Daily Davenport Democrat. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1864-1874, 1867-12-31
DAILY DEMOCRAT.



0ster I'm kmnsas,
A correspondent in kansas gives an &C.
CONT OF distressing occurrence near that
place on the 2sth OF last month. On that
day lad Of IL years, son Of our old cor
respondent, Col. W. A. Phillips. had gsne
cut shooting in company with his cousin,
David Addison. Abou, noon, II the advcs
Of bic companion, who saw q s'osm coming
on, be turned to 60 homo. He Immediately
started toward town ct rapid gallop, and
WAS never spoken TO again. About o'clock
a terrific snow storm set in. After il had
set in, and before Il had get 20 bswildcring
~ to be conf istely binding, . boy like him
wss seen riding with great rapidity along
Mulberry creek. The terrible snow storm
81 Thanksgiving Day seemed 70 travel from
the northwest to the south. II was 8 O..
clssk before NJ. Addison, with whom the
boy was still supposed 10 b, returned home
from the woods. Such . ssafch % the
storm permitted Was at once made, but oil
in vain.
Ten days passed. A hundred people had
been searching for the lost boy, but no trace
Of him Was found. The horse he rode was
found in The hills 20 miles to the south. wess
the 9TH inst. Kaw Indian visited white
settler on the Smoky Hill River, At . point
SO miles from Salins, southwest. and told
him that dead white man" vas ''in the
liver" He was a petty chief, and with 4
number Of bis people accompanied the white
settlers to the spot. II was only half
mile distant from the house. Fearful Of be-
ing suspected, ~ these poor people often are,
the cautious Indian made his people stand
up on the hank, aud with the white men
first examined II there WAS any trail Of man
near the spot None WAS found. Then the
body Was carefully examined to zee il it had
any wounds il had none II Vas the body
of boy. with light golden hair and broad
forehead. He lay on HE face. his coat and
ovsrcoat still carefully buttonsd up, and his
gloves still on his hands. A revolver was
bucklsd about his little person, which the
Indians had not melested, and two boxss
Of matches carefully deposited in separate
pockets. The child had ridden IS or 40
miles through the mountains that horrible
night, his fiery horse, thin skinned blood,
flying before the horrible stcsm. From all
the evidence, be had reached the spot where
found about 10 or / o'clock 1t night, before
the snow ceased. He rode into . bend b.
tween two farms, and could have seen them
had the Snow, which ceased bsiors mid
night, not filled the cir with ito binding
drifts. In that one night the cold was 90
intense q to freeze the river thick enough
to bear up . man, Crossing the last high
ridge from the heed Of Spring Creek he
must hare been exhausted and chilled
His feet and hands had not been frozen, but
exhausted nature fell before the terrible
exhaustion and exposure. The country
through which he must have passed was
the very toughest end widest 10 that Sec
ton. At times the snow was 30 dense that
il Vas impossible 10 see through IL but .
few feet. To have returned homo he had
probably TO faes the storm several miles,
and no horse would head in such . storm.
It 10 believed that in his anxiety 10 get
home. he urged his animal through the be-
wildering storm. - long - nerve and brain
could command. Arrived ct the river the
horse bad evidently borne him down the
bank, to drink, aud in stepping down he
fell from it on the gravel close to the water.