When the Indians were removed, in a short time everything dropped back into peaceful channels and ran along in a comparatively smoother fashion until Chief Dull Knife became uneasy and wanted to return to the Black Hill country. His outbreak will form the subject of another chapter.
Since writing the above I have had occasion to visit one of the public schools of El Reno, where I found a history of Oklahoma written by Joseph B. Thoburn, former secretary of agriculture, and Isaac M. Holcomb, former superintendent of Oklahoma City schools. On page 133 I found a brief history of the tragic death of Pat. Hennessey on July 3rd, 1874, and what a brave defense he made against such odds and when captured was bound to a wagon wheel and burned alive. Also, there was a foot-note stating that it was reported and generally believed that it was the deed of white men disguised as Indians, in order to have it charged up to the Indians. Such was not the case and the above statement is misleading and incorrect, and for the benefit of the school children of the State of Oklahoma, as well as in justice to the Indian I shall set down the correct statement of the case.
My authority for my version of the affair are the following gentlemen: John Murphy of El Reno, and H. A. Todd of Calumet, brother-in-law of Billy Mulally who assisted John D. Miles, Indian agent at Darlington, to bury Pat. Hennessey, while on their way to Wichita, Kansas. Billy Mulally is still living at Calumet and can be consulted in regard to the matter. Their version of the affair is as follows:
Patrick Hennessey in the lead of a wagon train was going from Wichita, Kansas, to Anadarko, I. T. loaded with grain and other supplies for the government. He had been warned at Buffalo Springs ranch, kept by a man named Mosher, that the Cheyenne Indians were on the war-path, and was advised to go no farther. He persisted in going and in like manner did the two other teams of the train. With them was a passenger who was working his way with them. When not far from where Hennessey, Okla. is now located, a band a Cheyenne Indians, under the leadership of Bear Shield and Tall Meat, came out of a draw and shot Hennessey in the back. The commotion caused by them stampeded the mules Hennessey was driving. He in his dying condition hung on to the lines and was dragged along the ground, as he had been walking alongside the wagon. Presently the wagon upset and a sack of oats fell across Hennessey’s prostrate form and pinned him to the ground. He was dead. The other drivers with their passenger leaped from their wagons and ran north-east in the direction of Skeleton Creek where they were followed by the Chyennes and killed, and were afterwards buried by the cowboys and Mosher. This accounts for their not being buried with Hennessey. The burning of Hennessey cannot be attributed to the Cheyennes as the Osages happened along about this time and the Cheyennes fled. The Osages after plundering the wagons of all they wanted, set fire to what they could not carry away. The following forenoon, John D. Miles, Indian Agent at Darlington, accompanied by Billy Mulally, a cowman on his way to Kansas, came across the wreckage. The grain was still burning and Pat Hennessey’s body lay partly under a sack of grain which was still smouldering, and not tied to the wagon wheel as the history has it. From, there they removed him and buried him in a temporary grave. From this resting place he was afterwards removed to what is now called Hennessey, Okla., where there stands a splendid monument erected to his memory by the women of Oklahoma.
Note—This correction is only one of many that might be made in our present day history which pretend to set forth a correct idea of the early days of our state. For any further reference to such matters, living witnesses are at hand to give a correct version of many erroneous statements that have crept into our text books and other writings.
CHAPTER XXVII.
A Decade of Warfare; Custer’s Massacre; Sheridan, etc.
For several years, I might say the whole decade from 1870 to 1880, the Indians occupied the attention of the public. In the Northwest they were very active. The Utes, Apaches, Cheyennes, and the Sioux were almost continuously on the warpath, and their activities were so widespread and far-reaching that, at times, they almost blocked the progress of the wheels of commerce, and made trade and travel a very dangerous proceeding. The movement on the part of the Indian developed a corresponding activity on the part of the military department. Gen. P. H. Sheridan, Gen. Crook, Gen. Custer, and Gen. Nelson A. Miles and many other men high up in military affairs devoted their time and attention to the pressing condition of affairs and took up their position in localities where they would be able to suppress the movements of the Indians and bring about a peaceable solution of their difficulties.