The west shore., October 01, 1884, Page 314, Image 8

314
THE WEST SHORE.
THE BEN WRIGHT MASSACRE.
WHAT was the Bon Wright massacre? Until it was
givca pi'oiiiliioijco Ly the great Modoc war in 173,
few people, not residents of Northern California or
Southern Oregon, had ever heard of it, and yet it is one
of the most stirring incidents of our Indian history. The
first question that suggests itself is, Who and what was
Bon Wright? The first half of the query can he readily
answered, but the last is still a matter of dispute. People
who knew him vary in their estimate of his character, in
proportion to their divergent ideals of true manhood I
will place him before you as he is described by those
who knew him best, including his warmest friends and
I do not know that he had any enemies and each can
measure him by. his own ideal standard of humanity and
classify him accordingly.
Bon Wright, bo those who knew him intimately assert,
was roared in the State of Indiana, where his father was
a manufacturer of considerable wealth. Hft parents be
longed to the brotherhood of Quakers, but the neacoful
tenets of that sect found no lodgment in the heart of
young Wright rossossod of a dauntless spirit and a
restless desire for adventure, ho left the home of his boy
hocxL whilo yot a beardless youth, and sought the wild
frontier of the West There he found kindred
from every State in the Union from Maine to Florida, as
well as the French, English and Scotch trappers from
Canada and the "Greasers" of Mexico. They were a
wild, recklosB set of men, witli whom strength, firmness
and bravery woro the Htnmknl of manhood; with whom
whisky was a necessity, and whoso only female associates
woro the Indian women of the various tribos with whom
they came in contact In such socioty young Wright's
character was moulded and shaped for its life work. For
years he traversed the plains and mountains of the West
with the brigades of tropes, enduring hardships of
evory description, fighting Indians and wild animals,
until he came to have few equals and no superiors in all
tho nrU of the mountaineer. When gold was discovered
in California, like hundreds of his companions, he went
to the mines in search of new adventures. It was in
this way we find him in the mines on Scott River and
then on the Klamath in 1851.
Ho mined a little and hunted a groat deal, living the
life of a "squaw man," a term used to signify one whose
cabin was occupied by an Indian woman either tompora
rily or permanently. With the charr n.i
tbo savBgos ho was thoroughly familiar, and all the arte
of. savage warfare had tmen acquired in a school where
one must either learn or prish. He seemed to pride
llttniUklf illWin Ilia inUA..1.1 A- v 1
....... . ... ..TrWUWira w nn lmllHIL Hi(J ,
black liajr fell in long, wavinir tress n,v, i m '
nnd this, with his buckskin suit, made the resemblance
vnrv ulrtLimr tLn I.!.. . .
... :",;""7-WM ,u""l; norwusthe
illusion entirely, dispelled by a glimo at his fnCe
bcunmi by yean of frontier life. One night, durins a
campaign against the Modoc the iinv!iiiu f ..II i! i i
, . - """ n uisiuro-
auo was Lmd aiming the horses picketed near camp
una two MrvWi ohn u : . -'"u1,
, . F1UKJUer ln
ing their friends were stampeding the animals, broke
from their guards and made a dash for libertv .
was one of the first to rush out into the darkne887ii
pursuit, but before he had taken half a dozen steps one
of the men, thinking he was an Indian, seized him by his
streaming hair and jerked him backwards upon the
ground ine mistake was discovered in time to save tig
life; and though often urged to cut his hair, and thug
prevent such mistakes in the future, Wright would never
consent to part with his flowing locks. Not only did he
look like an Indian, but he acted like one in all his deal,
ings with them, scalping the fallen and committing other
barbarities, such as cutting off the ears, noses and fingers
of the wounded before their eyes had closed in death.
He was not alone in this, for other members of the com.
pany followed their leader's example with all the zeal of
a disciple. He was an ideal man in their eyes. Added
to his other qualifications, for such they were in Indian
warfare, was the fact that he scarcely knew the sensation
of fear, tempering his bravery with a cautiousness that
experience had taught him was necessary in dealing with
so treacherous a foe. He hesitated not to crawl into the
very heart of an Indian camp when out reconnoitering,
trusting to his agility and nerve in case of discovery. He
tought Indians for the love of excitement, as did some of
his followers, and took as much delieht in beinc on the
warpath as did the proudest warrior that ever bore a
scalp home in triumph to his lodge. Such was Ben
Wright The men who composed his companv in 1852
varied from those who sought to pattern after him as
closely as possible to those who, having gone, into the
field at first from a sense of duty and a desire to defend
helpless emigrants from the attacks of ruthless savages,
remained to punish the perpetrators of the horrible
butcheries they had witnessed.
Having seen who were the actors in this memorable
campaign, let us proceed with its details and the horrible
incidents that led to it
The Applegate Trail, which led from Fort Hall to
Southern Oregon, was laid out in 1846, and was used
that fall by a few emigrants. They suffered so severely
in the Umpqua Canyon that the route was shunned by
emigrants after the next year. In 1848 Peter Lassen
laid out the celebrated Lassen Road, using this trail as
far as Pit River. In -1849 the emigrants on this route
were snowed in and suffered severely in the mountains of
Plumas County, California, and again the route was
abandoned by emigrants. In 1852, however, those bound
for Northern California and Southern Oregon came over
this trail because of its shortness, and the fact that causes
which had brought it into disrepute did not exist between
Yreka or Rogue River Valley and Fort Hall. The trail
led through the heart of the Modoc country, passing
along the bank of Tule Lake and across the Natural
Bridge on Lost River. ;, "
Early in August, 1852, John Onsby received a letter
at Yreka from his uncle, having come by the way
Sacramento stating thot he and many others were coming
on the old Oregon trail to Yreka, and that great suff&rirj