Collection of Nebraska Pioneer ReminiscencesDaughters of the American Revolution. Nebraska
History
Collection of Nebraska Pioneer Reminiscences
Daughters of the American Revolution. Nebraska
Frontier and pioneer life -- Nebraska; Nebraska -- History
BY W. H. AVERY
In the fall of 1866, about the last of October, a party of nine men,
myself included, started out from Rose creek for a buffalo hunt. At
Whiterock, Kansas, we were joined by another party of four men with "Old
Martin Fisher," an early Whiterock settler, as official guide. Our
equipment consisted of four wagons, one of which was drawn by a double
ox team. There were numerous firearms and plenty of provisions for the
trip. The party was much elated over the first day's experiences as
night found us in possession of four fine buffalo. That evening while we
were riding out after one of the buffalo our ears were greeted by the
Indian yell. Looking back up a draw we saw five redmen galloping toward
us. At the time we did not know they were friendly, but that was proven
later. They came up to us and wanted powder or "bullet" and also wanted
to swap guns. All they succeeded in getting was a necktie which one of
the men gave them. After a short parley among themselves they left,
going back to our camp where we had left one man to guard the camp and
prepare supper. There they helped themselves to the loaf of bread the
guard had just baked, a $12 coat, a $22 revolver, and one good bridle;
away they went and that was the last seen of them. The night was passed
in safety and the next day we hunted without any exciting experiences.
The following day we met with only fair success so thought we had better
start for home. In the morning the party divided, our guide, Fisher, and
two men going on and leaving the rest of us to hunt as we went along. We
succeeded in getting only one buffalo, but Fisher's men had done better
and were ready to make tracks for home. That night they had suspicions
that there were Indians near so built no fire and in the morning soon
after breaking camp a party of Indians came upon them. There was
considerable parleying about a number of things which the Indians wanted
but the men were unwilling to make any bargains whatever. All the
Indians but one started off and this one still wanted to parley and
suddenly drew his revolver and shot Fisher in the shoulder. The Indian
then rode off at breakneck speed and that was the last seen of them.
Fisher warned the men not to shoot as he was uncertain as to how many
redmen might be in their vicinity and he did not want to take any great
risk of them all being killed. Our party did not know of the accident
until we returned home and we had no encounter with the party of
Indians. We were thankful to be safely home after a ten days hunt.
A GRASSHOPPER RAID
BY EDNA M. BOYLE ALLEN
Perhaps children who live in a pioneer country remember incidents in
their early life better than children living in older settled countries.
These impressions stand out clearly and in prominence all the rest of
their lives.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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