Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-03-30
QUEER EPlrAPHS.
Strange Romances Told by the Tomb,
stones on Rocky Mountain
Graves

Graves.
Denver Republican
There are some queer headstones soot
tered throughout Colorado in IonaI,,
places which mark the butt ona Z
many life in singular manner u
lonely mountain gulches the traveller
VIII suddenly run across rude grave
mark which tells In few Mxee 49,
cause of death of the form which
meulders below. One of the queerest
of these epitaphs is one at Florida. a
little town of less than 100 inhabitants
on the San Juan exteLtiOn Of the Rio
Grande. The grave over which the
epitaph is written lies a little way
from the town beside the railroad, and
was discovered by a passenger who
wandered away while break in the
train gear was being repaired. Over
the grave was a rude cross bearing the
inscription:
HHe had sand in his craw,
But was slow Ou the draw,
SO we planted him out in the dew,
And on the opposite side:
"John Doe, New York;
Too fresh-45 caibar,
May 6, 1881
Kilt by Old Hall ana Gun"
This Is a sucsinct history Of the
mans fate. The name, John Doe.
plainly indicates that the man was
unknown. 1t is definitely settled that
che had sand in his craw," which. in
miners parlance, means that he was a
brave man, "but he was slow on the
draw" and "Old Hall and his gum
blew his light out. Would that all
obituaries were as brief.
In May, 1880, tragedy occurred in
Gunnison City, by which "Dutch Bill"
noted desperate, was sent on the
final trip to that bourne whence no
desperate ever returns. Dutch Bill
killed man at Buena Vista and fled
to Gunnison. He was lying in a tent
with pistol on each side of him. when
a sheriff arrived and woke him. Dutch
didn't like to be disturbed, and opened
fire upon the officer, who ran, but,
shooting back through the tent as he
fed, he killed his man by a chance
shot. Dutch was buried with imposing
ceremonies on a little knoll near the
Tomichi river, and withered branch
was thrust into the groand to mark
the spot. On this stake was written
in pencil Clutch BIr-only this and
nothing more.
Away up in the mountains in Sum-
NIT county, near the present site of
Robinson, lies the old deserted town of
Ten Mile. which flourished in 1859 and
died soon after. The wash from the
mountains covered it up, and it lay
buried for years, until people drawn by
the Leadville excitement disinterred it.
The records of Ten Mile are somewhat
obscure. 1t was up in the wilderness
OF mountain crags and ravines, far
away hundreds of miles from the out
posts of civilization, but its graveyard
tells a different story. 1t is very
healthy graveyard, and must have run
the town very close in numbers and
inhabitants.
In this graveyard, on the principal
headstone, is the following epitaph:
Jack Crane was good fellow
Who drank his whisky mellow;
But he fell through, on mountain dew,
And now he's gone to hello.
On another small stone, shaped with
a rude attempt at artistic style, is
"Our Sallie, aged 80, died 1862"
Perhaps this was one of the charac-
tiers so often seen in the old mining
camps, but now almost extinct. Some
lost woman who wandered out beyond
civilization to hide herself-but specu-
lation is useless. for go is a long ways
back-for Colorado.
In 1870 a scouting party of soldiers
were over in the South Park, when,
just at shutdown On summer even.
ing they came across the skeletons Of
six men. They laid in irregular posi-
tions, with pieces of saddles, bits and
brides scattered around, with here and
there horses bone and some cooking
utensils. The soldiers put the skele-
tons down as the result of some Indian
massacre, but in looking around found
in cleft in the rock a board, on which
was rudely cut:
Showed in and dying, Jan. 16 SO. I
am the last. Peace.
JERRY D-t-t.
Probably Douthitt)
This ia DnrhaDs tho only ouitanh ovnr