Sunday Washington globe., 1902-04-13

at Yountyile there dwells the last member
OF the most distinctive type that ever four
ished on this Western continent-the path
finder, the leather stocking. the hunter,
Caucasian in will and Indian in method.
who found a way through the forests and
over the mountains and made way for the
conquest of the West In all probability,
also, he is Of all men now alive the first to
cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains When
Kit Carson guided Fremont across to found
the new commonwealth of California this
man had already been an old traveller in
these parts. He has killed more Indians
than are worth while notching upon his
gun, and for fifty years he slew big game as
regular part of his days work. He speaks
two Indian languages and is a chief of the
Snakes He remembers Kit Carson and the
men of the Alamo better than he remembers
his associates Of yesterday at the home.
Aud yet ne has had but one adventure of
which he is proud and boastful. He once
speared a whale in Monterey Bay
first saw Buckskin Joe O'Donuell upon
the verauda OF the Veterans Home at
Yountville l was watching the veterans
come and go across the broad field when a
little old man came shufling down the
steps. He was not over Eve feet in height
and carried himself bit stopped but very
well withal His feet as he put them down
carefully one after the other, were pointed
straight forward like the feet Of an Indian,
and there was something of habitual eau
tiousuess in their tread His face, scared,
lined and battered with age, was aquiline
and hawklike, and within there burned two
of the most wonderful blue eyes that have
ever seen. Gray in shading, large, direct,
piercing they were as clear as the eyes of
boy. He was a man whom you would
watch among all the hundreds at the home.
That is our oldest man. " said DR.. Nc
AllisteT, the assistant surgeon. That is
Buckskiu Joe O'Dounell, Fremont's scout"
talked with him later, heard his story
in little flashes of reminisceuce little mem
Ories that had survived his three quarters
OF a century IN the woods and fields 1t
was an old mans story.
He was born in 1903 aud in a few weeks
will be niuety-four years old. This is sub
stantiated by the records of the War De-
partment. He was as he says, a Kentucky
Irshman," born on the border, of an nIrish
father and an American mother. His father
was one of the frontiersman who followed
Andy Jackson, and as a first Sergeant he
fought the last fight with the mother coun-
try behind the cotton bale fort. AS boy
the future Buckskin Joe was taken to Mis-
souri, and became hunter from the time he
could carry a gun From the first he
pushed forward and ever forward into the
unknown country, trusting upon his friend
ship with the indians, whose ways he
knew and whose life he has lived during
his own century of life. Even now there is
an Indian Tilt to his carriage, and he has a
AZ 6 g,1T L.,
phrases when he cannot find his words in
English or Spanish.
Finally, in the year 1891, when he was
young man of twenty three, he made his
way with eight other hunters over the great
plains, across the Sierra aud into Cali
fornia. They crossed in the spring, making
friends with the Indians on the way and
came back the following year. Then he
ranged the West from the Dakotas to the
South, until the year I843, when Fremont
under the guide Of Kit Carson made the
third of his exploring expeditions, the
most eventful one in that it resulted in
the opening of California to American rule
At distance Buckskin Joe heard of the ex-
pediton. He hurried to Missouri, think
ing to enlist as a guide, and found that the
Fremont party had gone on. Determined
10 follow, he Joined a party Of settlers
under the command Of one Lewis, acting as
guide and hunter. They crossed the Sierra
IN the summer of 1874, six months after FIRE.
mont made his famous winter passage of
the snowy Sierra, and met Fremont scout
ing party on the San Joaquin. There Buck
skin Joe enlisted as a scout
Major Buchanan, of Fremonts expedi-
ton, who is now living at the home, de-
scribed his hrst meeting with Buckskin Joe
as follows:
He came into camp one morning dressed
all in buckskins Kentucky rife over his
shoulder, and asked to be hunter for the
expedition. He was a wiry, stout little
man, who never tired and was afraid of
nothing. He scrambled around horses like
monkey, mounting while the horse was at
full gallop, and he knew every Indian
trick and dodge. He would sneak through
the underbrush like weasel until he got a
chance for a shot and ne never missed. He
is absolutely the best shot that ever saw
and is afraid of nothing. He did great ser.
vice as a scout and sharpshooter and used
to keep US in fresh meat. saw a great
deal Of him through the war. He was more
Of an Indian than a white man"
Then followed the attack Of Castro on the
little band Of revolutiOnists their rescue
by Fremont and the outbreak of the Mexi.
can War in California AT this point he
enlisted regularly as a scout and was close
to Fremont through all the operations on
California soil. Experienced with the In
diaus as he was, and already a chief Of the
Snakes he kept his eye on the Mexican
irregulars. In the course Of this campaign
he received his FIRST wound at the action
that he calls the battle Of Natividad. No
action Of that name appears in the history
Of California and he is doubtless giving his
own name 10 one Of Fremonts fights.
Taken out Of the vernacular his story Of
the wound is something like this:
Fremont sent me ahead to scout | was
on my horse, the one that carried me over
the plains came on them all Of a sudden
and started back Ny horse was better
than theirs but they all took after me-
They began shooting guns and arrows
slid down the side Of the hoise away from
them and rode that way dodging from side
20 side. wondered then why they did not
hit me OF hit the horse, anyway. After the
war General Castro told me why. He said