrant for, his arrest for |
his first murder. As an Indian fighter, it is said, he was very successful, having, one time, single-handed, killed three or four savages; then capped the climax by cutting off their ears and sending them to the chief of the tribe. It was only a short time afterwards until Slade had won the confidence of the managers of the stage line by his mode of Indian fighting. They thought he was just the man needed at that time. He was employed, and given a responsible position as division agent on the great stage line, with headquarters at Julesburg, the place occupied by Jules, whose services were dispensed with. For some time before the change horses belonging to the company would mysteriously disappear, coaches would be delayed, and other things frequently occur which showed there were gangs of outlaws near by. It was difficult to tell how to remedy the matter. The thieves simply laughed at the idea of any one resenting the outrages. Slade, the new division agent, was determined on a change. By this time the outlaws had learned that he feared nothing. Wherever there was trouble on that division the life of the offenders was short. He made friends by killing a half-dozen of the worst characters. After he had done this the company property was unmolested and the coaches began to run with more regularity. While there were occasional delays on the line, the stages on Slade's division went through safely and without delay. Jules had nothing particularly against Slade, but he hated him simply because Slade had supplanted him on the stage line. To make matters worse, Slade employed a bitter enemy--a man whom Jules had once discharged. A stage team was recovered by Slade, who accused Jules of driving off and hiding the animals, for his own use. Slade had found Jules to be a thief, and robber, and from that time on it was war between the two men. Not long afterwards, as Slade opened the door and entered a store, he was greeted with the contents of a double-barreled shot-gun from Jules, who stood secreted behind the door. Almost instantly Slade pulled his revolver and emptied two chambers of the weapon, and the two fell, bleeding, and were carried away to their respective lodging quarters. Both men lay on their beds a long time; but Jules, being the first able to get out, packed his things on the backs of two mules and pushed west to the Rockies, where he could recuperate, and once more return and meet his |
deadly enemy. It was a long time before he was heard from and he was about forgotten by every one except Slade. it was said he never could forget him, and, according to report, kept a standing reward for his body, dead or alive. Order having been restored by Slade around old Julesburg, on one of the worst divisions on the line, he was transferred to the Rocky Ridge division, northwest of Julesburg, and entrusted with the task of bringing "order out of chaos" there. This division was now fast gaining the reputation of being one of the worst sections of the stage line. It had become infested by a gang of outlaws and desperadoes who recognized no authority except violence. Murders were of frequent occurrence, in broad daylight, being committed on the slightest misunderstanding. The revolver and bowie-knife were the principal weapons used in settling a dispute. In a country where there was no law in those days, it was supposed the parties killing one another had their private reasons; hence no one mixed up in such matters. When a murder had taken place all would officiate at the burial, the murderer himself being prominent, and assisting in performing the last sad rites. In taking up his abode where the country was so full of horsethieves and desperate characters, Slade came to the conclusion that the only thing to do under the circumstances was to shoot all such offenders as fast as they became known. He immediately began a forward movement on their works, and, one by one, he picked out and killed the leaders of the notorious gang. In a remarkably short space of time all depredations on the stage line ceased, a considerable of the stolen stock was recovered, and several of the worst outlaws in the district were shot. Something of this kind had to be done before the authorities could operate the line with anything like satisfactory results. His work of cleaning out the cutthroats and leaders of the desperadoes was commended by the stage-line management. Most of those who had been under the control of the highwaymen now began to respect him and lend him their assistance in future operations. All agreed that he had done a good job, and it was but a short time until it was as quiet on the Rocky Ridge division as he had fixed things during his employment at old Julesburg. Two horse thieves who had stolen overland-stage stock were captured by him and he hung both to the limb of a tree. While the |
troubles made by the thieves and cutthroats lasted he was the high court of the district--he was Judge Lynch all by himself. It is related that, one time while a party of emigrants were going overland, some of their stock had suddenly disappeared. Slade having been apprised of all the facts, he, with another man, made his way to a ranch where he was satisfied, from the character borne by the occupants, that the stock had been taken and secreted, and, opening the door, commenced blazing away at the promiscuous crowd inside, three of whom he killed, while the fourth was badly wounded. As a marksman with a Colt's navy revolver no one on the plains could surpass Slade, and few could equal him. At Rocky Ridge, one morning, he observed a man coming up who, some days bebefore, had offended him. "Gentlemen," said the matchless marksman, drawing his gun, "it is a good twenty-yard shot; I'll clip the third button on his coat!" which he did instantly. It pleased some of the bystanders. A funeral soon followed, and all the witnesses, with the murderer, attended it. A fellow who dealt out "chain lightning" in a liquid state at the station in some way had angered Slade--and his first duty to himself was to make his will. Not long afterward Slade called at his place and asked for some brandy. Taking the decanter from the shelf and turning around he found himself gazing into the muzzle of a six-shooter; and, in another instant, he was lying on the floor a dead man. A party of men one time captured Slade, whom they determined to lynch. After disarming him they locked him up in a log house, surrounding which they placed a guard. He begged them to send for his wife, whom he wanted to see and talk with before dying. She was promptly notified and, mounting a fast horse, rode to her imprisoned companion. The guards thoughtlessly let her in without searching her and, before the door had been closed she whipped out a brace of revolvers, and forthwith the couple marched out defying the crowd. While the excitement. continued they mounted double, and, under a fierce fire, made their escape unharmed. Of his trip across on the overland stage, in the early '60's, Mark Twain, in "Roughing It," says: "In due time we rattled up to a stage station, and sat down to breakfast with a half-savage, half- civilized company of armed and bearded moun- -31 |
taineers, ranchmen, and station employees. The most gentlemanly appearing, quiet and affable officer we had yet found along the road in the Overland company's service was the person who sat at the head of the table, at my elbow. Never youth stared and shivered as I did when I heard thorn call him Slade! "Here was romance, and I sitting face to face with it!--looking upon it, touching it, hobnobbing with it, as it were! Here, right by my side, was the actual ogre who, in fights and brawls and various ways, had taken the lives of twenty-six human beings, or all men lied about him! I suppose I was the proudest stripling that ever traveled to see strange lands and wonderful people. "He was so friendly and so gentle-spoken that I warmed to him in spite of his awful history. It was hardly possible to realize that this pleasant person was the pitiless scourge of the outlaws, the raw-head-and-bloody-bones the nursing mothers of the mountains terrified their children with. And to this day I can remember nothing remarkable about Slade, except that his face was rather broad across the cheek-bones, and that the cheek-bones were low and the lips peculiarly thin and straight; but that was enough to leave something of an effect upon me, without fancying that the owner of it is a dangerous man. "The coffee ran out; at least it was reduced to one tin cupful, and Slade was about to take it, when he saw that my cup was empty. He politely offered to fill it, but, although I wanted it, I politely declined. I was afraid he had not killed anybody that morning and might be needing diversion. But still with firm politeness he insisted on filling my cup, and said I had traveled all night and better deserved it than he; and while he talked he placidly poured the fluid, to the last drop. I thanked him and drank it, but it gave me no comfort, for I could not feel sure that he would not be sorry, presently, that he had given it away, and proceed to kill me to distract his thoughts from the loss. But nothing of the kind occurred. We left him with only twenty-six dead people to account for, and I felt a tranquil satisfaction in the thought that, in so judiciously taking care of No. 1 at that breakfast table, I had pleasantly escaped being No. 27. Slade came out to the coach and saw us off, first ordering certain rearrangements of the mail-bags for our comfort, and then we took leave of him, satisfied that we should hear of him again some day, and wondering in what connection." Slade frequently rode from his ranch into Virginia City, filled up on the vilest of liquor, and then, in his peculiar way, would begin to "paint the town red." While riding along the streets and shooting off his revolvers promiscuously right and left, and terrorizing all law-abiding citizens, he appeared to be in the height of his glory and apparently master of the situation. One of his favorite pastimes, and in which he seemed to take great delight, was riding his horse roughshod into the saloons and gambling-houses and proclaiming, in unmistakable language, that he was the veritable "bad man from Bitter creek." |
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