Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1859 — Horrible Tales of Suffering on the Plains. [ARTICLE]

Horrible Tales of Suffering on the Plains. -----

<Three Hundred Emigrants Starved to Death on the Smoky Hill Route—Experience of Two Young Men from Wayne County, Indiana>. ----- Two young men named Erastus B. Giffin and Preston Cates, of Williamsburg, Wayne county, Indiana, have arrived here direct from Denver City. They went out last October and left Denver on the 6th of May. A gentleman in this place was acquainted with them, and pronounces them to be perfectly reliable. They prospected two months and made $2 40, all told. They prospected up and down the Platte, and on the headwaters of the Colerado [sic]. They think there may be some gold in the mountains, but there is no chance to get it, as there is deep snow all the year round, with the exception of about two months. The best day’s digging they did paid them $1 06. This was on another man’s claimwho wanted to sell it and come home. They asked to try it first, when they worked one day at washing dirt which the fellow had thrown up. They worked with a long tom and sluice, and washed out $1 06. They then worked four days longer, digging up the dirt for themselves; and in the four days they took out <fifteen cents!> After that the pay was still smaller, when they gave it up. They are confident that the fellow had prepared his pile of dirt as a bait. They report horrible sufferings on the Smoky Hill route, which has been so bepuffed in some of the papers. When they left, but ten persons had reached the mines by that route, who reported that three hundred had died on the way. One of the men reported that he had seen six dead men lying within reach of each other; and another said he had himself buried twelve men. These men came straggling in one by one. One of them had lived ten days on the flesh of his dog. They reported that some had lost their wya [sic]. Scouts were immediately sent out, and some of the lost ones were found within ten miles of the camp, so weak that they had to be fed with spoons. In Denver City, several months since, lots were selling as high as three hundred and fifty dollars. When the young men left, donation shares, containing eight lots, could be bought for five dollars. Denver has several hundred small cabins, many of which have no roofs. They are occupied by any one who chooses to do so. The proprietors have made a poor speculation, as there is not money enough in the country to pay house-rent. Provisions were very scarce and bread was selling at fifteen cents per pound. The baker was the only person who had any gold dust, for those who got any were compelled to buy bread with it. One of our informants gave the baker a gun, which cost him twenty-six dollars, for four pounds of bread. These young men threw their tools into the Platte, and started home on foot, taking only two blankets with them. For two hundred miles they lived on prickly-pears and wild potatoes. They built but two fires from Denver to Fort Kearny. Once they killed a prairie dog and roasted it. Another time, they came to where a man and his family were encamped, and asked for bread. The man at first refused it, but at length agreed to let them have some, for which he took their blankets as pay! They then had to sleep on the bare prairie, and once the Cheyenne Indians came near taking their coats from them! A young man named Wm. H. Joslyn and another person from Monroe county, New York, have since arrived, and reported similar to the above, and much more which would be interesting had we room for it. They spent a greater part of their time in the company of old mountaineers, who assured them that gold could not be found there in paying quantities. We hear enough every week to fill our paper, and are enabled to give but a few of the principal items. -----