Letter to Bill (John William) Daugherty 1935

To begin this posting, I must admit a confusion of dates. Mother's great uncle Bill (John William) Daugherty was the brother of my ggrandfather George Daugherty. I have his death date as 1927, which does not jive with the date this letter was sent to Bill...Feb. 15th, 1935. Note: Just got a message from Mom and she said that that date must be wrong, as she remembers her mother and Dad (Irene and Fred Daugherty) living at Bill's place before they moved to Colorado and maybe before they lived in Bonilla. She remembers visiting them there. That certainly would date Bill's death no earlier than 1947. The letter was sent from Muscogee, Oklahoma.

I have John William Daugherty as born May 1862 in Illinois, the son of William Henry Daugherty and Martha Pepper Daugherty. He was married to Mary Murphy, in 1904. The area of Gettysburg, SD is located NW of Miller, or SE of Mobridge, on the east side of the Missouri River. This letter was written during the Great Depression.

Here are portions of the letter, copied from information from Helen McNeil (McGirr).

"Dear Friend, Will,
Your letter at hand and glad to hear from you. I often live over the times we had in Dakota during the summer of 1883--regarding the killings of a Buffalo near Gettysburg (SD). Chas. Bently and his cousin Ned Abercrombie and I were on claims in Potter County, some 8 miles SW of Gettysburg. It was late in the afternoon. I had a tent in which we had our beds and other belongings. Nearby was their shack, built across their two claims in which we had a stove and cooked and ate all our meals. Ned and I noticed Charley coming out of the tent and running out to where his horses were staked, jumping on one of them and away he went in a dead run towards the north, and towards two black looking objects, which we couln't make out what they might be.
Sometime during the night, Charley came to the tent and threw in one forefoot of the Buffalo, which he had brought to show us the reason for his wild ride. He told us in detail how he saw the 2 buffalo coming toward our habitation and ran to the tent for a bridle and jumping on his horse with one suspender holding his trousers up, gave chase. Knowing the buffalo had come from the direction of Gettysburg, he headed thence back that direction hoping that he could find the settlers there on the hunt for them and sure enough as he approached Gettysburg he saw several out, some on horses and one man afoot and who had an old army musket and who gave the gun to Charley. During this time our man who had a good gun had been shooting at one of the buffaloes, the other having escaped. Charles rode alongside the animal and let him have the contents of the old army musket, which brought the animal down and the other men with guns soon finished the battle. As I remember, two men with guns were at the finish and claimed it their game.

Charles claimed it was his one shot that brought the animal to the ground and as he had run them to these men he was going to have part of it. Well, Charles said to Ned and I, "Boys, we will get up early in the morning, go over to Gettysburg and we will bring back 1/3 of that buffalo." Of course, we unanimously agreed. So soon after sun up we were in Gettysburg. As I remember, these 2 men had a Hardware store. The 3 of us went into the store, quite a few townspeople were there standing around. The storekeeper had all the meat cut up and offering it for sale. Charles addressed the man, saying "I have come for my share of that buffalo." (Ned and I never said anything but tried to look as if we were ready for any emergency.) The man didn't agree that Charles was entitled to any of it. Charles says, "I run them in here and it was my shot that brought the animal to the ground, whereupon your men finished him and I claim 1/3 of it."

Charles knew one of the citizens who was in the store and evidently the town people were favorable to our having a share of the meat, so the 2 store keepers said all right. Charles at once offered some of our part to the man he was acquainted with and some others, but they said, "no, you have neighbors over where you are located and who would like it, we can get what we want of these men who were in at the killing" so we returned home after favoring out neighbors with fresh met, ourselves with several bountiful feeds. We salted the remainder and having it out in the hot sun for a few days where it cured.

Charles gave me a hunk of it when he left us to return home to teach school, having engaged to teach near his home town Aleda, Ill. Ned returned to Aledo and became a veterinarian. I came to Mo. and finally became a druggist. Have had my ups and downs and it seems mostly downs, but for all I had had a good time generally speaking. I have good health, like to work, have been busy today making a garden. Have a comfortable home in Muskogee, modern, gas, water and electricity. Due to my age (76) unable to have a steady job so I get a day or so now and then as relief for some druggist who want off. We came here in 1920 or '30. Wages $35.00 now $15 to $20 would be considered good. One man gave me $40 a week is just about broke now, has no clerk except the soda fountain help.

Well, Will, you had better sell out your Dakota holdings and come to the Ozarks. Here we have a fine climate, have had scarcely any winter. Letters from Mo. and Chicago today tell me all are well. I am glad to hear from you. Hope you can read this, 'tis 10:30 bed time. With very best regards, W.L.Crabb

I thought this letter very interesting. Killing a buffalo meant a lot of food for the people in that area. I did find the name W.L.Crabb periodically in Internet searches.