Radio Script #286
Little Talks On Common Things
January 1, 1956
Two weeks ago we left Thomas Flint, his brother, his cousin and their herders a few mi les west of Fort Laramie, where a . friendly Indian made them uneerstand that there were bad Indians not far away. The very next day the party encountered those bad Indians. Let us have the story in the words of FI int’s diary: !fAn old, one-eyed, mean looking Indian, with a boy about 15., came up on horseback and took positions each side of me. The man was armed with a flint-lock, old English musket, and the boy with bow and arrows. The boy began to draw up his arrowed bow menacingly. was more afraid of the arrow than of the musket, but the boy meekly dropped the bow down by his side when I made no motion to draw my pistol. When our wagons arrived; I told the drivers to go to a level place a short distance away and wait for the arrival of the sheep. Soon a half dozen other Indians bounced out of the bush and began to pillage the wagons. The teamsters were scared out of their wits, but Mrs. Johnson H {the wi fe of a gui de they had taken on at Fort Laramie> !!went after them with a hatchet. ran to the wagons, scolding the terrified team~ sters and ordering the Indians by signs to put everything back in the wagons.
They were sulky, and one of them, taking an oxbow by the ends, made a motion to strike me with it, whereupon I brought my pistol to bear upon him. He dropped the bow and they al I scurried to the opposite side of the horses. Then I was master of the situation.
‘~e waited unti lour men arrived with the sheep. After we got our train in close order, we told the boys to start ahead. As they moved, the old, oneeyed Indian shouted that they would not let us go unti I we let them have the black cow and the sheep that had bel Is on, and he told the boy to go ahead and stop us. We told the boy to stay back. The boy started to obey us, but the old Indian declared he would stop the train unti I the Indians got what they wanted.
We leveled our rifles at him and told him to get back. He halted but, as we were moving on, he got down on one knee and leveled his gun at us. This so frightened two of our men that they ran for shelter, much to the delight of the Indians.
f~J ust then we got a report that the black CCM was mi ss i ng. Suppos i ng the Indians had got her, we made a rush for them, whereupon they fled into the bush. Then it was our turn to laugh, for the cow was only a little way off calmly browsing-.- tt And with that anti-cl imax Thomas FI int ended his record of the episode.
After the party crossed the Platte, they encountered a band of starvinq Mormons, who had been robbed of al I their provisions by marauding Indians. Flint’s party gave them enough provisions to get them to Salt Lake. On August 6 they had their first sight of the snowy peaks of the Rockies, and on the same day they met the Salt Lake four-horse mai J stage bound east.
Can sheep swim? Apparently the ferryman at Green River thought they couldn’t. He wanted an exhorbitant price for getting the party across. saying he knew theV would have to paV his price because sheep can’t swim. The party did a little reconnoitering, found a place down stream where the river could be forded if they raised the wagon beds a bit, and where the current would swing them easi Iy to the other side. So, savs FI i nt, :’Taki ng advantage of the current, the sheep fol lowed the wagons and swam across easi lV, about two hundred feet from bank to bank.”
August 28 was a jubi lant day_ They met a pack train from their home town of Volcano, California, and heard for the first time in many weeks about relatives and friends in that mining community.
On September 7 the bread they had cast upon the waters was returned after many days. Let us see in Flint’s own words what happened because they had be- friended that hungry Mormon band in the foothi lis of the Rockies: !’Crossed the last ridge before entering the Val ley of Great Salt Lake and descended into a canyon through which we traveled seven mi les and emerged from Emigrant Canvon:
as it is ca I led, upon a high tab Ie I and fi ve mi les from Sa It Lake C i tv. Ne found deserted cab ins a I I a long the tra ii, the sett’lers havi ng been ordered into the ci ty’ by Bri gham Young on account of hosti Ie I ndi ans.
“As we were driving along, two men on horseback met us, and one asked)’ ?Are you saints or sinners?’ I replied it depended how one interpreted the question~ whereupon he asked testi IV, ‘Are you fvbrmons or not?’ ‘Not’ was the reply. TheV then asked what train ours was, and I told them, whereupon they wheeled about and rode toward the city. In a short time two more men came out and greeted us:
1\1e know who you are’, they sa i d. ‘You are the ones who ass isted some of our people on the plains after they had been robbed bV Indians. You may turn to the left, go down the hi I I to the church gardens, and camp there unti I you hear from us again, but keep your stock off the plowed land.’
“So we camped near a garden patch and he I ped ourse I ves to whatever vegetables we liked, which were a great treat. Our horses were taken to a feed yard in the citV. Word was sent us that, if we would come to a cert?in house: we would be repaid in kind for what we had furnished their people whom we had bef r i en de d on the p I a i ns •
Did you know that there were Maine people among Brigham Young’s Mormons? Listen to this from Flint’s diary: “Saw Brigham Young on the street but did not call upon him. Paid our respects to the wives of Francis Pomeroy from Ma i ne. n I’m sure you noted the pi ura I noun — wi ves!
Flint’s party spent a week in the Mormon country, buying cattle, both oxen and cows, to take along to California with their big flock of sheep. In Provo, Utah they bought flour and beef to see them through to California. They were ready to start when they found the wagons needed some blacksmith work. It was Sunday, and they didn’t want to be held up another day, but how would they get such a rei igious man as a Mormon blacksmith to work on the Sabbath? To his surprise
FlinT learned of Brigham Young’s famous order that made possible the stabi lity of The Salt Lake settlement, for Young had oroclaimed that the Sabbath must not be observed as a day of rest unti I The fortifications were finished and the harvesting done. So Flint got the work done on his wagons in spite of its being Sunday.
On October 25 Flint wrote that they had crossed the southern rim of the Great Sa It basi n and had at I ast passed out of Mormon terri tory. He sa i d: !;As for our individual selves, we cannot complain of treatment received in Brigham Young’s earthly kingdom, for we have been kindly treated by church officials and members, which we attri~bUTed to return for the relief we gave their wagon train on the Platte. In Mormon territory we were not robbed nor molested to an amount more than a set of horseshoes. \”iith OTher trains, hONever .• the treatment was harassing, especial Iv if they came from III inois or Missouri. The Mormons imposed fines for every real or fancied infraction of their local regulati ons, and They enforced payment at the point of ri f les.”
On December 2 the party crossed what is now the line between Nevada and Cal ifornia and started across the Mojave Desert. The oxen suffered more than the sheep for lack of water and feed. The party moved as best it could across the arid wastes from watering place to tiny watering place, some so distant from each other as to make it almost impossible to keep the herd going. But at last they were across the desert and insight of the Sierra Nevada mountains, where five years before So lyman Heath of Watervi I Ie had found the most dangerous traveling of the whole journey from Kansas to California.
They crossed the Sierras through Cajon Pass, finding surprisingly little snow and much eas i er trave Ii n9 than Heath had encountered further north.
On the very I ast day of the year F lint wrOTe in his diary: “We are out of the desert and of the high Sierras. Very good feed this side of the pass. Today closes the year 1853 and it is a full year from the time we left San Francisco on the steamship Northerner. In that time we have traveled 5,344 mi les by steamer, 2,144 by rai I road, 2,131 mi les on horseback and on foot — a total of nearly 11,000 mi les. We spent a month in Ma ine and 38 days collecting stock in I I I i no is. ”
Unlike Solyman Heath, who had been headed for the vicinity of Sacramento~ Flint’s party was bound for Southern Cal ifornia. Thev went into a vi Ilage of a few houses for groceries. That tiny vi Ilage is now the city of San Bernardino.
On January 3, in the San Bernardino mountains, they lost several cattle in a terrific blizzard and nearly lost their own lives. On January 7 they reached the San Gabriel Mission, and shortty, afterward they were in Los Angeles. Although they soon made their way north to the home ranch near Monterey, they could not forget the lush fields and pastures around Los Angeles, and the next year Flint, Bixby and Company bought the great Rancho San Justo, that made them among the wea I th i es tranche rs inCa I i forn i a .
And that, my friends, is the story of how three men from Maine took a big flock of sheep from ‘II i noi s to Ca Ii forni a, and how one of those men was Dr. Thomas FI int who, on a grim September night in 1847, had helped Dr. Valorus Coolidge carry the murdered body of Ed Mathews down the cellar stairs of a busi ness block on Watervi I Ie’s Ma i n Street.
J suppose that anyone whose interest in old time Maine is known to be as keen as mine is the recipient of many favors. Although this is the eighth year of this program, listeners keep sending me interesting items. One such to reach me recently was a little folder containing the verses about the Wiscasset and Quebec Ra i I road — verses wh i ch I quote in !!Kennebec Yesterdays’!. J n homeIy, simple verse of ballad form they trace the course of a narrON gauge train from Wiscasset to Albion. They begin, nOn steamer wharf, by the calm smooth bay, we jump on board of our new rai Iway!!, and they end with, “The waving corn o’er Albion hi lis, the lowing herd by the cooling ri lis, the leafy trees and the thorny th i st Ie, a II hear the sound of Crosby’s wh i st Ie”.
Two pages of the little folder are fi lied with the verses; on each of the other two pages is an advertisement. One is by J. H. Estes; who was real estate agent for land on China Lake. His ad, which must have appeared about 1900, perhaps a bit earl ier, says: “China Lake is destined to become one of the principal inland watering places in Maine. Choice locations for summer hotels around China Lake, and also other real estate in China, for sale by J. H. Estes, Agent, China, Maine.”
The other ad calls attention to a book, or perhaps it was a booklet, and find this mention of it especially interesting because I am very fond of the historical bui Iding that the advertised booklet was about. The ad says: “Old A Ina Meeti nghouse, by Rufus Ki ng Sewa I I. Four i I I ustrat ions. Pri ce 25 cents.
Every person far and near who is at all interested in the history and architectural features or this ancient meeting house should at once possess themselves of this interesting book. The price is 25 cents by mai I. As the edition is limited, an early purchase is advisable. Address orders, enclosing price. to Char I es E. Emerson, vii scas set, Ma i ne • f!
Now Kennebec Va Iley and S heepscot Va I ley peop Ie have a commendab Ie hab it of saving things. Perhaps someone hearing this program tonight may know where I can locate a copy of EO I d A I na r~eeti ng house !I by Ruf us King Sewa I I . I ve ry much want to see that book.
Some fifty years ago the re was pub I i shed !lA Souven i r Gu i de to Boston and Environsrt. Rather interesting are two ads on the back of the front cover. One of these is the ad of Joseph Gahm, who was New England agent for what he cal led Joseph Schlitz’s Famous Mi Iwaukee Beer. Gahm apparently let no opportunity pass to sol icit the temperance as well as the alcohol ic trade, for beneath his ,.,<,;
Sch I i tz ad appears th is: “Gahm f s Ma I t Extract. A food, a ton i c.~ an i n vi gorator. It bui Ids up and strengthens the system of the weak and debi litated. It aids the recovery to health of the sick and convalescent, and is especially recommended to persons suffering from indigestion and dyspepsia. It possesses al I the invigorating and tonic properties dormant in malt in the most pleasing and palatable form.”
It i:s as if Joseph Gahm, German bottler of Boston, were saying to the directory’s readers fifty years ago, “Take your beer or take your ma I t extract.
I’ve got both.” And with that we must say good night for old times’ sake.
Year: 1956