Kimball enterprise. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1883, 1883-05-04

klDtC HIS lkS ihSSl III lh1F St'ASh 1904
named Wolcoa who had jumped a claim, hav-
ing threatened to kill him. Creel arrived in
81. Paul on Sunday, the 10th inst, on business
connected with the location OF the new land
Office, and has been here ever slEce, he was
interviewed last evening and made tho follow
ing statement:
Twas shocked to hear of the murder, which l first
did from reading the PIONEER PRESS OF TINS morn
ing; hut am al no loss for an explanation IN my
own mind.
1T should be stated that at the time of the
interview, Lieut.. Creel had not seen any OF the
particulars as given above.
believe the Ward boys were shot by nemb
of the Citizens Protective association. who had
sworn TO kill the next man who jumped
a claim. That is frontier Law in mining camps or
new towns. Now as to my s sss"ee Chen,s WIN VINE the t
came out 10 my place, and had with him q letter
from Col Smith, engineer of the Manitoba roa1.
took hun into my house at once ana treated Issaa INN mn
came out, and he was an old friend, having been
through West Point with me. knew him well
ana r IiseG to OWN. f Of c r It's mighty
valuable property. and seems likely
to be right in the center Of the town. Not
only that, l sent my men and had a house put up
for them-not q permanent house, you understand,
but such q dwelling as was necessary
10 HOLD THE CLAIM.
They stayed with me for weeks, and when they
came TO move away they asked me how much they
were indebted. l told them ! wasn't running a
boarding house. but was glad to have been of
service 10 tupll. We HOI AIpuH AIsl Iltt. 1 WAS
glad to have the boys there, especially Fred:
Along toward the latter part of January Of
this year Fred was at my house and spent
started to ride over to Devils Lake City. When
we got along toward the edge of town tCreelsburgl
we saw q wagon with q house on it-one of the
go over there aud see it. There was a man named
Fisher with me, aud when Fred had gone he said,
'Creel, those Wards are going 70 jump one OF your
claima' l said, Nonsense. I'll vouch for those
boys az would for myself. l can speak for Fred
as one Mason would for another. We were not
through West Point together without know,
ing each other pretty we'll he said, You'd
better go over there, just the same, and see about
it, and l did so. To my establishment Fred was
there. and the h~ouse-which supposed had been
put down where it was OH account of the wagon
stalling. or, at any rate, only emporar!ly-was set
up within twenty feet of a claim shanty. belonging
, e John Bell. Bell was holding the claim for Mr..
very angry, after all l had done for the boys, and
said to Charley. who was also there: You
s ssd y Sun Know Gr 4s it. Tho Tho " Wards asssnS WENT mt aw ssgaf bnt a
carpenter they bad there working wouldn't go
UNTIL. I KNOCKED HIM DOWN,
which l did a couple OF times l have the scar on
my knuckle vet where ] struck him. The citizens
of CreelsbIrg We're euraged AT the Wards, and
might have taken summary vengeance then had l
said then that the reSt man who jumped a
claim in that town. be he Ward, VOL
colt or any one else. should be dealt with
according to frontier law. don't know that the
Wards jumped tina. claim again, or any other: but
l believe they did, ard that the citizens carried out
their threats. l wish l had been there. l don't
want to publish this, of course: but l believe !
could have saved them. / would have done so if 1
could: for Notwithstanding their conduct, which
Fred, and / warned both of them what they had to
fear # they did any more claim jumping"
What interest had the Ward boys in Bartiett?"
None, except as real estate dealers. They sold
lots there as agents. MIR. Goodloe.t the founder Of the
town, took them up there and helped them in bust
ness. He is not their uncle any more than I am.
when he brought the letter from Col. smith to me.
Those boys at Bartlett jumped the claim of Miss
Jessie Bartlett above the track, put a shanty upon
it, and hired a man to keep it"
Mr.. Creel afterward stated thathe had heard
of a telegram from a Manitoba ohicial to the
general Office here, which stated that at s
O'Clock on Sunday morning a mob surrounded
the house in which the Ward boys were Sleep
ing and called upon them to get out Firing
nsued. and at the first volley Charley was
killed, Fred falling at The next one.
n. J: HARDWOOD OF Fargo, who is acquainted
with the Devils lake country, was present dur
ing the conversation with Creel, and agreed
with him that the Citizens Protective ~associa-
ton were probably at the bottom OF
the murder. He said claim jumping was pun
ished by summary death in all frontier COM
munlties, and in all probability the Wards had
transgressed and suffered accordingly.
A Prehistoric Cemetery.
Maudan Pioneer: Two miles from Mandan,
on the bluffs near the junction of the Hart
and Missouri rivers, is an old cemetery of fully
100 acres in extent filled with bones of a giant
race. This vast city Of the dead lies Just east
of the FIT Lincoln road. The ground has the
appearance of having been fill.t vith trenches
piled full OF dead bodies, both n. an and beast,
and covered with several feet of earth. 10
many places mounds from eight to ten feet
high and some of them 0 feet or more in
length. have been thrown up and are filed
with homes hrnkpn Nptrarv w nf yarip,,a
bright colorcd tints and agates. The pottery is
of a dark material, beautifully decorated, deli
cate in finish and as light as wood. showing The
work of q people skilled in the arts and
possessed of q high state of civilization. This
has evidently been a grand battlefield where
thousands OF men and horses have fallen.
Nothing like a systematic or intelligent ax-
ploratlon has been made, as only little holes
two or three feet in depth have been dug in
some of the mounds, but many parts OF the
anatomy of man and beast, aud beautiful
specimens of broken pottery and other curl
osities, have been found i'll these feeble efforts
at X cavation. Five miles above Mandan. on
the opposite side of the Missouri, is another
vast cemetery as yet uneNplored. We asked
an aged Indian what his people knew of these
ancient grbyeyards. He answered: "Me know
nothing about them. They were here before
the Red man, ~
The Huron Capita. Commission Meeting.
At the meeting of citizens of Huron to in
dorse the capital removal bill, the following
resolutions were adopted:
Resolved, That we, as citizens Of Central Das Ola,
extend to the capital commission this expression OF
our confidence in their integrity as men, aud their
ability as representative Dakotians. to properly
discharge the duties imposed upon them by law,
That we deprecase any attempted interference
with the commission in the lawful discharge of
it's duties.
That we pledge to the gentlemen of the com
mission our support in their efforts to do their duty,
Ihat the scandalouS and unwarrantsd attacks
made by certain obscure prints upon the gentlemen
OF the commission, the governor aud general assem-.
o!y, has our severe censura and condemnation, and
are made without any foundation in fact,
That we heartily indorse the course of our repre-
sentative, Hon. George W. Sterling, in tho last
Legislature, and welcome him home with this
plaudit. We'll done" '
Yankton County Will Refund.
IANKToN, OAK, Special Telegram, April OBJ
1ankton county held an election TODAY 10 vote
upon the question of retunding the county debt.
For several days a committee of citizens has been
making a quiet canvass in the city and
county, and little opposition was encountered.
The vote in the city was about $50
Tor refunding, and not a vote against it. This vote is
not quite two-thirds of the reeuler vote. I, is ex-
pected that the country vote will DO still lighter. as
farmers are all busy. This will at leas. settle This
vezed question. and Yankton county will now stem
up to the captains office and pay its debts. This
disposition of tho matter was largely hronrht
about BY Gov. Ordway. who was INSTRUMENTAL in
calling a meeting last October, when che