ADOBE WALLS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 30, 4 August 1923, Page 22

ADOBE WALLS

A GREAT AMERICAN FIGHT

TWENTY-EIGHT WHITES AGAINST

SEVEN HUNDRED INDIANS

In the remoter reaches of the American West, where adventurous pioneering still goes on, and the epic of the conquering of the West is kept keenly alive in fireside stories, few tales are told that carry such a thrilling portrayal of the eai-ly days as that of the Adobe Walls' fight. In the later days of I the West, when a man who had taken part in that terribly one-sided struggle appeared in a community he was singled out as a hero and all honour done to him.

Now the Adobe Wall fight is to be vividly recalled before the whole country, for next year will be the fiftieth anniversary of the historic conflict. A movement is already on foot in Oklahoma and Kansas to convert the scene of the encounter into a public park and memorial.

The fight at Adobe Walls—or 'Dobe Walls, as the natives call it—ranks with Forsyth's battle with the Cheyennes and Brule Sioux at Beecher Island, where Colorado and Kansas have joined in putting up a monument, and with the Wagon Box fight near Fort Fetterman in Montana. AH those engagements, says a writer in the "New York Times," represent the successful defence of a few white men against the surprise attacks, of apparently overwhelming numbers of Indians.

Bat Masterson, later a well-known frontier figure, and in quite recent years, up to the very time of his death, a few months ago, a Deputy United States Marshal in New York City, was in the 'Dobe Walls fight. At that time Bat was a slip of a boy, engaged in the dangerous business of hunting buffalos for a living. Nearly all those with him at the time of the Indian attack were fellow hide hunters. All were skilled users of firearms.

A woman, Mrs. William Olds, who had come with her husband from Dodge City to open a restaurant at Adobe Walls, went through the siege behind the sun-baked walls of the little settlement. Two of the defenders 01 the settlement are still living—Andy Johnson, of Dodge City, and Fred Leonard, of Utah. Twenty-eight white men took part in the fight, among tfiem being " Billy " Dixon, a celebrated marksman.

Adobe Walls is on the Canadian River *n North-western Oklahoma, about fifty miles south-east of Guymon. The settlement took its name from adobe walls which were standing in the earliest pioneer days. ADOBE WALLS AS SHIELD. The hide hunters of the 'seventies hit on the old site as a likely place for a settlement. In 1874, the year of the Indian fight, there was a lively frontier settlement there. There was a stockade around the little group of buildings, all of which were of adabe—very fortunately for those present, as was soon to Ibe demonstrated. All the buildings faced to the east, the main ones in a row. There was the store of Rath and Wright at the south end, with a big pile of buffalo hides.at the rear of the building. Then came Hanrahan's saloon, and fifty yards north of that was Leonard and Myers's store, forming a corner of the stockade. A mess house stood at another corner of the picket stockade, and near that was a well. The mud walls •of the buildings were two feet thick. This form of construction afforded warmth in winter and coolness in summer. Around the settle-ment-were low sandhills. About 1200 yards away was a .buttelike hill, of considerable • height, . where Dixon, the marksman, brought down an Indian and was credited with the best long-distance shot of the day. ■ v i

Indian depredations were common in the spring and early summer of 1874, and the business of hide-hunting, always dangerous at its best, had become unusually hazardous. But the hide-hunters were not men to be deterred by such frontier dangers A large party gathered at the Walls to start out on 27th June. Twenty of those at the settlement on the ; day of the fight were buffalohunters.' The others were'merchants and their clerks. The men sat up late on the night of the 26th. The weather was sultry, and the doors of the stores and other buildings were open. The talk ran to the killing of four hide-hunters by Indians in the vicinity of the Walls only a, few days before. But nobody gave any indication of intending to abandon the projected hunt. By 1 o'clock in the morning all wero asleep, blankets being spread on the floors in the various buildings. About 2 o'clock in the morning occurred an incident which had an important bearing on the outcome. The ridgepole in Hanrahan's saloon- broke with a report which aroused the entire settlement. The roof did not give way entirely, but was sagging in a threatening manner, so everyone turned out to help repair the damage. By the time repairs on the roof were finished it was dawn. Dixon went down to the creek nearby to get his saddle pony, which had been staKed there. As he reached the' creek he saw what appeared M> be an army of Indians, in silhouette against the red sunrise. The Indians were Kiowas, Cheyennes, and Comanches. Their war bonnets were fluttering, and they were coming at a gallop. As soon aa they saw that they wero discovered they gave the war-whoop, and lashed their ponies to top speed. Dixon fired and dashed tor the stockade on the back of has frightened pony. it was supposed that the Indians would pursue their usual tactics and would merely circle the buildings, killing suah men as were outside and-driving off the I 1 w l t0°kl -But ths Indians had bee" told by their chief medicine man that the white men would all be asleep and could be killed with clubs. This-would have happened had not the ridge-pole in the saloon broken as it did. The Indians charged up to the stockade and through the gates. They broke every pane of glass in the buildings and hammered on the doors with the butts ot their rifles. Dixon had reached HanTahan a m safety. The Shadier brothZ'wi V", ti! esr wagon outside the i i l6 dejenders <>i the Walls, it developed, had been split into three paxties. Some of the men found that the ammunition for their buffalo guns was in other buildings, but others were not so unfortunate, and enough of.a return fire was poured upon the Indians to drive the attackers away temporarily. Several Indians had been shot down and some of the wounded wero trying to crawl out of the stockade The Indians enraged at the failure of their first attack, now came on in charge after oharge, .just as the Cheyenne chief Roman Nose J.ter attacked Forsyth's scouts at Beecher Island. They rode up to_ the arid fired through the pickets. Ihe horses of the buffalo-hun-ters were in the stockade, tied to the wagons -so an early staj could be made. J he Indians shot arrows and bullets into the horses, killing all of them, in order to deprive the defenders of any chance ot getting awa,y.

A MYSTERY OF THE BATTLE,

''Billy" Tyler, one of the defenders ■who weut tq the stockade ip got a bet-

ter shot at the Indians, was shot through the lungs and died in a few minutes. The hunters who made a stand in the saloon Were short of ammunition, so Dixon and Hanrahan made a dash for Bath's store, where there was a plentiful supply, and came back with enough for all the big "50" guns, with which the plainsmen could do deadly work.

The Indians, 700 in number at the start, kept up their attacks until 2 o clock in the afternoon. Apparently they .thought it impossible that such a small number of men could, hold out against such odds. But the hide hunters fought coolly and took no chances. Behind the thick adobe walls they were comparatively safe. They poured forth a deadly fire from windows and doorways. Every attack cost the Indians heavily in lives. ..~' '■he horses in the corral hadi been killed, and, even after the attacks slackened, the situation of the beleaguered party seemed .to be hopeless. Realising that the hide hunters could not be dislodged by direct attack, the Indians sought to 1 starve out the party. They kept up a scattering fire, to show that they were watching every avenue of escape.

After dark on the second day, Henry Lease, a buffalo hunter, took his big oO and started for Dodge City. Nobody had much hope that ho would get through. His exploit ranks with that of Donovan, Pilley, Stillwell, and Trudeau of the Forsyth Scouts, who wormed their way through the investing Cbayennes and Sioux and made their way to •I'ort Wallace. Lease reached Dodge and gave the alarm, but his journey took several days, and the plight of the buffalo hunters grew worse and worse. O n the fifth day of the siege, shortly if vf the relief party aPPearetJ> Olds i the husband of the only woman present, was accidentally killed. Ho was climbing down a ladder, and in some manner his rifle was discharged, the'top of his head being blown off. At first it was supposed he had been killed by an Indian. His wife saw him fall. She had gone through the siege with the utmost courage, encouraging the men'to keep ■up the fight and seemingly not being alarmed over the prospect of death or capture. By the time the relief party arrived, the Indians had withdrawn; 200 had been killed. The Indian allies had been era the warpath several months ar.d had killed nearly 200 people on raids in New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, and Kansas. They were exultant over their easy progress, and their setback at Adobe Walls came as a stunning blow.