Saguache County CO Archives Biographies.....Stubbs, Benajah Parham          December 7, 1840 - ?
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Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 8, 2006, 9:52 am

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     The embattled hosts of civilized warfare have abundant horrors of great

magnitude to contend with, undoubtedly.  The deluge of death which sweeps over

their sanguinary fields is bound to endanger all and engulf many; but there is

ever present with them the stimulus of numbers, discipline, a comprehensive base

of supplies near at hand, and the want of direct personal responsibility.  On

the other hand, in the contests of a few bold and hardy pioneers with infuriated

savages on the American frontier, and even in the more extensive wars with the

Indians, wherein well disciplined and properly accoutered troops take the field,

the men in danger are remote from civilization and have no means of sustaining

their conflict but such as they have gathered by their own sporadic and

unsystematic efforts under great privations and difficulties.  In most of these

every man is obliged to act largely for himself, taking his individual life in

his hands against great odds and a wily foe that has the superiority in

woodcraft, knowledge of the country, and almost everything else except his

munitions of war, and often in these also.  Moreover, the fiendish cruelty of

the enemy, in and after battle, which is restrained by no considerations of

humanity, adds to the strife an element of horror that is wholly wanting to

regular war.  Happily in our day, such contests with savage fury are almost

unknown, and this species of peril has passed into a memory.  But some contests

with the Indians which have occurred on the soil of Colorado, worthy of all

praise for the heroism they exhibited and the important results to the section

they wrought out, and some local fights of a few men with hordes of hostile

savages, while planting the seeds of our civilization, as types of what many had

to undergo in winning an enduring triumph over nature here, should be preserved

in story lest they perish from the memory of man.  Of such are the

one-hundred-days war with the Indians of the Sand creek region, and the other

experiences with blood-thirsty aborigines herein narrated, in which the subject

of this sketch took an active part.  Mr. Stubbs was born on December 7, 1840, at

West Elkton, Preble county, Ohio, and is the son of Robert and Delilah Stubbs,

natives of that state who moved to Iowa in 1856, and remained there until 1861,

when they came overland with ox teams to Denver, this state, making the journey

by the Platte river route, being fifty-six days on the way.  They located at

South Park, and for eighteen months kept a hotel there, then moved to the

vicinity of Colorado City, where they took up and improved land, remaining from

1863 to 1876. In the year last named they changed their residence to the

Gunnison valley, and after passing a year there ranching and raising stock,

moved to what is now Saguache county, where they passed the rest of their lives,

the father dying on July 21, 1893, and the mother on June 10, 1900.  At their

last home they carried on an extensive and profitable dairy business.  The

father was prominent in the public life of the various counties in which he

lived, serving a number of years as county commissioner in El Paso county,

elected as a Republican.  Four of their children survive them, Lindley M.,

Joseph A., Mrs. Flora E. Tevis and Benajah P.  Being among the early pioneers of

the state and first residents of the Gunnison valley, they were familiar with

all the phases of frontier life in its earliest stage, and had many thrilling

experiences.  While they were living in the South Park the family was molested

on one occasion by hostile Araphoes and Cheyennes, as related by B.P. Stubbs,

who was an eye witness of the occurrence.  Peter Shook, a former neighbor of the

family in Iowa, who had come west and encamped near their cabin, was preparing

the breakfast, and cut off a slice of ham for the purpose, put the rest back in

his wagon.  Soon afterwards a stalwart Indian climbed into the wagon and took

the ham.  Mr. Shook recovered it form him, and by way of rebuke for his

audacity, struck the Indian in the face with his fist.  The latter left at once

with mutterings of revenge, and the inmates of the house, anticipating trouble,

hastily secured what they could of their belongings and fastened up their cabin,

hiding Mr. Shook under one of their beds upstairs.  Within a few minutes a

hundred or more Indians surrounded the house and demanded that the man who had

struck their brother be delivered up to them. On being refused, they broke all

the lower windows, and shot arrows through the upper ones, some of which stuck

in the ceiling.  They then poured into the house and repeated their demand; and

on again being refused, went into every part of it, the inmates on account of

their small numbers being able to make but a feeble resistance.  Finding the man

they were in search of, they dragged him out of doors, beating him over the

head, breaking several of his ribs with a wagon felloe, and otherwise treating

him with great cruelty.  During the melee an Indian thrust a revolver into Mr.

Stubb’s face, threatening death, but did not shoot, as there seemed to be no

hostility toward the family.  At a later date there was another raid on the

family in which some of the live stock was killed, all the dairy supplies on

hand were consumed or destroyed, and a number of articles useful to the family,

and which they could not replace, but which were of no use to the thieves, were

carried off.  In the fall of 1862 Mr. Stubbs and his father filed on homesteads,

and in the following spring sowed grain on their land.  About harvest time a

messenger was sent out from Colorado City to warn the settlers of an Indian

uprising and request them to come to the city for protection.  The women and

children, and such necessary articles as could be quickly collected and

conveniently taken with them, were placed in a wagon and taken to the fort,

where they were left while the men harvested their crops as best they could.

Wheat and oats were selling at twelve and one-half to fifteen cents a pound at

the time, and they could not afford to let the crops go to waste,

notwithstanding the danger in saving them.  In 1864 Mr. Stubbs sold one hundred

bushels of wheat at his door for four hundred and fifty dollars, the price being

seven and a half cents a pound.  During this year an Indian raid resulted in the

death of a young man named Everhart and two boys named Robinson who were herding

sheep, and a Mr. McEntyre was scalped and left as dead on the field; but he

still lived, and enjoyed telling how he took off one of his boots and fought

with his assailants. In 1866 all the residents were once more obliged to build a

fort for protection, and the men were forced to go back and forth in the midst

of constant danger to look after the effects at their homes.  In one of these

trips a cousin of Mr. Stubbs was killed by the Indians.  Mr. Stubbs received a

common-school education, limited to a very meager extent by the exigencies of

the time, and remained with his parents until he reached the age of

twenty-eight, accompanying them in all their wanderings.  In 1877 he went

overland with horses and a wagon to Nebraska, and until the fall of 1878 was

engaged in farming at Vesta, near Tecumseh, that state.  He then returned to

Saguache county, this state, and there he has since made his home.  He has

always taken an active part in political affairs as a pronounced Republican, and

on several occasions has been chosen to offices of importance and responsibility

by his fellow citizens.  In 1866 he was elected clerk of El Paso county for a

term of two years, and in 1881 was appointed deputy clerk of Saguache county. 

In the latter position he served ten years and a half, holding an appointment

under four different clerks.  From the latter part of 1891 to the close of 1894

he freighted between Villagrove and Saguache. On January 25, 1895, he was

appointed bookkeeper in the Saguache County Bank, a position which he is still

filling acceptably.  He is one of the prominent men of the county, universally

esteemed for his generosity and public-spirit, an ardent Republican and an

influential member of the Woodmen of the World.  On February 9, 1869, he was

married to Miss Sarah A. Paster, a native of Ohio.  They had two children, of

whom Minnie Pearl died in infancy and Dallas B. is living.  They also have an

adopted daughter, Ethel.  

     The Sand Creek Indian Fight—This memorable struggle for the permanent

immunity of southern Colorado from strife with hostile Indians began on

September 9th and ended on December 29, 1864, thus lasting one hundred and

twelve days.  Mr. Stubbs was an active participant in it from the beginning to

the end, as a member of Company G, Third Colorado Cavalry.  His company was

formed at Denver and went into camp four miles below Pueblo, and a few days

later marched down the Arkansas river to Fort Lyon, being three days on the

march and suffering many hardships therein.  The soldiers were obliged to sleep

on the snow, and as the emergency was great, all men whom they met on the road

were impressed into the service despite its hardships. At nine o’clock one night

the force was ordered out to march north and surprise the enemy.  After spending

the whole night on the march, and being led by their scouts and half-breed

Indian guides through a pond, in which the horses floundered and the men

suffered intensely from the cold, the Cheyenne Indian village was discovered at

a distance of three miles from the camp at sunrise on the morning of November

29th.  The men then became wild with excitement and could not be restrained, but

rushed upon the Indians, who were still sleeping and unprepared for the attack.

 The noise awakened them and numbers succeeded in escaping, but five hundred of

the nine hundred in the band were killed, with the loss of only one man of

Company G, whose fate was due to his own carelessness.  The battle lasted until

five o’clock in the evening and during its progress two cannon were used by the

whites to great advantage.  Company G found a high enjoyment in burning the

tepees of the Indians after the latter were routed.  On the morning of November

30th they marched to the junction of Sand creek with the Arkansas and went into

camp; but they were soon ordered out again and after a march at double quick for

a distance of ten miles, day dawning, they divided and marched along the

Arkansas, one-half of the command on each side of the river, until darkness

overtook them, at the Santa Fe crossing into Kansas.  At four o’clock next

morning the force on the south side of the river crossed over and united with

those on the north side.  Nearby they found Indians in force and drove them far

into the plains.  On December 3d the company was ordered home.  The experiences

of Company G are but a sample of the ardor and exactions of the campaign, as

other companies had similar experiences and achieved commensurate results.  This

war freed southern Colorado from the danger of savage attacks and established

lasting security for the settlers.  Mr. Stubbs escaped without injury, although

his suffering from cold and exposure were extreme at times. 

Additional Comments:
From Progressive Men of Western Colorado.  Chicago:  A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905

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