The Washburn leader., 1904-04-02
MANY YEARS AGO.

In reference to a discussion be
tween several parties as to wha
, year Ft. Stevenson was built, thu
matter was referred to Capt. Marst
who said:--
Il remember it we'll. as my boar
was the first that landed there.
was coming down the river in Aug
) ust. 1867 and passed the place where
Mr.. Staley's house now stands at
F't. Stevenson. There was a big
camp of soldiers on the bank, and
when we were near the camp they
shot blank shot from a cannon
across otr bows and brought us in
on landing. We found Gen. Terry
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS of Da-
kota, with headquarters at st. Paul.
His command had marched from
St. Paul, via Devils Lake, to the
river'at that point. With him, and
members of his staff, were General
Holibird of the English Corps, DR..
Taylor, Major Turning and Lieut..
O'Tool. Gen. Holibird came on
board and informed me that he
wanted the boat to take Gen. Terry
and staff to Ft. Benton. I made
+, q contract with him at $500 a day,
charter to expire when reaching
Sioux City; when returning to st.
Louis, he was to furnish a detail of
ten soldiers, two mules and a wagon
to assist in getting wood for the
boat on the trip, as in those days
we had to cut all our own wood and
carry it to the boat. The coal that
we now use would not burn then.
We took Gen. Terry and staff
OH board and went to Fort Rice,
which we had established in 1864.
Gen. Reeves was there and was in
command of the River Department.
He also went to Ft. Benton with us.
He was afterward retired and lived
in Minneapolis where he had son
who was connected with the City
Bank.
We made short stop at Ft Rice
an2 then started on our long trip to
Ft. Benton. On passing TT. Stew
enson on our way up, We found they
we're making preparations to build
fort there. We passed on and
nothing of interest occurred until
we reached a point about 125 miles
above Yellow river. About mile
out i'll the prairie was a grove of
very big timber, should say about
the size of city block, and no
other timber was near it anywhere.
This is where the elk went to shed
their horns, which gave it the name
of Elkhorn prairie. Steamboats,
would stop there on the way down
and gather horns to take to their
friends IN the states. Since then
l saw an article in magazine that
stated when was on the Steam
beat Josephine, I had to stop to let
the buffalo cross the river. But it
was mistake. It was on another
trip that We had to stop just above
Elkhorn Prairie to let the buffalo
cross, as they were packed in the
river so thick that it was impossible
to get through them. The name
of our boat was the Ida Stockdale,
sunk afterwards at the Bismarck
landing, by the ice. The men on the
boat at the time were Gen. Com.
stock, retired engineer officer, my
brother, Monroe, who was the boat
engineer and captain and Thomas
s. Calhoun, who was the clerk.
(He is now running between Pitts
burgh and Cincinnati as captain of
the Steamer Virginia.
We.arrived at Ft Benton in good
time where all the officers left us,
except Gen. Holbird who returned
to Sioux City with us. On our
return trip We landed at Ft. Stew
son where we found that material
had been landed by boats while we
were gone, and they were busy
building quarters for the winter.
The day We arrived, the Sioux
Indians made an attack on the gar
rison, killed a number of soldiers
and captured a number of horses
and mules.
We made a short stop and went
on, when at point (which is now
called plenty coal bluff } 20 miles
below Stevenson, five miles below
Mannhaven and 35 miles north of