pen to the Indians. His name was George Constable. I asked him how many wagons there were, and he said about two hundred. I asked him what kind of stock was used in propelling his train, and he said cattle and mules, principally cattle. He told me that the big Indian camp was about eight miles south of the Little Blue, that the Indians had plenty of other cattle, and were having a big feast in eating them. I asked him if he would like to go along, and he said he would. I then told him I would try and recover his cattle for him, but as to his mules I could not say, as they were in all probability fettered out or closely corralled in the Indian camp. He said most of this train was owned by men in St. Joseph, Missouri, but he had ten wagons of his own in the train. He informed me that even if he could recover the stock, the loss to the owners in goods, freight and money would be great. That company of militia numbered about thirty men. They told me that they had left their families in Gage county, Nebraska, without protection, and were willing to help to drive the Indians out of the country. I did not wish to take them into a battle that I knew would be twenty to one, but if they would volunteer their services to help me in the fight the next day it might be the means of stopping those savages from going ally further east and saving a great many lives, They knew that the Indians were defiant and thought they could do as they pleased, go when and where they wanted to, and these men were willing to risk their lives to teach them a lesson if it could be done. That was the kind of material of which the early settlers of Nebraska were made. Brave fellows they were, and to a man they voted to go that afternoon. I had them clean up their arms and look over their ammunition and other equipments, so as to be in shape on the third day to go for the red devils. That evening they discovered a lot of pistols of thirty six caliber, with waterproof ammunition for them. They divided them up among themselves and my men, so that |
many of the men in the fight had three revolvers at their belts the first days of battle. This made me feel better, and also those militia men, as the barrels of those pistols were long and six-cornered, and were better than many rifles that were used in the army for short range work. We put everything in readiness that night for a march of thirty miles on the morrow. We had a strong guard that night, as we could see large bands of Indians on the hill south of the Pawnee Ranch. I requested the militia to start ahead of us, but to keep within a reasonable distance, as they were not strong; and for them to send two men ahead of them--two on each flank where the country was broken. This they did, and we followed them, but were delayed in burying three bodies which we found in a patch of weeds near a burned ranch, Scalped and badly decomposed. The buzzards sighted those bodies to us, as they were flying in the air in large numbers in the vicinity of the bodies. We also found where one of Ben Holladay's passenger coaches had been burned, and also his eating station was in ruin. We found four other ranches that had been burned. We watched the Indians all day. They kept up their smoke so as to show our location, telegraphing in this way to the main body, so that the head warriors would understand the situation. Well indeed did these young warriors carry out their instructions, like trained soldiers. Sometimes they would fire rockets of different colors into the air. Those signals, I suppose, gave the headmen our strength. We finally arrived in the early afternoon tit the Little Blue Ranch,7 where the big train had been corralled, and 0, such a sight! Such destruction of property! Boxes, barrels, sacks, boots, shoes and clothing scattered on the ground. There were at least two hundred packages of different kinds of liquors, put up in cases, bottles, kegs and 7 Little Blue station was situated four miles northwest of the site now occupied by the town of Oak, Nuckolls county.--ED. |
barrels. The militia boys were dry when they got there, and some took a little too much. I told Mr. Constable, the wagon waster of the train, that I had better put a guard over the liquor, for the men might get to sampling it too freely. That would not [do for] the critical condition in which we were placed at that time, with our savage enemy within a mile of us, as if they were guarding us. "Captain," said he, "just spill it on the ground." The heads of the barrels and kegs were all broken in by the Indians and a great deal of the liquor had been taken away. I told him I would not do that, for it might compromise the government. There might be a claim and a demand made for the value of the liquor. "Well," said he, "I will have to spill it myself." He gave the hospital steward ten gallons of sour wine, as in case of wounds or sickness it might be needed. The large quantity of liquor remaining was all spilled and made a terrible stench. We moved the wagons close together and put the goods back into them. We did not have stable room for all the horses and had to tie some of them to the wagons, inside of the corral. We got everything in readiness for the night and were well prepared for anything that might happen. I was told that at the next ranch east of where we were camped there were three women taken captives, and the husbands of two of those women were killed, also two other men and two children, making six persons in all that were killed at the ranch, and three taken into captivity. The women's names were Mrs. Eubanks, the lady of the ranch; Mrs. Julian, who was travelling with her husband, who was killed; Miss Roper, whose father was with the militia. He was nearly crazy about her captivity. I sent Captain Henry Kuhl8 of the Black Horse Cav- 8 Henry Kuhl enlisted from Plattsmouth, captain of company C, First Battalion Nebraska veteran cavalry, which was organized on the disbandment of the Second Nebraska cavalry, from January to August, 1864; commissioned June 7, 1864; transferred to Company F, First Regiment Nebraska veteran cavalry, on the consolidation of his bat- |
alry, as they called themselves at that time, although not mounted--they were afterwards consolidated with the First Nebraska Cavalry--to go and bury all the dead that he found in the vicinity of the Eubanks ranch. I gave him a strong guard of fifty men, as the Indians were all around there, but told him not to bring on any fight with them, only so far to carry out his instruction to bury the dead, and if he could not do that to come back and report the facts to me. He went to the ranch, found the Indians there in force, drove them across the Little Blue River, and found the bodies of four men and two children belonging to the Eubanks family. One of the four men was the father of the children, and the mother was taken into captivity. These bodies were a terrible sight to behold. They were all scalped, their bodies naked, and their bowels cut open. They had been dead for several days and were badly decomposed. The captain buried them as well as he could, and got back at dark.9 talion with the regiment, July 10, 1865; discharged October 11, 1865. He won high praise for conduct in the Indian campaigns. Official Records, first series, XLVIII, pt. I, p. 90. He was in temporary command at Fort Kearny on August 8, 1864, the next day after the concerted attack by Indians. Ibid., XLI, pt. II, p. 615.--ED. 9 This is erroneous. From the best information obtained it appears that the victims of the raid on August 7 at and near Oak Grove Ranch and Kiowa station were the elder Eubanks; his oldest son, William; a daughter about seventeen years old; a boy about twelve, who was with his father; and the youngest boy, who was at the house with William. William Eubanks and his little boy were killed at the Eubanks home, about forty rods southeast of The Narrows; W. R. Kelley and M. C. Butler at Oak Grove Ranch, a mile and a half southeast of the site now occupied by the town of Oak; the elder Eubanks and his boy, about twelve, three-quarters of a mile southeast of Oak; Joe Eubanks and his brother Fred, also brothers of William, near Kiowa station; a boy, Ulich, about a mile and a half northwest of Kiowa station; and William Bowie, a settler, about two miles below Oak Grove Ranch. Another man, called Nelson Oberstrander, died three weeks afterward of wounds received at Oak Grove Ranch. George A. Hunt, who became a prominent citizen of Nebraska and now resides at Crete, was wounded |
When supper was over and the horses cared for, I had a strong guard put out around the camp. Captain Kuhl watched in the forepart of the night and myself in the later part. The Indians kept firing upon the guards all night. The guards returned the fire, and such a night as we passed! The men slept on their arms. The Indians were posted behind trees and mounds, and were strong. We counted about four hundred of them in the morning, as they went south to the main body, who were having a big feast at the time, with all the beef they wanted to eat, groceries and liquor taken from the train, flour and other supplies that were taken from the ranches. They certainly had a fine location for a camp, and enjoyed life as only Indians with a full stomach could. They did not care to move away from that camp, with all those big herds of cattle in sight, with wagons and ranches full of groceries. What better layout could be found? And no one as yet to contest their right to them They were happy. How, "Culah big Indian Me," how was it at this time with those poor, unfortunate captive ladies in that camp? Husbands and children killed, their homes destroyed, with no hope in sight for their release from captivity. One of those women could understand a little of the Indian language. Although there were a great many different tribes represented in this big camp, and the language of each tribe was different, yet she understood them to say that there were soldiers in camp on the Little Blue, and that the Indians were going to fight and kill the last one of them. She called the other women and told them what she had understood them to say. This news gave in the thigh with a rifle ball. John Gilbert's statement (infra, p. 27) that Captain Kuhl did not bury any of these victims is probably correct. Mrs. William Eubanks, her little daughter Isabella, and Laura Roper, aged fifteen, were carried away captives. For accounts of their ransom and rescue see Nebraska State Historical society, Collections, XVII, 159 note; Grinnell, The Fighting Cheyennes, 181 note; Official Records, first series, XLI, pt. III, p. 243; ibid., XLVIII, Pt. 1, pp. 276, 322.--ED. |
them new heart, with some hope that they would be recaptured in the near future. Their hearts' became brave, and they bore up under the horrible insults heaped upon them by the old withered, jealous Indian squaws and their murderous, lustful bucks, with a silent prayer to heaven, fervently asking their Maker to change their captivity to freedom. I gleaned the above from their conversation with me after their release, which I was the means of bringing about, through the divine permission of the almighty God, who had ordained it so that I should be the means through which those poor creatures should be released from their capitivity.10
10 Though there is no intimation in any of the accounts that Captain Murphy took any part in the ransom and release of Mrs. Eubanks and Miss Roper, his own statement is worthy of credence.--ED. 11 Jefferson B. Weston, one of the founders of Beatrice and who afterward became a very prominent citizen of the state.--ED. 12 Hackney's ranch was five miles east of Kiowa station, just west of the present boundary line between Thayer and Nuckolls counties.--ED. 13 The Narrows is a mile and a half northwest of Oak. The place was so-called because a projection of the bluff on the east side of the Little Blue was so close to the river as to leave a very narrow space for the road.--ED. |
of about a hundred wagons at Little Blue station Bound west.14 Several have been burnt. Aug. 15th The whole command started South for the Republican. We came upon the Indians near where the Port Riley Road crosses Elk creek 10 miles from Little Blue station. The Captain ordered an attack, and we drove them from Six to Eight miles. The Number engaged on their side was from 250 to 300, and there appeared to be a still larger number some distance back. they were moveing towards the Republican. There was one Howitzer in the command that was disabled after the first round. The command was halted & a retreat ordered. The Retreat was made in good order. The Enemy followed back to the crossing of Elk Creek Our loss was Two. That of the enemy is estimated to be larger. We fell back to Little Blue Station. Captain Murphey having only Three days leave from Kearney & Rations for the same length of time gave up the pursuit. We did not see any Indians on our march back to Sandy. We arrive at this place to day.  W.
H. STONER CaptJOHN GILBERT Lieutenant OLIVER TOWNSEND Private DAVID KNEELAND ALBERT C. HOWE H. M. WICKLAND15 On October 23, 1917, John Gilbert, who was the lieutenant of Captain Stoner's company, now a resident of Red 14 The Constable train.--ED. 15 The following letter to the editor was written by Mr. Hugh J. Dobbs of Beatrice On September 8, 1917: William R. Jones, of Beatrice, and his father, Samuel Jones, deceased, were both members of the company of men who went from this city, in 1864 to repel the Indian raid on the Little Blue. His memory is quite accurate and reliable on most matters connected with |
Cloud, Nebraska, wrote the following interesting and informing letter to the editor: I just received your letter inquiring about a boy that was killed in the Indian raid on the Little Blue River, August 7, 1864, and will tell you about as I remember it. August 7 was on Sunday. I was stopping at Kiowa stage station, six miles below what was called Comstock's ranch on the Little Blue River in Thayer county, on section 16, township 3, range 4, west. The Comstock ranch was on section 9, township 3, range 5, west, in Nuckolls county. This Sunday was a very hot day, and Theodore Ulig came down to Kiowa stage station, sent by his mother to get some eggs in a small tin bucket. Mr. James Douglas, owner of Kiowa station, wanted me to go up this expedition. This is what he says about the men whose names you gave me and about whom you desired information: John Gilbert he first knew in 1860, he thinks, and says that he was an employee of the Butler brothers at Oak Grove Ranch when he first knew him and was afterward a stage driver. After the Indian raid he married Libbie Artist, a sister of Frank Baker's wife, at Dewitt, and lived there for some time, and the last he knew of him he was living at Red Cloud, Nebraska, and he thinks he still lives there. Captain W. H. Stoner was never sheriff of Gage county, he says; but the sheriff of the county, Joseph Clyne, did accompany the expedition and took with him F. M. Colter an ex-county treasurer whom he held as a prisoner, charged with embezzlement. Oliver Townsend, Mr. Jones thinks, was not with the expedition; but in this he is evidently mistaken, as the report of the same was written by him and he signed it as a private. David Kneeland was not a Gage county man but joined the party at Big Sandy where he was in charge of the Latham ranch. Mr. Jones says that Albert C. Howe was a half brother of the late Church Howe and joined the party at Big Sandy with others. He says he died in Nemaha county long ago. H. M. Wickland should read H. M. Wickham. Mr. Wickham lived in this county many years and died here about eight years ago. He was one of the first settlers of our county and the first man to marry a wife in the county. Mr. Jones is able to recall the names of other Gage county men who were members of the expedition as follows: Daniel Freeman, Thomas and James Pethoud, Enoch Henry, Louis Graves, Ira Dixon, R. C. Davis, William Alexander all deceased, Leander Wilson, living near Beatrice; two of the Wells family and a man named Bagley from the Cub Creek neighborhood near here. Jones says the expedition buried Bill Canada in his log cabin where the Indians killed him and buried members of the Eubanks family where their remains were found, and Hugo Ulick a German boy. "Curley" Ayres of Beatrice also claims to have accompanied the expedition. Captain Murphy probably confused Captain Stoner with Mr. Clyne in his statement (page 10) that Stoner was sheriff of Gage county.--ED. |
home with Theodore to get some sickle sections for his mowing machine, as I had quit driving stage and was going to help him hay. Otto Ulig had been to the river at Brownville, Neb., and had some extra sickle sections. Otto Ulig was the oldest brother, Hugo was next, and Theodore was the youngest. Theodore, I think, was about 17 years old at that time. I think Kiowa station was east of section 16. As I remember it, Joe Ubanks was on 16, a mile west of Kiowa. Theodore was riding an Oto Indian pony and I was on a Cheyenne pony. When I was saddling up my pony I told him I could beat him home, which was over a mile and a quarter. He started before I could get ready and had a quarter of a mile the start. So we went. I chased him up to Joe Ubanks' ranch, over half a mile, but could not gain on him as I could see. So I stopped at the Ubanks ranch to let my pony get a breathing spell. it was off the road about fifty steps. When I got to the house, there I saw John Barnes. Joe Ubanks' wife was crying. I asked what the matter was, and they said that the Indians had killed Fred Ubanks across the river, south, as he was raking hay, and scalped him and took the horse that he was raking hay with. Then I forgot that I was chasing Theodore, and we started back to Kiowa station. We told Mrs. Eubanks to go on. She was riding an old horse. I saw some Indians, I think four, riding up the river west on the bluffs. When these four Indians came up with Theodore, the boy, they halted him about four hundred yards from home and held him, so Otto his brother said, and waited for me to come up; but I had gone back. It was around a bend and out of sight of me, so I did not see them, nor they me. When they could not make him wait longer they shot him with an arrow and gun, took his pony and left, so his brother said. The Ulig place must have been somewhere on section 16, township 3, range 4, west. In regard to the spelling of Ulig and Ubanks: I think Ulig is correct but I am not so sure in regard to Ubanks. I may have spelt both names wrong sometimes.16 JOHN
GILBERT.
16 Most, if not all, of the people in the neighborhood of the massacre were illiterate and did not know the correct spelling of one another's names, and so they came to be spelled as they sounded when spoken The military officers spelled the name of the massacred family Eubanks, indicating that it was pronounced with the final s sound, and Mr. Gilbert evidently remembers it as having been pronounced that way. Because he now spells it simply as he heard it, he leaves off the initial E. Both Eubanks and Eubank are in common use, but there are more of the first than of the second found in print. The name of the boy who was killed near Kiowa station is spelled |
I am nearly eighty-one years old, and came to Nebraska at what was called Oak Grove Ranch, afterwards called Comstock Ranch, in April, 1859. J. G. When I was running after Theodore Ulig I saw Indians going parallel with us on the bluff. I thought they were Pawnee or Oto, and I suppose Theodore thought the same, as he must have slowed up as he got around the bend and close home or they could not have caught him. Under date of October 26 Mr. Gilbert wrote the following account of the tragedy which befell the Eubanks family: I will try and answer your letter of October 22. Will Eubanks and his family lived with his father and his family at what we called the Narrows, about four miles West of Oak Grove Ranch. Will Eubanks was the oldest son of the elder Eubanks. Joe, who lived west of Kiowa stage station, was the second son; Fred, who was stopping with Joe, was the next son; the youngest boy who was thirteen or fourteen years old, lived at home with Will and the old man. Fred was killed west of Kiowa station, and Joe was killed just east of Kiowa station, in the low bottom where he was hunting a place to mow. We did not find him at that time. They shot him with an arrow and took his pony. Those two families that lived at the Narrows were composed of Will and his wife and one child, the old father and his wife, two girls, and the young boy. I helped bury them that were killed at the Narrows. Will Eubanks and his wife and child had gone up to the Kelley ranch on a visit, it seems, leaving the youngest girl at home. The Indians killed her accidentally, trying to take her prisoner. When Will and his wife came back, about three o'clock in the afternoon, Will was in front, and the first the others saw was Will running back, the Indians chasing him and shooting at him with arrows. They were close to the river, and he jumped down a bank about eight feet high and got away, as they could Ulig by some of those who were personally familiar with the events and Ulick by others, among them George A. Hunt, now a well known citizen of Crete, Nebraska, and Hugh J. Dobbs. But I am not able to find names so spelled in any publication, while Ulich is not uncommon, and that, probably, was the boy's name. The name of one of the men from Beatrice who was killed at Oak Grove Ranch is spelled both Kelly and Kelley; the weight of opinion seems to favor the latter. Nelson Oberstrander's name has often been spelled Ostrander, but in a letter to the editor dated October 20, 1917, Mr. Hunt says, positively, that Oberstrander is correct.--ED. |
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