Barton County KS Archives History - Books .....Henry Fruit's Experience 1912
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com July 24, 2005, 3:53 pm

Book Title: Biographical History Of Barton County

HENRY FRUIT'S EXPERIENCE

HENRY FRUIT, an old timer of this section of the state recalls his arrival here
and tells of a trip to Dodge City in the early days. Mr. Fruit says:

   "I landed in Great Bend on the 12th day of March, 1872, and found here some
old friends from my native state, Illinois. I was well pleased with the
appearance of the country, and on the 13th, my brother-in-law, W. W. Hartshorn
and I started out to locate a claim. We had no trouble in finding a good
location, and after I had made the necessary improvements to hold it, I began to
look for a job and let it be known that if anybody wanted a carpenter I was
their huckleberry. I did not wait long for there was one Harry Lovett, then
living in Zarah, about four miles east of Great Bend, who wanted a frame work
put inside his big wall tent, so he was sent to me. To tell the truth I did not
fancy the job a great deal. I had heard of Mr. Lovett and did not fancy his
style, for a short time before he had pumped a cowboy full of lead and then
finished him by beating his brains out with a revolver. Knowing all of this I
began to make excuses, but he would not hear them: "D—n it," he said, "I want
the work done," he said it as though, he meant it too. Remembering the fate of
the cowboy I concluded to go. I got through with the desperado in two days and
got seven fifty for my work, and got back to Great Bend O. K. By the middle of
May the cattle trade began to blossom, buildings began to loom up, houses,
stores, barns, saloons, and dance halls were to be seen at frequent intervals
and carpenters were in good demand, so I had plenty of work at my trade until
about the middle of August The word soon went out that Great Bend was a haven
for carpenters and by the first of August there were more carpenters here than
there are fiddlers in Helena or anywhere else. There being more carpenters than
jobs I concluded to try my hand at buffalo hunting. Mr. Frost, W. H. Quincy, or
"Tough" as he is better known and myself, started for the buffalo range about
twenty miles south of Dodge City, where we heard there were thousands of
buffaloes. We had no adventure to speak of until the second day, out, when we
stopped to feed and get our dinners. Just after dinner there was a big flock of
buffalo birds lit in some weeds along the trail, and Frost said to Quincy, "if
you will let me have your shotgun I'll bet you a quarter I can kill fifty of
them birds at one shot." The bet was made. Frost fired into the bunch and such a
slaughter I never saw. He picked up and counted 136 and was not through when we
happened to look southward and there we saw something that caused us to pause
and our hair to stand up. It was about 150 men on horseback coming straight for
our camp. We at once jumped to the conclusion that it was a bunch of hostile
Indians for we heard they were on the warpath. The party was too far off for us
to tell exactly what they were but we imagined we could see the paint on their
faces and the feathers on their heads, so what were we to do? We were too far
from Fort Dodge to think of making there, they would overtake us before we had
covered half the distance, so we concluded to drive about a half mile north of a
hill covered with loose stone and build a fort, and then sell our lives as
dearly as possidle. We had two needle guns. By this time the front of the line
had reached the river and the horses were drinking leisurely. By this time we
were ready to start and the horsemen were at the river. We looked again, and oh;
joy, our hearts gave a great bound and our hair began to settle down for we saw
coming out from the sand hills a covered wagon drawn by four mules, and just
behind it two men on horses, one of them carrying an American flag. We knew at
once no band of Indians would be carrying Old Glory nor would they have a
covered wagon. I never was so glad in my life to see the American flag, for I
knew no harm could come to us from that source. Now to explain why Uncle Sam's
cavlary was out. It was not for the purpose of scaring the life out of three
hunters."

   "Two or three nights before a gang of horse thieves mostly white men,
stampeded about fifty horses and mules, belonging to a railroad contractor, then
working about five miles west of Dodge City. The commander at Fort Dodge had
sent out two companies of cavalry after the thieves. They caught them in the
brakes of Medicine Lodge river, re-captured the stock and killed some of the
bandits. When we saw them they were on their way back with the stolen stock. We
started on our journey mighty glad that we had escaped alive, having forgotten
about the bet Frost won. We got to the old government crossing about one mile
west of Dodge City, and found old Bob Robinson, a buffalo hunter of great fame.
We found a great deal of water in the river at this point. Robinson and a man
from Ellsworth doubled their teams and got across the river. We tried it alone
and got across O. K. We found the buffalo by the thousands at the heads of
Mulberry and Indian creeks. We succeeded in killing about 200 in ten days, after
which we started on the return trip. When we got to the river it was much lower
but we had to make several trips in order to get our loads across. At Dodge we
traded our green hides for dry ones and camped for the night about a mile east
of the city. About three o'clock in the morning we were awakened by somebody
galloping across the prairie, the moon was about two hours high and we could see
quite plainly. Frost raised to see what it was. I asked him "what do you see?"
He replied, "two men on horseback." They stopped near our horses and one of them
dismounted, and I heard Frost say, "Halt, hold on there, what do you want?" and
in the same breath he whispered, "Bob, they have your horses." Bob said, "shoot
the son-of-a-gun," and the crack of Frost's rifle broke the stillness of the
midnight air. This was followed by several shots in quick succession. By this
time the would-be horse thieves began to think it was getting mighty hot, for
they mounted their ponies, and ran for their lives. They had cut the rope tied
to Bob's horses, and were making off with them when we called a halt. They made
a water haul that time. We got to Great Bend without any more adventures and
sold our hides for $1.15 each and that was the end of my first buffalo hunt, but
it was not the last one."


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