Buffalo County, Nebraska - Chapter 14: The Indian Stampede of 1864 Narration of Events by James Jackson, "ted, 1916

The Stampede In August, 1864

The stampede that occurred in August, 1864, marks an event of great importance in the early settlement of the county and state. With no knowledge of the actual conditions and circumstances existing at the time of this stampede, it has been difficult to understand why all the settlers in the vicinity of Wood River Center (now Shelton) should have deserted their homes, when it appears that not a hostile Indian was seen at that time by these settlers ; also that no hostile Indians were seen on the north side of the Platte River, at least not within 100 miles to the west of Wood River Center settlement. These settlers had been living for years in daily dread of attack by Indians, had been continually on the lookout for them, and Indians had frequently attacked one or two white men settlers when found alone and the Indians could surprise them. James Jackson states that two were killed by Sioux Indians in 1863, a few miles west of Wood River Center. "Ted" C^liver relates that he spent many long hours on the roof of their loghouse watching for Indians for some years preceding this stampede. For these and other reasons it has been thought best to determine as far as possible the reasons for the stampede of these early settlers, and after giving the subject much study and consideration, the writer offers the following suggestions or reasons for this fright and stampede. From the date, 1847, when the Mormons lirst made settlement in Utah until the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869, Alormon sentiment dominated the trail between Florence on the Missouri River and Salt Lake City, Utah. Thousands of Mormon emigrants passed each year over this trail in charge of Mormon elders who regularly made the journey back and forth. Along the trail from Florence as far west as Fort Kearney were settlers, largely Mormon emigrants, some of whom tarried a brief time and then journeyed on to Utah ; others remained and made permanent homes, as did the Olivers, Owens, Nutters and others of the early settlers in Buffalo County. Commencing in i860 a great and terrible Civil war was raging in the "states," the real cause of which Mormon emigrants had little knowledge. The

Mormon leaders preached that this war was sent as punishment on the Gentiles for their persecution of the Mormons, and that while the war raged the Indians of the Northwest would raid the settlements along the border and murder the settlers. A year or more previous to the stampede Sioux Indians had raided the settlements in Minnesota and massacred a thousand or more of the settlers. All these things naturally kept the settlers in Buffalo and Hall counties in a state of apprehension of Indian attack.

A narration of some events which did occur in this connection will show that the apprehension on the part of the settlers was well founded. In conversation with Lieutenant Governor Hopewell, in November, 1908, he stated that in ]uly. 1864, he was a "buUwhacker" on a Government freight train loaded with supplies and journeying from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to Fort Laramie, some three hundred miles west of Fort Kearney. There were twenty-five wagons in the train, each wagon drawn by from six to eight yoke of oxen, and they averaged about fifteen jniles a day. The conditions were so peaceful along the trail that the men were not generally armed, although most of them carried revolvers. Indians visited their camp daily, probably Pawnees, as this was Pawnee territory - begging for food or anything which pleased an Indian's fancy. On July 4th the train reached Fort Kearney, making a brief stop and continuing the journey on the trail south of the Platte. On July 6th, when opposite the mouth of Plum Creek (near the present Village of Lexington), they saw where Indians had committed depredations on an emigrant train. The train crossed the Platte near Julesburg, two days being required to make the crossing, it being necessary to unload some of the freight and to double teams on each wagon. At Fort Laramie the men with the wagon train were issued guns and ammunition, and on the return journey there were seventy-five wagons in the train and about one hundred armed men. Near O'Fallon's Bluffs the train passed through a large camp of Cheyenne Indians (old men and squaws), and a day or two days' journey farther east saw at a distance a large body of Indian warriors. From this band a small number, mounted, detached themselves, taking a course as if to intercept the wagon train. The train boss ordered the train into camp, and when the small party of Indians rode up "how-howing," the men had their guns handy. These Indians remained but a short time, when as if by signal they rode off at full speed. The train was not molested, but when it reached the mouth of Plum Creek they found where a train of eleven wagons had been destroyed and there were a large number of fresh graves beside the trail. Farther east they saw additional evidences of Indian depredations.

Capt. H. E. Palmer, in his "History of the Powder River Expedition of 1865" (Nebraska State Historical Society, Vol. II), relates many incidents of this raid by the Cheyenne Sioux. From his account the following is quoted: 'Tn August, 1864, I was ordered to report to General Cvirtis, who commanded the Department of Kansas, at Fort Leavenworth, and was by him instructed to take command of a detachment of the Eleventh Ohio Volunteer Corps, sixty men, every one of them lately Confederate soldiers with John Morgan in his raid into Ohio, captured there and confined at Columbus. They had enlisted in the L'ederal service under the pledge that they were to fight Indians and not rebels. I was to conduct those men to Fort Kearney, and there turn them over to Captain Humphreyville of the Eleventh Ohio. On my way out, near Big Sandy, now Alexandria, in Thayer County, Nebraska, I met a party of freighters and stage coach passengers on horseback, and some few ranchmen, fleeing from tlie Little Blue Valley. They told me a terrible story, that the Indians were just in their rear and how they had massacred the people just west of them, none knew how many. All knew that the Cheyennes had made a raid into the Little Blue Valley, striking down all before them. After camping for dinner at this place, and seeing the last citizen disappear towards the states, I pushed on toward the Little Blue, camping in the valley, and saw two Indians about five miles away on a hill as I went into camp. The next day passed Ewbank's ranch, and found there little children from three to seven years old, wIto had been taken by the heels and swung around against the log cabin, beating their heads into a jelly. The hired girl was found some fifteen rods from the ranch, staked out on the prairie, tied by her hands and feet, naked, and her body full of arrows and horribly mangled. Not far from this was the body of Ewbank, whiskers cut oif, body most fearfully mutilated. The buildings had been burned and the ruins still smoking. Nearly the same scene of desolation and murder was witnessed at Spring ranch. Camped that night at Liberty farm. Next day passed trains, in one place seventy wagons loaded with merchandise, en route for Denver. The teamsters had mounted their mules and made their escape. The Indians had opened boxes containing dry goods, taking great bolts of calicoes and other cloths, carried ofl:" all they wanted, and scattered the balance, all they could, around over the prairie. * * * These Indians had attacked the troops at Pawnee ranch under command of Capt. E. B. Murphy of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry, and had driven them into Fort Kearney, although he had with him about one hundred and fifty men and two pieces of artillery. By this time the main body of the Indians was far away in the Republican Valley, en route for the Solomon River. I followed their rear guard to a point near where the Town of Franklin, in Franklin County, on the Republican, now stands. Camped there one night and then marched north to Fort Kearney. On that day's march we saw millions of bufi^alo."

This raid on the Little Blue was made by the Cheyennes under the command of Black Kettle, One-Eyed George Bent, Two Faces and others. Mrs. Ewbank and Miss Laura Boyer were carried away captives. We ransomed them from the Indians, who brought them to Fort Laramie in January, 1865. Just prior to this outbreak on the Little Blue a number of the same Indians had attacked a train near Plum Creek, thirty-one miles west of Fort Kearney, on the south side of the Platte, and killed several men. From Plum Creek they moved down the Little Blue, passing south of Fort Kearney.

This band of Indians, says Captain Palmer, was attacked by Colorado troops under command of Col. J. M. Chivington, on November 29, 1864, in their camp on Sand Creek, about one hundred and ten miles southeast of Denver. The Indians were surprised, and according to the very best estimate five hundred or six hundred were killed - men, women and children.

The story of this memorable stampede, as relates to settlers in what is now Bufi^alo County, as told by some who took part, is in substance as follows: It had been a quiet, peaceful summer in the Wood River \'alley in 1864. The set- tiers liad been busy with their farming operations and there was promise of a good crop of corn, and the vegetables, potatoes, beans, etc., were already being gathered and sold at F^ort Kearney. On August 9th, James Oliver and Thomas Morgan, settlers living on Wood River, about midway between the present villages of Gibbon and Shelton, had gone to F^ort Kearney with a load of vegetables, leaving their wives and children to keep company together at the home of 'Sir. Morgan. News of the outbreak reached the officers at the fort while Oliver and Morgan were there, and they were not allowed to return home to their families, but were pressed into service to defend the fort. Another settler by the name of Cook was also at the fort and he was sent to warn the settlers and to advise them to gather at Wood River Center prepared to defend themselves.

The homes of these early settlers, some built of logs, some of sod, some dugouts (holes in the ground), were all on the south side of Wood River, close to that stream, and the one farthest west was that of J. E. Boyd, the Boyd ranch, about one mile west of the present Village of Gibbon. Thus it was, in the dead of night, that Messenger Cook called these settlers from their sleep, informed them that the Indians were coming in great force, advising not to strike a light, as it might attract the attention of the Indians, but to go as quickly as possible to Wood River Center. Before daylight all the settlers within miles of this common center had been warned and had assembled, many with little more clothing than when awakened from their sleep. August Meyer, now ( 1908) living at Shelton, a German, who had served five years in the regular service, was chosen captain and at once organized his force as best he could, establishing a line of pickets. At this center there was being built a log stable, yet without a roof. Into this stable the women and children were placed, while all awaited the coming of the Indians. When morning came one settler mounted his horse and started towards his home. He soon returned in great haste, saying he saw a band of Indians on the north side of Wood River in the rear of his home. After a long, anxious time of waiting, four men, mounted, were sent to see what had become of the Indians the settler reported to have seen. When this party returned they reported that in the rear of the ranch, and across Wood River, was a bunch of buffalo feeding, and doubtless in his fright the settler mistook these buffalo for Indians. So far as can be recalled, the following are the names of persons and families residing at that date in what is now Buffalo County and most of whom gathered at Wood River Center on the occasion of this stampede ; J. E. Boyd and family, John Britt, George Burke, Crane brothers. Cook and family, FI. Dugdale and family, Mrs. Francis and children, Huff and family, French George, Augustus Meyer and wife, Edward (Ted) Oliver and wife, James Oliver and family, Mrs. Sarah Oliver and her children, Robert, John, Sarah Ann, Jane and Eliza, Mrs. David Owen and son, Joseph Owen, Thomas Morgan and family, Payne and family, Thomas Peck and family, Jack Staats and family. Story and family, Tague and family, Mrs. Wilson and children, William Nutter and family.

During the day James Oliver and Thomas Morgan returned from Fort Kearney, bringing further news of the murders and horrible atrocities perpetrated by the Indians. The settlers remained at Wood River Center during the day and succeeding night, when it was agreed best for all to leave and each family returned to their home, placed in wagons their household belongings, hitched to the wagons their ox teams and driving their few head of cows and other cattle, took the trail for Missouri River. In the haste of this leaving of home under such conditions, it is small wonder that one child was left asleep in the cradle and not missed until the parents were some distance on the trail, when it was discovered that baby Helen had been left behind and the wagon was halted while the anxious father hurried back for the little one. In the arms of mother were twin daughters only a few months of age. Except at Grand Island, where some of the settlers had thrown up breastworks and prepared to defend themselves, the entire country as far as the Missouri River was with a few exceptions deserted. When the fleeing settlers reached Omaha they found the stores closed, every able-bodied man pressed into service and armed, and mounted men patrolling the country for miles outside the Village of Omaha. Omaha, at that date (1864), was a straggling village with a population about the same as the present Village of Shelton. At an election held in 1864 (Morton History, Vol. I, page 495) Douglas County had cast 971 votes for delegate to Congress out of a total of 5,885 cast in the Territory of Nebraska. This would give Douglas County a population of approximately four thousand, with a population in the City or Village of Omaha of approximately one thousand. Most of the fleeing settlers from the Wood River Center settlement pursued their journey into Iowa. William Nutter and family continued on to England, going by way of Quebec. The female members of the Oliver and Owen families remained in Iowa for a year before returning to their Wood River homes. James Oliver, Thomas Morgan and others returned in time to gather the crops on their claims. Augustus Meyer, Edward (Ted) Oliver, George Burke and John Britt did not leave during the stampede, but remained to care for their property. They were not molested and saw no hostile Indians.

Mr. Meyer was in the employ of the Western Stage Company, in charge of their stage station near Wood River Center, where was kept a relay of horses, and Mr. Meyer states that his sense of duty to his employers would not permit of his leaving the stage property at such a time, and further, he had seen no Indians and did not greatly fear an attack. Mr. Meyer, a German, had served five years in the regular United States service, a portion of the time at Fort Kearney, and had been discharged from the service at Fort Kearney in 1861, since which time he had been in the employ of the Western Stage Company, first at Boyd's ranch, and later at their station near Wood River Center.

The press of that date, 1864, in the Territory of Nebraska, roundly denounced the general Government for its failure to protect emigrants on the trail and settlers on the plains from attack by hostile Indians, and it seems that such denunciation was in a measure deserved, for it appears that no effort whatever was made by those in command at Fort Kearney to protect or come to the relief of settlers during this raid ; in fact, two of the settlers, James Oliver and Thomas Morgan, were pressed into service to defend the fort, while their wives and children were left to the mercy of savage and barbarous Indians. When the settlers returned to their homes after the stampede they found small details of soldiers from the fort stationed at the Boyd ranch. Wood River Center and at settlements farther east toward Grand Island, in order to protect both the settlers and also the emigrants traveling the California and Oregon trail. It should not be forgotten that this memorable raid occurred in the closing year of the great Civil war when every soldier was needed in the stupendous struggle for the preservation of the Union, and it also appears that the garrisons in the western forts and the troops employed to fight the Indians were largely captured Confederate soldiers who preferred service in fighting Indians (not rebels) rather than to remain prisoners of war, confined in armed camps. -