Daily public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1892-191?, 1896-10-24
GRAVES ON The PRAIRlEs.
Resting Places of Western Pioneers
Marked by Rude slabs and Fences.

colorado 20 years. when i first came
to the Rocky mountain region l took
ride from Sterling down along the
banks of the Platte toward the noun
tains, which are so or 60 miles distant
What first attracted my attention after
i had passed out of sight of the town
and 1 had found myself on the open
plains was little spot eight feet by
eight inclosed with an implanted picket
fence. 1 wondered what the fence was
there for. There was apparently moth
ing in particular inside of it, not even
a mound. The pickets were decaying,
and some of them had fallen away.
There was not house for miles around
nothing but the unbroken plain.
"When l stopped at a ranch some
miles further down the river l asked
the owner of the place about the fence.
'S'Didn't you ever see a grave before|
he asked, in establishment. He had
passed nearly his whole life on the plains
and he could not understand my ig-
norance.
81 told him l was a tenderfoot.
"'Yes,' he said, L guess they don't
fence in their graves anywhere but out
in these parts. We have to do it out
here. If we didn't the wolves and the
coyotes would dig the bones up in no
time. There amt many graves here
abouts marked with headstones. 1
know five graves within 20 miles of
here and not one of them has a head
stone. Trouble is there amt no stones
of any account and lumber is pretty
scarce, too. No use labelling graves
out in this country. Nobody ever no
tees them
"'Whose grave is this one?'
"'Well, sir, l guess I'm about the
only person around here now who knows
who's buried there. 1t was quite
number of years back that he died, for
it's man that lies there; mighty few
women out here in those days. He
was Phil Pearson, and a handsomer and
finer man you never saw. l knew him
well and sorry enough l was when |
built that fence around him. He was
too much of man to die as he died.
He could go into corral with his rope
and pick out a horse every time. He'd
never have TO make more than one
throw. There wasn't handler man
with the rope in the whole state. He
lived up on top of the hill over yonder,
where you see that old rickety house.
Nobody's lived in the house since. It's
falling to pieces for lack of care. The
winds blown the doors off their hinges
and the windows were smashed in long
ago.
""The Indians were pretty thick
around here when Phil was alive. They
were pretty dangerous, too. You
couldn't depend on them. They were
liable to break out and go on the war
path at any time. Phil lived all alone.
l lived right here, and there wasn't
a soul within 20 miles of us. l sometimes
used to tell Phil that it was risky bust
ness living out here with so many In
dams prowling round the north end
of the state, but it never used to worry
him. Let 'em come" he always said,
"and the sooner the better. ! amt
afraid of any of them"
"'Well, sir, they did come one day,
but there was only poor Phil to see
them. Just how it all happened don't
know. L was away at Ogiyie's, 20
miles down the river. On my way back |
l found his body way down where the |
grave is. l says to myself that il wasn't |
any use Juggling his body away. 1t don't |
make any difference where mans |
buried. He's no better off. What was
more, l couldn't carry it very well on |
horseback. So / rode back here and |
got spade, some boards, an AK and |
hammer and nails, and then went down |
TO where the body was. l dug the
grave and buried him. Then l put up
the fence, so the coyotes couldn't come J
around and dig him up. was his only
friend around this part of the coun-
try, so there wasn't much use of any
ceremony, and you're the only man but
old Jim Ogilvie who has ever asked me
whose grave that was
There are other graves Just as lone
~ as that up in northern Colorado"
the Denver man. up near
Crow creek there are three a little way
apart, each fenced around with picliets.
4 woman and her two little daugh-
ters are buried there. They had come
)ut from some little place i'm New Eng
and and the rough life was too much
for them. Some say the woman died
Of loneliness. There wasn't another
woman within days ride of her. She
ust pinned away and died, and the girls
vent within a month. The father
,Hried them all and went up into the
yold mines.
"The oldest grave of white man in
he state is a short ride out of Loveland.
There was a fence around it many years
lgo, l suppose, but there is nothing
tut a little mound there now. Ii is
he grave of one of Frcmont's men.
lie died as his famous leader was talk
ng his party into the mountains, and
lis grave is at the edge of the foothills
have often thought how the wolves q
must have howled around it, as they {
o around all of those solitary graves !
or weeks after the burial."-N. Y.
un.
TOOk Chances IN tho goan.