Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1902-10-30
An Interesting Incident.

In connection with Senator
Spooner's recent visit to Lancaster
the Boscobel Dial Enterprise re-
counts the following interesting his
torical occurrence in which Senator
Spooner and Col. John G. Clark
were prominent figures:
1--WE take pleasure in relating an
incident of war times from the lips
of Amos Devoe, in which men
known to most of our readers figure
conspicuously, namely: Captain
John G. Spooner, of Madison; Col.
John G.. Clark of Lancaster; Lieut..
Henry G. Oettiker of Platteville and
Lieut.. Amos Devoe of Boscobel.
These men all belonged to Co. d,
5Oth Regt. Wis. Vol. nifty, and
served Uncle Sam from 81 to '66.
They met for the first time since
they were mustered out at Madison
in May, 1866, at Fennimore on Mon
day last, where very pathetic
scene occurred. The veterans
clasped each other in their arms,
Rugged, hurrahed and wept great
tears Of joy at their being able to
meet and greet each other again
after separation of thirty-six
years.
At Lancaster the Senator and his
comrades were met at the depot by
a big delegation of citizens and es-
corted to the Wright House where
the reception committee had made
all previous arrangements. The four
old veterans were seated at a table
spread for four and here they en-
.joyed two big meals-one of good
eatables, one of brotherly love and
good fellowship. During the speech
the Senator insisted that his COM
rades be given seats beside him on
the platform.
But we will turn again to our
story. It was during the times
when his company was stationed at
Fort Rice, (now Bismarck, North
Dakota) that Mr.. Devoe relates the
experience of himself, Spooner and
Clark. The three got lost in a
snow-storm in the latter part Of the
month of February. They were
mounted and Col Clark's horse fell,
breaking his neck and seriously in
Turing the Colonel. Spocner and
Devoe had one horse between them,
Spooner losing his horse in the
storm while administering to the
needs of Col. Clark whom they
wrapped up in two big buffalo
robes. tied him on the horse with
picket ropes, and the procession
started for a ravine a few miles
away where they sought to obtain
shelter from the piercing blasts.
Theyreached the place half dead from
hunger and cold. They had no
provision of any sort, and with the
ready-to-die Colonel on their hands
the situation was grievously en-
barassing. Devoe agreed to stay
with the Colonel while Spooner
went down ravine in the hopes
of finding a scattered herd of Buffa-
10 and thus get meat to appease
their hunger. Devoe skirmished
around within calling distance of
the Colonel picking up buffalo
''chips" for fuel. In less that TWEEN
ty minutes he heard shot down
the ravine and knew that Spooner
had struck a buffalo, antelope or
bear, and his spirits revived, for
they all knew that if food was not
secured before the next day Spoon
or, Clark and Devoe would be num-
bered among the missing. In half
hour more Spooner appeared, drag
ging the. hind quarter and pelt OF a
huge buffalo COW which he had
killed. They cooked this meat over
buffalo Chip fire on which they
subsisted for two days before the
Colonel could be taken back to the
fort. In closing his narrative, Mr..
Devoe said: Those were pretty
hard, tough times, but they didn't
seem any harder than when had
to say goodbye to Senator Spooner
Tuesday morning at FennimOre. ,"