, 1889-10-04
IN THE EARLY DAYS.
A Former Resident of Wyoming
Talks of Old, Times.
How He Aided in the Formation of
Laramie County.
His Services in the First Legislative
Council.
To the Editor of The Leader.

days ago | read In a telegram relating tc
the constitutional convention at Cheyenne
that a letter had been received from a
man named George Wilson. claiming tc
have been a member of the first legisla.
ture," etc. l could not help thinking
that the waves must dash very vigorously
on the sands of time to obliterate one's
name and memory so quickly. We are
soon forgotten when we are gone, but q:
| have not gone yet | wish to burnish the
memory of some of those in Wyoming
who knew me when | was there. as well
as to show the pioneers In FOUR state gov
eminent that | was the first man who
moved for civil government In your part
of the moral vineyard.
| drove for miles through what is now
Wyoming when still a boy. starting at
Nebraska City, going up the Platte, Pole
Greek, through Cheyenne Pass and thence,
after striking the stage coach at Big Lara
mic, followed it to Salt Lake City. We
returned the same way. As we went out
we made a narrow escape from the Sioux
on Pole Greek, some where near the
present station of Pine Bluffs. They
hhOhEhh VIC OuknJ " pay lOll lOT ROluR
through their country on a new road and
soaring oat game. We refused and they
prepared to fight; we got ready too, and
finally a compromise was aged to, we
paying a small toll but not allowing them
to come near our wagons.
On that trip L thought that there would
some day be a own at the mouth of
Cheyenne Pass. as the situation was SO
beautiful, and that it would naturally be
called Cheyenne City.
The following summer 1 returned, and
lived at Fort Laramie, working for Mr..
Ward, the post trader, and the next win
ter went to Fort HaIleck to take charge
of a store for him there. The next sum
mer will never be forgotten by the first
set of white men in the territory before
railroad time, and after Fur Company
times. The Indians were like the waves
OF a resistless sea, rolling everywhere. ex-
cept that here and there a fort or a stage
station was like a lonely island.
One company of Ohio volunteers at
tempted, under orders from Denver, to
protect the stage line from Virginia Dale
to Bitter creek, strung out with two to
four soldiers at a station. This simply
in yited their destruction, which the In
dians nearly accomplished before the
remnant was ordered back to Fort Hal
leck. There were about twenty FIVE per-
sons of all sorts in the fort, left to defend
it when the soldiers were scattered as
above mentioned. We slept at night in a
stockade built OF twenty foot poles set up-
rightly with one end about three feet in
the ground. Inside we made a barricade
of sacks of corn. The few women and
children were kept there all the time.
1t looked to us as il everybody had
forgotten us or nobody cared what be-
came of us. But one day we saw a long
line of men coming over the hills from
the northeast. We thought at first they
were Indians and wondered If our time
had come, but as they came nearer we
made out with our glasses that they were
soldiers. L was never so glad to see any
body in my life. They were Kansas
cavalry under command Of Lieut.. Col.
Plumb, now senator from Kansas. He
and | formed a friendship that has
lasted to this day, though differing IN
politics.
When Halleck was abandoned and
Fort Sanders started | was made post
trader by Edwin N. Stanton, secretary Of
war, who in his boYhood had slid down
the cellar door with my father in their
native town of Steubenville, Ohio. Lille
in a fort on the frontier was unlike any
other. There was no law and the COM
mandant was king. He could under mil.
itary usage do anything but have a man
executed, and some of them did this, too,
occasionally, as | know and once wit
messed When the post commander was
an amiable despot, life wa as pleasant as
could be desired, but when the contrary
it was exceedingly dlsagreeable. Some.
times he was a liberal, sensible man aud
would say sell my men all the liquor
they can pay for, and if they misbehave |
will put them in the guard house" Pro-
badly the mex one would not allow a drop
on the reservation, except what the doc
tor had a few bottles In the hospital.
Strange to say there was more drunken
ness IN the fort under the latter than I'M
der the former plan. Soldiers would get
drunk on Jamaica ginger" cologne,
Perry Davis Pain Killer AYERS
Sarsaparilla," and anything else il the
way OF a tlncture. From observations
made then | was forever convinced that
prohibition can never prohibit. A sol
der at Fort Laramie had fits that bafiied
the doctor, who said he had never seen
the like. Mr.. Ward told MIN they were
"Sarsaparilla fits"
The inhuman treatment of an old sol.
der named James +, iris, then keeping a
road ranch near Fort Sanders, was too
much for my American blood. Then and
there | formed a resolution. Next win.
ter when the legislature met at Yankton
[ wrote and secured the creation of Lara.
mic county, Dakota territory, which con
sisted of all the panhandle" or nearly
all that is now the territory of Wyoming.
The seat of government was Fort Sand
ers; | was made probate Judge, but never
Exercised the functions. That was the
first step in the growth of civil govern
ment in what is now Wyoming and what
will soon, | hope, be a state.
When a member of the council in the
first legislature | devoted almost my en-