The Dolores star., 1908-09-04

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and one year he bought . new wagon
With money obtained from haw and
coyote scaIps upon which there wss ;
The Grst wedding was that Of Antoine
Georgsitta and bis blooming red
checked bride, and the tirst child born
was Emma Denby. VIM. Darrow nut
In stpre ln -, sold ont TO Bauer in
,Y, who In tprp sold opt 10 Harris
The seftlers along the Dolores and
Mancps rivers have reasop to remember
the winter Of 1914, known A. the win
ter Of deep snow. The rAjlroad was
blocked at Durango for three months
aud the snow was 80 deep over the
big hill and on the I.aPlats divide that
travel could only be accomplished by
snow shoes. Bacon, sugar, tea and
very very scarce. scare The T aancoss Nam ssn mil Rnme npoe
dnced enough -four, though Of very
poor quality, to supply the demand.
Reef was poor aud scarce, venison, like
wise, was hardly at TO eat aud ann
munition scarce. A. W. Dillon made
q trip to Du-nngD an snow shoes only
to find that there was nothing there
but canned goods. He did, however,
bring back some tobacco which cheered
up some Of the discouraged ones.
Now comes the saddest chapters of
our history. From the time the set-
tiers first came In the Indians had from
time to time ordered them away and
finally went to driving away their
horses and killing their cattle. On the
first day Of May, 1881, John Thurman,
Dick May aud Byron Smith were
murdered and their cabin burned nj
Thurman a Willis ranch near the
Colorado and Utah line, now known as
charge of q large hand Of fine horses
owned by himself aud J. H. Anderson.
Willis was In the cattle business, and
MIR. May went out to the camp, taking
Smith with, him, to purchase horses
The news Of the killing reached Man
COS the next day and a rider was sent
ON to Fort Lewis. On the Bird body
Of citizens, among whom, were Q. H.
Goodman, G. A. Frlnk, A. w. Puett,
NJ. w. Reid, George and William May,
brothers of one of the murdered men,
George Phelps, Mike Q'Dannell, Rem
Quick and Others whose nanles we did
not learn, went out aud buried the
bodies Of Thurman and May but could
not find the body Of Smith, nor has 1t
ever been found. On the l4th of May
Willis and others, In attempting to
round up their stock in the vicinity Of
the burned cabin, were fired on by the
same Indians. A force was then
organized consisting of about fifty men
to try to recover some Of the stock
stolen. On the 18th they came up with
the Indians in the Sierre LaSalle noun
tains and fight ensued In which ten
white men were killed and also some
Indians hnt thnrQ of
knowing how many of the latter.
Melvin and Willis were killed In this
fight and Cal House, HI Barber and
Mrs. Willis went out and brought their
bodies in and buried them. Melvin's
grave Is on the hill near the House
ranch and Willis was buried at MancOs
In 1872 they burned the cabin belonging
to Dan Williams and fired on him.
No deaths occurred in '68 but they
still stole horses and killed cattle. In
'B4 two cowboys we're killed and the
stock they were driving run off. A
company of soldiers were then sent
after these Indians but accomplished
nothing. However, one of their scouts
-Worington-and cowboy named
Wilson, better known as .'Rowdy",
were killed.
In '86 some Indians were lawlessly
killed on Beaver creek, and, i'm revenge,
the Indians burned house In Monte
yuma valley (Mr. Genther's). They
set fire to his cabin at night aud when
he went out to see what was up they
killed him. His wife gathered up the
children and run for the sage brush.
The indians shot at her and wounded
her but she finally made her escape.
About the same time MIR. and Mrs.
SimondS who lived near the Genther
place, celebrated their silver wedding.
but there were also some unbidden
guests--the Indians went i'm and
ate whatever they pleased of the good
things that had been prepared for that
wedding dinner.
MONTEZUMA VALLEY.
The mild delightful climate of this
valley was so tempting that numerous
schemes for watering it were tried, the
first one was launched by DIR. Fields of
Mancos in the fall of 80 and in the
winter of 'S0-Sl considerable tunnel
work was done on the Divide South of
Dolores, but the enterprise was finally
abandoned to he taken up later by Top
ping & Co., in 1888 more work was
done and again it WAS given up, but in
's6 ]. w. Hanna took up the Irriga-
ton project and made the big tunnel
and the No. ditch, IN 'S7 Mr.. La
Grange organized the No. 2 Company
and took out line of ditch through
the great cut so that water was now
pouring into the valley through two
lines OF bitches, but soon they were
consolidated into one company, Set
tiers fiocked in and in '8S 1t was DEEM
l,A hact tn a drx,xr oh n