On The Trail With The Carsons 1851 - Part 5

The Critchlows record that "the weather continued rainy and the Horn River overflowed its banks."

The Platte River flows essentially along an east west line through the Nebraska Territory and into the Missouri River. Our pioneers have crossed the Missouri River, and have started west along the north side of the Platte. After just twenty seven miles they have reached the Elkhorn River, which flows from the north into the Platte. Its waters are so high it cannot be crossed, so the wagon train has turned north along the Elkhorn looking for a place to cross.

Susan Zimmerman remembers that it added several hundred miles, and a month to their journey.

For Friday the 10th of July 1851 Brother Crooks writes in his journal - "today we came to the west prong of the Elk Horn river and camped." During the night of the 10th, or early in the morning of Saturday the 11th "four of our best horses were stolen. Several horsemen started on the track of them, and pursued them over sand hills until their horses were almost exhausted. They had to give up the chase and come back."

Critchlow records that "Four horses were stolen one morning by Indians at early dawn."

Several weeks ago, we learned that the John Telford family were traveling with several custom-made wagons, plus one designed for the family to ride in. It had an especially upholstered seat to make the journey more comfortable. The Telford family history records that "the Indians stole or shot his horses so he was forced to use cows and oxen the remainder of the journey. The fine black mare which his daughter, Anna, drove on the light wagon was killed by a poisoned arrow; so she had to drive a cow the remainder of the way to Utah. Victoria had one horse with a cow hitched to her wagon"

The Garden Grove pioneers were not the only ones to have "Indian troubles" that week. You remember that on the fourth of July, Elder Hyde and six others, including Judge Brocchus had stopped and celebrated the holiday with the Company.

On the same day, July 11th, that the company had the four horses stolen, Elder Hyde and his companions "all en route for Great Salt Lake City, were assailed by about 300 Pawnee Indians, near a branch of the Loup Fork, and robbed of clothing, arms, and equipments, provision, etc. to the amount of from seven to ten hundred dollars. The party were stripped of personal apparel, Judge Brocchus being left with nothing but his drawers, and even these were demanded." Orson Hyde later reported to Brigham Young that they "were robbed by the Pawnees and Omahas, as they believe, or as the Indians would say, swapped shirts with them, neglecting to present their blankets in return." This is from the Journal History of the Church.

The day started out badly for the Garden Grove Company, and then got worse.

Brother Crooks records that after the men returned from looking for the horses, "we then thought it best to move on again. We went through sand and barren country." Janet Crooks Miller reported that the sands was "sometimes up to the wagon hubs."

"At 10 o’clock at night" Brother Crooks writes, "we had the misfortune to witness a dreadful stampede with our horses and cattle. The cattle ran over a guard wounding him badly. We soon got them headed and drove them in again. At 11 o’clock they all sprang to their feet again and in spite of our endeavors they got away and scattered in all directions. Before day arrived we had most of them in the herd again."

Here is a description of a stampede written by Orson Pratt in a letter to George A. Smith in 1849.

"No one that has not witnessed a stampede of cattle on these plains, has any idea of the terrors, and dangers, and losses sometimes that accompany them. Contemplate a camp of 50 or 100 wagons all corralled, with about 1,000 head of cattle, oxen, steers, cows, etc. with some three to five hundred souls, consisting of men, women and children, all wrapt in midnight slumber, with every prospect of peace and quietness when they retired to rest in their wagons under their frail canvas covering, with the guards pacing their several rounds, crying the hour of the night, etc, when all of a sudden, a roar equal to distant thunder, which causes the ground to shake, is heard; the bellowing and roaring of furious, maddened and frightened cattle, with the cracking of yokes, breaking of chains, and sometimes of wagons, is heard. Away they go, rushing furiously over guards or anything else that is not invulnerable to them. Hear the guard cry out: ‘A stampede! Every man in camp turn out.’ Horses are mounted, and through the storm and darkness of the night, with rifle in hand, the roar and sound of the cattle are followed, sometimes rivers are swum, and hundreds of heads of cattle are lost, but if success attend, in an hour or two, sometimes longer they are brought back but not quieted, to the camp, where the women and children, affrighted from being roused from slumber by such terrific noise, had been left with armed guards to protect them from Indians, who roam over these plains in countless numbers, merely in quest of plunder, and perhaps had been the cause of frightening the cattle and causing the stampede. Such in brief, is a stampede; but it must be witnessed to be realized."

Brother Crooks reports that one of the guards was wounded during the stampede. He does not tell us who the guard is, but luckily there is a doctor traveling with the company. Next week we will meet the remarkable Dr. Daniel Roberts, who will deliver a baby for the Carsons.

 

Part 4

Part 6