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The Prairie Schooner
The Prairie Schooner
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The Prairie Schooner by William Francis Hooker
Copyright, 1918
CONTENTS
Chapter 1. Letters Pass Between Old Pards.
Chapter 2. Trains That Ran Without Rails.
Chapter 3. Hunton and Clay, Bull-Train Magnates.
Chapter 4. Guarding an Overland Freight Outfit.
Chapter 5. Rattlesnakes and Redskins.
Chapter 6. Belated Grace for a Christmas Dinner.
Chapter 7. The Fate of One-Eyed Ed.
Chapter 8. Track-Layers Fought Redskins.
Chapter 9. “Bill” Hickok, City Marshal.
Chapter 10. When Cheyenne Was Young.
Chapter 11. The Lost Indian at Bedtick Creek.
Chapter 12. A She-Bear and Her Cub.
Chapter 13. A Kick from a Playful Bullock--And a Joke.
Chapter 14. The Indian and the Trousers.
Chapter 15. There’s a Reason: This Is It!--Conclusion.
Introduction
When the Union Pacific Railroad was completed from Omaha, Nebraska, to Ogden, Utah, it passed through a territory about as barren of business as one can imagine. It apparently was a great Sahara, and in fact some of the territory now growing bumper crops of alfalfa, grains and fruits, was set down in school text-books in the 70’s as the “Great American Desert.”
Its inhabitants were, outside of the stations on the railroad, largely roaming bands of Indians, a few hundred soldiers at military posts, some buffalo and other hunters, trappers, a few freighters, and many outlawed white men.
The railroad had no short line feeders, and there was, in the period of which I write, no need for them sufficient to warrant their construction. There were military posts scattered along the North Platte, and other rivers to the north, and the government had begun, as part of its effort to reconcile the Red Man to the march of civilization started by the Iron Horse, to establish agencies for the distribution of food in payment to the tribes for lands upon which they claimed sovereignty. These oases in the then great desert had to be reached with thousands of tons of flour, bacon, sugar, etc., consequently large private concerns were formed and contracts taken for the hauling by ox-teams of the provisions sent to the soldiers as well as the Indians.
The ox was the most available and suitable power for this traffic for the reason that he required the transportation of no subsistence in the way of food, and was thoroughly acclimated. Usually he was a Texan--a long horn--or a Mexican short horn with short stocky legs, although the Texan was most generally used, and was fleet-footed and built almost on the plan of a shad.
Both breeds were accustomed to no food other than the grasses of the country, upon which they flourished. These included the succulent bunch grass.
Oxen were used in teams of five, six and seven yokes and hauled large canvas-covered wagons built for the purpose in Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. In the larger transportation outfits each team hauled two wagons, a lead and a trailer, and frequently were loaded with from 6,500 to 8,000 pounds of freight. These teams were driven by men who were as tough and sturdy as the oxen.
Most of the freighting was done in the spring, summer and fall, although several disastrous attempts were made to continue through the midwinter season to relieve food shortages at the army posts.
It may seem strange, but it is nevertheless true, that Indians frequently attacked the very wagon trains that were hauling food to them, in Wyoming and Western Nebraska. Perhaps they were the original anarchists; anyway, they often tried--seldom successfully--to destroy the goose that laid the golden egg, but the course of civilization’s stream never was seriously turned, for it flowed rapidly onward, and between 1870 and 1885, the country was quite thoroughly transformed from a wild and uninhabited territory to one of civilization and great commercial productivity.
(Introduction Continued...)
Copyright, 1918
CONTENTS
Chapter 1. Letters Pass Between Old Pards.
Chapter 2. Trains That Ran Without Rails.
Chapter 3. Hunton and Clay, Bull-Train Magnates.
Chapter 4. Guarding an Overland Freight Outfit.
Chapter 5. Rattlesnakes and Redskins.
Chapter 6. Belated Grace for a Christmas Dinner.
Chapter 7. The Fate of One-Eyed Ed.
Chapter 8. Track-Layers Fought Redskins.
Chapter 9. “Bill” Hickok, City Marshal.
Chapter 10. When Cheyenne Was Young.
Chapter 11. The Lost Indian at Bedtick Creek.
Chapter 12. A She-Bear and Her Cub.
Chapter 13. A Kick from a Playful Bullock--And a Joke.
Chapter 14. The Indian and the Trousers.
Chapter 15. There’s a Reason: This Is It!--Conclusion.
Introduction
When the Union Pacific Railroad was completed from Omaha, Nebraska, to Ogden, Utah, it passed through a territory about as barren of business as one can imagine. It apparently was a great Sahara, and in fact some of the territory now growing bumper crops of alfalfa, grains and fruits, was set down in school text-books in the 70’s as the “Great American Desert.”
Its inhabitants were, outside of the stations on the railroad, largely roaming bands of Indians, a few hundred soldiers at military posts, some buffalo and other hunters, trappers, a few freighters, and many outlawed white men.
The railroad had no short line feeders, and there was, in the period of which I write, no need for them sufficient to warrant their construction. There were military posts scattered along the North Platte, and other rivers to the north, and the government had begun, as part of its effort to reconcile the Red Man to the march of civilization started by the Iron Horse, to establish agencies for the distribution of food in payment to the tribes for lands upon which they claimed sovereignty. These oases in the then great desert had to be reached with thousands of tons of flour, bacon, sugar, etc., consequently large private concerns were formed and contracts taken for the hauling by ox-teams of the provisions sent to the soldiers as well as the Indians.
The ox was the most available and suitable power for this traffic for the reason that he required the transportation of no subsistence in the way of food, and was thoroughly acclimated. Usually he was a Texan--a long horn--or a Mexican short horn with short stocky legs, although the Texan was most generally used, and was fleet-footed and built almost on the plan of a shad.
Both breeds were accustomed to no food other than the grasses of the country, upon which they flourished. These included the succulent bunch grass.
Oxen were used in teams of five, six and seven yokes and hauled large canvas-covered wagons built for the purpose in Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. In the larger transportation outfits each team hauled two wagons, a lead and a trailer, and frequently were loaded with from 6,500 to 8,000 pounds of freight. These teams were driven by men who were as tough and sturdy as the oxen.
Most of the freighting was done in the spring, summer and fall, although several disastrous attempts were made to continue through the midwinter season to relieve food shortages at the army posts.
It may seem strange, but it is nevertheless true, that Indians frequently attacked the very wagon trains that were hauling food to them, in Wyoming and Western Nebraska. Perhaps they were the original anarchists; anyway, they often tried--seldom successfully--to destroy the goose that laid the golden egg, but the course of civilization’s stream never was seriously turned, for it flowed rapidly onward, and between 1870 and 1885, the country was quite thoroughly transformed from a wild and uninhabited territory to one of civilization and great commercial productivity.
(Introduction Continued...)
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