The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-14

Long years hadsit served as refuge and
resting place for the emigrants in the
days before the Union Pacific was built
when the overland stage route followed
the Platte to the Sweetwater and then
past the Devils Gate and Independence
Rock, old landmarks of the Mormons,
and on to the backbone of the continent.
where the mountain streams, springing
from rocky beds not long pistol shot
apart, flowed ripping away, the one to
the Missouri and Gulf of Mexico, the
other to the Colorado and that of Cali
fornia. Frayne was but huge stock
ade in the early days of the civil war
but the government found it important
from strategica1 point of view. even
after the railway spanned the Rockies
and the emigrant and settler no longer
trudged the weary trail that, bordering
the Sioux country, became speedily
road of fire and blood second only in it's
terrors to the Smoky Hill route through
bleeding Kansas" Once it was the boast
of the Dakotas. it has been for gem
erations of their enemies, the Absarakas.
or Crows. that they had never shed the
blood of white man. Settlers of the
old days used to tell how the Sioux had
followed them for long. long marches,
not to murder and pillage, but to re-
store to them items lost along the trail
or animals strayed from their little
herds. But there came an end to all
this when, resisting an unjust demand,
the Sioux, fired upon, retaliated. From
the day of the Grattan massacre be-
yond old Laramie there has been no
real peace with the lords of the North
west. They are quiet only when sub
dued by force. They have broken the
crust of their environment time and
again, and burst forth in the seething
flame of volcano that is ever bubbling
and boiling beneath the feet of the
frontiersman to this day.
And SO Frayne was maintained as a
military post for years. first as stock
ade, then as subdepot of supplies, gar
rlsoned by four companies of infantry
and four of cavalry, the former to hold
the fort, the latter to scour the neigh
boring country. Then as time wore on
and other posts We're built further UP
in the Big Horn, Frayne's garrison
dwndled, but there stood upon it's COM
manding bluff the low rows of wooden
barracks, the parallel rows of double
sets of broad piazzaed quarters where
dWelt the officers. the long, low, log
revetted walls Of the corrals and cav
airy stables on the flats below Here
oddly enough, the Twelfth had spent
uVely year or two before it went to
Arizona. Here it learned the Sioux
country and the Sioux so we'll that
when, few years back, the ghost dance
craze swept over the plains and noun
tains like the plague the old regiment
was hurried from its sunshiny stations
md
Tor troops at least within the very walls
that long before had echoed to its
trumpets. Here we found them in the
midst of the Christmas preparations
that were turned so suddenly into sum
mons to the field, and here again, three
years later still. headquarters and six
troops now, the proud old regiment is
sun at Frayne. and Fenton vice
Farrar killed in action with hostile In
dians,' holds the command.
n good soldier is F'enton; brave fell
low, trifie rough at times like the sim
pie pialns-bred Dragon he is, but gen
tieman with gentle heart in his breast
Tor all the stern exterior. Women said
of him that all he needed to make him
perfect was polish and all he needed
TO give him polish was a wife, for at
hfty-four the grizzled colonel was q
bachelor. But Fenton had had his ro-
nance in early youth He had loved
with all his big heart, so said tradition
New York belle and beauty whom he
., ID.
rumor said preferred another whom she
married before the war, and many
garrison belle had since vainly set her
cap for Fenton and found him faithful
TO his early love. But though the ladies
often specialized as to the identity of the
woman who had held the ColonePs heart
IN bondage all these years and blocked.
the way for all successors, no one of
their number had ever heard her name
or ever knew the truth. One officer
there was in the Twelfth who, like Fen
ton himself, was confirmed bachelor,
and who was said to be possessed of
the whole story, but there was no use
asking Malcolm Lcale to tell anybody's
secrets. and when Fenton came to
F'rayne, promoted to the command Sc
recently held by a man they ali loved
and honored, it was patent to every
body that he felt sorely, as though he
We're an usurper. Fenton many
long miles away with another battalion
or the Twelfth the day of the tragic
battle on the Mini Pusa and it was long
months thereafter before he appeared at
regimentaf headquarters, and then he
brought with him as his housekeeper
MS maiden sister, Lucretia, and in Luz
cretia Fenton-the dreamiest, dowdiest,
kindliest, -quaintest middle-aged prattler
that ever lived, moved and had her be-
ing in the army--the ladies of the
twelfth found so much to make merry
over that they well nigh forgot and for
gave the unfiattering indifference to-
feminine destinations of her brother, the
Colonel.
When Fenton came the Farrars,
widowed mother and devoted daughter,
mad been gone some weeks. The shock
of her husbands death had we'll nigh
shaken Mrs. Farrar's reason, and for
months her condition was indeed deplor-
able. Loving him devotedfy, glorying in
ms soldierly record and reputation, yet
ever dreading for him just such an end.
she had been so Frustrated by ner grief
mat Ellis almost forgot her own bitter
sorrow in the contemplation Of her
mothers woe. For months the daugh-
ter was her main prop and comfort and
attendant. VIII, her bright brave boy,
could not be permitted to leave his
studies at the Point. Royle, her first
born. was an outcast and wanderer she
knew not where. Ellis, her youngest
her one daughter, proved to be her chief
dependence Loving friends and rela-
ives she had in plenty, to be sure. and
through the providence of her soldier
husband her fortune was unimpaired,
and, fortunately. more than sufficient for
her needs. And so for over six months