Show browns park men of pioneer days by PRANK FRANK V GOODMAN under the above heading according to the express an article was printed in the denver field and Farm Parm which in the main Is fairly correct still it does not give a full account of those old timers pretty much all dead and gone except myself james H hoy herbert basset and perhaps bother another one or two about the hoy bro brothel theis s there were several of them frank james valentine harly i y and ade As stated in the article menti mentioned oried valentine was killed by the bandit teacy A man by the name of johnson the same man who killed the strang boyla I 1 remember right was interested in that affair this same johnson used to herd sheep and move camp for me before he went to the bad it is not often you hear of a bad man being knocked out by an old ewe still this same johnson whilst working for me dipping sheep was hit on the side of the head by an old ewe he was chasing in the corral and knocked colder than a wedge it took him several days to get over it A little more and mr johnsons days would have been numbered and the strang boy might have been living today james is living in the park today I 1 understand frank was an old union soldier bad ly wounded I 1 think at pitts pitta burg landing and contracted chronic dior diarrhea rhea which like myself he brought out of the army with him and from which I 1 believe he finally died harry I 1 believe taught school one term in evanston Bv ancton wyo after living in the park some botne years he went to alaska did not get rich there but came back broken in health and died soon after coming coining back ade was a horseman an and d left the park with a bunch of horses and drifted back east As stated elated james ii living in the park yet about the there were severa lbrothers of them and many other relatives george gardien Har dlen dien and sam As stated harding was kill ed whilst digging a cellar 1 I think on the old chestnut place at the mouth of big brush creek soon after I 1 bought this place here on lit tle tie brush creek of him geo died several years before him for a while at least georges headquarters when running cattle was on little bitter creek about 28 miles from rock springs he had a double cabin there and corral and two or three years after his death I 1 sheared my sheep there and handled the wool to green river sam settled on the south fork of vermillion none of them ever settled in beaver bag basin that I 1 know of althou although sams ranch on the sou south fork is not al a great ways fro from beaver basin these men were from north carolina not south carolina sam was an old confederate soldier and sold out his cattle a number ol of years ago and bought sheep made it a lot of money off them sold out and I 1 understand is living in california today my first wife was foster mother continued on page 8 BROWNS PARK MEN DIEN OF PIONEER DAYS continued from page 1 to one of sams same children a girl who la Is living today we lived close together in rock roch springs that winter jack gum was one of the old time cattle men who sold out and got out of the business with money he did marry a canadian woman a sister of charley and augus angus mcdougall angus aligns Is living in rock spring yet or was charles mcdougall was a carpenter and lived in rock springs I 1 worked for dimand helped widen the now new bridge across big dittem creek in rock springs he was afterwards elected marshal of rock springs and was killed there in a saloon fracas whilst arresting tl a man I 1 think more than likely pat will remember the circumstance as pat and band old man jaynes worked together about that time at hop kinville uville kl the article mentioned states that george richards was an old confederate soldier and married a mormon girl this Is another mistake george told me if I 1 remember right he was a captain in an indiana cavalry regiment he married a girl or young woman rather by the name of jones mrs richards mother married ft a man by the name of goodson and lived on willow creek in browns park and was I 1 think the first settled on willow creek I 1 was living on green river at what wits was known as the old milk ranch four miles above green river city when george richards married her my younger brother fred a noted violinist in that part of the country at that time went down to green river city by special invitation and played at the wedding george richards Rich aids was waa county commissioner of sweetwater county for a term or more he finally sold his cattle and bought sheep and made considerable money oft off them after his death mis richards mairley charles Go gossling soling with whom you are all doubtless more or loss less acquainted their home I 1 be lieve is in ogden george richards used to be an old trapper and wintered one winter all alone at new fork lake the east fork of green river that country it pretty well settled up now the next winter he wintered at jacksons lake at the lead head of one prong or fork 0 of f big 1319 snake inako river that Is the way lie he made his start to go into the cattle business the smiths you speak of john smith was a canadian and used to be conductor on a pas train in the grand trunk railway my old partner charlie buckman ed him land pirate smith to distinguish him from some of the other smiths in the county buckman was a character I 1 must tell you about some other time one of berdans U S sharpshooters at al the time odthe the civil war and he nicknamed smith land pirate from his having nn an idea from some source that smith used to do a little smuggling across the line while running as conductor olf on th grand trunk when I 1 alist got acquainted with smith lie he and old wes thurman wele V living together in a dugout dug out or spring creek about 8 or 10 miles from geoage richardf richard place at the red cleek gap they sm smith ith and old wes moved from there afterwards up onto the Pont fontanelle anelle and smith went in with the station agent at green river and went down into now new mexico and bought a small bunch of half breed sheep aud and trailed them up as far as laramie I 1 believe and shipped them from there up to green river city on the U P and trailed them from there up onto the fontanelle ta about GO 60 miles they also run pat barretts DArrett ts cattle at the same time smith did not die a rich man as your correspondent appeals appeal s to think he married nn an indian woman a Shoshone and died a comparatively poor man and thuran old wes wea I 1 cut coult say aay tor for sure it if he is living yet after smiths death he moved on to the next stream la barge and was waa justice of the peace for some time I 1 myself built the first cabin on la barge and wintered there one winter at the gap ped the next spring and caught 87 big beaver out of one camp all alone although wes was a great bear hunter I 1 hardly think you would find him or any one else going after a crippled bear in the bi blush asb if they had had any experience with wounded bear I 1 did know of one man that did this foolish act and as I 1 was foolish enough to follow him I 1 will tell you about it the man was charlie bentley who started the first saloon in old ashley town many of your readers will remembert him it was on bear river in colliado Coloia ado do the bear was an old she bear with three cubs with her and as charlie had levei killed a bear up to that time and 1 I a few hays bo be toie foie had met two face to face on a trail up tip white river round a steep bluff and as one or the other had to give up the trail and we both got obstinate both the bear and 1 I we had to fight it out I 1 was using a 50 caliber ballard sporting rifle single shot and I 1 got one each shot so when we run onto the old bear on bear rivet a few days after wal maids ds chat chaille lie I 1 suppose thought it was up to him to do something in the way of bear hunting any way he be wounded her from across t the i liver iver in the fleshy part of one thigh she swam the river cubs and all on to the side we were on he had got below tier her by this time and as she run round us its and into the finish sil I 1 made a running shot as she entered the brush and broke tier her leg above tile the foot behind but she got into the brush and got away believe me if I 1 had been alone I 1 should have left her there seeing that we burn tier her out but charlie over persuaded me to follow him into the brush after hei bei T antly was at aimed mod with a U ri 4 cavalie needle carbine also a 50 caliber well any way in wo we went after going in breaking a trail for 20 or 30 yards here she came through the brush like a shot out of a gun now see the luck of some men dently bently had his thumb on tile the hammer of his gun and as he stepped back tits his heel caught on a willow forcing him to sit down with the bear over him however lie he pulled tile the hammer of his gun back as lie he sat down so that when lie he pulled the trigger the ball went in the corner of her mouth and up through the top of her head killing tier her instantly she f fell ell on charlies feet and the powder from the shot he made burned the corner of her mouth but we aro are getting away from old wes tills this bear killing of bentleys was before ithe ahe meeker massaccie massacci Mass acie e it was bontley bentley and I 1 that na named med pot cheek on oil diamond mountain 9 from the water standing in po I 1 holes along on the creek old wes thurman was laid haid of beai healing ing and lie he did make a practice of drawing his hut cher knife and putting in ills his mouth beffie lie he made a shot at bear thurman was an old union soldier too and I 1 think belonged to an all iowa regiment a at the time of the war I 1 think lie he was homo home on veteran furlough at tile the time of the sioux Minni sota massacre at now new ulm in minnesota anyway wes was in that affair and came west af afterwards ter wards tile the last time I 1 saw old wes we N was as at grangeia Gran gei on the U P whilst I 1 was waiting for a train over the 0 S L granger then being the end of the oregon short title line wea was was wall going up tip to F vanston evanston to 0 o see se about an increase in ills hia pension needless to say eay we put plat in tf the ie night together As for den ben holliday I 1 cannot say much match about him personally so I 1 think he sold out ills ats interests in the overland stage line to wells pargo fargo and company this line used to run through by way u ay of sweetwater and south pass it was afterwards moved further south and came by way of plue pine grove station atlon it ind and what was known as bridgers pass across the continental divide jess jeas ewing used to tend station on that line I 1 think at la clede on big bitter creek these stations all named I 1 think about evely third station being a home station with a telegraph opel atol there most of them had a cellar under the station with a tunnel ti inning from the cellar out to another cellar 20 or 30 maids away with about one log above the glouid with leop loopholes holes to shoot out of thea always kept a barrel of wa fei and supplies in so if the indians indian burned the station down tile the station tender bat tills this cellar to fall back to my first acquaintance with jesse ewing was in the old stage station arloss the liver flom where gheen river city or old adobe town rather used to stand jesse jess 8 awl ewing u g and the bell brothers jesse and john were camped there then this was after ti the ie stages had been moved further west or after they had been taken off altogether for that winter the U P and C P came together at promontory y we ate mot moie e than one meal of beaver meat there together that epding before for I 1 started down the river with maj J W powells exploring expedition mentioning als jesse e E kitic in connection with the overland lemonds me of a little ti time n ie jesse ethil had with the indians whilst keeping station on bitter creek some of your re adeis probably will aemer le member aber that uncle jess was an aigist arth the knife he made ills his own by tile the way and could make a no I 1 bowle bowie knife well a party of sioux cattle came to tile the station about dark and started jesse to getting supper for them now jesse was an old timer on the pa plains tills and could talk pretty fait indian at any rate afeei lie got things to going and it had got quite daik lie he took tits his knife and made an excuse to go outside after meat a one 0 of the indians stood guald at the door and as jesso jesse went out lie he made a quick thrust with the knife and caught mr indian about the solar plexus gave tile the knife a quick twist and liked hiked fol foi the brush the indians burned the station run off tile the rose JL se after lying out all night got on tho the stage stag when it came along next day and lived to knife more men the boll bell brothels mentioned had been down and wintered in browns park that wilibel and I 1 think were tile the ailt disco discoverers of tile the willow cheek mining district they had a sister mal danied I 1 led to comstock I 1 think antony comstock the discoverer of tile the comstock ledge in nevada where lnla city now nona stands and that puts me in mind 01 ol an experience jesse bell had with a bear that same spring A patty left green river city that spring consisting of the be bell 11 brothers johnnie keins johnnie johnnee cariol old wes thur man chaille buckman at al kanner and to pro prospect in ili the owl creek range they crowding the snow and had to lie over on horse creek or cottonwood to watt wait for the snow to go off a few poa cable shoshone indrani around and they ila had found where a big bear had lug dug a c cae ano and wintered and had not left yet so they told tile the boys about it knowing that some of them would ten tend d to mr bear jesse dell bell thought to have all the fun to himself and he did leaving the camp one day aimed with a small muzzle loading rifle about a 36 caliber and a colts navy I 1 traded to him hill for a sack of flour lie he went to hunt mr bear he found him and from the looks of the sign lie he must have shot the beat bear at the mouth month of the d den ell it seems that lie he lacked a whole lot of making a dead shot for although he emptied every shot from the six shooter er into hirn him mr bear got a hold of him and chewed him up pretty bad when the boys found him they found mr bear dead not far away and jessie the bear had family scalped scalded him with one lick catching him back of the head and tearing pretty much all tile the tilde hide and hair off so that it hung down over his eyes they had to take him in to fort bridger and he finally got all right although always a little flighty after it which ls iq not to be wondered at |