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Show OLD TIMER TELLS OF INDIAN FIGHTING; SKIRMISH RECALLED IN BLACK HAWK WAR SALT LAKE CITY The whistling slug from the rifle of a bloodthirsty Ute missed its mark way back in '66 and as a result John H. Woodbury, a pioneer of '47, is now able to relate his personal per-sonal experiences in early Indian uprisings in Utah. Although the bullet missed Woodbury, his mule was not so fortunate and with the collapse of his steed Woodbury faded the I necessity of running and running fast to "keep his hair on." His experience of the early daysn was recalled to the mind of Mr. Woodbury Wood-bury as a result of the "Covered Wagon Days" celebration, to be held in Salt Lake City July 24-26, which he will attend, together with several other pioneers of '47, as a guest of honor. I It was during the Black Hawk war that Woodbury escaped the deadly intent in-tent of a warring Ute. "I thought I was going to miss ; that war in the first place," he said. ! "I told 'era I couldn't leave and I gave twenty-five dollars to help U fitting out some one else. Then toward evening Henry Dinwoody and Thomas McClellan came around and wanted me to take my team and drive some of the men to camp. I "'Bout sixty of us went from the j city, fifty as infantry and ten on horseback. When we got to a camp j between Big and Little Cottonwood Cayons nobody wanted me to go back so I went on with'em and we all camped camp-ed at the head of Spanish Fork cayon i nearly a month. I "The Indians had been driving off cattle and horses of the settlers and j taking them up into the Strawberry. We camped along the Indain's trails and tried to head them off but after we had been there a month and hadn't had-n't seen any Redskins we got kind of careless. "One day when all the fellows on horses were out and there wasn't many of us left in camp, George Lambert rushed in and said he had just seen a big Newfoundland dog. We guessed it was an Indian in bearskin. bear-skin. A little later we saw some figures fig-ures moving in the brush and when we shot at them, they went off. We found moccasin tracks and I told 'em then, 'Be a wonder if we don't see Indains before night." "Just as I started out to round up the horses, I heard a gun go off. 1 was on a mule, and I spurred him up towards the cedars to see what the trouble was. A couple of the fellows staggered out in the open. The redskins red-skins 'd got 'em. One of them, a fellow (Continued on Editorial page) OLD TIMER TELLS OF INDIAN FIGHTING IN EARLY DAYS OF UTAH (Continued from page one) named Brown, died before we could get him back to camp Then I saw the Indians riding toward us, waving blankets to stampede the horses, and shooting One of them got the mule I was riding through the lung and nose, but he sure missed me. "They had better guns than we had and more of 'em We only had two long range rifles in the camp. I ran to get mine, and as I got into camp, I saw a buck leanin' over Brown's body, ready to scalp him. I shot, and he dropped his knife and ran for his horse. We found the knife afterwards. after-wards. "Captain Dewey sent two express riders to Mt. Pleasant for help. The Indians kept coming back, and we had trouble with them all day. They were part of Chief Taby's tribe. He was friendly, and wouldn't have let his Indians In-dians attack us, if he'd been there, but he was away, and Jim, his son-in-law started 'em out. They got away with most of our horses before they were hrough. Suppose they took the herd up to Fair-view" or some place near, and sold it, for we never saw any of 'em again. Mr. Woodbury still has the gun he used on that day. It is a Springfield muzzzle loader riflle, made in 1855, with a forty inch barrel. ' "I can shoot half a mile with it easily," he said. Mr. Woodbury also possesses a U. S. army sword that was made in 1865. John Haskell Woodbury was born September 11, 1845, on a farm which his family bad purchased from Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois. His parents par-ents were Catharina Rebecca and Thomas Hobart Woodbury, and they arrived, with their one small son in the valley of the Great Lake in September, Sep-tember, 1847. "About the first thing I remember, was moving from the old fort to our cabin down on the lot between Fifth and Sixth South and First and Second West. It was known as Old Orchard Square, as my father planted the first nursery in the state there. "I went to school down on the corn-. corn-. er of West Temple and Fifth South. A man named Parker was the teacher, "Pegleg" Parker, we boys called him. I The sides of the room were covered with willows, and the top was brush ! like the bowery. We had logs with j legs in 'em for benches. I "We were playin' King's Base one I j day down by the school house, and I Miles Romney was chasin' me. I J looked back to see how close he was, and put my leg in a cedar post hole. They all fell over me. I was laughing until I tried to get up, and then the boys found I couldn't walk. They carried me home. My leg was broken at the hip. It took three men to get it back in place, and I lay in bed six weeks with a box built around it for a cast. It was such a novelty that all the kids in town came to see it, and they fetched me the measles, whooping whoop-ing cough and chicken pox," he added ruefully. "The Indians used to call me little "White Head." When I got all dressed dress-ed up in my suit of buckskin with a rabbit skincap, I thought I looked pretty fine. Mr. Woodbury has farmed most of his life. When he was a very young boy he was sent down to his father's farm near Murray to take care of stock, and later went to Weber and Dixie. He moved to Granger on the site of his present home in 1893. His wife who died several years ago, was Sarah A. Bray, and of his nine children, four are living: They are: Catharine W. Eldredge, William Henry, Wan-en Haskell, and Harrison. |