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In
the month of June 1866, a number of horses and mules were driven off by the
Indians, being taken from the vicinity of Washington ranch. Twelve men started
in pursuit, following the trail of the stolen animals over the mountain to the
head of Elk creek, and on towards the head of Powder River, then across the
divide to Burnt river and over the west ridge to Willow creek. Here six of the
party turned back, and John Hibbard, Hardin Estes, Frank Johnson, Hiram
Kinnison, Jo Hodgeons and Curtis kept on the pursuit. The Indians had chosen
their route over the stoniest ground in order to baffle their pursuers if they
should be followed. When the party came to a place so stony they could not see
the prints of the horses feet, they would divide, some going to the right and
some keeping to the left, keeping on soft ground watching for the place where
the Indians had left the hard ground. In this way they managed to follow at a
lively gait, and from the appearance of the tracks, believed they were gaining
on the Indians. Late in the afternoon of the 10th day they came to the brink of
a precipitous bluff on a small tributary of the south fork of the Malheur River,
and espied the horses and mules for which they were searching, in the valley
below. They could see six Indian wickiups and after a few minutes spent in
consultation, they resolved to attack the camp, and drive the Indians away and
recover the animals. Mr. Curtis, who was an experienced scout declared that he
was good for one wickiup himself. They accordingly stripped their horses of all
surplus luggage, and remounting, rode up the ridge about a hundred yards to turn
a point of rocks where they would be a more gradual descent to the valley down
which they intended to charge up on the Indian camp. But upon turning the point
of rocks they came in sight of the main part of the camp nearer the foot of the
bluff, which they had overlooked when taking their first observation. A number
of Indians children were out playing beyond the camp, and under a kind of shed
built of brush an Indian seemed to be making a speech to forty or fifty others
who were gathered about him. He was doubtless the leader of the band which had
stolen the horses and was recounting their adventures, for they had not reached
camp more than two or three hours ahead of their pursuers. There were too many
Indians for six men to think of attacking the camp, so they retraced their steps
and gathered their blankets and things up and set out upon their return to
Powder river valley, intending to get a company sufficiently strong to cope with
the Indians, and try it again. Some two miles from the bluff they saw a dog in
an open space between two thickets of brush, through which they had to pass, but
saw no Indian then, but on looking back when they had got some distance away,
they saw an Indian going towards camp at a rapid rate, and thinking they might
be pursued, they rode all night without stopping. After taking a rest the next
day, they continued on and arrived home without further adventure.
In a few days a company of about fifty men was
organized with Hardin Estes, captain, Frank Johnson lieutenant, and Dr.
Rackerby, commissary of subsistence. At Auburn they were joined by a man who
said he had just come over from Canyon City and who pretended to be anxious to
go with them. He had a large roll of blankets strapped behind his saddle, and
when they crossed Burnt river at the mouth of Clarks creek, he told the company
that he would go over to Mormon Basin and leave a portion of his blankets with a
merchant with whom he was acquainted and then come on and overtake them. The
company continued the march and on the eighth day after leaving Auburn came to a
place where the party of six had seen the Indians a few days before, but the
camp was deserted, the Indians evidently having departed hastily but a short
time before. The fellow who had left the company at Clarks creek to go to Mormon
Basin, had not rejoined them as he had promised to do, and they were now
convinced that he had been a spy for the Indians, and had come on ahead of them
and warned the Indians of their approach. Taking the trail of the retreating
Indians they followed it until they came in sight of a camp on a fork of the
Malheur River some two miles distant. They could not make out with the aid of a
field glass whether they were Indians or white men some believing one way and
some the other. After a consultation it was arranged for Frank Johnson with
fifteen men to proceed up the stream and take a position opposite the camp -and
be in readiness to co-operate with the rest of the company who were to cross the
stream and move upon the camp from that side. The men who crossed the creek,
found that they were soldiers when they came nearer the camp, and rode straight
towards them never thinking of taking them by surprise, until the alarm was
given and the soldiers ordered into line. Lieutenant Bernard in command of the
soldiers, called to the volunteers to halt, but they paying no attention to his
order, he ordered his men to fire. At that instant Frank Johnson from the
opposite side of the stream called to them not to fire. The lieutenant now found
out who they were, and welcomed them to camp. There were but eleven soldiers in
the camp, the rest of the command under Sergeant Conner having gone in pursuit
of the same Indians the volunteers were after. They returned that evening
bringing the body of a comrade who was killed in an engagement with the Indians
Corporal Wm. B. Lord, who, it was said, had served through the civil war and
been in more than one hundred engagements without receiving a wound. When the
soldiers charged upon the Indians they scattered in every direction, and when
Corporal Lord fell from his horse those of his comrades who saw him believed he
was killed, and they continued on in pursuit. Upon returning to the spot where
the corporal fell they found him still alive and able to tell about some Indians
trying to get to him but he kept them at a distance with his revolver, until
they retreated at sight of the returning soldiers. He died soon after telling
his story.
The next day the soldiers and volunteers all set out in
pursuit of the Indians whom they followed until Lieutenant Bernard gave up all
hope of accomplishing anything more when all the volunteers except four started
homeward, John Hibbard, Charley Smith, Curtis and Strickland went on with the
soldiers, hoping they might recover some of the stolen horses. Going southward
to Silves River they followed that river to its source, then turned northward
and traversed the country to the John Day River without finding any Indians.
When they came to The Dalles and Canyon City wagon road, the four volunteers
quit Lieutenant Bernard's command, and returned home by the way of Canyon City
without having recovered even one stolen animal in a campaign lasting five
weeks.
If the Indians had remained in their camp on the
Malheur a little longer, the result would have been different. The country where
the soldiers overtook them was one of the most favorable nature for eluding
their pursuers. Their manner of conducting a retreat was to send their women and
children and animals, except what they needed for a kind of rear guard, rapidly
in advance, whilst the rear guard maneuvered to delay the troops as much as
possible.
Frequently one or two Indians would be seen off to the
right or left, out of range of rifles, who would quickly disappear in the brush,
and the troops would have to reconnoiter in that direction to ascertain if the
main body of Indians were there.
While the volunteers were with the regulars two Indians
were seen away to the right running back in the direction from which they had
come. A detachment went in pursuit of them and they disappeared in a thicket of
brush through which the troops could not ride. Returning to the main body, they
pressed on and soon came to a little valley through which it was evident most of
the Indians had passed but a short time before, and where they would certainly
have overtaken them had it not been for the hour of delay caused by the pursuit
of the two Indians. Soon after that the Indians scattered until there was no
trace of any considerable number of them keeping together, and Bernard gave up
the search.
It was a new experience to some of the boys who went
out on the expedition with Captain Estes and no doubt they thought joking and
fun making was entirely out of place when business of such a serious nature was
on hand, but most of the company had been engaged in enough of adventures of
similar kind to enable them to contemplate the probable danger ahead, without
that feeling of dread which is apt to prey upon the spirits of those who are
brought face to face with such dangers for the first time. Fun of some kind was
kept up all the while, one of the most inveterate jokers being McWilliams, one
of the pioneers of '62, still remembered by many of the first settlers in Powder
River Valley. An opportunity for one of his characteristic jokes presented
itself on the morning of the day when they expected to attack the Indian camp.
Just after they had eaten breakfast, a young man who was in McWilliams' mess
remarked that if they succeeded in taking the Indian camp they would have to use
strategy. Me looked at him like one suddenly brought to the very brink of
despair, and inquired: "How are we going to get the stuff, away out here in
these mountains? I didn't bring any along and I don't believe any of the other
boys did: there's not a bit in camp unless Rackerby has some in the commissary,
and I'll go down and see if he has", and with that he went through the camp
telling each group of boys as he passed, that Tom Bailey said they would have to
use strategy on the Indian camp and that he was going down to see if there was
any in the commissary. Rackerby flew into a towering passion when Mc stated the
case to him and inquired if he had any strategy in the commissary, and with the
most vehement protestations against such insults, he vowed he would leave the
company and return home forthwith. Some of the men thought it would be a bad
example for one of the company to desert in that way, so they set about
persuading the doctor to pass it by as being nothing but one of Mc's jokes, but
all their efforts to restore tranquility in the commissary department availed
nothing. Rackerby was rapidly packing all his individual property upon his mule
when as a last resort they appealed to John Hibbard to use his influence to get
the doctor to change his purpose. "Don't fret yourselves about the doctor
leaving; you couldn't drive him out of camp," said Hibbard. At this the boys
seemed to realize that traveling alone for four or five days, constantly exposed
to attack by Indians, would be worse than enduring jokes, so they paid no more
attention to the rebellious doctor, and he unpacked his mule and never reported
the amount of strategy in the commissary.
In the spring of 1867 the citizens of the valley found
that something would have to be done to put a stop to horse stealing. It was
proposed to form a company and be in readiness to send a sufficient force in
pursuit of thieves to insure their capture, the pursuers to follow the trail
until they accomplished their purpose.
The settlers in the eastern part of the valley set the
matter on foot and proposed to have the organizations extend all over the
valley. Mr. Morrison was then living on Willow creek near Rock creek, and when
the proposition was submitted to him, he said the Indians had never troubled
them and they would be safe if the people east of them would keep the Indians
out of that part of the valley. About ten days after that the Indians stole a
number of horses and mules on Willow creek, taking them up Rock creek and across
the mountains. Included in the lot was a fine span of mules belonging to Ernst
Leonig. There was no effort made to recover the animals.
A company was organized for the purpose above stated,
and very soon had an opportunity to engage in a chase after robbers. Louis Carey
and Anthony Sicord were robbed on the road between Burnt River and Rye Valley.
They were engaged in hauling lumber to Rye Valley, and on their return, when
within three miles of Burnt river, they were ordered to halt by six masked men.
The robbers then tied them and rifled their pockets, took all their animals but
two, and departed, telling them that somebody would come along shortly and turn
them loose. There was one mule in the team that had always been very docile and
could be ridden with only a rope around his neck, which the robbers found to be
unmanageable before they had proceeded very far. They could neither ride, lead
or drive him and had to abandon him. Carey and Sicord managed to untie
themselves in a little while, and mounting the horses which the robbers had
left, rode to Powder River valley and told John Carey, Louis' brother what had
happened. John was the owner of the teams and he immediately set out to recover
the horses, declaring he would follow them beyond the river Styx if he did not
find them on this side of the stream.
Mack Hindman went to Auburn the morning that the news
of the robbery was brought to the valley, and he proposed to go after the
robbers and follow them until they were captured. Two others offered to go and
then Sheriff Virtue also agreed to accompany them, and the four men started out
to find the trail of the robbers. Beyond Clarks creek they found it and followed
the tracks to Willow creek, where they were overtaken by Lum Davis and three
others from Rye Valley who were also in pursuit of the thieves. The party now
numbered eight, and proceeding up the creek they found cartridges and some other
articles left on the ground. They could not tell whether Indians or white men
had occupied the camp, but whoever it was they fled at sight of the party coming
up the creek. The party continued on the trail of the robbers to Canyon City
where they learned that the thieves got some of their animals shod at a
blacksmith shop. About twenty miles farther on they came upon the robbers near
the head of a gulch, who opened fire on the pursuing party from a patch of brush
in which they were concealed. The pursuers crossed the gulch and took position
between the robbers and the timber to which it was thought they might retreat.
From that point the party returned the robbers fire with repeating rifles
sending bullets into the patch of brush thickly whenever they saw the bushes
shake. The gang soon ran to open ground and surrendered, when it was found that
one of them named Judd had received four slight wounds.
Sheriff Howard, of Grant County, took charge of the
prisoners and put them in jail until the next day when the party that captured
them started to Auburn with them. On the way over, a man came to their camp one
evening and stayed awhile and went away about two hundred yards and camped by
himself. The men thought his manner looked suspicious, and Hindman went down and
made him come up and stay at their camp. The next day he went on with them to
Auburn and seemed to take a great interest in the prisoners, and they believed
he was a confederate of the robbers. There were only four of the thieves caught,
two of the six who committed the deed having gone to Silver City. The captured
robbers were put in jail at Auburn, and in a few days they sent word to Hindman
that they wanted writing paper, pens and ink, which he furnished them with, and
they wrote an account of their adventure in rhyme commencing thus:
"On the trail we met two fools,
And took from them their watch and mules,
We left them with their pocket knives,
Which served perhaps to save their lives,
The arrival of Lewis and Sicord at John Carey's is thus described:
"They stretched themselves out on the lawn,
And cried aloud 'Shon's mules are gone."
The prisoners escaped from jail and two of them, Judd
and Alexander were retaken at The Dalles brought back, tried and sentenced to
the penitentiary for eight years. When their time had expired, Alexander came
back to Baker City, where he often joked with Sicord about the robbery. He
served as a scout under General Howard in the Indian war of 1878. Judd went to
Galveston, Texas, where he carried on blacksmithing for a few years and then
went to Colorado and got an eight year sentence for horse stealing.
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Thirty-one Years
in Baker County, Isaac Hiatt |
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