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After Fremont 14 years passed away ere white men began again to go through Gove county. Kansas was organized as a territory and the strife between the free soil and pro-slavery factions began to rage, but the settlements were confined to the eastern part of the territory and did not extend as yet very far out on the plains. Gold was discovered in California in 1848 and a big rush set in for that state but it followed the old established routes, by the Platte and Republican rivers on the north and the Santa Fe Trail on the south. It was not till gold was discovered in the region of Pike's Peak in 1858 that an effort was made to lay out a trail along the Smoky Hill. These trails necessarily must keep close to water, but here was a route which had all the advantages of the older ones and was shorter to the Colorado gold field by several days than either of the old routes. The first mention I can find of the Smoky Hill Trail is in Alexander Majors' book "Seventy Years on the Frontier." Mr. Majors was a member of the celebrated firm of Majors, Russell & Waddell, the pioneer company in the overland freight business. He says that in the winter of 18 58 W. H. Russell and John S. Jones conceived the idea of putting on a line of daily coaches between the Missouri river and Denver, which city was then but a few months old. Majors was offered a share in the enterprise but declined as he felt that it would not pay. The company bought a fine outfit and the line was put in operation. "They bought their mules and coaches on credit; giving their notes payable in ninety days; sent men out to establish a station every ten or fifteen miles from Leavenworth due west, going up the Smoky Hill fork of the Kansas river, through the territory of Kansas direct to Denver. The line was organized, stations built and put in running order in remarkably quick time." They made their daily trips in six days, traveling about one hundred miles in twenty four hours. The first stage ran into Denver May 17, 1859. It was looked upon as a rgeat success, so far as putting the enterprise in good shape was concerned, but it did not pay; when the ninety days expired and the notes fell due the company was unable to meet them. It became necessary for Majors, Russell and Waddell to take the property; "we continued to run it daily." The new owners consolidated this line with their other lines and Majors says: "From the summer of 1859 to 1862 the line was run from Atchison to Fort Kearney to Fort Laramie, up the Sweet Water route and South Pass and on to Salt Lake City." Thus it appears that this first stage line on the Smoky Hill Trail had but a short existence. It is to be supposed, however, that the route continued to be used by the hardy pioneers who started out in their covered wagons inscribed "Pike's Peak or Bust" and wanted to reach their destination by the shortest and quickest route. In 1860 the citizens of Leavenworth conceived the idea that their city ought to have a larger share of the overland business which was at that time handled from Atchison over the Republican river route and from Kansas City over the Santa Fe trail. So the city council sent out an expedition to open up the Smoky Hill route, "to point out to the public the shortest and easiest route to the gold fields of Western Kansas." (The Pike's Peak region and all of Colorado east of the mountains was at this time part of Kansas Territory.) This party was commanded by Henry T. Green and was accompanied by an army engineer, Lieutenant Tennison, who prepared a map of the route. The party left Leavenworth June 19, 1860. They were at Topeka June 2 3, Junction City June 28. Salina July 4; they left Salina July 5th and plunged into the unknown. No further dates are given, but the report says "Arrived at Colorado City 18th of August, having been on the road 61days." By comparing Tennison's map with modern maps the route of the party through Gove county can easily be Page 6 traced. I give some extracts from Mr. Green's report of the trip: "At a distance of fifty miles from Big Creek we came to the White Bluffs or Chalk Regions From the White Bluffs' to the forks of the Smoky Hill a low narrow bottom will be found, hemmed in by chalk bluffs. ....We followed the bottom as far north as North Creek from which point we followed the highlands till we-struck the old Pike's Peak road, beyond Cottonwood Creek, which we followed "to the river, crossing numer-ous small tributaries to the Smoky Hill, well supplied with water and their banks lined with good grass. At this point we left the old Pike's Peak road, crossed the river and traveled about seven miles on the south side, but finding it impossible to make a good road on that side of the river we recrossed to the north side and took the old road." Three camping places are marked on the map within the present limits of Gove county. There are some discrepancies between the table of distances as. given in the report and the distances as marked on the map, which has been the cause of much worry to the historian. Perhaps the average reader is but little interested in the account of this expedition, but individually I have a lively interest in it; for the party is traveling through the neighborhood in which I live, before settlement was thought of and years before I was born. As near as I can make it out the story of their trip through Gove county would be about as follows, written out in modern language: "North Creek" is evidently the Hackberry, which has most of its course in Gove county but empties into the Smoky in Trego county. Here they round "wood, water and grass" as at all their camping places. Here, leaving the rough ground along the Smoky, they came out on the great flats between the Smoky and the Hackberry-that splendid stretch of country through which, I have always believed, will some day be built another line of railroad parallel to the U. P. and the Missouri Pacific. They followed this route till they came to "Cottonwood Creek", which the map shows to be our own Plum Creek, crossing on the way, as the notes of expedition say, "numerous small tributaries well supplied with water." They must have passed very near the neighborhood of my own home, and for all we know may have filled their canteens at the Indian Springs on my own farm. Their map. shows that the party camped on the west bank of Plum creek at a point which can not be far from where 1 cross it when I go to Jerome to vote-There is a cottonwood grove at that place now, on "Tommy" Garner's old homestead. Perhaps the Leaven worth party found trees there and called the stream Cottonwood Creek for that reason. Concerning this part of the route the notes say, "Water and grass abundant. Road, crosses several small water courses before reaching'* (the camp on Plum creek.) After crossing Plum creek the party struck the old trail and followed it till it touched the Smoky just east of Jerome, then crossed the river and tried to go up the south side. But here they were in the roughest part of Gove county, where many streams and canyons curt their way down to the Smoky, so they soon decided they had better stick to the old trail and recrossed to the north side. They camped that night on the north bank of the river close to the west line of the county. The map shows, off to the north of their camp, an elevation of some kind which may have been that famed bit of scenery, the Monument Rocks. The note on this part of the journey is, "Smoky Hill valley; water and grass; driftwood. Camping places, with wood, water and grass on the banks of the Smoky Hill at convenient distances." The expedition returned by the *same route. Here are their notes as far as they refer to Gove county: Sept. 17th-Left Babcock's valley this morning, traveling over the old road four miles to Cottonwood Creek where we put up a signboard. At this point we left the old road and traveled due east over a level bottom, crossing several ravines, and camped" for dinner at the head springs of a stream emptying into the Smoky Hill. Good water and grass. After dinner we traveled over the same character of country, erecting mounds at suitable distances and camped at night in a ravine. Abundance of water and grass. No wood. Distance sixteen miles." (This camping place was probably in the neighborhood of Alanthus post office. The distance agrees.) Sept. 18-Left camp at seven o'- clock, bearing north of east over a broken country. At a distance of five miles we came to a high chalk bluff which can be seen at a great distance in all directions. This bluff is the divide between the Smoky Hill river and North Creek. Four miles from the bluff we came to North Creek." This may have been the high bluff just south of Castle Rock. The description fits fairly well. The Leavenworth expedition does not seem to have succeeded in popularizing the Smoky Hill route, and the overland business continued to go over the Republican and Santa Fe trails. The life of the Smoky Hill route really began when David A. Butterfield took hold of it in 186 5. He was a man of much experience in freighting and seems to have had no difficulty in getting capital interested in the Butterfield Overland Dispatch, as the enterprise was called, or in getting business for the company. Atchison was the eastern terminus of the line and Denver the western. The surveying party which fixed the route left Atchison June 13, 1865. In the party was Lieutenant Julian R. Fitch of the United States Army. Here is an item from his. report which will interest Gove county people: "Nine and one fourth miles west (from Downer station) .we crossed Rock Castle Creek. Camped two days to rest. The scenery here is really grand. One mile south is a lofty calcareous limestone bluff having the appearance of an old English castle with pillars and avenues traversing it in every direction. We named it Castle Rock." This may be the first time the name was ever applied to the place. The first wagon train followed June 24. This caravan-known as "Train A"-was a small one loaded with 150.000 pounds of freight for Denver and other Colorado points, and the freight rate was 22 V2 cents per pound. A passenger and express service was put on in September; Butterfield himself was a passenger on the first stage, which reached Denver Sept. 23. The trip was widely advertised and Butterfield was given a great ovation at Denver. Root's "Overland Stage to California" gives a list of the stations on the Butterfield Trail and the distances between them. It entered Gove county at the point where Hackberry creek crosses the county line. Here somewhere, probably on the Trego county side of the line, was a station known as Castle Rock Creek. Leaving the Hackberry here the trail angles southwest to the Smoky. Eleven miles from Castle Rock Creek station was Grannall Spring. After reaching the Smoky the trail continues up the river till it leaves the county; there were two stations on the river in this county, Chalk Bluff, 12 miles from Grannall Spring, and Monument, 13 miles from Chalk Bluff; Monument was an eating station on the stage route and here the government established an army post for the protection of the trail. The Butterfield Overland Dispatch did a large business from the start. In one day during the month, of July, 18 65, nineteen car loads pi freight was received by the company at Atchison to be forwarded. In August a train was loaded with 600,000 pounds of merchandise for Salt Lake City. Butterfield had a large . and expensive outfit. "Some idea of- the cost-of operating an overland transportation line may be had when it is known that work oxen in the summer of 1865 cost in Atchison $160 to $170: a yoke. The company bought for-the line 1200 mules, the most of them being purchased in St. Louis. But the Butterfield company had no monopoly of the route. The government used it for its supply trains, other companies and individuals engaged in the overland business sent trains over it and much of the emigration to Pike's Peak and California went over the new trail. No statistics are obtainable but a rushing business must have been done for a time. Trouble soon came to the Butterfield Trail in the shape of assaults from the Indians. In November, 1865, a train was attacked by Indians "between Chalk Bluff station and Denver", and from that time on the line was never free from danger. It became necessary to send out a guard with every coach. In March. 18o6. Butterfield sold out to his rival, the Holiday Overland & Express Co.. which had been opera-ting on the northern route., and after a few months Holiday in turn sold out to Page 8 The old trail can still be traced across the county. Leaving the Hack-berry bottoms it sweeps past the base of Castle Rock and strikes out boldly across the high and dry prairie. On such trails watering places at frequent distances are a necessity and one such is found at the old Grannall Spring on section 29-14-27 where the trail crosses In-dian creek. This section, still untouched by the plow, is now enclosed in a cattle ranch; and the spring is walled up with concrete and furnishes water for a considerable number of cattle. The trail first strikes the Smoky just north of the bridge on the Grainfield-Gove City-Shields county road. It crosses Plum creek just above its mouth and continues up the river as straight as the lay of the land will permit. The river in its long sweeping curves is sometimes close at hand, sometimes a mile away. Where the trail strikes the river about a mile east of Jerome was the Chalk Bluff station. The trail goes right across the townsite of Jerome; it runs close to the old Swede Church, and Monument station is on the river bank within sight of Monument Rocks from which it took its name. Occasionally the settler's plow has obliterated the trail but most of that part of the county where the trail runs is still pasture land and the old track is soon found again. In crossing the flats sometimes the trail becomes dim and hard to follow, but in broken ground and the crossings of ravines its ruts and gullies stand out prominently. Sometimes the trail seems to narrow to a single pair of ruts but sometimes there are a score of them. The elements have dealt lightly with the old trail; though laid out sixty years ago it can still be followed with an automobile with very little difficulty; and indeed for some miles along the river it is the main traveled road to this day. Of the stations few traces are to be found. At Grannall Spring no remains of buildings are to be seen, though there may once have been some dugouts. in the creek hank. At Chalk Bluff and Monument are some pits. and mounds on the river bank to mark the location of the old dugouts and sod houses; and there were some stone buildings at Monument which were afterward despoiled by the settlers to get materials for their dwellings. One of the old time freighters, John A. Himebaugh, has written of his experiences in the publications of the Kansas Historical Society. He says: "Our outfit was loaded with shelled corn in sacks for the stage line, our route was what was called the 'Smoky Hill route'; this was the overland line of the "Holiday Stage Co." of Denver. They ran a daily six horse stage each way, heavy Concord coaches, if water was obtainable change stations for fresh horses was had about every 12 or 15 miles. This. season (18 67) the plains Indians were very bad and troublesome, so the United States soldiers were distributed all along the line to protect the lives of stage passengers, freighters and emigrants going to and from the mountains. A squad of soldiers were stationed at every stage station and at certain of such places quite a post or garrison was maintained; from two to six soldiers rode with every stage coach. The army officers; would not allow a stage coach to leave a station without the proper number of soldiers and when a freight outfit came to one of these stations we were required tp wait till not less than eighty men were ready to move. But bull whackers did not like to be bunched up too closely, so soon after leaving we scattered out, as bull whackers were always well armed and were never afraid of Indians. Those wishing to know more about the old stage coach days will find something interesting in such books as Root's, referred to above, Mark Twain's "Roughing It" and Albert Richardson's "Beyond the Mississippi." It may be of interest to know what became of Butterfield. After selling out the Overland Dispatch he went to Hot Springs, Ark., and built a street car line and was killed in a fight there, by a blow from a neck yoke. He seems to have tried to talk to the Arkansas man as he would to one of his own mules on the Butterfield Overland Dispatch, and the Arkansas man would not stand for it. Page 9 As the Pacific railroad and the buffalo hunters advanced across the plains the plains Indians, always more or less unfriendly, seemed roused to frenzy and in the sixties hostilities broke out along the border from Texas to Dakota. Settlements were attacked and settlers killed within a hundred miles of the Missouri river. Tracklayers on the railroad were harassed continually and could work only when under an armed guard. Traveling parties on the overland trails went heavily armed and fortified their camps at night with a rampart of wagons. The little regular army was divided up into squads to cover as much country as possible, protect the construction gangs on the railroad and keep the trails open. Numerous small forts were established. Along the Smoky Hill trail were Fort Hays, Downer (in Trego county), Monument (Gove county), and Wallace. The state of Kansas raised a regiment of troops and Governor Crawford resigned his office to take command of it. Not till 1869 were the Indians finally put down. The Smoky Hill trail was attacked frequently. Fort Downer was taken in 1866 and the garrison massacred. (This fort was in Trego county, nine miles east of the Gove county line.) In 1867 several of the stations were destroyed, including Castle Rock and Chalk Bluff. The late Harvey Groves of Jerome township was a regular army cavalryman in those days and used to tell of a fight which his company had with a band of Indians on the Smoky near the mouth of Cheyenne creek. Root's "Overland Stage" describes at some length a fight at Monument station Aug. 22, 1867. A freight train of forty wagons belonging to Powers & Newman of Leavenworth was attacked at 5 o'clock in the morning by a force of Cheyenne and Sioux numbering several hundreds. Shel-tered with their stock behind their wagons the freighters beat off the attack and withstood a siege of thirty two hours. The next day a government freight train of twenty five wagons came along, under guard of a small detachment of soldiers, and the combined forces compelled the Indians to retire. Chalk Bluff seems to have been raided more than once. D. Street, general agent of the Holliday company at Omaha, wrote the adjutant general of the United States as follows, Oct. 23, 1866: "Your telegram of the 18th asking what Indians burned Chalk Bluff station on the Smoky Hill route is received. Have not received particulars. Am satisfied, however, that it was done by the dissatisfied band of Cheyennes known as 'Dog Soldiers.' This band consists of 250 to 300 young bucks and as it was they that killed our two employes at that station about three weeks ago it is reasonable to presume that they are the ones that burned the station. The only particulars I have of the affair is that they told our men to take the horses out of the station and go that they did not want their horses or to shed their blood." General Hancock, who was in charge of the operations against the Indians, said in his report "The Cheyennes are charged with the murder at Chalk Bluffs Sept. 29, 1866, and with other outrages on the Smoky Hill during last summer and fall. The trader, Mr. Butterfield, has, I presume, traded arms and ammunition to these tribes." (Rather a serious charge. Perhaps Butterfield had reason to leave the country). The Chalk Bluffs affair is referred to repeatedly in Gen. Hancock's report. James Wads worth, a driver of the Overland Express, makes an affidavit in regard to it which is too long to reproduce here. He said in part: "I am perfectly satisfied that the Indians who attacked me at Monument station were Cheyennes, also that the Indians who massacred the stock tenders at Chalk Bluffs were of the same party." It is worthy of passing notice that this affidavit was sworn to before Lieutenant Fred H. Beecher of the Third Infantry. This is the same officer who was killed in the famous fight at Beecher's Island on the Arickaree in September, 18 68, and from whom the island was named. The Indian outbreak was put down, the railroad was completed and the overland trail abandoned. Peace reigned on the plains for several Page 10 years. Then came another outbreak in 1878. In September of that year a band of Cheyennes who had been removed to the Indian Territory broke away and made a dash for their old homes in the north. This band consisted of about 200 or 250 bucks with their families and effects. They entered the state of Kansas on the 14th of the month and marching in a northwesterly direction crossed the state in eighteen days. Their route took them across the counties of Barber, Comanche, Clark, Foote, Meade, Ford, Hodgeman, Ness, Gove, Sheridan, Decatur and Rawlins. They crossed the Union Pacific near Buffalo Park. Wherever they went they committed depredations but their march was so rapid, the territory covered so narrow and the settlers so well warned that the loss of life and property were not great. The greatest loss of life was in the northern part of the state after the hostiles had crossed the railroad and perhaps felt more safe from pursuit and had more leisure for killing. A monument to the victims of the raid was unveiled at Oberlin Sept. 30, 1911. This monument is 22 feet high and was erected by the state at a cost of $1500. Upon it are inscribed the names of nineteen victims of the raid, all of whom were killed in the northern part of the state. Among these is the name of one Gove county young man, Edward Miskelly of Buffalo Park, who was the only one from our county to lose his life in the last Indian war in Kansas. The property destroyed in this raid was paid for by the state. The legislature of 1879 provided for a commission to investigate the damage. This commission held sessions at Dodge City, Hays and Norton. To it were presented 116 claims aggregating $182,646.13. Of these the commission allowed claims to the amount of $101,766.83. Two Gove county claims were presented, for live stock stolen or killed. Smith & Savage claimed $17,153 and were allowed $14,019. Dowling Bros, presented a claim for $1,650 and were allowed $1,350. In addition to the loss of property the commission
found that thirty two lives were sacrificed in this raid of the Cheyennes. |
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