Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-03-28
LIFE ON THE BIG SANDY.
THE WILD ONES WHO HELD FORTH
THERE FIFTY YEARS AGO.

THE WILD ONES WHO HELD FORTH
THERE FIFTY YEARS AGO.
Raftsmen Would Seize, n Steamer and Turn
Things Loose-The "Big Sandy Dollar
and the Ethics Which Protected the
Counterfeiters . .
The mountaineers who live along the Big
Sandy river, which forms the dividing line
between West Virginia and Kentucky, and
their %neighbors of northeastern Kentucky,
who nave been so prominent for many years
in feuds, vendettas and bloody battles, are
most peculiar people, with q history running
back into the SOS, '4Os md SOS and genera
tions preceding, which, If published, would
throw into the shade the best efforts Of the
Texas frontier in the days of its greatest no.
toriety. The Big Sandians proper, the men
who compose the corps of the Hatfields and
McCoys, owe their peculiar characteristics,
their vengeful disposition and their un-
daunted bravery to an ancestry dating back
to the time when the foothills of the Cum
berland mountains and streams and valleys
tributary to the Sandy were first settled by
a race of intrepid Indian hunters and trap
pSIS, lOuOWeTS Ol DOOue, AcuCOT, tATDuCkl0
and other leading spirits.
Many Of these men married Indian squaws
captured in raids, or purchased from the diff
fercnt warlike tribes which then inhabited
this region, and the blood of these feminine
branches of the kingliest Indians for tradi-
ton and documents still in existence show
that the white hunter of that day was still
something of an aristocrat, and seldom con-
descended to mate with members
of the tribes is at this late day plainly ap-
parent in the tall, straight forms, the keen
ayes and long, black hair of many of the
older families. To this fact is also attributed
many of the peculiarities of temperament
and disposition so anomalous in this age of
intelligence. Around these people, as a nu-
cleus, back in the '3Os and '4Os of the present
generation, all the wild spirits of this part of
the country, who were either driven from
the large centers Of the population by vio-
lence of some statute or by choice, seem to
have been attracted by some occult magnet
ism until the Big Sandy country became
known throughout the country as the home
and hiding place of hundreds of the widest
characters.
RUNNING THE BOAT.
The Big Sandy raftsmen became known
throughout the country as the widest, most
dangerous class of men on the Ohio river.
Their carouses, their love of fighting or any
thing which partook of desperation and devil
try is still a familiar theme from Pittsburg
to Cincinnati. Hundreds of stories of their
dare devil scrapes are still told along the
river, and it was not an uncommon thing
when several hundred of them had sold their
timber, which they had foated down to Gin
cinnati in immense RATS and fleets, for them
to get on board one of the largestb boats which
at that day piled the river on their up trip
and take the captain, pilots, engineers and
other officers prisoners and run the boat to
suit themselves. On such occasions q steam
boat would become a pandemonium, with
several hundred gigantic devils whooping,
yelling, splitting tobacco juice against the
bulkheads, mirrors or furniture, while others
disported themselves with cards and played
"old sledge" or 'stud horse poker'' until one
or other participant got up dead broke or the
affair ended in a general fight.
Upon the hurricane deck some leading
spirit would stand in command Of the vessel
while another covered the pilot with a pistol
or rifle and compelled him to steer the craft
subject to the whim of the biggest devil, who
was in command. Below one or two sat
around in the engine room and 'spersuaded"
the engineer and stokers into submission. On
these occasions the amount of steam was most
frequently controlled only by the capacity of
the boilers, US the boat fairly few through
the water. Every other craft in the legiti-
mate trade gave the pirate" as wide a berth
as possible, running into the bank if neces-
sary to get out of the way. When a town or
landing was approached the bell was kept
changing as fast as stalwart arms could pull
the rope while the whistle was blown loud
and long enough to awaken the seven Sleep
ers.
I The citizens of the towns seemed to know
by intuition that the raftsmen had taken pos
session of a boat long before she came in
sight and crowds of them would congregate
along the ban to witness the strange scene.
There was no use to resist, as steamboatmen
soon learned, and the only way to save the
boat and property was to effect some sort of
compromise, which generally ended in the
daredevils running the steamer half a day or
such a matter, when they turned her over to
the proper owners.
Although these men were known to be dare
devils and fond of a fight or anything which
partook of excitement, they were not all bad
by any means. Still as the Big Sandy coun-
try was known to be the hiding place of nun
dreds Of desperadoes, it got a widespread no.
toriety.
THE "BIG DOLLAR"
Along in the '40s and SOS the country for
hundreds of miles above and below was filled
with counterfeits, principally silver dollars.
The government of the United States sent
out a number of its best detectives, and after
a long time they located their manufacture
at Sandy, but the manufacture was not sup
pressed until a long time after everybody
knew as well as the officers themselves that
the counterfeit was manufactured somewhere
up the stream. The big Sandy dollar as
the counterfeit was ~denominated, was as
common as its more legitimate brother from
the mint at Washington or New Orleans
along the Ohio valley, and it was claimed
openly, and, I believe, frequently admitted
to this day by the older people, that the "Big
Sandy dollar" contained as much silver and
and was as handsome a piece of money as the
genuine.
Even long after the discovery of the conf
ackers' den in the mountain the bogus dollar
remained in circulation. To account for this
the writer has been often told that the coun-