The Ely miner., 1930-05-16

Aubrey, % men of Company l froze
to death.
Records of Fort Leavenworth and
the Arizona Historical society show
Governor Goodwin, the first governor
of Arizona, left Fort Leavenworth
September 25, 1868, escorted by Com
panies and H of the regular cav
airy, and Company / of the Fourth
Missouri militia. The expedition was
in charge of Maj. James A. Phillips
Capt. John ii. Butcher and Capt. DAN
iel Rice in command of the COM
panies. They arrived at Fort Union,
n. NJ, November and left November
IL. They reached Fort Lyons, Colo,
November %. in a snowstorm. On
this part Of the trip they lost several
horses and some of the men were
frostbitten. The party remained at
Fort Lyons eight days and from that
time there are no more records Of
Company I.
Mr.. Helfrich believes that dis
agreement among the soldiers at Fort
Lyon caused Company I to split from
the rest Of the command Companies
A and FL reported at Fort Riley on
December %. having lost one by freez-
ing. They also reported much suffer
ing from the heavy storms which they
encountered.
AS for the fate Of Company /, ac-
cording to the Goans story, these mi
litiamen reached the site of Fort Au-
brey about December l and camped
in the old dugouts of the fort. While
there the blizzard swept down upon
them. Huddling together in an effort
to keep warm and burning their wag-
Ons they tried in vain to fight off the
deadening cold. But 1t was no use.
When morning came % of them were
dead. According to GOans, they were
all Frenchmen. naturalized citizens of
the United States. without near rela-
tives in this country, but If there ever
existed any record of their names that
record has not yet been discovered.
From up in North Dakota comes the
story of another and similar tragedy.
What is believed to be the first print
ed account of it appeared recently in
the Geauga Republican-Record at
Chardon, Ohio, written by it's editor,
Arthur e. Towne. AS small boy,
Mr.. TOwne went to the Dakotas with
his parents in the eighties and this
story is one Of several told to him
by old timers In that country, which
he has written under the title of
"Highlights from Old Days in the
West" for the Republican-Record. His
story of the mystery surrounding the
death of whole platoon of United
States cavalry reads as follows:
"In the fall of 80 the first ven-
turesome settlers penetrated into
Dickey county In what is now North
Dakota, one Of the most beautiful
pieces of prairie country in the James
river valley. Two chance land hunt
ters whose names may now be lost,
unless they can be dug out of the old
files Of newspapers published at that
time in Aberdeen, were prospecting in
that region.
Zone evening as they were heading
towards the river In search of a good
camping place, they passed a grass
grown buffalo wallow Here there
burst upon them sight which they
probably never forgot. The circum-
ference of the wallow was literally
lined with bones of men and horses,
other skeletons lay within the circle.
although the bones had been scat
tered some. investigation indicated
that the horses had been used for de-
fense In place Of earthworks. United
States army buttons and brass belt
buckles were found, also badly rusted
barrels of muzzle loading guns of the
old army musket type, with their
stocks rotted away or burned away
t, by prairie fires. Rusted bits, iron
stirrups, canteens and other metal
parts of soldiers equipment were also
found here-all of which went to show
that this was a troop Of United States
cavalry.
Reports made at the time stated
that the skeletons of % men and
like number of horses were found,
but nothing was discovered that
showed to what regiment or company