The History of the Early Settlement of Norton County, Kansas

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the VanCleve girls. We saw no Indians that day nor knew of any being in the country. We went on over to the North Sappa and stayed there till after dinner, when we left the trail and pulled more to the west, and that night camped over the divide between two big draws that put in to the Beaver; it was about ten or twelve miles east of where Atwood now stands. We night-herded our cattle as usual and I was on the fourth guard, and held the cattle on the bed ground until the rest of the boys had got their day-horses caught and saddled and was nearly through breakfast when I let them drift off of the bed ground in the direction we wanted them to go. Alexander T. Foster, whose home was at Medicine Lodge, Kansas came out to relieve me and I went back to the wagon to get my breakfast and change horses. Charley George also came out just after Foster, and in a few minutes came running his horse back and said there was a lot of Indians coming down the draw and that he was running right into them; said he hollowed and swung his hat but could not make them hear or see him. Before we could get our guns out of the mess wagon we heard several shots. A fellow by the name of Charley Green and myself got on our horses and started for Foster. The Indians had killed him, had shot him three times, once through the head and in the body and hand. They were going through his outfit, cutting up his saddle and taking the pieces they wanted. Our horses, over thirty head, were going right down to them. We rode in between the Indians and the horses and jumped off and pulled down on the Indians; most of them got on their horses, some went up and some went down the big draw and came out at the first little draw they struck that came out on the same side we were on. We did not lose any time in getting back on our horses and starting the loose horses back toward the wagon. We ran the horses up the spur as fast as we could, but the Indians got up the draws on either side of us about the same time we were going between the heads of the two little draws, which were not over 300 hundred yards apart. They were shooting at us from behind and from either side, and hollowing (sic) as only an Indian can. I was thoroughly scared, my hair stood up straight. I was sorry on my own account that I had not stayed with the girl I had left behind me. I also promised that if I got back on Dog Creek again that I would do better and would attend church regularly. We stayed with our horses and took them all to the wagon except one which got hit in the leg, which broke it, and we let him drop back. I caught my own private horse and changed my saddle on him, but would not have stood the same amount of shooting and taken the same chances again for a whole herd of such horses. We had made a dry camp and the horses wanted to go to water, and would start as soon as we left them alone, and every time we would go around them to turn them back the Indians would make it so hot far us that we made up our minds that they were very poor horses anyway and not fit for a white man to ride, so we let the Indians have them. They then tried to stampede us and get our chuck wagon, but we held them off. They finally left us, taking the horses and going toward the Sappa. Charley George was boss of the camp and had a good horse that the Indians were taking away with them, and he did not like to lose him. I told George if he would let me have his six shooter and belt of cartridges I would go back to the Sappa and try and get a crowd and get our horses back.

Not knowing at this time that they had cleaned up the whole country, and that the Sappa people had all moved to

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