Step into the dusty boots of Major General Grenville Dodge as we venture into the heart of the post-Civil War American frontier, where securing the wild plains was as treacherous as it was vital. Our episode, guided by an esteemed historian, captures the essence of life at Fort Dodge, the strategic military stronghold pivotal in taming the Western Kansas frontier. Hear about the soldiers' grueling efforts to build safe havens amidst hostile territory, and how these fortifications laid the groundwork for a period of American history rife with conflict and transformation.
Witness the volatile relationship between the US military and the Plains Indian tribes through vivid tales of raids and the powerful leaders who orchestrated them. We unravel the complexities of Indian diplomacy with a spotlight on Kiowa Chief Satanta's influence, his storied battle gear, and the intense negotiations over captive settlers—a sobering reality faced by those like Mary Matthews, whose personal account brings a gripping perspective to these historical standoffs. Each narrative strand weaves a rich tapestry of the struggles and strategies that defined the wild, untamed West, making this episode a must-listen for anyone fascinated by the era where legends were forged on the frontier.
Return of the Great Hunters
Cattle Drives Website
Legends of Dodge City Website
Order Books
Step into the dusty boots of Major General Grenville Dodge as we venture into the heart of the post-Civil War American frontier, where securing the wild plains was as treacherous as it was vital. Our episode, guided by an esteemed historian, captures the essence of life at Fort Dodge, the strategic military stronghold pivotal in taming the Western Kansas frontier. Hear about the soldiers' grueling efforts to build safe havens amidst hostile territory, and how these fortifications laid the groundwork for a period of American history rife with conflict and transformation.
Witness the volatile relationship between the US military and the Plains Indian tribes through vivid tales of raids and the powerful leaders who orchestrated them. We unravel the complexities of Indian diplomacy with a spotlight on Kiowa Chief Satanta's influence, his storied battle gear, and the intense negotiations over captive settlers—a sobering reality faced by those like Mary Matthews, whose personal account brings a gripping perspective to these historical standoffs. Each narrative strand weaves a rich tapestry of the struggles and strategies that defined the wild, untamed West, making this episode a must-listen for anyone fascinated by the era where legends were forged on the frontier.
Return of the Great Hunters
Cattle Drives Website
Legends of Dodge City Website
Order Books
The end of the Civil War unleashed an immense amount of the nation's progressive energy on its frontier Emigration westward. Almost a gridlock during the war, was revitalized with expanded vigor In the spring of 1865, the immigration population regained an exuberance that sped industrialization, settlement and expansion. To the Kansas frontier, extending beyond the Mississippi for thousands of miles, lay the expansive, unsettled west, dominated by hard-riding, hard-fighting nomadic Indians equipped with the fairest horses on the continent and frequently the best arms. As the country aspired to bring order and protection to this westward expansion, it engaged an army in designated forts along its wayward routes. These newly established forts, with a strategic design, were tasked to keep open communication lines and secure travel routes. These travel routes included protecting stage and freight lines, new ones like the railroads, and keeping the hostile Indians from pouncing upon widely scattered settlements strewn along the plains. Wild West Podcast proudly presents in the midst of antagonism, part 1, a Prelude to Sovereignty.
Speaker 1:In December of 1864, major General Grenville Dodge was placed in command of the Department of the Missouri to wage a punitive campaign against the plains Indians. As a Civil War soldier, dodge had few equals. He was an able officer who could be relied upon in an emergency. Sherman himself was in high praise of Grenville Dodge when he wrote. General Dodge is one of the generals who actually fought throughout the Civil War with great honor and great skill, commanding a regiment, a brigade division and finally a corps to army, the highest rank command to which any officer can attain.
Speaker 1:After being placed in command of the Department of the Missouri, general Dodge was repelled by the news that reached him upon arriving at Fort Leavenworth in 1865. The stage lines had been jolted, travel across the plains had stopped and most of the telegraph lines had been eradicated. The settlers who had remained in western Kansas were without mail and in general panic. Dodge considered every tribe from Texas to Nebraska to be on the warpath, mainly in response to the success of the Kiowa Comanche and Cheyenne and Arapaho on the Plains of Kansas during the summer of 1864. Dodge's first order of business was to dispatch scouts onto the plains to warn traders to stop bartering guns and locate warring bands of Indians raiding the trade routes. He rescinded all licenses to any traders who were selling contraband and ammunition to the Indians. Dodge also ordered all officers in his command into the field to restore order and if rejected, they would be court-martialed.
Speaker 1:On March 17th 1865, as the civil war drew near to a close, general Dodge commenced a Kansas campaign against the Kiowa, Apache and Arapaho tribes. His scouts reported that one of the raiding parties from these tribes established a campsite on an old Indian campground south of the Arkansas River near the Cimarron and Crooked Creek. After learning of the tribes' whereabouts, major General Dodge issued an order to Brigadier General James H Ford, the commanding officer of the District of Upper Arkansas. The order specified the need to establish a military presence for a new post along the southern border of the Santa Fe Trail near the old site to Fort Atkinson. The original Fort Atkinson was established on August 8th 1850 by the US Army to dissuade Indians in the area from attacking travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. Even before Atkinson, a site nearby named Fort Mann was inhabited in April of 1847 by 40 Teamsters under Captain Daniel P Mann. The post was named Fort Mann after him. Fort Atkinson of 1850-1854 was the first regular Army post on the Santa Fe Trail in the heart of the Indian country.
Speaker 1:On April 6th 1865, captain Henry Pierce left Fort Lawnard, kansas, with a company of Kansas volunteers to establish a new post. Pierce selected a site six miles east of Fort Atkinson that guarded the Santa Fe Trail and stood midway between the two major Indian crossings on the Arkansas River, the Cimarron and the Mulberry. The site of Fort Dodge was an old campground for wagons traveling along the Santa Fe Trail, just east of the western junction of the Wet and Dry Routes and near the middle of Cimarron Cut-Off. With his two companies, captain Pierce quartered the troops in tents while devising dugouts along the banks of the Arkansas River. The enduring high winds of the region made living in tents problematic and highly unwanted. As quickly as possible, the troops constructed and inhabited dugouts. Captain Pierce officially established the post on April 10th 1865 and named it in honor of the departmental commander, general Dodge.
Speaker 1:The post rested on the north bank of the Arkansas River, on a narrow meadow approximately one-fourth of a mile wide. To the north, overlooking the Fort's location was a limestone bluff that rose 70 to 80 feet above the elevation of the Fort's location. To the north of this bluff, a series of prairie ravines blended into the open plains. A factor of noteworthy regard in determining the site was the availability of water. Under sustained invasion, it would be necessary to have continual access to water. Thus the dugouts were constructed as close to the riverbed as possible. By building on the narrow meadow, the military sacrificed the alternative of controlling the high ground which circled the post, except on the southern side along the river. Indians later utilized this plateau to attack the garish before preparations to receive the assault could be made by the men defending the fort. The shallow ravines to the north of the bluff were equally beneficial to the Indians. Through the beds of these ravines, the Indian invaders could easily approach the plateau without being noticed by the soldiers below.
Speaker 1:By early April, brutish earth dugouts had been fashioned along the north banks of the Arkansas River. Troops soon arrived at Fort Dodge to defend the unpretentious adobe fortifications. The officers and enlisted men who served at the fort in 1865 were subjected to extraordinary hardship and deprivation. The troops who garrisoned Fort Dodge during the initial years of the post-existence questioned the wisdom of Captain Pierce's building site selection. During the first year, 70 sod dugouts were completed. The dimensions of each unit were 10 by 12 feet in circumference, while the soddies were 7 feet deep. The bottom 5 feet of depth was underground. The dwellings were topped by a 2-foot ledge of sod covered with cottonwood branches, brush and tents. The tents were of questionable value as the gusty prairie winds quickly tore them from their moorings. A shallow door was fashioned along the south side of each dugout facing the river, and a hole was left in the roof to provide fresh air and light. Each dugout was equipped with a sod chimney for heating and cooking to shield the soldiers from turbulent weather. Banks of earth were left around the inside perimeter of the dugout to be utilized as sleeping bunks. From two to four men were quartered in each unit.
Speaker 1:The post-location and the dugout's crudeness left much to be desired for sanitation practices. During the spring, the river usually flooded and underflow would invariably ooze into the dugouts, even if they were not submerged in floodwater. In addition, the ground on which the fort was situated was a mixture of silt and sand. The ground remained moist for some time following rains due to drainage from the high ground surrounding the post. Unsanitary quarters resulted in exposure to the elements, causing malaria, fever, diarrhea, dysentery and pneumonia, which were usually frequent at Fort Dodge. The monotonous diet of staples, with a marked absence of fresh fruit or vegetables, resulted in a prevalence of scurvy among the garrisoned men. This isolation from Fort Dodge's sister post lasted until spring returned. The primary sanitation advantage for the closeness of the river was its service as a garbage dump and place of bathing for gritty soldiers willing to take the chance at the betrayal of the waters, shifting sand and undertow.
Speaker 1:Mother Nature compounded the woes of the defenders during the first winter at Fort Dodge. The blizzards of 1865 were unusually severe. The troops were forced to shiver through the monotonous months with barely enough kindling to ward off the cold and cook their diet of plain food. Moreover, the fort was utterly isolated during the winter as travel along the Santa Fe Trail stopped. It was difficult for the garrison to forget the lack of recreation they experienced during the winter of 1865, so instead the troops at the garrison banded together the following spring as a volunteer labor force during their spare time, to construct a settler's store, which their commander referred to as the diminutive, wretched sod building. By early summer a settler, william Ladd, had been selected. But the troops' greetings were short-lived. The commodities sold by Ladd were supplied by his partner, theodore Wishelbaum, who had pre-arranged an agreement to manage several stores on military posts west of Fort Leavenworth. Their store at Fort Dodge provided a surprising list of goods to the soldiers Food, cooking utensils, dishes, sewing supplies, building materials, clothing, guns and ammunition, liquor, horse supplies, pencils and paper and playing cards. In August, the young commander of Fort Dodge, captain Andrew Sheridan reprimanded Ladd for charging the soldiers excessively for purchases made and ordered him to reduce his prices. In addition, a post-counsel of administration was organized to oversee the settler's store and any other civilian enterprises that might be undertaken near the fort in the immediate future.
Speaker 1:During the fall and early winter of 1866, the command's difficulties multiplied rapidly. Desertion became more engaging for the troops who faced duty at the quarry or lumbering site while on garrison duty, or the equally demanding hardships of long rides and Indian danger during field assignments. Fall was a favored season for desertion as the troops realized that another winter of isolation and monotony was approaching. Passing wagon trains were preferred vehicles of escape for the deserting forces. It became necessary to periodically send mounted military details to search the prairie fleet's wagons for wayward soldiers from Fort Dodge or her sister posts along the Santa Fe and Smoky Hill routes. A small-framed guardhouse was constructed to restrain wayward soldiers and civilians. Still, justice was administered rather slowly and several months often elapsed before the post-officers could spare the time to convene court-martial hearings. Occasionally, lesser offenders were released without standing before a court-martial hearing because the length of their pretrial detention was regarded as just disciplinary action for their crime. In addition, growing numbers of civilian artisans and laborers eroded military discipline.
Speaker 1:While reminiscing on the post's first year of service, several years after he had retired from the army, general Dodge suggested that the post had been named for him by disgruntled soldiers who thought him personally to blame for their discomfort while stationed at such a primitive garrison. Fort Dodge was named after me, not as an honor by a command that I was sent out there in the winter after it was too late to furnish them lumber or anything for an encampment and they had to make dugouts in the bluffs for the purpose of wintering. And the colonel in command of the detachment wrote me that they were so mad at being sent there in the winter with so little accommodations that they had named the place Camp Dodge. This location was a celebrated crossing of the southern Indians of the Arkansas Valley. There was a practical fort of the Arkansas near here and the trails all centered here, and it had been an important point during all the time I was in command of the Plains From Camp Dodge. When a permanent post was ordered there, they named it Fort Dodge.
Speaker 1:On March 14th 1866, general Grant issued Sherman a general directive pointing out that the only information he had of general conditions in the West was Major General John Pope's report of the conditions and necessities of the Department of Missouri. Grant instructed Sherman, in the middle belt of the country described by General Pope where it is uninhabitable, select such travel routes as you think ought to be protected and compel all travel to pass over them. Select posts to be temporarily occupied with the best information on hand. Inspections during the summer will determine points that should be permanently occupied. Pope's report was the basis of Sherman's tactical beginning. The travel routes along the frontier and logistics support through the placements of forts would be intended not only to control the areas but as bases for removing the Indians from all the territory between the Arkansas and Platte Rivers. These logistics would drive the remaining bands of Indians into selected reservations and leave the territory open for white settlement. The priority was protecting travelers on the major routes across the Great Plains. The southern routes were the Santa Fe and Smoky Hill trails. Pope suggested the following force dispersal on the Santa Fe trail Fort Riley, three infantry companies, two cavalry companies. Fort Harcker, three infantry, two cavalry. Fort Larnard, three infantry, two cavalry. And Fort Dodge, two infantry, one cavalry. He further recommended that the existing posts on the trail be made permanent Fort Dodge occupied a position of strategic importance in these recommendations, and its assistance to the expanding frontier would be significant.
Speaker 1:Throughout the spring and summer of 1866, infantry divisions from Fort Dodge, fletcher, wallace and Fort Larnard patrolled stage stations and wagon trains along overland trails. These were defensive actions which generally tied down troops to static positions. They did not, however, hinder the movement of the Indians, who typically evaded the soldiers and sought more lucrative prey. In most cases, when the Indians did strike solitary, unprotected farms or wagons, the soldiers arrived after the raid. This was more of an Indian movement followed by an army response. For a nation that did not consider itself at war, this action-reaction cycle was a typical reaction of the army. Further through that year, a notable portion of Western Kansas Frontier was subjected to continued outbursts of Indian hostility. The commercial routes and the outer boundary of settlements were still favored targets. Nevertheless, the newly established military posts along the Smoky Hill in Santa Fe routes endured an increasing share of the attacks as the natives aspired to regain their supremacy on the plains.
Speaker 1:Much of the Indian aggression committed near Fort Dodge appears to have been unprovoked, while the mistreatment of the tribes definitely precipitated others. In February 1866, a party of freighters came to the post with a report that several southern Cheyenne Indians had ridden into their camp six miles south of Fort Dodge. After having been given tobacco and food by their hosts, they had butchered and scalped a 16-year-old boy before the other members of the party could come to his protection. When Cheyenne agent Major Edward W Wynkoop visited their camp two weeks later, while distributing annuities, he inquired into the attack and was given a completely different account. The Cheyenne readily acknowledged slaying the boy. However, they viewed the act justified as the boy's father and several of his companions had earlier ridden into their camp and cheated a member of the tribe. The culprit, mr Boggs, had convinced one of the Cheyenne to trade 11 $10 bills for 11 $1 bills. When the brave was later informed of the nature of the trade, he rode to the freighters camp escorted by several companions, and insisted that the money be repaid. Upon Boggs' refusal, a melee followed during which the boy lost his life.
Speaker 1:Additionally, satanta or White Bear, a Kaioa chief born around 1820 in the Kaioa domain of Oklahoma. During the zenith of the plains Indians' power began raids in and around Fort Dodge. Among the Indian nations of the Midwest, a tribe's importance was measured by the size of their horse herds and their fierceness in battle. The Kaioa were second only to the Comanche in both categories. Charles M Robinson III tells us that Satanta entered conventional history in the mid-1850s when he first attracted the attention of the soldiers linked to military expeditions in Kaioa country.
Speaker 1:Although he was still a sub-chief, everyone noticed his large frame and sheer features. One officer, captain Richard T Jacob, described him as a man of magnificent physique, being over six feet tall, well-built and finely proportioned, a characterization that would be replicated throughout Satanta's life. Whites also noted his cleverness, assertive personality and arrogance. He had a fine sense of the dramatic, but anyone who considered his posturing nothing but show entirely miscalculated the man Beneath his theatrics. He was a superior warrior and leader At the height of his prominence in the late 1860s. Frontier Whites despised and feared him.
Speaker 1:Satanta figured prominently in the inter-tribal warfare of the 1850s and in treaty negotiations with the US government. During a treaty conference at Fort Atkinson, kansas Territory, in 1853, he vented Kaioa grievances to a dragoon officer, major Robert Hill Chilton. One of the soldiers, private Percival Lowe, thought Chilton and Satanta were well matched, rigid, uncompromising and understood the other. By the time of this treaty, satanta was almost 40 years old and a noted warrior. In battle he wore red paint on his upper, torso, face and hair and a buckskin vest painted red on one side and yellow on the other.
Speaker 1:Among his associates was the ancient medicine man, blackhorse, who provided Satanta's most crucial battle equipment, one of the sacred shields used during the Kaioa Sundance. To obtain it, satanta had to sacrifice his flesh to the sun by having four deep gashes cut into the back of each shoulder, just above the joint with the arm. A painful and enduring offering. He carried the shield during the raids against other tribes and into Mexico. Kaioa's shields were made of several layers of thick buffalo hide and wooden sticks to give them form. They weren't instrumental against bullets or arrows. Still, the Kaioa believed shields were infused with supernatural solid defense. So this gift attested to the Blackhorse's belief that Satanta would be a great warrior. Blackhorse often carried the shield into battle and escaped uninjured. Ironically, he was slain soon after giving the shield to Satanta.
Speaker 1:While the Kaioa might have regarded the sun shield as Satanta's most noteworthy position among the Whites, his best known trademark was the bugle he blew to signal aggression or disclose his presence. The Kaioa say he captured the bugle during a fight with federal troops after observing the soldiers responding to the different bugle calls. Although, whether Indians carried bugles and signaled warriors with army calls during fights, whites linked it with Satanta. They automatically assumed he was present if they heard a bugle during an Indian battle.
Speaker 1:As Whites, settlers continued to stream across Kaioa lands, tribesmen, aggrieved, with the condition that they declined their territory to a small reservation, continued to plunder settlements and torment immigrants. This situation, unstable in and of itself, deteriorated considerably with the death of Dohasen in 1866. Without his decisive leadership, kaioa unity disbanded as several sub-chiefs, principally Gupego Tenadopted, and Satanta attempted to fill the void. Their fierce competition set off a surge of raids across the southern plains during the fall of 1866. In one instance, satanta and his party embarked into the panhandle and, after killing James Box, apprehended the man's wife and four children.
Speaker 1:During the fall of 1866, scouts reported that several captive White women were being held by Indian bands and camped in the vicinity of Fort Dodge. In response to these reports, lieutenant Heselberger was ordered to take an interpreter and a guard of two enlisted men and investigate the rumors. Upon visiting a Kiowa camp some 35 miles below the fort, he discovered the reports were accurate and was allowed to talk with two captive women. He learned that their names were Margaret and Josephine Box and that the teenage girls had been captured, along with their mother and three other sisters in August of the same year while the Kiowas were raiding in northern Texas. James Box, the father of the family, had been slain instantly, while the others were taken as captives to a nearby Kiowa encampment. The youngest girl had died a few days after their capture, but the mother, mary Box, and her daughters, maisie and Ida, had been bartered by a band of Apaches.
Speaker 1:Robert M Wright in his book Dodge City, the Cowboy Capital, describes in Chapter 4, wild Days with the Soldiers, a short excerpt on capturing the Box family from the Indians, one of the many exciting events that occurred at Fort Dodge. The rescue of the two older girls took place south of Fort Dodge, near the Wichita Mountains, perhaps nearly 200 miles, but the sentiment of acquiring the girls away from the Indians originated at Fort Dodge, with Major Sheridan, who was in command of the fort, and in October 1866. At this time, the troops garrisoning the fort consisted of Company A 3rd United States Infantry, of which I was a member, holding a non-commissioned officer's rank. On a sunshiny day about the 1st of October 1866, the Sentinel reported what appeared to be a small party of mountain men approaching the fort from the south side of the Arkangis River, perhaps two miles away, and just coming into sight out of a range of bluffs which ran parallel with the river. They proved to be Indians and glittering ornaments adorned with each could be seen before either of the Indians or their ponies. After the Indians came down to the river and were partway across, a guard consisting of a corporal and two men met them at the north bank of the river, just below the fort, and halted them. It was noticed they carried a pole attached to an old piece of what had been a white wagon cover, but was very dirty white at this time. This was to depict a flag of truce and a peaceful mission, which was the idea that they had gotten from the whites. Though the Indians were very poor respecters of flags of truce. When approached with one by white men, they on several occasions killed the bearers of the flag, scalped them and used their scalps to adorn their wigwams. They considered a flag a joke and warranted the bearer an easy mark. The guard learned from the Indians that they were Kiowas old Chief Satandas tribe.
Speaker 1:Fred Jones, an Indian interpreter at Fort Dodge, was requested to come down and established what was wanted. The Indians told Jones that they had two pale-faced squaws whom they wished to trade for guns, ammunition, coffee, sugar and flour. What the Indians really wanted was all there was in the fort. As they placed a very high value on the two girls, the commanding officer's instructions allowed them to come into the fort to discuss the matter After passing the pipe around and each council member taking a puff. The customary procedure then negotiated a swap, as the Indians termed it. The Indians wanted everything in sight, but a trade or swap was finally consummated by promising the Indians some guns, powder and lead, coffee, sugar, flour and a few trinkets consisting mainly of block tin, which was quite a bright, glittering tint. This was used to make finger rings, earrings and bracelets for the squaws. The bracelets were worn on both ankles and arms of the squaws and when fitted out with their buckskin leggings and short dresses covered with beads, they made a beautiful appearance.
Speaker 1:The Indians knew they had the advantage and drove a sharp bargain at least they thought they did. They insisted on the goods being delivered to their camp near the Wichita Mountains, which was quite an undertaking considering that a white man had never been in that section, except as a prisoner, a renegade or possibly an interpreter. Two wagons and an ambulance were ordered to be ready, and the wagons were loaded. Our party consisted of Lieutenant Heselberger of Company A, 3rd United States Infantry, an old, experienced Indian fighter, one non-commissioned officer, myself and seven privates, with Fred Jones as interpreter. We crossed the river about half a mile below Fort Dodge and took a southerly course, traveling for days before we came to the Kayao Camp. One evening, just as the sun was going down, we came to a high hill and as we gained the crest, going in a southeasterly direction, I witnessed the most beautiful sight I ever saw. The whole Kayao tribe, several thousand in number, were camped on the banks of a lovely sheet of water half a mile away. The sun setting and sun's rays reflecting on the camp gave it a fascinating appearance.
Speaker 1:Lieutenant Heselberger attempted to convince the Kayaos to turn over the girls to his detail. Still, they declined to liberate the captives unless the army ransomed them. On his return to Fort Dodge, the Lieutenant reported the demands to the commanding officer, who approved purchasing and delivering the goods necessary to secure the girls' release. Word of the thriving trade made by the Kayaos soon reached the band of Apaches holding the remainder of the box women, and they immediately moved to an encampment close to the fort to negotiate for the ransoming of the captives they held.
Speaker 1:Although a bargain on the terms of trade was reached, general William T Sherman visited Fort Dodge during an inspection tour. An on-hearing of the method used to secure the freedom of the first two girls declined to allow the remainder of the family to be ransomed. Sherman reprimanded Captain Sheridan for providing the demanded goods in order that no further exchange be made. The general feared that such a precedent would encourage further endeavors by plains tribes to capture white women and present them for ransom. Sherman then ordered that the proposed meeting for exchange proceed as planned. The leading tribesmen of the Apaches were then lured into the fort to receive the ransom. Once there, they were placed under guard and threatened with death unless the remaining women were unleashed. Below is a statement given by Mary Matthews on October 20, 1866 to Captain Andrew Sheridan, fort Dodge, after her rescue.
Speaker 3:My name is Miss Matthew Box. I am about 42 years of age. I was born in Gibson, tennessee, and went to Texas when I was 8. I married James Box in Titus County, texas, when I was 17. After marriage we lived in Titus County For three months, then moved to Hopkins County, westport. We lived in Westport Hopkins County for a long time. All my children but one was born in Westport.
Speaker 3:About the breaking out of the late rebellion we moved to Montague, texas, on the extreme frontier. The cause of our moving was owed to my husband being a union man and did not wish to fight in the rebellion. It was sometime in May 1861 that we moved. There were five families of us, all relations. While we were living in Montague County my husband learned that one of his brothers was lying at the point of death but another of his brothers had had a leg amputated in Hopkins County and that they wished to see him at once. So we went to Westport Hopkins County and stayed with my husband's brothers until they were nearly well, about five weeks. We started for home.
Speaker 3:About the 10th of August last my husband had put a quantity of leather in one wagon to take home no leather in Montague County. On our journey home it rained a great deal. About five days after we started, and when we were within three miles of our home, my husband saw somebody on the hill whom he supposed to be one of his neighbors. He said I wish that man would come down to us so that I could borrow his horse for our jaded one. Then we could get home faster. I looked in the direction where he pointed and said why. There are three or four of them. He then said they are Indians. We are gone, margaret, get my six shooter quick.
Speaker 3:Margaret went to get it and before she could give it to me, the Indian came upon us and shot him in the breast. He fell over in the wagon, pulling the arrow from his breast. He arose and fired at them. He was then shot through the head by an arrow. He pulled the arrow from his head and jumped out of the wagon and around to the left side of the wagon. When he fell to the ground, the Indians then scalped him twice and cut his left jaw.
Speaker 3:They then pulled me out of the wagon by, the hair of the head robbed and took everything out of the wagon. They took Josephine, maisie and Ida and tied them to ponies. They put Margaret on one, but she jumped off and ran around to her father and held him until they pulled her from him. They put Margaret back on the pony and started on a gallop. We traveled 14 days, night and day, before we stopped. About 11 days after we were taken, my baby Laura died. They took her from me and threw her in a ravine. We traveled until we got to the camp where all the Indians were.
Speaker 3:I stayed at this camp for about four days with my children when they moved me out about six miles farther to another camp where I stayed until they brought me in here. I had to stack wood and carry water. When I was delayed, they would whip and beat me and even the squaws would knock me down. I was very sick while, the Indians not withstanding, they would beat me. It was a terrible life. They gave us nothing to eat but boiled meat nothing but that. My husband, three brothers are still living in Texas. Wade Box lives in Johnson County, texas. Young Box lives in Hopkins County, texas, westport and John Box in Westport, hopkins County, texas. My mother's brother and niece reside at our home in Montague County, 25 miles from Gainesville. Signed Mary Matthews Bucks.
Speaker 1:As we close, we must remember the importance of preservation and the need to sustain Fort Dodge's historic buildings.
Speaker 1:It is important to note that landmark conservancy is a vital practice that benefits society greatly. Maintaining deep connections with historic places gives us a sense of belonging, continuity, stability, identity and memory. The quality of upkeep of venerable buildings is crucial, as they record our community's history and culture. Therefore, it is essential to recognize the value of preservation and work towards maintaining our heritage for future generations. Doing so can ensure that our antiquity and culture remain intact and that future generations can appreciate and learn from our past. To this end, we must consider Fort Dodge as an integral part of our community's history as far back as 1864, before a city, county or railroad prevailed. To support the preservation of historic buildings, the Fort Dodge Historical Society has worked to create places like memorable homes and museums that are open to the public. They also plan to include Walt Hall at Fort Dodge as a residence for homeless veterans, while keeping the historic character of this landmark building and using it through adaptive reuse. You can support the Fort County Historical Society efforts by contacting them at info at fortcountyhistoryorg.
Speaker 2:That's it for now, remember to check out our Wild West Podcast shows on iTunes or Wild.
Speaker 1:West Podcast dot busprout dot com. You can also catch us on Facebook at Facebook dot com. Slash Wild West Podcast or on our YouTube channel at Wild West Podcast Mike King YouTube. So make sure you subscribe to our shows listed at the end of the description text of this podcast to receive notifications on all new episodes. Thanks for listening to our podcast and make sure you check out the Western Cattle Trail Association website at westerncattletrailassociationcom. If you have any comments or want to add to our series, please write us at wildwestpodcastgmailcom. We will share your thoughts as they apply to future episodes. Join us next time as we travel along the Fort Riley-Larnard Trail with Major Henry Douglas and his family to Fort Dog. Thank you.