St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-01-28

5IOuiiu lOT inc past lcll years
f has been among the foot hills
of the Turtle mountains in
North Dakota, where he has earned
many dollar in the honest but pre-
carious vocation of protecting the prop
erty of tendcrfOOt settlers against the
lawlesS claim-jumper. He is known as
big Dan" in his balliwick, and he is
looked upon by the settlers Of that wild
region in about the same light that the
citizens of the United States look upon
the standing army. The title of big
Dan" is not misnOmer, for he stands
three inches more than six feet in his
msccasins, and girts nearly five feet
around the chest. His legs are like the
limbs of an elephant and his neck is as
thick as that of a Texas steer. His face
locks ShOrn by shears. and around his
face and over his head hangs shaggy
mass of carrOty hair that has been
kept within bounds by Dan himself,
who has periodically sawed off the
Straying hair with the keen edge of his
hunting knife that he carries belted
around his ample waist, sleeping or
waking. This peculiar individual was
born in the northeast corner of Oregon
thirty years ago, according to his own
testimony, and gradually worked his
way across the Rockies into the terri
tory of Dakota, never once having rid
den on railroad or approached, civil,
ization until week ago, when he slid
over the frozen prairie on snow
shoes to Devils Lake City,
and, clad in his quaint garb of
poorly tanned deerskin, boarded the
train that eventually landed him in ST.
Paul. 1t was no ordinary circumstance
that led this queer man to undertake
such trip, and the story he told the
GLOBE correspondent was interesting
as we'll as pathetic. In his poor English
he told why he was here and why he in
tended to continue his journey to West
Virginia. AS he finished his story, he
brought his heavy fist down Oh the bar
by which he stood, with a force that
tender look nervous, and said, with
look of logged determination in his
eyes, I'm er goin' ter find whut TdI
after, if it takes me till HI freezes
over"
Three years ago, according to Dams
story, information was brought to him
that claim Jumpers were making it hot
for ayoung fellow in the northern part
of Tower county and he started for the
scene OF the trouble, as he put it.
''Spilln' fur er chance ter do up the
squaw-faced land hoppers.'' The claim
iii question was in an uninhabited part
of the country. and when he arrived he
found it in possession OF two we'll known
and
DESPERATE CHARACTERS
who had driven the rightful owner off
and were holding the fort with rifles
threats of a weak-lOOking young fellow
who had filed upon the land and at con-
siderable expense built a comfortable
shack upon it and was preparing to i'm
prove it by cultiyating the soil. When
Dan arrived, the young. fellow was
wandering around the claim sleeping
on the prairie and endeayOring to make
terms with the usurpers who only
laughed at him.
Dan said he took ''Sort oy er shine to
ther young Teller on the START and
when he saw how the land lay he laid
himself out to do up the jumpers at
and knew he was not to be trified with.
SO when Dan walked over to the shack
he was met at the door by Tom Wolf
land, the most desperate of the two men,
who showed a revolver under Dams
nose and told him if he didn't ''vamOose''
inStanter he would shoot hole through
him. Dan wasn't built that way, aud
yanking out his revolver he fired at the
jumper, who dropped with hole
through his right side. Wolfland's COM
panion, seeing his partner go down,
opened fire on Dan, who got bullet
through his left arm and had a furrow
torn through his scalp, but the jumper
got bullet from Dams revolver through
the jaw, and signified his Willingness to
quit the claim if Dan would stop shoot
ing. The wounded jumpers were loaded
into blackboard that was their prop
erty, and behind a pair of mules that
they had br ought to the claim with
them, were set adrIft and were never
heard of by Dan or the man he had be-
friended thereafter.
The young fellow whose claim Dan
had saved was exceedingly grateful and
dressed the wounds of his benefactOr
with unusual skill. He told Dan that
service then, but when he could raise
the funds h e would settle. He said his
name was Daniel Furness and he came
from Randolph county, near the head of
Cheat river, West Virginia, where his
mother lived. His father and two
brothers had been killed while serving
in the confederate army, and the sup
port of his mother having fallen upon
his shoulders he had come up into North
Dakota with the intention of building a
home for his mother and himself. There
were few hundred dollars left to the
wife and son when his father went down
under fire of
THE FEDERAL FORCES
and this money he left in a Wheeling
bank to be used by his mother while he
was establishing home in the North.
This story told by FurneSS enlisted
fh1, of 10 of no;
chance acquaintance grew into sort of
a brOtherly attachment that lasted
through the three years that FurnesS
was busily engaged in cuitivating his
claim. With Dams assistance he got
along famOusly. He had proved up OH
his tree claim and homestead, and be-
sides had managed to purchase 800
acres, so that last spring found him III
possession of $40 acres of splendid land.
Big Dan had come to look upon Furness
as sort of protege of his, and the
people who had settled around the Fur
ness claim dubbed them Big and Little
Dan. They were almost inseparable
companions, and a year ago, when Big
Dan was stricken with fever, Furness
nursed him so tenderly that he pulled
through and came out all right.
''He wus eZ smart er young duck ez
ever got rained on" said Dan, with a
moisture in his eye. cpl never forget
him ez long ez I'm on top ov earth. /
thought er darned sight more ov him
than l did my own carcass"
Furness was making preparations to
go East and return with his mother
next spring to his Dakota possessions.
He had bargained with Big Dan to look
after the farm while he was absent, and
he was to have started East Feb. l. A
week ago last Tuesday FurnesS went to
Church's Ferry to make purchase of
provisions to carry Big Dan through the
winter. He remained in Church's
Ferry Tuesday night and started for
home Wednesday noon. That afternoon
a terrible blizzard came up and Furness
must have become bewildered, for he
did not reach home. but Big Dan think