The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1911-02-03
STORY OF THE EARLY
BLACK HILLS PIONEERS.
A Narrative of the John Gordon
Stockade Party in "a by d.
AIKEN, Vona, Col.

Our general course was south of
west passing through Dixon, Wayne
and Madison counties, and reaching
the ElkhOrn river at Norfolk. The
country was scarcely settled and the
inhabitants as a rule We're poor. The
crops were quite often destroyed by
the wind, hail or rain storms, but
like the people Of the frontier gen
orally their latch strings hung out
at all times and they seem to con-
slider it pleasure as we'll as pleas
ant duty to accommodate and help
In the many little ways that are al
ways highly appreciated and are of
vital Importance to the travellers that
by chance have come in their midst.
1t is spirit of noble kindness that
would sacrifice their own comfort
and convenience to smooth the pain
or tighten the burden Of the stranger
at their door. 1t is noble trait of
character at all times but under the
peculiar conditions it shows more
brightly, being Invested of all hypoc-
rlsy as no favors were or could be
expected by any of them religiously
or politically, and as the old saying
goes they had no ak to grind. They
neither asked for nor expected any
favors in return. Their noble, I'M
selfish acts were the free expression
of the noblest qualities of the human
race and might be followed by the
more wealthy and aristocratic sec
tons of the east, with great profit
to their spiritual welfare and with
lasting benefit to the poor and OPP
pressed in their daily struggle for
bread.
We travelled from twelve to fiji
teen miles per day, sometimes MAX
ing but one drive, if We were late in
the day finding water. If water was
found early we made an afternoon
drive. There was not much game to
be found. A few chickens OCCASION
ally near settlement, with ducks
and geese flying overhead. The most
OF us carried our guns, a few had
shot guns as we'll as rifles. One of
these lucky ones, Williams, had as
he claimed, one of the best made.
He was now in advance of the train
a half mile or so and never missed
an opportunity to shoot on sight,
but to the best of my knowledge and
belief, he never succeeded in getting
bird, but according to his oft-re-
peated statements, he always hit
them, tearing loose a whole lot of
feathers, breaking their legs, and
Gripping their wings and using them
up generally but they invariably sue
ceeded in getting away. Generally
speaking Williams was a truthful
and honorable man. But according
to his statements of his wonderful
shots at geese and ducks on this trip
one could only conclude that the air
was full of half denude, broken-leg-
ged and badly disfigured birds wend-
ing their way sout.
One beautiful morning while on
one of these stretches of rolling
country where there are no settle
ments for miles, five or six of us
were in advance of the train a half
mile or more, Newt Warren, com,
monty called "Uncle Newt remark
ed that we were liable to see ante
lope now at any time. This is an
animal I had only read about but
never had the pleasure of seeing. 1
think Uncle Nevis remark was a
spur to all of us to scrutinize our sur
roundings little more closely. Here
the road had dwindled down until
1T resembled couple of COW paths.
The knobs produced but little grass
while on the flats there was quite a
heavy growth. While passing over
one of these valleys, something
sprang out of the grass near me and
started off at an awkward gate I
was looking for antelope and OF
course this was young one. l had
no sooner started than 1 dropped my
gun and gave chase remarking as l
did SO, "young antelope" At first
/ was puzzled to decide whether to