The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1906-07-11


Y years ago to mel decided to
i take Greeley's advice and "go
West" 1t required some little
nerve for young man raised on a
farm in New York State to leave his
friends and make a break alone into
the then almost unknown West There
was a frontier" then; now there is
none
l went to Junction City, Kan, and
then on foot south to the Santa Fe
Railroad, which was then just being
built, and finally stopped where the
city of Wichita now is. At that time
1t was a military post. l could stand
there then, and looking southwest
across the Arkansas River, see the
whole country speckled with buffalo
as far as the eye could reach. / stayed
there a few days, and then went on
up the river TO what is now Hutchin-
son. Here | met man who told me
about the Medicine River country,
which was about 125 miles further
southwest. He represented it as being
well timbered country, with quite
high bluffs along the streams, and as
all the country where | was then had
scarcely any timber, it looked very
dreary to me; besides, l had an idea
of going into the cattle business, so |
decided to go and look at the Medicine
River country.
l bought pony and we started. We
had heard of a camp of hunters. at
the junction of the Medicine and Tur-
key Creek, who had wagon trail into
Wichita. We went south, so as to
strike the wagon trail and follow it to
their camp. | proposed taking along
some provisions, but my new friends
said there was no use buying or carry
ing supplies, as we could get all the
game we wanted; SO we went without
any provisions.
Well, we started out, and there
seemed TO be break in the buffalo,
as there were none in sight, and we
went on all the first day without a
chance to kill anything; and slept that
night on the ground by chip" fire,
with nothing to eat and no timber in
learned was the north fork of the Min
isquaw River. The following day we
| Travelled all day and killed nothing
until night, when we stopped on the
south fork of the Ninisquaw, and
killed a bird about as large as a robin,
which we roasted and divided between
us.
The following day we began to see
buffalo, and about noon came TO tim
bered stream, and within half an hour
/ had killed big turkey; and l think
| that / never tasted any other turkey
quite so good as that was. We camped
there in the timber. No one knows
just what luxury timber is to camp
in for fuel, until they have camped
on the bare prairie and burned chips.
That afternoon my friend killed n
buffalo. l was greatly surprised at the
size of the animal. l had seen the
buffalo robes that we used in the East,
and which at that time could be bought
for from S. to $40, but they were small
and learned that the large ones were
never made into robes, as their great
thickness called for too much work
to dress them. White men never
dressed robes; the Indians did that, as
their time was worth nothing. A
squaw would work a month or two
tanning hide; then her lord and mas
ter would trade it to white man for
q plug of tobacco or pint of firewater
We went on the next day and reached
the hunters camp, which was owned
by Captain Griffin, formerly of Dutch
ess County, New York. The following
fall Captain Griffin was killed by the
Indians about thirteen miles from his
camp on the head OF Mule Creek. He
was fine shot, and although he had
a wooden leg below the knee, he was
one of the best horsemen l ever saw
1t was by means of the wooden LEG
that we We're able to identify his bones
when we found his remains. He had
needle gun, and in the buffalo wallow
where his bones We're, we found about
100 empty shells, which showed that
they had fought there for some time
There was a man from Pennsylvania
by the name of Van Buren, with Cap
tain Griffin at that time. We buried
their bones together.
The Medicine River country was ar
ideal one for game. The bottoms were
well timbered, and there were plenty
of red deer and turkeys in the timber
the prairies were alive with buffalo
and antelope. Sometimes the buffalo
would mass together and form vas
herd. and when once started to run
would go for no one could know how
long. / have seen a mass Of them, say
half a mile wide and perhaps two miles
long, all on the run in solid body
They would come TO stream and g
roaring over the bluff and through tht
water. and come in sight on the othel
side, and the great black river of liv