Benjamin Franklin Ferris - Pikes Peak Gold Fields





Cowboy
     The party consisted of about twenty men, John and I and one H. H. Holford
from Wisconsin from the north - all the others southerners - 2 full blood Caddo
indians one half breed Delaware and a Mexican. This was a - to me - eventfull
trip. We camped in the Indian Territory that is now Oklahoma and we were told
about and examined some of the floating petroleum where the present oil wells
are so valuable.

     One of the indians killed and brot to camp the first antelope I ever saw
and the next day the other one killed a big buffalow, the first I had ever
seen. We camped near it and feasted on it and I believe dried some of it in the
sun - jerked it.

     We passed Ft. Cob on the frontier and saw for the first time a fort and
soldiers. A great many indians were being fed and cared for there and we saw
our first wild indians. I believe they were Kiwas, they had been at war with
the Comanches and were as they said victorious and were celebrating their
victory with a war dance.

     We say many different tribes after, but none that presented a more savage
or revolting appearance than these. We staid in camp near Ft Cob three days and
then left to cross the Great American dessart three men short. The two indians
resigned and Red, one of the drivers shot himself and was left at the fort. We
were preparing for bed when we heard a rifle shot and then a scream. Red - I
knew no other name for him - got into his wagon and pulled his rifle in by the
mussle. It went off and the bullet passed through his leg diagonally between
his knee and thigh. It no doubt shocked and hurt him some and it surely scared
him terribly.

     Mr. Flornoy owned the outfit of three wagons loaded with merchandise,
three pair of oxen to each wagon and about 50 head of cattle driven loose, with
horses enough for the men to ride in driving by day and herding by night. To
travel by day and herd by night was our duty and it was a hard life. Such a
trip tries men physically and otherwise.

     John got sick when a few days out from Ft. Cob, with tifoid fevor. He was
verry sick, no doctor and verry little medicin. Most of the men thot he would
die, but I staid by him night and day being almost his only nurse. It seams to
me he was verry sick about a week and much of the time he did not know where he
was or hardly who he was. He lived and as soon as able for duty was made boss
cook. 1 .nfont It is interesting that they made the typhoid victim the cook,
its a wonder that any of them survived.

     About this time John had a misunderstanding with a boy by the name of
Gordon. Gordon was on his horse with his rifle in front of him was tired and
hungry and cross. John said something he did not like and Gorden swore at him
terribly. John walked deliberately up to him and slapped him in the face.
Gordon jumped off his horse and tried to take his gun with him, but John held
on to the gun and others interfered so he let go and the two boys clinched and
went down, John under. I had great faith in John as a "scrapper", but he was
far from being himself then and I took Grodon by the collar and stood him up
and told him to postpone it untill John got well, and he did; so they called me
the peasmaker.

     We traveled without a road over a new, unexplored country, not knowing
when we left water where we would find another. We carried a ten gallon keg
full for ourselves, but had our stock to think of as the suffered terribly on
some of the long marches and were verry hard to manage. On two occasions we
were more than twenty four hours without water. On such occassions the cattle
became unmanagable when they smelled water.

     The night after an all days drive without water, a bunch of then got away
from the herder and were missed untill morning. Our Mexican took the trail at
daylight and found they had traveled about 7 miles as straight as a crow could
fly to water, good and plenty.

     We moved to the water before breakfast and rested that day, killed a fine
antelope, dressed, roasted, cooked and ate all before breakfast - a fact.

Texas to New Mexico and Colorado

     Way out on the Great American deasart we found a party of surveyors
looking up the boundary line of the Panhandle of Texas. They had a few soldiers
with them and we traveled with them a week or ten days for protection. They
"caught" stars by night to determin exact locations.

     This was my first experience with dried buffalo dropping (buffalo chips)
for fuel. We seldom found wood and missed it, but little.

     We found many creeks beds that were dry most of the way, but had sink
holes where water stood, sometimes so deep that our best divers could find no
bottom and while on the surface the water was warm enough to be comfortable to
batch in, ten or fifteen feet down it would be almost icy cold. Some of those
holes were quite well stocked. We found coal cropping out that we used for
fuel. Most of our fuel was sage brush and buffalo chips.

     We had but one small tent and the boss used that so we slept out doors all
the time and slept well. We seldom removed our clothing, generally washing our
shirts without removing them.

     Reached settlements near Ft. Union, NM in July, after being better than
four months on the plaines.

     A Mr. Lockheart saw a loos horse running wild and we run him in and the
Mexican Magill roped him. Magill claimed him because he roped him. Lockheart
claimed him because he found him and Flornoy claimed him because it was his
outfit.

     There was talk of bloodshed between them, but Flornoy bot the others off
and rode the horse in to Las Vegas. We saw our first Mexican families and took
our first lessons in Spanish language and Spanish and Mexican customs. Saw the
first rooster chase and first Spanish fandango.

     We bought us each a pony and outfit and started for Pikes Peak via Moro,
Texas and Sangre de Christo Pass, through the Ratone Mts. All of this trip was
as lovely as can be imagined. Beautifull Mts, vallies, and mountain streams and
a happy primative people. They lived in towns and large ranches, no families
living isolated from these settlements.



United States
     In the Ratone Mts, we met two men from Denver, who admitted that they had
been run out of Denver. Crossed the Arkansas River at Pueblo and followed it up
passed Canion City and went acrost South Fork where we were lost for two days
and finally got to Mountain City in the Pikes Peak Gold Mines where our brother
Henry kept a hotell (Ferris House). Of course he did not know us and we had
some fun.

     He had wife and two kids, a boy 2 years and a girl 8 months old. John and
I helped some in hotell and finally got hold of some quartz claims, some gold
and others - no good.

     Mountain City is in Gregory gulch halfway between Central City and
Black Hawk. The inhabitants at that time were composed almost entirely of men
between 18 and 30 years of age, such a community as one seldom meets. Strangers
to each other, jolly, good natured, rough to a point of recklessness. Each knew
that he must depend upon himself for protection and for justice.

     Mountain City was founded near the site of the original John H. Gregory
strike in Gilpin Co, in the spring of 1959. It was the first city in the area.
During the summer of 1859 it grew at a fantastic rate. Within weeks there was a
large tent hotel (Perhaps Henry's) a log theater, several businessses and
saloons and some 200 residences. Mountain City was absorbed by Central City as
it grew. This area is known as the richest square mile on earth. Gilpin County
has produced $85,000,000 in gold to date. Central City missed becoming the
capitol of Colorado by one vote to Denver.

     These gold finds were known as the "Pike's Peak Discoveries", not because
they were near Pike's Peak, but because that was the only point in the Central
Rockies known to many people, or located on many maps. (EHM 3)

     Whiskey was plenty at 25 cents a glass, dances frequent at 50 cents a
dance. Near every one carried a knife or pistol, many both. I could record many
tragedies and many acts of bravery, also of cowardise, but the length of this
article scares me. After one of the dances, a ressleing match was put on and
money was bet on me and I won it.

     At another dance, a drunken Englishman Lord was thrown out of the hall and
his life was saved only by a bystander putting his thumb under the pistol
hammer as it was snapped by deputy sherriff Riley.

     Lord died of treemans and Riley was killed in a row a few days later, and
both were berried in the same grave. Jack Keeler, a large, highly educated
Virginian was sherriff of Arapaho County, loved and respected by everybody, the
beloved son of one of the F. F. V., like many a young hopefull, took to drink
and died of treemans. His office was near brother's hotell and we saw much of
him. He slept in his office and one McMillian staid with him and cared for the
office.

     One night McMillan came to the hotell and said Jack had the treemans and
he feared he was dying. John and I ran acrost to his office and found Jack up
looking for some whiskey. He got it and went back to bed and we did the same.

     In about 30 minutes, McMillian rushed over again and reported Jack dead.
It was true. I think he was taken back to Virginia. I remember relatives that
came for the boddy displayed much wealth and fine clothing and jewelry.

     Andy Olson got dead drunk and fell in the street near the Ferris House.
Jack Keeler, John C., myself, and others built a pen about him of lath, strips
of board and stakes and about twilight we placed lighted candles around him on
the boards. Keeler, whose father was a preacher, Episcopalian I think, got a
prair book and when Andy awoke, we were going through the verry sollom
ceremonies of a wake. Thus comedy and tragedy combined to amuse us.

     Brothers H. E., J. C. and I bought a claim on the Mamath lead. John and I
worked it to get it open to where it would pay, picking the soft pots and
drilling and blasting the hard, carrying the loos dirt that we dug out without
without picks, to the hotell at night in socks, panning out the gold at night
to pay for powder and blacksmithing. Hard dangerous work is mining. We had many
narrow escapes and finally quit mining and went over the mountains 8 miles to
work in a quartz mill in Golden Gulch for I. A. Collins. We sometimes passed
over snow 8 or 10 feet deep on a hard beaten trail when to stop off ment
emersion in a snow bank. I had to sew Rollins and lick his foreman before I got
my pay, but I got it. .nfont 1 The name is given as both I. A. Collins and
Rollins here. 17 miles from Central City is Rollinsville named after J. Q. A.
Rollins. I think this must be the individual refered to here.

     Ben is right about the danger. Henry Ferris died soon after in a mine
accident in 19Jun1865 at Alder Gulch (Near Virginia City) in Montana. (EHM
3)

PREV <==    NEXT ==>

Ben Franklin Ferris - Introduction
Ben Franklin Ferris - 1838-1846
Ben Franklin Ferris - 1846-1857
Ben Franklin Ferris - The Early Years
Ben Franklin Ferris - Civil War
Ben Franklin Ferris - After the War
Ben Franklin Ferris - Mexican Civil War
Ben Franklin Ferris - On to Montana
Ben Franklin Ferris - Last Words
Ben Franklin Ferris - Epilogue
Battle of Apache Canyon and Pigeon's Ranch
Fort Union National Monument
Bibliography


Preface to These Documents. (Brief)
Family History
Ben Franklin Ferris - Memoir
Edna Clair Ferris - Diary.
Mallory Home Page