A claim for damages against the United States and the Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Comanche tribes, by Charles Rath & Company, was filed, and depositions were taken in Wichita, Kansas, October 10, 1892, with J. R. Hallowell representing the claimants and S. S. Kirkpatrick, special agent of the United States duly appointed by the Attorney General, representing the government. Six witnesses, Charles Rath, R. M. Wright, James Langton, Andrew Johnson, William B. (Barclay, shortened to Bat) Masterson, and James H. Cator, all testified to substantiate Claim No. 4593, pending in the Court of Claims. Many are the reports of the Battle of Adobe Walls, the hardships the hunters and merchants endured but no where did the author find records of the losses incurred, excepting in the case of James Hanrahan, who lost everything he had, according to Billy Dixon. A request at the National Archives and Records Service, furnished transcripts of Charles Rath & Company's losses, adding up to $12,250, as set forth in their claim for damages. Possibly, Myers & Leonard may have had a loss equal to Rath's but no effort was made to check into his loss, nor does the author know how he got his goods back to Dodge City. The first witness to testify was Charles Rath, aged fifty-six years. [1]
1. Pertinent fact not given before. from all the depositions. |
|
R. M. Wright, aged 52 years, at Fort Dodge and Dodge City since 1867, testified,
So ended R. M. Wright's testimony. And James Langton, aged 46 years, before James M. Smith, Notary Public, January 28, 1896, in Salt Lake City, questioned by E. F. Colborn. He says they commenced business about the 10th of May, 1874, at Adobe Walls, a distance of about 200 miles from Dodge City. He had been in Dodge City about a year at the time. Representing the government Was H. A. Gudger, Assistant United States Attorney. He testified,
|
Question. State what, if any, steps you were compelled to take to protect your property, buildings, during and after the fight, and until the goods had been hauled back to Dodge City?
|
Question. What Were your facilities While you lived at Dodge City and at the Adobe Walls for ascertaining the relations so far as peace and War Were concerned, between the White men and the Indians in the region of country Wherein Dodge City and the Adobe Walls Were situated?
Question. Is it not a fact that these men came into Adobe Walls, and that they simply stayed and boarded with you after all danger had disappeared?
Question. Was not your information at the time of the fight such as to convince you that this band of four to six hundred Indians which attacked you was a marauding band of Kiowa, Comanche, and Cheyenne Indians, Which had broken away from the restraints of their chief for the purpose of robbery and murder, and that the said Comanche, Kiowas, and Cheyenne tribes were not then, as tribes by declaration of war or otherwise at war with the United States?
Andrew Johnson was called at a Witness, stating his age as 47 years.
3. Several accounts say all doors faced east and family says Rath's faced east with one in the south for the restaurant. Billy Dixon says door was in the west. Undoubtedly there were two doors for store trade would not go through the south door of the restaurant.
|
So ended Andrew Johnson's interrogation. James H. Cator was called to the stand, stating he once lived in Mobeetie but was now living in Zulu, Hansford County, Texas. He had been in camp on Aroja Bonita Creek, 25 miles from Adobe Walls on June 27, 1874, saying,
Asked about the Indians found dead, Mr. Cator said,
William B. Masterson appeared before Jimmie L. Frazier, June 24, 1893, in Denver, to give his testimony for the Commissioner of the Court of Claims. He was 39 year old and his occupation was the liquor business. He had been acquainted with Charles Rath, and R. M. Wright since 1871, with James Lang-ton (misspelled with a d instead of a t in the script) since 1872 at Fort Dodge. He goes ahead with other information -
|
Mr. Masterson also mentions one person present at the fight that others haven't, william Dickson. He reported that the Indians were at war with everybody, the United States included. They drew annuities the Winter before the fight at the Cheyenne Agency, now at Fort Reno. And so Bat Masterson's testimony was concluded. Case No. 4593, in the Court of Claims of the United States, where Charles Rath & Company asked for $10,250.00 damages because of destruction of their property by the Indians, was not settled until October 28, 1907. At that time, came the Defendants' Plea: Now comes the Assistant Attorney General and, after leave of the Court first had and obtained, for plea to the declaration herein says that the claimant ought not to have and maintain his aforesaid action for the reason that at the date of the depredation alleged the defendant Indians were not in amity with the United States; and the Court is therefore without jurisdiction to hear and determine this cause. Andy Johnson reported in an article that Tom Nixon, who was afterwards killed by Mysterious Dave Mathers, was captain of the escort that came for the goods. They arrived at Dodge City Au gust 5, 1874, and at the bridge over the Arkansas River they met General Miles with 1,000 soldiers starting out after the Indians. J. Wright Mooar says he was at the Walls most of the time the buildings were going up. [4] He and his brother John hauled from Dodge City to Myers store, with C. Jones and Warren. They went with the Myers' train to Dodge City being the last outfit to leave and get through before the fight came off. He claims it was all Dodge City men in the fight and not a Texan in it. The man, the sick man, who kept books for Leonard and Myers died one or two days before the fight with consumption. His name was John and his grave must be there. George Bellfield, seeing the prairie a mile around strewn with dead horses, after the fight, which the hunters had shot from under the Indians, asked, "Vat kind of disease is der matter mit de |
horses?" Cranky McCabe told him, "They died of Lead Poison." [5] In 1949, people from many states gathered at the Old Adobe Wall site to relive again the battle of June 27, 1874. A monument had been erected with the men's names who were in the battle to commemorate that last Indian battle. Andy Johnson one of the men was a hero that day and told about the battle, talking so fast in his excitement of recalling the fight that few could understand what he said but the people loved him and cheered him. Later a monument was raised listing the Indian's names, some of them, who were in the battle, with this caption: In Memory of the Indian Warriors who fell in the Second Battle of Adobe Walls, June 27, 1874. [6] James (Jim) Hanrahan was an old government Wagon master and an experienced frontiersman. The Shadler brothers, Ike and Shorty, employed by Brick Bond, had come into Adobe Walls with a load of buffalo hides. They had a little dog with them who was scalped along with his masters. Tom O'Keefe had a little dog also. There was a pet crow that the hunters had tamed that flew in and out the port holes while the battle was in progress. Mrs. Olds had a colt that the hunters had given her and it was killed by the Indians. And Minimic, the medicine man, who had worked for Charles Rath a number of years before he turned against the whites, was mounted that day, the day of the battle on a little grey pony. And thus the Battle of Adobe Walls is left behind.
6. Border and the Buffalo by Cook. Author enjoyed the joke for as a
little girl she had known three old time buffalo hunters and listened to their
scary tales. of the hunt, George and Charlie Bellfield, and Bill Gillespie of
sod-breaking plow fame.
|