Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far WestDrannan, William F.
History
Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West
Drannan, William F.
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- Wars
On leaving the telegraph office I asked the operator to let me
know when the first dispatch started from Jacksonville, and while
at supper he came in and told me that the Examiner had just
started their dispatch over the wire, which was just one and
three-quarter hours behind me in getting to the office. The next
day I rode to Jacksonville, and the day following the balance of
the crowd came in from the fort. Among them were the three
reporters, all well pleased with the time their bearers had made
in carrying their dispatches, and that night we all had what in
those days we used to term "a-way-up time."
The balance of the Indians who were taken prisoners in this Modoc
war were afterwards taken to Florida and placed on a small
reservation, which, I presume, was done on account of the bitter
feeling that existed among the people of that section of the
country toward this tribe on account of the assassination of Gen.
Canby, Col. Thomas and George Meeks, the interpreter, as well as
the many other people that were murdered on Lost river and Tule
Lake.
While at Jacksonville a man came to me named Martin, who was a
merchant and resided in Oakland, Cal., who wanted to hire me to go
out in the mountains some twenty miles from Jacksonville and look
after a man named McMahon, saying: "There must be something wrong
with McMahon, for he is the most punctual man I ever dealt with;
he promised to be here three weeks ago to pay a certain party
fifty dollars, but has not been seen nor heard from since."
McMahon owned a band of sheep and was ranging them out in the
mountains. Mr. Martin gave me directions, and the next morning I
started out for the sheep ranch. I had no trouble in finding the
place, but the cabin and surroundings showed that no one lived
there. I spent the balance of this day and the next in riding over
the sheep range, but could see no one, and only about twenty head
of sheep.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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