TALENT NEWS.
| VOL. I. |
SEPTEMBER 15, 1892. |
NO. 16. |
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| The TALENT NEWS is published
the 1st. and 15th. of each month. Terms: 25 cents a year. EDWARD ROBISON, Editor. Entered at the Talent Post Office as second class mail matter. THE SISKIYOU MASSACRE BY D. P. BRITTIAN. On september 24th, 1855, Harrison Oatman, Cal. Fields and I started from Phoenix with ox teams, loaded with flour, for Yreka, Cal. We camped the first night on Neal Creek. The road over Sis- kiyou mountains was very rough. Fields had been over the road before, but Oatman and I had not; so Fields went in the lead with his team of four yoke of oxen. We had to "double teams" up bad hills as that was before the toll road was made. When we got near the summit of the mountain Fields said, "This is the last place we have to double; we will get to the top this time." Oatman and Fields started up while I remainded with my team. When they got near the top, the Indians that were wait- ing the in brush fired on them, killing Fields the first fire. Oatman ran up the mountain. Just at this time a Mr. Cun- ningham met them, jumped out of his wagon and ran with Oatman, the Indians whooping the war-whoop and shooting at the men as they ran. Cunningham was shot in the hip and fell. Oatman past him and ran on to the top of the hill where he met a man on horse back and told him what had happened. The horse- man rode back to Mountain House, three miles, for assistance. Four men, well armed came as quick as possible. When I heard the firing I ran up to see what hap happened. I was sure our men were both killed. When I got within twenty steps of the wagons I saw an Indian. he got behind a tree and pointed his gun to- wards me. Just then I saw another In- dian on the other side of a wagon empty- ing flour out of the sacks. When I saw what was done I stared back to my team. As I started, the Indian behind the tree fired at me; then I got scared and ran on to where the toll-house now stands, two miles. There I caught up with a pack train with twenty mules, in charge of a white man and a Spaniard, and, inform- ing them what had happened, asked for |
an animal to ride. They at once
hurried their animals, declaring the Indians would kill every one of us before we could get out. I jumped on the bellhorse, the men telling me to run him as fast as pos- sible and not let any grass grow under his feet. I had no bridle, nothing but the bell strap to guide the horse with. I whipped with a short rope and my hat and I think I made the best time that any man and horse ever made for four miles down that mountain to where Major Baron's place now is. James Rusell, now living in Ash- land, was there then. Six men, armed and mounted, started to the place of the massacre. I came three miles farther on, got a horse and gun and started back to join the men, They had met the men that came from the other way, at the wag- ons, where Field's body was found, strip- ped of its clothing. by this time it was getting dark and they could not find Cun- ningham. Thirteen oxen were killed in the road. The men brought Field's body down to my wagon, saying it was Oat- man's, and that Fields was at the house on the other side of the mountain. The men urged me to lie down as I was about tired out. Men were sent to Peoe- nix, but no one wanted to tell Mrs. Oat- man her husband was killed. Before day- light the mistake was discovered and word was at once sent to Mrs. Oatman a- bout the trouble. At daybreak parties set out to hund for the lost boy. Cunning- ham, and found him about fifty yards from the wagons, killed and his body stripped of clothing. He was brought down and burried in the Hill grave-yard. Fields was burried east of the present town of Talent, near Bear Creek. Harri- son Oatman now live in Portland. Col. Streator has turned spiritualist. He at- tended the great spook camp at Lilydale, N.Y. and received a communication from an old law- yer long sinced "passed over," to the effect that while the colonel's action in hanging Iams up by the thumbs "raised hell on earth," it is justi- fied by the counsel of spirtis, by whose assistance he will come out all right. The cholera is working its way westward and general alarm prevails throughout the eastern portions of the United States. All vessels ar- riving from Europe will be quarantined and the Atlantic cities will be put in a state of de- fense by energetic efforts at cleansing. The mayor of San Francisco has ordered the flush- ing of the sewers and a general cleaning up of Chinatown and other filthy parts of the city. Wouldn't it be well to keep large cities con- tinuously in a state of defense against contagious diseases? |
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TALENT NEWS. A WATERMELON RAID THAT We are informed that several bo-hoys attempted to raid Mr. Harvey's water- melon patch on Sunday night of the 4th inst., presumably after church service. Each raider captured a large melon and was bravely marching off when bang went a gun behind them and shot came whiz- zing among the crowd in uncomfortable proximity. One stumbled into some bushes and was captured; another was "stood up," and the balance are running yet--at least they were when last heard from. The "stood up" raider was "induc- ed" to divulge the names of his partners and the next grand jury may have an in- teresting case. A large audience gathered at the Dunkard church on the evening of the 3rd inst to witness communion and the Lord's supper. While the former may have seemed very odd, perhaps fun- ny, to some, we were pleased to note the re- spectful attention of all present. In our next we shall endeavor to give a brief account of the origin and general belief of this sect. The dance at the U. M. L. Hall on the even- ing of the 3rd inst. was a success, a large num- ber being present. L. Shideler and family have returned from their camp at Mountain Springs to their Medford home. Melvin Atwater and family returned from Crescent City on the 7th, inst., to re- main on Wagner Creek for the winter. They did not find what they expected over there. J. T. Wornock made a hasty trip to Washington last week returning with his other child, a bright 3-year-old lad. Mrs. Wolenweber, of Vancouver, Wash- ington, arrived in Talent on Friday last on a visit to her aunt Mr. John Abbott, whom she has not seen for twenty years. She will remain for several weeks. A tame pigeon flew in at our office win- dow the other day, presumably to call on the editor, but we were absent. After leaving unmistakable evidences of his presence about the room, our winged vis- itor wound up by making what might be called a pigeon "pi" of a lot of type in the galley. Had we been in about that time there might have been a pigeon pie of another kind at our house, shortly after. Dolsie Netherland returned from California a short time since. |
M. H. Coleman of Phoenix
has rented his farm to his son, W. R. Coleman and will move to Wagner Creek about the 1st of Oct. Mrs. Ida Fenton, NEE Brittian, and Mrs. Sarah Vantine, NEE Morton, arrived from Washington last Tuesday on a visit to relatives and friends. The forest fire on upper Wagner Creek is still working its way down, having reached Rail Gulch. No serious damage thus far. The Talent school will commence next Mon- day, J. Beaty and Miss Roberts, teachers. Frank Robison, Dalton Brophy and J. Bee- son called at our office since last issue. Smoky? Well, somewhat. A fair audience listened to Ira Wakefield's speech on finance last Thursday evening in the U. M. L. Hall. The speaker seems to have an inexhaustible fund of anecdotes with which to illustrate his remarks and to hold the attention of his audience. After a few preliminary re- marks the speaker asked abrubtly: "How many here have any money?" The question naturally caused the thoughts of each to revert to frequent "hold-ups" of late and of course no one deem- ed it entirely prudent, in the presence of so many political reformers to expose his pocket fi- nancial condition; so no one responded. This was as the speaker expected and he gave prom- ise that when the People's Party got hold of Uncle Sam's purse strings, there would be such a scatterment of greenbacks as would fill every pocket in the country. The speaker adopted the Kindergarten style of illustration. Fishing a few silver coins from his pocket and making his hat do duty as a custom house and a spectacle case as a ship loaded with imported sugar, the speaker transformed himself into a plutocrat banker and proceeded to expose the true inward- ness of the banking system. Holding up a half- dollar he asked: "Can anyone tell me what makes this piece of silver worth four bits?" No one responded. Had we not been so ex- cruciating bashful, we might have aired our wisdom by informing him that it was allowing to the words: "In God we trust," on the coin. Producing a few pices of paper, which for the time he called greenbacks, he asked the au- dience to be sure and remmber the date of their issue, which he gave as Feb., 1862, "just before the battle of Bull Run." But we were at once reminded of the old song: "'Twas on July the twenty first,We were informed that at least one man in the United States is worth $800,000,000, which great wealth is made possible through the nefa- rious workings of the old parties. The speaker's opinion of the G. O. P.s was illustrated in this wise: A negro preacher told his hearers that there were "but two roads dat lead from dis worl' to de nex; one leads to hell and de toder to damnation." So if we march with either of the old parties, we know our destination. Tho' somewhat exaggerated in some of his statements and conclusions, the speaker made many good hits, winding up with the suggestion that we ought to "raise less wheat and more hell." The New York World uses about 100 tons of paper for each issue, exceeding the amount used by the Talent News by several pounds. |
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