Omaha daily bee., 1899-03-19
DRIVING TURKEYS OVERLAND
Unique Expedition from Omaha to Denver in
the Early Sixties.
WOLVES AND RANCHNEN PREY ON FLOCK
Three Hcrders Accompany Drove of
Fowls Five Hundred Miles and
Market Them at Good proHt
After Many Adventures.

about the oldest freighting OUTFIT that
left Omaha for the trip across the plains In
the early COS" says Henry Reckmeyer, now
a building contractor Of Fremont, was Mil
ler's turkey drive. l was in Omaha in the
spring of 1868 not any too we'll stocked with
money and anxious to get out to the mining
country with as little expense as possible,
so hired out to Miller as a kind of roust-
about on the drive He hired another man,
Henry Swobe the butcher we called him.
Miller had picked up his birds in Iowa that
spring at a cost of from 81 to $3.50 apiece
and hauled them to Omaha. Not being able
to make much out Of them in Omaha, he
decided to drive them over the overland
route to Denver putting them into a coup
at night, so that one wagon and team OF
horses would be all that would be needed.
I'VE built a big crate or coop, a double-
deck concern, which extended out over the
wheels of the wagon like a hayrack. Under
the coop we kept our corn, for we had TO
feed the birds all the way out.
1--WE left Omaha on the morning of April
25 1863 and when we started out on what
is now Farnam street we attracted but little
less attention than circus parade. Miller
drove the wagon and scattered corn broad
cast on both sides of 1t. Swobe and | fol-
lowed on foot with long whips to keep up
the stragglers. The turkeys hadn't had any
breakfast that morning, so they followed
the two lines of corn as fast as they could
The first night we stopped at Dr. Abbott's
farm on the Little Pappio.
81 came to the conclusion the first day
that driving turkeys was no snap. If we
could keep them hungry all the time they
would drive all right Along toward night
they would begin to lag behind, especially
| IL It was hot and many chase had over
| the prairies after a gobbler with indie
| pendent views as to where he should CO. or
hen sneaking into the grass to hide. We
| crossed the Loup at Columbus the sixth day
out. The ford was in good shape. We got
| the birds into the coop and started in, Miller
driving and Swobe and l riding our ponies,
which we had bought few days before, on
either side of the wagon.
! Dangers Risked for whisky.
I'VE had a five gallon keg of prime snake
! bite antidote hung on the hind axle About
half way across, just when We were in about
| the worst place some freighters just behind
called to us that the keg had dropped off.
! Miller was afraid we would get stuck In the
quicksand, so he kept right on toward the
bank and called back, Any Of you fellows
| can have that whisky that will get it.
| Swcbe and were afraid to leave our horses,
so we followed Miller. The freighters were
pretty thirsty. They stopped their teams,
| jumped in and floundered through the mud
and water chasing the whisky. 1t took
| them a good half hours hard work to cap
ture the keg and get 1t back to their wagon,
which they had found stuck in the sand.
| The oxen could not bulge it an inch. They
sampled the contents of the keg in good
shape and then took to the water again and
carried the mill shoes with which their
| ha han ThaSa
were iron castings weighing over 100 pounds
each. Getting that keg delayed them day.
| I'VE had no trouble with Indians on the
| entire trip. We saw them almost every day,
| sometimes a lot of forty or fifty bucks to-
| gether, and often one unaccompanied. They
| came to our camps, talked with us in broken
English and by signs, apparently taking
much interest in what we were going to do
| with the turkeys. Once in while they
would follow along near us for hours l
| don't think they ever stole or killed tur-
key during the trip. / can't say as much
for the white men we saw. l don't believe
1 we passed a ranch or stage station without
having one or two OF our birds stolen.
I'VE crossed the Platte near old Fort
kearney. Miller hired Tom Keeler with
eight yoke OF oxen to pull us over. Tom
| was a big man around there then. He lived
| at 'Dobe Town just west of the fort, and
| had the reputation OF being a bad man.
| After the Union Pacific was built he came
back to the old Keeler place east of Fre
| mont, and few years later was shot by
man named Parmeee. Tom had several
| close calls before Parmelee got the drop on
| him. A man from Juesburg that he had had
| some trouble with came down here once on
purpose TO get him. Toms sister found out
what was up and warned Tom, so that he
managed to get away.
| Wolves Have Turkey Dinner.
"The second night out of 'Dobe Town we
| had quite a scare. The weather had got
pretty warm and along toward night the
| turkeys wouldn't drive very well. 1t was no
small job to get them into the coops, so we
left about half of them roosting around out
side. Soon after dark we heard them squawk-
| ing and iuttering near the coop and wagon.
| We thought at once it WAS Indians, for we
| had seen several that afternoon. We
| crawled around among them and had the
satisfaction CT seeing few wolves trotting
off, each with a turkey in his mouth. The
| next morning we took stock and found that
| the wolves had got away with thirty fowls.
| That wolf episode was mighty unfortunate
| thing for us. All the rest of the way they
| followed us and hung around our camps.
! They got SO bold they would snatch a gobbler
| IlSHI DelUTe our eyes III DTOdu udyllBlt. we
shot a good many of them. Some of the
| same wolves ! am sure followed US clear to
| Denver. Between the station keepers and
the wolves our flock was getting pretty
small by the time reached Juesburg,
which then was only a stage station, and
Miller was correspondingy blue. 1t began
| to look as though we would land in Denver
with only the wagon.
"At Henderson island the butcher made
what he thought was great gold discovery.
When We We're ready to start the morning
We camped there he was gone. We were a
| little alarmed, as the Indians had been act
ing suspiciously for the last few days, so |
started out to hunt him up, with feeling
that there was possible trouble ahead for
us. rode around long looking for him
that ! was getting pretty anxious, when
! coming up to the river | spied him down on
his hands and knees on the sand scooping It
up in his hands and blowing against it, /
was beside him before he saw me- What
are you doing butcher | asked, He looked
up surprised and startled, his face flushed
and his eyes staring and wide open. I've
found gold mine
" This gold?' asked.
Butcher Makes "A Find.
You bet. See here He pulled hand
kerchief out of his pocket and showed me
some particles of quartz and pyrites, which
I did glitter in the sun. There's tons OF gold