When we got close to Fort Zarah, we went back on the trail. I went in to the fort and bought myself a hat and two pairs of army pants. After I got that, I rushed back out to be with my family.
From there, the trail went southwest to Pawnee Rock and Fort Larned. It took us two days to go by Fort Larned. Then we went for another three days down to Dodge City and just went right through. I did do some shopping at their store; I bought us some sheepskin jackets, so we would be a little warmer. We went on the trail towards Fort Aubrey. We were in Cheyenne country, but saw no Indians. We had the Arkansas River on the south side. A day after Fort Aubrey, we crossed in to Colorado.
After over a month in Kansas and two days in to Colorado, we went by Fort Lyon and it started to snow. At Bent’s Old Fort, I went to their store and bought two hams and five sacks of oats; that was all that we could carry. We kept going west, looking for a place that we could build ourselves something for winter.
We found a creek and some woods around it and we stopped. We cut some lodge poles and Buck shot a buffalo and skinned it out. Dolly started smoking the meat and making big stews. I figured that we would have to have about 15 hides for a teepee. The man at Bent’s told us that he would buy the buffalo hides, but of course we needed them. After we had the lodge poles up, we stretched the two hides that we already had stretched and scraped them. We hung them on the north side with the fur on the inside, to let the outside freeze. I figured that by the end of December we would be finished.
It snowed every two or three days, but it was not bad. We had a lot of wood to burn and we had a good fire in the teepee. We smoked meat on the inside and outside. We did not work the real body parts, we dragged them away for the wolves and coyotes. I knew how much work this was for Dolly, so I worked with her as much as I could. She knew how to fasten the skins to the lodge poles, and she would get the skins on before they would freeze. I kept the fires going in the teepee and outside, smoking the meat. I wanted to hold on to the loins and let them freeze for later. We cut up and smoked the rounds and all the trimmings went in to the stew. While the two were building the teepee, I did the cooking.
Buck tried to kill a buffalo every morning. I let him do all the buffalo hunting because he had the Spencer .56; with the Henry, it sometimes took more than one shot. I would help him drag it closer and he would start skinning. Then Dolly took over and Buck would help hang the hind half, so we could split it with the axe. I did the splitting. I piled up the loins and covered them up with canvas; we were getting quite the pile. We needed three rows of skins to finish the teepee. As soon as we finish it, I wanted to go back to Bent’s Old Fort to get some more supplies for winter.
I went to Bent’s with my Arab after we finished the teepee. I brought three extra horses with two packsaddles and a regular saddle. The weather was fine, and the snow was waning. It took us all day to get there, so I got to sleep in Bent’s barn. The next morning, I started to load up. I bought a lot of shells for Buck, some .56’s and .45’s for his colt. I got potatoes, carrots, onions, beans, bacon, salt, sugar, coffee, and some soap. I bought a hat for Buck and a nice comb for Liz. After I finished packing the packs, I got five sacks of oats. I put one on top of each pack and three on the saddle. After I paid for everything, I started home.
It started snowing as I got home, so we built up the fire and took most of the goods in. We covered the oats with canvas and a cougar skin, hobbled the horses, and called it a day. Buck liked his hat and ammunition. He used that .45 a lot. He shot a cougar with it and skinned it out. That was what he and Liz slept on.
Chapter Eighteen
Two days after I got home, we had company; a wagon with four-in-hand came by. They said that they were the Bextor brothers and they were buffalo hunters. I told them that they could make camp. Their wagon was covered, and they had three women; they all lived in their wagon. Later, I saw that the back of the wagon was loaded with buffalo skins. One of the men named Charley said that they were headed south to Texas.
“You won’t get far if we get more snow,” I told him.
“Yeah, we could use two more horses.”
“You could probably buy a couple at Bent’s Old Fort. He had some for sale last I saw,” I stated.
“How far is that place?”
“One day. Leave early and you should get there before dark. Fort Lyon is a short distance away from Bent’s, and you can get everything you need there.”
I did not see them unhitch. We were having stew for lunch and I heard Liz telling Dolly about something; she was just outside of the teepee. Dolly answered her in Pawnee. Then one of the women said, “They are Indians.”
“Let’s look at their horses,” one of the men said.
“Trouble is coming,” I warned Buck. He understood me.
I stepped out of the teepee and had a gun in the front of my belt and another in the back. Buck was behind me holding his .45. Both of the men had rifles too. One lifted his up and said, “Maybe we will take them all,” and aimed it at us.
Buck shot him in the shoulder with the .45. I had my hand behind me and as soon as the second one moved, I shot him in the leg and he fell down. I told the women to put the men on their wagon and get out of here. I let them know there was a doctor at the fort.
The three women tried to get the men on the wagon, but they had a rough time. Buck picked up their rifles and brought them over to me; one was a Sharps. It had a cap on the nipple and I took it off. I don’t know what the other rifle was, it was a buffalo gun of some kind. I aimed it in the air and pulled the trigger and it made some noise. I took both guns and put them behind the wagon. One girl hooked up the traces and away they went.
Six days later, we had another wagon, six-in-hand, come by and want to camp. They were going to Texas too. They had heard about a trading store in the area and needed ammunition. I told them that Bent’s was a whole day to the east.
“If you leave early you can get there before dark,” I said. “There is a trail going to Texas from there.”
I told my family, “Next year we will move from here and find a safer place.”
A herd of wild horses went by us heading south. Some of the horses came over to investigate our horses; we had ours close and all hobbled, besides a little colt that was running around loose. Then another mare came in with a colt and stayed with our horses. The two colts ran around together. Buck and I saddled up and slowly rode out close to the mare. I roped her neck, and Buck roped her from the other side. We tied her close to a tree and as soon as she settled down, we put hobbles on her and let her graze. There was a lot of yellow grass around the creek. Every time it snowed hard we would give the horses some oats. The new mare did not let us put a nosebag on her, but she took some oats from a bucket and at the same time we would pat her. She settled down nicely.
In December it got very windy. There were huge snow drifts that filled in all of the low places. I figured that I would have to make another trip to Bent’s to get some more oats. We also ran out of potatoes and were eating steaks off the loins.
It was January when I went. I did not want to leave Dolly, so I took her with me. We bundled up Liz and took her along too. We left Buck to watch the horses and our home. He could definitely take care of himself. We each took two horses, two packs and two saddles. We bought everything we needed and loaded the packs. Then we put a sack on top and three sacks each on the two saddle horses. We put two big hams on the riding horses behind the saddle and headed home.
We took in the two packs and stacked up the sacks and covered them with canvas and wolf skins. Buck skinned out a couple of wolves that he shot. We had four big cougar pelts too, along with a pile of buffalo hides. I figured we’d sell them next spring; we could not haul them on the horses now since they were all frozen. Occasionally Buck would kill a buffalo for fresh meat and we would make some stew to last us a while. We would smoke some inside the teepee and set aside the loins to
freeze. Any bad weather, we would just use a loin for stew or steaks. It made no difference.
In early April I had to go for supplies again. When I got to Bent’s, he had an empty wagon sitting in front of his place that he wanted 40 dollars for. I looked the wagon over and it was in good shape. It was about two and a half tons. I was there with four horses, but I needed a harness. He had harnesses for four-in-hand, so I bought it and loaded some sacks of everything we needed. It had a good canvas cover, so we could move onboard. We drove that wagon home. We were in no hurry to get started going south, but we loaded our skins and planned on selling all of the skins that we used on the teepee; they were mostly frozen on the outside. We were also going to sell both mares with the colts. Bent promised me 100 dollars for them. Fatima had the U.S. brand and I did not want that brand in my string.
Finally, well in to April, we disassembled the teepee and loaded the skins. We took two loins with us and left for Bent’s. We sold both mares and colts and all the skins.
We headed south with 240 in cash added to my savings; I carried it in my money belt. We still had oats, so we could feed the horses as needed. We followed the trail going south with big mountains on the right. We stopped to graze the horses outside a place called Trinidad and we stayed for two days. After we got started, we drove through Trinidad and stopped at their baker where I bought some bread and rolls. I bought ammunition for Buck and myself at their store, along with five sacks of oats.
After Trinidad, we went through Raton Pass. It was mostly mountains now, for days. We were now in New Mexico. When we got to Cimarron, we caught up with five wagons going to Texas. The Canadian River went through Cimarron going south. It had somewhat of a trail on the north side of the river, so I decided to go that way myself. We resupplied in Cimarron and followed the five wagons going to Texas. We were going into Comanche country and heading south into Apache country. We spent a month following the Canadian River and crossed the river over to the south side at a big wide spot and kept following the river. We had three riders following us, and they all crossed too. All three had Henry’s and they had a packhorse.
The other wagons started shooting every time they saw an Indian; they were asking for trouble. I got tired of that. If trouble came, they expected us to fight too. This way we got rid of them.
There was a half-breed Comanche traveling with the three behind us, so I figured they felt the same way I did. We invited them for ham and potatoes the second evening. We grazed our horses and had a nice fire with coffee. After two hours, we brought the horses in and hitched them back up with the outside traces unhooked. This way we were ready to travel quickly in the mornings. We had bacon and pan bread in the morning and left with the three riders following.
Around 10:00 a.m. we saw a rider coming towards us. He told us that some Indians had stolen six of their horses during the night. He wanted our three riding horses that we had in the back.
“There is no way I would let you have our horses,” I told him. “You have been asking for trouble and they gave it to you. We are not part of your group and we don’t want any of your problems. Your problems are yours and yours alone.”
Then he asked the other three for their packhorse, and they told him he had better get back to his wagons or the Indians would get him.
“You see those wild horses? There was a herd of horses ahead of us,” I informed him. “Take all your men and catch some, that way the Indians will have all of your women too.”
He rode back the way he came. At lunch time we gave the horses some oats and made some jerky. Then we went on. We had a lot of jerky, so we gave the three traveling with us some too. We also gave their horses some oats and kept on. The half-breed came to tell me that we were in Kiowa country. He said, “We are in Texas and we must go south. Soon there will be a trail going south.”
We got the empty nosebags and went on as before. An hour later, we gave the horses water with a bucket. We were close to the river. Buck took the horses down to the water one at a time. As soon as I finished with the bucket, he was finished too. We went on as before.
A wild mare came close by and Buck put a saddle on his horse and roped her. She fought the rope, but Buck held on. Then one of the men rode out and put a rope on the mare from the other side, and they brought her in and we made her fast in the back. The wild horses were very close and the two in the back roped a young stud; he was three or four at the most. We made him fast in the back too. All this excitement took around two hours. We finally started out again, going slow. Buck stayed on his black.
That evening we came to the trail going south. We took it and shortly after stopped for the night. We were still close to the river, so we walked each horse down to get a drink. We watered the two wild ones with the bucket and left them hitched up all night. There was no grass to graze, so I gave them all some oats in the morning. Buck shot a buffalo the next morning and we stretched out the hide and salted it some; Buck did most of it. Dolly was busy with breakfast. We loaded the hide on top of some others in the back of the wagon. We had a dozen hides back there and would sell them and resupply. According to our half-breed friend, there would be a store ahead. We had the hump, tongue, liver, and one loin with us and the rest went in a ditch.
After breakfast, we started to travel south. We were able to graze the horses in the evening while Dolly was busy cooking stew. Kyle, one of the three, was helping her; he made some coffee too. Our half-breed friend was riding a mare and she started to limp. I looked at her hooves and they just needed a good trimming. She was a nice buckskin and I offered our gray gelding in a trade. He tried him out and wanted the gray, so we traded. I trimmed her hooves and she quit limping. Then I hitched her up next to our buckskin gelding.
In the morning we came in to Wildorado, a small village that had a trading store where we sold our buffalo skins and resupplied. We left there in good shape. The next town we came to two days later was Hereford. We stopped by a baker and bought some bread and rolls. After we left there, Kyle shot a buffalo. We had fresh meat again and there was good grazing for the horses, so we stopped for lunch. Kyle gave the skin to Dolly, so she salted it and put it in the back of the wagon. We cut steaks from the hump and fried them in the skillets. It was a lot faster than making stew. Dolly would make stew that night and would have it ready to cook as soon as we had a fire.
After we got started again, we found a trail going southeast; our three friends said to turn and we would have good water by nightfall. The trail took us southeast to a nice stream where we made camp for the night and hobbled the horses. Our three friends did the same. Dolly cooked the stew and we had enough for two days. We liked the place very much and decided to stay for a couple of days. The next day the three worked with the wild stud all day, they wanted to sell him. We had hobbles on our wild mare and she was grazing with the other horses.
We saw some cows on the other side of the water, so we figured that someone was ranching there. Buck killed a young buffalo that came across the water and started to skin him out. Dolly went to help him. I had Buck’s black saddled, so I took him down there to help pull the buffalo up a tree branch. I had the axe with me so we could split the buffalo, but I needed Buck to start it since I was doing it one handed.
A Mexican cowboy started hollering at us in Spanish to get the hell out of there. I did not understand him but Frank, one of the three, told me what he said. Then he shot into the hanging buffalo. Buck shot with his rifle in to the dirt by his horse’s feet. He rode off and came back with four men. Frank came over by the buffalo too, so there were now three of us facing the four. They came up with two of them holding rifles and one in English said to get out of there. He wore two guns, so we figured that he was their gun hand. I told him we would leave as soon as we were ready. The fellow with the two guns pulled his right gun and Buck and I both shot at the gun and we both hit his right hand. His hand was a mess. His friends got him on his horse and they rode out
of there.
We started two fires for smoking and Dolly kept busy with that. A big wagon then rode up, six-in-hand, on the trail and stopped. The fellow asked if they could make camp and we told him that we didn’t mind. It was a big man with two women; he said that he was a buffalo hunter. He had a stud in his string, a nice-looking Morgan or Morgan cross. I wanted both of our mares bred, so I asked him how much for a breeding. He said four dollars or two buffalo skins. Since we got 2.80 for a skin, we paid cash. We were there for four more days and both mares took the stud.
Our three friends left us, they were heading south. Dolly gave them about 30 pounds of jerky. They told me to turn south when we got to Plainview. They said it was the stage road going south. Dolly kept smoking the meat, and I helped by getting the wood and keeping the fires going. All the trimmings went into another big stew.
That afternoon, the Mexican cowboys were bunching about 40 cows on the other side of the river. That evening they drove them close to the river and crossed. Buck and I brought all of our horses in close as soon as we saw what they were doing. The cows came across, but the riders stayed. After all the cows were on our side, the riders left. The guy on the other wagon had a hard time getting his horses in, since they were mixed with the cows. Buck helped push some of the cows north, then I got on my horse and I herded ten of them west. After that, we hitched up and pulled out; leaving them a mess from the buffalo.
We followed that trail all the way to Plainview. We went to a store and got some ammunition for our rifles, mostly for Buck’s Spencer .56 and Colt .45. I got some 16 gauge that I used that on the sage hens. We stopped at the bakers and got some bread and rolls; Liz liked those fresh rolls.
The other wagon got left behind. Every time he saw a buffalo he would shoot, skin it out, and leave a big mess. We turned on to the stage road and headed south. Buck shot a buffalo that evening, so we got busy and Dolly skinned him out. We took the liver, hump, and tongue and left the rest; we were getting as bad as some of the buffalo hunters. We took the loins from young animals too, so we could make a stew or steaks the next day before we had to throw it away.
Sheriff Tucker Page 11