In 1923 the Oklahoma Historical Society published an article in the Chronicles of Oklahoma titled "REMINISCENCES OF THE WASHITA CAMPAIGN AND OF THE DARLINGTON INDIAN AGENCY." The author was John Murphy, who dictated these reminiscences in 1918. He concluded the article with the following description of men he had been acquainted with on the frontier:
"Most of the men with whom I was associated while in the Indian Service have long since crossed the Great Divide. Ed Guerrier, the French-Cheyenne half-breed, for whom the town of Geary, in Blaine County, was named, still lives at Porcupine, South Dakota. His wife was a daughter of Colonel William Bent, of Bent’s Fort on the Arkansas. Her brother, Robert, died just at the time of the opening of Oklahoma to settlement, in 1889. Her brother, George Bent, died at Colony, in May, 1918. Dick Curtis, whose wife was a Sioux woman, but who was an adopted member of the Cheyenne tribe, died about 1872. Phil McCusker, who was a noted scout, lost his life during the great blizzard, in Jauary 1886. But little is known of his antecedents and early life, though he was said to have been a soldier in the Regular Army, before the Civil War, and was reputed to have been an officer in the Confederate Army. Jimmie Morrison was another old timer who died long since. He had been a clerk and interpreter for Agent Wynkoop, at Fort Larned. His wife was a daughter of Big Mouth, a leading chief of the Arapahoes. Jimmie was a prominent cattleman during the early ’eighties. David Tramp, a Creole-French trapper, one of the last survivers of the Rocky Mountain fur-trade era, died at Colony, about twenty-five years ago. John Seger still lives at Colony and Agent Miles is yet living in Texas. Practically all of the leading men of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of forty years ago are dead."
This is a pretty good list of names, but of course it does not include many other important plainsmen. These were men who were involved with the Cheyennes as interpreters, scouts, traders, or agency officials.
One name, David Tramp, is not familiar to me. Looks like some research is called for.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
David Tramp is, I believe, a variation of David Trempe. Trempe was a French-Creole mountain man who was associated with the Bent family. Grinnell refers to him as "Trampe or Trampeaux" and goes on to say that he was employed by the Bents as a carpenter in 1853 (Grinnell, "Bent’s Old Fort and its Builders"). Like William Bent, Trempe was also married into the Cheyenne tribe. Col. Dodge refers to him as a messenger for the Cheyenne-Arapaho agent in 1879 (Dodge, "The Indian Territory Journals of Colonel Richard Irving Dodge"). He died in about 1893 (Murphy, "Reminiscences of the Washita campaign and of the Darlington Indian Agency").
Post a Comment