The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1894-03-01
THE 0LD-TIMER.
"reminiscences of Washington County
Pioneer Who Game With the Valiant
Little Band of Quarter Of a Century
Ago.
NO. v.

Bannocks and Nez Perces, in 1871
we had our big scare, for it was onl,
that-no one getting killed that sum
mer The Indians were causing
trouble all around us, but the Weisei
Indians remained friendly that sum.
mer and did not commence hostilties
1 until 1858, when they killed Billy
Monday, Jake Groseclose and Tom
Hailey,of Indian valley Scion Hall
had the mail contract between Indian
valley and Warrens, and | think il
was in June, II, that his son Edgar,
who was carrying the mail at that
time, brought us the news one trip
that the hostiles were on their way to
take the Weiser valleys. We were all
terribly frightened and the settlers 81
Council came right down to Indian
valley, and they, with the Indian
valley people, forted up at Scion
Halls place first, but only stayed
there one night, as everyone thought
it was too near the brush, as there
were so many willows around his
place. They put out guards, but
forgot to give the first lot out any
cartridges, and they stood guard for
about four hours with empty guns,
and were so ratified q guess that is
the right name for iD they did not
think anything about it until when
the relief came they asked for the
cartridges. The next morning they
concluded to all go down to Billy
Mondays and Billy McCullough's
place, as it was about the centre of
the valley and no brush close by.
A few only, with their families, had
got down there that morning when an
accident occurred that came very near
getting some Of Salubria's citizens
killed. The Salubrla people had
heard the report by this time and a
lot of them thought they would ride
up to Indian valley and see if they
could see any signs of the Indians.
a lot OF government guns had been
sent to Salubria and each man had a
new, bright gun flashing in the sun
light, which made them look formid-
able long ways off. We were sure
they were Indians. We supposed
they had passed through the hills and
taken Salubria and a band of them
were coming up there to take us, too,
and no one knew how many more
there were behind The house where
we were was at the upper end of a
lane leading from the road and an
other house, Billy Mes, was at the
lower end of the lane, close to the
road; so this handful of men deter
mined to meet them at the foot of
the lane and keep as many as posi-
BILE from coming up to the house
The nine--no, only eight, as there
was one coward among them; he
wouldn't go Mrs. Nc. said to him,
"Why don't you go?" al amt
any gun Take the ak, that good
for one. y But no, he wouldn't 90.
but got i'll the house among the
women, worse frightened than any of
them The eight crept down through
the tall rye grass As they were go
ing, Tom Price said, "Boys, every
Teller pick his man; that on the
big brown horse is mine, and they
did. Each one had his man picked,
and the only thing that saved them
was that something got wrong with
one of the saddles and they all
stopped while the rider fixed it. They
happened to be just on the other side
of the house, so our men couldn't
see them, and they thought they were
preparing for rush But fortu-
nately for them, when they started up
again they saw two men coming down
the road from Mr. Halls and rode on
up to meet them instead of going up
the lane When they saw the eight
men with guns come out into the
road it was their turn to be fright
ened, as they saw how near they had
some of them come to being shot.
Billy Allison said it gave him turn,
for he knew if he had ever turped I'D
the lane Tom Price wouldn't have
missed, for he was Toms man. Well.
by night everybody in Council and
Indian valleys were camped there
some two or three hundred, all told.
A little fun was had, in spite of our
fears, by the young folks getting
suit of women's clothing for the cow
ard, who brought his bed and made
it down among the women and chill
dren, but it did not hurt his feelings
He was married man. too, but his
family were east and were spared the
shame of seeing him display his cow
ardice. They made corral of the
wagons around the house and guards
were stationed this time with plenty
of ammunition. The next day Mr..
Hit and some others who were out
accommodating. captured an Indian.
lie claimed to be a friendly Indian.
but he had Sioux warriors head
dress on him. 1t was composed of a
pair of buffalo horns, highly polished,
and eagle feathers, with a long tail of |
scarlet cloth that touched the ground
when he had 1t on (standing), pro-
fusely decorated with beads and eagle
feathers They were going to put !
an end to him, but Tom HALEY, who
lived with the Weiser Indians, said