The second William Penn : $b a true account of incidents that happened along the old Sante Fe trail in the sixtiesRyus, W. H. (William Henry)
History
The second William Penn : $b a true account of incidents that happened along the old Sante Fe trail in the sixties
Ryus, W. H. (William Henry)
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- West (U.S.); Santa Fe National Historic Trail
We got a doctor
as soon as possible who doped his legs with oil and cotton and kept
him there.
On my next trip in the month of February, I took a lady passenger, a
Miss Withington, daughter of Charles Withington, who lived ten miles
east of Council Grove, Kansas. She wanted to go to Pueblo, Colorado. I
told her how dangerous it was at that time of the year, but she insisted
that she would make it all right, and as luck would have it, she did
make it. John McClennahan of Independence, Mo., was our driver. On this
trip as on the previous trip, at Pretty Encampment I opened the curtains
and asked Miss Withington how she was. She told me her feet were frozen.
"Well," I said, "Miss Withington, there is only one thing to do, and it
is a little rough." She asked me what it was. I told her that I would
cut a hole in the ice and put her feet in the river if she would consent
to it. She was a nervy little woman, and laughingly told me to "go at
it." I went ahead with blankets and the hatchet and cut a hole in the
ice, and the driver carried her and emersed her feet in water 15 inches
deep. She pluckily stood it without a flinch. Her feet were frozen quite
hard but after 30 minutes they were thawed and we took her back to the
coach where she ate a hearty breakfast and proceeded to Ft. Lyon. At
four o'clock we reached the fort. Miss Withington put on her shoes but
her feet were still too badly swollen to lace her shoes and tie them.
She walked into the station alone, and there lay Mr. Miller, the
passenger of a month ago, who had lost both his feet above the toe
joint. Miss Withington walked up to him and said, "you're a pretty bird,
my feet were frozen as badly as yours, but I 'took to the water' and I
have no doubt but I will be all right." She never suffered much
inconvenience, but Mr. Miller was a life-long cripple.
Miss Withington, whose name is Hayden now, visited in California in the
year of 1912, just prior to my visit there. I was indeed sorry not to
have met her again. I met her once since that memorable trip when she
suffered frozen feet, and they never troubled her afterwards.
I always slept on the ground and never suffered with cold. I had buffalo
robes and government blankets. So long as the wind could not get under
the covering and "raise them off" I was comfortable. When the wind was
high, I usually laid our harness over my bed. In case of snow storms, we
would often wake up under a blanket of soft snow, and raise up and poke
our arm through the snow to make an air hole, then go back to
sleep again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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