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WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION
[Beginning Saturday, August 16, 1890.]

THIS PAPER WAS A GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT...

VERY LITTLE, IF ANY, ITEMS CONCERNING WINFIELD OR ARKANSAS CITY. THEY DID HAVE OKLAHOMA TERRITORY AND STATE ITEMS.

 

[WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, AUGUST 16, 1890.]

TERRITORY NEWS.
Payne wants a blacksmith shop.

The next thing Norman wants is an artesian well.

The Oklahoma City land office will open about September 1.

The first G. A. R. encampment in Oklahoma took place at Guthrie last Thursday.

-0-

[WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, AUGUST 30, 1890.]

TERRITORY NEWS.
Oklahoma City is to have two cotton-gins.

The Methodist Church at Guthrie was dedicated last Sunday.

The Norman townsite board has been ordered to that place at once.

The New United States marshal came from Nebraska to

Oklahoma.

The first cotton of the season was marketed at Ardmore and brought 12 cents a pound.

Cow men report that wolves are killing many calves and weak cattle in the Cherokee strip.

United States Marshal Grimes will not make any appointments to posts under him just at present.

Oklahoma was represented in the G. A. R. encampment at Boston by the Hon. William Hackney of Guthrie.

It is reported that the Alliance men say they will contest the Guthrie delegation in the legislature, on the ground that they were elected through fraudulent votes cast in Guthrie.

 

[STATE NEWS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, SEPTEMBER 27, 1890.

Miss Mary Cogdal, of Winfield, left last week to become a missionary in China. She was tendered a public receiption before she bade good-bye to Kansas.

 

[STATE NEWS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, OCTOBER 4, 1890.

Geuda Springs has a brass band.

A farmer brought a load of potatoes to Wichita the other day and sold them for as much money as seven loads brought last season.

An Arkansas City boot-legger carries his stock in a quart bottle and carries with him also two glasses, one of which olds a 10-cent drink and the other a 5-cent drink. the glass that holds the 10-cent drink is very seldom used.

Several thousand acres of melons were grown in the southwestern counties of Kansas this year for the seed, which was contracted for by eastern firms. The seed is extracted by the growers, thus enabling them to keep all of the water in Kansas.

 

[STATE NEWS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, OCTOBER 11, 1890.

There is a colored man living at Arkansas City, who is the father of thirty-six children. He has been married twice and each wife bore twins six times. A man who has done as much as that for his country ought to have a pension whether he is disabled or not.

 

[STATE NEWS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, OCTOBER 18, 1890.

The community of Antelope district Cowley county have banded themselves together as a police force and have a state charter and they will now bring a united force to bear upon any misdemeanors of that community.

[ANTELOPE DISTRICT...????]

 

[STATE NEWS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, OCTOBER 25, 1890.

A few drunken rowdies got among the crowd in front of the opera house at Arkansas City the other night and pretty nearly caused a stampede. Several blows were struck, but fortunately did not end in a general fight.

 

[TERRITORY NEWS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, NOVEMBER 8, 1890.

The people in the Chickasaw nation go up to Oklahoma for a "time."

Ardmore has applied for articles of incorporation as a city, having a population of 3,000.

Now that Oklahoma City has a lady barber, Guthrie will probably bob up with a man milliner.

The Guthrie Capital is authority for the statement that the old cow trails make good cotton fields.

The legislature will have to rustle along if it is going to give El Reno and Norman a chance at the capital.

The Norman townsite case is under immediate consideration at Washington and will be decided upon soon.

Oklahoma City expects to get coal--as good as any in Pennsylvania--for $4 a ton when the Choctaw is built.

About forty teams, containing over 150 persons, passed through Kingfisher on their way to the Chickasaw nation, there to wait until the new country opens for settlement. This is simply an index of those who are daily coming into the territory for the purpose of settling and purchasing Oklahoma farms.

There are a good many people who do not like Governor Steele, personally, politically, or otherwise, but they are ready to concede that he is endeavoring to build up Oklahoma as a territory and will do his utmost to bring her in as a state at the earliest possible date. He is also very solicitous for the poor and old soldiers within the limits of the territory.

 

[STATE NEWS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, NOVEMBER 8, 1890.

The Gladstone hotel at Arkansas City has been sold to a New York syndicate for $75.000.

 

[TERRITORY NEWS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, NOVEMBER 22, 1890.

The Choctaw government receives $87,000 per annum as a revenue from coal.

 

[THE CHEROKEE COMMISSION.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - DECEMBER 13, 1890 - FRONT PAGE.

THE CHEROKEE COMMISSION.
TAHLEQUAH, I. T., Dec. 11. Negotiations progress slowly. The Cherokees have made answer to the government's proposition. For obvious reasons they object to having it published. When the two commissions met in joint session to discuss the answer, the commission on the part of the Cherokees, who are in the majority, moved to exclude the members of the press. From a reliable source it is ascertained that the Cherokee proposition was very voluminous in detail. They asked $2.50 per acre, and that the government remove the Cherokee freedmen from their present homes and colonize them on the strip.

The nation agrees to give eighty acres to each adult and forty acres to each minor, also, to compensate them for their improvements. They also wish to retain a large tract of land known as the salt claim, and whenever any differences arise between the United States and the Cherokee nation have a right to carry this difference to the supreme court of the United States. The commission, on the part of the United States, is known to have objected to several features of the proposition, and have submitted briefs to that effect. The Cherokees, while deliberating on these objections, were startled with some gigantic offers for the land west of the ninety-sixth meridian, from a syndicate in Chicago, offering $10,000,000; another from capitalists in Kansas City, offering $20,000,000; a third from the Lucas Cattle company, in Colorado, offering $30,000,000. This is bulling the market, and will have the desired effect of blocking the negotiations.

 

[STATE NEWS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, DECEMBER 13, 1890.

Wellington is going to prospect for oil to the extent of $10,000.

Kansas penitentiaries will be the homes of Oklahoma convicts until that territory can build prisons.

Arkansas City has a company which sells both coal and ice. Any kind of weather is good enough for them.

 

[TERRITORY NEWS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, DECEMBER 27, 1890.

Kingfisher is $10,000 in debt.

Norman has shipped 800 bales of cotton this season.

Oklahoma City has organized an immigration society.

The statehood convention will be held at Purcell Saturday.

A pall has fallen on the progressive Indian of the Choctaw nation.

One thousand bales of cotton have been marketed in Oklahoma City this year.

Dyer, the first mayor of Guthrie, had some money in the Commercial bank that failed.

Congressman Perkins says the Indians have no right to sell the Strip to any individual or company.

William Hunt, a rich ranchman of Caldwell, says the Cherokee strip is not worth over one dollar an acre.

Guthrie's possesion of the capital is a good deal like a fine fish before you have landed him. He may get away.

The Oklahoma City Capital is out in an editorial in favor of Governor Steele vetoing the Kingfisher capital bill.

An Indian ghost show has taken up its headquarters uncomfortably near Choctaw City, and the town has sought the protection of the military. [???]

One of the most sensible decisions ever rendered in Oklahoma is the one by the Oklahoma City land office that witnesses must testify without the aid of a revolver.

 

[STATE NEWS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, DECEMBER 27, 1890.

There is a lone Iriquois Indian in Arkansas City. This Indian has not gotten the ghost fever, but when he wants to dance, he goes it alone, which is safer if not as exciting.

An Arkansas City minister announced last Sunday that no collection would be taken that day and the church was so crowded that people sat in the aisles and hung on the fresco work on the walls to hear him.

 

[THE INDIANS.]

Winfield Newspaper Union, January 3, 1891.

THE INDIANS.
The Ghost Dancers Said to be Returning to the Agency.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 26. Gen. Schofield this morning received the following telegram from Gen. Miles under date of Rapid City, South Dakota, Dec. 25:

"Have not heard from Col. Carr for thirty-six hours. He started to intercept Big Foot. Should he succeed or turn him to Cheyenne Agency, it will be favorable, as Gen. Brooks reports that a message from Little Wound, Big Road, and Fast Thunder, who are the leaders of the Indians who went to the Bad Lands, says that about half the Indians there are coming, and he thinks the rest will follow. Should this not be interruputed by some unforeseen event, it will be most desirable."

Gen. Schofield has also received a telegram from Gen. Miles dated Rapid City, South Dakota, Dec. 24, as follows.

"Col. Sumner reports his command at Big Foot's camp on Cheyenne River; that Big Foot assured him he would do whatever he said, and bring all his people to his (Sumner's) camp; but that he deceived him, and eluded his command, going south in light order. This was most unfortunate just at this time, and may turn the scale against the efforts that have been made to avoid an Indian war. Up to this time the prospects looked favorable, and in one week most of the worse element have been removed."

SKIRMISHING.
CAMP NEAR BATTLE CREEK, SOUTH DAKOTA, Dec. 26. The situation here remains practically unchanged. The weather is cold and the rivers frozen solid. A company of Cheyenne scouts is encamped at the mouth of Battle Creek. Two attempts were made Wednesday by the hostiles, who number about eighty, to break into their camp. The first attack was made by only a few of the Indians, who were quickly repulsed with a loss of two killed and several wounded. Three of the Cheyenne Indian scouts were wounded, and it is thought one is fatally hurt. The second attack was made after dark by what was supposed to be the whole band, who were led by Kicking Bear himself. Volley after volley was fired on both sides, and a desultory fire was kept up for an hour or more. It is not known how many of the hostiles were killed but, judging from the reports of one of the scouts, there must have been several killed, as he says he heard several shout in Sioux language that they were hit. Troops were sent to the scene at an early hour yesterday morning, and report everything quiet and no hostiles in sight.

PINE RIDGE AGENCY, Dec. 26. The peace party failed, as was predicted. Five of the friendly Indians are in, and report that the rest are coming in. The enemy are described as crazy, wild, and wholly unmanageable. None have come over from the fighters. It was decided to at once subdue the warriors.

RAPID CITY, S. D., Dec. 26. Gen. Miles received word from Gen. Brooks that the friendly mission of the Pine Ridge Indians to the hostile camps in the Bad Lands had been successful, and that the Indians are ready to come in. Several parties are now on their way. Big Foot and his band, who escaped from Col. Sumner, have been found on Porcupine Creek moving toward Pine Ridge.

CHICAGO, Dec. 26. A Pine Ridge special says the Indian council in the Bad Lands has decided in favor of the hostiles returning to the agency. They are all now on their way in. Perhaps a few may slip away, but the authorities feel that the trouble is at last at an end. There is still danger of serious trouble in case an attempt is made to disarm the hostiles. Unless this is done, all the Indians will be at the agency in a day or two.

THE TERRITORY INDIANS.
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Dec. 26. A special from Guthrie, Oklahoma, says Mr. W. P. Thompson, the local agent of the Iowas, who was invited to attend the ghost dance arranged for nine miles from Guthrie, returned from that place today and reports that the dance had been abandoned. There were assembled at the rendezvous representatives from the Iowas, Missouri, Kickapoos, Cheyennes, Arapahos, and two or three Sioux runners from the northern country. The dance was commenced yesterday in regular style and had been in progress but a short time when To-Hee, the blind Cheyenne chief, and White Cloud arrived at the scene and urged the Indians to desist. They pleaded eloquently with the dancers. A conference was held and it was finally determined to abandon the dance. All the Indians returned peacefully to their reservations.

 

[THE SIOUX INDIANS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - JANUARY 3, 1891.

DENVER, Colorado, Dec. 27. A News special from Creston, South Dakota, via courier to Rapid City, South Dakota, says: "Things which a few days ago under the policy of Gen. Brooks were tending to a cessation of all hostilities are today just the reverse. Late last night Gen. Carr received a telegraom from Col. Sumner that the Indians from Hump's and Big Foot's camp, whom he was supposed to have held as prisoners, had escaped, and were heading for the Bad lands. At daylight Gen. Carr and six troops pulled out from here to intercept them, or capture and destroy them, but so far no word has been received yet from the general. The Indians are still carrying on their depredations as usual, and are growing much bolder, having stolen three valuable horses and ten head of stock out of a corral last night at the ranch of a Mr. Burnes, situated only ten miles from this camp on the Cheyenne river.

DICKINSON, SOUTH DAKOTA, Dec. 27. Lieut. Sidenham and Scout Pence, of Captain Fountain's command of the Eighth cavalry, have arrived here with dispatches. They report that there has been no foundation for the story that the command was hemmed in by five hundred hostiles in the Cave hills. Captain Fountain has not, up to Christmas morning, been able to discover any trace of Indians, but has claimed that Sitting Bull's followers are on their way to the Pine Ridge and Cherry Creek reservations. Stories about ranchmen murdered and property destroyed by the hostiles are also stated to be unfounded.

HAVING A FEAST.
PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA, Dec. 27. Scott Phillips, a well known ranchman living on the reservation, came to the city today to make some arrangements to protect his own and Governor Mellette's cattle, which are running near the Bad lands. He says the hostiles have hundreds of range cattle in the Bad lands, which they are quietly eating, while troops stay around in camps on the outskirts, guarding them while they eat. "That's how ranchmen are being benefited by the troops," he says, and adds that the troops are afraid to go into the Bad lands for fear of being ambushed. He proposes to receive sanction to muster a regular company of cowboys, which will go through the hostile country and regain the stolen cattle or make some good Indians.

 

[KILLING WILD TURKEYS: RARE SPORT IN THE INDIAN TERRITORY.]

 

 

Winfield Newspaper Union, January 3, 1891.

Killing Wild Turkeys.
Rare Sport in the Indian Territory.
General Sheridan's Diplomatic Ambassador and Its Magnificent Results.
Fun Only for The OfficersTroops Camped in a Turkey "Roost."
Twenty-two years ago, the whole region, which includes the Wichita, Canadian and Beaver rivers, in the Indian Territory, was the habitat of our noblest indigenous bird, the wild turkey. To employ a slang phrasefor the wild turkey makes its haunts in the timberthe woods were full of them.

During the winter expedition against the Indians in 1868-1869, writes Major Inman, portions of the command, particularly those companies which escorted General Sheridan on his mission to Fort Sill, lived for days on them, and shooting them by moonlight afforded an immense amount of sport to the officers, in which the general indulged largely on the North Fork of the Canadian, in a place still known as "Sheridan's Roost." The general was an old sportsman. After going into camp at this place, on the evening of the 27th of Decem- ber, the command found themselves in a "turkey roost."

Sheridan had himself made the discovery, and he immediately gave orders that no one, either officer or man, should leave the camp without his permission, because, if anyone commenced to prowl around, the birds would not come back to their accustomed resting place at night. Just as the last rays of the setting sun sunk behind the low mountains on the west of the camp, the general and about seven officers, whom he had selected as compan ions, left their fire and wandered slowly into thick woods where he had discovered early in the afternoon the coveted birds were in the habit of congregating to roost. Each of the offi- cers, at the suggestion of the general, took a position on the ground to watch until the time should arrive for the birds to seek their sleeping place.

They did not have long to wait, as, before it had grown fairly dark, two or three magnifi- cent flocks came walking down the ravines leading to the valley. At the head of each flock, as they unsuspectingly advanced, was a fine male bird, upon whose bronze plumage the moonlight glinted as it sifted through the interstices of the trees. When he had arrived at the place at which the flock under his charge had been accustomed to roost, he stopped, glanced all around for a few seconds and then, apparently satisfied that everything was all right, he gave a signala sharp, quick, shrill whistle. At that instant every bird in the flock with one accord raised with a tremendous fluttering of their wings and alighted in the tops of the tallest trees.

At this juncture, all the various flocks having become settled in their several roosting places, the general gave the word and every man commenced to fire on his own account. The turkeys fell like the leaves in the fall, but did not seem to have sense enough to get away from their doom; they flew from tree to tree at every shot, but persistently remained in the immediate vicinity of their "roost" with all the characteristic idiocy of a sage hen, which appears, according to my observation, to have less sense than any bird that flies.

They bagged nearly 100 birds, of which the general had killed the lion's share. The now historic spot was called "Sheridan's Roost," which name is retained to this day.

Another turkey shooting occurred previous to the one above referred to, in which the whole of General Custer's command took part. It was about eighteen days after the terrible battle of the Washita, and Custer was chasing the fugitive savages towards Fort Cobb. The weather had been very disagreeablecold, snow, and a furious wind. The troops had been wading through about a foot of snow, and the horses were nearly starved, because it was impossible to get at the grass lying so deep under the snow. That night the command went into camp on the Washita, and it was soon discovered that accidentally they had pitched upon an immense turkey roost. It was not yet sundown when the picket line was stretched and preparations for the man's scanty supper begun. Eagerly expecting that the birds would come to their haunts at the usual hour, the cooks were a little perfunctory, anticipating that the bill of fare would, that night, vary materially from the customary sow-belly and hard-tack. So sure enough, just about sundown, the turkeys began to return from their search for food, and it was a most remarkable sight to watch the evident surprise of the birds as they approached their roost to discover that their ground had been usurped. Several flocks "rounded up" in full view of all, and it could be noticed that they were bewildered and did not know what to do. They stood still, apparently paralyzed, for some time, and as other flocks soon arrived they all began to fly up into the trees right in the middle of the camp. At this moment everyone seemed to be imbued with the desire to shoot and a fusillade began, resulting in the tumbling off the trees of fifty or more of the bronzed beauties; and, of course, driving all the remainder from their roosts until the air was full of the frightened birds.

As night drew on, not knowing or failing to seek another roosting place, back they came, but in increasing numbers, determined, apparently, to roost there or nowhere. The air and the ground were filled with turkeys; they were dazed by the turn affairs had taken and great flocks ran right among companies and the wagons.

Then was enacted a scene such as, perhaps, was never before witnessed, nor has it since, in all probability; all the dogs in the commandand there was every breed and size, for the average United States soldier loves a dogjoined in the pandemonium that followed the chase for the bewildered birds.

There was feasting in camp that night, and never before did turkey taste so delicious as the magnificent birds, served up in every conceivable style, at that supper in camp on the Washita, to the half-famished troopers of the famous Seventh cavalry, and the gallant boys of the Nineteenth Kansas; and that there were many cases of riding that subjective brute known as the nightmare, before the morning, I have not the slightest doubt.

 

[INDIANS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - JANUARY 10, 1891.

THE FINAL CONFLICT EXPECTED AT ANY MOMENT.
OMAHA, NEB., Jan. 6. The Bee has the following dispatch from its special correspon dent at Pine Ridge agency, South Dakota, via Rushville, Nebraska.

"The seriousness of the situation here is increasing. Short Bull, the leading hostile chief, who has distinguished himself all along during this trouble by never for a moment considering any of the overtures looking to an amicable settlement, but who has steadily stuck to his lair in the Bad Lands, and has now assumed command of the great body of hostiles, last night told our spies that he would take this agency if it costs every warrior in his command. Half-breeds here have been informed by friends and relatives that they had better move their families a long distance from the agency as a great massacre was certain. The half breeds are showing us what they think of this information by getting their families out of here with a rush. The government herder, John Dwyer, and Issue Clerk Pugh have both discovered through their Indian friends of years' standing, that a raid and massacre has been fully decided upon and maturely planned.

"Gen. Miles is thoroughly conversant with all these facts, and himself says that our situation is extremely critical. There are less than 600 soldiers here now, all told.

"The party sent to Wounded Knee to bury the dead Indians returned late last night. They found and buried eighty-four bucks and sixty-three squaws and children. It was also found that five had been buried by the Indians. In addition to this total of 152, we have heard now and then of others who have been carried away by hostile scouts, etc., sufficient to swell the number of dead Indians as a result of the battle of Wounded Knee to fully 200, with several others yet to die in the improvised hospital here.

"Jack Red Cloud and a small party of friendlies came in from the hostile camp last evening. They asked that the Indians now at the agency be sent out to help the Indians who fled from the agency on the night of the battle of Wounded Knee to get away from the hostiles. The authorities look upon the request with distrust and reserve their decision."

THE REMOVAL OF AGENTS DEMANDED.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6. It is stated at the interior department that the war department officials today received a telegram from Gen. Miles, urging prompt approval of his recommendation that the Indian agents of the South Dakota agencies be superseded by army officers, and stating that the situation demands that the changes be made at once.

Secretary Noble declined to say anything upon the subject when questioned today, but persons very close to him assert that the secretary will vigorously oppose the adoption of Gen. Miles' plan, upon the ground that it inevitably would result in undoing all, or nearly all, of the good that has been done in years towards the material advancement of the Indian tribes in the northwest. The secretary will stoutly maintain this position.

THE FORSYTHE SUSPENSION.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6. The following correspondence in regard to the Forsythe case was made public today. Under date of December 30 Gen. Schofield telegraphed Gen. Miles, expressing the belief that he would soon be master of the situation and asking that his thanks be given to the "brave Seventh cavalry for their splendid conduct!"

Under date of January 1 Gen. Miles telegraphed Gen. Schofield as follows.

"Your telegram of congratulation to the Seventh cavalry is received, but as the action of the colonel commanding will be a matter of serious consideration, and will undoubtedly be the subject of investigation, I thought it proper to advise you. In view of the above facts, do you wish your telegram transmitted as it was sent? It is stated that the disposition of 400 soldiers and four pieces of artillery was fatally defective, and a large number of soldiers were killed and wounded by fire from their own ranks and a very large number of women and children were killed in addition to the Indian men."

Gen. Schofield telegraphed in reply, under date of Jan. 2: "In view of the aspect of the case presented in your telegram of yesterday, it will be better not to deliver my message to the Seventh cavalry until I have seen your report after the investigation you propose. Therefore, you will please to withhold it until further advised by me."

He also telegraphed Gen. Miles on the same night, as follows: "Your dispatch to me, of yesterday, and that of the adjutant general, have been shown to the president, and in reply the secretary of war directs me to say: `The president has heard, with great regret, of the failure of your efforts to secure the settlement of the Sioux difficulties without bloodshed.' He suggests that possibly a watchful observance of the hostile bands that would prevent their breaking into the settlements, and give the Indians time to recover from their excitement, would be well. But he leaves all this to your better information and discretion, and would not have you omit anything that is necessary to protect the settlements.

"He hopes that the report of the killing of women and children in the affair at Wounded Knee is unfounded, and directs that you cause an immediate inquiry to be made and report the result to the department. If there was any unsoldierly conduct, you will relieve the responsible officer of the troops engaged there so as to avoid its repetition.

"I wish to add to the president's suggestions the hope which I still entertain, in spite of the unfortunate accidents which have occurred, that you may be able, by convincing the Indians that the purposes of the army are not hostile to them, but, on the contrary, friendly, and dictated by desire to secure their future peace and prosperity, to obtain their surrender without further conflict."

A WIDE-SPREAD CONSPIRACY.
Gen. Miles telegraphed Gen. Schofield, under date of Jan. 3, as follows: "The directions of the president and yourself is just the action I had anticipated and taken. Nearly all of the Sixth and Ninth cavalry and Second and Seventeenth infantry, with one hundred Indian scouts, are practically on three sides of them, along Beaver, White river, and Porcupine, with Gen. Brooke in command. This may hold them in check. I am in close communication with them, and have informed them the only safe road is towards the agency, and about half are anxious to come in. The others are making desperate efforts to keep all at war. I consider it very important that the five officers that I recommend be placed in charge of the five agencies. Please inform me if this is approved or disapproved.

"I have a very great amount of information concerning the conspiracy. It involves all the tribes in the northwest and the wild tribes in the Indian Territory. Sitting Bull would have been at the head and the movement was to be made in the spring. They expected to strike west to where the ghost delusion originatedNevada."

A BOARD OF INQUIRY.
"Gen. Schofield received a telegram from Gen. Miles, at Pine Ridge, dated January 5, as follows: "In accordance with your telegram and the president's order, I have detailed a board of officers consisting of Col. Carr, Sixth cavalry, Maj. Kent, Fourth infantry, and Capt. Baldwin, Fifth infantry, to investigate that affair at Wounded Knee. Is this in conformity with the president's directions, and does he direct that it constitute a court of inquiry with power to take testimony under oath?

"Col. Forsythe's command consisted of twenty-six officers and 453 men. Eighty-two Indians and sixty women and children were buried on or near the ground. I have relieved Col. Forsythe from command."

Gen. Schofield telegraphed Gen. Miles on Jan. 6 as follows: "In reply to your telegram of yesterday, I am directed by the secretary of war to inform you that it was not the intention of the president to appoint a court of inquiry, nor to order at this time, in the midst of the campaign, any further inquiry than you could yourself make without the necessity of a court; whether any officer had been so far derelict in duty as to make it necessary to relieve him from commandsuch result to follow upon the inquiry which you were expected to cause to be made. You were expected yourself, first, to inquire into the facts, and in the event of its being disclosed that there had been unsoldierly conduct, to relieve the responsible officers. The directions of the president were suggested by your telegram of the 1st instant to me."

ANOTHER ENGAGEMENT.
ST. LOUIS, Jan. 6. A special from the camp near Wounded Knee creek, South Dakota, gives the particulars of another engagement which took place at that point yesterday morning. A detachment of thirty men had been sent out from the camp to meet a wagon train with supplies for the camp. When ten miles out the wagons were found besieged by a band of 100 Indians. On seeing the troops approaching, the redskins scattered in all directions, but immediately returned to the attack on finding the small number of men in the detachment. A courier was sent back to the camp for reinformcements.

But in the meantime an incessant fire was kept up on both sides, resulting in the wounding of one soldier, and the killing and wounding of several Indians, the exact number of which could not be ascertained, as the redskins carried their dying and wounded away. About three hours after the courier departed, troops were seen coming at full gallop to the rescue. As the troops rode up, the Indians scattered in all directions, with the troops after them. But the chase was abandoned on account of darkness. The wagon train was escorted to the camp in safety.

THE TURTLE MOUNTAIN SIOUX.
CHICAGO, Jan. 6. A special from Fort Totten, North Dakota, says: "Rumors are rife here that 3,500 Indians on Turtle Mountain reservation are liable at any moment to inaugurate a massacre of settlers living along the North Dakota borders. This band of red men, among whom there is a large number of half-breeds, have been ugly for a long time, and they have several times given trouble. The troops at this fort are ready to do everything in their power to quell an uprising, but this is impossible, owing to the fact that the garrison is made up of only one company, less than 100 men. Company B, Fifteenth infantry, is stationed at Fort Pembina, and will be called here in case of an outbreak. The immediate cause of the present trouble, outside of the general unrest among the Indians in all parts of the northwest, is the failure of the United States commission to remove the Indians of the Turtle Mountain reservation to White Earth, Minnesota, to which point they asked to be sent."

A MASSACRE PLANNED.
DENVER, Jan. 6. A special to the News from Pine Ridge, via Rushville, Nebraska, says: "Sunday night will never be forgotten by anyone who spent it at Pine Ridge. In the afternoon about 3 o'clock it was learned that a plan to massacre all the whites at the agency had been formed, and was to be carried out in the evening. The Indians have always been permitted to come in during the day and wander around the agency at will, carrying their guns in their hands. The plan was to take advantage of this leniency, gather in the town late in the evening, and at a given signal, each was to pick out his man and kill him on the spot. The success of such a plan was self-evident. There are less than 500 soldiers here, and they are on the outskirts of the village at the earthworks. This force is sufficient to repulse an attack in the day time, but at night would have been nearly powerless, so quickly could the Indians have accomplished their plot and taken to the ravines and other places of safety.

"The plot was discovered when several squaws, who had been let into the plan, began to leave the agency. They had been told by the plotters to seek places of safety. The report spread quickly, and soon the half-breeds told the Indians, who were apparently wandering aimlessly about with their rifles in their hands, that the plot had been discovered, and that they had better leave the agency as soon as possible, for the soldiers would make it warm for all armed Indians found in the reservation. Soon every Indian had taken his departure. In the meantime the settlers had taken to places of refugebarns, out houses, etc., and wherever they could at least make a show of resistance.

"Gen. Miles remained up until 3 o'clock in the morning, so anxious was he over the discovery of the plot. There are now not nearly enough soldiers here to defend the agency. The Indians are surrounded on all sides excepting that towards the agency, and when the expected battle occurs, it will take a course in this direction. Two thousand Indians will be driven directly here. At the same time there are 2,000 hostiles in our rear who will be ready and anxious to attack us."

CHICAGO, Jan. 6. Word was received at army headquarters today that Assistant Adjutant General Corbin arrived at Pine Ridge agency today, and is actively aiding Gen. Miles. Decisive operations are believed to be at hand. The situation has become so critical that a definite move cannot be delayed more than a day or two at the farthest.

HOSTILES AND FRIENDLIES.
OMAHA, Nebraska, Jan. 6. A special from Pine Ridge says: "Everything now pointed to a battle between the hostiles and the friendly Indians who desire to leave the hostile camp and come to the agency. Red Cloud has signified his desire to return to the agency, but he is nearly blind, and no one will volunteer to lead him in, for the brutes threaten death to the first person that attempts to desert the hostile band. The older Indians want to come in, but the young bucks insist on fighting. The cordon of troops is drawing tighter around the hostiles. The hostiles are on guard night and day. Fires are being burned at night to prevent anyone from escaping from their camp. Gen. Miles has sent a peace commission to the hostiles. If they still refuse to come in, then the camp will be bombarded. Machine and shell guns are being placed on all sides of the camp for this purpose. Gen. Miles is fast becoming impatient, and if the Indians do not obey the order to come in, he will attack them."

FROM THE HOSTILE CAMP.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6. Gen. Schofield has received the following telegram from Gen. Miles, dated Pine Ridge, South Dakota, January 5. "In answer to a communication that I sent to the hostile camp yesterday saying that five men could come in and learn what I expected them to do, the following named men came in: Big Road, He Dog, Little Hawk, Jack Red Cloud, and High Hawk. The first three surrendered to me on the Yellowstone in 1877. The prospects are, at present, favorable that the whole camp may surrender, but I do not wish to anticipate. There are no changes in the condition of troops."

TROOPS.
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 6. Gen. Gibbons has received orders from Washington to have two companies of the Fifth artillery and two companies of the Fourth cavalry to hold themselves in readiness to start at once for the scene of the Indian troubles in Dakota.

GOVERNMENT BEEF.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6. The commissioner of Indian affairs has received the following telegram, dated Pine Ridge.

"Chief Herder Hugh has returned to the agency with 300 head of cattle. We have no information as to whether there are any more scattered over the range. Hugh says he thinks the hostiles burned the ranch after he left."

It is stated at the Indian bureau that these 300 head are all that have been recovered from the original herd of about 3,000 head driven off by the hostiles.

OMAHA, Nebraska, Jan. 6. A special from Crawford, Nebraska, says: "Capt. O'Connell, First infantry, arrived here tonight with Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses. He is accompa- nied by three other Indians. They will proceed to Pine Ridge tomorrow, and will attempt to quell the present trouble."

A special from Pine Ridge says the search for the dead was not conclusive. The body of George Shotte, Company G, Seventh cavalry, was found near the Wounded Knee creek battlefield today. The body had doubtless been overlooked. The scalp had been removed. Sixty-five squaws, with about the same number of pappooses, came in from the hostile camp. There is great suffering among the hostiles.

It is stated that Col. Forsyth is to be reinstated until the close of the campaign.

 

[BULL RUN BATTLEFIELD: VISITED BY GEN. McCOOK.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 1891.

Bull Run Battlefield.
I have just returned from a trip over the Bull Run battlefield, said Gen. McCook, recently, where my young brother was killed in July, 1861. I was assured while there that there have been but few changes in the face of the country. The lines held by Jackson in the second battle, especially in the railroad cut, are easily discovered. Huge trees in the vicinity of the cut were lopped off by shell and cannon balls during the fight, and the stumps still stand as mute witnesses of the fierce conflict that waged there twenty-eight years ago. The old and historic stone house and the Warrenton turnpike near Young's branch still stand, and the stone bridge over Bull Run has been repaired.

 

[THE CHEROKEE STRIP.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 1891.

THE CHEROKEE STRIP.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14. In the house today Mr. Mansur, of Missouri, introduced for reference a bill to throw open the Cherokee strip. Mr. Mansur said, in explanation of the bill, that the Cherokee commission were hopeless of coming to an agreement with the Cherokees, and therefore this measure was introduced. It had the practical endorsement and sanction of the administration. The bill was framed on the proposition contained in the act creating the commission, which was authorized to offer $1.25 per acre for the land. The bill recites the law by which the government has a right to take the land and pay the Indians 47.9 cents an acre, but it waives the right, and agrees to pay $1.25. Of the amount paid $5,000,000 is to remain in trust, drawing interest at 6 percent, and $2,700,000 is to be distributed among the Cherokees entitled thereto under treaty stipulations. This would give the Indians $108 per capita.

 

[DICK CHASE - HON. BILL HACKNEY.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1891.

It is generally believed, where Dick Chase and his fool methods are known, that he wrote the Turner-McGrath letter, relative to the senatorial fight. That is one of the kind of tricks Mr. Chase is up to at all times. Courier.

Within the past three weeks we rode thirty-five miles with the Hon. Bill Hackney. Incidentally speaking of Chase he said that Dick was straightforward and honest, and worked from principle. He also said that in all the hard, political work performed for the republican party by Chase, he never knew him to get one cent. We cannot remember all the good things that Mr. Hackney said about Mr. Chase. By the way, although Mr. Hackney is politically opposed to us, he is a man who is above the spiteful little flings which characterize the Courier. How does it happen that all republican papers take the part of McGrath and Codding? Nonconformist.

 

[A TIP FOR INDIAN FIGHTERS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1891.

A Tip for Indian Fighters.
Among the Indians it pays for a white man to appear to be an idiot if he thinks his life is in danger. No Indian will harm a lunatic because the savages think fools are under the especial care of God. Among the Blackfeet in Canada an eccentric white man has lived twenty-five years. He speaks Blackfoot as well as they, and he can do anything he wants to with the most lawless and savage men in the tribe. He is said to have stolen a lot of finery from a Roman Catholic Bishop on one occasion; at all events, he distributed the Bishop's property among the Indians. When it was called for every Indian gave up what he had. " We give up the things," said a chief, "because we never take seriously anything that man does. We would have killed him twenty years ago, but what is the usehe is not responsible."

New York Sun.

 

[INDIANS: THE DAKOTA SIOUX.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1891.

THE DAKOTA SIOUX.
Another Surrender of Worn Out and Useless Guns.
PINE RIDGE AGENCY, South Dakota, Jan. 16. The question which seems uppermost in the minds of everybody around the agency today is whether or not Gen. Miles will insist upon the complete disarmament of the Indians. It is a question to which no answer can be obtained. This morning it was reported upon good authority that Gen. Miles had ordered civilians to keep out of the hostile camp because he intended to disarm the Indians if he had to shell their camp to accomplish his purpose. The general could not be seen to substantiate the statement.

Adjt. Gen. Corbin was asked if Gen. Miles had issued such an order, but he would neither admit nor deny that such a course had been decided upon. So long, he said, as the arms were being surrendered by the Indians, there was no necessity to use force to accomplish a more speedy surrender of the weapons. Gen. Miles was disposed to be patient so long as the Indians seemed disposed to comply with his demands.

This morning about twenty Indians came into the agency with Little Hawk, a delapidated looking sport, in a battered white hat, and surrendered thirty-one guns, some Winchesters, and some as old as the flood. The weapons were received in the name of Gen. Miles, and turned over to Agent Pierce, and tagged with the owner's name and the chief's name, for safe keeping.

PINE RIVER AGENCY, SOUTH DAKOTA, Jan. 16. This afternoon a council took place between the Ogalallas and Brules, and was held in the vicinity of the friendlies. Six hundred Brules were present. The former had prepared a feast of hot coffee and boiled dog. The hostiles squatted in a circle, in the center of which steamed the viands. The only white man present was Lieut. Taylor. Lieut. Taylor and several of the chiefs made speeches. They all advised obedience of Gen. Miles' order to give up their arms and submit to the regulations of the agency. The conference closed in best possible humor, and it was rumored that the Brules had heard arguments and facts against their rebellious course to which they attached considerable importance. The best results are expected of the council by the people at this agency.

NOTE: FRONT PAGE OF SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 1891, ISSUE OF THE WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION HAD AN ARTICLE ON THE KANSAS ALLIANCE EXCHANGE COMPANY...SEVERAL ISSUES CARRIED ON ABOUT THE FARMERS ALLIANCE...SKIPPED ALL THIS STUFF.

 

NOTE: FRONT PAGE OF THE SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1891, ISSUE, ALSO CARRIED ON ABOUT THE ALLIANCE...HAD PICTURE OF HON. A. J. STREETER, FIRST PRESIDENT NATIONAL FARMERS ALLIANCE OF AMERICA. AGAIN, I SKIPPED ARTICLE ABOUT ALLIANCE.

 

I FOUND THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE INTERESTING...

REALLY HAS NO BEARING ON COWLEY COUNTY HISTORY!

 

[REVOLVERS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1891.

IT INCITES TO MURDER.
THE COMMON PRACTICE OF CARRYING REVOLVERS.
Deprive a Vicious Person of His Pistol and He Will Not Be
Nearly So Quick at Calling Another Man a Liar or a Thief.
At one time so many congressmen carried pistols and displayed them on the slightest provocation that Preston S. Brooks offered this resolution: "That the sergeant-at-arms shall cause to be erected a suitable rack in the rotunda, where members who are addicted to carrying concealed weapons shall be required to place them for the inspection of the curious so long as the owners are engaged in legislation."

Since then the carrying of firearms has not abated. At a fashionable wedding on Indiana avenue, says the Chicago Herald, a guest caught a glimpse of a revolver in the pocket of the groom. "The bride does not look dangerous!" thought the guest. At a prayer meeting in this city, as the preacher kneeled to pray, there protruded from his hip pocket a murderous looking English bull-dog revolver. "Afraid someone may take his religion from him! whispered a parishioner.

A Clark street pawnbroker of Chicago speaks of a customer that once a month has a drunken debauch. Money gone, he begins to pawn articles, always in the following order: Watch, rings, a set of false teeth, pistol. The revolver is the last to go.

As a pistol may be bought for $1.50, no man need be unarmed. It is estimated that in cities every other man on the street at night has a revolver on his person. A few angry words, a flash, a report, and morning papers describe the gaping wound, the death agonies. A Madison street dealer in firearms says that, despite the law against selling to minors, most buyers of revolvers are youths under nineteen. These and the vicious thus receive discre- tionary power to kill. Human life is becoming the cheapest thing on the globe.

In Montana there is a cattleman's protective association. Little is thought of the murder of a man. The buzzards' feast is uninterrupted. But let a calf be killed and the whole complicated machinery of the powerful organization is at once set in motion to bring the offender to justice.

In an eastern city so many railway laborers had been killed in coupling cars that the wives of such workmen petitioned the company to use a new patent coupling which insured nearly absolute safety. "The patents are expensive," replied the company, "but men may be had for $30 a month." In railway accidents to kill a horse is sometimes more expensive to the company than to kill a man.

Shall human life become as cheap here as in India, where people would rather be bitten by a venomous snake than kill it? The life of a snake is more sacred than that of a man. The Zend Avesti tells us that the life of a hedgehog was protected by penalties greater than those that guarded human life. In the Fiji Islands a few years ago human life was of so little value, and murder on the slightest provocation was so common, that for self-preservation every man on the street carried a huge club. Shall the ready revolver be allowed to make life thus insecure in American cities? Shall we accept the opinion of Napoleon, who said of the slaughter of thousands of his brave men: "You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs." In this country the civil war lessened the popular value of human life. With horror we read of Colonel Ellsworth's death. Soon, however, it caused little emotion to read of thousands killed in one battle. When angry, the man with a revolver kills on the impulse of the moment. Had the weapon been inaccessible in ten minutes passion would have subsided and there would have been no murder. Needlessly to put a pistol in one's pocket is a step toward the gallows.

For many years after the war Memphis was notorious for its murders and duels with firearms. An ordinance was passed and rigidly enforced punishing by sixty days in jail the carrying of weapons. Members of the best families suffered this penalty. Soon life became as secure in Memphis as in any other city.

Having a revolver one is prepared to fight. Those equipped for quarrel are the most likely to quarrel. The nation prepared for war is the quickest to find casus belli in the least act of another power. A pistol in one's pocket is a constant incentive to fight.

Farmers have found that dehorning a steer takes away his viciousness. Deprived of weapons, the animal is adverse to assaulting man or beast. Similar is a thug without his revolver. For one of the criminal class to carry a revolver should be a penitentiary offense. In a charge to the grand jury as to the evil of carrying concealed weapons, Judge Branham, of Georgia, mentioned his clerk who persisted in carrying a pistol in each vest pocket. "You lie!" said the clerk to a client one day in the office. Taking up a pair of tongues the client approached the clerk, who, seizing his pistols, drove the man from the room. Turning to the judge, the clerk said: "Now you see the use of pistols. But for them that fellow would have brained me."

"Nothing of the kind," replied the judge. "If you had not had the pistols, you would not have called him a liar and there would have been no quarrel."

 

AGAIN...ANOTHER ARTICLE ABOUT A GERMAN WEAPON...

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 1891.

A NEW DEATH-DEALER.
What German Rifle Does with the Lump of Lead.
The new rifle with which the German army and navy have been armed during the last few months is a terror in the way of small weapons. The gun has a bore of 31-inch and throws a projectile of lead coated with nickel-steel weighing 14.5 grains, or about half an ounce. The cartridge used weighs nearly an ounce, and is 3.25 inches in length. The magazine of the rifle carries five cartridges. The speed of the bullet on leaving the muzzle of the gun is about 2100 feet per second, and the limit of its effective range is a little under two miles.

At 100 yards the rifle ball will penetrate a deal block 32 inches thick, and at 2000 yards it will go through a 2 inch plank. Experiments have shown that an earth-work parapet cannot afford shelter against these rifles unless it has a thickness of at least 30 inches.

Brick walls of small thickness are not absolute proof against this gun, as several shots striking the same spot will make a breach.

 

[STATE NEWS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1891.

It is announced that the Ottawa Republican has been sold by the administrators of the late A. T. Sharpe to C. W. Wilkinson, of Arkansas City. The daily is to be continued.

 

[REFORM PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1891.

RECAP OF ITEM ON FRONT PAGE.

Pursuant to call a fine representation of the Reform Press of Kansas met at Hutchinson, on Tuesday the 23rd, to perfect a state association in harmony with the nationalorganization, which was started at Ocala in December.

Among the charter members...

H. and L. Vincent, NON CON, Winfield.

C. Vincent, Economic Quarterly, Winfield.

A. L. Vincent, Telegram, Winfield.

J. H. Richie, Free Press, Winfield.

Geo. Wagner, Dispatch, Arkansas City.

S. E. Burger, Tribune, Winfield.

 

[INDIANS: DANCING.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 1891.

BIG INJUN MUST DANCE.
IT IS NOT ONLY A CEREMONY BUT A DUTY.
He Engages in It Upon All Occasions,
Sometimes Through the Most Horrible Torture.
How Sioux Warriors Are Made--A Brutal Test.
A deal of curiosity is felt by many as to the meaning of the Indian-danceas to why Indians should express their feelings by dancing when civilized people would show their sentiments in a very different way. The dance, among white Americans, is a pastime; with the red man it is both a ceremony and a duty. He dances before he goes to war; he dances when he returns; he dances at the death of his enemy and the burial of his friend. The Sioux youth dances, or did dance, through exquisite torture into a place among the braves of his clan, and bears with him for life the marks of the terrible ordeal. It was the fortune of a Chicago Herald writer, when about eighteen years of agetwenty-six years agoto witness the famous sun dance. It is doubtful if this dance will ever again be performed in all its ancient glory, or perhaps "horror" would be a more fitting expression. The government long ago forbade the sun dance on the Indian reservations, and if performed at all it must now be without the freedom and publicity which were necessary to its complete success.

At the period mentioned Sitting Bull was just becoming known as a leader of the hostile Sioux. It may be noted here that Sitting Bull was not a born chief. He did not come by origin from what McAllister might call the Sioux four hundred. What fame and influence he acquired were earned by his personal merits or demerits, according as his acts are viewed from an Indian or a Caucasian standpoint. After becoming an acknowledged chief, he was always regarded by the chiefs of aristocratic origin much as Napoleon was looked upon by the ancient dynasties of Europeas an upstart they are compelled to respect, but are rather inclined to sniff at. On another occasion the writer may have more to say upon this and kindred matters.

At present he will confine himself to the sun dance. This dance is really an imitation. No Sioux is obliged to undergo it. The youth has his choice, when arrived at manly age, of being a woman-manthe word "squaw" is unknown to the Siouxor of proving by the tortures of the sun dance that he is fitted to be a warrior.

If he prefers to be a woman-man he will not be ill-treated or even scoffed at. He will become a household slave, as the women are, and be used like them, as a hewer of wood and a drawer of water to the men of the tribe. He must dress like the women, and like them he is left a home when the braves go to hunting or to battle. In fact, this treatment is such a matter of course that a stranger might visit a camp and encounter any number of these persons and have no reason to suppose that they were other than women.

With the young man who does not shrink from the sun dance, it is a different affair. His chances of dying under it are considerable. The writer does not remember hearing any percentage stated; but the deaths, when all the forms are rigidly complied with, cannot be less than one in four. Few white men could survive, but the toughened constitution of the Indian holds up marvelously when every nerve must be in agony.

It was in a Sioux camp on a bluff near the Missouri River that I witnessed the sun dance. In a "tepee," or tent, of buffalo skin, four or five braves were dancing slowly and deliberately around the center-pole, keeping up a monotonous chant. I noticed that each of them was attached to the pole by long strings of buffalo hide. In one or two cases the strings were connected with the breast; in the other cases with the back. The muscular tissue near each nipple, if the fastening was at the front, had been gathered by a grasp of the hand, and a knife run through it. Then the tough skin of buffalo rawhide was passed through the opening and connected with the pole. If the fastening was at the back, the process was similar. The pain thus occasioned to the victim may be imagined. He must not only endure without a sigh or a groan, but must forthwith proceed to dance, and keep up the dancing without food for days, if requisite, until the friction of the rawhide severs the muscles and releases the captive, a full-fledged brave.

He is then immediately fed by a rich soup prepared for the occasion, and every care and attention that Indians know are bestowed upon his recovery. The young man may be released from torture at any time by asking. In that case he is doomed to be a woman-man, just as if he had never offered himself as a candidate.

 

[INDIANS: QUEER INDIAN RELICS - SOME FOUND IN GEORGIA.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - MARCH 21, 1891.

QUEER INDIAN RELICS.
SOME OF THEM FOUND DOWN IN GEORGIA.
Evidences Also Found of a Race that Antedated the Indian
HimselfQueer Utensils, Arms, and Other Things
They Played GamesPipes.
A county in Georgia without a lover's leap, from whose eminence some Indian maiden had sprang into the arms of death with her brave sweetheart belonging to a rival tribe, would be considered a fit county into which a missionary should be sent. This romance may be repeated for Nachoochee, with the addition that the heroine, instead of being dashed to pieces, was buried with honor in the valley below, and the exact spot is shown to travellers.

This region was certainly the favored resort of a very advanced tribe of Indians, and Nachoochee valley was their home and burial ground, as is evidenced by the many curious and well-carved relics found there. Capt. Nicholls, whose home is in the centre of the valley, has a large cabinet of them, all found around his house, which is, perhaps, the finest collection in Georgia, except the one in possession of Col. Charles C. Jones of Augusta. Some of them were found by the miners on Duke's Creek, while others were taken from Indian graves that surround the mound in front of Capt. Nicholls' house. This aboriginal cemetery was accidentally discovered by Capt. Nicholls, and every grave he opens adds to his store of relics. It seems that the ground around the mound was covered with rock piles and Capt. Nicholls set to work to remove them. Beneath each pile were found human bones, mixed with arrow heads, beads, battleaxes, pipes, and other indestructible articles of sport, domestic use, and war. But the most interesting relics taken from these graves were conch shells, evidently brought from the seashore, and a tomahawk beaten from pure copper in its natural state, though the nearest point on the continent where such copper is found is Lake Superior. Capt. Nicholls argues that these Indians had communication and commercial relations with the tribes inhabiting both the northern and southern borders.

Among the relics found in this valley was a bullet made of lead in a rough state. There is a tradition that the Indians here mined their own lead, but the place where they procured it has never been found, even if it exists. The only mineral discovered in the valley is gold, and the richest mines in the South are here. On Duke's creek was found a small death head formed of a hard black stone, with one eye made of an opal, beautifully worked, and the little trinket shows considerable artistic skill. This relic, together with others of a smilar character, must have been imported by someone from Mexico.

Capt. Nicholls explained the use of numerous Indian relics, throwing a flood of light on the subject. For instance, those round and saucer-shaped stones of various sizes were used to play a game similar to quoits, at which the Indians gambled. Instead of pitching the stones, they rolled them at pegs. The wedge-shaped stones were employed to dress hides, while the small ones were used to work sinews with. Their tomahawks were of a separate shape, and their axes, instead of having the handle pass through them, were enclosed in a split stick, securely fastened with thongs. There was a separate make of tomahawk, used by the chiefs and worn at the belt for display, that was sharpened at both sides, and a hole partially drilled in the center. This was a valuable discovery, as it showed how the Indians worked this hard stone with only the rudest implements.

There are several very fine specimens of pipes, including a piece of a pipe of peace. One pipe excavated on Duke's Creek, is a very valuable relic, and the United States government had a cast made of it, as Capt. Nicholls would not part with his treasure. It is carved out of rock, and the bowl is made to represent the mouth of a whip-poor-will, the beak of an eagle projecting over it. The ears of a fox and other figures are also chiselled on it. It is as fine a carving as one would wish to see.

There are a number of graves around the mound not yet opened. Capt. Nicholls says the mound in front of his house, which he has planted with flowers and ornamented with a summer-house, is just as he found it when he bought the place. Its surface is flat, and from its summit a fine view of the upper portion of the valley can be had. No excavation has ever been made in this mound as its shape and other evidences known to the ethnologists show that it was built by a race antedating the Indians, who did not make these mounds a storage place for their treasures. The tumuli in which relics are found were reared by Indians, and used as a tribal burying place. They would strip the flesh from the bones of their dead and burn it, and when a sufficient number of skeletons were collected, would deposit them, together with the property of the skeleton, on a suitable spot and erect one of the mounds over them.

NOTE: They had Nachoochee and Nacoochee. Used Nachoochee to be consistent.

 

[INDIANS: INDIAN AND HEBREW.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - MARCH 28, 1891.

INDIAN AND HEBREW.
A Comparison of Some Customs of the Two Races.
Early travelers among the Indians claim to have found rites and ceremonies strikingly similar to those of the Jews, says the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. George Catlin, the artist, who spent a considerable portion of his life among the tribes, said he believed they had Jewish blood in their veins, although he could not go so far as to identify them with the lost tribes of Israel.

The Indians worshiped a Great Spirit or a Jehovah. Idolaters were never found on the North American continent. The tribes had their council or medicine houses, which they held most sacred. They had their high priests and their prophets. They followed the Hebrew custom in not allowing the women to worship with the men.

Fifty years ago the Sioux exploited the same belief that they are dancing themselves crazy about now. They maintained that the Indians were the chosen people of the Great Spirit, and that in time they were to triumph over the rest of the world through a Messiah.

In marriage the Indians had customs which savored of Palestine. They gave presents for their wives. In their bathing and in their family relations they followed with remarkable precision many of the requirements of the Mosaic law. They observed certain laws of purification which the old testament teaches. Fifty years ago travelers found no difficulty in discovering the practice of these rights and ceremonies by the Indians. But as the line of white settlement advanced, the Indians gave up their old customs. Their forms were laughed at by white men and many of them were abandoned. The ghost dance, which the Sioux have been scaring the frontier with, is the old sun dance under a new name. It used to be practiced frequently as an atonement ceremony.

There was once an Indian feast which was very like the annual feast of the pass-over. Some of the tribes kept a feast with branches of willow and preliminary fasting, which bore striking resemblance to the Feast of Tabernacles. The practice of offering to the Great Spirit the first green corn, and the first fruits of all kinds, was almost universal among the Indians before they became contaminated with white men.

---
ANOTHER ARTICLE...MARCH 28, 1891, ISSUE.

FIGHTING THE INDIANS.
It Is Very Peculiar Warfare and Not Agreeable As
A Diversion.
Indian fighting is about as delicate military work as the world has known in a minor way. You must never expect to meet your enemy in a fair, open fight. Not if he can help it. You must chase him into his own stronghold. You must grant him all the favoring circumstances of situations, knowledge of his surroundings, and nature's support. Only marrauding bands of butchers come into the open plain or to open places easily defended. And they come with the swoop of an eagle and are off almost as soon as they dart down. I saw a company of Uncle Sam's boys march out of Salt Lake City once to do some Indian fighting, says a writer in the New York Tribune.

They were as likely a set of men as ever carried rifles on their shoulders. They were gone only a few months, but what a change when they returned! Their blue uniforms hung from them in rags. Anything served for a head covering. Some were bare-footed, and the best pair of shoes among the privates would have lain untoched in your "Bend" here, scorned by the poorest man among you. Feet, arms, and hands were in old bandages. Only the guns were bright and clean, always ready for service. Those men had been chasing Indians, and there is very little fun in this kind of war. Only men of the best kind can stand it, and westerners are very proud of their Indian fighters.

 

Paper begins to stress alliance meetings, affairs, politics, ad nauseum. There were some interesting articles, but nothing re county, Indians, etc.

 

[STATE ITEMS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, JUNE 6, 1891.

The fees for recording a deed at Winfield, which conveyed $300 worth of property, were over $21.

The government is distributing headstones in Kansas to mark the graves of soldiers who have no monument.

Miss Bessie Norton, a daughter of the Late Prof. H. B. Norton of the Kansas Normal school, is rising into notice in California as a novelist.

The Winfield Chautauqua will be held on the assembly grounds commencing the latter part of June and hold until the 4th of July. Some of the finest lecturers in the United States will be there.

Miss Frances Willard has donated a number of books to the library of the state univer- sity. The country is beginning to find out that Kansas has a school which is well worthy of

encouragement.

 

[COLONEL SAM N. WOOD'S MURDER BY BRENNAN - W. P. HACKNEY.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - JULY 4, 1891.

RECAP: Wood, an early day pioneer, came to Kansas as soon as the Missouri compromise was repealed to secure, if possible, the admission of Kansas in the union as a free state. A Quaker, he settled eventually in Stevens County. Cause of death dated to the trial of the Haymeadows murderers...Wood handled Brennan without gloves and Brennan swore vengeance...Wood handled Judge Botkin, faced with removal as a tyrant judge, who had been maliciously persecuting Wood for years...Later Judge Botkin asked for an interview with Wood.

Two rooms were occupied in the Copeland hotel, Topeka. In one room was Judge Botkin and his friend, W. P. Hackney; in the other room was Col. S. N. Wood and his friend, Leland J. Webb. Wood and Botkin did not meet personally, but Webb talked for Wood, while Hackney talked for Botkin. At this conference a compact was entered into, an agreement was made, upon the terms of which Botkin was to cease his persistent persecution of Colonel Wood; and was to reinstate Wood in his law practice in Stevens county so that Wood could continue his cases in court and finish his duties at the legislature. Col. Wood agreed on his part not to take any active part in the impeachment trial of Judge Botkin. Judge Botkin violated every portion of his agreement and continued his persecutions, caused Wood to be arrested on false and trumped-up charges.

Hackney blamed for murder due to his brutal harangue in Senate of Wood. [Hackney was implicated with Botkin in robbing the city of Springfield of $4,000.]

Botkin succeeded in having Wood arrested on a false charge of bribery in election, placed him under the excessive bail of $10,000, showing that prosecution was malicious.

Brennan shot Wood outside court house at Hugoton.

RATHER A WEIRD ARTICLE!

NOTE: BOTH LELAND J. WEBB AND W. P. HACKNEY FROM WINFIELD.

 

FROM THIS POINT ON....

PAPER REALLY GOES IN FOR POLITICS, POLITICS....ALL SORTS OF ARTICLES ABOUT ALLIANCE.

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION
August 16, 1890 to September12, 1891

[THIRD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT MEETING: CHERRYVALE.]

The 3rd Congressional District Alliamce will meet at Cherryvale on August 13th. A two days' meeting is contemplated.

TYPICAL ITEM IN PAPER OF MATTERS COVERED BY PAPER.

[INDIANS: FIENDISH APACHES.]

WINFIELD MESSENGER UNION - SEPTEMBER 12, 1891.

The devilish nature of the Apache cannot be appreciated except by those who have seen the work of these inhuman savages on one of their raids. Recently two poor fellows were killed near Tombstone and the report simply said they were badly mutilated. This means very little to the ordinary reader, but to an old Apache hunter it brings up visions of devilish work that are seared into one's brain. I remember a fearful case, of which I was an eye-witness, in the spring of 1865, says a writer to the Globe-Democrat. It happened that I was in command of a company of California volunteers, stationed near the Mexican line.

One day, with several men, I rode toward the ranch of Pedro Sevadra, five miles from our camp. On the way we heard shots, and soon a Mexican came tearing along on a horse. He said old Chief Cochise had attacked Sevadra's ranch with a large force. We spurred on, but arrived too late. The ranch house was in flames, while all about was the worst sight imagination could conceive. Pegged out on the ground were the dead bodies of four Mexican women stripped naked. The Apaches had disembowled them while they were still living, and had thrust lances through their hearts when they heard us approaching. Nearby were the bodies of two little children whose heads had been smashed to a jelly against the log by the side of which their bodies were lying.

The only living person about the ranch was Sevadra, who had been tortured in the worst way by the savages. He had always been good to them, and they knew he was a brave man, but the devils shot an arrow through his kidneys in order that he might die a lingering death. He lived in terrible agony for two days. His wife was the only one about the ranch who escaped. She concealed herself, and was missed by the Indians when they ransacked the place. These Apaches were never punished for this or any other of their outrages in Arizona for twenty years. The squaws did the most of the worst torture and mutilation, and deserve no mercy when captured, although their sex always served them when surprised by the regular troops.

 

[INDIANS: CAMP HORROR.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - SEPTEMBER 19, 1891.

CAMP HORROR.
An Incident of the Indian Wars of Twenty-Five Years Ago.
You will wonder, of course, why a soldier's camp should have received such a name, says M. Quad, in the New York World, but it is on the military records, and no man will ever attempt to explain it to you without grieving over the recollections aroused thereby.

It was out in the Indian country, on the Kansas frontier, when the red men were making such a fight against the troops sent out after the close of the rebellion. They had swooped down upon the Smoky Hill stage route and scalped and slaughtered right and left, and our command had been hurried forward to protect such settlers as might have escaped and to open the route again. Day after day the red men hovered on our flanks, and night after night they crept upon us like serpents and sent their silent arrows into camp to find living targets.

One night, when the day had been full of excitement and it seemed as if the Sioux had determined to retreat no further, the sentinels were warned to extra vigilance. We knew that peril menaced us, and we who stood sentry after midnight peered into the darkness with bated breath and were ready to fire at the first suspicious sound. At 1 o'clock I thought I heard a light footstep on the grass. It was a dark night, with now and then a gust of wind sweeping up with lonesome sound, and I could not be sure I heard aright.

I waited, with finger on the trigger, ready to fire if I heard the footstep again, but it did not come to me. Scarcely ten minutes had passed when the sentinel on my right, who was only thirty feet away, fired into the darkness. The report of his carbine had not died away when a loud, wild scream rang out upon the night, and every man who heard it knew that it was uttered by a woman.

It is a good many years back to that night, but I remember every incident as well as if only a week had passed. Now and then I have dreamed of it, and that scream has aroused me and taken all my nerve. As soon as we could investigate, we found an amazing thinga woman lying dead on the grass with a year-old baby in her arms! The sentinel had shot her dead in her tracks, but the baby was still asleep, with one of her arms hugging it to her breast. We looked and looked, and it was hard to believe we saw aright. It was a settler's wife, as was afterward known, who had escaped a massacre more than forty miles away. She had wandered about for five days suffering with hunger and thirst, and had no doubt become crazed with anxiety and exhaustion.

There were none but old veterans in that camp, but there were tears in all eyes when that poor dead body was brought into camp, and when the wakened baby cried with fright and hunger and held out its little hands to the very trooper who had fired upon the mother. No one blamed him in the least, but he blamed himself. When he realized what he had done he turned away from us without a word and walked away as men walk in their sleep. We had washed the mother's life-blood off the baby's hands, and the Colonel himself was feeding it with the gruel hastily prepared, when there came another shot and another alarm. The trooper had gone just without the lines and fired a bullet into his own heart. Remorse had driven him to it.

Somewhere in the west that boy baby, now grown to manhood, still lives; but the two graves we dug next morning were years ago leveled and obliterated from all sight but that of God.

 

[KANSAS MATTERS: WORLD'S EXHIBITION.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - OCTOBER 17, 1891.

RECAP: Mentions that Kansas people might take the notion to make a show in the great world's exhibition coming up...Goes back to 1876 Kansas display at Philadelphia...where a map of Kansas showed every schoolhouse in the state. States that two great industries have starred in Kansas since the Centennial: sugar and salt.

 

[STATE NEWS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - OCTOBER 17, 1891.

Winfield, with an assessed valuation of one million dollars, has a real value of five million.

 

[TERRITORIAL NOTES.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION, NOVEMBER 7, 1891.

Article showed changes in post offices in Oklahoma territory.

Examples: Cantomnet, formerly in Cheyenne and Arapahoe-nation, now in county D.

Darlington, formerly in Cheyenne and Arapahoe nation, now in Canadian county.

Sac and Fox agency, formerly in Sac and Fox nation, now in county A.

---
SAME PAPER: NOVEMBER 7, 1891.

OKLAHOMA NOTES.
County A is to be named after James G. Blaine.

The townsite of Tecumseh will be proved up No. 12.

The cotton gins in the Chickasaw nation run all night.

It is hard to find a vacant house to rent in Oklahoma City.

Another Cherokee strip convention is called at Arkansas City November 12, 1891.

Congressman Mansur says the strip will not open later than March 23 next spring. Senator Plumb says the same thing.

The next work of the Indian commission will be at Anadarko. They will treat with the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches.

It is a wonder, apropos of the governor matter, that Bill Hackney's removal to Oklahoma such a short time before does not cause more talk.

OTHER ITEMS...I SKIPPED.

 

[STATE NEWS...PAPER NOW CARRIED THIS UNDER HEADING "Notes."]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - NOVEMBER 14, 1891.

Several Fort Scott men are expecting wealth from a gold mine in Old Mexico.

 

[STATE NEWS...PAPER NOW CARRIED THIS UNDER HEADING "KANSAS" NEWS]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - DECEMBER 19, 1891.

Alfred Docking, a graduate of the state normal school, class of 1886, is spending a few days at Emporia. He is now connected with the Presbyterian mission in Alaska. [?ANY RELATIONSHIP TO GEORGE DOCKING, ETC.???]

 

[AN OLD COWBOY RECALLS THE PAST.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - DECEMBER 26, 1891.

A SPECTRAL CATTLE DRIVE.
On It Comes, With a Dull, Thundering Sound.
Said an ex-cow-boy recently as he sat dreaming of the past: "Among the old stockmen of Western Kansas and Northwestern Texas there is a tradition which accounts for a very strange phenomenon on the Arkansas river. As all very well know, the old cattle drives have gone foreever, and the cow-boy is fast becoming a dim figure of the past. Twenty years ago over 500,000 cattle came over those wide trails leding from Texas up across the Arkansas river near Ft. Gibson. This year not a drive takes place over the old paths.

"Along the old Shawnee trail," which ran eastward from the Red river and crossed the Arkansas not far from Fort Gibson the grass is gradually covering the ground which was for so many years beaten hard and bare by tthousands of hoofs that went along over the drive every fall, but while no owner can be found who claims the herd, and no drivers designated as having it in charge, there is said to be a mysterious drive of stampeded cattle at the Arkansas ford every fall, even yet.

"Some say it is the 5th of September of each year, and some assert that it is the 25th; but, while there is a slight disagreement as to the date, there is no difference of opinion as to the other facts.

"On the night designated in September of each year a listener at the old Arkansas crossing can hear the low, dull, thundering sound of rustling cattle far in the distance, growing nearer and nearer, becoming louder and louder, till he can scarcely hear himself think. It is supposed to be the lost herd, the fate of which has been wrapped in mystery since it left the Red river with the drivers in 1871. I have known two men who claim to have heard and seen this spectral drive, and their description of it is exactly the same.

ARTICLE GOES ON IN THE SAME VEIN...SKIPPED THE REST.

 

[ORATORICAL CONTEST.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - FEBRUARY 13, 1892 - FRONT PAGE.

ORATORICAL CONTEST.
Students Assembled to Attend the State Collegiate Contest.
TOPEKA, Kan., Feb. 13. This town is alive with students today to witness the oratorical contest tonight, at which a Kansas representative to the interstate collegiate contest at Minneapolis will be selected. Kansas state university brought more students who wear their colors prominently and make more noise than any of the others. The state university and Baldwin students came on the same train of twelve cars. Every seat in the Grand opera house has been sold for the past two days, almost the entire seating capacity having been disposed of to the students. Following are the subjects of the various contestants: G. M. Barret of Winfield college"The Majesty of the Law."

REST OF CONTESTANTS FOLLOWS...I SKIPPED.

 

[STATE NEWS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - MARCH 5, 1892 - FRONT PAGE.

There is but one Hill Democrat in Cedarvale, and the Salvation Army is working on him.

 

[STATE NEWS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - MARCH 12, 1892.

William Hackney takes up his residence in Winfield next week.

The city schools of Geuda Springs have been closed up for lack of funds.

 

[INDIANS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - MARCH 26, 1892 - FRONT PAGE.

Indians as Soldiers.
Capt. W. I. Pitcher of the Eighth United States Infantry is stationed at Fort Washakie, Wyoming. The fort is in one of the most inaccessible regions of Wyoming and one hundred and sixty miles from a railroad station. When asked by a Chicago reporter what he thought of Secretary Proctor's scheme of making the Indians into United States soldiers, Capt. Pitcher grew enthusiastic.

"I think," said he, "that the scheme is a grand success and the only solution to the Indian question. I am pretty well qualified to judge of the workings of the scheme, as the first regular company of Indians was established in my regiment. This company consists of sixty Shoshone and Rappahanoes braves. Of course, I can't tell how they would perform in actual service, but in everything else they make splendid soldiers. They are taken into the service on the same footing as the white men. The great difficulty is in teaching them English, but several of the soldiers understand the sign language and so we get along very well. You cannot imagine how proud those Indians are of their position, and how they vie with each other in keeping their uniforms and arms in good condition. No, the men are not jealous of them and often engage them in friendly wrestling bouts and races."

 

[OKLAHOMA TERRITORY MATTERS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1892 - FRONT PAGE]

Oklahoma Territory Matters.
Three troops of the Fifth Cavalry have entered the Cherokee strip from the south, and are engaged in removing "sooners" along the Black Bear. They will sweep the strip of all intruders as they come north and go into permanent camp for the summer on Chillico creek, just across the state line south of Arkansas City.

[THEY HAD "CHILLICO" CREEK FOR CHILOCCO CREEK.]

The Ponca-Pawnee-Otoe ghost dance trouble was brought to a sudden termination this week by the arrest of a few of the leaders by Agent Wood for being off their reservations without permission. Except for his prompt and fearless action, the chances are more than even that nothing short of the presence of troops would have quelled the mutinous spirit that was being daily inflamed by several of the most influential chiefs. The tribes on several of the reservations south of Guthrie have been very uneasy for a long time, and though they have submitted to the allotment of their lands in severalty, it has been with an ill grace.

Intelligence reached Major Wood, the agent, that the Pawnees were devoting their time to dancing instead of preparing to put in their crops. He sent an Indian policeman to bring in the leaders, but the desired individuals refused to obey. The assistance of a U. S. deputy marshal was sought and he arrested Frank White and Buffalo Black on the above charge. Several Pawnees followed the marshal and his prisoners to the agency, but the agent immediately ordered them back to their reservation. The Cherokee commission arrived at the Ponca agency last week and resumed negotiations with the Poncas. As yet no result has been attained. Councils are being held every day and it is likely that an agreement will be soon reached.

The cold snap and the storms of the past two weeks, added to the late spring, have played havoc with the cattle grazing on the Indian lands in Oklahoma and the Indian Territory. In the Osage, Pawnee, and Otoe reservations, the number pastured this winter has been smaller than usual, but large numbers have died, and some of the smaller cattle owners are ruined. In the Chickasaw nation the loss has been fully 20 percent, and in the Creek country hundreds have died and many more are dying every day. In the great Comanche and Kiowa reservations, the loss has been greatest. Men coming from there report having counted thousands of carcasses along the trail and say that the cattle are still dying very fast. The loss is estimated at from 30 ro 40 percent.

A great deal of petty thieving has for sometime past been going on along the Santa Fe railroad, and lately Special Agent Madsen of the company commenced to investigate the matter. He traced some of the stealing to a negro, who recently came from Texas, and on Tuesday succeeded in capturing him at Guthrie. He was at once taken to Purcell to answer for his doings. Yesterday morning Marshal Madsen returned here again on the early train, accompanied by Marshal Wilson of Purcell, and two more arrests were made at once.

It is certain that there has existed an organized band of thieves, plying their vocation between Denison, Texas, and Oklahoma towns, and it is expected that other arrests will follow soon. It is hoped that this may tend to break up the gangs of thieves who at times have resorted to very daring robberies, and made life and property very insecure along the line.

Major Samuel C. Cushing of the subsistence department received telegraphic orders from Chicago Saturday directing him to forward without delay to all posts in the Indian territory such subsistence stores as have been estimated for, without waiting for the regular period of supplying the same. Many of the supplies are for use of troops in the field and will be used by the cavalry and infantry stationed at Supply, Reno, and Sill. At the first named post troops A and F, Fifth cavalry, are on duty, and headquar ters of B, E, H, and I companies, Thirteenth infantry; at Reno headquarters B, C, E, G, K, and L, Fifth cavalry, with Colonel Wade in command, and G company, Thirteenth infantry, and at Sill, D and H, Fifth cavalry, F. H, and L, Seventh cavalry, and A, C, and D, Thirteenth infantry. This makes thirteen troops of cavalry available for the protection of the Indians and keeping "sooners" out of the territory. It is a much larger force than was used at the opening of Oklahoma in 1889.

The excitement over the opening of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe reservation is becoming more intense every hour. . . .

OTHER ITEMS: I SKIPPED. QUITE A LENGTHY ARTICLE.

 

[KANSAS STATE MATTERS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - APRIL 9, 1892 - FRONT PAGE.

A state organization of the Railway Employees' clubs of Kansas was affected at a convention with the following officers elected.

A. R. Glazier of Newton, president.

D. C. Mack of Arkansas City.

W. H. Egan of Wichita.

George P. Reed of Osawatomie.

M. Connel of Newton.

John Swanson of Burrton, vice-president.

George A. Whitley of Wellington, general secretary.

H. W. Sharp of Newton, treasurer.

---
An answer to the Symns injunction was filed in district court Monday by M. A. Low, on behalf of the Chicago Rock Island and Pacific railroad company. The answer admits all the claims made by the wholesale grocers except that the road is about to put into effect the rates fixed by the railroad commissioners. The answer says that "compliance with the orders of the commissioners would constitute an unjust and unreasonable discrimination against the wholesale grocers of Atchison and Kansas people generally, with the exception of the jobbers of Wichita, Hutchinson, Arkansas City, and Salina. The rates ordered are unreasonably low, and if other rates are reduced in proportion, no railroad can earn reasonable operating expenses." The company asks to be excused from any liability of paying the costs.

---
The citizens of Belle Plaine township in Sumner county, some time ago brought suit against the Missouri Pacific railroad company as successors to the Denver, Memphis and Atlantic, to compel it to carry out a contract entered into between the officers of the last named road and the township of Belle Plaine. The plaintiff claimed that none of the provisions of the contract were carried out and appealed to the board to compel the Missouri Pacific to fulfill the contract entered into by the original company. . . .

---
MANY MORE KANSAS STATE MATTERS WERE GIVEN IN APRIL 9, 1892, ISSUE OF WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION THAT I SKIPPED.

 

[FLORIDA'S INDIAN MOUND.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - APRIL 23, 1892.

FLORIDA'S INDIAN MOUND.
An Interesting Aboriginal Sepulchre Not Far From
Jacksonville, Florida.
The fact that there is a real Indian mound, in which are buried numberless Indians, within fifteen miles of this city, says the Times Union, has of late caused considerble interest and speculation.

Col. Julius Hayden, superintendent of the J. and A. Railroad, had told several of his friends of the existence of the mound, and also that he had exhumed skeletons from it, but they would wink incredulously, generally prefixing the wink by an intimation of "rats" or "sea serpent," until finally the colonel invited a party, including a representative of this paper, to go with him and see for themselves.

The party left the city on the 2 o'clock train for Pablo beach, and when within a mile of the ocean the train stopped and the conductor called out "Indian Mound."

The party, led by Col. Hayden, went into what is perhaps the prettiest hammock in the state. Huge live oaks, interspersed with magnolias, palms, and many other varieties, with now and then a clump of fine scrub palmettos, readily told the fact that the Indians showed good taste in selecting their happy hunting grounds.

About a hundred yards from the station is the mound, an unpretentious looking pile of shelly soil, covering a plot of ground about fifty feet square and several feet in height.

The mound showed evidences of having been dug into in several places, but a large part of it had never been disturbed.

Col. Hayden explained that the several skeletons so far exhumed had crumbled on being exposed to the air, and that they were always found in a sitting position. Having no imple- ments with which to dig, several of the party scratched around in the mound with sticks and succeeded in excavating a number of arm and leg bones, which, although in a crumbling condition, showed that Col. Hayden's mound was a genuine one and in all probability will be visited by every visitor to Florida as one of its most ancient curiosities.

At the landing the railroad company has had a platform and walk built, which adds much to the comfort of pedestrians.

 

[INDIANS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - JUNE 18, 1892.

SOME MAGICAL STONES.
CHARMS VENERATED BY THE CHEROKEE INDIANS.
The Wonderful Ulasutti Stone Which Must Be Fed on Fresh Blood Every Week - The Medicine Man's Trick a Complete Failure.

Stones endowed with magic powers have held an important place in the world's belief from the days of the oracular stone in the breastplate of the ancient Jewish high priest down to the Lee penny and the murrain stone of modern times, says the Philadelphia Telegraph. The Cherokee medicine men make use of several stone talismans, commonly crystals found among their native mountains. One is a translucent purpole stone about an inch long with a sharp point. With this the conjurer claimed to be able to find lost or stolen articles, or to tell the whereabouts of game in the mountains . . . .

The greatest of all Cherokee talismans is the Ulasutti (literally transparent) stone. There is no end to the stories concerning this stone, which the Indians invariably speak of in a half-frightened manner, as children speak of ghosts. They assert that it is a magic scale from the head of a great horned serpent with a body as large as a tree trunk and two blazing coils of fire for eyes, which lived ages ago and worked terrible destruc tion among the people until it was killed by a famous magician. In the encounter a single drop of the serpent's poisonous saliva fell upon the head of the slayer, whose hair was transformed into a mass of writhing snakes.

The Indians describe it as a triangular crystal, flat on the bottom and tapering to a point, and perfectly transparent with the exception of a single red streak running through the center from top to bottom. It is evidently a beautiful specimen of rutile quartz, so that the conjurer who can obtain one outranks all his rivals.

The stone must be fed, the Indians say, with the blood of small game every seven days, rubbed over with the blood of the animal as soon as killed. Twice a year it demands the blood of a deer or some other large animal. It is wrapped in a whole deerskin and kept in some secret cave in the mountains. Were the tribute of blood to be withheld or neglected, the Ulasutti would issue from its hiding place at night as a great blazing ball of fire and fly through the air to satisfy its appetite by drinking the life blood of the conjurer.

The original owner was afraid of it and he changed its hiding place frequently, so that the stone might not be able to find its way out. When he died it was buried with him, as otherwise it would issue from its cave by night like a fiery meteor, to search for his tomb night after night for seven years. But if unable to find its owner, it would go back to sleep forever where he had placed it.

As far back as 1762 Timberlake heard of the stone, with the wonderful story of its origin. He said that it was kept hidden in some place known only to two women, who refused to betray the secret. Adair, the celebrated trader, also speaks of it a few years later. The conjurer refused to let him see it for fear of profanation.

-0-

[KANSAS MATTERS.]

WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION - JUNE 25, 1892.

Kansas has a million acres more in corn this year than last.

The Santa Fe took out 29 cars of export flour for Europe last week, the product of our Kansas mills.

The announcement that there are no empty houses in Wellington since the storm calls to mind the fact that Wichita is not in the cyclone belt.

 

THERE WERE MANY INTERESTING ARTICLES IN THIS NEWSPAPER CONCERNING NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL EVENTS...STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN AND OTHERS....STORIES ABOUT CIVIL WAR PARTICIPANTS. BUT INASMUCH AS WE ARE MAINLY LOOKING FOR COWLEY COUNTY EVENTS, THIS NEWSPAPER WAS A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT!

 

-END OF WINFIELD NEWSPAPER UNION,
WINFIELD, KANSAS,
[From August 16, 1890, through Sept. 3, 1892.]

Cowley County Historical Society Museum