Show 0 ornda dl L 04 0 urea diersman california joe in theolar k t hill 1 e ec c vol V e no 64 p CALIFOR it ft NIA ad JOE fl the mysterious Mys telious plainsman b r th zil ily COU avain a e e 2 RUA guiv axa SM IM e oe 14 41 e 4 ar ze z e eq e q r 1 6 01 0 xa SAM 00 a L 2 californi Califor nw 2 joe ro a mi by ELMO SCOTT WATSON MONG the tangled briars and weeds ot of the neglected post cemetery at fort robinson Eo binson neb stands a small white stone slab which marks the last resting place of a great frontiersman yet the inscription on it gives no hint of that fact it simply says moses milner scout and that Is the epitaph of one of the most pic tur esque figures in the history of the old west a character in the drama of the frontier who Is almost as much myth as man inan back in the days when ned buntline col prentiss ingraham and others of the bang bang bang school of literature were turning out their flood of paper backed dime novels to thrill america s youth one of their favorite characters was california joe whom they built up as a mystery man but the california joe of dime novel fanie fame and the moses milner scout who sleeps in the graveyard at fort rort robinson were one and the same man fortunately for his future fame a book which has recently been published dispels the myths and legends that have grown up around his name and gives what Is evidently the first complete account of his amazing career that book is california joe written by joe G E milner his grandson and earle R forrest and published by the caxton printers ltd of caldrell Cald vell idaho it Is based upon war department records and the personal history of the milner family and as such Is a valuable contribution to authentic literature of the fr frontier outler california joe joes s full name was moses em ern bree milner lie ile was born may 8 ISO near standford ky on the plantation of his father embree armstead milner a veteran of the war ef of 1812 whose father had served in the revolution the first in america were ere two brothers who emigrated from lork yorkshire shire england tn to virginia in 1683 from that time on mem bers hers of the family were restless and westward faring pioneers a fact which mal es the career of their most famous member california joe more understandable young milner grew up in a land where skill with the long rifle was paragraph one chapter one in its enforcement of the law of survival of the fittest so it Is not ng jig to learn that at the age of twelve he killed his first deer and by the time he was fourteen he was one of the best shots in that part of hen kentucky tucky at this tender age also the wanderlust seized him and the odyssey of california joe began one day in august 1843 he shouldered his kentucky rifle and telling his parents that he was going hunting for a few days started out r through the forest that was the last they saw of their son for five years and then one day in 1848 he appeared at their new home in warren I 1 county missouri embree milner having em grat ed to that state because kentucky was getting too thickly populated to suit him and he wanted at little more elbow room in those five years the kentucky boy grew into efficient frontier manhood almost overnight as so many of the youngsters of his time seem to have done wandering westward he had reached st louis the first city he had ever seen at that time it was the gateway to the west and headquarters of the fur trade there he joined a party of wrappers trappers en route to independence where they outfitted themselves for a hunting and trapping trip up the platte river the next spring they went to fort laramie to sell their peltries to the american fur company owners of that post at fort rort laramie milner joined aparto of trap pers headed by the noted jim bal er which was bound for the yellowstone yellow stone country in a battle with indians the fifteen year old boy billed killed his first indian three of them in fact one of them he shot through the head at a dis tance of yards a feat which won from jim baler tie tle prediction that cheres a lad who will have a great on the frontier some diy daiy if be keeps on like he did today a prediction baker lived to see come true mrs M E milner back at fort rort laramie milner became a hunter for the american fur company for a year or so then he accompanied a party of trappers to fort bridger where he became acquainted with its famous owner jim bridger and entered his employ as a livestock herder returning to fort laramie in the spring of 1848 1846 milner found there a letter from his parents telling of their move to missouri and asking him to come home so he joined a party of mountain men bound for st louis at fort rort leavenworth gen stephen W kearney was mobilizing his army of the west for sery ice lee in the war which had been declared against mexico and when doniphant missouri mounted volunteers arrived there in june 1846 young milner forgot about returning to his home with two other trappers he joined the army as pack ers and teamsters after serving with doniphan Donl phan in mexico milner returned to missouri and sought out his family in warren county but after his experiences in the far west life in the states seemed tame and he soon set out again on a trading and trapping expedition up the platte late in november 1848 be he was back in mis to spend the winter with his parents but expecting to start out again the following spring however when the watts family from east ten moved to an adjoining farm and young milner saw fourteen year old nancy emma watts his plans were changed they were mar tried on may 8 1850 his twenty first birthday and the next day they set out for a honeymoon trip across the plains to california lured there as were so many thousands in 1849 50 by the hope of making their fortune in the gold fields because of his experience on the plains the youthful bridegroom was elected guide of the wagon train which they joined and after a jour ney of six months they reached the sacramento valley safely leaving his bride at sacramento milner went at once to the gold fields and during the next two years he accumulated cited a considerable for tune then reports of the fertility of the oregon country drifted down into california and milner decided to em grate there in 1852 he took up a homestead in what Is now benton county and prepared to settle down as a farmer and stock ralser raiser in the new country but again the wanderlust seized the young front ersman and within a beir he was farin faring 9 forth upon his career of wandering footloose through all parts of the west which ended only with his death at fort robinson in 1878 1876 during these years nancy emma milner the patient penelope of this american ulysses remained on the oregon ranch directing its activities and rearing the four sons eons that had been born to them news of gold strikes in eastern washington and northern idaho took him there in the sum mer of 1809 and three years later he was pur suing the golden will 0 the wisp in virginia city mont it was in the latter gold camp that he won the sobriquet which he was to make so famous asked by a party of miners what his name was ras he replied that it was ras JOP joe and when they as ed him where he was ras from he jokingly ans answered vered I 1 aiom I 1 om california where you find the real gold then and there he was dubbed call joe and that name stuck to him through the ren tinder of his life I 1 rom at nt antii 11 a milner drifted down into wyo in n asin on ii it to colliado Coloia do and in 1805 he went to fort union N 31 where he met a fellow Ien kentuckian lan already famous as a scout and indian fighter his name was kit carson milner served as a scout under carson and fought with him at his famous battle of adobe walls in the texas panhandle then after a period of prospecting in colorado and fighting apaches in new mexico he drifted north into kansas and reached fort rort riley in the fall of 1866 for the next five years he served as a scout for the troops operating against the hostile in diana in kansas indian territory and texas during this time he made the acquaintance of such border notables as wild bill hickok but falo bill cody capt D L payne the cimarron scout served with general ouster custer as chief of scouts in the battle of the washita and the subsequent campaign and rapidly rose to a position of outstanding importance among the frontiers men of the period from kansas he drifted west again to nevada and california then back into wyoming where he served as guide for the jenny geological and topographical surveying expedition into the black hills after his return from this tion he guided a cavalry column sent from fort laramie to the red cloud agency to hold in check the sioux who were threatening to go on the warpath because of the invasion of their beloved pa black hills by the miners from this place milner wrote the letter to his sons reproduced above telling of the richness of the new diggings and urging them to join him there early the next year he was in the hills and filed a homestead claim on acres on rapid creek on which the present rapid city was later built in the fall of 1876 he be joined the command of gen george crook as a scout and was assigned assign ea to the force led by col ronald S mackenzie to disarm red cloud clouds s before they could join the hostiles host lles he was to have been chief of scouts for mackenzie in the latter s winter campaign against dull 1 knife s but a few days before the expedition set out on october 29 he was shot down from behind and killed at fort robinson by a man named tom newcomb with whom he had had some trouble in the black hills and whose life he had once spared he was burled on the banks of the white river by dr V T then surgeon with the second and third cavalry regiments in crook crooks s army who had known joe well during the jenny expedition dr who Is still living in beri berl eley calif declares that call fornia joe had no equal as a scout in natural ability reliability and wide experience over the frontier and a reading of this new biography of him confirms that opinion it also contains the material to upset many a popular belief about some of the frontier notables who have been so widely publicized because of buffalo bill s reputation as a slayer of bison there Is a widely accepted idea that he was a wizard with the rifle he may have bein beta but there probably has never been a deadlier rifle shot than california joe with his heavy sharps a fact which he demonstrated time after time both in shooting matches and in indian battles wild bill hickok Is famous for the number of men who were victims of his speed and deadly accuracy with the pistol if california joe had been given to cutting notches on his gun for every man he had slain he could have shown a record which would have placed hickok in the amateur class this does not mean that milner was a killer in the sense that wild bill was he m was as peaceable enough until he was put on then he proved himself a bad man to fool with as many a man learned to his sorrow that Is if he lived long enough to be sorry cody and hickok had many self appointed press agents to spread their renown both deserved and undeserved california joe had no such first aids to fame his neglected grave in the post cemetery at fort rort robinson Is symbolic of the fact that true greatness Is too often unwept ept and unsung 0 western newspaper union |