the Grand Army post about it. I attach hereto a diagram of Fort Mitchell. I recommend that a marker be erected on the site.
I visited the Mitchell Pass, about two
miles and a half west of Gering. Scott's Bluff is the
northern end of an adjutting point of the ancient river
bluffs of the Platte. Some distance back of this point, two
opposite cañons, one east, the other west, gradually
broke down the dividing ridge, separating the point from the
main bluff and in time forming a, pass about 100 yards wide,
393 feet higher than Gering and 367 feet lower than the top
of the bluff. The road from Gering is a smooth, gradual
ascent; and within a mile of the pass the four parallel and
deeply worn trails are very prominent. These unite and cross
a deep abrupt cañon and ascend to the pass over a
smooth track of Arikaree clay. The north side of the pass is
cut and worn by wind and rain into little gullies, which
forced the travel to the south side where it crossed the
summit in a single track. The summit is perhaps two or three
rods across, where the western descent is begun.
sides of its conical base to the foot of the column. Standing a little distance from the base there could be seen a crack extending through the shaft and downward from the top for a considerable distance, so that the sky could be easily seen through the crevice. Photographs taken in late years show that the piece on the west side has slipped off, which detracts very much from its former beauty.
On August 8, 1864, a coach on the
Overland stage line, with Robert Emery driving, was attacked
by Indians between Kiowa and Oak Grove stations. The route
was known to be infested with Indians, and young Emery
volunteered to drive the coach.
discovered the Indians and wheeled the coach is defmitely located a suitable monument be erected, not only to mark the trail, but to commemorate the bravery of the driver .3
In the fall of 1879 a band of Northern Cheyenne, who had escaped from the Indian Territory, were captured and held prisoners at Fort Robinson. One night during the winter they escaped. The soldiers trailed them to where they had taken refuge in a sheltered cañon, filled with timber and surrounded by high perpendicular rock walls. The soldiers picketed the mouth of the cañon. Knowing they could not escape, they thought all that would have to be done in the morning would be to call them out. When morning came, no Indians were to be found. They had scaled those lofty perpendicular walls, or escaped in some other mysterious manner. A detachment of soldiers pursued and attacked them in some Bad Land washouts, and after all but nine of the band had been killed the survivors surrendered. I believe this is the last battle between the army of the United States and the Indians on Nebraska soil. I camped in the mouth of the cañon in July, 1880, and thoroughly explored it.
In the night of August 7, 1867, a freight train going
3 In July, 1910, George S. Comstock, George D. Follmer, and the editor critically examined the line of the California road between The Narrows, near which Mrs. Eubank and her baby and Miss Laura Roper were captured, and the site of Oak Grove ranch. In that examination the site of the Emery incident was determined, and, accordingly, Mr. Follmer, in his paper, Incidents of the Early Settlement of Nuckolls County, which is published in volume XVII, Collections of the Nebraska State Historical Society, page, 160, designated the place as being in the southwest quarter of section 13, township 3, range 5--a little more than two miles southeasterly from Oak. For a more extended account of the Emery incident and the Oak Grove tragedy, see Indian Wars on The Nebraska Plains From 1864 to Final Peace, Watkins MS in Nebraska State Historical society.--ED.
west on the Union Pacific railroad, was wrecked by Indians at a point west of old Plum Creek station on the west side of a flat slough. The fireman is said to have been driven into the firebox and burned to death, while the engineer fell between the drivers. Mr. Hendershot, "the drummer boy of the Rappahannock," told me a few years ago that he was the conductor, and ran back to Plum Creek and gave the alarm, and a telegram was sent to Fort Kearny for assistance. Four men were killed, and one man named Thompson was scalped, but survived. The Indians pillaged the train, breaking open boxes of groceries and dry goods. They tied bolts of gay colored ribbons and cloths to their ponies' tails, and in their flight these floated in the air and presented a strange spectacular appearance. The next day, about nine or ten o'clock, on seeing a column of dust rising to the eastward, and the head of the column of soldiers appearing, they fled south across the Platte.
Soon after my arrival in Omaha in the spring of 1869, Mr. Thompson was pointed out to me. I crossed the street, introduced myself, and told him that in the East I had read the story of the tragedy, of his being scalped and that the soldiers had found the scalp, and asked him if he was the man and if the story was true. "Yes, Sir," said Mr. Thompson. "I am the man, and I have the scalp in my pocket" and, taking from his vest pocket a little package, showed me the scalp, then taking off his hat showed me the scalp wound.
In 1871, I was in the employ of the land department of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and had the place where the engine was wrecked pointed out to me by Mr. Delhanty, the section foreman at the time, and upon turning over a lot of debris, I found a burnt four-blade pocket knife which I still have. I also found the graves of
the two men killed, a few feet from a section comer which was reported in my notes to the department.
I have written the land department to ascertain if any tablet or marker has ever been placed to mark the spot.
I recommend that, if the Union Pacific Railroad Company does not erect a memorial, this Society do so.
In 1864, Indians attacked an emigrant
train in a ravine near Plum creek on the Overland stage line
on the south side of the Platte river, and killed eleven
persons. Colonel Thomas J. Majors, who was at one time
stationed near the place, has promised a description of it,
with a diagram. It has not yet been received. I recommend a
suitable marker at the proper place.
In the file of correspondence is a
recent letter from Mr. Harold J. Cook, of Agate, Neb.,
regarding the final resting place of Red Cloud. He says that
his father, who had known the old chief very intimately for
more than thirty years, was the only white man he visited
and sought advice from, off the reservation, and that it was
his expressed wish during his last years that he be buried
at the foot of Red Cloud Buttes on the military reservation
near Crawford. Red Cloud died December 10, 1909. He was the
last of the great chiefs of the Sioux nation, and the last
great warrior of the Indian race. His generalship, called
forth the most efficient officers in the regular army, and
finally beaten by overwhelming numbers, he retired to a
reservation, refusing to take his allotment until long
afterward. He was a native of Nebraska, born near the
forks of the Platte river. The scenes of his boyhood and early manhood are in Nebraska, and Mr. Cook suggests that an effort be made to overcome some difficulties attending a reinterment, to the end that in accordance with his expressed desire his final resting place shall be at the foot of the Buttes which bear his name.
The defeat in the last legislature of
the bill to appropriate $2,000 toward marking the Oregon
Trail, from the Kansas line to Wyoming, was a sore
disappointment to me, and I am sure it was a greater one to
the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. It
was their one bill. From it they expected to accomplish a
great deal in the way of marking the trail at all the
prominent and important places through the state. Two
thousand dollars properly apportioned among all the counties
through which the road runs would be an incentive to request
and receive contributions from counties and citizens of the
towns and even farmers along the route, to assist in the
Since I penned my remarks regarding the
grave of Mrs. Lamin, I have received a clipping from the
Omaha World-Herald from some unknown source, but I think
from Mr. Gilder, touching a grave found on a sandy knoll
about two miles from Kenesaw. The clipping recites the story
of a tragedy of the Oregon trail. In June, 1852, a young man
named Hale and his wife, on the way to the gold fields,
reached the old government well, about two miles southeast
of the present town of Kenesaw, and being very thirsty drank
heartily. The Indians had poisoned the well, and Mrs. Hale
died. Her husband made a coffin from his wagon box and
buried her on a knoll. He then went alone to Omaha for a
marble headstone to mark the grave, and then joined another
train. The stone became broken in pieces which were carried
away from time to time. Another stone was erected by
relatives of Mrs. Hale, but it, too, was carried away. The
spot is now marked by an ornamental fence erected by a
benevolent Sunday school.
Susan B. Hale
Who died . . . . 1852 ...
A picture of the fence accompanied the
clipping. The story shows the same spirit of devotion on the
part of the husband as in the case of Mr. Lamin on the death
of his bride.
struction. Nebraska has a number of very notable landmarks of this class. I submit, as a proper and important matter for discussion, the advisability of petitioning Congress to donate such landmarks to the Historical Society, or, in each case, to the nearest town. I have in mind Scott's Bluff, Chimney Rock, Court House Rock, Crow Buttes, and the Gates of Sheridan.
I herewith present a tabulation of my
recommendations for suitable markers.
11. Site in Sioux county of the last battle between United States forces and Indians, January 22, 1879.
12. The place where engine was wrecked near Plum Creek Station, August 7, 1867.
13. The site of the massacre of the emigrant train at the cañon near Plum Creek on the Overland stage line in 1864.
An effort is being made to ascertain
the location of tablets, markers, monuments or other
memorials erected in the state to commemorate historic
places, events, or persons in whom the public have a general
interest. During the year the following have been
San Francisco, Cal., by the G. A. R. post and mounted in Public Park in city of Columbus, Nebraska.
7. Marble shaft eight inches square by N. B. Sweitzer, U. S. Examiner of Surveys, marking the site of original flagstaff McPherson, Lincoln county, and to mark locus of original survey of the Military Reserve by W. J. Allason in 1869.
8. Granite monument three feet and six inches high to mark the site of the Pawnee Council of May 25, 1855, on the farm of Robert McLean in section 2, township 16 north, range 8 east, on top of bluff west of the B. & M. railroad overlooking Platte river and opposite Fremont.
9. Monument to mark the site of Fort Atkinson by the D. A. R.
10. A sixty-four pound cannon mounted on a concrete base on a boulder, bearing a bronze tablet in form of a shield two feet in length by two in width, which bears the inscription, "James Laird, Major U. S. Vols. Member of 48, 49, 50 and 51 Congress, 1849-1889," was dedicated May 30, 1904, Hastings, Nebraska.
11. A circular lot 100 feet in diameter in center of Elmwood Cemetery, St. Paul, dedicated to the burial of indigent and unknown soldiers and sailors of the Civil War by Canby Post No. 8 and a concrete monument in center of lot.
12. Marble monument by the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company at the grave of Mrs. Rebecca Winters, who died in 1852 and was buried close to the track of the Burlington railroad, on the north side, about two miles east of Scott's Bluff station.
13. Marble slab 46 inches long by 17 inches wide, contributed by W. C. Ritner of North Platte, laid on the grave of Rachel E. Patterson who died June 1.9, 1849. The grave is situated near the bottom of the east slope
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