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10 'Cbe Conservative *
OLD FORT KEARNEY AGAIN.
A few more facts have come to light
concerning Borne of the names connected
with the first Fort Kearney , the post es
tablished in the 40's at Table Greek , the
beginning of Nebraska City.
Major S. P. Cox , of Gallatin , Mo. ,
writes as follows in regard to Captain
Andrew W. Sublette , of the St. Louis
company of the Missouri Mounted Vol
unteers , who was garrisoned here in the
winter of 1847-48 , and who was con
sulted as to Indian affairs and spoke
with the voice of experience :
"In regard to the Sublette family , I
can only say that I never knew any of
them except Captain Andrew ; however ,
I have often heard him and others speak
of William and Milton Sublette , who
were on the plains , and my recollection
is that they were brothers of Andrew.
"One of the old stories told in camp
when we were on the plains after the
Indians in the early days , was , in effect ,
that the Pawnee Indians once robbed
William Sublette of all that he had with
him , and that later he carried the small
pox to them in whisky , by way of re
venge.
"Whether this story had any truth in
it or not , I never knew , but it was fre
quently told around the compfire and
some of the boys used to express the
wish that he had produced even more
fatal effects than he did. In fact , some
times when we were after the Pawnees
the boys wished that he had killed them
all.
"In our Indian fights on the Platte in
the summer of 1848 , Captain Andrew
Sublette was in command. We cap
tured the head chief of the Pawnees
that summer , about seventy-five miles
down the river from New Fort Kearney.
We had between two and three hundred
troops under Captain Andrew Sublette
at the time , and surrounded the Indians'
camp at a bend in the river ; I believe
this was in July , 1848. About one
thousand of the Indians , including
squaws and children , were in camp when
we came upon them , after a hard ride of
a day and a night.
"We had our troops massed on either
side of Captain Van Vliet's artillery ,
and the hour was just before sunrise.
Captain Van Vliet insisted on being
allowed to mow them down with his
guns , but Captain Sublette would not
allow it. We had intercepted the In
dian scouts , and got between them and
the camp before they gave the alarm.
When we were discovered the women
and children sprang into the river and
swam across. Captain Sublette sent an
' 5fi > interpreter to the camp , with a demand
for the surrender of their head chief ,
and the chief was turned over to us and
taken back to Fort Kearney , where he
was still a prisoner , wearing a ball and
chain , when I left the post.
"The Indians ( Pawnees ) never burned
up any more wagon-trains , nor did they
commit any of the depredations that
had been common prior to this , after we
captured this chief , who was to blame
for much of the lulling of white men
and trouble that had been common be
fore. I have forgotten the chief's name.
"In 1847 and ' 48 I met the Mormons
as they traveled across the country to
Utah. In 1858 and ' 59 I was a wagon-
master for Russell , Majors & Waddell ,
and during that time I freighted be
tween Nebraska City and Salt Lake. "
This is the kind of communication
THE CONSERVATIVE likes to receive.
Major Cox is pleased to express a doubt
whether he is not sending us more than
we want ; but he could not do that if he
tried. We would like to have him try ,
however.
Andrew Sublette was undoubtedly a
brother to William and Milton , often
mentioned in the early narratives. There
was moreover a fourth brother , whose
name I do not recall ; neither honor An
drew was conspicuous in the fur-trade ,
in which the older brothers gained their
notoriety. There is no name more fre
quently met with in the literature of the
period than that of "Captain" William
L. Sublette ; called also Out-Face , from
a scar on his jaw , and Left Hand. He
figures in the pages of nearly all the old
writers ; for instance , Irving , Beck-
wourth , Parkmon , Parker , Ruxton ,
Wyeth , Gregg , Garrard and Catlin.
He was senior member of the firm of
Sublette & Campbell , and it was from
him that Fort Laramie got its first name
of Fort William , in 1884. He died in
1845. The smallpox story is doubtful ,
as Major Cox hints. Cut Face's rela
tions were with the mountain Indians ,
to begin with. The younger brother ,
Milton G. , was Nathaniel Wyeth's
friend , and he was on his way to the
mountains with him in 1834 when an
old hurt to his leg became so troublesome
that he gave up and turned back. This
was the beginning of Wyeth's disasters
on this voyage ; Milton being out of the
way , William made bold to repudiate
his agreements with the unlucky
Yankee , who was at his mercy. He
presently wrote Milton a friendly letter
of warning , against his brother : "you
will be kept , as you have been , a mere
slave to catch beaver for others , " he
told him ; but Milton caught no more
beaver for anybody ; he never recovered
from the injury to his leg , and died from
the effects of it two years later , at Fort
Laramie.
A curious anecdote has come to light
concerning the fate of Andrew Sub
lette. It is to the effect that he emi
grated early to California , and , carrying
with him the reputation of a notable
slayer of bears , sought an early oppor
tunity to sample the California breed ,
which bore a great renown in those
days. Ho had a dog very skilled in the
art , and they made short work of the
first bear they met ; but being set upon
directly by the'animal's mate , Sublette
received injuries which caused his death.
How the dog fared the story does not
tell.
tell.The
The name of General G. M. Brooke ,
who first ordered the construction of the
old block-house , has been noticed as
senior officer of the court martial which
sat upon ( even so ) Colonel Fremont in
1848.
1848.Major
Major Clifton Wharton , who was in
command at Table Creek when the
block-house was built , in 1846 , is a not
infrequent figure in the books of the
time. He was said to be of a fine Phila
delphia family , a man of refinement , but
not strong enough for the frontier work.
James Hildreth , the dragoon , mentions
him as escorting the Santa Fe caravan
in 1834. Catlin , the painter , tells how
he came back in physical disorder from
probably the same expedition , and was
sick for a long time at Fort Gibson ;
also how he came upon him , dying or
dead , some time later in the wilderness
of interior Missouri , and was able to dis
patch physicians to his relief from the
next settlement that he came to. It was
Major Wharton who , by General
Kearney's orders , read to Colonel Fre
mont the order for his arrest on August
22 , 1847 , on their return from the con
quest of California. This happened at
Fort Leavenworth , and Wharton died
there in July of the year following.
Bigelow's "Life of Fremont" says that
it was "Lieutenant" Wharton who per
formed the act of arrest , but from his
association with General Kearney in a
number of transactions , and from his
being at the post so soon after , there
seems to be little room for doubt that it
was our friend Clifton ; who , however ,
had been lieutenant-colonel since 1846.
It is hard to know by just what title to
call an army officer at different stages of
his career.
From a passage in one of Father De
Smet's books it appears that the site of
Nebraska City was visited occasionally
in the years between the abandonment
of the post and the settlement in 1854.
Coming eastward down the Platte in
1851 with a party , "at Fort Kearney we
parted with Colonel Mitchell and his
suite , who took the route to Table
River. " The father headed for the
southern towns with a company of Fitz-
patrick's.
'
It is strange if there are not in the ,
archives at Fort Leavenworth documents - I
ments throwing light on what was going
on up and down this stretch of the river
between 1827 and 1854.
A. T. RICHARDSON.
"Within the scope of the questions
submitted to the supreme court our
colonial policy is vindicated , " comments
the Detroit Free Press ( Ind. Dem."but )
this will no more stop popular agitation
than did the Dred Scott decision. "
