i

bent’s fort

whenever the history of the southwest shall be written, more than one long and interesting chapter must be devoted to the first permanent settlement on its plains and the first permanent settler there. in the accounts of that wide territory through which the old santa fé trail passed, william bent and bent’s old fort have frequent mention.

who were the bents and whence did they come?

silas bent was born in the colony of massachusetts in 1768. his father is said to have been one of those who attended the famous “boston tea party.” silas was educated for the bar, and came to st. louis in 1804 at the time the government of louisiana was turned over to the american authorities. here he served as a judge of the superior court, and here he resided until his death, in 1827.

of his seven sons, john was educated for the bar and became a well-known attorney of st. louis. the youngest son, silas, as flag-lieutenant of the flag-ship128 “mississippi,” was with perry in japan, and wrote a report on the japan current for an american scientific society. he delivered addresses on meteorology in st. louis in 1879, and on climate as affecting cattle-breeding in the year 1884. four other sons—charles, william w., and later george and robert—were prominent in the indian trade on the upper arkansas and elsewhere between 1820 and 1850, and remained trading in that region until they died.

the leading spirit in this family of indian traders was william w. bent. early in life charles and william bent had been up on the missouri river working for the american fur company. colonel bent stated to his son george that he went up there in the year 1816, when very young.5 very likely he was then a small boy only ten or twelve years old. it was there that charles and william bent became acquainted with robert campbell, of st. louis, who remained a firm friend of the brothers throughout his life. william bent could speak the sioux language fluently and the sioux had called him wa-si′cha-chischi′-la, meaning little white man, a name which confirms the statement that he entered the trade very young, and seems to warrant the belief that his work for the fur company was at some post in the sioux country.

5 the history of the bent family in america gives the date of william bent’s birth as 1809, which can hardly be made to agree with this statement.

in his testimony before the joint commission which inquired into indian affairs on the plains in 1865,129 william bent stated that he had first come to the upper arkansas and settled near the purgatoire, just below the present city of pueblo, colorado, in 1824; that is to say, two years before he and his brother began to erect their first trading establishment on the arkansas. previous to this time william bent had been trapping in the mountains near there, and may very well have done some individual trading with the indians.

william bent was undoubtedly the first permanent white settler in what is now colorado, and for a very long time he was not only its first settler, but remained its most important white citizen.

by his fair and open dealings, by his fearless conduct, and by his love of justice, william bent soon won the respect and confidence of the indians with whom he had to do. among the rough fraternity of mountain trappers he was also very popular, his reputation for courage being remarkable even among that class of daring men. he was tirelessly active in prosecuting the aims of his trade, making frequent trips to the camps of the various tribes with which he, and later his company, had dealings, and to the mexican settlements in the valley of taos and to santa fé. every year, probably from 1824 to 1864, he made at least one journey from the fort on the arkansas, across the plains of colorado, kansas, and missouri, to the settlements on the missouri frontier.

about 1835 william bent married owl woman, the130 daughter of white thunder, an important man among the cheyennes, then the keeper of the medicine arrows. bent’s fort was his home, and there his children were born, the oldest, mary, about 1836, robert in 1839—his own statement made in 1865 says 1841—george in july, 1843, and julia in 1847. owl woman died at the fort in 1847 in giving birth to julia, and her husband afterward married her sister, yellow woman. charles bent was the child of his second marriage.

william bent appears to have been the first of the brothers to go into the southwestern country to trade for fur, but charles is said to have gone to santa fé as early as 1819, and a little later must have joined william. the two, with ceran st. vrain and one of the chouteaus, established the early trading post near the arkansas. after occupying this stockade for two years or more, they moved down below pueblo and built another stockade on the arkansas. two years later they began to build the more ambitious post afterward known as bent’s, or fort william, or bent’s old fort. george and robert bent apparently did not come out to the fort until after it was completed—perhaps after it had been for some time in operation. benito vasquez was at one time a partner in the company.

black beaver, delaware scout

george bent

it was in 1828 that the bent brothers, with st. vrain, began this large fort, fifteen miles above the mouth of purgatoire river. it was not completed until 1832. four years seems a long time to be spent in the construction131 of such a post, even though it was built of adobe brick, but there were reasons for the delay. charles bent was determined that the fort should be built of adobes in order to make it fireproof, so that under no circumstances could it be burned by the indians. besides that, adobes were much more durable and more comfortable—cool in summer, warm in winter—than logs would have been. when the question of how the fort should be built had been decided, charles bent went to new mexico, and from taos and santa fé sent over a number of mexicans to make adobe brick. with them he sent some wagon-loads of mexican wool to mix with the clay of the bricks, thus greatly lengthening the life of the adobes.

only a short time, however, after the laborers had reached the intended site of the fort, smallpox broke out among them, and it was necessary to send away those not attacked. william bent, st. vrain, kit carson, and other white men who were there caught the smallpox from the mexicans, and though none died they were so badly marked by it that some of the indians who had known them well in the early years of the trading did not recognize them when they met again.

during the prevalence of the smallpox at the post william bent sent a runner, francisco, one of his mexican herders, north, to warn the cheyennes not to come near the post. francisco set out for the black hills, and on his way encountered a large war-party of cheyennes on their way to the fort. he told them of132 what had happened, and warned them to return north and not to come near the post until sent for. the cheyennes obeyed, and it was not until some time later, when all at fort william had recovered and when the temporary stockade with all the infected material that it contained had been burned, that bent and st. vrain, with a few pack-mules, started north for the black hills to find the cheyennes and invite them to return to the post. the year of this journey has been given me as 1831. perhaps it may have been a year earlier.

after the smallpox had ceased, more mexican laborers were sent for, and work on the fort was resumed. not long before his death, kit carson stated that at one time more than a hundred and fifty mexicans were at work on the construction of the post.

accounts of the dimensions of the fort differ, but on certain points all agree: that it was of adobes, set square with the points of the compass, and on the north bank of the arkansas river. garrard says that the post was a hundred feet square and the walls thirty feet in height. another account says that the walls ran a hundred and fifty feet east and west and a hundred feet north and south, and that they were seventeen feet high. j. t. hughes, however, in his doniphan’s expedition, printed in cincinnati in 1848, says:

“fort bent is situated on the north bank of the arkansas, 650 miles west of fort leavenworth, in latitude 38° 2′ north, and longitude 103° 3′ west from133 greenwich. the exterior walls of this fort, whose figure is that of an oblong square, are fifteen feet high and four feet thick. it is 180 feet long and 135 feet wide and is divided into various compartments, the whole built of adobes or sun-dried bricks.”

at the southwest and northeast corners of these walls were bastions, or round towers, thirty feet in height and ten feet in diameter inside, with loopholes for muskets and openings for cannon. garrard speaks of the bastions as hexagonal in form.

around the walls in the second stories of the bastions hung sabres and great heavy lances with long, sharp blades. these were intended for use in case an attempt were made to take the fort by means of ladders put up against the wall. besides these cutting and piercing implements, the walls were hung with flint-lock muskets and pistols.

in the east wall of the fort was a wide gateway formed by two immense swinging doors made of heavy planks. these doors were studded with heavy nails and plated with sheet-iron, so that they could never be burned by the indians. the same was true of the gateway which entered the corral, to be described later.

over the main gate of the fort was a square watch tower surmounted by a belfry, from the top of which rose a flagstaff. the watch tower contained a single room with windows on all sides, and in the room was an old-fashioned long telescope, or spy-glass, mounted134 on a pivot. here certain members of the garrison, relieving each other at stated intervals, were constantly on the lookout. there was a chair for the watchman to sit in and a bed for his sleeping. if the watchman, through his glass, noticed anything unusual—for example, if he saw a great dust rising over the prairie—he notified the people below. if a suspicious-looking party of indians was seen approaching, the watchman signalled to the herder to bring in the horses, for the stock was never turned loose, but was always on herd.

in the belfry, under a little roof which rose above the watch tower, hung the bell of the fort, which sounded the hours for meals. two tame white-headed eagles kept at the fort were sometimes confined within this belfry, or at others were allowed to fly about free, returning of their own accord to sleep in the belfry. one of these eagles finally disappeared, and for a long time it was not known what had become of it. then it was learned that it had been killed for its feathers by a young indian at some distance from the fort.

plan of bent’s old fort

at the back of the fort over the gate, which opened into the corral, was a second-story room rising high above the walls, as the watch tower did in front. this room—an extraordinary luxury for the time—was used as a billiard-room during the later years of the post. it was long enough to accommodate a large billiard-table, and across one end of the room ran a counter, or bar, over which drinkables were served. these luxuries were brought out by robert and george135 bent, young men who did not come out to the fort until some time after it had been constructed, and who, being city-dwellers—for i have no record of their having any early experience of frontier life—no doubt felt that they required city amusements.

the watch tower and billiard-room were supported on heavy adobe walls running at right angles to the main enclosing walls of the fort, and these supporting walls formed the ends of the rooms on either side of the gates in the outer walls.

the stores, warehouses, and living-rooms of the post were ranged around the walls, and opened into the patio, or courtyard—the hollow square within. in some of the books dealing with these old times it is said that when the indians entered the fort to trade, cannon were loaded and sentries patrolled the walls with loaded guns. this may have been true of the early days of the fort, but it was not true of the latter part of the decade between 1840 and 1850. at that time the indians, or at least the cheyenne indians, had free run of the post and were allowed to go upstairs, on the walls, and into the watch tower. the various rooms about the courtyard received light and air from the doors and windows opening out into this courtyard, which was gravelled. the floors of the rooms were of beaten clay, as was commonly the case in mexican houses, and the roofs were built in the same fashion that long prevailed in the west. poles were laid from the front wall to the rear, slightly inclined136 toward the front. over these poles twigs or brush were laid, and over the brush clay was spread, tramped hard, and gravel thrown over this. these roofs were used as a promenade by the men of the fort and their families in the evenings. the top of the fort walls reached about four feet above these roofs, or breast-high of a man, and these walls were pierced with loopholes through which to shoot in case of attack.

hughes in his doniphan’s expedition says: “the march upon santa fé was resumed aug. 2, 1846, after a respite of three days in the neighborhood of fort bent. as we passed the fort the american flag was raised in compliment to our troops and in concert with our own streamed most animatingly on the gale that swept from the desert, while the tops of the houses were crowded with mexican girls and indian squaws, beholding the american army.”

on the west side of the fort and outside the walls was the horse corral. it was as wide as the fort and deep enough to contain a large herd. the walls were about eight feet high and three feet thick at the top. the gate was on the south side of the corral, and so faced the river. it was of wood, but was completely plated with sheet-iron. more than that, to prevent any one from climbing in by night, the tops of the walls had been thickly planted with cactus—a large variety which grows about a foot high and has great fleshy leaves closely covered with many and sharp thorns. this grew so luxuriantly that in some places137 the leaves hung down over the walls, both within and without, and gave most efficient protection against any living thing that might wish to surmount the wall.

through the west wall of the fort a door was cut, leading from the stockade into the corral, permitting people to go through and get horses without going outside the fort and opening the main gate of the corral. this door was wide and arched at the top. it was made large enough, so that in case of necessity—if by chance an attacking party seemed likely to capture the horses and mules in the corral—the door could be opened and the herd run inside the main stockade.

about two hundred yards to the south of the fort, and so toward the river bank, on a little mound, stood a large ice-house built of adobes or sun-dried bricks. in winter when the river was frozen this ice-house was filled, and in it during the summer was kept all the surplus fresh meat—buffalo tongues, antelope, dried meat and tongues—and also all the bacon. at times the ice-house was hung thick with flesh food.

on hot days, with the other little children, young george bent used to go down to the ice-house and get in it to cool off, and his father’s negro cook used to come down and send them away, warning them not to go in there from the hot sun, as it was too cold and they might get sick. this negro cook, andrew green by name, a slave owned by governor charles bent, was with him when he was killed in taos, and afterward came to the fort and was there for many138 years, but was at last taken back to st. louis and there set free. he had a brother “dick,” often mentioned in the old books.

besides bent’s fort, bent and st. vrain owned fort st. vrain, on the south platte, opposite the mouth of st. vrain’s fork, and fort adobe, on the canadian. both these posts were built of adobe brick. fort st. vrain was built to trade with the northern indians; that is, with the sioux and northern cheyennes, who seldom got down south as far as the arkansas river, and so would not often come to fort william. the fort adobe on the canadian was built by request of the chiefs of the kiowa, comanche, and apache to trade with these people. the chiefs who made this request were to′hau sen (little mountain) and eagle-tail feathers, speaking for the kiowa, shaved head for the comanche, and poor (lean) bear for the apache.

these in their day were men of importance. shaved head was a great friend of the whites and a man of much influence with his own people and with neighboring tribes. he wore the left side of his head shaved close, while the hair on the right side was long, hanging down to his waist or below. his left ear was perforated with many holes made by a blunt awl heated red-hot, and was adorned with many little brass rings. before peace was made between the kiowas, comanches, and apaches in the year 1840, the last three tribes were more or less afraid to visit fort139 william, lest they should there meet a large camp of their enemies, and colonel bent and the traders were also especially anxious to avoid any collision at the fort. each tribe would expect the trader to take its part, and this he could not do without incurring the enmity of the other tribes. the wish of the trader was to be on good terms with all tribes, and this william bent accomplished with singular discretion. although he had a cheyenne wife, he was on excellent terms, and always remained so, with the enemies of the cheyennes.

both fort st. vrain and fort adobe, being built of adobes, lasted for a long time, and their ruins have been seen until quite recently. near the ruins of fort adobe two important fights have taken place, to be referred to later.

in the business of the fort william bent had the direction of the trade with the indians, while his brother charles seems to have had more to do with affairs in the mexican settlements, until his death there, at the hands of the mexicans and pueblos, in the year 1847. it is not certain when st. vrain, lee, and benito vasquez became partners in the business, nor how long they were interested in it. george and robert bent, who came out from st. louis, certainly later than the two elder brothers, may have been partners, but there is nothing to show that they were so. robert died in 1847.

some time before this george bent went to mexico140 and there married a mexican girl, by whom he had two children, a son and a daughter. the son, robert, went to school in st. louis. he died at dodge city, kan., in 1875. george bent was a great friend of frank p. blair, whom he appointed guardian for his children. he died at the fort about 1848 of consumption, and was buried near his brother robert in the graveyard which lay a short distance northeast of the northeast bastion of the fort. the old tailor, a frenchman, afterward planted cactus over george bent’s grave to protect it from the wolves and coyotes. their remains were later removed to st. louis.

after the death of charles bent, in 1847, william bent continued his work. perhaps st. vrain may have remained a partner for a time. fitzpatrick speaks of “messrs. bent and st. vrain’s post” in 1850. bent was an active man and interested in many other projects besides the fort and trade with the indians. he bought sheep and mules in new mexico and drove them across the plains to the missouri market. in the forties, in company with several other men, he secured a large land grant from the mexican government in the arkansas valley above the fort and attempted to found a colony there. mexican settlers were established on the lands. the colonists were inert, the indians were hostile, and from these and other causes the project proved a failure. in 1847 william bent and st. vrain drove a large herd of mexican cattle to the arkansas and wintered them141 in the valley near the fort, thus making the first step toward establishing the cattle industry, which many years later so flourished on the plains.

besides his lands near the fort, bent had a fine farm at westport (now kansas city), in missouri, and a ranch south of the arkansas in the mexican territory. in 1846 he guided colonel price’s missouri regiment across the plains to new mexico, and was so popular among the volunteer officers that they gave him the brevet of colonel, a title which stuck to him until the day of his death.

ii

governor charles bent

charles bent was a close rival to his brother william in the esteem of his fellow traders and the trappers and indians of the arkansas. he seems from the first, however, to have taken the most active part in the santa fé trade of the company, leaving the indian trade to the other partners. among the traders and teamsters of the santa fé caravans he was as much liked as william bent was among the trappers and indians; indeed, on more than one occasion, he was elected captain of the caravan and conducted it safely to santa fé. these caravans of missouri traders were richly laden for those days. the outfit of 1832 brought back from new mexico $100,000 in specie and $90,000 in other property, including large142 numbers of mexican mules. in 1833 the caravan with bent as captain assembled at diamond springs, on the missouri frontier. there were 184 men, with ninety-three large wagons loaded with goods. they brought back $100,000 in money and much other property.

charles bent married a mexican woman and made his home at san fernando,6 a small town in the valley of taos. he was popular among his mexican and pueblo neighbors until he was appointed governor of the territory by general kearny, who marched into new mexico with his little army in the fall. having put governor bent and his civil government in control of affairs, the general left a few troops in and about santa fé, and with the rest of his forces marched for california. hardly had he gone when rumors of a revolt of the mexican and indian population against american rule began to be heard, and late in december evidence of such a plot was unearthed. these events are set forth in the following letter from governor bent to the hon. james buchanan, secretary of state:

6 this name is spelled in various ways even by mexicans.

“santa fé, n. m., dec. 26, 1846.—sir: i have been informed indirectly that col. a. w. doniphan, who, in october last, marched with his regiment against the navajo indians, has made treaty of peace with them. not having been officially notified of this treaty, i am not able to state the terms upon which143 it has been concluded; but, so far as i am able to learn, i have but little ground to hope that it will be permanent.

“on the 17th inst. i received information from a mexican friendly to our government that a conspiracy was on foot among the native mexicans, having for its object the expulsion of the united states troops and the civil authorities from the territory. i immediately brought into requisition every means in my power to ascertain who were the movers in the rebellion, and have succeeded in securing seven of the secondary conspirators. the military and civil officers are now both in pursuit of the two leaders and prime movers of the rebellion; but as several days have elapsed, i am apprehensive that they will have made their escape from the territory.

“so far as i am informed this conspiracy is confined to the four northern counties of the territory, and the men considered as leaders in the affair cannot be said to be men of much standing.

“after obtaining the necessary information to designate and secure the persons of the participators in the conspiracy, i thought it advisable to turn them over to the military authorities in order that these persons might be dealt with more summarily and expeditiously than they could have been by the civil authorities.

“the occurrence of this conspiracy at this early period of the occupation of the territory will, i think,144 conclusively convince our government of the necessity of maintaining here, for several years to come, an efficient military force.”

having taken measures for the arrest of the leaders of the conspiracy, governor bent set out from santa fé early in january for a few days’ visit to his family at san fernando, near the pueblo of taos, inhabited by civilized pueblo indians. three pueblo thieves had been arrested and locked up in the calabozo at san fernando some time before governor bent’s arrival. on the 19th of january a mob of pueblos entered the town and attempted to force the american sheriff, lee, to give up these three prisoners. lee, being helpless to resist the indians’ demands, was on the point of releasing his prisoners when the prefect of the town, vigil, a mexican who had taken office under the american government, appeared among the indians and, calling out to them in a fury that they were all thieves and scoundrels, ordered lee to hold the three prisoners. enraged at the prefect’s harsh words, the pueblos rushed upon him, killed him, cut his body into small pieces, and then, being joined by a number of mexicans, set out to kill every american in the settlement.

governor bent’s house was the first they visited. he was still in bed when aroused by his wife on the approach of the mob, and he at once sprang up and ran to a window, through which he called to a mexican neighbor to help him get through into his house and145 conceal him. the mexican refused his aid and replied that he must die. seeing that all ways of escape were blocked, the governor quietly left the window and returned to his family. “he withdrew into his room,” writes mr. dunn, “and the indians began tearing up the roof. with all the calmness of a noble soul he stood awaiting his doom. his wife brought him his pistols and told him to fight, to avenge himself, even if he must die. the indians were exposed to his aim, but he replied, ‘no, i will not kill any one of them; for the sake of you, my wife, and you, my children. at present my death is all these people wish.’ as the savages poured into the room he appealed to their manhood and honor, but in vain. they laughed at his plea. they told him they were about to kill every american in new mexico and would begin with him. an arrow followed the word, another and another, but the mode was not swift enough. one, more impatient, sent a bullet through his heart. as he fell, tomas, a chief, stepped forward, snatched one of his pistols, and shot him in the face. they took his scalp, stretched it on a board with brass nails, and carried it through the streets in triumph.”

garrard, who was at taos in the days immediately following the massacre, tells of governor bent’s death in the following words:

“while here in fernandez (san fernandez) with his family he was one morning early aroused from sleep146 by the populace, who, with the aid of the pueblos de taos, were collected in front of his dwelling, striving to gain admittance. while they were effecting an entrance, he, with an axe, cut through an adobe wall into another house. the wife of the occupant, a clever, though thriftless, canadian, heard him, and with all her strength rendered him assistance, though she was a mexican. he retreated to a room, but seeing no way of escaping from the infuriated assailants who fired upon him through a window, he spoke to his weeping wife and trembling children clinging to him with all the tenacity of love and despair, and taking a paper from his pocket endeavored to write, but fast losing strength he commended them to god and his brothers, and fell pierced by a pueblo’s ball. rushing in and tearing off the gray-haired scalp, the indians bore it away in triumph.”

among the people killed were stephen lee, narcisse beaubien, and others.

when the news of governor bent’s death reached the plains it created great excitement, for charles bent was exceedingly popular with white people and indians alike. the cheyennes proposed to send a war-party to taos and to kill all the mexicans, but william bent would not permit it. a party from bent’s fort set out for taos, but on the road were met by messengers announcing that colonel price had marched into taos at the head of two hundred and fifty men and had had a fight with mexicans and147 indians in which two hundred were killed, and had then bombarded the town and knocked down its walls. a neighboring town was razed and a large amount of property destroyed.

the killing of the people at turley’s ranch, on the arroyo hondo, was a costly triumph to the pueblos. here were shut up men who fought well for their lives.

ruxton tells of the battle in graphic language:

“the massacre of turley and his people, and the destruction of his mill, were not consummated without considerable loss to the barbarous and cowardly assailants. there were in the house, at the time of the attack, eight white men, including americans, french-canadians, and one or two englishmen, with plenty of arms and ammunition. turley had been warned of the intended insurrection, but had treated the report with indifference and neglect, until one morning a man named otterbees, in the employ of turley, and who had been dispatched to santa fé with several mule-loads of whiskey a few days before, made his appearance at the gate on horseback, and hastily informing the inmates of the mill that the new mexicans had risen and massacred governor bent and other americans, galloped off. even then turley felt assured that he would not be molested, but, at the solicitations of his men, agreed to close the gate of the yard round which were the buildings of a mill and distillery, and make preparations for defence.

“a few hours after, a large crowd of mexicans148 and pueblo indians made their appearance, all armed with guns and bows and arrows, and advancing with a white flag summoned turley to surrender his house and the americans in it, guaranteeing that his own life should be saved, but that every other american in the valley of taos had to be destroyed; that the governor and all the americans at fernandez and the rancho had been killed, and that not one was to be left alive in all new mexico.

“to this summons turley answered that he would never surrender his house nor his men, and that, if they wanted it or them, ‘they must take them.’

“the enemy then drew off, and, after a short consultation, commenced the attack. the first day they numbered about 500, but the crowd was hourly augmented by the arrival of parties of indians from the more distant pueblos, and of new mexicans from fernandez, la ca?ada, and other places.

“the building lay at the foot of a gradual slope in the sierra, which was covered with cedar-bushes. in front ran the stream of the arroyo hondo, about twenty yards from one side of the square, and on the other side was broken ground, which rose abruptly and formed the bank of the ravine. in rear and behind the still-house was some garden-ground, inclosed by a small fence, and into which a small wicket-gate opened from the corral.

“as soon as the attack was determined upon, the assailants broke, and, scattering, concealed themselves149 under the cover of the rocks and bushes that surrounded the house.

“from these they kept up an incessant fire upon every exposed portion of the building where they saw the americans preparing for defence.

“they, on their parts, were not idle; not a man but was an old mountaineer, and each had his trusty rifle with good store of ammunition. wherever one of the assailants exposed a hand’s breadth of his person there whistled a ball from an unerring barrel. the windows had been blockaded, loop-holes being left to fire through, and through these a lively fire was maintained. already several of the enemy had bitten the dust, and parties were constantly seen bearing off the wounded up the banks of the ca?ada. darkness came on, and during the night a continual fire was kept up on the mill, while its defenders, reserving their ammunition, kept their posts with stern and silent determination. the night was spent in running balls, cutting patches, and completing the defences of the building. in the morning the fight was renewed, and it was found that the mexicans had effected a lodgment in a part of the stables, which were separated from the other portions of the building, and between which was an open space of a few feet. the assailants, during the night, had sought to break down the wall, and thus enter the main building, but the strength of the adobes and logs of which it was composed resisted effectually all their attempts.

150 “those in the stable seemed anxious to regain the outside, for their position was unavailable as a means of annoyance to the besieged, and several had darted across the narrow space which divided it from the other part of the building, and which slightly projected, and behind which they were out of the line of fire. as soon, however, as the attention of the defenders was called to this point, the first man who attempted to cross, and who happened to be a pueblo chief, was dropped on the instant and fell dead in the center of the intervening space. it appeared an object to recover the body, for an indian immediately dashed out to the fallen chief and attempted to drag him within the cover of the wall. the rifle which covered the spot again poured forth its deadly contents, and the indian, springing into the air, fell over the body of his chief, struck to the heart. another and another met with a similar fate, and at last three rushed at once to the spot, and, seizing the body by the legs and head, had already lifted it from the ground, when three puffs of smoke blew from the barricaded window, followed by the sharp cracks of as many rifles, and the three daring indians added their number to the pile of corpses which now covered the body of the dead chief.

“as yet the besieged had met with no casualties; but after the fall of the seven indians, in the manner above described, the whole body of assailants, with a shout of rage, poured in a rattling volley, and two of the defenders of the mill fell mortally wounded.151 one, shot through the loins, suffered great agony, and was removed to the still-house, where he was laid upon a large pile of grain, as being the softest bed to be found.

“in the middle of the day the assailants renewed the attack more fiercely than before, their baffled attempts adding to their furious rage. the little garrison bravely stood to the defence of the mill, never throwing away a shot, but firing coolly, and only when a fair mark was presented to their unerring aim. their ammunition, however, was fast failing, and to add to the danger of their situation the enemy set fire to the mill, which blazed fiercely and threatened destruction to the whole building. twice they succeeded in overcoming the flames, and, taking advantage of their being thus occupied, the mexicans and indians charged into the corral, which was full of hogs and sheep, and vented their cowardly rage upon the animals, spearing and shooting all that came in their way. no sooner, however, were the flames extinguished in one place, than they broke out more fiercely in another; and as a successful defence was perfectly hopeless, and the numbers of the assailants increased every moment, a council of war was held by the survivors of the little garrison, when it was determined, as soon as night approached, that everyone should attempt to escape as best he might, and in the meantime the defence of the mill was to be continued.

152 “just at dusk, albert and another man ran to the wicket-gate, which opened into a kind of inclosed space, and in which was a number of armed mexicans. they both rushed out at the same moment, discharging their rifles full in the faces of the crowd. albert in the confusion threw himself under the fence, whence he saw his companion shot down immediately, and heard his cries for mercy, mingled with shrieks of pain and anguish, as the cowards pierced him with knives and lances. lying without motion under the fence, as soon as it was quite dark he crept over the logs and ran up the mountain, traveled day and night, and, scarcely stopping or resting, reached the greenhorn, almost dead with hunger and fatigue. turley himself succeeded in escaping from the mill and in reaching the mountain unseen. here he met a mexican, mounted on a horse, who had been a most intimate friend of the unfortunate man for many years. to this man turley offered his watch (which was treble its worth) for the use of his horse, but was refused. the inhuman wretch, however, affected pity and commiseration for the fugitive, and advised him to go to a certain place where he would bring or send him assistance; but on reaching the mill, which was now a mass of fire, he immediately informed the mexicans of his place of concealment, whither a large party instantly proceeded and shot him to death.

“two others escaped and reached santa fé in safety. the mill and turley’s house were sacked153 and gutted, and all his hard-earned savings, which were considerable, and concealed in gold about the house, were discovered, and of course, seized upon, by the victorious mexicans.

“the indians, however, met a few days after with a severe retribution. the troops marched out of santa fé, attacked their pueblo, and levelled it to the ground, killing many hundreds of its defenders, and taking many prisoners, most of whom were hanged.”

the death of charles bent, of his brother robert later in the same year, and of george bent in 1848, left only colonel william bent to carry on the business of bent’s fort, and the trade with mexico, together with all the other operations in which he was engaged. from this time forth william bent worked alone.

charles bent had one son and two daughters. alfred, the son, died some years ago. one of the daughters is said to be still living (1909) in mexico, very old. tom boggs married the other daughter. she had one son, charles boggs. he and his mother are both believed to be dead.

iii

fort st. vrain and fort adobe

in its best days bent’s fort did a business surpassed in volume by only one company in the united states—john jacob astor’s great american fur company. as already stated, besides bent’s fort the bent partners154 had a post on the south platte at the mouth of st. vrain’s fork, and one on the canadian river, called the fort adobe, for trade with tribes of indians hostile to the cheyennes—trade which colonel bent, of course, wished to hold.

st. vrain’s fork runs into the south platte from the north and west, a few miles south or southwest of greeley, colo.

the site of the fort, known later and now as adobe walls, was the scene of two hard battles between white men and indians. the first of these took place in 1864, and was fought between the kiowas, apaches, and comanches, with a few cheyennes and arapahoes, who were present chiefly as onlookers, and a detachment of troops under the command of kit carson, who then bore a commission in the united states army. carson had with him a number of ute scouts. the fight was a severe one, and carson, after burning one of the kiowa villages, was obliged to retreat. in that battle the indians fought bravely, and one of them possessed a cavalry bugle and knew the various calls. carson and his officers generally acknowledged that they were beaten by the indians, and carson finally withdrew, the indians saving most of their property, though they lost a number of men. among the kiowas killed was a young man who wore a coat of mail.

at this fight a spring-wagon was found in the possession of the indians, and its presence in the kiowa camp has often been wondered at. at that time155 wagons were never used by plains indians, whose only vehicle was the travois, which consisted of two long poles tied together over the horses’ withers, and dragging on the ground behind. across these poles, behind the horses’ hocks, was lashed a platform, on which a considerable burden might be transported.

the late robert m. peck, of los angeles, cal., who was a soldier, serving under major sedgwick, then in command of troops along the arkansas, not long before his death told the story of an ambulance presented to one of the kiowa chiefs by the quartermaster of the troops under major sedgwick, which may have been this one. mr. peck said:

“that was before the kiowa war broke out in 1859. to′hau sen was always friendly to the whites, and tried to keep the kiowas peaceable. a small party of them, his immediate following, kept out of that war. these were mostly the old warriors, but the younger men, who constituted a majority of the tribe, went on the warpath after lieut. george d. bayard, of our regiment killed one of the kiowa chiefs, called pawnee, near peacock’s ranch, on walnut creek.

“that summer (1859) we had been camping along the arkansas river, moving camp occasionally up or down the river, trying to keep satank and his turbulent followers from beginning another outbreak. old to′hau sen used frequently to come to our camp. lieut. mcintyre wanted to get rid of this old ambulance, which he had long had on his hands and which in156 some of its parts was nearly worn out. after inducing major sedgwick to have it condemned as unfit for service, lieut. mcintyre had his blacksmith fix it up a little and presented it to the old chief. mcintyre fitted a couple of sets of old harness to a pair of to′hau sen’s ponies and had some of the soldiers break the animals to work in the ambulance. but when to′hau sen tried to drive the team, he could not learn to handle the lines. he took the reins off the harness and had a couple of indian boys ride the horses, and they generally went at a gallop. the old chief seemed very proud of the ambulance.”

the second battle of the adobe walls took place in june, 1874, when the kiowas, comanches, and cheyennes made an attack on some buffalo-hunters, who had built themselves houses in the shelter of the adobe walls. the attack on the buffalo-hunters was made in the endeavor to drive these hide-hunters out of the buffalo country, in order to save the buffalo for themselves. the hunters finally drove off the indians with much loss, but soon afterward abandoned their camp.

st. vrain’s fort and the adobe fort were abandoned between 1840 and 1850, when the fur business began to decline. by this time the beaver had begun to get scarce, having been pretty thoroughly trapped out of many of the mountain streams, and besides that the silk hat had been invented, and was rapidly taking the place of the old beaver hat, and the demand for beaver157 skins was greatly reduced. now, the mountains were full of idle trappers, and a colony of these settled some miles above bent’s fort, on the site of the present city of pueblo, col., where they did a little farming and a great deal of smuggling of liquor from mexico to the plains country. the stagnation in the beaver trade, of course, affected the business of william bent, who, since the death of his brother charles, had not lessened his activities in trading. at this time his chief business was in buffalo robes and in horses. the establishment at the fort was now reduced, and in the early fifties bent tried to sell it to the government for a military post, but failing to receive what he considered a fair price for his property, in 1852 he laid large charges of gunpowder in the buildings and blew the old fort into the air.

in the winter of 1852–53 he had two trading houses of logs among the cheyennes at the big timbers, and in the autumn of 1853 began to build his new fort of stone on the north side of the arkansas river, about thirty-eight miles below old fort william, and finished it the same year. this was the winter camp of the cheyennes. at that time the big timbers extended up the river beyond the fort, and within three miles of the mouth of purgatoire river, but by 1865 practically all the timber had been cut down, leaving the fort in the midst of a treeless prairie.

in 1858 gold was discovered in the country northwest of the new fort. there was a rush of gold-seekers158 to the country the following year, and for some reason william bent decided to lease his post to the war department. this he did. a garrison was sent there. it was at first intended to call the new fort fort fauntleroy, after the colonel of the old second dragoons, but finally the place was rechristened fort wise, in honor of the governor of virginia. the following summer, 1860, the troops built a stockade half a mile above bent’s old stone buildings. when the civil war began in 1861 and governor wise joined the confederates, the post was again renamed; this time fort lyon, in honor of general lyon, who had been killed not long before at wilson’s creek, mo. in 1866 the river threatened to carry away the post, and it was moved twenty miles up the river.

meanwhile william bent had built a new stockade on the north side of the river, in the valley of purgatoire creek, and lived there, continuing to trade with the indians. kit carson lived on the same side of the river, and not far from the bent stockade. carson died at fort lyon, may 23, 1868, and his friend william bent, at his home, may 19, 1869. ceran st. vrain died october 29, 1870. the last year of his life was spent at taos, n. m., but he died at the home of his son felix, in mora, n. m.

in 1839 mr. farnham visited bent’s fort, and met two of the bent brothers, whose names he does not give. they were clad like trappers, in splendid deerskin hunting-shirts and leggings, with long fringes on159 the outer seams of the arms and legs, the shirts decorated with designs worked in colored porcupine quills, and on their feet moccasins covered with quill work and beading.

this great establishment, standing alone in the midst of a wilderness, much impressed the traveller, who not long before had left a region where men, if not crowded together, were at least seen frequently, for he had recently come from peoria, ill. he spoke of it as a solitary abode of men seeking wealth in the face of hardship and danger, and declared that it reared “its towers over the uncultivated wastes of nature like an old baronial castle that has withstood the wars and desolations of centuries.” to him the indian women, walking swiftly about the courtyard and on the roofs of the houses, clad in long deerskin dresses and bright moccasins, were full of interest; while the naked children, with perfect forms and the red of the saxon blood showing through the darker hue of the mother race, excited his enthusiasm. he wondered at the novel manners and customs that he saw, at the grave bourgeois and their clerks and traders, who, in time of leisure, sat cross-legged under a shade, smoking the long-stemmed indian stone pipe, which they deliberately passed from hand to hand, until it was smoked out; at the simple food—dried buffalo meat and bread made from the unbolted wheaten meal from taos, repasts which lacked sweets and condiments.

here, as it seemed to him, were gathered people from160 the ends of the earth: old trappers whose faces were lined and leathery from long exposure to the snows of winter and the burning heats of summer; indians, some of whom were clad in civilized clothing, but retained the reserve and silence of their race; mexican servants, hardly more civilized than the indians; and all these seated on the ground, gathered around a great dish of dried meat, which constituted their only food. the prairie men who talked narrated their adventures in the north, the west, the south, and among the mountains, while others, less given to conversation, nodded or grunted in assent or comment. the talk was of where the buffalo had been, or would be; of the danger from hostile tribes; of past fights, when men had been wounded and killed; and of attacks by indians on hunters or traders who were passing through the country.

he describes the opening of the gates on the winter’s morning, the cautious sliding in and out of the indians, whose tents stood around the fort, till the court was full of people with long, hanging black locks and dark, flashing watchful eyes; the traders and clerks busy at their work; the patrols walking the battlements with loaded muskets; the guards in the bastion, standing with burning matches by the carronades; and when the sun set, the indians retiring again to their camp outside, to talk over their newly purchased blankets and beads, and to sing and drink and dance; and finally the night sentinel on the fort that treads161 his weary watch away. “this,” he says, “presents a tolerable view of this post in the season of business.”

soon after the construction of the fort a brass cannon had been purchased in st. louis and brought out for the purpose of impressing the indians. it was used there for many years, but in 1846, when general kearny passed by, some enthusiastic employee charged it with too great a load of powder, and in saluting the general it burst. some time after that an iron cannon was brought from santa fé, and during the day always stood outside the big gate of the fort, and was often fired in honor of some great indian chief when he came into the post with his camp. the old brass cannon lay about the post for some time, and is mentioned by garrard.

the passage of general kearny’s little army on its march into mexico made a gala day at bent’s fort. the army had encamped nine miles below the post to complete its organization, for it had come straggling across the plains from missouri in small detachments. on the morning of august 2 the fort was filled to overflowing with people: soldiers and officers, white trappers, indian trappers, mexicans, cheyennes, arapahoes, kiowas, and indian women, the wives of trappers from the far away columbia and st. lawrence. every one was busy talking—a babel of tongues and jargons. the employees, with their wives and children, had gathered on the flat roofs to witness the wonderful spectacle, while in a securely hidden nook charles bent162 was rejoicing the souls of a few of his army friends with the icy contents of “a pitcher covered with the dew of promise.”

a cloud of dust moving up the valley “at the rate of a horse walking fast” at length announced the approach of the troops. at the head of the column rode general kearny, behind him a company of the old first united states dragoons, behind the dragoons a regiment of missouri volunteer cavalry and two batteries of volunteer artillery, and of infantry but two companies. it was an army of 1,700 men, and yet to the indians assembled at the fort it must have seemed indeed an army, for perhaps few of them had ever dreamed that there were half as many men in the whole “white tribe.” the column drew near the fort, swinging to the left, forded the river to the mexican bank, turned again up the valley, and went on its way, a part to the city of mexico, a part to california, and a part only to santa fé, whence but a few months later they would march to avenge the murder of charles bent, now doling out mint-juleps to the loitering officers in the little room upstairs in the fort.

general s. w. kearny

from an original daguerreotype

iv

kit carson, hunter

there were two or three employees at the fort whose labors never ceased. these were the hunters who were obliged constantly to provide meat for163 the employees. though the number of these varied, there might be from sixty to a hundred men employed at the fort, and many of these had families, so that the population was considerable.

for a number of years the principal hunter for the fort was kit carson, who was often assisted by a mexican or two, though in times when work was slack many of the traders, trappers, employees, and teamsters devoted themselves to hunting. often game could be killed within sight of the post, but at other times it was necessary for the hunter to take with him a wagon or pack-animals, for he might be obliged to go several days’ journey before securing the necessary food. it was the duty of carson and his assistants to provide meat for the whole post. it was here that in 1843 carson was married to a mexican girl.

though, as already suggested, difficulties sometimes occurred with the indians, these troubles were very rare; yet the vigilance of the garrison, drilled into them from earliest times by william bent, never relaxed.

the animals belonging to the fort were a constant temptation to the indians. the fort stood on the open plain by the riverside, and there was an abundance of good grass close at hand, so that the herd could be grazed within sight of the walls. even so, however, the indians occasionally swept off the stock, as in 1839, when a party of comanches hid in the bushes on the river-bank, ran off every hoof of stock belonging to the post, and killed the mexican herder.

164

kit carson

from the painting in the capitol at denver, colorado

farnham while there heard this account of the event:

“about the middle of june, 1839, a band of sixty of them [comanches] under cover of night crossed the river and concealed themselves among the bushes that grow thickly on the bank near the place where the animals of the establishment feed during the day. no sentinel being on duty at the time, their presence was unobserved: and when morning came the mexican horse guard mounted his horse, and with the noise and shouting usual with that class of servants when so employed, rushed his charge out of the fort; and riding rapidly from side to side of the rear of the band, urged them on and soon had them nibbling the short dry grass in a little vale within grape shot distance of the guns of the bastion. it is customary for a guard of animals about these trading-posts to take his station beyond his charge; and if they stray from each other, or attempt to stroll too far, he drives them together, and thus keeps them in the best possible situation to be driven hastily to the corral, should the indians, or other evil persons, swoop down upon them. and as there is constant danger of this, his horse is held by a long rope, and grazes around him, that he may be mounted quickly at the first alarm for a retreat within the walls. the faithful guard at bent’s, on the morning of the disaster i am relating, had dismounted after driving out his animals, and sat upon the ground, watching with the greatest fidelity for every call of duty; when these 50 or 60 indians sprang from their hiding places, ran165 upon the animals, yelling horribly, and attempted to drive them across the river. the guard, however, nothing daunted, mounted quickly, and drove his horse at full speed among them. the mules and horses hearing his voice amidst the frightening yells of the savages, immediately started at a lively pace for the fort; but the indians were on all sides, and bewildered them. the guard still pressed them onward, and called for help; and on they rushed, despite the efforts of the indians to the contrary. the battlements were covered with men. they shouted encouragement to the brave guard—‘onward, onward,’ and the injunction was obeyed. he spurred his horse to his greatest speed from side to side and whipped the hindermost of the band with his leading rope. he had saved every animal: he was within 20 yards of the open gate: he fell: three arrows from the bows of the comanches had cloven his heart, and, relieved of him, the lords of the quiver gathered their prey, and drove them to the borders of texas, without injury to life or limb. i saw this faithful guard’s grave. he had been buried a few days. the wolves had been digging into it. thus 40 or 50 mules and horses and their best servant’s life were lost to the messrs. bents in a single day.”

long before this, in 1831, when the fort was still unfinished, carson with twelve white employees went down the river to the big timbers to cut logs for use in the construction work. he had all the horses and mules belonging to the post with him, and while he166 and his men were at work, a party of sixty crows crept up close to them, and coming out of the brush and timber drove off the herd. carson and his men, all on foot, followed the crows across the open prairie. with them were two mounted cheyenne warriors, who had been visiting the camp when the crows made their attack, but who luckily had both their ponies by them, and thus saved them. the crows had not gone many miles before they halted, and camped in a thicket on the margin of a little stream, thinking that a party of twelve men would not dare to follow them on foot; therefore, when they beheld carson and his men coming on their trail they were greatly astonished. they left the stolen animals behind them, and came boldly out on the open prairie to annihilate the venturesome white men, but all of carson’s party had excellent rifles and one or two pistols apiece. carson used to tell how surprised those crows were when they charged down upon his men and were met by a stunning volley. they turned and made for the thicket, the whites following them at a run. into the thicket went the crows and in after them tumbled carson and his men. some spirited bushwhacking ensued, then out at the far edge of the thicket came the crows, with carson and his men still after them. meantime, when the crows had come out to charge the whites, the two mounted cheyennes had quietly slipped round in the rear and run off all the captured horses, so now carson’s men mounted and rode exultingly back to their camp, while167 the discomfited crows plodded on homeward, nursing their wounds.

in the years before the great peace was made between the kiowas and comanches, and the cheyennes and arapahoes, the home country of the southern cheyennes lay chiefly between the arkansas and the south platte rivers. in august many of them used to go east as far as the valley of the republican, for the purpose of gathering winter supplies of choke-cherries and plums. in the autumn the suhtai and the hill people—h?s′s?-o-mē′ta-nē—went up west into the foothills of the mountains to kill mule-deer, which were plenty there, and at that season fat. all the different bands of cheyennes used to make annual trips to the mountains for the purpose of securing lodge-poles. a cedar which grew there was also much employed in the manufacture of bows.

at this time the range of the kiowas was from the cimarron south to the red river of texas, on the ridge of the staked plains. they kept south in order to avoid, so far as possible, the raiding parties of cheyennes and arapahoes, who were constantly trying to take horses from them. in those days—and still earlier—the kiowas used to make frequent trips north to visit their old friends and neighbors, the crows, but when they did this they kept away to the westward, close to the mountains, in order to avoid the camps of the cheyennes. nevertheless, such travelling parties were occasionally met by the cheyennes or arapahoes, and168 fights occurred. it was in such a fight that an old woman, now (1912) known as white cow woman, or the kiowa woman, was captured. she was a white child, taken from the whites by the kiowas when two or three years of age, and a year or two later captured from the kiowas as stated by the cheyennes. she is now supposed to be seventy-six or seventy-seven years old. the fight when she was captured took place in 1835, or three years before the great fight on wolf creek.

before the mexican war the arkansas was the boundary between the united states and mexico, and bent’s fort was, therefore, on the extreme border of the united states. in those days the indians used to make raids into mexican territory, sweeping off great herds of horses and mules. they also captured many mexicans, and many a comanche and kiowa warrior owned two or three peons, whom he kept to herd his horses for him.

these peons were often badly treated by their mexican masters, and after they had been for a short time with the indians, they liked the new life so well that they would not return to their old masters, even if they had the opportunity. many of these men led the warriors in raids into mexico. they kept in communication with peons in the mexican settlements, and from them learned just which places were unguarded, where the best herds and most plunder were to be secured, and where the mexican troops were stationed. the peon169 then led his war-party to the locality selected, and they ran off the herds, burned ranches, and carried off plunder and peon women and men. some of the peons captured became chiefs in the tribes that had taken them. in the old days, colonel bent sometimes purchased these mexican peons from the kiowas. in 1908 one of these peons was still living at the kiowa agency, eighty-two years old.

carson was employed by the bents as hunter for many years. sometimes he remained at the fort, supplying the table with meat, at other times he went with the wagon-train to missouri, acting as hunter for the outfit. the following advertisement from the missouri intelligencer marked carson’s first appearance on the page of history:

“notice: to whom it may concern: that christopher carson, a boy about sixteen years, small of his age, but thickset, light hair, ran away from the subscriber, living in franklin, howard co., mo., to whom he had been bound to learn the saddler’s trade, on or about the first day of september last. he is supposed to have made his way toward the upper part of the state. all persons are notified not to harbor, support or subsist said boy under penalty of the law. one cent reward will be given to any person who will bring back said boy.

“david workman.

“franklin, oct. 6, 1826.”

170 this runaway boy joined the santa fé caravan of charles bent, and from that time on for a number of years was employed by bent and st. vrain. from 1834 to 1842, he was constantly at the fort. he married a daughter of charles beaubien, of taos, who, with his son, narcisse beaubien, was killed at the time of the pueblo massacre in january, 1847.

during the civil war, carson received a commission in the militia of new mexico or colorado, and rose to the rank of colonel and brevet brigadier-general.

v

life at bent’s fort

bent’s old fort was a stopping-place for all travellers on the santa fé trail, and visitors often remained there for weeks at a time, for colonel bent kept open house. on holidays, such as christmas and the fourth of july, if any number of people were there, they often had balls or dances, in which trappers, travellers, indians, indian women, and mexican women all took part. employed about the post there was always a frenchman or two who could play the violin and guitar. on one occasion frank p. blair,7 then twenty-three years old, afterward a general in the union army, and at one time a vice-presidential candidate, played the banjo all night at a ball at the fort.

171

7 appointed attorney-general of new mexico by general kearny in 1846. took an active part on the side of the union in missouri in 1860–1.

just before each fourth of july, a party was always sent up into the mountains on the purgatoire river to gather wild mint for mint-juleps to be drunk in honor of the day. for the brewing of these, ice from the ice-house was used. in those days this drink was called “hail storm.”

the employees at the fort were divided into classes, to each of which special duties were assigned. certain men remained always at the post guarding it, trading with indians and trappers, and keeping the books. these we may call clerks, or store-keepers, and mechanics. another group took care of the live-stock, herding and caring for the horses and mules, while still others had charge of the wagon-train that hauled the furs to the states, and brought back new goods to the fort. other men, led by veteran traders, went to trade in the indian camps at a distance.

excepting in summer, when the trains were absent on their way to st. louis, the population of the fort was large. there were traders, clerks, trappers, hunters, teamsters, herders, and laborers, and these were of as many races as there were trades. the clerks, traders, and trappers were chiefly americans, the hunters and laborers might be white men, mexicans, or frenchmen. some of the delawares and shawnees—of whom black beaver was one of the most famous—were hunters and trappers, while others of their race were teamsters, and went back and forth with the trains between westport and fort william. the herders172 were chiefly mexicans, as were also some of the laborers, while the cook of the bourgeois was a negro. almost all these people had taken indian wives from one tribe or another, and the fort was plentifully peopled with women and children, as well as with men.

during the summer season matters were often very quiet about the fort. in april, just about the time that the indians set out on their summer buffalo-hunt, the train started for st. louis. it was under the personal conduct of colonel bent, but in charge of a wagon-master, who was responsible for everything. it was loaded with robes. with the train went most of the teamsters and herders, together with some of the laborers. the journey was to last nearly six months. each heavy wagon was drawn by six yoke of oxen, driven by a teamster, who might be a white man or a delaware or a shawnee. with the train went great herds of horses to be sold when the settlements were reached. agent fitzpatrick says that the cheyennes moved with the train as far as pawnee fork, and then scattered on their hunt.

travel was slow, for the teams made but ten or twelve miles a day. on each trip they camped at about the same places, and to the men who accompanied the train the route was as well known as is the main street to the people of a small town. when camp was reached at night the wagons were corralled, the bulls freed from their yokes, and, in charge of the night herders, who during the day had been sleeping in the wagons,173 were driven off to the best grass and there fed and rested until morning, when they were driven back to the corral to be turned over to the teamsters. the horse herd was taken off in another direction, and held during the night by the horse night herders. within the great corral of wagons the fires were kindled, and the mess cooks prepared the simple meal of bread, already cooked, and coffee.

at daylight in the morning the oxen were brought in and yoked, the blankets tied up and thrown into the wagons, and long before the sun appeared the train was in motion. travel was kept up until ten or eleven o’clock, depending on the weather. if it was hot they stopped earlier; if cool, they travelled longer. then camp was made, the wagons were again corralled, the herds turned out, and the principal meal of the day, which might be called breakfast or dinner, was prepared. perhaps during the morning the hunters had killed buffalo or antelope, and this with bread satisfied the keen appetites of the men. if fresh meat had not been killed, there was always an abundance of dried meat, which every one liked. at two or three o’clock the herds were again brought in, and the train was set in motion, the journey continuing until dark or after. so the quiet routine of the march was kept up until the settlements were reached.

the whole train was in charge of the wagon-master, who was its absolute governing head. he fixed the length of the march, the time for starting and halting.174 if a difficult stream was to be crossed, he rode ahead of the train and directed the crossing of the first team, and then of all the others, not leaving the place until the difficulty had been wholly overcome. besides looking after a multitude of details, such as the shoeing of the oxen, the greasing of the wagons, which took place every two or three days, and the condition of the animals in the yokes, he also issued rations to the men, and was, in fact, the fountain of all authority. with the cavalyard8 were always driven a number of loose work-oxen, and if an animal in the yoke was injured, or became lame or footsore, it was turned into the herd and replaced by a fresh ox.

8 sp. caballada: literally, a herd of horses; more broadly, a herd of horses and work-cattle. also pronounced cávaya, and spelled in a variety of ways.

when the axles of the wagons were to be greased, the wheels were lifted from the ground by a very long lever, on the end of which several men threw themselves to raise the wagon, so that the wheel could be taken off. if one of the teamsters became sick or disabled, it was customary for the wagon-master to drive the leading team.

the train often consisted of from twenty to thirty wagons, most of them—in later years—laden with bales of buffalo robes on the way to the settlements, and returned full of goods. the front end of the wagon inclined somewhat forward, and about half-way down the front was a box, secured by a lock, in which the teamster kept the spare keys for his ox-bows, various175 other tools, and some of his own small personal belongings.

two hunters, one a white man, and the other a mexican, or indian, accompanied the train, and each morning, as soon as it was ready to start, they set out to kill game, and usually when the train came to the appointed camping-place, they were found there resting in the shade, with a load of meat. sometimes, if they killed an animal close to the road, they loaded it on a horse and brought it back to the trail, so that it could be thrown into a wagon when the train passed.

the shawnees and delawares were great hunters, and almost always when the train stopped for noon, and their cattle had been turned out and the meal eaten, these men would be seen striding off over the prairie, each with a long rifle over his shoulder.

in the train there were several messes. colonel bent and any member of his family, or visitor, messed together, the white teamsters and the mexicans also messed together, while the delawares and shawnees, by preference, messed by themselves. each man had his own quart cup and plate, and carried his own knife in its sheath. forks or spoons were not known. each man marked his own plate and cup, usually by rudely scratching his initials or mark on it, and when he had finished using it, he washed or cleansed it himself. each mess chose its cook from among its members. the food eaten by these travellers, though simple, was wholesome and abundant. meat was the staple; but176 they also had bread and abundant coffee, and occasionally boiled dried apples and rice. usually there was sugar, though sometimes they had to depend on the old-fashioned “long sweetening”; that is, new orleans molasses, which was imported in hogsheads for trade with the indians.

the train was occasionally attacked by indians, but they were always beaten off. in 1847 the comanches attacked the wagons at pawnee fork, but they were repulsed, and red sleeves, their chief, was killed. the fork is called by the indians red sleeves’ creek, in remembrance of this affair. charles hallock, who made the journey with one of these trains, wrote an account of an attack by comanches, which was printed in harper’s magazine, in 1859.

after the return to the post in autumn, the cattle were turned out into the herd, wagons ranged around outside of the corral, while the yokes and chains for each bull team were cared for by the driver of the team. usually they were carried into the fort and piled up in some shady place. the keys for the bows were tied to the yokes, and the chains lay close to them.

rarely a few ox-bows were lost by being taken away by the indians, who greatly coveted the hickory wood for the manufacture of bows. there was no hickory nearer than council grove, and if an indian could get hold of an ox-bow, he steamed and straightened it, and from it made a useful bow.

177 back at the fort only a few men were left; the clerks, a trader or two, and a few laborers and herders. there were frequent calls there by indians, chiefly war-parties stopping to secure supplies of arms and ammunition. hunting parties occasionally called to procure ordinary goods. parties of white travellers came and stayed for a little while, and then went on again. during this time especial precautions were taken against trouble with the indians. at night, the fort was closed early, and conditions sometimes arose under which admission to the fort might be refused by the trader. this watchfulness, which was never relaxed, was not caused by any special fear of indian attacks, but was merely the carrying out of those measures of prudence which colonel bent had always practised, and which he had so thoroughly inculcated in his men that they had become fixed habits.

usually the cheyenne indians were freely admitted to the fort, and were allowed to wander through it, more or less at will. they might go up on the roof and into the watch-tower, but were warned by the chiefs not to touch anything. they might go about and look, and, if they wished to, ask questions, but they were not to take things in their hands. toward the close of the day, as the sun got low, a chief or principal man went through the fort, and said to the young men who were lounging here and there: “now, soon these people will wish to close the gates of this house, and you had better now go out and return to your camps.” when this178 was said the young men always obeyed, for in those days the chiefs had control over their young men; they listened to what was said to them and obeyed.

on one occasion a war-party of shoshoni came down from the mountains and visited bent’s fort, and insisted on coming in. the trader in charge, probably murray, declined to let them in, and when they endeavored to force their way into the post, he killed one of them, when the others went away. the indian’s body was buried at some little distance from the fort, and his scalp was afterward given to a war-party of cheyennes and arapahoes.

* * * * *

in winter the scenes at the fort were very different. now it harbored a much larger population. all the employees were there, except a few traders and teamsters and laborers, who might be out visiting the different camps, and who were constantly going and returning. the greater part of the laborers and teamsters had little or nothing to do, and spent most of the winter in idleness, lounging about the fort, or occasionally going out hunting. besides the regular inhabitants there were many visitors, some of whom spent a long time at the fort. hunters and trappers from the mountains, often with their families, came in to purchase goods for the next summer’s journey, or to visit, and then, having supplied their wants, returned to their mountain camps. all visitors were welcome to stay as long as they pleased.

179 though the fort was full of idle men, nevertheless time did not hang heavy on their hands. there were amusements of various sorts, hunting parties, games, and not infrequent dances, in which the moccasined trappers, in their fringed, beaded, or porcupine-quilled buckskin garments swung merry-faced, laughing indian women in the rough but hearty dances of the frontier. to the employees of the fort liquor was ever dealt out with a sparing hand, and there is no memory of any trouble among the people who belonged at the post. it was a contented and cheerful family that dwelt within these four adobe walls.

perhaps the most important persons at the fort, after the directing head who governed the whole organization, were the traders, who dealt out goods to the indians in the post, receiving their furs in payment, and who were sent off to distant camps with loads of trade goods, to gather from them the robes which they had prepared, or to buy horses and mules.

of these traders there were seven or eight, of whom the following are remembered: murray, an irishman known to the indians as pau-ē-sih′, flat nose; fisher, an american, no-mā-ni′, fish; hatcher, a kentuckian, hē-him′ni-ho-nāh′, freckled hand; thomas boggs, a missourian, w?hk′ po-h?m′, white horse; john smith, a missourian, p?-o-om′mats, gray blanket; kit carson, a kentuckian, vi-hiu-n?s′, little chief, and charles davis, a missourian, ho-nih′, wolf.

l. maxwell, wo-w?hph′ pai-i-sih′, big nostrils, was180 the superintendent or foreman at the fort, but had nothing to do with the trading. he looked after the herds and laborers and fort matters in general.

murray, who was a good hunter and trapper, and a brave man, was one of the two more important men among the traders. he usually remained at the fort, and was almost always left in charge when the train went to the states. hatcher, however, was probably the best trader, and the most valued of the seven.

each of these traders had especial friendly relations with some particular tribe of indians, and each was naturally sent off to the tribe that he knew best. besides this, often when villages of indians came and camped somewhere near the post, the chiefs would request that a particular man be sent to their village to trade. sometimes to a very large village two or three traders would be sent, the work being more than one man could handle in a short period of time.

when it was determined that a trader should go out, he and the chief clerk talked over the trip. the trader enumerated the goods required, and these were laid out, charged to him, and then packed for transportation to the camp. if the journey were over level prairie, this transportation was by wagon, but if over rough country pack-mules were used. if on arrival at the camp the trader found that the trade was going to be large, and that he required more goods, he sent back his wagon, or some of his animals, to the post for additional supplies. when he returned from his trip181 and turned in his robes, he was credited with the goods that he had received. the trade for robes ended in the spring, and during the summer the traders often went to different villages to barter for horses and mules.

a certain proportion of the trade with the indians was for spirits, but this proportion was small. the indians demanded liquor, and though colonel bent was strongly opposed to giving it to them, he knew very well that unless he did something toward satisfying their demands, whiskey traders from santa fé or taos might come into the territory and gratify the indians’ longing for drink, and at the same time take away the trade from the fort. two or three times a year, therefore, after many visits from the chiefs, asking for liquor, promising to take charge of it and see to its distribution, and to be responsible that payment should be made for it, a lot of liquor would be sent out to a camp, packed in kegs of varying sizes. a trader coming into the villages would deposit his load in the lodge of the chief. the indians wishing to trade would come to the lodge and offer what they had to trade, and each would be assigned a keg of a certain size, sufficient to pay for the robes, horses, or mules that he sold. each indian then tied a piece of cloth or a string to his keg, so as to mark it as his, and it remained in the chief’s lodge, unopened for the present. when the trade had been completed, the trader left the village, and not until he had gone some distance did the182 chief permit the indians to take their kegs of liquor. sometimes while the traders were in a camp trading ordinary goods, a party of men from taos or santa fé would come into the camp with whiskey, and then at once there would be an end of all legitimate business until the indians had become intoxicated, drunk all the spirits, and become sober again. no trader ever wished to have whiskey in the camp where he was working.

we commonly think of the trade at one of these old forts as being wholly for furs, but at bent’s fort this was not the case. in later times furs—that is to say, buffalo robes—were indeed a chief article of trade, and were carried back to the states to be sold there; but a great trade also went on in horses and mules, of which the indians possessed great numbers, and of which they were always getting more. these horses and mules were taken back to the settlements and sold there, but they were also sold to any one who would buy them. the cavalyard was a part of every train which returned to the states, the animals being herded by mexicans and being in charge of a trader, who disposed of them when they reached the settlements.

the indians frequently paid for their goods in horses and mules, but this was not the only source from which horses came. about 1845 william bent sent his brother, george bent, with tom boggs and hatcher, down into mexico to trade for horses and mules. they brought back great herds, and with them a celebrated rider known at the fort, and in later years to183 all the cheyennes, as one-eyed juan, whose sole occupation was breaking horses, a vocation which he followed until he was too old to get into the saddle. it was said of him that when he wished to show off he would put a saddle on a wild horse, and placing a mexican dollar in each one of the huge wooden stirrups, would mount the horse, and no matter what the horse might do, these dollars were always found under the soles of the rider’s feet when the animal stopped bucking.

while the chief market at which the horses and mules were sold was st. louis, yet on at least one occasion hatcher took a herd of horses which had been bought wild from the comanches and broken by the mexicans at the fort over to taos and santa fé, and sold them there. occasionally they sold good broken horses to the indians for robes.

it must be remembered that a large proportion of these horses purchased from the indians, and especially from the comanches, were wild horses taken by the comanches from the great herds which ran loose on the ranches in mexico. practically all these horses bore mexican brands.

after the emigration to california began, herds of horses and mules were sent up to the emigrant trail on the north platte river, to be sold to emigrants on their way to california. on one occasion hatcher, with a force of mexican herders, was sent up there in charge of a great herd of horses and mules, and remained alongside184 the trail until he had disposed of all his animals. he carried back with him the gold and silver money received for them in leather panniers, packed on the backs of animals.

before starting on another similar trip, hatcher said to colonel bent: “it is useless to load down our animals with sugar, coffee and flour, to carry up there. we will take only enough to last us to the trail, and there we can buy all we need from the emigrants. moreover, they have great numbers of broken-down horses, and it would be a good idea to buy these for little or nothing, and then drive them back here and let them get rested and fat, and then we can take them up there and sell them again.” the wisdom of this was at once apparent, and the suggestion was followed out.

important members of the fort household were chipita; andrew green, the bourgeois’s cook; the old french tailor, whose name is forgotten, and the carpenter and the blacksmith.

chipita was the housekeeper and laundress, the principal woman at the post, and the one who, on the occasion of dances or other festivities, managed these affairs. she was a large, very good-natured, and kindly woman, and is said to have been half french and half mexican. she spoke french readily. she was married to one of the employees of the fort.

andrew green, the black cook, has already been spoken of as having ultimately been set free.

the old french tailor had come up from new orleans.185 he had a shop in one of the rooms of the fort, where he used to make and repair clothing for the men. much of this clothing was of buckskin, which he himself dressed, for he was a good tanner.

in winter the teamsters and laborers usually spent their evenings in playing cards and checkers in the quarters by the light of tallow candles, the only lights they had to burn. these candles were made at the fort, chipita doing the work. they were moulded of buffalo tallow, in old-fashioned tin moulds, perhaps a dozen in a set. the work of fixing the wicks in the moulds occupied considerable time. the tallow was then melted, the refuse skimmed from it, the fluid grease poured into the moulds, and the wicks, which hung from the top, were cut off with a pair of scissors. then the moulds were dipped in a barrel of water standing by, to cool the candles, and presently they were quite hard, and could be removed from the moulds, ready for use.

in the winter chipita would sometimes vary the monotony of the life by getting up a candy-pulling frolic, in which the laborers and teamsters all took part, and which was more or less a jollification. during the afternoon and evening the black new orleans molasses, which was used in the indian trade, was boiled, and after supper the people gathered in one of the rooms and pulled the candy. candy such as this was a great luxury, and was eagerly eaten by those who could get it.

186 the work of the carpenter and blacksmith, whose shops stood at the back of the fort, was chiefly on the wagons, which they kept in good order. for them winter was the busy season, for it was their duty to have everything in good order and ready for the train to start out in april.

in the store of the fort—presumably for sale to travellers or for the use of the proprietors—were to be found such unusual luxuries as butter-crackers, bent’s water-crackers, candies of various sorts, and, most remarkable of all, great jars of preserved ginger of the kind which fifty or sixty years ago used to be brought from china. elderly people of the present day can remember, when they were children, seeing these blue china jars, which were carried by lines of vegetable rope passed around the necks of the jars, and can remember also how delicious this ginger was when they were treated to a taste of it.

at the post were some creatures which greatly astonished the indians. on one of his trips to st. louis st. vrain purchased a pair of goats, intending to have them draw a cart for some of the children. on the way across the plains, however, one of them was killed, but the one that survived lived at the fort for some years and used to clamber all over the walls and buildings. the creature was a great curiosity to the plains people, who had never before seen such an animal, and they never wearied of watching its climbing and its promenading along the walls of the fort. as it grew older it187 became cross, and seemed to take pleasure in scattering little groups of indian children and chasing them about. the southern cheyennes went but little into the mountains at this time, and but few of them had ever seen the mountain sheep. if they had, they would not have regarded the domestic goat with so much wonder.

the post was abundantly supplied with poultry, for pigeons, chickens, and turkeys had been brought out there, and bred and did well. at one time george bent brought out several peacocks, whose gay plumage and harsh voices astonished and more or less alarmed the indians, who called them thunder birds, n?n-um′ā-ē-v?′k?s.

there was no surgeon at the fort, colonel bent doing his own doctoring. he possessed an ample medicine-chest, which he replenished on his trips to st. louis. he had also a number of medical books, and no doubt these and such practical experience as came to him with the years made him reasonably skilful in the rough medicine and surgery that he practised. with the train he carried a small medicine-chest, which occasionally came into play.

for many years bent’s fort was the great and only gathering-place for the indians in the southwestern plains, and at different times there were large companies of them present there.

at one time no less than three hundred and fifty lodges of kiowa apaches were camping near the fort on the south side of the river, and at another, according188 to thomas boggs, six or seven thousand cheyennes were camped there at one time. when the kiowas, comanches, and apaches were camped about the fort the number of indians was very large. it must be remembered that prior to 1849 the indians of the southwest had not been appreciably affected by any of the new diseases brought into the country by the whites. this was largely due to the forethought of william bent, who, by his action in 1829, when smallpox was raging at his stockade, protected the cheyennes and arapahoes at least, and very likely other indians, from the attacks of this dread disease.

shortly after the great peace between the cheyennes, arapahoes, kiowas, comanches, and apaches, which was made in 1840, the two great camps moved up to bent’s fort, the cheyennes and arapahoes camping on the north side of the river, the kiowas, comanches, and apaches on the south. it was a great gathering of indians, and the feasting, singing, dancing, and drumming were continuous. though peace had just been made, there was danger that some of the old ill feeling that had so long existed between the tribes yet remained. colonel bent, with his usual wisdom, warned his employees that to these camps no spirits whatever should be traded. he recognized that if the indians got drunk they would very likely begin to quarrel again, and a collision between members of tribes formerly hostile might lead to the breaking of the newly made peace. this was perhaps the greatest189 gathering of the indians that ever collected at fort william. how many were there will never be known.

such, briefly, is the story of bent’s fort, the oldest, largest, and most important of the fur trading posts on the great plains of the united states. unless some manuscript, the existence of which is now unknown, should hereafter be discovered, it is likely to be all that we shall ever know of the place that once held an important position in the history of our country.

bent’s fort long ago fell to ruins, but it has not been wholly forgotten. up to the year 1868 the buildings were occupied as a stage station, and a stopping-place for travellers, with a bar and eating-house; but soon after that, when the railroad came up the arkansas river, and stage travel ceased, the old post was abandoned. from that time on, it rapidly disintegrated under the weather.

in the autumn of 1912 i stood on this historic spot, still bare of grass, and marked on two sides by remains of the walls, in some places a mere low mound, and in others a wall four feet high, in which the adobe bricks were still recognizable. here and there were seen old bits of iron, the fragment of a rusted horseshoe, of a rake, and a bit of cast-iron which had been part of a stove and bore letters and figures which could be made out as portions of the words “st. louis, 1859.”

the land on which the fort stood was owned by a public-spirited citizen, mr. a. e. reynolds, of denver, col., and here within the walls of the old fort he has190 placed a granite stone to mark its site and to commemorate its history. he has given the land over to the care of the daughters of the american revolution to be used as a public park for the counties of otero and bent, colo.

william bent, whose life was devoted to the upbuilding of the southwest, will always be remembered as the one who placed on that fertile and productive empire the stamp “settled.”