The Madisonian. (Virginia City, Mont.) 1873-1915, 1896-03-21
I'm THE EARLY SIXTIES
A NARRATIVE By DAN W.
WILLIAMS
OF the Days of Gold in Alder Gulch and
Bannack-An Interesting Paper of His
torical Value-Experiences With the
andits

to- the Silver CluD O! butte, py Mr.. H..
w. Williams of this city. 1t is of
especial interest to the people OF Madi-
son county:
I arrived at Bannack on the 29th day
of June. 1863. | had come from Rock
Island. Illinois, with a party, consist
ing, besides myself. of twenty men, n
of whom was accompanied by his wife.
Our train was a horse and mule train
of nine wagons. Our journey was by
the way of kearney, Fort Laramie,
Sweetwater. and Sublette's Cut off.
The party narrowly escaped massacre
at the hands of the Indians Il few miles
north of Green river. We had camped
one night on the banks of Antelope
creek. where the red clover was grow
ing abundantly, and where the fishing
and hunting was excellent: we had
seen no signs of Indians. that day, an d
being anxious to avail ourselves of the
hunting and fishing, we did not corral
our wagons as was u usual custom,
but left them in a line where each one
had come to a halt. About eleven
o'clock that night we we're startled by
an Indian war cry, and several rife
shots.
The captain having directed me to
choose a companion and go out to rec
onnOiter. | chose John Perkins, who
is now a wealthy rauchman in Meagher
county: T chose Perkins, not only be-
cause he was a brave man, but because
he had a gun that was a small cannon,
in its way, and would take twice as
large a charge of slugs as a common
shot gun. We did not have occasion
to shoot at the Indians, however, but
discovered that there was a wal party
of about forty of them.
During our absence our party corral
ed the wagons and secured the stock.
The Indians made no further attack on
us during the night, but when we start
on in the morning, We could catch
glimpses of them in the hills about,
thanking us in on every side. What
made the situation more desperate was
that eight miles further on the road
entered & narrow canyon where we
would be almost at their mercy. Fully
expecting that our end was near. those
of the party who could be spared from
active duty YER writing notes to ab-
sent friends and dropping them in the
sage brush by the roadside. Suddenly
one of the men on the watch shouted
that he saw a soldier. then ap.
pcarel. and We o % met General Con
nor with companies OF calvary and in
fantly from Fort Bridger. He told u:
that they had doubtless saved us from
complete massacre. as there were {
thousand hostile Snake warriors in the
immediate vicinity. Our escape dur
ing the night had been due to the fac
that the I~nuians were short of ammu
milton, and knowing OF the approach 0
General Connor. they had saved theiI
powder and balls for the soldiers. Oh
coming through the canyon. some o
our party discovered human bones ano
skeletons among the rocks.
When we arrived at Snake river, VIZ
found that Connor's ferry was still in
complete, and rather than be delayed
a week, we caulked our wagon boxe'
and prepared to ferry ourselves across
In spite of the prediction of partie
that we would all be lost. we We're al
safely on the other side the next day
and ready to proceed with Il journey
One of the first men I met on arriv
ing at Banrack was Haze Lyons, VIII
had been sentenced to he hanged 70
the murder of Deputy Sheriff Dillinc
ham at Virginia City, but who had es
capped through the pleading OF some Q
his women friends. He was afterward
hanged by the vigilantes. Henri,
Plummer was q prominent citizen c
Bannack at the time of our arrival, an,
was the sheriff. remember him as
man of medium size, very %courteOu
and urbane in his manners, and he ha
a way of making himself agreeable t
whatever company he was in. He wa
very fluent with the scripture, and a
:. Sun river he had made himself SO enter
tanning to the preacher then Twin
there, that he had succeeded in MARI,
ing his sister-in-law. There was a di
ference of opinion as to Plummer q
that time. AS q rule he was very POI
ular. One mar who had known him Z