As
Told by Mrs. John Patterson
In 1866 Colorado was rather a dreary looking place, especially in Weld
county, near where the town of Greeley is now located.
Leaving
Coultersville, Illinois, the last day of April, in company with Mr. Isaiah
Lemon and family, consisting of his two sons and two daughters, we arrived
at the mouth of the Poudre on the fifteenth day of July, being eleven
weeks on the road. We could hear of Indians before us and back of us; we
passed places where there had been ranches burned just a short time before
us. I think we saw only two Indians, and they looked as though they had
been out on a hunt. We also saw a company of Pawnee soldiers. But we know
that it was our Heavenly Father that guided us and kept us from harm.
Uncle Carrol Moore and Aunt Eliza had lived on the banks of the Poudre
for several years. They were aunt and uncle to all the people around. The
ranchmen just milked cows and cut the native hay for a living. Inside of
four years we only heard two sermons, but we started a Sabbath school and
did the best we could. One woman remarked that she did not know that any
religion had ever crossed the Missouri river; but she found out different.
Uncle Carrol and Aunt Eliza always got along real well with the
Indians, who often came down the creek for the squaws to gather prickly
pears. They would use wooden tongs to pick the pears to prevent pricking
their hands on the thorns. It is said that at one time, in 1864, Fremont
saved the lives of his men by this same prickly fruit.
Uncle
Carrol said that many times he had seen some of the Indians watching him.
He knew they were calculating how would be the best way to kill him.
Uncle said: "I always had my old Spencer ready and they knew what I
could do, and that I would shoot if necessary." The Indians never got him.
He died some years later in Greeley.
We did have several Indian
scares the next year. I would be so frightened that I would not allow any
one to talk of Indians, especially after dark. The alarm would come
sometimes when we were preparing to go to bed. The words would be, "All to
one house." Then we would have to hustle out and go. We always went to
Mrs. Wylie's sod house. We were few in number, but we always made the best
of it.
Mrs. Wylie's youngest son and daughter, Sam and Dellia, are
still living on the old place. The old sod house was torn down a number of
years ago, but the old site is marked by the ox yoke and log chain that
Sam Wylie's folks used in crossing the plains from Illinois in 1864.
I think the last big Indian scare was in 1878, in the what was then
Weld county. The old Weld county is not near so large now, several
counties having been taken off. Quite a number of people had to gather a
few goods, get their families in wagons and take them to places of safety.
I understood that Mrs. B. D. Harper was the only woman that
remained on a ranch. Three hired men were murdered on the Tracy ranch and
the other ranchmen were fired upon. The three murdered men were buried at
what is now Sterling. It is stated that the cemetery at Sterling was
started at that time. People used to say in early days that out west they
had to kill a man to start a cemetery. There is a great change in our fair
state since those Indian excitements.
Some of the Pioneers of Colorado
Source: True History of some of the Pioneers of Colorado, by Miss
Luella Shaw, Press of Carson Harper Co, Denver, Colorado, 1909 |
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