Embark on a trek through time as we uncover the remarkable story of Isadore Douglas and her family's poignant journey westward in the aftermath of the Civil War. Imagine braving the unknown frontier, where every step is a dance with danger and every letter home is a testament to survival. You're invited to live through Isidore's eyes, as her correspondence with her mother offers us a window into the raw emotions and harsh realities faced on the plains—from the joy and anxiety of impending motherhood to the looming fears of cholera and financial hardship. As we follow her husband Henry's military ascent, we trace the family’s footsteps from the relative comfort of Columbus, Ohio, to the vast expanses of Kansas, where the promise of new beginnings meets the grit of pioneer life.
Strap in for the second leg of our historical saga, where we join the Douglas clan on a rugged expedition from Elm Creek to the storied Fort Zarah. Venture through the untamed wilds as we experience nature's capricious whims, from storms that ravage encampments to frigid nights under the stars, and confront the wildlife that roams the plains. Alongside Isidore's vivid narrations, we navigate critical lifelines like stage stations and the Barlow-Sanderson coaches that dotted the desolate Fort Riley-Fort Larned Road. Arriving at Fort Zarah, we gain insight into the legends of the Santa Fe Trail and the perils at Pawnee Rock. Prepare for an episode that not only chronicles an epic passage but also immortalizes the indomitable spirit that shaped a nation.
Return of the Great Hunters
Cattle Drives Website
Legends of Dodge City Website
Order Books
Embark on a trek through time as we uncover the remarkable story of Isadore Douglas and her family's poignant journey westward in the aftermath of the Civil War. Imagine braving the unknown frontier, where every step is a dance with danger and every letter home is a testament to survival. You're invited to live through Isidore's eyes, as her correspondence with her mother offers us a window into the raw emotions and harsh realities faced on the plains—from the joy and anxiety of impending motherhood to the looming fears of cholera and financial hardship. As we follow her husband Henry's military ascent, we trace the family’s footsteps from the relative comfort of Columbus, Ohio, to the vast expanses of Kansas, where the promise of new beginnings meets the grit of pioneer life.
Strap in for the second leg of our historical saga, where we join the Douglas clan on a rugged expedition from Elm Creek to the storied Fort Zarah. Venture through the untamed wilds as we experience nature's capricious whims, from storms that ravage encampments to frigid nights under the stars, and confront the wildlife that roams the plains. Alongside Isidore's vivid narrations, we navigate critical lifelines like stage stations and the Barlow-Sanderson coaches that dotted the desolate Fort Riley-Fort Larned Road. Arriving at Fort Zarah, we gain insight into the legends of the Santa Fe Trail and the perils at Pawnee Rock. Prepare for an episode that not only chronicles an epic passage but also immortalizes the indomitable spirit that shaped a nation.
Return of the Great Hunters
Cattle Drives Website
Legends of Dodge City Website
Order Books
From May through August of 1866, a family named Douglas from Columbus, ohio, waited to receive reassignment orders from the military. They had just moved from West Point to Ohio. Life for them is formidable. Isidore is writing to her mother, angelina Bowman, about being pregnant, dreading childbirth and having proper clothing in case she dies during childbirth. She worries about having enough money to pay the bills and is fearful of cholera. Her husband, henry Douglas, returned from military leave in the Civil War and was promoted to major. Isidore believes Henry should be given a new commission for his promotion. She is uncertain where they will relocate, as she is just a few days from giving birth to their third child. In six months their lives will change forever. This is the story of Isidore Douglas, who meets the most significant challenges of her life on the Kansas frontier significant challenges of her life on the Kansas frontier even more remarkable than she has known before. In her May 21st letter, isidore wrote the following statement to her mother about her husband's prospects Henry has been promoted again, so that will make a difference as to where we will be stationed. We can only be sent to a better place than where our company is. We do not think we will be ordered to the 18th Infantry at all. Wild West Podcast proudly presents, in the Midst of Antagonism, Part 2 Journey of the Suzerain.
Speaker 1:In November 1866, henry B Douglas, his wife Isidore and three sons began their journey from Columbus, ohio, to Fort Dodge, kansas. In her letter after arriving at Fort Dodge on December 25, 1866, isidore states that her family arrived by train at Fort Riley. Before parting to Fort Dodge, we left Columbus, ohio, on the 26th of November and take command of this post. Fortunately, we went by railroad as far as Fort Riley. Of this post, fortunately we went by railroad as far as Fort Riley, and from there we had only 240 miles to travel across the plains in ambulances and wagons. Following the Civil War, fort Riley assumed the importance of safeguarding railroad lines being built across Kansas. Evidence of this occurred in the summer and fall of 1866, when the 7th Cavalry was mustered at Riley and the Union Pacific Railroad reached the fort Prevent. Major General George A Custer left Fort Riley and his wife Libby for Washington on November 9, 1866, and returned on December 16 to take command of the new regiment 16th, to take command of the new regiment. After arriving, custer's wife Libby describes Fort Riley in a letter to her friend Rebecca Richmond in mid-October of 1866.
Speaker 1:This is not a fort, though called so, for there are no walls enclosing it. It is a little city of limestone buildings. Three two-story barracks faced three others across a large square parade ground, framed on the remaining sides by matched sets of three two-story officers' quarters, each consisting of two attached houses. The fort also included stables, the store run by the settler, the civilian merchant permitted to operate at a military post, express company office, post office, civilian housing, mess halls, chapel, ordinance buildings and more. Before Isidore Douglas and their family parted Fort Riley on their 240-mile journey across the plains, they would have checked in with a 7th Cavalry physician. The post-physician tending the new hospital at the time was the first recipient of the Medal of Honor, brevet Lieutenant Colonel Bernard John Dowling Irwin.
Speaker 1:Irwin had likely given Isidore care instructions on preventing cholera, since the epidemic affected many of the army encampments in the West. Various towns, posts and commands in the West indeed suffered devastating losses from cholera in the 1850s, 1866, and 1867. Military posts near or along the trail and commands en route suffered from cholera during those years. The flyer on cholera prevention would have read as follows Be temperate in eating and drinking, abstain from cold water when heated and above all from ardent spirits, and if habits have rendered them indispensable, take much less than usual. Sleep and clothe warm. Do not sleep or sit in a draft of air. Avoid getting wet. Attend immediately to all disorders of the bowels. Take no medicine without advice.
Speaker 1:The Douglas family, a caravan of a military escort of 20 men in military wagons, likely left the following day with animals booting up the plumes of dust along the rutted road. They moved on horseback and in columns with yoked teams of oxen pulling Wilson Childs Company, pennsylvania's six mule army wagons. With the morning sun at their back, the small convoy of wagons panted along burdened with military supplies, camping equipment, salt provisions, hardtack and Indian annuities to be distributed along the way at various military posts. Conestoga axles squeaked under the weight of travel supplies. As the burdens of barrels of molasses, bacon and meal rattled in the wagon beds, drivers whipped at the ox teams crying out Get up, catch up, you damn mules. The trail likely smelled of lathered exertion, fresh dung, urine and rancid musk. The small convoy of supplies and men heeded the same grooved route that Missouri trader William Becknell from Franklin, missouri, had taken in September 1821. The 16-day expedition would be arduous and kidney-punishing, but at least, the route was well-traveled and certain. This long thread across the prairie, meant for commerce but now invested with military significance, was conveying an army intent on protecting trade and controlling Indian raids along the trails.
Speaker 1:Not long out of Fort Riley, the last villages of American civilization slipped away and the country fanned out. They had entered the stretch often observed on maps as the Great American Desert, an emptiness on the country's western edge. It was thought to have no reasonable use other than as a preserve for Indian tribes that had long lived on the prairie, as well as those who, like the Cherokee, had been forcibly relocated from the east. The Great Plains was not deemed entirely part of the United States, appropriately speaking, but rather an enduring wilderness officially designated as the permanent Indian frontier. As Isidore joined this desolate grassland, her sense of isolation must have deepened, for they could not convey with the rest of the world.
Speaker 1:Traveling ahead of the column was Henry Douglas, born at West Point on March 9, 1827, to Anne Eliza Ellicott Douglas and Major David Bates Douglas, a professor of engineering at West Point. Douglas, 39 years of age at the time, was a tall-statured man with square jaw, thin lips, broad shoulders, a thick neck and scrolls of blonde hair sweeping back from a high square forehead. His wise blue eyes, declining slightly under freshly hooded lids, seemed to look at the world with a monumental beckoning destiny. He was of the most stringent profession as a West Point graduate and had conveyed a drab characteristic of iron firmness. Upon graduating in 1852, henry obtained the rank of Brevet's second lieutenant of the 7th Infantry. Having served at various frontier barracks for two years, he was promoted as 2nd Lieutenant of the 8th Infantry.
Speaker 1:He continued on the frontier, participating in many skirmishes with the Indians, until the outbreak of the Civil War. As a Civil War veteran, he acknowledged that soldiers were tasked with achieving high duties for the country's glory, and such responsibilities could only be performed through rigid discipline. His first battle came at Bull Run and then on December 31, 1862, at Murfreesboro, tennessee, when at dawn Confederate forces launched an assault on his right flank. At the time of the foray, he held the rank of brevet major and commanded a battalion of the 18th Infantry. The Confederate forces intended to surround the troops under his command from behind and drive them to Stones River. Initially, confederate troops held the advantage, driving Union forces back towards Nashville Pike. Union forces set up a defensive line and intense fighting resulted in horrendous casualties on both sides. One area became known as the Slaughter Pen because of the carnage. Henry was wounded during the battle and rewarded for gallant and meritorious services.
Speaker 1:Isidore knew the West's cross-country journey would be harsh not for the weak or timid, especially with three children. The trip to Fort Dodge would take at least 16 days. There were devoid landscapes, deceptive river crossings and the danger of Indian attacks. Isidore Bowman was born on February 5, 1841, in Wilkes Bar, pennsylvania, to Angelina Brobst Bowman and Captain Francis Loring Bowman, 9th Infantry US Army. She married Henry B Douglas on July 15, 1858, when Douglas had an assignment at the Military Academy at West Point as Principal Assistant Professor of Drawing until July 2, 1861. While at West Point, isidore gave birth to two sons, henry Bowman Douglas, born June 29, 1859, and Francis Frank Douglas, born December 8, 1860. Isidore was with her husband in Ohio when he was in charge of the Chief Mustering and Distributing Office of the State of Ohio, september 9, 1864 to June 30, 1866. While in Columbus, ohio, isidore gave birth to a third son, charles Edward Douglas, on August 26, 1866. When the Douglas family arrived at Fort Riley, major Henry Douglas was 39 and Isidore was 25. With her on their travels along the Fort Riley Lawned Trail was seven-year-old, henry Frank was six and baby Charles Edward was just three months old.
Speaker 1:The trip in late November would have been blustery, cold, windswept and possibly icy, with the prospect of heavy wagon wheels bogging down along the way. In Isidore's Fort Dodge arrival letter home, she recorded her daily events in an unadorned manner, conveying what it was like to travel the Santa Fe Trail. Events in an unadorned manner, conveying what it was like to travel the Santa Fe Trail. We started in the wagon as Henry thought it would be more roomy and we could make a bed for the boys, but it jolted me and made me so weary that after traveling 175 miles we abandoned it and took an ambulance, which made the rest of the journey more comfortable. I wish I might say I had a pleasant journey, but I cannot, for we only had two or three pleasant days, the rest of the time exceedingly disagreeable weather rain, sleet and snow. We had an escort of 20 men, some days making only 15 miles. We breakfasted at daylight and enc camped about four in the afternoon. Their travel route would have been along the Fort Larned Road, the same route General Winfield Scott Hancock would take on April 27, 1867, when they marched onto the plains of Kansas. With 1,400 troops, infantry, cavalry and artillery.
Speaker 1:Leaving Fort Riley, the Douglas Expedition crossed Chapman's Creek, 13 miles west of the post. Proceeding 13 miles further along the north bank of the Smoky Hill, the column crossed Mud Creek at Abilene. Traveling west in a freighter wagon was one bold, daring and extraordinary journey for Isidore and her three children. She had every hope of this new adventure, of having a grand life, but knew it to be tough. As Isidore looked out from the wagon, she became mesmerized by the open countryside.
Speaker 1:As a small team of escorted wagons moved down the trail, the country took on a strange and beautiful spareness. Grasshoppers snapped in the open expanse. The promise of a better life drove them onward, mile after grueling mile. The trip seemed as impossible at times as the terrain could have been more impassable. They must have felt overwhelmed as they surveyed the lay of the land, but their pioneer spirit pushed them to forge ahead. The timber grew ever more scarce until it played out altogether and they became swallowed in a circumference of primeval grass, ross and weed, bullseye and redroot. Occasional slashes of sandbar willow greened along the meandering creeks, but otherwise the land was as featureless as the rolling ocean. If it rained, they might only be able to travel one or two miles daily due to washed-out trails.
Speaker 1:It was only a short time before they would reach Abilene, where the expedition may have stopped. After leaving Abilene, the countryside became lively. Pronghorn antelope cropped above the short grass and, sensing something about them whist off like darting arrows, prairie dogs sprang from their cratered towns and piped in nervous curiosity. Often rattlesnakes or burrowing owls occupied the dens, predators that lived uninvited in the homes of their prey. Nine miles beyond Abilene, the expedition would have crossed the Solomon and Saline Forks at the Solomon Crossing and camped at Salina, three miles beyond the Saline Forks. Salina was described at the time as a small town with muddy streets. Salina was described at the time as a small town with muddy streets. Departing Salina, the expedition would have crossed Dry Creek and proceeded to Elm Creek, where Ernest Hoheck's ranch was located. Here Isidore may have been relieved from the misery of travel and impressed by a fine meal served by Hoeneck, the owner of the waystation.
Speaker 1:Ernest Hoeneck, a German, immigrated to the United States in 1850 at 22. No-transcript. In 1862, he was associated with Daniel Page and Joseph Lehman in operating a ranch at the Smoky Hill River crossing on Fort Riley-Fort Laundon Military Road. The Kansas Stage Company also utilized the trail and Honex Ranch became a regular stage stop. Their chief enterprise was the sale of buffalo hides and tallow, which were transported to the Leavenworth Kansas market at regular intervals. When arriving at the ranch, a meal consisting of bonafide buffalo deer meat, smoked ham and quinces would have been available to their convoy.
Speaker 1:After their short stay at Honex Ranch, isidore began her laborious journey on the boundless plains From the back seat of her covered military ambulance. She observed the distant grass lying in ridges of wavy brown and how the heavens seemed to unite with the distant horizon. But the romance soon wore off a week into the journey and their travel became slow and tedious. The mules and other animals. The mules and other animals, mainly unused to the harnesses, often became refractory and bulky. The grass was tall and rank and the earth in many places so soft that the heavily loaded wagons would sink up to the axle.
Speaker 1:Beyond Elm Creek, the expedition pushed to camp at Spring Creek, 16 miles from Salina. There they would have noticed the presence of the Barlow-Sanderson Stage Station, commonly known as Pritchard's. The next stop, 12 miles beyond Pritchard's, was Clear Creek, identified as a rancher on the roadside. This was the ranch initially established by the Ferris Brothers in 1860. At some point the expedition would have proceeded down the Fort Riley-Fort Larned Road to Oxhide Creek. This little stream furnished timber and water and was an excellent camping place Crossing Oxhide Creek. The creek was usually dry during the summer, but water could be obtained from a spring at nearby Wells Ranch, a Barlow-Sanderson stage station.
Speaker 1:At this point in their travel, the rain came at a wind that wanted nothing more than to announce the camp blowing down their tents upon the storm's arrival, and so it went on, the grass outside flattening in waves that reflected the light, and the surface of the river covered in waves as if it were in open water. Moving into the morning light the following day, she may have seen her first wolf, a white, silver fur, glossy and thick the paws kissing the earth with the lightness and the wolf's gaze. In serene, the wolf takes flight along the creek's banks and into the brush. Isidore expressed her experiences on the trail in the following way we all have colds from one night when we were on the road, our tent blew down and we had to take the baby and the boys out in the snow in order to go into another tent how much more one can endure than they think they can. It seemed almost impossible for me to go on without a nurse before I started, but I did so and lived through it, through this cold weather. I had a pretty rough time of it. In crossing the prairies we can travel for miles and miles, sometimes 75 miles, without seeing a house or tree. We can see, however, plenty of buffalo, wolves and prairie dogs.
Speaker 1:The expedition would have departed the regular road at Plum Creek, taking a west-southwesterly direction across Cow Creek where there was ample wood supply. In anticipation of a creek crossing, a detachment of scouts would bound ahead to study the sandy bottoms and dilemmas for the most promising place to ford, bringing shovels and hoes to make minor improvements along the banks to ease the passage of the heavy wagons. If the axles were made of wood too green, they would all too often snap under the burden. After camping at Cow Creek, ten miles from Fort Zara, the expedition turned south five miles to intercept the Santa Fe Road and continued to Fort Zara at Walnut Creek, even though they had carefully packed their wagons not to overload them and made it impossible for the oxen to pull the wagon. The maximum weight the wagons could hold was 2,000 to 2,500 pounds.
Speaker 1:A well-stocked wagon could mean the difference between life and death. As they traveled through stark and unfamiliar lands, a typical journey for weeks would have to have enough provisions for the entire trip. It was probably at Walnut Creek when the wagon broke down, as the area was noted for wolves. As Isidore writes, our ambulances broke down one day and we all had to get out, and the wolves howled around us. Those wolves are harmless, however, so we were not afraid. The children stood the journey remarkably well. The baby was the best soldier among us. He is the only one that did not take cold.
Speaker 1:When they reached the site of Fort Zara, they would have seen the stone blockhouse in the distance which had been constructed in February of 1865. The 2nd Colorado Cavalry was commissioned that year to build the octagonal blockhouse out of stone. They would have entered the location from the south, north of the crossing of Walnut Creek. By 1867, a guardhouse and a settler's store had been completed and nearby was the Kiowa Comanche Indian Agency operated by Jesse Leavenworth Rath's trading ranch and a stage station operated on the south side. Charles Rath assumed operation of the ranch in the wake of George Peacock's death in September 1860 at the hands of Satank, a Kiowa war chief. Rath was only 24 then and a seasoned frontiersman formerly employed by William Bent. Rath was married to Making Out Road, the most beautiful woman in the southern Cheyennes, formerly to Kit Carson. Due to their marriage, rath had good relationships with the Southern Plains tribes and enjoyed a lively trade with the various tribes at the ranch and their villages.
Speaker 1:The further south they traveled, the more severe the December weather hindered the passage to Fort Larned and Fort Dodge. First, silver and black snow clouds radiated through the sky in the darkening of many precious colorings. Then the sleet came, as if winter was supple, ready to become the fluid rain or the beauty of crystalline snowflakes. The cold weather seeped through their clothing, exhausting vitality and forging the yearning to wrap themselves in warm layers of well-insulated fabrics as they approached Fort Larned.
Speaker 1:Lumbering along the flat plains in their wagons, isidore would have spotted a rugged mass of brown sandstone casting a deep shadow over the trail ahead. Casting a deep shadow over the trail ahead. Amazed at the sight of the extensive prairie shadow stretching out for miles at its feet, she would have inquired about the giant sentinel of the plains called Pawnee Rock. Accompanied by an experienced traveler of the Santa Fe Trail, she would have learned that for hundreds of years the highway she was traveling was also the Trail of Prairie Tribes. They used the trail in their periodic hunts to the feeding grounds of the Buffalo, southward across the Canadian and to the north far beyond the plat. Pawnee Rock has many stories from its scarred and weather-beaten front, carved in quaint and rude letters to the names of hundreds who stopped there before they made this challenging and compelling course of the Santa Fe Trail.
Speaker 1:Over the years, pawnee Rock was considered the most dangerous place in the Central Plains. Many encounters with the Indians occurred at this particular point on the trail. The Pawnees, kiowas, comanches, arapahos and Cheyennes made their periodic successful raids upon the pack mules and wagon trains of the freighters crossing the continent. In those days. The Pawnees were the most formidable tribe on the eastern plains and the freighters and trappers rarely escaped a skirmish with them, either at the crossing of the Walnut Pawnee Fork or at Little or Big Coon Creeks.
Speaker 1:As they approached this great sentinel of the plains, she would have noticed how, in late fall, when the rock is wrapped in the soft amber haze a distinguishing characteristic of the delightful Indian summer on the central plains when the frost comes and the mist is dispelled, and when the thin fridge of timber on the walnut a few miles away has doffed its emerald mantle, the grass would have grown yellow and rusty. Then, in the golden sunlight of winter, the rock sinks to its natural proportions and cuts the clear blue of the skies with sharply marked lines. At Pawnee Rock. Isidore probably witnessed the countless buffalo herds stretching before her in the golden light of the afternoon. Probably witnessed the countless buffalo herds stretching before her in the golden light of the afternoon. Every acre may have been covered until in the dim distance, the prairie became one black mass from which there was no opening. The area was noted for as many as fifty million buffalo that roamed the Great Plains at one time A carnival of meat on the hoof, migrating north and south, with the seasons wandering west and east, with the presence or absence of water imprinting the plains with intricate capillaries of trails. Some troopers may have even taken the opportunity to hunt these pitifully easy-to-shoot beasts, butchered them and prepared the meat for dinner.
Speaker 1:After arriving at Fort Larned, major Douglas received his official orders to take command of Fort Dodge. During his short stay he learned that not all Indians of the signatory tribes believed the treaties of the Little Arkansas River were binding, the military had become concerned about roving bands of resistive Indians. The Cheyennes continued to conduct raids against whites on the central Great Plains. Many stories had scattered across the frontier, concluding with only one alternative If these raids did not cease, the situation would lead military officials to authorize punitive military actions. Douglas was informed to expect an army expedition in the spring to chastise the recalcitrant Indians, especially the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers, members of a militant warrior society who dealt havoc in the region. The information and new orders made Major Douglas nervous, especially knowing his family would be moving into the midst of the engagement. He began to feel uneasy, which was an invitation to expect himself for his military ginger, a moment of adjusting his sentiments to find the best way forward.
Speaker 1:It was now time to depart from Fort Larned to take command of Fort Dodge, a two-day journey to the edge of civilization. Winter had settled in, with its delicate blooms of white crystals and the conjuring of steel-gray clouds. As Major Douglas thought, may God give me the courage to maneuver these ice routes amid these snowy dunes. As Major Douglas, his family and the military escort moved south, so did the Cheyenne and Oglala villages. The villages went into winter camp and Oglala villages. The villages went into winter camp 33 miles northwest of Fort Larned. Ff Jones, post-interpreter at Fort Dodge, reported intentions were to make medicine with other bands of tribes now camping south of the Arkansas.
Speaker 1:As we close, we must remember the importance of preservation and the need to sustain Fort Dodge's historic buildings. The quality of upkeep of old 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. To this end, we must consider Fort Dodge as a vital part of our history back to 1864, before a city, county or railroad existed. To support the preservation of these old buildings at Fort Dodge, the Ford County Historical Society has worked to create places like the Home of Stone and the Santa Fe Train Depot building that are open to the public. Ford County Historical Society also plans to include Walt Hall as a home for homeless veterans who want to keep the historic character of their residence and inhabit a landmark building while using it through adaptive reuse. You can support their efforts by contacting the Ford County Historical Society at info at fordcountyhistoryorg. Contacting the Ford County Historical Society at info at fordcountyhistoryorg.
Speaker 1:That's it for now, remember to check out our Wild West podcast shows on iTunes or Wild West podcast at buzzsproutcom. You can also catch us on Facebook at facebookcom 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 Western Cattle Trail Association dot com. If you have any comments or want to add to our series, please write us at wildwestpodcast at gmailcom. We will share your thoughts as they apply to future episodes. Join us next time as we travel back to 1867 and tell the story of Major Henry Douglas and his family's experiences overseeing Fort Dodge during the hardships and confrontations on the frontier. Thank you.