Boy Settlers: A Story of Early Times in Kansas Read online

  THE BOY SETTLERS.

  CHAPTER I.

  The Settlers, and Whence They Came.

  There were five of them, all told; three boys and two men. I havementioned the boys first because there were more of them, and we shallhear most from them before we have got through with this truthfultale. They lived in the town of Dixon, on the Rock River, in LeeCounty, Illinois. Look on the map, and you will find this place at apoint where the Illinois Central Railroad crosses the Rock; for thisis a real town with real people. Nearly sixty years ago, when therewere Indians all over that region of the country, and the red men werenumerous where the flourishing States of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsinare now, John Dixon kept a little ferry at the point of which I am nowspeaking, and it was known as Dixon's Ferry. Even when he was not anold man, Dixon was noted for his long and flowing white hair, and theIndians called him Na-chu-sa, "the White-haired." In 1832 the Sactribe of Indians, with their chief Black Hawk, rose in rebellionagainst the Government, and then there happened what is now called theBlack Hawk war.

  In that war many men who afterwards became famous in the history ofthe United States were engaged in behalf of the government. One ofthese was Zachary Taylor, afterwards better known as "Rough andReady," who fought bravely in the Mexican war and subsequently becamePresident of the United States. Another was Robert Anderson, who, atthe beginning of the war of the Rebellion, in 1861, commanded theUnion forces in Fort Sumter when it was first fired upon. Another wasJefferson Davis, who, in the course of human events, became Presidentof the Southern Confederacy. A fourth man, destined to be more famousthan any of the others, was Abraham Lincoln. The first three of thesewere officers in the army of the United States. Lincoln was at first aprivate soldier, but was afterwards elected captain of his company,with whom he had come to the rescue of the white settlers from thelower part of the State.

  The war did not last long, and there was not much glory gained byanybody in it. Black Hawk was beaten, and that country had peace everafter. For many years, and even unto this day, I make no doubt, theearly settlers of the Rock River country loved to tell stories of theBlack Hawk war, of their own sufferings, exploits, hardships, andadventures. Father Dixon, as he was called, did not choose to talkmuch about himself, for he was a modest old gentleman, and was notgiven, as they used to say, to "blowing his own horn," but his memorywas a treasure-house of delightful anecdotes and reminiscences ofthose old times; and young and old would sit around the comfortablestove of a country store, during a dull winter evening, drinking intales of Indian warfare and of the "old settlers" that had been handeddown from generation to generation.

  It is easy to see how boys brought up in an atmosphere like this, richin traditions of the long-past in which the early settlement of thecountry figured, should become imbued with the same spirit ofadventure that had brought their fathers from the older States to thisnew region of the West. Boys played at Indian warfare over the veryground on which they had learned to believe the Sacs and Foxes hadskirmished years and years before. They loved to hear of Black Hawkand his brother, the Prophet, as he was called; and I cannot tell youwith what reverence they regarded Father Dixon, the white-haired oldman who had actually talked and traded with the famous Indians, andwhose name had been given him as a title of respect by the great BlackHawk himself.

  Among the boys who drank in this sort of lore were Charlie andAlexander Howell and their cousin Oscar Bryant. Charlie, when he hadarrived at his eighteenth birthday, esteemed himself a man, ready toput away childish things; and yet, in his heart, he dearly loved thetraditions of the Indian occupation of the country, and wished that hehad been born earlier, so that he might have had a share in thesettlement of the Rock River region, its reclamation from thewilderness, and the chase of the wild Indian. As for Alexander,commonly known as "Sandy," he had worn out a thick volume of Cooper'snovels before he was fifteen years old, at which interesting point inhis career I propose to introduce him to you. Oscar was almost exactlyas many years and days old as his cousin. But two boys more unlike inappearance could not be found anywhere in a long summer day. Sandy wasshort, stubbed, and stocky in build. His face was florid and freckled,and his hair and complexion, like his name, were sandy. Oscar wastall, slim, wiry, with a long, oval face, black hair, and so lithe inhis motions that he was invariably cast for the part of the leadingIndian in all games that required an aboriginal character.

  Mr. Howell carried on a transportation business, until the railroadscame into the country and his occupation was gone. Then he began toconsider seriously the notion of going further west with his boys toget for them the same chances of early forestalling the settlement ofthe country that he had had in Illinois. In the West, at least inthose days, nearly everybody was continually looking for a yetfurther West to which they might emigrate. Charlie Howell was now abig and willing, good-natured boy; he ought to be striking out forhimself and getting ready to earn his own living. At least, so hisfather thought.

  Mr. Bryant was engaged in a profitable business, and he had no idea ofgoing out into another West for himself or his boy. Oscar was likelyto be a scholar, a lawyer, or a minister, perhaps. Even at the age offifteen, he had written "a piece" which the editor of the Dixon_Telegraph_ had thought worthy of the immortality of print in hiscolumns.

  But about this time, the Northern States were deeply stirred by thestruggle in the new Territory of Kansas to decide whether freedom orslavery should be established therein. This was in 1854 andthereabout. The Territory had been left open and unoccupied for a longtime. Now settlers were pouring into it from adjacent States, and thequestion whether freedom should be the rule, or whether slave-holdingwas to be tolerated, became a very important one. Missouri andArkansas, being the States nearest to Kansas, and holding slavery tobe a necessity, furnished the largest number of emigrants who went tovote in favor of bringing slavery into the new Territory; but othersof the same way of thinking came from more distant States, even as faroff as South Carolina, all bent on voting for slavery in the lawsthat were to be made. For the most part, these people from the slaveStates did not go prepared to make their homes in Kansas or Nebraska;for some went to the adjoining Territory of Nebraska, which was alsoready to have slavery voted up or down. The newcomers intended to stayjust long enough to vote and then return to their own homes.

  The people of the free States of the North heard of all this with muchindignation. They had always supposed that the new Territories were tobe free from slavery. They saw that if slavery should be allowedthere, by and by, when the two Territories would become States, theywould be slave States, and then there would be more slave States thanfree States in the Union. So they held meetings, made speeches, andpassed resolutions, denouncing this sort of immigration as wrong andwicked. Then immigrants from Iowa, Illinois, and other NorthernStates, even as far off as Massachusetts, sold their homes andhousehold goods and started for the Promised Land, as many of themthought it to be. For the men in Kansas who were opposed to slaverywrote and sent far and wide papers and pamphlets, setting forth inglowing colors the advantages of the new and beautiful country beyondthe Missouri River, open to the industry and enterprise of everybody.Soon the roads and highways of Iowa were dotted with white-toppedwagons of immigrants journeying to Kansas, and long lines ofcaravans, with families and with small knots of men, stretched theirway across the country nearest to the Territory.

  Some of these passed through Dixon, and the boys gazed with wonder atthe queer inscriptions that were painted on the canvas covers of thewagons; they longed to go with the immigrants, and taste the sweets ofa land which was represented to be full of wild flowers, game in greatabundance, and fine streams, and well-wooded hills not far away fromthe water. They had heard their elders talk of the beauties of Kansas,and of the great outrage that was to be committed on that fair land bycarrying slavery into it; and although they did not know much aboutthe politics of the case, they had a vague notion that they would liketo have a hand in the exciting business that was going on i
n Kansas.

  Both parties to this contest thought they were right. Men who had beenbrought up in the slave States believed that slavery was a goodthing--good for the country, good for the slave-owner, and even goodfor the slave. They could not understand how anybody should thinkdifferently from them. But, on the other hand, those who had neverowned slaves, and who had been born and brought up in the free States,could not be brought to look upon slavery as anything but a verywicked thing. For their part, they were willing (at least, some ofthem were) to fight rather than consent that the right of one man toown another man should be recognized in the Territories of Kansas andNebraska. Some of these started at once for the debatable land; othershelped their neighbors to go, and many others stayed at home andtalked about it.

  Mrs. Bryant, Oscar's mother, said: "Dear me, I am tired and sick ofhearing about 'bleeding Kansas.' I do wish, husband, you would findsomething else to talk about before Oscar. You have got him so workedup that I shouldn't be the least bit surprised if he were to start offwith some of those tired-looking immigrants that go traipsing throughthe town day by day." Mrs. Bryant was growing anxious, now that herhusband was so much excited about the Kansas-Nebraska struggle, as itwas called, he could think of nothing else.