Show MY Ff fAT flERS AERS LIFE SHED ON THE PLAINS BY all I 1 gian CHIEF chier illier r Cip tied ind bound to i t st qt ike libel libet it cited ed on giving g secret si ji ii to andrin on n other occasion simulated cited enill 11 I 1 lox joy sties S ties ind and his avite ini 1111 in anent death DAD OLD TIMER ON PLAINS my father was forty eight when I 1 was born so that alwais always there was too great a gap gip between us in years for him eer ever to have told me much of his early plains life incidents with ith the hostile and thrill ing episode in his adventurous life dad ran away from home alen he was eleven roughed and it in n a logger s camp in pennsylvania got bad habits listened to the siren song ot of the west and hied him thither in 1855 IS 5 5 when it idas its wildest and woolliest and surely from 1855 to 1867 it was the rough est and toughest place ever with more men with a past than in any other spot on earth toted a gun helped in lynch ings and I 1 in proud ot of it trapped hunted hauled wag on liter lifter wagon of freight from oma ha clear up as far as fort phil kear ney was at that historic old fort when col fetterman and about eighty more were rubbed out by indians and personally hauled the corpses from that miss acre in his wagons back to the fort three and four deep in his wagon coutant in hia his history ot of wro ming notes for the second volume says of A C his life was full of adventure and a book could be written of his many thrill ling adventures and hair bredeh escapes from the indians he lost his wagons and all his goods were burned before his eyes in more than one indian raid in to dig up things about th I 1 wrote to the state historian of chesenee Ch Chey esene erie who nho by the way was my school principal when I 1 was mas a conceited young snob of a boy and found from her that dad built the first frame house in cheyenne was its first marshall and volumes cited to me ine where I 1 could get more dope on him he knew tommie cahoon jim bridger was well acquainted with many high up IT U P officials played politics pulled wires had a stack 0 money bigger thin avarice whatever thai that is 19 and went down to tame fame tor for be ing the father of the most wonderful wonder tu son ever ho ho ho hum what a whopper get down to the story beckwith get down to the story we read your head lines oh oll yes leah bah As I 1 was sayin I 1 wrote all over got in touch with a man who was present when tom mie canon cahon was scalped had two of tommie s relatives in my office in delaet on august of this year 1930 wrote to my brother fred three years older than I 1 but he knew nothing of dad a blank the same as I 1 was put my brother john who died a few years ago was nearly a score of years older than I 1 born in wild nebraska when it was all e 0 that who knew dad and his escapades and I 1 wrote to his widow mrs lill 1111 lan ian beckwith and here it what my sister in law writes me I 1 have several clippings which it if I 1 can find them may help you I 1 remember john aeling me of the time your father was captured I 1 think it was in nebraska the indians burned two of his kneght wagons full of costly freight ran off his horses bound him and tied him to a stake you know reader what that meant in the aborigines mind hughh I 1 I 1 im in proud 0 dad t what a life your father expected lo 10 be killed next day and you can imagine his thought as he stood there lashed to his edath stake about midnight some one lightly touched him and gave him a mason ic le sign which he answered in kind tor for dad was a mason tor for many many years and the INDIAN cut the ropes and told him to go fast tor for it if they caught him in the morn ing they would sure kill him when they tied him to the stake they had taken his shoes off so he was barefooted he struck a dry creek bed and travelled as fast as he could all night that the first time I 1 knew thit albut dad gettin prouder ot of im ev ry day dayt nor Is that all listen to what my brother brothers s wife has more to tell on another occasion our father saw some hostile indians riding to get him and his wife coming like the wind all painted and yelling like demons not a second was to be lost there was only your father and john 9 mother alone easy prey to them so he quickly made john s mother lie down instantly covered her up and as he knew indian and could talk it he spoke to them in the sign language and motioned them to stay away as his squaw had small pox they went as fast as possible I 1 knew of two other narrow es capes dad had but these two were new to me on the region th roam od pd not all at once but at times were crows the sparrow hawk people as they properly called them selves the the sioux and he has traded with the arapa hoes the pawnees and the black feet he ile knew chief washakie those were the days and dad was among embate tho I 1 edge it I 1 in proud of such a sire frank beckwith sr |