The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1909-07-15
First White Burial in Texas
County

itol Hill, Oklahoma, was one of the
pioneers of the Kansas frontier. Writ
ing lately to local newspaper he re-
lated the story of the burial of the
first white man and woman in what il
now Texas county, then part of "No
mans Land" in June or July in the
early '80s. He wrote:
"Word was received at Fort Dodge
Kansas, that the Indians had raided a
wagon train at or near the Wagonbed
Springs on the Cimarron. Colonel
Dodge called for volunteers to 90 after
them and about sixty men fell in line
at the bugle call, all mounted, spur
red and armed. But to think of the
arms we had in those days--two horse
pistols, paper cartridge carbine and
a long sword in long scabbard that
ratified and jiggled as we went. We
left Fort Dodge after dinner and went
about twelve miles, to the Mulberry
where we went into camp for the
night
We saw, just before night. what we
took to be Indian signs, as smoke
started up in spurts in different direc-
tions, meaning so the scouts said, that
the Cheyennes and Arapahoes had dis
covered that scouting party was out,
therefore we herded the horses until Q
or 10 O'Clock and then brought them
in to the picket rope corral and turned
in with videttee posted and horse
guard at camp.
Just after midnight the horses be-
came restless, and the colonel, too,
and as he was an old Indian fighter
understood the sign pretty we'll, we
slipped around 60 each one of the boys
and punched him until he awoke
when he told him to be ready to repel
a dash, as we believed the Indians in
tended to stampede the horses. About
O'Clock out of the darkness there
came yell from hundred throats
Ito the tenderfoots i'm the party i,
seemed thousand,) but here they
came heller skelter, yelling like SO
many devils, but we were all ready
and let them have volley-alas, too
soon-for if we had waited we might
have killed some, but as it was the In
dians circled around aud pulled of
into the darkness and kept us in sus-
pense for an hour, when all at once an
other outburst of warwhoops was
heard, and while we were all watching
in the direction of the yelling and ex,
pecting charge at any minute, some
one happened to look around the
other way and saw great ball of fire
coming towards us like tightening.
ut was not long coming, but in
those few moments there was a scat
tering among the boys for their horses,
and had the Indians charged then we
surely would have been routed. They
were not after anything but horses,
and when the fire ball came close
enough and we had time to look, we
saw pony with bundle of flaming
grass tied to the saddle, the Indians
calculating that the pony would run
in among the horses and stampede
them, but every man had his horse
and the poor brute ran by buckine
and squealing and plunged into wat
hole and drowned. The indians hav-
ing failed again they gave up and ev-
erything was quiet the rest of the
night, but no one slept the rest of that
night-would you?
The next morning we took the old
Body Trail down Crooked Creek and
camped at the Three Bars, about where
Meade Center now is, and all was
quiet during the night. We then
turned south and southwest, crossed
the Cimarron and camped. Had great
sport killing buffalo and antelope, but
saw no Indians. The next night we
camped at Sharp Greek. where we fel;
in line. The colonel told us that he
thought the Indians who had attacked
the train had gone south, that he was
going west and would keep on the
plains away from the Beaver breaks
and he wanted everybody to keep a
sharp lookout that day but we saw
none.
"Camped that night on the plains al
a lake some fifteen or twenty miles
west, and as there was plenty of In
dian signs, each two of us dug a pit
which some OF the pumpkin rollers
may have found. Next morning, still
going west, saw plenty of pony tracks
but they were several days old. We
camped that night at the springs OF
Golf Creek. The colonel concluded
that, as they had got ahead of us, he
would have hunt, as there was little
probability of the Indians being around
soon again, but he ordered two scouts
to take the trail as far south as the