Show THE FW mi with tt THEY WITH DEADLY FIFE hundred eu eoute from salt lake valley wellington kansas april 19 A special to the standard brought by a courier to south haven and from there telephoned to this city says pawnee bills colony consisting of wagons left hunnewell yesterday and is now water bound at the salt fork of the arkansas twenty miles south of that city in indian territory while attempting lo 10 ford the swollen and turbulent stream a man named breither Fr either and his horses were drowned in full view of the frightened colonists who were unable to render him any assistance but the accident demonstrated that fording was out of the question and the whole colony is now engaged in the construction of a huge raft upon which they hope to float over to the other side with their teams and outfits this afternoon a train of vehicles containing colonists bound for oklahoma from salt lake valley utah and points in colorado passed six miles west on their southern journey ARKANSAS CITY april 19 the change of date for crossing the cherokee strip line by the oklahoma settlers from the today to day to yesterday the made the number of wagons of the first batch to cross the line smaller than it would otherwise have been succeeding events show the change to have been a wise one despite the solid five miles of wagons which went into the stripe yesterday morning the influx during the rest of the day was enormous word that the movement would occur today had become widespread to the north and many settlers who otherwise would have been here for the start remained in their camps until the afternoon of yesterday late in the day thero continued to bo almost a continuous stream of wagons on summit street most of the afternoon arrivals camped here and only a few entered the strip for there is but one stream between horse and salt creek fork fit to camp on and that is only five miles from the north line of the strip CALDWELL april 19 two thousand camp fires glimmered along the old beno trail last night from caldwell to pond creek today to day a thousand canvas covered wagons are slowly moving along the trail tho day was favorable and notwithstanding tho late heavy rains the trail was in a very good condition the most popular outfit is a strong canvas cov ered wagon drav two large stout horses and the horses of the boomers are all looking in good condition some large bagans have four or six horses some parties are mounted on ponies and carry a whole camp outfit behind their saddles some are crossing the in buggies one odd turnout is a large high old fashioned buggy drawn by two shaggy yellow horbes with a colt batched bitched by its mother and a black cow tied behind the driver is a woman and sho drove with one hand while in the other she supported a little child A lehocky headed youngster of ten followed behind the woman was a kansas widow seeking a home in the promised land all stories to the contrary notwithstanding it does not seem that there cau beany trouble among those who are driving over the trail today to day they are as fine a body as ever went into tho new country east of them are kansas and nebraska farmers and although a gun is in every wagon and across every saddle bow their owners are men who will use them to keep the peace and net make trouble most of the wagon boomers got out of yesterday and this mom ing there were about four thousand of them many of them have little or no money but almost all well equipped for camp life salt fort pond creek and all other streams in the crip it is thought can ba corded forded although every one is very high all is doubt about the chances of fording the cimarron and a wagon left caldwell lasi night bearing a large boat with which the owners expect to start a ferry april 19 last night the old soldiers union colony of this city held its last meeting before going into oklahoma the colony consists of old soldiers of these will leave monday to look up homesteads each under a soldier claim some members will go by train they have started a wagon train with supplies of tents provisions and a raft sufficiently large to ferry all accoutrements across any stream between hero and oklahoma the old soldiers colony of Wh ichita started ten wagons yesterday they will enter at Caldwel lLand register Ee gister dillie returned last night from oruth rio he says the roof is on his land office and it will be ready for occupation tonight to night the land offices at king fisher and at guthrie held a consultation last night and gave out an as to the manner in which applicants for claims should be filed two hundred land filings por day will bs tho limit of each office word brought here last night from burcell Tur cell by a man who was there yesterday says a great deal of lawlessness exists along the southern boun dary of oklahoma he says a man was held ap in the streets of parcell in broad daylight and robbed of the boomers deev the law they have purchase J c r hired every available horse in tue neighborhood and will mount and wade through the canadian river just before noon on monday when the signal flag drops at noon share there will be a desperate land race on the opposite bank gamblers and toughs declare they will let no one pass a certain distance who is not one of them the town is full of special correspondents who are writing from imagination and against space A cowboy from caldwell who arrived late last night says the cimarron is very high and that up to the time he left eighteen persons had been drowned while trying to ford streams no definite information can be learned of the drowned at one time this morning there was over a hundred wagons on the streets the arkansas and walnut rivers are rising rapidly the walnut has sone up ten feet since this morning congressman gressman on weaver of iowa will arrive tonight to night ho says he will take up a claim near guthrie this morning at Chilli coco station five hundred texas cattle were let loose on the prairie A train of boomers were passing at the time and the cattle stampeded the cattle hitched to the wagons the latter were mixed with the texas cattle and were lost to their owners A man named watson from sterling nebraska while trying to preserve his outfit from the enraged cattle was trampled under foot and badly injured april 19 A rush of eople will try to take the aock land route between today to day and monday cattle men are making no attempt to protect their fences on the strip and the boomers are cutting them hundreds of miles of fences will be broken to pieces the travel is so great that the aock island almost despairs being able to accommodates the passengers one colony of will leave wichita tomorrow general passenger agent sebastiao as soon as he heard of the possible trouble greek telegraphed to wichita that the road would furnish free transportation to teams and wagons if tickets were sold to the owners the travelers to provide their own transportation from pond creek manager green of the stage line cannonball cannon ball green as he is known throughout the southwest is buying all the horses to ba had here and in the neighboring country ho shipped twenty six to pond creek this morning fourteen stages in addition to those used by the old fort keno line which are at pond creek were shipped from wellington today to day aock island officials who returned from pond creek this say the reports of high water ha been greatly exaggerated and thai captain woodson reports from the frontier that there will be i no trouble with the streams this stream of wagons continued unabated all through today to day one man who lives close to the bridge line kept count of the teams passing and up to 4 this afternoon eleven hundred and fifty three had gone to oklahoma four hundred teams corded forded salt fork river a few miles south of the terminus of the rock island road in the indian territory CHICAGO april 20 A special dispatch to the times from purcell indian territory says there has been a battle between the united states officers and tho boomers who were taken prisoners several of them were severely wounded and a deputy marshal slightly hurt A raid was made by the united states deputy marshals this afternoon on the boomers who had disregarded the proclamation and taken up claims in oklahoma for several days men on horseback and in wagons have been seen fording the bouth canadian kiver north of purcell and dispersing in the timber to the eastward men who came in from hunting trips resorted having seen large bodies of corners moving in a north easterly direction and a hunter who arrived last night declared he found a man plowing in a secluded valley about twenty miles from purcell this morning at sunrise thirteen prairie schooners ners well manned crossed the santa fe track below this city and corded forded the river and were soon out of sight they were seen however and leading citizens called a meeting the feeling against the trespassers ran high and inside of thirty minutes half a dozen fiery speeches had been made it was finally decided that the chief deputy marshal be called upon io try to expel the raiders he said he would do so and immediately sent one of the assistants to rally bis men this afternoon the chief deputy accompanied by thirteen deputies rode down to the river and took the same ford there was a fresh trail leading to the northeast and the party followed this at a gallop about four miles out one of the men noticed a thin cloud of smoke rising above the cottonwoods cotton woods to the A halt was called and three of men four wagons about feet from the trail and men seated aromnd afire eating dinner these were unceremoniously ordered to hitch up and were sent back under one of the deputy marshals the remainder of the posse de played as skirmishers and advanced slowly several miles suddenly a shot was heard on the left and a bullet clipped the leaf above the head of the party A minute later a volley rang outa in front and the pony adden by one of the deputies sank to the ground with a bullet in his head the chief of the deputies called out for his men to charge each his winchester and surged forward they fired into the thicket and shouted like madmen there was no response for several minutes and the men began to think they had dispersed their assailants they soon discovered their mistake A man popped up from behind a log and fired at them and this was the signal foran for an other fusillade fusi lade from ms friends he retreated down the ravine just in time to escape the fire of the deputies who continued to advance and pump their repeaters half way down the ravine the deputies discovered a barricade of toys and across the entrance and simultaneously a voice exclaimed now give it to them boys A sheet of fialo poured from the face of the barrier and another shower of bullets spread towards the officers they had been sufficiently warned however but one of their number was hit his wound wis not serious the chief deputy ordered a retreat and gathered his men about him for a council of war it was evident tho barricade was quite heavily manned and a direct assault would have proved disastrous and therefore it was decided to divide the party and attack tho blanks of the enemy at a given signal they began shooting from the top of the ravine right into the boomers who were utterly unable to defend themselves from such an attack ten minutes of rapid airing ensued and then a cry for quarter went up from the barricade we surrender shouted a man when the firing ceased A hasty advance to the fort and the officers were in charge of thirty prisoners several of whom were severely wounded two of these will probably die has a bullet in his left lung and winship through his abdomen martia fallen of gainesville texas received a ball in the left thigh john T white fart worth was struck in the shoulder samuel dod of north carolina has a deep gash in his forehead edward frisbey of texas suffers from a shattered arm john young of louisiana is shot through the shoulder the prisoners all of whom had rifles and revolvers and plenty of ammunition were disarmed and the wounded cared for as well as possible under the circumstances and the march to pore all was taken up their captain edward said he had been concealed in a ravine three days and his party was the advance guard of more than who through agents sent ahead had selected their claims and proposed to hold them with winchesters Win chesters against all comers and the other prisoners were taken to tho prison pen five miles southwest of purcell and placed under a strong guard As but one of the marshals was wounded and his injury is trifling the charge of murder cannot be brought against the men they may be tried for resisting arrest but the belief is that they will bo released after oklahoma is opened |