Back to my home place.
Story of the Crow Emigrant Train of 1865 - Section 4
We happened to be in Salt Lake City over Sunday and it was a great sight to us to see the large Mormon families walking down the streets. The Mormon himself would walk along the sidewalk with a woman holding on to his arm. Another woman would have hold of her arm. A third woman would be clinging to this second woman. From three to six women would often be coming down the street all in a row holding on to this one man.
It was Colonel Connor with about three hundred California troops during the Civil War that broke the power of the Snake Indians. He had been chasing the Indians all summer but that did no good. He knew that the way to settle Indian raids once and for all was to completely break their power. One of his California soldiers by the name of Bartlett whom I afterwards knew in California told me all about the way it was done.
Colonel Connor waited until the dead of winter. The Snake Indians were camped on Bear River about two hundred miles north of Salt Lake City. Connor put his soldiers in sleighs and started for the canyon where they were located. The snow in places was four feet deep and Bear River was full of ice. There were three hundred warriors besides the women and children.
Connor moved his men into the canyon during the night and got into position. He had the Indians all surrounded before they knew anybody was there. The massacre began at daylight. Connor didn't aim to kill any women or children but some of the women seized bows and arrows and fit just like the men. Of course these got killed. When nearly all the men had been killed there were still a few left skulking about in the timber. The soldiers would hunt them out of the brush just like they were jack rabbits. When an Indian was driven out into the open he would just make the arrows sing. About Sixteen warriors succeeded in swimming through the ice in the river and getting away. They probably perished, however, as it was the dead of winter and the mountains were all covered with snow.
One thing that saved many of the soldiers from getting killed was the fact that the Indians had cheap ammunition. They used G. D. caps. These were all right in dry weather but in wet weather the caps won't fire. Often the Indians would try to shoot, only to find that the cap wouldn't go off. Before the Indian could put on another cap the soldiers would have him picked off. Many of the Indians had only bows and arrows.
Colonel Connor left nearly three hundred warriors piled up after the fight. Only a few women were killed. Connor lost twenty-five or thirty men. The wounded and dead were hauled in sleighs back to Salt Lake City. The dead were frozen stiff just like cord wood. Many of the soldiers had their feet frozen. Connor left plenty of provisions for the Indian women and children. But the power of the Snake Indians was broken forever.
On leaving Salt Lake City we traveled out to a little feed store at Black Rock, right on the shore of Salt Lake itself. A little boy about ten years old came over to our camp in the evening. He was very talkative and was telling us that his "aunt" used to live out there at the lake but that his father had taken her back to the city. In a Mormon family the extra wives are known as "aunt" to the children of the other mothers. This little fellow was telling us that his mother had chased his "aunt" with a butcher knife. All that saved her was because his "aunt" could outrun his mother. When the father got home the boy's mother told him that if he didn't get "aunt" out of there she would cut all her insides out. His father evidently believed she would do so, for he took the "aunt" back to the city.
One time I was riding along past a Mormon ranch. There were three wives. Each had a house of her own surrounded with a picket fence. One of the wives was older and had slightly gray hair. The other two wives were fighting together across their picket fence just like men. Every time one of them would get in a good punch and the blood would fly the older wife would burst out laughing in great delight.
Out about two hundred miles west of Salt Lake City we came to a mountain stream called Roberta Branch. A Mormon with six wives was living there. Each woman had a cedar log house about twelve feet square. Each little house was surrounded with a picket fence. There was one continuous fence in front of the six houses. We went on past down the creek about half a mile to where there was good pasture. We stopped a few days to wash up. While we were there the Mormon came down to sell us vegetables. He had irrigated some land from this mountain stream and had potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage and other vegetables to sell. He also had an overshot waterwheel in the creek and used it to turn a churn to make batter. He sold butter all aver the country to the mines and got a dollar a pound. He was making lots of money. It was a great treat for us emigrants to get butter and fresh vegetables and father went up with him to his garden to get a supply.
As they walked along father felt sure that he recognized the man. He was certain that he had seen him before, but he could not place him. He kept looking at the man as they walked along together and finally it dawned on him who the man was. A good many years before a man from our home town in Iowa had started with an ox team for California. He had never been heard from again. It was supposed that the man had been killed by the Indians. His family of two girls and a boy had grown up but the widow had never married.
"I think I know you," said father, inquiringly.
"I am sure I don't know you," replied the Mormon.
"Aren't you -------, of Alba, Iowa?" asked father.
The man was completely surprised. He paused for a moment undecided. Then he replied simply, "Well, yes."
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