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Show J ohn H. Woodbury, a Pioneer of 1847, Tells Early Events The whistling slug from the rifle of a blood thirsty Ute missed its-mark its-mark way back in '66 and as a re-suit re-suit John H. Woodbury, a pioneer of '47, is now able to relate his personal experiences in early Indian In-dian uprisings in Utah. Although the bullet missed Wood bury, his mule was not so fortunate fortun-ate and with the collapse of his steed Woodbury laced the necessity neces-sity of running and running fast-to fast-to "keep his hair on." - His experiences of the early days were recalled to the mind of Mr. Woodbury as a result of the "Covered "Cov-ered Wagon Days" celebration, to be held in Salt Lake July 24-26, which he will attend, together with several other pioiieers of '17, as a guest of honor. It was during the Black Hawk war tha t Mr. Woodbury escaped the deadly intent of a warring Ute. "I thought I was going to miss that war m the first place," he said. "l told 'em I couldn't leave and I gave twenty-five dollars to help in fitting out some one else. Then toward evening Henry Dinwoody and. Thomas McClellan cam around and wanted me to take my team and drive some of the men to camp. " 'Bout sixty of us went from the city, fifty as infantry and ten on horseback. When we got to a camp between Big and Little Cot-tonwoods Cot-tonwoods canyons nobody wanted me to go back so I went on with em ana we all camped at the head of Spanish Fork canyon nearly near-ly a month. "The Indians had been driving off cattle and horses of the settlers set-tlers and taking them up into the Strawberry. We camped along the Indian's trails and tried to nead them off but after we had oeen tnere a month and hadn't seen any Redskins we got kind of careless. "One day when all the fellows on horses were out and there weren'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. A little later we saw ;ome figures moving in the brush and when we shot at them, they went oc. We found moccasin tracks and I told 'em then, 'Be a wonder if we don't see Indians before be-fore night.' " "Just as I started out to round up trie horses I heard a gun go off. I was on a mule, and I spurred spur-red him up towards the cedars to see what the trouble was. A couple of the fellows staggered out in the open. The Redskins 'd got 'em One of them.', a fellow named nam-ed 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 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. "Captain Dewey sent two express riders to Mt. Pleasant for help. The Indians kept coming back, and we had trouDle with them all day. They were part of Chief Taby's tribe. He was friendly, and would not have let his Indians attac. :is, if he had been there, but he was away, and Jim, his son-in-law started start-ed 'em out. They got away with most of our horses before they were through. Suppose they took the herd up to Fairview or some placo near, and sold them, for we never saw any of 'em again. Mr. Woodbury still has the gun he used on that day. It is a Springfield muzzle loader rifie, 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 Ins family had purchased from Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois. Il-linois. His parents were Catha-rina Catha-rina Rebecca and Thomas Hobart Woodbury, and Lncy arrived, with their c i.e small on in the valley r,l the Great Salt Lake in Sept.emb.-t, 1847. "About the first thing I remember, remem-ber, was moving from the old fort to our cabin down on the lot between be-tween Fifth and Sixth South and First and Second West. It was known as Old Orchard Square, as my atl-er planted the first nursery in the state there. "I went to school down on the corner of West Temple and Fifth South. A man named Parker was th.) teacher, "Pc-gleg" Parker, we beys ca.'ied him. The sides of the room were covered with vil )ws, and the top was brush like the bowery. We had logs with legs in 'em for benches. "We were playin' King's Base one day down by the school house, and Miles Romney was chasin' me. I looked back to see how closs 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 heme. 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 cough and chick en pox," he added ruefully. "The Indians used to call me little "White Head." When I got all dressed up in my suit of buckskin buck-skin with a- rabbitskin cap, I thought I looked pretty fine " " Mr. Woodbury has farmed mosl of his life. When he was a young boy he was sent down to Ms father's fa-ther'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 heme in 1893. His wife who died several years ago, was Sarah A. Bray, and of his nine children, four are living' They are, Catherine W. Eldridge, William Henry, Warren Haskell, and Harrison. |
