Show attic of W abio M re am a 14 kor R WAG 2 A ns W M R bend 6 w V X 47 A Z T MIT M THE CHARGE ON ADOBE WALLS from the by J N hond 4 4 nta nt A g A A 17 41 1 la W 7 A pea pe a rite T ro 4 re rit n billy dixon 4 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON years ago tills this month there occurred a fight the story of which lias has become one of the classics of the western frontier that was the battle of adobe walls which began on the early morning of june 27 IS 14 1 when a war party of several hundred comanche kiowa cheyenne arapahoe Arap alioe and alowa apache indians attacked a buffalo hunters camp occupied by 23 28 men and one woman located on tile the south fork of the canadian river in what Is now nov hutchinson county in the texas panhandle characteristic of its ranking as a frontier classic Is ia the number of men who at one time or another have been called survivors of the adobe walls fight seemingly every old timer who was as ever a buffalo hunter on the southwestern plains in the has been accorded the distinction of ile he fought at adobe walls by amateur historians and imaginative newspaper reporters and this despite the fact that there has been in existence for many years an authentic list of the actual participants which might easily disprove the claim advanced in favor of spurious defenders of that outpost of the frontier under the terms of the medicine lodge treaty of 1807 the federal government fixed the arkansas river as the northern boundary of the indian country for the tribes of the southwestern plains and guaranteed that white hunters should not cross that stream put but they did in 1872 the mushroom town of dodge city kan sprang into existence and became the out fitting point and center of activity of the tilde hide hunters who with their big sharps buffalo guns were constantly invading the red mans country by the spring of 1374 the slaughter had been so great that the buffalo had been virtually wiped out near dodge city so A C myers who was in the general merchandise business in dodge organized an expedition to establish a trading post farther south where the hunters could get their supplies and to which they would bring their buffalo hides which myers would freight back to the kansas hide capital forming a partnership with fred leonard and accompanied danied by a party of 20 odd frontiersmen maers set out for the forbidden indian country among the members of the party were jim IIan lian rahan an old buffalo hunter who was going along to open a saloon at the new trading post thomas okeefe a bi blacksmith ack smith and two young buffalo hunters destined for future fame billy dixon and bat masterson after a journey of miles the expedition reached a spot on the south fork of the canadian where stood the ruins of an old trading post known as adobe walls which had been built by william bent and ceran st vrain some time before 1840 A mile or so farther on in a broad valley where there was a pretty stream called east adobe walls volts creek myers and his companions unloaded their belr wagons and set about establishing the second acobe walls which was to become even more ramous famous than the first myers and leonard built a picket house 20 by CO 60 feet in size IIan Ilan rahan put up a sod house 25 by GO CO and okeefe opened his blacksmith shop in a picket structure 15 feet square myers er s and leonard also built a stockade corral by setting big cottone cotton NN logs on end in the ground A short time later rath and wright leading merchants of dodge city decided to establish a branch store at adobe walls and built a sod house bous IG 10 by 20 feet leaving james langton in I 1 charge of the new business there to adobe walls walla also came william olds and tits his wife to ipen a restaurant for several years the indians had been watching with increasing alarm the wasteful slaughter of the buffalo by the white hunters so when it the alie spring of 1874 a comanche eltie man named isaeal announced that he had it new medicine which would enable them to chief wipe wilie out the white men who were exterminating tile the buffalo lie he found the tribesmen ripe for such a crusade the first indian leader to agree to help in this laudable enterprise was a chief of the Co manches quanah the halfbreed half breed son of cynthia ann parker who as a little girl had been stolen from her home biome in texas and had become the wife of the great chief peta nocona then the medicine man carried the pipe to the Arapah oes klowas and kiowa apaches and they readily agreed to accompany their comanche brethren so a great war party of between GOO and mounted warriors arri ors set out for the buffalo hunters camp and on the night of june 20 they camped about five or six miles from adobe walls began painting themselves and their horses and preparing themselves for the charge against the hated men those men shall not fire a shot we shall kill them all was the promise of isabal that night at adobe walls 28 men and one woman slept peacefully little realizing that a storm of savage wrath was about to be hurled against them in Hanrah ans saloon were iian han ralian bat masterson mike welch hiram watson billy ogg james mckinley bermuda muda carlisle billy dixon and a man named shepherd in myers and leonards store were leonard james campbell edward trevor frank brown harry armitage billy tyler old man keeler mike mccabe henry lease and two men known only as dutch henry and frenchy in rath and wrights store were nere james langton george eddy thomas okeefe sam smith andrew johnson and william olds and his wife just outside the stockade two brothers named shadier Sli adler who bore the nicknames of mexico ike and blue bill and who were engaged to in freighting hides bides to dodge city were sleeping in their wagons with a big newfoundland found land dog at their feet about two in the morning shepherd and mike hike welch were awakened by a report that sounded like the crack of a rifle they sprang up and discovered that the bl big cottonwood ridge pole which supported the dirt roof of saloon had cracked and was about to allow the root roof to collapse nastily hastily awakening others in the place they set to work repairing the roof and this commotion aroused others who fell to and assisted them before going to sleep dixon and hanrahan Uan Llan rahan had prepared themselves for an early start in the morning for the buffalo hunting grounds to the northwest by the time the repairs to the roof of tile saloon were completed the sky was growing groning red in the east so hanrahan Uan rahan proposed to dixon that instead of going back to bed they get ready to start out as soon as it was light to tills this dixon agreed and as he started to get tits ills horse he be looked down the valley and there through the dim light of the morning he saw a sight which almost paralyzed him for a moment A dark mass of horsemen was moving swiftly up the valley and the next moment it had spread out like a fan and a mighty war whoop shattered the stillness isaeal was coming with his host of wild tribesmen to make good his promise to wipe out the buffalo hunters at adobe walls throwing his rifle ride to his shoulder dixon fired one shot then turned and sped toward the Hati hanrahan ralian saloon as the wild charge of tile indians swept down upon him but this hasty I 1 warning was enough to bring the occupants of the saloon vi who ho were already awake and dressed to the windows with their big buffalo guns in their hands we were scarcely inside before the indiana had surrounded all the buildings and shot out every window pane billy dixon says for the tha first half hour the indians were reckless and daring enough to ride up and strike the doors with the butts of their guns and andrew johnson has recorded how bow the savages backed their horses up against the doors of the buildings and tried to push them in showing a willingness ness to fight at close quarters almost unparalleled in indian warfare but the steady fire of the buffalo hunters soon discouraged this and after beating off several attacks the white men had a chance to take stock of their losses strange to say there were only three the two shadier bos asleep in their wagon outside the T stockade had been deft killed and scalped scalded ped their big newfoundland dog had evidently put up a fight for he was also killed and scalped scalded ped a piece of tilde hide lavin having been cut from his side billy tyler one ol 01 0 th the e defenders of the leonard and myers store was killed early in the 11 fighting and except for biome minor wounds these were the only casualties time after time the indians charged but as their ponies were knocked down by the heavy slugs of lead from the buffalo guns and more and more of their warriors were killed of 01 wounded it began to dawn upon them that isa tal tai had been a false prophet so the charges ceased during one of these lulls a young comanche gorgeously appareled in war bonnet and scalp shirt and mounted on a fine pony made a lone charge toward the buildings in the face of a hot fire from the hunters riding up close to one of the buildings he leaped from lis bis pony thrust a six shooter through a porthole and emptied it lie ile then attempted to retreat but was shot down this daring warrior who had hoped to make a great name for himself by ills his lone charge was pe ah rite the son of horseback one of the leading chiefs of the Coman Co manches clies by late afternoon the indians had given up hope of wiping out the defenders of adobe walls and began to withdraw after an anxious night of watchfulness the buffalo hunters discovered the next morning that only a few indians were lingering around the place and they were soon driven oft off by some long distance shots during the second day hunters from some of the outlying camps made their way unmolested into adobe walls aud and that night one of them henry lease was sent to dodge city tor for help on the third day a party of about 15 indians appeared on a high bluff east of adobe walls but they were quickly dispersed by a shot from billy dixons rifle which knocked one of the savages from his horse it la is this incident tout gave rise to one of tile the oft repeated myths about the adobe walls affair different accounts of it placing the distance of the shot all the way from a mile to a mile and a halfe by dixons own testimony the distance was not far from three fourths of a mile I 1 was admittedly a good marksman yet this was what might be called a scratch shot more hunters came in on the third day and by the sixth day there were fully a hundred men gathered there it Is among these late comers that so many of the survivors 0 of f later years were numbered but by this time the danger from the indians had passed the red men had departed for a series or of raids in kansas han and texas which soon brought the military into the field and resulted in their eventual defeat but before th the e a affair ff air at adobe walls ended there was one more tragedy one which darkened the life of the brave woman defender mrs olds on the fifth day her husband was coming down a ladder with a gun in ills his hand band when it went off accidentally and she rushed from an adjoining room in time to see his body roll from the ladder and crumple at her feet today three monuments stand on the site of adobe walls one Is it a small slab of granite which marks the grave of william wilam olds another marks the last resting place of the shadier brothers the third Is a huge red granite monument which tells that nere here on june 27 1874 about picked warriors from the co manabe cheyenne and alowa indian tribes were defeated by 28 brave frontiersmen and it bears the names of the 28 who truly foucht at adobe walls 0 by western newspaper union |