The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1892-01-28
SIMPSONS ROCK.
= Monument TO the Hsroism of . Grsa<
Indian Ffwhtar


Iudsnn Fighter.
Ont At Trinidad, Col, Just sonth Of
the town. is huge fat-topped rock on
the top OF hill perhaps three hundred
feet high II = called simpsons Rock,
and is one of the historical points 10
the west Indeed. It is fragment 81
history from that time when heroic
deeds made sacred by the splitting Of
white mans blood ushered in the safe
and prosperous era Of white mans
rule. =
Simpson was pioneer and came to
the place long before the name oil
Trinidad was heard. He was a
freighter, and finding many advantages
about the spot he prepared home for
his family on the bank OF the Purga-
toir river. He had wife and two
boys in his home at Santa Fe, and no
man ever more lovingly, prepared a
lodge for his love than this rough
driver fashioned dwelling In PARKWAY
Trinidad. He had everything in readi.
ness as he passed through to the east,
and meant to bring out his wife and
children ol his next trip west But
the Indians had risen that fall and
swept all the settlements down the
river They found Simpsons home Just
ready for occupancy, captured the men
he aad employed to take care Of it, and
then laid in wait without disturbing a
thing till the owner should come
Simpson had seen signs of their raw
ages, and knew the knife and brand
were devastating the country. He cir.
cled around his cherished home and
saw enough to warn him. He drove to
the foothills, south of the river, and
began preparations for guarded camp.
The Indians did not wait for barricades,
but attacked at once. The helpers
were slaughtered atzthe frst=assault.
but Simpson, with one canteen OF
water, fought his way through the line
of screaming Utes and clambered up
the hill. They followed him as well as
they could, but darkness favored him,
and he gained the hills Nextmorning
early they found him, and he reiterated
little further up the hill, killing sew
eral of his assailants from better
cover. In the afternoon they drove
him from that, and he clambered a lit
tie higher up. So the warfare went
on He had shot SO many they would
not leave him alive, but they could not
capture him. The second night Simp-
son retreated to the very top of the
hill, rolled up shelter Of stones in a
spot where he could command the one
approach, and waited. He. had eaten
nothing and could hope for no food.
The only chance of deliverance lay in
the possible coming of soldiers tc
avenge the massacre of settlers. Lying
there in the broiling sun by day and
the chilling air by night, the grim old
man watched sleeplessly, picking of
his enemies as they crapt one by one.
up the path.
Day after day for week, without
other food than cactus root, with nc
water than that one canteen full, he
stood off his enemies. He never shot
till head was in sight, and he always
killed. Ten days, and he prayed for
death Eleven and he lost his cartridge
belt. He found it feebly crawling
about his little fort, ON the evening Of
the twelfth. He killed three Indians
on the thirteenth In the thick dark
ness before the dawn OF the fourteenth
day he felt rather than saw an Indian al
the path, and shot without waver.
He heard the voiceless Ute roll down
the precipice and pumped in another
cartridge.
That was his last They found him
40 at noon, his deal eyes wide open,
his rife laying along the rock, his
pinched, Heroic frame starved for food
and famished for water, so thin that
they spurned it with their feet For
fourteen days he had fought them, aud
then he had died defiant.
Trinidad people have raised cross to
mark his grave and perpetuate the
memory of the most hopeless. the most
surprising fight in all the Indian annals
Chicago Herald.