Article entitled ""The Indian Killer"" November 1922 - Page 1
Description
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She Story of an Old Winchester that Won Second Prise in the Contest
by Jordan Bean
Bridger, Carbon County, Montana
Prom " The Winchester Herald"
Published by the Winchester Arms Repeating Co.
New Have&, Conn,
The Winchester of which I am writing is a 44- 40 Model 73 with
a set hair trigger—( the only one I ever saw)* King's improvement
Pat. Men. 29, 1866, Oct. 16th, 1860. Gun No. 1897, octagon barrel.
My father bought this rifle at the Sutler1 s store at Fort Reynolds
on the Korth Canadian River, Indian Territory, in February, 1874. He paid
$ 65. for i t.
We defended ourselves against the Indians and killed buffalo along
the trail from the Indian Territory to the Dolores River, Colorado, in
1875.
In 1881 the Ute Indians gave the settlers of Colorado so much trouble
that the cowboys organised a band with Bill Dawson as leader. We followed
the Indians fifteen days and the morning of the 15th of June we
overtook them on the west side of La salle fountain, Utah. Y/ e fought
two days, ten of the boys being killed, Dan Willis, Jimmie Heaton,
Jack Galloway, Tom Click, Hiram Melville, the two V/ ilson boys and two
Tartar boys.
Three were wounded,, Harg Eskridge was shot in the foot, Jimmie Hall
was shot in the leg and I was shot in the head and left for dead. But
about four o* clock in the afternoon I came to and crawled into some
brush and as soon as i t got dark I crawled to water, about three miles
up the side of the Mountain, but I never let go of my r i f l e . At daybreak
the boys found me, and Ed Summers put me on his horse. Bd walked
and carried my gun. His gun was in the scabbard on the saddle*
Most of the boys had V/ inchesters.
The name of the leader of the Ute Indians was Tosh- a- wa and we never
knew how many we killed of the Indians, as they took their dead and
woun ded on their travels. V/ Q o n l y f o u n d ^ Q B u c k s Q ^ o n Q squaw dead." Some
of the boys followed them for about ten miles and they said there were
lots of bloody rags along the trail and where they would stop to let the
wounded rest there were great puddles of blood.
In 1884 I left Colorado and came to the Rosebud River, Llontana, with
a pack outfit, but I had my Winchester with me and I s t i l l have i t , and
