Being a complete SourceBook and Story Book of the Genocidal Action Against the Shoshones in 1863 and of Gen. P.E. Connor and how he related to and dealt with Indians and Mormons on the Western Frontier.
By Newell Hart
Typed as written.
Chapter 19
Massacre Aftermath in Cache Valley (pp 299-301)
From the Official Program, first Idaho Day Celebration in Franklin, 1910: --
Two more passes occurred with the Indians at Franklin. The first of a revengeful, cowardly and treacherous nature happened the first day of May, 1863. While in the canyon about three miles northeast of town (*Franklin), near where the home of William H. Gibson now stands, for fire-wood, Andrew Morrison and William Howell were attacked by three buck Indians.
Just about the time they were getting ready to leave with their loads an Indian came upon them and began to talk with them. After discovering that Morrison and Howell were unarmed the Indian called to his comrades, who had remained behind on the hill. They at once gave a murderous war-whoop and came running down to the assistance of their comrade. Morrison, being able to speak the Indian language, tried to talk and reason with them. They said that white men killed Indians at Battle Creek, and they were going to kill every white man they could.
Morrison offered them the horses if they would let him go unharmed, but it was scalps the Indians wanted, rather than horses. Howell wanted Morrison to run while there was but one Indian near them, but he said, no, “he would not run from an Indian.”
They invited the Indians to get on their loads and ride down to the town with them, which invitation the Indians accepted. They had not proceeded but a few rods when Howell’s team got stuck in the creek-crossing. While the two white men were working to get the stalled team liberated the Indians caught them off their guard and shot at them with arrows.
Howell was missed and Morrison received an arrow just under the left collar bone. As he fell he called to Howell to run as he was shot and no need of being killed if he could get away. Morrison received another arrow a few inches below the heart. He pulled both arrows out, but the spike came loose from the lower one and remained in his body, lodged in one of the floating ribs, or his spine.
Howell made good his escape and being a very fast runner got out of reach of the arrows before one of them took effect on him. He ran all the way to town and gave the alarm. A posse of men were at once sent for Morrison’s body, but when they found him he was still alive. He was brought to Franklin and S.R. Parkinson was sent to Salt Lake City for medical aid, making the trip of 220 miles with a span of mules and the front wheels of a wagon in 48 hours. When the doctor (Dr. Anderson) came, he made an examination, but found that the arrow head was so close to the heart that he dare not take it out.
The doctor said Morrison could not live and filled the wound with cotton and went back to Salt Lake City and left the entire wound, cut of about three and one-half inches, open. Morrison recovered, however, and lived for 27 years, carrying the arrow heard to his grave with him.
The minute-men were called out and went after the Indians, but before they overtook them they had joined a band of several hundred strong. The minute-men followed them into Gentile Valley, some 40 miles north of Franklin, but had to come back without either the horses or Indians.
II
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| Chief Washakie Statue |
The Drunken Indian …
Four Versions -- All typed as written:
A. From the “Military History of Cache Valley” by Martineau:
(pp 301-302)
On September 14th, 1864, the small town of Franklin narrowly escaped destruction and massacre.
A drunken Indian endeavored to ride his horse over a white woman, and to beat out her brains with a club. To save her life the woman was compelled to seek shelter under the horse’s body, though encountering thus a peril almost as deadly as that threatened by the war club of the savage.
A white man shot the Indian to save the woman, and at once the whole band of savages flew to arms, threatening death and destruction to all unless the offending white man was delivered to them to be killed. The Indians, 300 in number, seized a white named Mayberry, and for a long time threatened him with death from knives held at his throat and tomahawks shaken at his head.
In a short time a messenger reached Logan and gave the alarm, while others warned the people of Oxford and Stockton in Marsh Valley, some 20 or 25 miles north. During the night about 300 minute men arrived from Logan and other places, under command of Major Ricks, accompanied by Bishop Peter Maughan. The Indians were greatly astonished by this unexpected arrival of militia, having endeavored to prevent the settlers from making their danger known; and seeing themselves unable to cope with so formidable a force, were willing to “talk,” and released Mayberry from threatened tortuer and death. An agreement was finally reached, and the Indians returned to Idaho.
A singular incident transpired at this time….. Just as the head chief was departing, he said to Bishop Maugham -- “We have acted badly, but we don’t want you to talk to the Great Spirit about us. Don’t tell him to do anything to us -- don’t tell him what we have done.”
The Bishop answered that he talked to the Great Spirit every day, and could not make the promise desired. The chief urged his request again and again, but being firmly denied, went his way with a downcast look. Two days afterward, the chief sent back a hundred horses they had stolen from the range, but kept about as many more stolen in the valley, saying they needed and must keep them. As by this time they were beyond pursuit, they escaped with their booty. The people were glad to get off so well and without loss of life; for had not help so quickly arrived, Franklin would have seen a desperate and bloody fight, and many must have fallen.
This sudden and unexpected Indian difficulty, so quickly arising and so suddenly and effectively averted by the militia, gives a striking illustration of the necessity and wisdom of its organization, and the vast benefits resulting there from ---
B. From the “Official Program,“ First Idaho Day, 1910:-- (pp 302-305)
During the Spring of 1864 the Indians had been giving little or no trouble for some time, and the settlement was rapidly growing, and the people deemed it advisable to move out of the Fort, and the town was surveyed, and the people built on their lots that were allotted to them by the presiding authorities.
All went well and peaceably with the little colony as it now began to take upon itself the appearance of a civilized town, and shake off some of its frontier fort appearance. The Summer was favorable, and abundant crops were harvested. But during the Fall an incident occurred which came within a “hair’s-breadth” of costing every man, woman and child in the place their scalp.
About a thousand Indians on a migration and hunting expedition were going through the country under the leadership of Chief Washakie. These Indians were a peaceful band and quite friendly with the whites. They camped for a short rest in the river bottoms north of Franklin and while there some of the young warriors came up town.
Some of them procured a quantity of liquor from two of the citizens. One of the drunken Indians got on his horse and ran up and down the street trying to run over every one he came in contact with. Finally he knocked down a woman, Mary Ann Alder, and was trying to trample her to death, when Ben Chadwick, who was driving the horse -power on a near-by threshing machine, got a pistol and shot and wounded the Indian in the neck.
Chadwick made his escape. This enraged the Indians and they immediately went on the war path. Washakie seized Samuel Handy at whose place the threshing was being done, and after snapping his revolver in Handy’s face six times, and finding all the chambers empty, used it as a club and beat Handy nearly to death. Handy’s wife interfered and the enraged chief knocked her down and tore her clothes all off her, and would have killed her had not an under chief named Alma (* a Book of Mormon name) interfered.
Robert Hull was captured and held as prisoner on a knoll about a quarter of a mile from town. The Indians would dance around him with drawn tomahawks and other instruments of torture, and make him call for the bishop. Finally about ten o’clock Bishop L.H. Hatch, with Armenus M. Neeley as interpreter and Alexander Stalker went to the Indian camp and Hull was liberated and came to town.
The Indians demanded Chadwick, the man who shot the Indian, that they might put him to death by some torturous method. Their request was granted by promises, but Chadwick was miles away and escaped torture, and is alive today to tell the story.
Bishop Hatch and his party then wanted to come back home, but the Indians would not let them come. The bishop said “allright” he was going to go to sleep as it was near midnight and he was tired. He rolled over as though he was going to sleep. The Indians then held a short council among themselves, and soon let the prisoners go home.
As soon as the trouble began William L. Webster mounted the best horse in town and started south through the settlement to notify the minute-men, and by moonlight they began coming to Franklin with their guns and ammunition and by daylight 300 armed men were in town. The Indians, through their scouts, learned of the minute-men’s coming and began soon after midnight to pack up and send their squaws and papooses across Cub River and started them out for Bear Lake Valley. Next morning peace was made with the Indians for four beeves and 12 sacks of flour. The two men who sold the Indians the liquor had to furnish the oxen and the community the flour.
During the argument that took place at the peace meeting one of the finest and most picturesque examples of eloquence that is characteristic of the highest type of American savage was made by Chief Washakie.
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| Chief Washakie |
His theme was, “Put Yourself in My Place.” The savage brought home to the Christian the beauty of the eleventh commandment: “Do Unto Others as You Would That They Should Do Unto You”’ and his brief speech was a temperance sermon besides. He said, “Until the white man come there was no fire water, and the Indian was sober; your people sold fire water to my people and made my warrior loco (crazy). If my people had sold fire water to your braves and made them drunken, how would you feel about it? Would you like to see him shot down like a dog, because he made a fool of himself? Will the “White Father put himself in Washakie’s place?”
Samuel Handy was robbed by the Indians of everything in the way of clothing, food, cattle, chickens and everything on the place, of which they thought they could make use. The treaty was finally made for the above stated amount of property and all was well between Washakie’s band and the whites again. This was the last trouble the Red man ever gave the citizens of Franklin.
C. From the Trail Blazer, History of the Development of Southeastern Idaho, 1930: -- (pp 305-307)
In the latter part of September, 1864, an event occurred that nearly cost the lives of the inhabitants of Franklin. About 500 Indians that were on their way to Bear Lake, after having a fight with a band of Indians on the Platte River, camped on Muddy River bottoms, north of Franklin.
Some of the Indians procured liquor, became drunken and rode their horses wildly up and down the town. One drunken Indian began breaking the windows in the home of George Alder, who with others had moved from the Fort by this time, north on Muddy river (* early name of Cub River, traditionally a mountain-clear stream). When Mrs. Alder remonstrated with him and tried to drive him away, he picked up a large willow stake and began whipping her and tried to trample her under his horse’s feet.
The screams of Mrs. Alder and the strange actions of the Indians attracted the attention of some men who were threshing at Samuel Handy’s place, a short distance from Alder’s. They ran to the rescue with their pitchforks. Ben Chadwick, who was feeding the threshing machine when Mrs. Alder’s screams were heard, came running up with a butcher knife in his hand, (he had been using the knife to cut the bands that bound the sheaves of wheat).
Ben gives his experience as follows:
“I ran at the Indian with my butcher knife, my only weapon; he struck my father down and continued to race after Mrs. Alder, striking her down and trying to trample her under his horse. As fast as the men came up, the Indian would knock the pitchforks out of their hands with his long club. William Handy came running up with a pistol and all the men shouted, ‘Shoot! Shoot! Shoot him!’ Handy seemed to hesitate and I said, ‘Give me the pistol! I can shoot!’ I took the pistol from his hand and shot. The Indian fell from his horse, wounded in the neck.
“My father and the other men urged me to leave immediately. I rode Wm. Davis’ horse to the home of John Lard on High Creek (* about five miles south), I disguised myself by shaving and cutting my hair. (Previous to this time Ben had worn a long beard and hair to his shoulders.) I also changed horses and came back to Franklin about 12 o’clock that night with some of the Minute Men.”
Just about a quarter of a mile east of where the Indian was shot, another scene was enacted. Robert Hull and Howard Hunt were on their way to the Indian camp at 5 o’clock in the evening, to try to recover the linsey skirt that had been stolen that morning from Mary Whitehead, by two Indian women. Not knowing what happened, Mr. Hull and his companion were watching Mr. Handy running with something in his arms. They wondered why he was running. Suddenly Mr. Hull felt someone grab him; in another moment he found himself staring into the barrel of Chief Washakie’s pistol. The Chief snapped off the trigger three times, but the gun didn’t discharge. Then he pointed away from Mr. Hull and fired. This time the shot exploded. The Indians who had immediately gathered and witnessed the scene must have thought Mr. Hull a spirit, when the Chief could not shoot him. Mr. Hull was unarmed, having left his pistol at home that noon. This was fortunate, for the Chief would very likely have been killed, and the people of Franklin would have been massacred as a result.
When Washakie grabbed Mr. Hull, Howard Hunt escaped and gave the alarm. Mr. Hull, after being dragged to the Indians camp, was surrounded by young bucks who danced about him. Squaws prodded him with butcher knives.
Chief Washakie would say: “White man killed Indian” and Hull would answer, “No!”
They continued to persecute him, the squaws joining in with their painful prodding. While Mr. Hull was surrounded by the dancing warriors and knife-armed squaws, he recalled a dream that he had had three nights before. This gave him courage to endure the torture inflicted upon him. He had dreamed that he was completely surrounded by snakes that would dart at him from different parts of the circle. One big snake came up and struck at him with its fangs three different times but didn’t touch him. None of the snakes bit him.
He asked for Chief Alma, (who could talk English). The Indian answered “Chief Alma dead, (meaning drunk), on White Man’s fire water.”
Several times during the night the Indians forced Mr. Hull to go closer to town and call for the Bishop. He knew they wanted Bishop Thomas and he could not make them understand that Bishop Thomas had moved away.
It was a bright moonlight night. The Indians saw the glittering of hundreds of fire-arms in the distance. The Minute Men were gathering and had been since 9 o’clock that night. They ceased to prod him with the knives after this.
About 11 o’clock that night Bishop Maughan, Ezra Benson, Bishop Hatch, A. Neeley and Wm. Hull went down to the Indian camp and conferred with the Indians. The Indians finally agreed to let Hull go if they would find the man who shot the Indian. (* local legends say the Indian was killed, not just wounded. Nh)
They returned from the Indian camp about 1 o’clock that morning. After Mr. Hull had greeted his loved ones, he asked about Ben Chadwick. Upon finding that Chadwick was in town, Mr. Hull found him and warned him to leave, and said, “The Indians are determined to get you.”
“I do not believe my friends will give me up to them,” said Mr. Chadwick.
Here are the words of Mr. Chadwick recalling the incident:
“William Whitehead, my wife and sister came and begged me to leave again, so I ran to the home of the Wheeler’s where I had left my horse, then made my way to Slaterville.”
Next morning Apostle Ezra Benson and Bishop Maughan called a meeting at 10 o’clock. The Indians, including chief Washakie and some of his braves, were invited. They were given places at the front in the bowery where the meeting was held. While speaking to the people, Bishop Maughan turned to Washakie and said, “What would you do if one of our men should go to your camp and start whipping and killing one of your women?”
Washakie answered, “We kill him!”
Bishop Maughan then said: “That is all we have done.”
Then he continued speaking to the people. “Talk about giving a man up that would save a woman’s life! If you want to give anyone up to the Indians, give the ones up that sold the liquor to them.”
To make peace with the Indians they were given oxen, flour, cheese and other food by the people of Franklin. It seemed that some of the Indians of Washakie’s tribe still had revenge in their hearts, as the following incident will prove:
About two weeks after the peace had been made with them, Mr. and Mrs. Hull were visiting with one of their relatives who lived about two blocks from the Hull home. They were asked to stay over night.
“I do not know why we accepted the invitation to stay all night,” says Mrs. Hull, “but it must have been the hand of Providence that kept us from going home that night. The next morning when we returned home, we found that the chinking had been removed from the wall and two shots had been fired where our heads would have lain. One bullet lodged in the stock of the gun that lay at the head of the bed.”
D. From Samuel Handy’s Journal -- Angry Reaction When Chadwick Shot the Indian -- (pp 307)
“…This made the Indians mad… I was taken prisoner, and Washakie snapped his pistol at me 6 times; then he knocked me down -- the blood streamed down my head, and I was bruised considerably. An Indian named Alma interposed in my behalf or I might have been killed. I felt the effects of my wounds for more than a month. The Indians cut the belts of my Thrashing machine, killed 50 chickens, took $16 in cash, ransacked the house, took everything they thought would be of any use to them.” (* The Trail Blazer has Washakie snapping his pistol at Hull.)
(* Franklin’s last threat was posed by: 300, 500, or 1,000 Indians.)
Chapter 21
Local Indian Raids continue Until 1867 (pp 317- 318)
Although there was no recorded violence between whites and Indians after the Franklin scare of September, 1864, bands of Indians continued to harass the settlements in the southeastern section of Idaho Territory. According to legends -- white and Indian -- the chiefs couldn’t control their outraged tribal members.
The Trail Blazer, “history of southeastern Idaho, records the experiences of three communities northwest of Franklin, on the west side of Bear river: --
WESTON: This town was first settled in the year 1865 by fifteen families who crossed the Bear river, April 15, on the ice … During the early summer of 1866 just as the crops were beginning to grow fairly well, the troublesome Indians made it necessary for the settlers to leave their land and move over to the east side of the valley.
Some of them came back to their new homes in the fall o f the year and harvested their crops which were left, then spent the winter on the east side. The Indians were so hostile that none of the settlers ventured to winter on the farms --- In the spring of 1867, the settlers again returned to Weston …
From this time on a more permanent settlement was established. They built their log houses in the form of a fort to protect themselves from the Indians … The crops grown by the early settlers were wheat, potatoes and corn. Because of the crickets and grasshoppers destroying most of the crops several years in succession, the men folks had to seek work in other places in order to get the absolute necessities for their families. This worked a real hardship on the women who had to take care of the work at home and contend with the fear of attack by the prowling Indians…
CLIFTON: The village was first settled in 1864, but not permanently until 1869... The settlers first lived in a ford at Oxford for protection from the Indians and would travel back and forth to their land in Clifton where they engaged in farming, dairying and stock-raising…
OXFORD: In July of 1864 a company of explorers, under the leadership of Marriner W. Merrill, was sent into northern Cache Valley to find suitable sites for new settlements. There were none north of Franklin --- Because of Indian raids, people who had settled north and south of Oxford were advised to move into Oxford in the fall of 1865. They built and lived in a fort of log houses during the winter of 1865-66.
Indian trouble increased and so these pioneers left their homes and moved to Franklin for the summer, crossing Bear River at the mouth of Deep Creek (* just south of the old Battle Creek Indian camp). All summer the men went back to oxford and took care of their crops. In the fall they moved their families back. Indian difficulties were over by the spring of 1867 so people moved out of the fort into their city lots …
*Note: From reminiscences of settlers traveling between Franklin and Oxford, near the massacre site, we learn that most of the Indian dead were never buried nor removed.
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Pp 261 Quotation from an unknown old book, apparently from an Indian in the early era: “Buffalo was recklessly slaughtered by the white man. Buffalo was our food, shelter and clothing -- now the white man is our buffalo.”
“This source also stated that the white man gave three things (besides diseases) to the Indian: the horse, the gun, and whiskey.
It was said that the Shoshones had been horse people since 1800 -- maybe 25 to 50 years earlier. The Indian learned to cope only with the horse. He could fight or hunt on horseback, learned to ‘lean’ so as not to expose himself to fire. But he could not learn to cope with the other two things -- guns or whiskey. He didn’t have enough ammunition to waste on practice, so few of them became crack shots; and if the gun jammed or broke he did not know how to repair it.”
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Washakie told his people: “You must not fight the whites. I not only advise against it, I forbid it!” The settlers were so appreciative of Washakie’s assistance that 9,000 of them signed a document commending the Shoshonis and their chief. He was even on friendly terms with the Mormon leader “Big-Um” or Brigham Young.
