The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-08-06
THIRTY Years on VENGEANCE.
An Old Mans Remarkable Hunt for
Indians to Avenge Massacre.
VChlcago AmericanD


Lincoln, Neb.-Tau, weather-beaten.
grizzled and unkempt, Hanson Wise
man at 80 years of age still keeps up
his remorSeless hunt for straying IN
dams in fulfillment OF a VOW taken on
the graves of his massacred family,
ruthlessly slain by the redskins thirty
nine years ago. Near his old homestead
at Brocke's bottom in Cedar county, in
extreme northern Nebraska, the skel-
etons Of two dozen savages with rife
bullets through their discolored skulls
were recently unearthed near the high
blum on which his murdered children
lie buried.
From the days of his boyhood Wise
man has led a turbulent existence. On
his wedding day he left the limits Of
civilization owing to an alleged COM
pifcity with the Nat Turner insurrec-
ton. With his wife, who was barely
Ia, Wiseman set out from what is now
Parkersburg. W. Va, for the great
west
It was in 1857 that the couple set
tied on the Wiseman homestead in
BrockeS bottom. Wiseman built
cabin and worked faithfully to carve
home out of the wilderness for his
six children. the eldest being a boy of
H. Here they spent FIVE happy years.
The region swarmed with Poncas,
Sioux and Pawnees. In 1852 Wiseman
and his son enlisted in company I,
United states cavalry. Mrs. Wiseman
and her five children were left at the
homestead, relying on the next to the
eldest son, stout LAD Of IS, for pro-
lection
A few days after their departure
Mrs Wiseman set out for Yankton, S.
D., to purchase supplies. She walked
to the village of old St. James and then
went by stage to Yankton. The jour-
ney took two days. After buying her
supplies she started for her home. 1t
was just about shutdown when she
emerged from a deep ravine next to the
cabin and FASTENED toward IL. There
were no signs of life. On the threshold
Of the cabin there was a stream of
blood. An Indian lay dead on the floor
Beside him lay the eldest son, his rifle
held tightly in his lifeless clasp, the
stock sphntered and shattered The
rear door Of the cabin was open. and
on the ground outside the mother saw
her baby girl dead. The Indians had
stabbed her to death and then scalped
her
Mrs. Wiseman fed through the ra-
vine and along the path to ST. James.
There was no doubt as to the perpetra-
tors OF the deed. A band of Sioux, who
had camping place further up the
river. were on the warpath.
/ Two weeks after the massacre the
news reached Hanson Wiseman. Ac-
cOmpanied by his son he made the dis
| MAJ JBUtD 10 his llOillEs tldNEililS ucE
/ and night. Arriving at Brocke's bot
tom he found the homestead desOlate
and his children murdered. That night
! Wiseman spent crouching on the
ground by the graves on the blum,
vowing eternal enmity against the In
dams. In the morning the son returned
+ to the army. where he was soon after
! killed in a scouting expedition sent out
/ to ascertain the whereabouts of the bel
/ hgeTeut Sioux.
1 A party of amateur biologists who
were prospecting IN the neighborhoOd
! OF Wiseman's cabin made the find. It
I was immediately reported that an old
/ Indian burying ground had been found
/ This explanation was taken with 2
grain Of allowance by those who knew
! the story of the massacre and were Ia
miliar with the methods Of Indian
I burial. Besides. there were bullet holes
/ through many of the skulls.
Mrs. Wiseman seemed TO be thor
oughly in sympathy with her husband
and both constantly brooded over the
past. She was an expert shot with bota
rife and revolver, and up to the day OF
her death. two weeks ago, slept with
/ firearms within easv reach.
I