The great battle of construction days occurred near Julesburg in July, 1869. The regulars, under General Carr, and the Pawnees (one hundred and fifty); under Major North, had put in two months scouting for several bands of Cheyennes and Sioux that had been raiding through the Republican and Solomon Valleys, attacking settlements, burning houses, killing and scalping men, women and children and raising Cain generally. They ran them to earth near Summit Springs where they were encamped. On July 11th, they surprised and attacked the Indians who were under the leadership of Tall Bull, a noted Cheyenne Chief. One hundred and sixty warriors were slain, among them Tall Bull. He was seen as the attack was made, mounted upon his horse with his squaw and child behind him trying to escape. Being headed off, he rode into a draw or pocket in the side of a ravine where some fifteen other warriors had taken refuge. He had been riding on a very fine horse, this he took to the mouth of the draw and shot. He then sent his squaw and child out to give themselves up; this they did, the squaw approaching Major North with hands raised in token of submission. She then advised the Major there were still seven warriors alive in the draw, entreating that their lives be spared. As the Indians were shooting at every man they caught sight of, it was impossible to save them and they were finally shot down. Among the prisoners taken was a white woman who had been captured by the Indians on one of their raids. She had been appropriated by Tall Bull as his squaw, and when the village had been attacked, he had shot her and left her in his tepee supposedly dead. Soon after the fight commenced, she was found by one of the officers who, entering in the lodge, saw her in a sitting position with blood running down her waist. She was a German, unable to speak English, and up to this time had supposed the fight was between Indians. On realizing that white men were in the vicinity and thinking when he started to leave her, that she was about to be deserted, she clasped him around his legs and in the most pitiful manner, begged him by signs and with tears not to leave her to the savages. After the fight she was taken to Fort Sedgwick where she recovered, and in a few months afterwards married a soldier whose time had expired. During the fight the troops captured nearly six hundred head of horses and mules, together with an immense amount of miscellaneous plunder, including nineteen hundred dollars in twenty dollar gold pieces that had been taken from the German woman's father at the time he had been killed and she captured. Of this sum, nine hundred dollars was turned over to the woman; six hundred dollars by the Pawnees, and the balance by the regulars. Had the latter been as generous as the scouts when the appeal for its restoration was made, every dollar would have been returned.
The above incidents are but a few out of thousands that occurred during the stormy construction days. They illustrate the trials and dangers encountered by the hardy pioneers. It was not only at "the front" that trouble was incurred, but after the building had proceeded, the section men, station employees and train crews were in constant danger. At the stations, it was a rule to build sod forts connected by underground passage with the living quarters to which retreat could be had in case of Indian attacks. For some time small squads of soldiers were stationed at every station and section house along the line, being quartered in sod barracks.
With the completion of the road and the establishment of regular train service, immigration soon poured in to such an extent as to make the settlers numerous enough to protect themselves, and it was not long until "Lo," like the buffalo, was only a memory.[(Back to Content)]
CHAPTER VII.
The Builders.
Their Material and Methods — Oakes Ames (Financier) — George Francis Train (Promoter) — John A. Dix (First President) — Thomas C. Durant (Vice President and President) — Granville M. Dodge (Chief Engineer) — Subordinate Officials — Casement Brothers, Track-layers, Mormons — Materials Used — Their Source — Methods.
At Sherman Station, the highest point on the Union Pacific Railroad, stands a monument some sixty feet square and about the same height, bearing the simple legend, "In Memory of Oakes Ames and Oliver Ames." This was erected in compliance with a resolution passed at the meeting of the Company's stockholders held in Boston, March 10th, 1875, which read as follows, "Resolved that in memory of Oakes Ames and in recognition of his services in the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad to which he devoted his means and his best energies with a courage, fidelity, and integrity unsurpassed in the history of railroad construction, the directors (of this Company) are requested to take measure in co-operation with such friends as may desire to contribute, for the erection at some point in the line of the road, of a suitable and permanent monument." (By the recent shortening of the line this monument has been left some three miles away from the present track. Its removal to Cheyenne Depot Grounds or some other equally prominent position is under consideration.)
Oliver Ames was born at North Easton, Mass., January 10th, 1804; he passed his youth and early manhood assisting his father in the work of a farmer and later of manufacturing shovels, attending during the winter a country school. Serving first as apprentice, then foreman, he was in due time taken into partnership with his father to whose business he succeeded.
From twenty thousand dozen shovels turned out in 1845, their output increased to one hundred and twenty-five thousand dozens in 1870. A tireless worker dispensing with clerk or bookkeeper, his accounts were kept in his head. Over six feet in height, weighing over two hundred pounds, broad shouldered and massive in built. Elected to Congress in 1860 where he was kept until 1872. Becoming associated with the Union Pacific in 1865, at the time when the enterprise was languishing for lack of funds and it seemed almost hopeless. His attention was first directed in that channel by his duties as a member of the House Committee of Railroads in 1865. He was then a man of considerable means, recognized as an authority on business matters, and he enjoyed the confidence of President Lincoln and other prominent men of that day to a marked degree. In fact, it was at the urgent solicitation of the President that he undertook the almost hopeless task of financiering the construction of the road.
Entering into the undertaking with all of his energy and means, using his influence and persuasive powers with his fellow capitalists, he was able to raise by various means, the necessary funds for the construction of the line. Among others who took stock in the Company and Credit Mobilier were a number of public men, including Vice-President Colfax, Speaker James G. Blaine, James A. Garfield, afterwards President, and others of that ilk. The cry of corruption and bribery was raised in the campaign of 1872, resulting in investigation by Congressional Committees and a trial by the House, which rendered a very remarkable verdict, censuring Mr. Ames for having induced members of Congress to invest in the stock of a corporation in which he was interested and whose interests depended on legislation of Congress—but with the further finding on the part of the House Committee that no one had been wronged—that the Congressmen in question had paid him what the stock cost him and no more—that he had neither offered nor suggested a bribe—that their object in taking the stock originally was a profitable investment, and at the time no further action at the hands of Congress was desired.