The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1872-07-25
THE STORY-TELLER.
JOHNSON'S FOLLY.
A TALE OF TIE FRONTIER.

Nearly thirty years have elapsed since
the events 1 am about TO relate occur
red, and yet my remembrance of the
details of the narrative is as distinct as
if the terrible scenes through which
passed had taken place but yesterday,
so vividly were they impressed on my
youthful mind.
Sometime in the winter of 1910, my
father, Eben johnson, emigrated in
company with four other families to
what was then a Territory, now the
State of Kansas. The emigration asso-
citation consisted of my father and
mother my elder brother Thomas, my
two sisters, Annie and Mary, an adopt
ed brother, Eliphalet, familiarly known
to us all as Liph the Willis family, the
Montanyas, the Starbucks and old
Hanks (as our boys used to called him,
his two sons and daughter-all agricul-
turists. Besides these families, there
were several artisans blacksmith,
wheelwright, carpenter, a physician,
and some young men from Buffalo, with
the usual complement of wagoners and
guides.
1 was then eight years old. I re-
member it was winter, from the fact
that our wagons were frequently stop
ped by snow-drifts. We had in our
train fifteen wagons-three wagons to
each family-each vehicle drawn by six
oxen; there were, besides, two spare
oxen allowed to every wagon. There
were also in our party five young men
on horseback, each of whom brought
with him two led horses for future SER
vice, all of them carrying packs proper
tionate in size and weight to the strength
of the respective animals.
The wagons were, of course, packed
with such wares, provisions and utensils
as were necessary for use in the new
country to which we were vending our
way. The settlers, except i'm very bad
weather, walked either in front or rear
of the wagons, with the exception of the
old women and such of the emigrants as
were. taken sick by the way. There
were i'll our party, as l said before, five
families; they, with the young men
who had joined us after starting, made
up our numbers to sixty-three people.
OF this number, sixteen were women
and ten children. My father, who had
planned the expedition, was what is
called well-to-do farmer in Indiana,
anu Ghe idLnlieS WHO JolHeu Hlin Wtro
all pretty much of the same class hav-
ing sold their farms, they converted the
proceeds into such articles as were re-
quired on the frontier, and such trink-
cts as would prove attractive in ex-
changing with the Indians for furs,
skins and other things. We proceeded
at the rate of about ten miles day, al
though sometimes, in good weather, we
travelled fifteen. This, however, was
generally more than the women could
walk. At night the wagons were park
ed. and the oxen and horses picketed
the fires were lighted, and regular
guard detailed to keep lookout for the
wild tribes of Indians who occasionally
were seen on our trail.
We were thoroughly armed and equip
ped, every man provided with two rifles,
a brace of pistols, and long knife
even the boys carried a rifle. By day
we amused ourselves on the march in
doing little hunting after buffalo and
antelope; but this was only when the
train halted for several hours, as they
did once in each day. Our destination
was point ON the prairie about sixty
miles southwest from Fort Leavenworth!
and on the edge of belt Of wooded