BILL
CONNER, OSAGE INDIAN.
Updated material on Bill Conner: October
22, 2004.
Dear Bill, I told you ages ago that I
found some interesting information on Bill Conner in the hard-bound book,
“Cowley County Heritage,” but as per usual there were so many other projects to
handle that I never did add this item to the Conner File. Here it is: found on
Pages 146 and 147.
THE
CRAIG FAMILY.
We are descendants of William H. Craig
and Henrietta (Tryon) Conner Craig. William was born in Laurieston, Scotland,
and immigrated to America with his two sons, Robert and Alexander. His first
wife had died. William married Henrietta (Tryon) Conner. She was divorced from
William Conner, who was an interpreter for the Osage Indians. She had two
children, George and Ella. She and her brothers came from Ohio and settled at
Kickapoo Corral. The Craigs then settled on their farm in the Mount Vernon
Community northwest of Winfield, Kansas. Henrietta was a descendant of a Lady
Mary of England. A distant uncle, William Tryon, was governor of North Carolina
during the Revolutionary War and later was governor of New York. He built a
mansion at New Bern, North Carolina, which was the fist capitol of North
Carolina. Now the mansion is called Tryon Palace and is a tourist attraction.
Ella Conner died as a child and George in
later years lived on the family farm and raised his family there. Robert and
Alexander Craig moved to Seattle to live and died out there. They had no
children.
William and Henrietta had two sons,
William Henry (called Henry) and James. James died as a young man and Henry is
our ancestor.
Henry married Cora Bilyeu in 1902. Her
family came here from Kentucky. Henry and Cora then settled on the farm where
Charles Craig, Jr., now lives. Henry raised sheep and cattle and named the farm
“Bonnie View Stock Farm.” He and his sons Bill and Charles ran a custom
threshing outfit and did custom hay baling. Deep ruts from the old Wichita
trail can still be seen in the pasture.
Henry and Cora had three children:
Euphemia, William Jr. (always called Bill), and Charles. Euphemia had no
children. Bill married Ruth Abbott, a school teacher, and had two daughters,
Shirley Pringle and Virginia Hanks. He farmed and worked in the oil fields.
Charles married Ima Hall, an employee of The State Bank of Winfield.
I married Charles in 1937. He was always
called “Pop,” a nickname he acquired during Winfield High School days. He
attended Pittsburgh State Teachers College. During World War Two he ran a
Civilian Pilot Training Service at the old city airport located just south of
Highland Cemetery. Later he was a flight instructor with the War Training
Service at Wichita, Kansas. He later farmed and worked in the oil fields.
We had two children: Charles, Jr., who
married Janet House, a nurse, and they have two sons, Kevin and Wesley. Janice
married Thaine Morris, an engineer at Conoco at Ponca City, and they have two
sons, Chad and Shawn.
I still live in the family home where my
husband, Charles, was born and where Henry and Cora started their married life.
The farm has been in the family since 1902. Charles, Jr., and family built a
new home just north of mine. Euphemia died in 1962, Bill died in 1961, and
Charles died in 1971. All the family are buried at Mt. Vernon Cemetery
northwest of Winfield. They attended Presbyterian Church, which was across the
road from the cemetery. We are not related to any other Craig families.
Article was submitted by the following: Ima
Craig.
—
The above item is the latest one gathered
relative to Bill Conner. Prior to this I sent
new data and corrections on August 16, 2001. MAW
I goofed in indexing re Volume II, The
Indians, by calling Conner an Osage chief. The Winfield Courier listed
him as such. I could find no contradictions at that time. Find that I have
“goofed again” in data from Commonwealth. Called him “Connor.”
Below is the E. C. Manning story given in
“Biographical” section of 1912 Cyclopedia by Standard Publishing Company. Names
were listed alphabetically in Part I [along with portraits of some people].
Manning did pose a possible answer to why
Kay could not find out anything from State re “Emporia Land Company”
members...who started Arkansas City. Manning referred to them as the “Cresswell
Land Company.”
[Have added even further to this file
with a xeroxed sheet Kay got from somewhere re “COWLEY COUNTY”...page
1589...did not give all info on sheet...very hard to read...skipped City
Government, Schools, and Churches, etc. More pages...went to 1607 in whatever
book he took this from. Thought the part about NAME most interesting. Sure does
not agree with what Manning said. MAW]
Bill Conner, Osage Indian, was mentioned
in a number of Cowley County newspapers. C. M. Scott, at one time editor of the
Arkansas City Traveler, was a friend of Mr. Conner, and published a
number of news items about him. The early issues of the Traveler are
extant. They did not get microfilmed. As a result, only from area newspapers
did we glean stories of early settlers and persons like Wm. Conner.
In the book entitled “Between the Rivers,
Volume 1,” there is mention of Bill Conner serving as translator between Chief
Hard Rope and Captain Norton in 1870 at Arkansas City.
[Kay had the following comments...do not
know if they were taken from “Bolton” book or not.]
Who
Was Bill Conner?
William Conner, probably a white Kansas
Trader, married Metier-hon, an Osage woman. Their son, William (Bill) H.
Conner, born in January 1846, became a student at the Jesuits’ Osage Mission
school; a founding father of the Osage Nation, who co-authored its U. S. style constitution
in 1881, and was a rich rancher.
One day in 1872, William Conner sat on a
rock atop a barren hill, where the Osage Agency is now situated. He stared down
into the valley that would become the town of Pawhuska and said, “It’ll be a
long time before white men occupy this land.”
William H. Conner committed the last
known scalping associated with a religious rite known as the Osage Mourning
Dance. The practice stemmed from the belief that a deceased had to be ransomed
into the Happy Hunting Ground with the scalp of an enemy. In 1873, Conner and
another Osage scalped the chief of the Wichita, an act that nearly sparked a
Plains Indian war against the Osages. The U. S. government intervened, forcing
the Osages to compensate the Wichita for the scalping with $1,500 in ponies,
cash, blankets, and guns.
Winfield Courier, July 10, 1874. “Bill Conner, a Little Osage Chief, married Miss Angie Pyne
(Penn), of Osage Mission last week.”
Antoine Penn (a French Canadian) died in
1853 after a measles epidemic broke out at the Osage Mission, where he was
buried on April 19. He was about thirty years of age. He had married an Osage,
Pelagie Mongrain, in 1842. A daughter, Angeline Penn, was seventeen months old
at the time of her father’s death. Angeline Penn Conner died in 1879 during her
daughter’s infancy.
Winfield Courier, October 2, 1874.
We have received a letter from Bill
Conner, an Osage, in which he states there need be no fear from Indians
entertained at this place, as the Osages and wild tribes are not on good terms,
and would war on one another. William only speaks for a portion of the Little
Osages, when he makes his assertion.
He also informs us that the 150 ponies
seen by our scouts on the Salt Fork belong to the Little Osages, and are being
herded there on account of the grass being destroyed on their reserve.
In my original story re Osage Mission, I
ended with the following paragraph re Bill Conner, which was found in the March
11, 1875, issue of the Winfield Courier.
“Bill Conner, an Osage Chief, was recently
in Arkansas City. Pausing in front of the little meeting house for a moment, he
went in and took his seat among the congregation. The preacher was discoursing
on the text of the ‘sheep and the wolves,’ and had evidently been drawing a
contrast between the two subjects. “We who assemble here from week to week and
perform our duty are the sheep, now who are the wolves?’ A pause and our friend
Conner rose to his feet. “Wa’al, stranger, rather than see the play stopped, I
will be the wolves!’ The preacher was vanquished.”
Arkansas City Traveler, February 21, 1877.
“Wm. Conner, well known in this vicinity
and the Territory as the most intelligent Osage Indian in the Territory, made
us a call last week to renew acquaintances. ‘Bill’ was on his way west, as a
guide to the party of Ponca Indians inspecting the country west of the
Arkansas. Since leaving this place some years ago, Wm. Conner has donned
citizens’ clothes and has a farm of 107 acres on the Cana (later called the
Caney) River, with a number of ponies and hogs.”
[NOTE: About this time, Mr. Miller, of
the 101 Ranch, was working with the Ponca Indians on locating them on a new
reservation from south of Baxter Springs. They, of course, located near what
has become Ponca City, Oklahoma.]
Kay had:
For the year 1878—William Conner, age
thirty-two; and Angeline Penn or Hum-pa-to-kah, age twenty-six,—received $3.40
in cash for the first half-year and $3.50 for the second.
Osage government had been a two-party
democracy since 1881, set up under a constitution based on the U. S. and
Cherokee charters and crafted by the Osages’ last hereditary chief, James
Bigheard [?Bigheart?], and his Kansas Jesuit mission school buddy, William
Conner. From 1881 on, the Osage primary chief was elected.
William Conner remarried Adeline Newman
and had one son, Woodie Conner, who was born in 1882 and died in 1931.
An Osage Agency family register listed
William Conner as deceased by 1901, but no date was given. In three pictures he
first is a long-haired, wild-looking Indian; then a cowboy with a moustache;
and finally fat and swollen.
Winfield Courier, June 5, 1879.
[Letter sent to the editor.]
EDITOR COURIER: The Pawnees held a
council last Saturday and declared their intentions to go back to their Reserve
in Nebraska if the Government didn’t pay them according to the treaty. No one
seems to know why they are not paid, and the delay is shameful and is working a
great hardship upon them. The government should hold faith with the Pawnees, if
with no other tribe. It can’t be recollected when they were at war with the
whites, and I believe them as loyal men as exist today. Go among them and call
for recruits today, and every soul that can cling to a horse will come forward
and tell you as they did the agent in their council, they were ready to die for
the government. This they said with tears in their eyes, while they begged to
be told what wrong they had committed that they should be treated so
negligently.
As “Sun Chief” said:
“We feel as though we had killed some of
the Great Father’s children, yet we know that we have not.”
I like the Pawnees. They are men all
over. When they go on the plains, no Indian can cope with them, and when they
talk, they are listened to. It is not so with the Osages. With them it is “how”
to your face and an arrow to your back. Of course, there are exceptions. My
friend, Ah-hun-ke-mi, is one. (I put this in for fear “Bill Conner” will see
it, and “Bill,” or “Ah-hun-ke-mi,” is a special friend of mine.)
C.
M. SCOTT.
---
FROM KANSAS, A Cyclopedia of State
History, Embracing Events, etc.
Supplementary Volume of Personal History
and Reminiscence.
PART II - WITH PORTRAITS.
STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY, CHICAGO.
Copyright 1912.
Pages 1260-1261.
[EDWIN C. MANNING - WINFIELD.]
Edwin C. Manning, of Winfield, one of the
strong pioneer characters of Kansas, is well known to the public through the
part he took in state affairs in an early day, through his loyalty as a soldier
and his work as a newspaper man, but most of all for the part he had in the
organization of Cowley county and the location of its county seat at Winfield,
the town he founded and helped to build. His name is intimately connected with
the history of that county and the city’s formative period, and his has been
the pleasure of witnessing the transition and development of that unbroken
prairie land, uninhabited save by Indians and wild game to one of the richest
farming districts of the state. He has seen Winfield grow from one log cabin to
a city of 8,000 inhabitants; a city presenting one of the most beautiful
panoramic views to be found in the state, with its stately shade trees, its
clustered spires, groups of college buildings and accompanying grounds, and
fine school buildings—the view being accompanied by the hum of many and varied
industries, and the city’s personnel being one of exceptional progressiveness
and culture.
Colonel Manning was born amid the hills
of the northern Adirondacks, at Redford, New York, November 7, 1838. His
father, Louis Frederick Manning, was born on the ocean, January 14, 1814, while
his parents, Louis Manning and wife, were making their voyage from France to
America. They were French Huguenots and settled in Montreal, Canada, where the
father engaged in the lumber business. Louis Frederick Manning was reared and
educated in Canada by his uncle, Henry Manning, his father having died when he
was two years of age. After leaving his uncle he learned the trade of glass
cutting, which trade he followed for fifteen years, ten years of that time
having been spent in Burlington, Vermont.
At Redford, New York, he married Mary
Patch, born in 1812. She was a daughter of Samuel Patch, born August 24, 1774,
in Massachusetts, and who served as a soldier of the war of 1812. His father,
Abraham Patch, was a native of Littleton, Massachusetts, born March 1, 1739.
The Patch family was an old one in New England, having been established there
in the Seventeenth Century by ancestors from England. Louis F. and Mary (Patch)
Manning came westward to Dubuque county, Iowa, in 1852, and there engaged in
farming until 1856, when they removed to Jackson county, Iowa. There the mother
of Colonel Manning died, in 1858. His father survived until February 2, 1889,
when he too passed away. He was originally a Whig, but became a Republican upon
the organization of that party. In church faith he was a Methodist. He and his
wife were the parents of five children: Edwin C., Cyrenus S. (deceased), Gilman
L., Edgar F., and Samuel A.
Colonel Manning spent his early youth in
Vermont, and the common school education begun there was completed in Iowa.
From 1856 to 1859 he alternately engaged in teaching and in attending Maquoketa
Academy, where he completed the course in 1858. In 1859 he came to Kansas and
located at Marysville, where he became editor of the “Democratic Platform,”
having previously learned to set type. Though a Republican in his personal
views he remained in charge of that paper until July, 1860, when a storm came
and scattered the plant to the four winds. Its owner, Frank J. Marshall, a
staunch Democrat, said he was glad of it, as he would rather see it destroyed
than to have it print Republican sentiments. Edwin C. Manning was a young man,
poor in purse but strong in energy, determination, and the power of
accomplishment, and though the struggle for a living was a hard one in that
day, his subsequent business career was one of success.
He was serving as postmaster at
Marysville when Lincoln made his call for troops in 1861. He promptly responded
to the call by resigning as postmaster and enlisting as a private in Company H,
Second Kansas infantry. He was commissioned sergeant, however, and later was
made first lieutenant. He served with his regiment in the Army of the Frontier
until 1863, when he resigned and returned to Marysville, where he helped to organize
and was made colonel of a militia regiment for frontier protection, the same
being armed by the Federal government. He also resumed newspaper work as
publisher of the “Big Blue Union.” In 1864 he was elected state senator and
served one term, representing Marshall, Washington, and Riley counties. In 1866
he removed his publication plant to Manhattan, where he established the “Kansas
Radical,” which is still extant as the “Nationalist.” After conducting that
publication two years, however, he sold it and, in 1869, removed to the
vicinity of what is now Winfield, where he entered into a contract with the
Osage Indian tribe for a tract of land. This contract, which Colonel Manning
still has in his possession, is as follows:
“Winfield,
Cowley county, Kansas, Jan. 18, 1870.
“Received of E. C. Manning six dollars,
for which I, Chetopah, a chief of the Osage Indian tribe, guarantee a peaceful
and unmolested occupancy of 160 acres of land on the reservation, for one year
from date.
His
“Witness, William Connor. “Chetopah
X
Mark
[Note: I believe the witness was William
Conner. MAW]
This contract secured to Colonel Manning
the peaceful occupancy of that tract of land, which later became the original
town site of Winfield. The first forty acres platted embraced what is now that
portion of the city north of Ninth street and west of the east side of Main
street. In the same month, prior to his contract with the Indians, he had
organized the Winfield town Company and, having some knowledge of surveying, had
located the line of Main street by the North Star at night, determining by
mathematical calculations the magnetic variations, as there were no surveying
instruments in that region at that time. A later survey by the government
disclosed a variation of but fifteen degrees by its established magnetic
meridian. In the previous months of October and November Colonel Manning had
erected a log cabin near the north end of what is now Manning street, and in
this cabin the town company was organized, in January, 1870. The town was named
Winfield at the suggestion of Rev. Winfield Scott, a Baptist clergyman at
Leavenworth, who had said: “If you are going to start a town there and will
give it my name, Winfield, I will go down and build a house of worship for
you.” As the town company adopted the name of Winfield, Reverend Scott kept his
part of the pledge and, with local aid, erected a church building in Winfield,
which is still standing on Millington street, between Seventh and Eighth
streets. The first residence to be built on the original town site of Winfield
was a balloon framed structure erected by Colonel Manning, in January and
February, 1870, and was located at the corner of Manning and Eighth streets,
the site now occupied by the Doane lumber yard. To this cottage Colonel Manning
removed his family from Manhattan. Other claims now incorporated in the town of
Winfield, besides that of Colonel Manning, are those of A. A. Jackson, C. M.
Wood, and W. W. Andrews. On Christmas day, 1869, there arrived at Colonel Manning’s
cabin the following party of men: Prof. H. B. Norton, G. H. Norton, Judge
Brown, T. A. Wilkinson, H. D. Kellogg, and John Brown. They brought with them a
letter from Lieut. Gov. C. V. Eskridge, Hon. Jacob Stotter [Stotler], and
Preston B. Plumb requesting that Colonel Manning should cooperate with this
party in establishing a town at the mouth of the Walnut river, in Cowley
county. The present site of Winfield appeared to be at about the junction of
the Walnut and Arkansas rivers, the point designated in the letter, according
to the map of the state at that time. Colonel Manning accompanied the party,
which camped the first night in the low bottom woodland south of Timber creek
and near its mouth, the stream being known at that time by the Indian name of
“Lagonda.” As colonel Manning had previously explored that section he advised
that the junction of the two rivers would be too far south for the proposed
metropolis. As a precautionary measure, for fear Colonel Manning’s views were
correct, the party spent the second day in staking out claims, covering all the
beautiful and fertile valley south of Timber creek and east and north of Walnut
river. The third day, December 27, the party moved southward and camped that
night at the mouth of the Walnut river. The following day Judge Brown and
Colonel Manning started in search of the state line. After weary hours of
travel, over bluffs and through briers and brush, they found the surveyor’s
marks, which showed that the line crossed the Arkansas river near the mouth of
Grouse creek. Colonel Manning swam the river on his horse at this point and
recrossed the river about two miles above the mouth of the Walnut river,
breaking the ice at each point and arriving at camp about dusk. The party
decided on the present site of Arkansas City and named the prospective city
Delphi. Later the name was changed to Cresswell and then to Arkansas City.
Colonel Manning returned to his claim and, on January 1. 1870, located A. A.
Menor and Col. H. C. Loomis upon two of the abandoned claims. The nearest post
office and the nearest official who could administer an oath was twenty miles
away. Colonel Manning sent for the neighborhood mail several times a week and
was taking the “Daily Capital Commonwealth.” Through its columns, in February,
1870, he discovered that a bill had been introduced in the senate to organize
Cowley county and to establish the county seat at Cresswell.
Lieutenant-Governor Eskridge, president of the senate; Hon. Jacob Stotler,
speaker of the house of representatives; and Senator Preston B. Plumb, all
residents of Emporia, were members of the Cresswell Town Company. The situation
required immediate action to save the day to Winfield. Colonel Manning hastily
dispatched J. H. Land, C. M. Wood, and A. A. Jackson to the valley of the
Arkansas, Walnut, and Grouse rivers, there to secure the names of all the
settlers and to report to him at Douglass, three days later, with an
enumeration of at least 600 settlers. They met at Douglass, February 23, as
agreed, before ’Squire Lamb, made a sworn statement as to the census taken, and
signed a petition requesting Gov. James M. Harvey to issue a proclamation
organizing Cowley county and designating Winfield as the county seat. With this
petition and enumeration Colonel Manning hastened to Topeka, 200 miles distant.
At the time of his arrival the bill was being read for the third time before
the senate. He failed to secure its defeat in the senate, but his friend, Hon.
John Guthrie, a member from Topeka, by shrewd tactics presented a vote on the
bill in the lower house until the legislature adjourned three days later. On
February 28 Colonel Manning took his papers to Governor Harvey, who acted
favorably on the petition. The settlers at the mouth of Walnut river did not
learn of the defeat of their bill until several days after the legislature
adjourned, nor that the county was organized with Winfield as the county seat.
Colonel Manning helped to establish the first store in Winfield; served as the
first postmaster; raised the first wheat in Cowley county; and, in the fall of
1870, served as the first representative from Cowley county. He was reelected
to the legislature, in 1878, his legislative service consisting, in all, of two
terms as representative and one term as senator from Marshal county. Although
Congress had passed an act, July 15, 1870, for the purchase of the Osage
reservation, it was not until January, 1871, that the government survey was
made. The first tract of land entered was the Winfield town site and the second
entry ws the eighty acres owned by Colonel Manning. The town of Winfield began
to build up immediately and, in 1876, Colonel Manning erected the square of
buildings known as the Manning Block. He was admitted to the bar, in 1872, and
practiced some. He also edited a newspaper in Winfield two years. In 1880 he
went to New Mexico on account of ill health and remained there two years. He
then became a resident of Washington, D. C., where he remained until 1896. He
was there engaged in the management and direction of a creosote plant, located
at Wilmington, N. C., and in securing railroad franchises at various points
throughout the South. In 1896 he returned to Winfield, where he is actively
engaged in local affairs and in the management of his considerable holdings in
business and residence property. In 1910 he was appointed a member of the
municipal commission of Winfield, which has charge of the $250,000 water and
light plant, and of this body he was chosen chairman.
In 1860 Colonel Manning married Delphine
Pope of Jackson county, Iowa, who bore him three children: Benjamin, deceased;
Martha (Goodwin); and Ernest Frederick, who was the first white child to be
born in Winfield and is now an expert mechanic at Bridgeport, Connecticut. Mrs.
Manning died February 20, 1873, and, in 1874, Colonel Manning married Margaret
J. Foster. Of their union were born two daughters. One is Mrs. Margaret Belle
Murphy of Kansas City, Missouri, and the other is deceased. The third marriage
of Colonel Manning occurred when Miss Linia Hall became his wife. She is the
daughter of Lot Hall, a native of Massachusetts, who spent his entire life in
his native state. Colonel Manning is a Republican in politics. Fraternally he
is a member of Siverd Post, No. 85, Grand Army of the Republic, and of the
Kansas branch of the National Loyal Legion. He is a member of the Masonic order
and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He has also achieved
distinction as a journalist, his articles having been sought and published by
various journals of the state. One of the best articles from his pen was that
entitled, “The Passing of Ingalls,” published by the “Winfield Courier,” in
1896. Colonel Manning was made president of the Kansas State Historical Society
on December 6, 1910. He has just published a book, under the title of
“Autobiography, Historical and Miscellaneous,” which will be found in some of
the public libraries of the state and on a shelf in the State Historical
Society.
[Boy,
did he ever do a good job of perverting the truth! MAW]
With reference to obtaining right to
settle on land, Manning stated that he paid $6.00.
It might be noted that the going price
for the right to take up land from the Osage Indians at that time was $5.00. It
appears that Manning paid more than other early settlers, who all reported
$5.00 or less made in payment.
COWLEY
COUNTY.
WINFIELD.
[Gather
this was taken from a book that was printed in 1882. MAW]
The first claim on the Winfield town site
was taken on June 11, 1869, by E. C. Manning. Shortly afterward, W. W. Andrews,
C. M. Wood, and A. A. Jackson took claims adjoining. The corner-stone of all
these claims being at a point near the present L. L. & G. depot, and yet
marked by a post. Andrews had the northeast claim; Wood the northwest; Manning
the southwest, and Jackson the southeast.
On January 13, 1870, the Winfield Town
Company was organized with E. C. Manning, President; W. W. Andrews, Vice
President; C. M. Wood, Treasurer; W. G. Graham, Secretary; E. C. Manning, J. H.
Land, A. A. Jackson, W. G. Graham, and J. C. Monforte, Directors. The forty
acres of the land belonging to Manning was laid out as the center of the new
town, and Main street, 120 feet wide, laid out north and south of this land. A
log house was put up on the main street by the settlers, and given Manning in
exchange for his land taken by them. Settlement on the town site was slow, and
when on August 15, A. D. Millington, now proprietor of the Courier, and
J. C. Fuller, of the Winfield Bank, arrived and purchased Jackson’s claim, the
only buildings were the log store of E. C. Manning, which stood where the opera
house now does; the log blacksmith shop of Max Shoeb, where Read’s bank is now
located; the drug store of W. Q. Mansfield, and the hardware store of Frank
Hunt. Millington and Fuller at once took active steps for the advancement of
the town. For the various steps which led to their final success, we are
indebted to the following account kindly furnished by Mr. Millington, who, as a
leading character in the events of that day, deserves special credence:
In January, 1871, the survey of this
county was made by the United States Deputy Surveyors, O. F. Short and Angell.
This survey furnished a new excitement for the settlers, for the lines of the
survey, necessarily, in the nature of things, could not conform with the claim
lines. There was a crowd of settlers following each surveying party, with teams
and lumber, and whenever a good bottom claim was shown by the survey to have no
shanty or other improvements on it, the first one who got to it with lumber or
logs took the claim. Some persons found their improvements surveyed on to the
claims of older settlers, and thereby lost their claims. All this resulted in
many contests at the land office, but it was remarkable that very little
violence was resorted to.
The survey showed E. C. Manning’s claim
to be the northwest quarter, and J. C. Fuller’s claim the northeast quarter of
Section 28, in Township 32, south of Range 4 east. The town company’s forty
acres was the northeast quarter of Manning’s claim. Immediately after the
Government survey, in January, 1871, E. C. Manning, J. C. Fuller, and D. A.
Millington formed themselves into another company, called the Winfield Town
Association, and joined the southeast quarter of Manning’s claim with the west
half of Fuller’s claim, as the property of the association. This added to the
town company’s forty acres made a town site of 160 acres, in square form, and
D. A. Millington, who was then the only surveyor and engineer settled in the
county, surveyed this town site off into blocks and lots, streets and alleys.
Though the three above named persons had then control of most of the stock of
the town company, yet there were several other stockholders in the company, so
that the addition to the town site being wholly controlled by the three men,
made it a different ownership, and created the need of the new corporation, the
Town Association.
The plan that had been adopted to secure
the erection of buildings in Winfield, was to contract to give a deed of the
lot built upon free, and the adjoining lot at value, when the said Manning and
Fuller should be able to enter their claims at the United States land office.
It was intended and expected, that when the land office should be opened,
Manning and Fuller should each enter his entire claim, and then deed the forty
acres of town site to the town company, and the 120 acres to the town
association, and these corporations should then deed the improved lots to the
owners of the improvements, and sell them the adjoining lots at value. Such
entries and dispositions had been made in the cases of the town sites of
Augusta and Wichita, and it was considered the true way in such cases.
During the spring, new buildings
continued to be built on the town site, stores and shops were filled, and
dwellings occupied. It took a long time, or until July 10, for the notes,
plats, and records of the survey to be made out and recorded in the offices at
Washington and Lawrence, and get ready to open the land office at Augusta.
During this time, the occupants of the town site began to get restless, and
demand that the companies should give them more lots free. Some urged that the
companies had no more right to the town site than anyone else, and that all the
unimproved lots legally belonged to the owners of the improved lots, to be
divided pro rata. These disaffected parties became so numerous as to embrace a
great propor-tion of the seventy-two owners of buildings on the town site. They
procured the services of a great land lawyer of Columbus, named Sanford, made
an assessment, and collected money to carry out their measures, held meetings,
in which excited speeches were made against the two corporations, and were
prepared, at a moment’s notice, when the land office was open, to rush in and
enter the town site, through the Probate Judge, who should distribute the lots
to the inhabitants, according to their theory. Thus commenced the famous
Winfield town site controversy.
On Sunday evening, July 9, the town
association got private information that the plats would arrive at Augusta that
evening. They, with T. B. Ross, Probate Judge, were in Augusta at sunrise on
the next morning, the 10th, and the Winfield town site was the first land entry
in this county. Having made their other entries, they returned. During he next
night, the citizens, having heard of the arrival of the plats, went up, in
considerable force, to enter the town site, but they did not do it.
After the entry, Judge Ross appointed W.
W. Andrews, H. C. Loomis, and L. M. Kennedy Commissioners, under the law, to
set off to the occupants of the Winfield town site, the lots to which they were
entitled, according to their respective interests. The time of meeting was
advertised, and all parties met September 20. The town companies presented to
the Commissioners a list of the lots, showing what lots were improved, and who
were entitled to them, and showing that the vacant lots were the property of
the two companies respectively. The citizens spoke only through their lawyer,
and demanded that the vacant lots should be divided up among the occupants, in
proportion to the value of their buildings. After a full hearing, the
Commissioners decided according to the schedule of the companies, and Judge
Ross immediately executed deeds accordingly. This decision was accepted by a
large part of the citizens, who, to prevent further trouble, executed
quit-claim deeds of all the vacant lots to the two companies. But Sanford was
irrepressible, and a suit was commenced in the District Court, by Enoch Maris,
A. A. Jackson, et al., to set aside the deeds from the Probate Judge to the
companies as void. The case was thrown out of court on demurrer by Judge Webb,
commenced again, tried on demurrer before Judge Campbell, who over-ruled the
demurrer, and promptly rendered judgment for the plaintiffs. The case was
carried to the Supreme Court on error and reversed in the spring of 1873.
Another case was commenced by ten of those who had quit-claimed, ran the course
of the courts, and failed in the end.
It seems to have been an understood
matter that the point where Winfield stands would some day be occupied by a
town. In June, 1869, when C. M. Wood had his stockade on the west bank of the
river opposite the town site, he thought of the location of a town, and later,
promised Mrs. Wood that it should be named by her. After some deliberation the
name of Legonda was selected and the settlement was thus known for some time.
W. W. Andrews, who took a claim in 1869, and went back to Leavenworth for his
family, used as a strong argument in inducing Mrs. Andrews to come to the
frontier the privilege of naming the town in honor of Winfield Scott, a Baptist
minister of Leavenworth. Mrs. Andrews’ code at that time was that the town
should be so named, $500 raised for the support of a church, and Rev. Mr. Scott
should come and be its pastor. On her arrival at the settlement and learning
that it already bore the name of Legonda, Mrs. Andrews expressed bitter
disappointment and a desire to return, and was with difficulty made to see that
no name could be finally adopted until voted upon by the settlers. An election
was called and a formal ballot taken, and a dance followed. Formal ballot boxes
were not in vogue, and a chest, to which was affixed the lock of Mrs. Andrews’
washstand drawer, was used. There is no evidence that there were two keys to
that lock, but Mrs. Andrews remarks with a twinkle in her eye, that while they
were dancing Legonda lost the day. A count of the ballots resulted in favor of
Winfield, which has ever since been the accepted appellation.
[Everywhere
else, the first name used, is that of “Lagonda.”]
A post office was established at Winfield
in May, 1870, with E. C. Manning as Postmaster. The office was in an old log
store which stood where the opera house is now located. This building was
removed in 1878 to the rear of the Telegram building, and served a year
later as the starting point of the fire which swept the corner of the block.
The post office moved from the log store to T. K. Johnson’s, then back to the
first position, whence it was moved again, occupying several places on Ninth
avenue and finally reaching its present quarter. Manning held his position but
a short time, being followed the same year by A. W. Tousey. T. K. Johnson took
the office in 1871, James Kelley in 1875, and D. A. Millington in 1879.
Note:
I really got off the topic, Bill Conner, in above notes.
NEW
DATA RE BILL CONNER FROM TOPEKA COMMONWEALTH.
[The
correspondent in the next article was “N,” believed to be Professor Norton.]
A
BLACK WEEK ON THE PLAINS.
A
Trip to the Osage Indian Camp on the Arkansas.
A
Plains Storm.—A Council and Treaty of Amity.—An Osage Funeral.
The
Scalp Dance.—Etc., Etc.
The Commonwealth, April 1, 1874.
ARKANSAS
CITY, March 26, 1874.
From Our Regular Correspondent.
The recent delay in the confirmation of
the Osage agent, and the discussion in regard to the habits of that tribe, call
to mind events which came under my observation upon the plains one year ago.
I started, on the morning of the 26th
of January, 1873, from the Apache village on the Cimarron for the Osage camps
upon the Salt Fork of the Arkansas. There were two teams, with their drivers,
and an Osage guide, Montihe. The morning was clear and pleasant, with an inch
or two of snow upon the ground. We crossed the “Eagle-Chief,” a deep-banked,
miry stream, and camped that night upon the crest of the divide between the two
rivers. The night was mild and starry, but before morning a chill east wind
began to blow, and the air became hazy. Fearing a storm, we geared up hastily,
and started toward the north.
Before nine o’clock the norther had grown
to a screaming hurricane, and the now was falling in blinding sheets. The sun
was invisible, the prairie trackless, and Montihe dumb. He lay rolled up in his
blanket at the bottom of the wagon, and refused to stir or speak. At 3 P. M.
the exhausted animals refused to face the tempest any longer. It was truly
horrible; intensely cold, snow falling in clouds, the wind blowing like an
Arctic hurricane. And we were out upon the salt-plains, with no semblance of
shelter, and no chance for a fire. Montihe gave us but cold comfort. He only
said, “I am glad you have stopped; we are all going to die now.”
We tied up our exhausted animals to the
lee side of the wagons, strapped all our blankets upon them, rolled up in
buffalo robes, and struggled for life during the night. The sun came out by ten
the next morning. We had wandered many miles out of the way, and did not reach
our destination until sunset. We were badly frozen, and about ready to succumb,
having been thirty-six hours without food or fire, in the worst storm of the
winter.
We found the Big Hill Osage camp crowded
with strangers. A large delegation of Pawnees had just arrived from Nebraska.
These Pawnees are the most adroit and successful of horse thieves, but for once
had been beaten at their own game. A party of Cheyennes, a few months before,
had stolen upon their camp on the plains, and had stampeded about fifteen
hundred horses. And, so the devil being sick a monk would be, and these Pawnees
had started out upon a grand peace-making expedition, and had come to the Osage
camp to hold a council, make a treaty of perpetual friendship, and endeavor to
learn the whereabouts of their missing animals.
The council was held on the 28th.
Being a white man, and able to write formal documents, I was called in, and
produced the following.
“KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, That we,
the chiefs and counselors of the Great and Little Osages, and of the Pawnee
Nation, have assembled in council at the Big Hill camp on the Salt Plains, upon
this twenty-eighth day of January, 1874, for the purpose of making a treaty of
peace and friendship.
“We hereby acknowledge that we have, in
times past, been guilty of many acts of hostility and violence toward each
other; and we heartily repent of having committed such acts, and mutually
forgive all past injuries and offences.
“We furthermore agree to abstain from
molesting each other by acts of murder, theft, or any sort of unfriendliness or
violence; and we pledge ourselves to meet each other with kindness and good
will at all times, and to live together as loving brethren henceforth forever.
“In testimony whereof we have hereunto
appended our signatures at the time and place above mentioned; and we request
that copies of this treaty be sent to our respective agents, for permanent
preservation in the archives of the Osage and Pawnee Nations.”
To this document the euphonious names of
the various dignitaries were duly appended, each touching the pen as his own
peculiar polysyllable atrocity was registered. Two clean copies of the treaty
were made out for the agents. “Send a copy to Uncle Enoch Hoag,” remarked Bill
Conner, the half-breed; “Peace is more’n half a Indian’s living.”
There was a great feast, and then the
Pawnees started south toward the Cheyenne camps. Before leaving they told the
Osages that one of their number was left up toward the Kansas line; that he was
hunting, had strayed from the rest, was probably encamped, and would come in on
their trail as soon as the cold abated. They asked that he might be kindly
treated, which the Osages promised.
Upon the next day Leotasa died. She was
the daughter of the well-known Little Bear, and wife of Conner aforesaid. She
was murdered by the aboriginal representatives of Betsy Prig and Mrs. Gamp.
Suffering from pneumonia, and in the pangs of child birth, she was carried out
upon the ice with the Mercury near zero, and there her baby was born. In less
than six hours, both were dead. She was educated at the Mission; spoke English
fluently, and was the only lady in the Osage Nation.
The widower was immediately beset by the
“young bucks.” Why not send out the war-party at once, and kill that Pawnee?
You must know, gentle reader, that every
Osages funeral, properly conducted, included as an integral part a war party,
fitted out at the expense of the survivor. The dead cannot rest well unless a
fresh scalp is hanging over his grave. This custom is, as far as I know,
peculiar to the tribe. Nine tenths of the murders committed upon the whites and
upon other tribes may be traced to this source. The party is usually sent out
after thirty days of mourning, but in this case the proximity of a lonely
Pawnee was enough to overcome usage. Soon after a party of seventy men, fully
armed and painted black, rode toward the north. They were not pleasant to look
at. The sad, gentle, almost beautiful little woman in whose honor the horrid
rite was enacted, was buried in a shallow grave by the Salt Fork.
Upon the following day loud yells and
rapid volleys in the distance announced the approach of the victorious (!)
Party. They came wildly galloping into camp, brandishing upon a lance the
Pawnee scalp, and with the voices and faces of devils incarnate.
Preparations were speedily made for the
last act of the war dance. A great oval ring was cleaned of rubbish; two
burning log-heaps occupied the face of the ellipse; in the center sat the
orchestra, a group of old men beating improvised drums and shaking calabashes
of small pebbles. In the midst a pole was planted, decorated with skunk-skins
and Pawnee scalps. The oval track was occupied by men and women ranged
alternately, adorned with their utmost efforts in the way of paint and finery.
[Article
has “Chetopa.” Generally “Chetopah” was used in newspapers.]
The scalp-dance that followed was perhaps
the most imposing ever witnessed upon the plains. It was a mad, demoniac orgy,
which I have no power to describe. Let the imagination of the reader fill up
the picture. The dance was repeated at intervals for many days. A month later,
I was in Chetopa’s camp of Little Osages. Che-she-wa-ta-in-ka, the finest
flower of Big Hill dandyhood, came into camp with the same Pawnee scalp, which
seemed as inexhaustible as the widow’s cruse. The orgy was repeated on a
smaller scale. Chetopa is sometimes considered the finest specimen of Osage
civilization. He is too old and fat to dance, but he was head drummer in the
orchestra that day.
After the dance was over, “Alvin,” or
“Eawaska,” Chetopa’s interpreter, asked me what I thought about it.
“It is very bad,” I said.
“I think jes’ so, we’re ‘shame,’ said
Eawaska.
I was delighted at this expression of
penitence, and began to hope that the good seed sown at Osage Mission by Father
Shoemaker [Schoenmakers] was germinating. But Eawaska continued.
“My frin’, we think it mean to dance
around scalp the Big Hills git. We’re going to git scalp ourselfs. Soon’s grass
starts, we’ll send out war-party, and if we find them Pawnees, we’ll kill it.”
I was disgusted.
The Little Osages were as good as their
word. The war party went out, and killed Isadawa, the civilized Wichita, about
which I will tell in my next.
My object in writing the above is to
illustrate the beauties of the Indian treaty system, and the need of a better policy
of the Indian territory. The principal mystery is, that such old offenders as
the Pawnees were so easily taken in.
And I wish to illustrate the fact that
the Osages need a strong government, stronger than they have had for the last
four years. N.
[Note:
It is believed that Professor Norton wrote the following article.]
ON
THE PLAINS.
The
Funeral War Parties of the Osage Indians.
The Commonwealth, Wednesday Morning, April 15, 1874.
From a Regular Correspondent.
ARKANSAS
CITY, KAN., April 8, 1874.
During the month of April, 1873, I spent
some time at Chetopa’s camp on the Shawkaska river. While there I observed a
man in mourning on the outside of the camp. He had long, matted hair, and was
fearfully dirty, shabby, and emaciated. He had lost his wife in the fall, and
had spent the winter in fasting and mourning, prolonging it much beyond the
usual time, which is thirty days. During this period of mourning, no food is
taken during the day till sunset, and then barely enough to sustain life; there
is no washing, combing, or painting, and the face is smeared with clay and
soot. The mourner described above was the son-in-law of White Swan, Chetopa’s
chief counselor.
After the dance around the Pawnee scalp
described in my last, the mourner announced to his people that he had been in
grief long enough. He now wished to send out the war party.
The organization of this was placed in
the hands of two men: Wasashe-Watainka, of the Big Hills, and Ah-humkemi, or
the Sentinel, of the Little Osages. About forty men enlisted, and the party
started toward the southwest.
They traveled nearly ten days before they
found any individual or group convenient to kill. The went down to the north
fork of the Canadian, crossed the Chisholm trail, struck northwesterly across
the Cimarron at the Red Hills, and finally camped in a little ravine near the
“Eagle Chief” creek.
Upon the following morning, a scout
announced that some person, a strange Indian, was coming toward the camp. The
party instantly mounted, and drew up in line in front of the stranger, hidden
from his view by a little rise of ground. He rode quietly along, unsuspicious
of danger, till fairly within their power. His little boy was riding a quarter
of a mile behind him.
At the proper moment the Osage chiefs
gave the signal, and the whole party then charged at full speed, yelling and
firing. The stranger halted and faced them passively, seeing that he could not
escape. When the assailants reached him, the blood was pouring from several
wounds, but he still sat straight up on his horse, and gave his name, ISADAWA.
He was instantly pulled to the ground, beheaded, and scalped. The boy escaped,
though fiercely pursued. Isadawa was one of the most intellectual and well
disposed of all the Indians in the territory. He was head chief of the
Wichitas, and had done much in behalf of the civilization of his people. There
was no cause for war between the two tribes.
The Osages were pursued, but reached
their reserve after a terrible journey, in which several horses were ridden to
death. A prodigious scalp-dance followed.
Salt Creek is a small stream flowing into
the Arkansas on its east side. Here are the permanent camps of the Little
Osage, Big Hill, and White Hair bands.
Shortly after the scalp-dance, scouts
came in with a false alarm—that a large party of Wichitas and Cheyennes had
been seen approaching. The result was a wild alarm and a midnight stampede
across the reserve and into the Cherokee nation.
When the murder was announced at the
Osage agency, a special agent, R. Wetherell, was at once dispatched to the
Wichita agency, and speedily returned with a party of forty-five Wichitas.
There were United States troops at the Osage agency to preserve order. The
Wichitas came in just before the payment, and at once demanded that the murderers
be delivered up. This the Osages refused, offering a thousand dollars instead.
But the Wichitas wouldn’t accept the
money. They wanted the murderers, and nothing less. “You are fools,” said
Ah-humkemi, “We would sell any chief we have for less money than that!” But the
Wichitas were obstinate.
The Osages declare, that if once in the
hands of the Wichitas, they would have been tortured to death out on the
plains.
Finally some hundreds of the Osages armed
and gathered around the council. The Wichitas, frightened, compromised,
accepted fifteen hundred dollars, and went home unmolested.
“Cheap enough,” said Ah-humkemi, “that’s
only two dollars per lodge of us; we’ll give that for a scalp dance any time!”
So the Little Osages and Big Hills were
covered with glory. Two war parties had been sent out, and each party had
succeeded in murdering a solitary and unsuspecting wayfarer. The heart of the
Black Dog Osage was moved with envy.
In June the band of Osages last mentioned
sent out a war party. They found three white men in camp, on the new Abilene
trail, just west of Sewell’s ranch on Salt For, One of the Indians was sent out
to reconnoiter. He approached the camp and shot Chambers, the well-known cattle
dealer. The two companions of Chambers returned the fire and killed the Osage.
The other Osages then came to the rescue, and the white men fled. Chambers was
instantly scalped, beheaded, and otherwise mutilated.
The Osage authorities smoothed over the
matter by saying that the murderer had been killed and no one else was to
blame. The fact is, that the men who formed the war party, and who scalped and
beheaded Chambers, were all murderers. And it would seem that every man of the
Osage nation has been, or is expecting soon to be, engaged in some similar tragedy.
Chambers was murdered about the middle of
June, 1873, and that month the Black Dogs danced around his scalp.
The agents of the other tribes complain
bitterly about this habit of sending out funeral war parties. They say that it
is peculiar to the Osages, and that thereby a constant state of warfare is kept
up. These people are better armed than any other tribe, and the war spirit
seems to be growing among them.
Ah-humkemi speaks good English, and is
the best interpreter in the Osage nation. Soon after the murder of Isadawa, he
came to my house, very sick. His Osage neighbors had assisted him to ride some
fifty miles. He was quite broken down by his ride for life from the Cimarron to
the Osage agency.
“Professor,” said he, “I’m a-going to
pass in my checks. I’ve brought my horses along for I think you can spend ’em
better’n these d d Indians;
and I wish you’d take care of me.”
I took care of him, and he did not “pass
in his checks.” He went home with his horses in about two weeks, greatly
improved in health.
The grass is beginning to start on the
plains. It will soon be time to hear of more “funeral war parties” of Osages.
N.
[Note: In Volume II, The Indians, from
the newspaper accounts given, particularly the Winfield Courier, it
appeared that Bill Conner was a full blood Osage. Thanks to Professor Norton,
it is now clear that he was a half-breed. Norton used the Indian name of
“Ah-humkemi” for Bill Conner. C. M. Scott called him “Ah-hun-ke-mi,” and
considered him a close friend during the later events covered by Scott. MAW]
Now we come to the “oral history” given
by Cliff Wood in Winfield Courier. Thus far I have only two portions of
the story...
PERSONAL
REMINISCENCES
Of
the Early History of Cowley County and Winfield.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, January 14, 1886.
Thinking it would be an appropriate time
in the beginning of the year to review the past, and get the personal
experiences of our early settlers, we started out on an interviewing bout and
first called on Cliff M. Wood, who answered our questions as follows.
“During the winter of 1868-1869 while
counter jumping in the store of H. L. Hunt & Co., at Cottonwood Falls,
Chase County, Kansas, I accidentally overheard a conversation between James
Renfro and Frank Hunt concerning a beautiful country way down the walnut river
in a wild Indian country near the Indian Territory, known on the map as Cowley
County. My curiosity was somewhat excited and I at once determined to
investigate and explore for myself. I went directly to a friend of mine, U. B.
Warren, then a prosperous hardware merchant, doing business in the same town,
and told him what I had heard. We both at once resolved to make the trip, and
about the first day of April, joined team to a spring wagon and started up the
south fork of the Cottonwood river, thence down the Walnut to El Dorado, then a
small village, and the county seat of Butler County, where we stopped for the
night. The next day we came on down the river as far as Muddy creek, at the
north end of Cowley County, where we stayed all night with a cattle man by the
name of Turner, the first habitation we came to in the county. Next morning we
pulled out to explore the then forbidden ground we found below Turner’s ranch.
First came Eli Sayles’, about two miles; next came John Jones’ cattle ranch
near the mouth of Rock creek; below him John Watson; after him we found no
habitation or sign of civilization except signs of claim taking, until we
reached James Renfro’s claim, known now as the Gilleland or Taylor farm, where
he had a neat little hewed log house erected with a good roof without doors,
windows, or chinking. We stopped for information and something to eat. After
dinner Mr. Renfro, Warren, and myself mounted our horses to explore the
situation and condition of things at the mouth of Dutch creek (now Timber
creek). About three-quarters of a mile below Renfro’s, we came to Judge T. B.
Ross’ cabin, where his son John and mother now live. Mr. Ross had only a square
pen of logs without a roof, doors, or windows. We then came on to Dutch creek
and crossed at the ford just above where the bridge now stands. Upon reaching
the top of the bank and coming out on the little prairie, I remarked, full of
enthusiasm, “Gentlemen, there is my peach orchard and yonder on that elevated
piece of ground is or will be the county seat of the county.” The other men
agreed with me after examining the mill site where Bliss & Wood’s mill now
stands. I proceeded to take a claim by blazing an oak tree yet standing on the
ravine northwest of the depot, writing with lead pencil, “this claim taken by
C. M. Wood.” We then went back to Mr. Renfro’s, from where we started back to
Cottonwood Falls fully satisfied that we had found what we were looking for.
Upon our return to Cottonwood, we told the people of this beautiful country,
which to them seemed incredulous. I at once arranged my affairs and came down
with goods for trade, such as flour, coffee, sugar, and in fact, quite a stock
of general merchandise, with some building material, and commenced at once the
erection of a house on the high ground about 25 rods southeast of where Bliss
& Wood’s mill now stands. This building was 18 x 26 feet, 10 feet high,
made by cutting logs of uniform size about 14 inches in diameter, splitting
them in two, hewing the flat sides, and taking off the bark, as it would peel
off smooth, then these slabs were set upright in the ground two feet deep,
batted on the inside with shaved “stakes,” and made quite an imposing house
with open front. When the house was not yet finished and when I was at work on
it, a stranger came to me and introduced himself to me as E. C. Manning, from
Manhattan, Kansas, who said he was looking up the country, and wanted to know
if I wanted any help. “What kind of help?” (Noticing that he was not a laboring
man.) He said, “With your town site.” I told him I did, and after some talk he
went away very much undecided as to the venture; was doubtful about the land
coming into market.
I disposed of the most of my goods to the
Osage Indians, who were on the way to their annual spring hunt and were water
bound, the streams all being full of water from the numerous heavy storms that
spring. The Indians were in camp on the ground where now stands the cemetery,
northeast of town; some 2,000 strong, where they remained for some days, giving
no great amount of trouble to the few squatters, but with a threatening, gloomy
look, would point with finger to the north and say: “You, pucachee.”
[We propose to give more of Mr. Wood’s
remarks and follow them by the results of interviews with other early
settlers.]
[Note: See the Centennial Edition of
Winfield Courier, January 6, 1876. According to that account C. M. Wood first
came in June 1869. After he moved his goods to Renfro’s for safety, the Indians
burned the house down. Wood returned in November 1869 with his family, and
settled on his claim. What is important to realize is that the above oral
account by C. M. Wood to a reporter refers to the area as “Cowley County,”
which is incorrect, as the county did not exist at that time: all this land was
owned by the Osage Indians in 1869. Wood refers to “Eli Sayles.” The 1876
Centennial issue called him “Mr. Sales.” I have no idea which is correct—Sayles
or Sales. MAW]
[Note: The “C. M. Wood” story must be
viewed in the light that he was recalling events from memory. I find it hard to
believe that there were railroad surveyors in this area at the time he states
they were. However, they might have been able to sneak by the Osage Indians and
do a railroad survey. The Emporia group had a map indicating “Delphi” on it:
hence their interest in calling the town by that name once they got to that
location in Cowley County. I goofed with index in Volume II, The Indians, in
listing Wm. or Bill Conner as an Osage Indian chief. It was the Winfield
Courier that designated him as a chief. MAW]
PERSONAL
RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY DAY SETTLERS.
C.
M. Wood’s Story Continued.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, January 21, 1886.
Yes, it was about sixteen and a half
years ago that I was trading with the Osage Indians in the house spoken of,
from the 16th to 22nd of June, 1869. The first two days
they seemed quite civil, but asked many questions. They wanted to know what we
were going to do here; (there being with me at that time a Mr. Patterson and
son, a lad of 12 or 14 years, William Stansbury, and two other young men, claim
hunters—I do not recollect their names.)
Will or Bill Conner, a half breed French
and Indian, and interpreter for the Indians came to me and said, “The Indians
have held a council in camp and have decided to make you leave and will soon
send you such orders.” I sent word to their chiefs, amongst which were White
Hair, head chief; Hard Rope, war chief; Strike Ax, 2nd war chief;
and Chetopa, chief counselor of the whole nation—that I wished to talk to them.
They sent word back by Conner that they would come the next day and they would
see me at two o’clock p.m. So I arranged my house for their reception by piling
my goods in one corner and covering them up with a wagon sheet. The appointed
time came and so did the Indians, with all the usual pomp and display of an
Indian council. The four chiefs, with interpreter and about twelve or fifteen
other braves and head men, arranged themselves in a circle in my house, placing
me in the ring directly opposite White Hair, who spoke first, asking me what I
wanted with them? A perfect silence ensued for some moments—then sitting down,
I told them that on the eastern end of their lands were many white men and that
there was quite a number above me on the river; that many more were coming, and
that there were below me twenty-five or thirty men surveying a railroad which
would, no doubt, be built in a short time; that the Great Father was going to
buy this land for his children and that I desired to be friendly with them and
keep such goods in store as they would need, etc.
White Hair rose to his feet with much
solemnity—he was a very old man with white hair, full face and form, in fact, a
perfect type of the best class of Indians. He said that he was friendly to the
pale faces and had been for many years; that this land belonged to the Osages;
that he was very much surprised to see such a man trying to take their land
from them, and with much flattery asked me to go away. He said if I stayed
their country would all be taken from them; that they had not yet sold it; that
it would be time enough for me after they had sold. He was followed by the
other chief, who spoke in much the same way until it came Chetopa’s turn. He
being a spare, sharp featured, consumptive looking man, with a very
penetrating, determined look, informed me that at 4 o’clock the next day, I
must go or my house would be burned over my head, and asked me if I would go. I
bluntly refused to go. They filed out of my house and went back to their wigwams
followed by about 400 of their braves.
Bill Conner came to me next morning and
told me that the Indians had a private council and in that they disagreed.
Chetopa and the Little Osages wanted me to stay, but the Big Hills said I must
go. Upon this I sent him back with some presents, such as tobacco, etc.,
telling him to report conditions soon to me; so about 3 o’clock came a message
from Conner with written instructions from Chetopa, to leave, go up the river,
and when they were gone to come back. This letter was signed “your friend,
Chetopa.” So we put what remaining goods we had into a wagon, locked the house,
drove down to the ford on Timber Creek and found the water too high to cross. I
got on my horse, went up to the Indian camp and found White Hair. He would not
listen, but sent me to Hard Rope, who listened to me but seemed very
determined. I asked him to keep his people away from my camp until I could
cross the creek. He said I should be protected; to go back and remain until I
could cross the water with safety. I went back and in a few minutes an Indian
came to me, who could talk English, and said he was one of Hard Rope’s
warriors, that he had been sent to stay with me and protect me. While I was
arranging for his comfort, as it was now about dusk, I heard a hoop and yell,
and looking up I saw eight or ten Indians coming mounted, and on full run,
evidently meaning mischief. My protector went out, met them, talked to them a
few minutes, when they leisurely turned their ponies and went back. We had no
more disturbance that night and the water having run down to some extent, I
concluded to venture in the next morning. But when the team got nearly through,
they mired down, and could not pull the wagon out. By the time the team was
gotten out, there were some ten or twelve Indians, who stripped off what few
clothes they had on, and with the white men and myself commenced carrying the
goods to the top of the bank. When the wagon was unloaded, we all took hold and
pulled it to the top of the bank, reloaded, gave the Indians a plug of tobacco
apiece, then moved on up to my friend Renfro’s ranch, where we stayed all day
and that night. The next morning the Indians were all on the move by daylight.
Chetopa, with some of his warriors, came by Renfro’s, where I had a long talk
with Chetopa, through Bill Conner. He told me that I should go back, get much
goods, and be ready to trade with them when they returned from the hunt; said
he was council chief and would protect me. I told him that his people had said
that they would burn my house, but he said no, that they would not do it if I
would promise to bring some goods, so I gave him some tobacco and medicine, he
being sick.
(To
Be Continued.)
October 22, 2004: I quit items about
Conner as noted above. The rest of the C. M. Wood file is found in “Wood
files.” Do not believe Conner was mentioned in them.