return to City of Denver, etc.

CHAPTER V.

ARRIVAL AT AGENCY -- THE MASSACRE.


DURING all this time, the fate of Father Meeker and the Agency employes as unknown to the public.  It was almost certain that he had been murdered, as it seemed incrediblt that the Indians would fight Thornburg and spare Meeker, who was blamed by them for bringing in the soldiers; still, nothing had been heard to confirm the strong suspicions of all frontiersmen as to the fate of the people at the Agency.  Een when Merritt relieed Payne and marched on the Agency, he could learn nothing definite touching the transactions there.

    On the 9th, however, news reached Denver via the Uncompahgre Agency, through the medium of Chief Oura, that Father Meeker and the male employes of the Agency had been killed on the day of the Thornburg fight (Monday, September 29), but that the women and children were dafe and were being cared for by Douglas at his house.  This latter statement turned out to be false, but as Douglass had not then been proved to be the dirty liar that he is, credence was given to the story, and Douglass was lauded as a "good Indian," along with Ouray, Capt. Billy, etc.  A few doubting Thomases did remark that it seemed strange that Douglass should be such a good Indian while his wicked partners were so bad; also, that if he was the big chief of the tribe, his devotion to the whites might have been emphasized by protecting them from murder and assassination.  In fact, he had led the Agency massacre, and the women and children ere the prisoners of himself and his gang of cowardly cut-throats, instead of being under his protection.

    On Monday, October 13, just two weeks after the first battle, two couriers arrived at Rawlins from what had been the White River Agency, and reported that Gen. Merritt had reached the Agency on the 11th.  On his way, he found many dead bodies.  Among others, he found the body of Carl Goldstein, an Israelite, who left Rawlins with Government supplies for the Utes at White River Agency.  He was found in a gulch six miles north of the Agency.  He was shot twice through the shoulder, and was about two miles from his wagons. A teamster named Julius Moore, formerly from Bainbridge, Mass., who was with him when he left Rawlins, was found about one hudred yards from Goldstein with two bulletholes in his breast, and his body hacked and mutilated with a knife or htchet.

    Ad the command advanced through the cañon, they came to an old coal-mine, and in it was found the dead body of an Agency employe named Frank Dresser.  He had evidently been wounded, and crawled in the mine to die.  His coat was folded up and placed under his head for a pillow.  Besdie him lay a Winchester rifle containing eight cartridges, and marked "J. Max Clark."  Young Dresser had succeeded in escaping from the Agency massacre badly wounded, but could not reach the troops.

    E. W. Eskridge was found about two miles north of the Ageny.  He was stripped to an entire state of nudity, and had his head mashed as though he had been struck with some heavy appliance.  He was formerly in the banking business at Marshalltown, Iowa.  He was a lawyer by profession, and had only been at the Agency a short time, having been set there by Hon. William N. Byers, of Denver, in response to a request from Father Meeker for a clerk.

    In one of his pockets, a letter was found which read as follows:


WHITE RIVER, September 29,
1 o'clock P.M.
Maj. Thornburg:
    I will come with Chief Douglass and another chief and meet you to-morrow.  Everything is quiet here, and Douglass is flying the United States falg.  We have been on guard three nights, and will be to-night -- not that we expect any trouble, but because there might be.  Did you have any trouble coming through the cañon?
N. C. Meeker,
United States Indian Agent.



    This note Father Meeker had sent out but a few minutes before the massacre commenced.  Two Indians accompanied Mr. Eskridge, and, doubtless, were his murderers.  One of them was Chief Antelope, a worthless rascal.

    On entering the Agency, a scene of quiet desolation presented itself.  All the buildings, except one, were burned to the ground, and there was not a living thing in sight, except the command.  The Indians had taken eerything except flour, and decamped.  The women and children were missing, and nothing whatever could be found to indicate what had become of them.  They had either been mrdered and buried or ele taken away as hostages.

    The Indiana gent, N. C. Meeker, was found lying dead about two hundred yards from his headquarters, with one side of his head mashed.  An iron chain, the size of which is commonly known as a log-chain, was found encircled about his neck, and a piece of a flour-barrel stave had been driven through his mouth.  When found, his body was in an entire state of nudity.

    The dead body of Mr. W. H. Post, Father Meeker's assistant, was found between the buildings and the river, a bullet-hole through the left ear and one under the ear.  He, as well as Father Meeker, was stripped entirely naked. 

    Another employe, named Eaton, was found dead.  He was stripped naked, and had a bundle of paper bags in his arms.  His face was badly eaten by wolves.  There was a bullet-hole in his left breast.

    Harry Dresser, a brother to the one found in the coal mine, was found badly burned.  He had, without doubt,  been killed instantly, as a bullet had passed through his heart.

    Mr. Price, the Agency blacksmith, was found dead, with two bullet-holes through his left breast.  The Indians had taken all his clothing, and he was found naked.

    The bodies were all buried near the Agency, but will be taken up in the spring and re-interred at Greeley, where a monument will be raised in their honor.

    The complete list of the killed is as follows:  Agent Meeker, Assistant W. H. Post, Frank and Harry Dresser, E. W. Eskridge, E. Price, Fred Shepard, George Eaton, W. H. Thompson, E. L. Mansfield.  Another employe and sole survivor of the males at the Agency was absent at the time, having left a day or two before.

    With the exception of Eskridge, all the employes were from Greeley, and were members of the very best families of that excellent community.  The young men had been particularly generous and just to the Indians, and the latter professed such friendship for them that, in a letter written by an employe to his relatives in Greeley only the night before the massacre, the writer expressed his confidence in the friendship of the savages by stating that he felt himself as safe as if he were at home in Greeley.  Whatever complaints the Indians made against Father Meeker -- and they were too trivial for serious consideration -- there was no outward appearance of enmity on their part toward the employes, and the murder of the latter only serves to establish the fact that Indian friendship for the white race amounts to nothing more than a cloak for treachery.

    The desolated Agency and the haggard corpses scattered around the ruins gave nothing but a ghastly suggestion of how the massacre was accomplished, and it was not until some time afterward that the wretched story was told by the rescued captives.  It appears that the attack had been made shortly after noon on Monday, perhaps half an hour after Mr. Eskridge and his Indian escort left the Agency with Father Meeker's letter to Maj. Thornburg.  The Agency employes were at work upon a building when the savages suddenly opened fire upon them.  The terror-stricken women and children hid themselves while the massacre was in progress, and, consequently, saw little or nothing of its horrid details.  Frank Dresser hid himself with the women after being slightly wounded, and, later in the day, made his escape to the brush, but was afterward found dead in the coal min, as already stated.  The women and children attempted to escape at the same time, but were captured almost immediately after leaving their place of hiding.  An account of their experience while in captivity will be found in a subsequent chapter.

pp. 145-147