f 
 
 IfiiiTT GUYBALLARD
 
 LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 
 
 B 
 S9152b 
 
 Illinois Historical Surve
 
 L'B, 
 OF THE
 
 CAPTAIN STREETER 
 PIONEER 
 
 BY 
 
 E. G. BALLARD, A.B. 
 
 
 
 AUTHOR OF "LIBERTY. INDEPENDENCE AND SELF-GOVERNMENT" 
 
 EMERY PUBLISHING SERVICE 
 CHICAGO :::::: 1914
 
 COPYRIGHT. 1914 
 BY CECIL EMERY
 
 THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF 
 
 THAT GREAT PATRIOT AND STATESMAN, 
 
 THE LATE GOVERNOR JOHN P. ALTGELD, 
 
 WHO, SHORTLY BEFORE HIS DEATH, REQUESTED 
 
 THAT IT BE WRITTEN
 
 '/// fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
 Where wealth accumulates, and men decay." 
 
 OLIVER GOLDSMITH.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 In this volume I have sought to give to the 
 youth of the land, and the coming generations 
 as well, a true, connected, and comprehensive 
 picture of pioneer life and all of its old-time 
 customs, which are fast passing from the memory 
 of man. In this sense I hope that I have con- 
 tributed something of historical and permanent 
 value. I know of no grander or no more typical 
 specimen of the real pioneer than Captain George 
 Wellington Streeter, whose characteristics and life 
 history I have endeavored to relate, and I know 
 of no more formidable adversary to the Dollar 
 Hogs of America, with whom he has grappled 
 and battled at short range for more than a quarter 
 of a century. 
 
 I have also sought to bring to light in 
 this book illustrations of the indisputable fact 
 that to accomplish their ends they will violate 
 every law on the statute books, without a single 
 exception. They are conscienceless and inexor- 
 able outlaws whose only love is for dollars and 
 luxuries. They have certainly enjoyed their fill, 
 but the day of reckoning is at hand, and the
 
 6 Preface 
 
 American people will be as merciless and inexor- 
 able in their treatment of such scoundrels and 
 inhuman monsters as any people who have ever 
 lived in the past. The lion is only sleeping, but 
 he will awake. I am going to give him a sharp 
 prod and see what will happen. 
 
 EVERETT GUY BALLARD. 
 Chicago, 111., September 30, 1913.
 
 CAPTAIN STREETER, PIONEER 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 ANCESTRY 
 
 "Get out of there!" shouted in stentorian tones, 
 greeted my ears one fine morning in May as I 
 was strolling aimlessly about over a tract of land 
 familiarly known to every resident of Chicago 
 under the dual title of "Streeterville" and "The 
 District of Lake Michigan." 
 
 My eyes sought instinctively the direction from 
 whence came this peremptory injunction to move 
 on, and I saw about a hundred yards distant the 
 gentleman who had thus summarily challenged 
 me. He was a small, wiry-looking man, with red 
 hair and mustache and clean-cut features. Upon 
 closer view I looked into clear blue eyes which 
 never for an instant wavered in their gaze, but 
 which looked me through and through. He 
 seemed to be a man of about sixty, but I learned 
 later that he was past seventy-three years of age. 
 
 I had read enough about "Streeterville" and 
 its occupant to know intuitively that I beheld
 
 8 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 Captain Streeter, the famous battler of the Chi- 
 cago lake front. The further fact that he grasped 
 in his hands an old Springfield repeater equipped 
 with a bayonet, which was tilted threateningly 
 in my direction, fully convinced me that my 
 conjecture was correct. I became straightway 
 possessed of the desire to make his acquaintance, 
 so, instead of taking to my heels, I saluted in 
 the most approved military fashion and advanced 
 toward the belligerent gentleman with the red 
 hair. 
 
 As soon as I came within speaking distance 
 I opened hostilities by asking him a question: 
 "Is this Captain Streeter?" His answer was 
 prompt and pointed: "It is. What are you 
 doing here?" 
 
 Without unnecessary delay I assured the "Cap- 
 tain" that my mission was entirely peaceful; that 
 I did not claim a foot of his territory, nor did 
 I represent anyone who did; and further that 
 I was pleased to make his acquaintance even 
 under such unfavorable auspices. 
 
 The "Captain" was mollified at once, and his 
 demeanor underwent a rapid transformation. 
 Cordiality and good humor such as I have rarely 
 seen north of Mason and Dixon's Line beamed 
 from his hitherto rigidly stern countenance. He
 
 Ancestry 9 
 
 quickly advised me that he had been greatly 
 pestered by surveyors who had been stealthily 
 prowling about over his land attempting to make 
 a survey for a fence, and that he had repeatedly 
 chased them away at the point of the bayonet. 
 He had supposed, naturally, that I belonged to 
 their brigade, and he did not intend that I should 
 steal a march on him. 
 
 Perceiving, doubtless, that I was in a talkative 
 mood, he invited me to come over to his home, 
 which was a one-story brick structure only a few 
 paces distant. I accepted the invitation, and we 
 were soon seated on settees and deeply engaged 
 in earnest conversation, while our eyes glanced 
 out now and then over the beautiful waters of 
 the lake. 
 
 Naturally I was interested to know something 
 of the Captain's claim of ownership to this highly 
 valuable tract of land called Streeterville, in the 
 very heart of Chicago, and the Captain gave 
 me every feature and fact relating thereto with- 
 out the slightest reserve. 
 
 My interest was so aroused by the recital that 
 I was anxious to learn of his birth and ancestry, 
 for I felt sure that such an indomitable 
 spirit did not come of a mean strain of people, 
 but must perforce have sprung from the best
 
 10 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 blood of the nation. My surmise was abundantly 
 well founded, as the reader will learn from the 
 graphic story of his life which the "Captain" 
 began on that beautiful May morning and con- 
 tinued from time to time as we met in the days 
 and weeks following our dramatic encounter. I 
 shall endeavor to faithfully reproduce this story 
 in the very language of the "Captain": 
 
 My father, William Streeter, and my mother, 
 Catharine Marion, were married in Canandaigua, 
 New York, in the year 1832, and in the early 
 days of the Wolverine State, then the Far West 
 of the national domain, they came to the little 
 city of Detroit. Their purpose was to get a 
 start in this new country and grow up with it. 
 They were both of good old Revolutionary stock. 
 My paternal grandfather was a drum major in 
 the War of 1812, and died while playing a drum 
 at a Fourth of July celebration at Pine Run, 
 Michigan, many years later, at the advanced age 
 of one hundred and five years. His father had 
 been a Revolutionary soldier and had been with 
 Washington in all his campaigns. 
 
 My mother, with her father and mother, had 
 come from South Carolina, and her maiden name 
 was Marion. They were from the same family
 
 Ancestry 11 
 
 which produced the great revolutionary hero, 
 General Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox of 
 the South," whose daring deeds and zealous 
 love of liberty will live forever in the hearts of 
 American freemen. 
 
 It was General Marion who so loved these 
 priceless principles, for which our forefathers 
 fought, that during the long years of the great 
 conflict he wore across his cap band the im- 
 mortal words of Patrick Henry, "Liberty or 
 Death" ; and he lived and acted up to them. And 
 he was a man of such just and noble character 
 that in his early manhood during wars with the 
 Indians his soul revolted against the orders of 
 his superior officers to burn down the villages 
 and destroy the cornfields of the poor Indians. 
 I have in my possession an old letter written by 
 him to a friend concerning this very matter, which 
 is more than a hundred years old. I feel confi- 
 dent that you will enjoy hearing this letter read, 
 and I shall take the time to read it to you: 
 
 "We arrived at the Indian towns in the month 
 of July. As the lands were rich and the season 
 had been favorable, the corn was bending under 
 the double weight of lusty roasting ears and pods 
 of clustering beans. The furrows seemed to 
 rejoice under their precious loads, the fields
 
 12 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 stood thick with bread. We camped the first 
 night in the woods, near the fields, where the 
 whole army feasted on young corn, which, with 
 fat venison, made a delicious treat. 
 
 "The next morning we proceeded, by order of 
 Colonel Grant, to burn down the Indians' cabins. 
 Some of our men seemed to enjoy this cruel work, 
 laughing very heartily at the curling flames as 
 they mounted loud crackling over the tops of 
 the huts. But to me it appeared a shocking sight. 
 Poor creatures! thought I, we surely need not 
 grudge you such miserable habitations. But 
 when we came, according to orders, to cut down 
 the fields of corn, I could scarcely refrain from 
 tears. For who could see the stalks that stood 
 so stately with broad green leaves and gaily 
 tasseled shocks, filled with sweet milky fluid and 
 flour, the staff of life; who, I say, without grief, 
 could see these sacred plants sinking under our 
 swords with all their precious load, to wither 
 and rot untasted in their mourning fields? 
 
 "I saw everywhere around the footsteps of the 
 little Indian children, where they had lately 
 played under the shade of their rustling corn. 
 No doubt they had often looked up with joy to 
 the swelling shocks, and were gladdened when 
 they thought of their abundant cakes for the com-
 
 Ancestry 13 
 
 ing winter. When we are gone, thought I, they 
 will return, and, peeping through the weeds with 
 tearful eyes, will mark the ghastly ruin poured 
 over their homes and happy fields, where they 
 had so often played. 
 
 "'Who did this?' they will ask their mothers. 
 
 " 'The white people did it,' the mothers reply; 
 'the Christians did it!' 
 
 "Thus for cursed Mammon's sake, the follow- 
 ers of Christ have sown the hellish tares of hatred 
 in the bosoms even of pagan children. 
 
 "After burning twenty towns, and destroying 
 thousands of cornfields, the army returned to 
 Koewee, where the Little Carpenter, a Cherokee 
 chief, met Colonel Grant and concluded a peace." 
 
 This same noble character so impressed his love 
 of these sacred sentiments upon a young British 
 officer whom he met to arrange for an exchange 
 of prisoners, that he resigned his commission 
 because he thought it useless to fight men who 
 loved liberty with such a burning passion. Be- 
 ing invited to dine, he found that the bill of 
 fare consisted solely of baked sweet potatoes 
 served on pieces of bark, with a log for a table. 
 Perceiving also that the majority of Marion's 
 men were almost naked and barefooted, and that 
 the General himself was but poorly clad, he
 
 14 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 could not refrain from commenting upon such 
 a life. When he learned in addition to this that 
 Marion served without pay, he was astounded. 
 The General answered him: 
 
 "Why, sir, these things depend on feeling. 
 The heart is all; and, when that is much inter- 
 ested, a man can do anything. Many a youth 
 would think it hard to indent himself a slave for 
 fourteen years; but let him be over head and 
 ears in love, and with such a beauteous sweet- 
 heart as Rachael, and he will think no more of 
 fourteen years' servitude than young Jacob did. 
 
 "Well, now, this is exactly my case. I am in 
 love; and my sweetheart is Liberty. Be that 
 heavenly nymph my companion, and these wilds 
 and woods shall have charms beyond London and 
 Paris in slavery. To have no proud monarch 
 driving over me with his gilt coaches, nor his 
 host of excisemen and taxgatherers insulting and 
 robbing me; but to be my own master, my own 
 prince and sovereign, gloriously preserving my 
 national dignity, and pursuing my true happi- 
 ness; planting my vineyards, and eating their 
 luscious fruits ; sowing my fields, and reaping the 
 golden grain; and seeing millions of my brothers 
 all around me, equally free and as happy as my* 
 self, this, sir, is what I long for."
 
 Ancestry 15 
 
 The officer replied that, both as a man and as 
 a Briton, he must certainly subscribe to this as 
 a happy state of things. 
 
 "Happy 1" exclaimed Marion; "yes, happy in- 
 deed! and I had rather fight for such blessings 
 for my country and feed on roots, than keep aloof, 
 though wallowing in all the luxuries of Solomon ; 
 for now, sir, I walk the soil that gave me birth, 
 and exult in the thought that I am not unworthy 
 of it. I look upon these venerable trees around 
 me, and feel that I do not dishonor them. I think 
 of my own sacred rights, and rejoice that I have 
 not basely deserted them, and when I look for- 
 ward to the long ages of posterity, I glory in 
 the thought that I am fighting their battles. 
 The children of distant generations may never 
 bear my name; but still it gladdens my heart to 
 think that I am now contending for their free- 
 dom and all its countless blessings." 
 
 Of this liberty-loving ancestry came William 
 Streeter and Catherine Marion, and their children 
 imbibed a deep love for the noble deeds of their 
 forebears, which was destined to play an im- 
 portant part in their lives as will be seen before 
 my story is ended. 
 
 My father, William Streeter, first bought a 
 tract of land in Washtenaw County, not far from
 
 16 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 Detroit, but lived there only a few months. After 
 selling this he purchased one hundred and sixty 
 acres of land which is now entirely covered by 
 the southeast portion of the city of Flint, Mich. ; 
 also, a larger tract of three hundred and forty 
 acres sixteen miles north of Flint, near the 
 present town of Montrose. Both were located on 
 the Flint River, a beautiful stream flowing 
 through a dense forest of virgin timber which 
 nature had been hundreds of years in making. 
 He was the seventh citizen of Flint, where he 
 lived for about two years; then moving to the 
 larger tract of land. 
 
 At that time this portion of the Wolverine 
 commonwealth was a dense forest of the wildest 
 description, for lumberjacks had not yet pene- 
 trated its fastnesses with their saws, axes and 
 other logging paraphernalia. Many years elapsed 
 before their advent. The air was redolent with 
 the healthful odor of the balsam and the pine, 
 and everywhere life was free and undisturbed. 
 No smoke, dust, or din of the city palled upon 
 the eye or ear. It was indeed the primeval forest, 
 inhabited alone by wild animals and the red men, 
 of whom there remained a numerous band in 
 their native village of Peanakewink, three miles 
 down the Flint River. These Indians were a
 
 Ancestry 17 
 
 peaceful tribe given over to no greater passions 
 than the hunting of wild animals and the spear- 
 ing of fish, while their squaws industriously 
 raised the corn and beans, and prepared the 
 game for the feast of their lordly braves upon 
 their return from the day's hunt. To the squaws 
 fell the task of dressing the skins of the animals, 
 and the making, from the hides, of the clothing, 
 moccasins, and sundry other useful and indis- 
 pensable articles. Since the Indians had made a 
 treaty with the white men, they did not look upon 
 their coming with any alarm or spirit of unwel- 
 come. In fact, the presence of each under these 
 conditions was in many ways a positive help to 
 the other. 
 
 My father found time not only to clear and 
 till portions of his lands, but, as becomes the 
 truly progressive and energetic citizen, to seek 
 other fields of endeavor which might tend to help 
 his fellows and improve and upbuild the com- 
 monwealth. He constructed the first bridge 
 across the Flint River, and entered into a con- 
 tract to build a state road from Flint to Saginaw 
 about the year 1842. This contract he carried 
 out in all its terms and specifications. At that 
 time this was a herculean task, for the route lay 
 through great forests, across dangerous and almost
 
 18 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 impassable swamps, and large and swollen 
 streams, and he had no machinery and no en- 
 gineering equipment at hand to assist him in the 
 task. There was naught but the saw, the axe, 
 the shovel, and the ingenuity and strength of 
 man to accomplish the task; and they triumphed. 
 
 Shortly thereafter, as the traffic upon the Great 
 Lakes increased, he found ample time during the 
 winter season, when in those days courts were 
 generally in session, to develop into a marine 
 lawyer of ability, trying cases of importance in 
 all the Federal courts at that time in the State. 
 
 This, together with the fact that there were no 
 schools near his farm in the wilderness on the 
 Flint River, necessitated his living with his family 
 in the town of Flint during the winter. During 
 his latter years he retired entirely to his farm, 
 where he lived amidst an abundance of the good 
 things of life, honored and respected by his fel- 
 low citizens as one who had indeed lived to 
 aid and bless his kind. 
 
 To my father and mother were born eleven 
 children, all living to manhood and womanhood, 
 and ten of them reaching fifty years of age. Their 
 names were James, Henry, Francis, George Wel- 
 lington, Susan Ann, Jay, Marion, May Douglas, 
 Ellen, Laura, and Chauncey. It was truly a
 
 Ancestry 19 
 
 pioneer family. The children grew up speedily 
 and heartily, and soon aided their parents in the 
 development of the tract of land that finally came 
 to be known as the "home place." They were 
 all good boys and girls who were trained, as all 
 boys and girls were in that day, to become useful 
 and industrious citizens of the great Republic, 
 which was then bracing itself to meet the fierce 
 war storm that was then gathering in the South; 
 and it was just such sons and daughters as these 
 who were to bear the burden and the sorrows 
 of the conflict, and right nobly they did their part.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND PIONEER LIFE 
 
 My earliest recollections are of my grand- 
 mother Marion rocking and singing to me as I 
 sat upon her lap. I was about two years of age, 
 and my grandfather and grandmother Marion, 
 then very aged, were living with our family. I 
 recall very distinctly the lines of a straggling 
 verse which my grandmother sang to me many 
 times, and which ran like this, if my youthful 
 memory is to be trusted: 
 
 "This wilderness was our abiding place 
 
 Some forty years ago; 
 For fish we used the hook and line, 
 
 And with the gun we shot the buck or doe ; 
 On Johnny cake our ladies dined 
 
 Some forty years ago; 
 We pounded corn to make it fine 
 
 In this new countrie some forty years ago." 
 
 This is my very first recollection of song and 
 poetry, and almost my first recollection of any-
 
 Childhood and Pioneer Life 21 
 
 thing. My grandmother did not live many 
 months after this, and I recall her death very 
 vividly. I was sitting on her lap, with her arms 
 about me, and she was rocking me and singing 
 to me, when she suddenly let me fall to the 
 floor. Mother ran to me and then discovered 
 that grandmother had passed away, presumably 
 of old age. All efforts to resuscitate her were 
 fruitless. She was at that time past one hundred 
 years of age, while I was about two and one-half 
 years old. 
 
 Another early recollection is of the trip the 
 family made in moving from the farm to the 
 town of Flint during the first winter that we 
 spent there after moving to the farm for the 
 earlier part of the year. I remember that I sat 
 with my mother on a wagon load of household 
 goods and that my uncle led the yoke of oxen 
 which drew the load. Mother held my baby 
 sister in her arms, and when we came to a piece 
 of corduroy road which ran through a swamp, 
 the wagon jolted me so that I cried, and my 
 uncle had to lift me down. Then I walked along 
 on the ends of the logs, of which the corduroy 
 was built, much after the fashion of ties on a 
 railroad track, but much closer together. It 
 grew quite dark before I got to the end of this
 
 22 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 log road, and I got very sleepy before we reached 
 Flint at about nine o'clock at night. 
 
 An incident which was impressed very firmly 
 upon my childish mind occurred shortly after 
 this, while we were living in Flint, which, at 
 that time, was a mere hamlet. The Indian vil- 
 lage of Pe-an-e-ka-wink was situated a few miles 
 down the Flint River and contained more than 
 three hundred inhabitants. These Indians were 
 accustomed to pass through Flint on their way 
 to Detroit, when they went, according to treaty, 
 to draw their regular rations and supplies from 
 the Government. 
 
 At that time, I was less than three years of 
 age. There was then only one little store and 
 tavern combined in Flint, and this was kept by 
 a man named Decker, who was in fact the first 
 white settler in Flint, and consequently its 
 founder. We lived just across the road from 
 his hostelry, and the Indians always stopped 
 there while going to and fro. In fact, they ob- 
 tained a little "fire water" there to keep up their 
 spirits on the long trip to Detroit, which at that 
 time could be reached only by following a trail 
 through the woods. 
 
 On this particular occasion the squaws ranged 
 their little pappooses alongside the tavern and
 
 Childhood and Pioneer Life "23 
 
 went within to share the hospitality of friend 
 Decker along with their husbands. Now, friend 
 Decker had among his possessions a large white 
 porker of the feminine gender, which was never 
 kept within a pen or other inclosure, but ran 
 about the premises and out into the timber at 
 her own sweet will. On this day she happened 
 along shortly after the squaws had ranged their 
 Indian babies in their birch-bark pockets beside 
 the tavern wall, so she at once attacked and killed 
 the smallest baby she spied, who, of course, was 
 perfectly helpless, and made little outcry. I 
 viewed the tragic scene from across the road, 
 and being too small to interfere, I ran into the 
 house and reported the situation to my mother, 
 who came too late to save the baby's life, but 
 early enough to prevent the entire disappearance 
 of the body of the infant. 
 
 Of course, the Indians within were duly ad- 
 vised of the tragic death of one of their number, 
 and the poor mother and the entire band set up 
 a loud wailing and weeping which very much 
 disconcerted friend Decker, who was much puz- 
 zled as to how he might make the matter right 
 with his Indian friends and customers. He finally 
 proposed that they should have the body of the 
 porker if they could catch her. This proposition
 
 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 s immediately accepted by the Indians, and 
 : squaws ran the sow down in the dense 
 ods, killed her as soon as caught, and then 
 : her up into small pieces which were duly 
 tributed among the band. Then they pro- 
 :ded on their way to Detroit as though all were 
 >roughly satisfied. 
 
 [n those days very few of the Indians possessed 
 us, and an old flintlock gun would buy a choice 
 ;hty-acre tract of land from any Indian. Guns 
 re very valuable and useful articles just at 
 it time. Wild animals of every description 
 re on every hand, and no household could 
 ord to be without one gun at least. Bear, deer, 
 :, moose, wolves, wild cats, lynx, panther, rac- 
 m, and many other smaller animals abounded 
 :rywhere. I have seen great numbers of deer, 
 :, and moose trotting through the woods and 
 ding the river on many occasions. Often I 
 v the Indians with nothing but bow and arrows 
 I dogs kill a deer or elk along their runways 
 the deep forests. As a boy I often hunted with 
 : young squaws and Indian boys. 
 Bears were very troublesome when I was a 
 all boy, and we could sometimes at night hear 
 ;m turning over the swill barrel; but they 
 uld skip away before we could get out of
 
 Childhood and Pioneer Life 2!. 
 
 the house and after them. Often they woulc 
 steal a hog or a sheep, so that we always shu 
 these animals up at night in pens near the barns 
 But even that did not always save them, for i 
 bear would sometimes kill one and carry it oui 
 of the pen. On one occasion I remember thai 
 we heard a pig squealing during the night 
 Father grabbed the gun and ran for the pen 
 and we after him. So busily engaged was Mr 
 Bear that he did not hear us approach, and 
 father was able to put the muzzle of the gur 
 almost against the head of the animal before he 
 fired. The bear, a big black fellow, dropped 
 over dead, and piggie was saved, all by his 
 ability to squeal at the right time. 
 
 Bears dearly loved honey, and would take 
 almost any sort of risk to rob a bee hive. During 
 such a proceeding the bees never seemed able tc 
 make any sort of an impression on the bears 
 We caught many a bear robbing our hives on 
 bright moonlight nights, and while greedily de- 
 vouring the honey they would utter a sound which 
 very much resembled "urn, um, urn." 
 
 I was about fourteen years of age when I killed 
 my first bear, and felt that I had won my first 
 real spurs. There was a big spring in the woods 
 near the river, over which a big plum thicket
 
 26 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 hovered, and a trail led from a field down to this 
 spring. 
 
 I was coming down this trail approaching the 
 spring and, looking over a big log, I saw a 
 bear, which stood up on its hind legs to get a 
 better view of me. I pulled the trigger just as 
 his head came up over the log, and then took to 
 my heels. I ran all the way home and hailed 
 my brother Henry with the shout, "I have killed 
 a bear!" but I did not know, in fact, whether I 
 had or not. We then loaded up the gun and 
 hurried back to the vicinity of the log, where 
 we found that I had indeed killed a bear. I My 
 bosom swelled with pride at the thought of 
 what I had done, and I considered myself a 
 budding Nimrod or Daniel Boone. At that 
 time, of course, I had no apologies to make to 
 Colonel Roosevelt, who came on the scene of 
 action much later. 
 
 Wolves were so numerous in those days that 
 pigs and lambs disappeared with great regularity. 
 About the only protection from these depreda- 
 tions was to get the little ones inside the barn, 
 for the wolves are night marauders in a new 
 country, and very bold and impudent. We often 
 caught them in traps and pitfalls, and finally 
 when the state paid a bounty for the pelts, we were
 
 Childhood and Pioneer Life 27 
 
 aided greatly in thinning their ranks in the more 
 populous districts. 
 
 I remember one occasion, when all of the wild 
 animals were virtually forced out of the woods 
 by a big forest fire which swept the country for 
 miles around and destroyed the tamarack swamps, 
 which at that time were very dry. These swamps 
 were devastated of timber which had been so 
 thick that one would get lost in it, although they 
 were usually only about a mile in width and a 
 couple of miles in length. The fire burned down 
 into the earth to a depth of from ten to fifteen 
 feet; in fact, the fire continued burning in the 
 boggy ground for a period of two months. This 
 left great depressions in the earth, which later 
 became filled with surface water and formed 
 lakes These lakes are in existence today, and 
 some of them are utilized for pleasure resorts. 
 
 Fortunately the fire did not burn out the big 
 forests, but it filled them with smoke, and the 
 animals who lived there were compelled to flee 
 to escape suffocation. They fled to the streams, 
 and would stand for hours on the shallow rapids. 
 Sometimes they got on islands in the river. Deer, 
 elk, moose, bear, lynx, panthers, wolves, and many 
 other animals were to be seen along the river 
 in great numbers, and they became unusually
 
 28 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 tame, quite often hovering near our home, which 
 they would frequent at night, seeking whatever 
 they could find. I noticed also that multitudes of 
 big fish, pickerel and muskallonge, some of them 
 three or four feet long, were affected by the 
 smoke and would float over the rapids lying on 
 their backs, where we could wade in and catch 
 as many as we liked. Bears and wolves also 
 went into the fishing business, and with good 
 success, since the fish were extremely sluggish and 
 inert. If one got away from you the first time 
 you tackled him, you could follow him and grab 
 him when he came to the surface wrong side up 
 the next time. 
 
 Grass and browse of every description were 
 burned out of the woods, and the elk, deer, and 
 moose were obliged to stay along the streams and 
 lakes, where a fringe of vegetation yet remained. 
 These were happy hunting days for the red men, 
 who were not a bit slow to take due advantage 
 of the situation, which illustrates again the truth 
 of the old saying that "its an ill wind that blows 
 nobody good." 
 
 Pheasants, wild turkeys, ducks, wild geese, and 
 wild pigeons were very numerous in my boy- 
 hood days, the two former in the woods and 
 the three latter along the streams and lakes.
 
 Childhood and Pioneer Life 29 
 
 Hunting pheasants and wild turkeys was a very 
 agreeable and sometimes an exciting pastime. 
 The turkeys could often be captured in big flocks 
 if their roosting places were discovered. When 
 we were fortunate enough to find one of these 
 roosts we prepared to make a night raid upon it. 
 In the light of a torch, the turkeys could see 
 nothing, and were perfectly helpless. We could 
 knock them over with clubs and poles, and if some 
 of them flew off the roosts they were sure to 
 fly against trees and come to grief. We could 
 then pounce upon them, and only a few of the 
 flock ever got away. 
 
 Wild pigeons, like ducks and geese, came by 
 the millions and infested the rivers and lake 
 regions. They would build their nests in the 
 swamps, and I have seen as many as fifty nests 
 in one bunch. In the fall they would congregate 
 together in vast numbers, millions of them form- 
 ing one great flock miles in length, and then 
 at night they would settle down to a chosen roost- 
 ing place, where they could be killed by the 
 wagon load if you wished to do so, in the same 
 manner that we got the wild turkeys. I have 
 also killed them in the evening when they were 
 flying low over the brow of a hill or over a lake. 
 I remember on one occasion, at Bald Eagle Lake,
 
 30 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 that I got to the shore just as myriads of them 
 came streaming over the brow of a hill. I 
 knocked down all that we needed for a big feast 
 with a small tamarack fishing pole. In a boat 
 or canoe you could push along the rivers and 
 lakes amidst the wild rice and reeds, and kill all 
 the wild duck and geese that you wished to carry 
 home with you. 
 
 In those days we could kill deer, elk or moose 
 whenever we chose without molestation. No 
 game wardens disturbed our operations. Venison 
 in some form was a regular dish on the home 
 menu card. Venison pot pie, steaks, roasts, mince 
 meat, dried venison, venison with succotash 
 say, they had the packing-house products thrown 
 into the discard. It makes an old man's mouth 
 water just to ruminate over the good grub that 
 mother used to serve out of the wild game that 
 was as common then as flowers in May. Those 
 were indeed happy days for hunting!
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 PIONEER CO-OPERATION 
 
 There were other employments in which profit 
 and pleasure were combined, and in which the 
 labor detracted little from the pleasure, at least 
 as I see it now after the lapse of many years. 
 
 One which comes vividly to mind is the "sugar- 
 making" days of springtime. How many of the 
 youngsters of today know anything about the 
 process by which maple sugar and syrup were 
 made in the very heart of the forest, or dream of 
 the wholesome fun we extracted along with the 
 syrup? For their benefit I will endeavor to give 
 at least an outline of the modus operandi in this 
 almost lost art. To be sure there are a few 
 camps yet remaining, but most of them are not 
 the genuine article. They adulterate the output 
 and spoil the whole performance. 
 
 Our place of operation was called a "sugar 
 camp," and we certainly lived up to the name. 
 We were, in fact, obliged to camp right on the 
 ground from the moment operations began until 
 the close of the season.
 
 32 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 During the winter we were usually engaged 
 for a good portion of the time in preparing for 
 the business, or "run," in the spring. We cut an 
 abundant supply of wood to be used in boiling 
 down the sap; for maple sugar and maple syrup 
 are made from the sap extracted from the sugar 
 maple by a process called "tapping the tree." 
 This consisted simply of boring a small hole in 
 the tree a few feet above the ground, and insert- 
 ing a "spile" or little spigot, which carried off 
 the sap and allowed it to drip into a trough set 
 on the ground directly under this spile. I am not 
 speaking now of the new-fangled sugar camp, 
 nor or the apparatus now in vogue. I am talking 
 of the real old-fashioned sugar camp of my boy- 
 hood days, and of the methods which then pre- 
 vailed. 
 
 When we first opened our camp we selected 
 a site that was thickly set with sugar trees as 
 a matter of course, for a good part of the work 
 lay in hauling the sap to the kettles, where it 
 was. boiled down. Then we cut enough three- 
 foot lengths of nice clear pine trees about a foot 
 in diameter. We split these as near the middle 
 as possible, and then scooped out the inside, so 
 that we had little troughs out of each cut, 
 which would hold, as a rule, a pail and a half
 
 Chicago Harbor as Streeter Found It in 1861
 
 Pioneer Co-operation 33 
 
 of sap. This we emptied into barrels and hauled 
 on a sled to two great storage troughs. These 
 were made by cutting two giant pines, from four 
 to five feet in diameter, and from thirty to forty 
 feet in length, hollowing them out with an axe 
 and adze until they formed great troughs or 
 tanks holding many barrels of sap. These were 
 kept filled, their supply running into the kettles 
 where the boiling down process was going on. 
 
 This latter process was accomplished by build- 
 ing up a sort of furnace of brick or clay on which 
 the kettles were set on holes made for them. 
 There was also a "stirring-off" pan at one end, 
 where the syrup was run off and boiled until 
 nearly ready to sugar. It was then transferred 
 to the proper kettle for that purpose. At one 
 end of this furnace the wood was thrown in and 
 the fire kept going; at the other end was a 
 chimney which furnished the necessary draft and 
 an exit for the smoke. All this was in the open 
 air without a covering of any kind or character. 
 
 This was the old-time maple sugar and maple 
 syrup apparatus. In the later days they built 
 commodious houses over them for shelter, con- 
 venience, and cleanliness. In my day, however, 
 the only shelter we had was built along one side 
 of this boiling-down paraphernalia. The con-
 
 34 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 trivance was made by driving into the ground the 
 necessary distance apart two wooden forks hav- 
 ing a height of about six or seven feet, so 
 placed that a pole laid across them would be 
 parallel with the furnace. Against the farther 
 side of this pole we stood up boards at an angle 
 of about forty-five degrees, so that the lower end 
 would be on the ground while the upper end 
 rested against the pole. This left the front 
 toward the furnace open. The heat kept this 
 one-sided shelter warm at night, and everything 
 under it dry. On the ground beneath it we 
 spread a good thickness of straw, and over this 
 buffalo robes, bear and deer skins, and thus made 
 a very comfortable bed. 
 
 Do not get the idea into your head that 
 when bed-time came around we all lay down and 
 snoozed until morning. This is far from the 
 truth. Few of us got even a nap before eleven 
 o'clock, and then we took turns looking after 
 things and sleeping. Bear in mind that the 
 fires had to be kept going every minute, and 
 the sap kept boiling down and skimmed of dirty- 
 looking foam right along, and prevented from 
 running over. Sap had always to be gathered 
 and hauled in, so there would be no diminution 
 of the supply, if the establishment was to be run
 
 Pioneer Co-operation 35 
 
 at full capacity. And this continuous perform- 
 ance usually lasted about four weeks, beginning, 
 as a rule, around the first of February. 
 
 After the syrup became properly thickened, all 
 that was necessary to make it turn into sugar 
 was to keep stirring it, and crystallization once 
 started, did the rest. It was then turned into 
 molds shaped like small cakes, hence the name 
 "sugar cakes." To make syrup so much boiling 
 down was unnecessary, and no stirring was needed 
 after a certain stage in the boiling-down process. 
 
 The much-talked about "stirring-off" days 
 were those days when a quantity of the boiled 
 down sap or syrup had reached the proper state 
 for crystallization, or "stirring off" or "sugaring 
 off," as some called it. These were the days or 
 nights, as the case might be, of real fun. Friends 
 were nearly always invited in. Men, women, and 
 children, and even the dogs, came from far and 
 near, and good wholesome fun and wit abounded 
 in the light of the camp-fire until a late hour. 
 A goodly bit of the syrup was made into taffy 
 and "pulled" until it had the supposedly right 
 degree of whiteness. It was then distributed to 
 all persons present. Even the dogs were not 
 forgotten; but they never seemed to relish the 
 product quite as well as the boys and girls. The
 
 36 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 candy stuck in their teeth, and they would roll 
 over on the ground, and in the bushes, and try 
 to dig it out with their paws, sometimes whining 
 and howling for help. 
 
 The fresh "sugar cakes" were always a great 
 treat, and really it was astounding the amount 
 of sweetness the average boy or girl could get 
 away with on such an occasion. 
 
 The "wax" was also appreciated. This was 
 nothing more than the syrup boiled down to a 
 waxy consistency, and eaten without being 
 "pulled," as was the case when "taffy" was the 
 desired product. 
 
 The clarifying agent used in producing sugar 
 and syrup was a liberal amount of "slippery 
 elm" bark, the sticky inside of the bark being 
 placed in the bottom of the stirring-off kettle. 
 To this all the sediment adhered, and left the 
 sugar and syrup beautifully clear and clean. 
 
 I venture to assert there was no experience of 
 pioneer life that was productive of more fun 
 and unadulterated pleasure than the good old 
 days of "sugar making." The beautiful woods 
 and firelight cast a certain amount of glamor 
 over the entire transaction; and nothing was more 
 palatable than the product when spread over the 
 steaming buckwheat cakes our mothers used to
 
 Pioneer Co-operation 37 
 
 serve on frosty mornings. Why, this whole tale 
 of those olden golden days simply makes an old 
 man's mouth water with an appetite that no 
 modern bill of fare can ever appease. Even 
 gold hunting, fascinating though it may be, is 
 not to be compared with sugar making. 
 
 Then, those were grand opportunities for 
 "sweethearting" among the older boys and girls. 
 Yes, I speak from experience. Many a happy 
 love match was sealed on the road to and from 
 the trail to an old time "sugar camp." Under 
 the spreading boughs of the giants of the forest 
 the avowal and betrothal of many a sweet 
 young couple took place. Cupid was just as 
 active in those days, and far more accurate in 
 his archery than he is in these latter days. He 
 more often meant business, and was not so much 
 inclined to playfulness and foolishness without 
 genuine purpose as he is today. He rarely missed 
 the mark in those days. Wealth, reputation, 
 and social prestige did not bother his aim or 
 dim his sight as they do now. In fact these 
 considerations did not enter into the transac- 
 tion; and divorces were almost an unknown 
 occurrence. Reno was not on the map, and 
 friendly courts and legislatures had not yet 
 turned their activities to these fields of human
 
 38 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 experience. They had no occasion to do so. 
 What a pity they ever conceived the idea that 
 such a necessity existed. 
 
 There was another experience which was 
 highly interesting and decidedly profitable to 
 the pioneer farmer and his youthful sons, and 
 to which the youth of today is a total stranger. 
 This was the "log rolling" of the "settler," not 
 that of the politician, of whose tricks and doubt- 
 ful practices we hear too much in these days. 
 He was an unknown character in the early days ; 
 and since we had never made his acquaintance, 
 we did not note his absence. In the light of 
 recent revelations, and the great revolution of 
 popular thought and sentiment on the subject, it 
 would seem that his days of active operation 
 were about finished, and that the will of the 
 people, whatever it may be at any particular 
 time, shall now be supreme, rather than that of 
 the money-bag contingent whose paid mouth- 
 piece and manipulator he is always found to be 
 when you trail him to his lair. 
 
 The settler, after having first cut down his 
 timber and the brush standing on the tract which 
 he wished to cultivate (a task which was indeed 
 fraught with months of arduous labor on his 
 part and that of his sons) usually found the
 
 Pioneer Co-operation 39 
 
 greater portion of the land covered with giant 
 logs and piles of brush, the latter accumulated 
 not only from the underbrush but from the 
 trimmings of tree tops and millions of twigs 
 and branches. And when we remember that 
 this was the forest primeval, which had been 
 hundreds of years in the making, we can in a 
 measure imagine the picture which such a scene 
 would present. 
 
 The problem that faced the settler was how 
 to dispose quickly of these accumulations of brush 
 and logs. There was no adjacent market for the 
 magnificent timber, no roads or railroads to 
 transport it to a market far away, and no 
 mills to convert it into lumber or any useful 
 or valuable product. Consequently the only dis- 
 position that could be made of it was to destroy 
 it, and the quickest way in which this could be 
 done was the one to be preferred. Experience 
 had proved that the only agency to bring about 
 the desired result in the shortest possible time 
 was fire, and that the only safe and sure way to 
 apply it was to roll the logs together in enormous 
 piles and heaps, and then apply the torch. In 
 this toilsome way the homesteads of the pioneers 
 were carved out of the forests. 
 
 But this was a task too great for the efforts
 
 40 Captain Streeter t Pioneer 
 
 of one family; so the neighborhood was always 
 invited to assist in the work, and right loyally 
 they ever responded to the call. Every family 
 for miles around, men, women and children, on 
 the appointed day repaired to the cabin of the 
 settler who had invited them; and they did not 
 come empty-handed to the task. They brought 
 their horses and oxen, together with the neces- 
 sary implements to perform the task, the axe, 
 crowbar, hand-spike, wedge, maul, ropes, and 
 chains; and bright and early in the day the 
 "clearing" teemed as never before in its history 
 with bustle and activity, and with the shouts and 
 commands of these officers of the army of con- 
 quering civilization. With might and main they 
 rolled the logs together and piled them in giant 
 heaps, where they lay until the sun and weather 
 had somewhat reduced the sap in them, and made 
 them easier to burn. Then, at his convenience, 
 and at the most opportune time, the settler and 
 his sons applied the torch and watched the great 
 log piles melt away. 
 
 And while the men and boys were thus busily 
 engaged in the "clearing," the women and girls 
 were equally busy preparing to appease the ap- 
 petites of the hungry workers, and they never 
 failed in their task; for the table fairly groaned
 
 Pioneer Co-operation 41 
 
 with good things to eat. On it were to be found 
 venison roast, venison and succotask, baked pork 
 and beans, roast lamb, baked fish, roast duck, 
 roast partridge, apple butter, wild honey, plum 
 butter, potatoes in every conceivable palatable 
 shape, tomatoes, fresh cheese, corn bread, venison 
 mince, pumpkin, squash, wild grape, elderberry, 
 raspberry, blackberry, cranberry, and blueberry 
 pies; jellies, jams, and preserves made from wild 
 fruits; ginger snaps, cakes, and a host of other 
 delicacies and viands, that only the mind of a 
 loving and experimental pioneer mother could 
 think of, to tickle the palate of the pioneer man. 
 On such occasions as these, native wit, humor 
 and badinage had full play, and song and speech 
 were not infrequently mixed with the feast of 
 the pioneer board. 
 
 But this was not the only task where the spirit 
 of brotherly love and neighborly kindness of the 
 pioneer settlement was made manifest, and where 
 the spirit of each-help-the-neighbor solved the 
 big problems of the community. In this day we 
 talk and think much of the co-operative spirit, 
 but those were the days when this spirit really 
 lived, where it blossomed and came to fruition 
 in the growing commonwealths of the West. 
 Never in the history of this nation has there
 
 42 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 been such universal co-operation and helpfulness 
 among the entire population as in these days of 
 our pioneer fathers and mothers; and I think 
 I may truthfully say that at no period of our 
 national life has there been such genuinely happy 
 home life, such real contentment and domestic 
 peace, nor such a genuine spirit of unselfish- 
 ness, such a desire to see every neighbor prosper. 
 Ah, those were the days when men were not 
 greedy, when men were not envious of aught 
 that a neighbor possessed; when true democratic 
 simplicity ruled supreme in the land! In these 
 respects we have never improved our national 
 character, however much we may boast of our 
 material development and achievements. 
 
 Another occasion where this spirit was called 
 into action which I must not suffer to be for- 
 gotten was the "husking bee." The settler in 
 those days always cut the corn, stock and all, 
 near the ground, and hauled it into the barn, 
 utilizing all of the "fodder" for the feeding of 
 his live stock. The corn with the ears attached was 
 piled high on the barn floor awaiting the hour of 
 husking. The production of corn at that time had 
 not reached an extended stage, and the supply was 
 in fact somewhat limited, when we compare it 
 with modern corn raising methods and areas.
 
 Pioneer Co-operation 43 
 
 On an appointed evening the invited neigh- 
 bors would appear, men women and children, 
 ready and willing to assist the neighbor who 
 had invited them to husk his corn. Pine-knot 
 torches safely arranged illuminated the typical 
 log structure with its "puncheon" floor. Usually 
 two champion corn huskers of the community 
 would divide the crowd into two competitive 
 camps; and please bear in mind that this was a 
 task in which all present engaged, men and 
 women, boys and girls. All of them knew how 
 to operate a "shucking peg" so as to bring forth 
 from its yellow envelope the mature ear of corn, 
 and to detach it quickly from the stock. 
 
 The champions having duly chosen their re- 
 spective helpers, a match was on to see which 
 side could husk the most corn, or finish first the 
 task imposed upon it. Quickly and energetically 
 the work progressed, interspersed with good- 
 humored banter and boast, joke and racy story, 
 until one side triumphed over the other, and 
 the task was done. 
 
 But while the work proceeded there were 
 many customs and jolly practices that could not 
 be overlooked by the participants. I shall not 
 be able to recount all of them; but one of them, 
 which was productive of the liveliest interest
 
 44 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 and the most sport, was a custom which per- 
 mitted the first boy who found a red ear of corn 
 to kiss the girl who to his youthful fancy seemed 
 most blessed with beauteous looks, or, to use the 
 language of the occasion, the "prettiest girl" 
 present. And he always had the courage of his 
 convictions. He never shirked the duty which 
 the custom imposed. Many a budding romance 
 was thereby revealed to the eyes of the com- 
 munity; and doubtless such occasions frequently 
 afforded the youthful admirer his first "sweet- 
 heart kiss," for, be it said to their eternal credit, 
 the young ladies of that day were rather stingy 
 with such favors, and the "sweethearting" en- 
 deavors had progressed to the really serious stage 
 on both sides before Miss Propriety could be 
 persuaded even to think of granting the blissful 
 favor. And I may truthfully say that hearts 
 were just as tender and true in those good old 
 days, in the midst of such crude surroundings, 
 as at any period in the existence of the race 
 not excepting even the gallant days of "Douglas 
 tender and true." 
 
 But the evening's program was far from ended. 
 "Work before pleasure" was their motto, but 
 the fun was never overlooked. After the corn 
 was husked and the champion crowned, re-
 
 Pioneer Co-operation 45 
 
 freshments in the shape of ginger snaps, pump- 
 kin, mince, and other pies, sweet cider and apple- 
 jack, satisfied the growing desire for food and 
 drink. In the meantime the barn floor was 
 cleared of the corn fodder; then some rural artist 
 who could charm the pioneer ear with the music 
 of his fiddle strings would begin to "tune up" 
 the beloved product of some American Stradi- 
 varius, and soon to the inspiring strains of 
 "Money Musk," "Fisher's Hornpipe," "Old Dan 
 Tucker," or some other early favorite, the joy- 
 ous and nimble feet of youth were flying o'er 
 the puncheon floor. 
 
 Late into the night the festive throng enjoyed 
 the simple pleasure, but never too late, for 
 fathers and mothers opened and closed the entire 
 program and assumed the entire responsibility for 
 the entertainment, which was never permitted to 
 reach the excessive stage. 
 
 But the "husking bee" was not the only "bee" 
 in the settler's beehive; he had many others, and 
 all of them good ones, too. But all of them did 
 not belong strictly to the male contingent of the 
 community; some of them belonged to the ladies. 
 Of this latter class let us not forget the "quilt- 
 ing bee," when the ladies of the entire com- 
 munity would congregate by invitation at some
 
 46 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 household and, during the course of the day, 
 help some good mother or young housewife to 
 finish several quilts before the long winter set 
 in. These quilts were really works of art too, 
 not crazy patchwork as some high-bred ladies 
 of today may imagine. The most beautiful pat- 
 terns were executed by the needle in the hands 
 of mothers and sweethearts, and formed into 
 articles of beauty and harmony. My recollec- 
 tion is not very good on these patterns, and never 
 was very extensive, but I can remember the 
 "Log Cabin," the "Sea Wave," the "Irish Chain," 
 the "Star," the "Rising Sun," the "Four Patch," 
 and the "Nine Patch," and there were many 
 others which my mind has lost trace of entirely; 
 but this is certainly a representative and typical 
 list of them. 
 
 The quilt was a very much prized gift from 
 mother to daughter, or from grandmother to 
 granddaughter, in those days, and some especially 
 choice design finely executed often passed through 
 several generations as an heirloom. I have known 
 grandmothers and mothers to apportion them by 
 will to their children, and the same is true of 
 the beautifully designed and highly prized old 
 woolen "coverlids." 
 
 Another "bee" which deserves to be remem-
 
 Pioneer Co-operation 47 
 
 bered, and one which belonged to the entire com- 
 munity, both male and female, old and young, 
 was the "spelling bee." This was usually held 
 in the school house, a very crude log structure, 
 of which I shall have more to say later on. This 
 "bee" was held at night, and usually consisted 
 of a match between two schools, each contending 
 for the mastery over the other. They would 
 usually stand up on either side of the room, and 
 the teachers would select the words to be spelled 
 from the dictionary or spelling book. When 
 any participant misspelled a word he was obliged 
 to sit down and retire from the contest. Finally 
 only two would remain on the floor, and then 
 the contest became spirited and exciting. At last 
 one of these would misspell a word and the other 
 spell it correctly, or usually would, and thus 
 carry off the laurels for his school. And the 
 victor would not always be from among the big 
 boys and girls; often some boy or girl from ten 
 to fifteen years of age would vanquish all con- 
 testants. The spelling bees were productive of 
 the greatest good, inspiring an interest in good 
 spelling, and the pronunciation of words through- 
 out the entire community, and young and old vied 
 with each other in the task of learning to spell 
 every word in Webster's academic dictionary.
 
 48 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 During the evening's program there would 
 usually be half an hour's intermission, or "recess," 
 as it was called, and during this interval the 
 young people became better acquainted with each 
 other, and engaged in the harmless games and 
 sports prevailing in those days. 
 
 Another custom which then prevailed illus- 
 trates very clearly the spirit of the times. If 
 there happened to be a poor old widow in the 
 neighborhood, or a family where the only male 
 member was sick, the men and boys of the com- 
 munity would congregate at their home and spend 
 a day in cutting wood for them, usually fur- 
 nishing them with a supply ample to last through 
 the entire winter. 
 
 Then there were the "school days," which must 
 not be overlooked. The school house was always 
 a log structure, rather longer than wide, with a 
 big fireplace built in one side of it, large enough 
 to take in sticks of wood six feet in length. Its 
 light would diffuse a ruddy glow throughout the 
 room. 
 
 Our desks and seats were not a bit like the 
 modern article. For desks we had thick adzed 
 and hand-planed puncheons laid upon wooden 
 pegs driven in auger holes in the logs, along 
 each side of the walls of the room. Our seats
 
 Pioneer Co-operation 49 
 
 were merely slabs supported by legs or pegs 
 driven into auger holes bored in the under side 
 of the slabs. There were neither backs nor 
 cushions on the seats, and thus we sat on the 
 rough boards ranged around the walls of the 
 log structure. 
 
 There were only about three months of school 
 during the entire year and we made the most 
 of it, learning how to "read, write and cipher" 
 with the best of them, and something of geog- 
 raphy, grammar and history as well. Our 
 teachers in those days always believed in the 
 use of birch and hickory oil to persuade boys 
 and girls to live up to the rules of the school, 
 and few escaped chastisement, or "lickings" as 
 we called them, during our school-day career. 
 But, as a matter of fact, our teachers meant 
 everything for our good, and we usually en- 
 joyed the pleasantest relations. At Christmas 
 time the teacher was accustomed to treat the 
 school to real candy, or if not at that time, 
 then on the last day of school. This had a 
 natural tendency to cement our friendship, and 
 we could in consideration of such amenities for- 
 give and forget any fancied grievance. 
 
 There was a novel custom in vogue in those 
 days regarding the entertainment and lodging
 
 SO Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 of the "schoolmaster," as he was called, which 
 would seem highly interesting, no doubt, to the 
 youth of today. Our schoolmaster was paid 
 thirty dollars per month and "boarded round," 
 by which term was meant that the master was 
 given his board and lodging by the patrons of 
 the school in addition to his salary. This meant 
 that every family sending children to school was 
 expected to maintain open house to the school- 
 master at some period of the school term. In 
 some respects this was not a bad idea, since it 
 afforded the teacher and parents ample oppor- 
 tunity to become thoroughly acquainted, and en- 
 abled a master to observe the home life and con- 
 ditions of all his pupils, which the modern 
 schoolmaster seldom has opportunity of doing. 
 In this respect at least he is decidedly at a dis- 
 advantage with his predecessor of pioneer days. 
 
 Pioneer homes were not furnished with the 
 assortment we are now familiar with, and it may 
 be of interest to mention a few of the details. 
 
 All the heating of the log houses was done by 
 means of fireplaces. These were built at one 
 end of the house, and were indeed monstrous 
 affairs, some of them being wide enough to take 
 in sticks of wood and logs eight feet in length. 
 To build a fire a very large log called the "back
 
 Pioneer Co-operation 51 
 
 log" was placed in the very back of the fireplace. 
 Split sticks were then laid on andirons in front 
 of this back log, and small sticks, shavings and 
 punk put immediately underneath and in front 
 of them. To kindle the fire flint and steel were 
 used to strike sparks into this inflammable ma- 
 terial, and a blaze would finally start up and set 
 the fire going. A fire was nearly always kept 
 alive in one of the fireplaces in the house by 
 covering up the coals with ashes when the heat 
 was not needed. I was a pretty good-sized boy 
 when matches came into general use. 
 
 All the cooking was done at first in pots, 
 pans, and iron ovens which were set in or upon 
 the coals; and in my opinion the cast-iron cook 
 stove and the modern ranges have failed to add 
 anything to the flavor or wholesomeness of the 
 food cooked by the pioneer process. (My father 
 bought the first cast-iron cook stove which came 
 into our neighborhood, and it was so heavy that 
 it took six men to lift it into the rear end of 
 a two-horse wagon bed.) I have never tasted 
 anything more delicious than the pork and beans 
 baked in a "Dutch oven" covered up all night, 
 in the coals and ashes of the old fireplace at 
 home, or the meats broiled upon the coals them- 
 selves under a watchful and experienced eye; and
 
 52 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 baked potatoes never were so good as when 
 roasted in the coals and ashes of that same old 
 fireplace. 
 
 Nearly all the furniture at first was of the 
 home-made variety. Tables, beds, chairs, and 
 bureaus were usually the work of the head of 
 the family, and crudities abounded in profu- 
 sion. Space was necessarily conserved, since 
 cabins were the rule at first, and, ventilation 
 being good wherever there were fireplaces and 
 liberal cracks between the logs, the health of 
 the inhabitants never suffered even though an 
 entire family slept in the same room. 
 
 Of course beds could not usurp the entire 
 space, so they manufactured for the children 
 what was familiarly known as the "trundle bed." 
 This was nothing more or less than a very low 
 bed which barely escaped rubbing against the 
 floor. It was provided with castors, and during 
 the day it was slipped entirely under the high 
 four-poster of father and mother. At bedtime 
 it was pulled out from under their bed nearer 
 to the fireplace, and the youngsters soon crawled 
 beneath the covers and slept sweetly, warmly, 
 and soundly until morn's early dawn. Then 
 father would arise and build the fire. This he 
 did by shoveling off the ashes with which the
 
 Pioneer Co-operation S3 
 
 coals had been covered the night before and 
 throwing some dry wood upon the bright red 
 embers. A blazing fire was soon under head- 
 way, and the chill of a winter's morn quickly 
 faded away. The youngsters then arose and 
 donned their clothing and moccasins beside its 
 warmth and glowing radiance. 
 
 For the babes a big evenly balanced and well- 
 rounded "sugar trough" was brought in from 
 the "sugar camp" and the little one ensconced 
 therein amid feather ticks and pillows. Many 
 a great statesman was rocked to sleep in child- 
 hood's earliest hours by the loving hand of a 
 fond mother who could afford nothing better than 
 a sugar-trough cradle. 
 
 At first there were no mills in the new coun- 
 try, and we had to pound our corn fine just as 
 the Indians did in order to have our corn cakes 
 and corn bread. It was several years before the 
 old water mills came on the scene, and no wheat 
 or rye was raised in our neighborhood until the 
 first mill arrived. This was an old grist mill of 
 the water-wheel type, and the corn and wheat 
 were reduced to powder by being ground be- 
 tween two milled stones called "burrs," which 
 revolved just underneath a big storage receptacle 
 called a "hopper." This hopper had a small hole
 
 54 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 at the bottom directly over these stones, and 
 fed the grain to the revolving burrs through an 
 opening in the upper stone. 
 
 In those days every farmer took his own corn 
 and wheat to the mill and waited until it was 
 ground. The miller took out his charge for 
 the service, which was called his "toll," and 
 then the farmer took the residue, which was 
 always the larger portion. Quite often in the 
 busy season one would have to wait all day, and 
 sometimes far into the night, before his "grist" 
 was ready for him. We pioneer boys and girls 
 always considered it a treat to accompany father 
 to the mill. We could fish in the mill race, 
 romp around the mill, and have a jolly time all 
 day long. We could also go in bathing, or 
 "swimming," as we called it, in "de natura" cos- 
 tumes, if it happened to be in the good warm 
 days of summertime. 
 
 By-and-by sawmills arrived on the scene. 
 They were the water-wheel type also. The 
 saws were not circular, but straight-edged like 
 the cross-cut saw, and were set in a frame and 
 ran up and down through a log. They were 
 not very speedy, but they managed to do the 
 work for a time. 
 
 Perhaps some of the boys will not understand
 
 Pioneer Co-operation 55 
 
 what I mean by the water-wheel type of mill. 
 For their enlightenment let me say that a dam 
 was usually constructed across a creek or river. 
 The water would rise to a great height behind it 
 and furnish a supply even in dry seasons. From 
 one side of this a channel, called a "mill race" 
 was dug directly to the water wheel which was 
 to turn the machinery of the mill. This wheel 
 was constructed of wood with little trough-shaped 
 buckets across its width. The water from the 
 mill race ran at a high rate of speed against 
 these buckets on the wheel. The weight and 
 velocity of the water combined caused the wheel 
 to revolve rapidly, and thus to turn and operate 
 the machinery attached to the shaft on which 
 the wheel was securely fastened. 
 
 About twice a year the miller would clean 
 out the wheel and portions of the race. This 
 would leave the race temporarily dry, and re- 
 veal to our eager boyish eyes all the fish in the 
 mill race. There were some lively scrambles 
 you may be sure to gather up the best of these 
 finny creatures. Sometimes there would be as 
 many as a couple of wagon loads of nice fish, 
 and thousands of smaller ones. The water was 
 turned on or off from the race by means of small 
 gates near the dam at the head of the mill race.
 
 56 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 Perhaps the boys and girls of today would 
 like to learn something about how our mothers 
 in pioneer days made the greater part of our 
 clothing. In the first place the sheep were 
 sheared; then the wool was washed, and taken 
 to what was called a carding mill. There it was 
 carded, and came back nice and smooth to our 
 mothers, who put it on the spinning wheel and 
 spun it out in long fine threads called yarn; and 
 into still finer threads for weaving purposes. 
 Then on an old loom operated with her foot, 
 and the shuttle by her hand, she wove the threads 
 into cloth for our clothes or woolens for our 
 shirts and dresses for the ladies and girls. 
 
 Before the carding mills came we did not 
 wear pants of jeans, but buckskin served the 
 purpose just as well. Cloth for other purposes 
 came too high for us while buckskin was so 
 cheap. 
 
 Up to the time I was twelve years old I had 
 never seen any kind of footwear save buckskin 
 moccasins, which were worn by men, women, and 
 children. The elk and moose hides were tanned 
 by our own fathers and made by them and our 
 mothers into moccasins. These were sewed 
 usually by a fine thread of split deer tendon or 
 a wax-end thread, if we. had. one. There never
 
 Pioneer Co-operation 57 
 
 was anything quite so comfortable, durable, and 
 waterproof as the old moccasin, if it was kept 
 properly saturated with tallow mixed with burnt 
 straw. The latter filled up the pores in the 
 hide and kept out all water. Boys who are 
 used to patronizing boot-blacking stands please 
 think of the condition of our hands after apply- 
 ing this mixture of hot tallow and black burned 
 straw to the surface of the moccasins on the 
 hearthstones of the old fireplace. 
 
 Our stockings and socks were knit by hand by 
 our mothers and sisters, and there were few so- 
 called leisure moments in winter when their 
 nimble fingers were not busy with the knitting 
 needle and the skeins and balls of yarn. I have 
 seen little girls nine years of age who could 
 knit socks and mittens with the best of them. 
 Boys and girls learned to work early in those 
 days. A big healthy boy could handle a plow 
 or wield a hoe in the cornfield at from eight 
 to ten years of age, and could almost do a man's 
 work at sixteen, but none were slaves. 
 
 Farming implements were of the very simplest 
 sort at that time, no machinery being in exist- 
 ence. Our plows were made of wood with iron 
 edges, and an iron coulter to cut the roots that 
 were always in the way in the "new ground."
 
 58 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 The corn was cut with a corn knife, or "cutter," 
 by hand; and wheat, rye, and oats were cut with 
 sickles and cradles by hand and bound up with 
 bands of straw by hand. All other implements 
 were of like character. Cultivation with the hoe 
 in the "new ground" was a prime necessity. 
 
 In the summer time and until the latter part of 
 October, "when the frost was on the pumpkin 
 and the fodder in the shock," all good boys and 
 girls went barefoot about their tasks, and did 
 not mind it a bit; in fact, they were always 
 anxious in the springtime for parental permission 
 to shed their moccasins and wool stockings, or 
 socks, as the case might be. 
 
 Surely we had an old "swimmin' hole," and 
 we could do anything ever done at such a place 
 by James Whitcomb Riley or any of his chums. 
 And it was a sight, bigger, deeper, wider, and 
 prettier than that little Brandywine Creek down 
 in Indiana, and that was certainly a delightful 
 and joyous spot, which well deserved immor- 
 tality in verse. 
 
 Our first seed corn we obtained from the 
 Indians, and it was of two varieties; one a 
 beautiful white corn, and the other an early 
 corn, which we used, as the Indians did, for 
 early roasting ears and succotash. The Indians
 
 Pioneer Co-operation 59 
 
 cut a great deal of their corn off the cob while 
 in the milky state, and dried it in the sun. This 
 they used in the winter season to boil in the 
 pot with venison; and it made a very palatable 
 dish, as I can testify from personal experience 
 on many occasions. The remainder of their corn 
 they allowed to mature, and pounded it up for 
 meal, out of which they made their corn cakes. 
 
 Oxen were the great beasts of work and burden 
 in those days. Their gentleness and slow move- 
 ments, as well as their strength, made them al- 
 most indispensable in the "new ground" in the 
 "clearings." Horses did not come into use for 
 farm purposes to a great extent for many years; 
 not until roots, stumps, and brush gave way to 
 regular husbandry, and level fields became the 
 rule instead of the exception. Then the slow- 
 going oxen were superseded by the speedy horse, 
 and good roads made him necessary as a beast of 
 travel. 
 
 Farm stock was very scarce for many years, 
 and every calf, pig, and lamb was allowed to 
 reach maturity, and most of them were bred to 
 increase the numbers. 
 
 Wild bees were numerous, and honey was very 
 plentiful in the forests for many years. Hollow 
 basswoods or lindens were favorite places for
 
 60 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 them to make their homes; also hollows in 
 big oak limbs, which would often run back into 
 a hollow place in the main part of the tree. The 
 bees could be easily traced to these trees, and 
 when we located the trees we would cut them 
 down and get the honey. To prevent the bees 
 from stinging us we would have torches of straw, 
 and they would always fly into the flames like 
 moths and burn to death. We often obtained a 
 wash-tub full of honey from a single swarm. 
 Sometimes we would remove swarms to hives at 
 home and thus domesticate them. 
 
 As a boy I soon became very expert at locating 
 bee trees. I once made a big mistake, however. 
 I followed a bee toward his tree, but lost him a 
 short distance from that spot; and, looking about, 
 I thought I spied a lot of bees issuing from the 
 top of a big pine stub which was hollow near 
 the top. Four of us cut the stub down, and as it 
 fell we rushed up to seize the honey and fight 
 the bees away. It seems that in falling the stub 
 broke in two pieces right at the place where the 
 nest was, and when we reached the tree it seemed 
 as though thousands of white wasps attacked us 
 and made us run for cover. One stung me be- 
 tween the eyes, and the pain was so great that I 
 fell to the ground ; but I could not lie there, so I
 
 Pioneer Co-operation 61 
 
 jumped up and ran to the bushes, where I found 
 my companions. Afterward we located the bee 
 tree, a few rods distant, cut it down, and got an 
 enormous lot of honey; but we all went home 
 covered with knots and bumps as reminders of 
 our interference with the home life of white 
 wasps. 
 
 Sometimes a mischievous impulse will seize 
 hold of boys which seems irresistible, and the 
 pranks and devilish tricks that they will impose 
 upon dumb brutes is almost unbelievable. While 
 laboring under those spells we used to wait for 
 cattle to pass under the limbs of trees where 
 great nests of hornets, almost as big as a bushel 
 basket, hung suspended from their branches; and 
 when the poor cattle would get directly beneath 
 this nest one of our number would throw a club 
 and hit the nest. The hornets would immediately 
 sally forth in great force, and sting the cattle 
 upon their backs until they bellowed with pain 
 and ran for the bushes in a mad gallop, while 
 we, little rascals, would roll upon the grass in 
 fiendish glee. Now hornets are the most vicious 
 of the entire "stinger" family, and it was indeed 
 a shame to inflict such punishment upon poor 
 innocent cattle. If our parents had ever heard 
 of our escapades they would surely have visited
 
 62 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 condign punishment upon that part of our 
 anatomy where the hornets stung the cattle. 
 
 In those days pioneer boys had many playmates 
 which were not of their kind ; but they enlivened 
 the hours and the activity of youth was well sus- 
 tained by their presence. 
 
 My father often caught black and brown bear 
 cubs in the woods straying too far from the 
 rendezvous where their mothers had no doubt 
 left them and charged them to keep invisible; 
 but like all youngsters, they did not mind their 
 parent and, as usual, came to grief, and in these 
 cases to captivity. We had much sport with 
 young cubs, which would become as tame as 
 dogs, following us around wherever we would 
 allow them to go. They became much attached 
 to us, and often, while in the woods, I would 
 hide behind a stump or tree to see what effect 
 it would have on Mr. Cub. He would look all 
 around and then cry and whine most piteously 
 for me. Then when I would step from behind 
 the tree or stump and he would catch sight of 
 me, he would come racing toward me as fast as 
 his clumsy legs could carry him. His locomo- 
 tion was a gallop, and the way he could get over 
 the ground after a running boy and overtake 
 him makes me think of the ease with which the
 
 Pioneer Co-operation 63 
 
 famous thoroughbred Dick Welles used to over- 
 haul with his swift, graceful, undulating gallop 
 his competitors at the old Washington Park 
 track. While viewing this performance my 
 mind always went back to the cubs which used 
 to chase and overhaul me in the Michigan woods 
 in my boyhood days. 
 
 I remember one particularly saucy brown bear 
 cub, which had grown to good proportions and 
 had become very tame, but we always kept a chain 
 fastened to him by which to tether him at night. 
 During the day he ran loose, dragging the long 
 chain. One day he concluded to explore the 
 woods without due leave of absence, and I pur- 
 sued him with our pack of dogs. They soon 
 overhauled him, and ran him up to the top of 
 a hill, where he sat with his back to a tree and 
 fought them off. I came along and got hold of 
 the chain and pulled on it, trying to persuade 
 him to follow me. I did my best to coax him, 
 but he was in an ugly mood and would not be 
 persuaded. He was stronger than I, and rapidly 
 drew me toward him, shortening the chain as he 
 pleased. I kept jerking it, and hanging on to it. 
 Finally, when he had me close enough, he gave 
 me a quick cuff with one of his paws alongside 
 my face, which sent me tumbling down hill with
 
 64 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 the blood flowing from the deep gash his claws 
 had made in my cheek. It left a small scar which 
 has never entirely disappeared, and can be traced 
 whenever I shave closely. I got up, however, 
 and, with my fighting blood aroused, returned 
 to the contest. While I jerked on the chain the 
 dogs got in his rear and gave him several good 
 sharp bites. Then he changed his mind very 
 quickly about the entire program, and trotted 
 after me as though nothing had ever happened 
 to mar the pleasure of the morning. 
 
 Father often found young fawns, wildcats, 
 lynxes, and raccoons, and brought them home to 
 us for pets, and we succeeded in taming all of 
 them, and having much sport with them. 
 
 The young cubs always delighted to wrestle 
 with the boys, and we encouraged them, too, 
 sometimes coming out second best in the tussle. 
 When they became full grown we usually dis- 
 posed of them, especially after an unfortunate 
 occurrence which I must here relate. 
 
 Neighbor Decker at Flint had a big full-grown 
 bear, which had been raised from cubhood by 
 his son, who was at the time it happened a young 
 man of twenty, hale, robust, and muscular. He 
 had taught the cub to wrestle, and kept up the 
 sport until he was fully grown. The animal had
 
 Streeter, a Pioneer Showman

 
 Pioneer Co-operation 65 
 
 never shown any disposition to be ugly, so there 
 seemed no reason to discontinue the sport be- 
 cause he had become a full-grown bear. The 
 youth having also grown to maturity, felt no fear 
 of his playmate. But one day, while engaged 
 in a particularly close contest, the bear became 
 very angry and crushed the young man to death 
 in his arms before help could reach him. After 
 this tragic occurrence we disposed of a cub be- 
 fore he reached the dangerous stage, not caring 
 to take any chances. 
 
 There was another phase of my youthful life 
 which was particularly delightful and somewhat 
 remunerative as well. This was trapping wild 
 game of the fur-bearing kind, and commenced 
 when I was about twelve years of age. My 
 father and older brothers gave me valuable and 
 experienced instruction on the finer points of the 
 business. 
 
 I was an interested and apt scholar and soon 
 had my deadfalls, pitfalls and snares at work 
 for miles along the Flint River, and caught large 
 numbers of raccoon, beaver, fox, otter, mink and 
 muskrat. Their hides I stretched by the processes 
 then in use, and sold them for prices which now 
 seem ridiculously small; but it afforded great 
 sport, and the exercise of cunning and ingenuity,
 
 66 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 and the opportunity to acquaint myself with the 
 habits and traits of almost every fur-bearing 
 animal living there at that time. 
 
 We also had our domestic pets in which we 
 took great pride. Almost every boy had his 
 own dog, pig, and sometimes calf. I trained 
 several calves up to young oxen, and accustomed 
 them to the use of the yoke, often getting my 
 bare feet cut by their sharp hoofs during the 
 process. My father, who had given them to 
 me, usually bought them back at this stage of 
 their development, and I was glad of the oppor- 
 tunity to sell to. him, for it kept my old-time pets 
 at home. I was always loath to part with old 
 friends. 
 
 I always managed to coax my pet pig into a 
 distant fence corner by himself, and there give 
 him the best of food. This caused him to grow 
 and fatten at a livelier rate than his fellows, and 
 he was always the choicest of the litter in a short 
 time. His pigship soon grew particularly ap- 
 preciative of these favors and would follow me 
 down the lane like a dog. When he had de- 
 voured the food he would roll over and grunt 
 his gratitude as long as I cared to tarry by his 
 side.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE CONTRAST 
 
 How different was this wholesome happy life 
 of those pioneer days from that of the street 
 urchin of our great cities, who gets his instruc- 
 tion as a rule from older and often degenerate 
 saloon-loafing companions, whose footsteps he 
 speedily learns to follow, while father and mother 
 are too busy earning money to pay for food, 
 clothing, and rent to give much attention to 
 their offspring. 
 
 While the conditions of pioneer life may not 
 have been all that could be desired, how far 
 superior were they to such as now prevail in 
 the great cities. I am now past the allotted 
 three-score and ten, but yet active and hearty, 
 and if I had to choose between the country toil 
 and wage slavery I would not hesitate to go back 
 to the country and live in a cabin, if need be, 
 and till the soil to earn my daily bread. If I 
 were a young man, or a man with a family, 
 nothing could induce me to become a wage slave 
 of the parvenu rich, and sell my children into
 
 68 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 the ever-increasing wage slave system, whose 
 masters (slave drivers of the most diabolical 
 sort) for the love of the accursed, degenerating 
 and indefensible luxury of millions of unearned 
 wealth, wrung from the fathers, mothers, sons 
 and daughters of this great republic, reach out 
 with greedy hands to drag ever-increasing mil- 
 lions into their shambles of factories with their 
 pretentious hospital attachments and their gray- 
 ghost kidnapping ambulances. I would rather 
 "be a dog and bay the moon" than to feed my 
 progeny into the maws of these outlaws of so- 
 ciety these murdering, plundering pirates of 
 high finance. 
 
 These men are the worst traitors who ever 
 trod the soil of our glorious land; a country 
 dedicated by our forefathers to liberty, inde- 
 pendence, and the right to the pursuit of happi- 
 ness, and baptized with the dying blood of thou- 
 sands of them. Yet these traitors believe in 
 none of the fundamental principles for which our 
 forefathers fought and died, and upon which our 
 government is builded; they do not even be- 
 lieve in the very keystone of the sacred struc- 
 ture, that the will of the majority of the people, 
 whatever it may be, is supreme at all times, and 
 that the minority shall have no right to violate
 
 The Contrast 69 
 
 that will so long as it remains upon the statute 
 books of the land, and that they shall not un- 
 lawfully endeavor to remove it therefrom. 
 
 Yet these arch traitors have, for the past twenty- 
 five years or more, openly violated the laws of 
 the land by their unlawful combinations, black- 
 lists, discriminations, rebates, and countless other 
 willfully unlawful acts. But worse than all else, 
 they have done everything under the shining sun 
 which they and their degenerate and unmoral 
 lawyers, and other paid tools and crooks, could 
 think of to prevent the reign of the popular will, 
 to thwart and make impossible the sovereignty of 
 the people. And, for what? That they in their 
 selfish greed might be sovereign, the people their 
 serfs, and that the wealth produced by the toil- 
 ing millions might be their own stolen private 
 property. 
 
 And it is a matter of common knowledge that 
 to accomplish their ends they have bribed our 
 courts, our town and city councils, our state legis- 
 latures, our members of Congress, and have even 
 elected themselves and their paid lawyers to the 
 United States Senate under the guise of being 
 representatives of the people, when in fact the 
 legislature which elected them had been bought 
 outright, or its members beforehand elected with
 
 70 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 the money of these criminal traitors to free 
 government. 
 
 They have even had the audacity to demand 
 and dictate to the national conventions of the 
 great political parties the nomination of their 
 own hirelings for Chief Executive of the nation; 
 and they have many times tempted weak senators 
 and congressmen, who had not hitherto been at- 
 tached to their pay roll, and their downfall has 
 been the talk of the nation. 
 
 But what penalty have these traitors paid? Do 
 any of them languish in dungeons or forfeit the 
 charters of their corporations to the people from 
 whom they obtained the right to operate a busi- 
 ness in compliance with the people's laws? What 
 penalty have they paid for reversing the people's 
 will by the use of money instead of the ballot? 
 Why, their paid lawyers have been boosted into 
 the Attorney General's chair of the nation, and 
 their candidate has been made Secretary of the 
 Treasury of the United States not once, but many 
 times. 
 
 This has been the rule rather than the excep- 
 tion. The only ones to pay the penalty have been 
 the cheap novices who tried to get into the select 
 circle of outlaws without serving the required 
 apprenticeship, or to foil some well hatched
 
 The Contrast 71 
 
 scheme to sell watered stock to the people via the 
 Wall Street route, or to execute a trick of the 
 same kind without permission of the overlords of 
 the game. The only men to pay the penalty have 
 been those men whom these very traitors, these 
 pirates beyond the law, have marked for slaugh- 
 ter. These were the men who set the dogs after 
 Morse, Heinze, John R. Walsh, and all the 
 others who have paid the penalty. And in every 
 case these piratical ghouls have followed in the 
 wake and reaped the harvest of slaughtered stocks 
 which nobody else could buy, and rewater and 
 foist upon the investing public after the opium 
 of a few months of silence had made it again 
 gullible. 
 
 Nothing has escaped their all-devouring ac- 
 tivities. Even the churches and the colleges have 
 been subsidized wherever this was possible. They 
 have even gone so far as to hire experts to do 
 nothing but distribute this "dirty slush fund," as 
 we used to call such money in a political cam- 
 paign in which they sought to dominate some 
 situation of importance. 
 
 This money is more like opium than anything 
 I can liken it to in its immediate effects. The 
 president of the college and the board of trustees 
 soon get rid of all the professors of spirit and
 
 72 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 truth; and soon in their chairs are installed the 
 apologists of commercial piracy and disloyalty 
 to the fundamental principles of the republic. 
 Soon wage slavery is justified under the guise 
 of necessity in big business operations, and the 
 heads of this accursed oligarchy of wealth are 
 pointed out to the rising generation by professors, 
 nation-wide lecturers, and so-called ministers of 
 the gospel, as samples of the nation's choicest 
 fruit in the national orchard of manhood. 
 
 What is the purpose of all this activity in 
 hitherto free and unexploited institutions? That 
 the white wage-slavery system of these dollar-hog 
 traitors to free government and human liberty 
 may be perpetuated and maintained throughout 
 all eternity so far as this part of the earth is con- 
 cerned, and that it shall be justified by the teach- 
 ing and the preaching of the most high and holy 
 in the churches and in the schools of the land, 
 just as black slavery was in its day from Father 
 Abraham to Bob Toombs of Georgia. 
 
 Think of it; there are today more than one 
 million six hundred thousand children and six 
 million women in the bondage of these dollar 
 hogs and their so-called factories, shops, stores, 
 and offices in this supposed land of freedom and 
 free opportunity. Note the want ad. columns
 
 The Contrast 73 
 
 of the great dailies of every city in the nation. 
 You will find them filled with the insatiable de- 
 mand for women, boys and girls at the pittance 
 of a wage to keep their establishments running 
 at full speed and capacity. And in all those 
 great industries where such help is not usable the 
 crying demand is for millions of cheap foreigners 
 who will work for a pittance and live more like 
 pigs than human beings. 
 
 Go to the great steel mills of the nation, the 
 harvester factories, and all of the allied metal 
 and iron mills, and you will find millions of 
 foreigners working at a wage that any self- 
 respecting American born and bred citizen would 
 scorn to accept, because he knows it is unjust 
 and dishonest. 
 
 We see the papers of the land filled with ques- 
 tions as to the underlying cause for the millions 
 of unemployed men in our great cities "the army 
 of unemployed" as it is everywhere characterized 
 and referred to. An appropriation of four mil- 
 lion dollars is said to have been asked for by our 
 national Secretary of Labor to inquire exhaust- 
 ively into this very subject. 
 
 The cause is plain to be seen, so plain that he 
 who runs may read and see; even the blind ought 
 not to go wide of the mark. These men are un-
 
 74 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 employed, walking the streets of our cities by 
 day and by night seeking honorable employment 
 because the dollar hogs of the land some years 
 ago discovered that they could hire women, chil- 
 dren, and ignorant foreigners to do their work 
 for half, or even less, than self-respecting men 
 would accept for such tasks. 
 
 This enslavement of the women wives, sisters, 
 boys and girls of the nation at a pittance while 
 husbands and brothers walk the streets in search 
 of employment, is the great indictment of the 
 age in which we live, and of the government 
 which we have been taught to respect, but which 
 no longer protects our families from the rapacity 
 and inhuman greed of these dollar hog destroyers 
 of that most sacred institution of the human race 
 the home! 
 
 So the homes of the land must be broken up, 
 and our wives and children sacrificed to the 
 maws of these dollar hogs that they may pile up 
 their unearned millions and live abroad in such 
 luxury that they are the envy of kings; in such 
 splendor and wanton extravagance that the fabled 
 wealth of Croesus and Solomon fades into insig- 
 nificance. And finally they have the impudence 
 and effrontery to pose as philanthropists and de- 
 mand the laurel chaplet from the American people.
 
 The Contrast 75 
 
 Here in Chicago we have a dollar hog, one 
 Julius Rosenhog, let us call him for convenience, 
 who asks the people of this supposed land of 
 liberty and human freedom to pat him on the 
 back because he has donated several hundred 
 thousand dollars toward the liberation of the 
 black slaves of the Southland from economic 
 bondage, while at the same time he maintains 
 one of the largest and worst slave pens in the 
 Northland, where thousands of white men and 
 women, boys and girls toil daily for a pittance; 
 one of the most cruel and debasing institutions 
 that ever existed in the history of the human race. 
 
 The pages of history will be searched in vain 
 to find a more despicable and realistic system of 
 human slavery than that practiced by Rosenhog 
 and his kind throughout this land of so-called 
 Christendom and civilization. A refined system 
 of human slavery, which can only boast of free 
 air and water, both often dirty and polluted; a 
 hellish system founded on fiendish human greed 
 which knows no satiation, and which only the 
 American dollar hog has been capable of foisting 
 upon the human race without any effort at con- 
 cealment; brazenly, openly, defiantly, and even 
 insultingly. Witness the exhibition of some of 
 these gentlemen (last winter) when called before
 
 76 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 the legislature investigating committee, of which 
 the estimable Lieutenant Governor of Illinois was 
 the author and champion. The gorillas of Dark- 
 est Africa are more considerate of their kind than 
 some of these hired bulldozers of human help 
 in these stores and sweat-shop factories. 
 
 And even the high-schools, so-called, must have 
 the workshops and technical schools of the dollar 
 hogs injected into them at public expense, in 
 order that these gentry may be sure that few of 
 the school children will escape their wage-slave 
 system and that they may lay hands on them at 
 very tender ages and thus make sure of their 
 valuable, not valued, services. 
 
 Fellow countrymen, here let us draw the line 
 the dead line, if you please! Let us resolve that 
 they shall never take these little universities of 
 the people of the parents and children alike 
 by whose money and for whose benefit they were 
 originally created, without a battle royal! I 
 carried a musket loaded with powder and ball 
 for several years in the Sixties to preserve the in- 
 tegrity of our institutions and to prevent the fur- 
 ther enslavement of the black race of the nation; 
 and, if need be, I think I can shoulder one again 
 with even keener relish to put down the white 
 slavery of the dollar hogs of the North.
 
 The Contrast 77 
 
 I am not afraid to call for volunteers in such 
 a cause as this if right and reason will not avail 
 anything as in the old days of black slavery. If 
 force be the only arbiter of this question then 
 speed the day that I may mingle in the conflict 
 and see the victory of liberty for the white race. 
 I want to live long enough to see the end of 
 this irrepressible conflict. 
 
 The technical schools are all right in their 
 place; but their place is not in the public school 
 system, nor in the life of the child of public 
 school age. Their place is at a later period of 
 their age and development. There will be no 
 need for children to toil in the institutions of 
 these dollar hogs at such ages. There will be 
 plenty of time for them to spend in obtaining 
 a more liberal education and a broader view of 
 life and its manifold duties and relations, before 
 taking up technical work if their fathers are 
 employed at just wages. If this be brought to 
 pass, wives, mothers, sisters and brothers will not 
 be compelled to toil for the dollar hogs; the 
 father will not be compelled to walk the streets 
 looking for a "job," as it is called in the ver- 
 nacular of the street, nor to skip the town in 
 search of work and to save his sense of self- 
 respect, while his wife and children labor for
 
 78 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 the dollar hogs at a pittance; and the home, that 
 most sacred of all human institutions, will not 
 then be sacrificed to the conscienceless dollar 
 hogs. 
 
 In some sections of this country home destroy- 
 ers inevitably meet their just fate, and the man 
 who has the courage and the disposition to ad- 
 minister the medicine is turned free by a jury 
 of his peers in almost every case. What about 
 the home destroyers of the Northland? They are 
 a more numerous band and their depredations 
 are ten thousand times more frequent, more sure 
 and certain, more despicable and detestible, more 
 diabolical and abominable than those of the 
 South and West. 
 
 This situation, my countrymen, is the impend- 
 ing danger of the hour! It is the one problem 
 which must be solved before all others. It can- 
 not be delayed. It cannot be palliated or com- 
 promised. It must be met, and that immediately, 
 if we are to stem the tide of this dollar-hog slav- 
 ery which engulfs the nation, and sweeps over 
 our homes, and robs our firesides under the guise 
 of commercial necessity. We must meet it and 
 strangle it in a death struggle if we are to rescue 
 our homes, our children and our wives! It 
 must not own our public schools, nor dominate
 
 The Contrast 79 
 
 them. It has gone too far already in that direc- 
 tion. // must be halted! 
 
 The dollar hogs have subsidized the press, the 
 church and pulpit, the universities and the med- 
 ical schools; not all of them, thank God, but too 
 many of them; they shall not own the public 
 school system of the nation, our public school 
 system, if you please! 
 
 They shall not teach our children longer that 
 to hold a "job," to work and slave for a lifetime 
 for a pittance, is the joy and the aim of human 
 life; that to be an uncomplaining slave of the 
 dollar hogs, or to develop into one by craft and 
 cunning, dishonesty and robbery, is the true ideal 
 and goal of American citizenship; that the most 
 successful and powerful dollar hogs of the nation's 
 history are the noblest handiwork of God, and 
 the ideal business men of our nation's history! 
 It shall not come to this while the red blood of 
 my ancestors and the clear mind of an honest 
 conscience are yet my heritage. I will fight 
 them though mine is the only voice to be heard 
 and the only sword to be drawn in Freedom's 
 name for the freedom of our schools, our wives, 
 our children, and the freedom of the human race 
 in America! 
 
 I am not a socialist, nor any other "ist" I
 
 80 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 am simply a true descendant of Revolutionary 
 sires, of defenders of liberty and human freedom; 
 a believer in real democracy, in the broad sense 
 of that term; and I am disgusted with the pre- 
 tense that we have any longer a real democracy 
 so far as the government is concerned. Still I 
 have not lost faith in the hope that such a govern- 
 ment is yet possible if the manhood of the land 
 will demand such a government, and be satisfied 
 with nothing less, even though we have to put 
 our muskets on our shoulders to accomplish it. 
 It is well worth the effort just such an effort, 
 if need be! Let us unite and fight is my slogan! 
 Let us neither ask nor give quarter. It must be 
 the unconditional surrender of the dollar hogs 
 of this land in the name of human liberty, free- 
 dom, justice, and equality! 
 
 If we had a real democratic government we 
 would have a national minimum wage law, 
 though it took a revolution to get it, and though 
 every document from the Constitution to the last 
 act of Congress had to be overturned in getting 
 it. And this minimum wage should be placed 
 so high that these slave-driving dollar hogs would 
 prefer to hire men once more rather than women 
 and children. If we had a real democratic gov- 
 ernment instead of a subterfuge government we
 
 The Contrast 81 
 
 would have a national employment law which 
 would fix the age-limit of the employment of 
 children at eighteen years. Then we would have 
 no child labor anywhere. Such laws, with others 
 supplementary, would automatically emancipate 
 from their inhuman bondage the millions of 
 mothers, wives, children (boys and girls) and 
 rehabilitate the vast army of the unemployed, 
 the husbands and fathers in our midst, at just 
 wages, not living wages. 
 
 That term "living wage" is an abomination in 
 the sight of God and man, for the head of the 
 family must have more than a living wage. His 
 old age and sickness must be provided for in 
 his wage if it is to be a just system, and none 
 other can be tolerated in a free land. Every 
 head of a family has the right to earn a wage 
 sufficient to provide for the ownership of a com- 
 fortable home and some property. How can 
 this be possible on the "living wage" we hear 
 so much talk about by seemingly intelligent per- 
 sons. These dollar hogs contend even now that 
 their present wages are living wages, and can 
 produce thousands of so-called economists who 
 will prove that the working man and his family 
 can live on the wage they pay by eliminating 
 most meats and vegetables, and using cheap sub-
 
 82 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 stitutes in their stead. And in recent years the 
 Department of Agriculture has been guilty of 
 publishing at the national expense countless thou- 
 sands of pamphlets devoted to that very philos- 
 ophy of the dollar hogs. If this does not prove 
 that, in recent years, the government has been 
 bedding with the dollar hogs, then I am no 
 judge of evidence or of human nature. In the 
 long years that I have tarried on this old earth 
 I have made the acquaintance of many people, 
 and I flatter myself that I have learned quite a 
 bit by mixing with them, and that my judgment 
 of such facts and circumstances has rarely been 
 amiss. 
 
 Men who labor for a wage are entitled to a 
 "just wage," and no just wage can ever be pos- 
 sible while the laborer is not in a position to 
 have a reasonable voice in determining what that 
 wage must be. Consequently the government, 
 his creature and servant, must at all times exert 
 its power and authority to prevent an unjust 
 fixation of wages in every industry. Labor in 
 its individual character being the weaker should 
 have every possible safeguard which a just gov- 
 ernment can possibly throw about it to prevent 
 injustice to the individual. And every individual 
 has a right to expect this of his government. The
 
 The Contrast 83 
 
 government in a free country belongs to no one 
 individual any more than to another; but neces- 
 sarily the weaker individual has a greater de- 
 mand upon its protection than has his stronger 
 brother, the employer, who always has a superior 
 point of vantage and means for his own protec- 
 tion against injustices. 
 
 This is true of both the state and national 
 governments, but in the present crisis it would 
 seem that only the national government can give 
 adequate protection to the wage workers of the 
 land, the very existence of whose integrity and 
 homes is now at stake at this juncture of our 
 national life. The government must intervene, 
 and that quickly, if justice and eternal right are 
 to prevail without an appeal to arms, that final 
 arbiter of every just cause driven to the wall by 
 injustice and human greed and rapacity. 
 
 I feel justified in saying that this country of 
 ours is cursed with the worst lot of outlaws who 
 ever drew the breath of life, and who are ten 
 thousand times more powerful and more vicious 
 than the gentry for whom the very word "out- 
 law" was coined some hundreds of years ago. 
 Their willful disregard of the people's rights 
 and laws has been abundantly proved in the 
 highest courts of the land, and likewise their
 
 84 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 willful purpose to degrade and enslave their 
 employes. Despite these facts the government 
 has taken no intelligent action to safeguard the 
 masses of its people from the rapacities of these 
 outlaw dollar hogs who are destroying the homes 
 of the land and reducing the wage earner to the 
 depths of the most awful slavery the human race 
 has ever known, and this hateful condition pre- 
 vails in a land which has for more than a century 
 boasted of its love for liberty, justice, and equal- 
 ity of opportunity, but which in fact has never 
 truly existed. It is high time to make these 
 things a reality though it should take a sanguine 
 revolution to accomplish it. Justice must and 
 shall prevail at any cost. No subterfuges nor 
 compromises shall be made. 
 
 Every compromise with black slavery was a 
 failure and of short duration, and it had to be 
 wiped out root and branch. Nothing less than 
 this shall be the solution of white slavery. It 
 must be obliterated wholly, and nothing less will 
 be accepted. The sooner the government of the 
 people announces this as its attitude the earlier 
 will this result be accomplished. If it will not 
 assume this attitude then a bloody conflict is 
 inevitable, for this conflict is as surely an irre- 
 pressible one as was the conflict over black slav-
 
 The Contrast 85 
 
 ery. A house divided against itself shall not 
 stand. It will be a slave nation or it will be a 
 free nation. It shall be a free nation! 
 
 But he who thinks that this will come to pass 
 by dilatory or compromising tactics is mistaken. 
 Tariff laws and money laws will not solve the 
 wage-slavery system of the dollar hogs, and it 
 is idle to indulge such a presumption. Radical 
 and prompt action will be required on the part 
 of the government to avert a bloody clash in the 
 near future if this situation is not squarely met 
 and solved, and justice assured to the wage 
 earners of the nation by the most positive laws. 
 
 This question will eventually reach every home 
 in the land. The farmers are furthest removed 
 from it at present, but thousands of farm boys 
 and girls drift into the cities every year, lured 
 by the unknown life, which always seems most 
 attractive to mortals. In a little while they be^ 
 come wage slaves, and their children likewise; 
 so the problem is only a short remove from the 
 most protected home in the land, the farmer's 
 fireside. He should be more sympathetic than 
 he has been in the past if he is to be just to his 
 brethren in the city, who are struggling as never 
 before to exist under the most trying conditions 
 without resort to open revolution.
 
 86 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 But rest assured that the revolution has taken 
 place within the mind of the individual, for such 
 injustices cannot be endured without the keenest 
 inward defiance; and remember that there is 
 always a point beyond which forbearance ceases 
 to be a virtue. A straw will sometimes constitute 
 the additional weight that breaks the camel's 
 back, as we used to say in the olden times. 
 
 And it is well to remember also that our ladies 
 are making a strenuous and valiant effort to win 
 for themselves equal rights with men in the 
 exercise of the ballot, and everything tends to 
 indicate their ultimate triumph. God speed the 
 day, for they are infinitely better qualified to 
 exercise that right than the drunken bums in the 
 rotten boroughs of our great cities, the ignorant 
 negroes, and the foreign millions from Southern 
 Europe, who know little of our history, institu- 
 tions, or fundamental principles of government, 
 and care less. It has been maddening to me to 
 see these ignorant incompetents voting at all elec- 
 tions, while our intelligent American women are 
 denied that right and privilege. 
 
 I have always been an advocate of woman suf- 
 frage, and believe that when women have the 
 right to vote they will aid immensely in wiping 
 out countless evils to which male voters seem
 
 The Contrast 87 
 
 brutally obtuse. Among these might be men- 
 tioned the saloon, red light districts, gaming dens, 
 and why not the white slavery of women and 
 children, and every other great problem that 
 confronts us at the present time? Because of 
 their non-affiliation with factional politics, they 
 ought to bring to the consideration of these mat- 
 ters a clear and unbiased view which the men 
 have not done; or if they have, they have not 
 had the courage of their convictions, else every 
 one of these problems would have been solved 
 and disposed of long ago. 
 
 Before I would become the slave of these out- 
 laws and traitors who dominate the country at the 
 present time I would take my family and go to 
 the vacant lands of the nation, and work out a 
 different existence. I believe that a return to 
 the soil is the only chance the poor wage slave 
 of today and his children have, and I rejoice in 
 my old age to see so much talk in the newspapers 
 and magazines about the return to the country as 
 the salvation of the strugglers of the city. Let 
 us hope that it will bear fruit Let us hope also 
 that the conscience of the nation will speedily 
 awake and demand laws that will disfranchise 
 and expatriate these traitorous outlaws who have 
 debauched the government of our sires and en-
 
 88 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 slaved the women and children of our country; 
 confiscate their ill-gotten gains to the state, and 
 ostracise them just as the old Greeks did such 
 undesirables, who imagined their private inter- 
 ests were of greater consequence than the welfare 
 of the state. The banishment of Napoleon clipped 
 his wings and ended his exploitation of the 
 peoples of Europe. Why not clip the wings of 
 our Napoleons of so-called finance, our traitors 
 to free republican government? These men are 
 exploiting this nation, and robbing our sons of 
 their rightful and equal opportunity, and mak- 
 ing them slaves, mere hewers of wood and draw- 
 ers of water for their enrichment; and, worse 
 than all else, making them moral cowards and 
 possible criminals. For such outlaws pay starva- 
 tion wages, force men and women to live like 
 the pigs and brutes of the field, and herd together 
 like such animals, until poverty, misery, ignor- 
 ance, and crime are their inevitable lot. Men 
 who will by such conduct embrute and enslave 
 their fellows, are the worst criminals who have 
 ever trod God's footstool; for they slay by the 
 millions, and make degenerate our whole body 
 politic. They import millions of ignorant for- 
 eigners and pay them a pittance to work under 
 conditions which no self respecting citizen of
 
 The Contrast 89 
 
 the republic should be compelled to endure. 
 They rob these poor ignorant laborers with im- 
 punity, and our government stands idly by, as 
 though impotent to lift a finger to prevent the 
 diabolical swindle. It is high time that we 
 arm the government with laws which will put 
 these robbers out of business forever. 
 
 There are plenty of men in this broad land 
 of ours who would operate their business affairs 
 under the law, and respect the will of the people 
 as expressed in their laws, if given the oppor- 
 tunity; but such men have no opportunity cr 
 living chance under present conditions in com- 
 petition with these outlaws. When did honest 
 men ever have a chance with outlaws? So long 
 as our government allows these robbers to dom- 
 inate the business and commerce of the land and 
 to retain their stolen plunder, so long will honest 
 men be the easy prey of such villains. 
 
 And why should not their stolen plunder be 
 confiscated? It has been established beyond con- 
 troversy that it has been obtained by the rob- 
 bery of untold millions of laborers living and 
 dead. Individual restitution to the real owners 
 is now impossible, but that does not justify the 
 retention by the outlaws of their ill-gotten gains. 
 In the case of lesser criminals convicted of such
 
 90 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 offenses, the stolen goods are always turned over 
 to a public custodian, and are eventually confis- 
 cated by the state, or government, which is the 
 instrument of the people, hence for the people. 
 Why should a different rule prevail in dealing 
 with the more gigantic and more heinous offend- 
 ers who rob everybody with impunity every hour 
 of the day and night? Under such conditions it 
 is the undoubted right and duty of the people 
 and their government to confiscate the stolen 
 property of the most criminal outlaws who ever 
 existed in the history of the world. 
 
 The time is fast approaching when the people 
 will realize that the millions which these outlaws 
 have piled up in such rich quick fashion are 
 morally and rightfully the savings of the people, 
 and that they may rightfully lay hands upon them 
 and claim them for their own. If we can justly 
 and lawfully claim a portion of these millions by 
 such subterfuges as the inheritance and income 
 taxes, then we may by the same process of reason- 
 ing claim more, and finally may have the manhood 
 and the courage to come out boldly into the open, 
 and claim the hoard as the rightful and indis- 
 putable savings of the people, who, though pre- 
 vented by robbery from placing them in the 
 bank to their own credit, have just as much right
 
 The Contrast 91 
 
 to claim the stolen plunder from these outlaws as 
 any article of personal property recovered from 
 an outlaw thief. Until this day of judgment and 
 of justice shall arrive let us return to the country 
 and till the soil, let us refuse to be slaves! 
 
 There are millions of broad acres of the 
 choicest land the sun ever shone upon in a 
 dozen states of this nation, unoccupied and fruit- 
 less, waiting for the starving, downtrodden wage 
 slaves of the cities to come thither and be happy 
 and free. 
 
 Out in southern Idaho in the great valley of 
 the Snake River, a few brief years ago, there 
 were a million acres of supposedly desert lands, 
 covered with sage brush; lands which for un- 
 known ages had produced nothing of value, and 
 which even the rains of heaven refused to bless 
 by their downpour. Through the midst of this 
 desert waste flowed the great river, whose course 
 lay through deep canyons it had cut in ages past, 
 and sometimes over great precipices, where its 
 rushing waters formed stupendous cataracts sev- 
 eral hundred feet high, as it hurried on its way 
 to the sea. But neither its waters nor the arid 
 acres of its great valley had blessed mankind 
 since the day of their creation. 
 
 During the century past thousands of wander-
 
 92 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 ers and sightseers came and went without so much 
 as a thought of the possible fertility of the soil 
 or the possible utility of the river and its water- 
 falls. They did not even dream that here lay a 
 little empire richer than Egypt, and holding 
 vaster wealth than any Golconda or Eldorado 
 known to man. But finally there came two men, 
 Hollister and Perrine, who gazed upon this scene 
 with prophetic vision. As they stood upon the 
 heights overlooking this vista of nature's wonder- 
 land they dreamed a dream. They beheld in 
 the immediate future a picture from which all 
 this stern hardness and barrenness, this desola- 
 tion and waste both of land and water has dis- 
 appeared, for in its stead, upon the canvas of the 
 mind, silently and swiftly had stolen the outlines 
 of an Eden of loveliness in which these broad 
 acres blossomed as the rose, and these stupendous 
 waterfalls, harnessed by the ingenuity of man, 
 pumped the life-giving waters throughout the 
 length and breadth of this erstwhile barren 
 valley, and as it did all this it generated light, 
 heat, and power to serve scores of towns and 
 cities which here and there sprang into life and 
 action as if by obedience to some magician's 
 wand. Railways and roads threaded the land- 
 scape as they peered into the vista before them;
 
 The Contrast 93 
 
 and thousands of busy people appeared upon the 
 plains and peopled the towns and cities, and 
 as they toiled bounteous harvests made them 
 happy and glad, and they rejoiced that good 
 angels had led them to this modern land of 
 Canaan. 
 
 It was but a dream, but these dreamers wrought 
 as well as dreamed; and today this valley in their 
 hands has developed into one of the garden spots 
 of the world, in fact, one of the wonders of the 
 world! In every particular and feature their 
 work has exceeded the promise of the pictured 
 loveliness which they beheld that day upon the 
 heights of Shoshone and Twin Falls. These 
 pioneers of industry have wrought more good to 
 humanity than all the missionaries who ever lived, 
 and in time to come they will be hailed as greater 
 heroes than Alexander, Caesar, or Napoleon, 
 for they came to build and to give, while the 
 latter came to destroy and exploit mankind. 
 
 In many other states lie millions of acres of 
 land ready for the plowshare, but no man's hand 
 comes to reclaim it and husband its fruitfulness. 
 In the empire of the great state of Texas alone, 
 bigger than the great empire of Germany and 
 the states of Illinois and Indiana combined, are 
 millions of acres beckoning the hungry wage
 
 94 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 slaves of the cities to come and labor not in vain. 
 And the day is not far distant, in my humble 
 judgment, when this government of ours will 
 awake to its duty to stake these people for a 
 start upon these lands, as the Canadian govern- 
 ment is now doing for every emigrant who needs 
 its aid to build up a home on the uninhabited 
 acres of that great domain. 
 
 Some of our wise men for years have laughed 
 to scorn the idea of government loans upon farm 
 lands, yet at the same time every great life insur- 
 ance company in the land has been putting out 
 its* surplus millions in mortgages on the lands 
 of the farmers. But their terms and time limits 
 have been unfavorable to the borrowers, and our 
 government can obviate this evil just as many 
 of the European countries have done for years. 
 The wage slaves of the cities will desert their 
 slave pens if the government will but lend them 
 a helping hand. Whose government? The answer 
 ought to be, "their government!" The govern- 
 ment has always staked the bankers and the rail- 
 roads, and it is high time that we had a change 
 of the program. Let us have a new beneficiary. 
 Suppose we let the bankers and the rail men 
 paddle their own canoe for awhile and really 
 demonstrate that they have brains enough to
 
 The Contrast 95 
 
 make their enterprises pay without government 
 aid. If they fail in the effort, then let the gov- 
 ernment take over these institutions and enter- 
 prises, as they really ought to do anyhow, as well 
 as all other great natural monopolies and quasi- 
 public enterprises for the protection of the people 
 of the nation, and for the common weal. 
 
 I never know when to stop when I begin to 
 talk about the dollar hogs and the industrial and 
 other evils of our day; but having had my say 
 I will resume, if you like, the story of my life.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE WILD WEST 
 
 When I had passed my eighteenth year I met 
 a man from New York State by the name of 
 Cameron, who owned a lot of timber land in 
 our vicinity. I entered into a contract with him 
 to cut this timber into logs. This was my first 
 business venture. We estimated the timber at 
 three million feet. I immediately bought teams 
 and horses, and hired quite a force of men and 
 Indians and went to work. By the next Spring 
 I had all of the logs in the river and rafted 
 them down to the mill, which I started under 
 another contract with Cameron to saw up all of 
 this timber. This contract I completed within 
 two years, and then sold the mill to Cameron. 
 During this time I had at all times from forty 
 to fifty employes. During the last year of this 
 time I got a contract to build a tug boat, a 
 schooner, and a large steam barge, all of which 
 I built and floated in splendid shape, and felt 
 that I had then learned something not only of 
 lumbering but of ship building as well. I had 
 also accumulated about ten thousand dollars'
 
 The Wild West 97 
 
 worth of property, and had married a very charm- 
 ing young lady in the meantime; but she later 
 proved to be more of a charmer than a lady, 
 as I found to my sorrow. 
 
 In the spring of 1861 I was attacked with a 
 virulent type of what was popularly known as 
 the "Western fever" and speedily succumbed 
 thereto. Two neighboring gentlemen, Wesley 
 Crawford and George Babcock, also fell victims 
 to the same disease. As a result we soon set to 
 work and constructed our own original "prairie 
 schooners." These were made throughout of 
 first-class material, well seasoned and built to 
 endure. The upper part was a perfect little 
 house built of light basswood, or linden, with 
 doors and glass windows, the whole gaudily 
 painted and thoroughly waterproof. It was four- 
 teen feet in length and, set upon strong springs, 
 it made a very light, cozy and comfortable refuge 
 in all kinds of ugly weather. We each bought 
 a team of Canadian Indian horses, the toughest 
 article in horse flesh that ever served human 
 kind, and after laying in all needed supplies, 
 about the middle of the summer, accompanied 
 by our wives, we started on our overland trip to 
 the beautiful West, concerning which we had 
 read so much that life in Michigan seemed dull
 
 98 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 and commonplace beside it, and scarcely worth 
 the living. 
 
 When I said "overland trip," I did so advis- 
 edly, for there was no other available way at 
 that particular time. There were no railroads 
 traversing the great Western plains and across 
 the mountains into the land of golden California 
 at that period of our history. Flying machines 
 had not even been dreamed of so far as I know, 
 and we would have welcomed even a trail when 
 we got to the real "wild and woolly" part of 
 this great journey. For the greater part of the 
 journey it was indeed a trackless and unbeaten 
 way, with the compass and the streams as our 
 only guides. Bridges were an absent convenience, 
 and a good fording place was all that we ever 
 hoped to find; but our hopes were usually des- 
 tined to disappointment. 
 
 After crossing the Mississippi on a flatboat 
 and reaching the northern part of Kansas we 
 rarely saw a human being, and the few we met 
 did not hold out pleasant prospects to us when 
 they learned that our destination was the mining 
 camp called Denver. The savage Indians of the 
 plains, we were told, were masters of all the 
 country we were to traverse, and likely to anni- 
 hilate us any fine evening they might fall upon
 
 The Wild West 99 
 
 us. Their favorite hours of activity were those 
 known as the dreamland hours, in which the 
 tomahawk and the scalping knife played a prom- 
 inent part. It was not a pleasant thing to con- 
 template, and the fact is we didn't stop to 
 ruminate; we just pushed boldly on, ready and 
 willing to take our chances. Every day we 
 found changing scenes and new experiences in 
 abundance. 
 
 But before we get deep into these experiences 
 let us take a look at the earlier stages of our 
 route. 
 
 We traveled via Saginaw, Lansing, Niles, Val- 
 paraiso, Indiana, Blue Island, Chicago, Wil- 
 mington, Streator to Quincy on the banks of the 
 Mississippi the Father of Waters, which the 
 genius of man at that hour had not bridged. 
 
 Let us pause, however, for a short while and 
 recall the passage of our caravan through Chi- 
 cago, which was not yet the metropolis of the 
 West. 
 
 We came into Chicago on the Blue Island 
 road, then a mere trail through the wet, swampy 
 country. Chicago at that time extended south 
 no further than Lake Street. This street ran west 
 to the river, and an old scow carried one across 
 to the west side of the river, where the street
 
 100 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 continued for some distance. Wabash and Mich- 
 igan Avenues were virtually nothing but sand 
 roads. There were a few houses around Fort 
 Dearborn, an old log fort at Rush Street and 
 the river. On the north side of the river at 
 Rush Street there was a boarding house kept by 
 a man by the name of Kinzie, and along the 
 Lake and Chicago River north of the Kinzie 
 home there were a lot of shanties of persons 
 chiefly engaged in fishing. There were no streets 
 on the north side of the river at that time. 
 
 On each side of River Street there were a few 
 buildings. Near Rush there were several small 
 stores and boarding houses. On the east end of 
 what is now known as Water Street there was 
 a lumber yard on the north side of the street, 
 and on the south side of the street there were 
 some small stores and offices. There were no 
 docks or wharves, and no bridges ; there was only 
 an old flatboat which was pushed across the 
 river with poles. There was about as much 
 of a town on the west side of the river as on the 
 east side. Canal and Lake Streets had a shanty 
 town appearance. The trade was mostly a schooner 
 trade in lumber from the lakes. There were a 
 few plank sidewalks in front of business buildings, 
 but the streets were pure sand and dirt.
 
 The Wild West 101 
 
 At the river just east of where State Street is 
 now, there was a sort of an old freight depot 
 where the canal boats plying to and from St. 
 Louis loaded and unloaded. This was the nearest 
 approach to a dock. 
 
 Chicago was a most unpromising prospect, and 
 we tarried there only about twenty-four hours, 
 staying in the city over night, however. We 
 were obliged to retrace the road to Blue Island 
 to get out of the place and on our road to 
 Wilmington, and thence to Quincy by the route 
 before stated. If there were any Leiters, Gages, 
 Fields, Pullmans, Armours, Cudahys, Palmers, 
 or other millionaries in Chicago at that time 
 they were mighty small potatoes, and no palaces 
 of brick, stone, or Italian marble betokened their 
 presence to the wandering stranger from abroad. 
 From what we knew of them later they were all 
 at this time clerks on peanut salaries. Their 
 wealth was amassed after the Chicago fire, which 
 catastrophe, we are informed, played an import- 
 ant part, a fact not hitherto generally known, or 
 at least not widely circulated. 
 
 Kankakee was at that time three times as large 
 as Chicago. In fact, all of the cities of Illinois 
 that we passed through were small towns. Wil- 
 mington had a population of nearly three hun-
 
 102 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 dred; Streator about fifty to sixty, and Quincy 
 nearly five hundred. A wild prairie extended 
 from Streator to Quincy. From there we crossed 
 over the Mississippi into Missouri. Macon was 
 a town of fifty inhabitants. St. Joseph on the 
 Missouri River, contained about five hundred. 
 There was a freight route overland from there 
 to Salt Lake City. There was also another route 
 farther north from Council Bluffs ; but both took 
 the Platte River finally as their guide farther 
 West. At that time St. Joseph was ihe jumping- 
 off place of civilization, and was the frontier 
 town of the West. There was no cattle herding 
 beyond this place, and none west of the Mis- 
 souri River, on which it was located. We saw a 
 small herd of Indian ponies, called "calico horses" 
 because they were all spotted, west of the Solo- 
 mon River, and they were as wild as deer. 
 
 The only white people we saw west of St. 
 Joseph were at what is now known as the city 
 of Marysville, Kansas; at that time it was only 
 a spot on the prairie. An old man had squatted 
 there and cut some prairie hay. We bought some 
 of it for our horses, our supply having been 
 exhausted just before we reached that point. 
 Here we found two other families westward 
 bound who were stranded there with their prairie
 
 The Wild West 103 
 
 schooners. They had killed some buffalo and 
 stretched and dried their hides, with which they 
 had covered some shack houses they had erected 
 for temporary homes. It was a desolate looking 
 sight, and we did not tarry long with these deni- 
 zens of the plains. 
 
 Pushing ahead we soon reached the forks of 
 the Blue River not many miles west of Marys- 
 ville, and just before we reached this junction 
 of rivers we ran into the buffalo and killed our 
 first specimen. We greatly enjoyed our first taste 
 of buffalo steaks and roasts. After leaving 
 Marysville we did not see a white face for more 
 than six hundred miles. Some forty miles west 
 of the forks of the Blue River we came to the 
 Republican River, a very large stream, which we 
 crossed. Here we found one of the most singular 
 wonders of the world a mound of pure white 
 chalk fully three hundred feet long, one hundred 
 and fifty feet wide, and the same in height, which 
 lay on the very top of a steep alkali ridge. This 
 marvelous natural monument could be seen on 
 the naked prairie for miles around, and was 
 much used by the Indians as a sentinel rock. 
 Later it was cut into blocks by settlers and used 
 in building houses, much as blocks of terra cotta 
 are used.
 
 104 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 From this elevation we saw one of the most 
 wonderful sights that the eye of man ever beheld. 
 Scattered over thousands of acres for miles 
 around, as far as the eye could see to the west- 
 ward, we beheld the greatest herd of buffalo 
 which probably ever existed in the history of 
 the world. The Indians estimated their number 
 at three million head, and the plains were black 
 with them. Here the animals came to the river 
 for drink, and the places where they entered the 
 river were called "buffalo wallows." These were 
 at least three hundred feet wide, and half a mile 
 long. All about these wallows were lying hun- 
 dreds of car loads of bones, being the skeletons of 
 buffalo which had floundered in the mud and 
 died there. 
 
 At this spot we came into contact with two 
 Indian tribes, the first we encountered on the 
 trip. They were living on the buffalo herd, and 
 following them as they shifted from the Dakotas 
 to the Indian Territory, or "Indian Nation" as 
 it was called at that time. 
 
 These tribes were fighting each other for the 
 ownership and control of this great herd of 
 buffalo. They were the first real "cattle kings" 
 of the plains. They were on the scene long before 
 the more cowardly and cunning Armours, Swifts,
 
 The Wild West 105 
 
 Cudahys, Morrises, and Valentines had got into 
 the game, and long before the "Texas steer" 
 came into prominence. 
 
 When we saw the smoke of the Indian village 
 on the horizon, and knew to a certainty that it 
 was indeed an Indian village, we thought we 
 had surely met our doom, owing to what we had 
 heard from the denizens of St. Joseph and that 
 vicinity of the hostile character of the Indians 
 of the West. But we knew something of Indian 
 character and habits; so drove straight into their 
 village without a halt after we had started, and 
 into the very midst of their tepees, where we 
 saw only squaws and children. We learned 
 afterward that the braves had seen our flashily 
 painted red wagons miles away, and, not knowing 
 the character of our invasion, nor our numbers 
 and strength, had fled to the tall reed grasses 
 and there secreted themselves until they were fully 
 advised on these matters by the squaws, who crept 
 out to them after we came into camp. 
 
 Crawford and Babcock could speak the Indian 
 language very fluently, and I knew quite a smat- 
 tering of it myself, so they immediately saluted 
 the squaw contingent, and asked them where 
 their husbands were, thereby greatly surprising 
 them. The Indian ladies craftily replied that
 
 106 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 they had gone out to bring in buffalo, which was 
 a fabrication made out of whole cloth. As it 
 was then evening we unhitched our horses and 
 turned our wagons around so that they formed a 
 triangle, with the horses inside the triangle, as 
 we always did at night for safety. We could 
 not afford to take any chances of our horses being 
 stolen or straying away, for we could not in that 
 country replace the loss of a single one. 
 
 The squaws at this juncture, perceiving that we 
 intended camping there for the night, unknown 
 to us dispatched some of their number to the 
 hiding places of the braves, who thereupon came 
 stealing into camp one by one, until there were 
 more than three hundred of them in the village. 
 As the first one came in Crawford talked to him, 
 and told him that we had come from Michigan 
 and knew all of the big chiefs of that country, 
 Pokhagon, Dutton and Kayak, and that we were 
 friends on our way to the mining camp of Denver. 
 They were much pleased to have news from their 
 kindred in Michigan, and, in fact, were so 
 friendly that we tarried with them two days. 
 They offered us buffalo meat and such supplies 
 as they had; but as we had killed a buffalo our- 
 selves just before sighting their camp, we were 
 well supplied. This fact we proved to them in
 
 The Wild West 107 
 
 order that they might thoroughly understand that 
 we were not in need of their hospitality, and that 
 our declination of help was due to that fact 
 alone. All were so interested the first night 
 of our stay with them, that we remained up 
 nearly all night, talking and smoking around an 
 enormous campfire. 
 
 They were greatly interested in inspecting our 
 rifles, which were of the latest pattern (the Henry 
 rifle), the only magazine gun made in that day. 
 The guns held eight cartridges, and cost us a 
 hundred dollars apiece. The Indians marveled 
 at this capacity for repeated action. They also 
 examined our wagons minutely and with the 
 deepest curiosity manifest in their manner and 
 countenances, for they had never seen any wagons 
 of that particular style or construction. 
 
 On the morning of the third day, after bidding 
 our hosts a friendly farewell, we proceeded on 
 our journey, and after two days' travel to the 
 westward struck the Solomon River, a very large 
 and beautiful stream in those days. Here we 
 encountered the other tribe of Indians who were 
 fighting for the supremacy over this great herd 
 of buffalo. They were as much surprised at our 
 appearance on the scene as the first tribe had 
 been on seeing our gaudy wagons approaching
 
 108 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 their rendezvous. Their braves likewise hid in 
 the sage brush along the flats of the river, but 
 emerged when we made friendly overtures, and 
 were particularly cordial when they learned of 
 our peaceful mission. They took much interest 
 in our welfare, and we stayed with them for 
 two days, during which time we obtained much 
 valuable information. 
 
 We especially wished to know how to cross 
 the Solomon River, and the route which we 
 should take and follow after crossing in order 
 to strike the Platte River at the proper point to 
 reach Denver by the shortest route. We took 
 a piece of rough paper and made a general out- 
 line, explaining our wishes; and these Indians 
 marked out very accurately the desired route and 
 fords. Afterward we found them correct in 
 every particular, and had no trouble in keeping 
 the route. 
 
 At this period we had used up all of the prairie 
 hay we had bought from the old squatter at 
 Marysville, and were now obliged to stop each 
 evening before sundown and unhitch our horses, 
 in order to let them graze on the buffalo grass, 
 which at that time was already bitten by the frost. 
 We still had some corn, but horses cannot live 
 on corn alone and prosper.
 
 The Wild West 109 
 
 I have spoken of fording the rivers all along 
 the route, the largest in the West, but did not 
 describe the process by which we accomplished 
 that difficult and dangerous feat. 
 
 On approaching a river we would unhitch the 
 horses and ride up and down the banks until 
 we selected what appeared to be the most favor- 
 able place for our ford, and then we would ride 
 our horses into the stream and try out the situa- 
 tion before attempting to make it with our 
 wagons. When we had found a spot which 
 proved satisfactory to our ideas of safety, we 
 would recross the river and, while resting our 
 horses, prepare for the fording of the stream. 
 We first cut down good-sized saplings, from 
 which we made poles nearly six inches in diam- 
 eter and about fifteen feet long. These we tied 
 one on each side of our wagons, making them 
 fast to the wheels near the hub and axle. These 
 logs would help float the wagons, and kept them 
 headed straight as well, because the running gears 
 couldn't veer around as they do on land. 
 
 We also cut smaller poles and tied them on 
 either side of the horses, much after the style 
 of shafts on buggies. These prevented the horses 
 from breaking loose and being swept away by 
 the swift currents. After all this had been done
 
 110 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 to our satisfaction, we would hitch up the horses 
 and push carefully across to the other shore. We 
 did not lose a horse, nor have a mishap at any of 
 these fordings. Think of our ladies sitting in 
 these wagons through such a thrilling experience, 
 and then reflect upon the courage of womankind, 
 and especially the pioneer women of America! 
 The world can boast of none to match them. 
 
 But there were other experiences to face which 
 w r ere more difficult to solve than the fording of 
 streams when we reached the mountainous country 
 in the midst of winter. We often came to big 
 gulches which were surrounded on either side 
 by steep alkali ridges. On one side or the other 
 snow had always slipped off into the gulch below, 
 leaving a slippery declivity which could not be 
 negotiated by the usual mode of travel. In such 
 cases we were obliged to fasten a rope to a 
 wagon, and after passing the rope around a tree 
 for a pulley, we would descend into the gulch 
 below and let the wagon follow at whatever speed 
 we desired until the bottom was reached. When 
 we wished to get it up the other side of the 
 gulch and over the alkali ridge, we would pass 
 the rope around some tree at the top of the ridge 
 and, with aid of the horses, pull the wagon up. 
 During our entire trip, which extended to the
 
 The Wild West 111 
 
 Rio Grande River and back home again, we did 
 not have a serious mishap with our wagons, and, 
 almost incredible to relate, not a single pane of 
 glass was broken. 
 
 In crossing the plains we encountered deer, 
 elk, and antelope quite frequently, and we could 
 on such occasions see from fifteen to forty of these 
 creatures flocking and feeding together. We 
 always found them along the streams where there 
 were good grass and browse for them to feed 
 upon. Prairie wolves and coyotes were so numer- 
 ous that almost every night, judging from the 
 noise they made, one would think that our horses 
 would surely be devoured; but they were always 
 inside the little triangular wagon corral, and were 
 perfectly safe. 
 
 We had a big yellow dog with us, whose name 
 was "Jack": he was a mixture of two famous 
 breeds, Newfoundland and bulldog; a strange 
 combination indeed, but lacking nothing in cour- 
 age and fighting propensity. Jack was brave 
 and irrepressible, and was never defeated nor 
 scared off on but one occasion. One day he saw 
 a big prairie wolf sitting on the brow of a high 
 ridge, and at once dashed at him with great 
 speed; but the wolf never moved a muscle until 
 Jack attacked him. The conflict was very brief.
 
 112 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 There was just one round, and Jack came flying 
 back to the wagons entirely minus his fighting 
 spirit. The long, sharp teeth and slashing cuts 
 of Mr. Wolf had satisfied him in short order; 
 he had more than a plenty. But Jack never de- 
 serted his post of duty under the wagons. When 
 they attacked him there he held the fort and 
 never was defeated. They could not get in his 
 rear there, and when he could have a square face- 
 to-face fight, he more than held his own, for he 
 was an enormous fellow and a vicious fighter. 
 By the time Jack had finished the trip with us 
 his hide was well marked by the scars of many a 
 well-fought battle with all manner of Western 
 denizens. 
 
 Grouse, partridges, quail, and prairie chickens 
 abounded in great numbers; the three former 
 always along timbered streams, and prairie chick- 
 ens in the open. We always managed to get our 
 share of them. They were certainly delicious 
 eating, and the hunting of them whiled away 
 the tedium of many an hour. 
 
 Rattlesnakes, owls, and prairie dogs were very 
 common acquaintances, and so friendly, agree- 
 able, and compatible in disposition that very often 
 we found them occupying the same hole in the 
 ground.
 
 The Wild West 113 
 
 Villages of prairie dogs were often seen which 
 covered enormous expanses of territory, and were 
 inhabited by millions of residents. They were 
 the founders of the first metropolitan cities of 
 the West; at least the only cities that could boast 
 of their millions of inhabitants. 
 
 At the time we reached Denver, it was a small 
 mining camp of not more than twenty-five people, 
 all miners. There was not a woman in the 
 camp. There were no buildings but "dug-outs" 
 and "shacks," and everybody was engaged in gold 
 mining with the pick and shovel. The miners 
 were much surprised at our arrival, but more 
 surprised that we should bring our wives on such 
 a trip. The little mining camp surely gave no 
 promise of becoming the greatest inland mountain 
 city of the world. It was, however, most beauti- 
 fully situated on a splendid plateau, and Pike's 
 Peak, towering over all, loomed up like a grand 
 sentinel in the cloudy distance. The sunrise and 
 sunset were the most magnificent I had ever 
 seen. 
 
 We stayed there only two days, and then moved 
 on toward Canyon City, about a hundred miles 
 to the southward. We passed through a rolling 
 broken country covered with hazel and sage 
 brush, which presented no charms to induce us
 
 114 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 to tarry by the way. As we neared Canyon City 
 the cactus was everywhere in evidence. Canyon 
 City was also a mining camp of about forty or 
 fifty people, and conditions were much like those 
 in Denver. There were, however, seven or eight 
 ladies resident there. About half the population 
 was Mexican, the first we had seen on the trip. 
 
 This little mining camp had no attractions save 
 for those intoxicated with the "gold fever," so 
 we remained there only a couple of days, and 
 then proceeded down a tributary of the Rio 
 Grande to the Llano Estacado, or "Staked 
 Plains," passing through a part of the Indian 
 Territory and on into the state of Texas; but at 
 that time we had no exact knowledge of state or 
 territorial lines. That we learned later. We 
 traveled through the Staked Plains for fully three 
 hundred miles. On the way down we saw several 
 scattered bands of Indians and Mexicans, of 
 which we will speak later on. 
 
 This part of the trip southward was the most 
 arduous of the entire journey. The levels of land 
 were constantly changing and lowering, and we 
 would travel apparently only a few miles on a 
 continuous level, when we would come to an 
 abrupt break or declivity of perhaps a hundred 
 feet. Then we would have to search around for
 
 The Wild West 115 
 
 a gully which would let us down to the next 
 level. This usually caused us to retrace our 
 way over quite a bit of ground, until we could 
 get into the head of the gully and on the down 
 grade. This performance was kept up for three 
 hundred miles, until we struck the Staked Plains. 
 
 This journey, however, was enlivened by the 
 presence of splendid hunting and plenty of game. 
 Mountain lions, wolves, deer, antelope, wild tur- 
 keys and grouse were abundant, and we feasted 
 like kings on the best that nature affords, and 
 had plenty of excitement as well. The first 
 mountain lion we ran across was lying spread 
 out upon a big limb of a giant oak tree, which 
 stood on the summit of a rocky hill. A shot from 
 my rifle dropped him to the ground, where Jack 
 soon finished him; but he did not have much 
 of a job, for the rifle ball had penetrated the 
 lion's brain and made any intelligent action on 
 his part impossible. His struggling and clawing 
 were all spasmodic. He was a magnificent speci- 
 men of his kind, and I soon had his hide stretched 
 and drying on one side of my wagon. Then we 
 journeyed on. 
 
 We saw some of the finest country it had ever 
 been our pleasure to look upon in the "Staked 
 Plain," but it was devoid of water, except for
 
 116 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 "gyp springs," which appeared at long intervals. 
 Some of these springs were from four to ten 
 rods across, and miry and swampy in character, 
 with the water just oozing out of the ground. 
 The entire surface covered by a spring would be 
 literally filled with the bones of buffalo and other 
 animals, which had come there in great numbers 
 for drink and, being weak from long travel and 
 thirst, had got into the mire and were too weak 
 to get out. At others there were great "buffalo 
 wallows." 
 
 While passing through this dry country our 
 wagon tires became so loose that they began to 
 roll off of their own accord, and we were obliged 
 to do a little blacksmithing without the con- 
 venience of shop or forge, coal, coke or wood. 
 It was quite a problem to solve, but we finally 
 figured it out without any of these supposed 
 necessities. We tacked thin strips of seasoned 
 wood we had in our wagons all around the fel- 
 loes of the wheel, thus enlarging them slightly. 
 Then gathering up an enormous pile of "buffalo 
 chips" from the plains, we set fire to them, and 
 piled the wagon tires on top of them and soon 
 had them red hot. Then we slipped them on 
 the enlarged felloes and, pouring water over 
 them, soon had them shrunk until they were as
 
 The Wild West 117 
 
 tight as when we first started on our trip. Thus 
 you see necessity is ever the mother of invention. 
 
 Then we emerged into the prairie country of 
 Texas, afterward to become famous as the home 
 preserve of the "Texas steer," who made many a 
 lazy lout a millionaire, and all of the rich quick 
 Chicago packers, who stole the profits of the 
 entire business after the cattle reached their pens. 
 
 On these prairies we saw deer, antelope, and 
 buffalo, but not so many of the latter as we had 
 seen in northern Kansas. We killed and ate all 
 that we needed. 
 
 We ran across many stray bands of Indians 
 in this country, and they were a nasty, wolfish 
 looking and acting lot of humanity. They were 
 always stopping to beg supplies from us, but 
 never disturbed us in any way. In fact, they had 
 more of the characteristics of the hyena. None 
 of them could understand the language of the 
 northern tribes with which we were familiar. 
 All they could do was to grunt and point toward 
 what they wanted. 
 
 These prairies were alive with game birds, 
 wild turkeys, grouse, prairie chickens, and plover; 
 and we did not want for the choicest sport, and 
 feasted upon the finest game birds that ever 
 tempted the appetite of man.
 
 118 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 The pasture was abundant here, and our horses 
 kept in splendid condition, although we had run 
 out of grain some time before. We had arrived 
 in Denver the latter part of February, and 
 reached the Staked Plains about a month later, 
 consequently when we struck the grazing prairies 
 in northern Texas and Indian Territory, the 
 spring was well advanced, and nature had already 
 clothed everything in the brightest green. It 
 was a beautiful country, and we thoroughly en- 
 joyed our passage through it. Along the streams 
 timber now began to appear, and it began to 
 look more homelike to natives of the Wolverine 
 State. After one has passed through hundreds 
 of miles of Staked Plains trees are a welcome 
 sight 
 
 When we reached a point which we supposed 
 was the center of the Indian Territory, or "Na- 
 tion," as it was called then, we made the ac- 
 quaintance again of white men, cowboys herding 
 small herds of four or five hundred steers each. 
 They were friendly and cordial, offering us the 
 beef and other supplies we needed. 
 
 The steers in these herds were very wild and 
 vicious, and would circle about us for four or 
 five miles. They took umbrage at our red 
 wagons, and often attacked our horses, and would
 
 The Wild West 119 
 
 almost get up nerve enough to charge our wagons. 
 The dog took good care to stay discreetly under 
 one of the wagons, for he was wise enough to 
 know that they would soon impale him with 
 their long horns and trample him under foot 
 Bands of these steers would sometimes follow us 
 for miles with the most hostile intentions and 
 demonstrations. We would often shoot over their 
 heads to scare them away, especially when they 
 drew too near our horses. Fortunately we were 
 not compelled to kill any of them, but such an 
 alternative seemed desperately near at times. 
 
 From this point northward we frequently ran 
 across herders and other evidences of the presence 
 of white men; but none of us even dreamed of 
 the wonderful development which has in recent 
 years taken place throughout this country, now 
 known as the state of Oklahoma, one of the 
 richest and best governed in the Union. 
 
 We came through southeastern Kansas, and 
 here ran across a few settlers living in "dug-out" 
 houses. They were righting a brave battle against 
 adverse conditions of the most gigantic propor- 
 tions, among which might be mentioned lack of 
 transportation and markets. We passed through 
 Fort Scott, Kansas, which at that time was a 
 small village with a government post located
 
 120 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 upon a high hill. It did not look much like the 
 city of today. It was a real frontier town at 
 that time, a very outpost of civilization. 
 
 From there we traveled directly to Kansas 
 City, and passed through sections where there 
 were a number of settlers. At that time Kansas 
 City was only a small steamboat landing. I do 
 not think there were over one hundred people in 
 the village. It was a dirty looking prospect, and 
 we tarried there only one night. It is needless to 
 say that it did not resemble the present city in any 
 respect. We pushed on northward into the ex- 
 treme northeastern part of the state of Kansas, 
 and in making this detour passed through the 
 site of Marysville again, or what there was of 
 it at that time. It had not changed much since 
 our first visit. It could now boast of one small 
 trading store, and a few miserable shacks, and 
 there were signs of trails leading to and from the 
 place. 
 
 Here we witnessed the summary trial and exe- 
 cution of an emigrant bound for the Far West in 
 a big prairie schooner. This was our first view 
 of Western justice, and the system of home-made 
 jurisprudence then in vogue on the plains. It 
 was also our last, for which we were truly thank- 
 ful. There was no grand jury, prosecuting attor-
 
 The Wild West 121 
 
 ney, judge, sheriff, clerk, or bailiff, and there were 
 no lawyers, and, in fact, none of the hitherto 
 supposed absolutely necessary court functionaries 
 and personages; but there were action and pro- 
 cedure of the most vigorous sort, and they arrived 
 at speedy results. 
 
 They gave the accused a chance for his life, 
 although it can hardly be said that the jury which 
 tried him would have passed the usual scrutiny 
 or examination; and I am afraid that all of them 
 would have been disqualified from service if they 
 had been questioned closely as to their knowledge 
 of the case and the purported facts, as well as 
 their prejudice and bias against the accused 
 and their ability to give him a fair and impartial 
 trial after having all the information at first 
 hand just a few moments before they were im- 
 paneled in the jury box. I am afraid they would 
 all have been disqualified if they had been in- 
 terrogated on the question as to whether they 
 had formed an opinion as to the guilt or inno- 
 cence of the accused, for it was very manifest 
 that they had formed an opinion very adverse 
 to him, and one which would not give way very 
 readily to any evidence in his favor. 
 
 But none of these supposed safeguards to 
 liberty and justice seemed to trouble these jurors
 
 122 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 in the least. They dispensed with them appar- 
 ently without any qualms of conscience what- 
 ever, as well as that other one which guarantees 
 in most jurisdictions that an accused person shall 
 always have the right to counsel, even though he 
 be a pauper. 
 
 While it had its shortcomings in these re- 
 spects, I surmise it might have been contended 
 by its inventors and advocates that it had good 
 features which more than compensated for these 
 deficiencies, among which might be mentioned 
 speed, certainty, and finality, for there was no 
 appeal from their verdict (their system of juris- 
 prudence did not admit fallibility), hence no 
 court of errors or appeals had any business re- 
 viewing their proceedings. Their decisions were 
 supreme, and no earthly body could ever tamper 
 with or reverse them. If they occasionally hung 
 the wrong man by being a little too hasty, they 
 caught the guilty man as soon as possible and 
 hung him, too, and thus doubly protected the 
 community by allowing no suspects to escape the 
 full penalty of the guilty. 
 
 In other words, every suspect was presumed to 
 be guilty until he proved himself to be inno- 
 cent, and he was given about thirty minutes in 
 which to produce all necessary witnesses, and no
 
 The Wild West 123 
 
 process of the court aided him in producing them. 
 Preparation for trial was limited to precious few 
 moments, and in this respect they argued, no 
 doubt, that the commonwealth was equally handi- 
 capped in the absence of any necessary witnesses 
 in its behalf. But the truth of the matter was 
 that suspicion filled in all of the gaps and places 
 barren of evidence on the part of the state in 
 cases of this kind, and everything was indulged 
 in the way of presumptions in favor of the state. 
 
 We arrived just as they were voluntarily mak- 
 ing up the jury, every man self-appointed to the 
 service. I volunteered to defend the poor emi- 
 grant, who had neither counsel nor friends, having 
 been halted in his progress less than half an hour 
 before by the "vigilance committee" (which was 
 now to sit as jurors in his case) while he was 
 making some purchases in the little store which 
 had sprung up since we had passed through almost 
 two years before. Settlers too had squatted in 
 surprising numbers all about the hamlet during 
 the intervening months. 
 
 No objection was made to my effort to aid the 
 poor emigrant in his fight for liberty. It was 
 purely an uphill effort to prove his innocence, 
 rather than an effort to prove his guilt, for the 
 presumption was against him from the outset.
 
 124 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 Notwithstanding my efforts to have matters move 
 along with a modicum of regularity as to pro- 
 cedure, I was promptly overruled by the entire 
 jury, who proceeded, over my objections, to place 
 my client on the stand and question him regarding 
 his guilt or innocence, or any other fact which 
 suggested itself to their fancy or curiosity. He 
 was so frightened that his speech was at times 
 incoherent. It was a dreadful spectacle, and 
 the only saving feature was the fact that it was 
 speedily over, and the verdict carried out. 
 
 The testimony developed that while the emi- 
 grant had gone into the store to make purchases 
 of supplies, the loafers standing in front of the 
 store had lifted up the rear curtain of his big 
 bowed schooner and found the corpse of a young 
 man lying beneath blankets. He had apparently 
 been dead for two or three days and decomposi- 
 tion had already set in. This state of affairs had 
 resulted in our emigrant being called immediately 
 upon the carpet, and taken into custody, charged 
 with his murder. No evidence of violence was 
 visible upon his person, and the accused emigrant 
 claimed that he had died suddenly in the night 
 presumably of heart disease, and strenuously 
 denied his guilt of having any part in his friend's 
 sudden demise. Questioned closely as to why he
 
 The Wild West 125 
 
 had not buried his partner, he stated that he had 
 carried the body with him in the hope of striking 
 some little settlement where he could give him 
 a decent burial, and mark the spot for his rela- 
 tives. He stated that he had intended upon 
 coming out of the store, after having taken a 
 glance about the settlement, to announce the 
 death of his partner and ask the aid of the men 
 standing about to bury his friend, but their pry- 
 ing curiosity had prevented this in the manner 
 already related. Thus, perhaps ten minutes of 
 indecision and a mere error of judgment as to 
 the most opportune time to make this announce- 
 ment, cost the poor emigrant his life, for his 
 statement as to his intention to disclose the facts 
 was disbelieved. 
 
 After a brief argument by me in his behalf, 
 in which I did my best to rally the spirit of 
 the old constitutional safeguards of liberty and 
 justice in his behalf, I impressed upon the 
 jury the insufficiency of the evidence to convict, 
 and the fact that the conclusion of guilt was not 
 the only one that might reasonably be drawn from 
 the evidence before them and that it was their 
 bounden duty, although unsworn, to give him the 
 benefit of every reasonable doubt, I laid stress 
 upon the fact that it was the gravest matter
 
 126 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 which could ever confront a body of citizens of 
 this great republic, and the results of a mistake 
 in judgment would be most terrible to contem- 
 plate, since there was only circumstantial evi- 
 dence of the poorest sort to dispute the story of 
 the poor emigrant. I closed with as good a 
 burst of eloquence and as much of a peroration 
 as I was capable of, and the jury deliberated in 
 their seats on the rude store benches. He was 
 adjudged guilty of premeditated murder in the 
 first degree, and sentenced to immediate execu- 
 tion, at their hands, by hanging by the neck 
 until he was dead. Thus they became his ac- 
 cusers, judges, and executioners, a trinity of duties 
 seldom combined in any well regulated court of 
 justice. 
 
 He was immediately prepared for his exit from 
 this sphere of activity, his boots and coat being 
 removed, and his hands tied behind him with a 
 small rope. Then he was given about five minutes 
 in which to address a prayer to his God, of which 
 he took full privilege; and I am certain that the 
 great Father of all heard his fervent petition. 
 After its close he was asked if he had anything 
 to say before the sentence was carried out. 
 
 He made a brief statement as to his name and 
 place of residence in Ohio, all of the salient
 
 The Wild West 127 
 
 facts regarding his early boyhood and young man- 
 hood, and that of his partner, who had been his 
 boyhood chum and schoolmate. Then, after re- 
 iterating his absolute innocence of the crime of 
 which he had been so summarily and hastily 
 convicted, he charged me with the duty of bury- 
 ing his body, and transmitting the manner of 
 his end to his relatives in Ohio, as well as that 
 of his partner; a duty which I carried out some 
 months later after my return to my home in 
 Michigan. He then thanked me for my kind- 
 ness, as he was pleased to term it, in trying 
 to aid him to establish his innocence, and then 
 told his executioners that he was ready to meet 
 his God. 
 
 A rope, with the customary noose, was quickly 
 adjusted around his neck, and the loose end 
 thrown over the limb of a nearby tree; and this 
 being immediately seized by his executioners, 
 he was swiftly hoisted above ground, and in five 
 minutes' time he was pronounced dead by the 
 jury. 
 
 His body was then let down and, with the 
 assistance of the jury, I buried him beneath the 
 Kansas sod, upon which grew the flowers of 
 springtime. I wrapped him in an American 
 flag and some blankets, both of which I found in
 
 128 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 his prairie schooner. Thus by the decree of his 
 peers this innocent young settler was in this 
 dreadful manner deprived of his life. His name 
 I shall never reveal for the sake of his family 
 and friends in Ohio, some of whom are yet living 
 in that great commonwealth. 
 
 We then buried his partner in a grave not 
 ten feet distant, and thus their bodies will re- 
 pose side by side in the soil of Kansas until 
 the judgment day. 
 
 The mementoes and keepsakes which he had 
 consigned to my care I took with me, and after- 
 ward placed in the hands of his white-haired, 
 sorrowing old mother in Ohio. His other prop- 
 erty I left in the hands of the storekeeper at 
 Marysville, to be disposed of in accordance with 
 whatever orders might be received from his rela- 
 tives in Ohio. 
 
 We did not tarry long at Marysville, being 
 anxious to leave the scene of such a heart-rending 
 tragedy as far behind as possible. Our entire 
 stop here did not last more than a half-day. I 
 have often wondered what was the moral develop- 
 ment of that community, and just how such people 
 had prospered or otherwise. In the country in 
 which I was reared grave doubts would have 
 arisen concerning their capacity for anything
 
 Streeter Repairing the "Reutan"
 
 The Wild West 129 
 
 good, or the appreciation thereof. It was strange 
 material out of which to build a new com- 
 munity, and I would certainly ask to be excused 
 from living among them. I never had any 
 yearning to revisit their locality; but I will con- 
 fess, however, that recently I have had a sneaking 
 inclination to shunt all of the dollar hog outlaws 
 into such a locality. I believe there they would be 
 given their full deserts without the quiver of an 
 eyelash ; and you may rest assured there would be 
 no changes of venue, no appeals, and no stays of 
 execution or judgment. 
 
 We now proceeded northeastward through the 
 prairie country and into the state of Iowa, which 
 we found being settled quite rapidly. However, 
 the greater portion of it was yet unoccupied 
 prairie lands, where game and wild fowl were 
 abundant on every hand. 
 
 We stopped at Des Moines, which was quite 
 a pretty little city at that time, located on the 
 river of the same name. From there we moved 
 on down this river until we reached Ottumwa, 
 another healthy little town which gave promise 
 of improvement. From this place we took a 
 nearly direct course through the prairie to Bur- 
 lington on the Mississippi River. This was a 
 thriving river town. Here we crossed the river
 
 130 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 on a flatboat, and took a direct route for Peoria, 
 a rather prosperous small town in the great 
 prairie of central Illinois, situated on the Illinois 
 River. 
 
 From this point we traveled through the prairie 
 eastward to Kankakee, on the eastern border of 
 the state. We then crossed over into Indiana, 
 on the north side of the Kankakee River and 
 its great impassable swamp, and pursued our 
 way to South Bend, Indiana, a beautiful little city 
 in the rich St. Joseph Valley. From there we 
 crossed shortly into our native state, heading 
 for Three Rivers, Michigan. From there we pro- 
 ceeded to Jackson, thence to Lansing, to Owosso, 
 and ended our journey at Montrose, which we 
 had left in the month of June, 1860. It was 
 now the month of August in the following year.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 WAR EXPERIENCES 
 
 After a short rest at the old homestead, I 
 was importuned to enter into another contract 
 to cut and saw into lumber about two and a 
 half million feet of virgin pine; and early in 
 the fall started the initial work of dredging out 
 about three miles of a creek which I intended 
 to use for rafting purposes. 
 
 When I departed on my trip to the west the 
 country was much stirred up over the possibility of 
 the election of President Lincoln. There was some 
 talk of an uprising in the South, but nobody 
 believed it would materialize, and even if it did 
 we thought it would be of short duration. I 
 did not pay much attention to it, for my mind 
 was so taken up with plans for this trip, and 
 my anxiety to see this virgin country was so 
 keen, that it overshadowed everything else. 
 
 We did not hear a single word of the con- 
 flict during our trip until we reached Fort Scott, 
 Kansas, on the last stage of the journey, for we
 
 132 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 were entirely out of touch with civilization from 
 the time we left St. Joseph in Missouri until we 
 reached Fort Scott, where we heard that Fort 
 Sumter had been fired upon and that a conflict 
 was inevitable. From that point on we obtained 
 additional bits of news at every town we passed 
 through, and realized that a sanguinary struggle 
 was on hand, and that the nation and its great 
 executive had a stupendous task before them. 
 
 While engaged in cleaning out this stream, 
 preparatory to the logging operations just men- 
 tioned, I was drafted for service in the Union 
 Army, together with a friend of mine, Seymour 
 W. Ensign, at that time town clerk of the little 
 village of Montrose. 
 
 After bidding adieu to all my relatives and 
 friends, and turning over my timber contract 
 to my father and one of my brothers, I joined 
 Mr. Ensign, and we proceeded to Flint, where 
 we were mustered into the service and assigned 
 to the Fifteenth Regiment of Michigan Volun- 
 teers. On our way to the front our first stopping 
 point was Indianapolis, where we stayed over 
 night. From there we were sent to Louisville, 
 Kentucky, where we tarried only half a day, and 
 from there to Nashville, Tennessee. There we 
 were quartered over night in the famous Zolli-
 
 War Experiences 133 
 
 coffer House, which I believe is yet standing and 
 in splendid condition, although punctured by 
 many cannon balls from Union artillery during 
 the war. It was a very large and beautiful struc- 
 ture of the old colonial type of architecture, 
 with great columns and pillars along the facade 
 and in the rotunda, and presented a very im- 
 posing appearance. This was my first introduc- 
 tion to Southern architecture. 
 
 The next day we were sent to Chattanooga, 
 which we reached some days later. I was a 
 member of a detached corps, usually under the 
 command of General Oliver of Michigan, and 
 never saw the regiment into which I was mus- 
 tered into the service, and never knew but one 
 other man who was a member of it. 
 
 When we arrived at Chattanooga the whole 
 town and surrounding country was filled with 
 thousands of Union troops, and the entire town 
 was cut up with trenches and breastworks. 
 
 I was assigned to a graveyard as an introduc- 
 tion to active service, and we made good use 
 of the tombstones in more ways than one. 
 
 It was then the month of December, and the 
 weather was chilly and disagreeable, the ground 
 freezing every night and thawing during the day. 
 There was a great deal of rain during the month;
 
 134 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 in fact, during the entire winter. This made 
 camp life very uncomfortable, for the soil was 
 a red sticky clay and held the water like a pan, 
 and the poor soldiers in the trenches were obliged 
 to soak up a goodly portion of it. Our blankets 
 froze to the ground nearly every night, and in 
 the morning we had a tough time pulling them 
 loose and drying them out before the fire. Under 
 such treatment they soon became a dirty reddish 
 yellow, the color of the soil. We utilized the 
 tombstones as much as possible for feather beds, 
 but, unfortunately, there were not enough to go 
 round. During the day we used them as shields 
 to prevent the sharpshooters in the Confederate 
 camp from picking us off. 
 
 Those were strenuous days, but we were a 
 hardy lot and used to tell the "Rebs," whenever 
 we had a good opportunity, that we did not be- 
 long to the Bull Run crowd, and that it would 
 take more than one volley to make us run. Right 
 here I wish to state that, after a lapse of more 
 than fifty years, I did not know a man in our 
 army in and about Chattanooga who was a 
 coward, or who would have run if he had been 
 given a good chance in order to avoid the enemy's 
 fire. Every man seemed to be imbued with the 
 true fighting spirit, which could resist to the
 
 War Experiences 135 
 
 death; and the Confederate troops opposed to us 
 for several months seemed to be imbued with 
 the same spirit. They used to taunt us with the 
 boast that they would clean us up in the end, and 
 they really believed it until we defeated them at 
 Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and 
 Sherman started on his march to the sea. 
 
 During the next twelve months we fought over 
 every inch of ground for miles around Chatta- 
 nooga. I was in the battles of Lookout Mountain, 
 Missionary Ridge, Cleveland, Knoxville, Chatta- 
 nooga, Tunnel Hill, Atlanta, then at Tunnel Hill 
 again, and then back at Chattanooga. 
 
 The two armies had trenches and breastworks 
 on both sides of the Tennessee River from Chat- 
 tanooga to Lookout Mountain. Our artillery in 
 and about Chattanooga shelled the Confederates 
 on Lookout Mountain for days while we were 
 hiding in trenches and behind breastworks and 
 crawling up the sides .of the mountain at every 
 opportune moment, and protecting ourselves as 
 best we could behind rocks and every barrier 
 we could find. The Confederates were constantly 
 shelling Chattanooga and our advancing army, 
 but after a desperate series of attacks and charges 
 we finally drove them from their positions and 
 forced them into flight.
 
 136 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 At Knoxville and Cleveland they stood their 
 ground and gave us stubborn resistance; but they 
 could not withstand our attacks and had to flee 
 in defeat. 
 
 Near Cleveland one night, while I was doing 
 picket duty along a highway, I had an experience 
 which did not fall to the lot of every soldier in 
 the ranks. About midnight I heard the sound 
 of horse's hoofs approaching, and concealed my- 
 self behind a bush which stood on the very edge 
 of the roadway. When the horse and its rider 
 came almost opposite me I halted them at the 
 point of my bayonet and commanded the rider to 
 give the countersign. As he could not give it, I 
 then compelled him to dismount and follow me, 
 after having first relieved him of his carbine, pis- 
 tols, and various other accoutrements. He was a 
 well dressed gentleman, wore high-topped boots, 
 and bore every appearance of intelligence and of 
 more than ordinary consequence. He had papers 
 on his person containing information of im- 
 portance to the Confederate army. He proved to 
 be a famous Confederate spy, and we were very 
 much pleased to intercept him and spoil his 
 opportunities for future usefulness in that line. 
 After turning him over to the proper officers I 
 returned to my post of duty.
 
 War Experiences 137 
 
 While in and about Chattanooga some of the 
 men in our ranks were detailed from day to day 
 to engage in the sometimes pleasant, and some- 
 times unpleasant, task of foraging for supplies 
 to feed the hungry soldiers. We always accepted 
 this task with pleasure, since no matter how dan- 
 gerous it always afforded an opportunity for 
 recreation. The truth is we were always glad 
 of an excuse to get away from the muddy 
 trenches of the city; and when we could find 
 turkeys, pigs, bacon, ham, eggs, and other coun- 
 try truck handy, and get away with them without 
 any bullet holes in our anatomy, it was a highly 
 interesting occupation. 
 
 But when those old hills around Chattanooga 
 were not filled with "Johnny Rebs" they were 
 usually infested with an organized band of 
 "guerrillas" who wore not the "gray" but the 
 "butternut" uniform. Sometimes they would 
 muster as many as three hundred men and chase 
 us almost into Chattanooga, and many a boy in 
 "blue" lost his life in that hill country trying 
 to get forage into the Union lines. 
 
 The nearest I ever came to joining a trip to 
 the great beyond was averted by too sound sleep- 
 ing on my part. One night with some forty com- 
 rades I had been detailed to go upon a foraging
 
 138 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 expedition the following morning, but failed to 
 awake in time to join the party. It was a very 
 fortunate sleep for me, for only one of these 
 comrades survived to tell the story of the ill- 
 fated expedition. 
 
 While filling up their wagons with the stuff 
 they had collected the foraging party was at- 
 tacked by several hundred guerrillas, and anni- 
 hilated, only one poor boy in blue escaping to 
 bring back the dreadful tidings. Next day a large 
 detachment of Union soldiers was dispatched to 
 the scene of the disaster to pick up the dead bodies 
 scattered here and there over the fields, in 
 ravines, behind rocks, trees, and various objects 
 where to little purpose they had sought refuge in 
 defending themselves. While hopelessly out- 
 numbered and handicapped by being on foot 
 while their pursuers were mounted, they never- 
 theless sold their lives as dearly as possible, as 
 many a "butternut" clad body which had bitten 
 the dust gave mute but eloquent testimony. There 
 surely had been no cowards among them. "Guer- 
 rillas" neither expected nor gave quarter. They 
 were considered outlaws, and treated accordingly. 
 
 I was usually in a good humor and looked at 
 the conflict from a philosophical standpoint, 
 realizing that it was not a personal struggle
 
 War Experiences 139 
 
 which had its foundation in personal hatred of 
 the men in the ranks. I knew that we served as 
 a matter of patriotic duty, and that if we had 
 had our choice we would not willingly have 
 killed each other for the mere love of killing, 
 and that murder did not lie in the hearts of the 
 men in the ranks of either army. I always 
 realized that my hands and ringers were not given 
 me for the purpose of pulling triggers to end 
 the existence of my Southern brothers, and I be- 
 lieve they felt the same toward us. 
 
 On one occasion, however, I was sorely tempted 
 in the heat of passion to kill a defenseless old 
 Southern planter; but I have always been glad 
 that I overcame the temptation just in time. 
 
 I had an army "chum" or "comrade" whose 
 name was Fred Buckley, and a braver and more 
 noble-hearted man never lived. I rejoice that he 
 is yet in the land of the living, and residing at 
 Owosso, Michigan. Often we would make up 
 our minds to go on a foraging trip without leave 
 or license, and on these expeditions would stray 
 miles outside the Union lines. It was a danger- 
 ous thing to do, and thousands of Union soldiers 
 would have returned alive to their homes and 
 families, instead of perishing on the Southern 
 fields had they not yielded to this temptation to
 
 140 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 stray about through the "enemy's country" alone 
 and unprotected. But we were so constantly 
 threatened with death and danger that we grew 
 careless and did not stop to think about either. 
 
 One day Buckley and I played "hookey," as 
 the schoolboys call it, and wandered several 
 miles beyond our lines. On this expedition we 
 ran across a stately old planter carrying a sack 
 half filled with something, and I very promptly 
 halted him and asked him what he had in it. 
 He knew perfectly well that we were merely 
 looking for something to eat; but he was one 
 of those stern, uncompromising, and defiant old 
 fellows who would almost rather die than conde- 
 scend an inch, so he made no reply to my question, 
 but gave me a look of withering contempt that 
 made my blood boil. I then took hold of the sack, 
 but he instantly jerked it from my grasp. This 
 thoroughly enraged me, and I leveled my gun 
 to shoot him. My finger pressed the trigger 
 pretty hard. Then I remembered that he was 
 unarmed, and relaxed my pressure, exclaiming: 
 "You old idiot, I had a mighty strong impulse 
 to kill you, but I won't, since you are unarmed ; 
 now drop that sack!" He complied, while Buck- 
 ley had him covered. 
 
 The sack contained nothing but some black
 
 War Experiences 141 
 
 beans, with which the army was at that time sur- 
 feited. The fact was that we could stand them 
 for eighty or ninety meals, but we objected to 
 them as a regular diet. "We don't want your 
 beans," I exclaimed, "and if you had acted like 
 a man and told me what you had in the sack I 
 would have told you that we didn't want your old 
 beans, and let you pass on. We are looking for 
 chicken, ham, bacon and eggs, or something good. 
 You may take your beans and go on about your 
 business, but if you have any sense left in you, 
 don't ever act that way again when a soldier 
 asks you a question. I know you don't like us; 
 that you think we are thieves and rascals; but 
 you are entirely mistaken, and will live to find 
 it out at some period of your life!" We then 
 passed on, and he went on his way to some part 
 of his plantation. 
 
 All about Chattanooga there were great rocky 
 ridges splitting up the farming country and 
 running back to the mountains, of which they 
 were in reality a part. These ridges were of 
 solid rock, yet all of them were covered with 
 a tolerably thick growth of chestnut trees, 
 with here and there a sprinkle of pine. The 
 valleys which lay between these rocky ridges were 
 often several miles in width, and the farms were
 
 142 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 rich and fertile. Sometimes the valleys were 
 very narrow; again they were mere ravines, and 
 quite often roads wound around in these ravines 
 and gulches. It was always dangerous to travel 
 in these ravines or along their roads, for the 
 "guerrillas" or the "Rebs," either one, could 
 pick you off from the shelter of the timber above, 
 so we usually traveled along the brow of the 
 wooded ridges. 
 
 On another occasion Buckley and another com- 
 rade joined me on a forage, and we strayed miles 
 into the country. We were traveling on the road, 
 when suddenly three "Rebs" appeared on horse- 
 back. A thrill shot through us, for a trooper al- 
 ways had the advantage of a foot soldier in such a 
 location, since it was easy to run the pedestrian 
 down, and the sides of the ravines were too steep 
 to climb. We were evidently cornered, but I 
 said, "Let's give 'em a volley!" and we all fired 
 and jumped to the hillsides for concealment if 
 possible, while to our utter amazement the 
 troopers wheeled and fled as fast as their horses 
 could carry them. They evidently thought they 
 were approaching the picket lines of the Union 
 army, and in danger of encountering a large body 
 of troops. Thus two squads of soldiers were re- 
 lieved from what each regarded as a close call.
 
 War Experiences 143 
 
 I had almost forgotten to relate that I fired so 
 quickly that I didn't take time to place the old 
 musket against my shoulder. I had become so 
 used to wing shooting on the prairies that I 
 sometimes forgot I couldn't handle an army mus- 
 ket that way without disastrous results. Well, 
 when my musket roared, the butt of it hit me 
 on the side of the face and knocked me down. 
 The pain was so great for the moment that I 
 felt as if I had received the load myself. But 
 I could not lie there, so I scrambled to the 
 side of the ravine to find a bush, if possible, to 
 hide behind and get ready for the next volley. 
 It was many a day before my face felt good 
 again. 
 
 During the month of December, 1863, about 
 thirty thousand troops were speedily dispatched 
 to Nashville to retake that city, which had fallen 
 into the hands of the Confederates. Here I saw 
 the greatest shipment of living human beings that 
 I ever witnessed. There were about twenty train 
 loads of them, and each train was made up of 
 forty or fifty cars each. 
 
 When we detrained near Nashville the Con- 
 federates opened fire on us, and we were obliged 
 to get off on the wrong side of our cars, but we 
 used them as a breastwork and poured a strong
 
 144 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 fire into the "Rebs," thus protecting ourselves 
 and the train loads which followed us. When all 
 got on terra firma we quickly formed and 
 charged the "Rebs," sending them flying, and 
 taking possession of the main part of the city. 
 
 The next few days we spent in whipping them 
 from one fortification to another. They were 
 most strongly intrenched in the east and south 
 parts of the city and on the adjacent hills, espe- 
 cially in the vicinity of the present water tower 
 and the height on which Peabody Institute is 
 located. 
 
 Here we saw the negro regiments in action 
 against their former masters, and they fought 
 like demons. We were afraid they wouldn't 
 stand the fire, and might disgrace the reputation 
 of the Union army. So we industriously worked 
 on their fears, inciting them to fight as never 
 before by telling them that here lay their salva- 
 tion or their Waterloo; that if they were captured 
 they would be slaughtered without quarter. We 
 advised them to run the "Rebs" out of the state 
 if they ever got them going. Well, the truth is 
 they carried out our instructions to the letter. I 
 never saw men fight more valiantly or more dog- 
 gedly. I never witnessed more desperate fighting, 
 and we chased the enemy for thirty miles.
 
 War Experiences 145 
 
 During the fight I remember an occurrence 
 which impressed itself vividly upon my memory. 
 A shell dropped into our lines and failed to ex- 
 plode. One of the men foolishly picked it up 
 and began picking at the fuse with his knife, try- 
 ing to discover why it did not go off. At this 
 juncture another soldier, who thought it a foolish 
 thing to do, since it not only endangered his own 
 life but that of others as well, expostulated with 
 him, and finally moved toward him in a threat- 
 ening manner, as if intending to knock him down. 
 Just before he reached the foolhardy fellow the 
 shell exploded and killed the man who held it 
 and four other comrades, including the one who 
 was expostulating with him. It was a sad ob- 
 ject lesson to all who witnessed it. 
 
 A few days later we were ordered to take boat 
 for Louisville, and all clambered aboard the big 
 river barges for the trip down the Cumberland 
 River. We had much sport on this trip, which 
 occupied several days, owing to the fact that the 
 boats engaged in racing, as fast as such lumber- 
 ing craft were capable of speedy action, the ob- 
 ject being to see which boat could make the lock 
 at Louisville first. Sometimes when the boats 
 drew alongside each other the boys would reach 
 out and try to hold their rival back.
 
 146 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 When we arrived at Louisville we were all 
 hungry, for we had run out of supplies, so we 
 raided all of the wholesale grocery and commis- 
 sion houses along the river the first thing upon 
 landing, and laid in a supply for the trip to 
 Cincinnati, which was our next place of des- 
 tination. 
 
 Here we met an unexpected reception which I 
 shall never forget, and I have always had a warm 
 spot in my heart for that city ever since. It 
 seemed that the entire city welcomed our arrival. 
 No other city ever greeted us with such warm- 
 hearted cordiality. The citizens had organized, 
 in anticipation of our coming, hundreds of places 
 for our entertainment which they called "sol- 
 diers' homes," and quartered us therein. All of 
 these places were supplied with ample heat. 
 They were usually churches, public halls, and 
 other public buildings; and since I had left 
 home I had not feasted on such wholesome food. 
 Everything that the hands of loving women could 
 do was set before us every day of our stay in 
 their city. It was one continuous feasting for 
 more than a week. 
 
 Friends and relatives of thousands of my com- 
 rades who lived in Indiana and Ohio came to the 
 city to greet them and visit with them until
 
 War Experiences 147 
 
 their departure. It was truly a week of joy 
 for all. A humorous experience fell to my lot 
 at this time which must not go unrecorded, even 
 though the joke is on me. While walking down 
 Vine Street one morning a beautiful young lady 
 threw her arms about my neck and hugged and 
 kissed me as though I were very dear to her, 
 exclaiming the while, "Oh, Charlie, how glad I 
 am to see you!" I was almost smothered, and 
 had to disengage her arms almost forcibly, ex- 
 plaining as best I could in the midst of much 
 embarrassment that my name was not Charlie, 
 but that I did not in the least object to adopting 
 it. She had felt sure that I was her brother, of 
 course, or she would never have been guilty of 
 such an indiscretion, and her apologies were pro- 
 fuse. Her brother was a comrade of mine, and 
 she was anxiously expecting him, and in her 
 anxiety to recognize and welcome him mistook 
 me for her brother in "blue." I was in "blue" 
 all right, but not her brother. It almost made me 
 feel blue afterward to think that I was not. 
 
 It was now the month of January and the 
 weather was bitterly cold, and we felt it the 
 more keenly having just come from a much 
 warmer climate. We were now ordered to Balti- 
 more, but the railroad companies insisted on com-
 
 148 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 pelling us to travel in open cars, and this so en- 
 raged us that we finally served notice on them 
 that if they did not provide coaches for us we 
 would burn every open car in Cincinnati. They 
 promptly decided to capitulate, and we rode to 
 Baltimore in regular coaches. 
 
 Here we camped on the streets where the New 
 York soldiers had been attacked by the populace 
 and the first blood of the war shed on the anni- 
 versary of old Lexington and Concord. We 
 found the people hostile yet, and a goodly num- 
 ber of them were taught to respect us before we 
 left there. The gentle art of the Marquis of 
 Queensberry eventually reduced them to a state of 
 decency. 
 
 From Baltimore we took boats to Annapolis, 
 Maryland, where we saw fifteen hundred ex- 
 changed Union soldiers who had just come in 
 from the notorious Confederate prison at Ander- 
 sonville, Georgia. The poor fellows were so ema- 
 ciated and weak from starvation that they could 
 not walk to the hospitals. Three hundred dead 
 bodies were taken from the steamer that brought 
 them. The sight of these poor mistreated men 
 caused the only bitter feeling in our hearts that 
 I recall during the great conflict, for the sight of 
 these poor fellows determined all of the men to
 
 War Experiences 149 
 
 fight the "Rebs" as never before at the first op- 
 portunity, which presented itself very soon. 
 
 At Annapolis we were transferred from the 
 boats to the new steamer "City of New York," 
 which the government was using for transport 
 purposes. It was a very large vessel, and had 
 three decks. We were packed on this boat as 
 close together as sardines in a tin box. There 
 was only one small alley-way down the center of 
 each deck left unoccupied. This was necessary 
 in order to distribute rations to the men. I had 
 already had some experience aboard ship and 
 persuaded my comrade Buckley to make a run 
 for the extreme stern of our deck, and we were 
 thankful that we secured this position for the 
 thirteen long days of the voyage. 
 
 We encountered terrible storms on the Atlantic 
 and made very slow progress. Off Cape Hatteras 
 there was a terrible hurricane, and we did not 
 know whether our vessel was going to weather 
 the storm or not, but we finally arrived safely 
 at the port of Newbern, North Carolina, at the 
 mouth of the Neuse River. 
 
 During nearly the entire voyage every man on 
 board was seasick, and some of them developed 
 typhoid fever. The vessel resembled the Chicago 
 Stockyards more than any $lace I have ever
 
 150 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 seen. The action of the storm buffeting the ship 
 about on the waves would sometimes pile the 
 men up in a heap on one side of the boat, and 
 then roll them over to the other side. At other 
 times the bow and stern would seem alternately 
 to drop fifty feet, as though the vessel was plung- 
 ing over a precipice, or sailing through space, 
 and we would then be jolted violently to and fro. 
 It was an experience never to be forgotten, and 
 one never to be repeated. When we landed at 
 Newbern we were all so weak that we could 
 scarcely walk, and it was several days before we 
 were in marching condition. 
 
 From Newbern we moved toward Kingston, 
 North Carolina, engaging the enemy in a sharp 
 fight at Bachelor's Creek. While here I was laid 
 up two weeks in a hospital with a fever, but was 
 able to go on duty again before the army moved 
 to new fields of action. 
 
 While at this place I witnessed one of the 
 most horrible catastrophes of the entire war. One 
 morning, just after the mail had arrived from the 
 North, a crowd of men went down to the post- 
 office near the railway tracks, anxious of course 
 to receive their long-delayed mail from home and 
 friends. Just at this time some of our troops 
 were loading a lot of torpedoes on the train,
 
 War Experiences 151 
 
 which they intended to place in the bed of the 
 river farther up stream for the purpose of play- 
 ing havoc with any Confederate vessels which 
 might follow. There was also a flat car upon 
 which a battery had been mounted to teach the 
 "Rebs" to keep a respectful distance from our 
 transportation trains. Some soldier carelessly 
 dropped a torpedo, and a terrific explosion in- 
 stantly followed which shook the country for 
 miles around. I was many hundred feet away, 
 and the force of the explosion knocked me down 
 as it did hundreds of others. When we ran to 
 the spot where the men had congregated near 
 the postoffice we found nothing but an enormous 
 hole in the ground. There was nothing to be 
 seen of either car or men; but hundreds of feet 
 away in every direction we soon found the scat- 
 tered and dismembered remains of more than 
 three hundred Union soldiers, which we gathered 
 up as best we could on rubber blankets, and 
 buried as quickly as possible. It was an awful 
 sight. One body was found in the top of a big 
 gum tree fully five hundred feet from the place 
 of the explosion, and seventy-five feet from the 
 ground. When we sawed the tree down and 
 recovered the body, we found that almost every 
 bone had been broken,
 
 152 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 War is indeed an inferno, and that in more 
 ways than one. It is all a sad mistake, and can- 
 not be justified save in defense of home and 
 native land. It is a relic of barbarism and ought 
 to be abolished by civilized peoples. In the same 
 category should be placed the stocks, whipping 
 posts, dungeons, gibbets, guillotines, electric 
 chairs, and the gallows. Human experience has 
 amply demonstrated that they are all worse than 
 useless. Certainly some restraint must be laid 
 upon those who will not respect the rights of 
 their fellow men, but when man attempts to 
 play the role of the Supreme Judge he is a 
 woeful failure. 
 
 It is indeed a shame to see so many intelligent 
 men whose consciences revolt against the execu- 
 tion of such laws sit sagely upon the bench, and, 
 pretending to believe in the justice of such laws, 
 make every effort to enforce them. 
 
 We have been taught since the days of the 
 old Greeks and Romans to admire that concep- 
 tion of Justice as a blind goddess holding aloft 
 a pair of evenly balanced scales, and on the 
 frescoed walls of court rooms all over the land 
 the same figure is represented, but I have come 
 to think that the picture is nearer the truth than 
 the bench would be willing to admit. It is
 
 War Experiences 153 
 
 capable of two interpretations. Justice is indeed 
 blind when it attempts to usurp the prerogatives 
 of the Almighty. 
 
 From here we moved on up the Neuse River 
 toward Kingston. We started on the march 
 during the night, and at one place near the 
 river the turnpike ran through a deep quag- 
 mire. The night was so dark that we sometimes 
 stumbled against the comrades in front of us as 
 we pushed along. While we were marching past 
 this point one of our comrades evidently stumbled, 
 although we could not see exactly what happened, 
 but we heard him plunge off the high grade of 
 the road and splash into the quagmire below. 
 Buckley and I ran down the bank and fished 
 around with our bayonets in the sticky mire try- 
 ing to locate him, but we could find no sign of 
 him. He must have plunged into the mire head 
 first and sank immediately to the bottom. Re- 
 gretfully we were obliged to march on without 
 recovering his body. I have never heard of an- 
 other accident similar to this during my entire 
 service in the army, nor since that time. This 
 is only another proof of the fact that war is an 
 awful and inhuman struggle. In the ordinary 
 pursuits or enterprises of life, the body of this 
 soldier would have been recovered if it had taken
 
 154 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 days to locate it, but it could not be done in the 
 midst of the marching and fighting incident to 
 an army. 
 
 Shortly thereafter we encountered the enemy 
 at Wise's Forks in a dense wood, where they had 
 prepared for our coming. This engagement was 
 the most spectacular battle I ever witnessed dur- 
 ing the struggle between the North and the 
 South. This was due to the fact that the entire 
 forest of pine trees caught fire and burned, blaz- 
 ing and cracking like fireworks. The fight lasted 
 three days without an interval of rest or time to 
 eat a square meal. Our only rations were crackers 
 and water snatched between volleys and lulls in 
 the firing. 
 
 The Confederates had three forts in this pine 
 forest, and from these their operations were 
 directed. They came near flanking us at one 
 time, and did turn our line around until it was 
 at right angles with our former position. The 
 fire in the pine wood at this point in the fighting 
 broke out so fiercely that the enemy was obliged 
 to turn and flee, and we backed out into an open 
 field and held our ground. 
 
 One of our batteries lost all but one man, and 
 he brought it out of the wood single-handed and 
 alone with one horse. He then planted the gun
 
 War Experiences 155 
 
 in the open and prepared for business as though 
 he had just commenced to fight, and was soon 
 pouring the grape and canister into the on- 
 coming "Rebs" with deadly effect. At this 
 stage the enemy charged us repeatedly with lines 
 seven and eight deep, and the fighting was ter- 
 rible. They would almost reach our ranks when 
 twenty batteries, belching forth a perfect hail 
 of grape and canister, would rake their ranks 
 with terrible effect, and when our rifles spoke out 
 at this juncture they always broke and ran. It 
 was more than men could stand, brave soldiers 
 though they were, as brave as ever lived and 
 fought. They could not stand such punishment 
 and advance; but they would retire and, under 
 the commands and encouragement of their of- 
 ficers, repeatedly reform their ranks and come 
 back at us again and again. I never saw more 
 desperate and continuous fighting. At last we 
 had the good fortune to rout them, and you 
 never saw such jubilant men as our boys in 
 "blue." They chased the "Rebs" for fully two 
 miles on the run, as fast as their legs would 
 carry them, shouting and yelling at the top of 
 their voices, as if gone mad. 
 
 During this pursuit a ball as big as the half 
 of my thumb pierced my left arm just above
 
 156 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 the elbow, and ploughed along through the flesh 
 until it lodged in my shoulder. Afterward it 
 worked down the under side of my arm, and is 
 now lodged near my elbow, where I suppose it 
 will always remain. It has been a part of my 
 anatomy for almost fifty years, so I don't be- 
 lieve I shall ever part with my uncanny 
 souvenir. 
 
 We kept right on after the enemy until we 
 reached the river at Kingston, and by this time 
 night had come. Pontoon bridges were thrown 
 over the river and our troops crossed to the 
 other side, landing in a slough that was shoulder 
 deep to a tall man, and neck deep to a little fel- 
 low like myself; but the weather was mild and 
 we waded right through it without a pause, and 
 marched into the city that very night. Here we 
 grabbed everything eatable we could find and 
 burned up the houses for campfire wood, as we 
 usually did in such emergencies. 
 
 At one place in the city there was a sort of a 
 flat-iron square, or triangle, and in this space had 
 been erected a platform, on which for a long 
 time prior to our coming the suspended skeleton 
 of a Union soldier had been exhibited, with a big 
 placard attached, upon which was printed the 
 words, "Death to the Yankees." We soon abol-
 
 War Experiences 157 
 
 ished this vulgar display of a mean-spirited com- 
 munity; and Kingston was a smoking ruin when 
 our army marched northward en route to Raleigh, 
 the state capital. This incident illustrates the old 
 truth that like begets like. 
 
 The Confederates evacuated Raleigh on our 
 approach, and we took possession of the city 
 without opposition of any sort, ate up everything 
 we could find that was fit to eat, and then started 
 southward to see what we could do to the capital 
 city of South Carolina. We were a long time, 
 however, in reaching Columbia, for the "Rebs" 
 were mighty tricky in their movements every step 
 of the way. They would be on one side of us 
 one day, and on the other side the next day. One 
 day we would march twenty-five miles over a 
 road, and then learn that the position of the 
 enemy necessitated retracing our steps, and the 
 next day we would march back. This game of 
 hide-and-seek continued during the entire sum- 
 mer and fall of 1864, and it was winter when we 
 arrived at Columbia, almost at the same time 
 that Sherman's army did, thus uniting our 
 forces. 
 
 On the long trip from Raleigh to Columbia 
 I recall an incident which had some humorous 
 aspects as well as serious ones. On this par-
 
 158 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 ticular day Buckley and I had the good fortune 
 to rob a beehive along the road, and also to lay 
 violent hands on a guinea hen, and while we 
 were engaged in doing full justice to these un- 
 usual delicacies, we heard a great shouting and 
 the popping of rifles in the vicinity of the river 
 along which our army had been temporarily 
 halted. The main body of the army had not 
 crossed the river, but a small force had pushed 
 across to see what luck, in the way of grub, 
 might attend their visits to the neighboring farm 
 houses. 
 
 It happened that the "Rebs" unknown to our 
 boys had fortified the hills across the river and 
 they met with an unexpected and warm recep- 
 tion. Buckley and I ran to the brow of the hill 
 on our side of the river, as did hundreds of 
 others, and there beheld the "Rebs" chasing our 
 boys down the hill on the other side of the river. 
 They made it so hot for them that when they 
 reached the river bank they did not halt to dis- 
 robe, but plunged in, pell mell, just like so many 
 scared frogs or turtles, and struck out with might 
 and main for their own side of the river. The 
 river was a sluggish stream and quite deep, and 
 they all had to swim for the shore in lively 
 fashion. Although it was real fun to see their
 
 War Experiences 159 
 
 antics in such a predicament, we came to their 
 rescue as quickly as possible by pouring such a 
 terrific fire into the pursuing "Rebs" that they 
 broke and fled for cover. Nevertheless they gave 
 our boys a close call which they did not soon 
 forget. 
 
 We then crossed the river and after chasing 
 the enemy from their fortifications, took posses- 
 sion of the big plantation in the neighborhood, 
 and there we camped for the night In the 
 meantime we gathered up the bodies of our dead 
 comrades, and the "Rebs" as well, and by the 
 light of torches buried them in a big peach 
 orchard, our chaplain performing the last sacred 
 rites for both. All personal effects and me- 
 mentoes of our comrades were carefully pre- 
 served and afterward forwarded to their rela- 
 tives in the North, as was always the case when 
 it was possible to do so. 
 
 In the morning we discovered a big barn filled 
 with sorghum seed, which had been cut with a 
 good portion of the stalk attached to the heads, 
 giving them quite a broomlike appearance. There 
 must have been several thousand dollars worth 
 of this seed stored away, and we had used some 
 of it for kindling fires. Some of the boys in a 
 playful mood began to strike each other with
 
 160 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 these bushy stalks of seed, and others taking 
 it up there were soon several hundred of us en- 
 gaged in a regular sham battle. The sport con- 
 tinued for several minutes, and was a novel 
 sight. Those switches would sting sharply, and 
 a number of us had a good many speckled places 
 on our faces where the seeds had brought the 
 blood to the surface. But everyone took his 
 medicine in good humor, for it was only a 
 frolic among the boys. 
 
 There was a great deal of pine timber scat- 
 tered through the country extending from Raleigh 
 to Columbia, and the enemy nearly always made 
 their stands in the heart of these pineries. There 
 were good reasons for doing so. They had a 
 method of warfare which was decidedly provok- 
 ing, and novel as well. They would fell trees 
 and turn the tops with their sharpened branches 
 toward us, porcupine fashion. Some times these 
 queer fortifications would be arranged in a solid 
 line for two or three miles. They afforded an 
 impassable barrier, and an excellent hiding- 
 place and protection for the enemy. They would 
 hide themselves safely behind the butts of trees 
 and stumps and fire away at us as we approached 
 their line. We could not charge directly through 
 such a barrier. So we had to unlimber our big
 
 The House Built on the Cld Scow where Streeter Lived in 1892 
 
 Tent in which Streeter Lived during Frequent Evictions in 1902
 
 War Experiences 161 
 
 guns and shell these obstructions until openings 
 had been made; then we would charge through 
 and give them battle at close range. But this 
 sort of warfare required a great deal of time 
 and trouble, and greatly retarded our progress, 
 when you come to consider the fact that this 
 sort of thing occurred every few days. 
 
 From the time we arrived in this part of the 
 South we had no commissary, and were obliged 
 to forage for our subsistence, owing to the fact 
 that we had no adjacent base of supplies. Lee 
 was in possession of the lower half of Virginia, 
 and lay between us and the Army of the Potomac 
 under Grant, so we had to shift for ourselves, 
 just as Sherman's army did on its march to the 
 sea farther south. 
 
 We certainly covered the ground in this search 
 for food and there was little that escaped us. 
 The "Johnny Rebs" were daily doing the same, 
 and I cannot imagine how the inhabitants of that 
 country managed to exist after both armies had 
 scoured it back and forth, north and south, east 
 and west, for almost a year. 
 
 The feast which Buckley and I had on the 
 guinea hen and the honey was the last one we 
 had for several days; in fact, we did not have 
 what might be called a decent sandwich during
 
 162 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 that time. The first night we spent at the planta- 
 tion across the river, as related, we hoped to find 
 something, but the "Rebs" had been ahead of 
 us, and had made a clean sweep of everything in 
 the shape of grub. The next day Buckley and I 
 foraged far and near without finding anything 
 to eat, and at night we ran across an old de- 
 serted cabin and lodged therein. Out in the rear 
 of the cabin where there had recently been a 
 garden, which at that time was devastated and 
 ravaged of everything in the vegetable line, we 
 found three cauliflower stalks, which might have 
 been called a ghostly remnant. That night we 
 feasted on one of these stalks, our sole bill of 
 fare. The next two days we fared no better, each 
 night returning to the cabin and duplicating the 
 meal of the first night, or shall we call it a repast? 
 Nothing then remained in that garden but weeds. 
 The next morning we bestirred ourselves early, 
 and ran across a cabin where we found three 
 women, and I at once asked whether they had any 
 food for sale, although the prospect did not look 
 promising. They told me that the only grub 
 in the house consisted of two 'johnny cakes," and 
 I immediately made a bid of three dollars for 
 those two cakes, producing the money as I made 
 the offer. To our great joy my bid was ac-
 
 War Experiences 163 
 
 cepted, and the deal closed instanter. Of course 
 the money was Confederate, but it was the coin 
 of the realm down there. We made short work 
 of those two "johnny cakes" and thereby relieved 
 our famishing stomachs. That day we moved 
 on and fared a little better. 
 
 We moved over into the coast country again, 
 and visited some of the big rice plantations. Here 
 we found forage in abundance. One night while 
 we were camped in a big rice field the "Rebs" 
 played a "Johnny" trick on us. During the night 
 while we were peacefully snoozing, they turned 
 the water on the rice field, and by morning we 
 were standing almost knee deep in water. We 
 did not move about during the night, since we 
 could not tell which way to move with safety. 
 At dawn the army broke for high ground, which 
 was then discernible, and a mighty welcome sight 
 We were in a fighting mood just then, and not 
 finding any army to attack, we took our spite 
 out on some of the people who had played the 
 trick on us, the stay-at-home "Rebs." We burned 
 every house for miles around, and moved on to 
 other fields and plantations. 
 
 Many humorous incidents fell across our path- 
 way, some of which are too good to leave un- 
 recorded.
 
 164 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 One day while Buckley and I were out forag- 
 ing we espied an enormous black object in the 
 distance, apparently wallowing through the brush 
 along a small stream near the coast. We could 
 not determine the breed of this animal, as we 
 supposed it to be, until it came nearer; but we 
 waited patiently until it approached nearer to the 
 hillock on which we stood watching it. Imagine 
 our surprise when we found it to be an enormous 
 black negro woman, called a "wench" in that 
 country. She was indeed a ludicrous, if some- 
 what pitiful, sight. She was much more than 
 the proverbial phrase "half naked" imports, and 
 in one sense of the situation her master might 
 have felt himself justified in not keeping her 
 fully clothed, for I am sure it would have taken 
 twenty-five yards of calico, or any other such ma- 
 terial, to make her a simple wrapper. This negro 
 woman was the largest specimen of the African 
 family I have ever seen, and would easily have 
 tipped the scales at five hundred pounds. 
 
 Before we discerned that she was a human 
 being, the only creature we could think of was 
 a hippopotamus, but we knew that they were 
 natives of African rivers, and consequently a long 
 way off. When we finally perceived that she 
 was a negro woman, we were convulsed with
 
 War Experiences 165 
 
 laughter at her movements. She waddled along 
 at a very good pace considering her great weight 
 and bulk. When she approached us we saw 
 that she had been fishing, and that she had a 
 goodly string of nice looking fish, which she 
 informed us were "salt watah suckahs." I wished 
 to buy them, and asked her if she would sell them. 
 She replied by asking me a question: "Does you 
 want to buy 'em, massa?" I told her that I 
 would give her a dollar for them, and she re- 
 plied: "O yes, massa, you can hab de fish," and 
 the fish were ours. 
 
 This poor woman's skin was so tanned and 
 burned by the sun and exposure that it resembled 
 nothing so much as the scaly hide of an elephant. 
 If I could have secured the services of this lady 
 the following year for my show, I think she would 
 have proved a drawing card. 
 
 But she was not the only specimen of the genus 
 homo that I discovered who would have served 
 me well in that capacity. I saw two young mu- 
 latto girls, who were twins, and they were the 
 only ladies of color whom I ever fell in love 
 with. They were albinos, very light of color, 
 possessing snow white hair and pink eyes. They 
 were finely featured, and would have been a 
 splendid addition to any show or museum.
 
 166 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 In the same neighborhood where I saw these 
 ladies I found an old gentleman who told me 
 that he was a hundred and five years old, and 
 that he had lived in that vicinity all his life. 
 He pointed out a mound in the pine wood, upon 
 which he asserted that he had made tar in his 
 boyhood, and since that time a pine tree had 
 grown thereon which at the time I saw it was 
 thirty inches in diameter. He would have been 
 a valuable accession to a show anywhere. 
 
 At one big plantation I discovered two young 
 colored gentlemen, "bucks," as they were called 
 in that country, who were kept by their lordly 
 master for sporting purposes solely. They were 
 gladiators, and this old Nero loved to see them 
 fight. But their method of warfare was certainly 
 a novel one. They got into a ring for the onset, 
 with heads down like young bulls, and then they 
 came together head on. And the way those heads 
 came in contact with each other caused anxiety to 
 the uninitiated onlooker, who was viewing the 
 sport for the first time. The contact of those heads 
 caused a loud popping sound which might have 
 been heard for fully a block away. No other 
 tactics were permitted. To strike or grapple with 
 each other was a "foul" which would not be tol- 
 erated by the referee of the contest. Nothing but
 
 War Experiences . 167 
 
 "butting" was allowed, and they made the air 
 resound with the sound of their heads knocking 
 together. 
 
 The soldiers enjoyed the sport so much that 
 they kept them in action almost half the night. 
 Of course the negroes were rewarded from time 
 to time by loose coins thrown toward them after 
 each round, which they scrambled for, much like 
 the street urchins of a big city do today. When 
 questioned as to whether the sport gave them sore 
 heads, they replied: "O no, massa, we do it 
 ebery day fo' massa!" 
 
 At another plantation we ran across a young 
 negro woman who was fully six feet tall, very 
 slim, and as supple as a human being ever could 
 become. She called herself the "Yuba dancer," 
 and her master kept her for dancing exhibitions 
 solely. She certainly could perform all sorts of 
 dancing stunts and maneuvers, and kept the boys 
 amused for hours at a time. 
 
 The negroes were in most deplorable condition 
 throughout the entire South, and were very scant- 
 ily clad. But abject as their condition was, it 
 was infinitely better than that of the poor white 
 class in that country. The plantation owner 
 was obliged to feed and house his negroes in 
 some fashion, but nobody was bound to provide
 
 168 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 these necessities for the poor whites. They had 
 to shift for themselves, and they had nothing to 
 shift with. They had been compelled by dire 
 necessity to work for a pittance, so could never 
 accumulate any property. 
 
 At one place I recall seeing a small factory 
 where about twenty-five of these women were 
 employed in weaving butternut cloth by means of 
 hand and foot looms. They were a pitiable 
 sight, and did not earn more than enough to pay 
 for their food and poor clothing. 
 
 I never had any serious bad luck while out 
 foraging, except on one occasion, and I must not 
 overlook this experience. One day I ran into an 
 old outhouse on a plantation in the hope of dis- 
 covering something good to eat, and there spied 
 a barrel in which had been some salt fish. The 
 brine was yet in the barrel, and I supposed of 
 course that there were fish in it also, so ran my 
 hand and arm into the brine in trying to locate 
 them. But it was indeed a trap to catch a sucker, 
 and I bit. There was not a fish in that barrel, 
 and had not been for many a day, which I 
 learned to my sorrow. The odor with which this 
 spoiled brine impregnated my coat and shirt 
 sleeve was simply unendurable, and the boys 
 threatened to drum me out of the camp. I
 
 War Experiences 169 
 
 changed shirts, but the coat sleeve was on the 
 outside, and as bad as ever, so I was obliged 
 to cut off the sleeve of the coat to pacify the 
 boys. Limburger was a whiff from Paradise com- 
 pared with the overpowering odor of that sleeve. 
 That was the only time I got the worst of it 
 while prying into people's provision houses while 
 out on the forage. 
 
 I forgot to tell another good joke on myself, 
 relating to picket duty. On one occasion I was 
 sent out to a swampy locality, and nobody came 
 to relieve me as was customary. I stayed with the 
 job for two days and nights, and finally while 
 sitting on a log I feel asleep, and at the same time 
 fell backwards into a quagmire. When I finally 
 got hold of the log and pulled myself out I was 
 wet and muddy from head to foot. I immediately 
 made up my mind to report to my superior offi- 
 cer, of whom I demanded to know why I had 
 not been relieved as usual. He thought I must 
 be mistaken, or laboring under some delusion. 
 Investigation, however, proved that I was correct, 
 and I was promptly relieved in more ways than 
 one. I told him that I had spent two days and 
 nights out there where there was nothing doing, 
 and I wanted to be transferred to some scene of 
 action in the future. He agreed with me in this
 
 170 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 particular, and I was not assigned to picket duty 
 in that locality again. 
 
 While in the vicinity of Raleigh, North Caro- 
 lina, we discovered a very fine plantation home, 
 which at that time was inhabited by its lordly 
 owner and his wife and beautiful daughter. He 
 possessed a large amount of this world's goods, 
 which had not hitherto taken wings and flown 
 away, but which were soon enough loaned wings 
 of "blue" and flew away with our army. 
 
 Mules and horses were promptly appropriated, 
 his wagons filled with corn and driven away, 
 and his oxen butchered and served up for food 
 for the officers. He had in the neighborhood of 
 thirty valuable young negroes of the male gender, 
 and about a dozen males and females who were 
 somewhat older; some of them were house serv- 
 ants of a very valuable kind. His sheds and 
 granaries were well stocked with provisions and 
 provender, and his cellar was filled with good 
 things to gratify the appetite of man. Upon in- 
 vestigation we found that an effort had been 
 made to hide some of these good things before we 
 arrived. 
 
 But all of this work came to naught, as usual in 
 such cases, for the soldiers were the best grub 
 detectives that ever lived. They had tried out all
 
 War Experiences 171 
 
 possibilities in the hiding line on hundreds of 
 occasions, and were not to be deceived here. 
 
 They soon discovered a spot of fresh earth in 
 the yard, which had been carefully sodded over 
 again, and probes, in the shape of bayonets and 
 ramrods, were speedily inserted. Then came the 
 man with the shovel, instead of the "hoe," and 
 he got into action immediately. In the army a 
 goodly number carried shovels as well as muskets, 
 and most useful articles they proved to be, since 
 they were used for a multitude of purposes, among 
 which might be enumerated, digging trenches, 
 making embankments and fortifications, and, last 
 but not least, unearthing hidden grub. 
 
 One of these men with the shovel soon un- 
 covered half a barrel of as fine old applejack as 
 ever fell to the lot of a soldier, or any other 
 gentleman, and canteens as well as thirsty throats 
 were filled as long as a drop remained. Buckley 
 and I did not overlook filling our canteens, of 
 that you may be sure. 
 
 The chickens, geese, ducks, turkeys, guineas 
 and other fowls, of which there were several hun- 
 dred choice specimens, had been carefully hidden 
 under the floors of the negro houses by command 
 of the master of the plantation. But prompt and 
 pointed cross-questioning of the young negroes by
 
 172 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 experienced soldier investigators soon revealed 
 their location, and sharp commands compelled the 
 production of the hidden fowls. Many of these 
 escaped in the process, but they were soon over- 
 taken. The old negroes gave countermanding or- 
 ders, but the young "bucks" were afraid to obey 
 them. The presence of numerous guns seemed to 
 have "a commanding influence" over the situation, 
 as Judge Gary once said of the activity of his cor- 
 poration on the steel industry of the country. It 
 was just so with this steal company. 
 
 Buckley and I had arrived at the plantation 
 ahead of the other boys and visited the house first, 
 where we, of course, inquired for food, and were 
 abundantly provided with the choicest viands that 
 had fallen to our lot since we left Cincinnati. 
 The master of the plantation had viewed our 
 coming from a distance, and was so thoroughly 
 frightened that speech failed him, but his good 
 wife and daughter made up for his seeming lack 
 of hospitality. 
 
 They apparently divined that we were not 
 marauders at heart, and implored us to save 
 their magnificent mansion from destruction, an 
 edifice which had cost doubtless more than fifty 
 thousand dollars. While we were moved to com- 
 passion by their plea, we advised them that we
 
 War Experiences 173 
 
 could not promise anything in this respect, but 
 that we would do our utmost to save it from 
 destruction at the hands of our comrades. We 
 put up a ruse which by rare good fortune worked 
 like a charm, and the mansion was saved. We 
 patrolled the great gallery in measured tread all 
 day long, as though detailed for that purpose by 
 some superior officer, and no comrade presumed 
 to question our authority or to enter the house, 
 although they ran about the premises and un- 
 earthed all of the good things as I have already 
 related. We spent the night sleeping on the 
 gallery and had a royal breakfast as our reward. 
 The greater portion of the second day we con- 
 tinued at the post of our self-imposed duty as 
 on the previous day, until our army was miles 
 beyond, and there no longer remained any danger 
 from that source. 
 
 During our stay we had ample opportunity 
 to study our hosts, and it was a pleasing impression 
 which we formed of this interesting family. The 
 master and his wife were past fifty years of age, 
 and both highly educated and cultured people. 
 The young daughter had been well educated, and 
 was an accomplished musician, as we could testify 
 from the music which reached our ears on the 
 evening we spent on the gallery. I recall very
 
 174 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 distinctly that she was robed in a very brilliant 
 hued silk dress, and her mother was equally well 
 gowned. 
 
 The father's tongue did not loosen up until the 
 next morning, when, doubtless for the first time, 
 he felt confident that our ruse would save his 
 mansion. He then became very friendly and 
 affable. At that time I possessed more than three 
 hundred dollars in Confederate currency, and I 
 proposed a trade with him, in case he had any 
 of our greenbacks, which was often the case with 
 such persons. The proposition suited his humor, 
 and as he had almost an equal amount of our 
 currency, we made an even "swap," as the "John- 
 nies" always termed an even exchange. 
 
 When the time arrived for our departure, in 
 order that we might rejoin our army before it 
 got too far ahead of us, these good people filled 
 our haversacks with all the food that we could 
 possibly carry, and bade us God-speed with the 
 fervently expressed hope that we would safely 
 return to our homes when the great struggle was 
 ended, which we all sincerely hoped would not 
 be long delayed. 
 
 This was indeed a pleasant incident which gave 
 us at close range a view of Southern character 
 in that station of life, and we did not forget it.
 
 War Experiences 175 
 
 I also fully realized that this country was in 
 reality the native heath of my own ancestors on 
 my mother's side of the house, and that the 
 Marion family in the years gone by were noted 
 for their kindly disposition and gentility. History 
 has rarely recorded the virtues of a nobler char- 
 acter than General Francis Marion, who was 
 always just to his enemies and the poor Indians. 
 
 Our boys were indeed glad to unite with Sher- 
 man's victorious army at Columbia, and there was 
 general rejoicing. We were now merged into 
 his great army, which met little opposition in any 
 direction. The city of Columbia was a hotbed 
 of the rankest type of "Johnnies" at home that 
 we had ever run across, and their reception was 
 so lacking in cordiality, and their hostility so 
 tactlessly impressed upon us, that it left a bad 
 taste in our mouths, and provoked results which 
 might not otherwise have come to pass. As a 
 result of mutual bad feeling the city of Columbia 
 was, in the language of the ancients, "sacked and 
 burned" before we moved northward. 
 
 We proceeded leisurely through the country 
 until we reached Goldsboro, North Carolina, 
 taking prisoners on every hand. There was no 
 united opposition presented. The enemy seemed 
 split into wandering bands, many of whom volun-
 
 176 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 tarily surrendered themselves rather than con- 
 tinue the useless struggle. These were disarmed 
 and sent to the wagon train in the rear as 
 prisoners of war, where they were well treated. 
 Everybody felt sorry for them, worn, half clothed, 
 many barefoot and thoroughly exhausted by the 
 long conflict. 
 
 At Goldsboro we learned that Lee had sur- 
 rendered at Appomatox, and that the great con- 
 flict was ended. This was welcome news to all, 
 for it meant the end of fighting, killing, maiming, 
 marching, foraging and living like beasts of the 
 field, and it meant much more it meant the 
 return to home and dear ones far away. 
 
 We marched northward immediately, our route 
 taking us through Petersburg and Richmond, 
 Virginia, and then on to Washington. 
 
 At Petersburg we saw the whole country cut 
 up with trenches, embankments, and tunnels, 
 mute reminders of the terrible struggle which 
 had taken place during the siege and bombard- 
 ment of that place, one of the most sanguinary in 
 the history of the war, if not that in the world. 
 
 I remember viewing the effects of a big solid 
 shot from one of our largest siege guns. It had 
 struck in the middle of a highway and dug a 
 trench six feet wide for a fifth of a mile, then
 
 War Experiences 177 
 
 slid along the surface of the highway for quite 
 a distance, and stopped as though laid by human 
 hands. We buried numbers of dead army mules 
 in this ready manufactured trench, and had plenty 
 of room to spare. 
 
 At Richmond we saw the notorious old Libby 
 Prison, where so many "boys in blue" endured 
 terrible punishment and suffering, and hundreds 
 died an awful death by starvation, but we could 
 not tarry at this time to investigate, since our 
 orders were to push on to Washington as speedily 
 as possible, which we did. 
 
 We arrived there in June and participated in 
 the grand review of the armies of the nation, 
 the greatest in the history of the world. 
 
 I was sick in the army hospital there for two 
 weeks, but was out in time for the review, which 
 I enjoyed as much as any other of its participants, 
 who all felt that we were homeward bound. A 
 great many thousands of the boys were discharged 
 and sent home from this city, but our detached 
 corps was sent to Louisville, Kentucky. 
 
 I was sick again at that place and in the 
 hospital, and gradually all my comrades were 
 discharged and sent home, save Buckley and 
 another comrade, and when we were finally able 
 to travel, we hurried to our dear old homes in
 
 178 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 Michigan as fast as the train could carry us. 
 
 We arrived at home during the latter part of 
 July, and there was great rejoicing at our home- 
 coming. We were truly overjoyed at our recep- 
 tion and welcome, although it was mingled with 
 the tears of loved ones who could not suppress 
 the pent-up flood of emotions which now over- 
 came them; but happily they were tears of joy, 
 not sorrow, such as many other households bit- 
 terly endured, and the sunshine of joy speedily 
 replaced them, and happiness reigned supreme.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 A PIONEER SHOWMAN 
 
 During the year in which I was recuperating 
 after the war I was looking about for some field 
 of work where there might be an opportunity 
 to reap financial rewards with less hard work 
 than I had found necessary in the lumbering 
 business. 
 
 My attention was directed to the opportunities 
 a natural museum or menagerie might offer by 
 a summer garden which a friend of mine was 
 then operating in Saginaw, and in which the 
 principal attraction was a number of wild ani- 
 mals. As a result of my observations in the fall 
 of 1866, I purchased a number of animals for 
 the purpose of operating a traveling menagerie 
 and show. Nearly all of these animals were 
 natives of the State of Michigan. As nearly as 
 I can now recall them there were one bear, two 
 moose, two elk, two deer, two otter, two gray 
 wolves, one black wolf, two lynx, two bobcats, 
 three porcupines, one buffalo calf, two timber 
 badgers, one streaked badger, two raccoons, and
 
 180 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 seven kinds of rabbits. In the bird line I had 
 three eagles, three white owls, two gray owls, two 
 English pheasants, and one horned rooster. 
 
 As a special attraction I bought a white Nor- 
 mandy hog which was raised by a friend of mine 
 in an adjoining town. This hog weighed fifteen 
 hundred and sixty-seven pounds, was ten feet and 
 five inches in length, and three feet and ten inches 
 in height. I billed this hog in my advertising 
 literature as a white elephant, and I never heard 
 anybody complain about being disappointed in 
 this little fake. The truth is they were as much 
 interested in the extraordinary hog as they would 
 have been in a white elephant, and I would prob- 
 ably have fared just as well if I had told the 
 exact truth in every particular. It would have 
 excited just as much curiosity. 
 
 In those days traveling shows were real pioneer 
 propositions, for there were no railroads to trans- 
 port our show and the cities were few and far 
 between; the truth is, there were not many well- 
 built roads in those days. There were about one 
 hundred miles of mud road to every mile of 
 turnpikes, and the latter were all toll roads which 
 had been built by some company or association 
 and operated for a profit, just like the steam roads 
 are now. We had no palace cars, but we built
 
 A Pioneer Showman 181 
 
 some very substantial wagons on that plan as 
 near as we knew how, and they were very com- 
 fortable even if they were minus the luxuries of 
 the Pullman coaches. We also had our cooking 
 and dining coach, and it served the purpose ad- 
 mirably. 
 
 I also engaged the services of a concert and 
 dramatic troupe in Detroit to round out our pro- 
 gram of public entertainment. Later I intro- 
 duced many special features which at that time 
 were new and caught the public fancy, such as 
 ventriloquism and a number of trick perform- 
 ances, among which were the Marionettes, Punch 
 and Judy, the Hindoo Mystery Box, the Red 
 Dwarf, the Princess Fatima, and many others 
 which I originated myself. 
 
 We gave our first performance at the County 
 Fair at Flint, Michigan, and scored a rousing 
 success. The financial returns were so good that 
 I was greatly encouraged with the undertaking. 
 
 During the remainder of the season we made 
 the round of numerous county fairs in Michigan, 
 and the intervening towns and cities. We were 
 warmly received on every hand, and the George 
 S. Wellington shows began to acquire a reputation 
 which was quite flattering to a novice at the busi- 
 ness. My operations during that fall netted me
 
 182 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 over seven thousand dollars, including horses, 
 wagons and equipment. I was greatly elated with 
 the success of the business and made my plans 
 for a wider tour through Michigan, Ohio, Ken- 
 tucky, and Indiana, as my next field of opera- 
 tion. 
 
 The following spring we started out through 
 Michigan, then through Indiana and Ohio, wind- 
 ing up the season in the late fall at Louisville, 
 Ky. This season I carried a small circus with 
 me, and had abundant success during the entire 
 season. During the winter at Louisville I oper- 
 ated a sort of continuous museum, circus, and 
 concert performances every afternoon and even- 
 ing, and managed to pay expenses, which was con- 
 sidered very good, as most shows were usually 
 out of business at that time of the year and the 
 menagerie a constant expense. 
 
 In the spring of 1867 I started early on a 
 tour of Indiana. The weather was rainy and the 
 roads were terrible, in fact, almost impassable. 
 As a consequence we ran behind our schedule all 
 the time and our patronage was almost nothing, 
 since people will not patronize tent shows in 
 rainy weather. It takes a fine day to fill the 
 pockets of the proprietor of the traveling circus 
 with coin of the realm.
 
 A Pioneer Showman 183 
 
 We got as far as Indianapolis during the month 
 of June and our expenses had been so heavy that 
 I was actually insolvent, and to avoid bankruptcy 
 I sold five thousand dollars' worth of animals, 
 my entire menagerie, to Adam Forepaugh, and 
 thus eliminated that feature of my program. 
 
 I kept my horses, wagons, and a seventy-five 
 foot tent, and continued in the circus and concert 
 show business. We spent the rest of the season 
 traveling through Indiana and Michigan. The 
 weather, however, continued bad during the en- 
 tire season, and I lost money every day. To 
 keep the thing moving I mortgaged my last prop- 
 erty in Michigan, and finally lost that. At the 
 end of the season I was bankrupt and had no 
 further ambition to operate a traveling circus 
 and menagerie over the mud roads of the country, 
 but I had not lost my love for the business, 
 and some years later under more favorable cir- 
 cumstances I made "big money," to use the 
 language of showmen. There were, as you may 
 well imagine, a great many humorous experiences 
 in this sort of a life and some of them must not 
 be overlooked. 
 
 At Jackson, Michigan, a smartly dressed gentle- 
 man was greatly interested in fooling a bear which 
 was chained to a wagon, and his method of pro-
 
 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 was to hold a sack of peanuts high 
 the reach of the bear, to whom they 
 ry appetizing. Mr. Bear stood the strain 
 as he was able, and when the temp- 
 >ecame too strong to be resisted longer, 
 hed out his paws and drew the man 
 him and proceeded to climb up the gen- 
 frame, as he would a tree, for the pea- 
 H[e obtained the peanuts and devoured 
 eedily, but the gentleman who had found 
 \ fun in teasing him, retired hurriedly to 
 his damaged trousers and plaster over his 
 r cuticle, for the hind claws of Mr. Bear 
 etrated his anatomy just above the knees. 
 z traveling through Northern Indiana an 
 ; incident occurred. A very jovial white- 
 old gentleman visited the inside of my tent 
 srnoon and inquired the price of admis- 
 le finally advised me that he desired to 
 is whole family to the show, but said 
 had no money, and then followed the 
 it by making a proposition to deliver to 
 Ive bushels of wheat as the price of ad- 
 5 for his entire family, which he stated 
 very large one. As wheat was at that 
 rth a dollar a bushel, and could be cashed 
 ie local mill, I accepted his proposition,
 
 A Pioneer Showman 
 
 and when they turned up at the entrance i 
 tent that evening, there were over seventy p 
 who passed in under his protecting wing of f 
 hood. 
 
 I learned they were all bona fide descen 
 and the next night I was very agreeably sur] 
 to see all of them come again, but this time 
 individual paid the price of his own adm 
 my old patron warmly commending my per 
 ances, and saying that he found them most 
 esting. 
 
 In traveling through the country in those 
 by horse power our progress was very slov\ 
 in the meantime both man and beast must 
 perish. We were in no danger of the 
 considering the prices of food which pre 1 
 everywhere through the country-side. Ye < 
 ers of the cities, listen to these prices of 
 We bought juicy round steaks at six ceni 
 pound, bread at three cents the loaf, brown 
 at three cents per pound, potatoes ten cen 
 bushel, cabbages, onions, turnips, radishes, \ 
 kins, squashes and other vegetables were 
 us in great quantities for a few complim< 
 tickets. When passing apple and peach ore 
 a simple request would result in the resj 
 "Take all you want," or "Help yourselves,
 
 186 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 we certainly appreciated the cordiality and warm- 
 heartedness of the good people of the country. 
 Oats for our horses sold at sixteen cents per 
 bushel, and hay at four dollars per ton. We lived 
 on the fat of the land every day, and enjoyed the 
 living. 
 
 I recall one instance, however, where we got 
 the worst of the bargain, but took it in good 
 humor nevertheless. The joke at our expense was 
 too good to do otherwise. 
 
 It had been a day of slow travel over bad 
 roads, and we were unable to reach the town 
 we were billed for, so contented ourselves by 
 stopping at a country cross-roads for the night, 
 where we attracted a great deal of attention 
 from the nearby residents of the locality. In- 
 quiring of a bystander as to a likely place to 
 buy eggs, a country lady told us that she had 
 a goodly store of the fruit, and would part 
 with them gladly for the market price of five cents 
 per dozen and deliver them; which she did and 
 received the stipulated compensation. The cook 
 in due time proceeded to make use of the eggs, 
 or rather endeavored to do so, but more than 
 fifty per cent of them popped like pistols when 
 broken open, and the stench was so strong about 
 the camp after the basketful had been tried out
 
 A Pioneer Showman 187 
 
 that we had to move the wagons some ten rods 
 farther down the road to avoid the odor of the 
 spoiled fruit. We did not obtain enough good 
 eggs out of the entire basketful to go around. 
 We did not soon forget this experience, and it 
 was a source of merriment for many a day. In 
 fact, we thought of it whenever eggs were on 
 the bill of fare. 
 
 But think of the prices of produce then as 
 compared with those of today. At that time 
 almost anyone could buy enough to last a whole 
 year with the money that is expended in a month 
 today in the great cities of the country. The 
 high cost of living was not worrying the citi- 
 zenship of the land as it is now. Men had 
 not generally degenerated into the wage slaves 
 of the capitalist slave drivers, and the mar- 
 kets and industries had not yet fallen into the 
 hands of the exploiting and gambling criminals, 
 nor the beef cattle into the clutches of the ring 
 of great packers; consequently everybody had 
 the necessary money to buy food at reasonable 
 prices, and nobody went hungry.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 PIONEER STEAMBOATING 
 
 After my disastrous experience in the show 
 business I did not long remain idle. I im- 
 mediately made up my mind to build a steam- 
 boat and engage in commerce on the Great 
 Lakes. This was in the late fall of 1868. Just 
 at that time capital began to interest itself in 
 the great pineries of my native state, hitherto 
 virtually untouched. There has never been any- 
 thing in the history of the lumbering business 
 of this or any other country to compare with 
 the gigantic operations along the Saginaw River 
 and its tributary rivers and creeks. 
 
 Millions of acres of virgin pine of enormous 
 size lay on either side of this broad and slug- 
 gish old Indian stream, and for forty or fifty 
 miles on either side of it. Prior to this time 
 Michigan had virtually been little more than a 
 pioneer state of the backwoods type, save for a 
 few urban localities and the lower tier of 
 counties. Now great sawmills sprang up as if
 
 Pioneer Steamboating 189 
 
 by magic all along the Saginaw River. Thou- 
 sands of lumberjacks built great logging camps 
 in the great pineries on every hand; and soon 
 the axe and saw in their hands began their work 
 of felling the giant pines that had been hun- 
 dreds of years in the making, and every creek 
 emptying into the river was filled for miles with 
 great rafts of logs to be floated down to the 
 mills. The Saginaw River teemed with active 
 life as it never had before, and probably never 
 will again. Steamboats, schooners and masted 
 vessels of every description appeared, a veritable 
 fleet, to carry away the golden harvest of lum- 
 ber, a richer treasure by far than California's 
 far-famed mines of pure gold; and it took almost 
 thirty years of continuous operations on a gigantic 
 scale to exhaust the supply. At one time, for 
 thirty miles on either side of the Saginaw River 
 sawed lumber was stacked in piles twenty feet 
 high, awaiting the advent of vessels to carry 
 it away to the markets of the nation, and to dis- 
 tant shores as well. 
 
 Dimly foreseeing this development, I went 
 to East Saginaw, and during the winter of 1868 
 and 1869 I built a steamboat, which I christened 
 "The Wolverine" in the spring of 1869, and 
 operated her successfully on the Great Lakes
 
 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 1 the fall of that year, when I sold her at 
 andsome profit, deciding to try steamboating 
 the lower Mississippi. 
 
 therefore went to Venus, a little town on the 
 .sissippi, opposite St. Louis, Missouri, where 
 ing the winter of 1869 and 1870 I built a 
 mboat, and in the spring of the latter year 
 istened her the "Minnie E. Streeter," in honor 
 ny wife, who did not long thereafter honor 
 by her presence, for she decamped suddenly 
 lout notice, carrying with her seven hundred 
 ars of my hard-earned cash and accepted an 
 agement on a vaudeville circuit. I did not 
 
 her again for some twelve years, during 
 ch time I secured a divorce. 
 
 operated this vessel very successfully on the 
 :at Father of Waters, and on the Ohio and 
 nberland rivers for a period of three years, 
 dling merchandise and transporting pas- 
 rers every day. I ran as far south as New 
 cans and up the Ohio to Cincinnati, and 
 
 Cumberland to Nashville, Tenn. I surmise 
 : during this time I encountered every experi- 
 * incident to such life, and many strange, 
 ;ting, and humorous incidents fell to my lot, 
 :w of which I will endeavor to relate, just to 
 ; you a glimpse of the changing scenes of
 
 Pioneer Steamboating 19 
 
 that curious life of so many years ago, whe 
 watercraft played a large part in the transport; 
 tion problems of the nation. 
 
 One incident that I recall very clearly haj 
 pened shortly after my arrival at the wharf ; 
 St. Louis, where my vessel was at that tim 
 anchored. The war was over, but it seems ha 
 not been forgotten by an old "Johnny Reb," wh 
 learned in some manner unknown to me that 
 had been a "Yank," and when I stepped out o 
 the wharf this old "Reb", without any provoc; 
 tion whatever, greeted me with the remarl 
 "We've killed bettah men than you ah dow 
 heah!" It did not take me many seconds 1 
 come to the conclusion that he was spoiling fc 
 a fight, and I accommodated him without an 
 further parley. In fact, I did not even speak 1 
 him. I had him down on the wharf and sut 
 jected to a state of decency and decorum in vei 
 short order. 
 
 On another occasion, an ex-Confederate caj 
 tain, who was serving at that time in th 
 capacity of a deputy United States marshal, 
 very unwilling guest at the mess table, aske 
 me what I thought of McClellan as a genera 
 and I told him that I thought McClellan w; 
 the worst rebel in the Union army.
 
 192 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 My reply seemed to enrage him, and he 
 whipped out a revolver and tried to aim it at 
 me, making a loud threat that he intended to 
 finish my career then and there; but I had 
 divined his purpose when he made the motion 
 of drawing his revolver, and slipping to the 
 floor grabbed up a gun that was within my 
 reach, and covered him before he could take 
 aim at me. I made him drop the revolver and 
 took possession of it, and drove him out on 
 the deck, where I made him stay for several 
 days, not even permitting him to sleep in his 
 bunk. In fact, he stayed there until he was 
 recalled by his superior officer. 
 
 When he left the boat he concluded that he 
 would even up the score with me. I had been 
 foolish enough to return his revolver to him, 
 thinking that I was about to end our relations, and 
 that we would part company peacefully. As 
 soon as he had got over the bulwarks of the 
 boat and onto the wharf, he pulled out his 
 revolver and began shooting at me, and never 
 stopped until he had emptied the cylinder, but 
 fortunately for me every bullet went wide of the 
 mark. I did not carry a weapon, and the only 
 thing within my reach was a jar of raspberry 
 jelly, which I immediately hurled at him with
 
 Pioneer Steamboating 193 
 
 all the strength of both hands. My aim proved 
 better than his, for the jar struck him squarely 
 on the top of the head and he rolled over on 
 the wharf as though dead. He was un- 
 conscious, and after several minutes had elapsed 
 I feared that he was not going to regain con- 
 sciousness, so I had my men bathe his head and 
 face with water, and use such methods as we 
 were familiar with to revive him. But he did 
 not respond to such mild treatment and I finally 
 called a carriage and sent him to the hospital, 
 where, I was afterward informed, he was laid 
 up for three or four months with concussion of 
 the brain. I never saw him after that, and 
 trust that he regained his usual health. 
 
 A humorous incident fell to my lot while I 
 was transporting flour from Evansville to Ches- 
 ter. My boat got stuck one day on a rock in 
 the river and I couldn't get it off with the load 
 I had on and with the force of men at my dis- 
 posal, so I decided to return to the city and 
 get the necessary assistance. On my way there 
 afoot I was obliged to go through a piece of 
 woods, where I was attacked by an enormous 
 boar running at large, and just saved my bacon 
 by shinning up a tree, where I was kept a 
 prisoner for fully two hours, when his pigship
 
 194 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 grew tired of the sport and sauntered away into 
 the woods, to look for more promising game. 
 
 I lost no time in getting out of that locality, 
 but I had not gone very far until I got into 
 trouble again. I saw along the river, which at 
 that time was almost dry, great pools of water 
 which were barely connected with each other 
 by threads of running water, and all about this it 
 looked muddy and swampy. In one of these 
 pools I saw an enormous catfish, larger in fact 
 than I was, and I made up my mind that I 
 wanted that fish. So I disrobed, and selecting the 
 biggest and strongest club I could find, I waded 
 out to the pool where he lay, or rather where 
 he was trying to push himself through the 
 muddy water from one pool to the next nearest 
 one. He was making slow progress, and I had 
 no difficulty in reaching him. 
 
 But I made the mistake of trying to head 
 him off, and got directly in front of him in 
 order to land the most effective blow I could 
 on his head. I thought one lick would do the 
 work; but instead of finishing him, it finished 
 me. He gave one tremendous lunge forward out 
 of the mud, and struck me square on the chest. 
 The force of the contact toppled me over back- 
 ward into the mud and slush in which I was
 
 Pioneer Steamboating 195 
 
 completely immersed, and put an end to any 
 further desire to fool with that fish. In fact, I 
 did not scrape all the mud out of my eyes for 
 several minutes afterward. 
 
 I shall not attempt to describe my efforts to 
 get rid of that mud in order to resume my 
 clothing. It was fully two hours before I could 
 start again. I finally slipped into the rear en- 
 trance of a hotel and got cleaned up before 
 showing myself. I then collected a force of 
 men and returned to the boat, which we finally 
 succeeded in getting off the rock, after we had 
 removed about twelve hundred barrels of flour 
 to the shore by means of the yawl. Then we 
 had the task of getting it back again on the 
 steamboat before we could proceed on our way 
 to Chester. But I have never forgotten that day 
 of ludicrous situations, and I think I have 
 laughed over them a thousand times. I never 
 had as many piled upon me in the same length 
 of time before or since. 
 
 At that time there was plenty of wild game 
 everywhere along the Mississippi. I have many 
 times stood on the deck of my boat and shot 
 deer looking curiously at our craft, from the 
 shore and from islands in the river. 
 
 On one occasion while -we were passing a big
 
 196 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 eddy I saw the body of a dead man floating on 
 top of the water, and lowered a boat and rowed 
 over to him. I finally got hold of the body and 
 was trying to lift it carefully so that I could 
 get it into my boat, when it was suddenly jerked 
 out of my grasp by some unseen agency. On 
 close inspection I discovered that a big trot line 
 with hook attached was fast to the hand of the 
 dead man and that the other end of it could 
 not be seen. From this fact I figured out that 
 a big fish or some other water creature must 
 also be on the line. So I worked more carefully 
 in my next endeavor to get the body into the boat, 
 and finally succeeded. 
 
 Then I had a fight with that unseen force at 
 the other end of the line, and it was a couple of 
 hours before he was worn out and finally landed. 
 It proved to be an enormous catfish, fully as 
 large as the man whom he had succeeded in 
 pulling overboard and drowning. The unfortu- 
 nate fisher had been seated in a small boat, and at 
 the first plunge of the big fish fell into the water 
 and, not being able to swim, soon drowned, while 
 the boat drifted quickly away. We turned the 
 body over to the authorities and gave them all the 
 information we possessed. We never learned 
 whether he was identified or not.
 
 Pioneer Steamboating 197 
 
 One night while my boat was tied up at 
 "Island Number Ten," where a few short years 
 before the great battle was fought between the 
 Union and Confederate gunboats and batteries 
 of the forts, I witnessed a strange accident, which 
 never would have been explained if I had not 
 been present. 
 
 A big barge loaded with sand was anchored 
 along shore, and I recall that a very large tree 
 overhung this barge, and that the bank upon 
 which the tree was growing had been under- 
 mined greatly by the rushing waters, which 
 caused the tree to lean over the river at a sharp 
 angle. During the night I heard a big steam- 
 boat coming up the river, and from the sounds 
 floating through the air from its direction, and 
 from what happened shortly afterward, I am 
 satisfied that every soul on board was drunk. 
 The steamboat was plowing along at a rapid 
 rate in close proximity to the bank, and ran 
 into the barge, upon which a solitary man was 
 stationed, and which sank to the bottom of the 
 river like a rock. I knew that the man on the 
 barge must be in the river and ran to the rail 
 of the boat and called to him in loud tones. 
 He was struggling in the water, but managed to 
 grasp the pole which I held out to him, and I
 
 198 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 finally succeeded in getting him on board my 
 steamboat. In the meantime the steamboat which 
 sank his barge continued on up the stream with- 
 out a pause, while the shouts and sounds of 
 music and dancing floated back to us on the 
 breeze. 
 
 Fortunately for the owners of the barge, I 
 had secured the name of this steamboat, and 
 they were afterward able to recover damages 
 from its owners. The next morning I discovered 
 that the big tree which had on the previous day 
 overhung the barge was also missing, so the boat 
 must have been traveling pretty close to the 
 bank, at least close enough to topple it over. 
 The banks of the river at this point were so 
 steep and high that it was impossible for a 
 man to clamber up them, and my struggling 
 friend would undoubtedly have perished in the 
 Great Father of Waters but for my watchful- 
 ness and timely aid. 
 
 New Orleans was a very beautiful city in 
 those days, and a very busy one, but in the 
 business in which I was engaged I naturally 
 saw more of the river front than of any other 
 portion, and that consisted principally of negroes, 
 watermelons, sugar and cotton. There were 
 thousands of black roustabouts engaged in
 
 Pioneer Steamboating 199 
 
 handling sugar barrels and cotton bales on the 
 wharves; and it was an interesting sight to see 
 them loading and unloading vessels all day long 
 and far into the night. There were hundreds 
 of little pickaninnies on every hand, and they 
 were certainly an interesting sight. It was dif- 
 ficult to determine which they loved better, brown 
 sugar or ripe watermelon. 
 
 I recall an occasion on which I saw four 
 little bareheaded and barefooted pickaninnies en- 
 gaged in devouring a huge watermelon fully 
 three feet long, which probably cost them about 
 ten cents, and for which they had no doubt 
 blacked a good many pairs of boots. The man- 
 ner in which they gobbled up this watermelon 
 could only be compared to that of so many little 
 pigs. The melon was split in two the long way 
 and lying on the ground. A part of the time 
 the little black youngsters had pieces of the 
 watermelon in their mouths, and the remainder 
 of the time they had their mouths in the melon, 
 playing the role of pigs to perfection. This 
 was before the day of snapshot cameras, con- 
 sequently I was not able to preserve the pic- 
 ture, save in my memory, but I would give 
 a good many dollars if I now had a genuine 
 reproduction of this scene, as well as of many
 
 200 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 other scenes which I saw in that Southern 
 metropolis. 
 
 These little blacks were almost as numerous 
 as flies in the vicinity of the sugar barrels, and 
 there was nearly always an abundance of the 
 latter about the wharves. Quite often a barrel 
 or hogshead would be short, or the barrel in- 
 jured in some way, and in either case its con- 
 tents would be emptied onto a large tarpaulin 
 until the barrel was fixed or the deficiency in 
 sugar made up, as the case might be. These 
 little blacks were always looking out for just 
 such an opportunity as this, and no occasion of 
 the kind ever escaped them. They always 
 managed to grab a few handfuls, and, as soon 
 as opportunity offered, they were sure to crawl 
 into the hogshead or barrel. All the time, how- 
 ever, they would be busily engaged in prying off 
 hardened cakes of sugar from its staves, for 
 usually the inside of such barrels was very 
 thickly plastered with them, since the sugar 
 was always very damp when shoveled into the 
 barrels. 
 
 When driven out of the barrels and hogsheads 
 these little darkies presented a novel sight; their 
 hands, feet, faces, hair, and what little clothing 
 they usually wore, were plastered with a good
 
 Pioneer Steamboating 201 
 
 coat of sugar, which was sometimes almost in a 
 molasses state. But little did they care, for 
 the flies soon overwhelmed them with evi- 
 dences of keenest affection. I have seen many 
 lying among the cotton bales literally covered 
 with flies. Any other human being would be 
 unable to sleep a minute under such conditions, 
 but the flies did not hold it within their power 
 to disturb the siestas of these happy-go-lucky 
 little blacks. 
 
 In the river, north of the city, there was at 
 this time a veritable flatboat town, where hun- 
 dreds of flatboats were moored to the- banks, and 
 stores and shops of every character flourished 
 thereon. It was a strange and novel life they 
 led under these conditions, and not conducive 
 to good citizenship in the least. 
 
 I remember one boat dweller and his son, a 
 couple of Greeks, who conducted a little plaster of 
 paris art figure factory on their boat; and I became 
 passingly acquainted with them, having visited 
 their boat more out of curiosity than aught else. 
 
 One night I was awakened by screams and 
 the noise of a commotion in the Greek house- 
 boat, and with the engineer of my boat I made 
 a hurried trip to the scene of the noise. Here 
 we surprised a burly negro in the very act of
 
 202 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 killing the Greek boy. We covered the negro 
 with our revolvers and took him prisoner, and 
 then learned that he had already murdered the 
 father of the boy with a large iron bar with 
 which he was trying to kill the son when we ar- 
 rived on the scene. The boy had been struck 
 once by a glancing blow of the bar, but had 
 managed to escape the full force of it. In 
 the negro's pockets we found the money of the 
 dead Greek, and we turned him over to the 
 proper authorities some three or four hours 
 later. He was given a speedy trial and found 
 guilty by a jury and sentenced to be hanged. 
 We did not tarry to see the sentence carried 
 out, but learned that he was duly executed in the 
 name of the law, which we trust was dignified 
 thereby. 
 
 I finally had a good offer for the "Minnie E. 
 Streeter," and as I was at that time ill with a 
 fever, I sold the boat at a profit and closed out 
 my operations on the lower Mississippi. I then 
 went to South Chicago, where I built a boat 
 which I christened "Catherine." This boat I 
 operated for a few months on the Great Lakes and 
 then sold out at a handsome advance on her cost.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 IN THE NEW WEST 
 
 Shortly after the sale of the "Catherine" I 
 went to Bedford, Iowa, where I started a livery 
 stable and omnibus line, and put up a substantial 
 hotel building, which I operated as soon as com- 
 pleted. I made many friends among the citizens 
 of this thriving young city and the traveling 
 public as well. But I made an enemy of the 
 rival hotel proprietor, who also operated an 
 omnibus line, because I carried all passengers to 
 the hotels free of charge, while he operated 
 strictly for profit. So he made up his mind that 
 he would put me out of business by foul means 
 since he could not by fair. 
 
 He had a big rawboned young fellow by the 
 name of "Mont Crabb" as his omnibus driver, 
 and he soon stirred him up to provoke a fight 
 with me, which was staged on the platform of 
 the railroad station. Crabb was younger and 
 much larger than I, and he gave me a hard 
 fight up and down the platform for several 
 minutes, but I finally succeeded in knocking
 
 204 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 him out, and he immediately resigned his job 
 and bothered me no more. Then a big negro 
 from St. Joseph, Missouri, a nearby city, was 
 hired for the purpose of retiring me from the 
 business, and I afterward learned the exact 
 amount that he was paid for the piece of work. 
 One morning at the depot a traveling man 
 handed me his grip and stepped into my omnibus. 
 At the same instant the colored fellow grabbed 
 the handle of the grip, and attempted to take it 
 from me. He finally pulled so hard that his 
 end of the handle gave way, and I was pulling 
 so hard in the other direction that when his 
 weight was removed the grip flew entirely over 
 the top of the 'bus and landed in the middle 
 of the street, then deep with mud. The travel- 
 ing man protested in strong language at such 
 misuse of his property, but at that time I had 
 no opportunity to mollify him. I had other 
 business to attend to just at that moment, for I 
 knew that the hour of conflict between the 
 black and myself was at hand, and I lost no time 
 in getting into action. 
 
 We fought all over the platform, raining blow 
 for blow upon each other without any sign of 
 failing strength on either side, and without either 
 one being able to land a knockout blow. It flashed
 
 In the New West 205 
 
 through my mind at this juncture that I had 
 always been told that colored men could be hurt 
 worse by a blow on the shins than by one on 
 the head, so I concluded this was my chance to 
 try out the experiment, and it worked like a 
 charm. From that moment on his eyes began 
 to pay more attention to the movements of my 
 feet than to my fists, and by and by I caught 
 him napping and landed a blow which rolled 
 him off the platform and onto the steps of my 
 'bus, where I soon reduced him to a state of 
 submission. 
 
 This was the longest fight I ever had with any 
 one man, and the longest I ever saw with one 
 exception. At Windsor, Canada, I saw a fight 
 between a white man and a negro which lasted 
 longer, and finally resulted in the death of both. 
 When these two men, crazy with anger, were 
 unable to vanquish each other without weapons, 
 they seized pitchforks and made quick work of 
 each other. Our fight lasted for fully twenty 
 minutes, and during this time the sympathies of 
 the people about the depot and on the train 
 standing nearby were warmly manifested in my 
 behalf, doubtless due to my color, and the fur- 
 ther fact that I was much the smaller man of 
 the two.
 
 206 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 After this I was not molested in the operation 
 of my 'bus line, and I certainly appreciated 
 the change in the program, for I did not desire 
 any controversy of the kind that had been forced 
 upon me, but I did not propose to be driven 
 from an honest enterprise by threatening and 
 bulldozing methods. That course of procedure 
 never worked on me, as I think a number of 
 Chicago gentlemen can well testify. 
 
 Iowa and northwestern Missouri were com- 
 paratively new country at that time, and formed 
 the rendezvous for many notorious characters, 
 the most prominent of whom were the James 
 and Younger brothers, whose boyhood homes 
 were in the wild hills of that part of Missouri. 
 They were free characters throughout all that 
 country and none dared molest them, for the 
 majority of the people of that locality were their 
 friends and ready to aid them at a moment's 
 notice. In fact, they were really popular gentle- 
 men, regarded much as Robin Hood and his 
 band were by the common folk of the country 
 throughout which they operated, and among 
 whom they found safe refuge several hundred 
 years ago. 
 
 I often met the James boys at Morgantown, 
 Savannah, and St. Joseph, where they circulated
 
 In the New West 207 
 
 openly and made no effort to conceal their 
 identity. 
 
 One night two traveling salesmen from Chi- 
 cago, Billy Perdue and Jack Best, were stopping 
 at my hotel and thought they would like to 
 break the monotony of the evening by attending 
 a dance at Morgantown, a few miles distant. So 
 they hired me to drive them to that place, which 
 I did. I also attended the dance, since I was 
 fairly well acquainted in the vicinity. The James 
 brothers were at the dance, and were personally 
 known to Best and myself. We presumed that 
 Perdue knew them also ; but in this we were mis- 
 taken, as we later learned to Perdue's sorrow. 
 
 During the dance Jesse James, who in some 
 manner unknown to any of us, had learned that 
 Perdue had collected several hundred dollars 
 for his firm during the day, approached Perdue 
 and said, "What would you do if the James 
 brothers were to tackle you?" Perdue replied 
 in a boasting manner that he would take care 
 of them, not knowing the identity of his inter- 
 locutor. Angered by his remark Jesse James 
 immediately covered Perdue with a revolver, at 
 the same time revealing his identity to him, and 
 ordered him to hand over the money he had in 
 his possession. Perdue, who was much frightened,
 
 208 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 produced over sixteen hundred and fifty dollars 
 and passed it over to the American Robin Hood. 
 James then gave back fifty dollars to Perdue, and 
 told him to pay his hotel bill and wire his house 
 that he had been robbed by the James brothers; 
 and, as a parting word of admonition, he told 
 Perdue not to be so free with his tongue in the 
 future when he was among strangers, which 
 advice, the latter no doubt followed forever 
 after. If we had known that Perdue was un- 
 acquainted with the presence of the James 
 brothers, and that it was dangerous to talk about 
 them in that community, we would have posted 
 him in advance, but not being aware of his 
 ignorance we had given him no warning. 
 
 I operated the hotel and livery business at 
 Bedford for a period of about three years, and 
 then sold the livery business at a profitable figure, 
 and shortly afterward a stranger unexpectedly 
 made me an offer of ten thousand seven hun- 
 dred dollars for my hotel and furnishings, and 
 I accepted his offer. At the end of thirty days 
 the deal was closed and he paid me the pur- 
 chase price in cash at one of the banks of 
 that little city. I then told my sister, who was 
 living with me and assisting me in the operation 
 of the hotel, to pack our trunks at once, since
 
 In the New West 209 
 
 I had decided that I wished to go to Chicago. 
 We left Bedford and I have never since visited 
 the place, although I cherish many friendships 
 I made during my three years' residence there.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 ENTERTAINING A CHICAGO PUBLIC 
 
 On my return to Chicago I looked about for 
 several months before deciding on making any 
 business investment, and finally purchased an in- 
 terest in the old "Woods Museum," already 
 famous as a place of local entertainment. 
 
 During the six months that I was half owner 
 of this place, such famous personages as Victoria 
 Woodhull, Tenny C. Claflin and many others 
 appeared there. The latter afterwards married 
 a member of the English House of Lords, who 
 recently died and left her an enormous fortune. 
 She was one of the pioneer advocates of woman 
 suffrage, and created quite a furore in Chicago 
 when the doctrine was then new. 
 
 After a few months I sold my interest in the 
 museum, and with "Dutchy Lehmann," visited 
 many fairs throughout the country during the fall 
 of that year, selling our wares from stands after 
 the manner of modern fakirs. We were at the 
 Kansas State Fair when the James brothers
 
 Entertaining a Chicago Public 211 
 
 robbed the ticket office of the gate receipts of 
 the day, and accidentally killed a young woman 
 with a stray shot. 
 
 On our return to Chicago I purchased an in- 
 terest in the "Apollo Theatre," then a very 
 popular place of amusement, while Lehmann 
 opened up a cheap store in a small building on 
 the northwest corner of State and Adams Streets, 
 afterward to become famous as "The Fair"; but 
 neither of us had any premonition of its coming 
 prosperity or wonderful development Lehmann 
 and his friends always patronized my places of 
 amusement, as did "Old Hutch," the Wheat King, 
 Oscar Fields, George M. Pullman, and many 
 other famous characters of that day. 
 
 Lehmann had an English floorwalker at this 
 time who was also a frequenter of my theatre, 
 and he proposed a novel feature on one occasion 
 when nothing unusual happened to be booked 
 for the evening. He wagered a hundred dollars 
 that he could whip any dog which might be put 
 into the ring with him, accepting all comers, and 
 he lived up to his contract to appear ready for 
 business. He was a baldheaded gentleman, and 
 met the dogs 'on all fours, after their own 
 standard; but all of them declined to fight when 
 put in the ring with him; so he won the bet
 
 212 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 without a scrimmage. The police had been in- 
 terested spectators of the bloodless contest, and 
 after the close of the entertainment arrested him, 
 but I gave bond for his appearance in court the 
 next morning. 
 
 I don't even remember the charge placed 
 against him, but I do remember the questions 
 propounded to him by the court, and his answers. 
 The scene, though brief, was better than the 
 previous evening's entertainment. The judge's 
 questioning after the prisoner's arraignment pro- 
 ceeded like this: 
 
 Q. What is your nationality? A. I have 
 none. 
 
 Q. What country were you born in? A. I 
 was not born in any country. 
 
 Q. What state were you born in? A. I was 
 not born in any state. 
 
 Q. What city were you born in? A. I was 
 not born in any city. 
 
 Q. What town were you born in? A. I was 
 not born in any town. 
 
 The court at this stage of the proceedings was 
 both angry and disgusted, and made no effort 
 to conceal it, blurting out the remark, "Your 
 fine is one hundred dollars!" 
 
 The prisoner, not in the least perturbed, then
 
 Entertaining a Chicago Public 213 
 
 said to the court, "Your honor, you didn't ask 
 me where I was born." 
 
 The court, then following this cue, addressed 
 the suggested interrogatory to the prisoner, who 
 replied, "Your honor, I was born on the high 
 seas." The court then addressed the clerk of the 
 court, "Mr. Clerk, remit the fine"; and to the 
 prisoner he said, "You are discharged. Go home 
 and fight all the dogs you wish to." 
 
 The prisoner then thanked the court and joined 
 his waiting friends, among whom were Lehmann 
 and myself, who joked him unmercifully over 
 the affair, which he took good humoredly. 
 
 I afterward sold the Apollo to Mike McDon- 
 ald, at a handsome profit, and retired temporarily 
 from public entertaining. McDonald made an 
 enormous fortune out of this theatre and other 
 kindred ventures, and became famous in his old 
 age as an elevated railroad magnate. He has 
 since passed away.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 BATTLES ON THE LAKE FRONT 
 
 After these days of amusing the public were 
 over I turned my attention once more to the old 
 love and lure of adventure in strange lands, or 
 rather I made preparation to do so, but fate 
 willed that my adventures were to be nearer at 
 hand and of an entirely different character than 
 I had contemplated. They were nevertheless 
 sanguinary enough to test the eternal qualities and 
 the fighting caliber of any man who ever lived. 
 
 I had met an old friend, Captain Bowen, who 
 had spent many years in Honduras, and during 
 that time had ingratiated himself with the govern- 
 ment of that country, securing large concessions 
 of land and a commission in the army of that 
 new republic. He advised me that the govern- 
 ment very much desired to have regular steam- 
 boats plying on certain of its rivers, and that if 
 I would build a boat for that purpose and navi- 
 gate the same in accordance with their desires 
 that I could secure a very large grant of valuable 
 land and ample compensation for my services, and
 
 Battles on the Lake Front 215 
 
 at the same time build up a lucrative business. 
 The plan was very attractive, and during the 
 winter and spring of 1886 I built a steamboat, 
 which I christened the "Reutan" late in that 
 spring. I determined to try the steamer out on 
 Lake Michigan first, and fitted her out for pas- 
 senger traffic, making regular trips to Milwaukee 
 and other local ports every day for several weeks. 
 
 On the 10th day of July, 1886, I took a private 
 party to Milwaukee, and during the trip the lake 
 became exceedingly rough and stormy; in fact, 
 so much so that the party decided not to risk 
 the return trip, and we endeavored to return to 
 Chicago alone. By the time we reached Racine 
 we encountered a terrific storm which did not 
 abate its fury for many hours, and by that time 
 the "Reutan" was a badly damaged wreck lying 
 on a sandbar off. Chicago harbor, behind the 
 government breakwater on the north shore. 
 
 It was about ten o'clock at night when we 
 drifted near the breakwater, and just at this 
 juncture the engine broke and became useless. 
 We were then at the mercy of the wind and 
 waves, helplessly drifting about. Fortunately, 
 or unfortunately, just as you may choose to judge 
 by subsequent events, the wind drove us behind 
 the breakwater, narrowly missing a collision with
 
 216 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 the pier. Just as soon as we were clear of this 
 danger I cast anchor overboard, hoping to pre- 
 vent the steamer from running aground on the 
 beach. But the sea was so strong that it not 
 only broke over the boat in tremendous waves, 
 but it also dragged the anchor across the bottom 
 of the lake, which at that point was not very deep. 
 
 The boat finally stranded in a shallow body of 
 water when four hundred fifty-one feet from the 
 shore. This was at three o'clock in the morn- 
 ing of the following day, and we had gone 
 through terrible experiences since drifting behind 
 the breakwater shortly after ten o'clock on the 
 night before. During this interval the waves 
 dashed over the boat hundreds of times with 
 terrific force. I was the only man on deck. My 
 wife and the crew were driven to the berths for 
 safety, and I tied a strong rope about my waist 
 and resolved to witness from the decks whatever 
 happened. Twice I was swept overboard by 
 tremendous waves, but managed to climb back 
 to deck overhand after the wave had receded 
 and I could approach the boat in safety. The 
 waves soon dashed in every door of the cabins, 
 and swept through the boat from end to end, 
 and from side to side. The steamer was flooded. 
 
 I had a lifeboat and a liferaft on the vessel
 
 Battles on the Lake Front 217 
 
 but both were swept overboard and landed high 
 and dry on the nearby beach, where they were 
 noticed by friends in the early morning. The 
 furniture, chairs and sofas were piled up against 
 one end of the cabin by the force of the waves 
 sweeping through the inside of the vessel. 
 Finally the boat was pounded so hard on the 
 sandy bottom of the lake that the bottom of 
 the boat was rent, and the seams of the hull 
 opened up. After this it soon filled with water 
 and sand and sank to the bottom, which for- 
 tunately was close at hand, for the hull was 
 about twelve inches above the water line after the 
 sea had subsided, and the bulwarks were about 
 two feet above. 
 
 Shortly after dawn friends on the beach dis- 
 covered our plight, and utilizing our lifeboat, 
 which they found thereon, came to our rescue 
 and brought us ashore. By this time, however, 
 the sea was abating and our real dangers from 
 that source were over. Our rescuer was an old 
 friend by the name of Dugan, who has since 
 passed away. 
 
 Investigation proved that it would be impos- 
 sible to pull the boat off this sandy bar with a 
 tug, and that she was too badly damaged in her 
 frame and bottom to float. I decided that this
 
 218 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 location was to be my home, and I have never 
 revoked that decision from that day to this. I 
 did, however, make plans at once for the ulti- 
 mate rescue of the vessel, which I knew would 
 be a hard and tedious task; but I had often en- 
 countered difficult tasks and consequently this 
 was not altogether a new experience. I buckled 
 down to the work very shortly thereafter. I 
 discovered that sand had drifted and banked up 
 considerably, considering the space of time that 
 had elapsed, behind the boat, that is between the 
 boat and the shore. I concluded that I would 
 build up a rock wall on the sea side of the boat 
 and thus aid the deposit. 
 
 I then entered into contract with several ex- 
 cavators and contractors who had refuse stone and 
 brick which they wished to dispose of, and they 
 brought hundreds of loads of these materials to 
 the shore at the point nearest to the vessel, and 
 I there reloaded them into the yawl and took 
 them out and dropped them around the boat. 
 By the end of November I had raised a bulwark 
 about the vessel which had caused sand to fill in 
 entirely beneath it so that I could put jackscrews 
 under it and gradually lift it above the water. 
 During this process I was also filling sand be- 
 neath the boat as I lifted it up inch by inch.
 
 Battles on the Lake Front 219 
 
 This was a very slow process, but the only one at 
 my command. The boat was now three feet above 
 the water, and I already had a small island con- 
 structed by my own efforts, which island was 
 long to be my home. In the meantime I had 
 also repaired the cabin so that it was once more 
 habitable and free from all evidences of the ter- 
 rible storm, and now that winter was at hand 
 we felt that we could endure the rigors of that 
 location in its cozy interior, and we did. For we 
 lived in the boat many winters and summers. 
 
 It was a novel sight, however, during that first 
 winter. The sprays of every storm dashed en- 
 tirely over the vessel, and freezing weather gave 
 our home a complete coating of ice which froze 
 in the most grotesque figures. It was indeed a 
 natural curiosity, and friends and strangers often 
 came down to us across the ice to see if we could 
 really survive such an experience. The police 
 came frequently to see us during the first winter, 
 and were far more welcome visitors than they 
 afterward became, as you will readily under- 
 stand by and by. 
 
 This boat remained our home until the spring 
 of 1893, by which time I had thoroughly re- 
 paired and relaunched her, and rechristened her 
 as well. This time I named her after, my. wife,
 
 220 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 "The Maria." I then engaged her in passenger 
 traffic from the city to the World's Fair Grounds, 
 and enjoyed a very profitable and pleasant 
 patronage. After this relaunching of the vessel 
 our home for some time was on an old scow 
 upon which I had built a two-story cabin, all 
 of which stood upon the ground I had in the 
 meantime constructed and built up from the 
 bottom of the lake until it stood high and dry 
 above the water, a process which I shall now 
 describe, as well as the extent of it. 
 
 At the time of the relaunching of the vessel I 
 had filled in all of the space between my boat and 
 the shore to the west and south, and much far- 
 ther to the northward, as well as more than thirty 
 rods to the east and northeast. This was a terri- 
 tory of one hundred and eighty-six acres, long 
 known to everybody in Chicago as "Streeterville" 
 and as the "District of Lake Michigan," the 
 latter name having been given to the tract by 
 myself, the former by the people of Chicago and 
 vicinity because of my creation, occupation and 
 ownership of it. It bears both names to this 
 day, not only among the people, but in the daily 
 press, the public records and documents of the 
 city, the county and the legislature of the state 
 of Illinois.
 
 Battles on the Lake Front 221 
 
 At the time I stranded, building operations on 
 a grand scale were in operation in all parts of 
 the city which had been devastated by the great 
 fire some years previous, and by this condition I 
 was especially favored. Excavators and con- 
 tractors were very desirous of obtaining dumping 
 grounds as near as possible to their work for all 
 superfluous earth, rock, brick, and refuse which 
 were of no use to them. My filling operations 
 were particularly inviting to them, and I had 
 no difficulty in making contracts with them by 
 which I received millions of loads of refuse and 
 earth with which to fill in the territory about my 
 island home, as I have already related. Some of 
 them even paid for the privilege at an agreed 
 price per load. 
 
 Notwithstanding these conditions it was a slow 
 process, owing to the adverse action of the wind 
 and waves. Sometimes after I had brought 
 several acres above the water line, a storm 
 would wash them away in a single night, and 
 I would then be obliged to fill up again by 
 the same slow process of unloading wagon after 
 wagon for weeks at a time. There was one 
 recompense flowing from these disasters of the 
 wind and waves ; there would usually be uncovered 
 considerable quantities of lead, zinc, copper and
 
 222 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 other valuable junk, which lying exposed in the 
 shallow water, I soon converted to possession. 
 Occasionally I would be fortunate enough to find 
 silver and gold coins, which at that time came in 
 very handy, since I had no fixed income. I real- 
 ized, however, that I was building a very valuable 
 homestead which in the end would fully repay 
 me for the expenditure of my time and labor, and 
 I am yet living in that hope, a hope which has 
 been long deferred so far as any real enjoyment 
 of my possessions is concerned. 
 
 After I had virtually completed my filling-in 
 operations as related, I had the tract surveyed 
 and platted, and it was at this juncture that I 
 learned of the displeasure of a lot of millionaires 
 who imagined that the time was ripe to engineer 
 a conspiracy to rob me of my hard earned prop- 
 erty, and their operations will be fully detailed 
 as we go along with this story at various stages. 
 
 At the time I was stranded, the location of 
 some of the homes of the millionaire colony of 
 the North Shore were not particularly valuable, 
 nor even desirable for residence purposes. The 
 entire frontage for rods back from the shore was 
 low and swampy, and the location of the present 
 palace or castle of the Palmer family was fa- 
 miliarly known as the "stink pond," because of
 
 Battles on the Lake Front 223 
 
 the universal use of the pond there to throw 
 garbage and dead animals into, and the odor- 
 iferous notoriety of the location as a natural 
 consequence. All this was later filled in, but 
 it was for many years an undesirable locality. 
 
 And while we are surveying this locality it 
 might be well to tell the truth about the occupa- 
 tion of the gentlemen who afterward claimed to 
 own these tracts of land. All of them were in 
 fact "squatters" far beyond the meander line of 
 the lake, but that fact never seemed to disturb 
 them, and theirs were the loudest voices to pro- 
 claim me a squatter and a usurper, when as a 
 matter of fact there was not a particle of land 
 for me to squat on when I was stranded at the 
 place, as I have related. This only illustrates the 
 truth of the old saying that people who live in 
 glass houses will often be foolish enough to throw 
 stones at others. In this instance the hostility 
 was the outcome of a despicable and avaricious 
 personal greed and envy. The great value of 
 all the lands in this locality was the result of the 
 later influx of thousands of people in close prox- 
 imity on every hand, and not due to anything 
 which the owners did upon the land. 
 
 When the millionaires came to realize that I 
 was indeed a landowner they immediately set
 
 224 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 actively to work to form a conspiracy to rob me of 
 my possessions by fair means or foul; and, as 
 you will perceive, their efforts were confined 
 principally to the latter. If they ever made a 
 truly lawful move I never heard of it, and cer- 
 tainly none of them had any vestige of claim 
 which was worthy of the least legal consider- 
 ation to a particle of land I had built up from 
 the sea. I will demonstrate this more fully later 
 on. 
 
 Notwithstanding the existence of the "Forcible 
 Entry and Detainer Statute" since the days of 
 King Richard, several hundreds of years before, 
 these criminally inclined millionaires thought 
 their sweet wills ought to be superior to the wis- 
 dom and justice of the philosophy which under- 
 lay this statute, and which had been recognized 
 not only by the people of that day, but by the 
 generations which had succeeded them. 
 
 This statute forbade landlords, or anyone claim- 
 ing the right of possession to any lands, to take 
 the law into their own hands and forcibly dis- 
 possess the occupant, but compelled them in all 
 cases to institute an action in some court of 
 proper jurisdiction, so that all ejections might be 
 obtained by due process of law alone, and not 
 otherwise. This also gave the occupant his day
 
 DISTRICT OF 
 LAKE MICHIGAN U- S. A. 
 
 OFFICIAL MAP 
 O m of Survey 
 
 and Subdivision of a tract 
 of land lying east of and 
 
 adjoining Sections 
 A W & 10 T. 39 N.R. 14 E. 
 of 3rd P. M. 
 
 River
 
 Battles on the Lake Front 22$ 
 
 in court, and none but outlaws at heart have ever 
 at any time disputed the justice and wisdom of 
 this salutary statute, which has now been enacted 
 into the statutory law of every state in the Union. 
 
 These millionaires dared not come into court 
 and bring a suit to dispossess and eject me under 
 the law, because they could not show that they 
 possessed any title whatsoever to a foot of this 
 land, hence they resorted to other tactics of the 
 unlawful kind and character. 
 
 Their first move was to hire numerous thugs 
 and private detectives to forcibly dispossess me, 
 and when I successfully resisted with due force, 
 then they would go into the old so-called "justice 
 shops" and charge me with the infraction of 
 petty laws of the misdemeanor type, such as 
 assault, unlawful assembly, rioting, disorderly 
 conduct, malicious trespass, and a host of similar 
 offenses. They were never able to prove any 
 of them to the satisfaction of a judge or jury, 
 for I was always able to establish the fact that 
 they had come down there to forcibly dispossess 
 and eject me, and that all of the consequent 
 trouble had arisen over my defense of my own 
 home and the rights attendant thereto. 
 
 These defeats seemed to sting the millionaire 
 colony to the quick, and they resorted finally to
 
 226 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 more desperate and more criminal measures in 
 order to accomplish their infamous purposes. 
 They did not come quickly to this latter pro- 
 gram. It was only after a long series of battles 
 upon the land and subsequent defeats in courts, 
 that their murderous purpose was finally formed. 
 Realizing that they could not easily eject me by 
 hiring these bands of thugs and detectives to en- 
 gage in fisticuffs with me, they resolved to elim- 
 inate me entirely from the scene of action and 
 from this earthly life as well. 
 
 Their plan was to have a gang of thugs 
 and detectives of bad reputation engage me in a 
 conflict, and while I was thus engaged have some 
 trusty on the outer fringe of the crowd carefully 
 pick me off with a well directed shot, and thus 
 forever settle my claim of ownership to this land. 
 This was certainly a novel scheme to adjudicate 
 the merits of the controversy; but it was destined 
 to failure, for they had counted not only without 
 their host, but without the necessary knowledge 
 of human nature and the proneness of murder 
 and its secrets to "out," as has been said from 
 time immemorial. 
 
 Their plans were well laid, but they did not 
 discover the janitor of their club house lying in 
 such a position that he overheard the whole plan,
 
 Battles on the Lake Front 227 
 
 in which he was not a participator in any way. 
 He was a true man, and while he did not wish 
 to openly denounce them and lose his position, 
 he did not wish them success in their unholy 
 endeavor, and soon disclosed their plans to me 
 under promise of secrecy on my part. This I 
 readily assented to, thankful to him for his 
 humane instincts and friendly wishes, though an 
 enemy to his own employers. I was glad to get 
 the tip and thus be prepared to save my life. 
 
 Their plan on this particular occasion, as re- 
 lated to me by this old Swedish janitor of their 
 club, was to have a gang of thugs and private 
 detectives visit me at three o'clock in the morn- 
 ing and engage me in conflict, and under cover 
 of darkness and freedom from outside inter- 
 ference with their unlawful acts, and also from 
 the eyes of the disinterested world, to hand me 
 my passport to the Great Beyond. But, as I 
 have said before, they counted without their host. 
 Perhaps they were not cognizant of the fact that 
 I had already undergone thousands of dangerous 
 experiences long before I ever landed in Chicago 
 waters; and that I had successfully dodged a 
 million sharpshooter bullets of the "Johnnies" in 
 the defense of this Union and its imperishable 
 institutions, a braver band by far than these gangs
 
 228 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 of criminal crooks; and that I had not forgotten 
 the cunning and strategy gained by years of 
 danger in a noble cause. My father always 
 taught me that a man's home was his castle, and 
 that it was not only his privilege but his duty 
 to defend it with his life, if need be, and that he 
 was no man, but a cowardly skunk, if he shrank 
 from the duty. So when they threw down the 
 gauntlet to me, I accepted the challenge in defense 
 of my home, although I well knew that they 
 were not honorable foes. 
 
 On this particular occasion I prepared im- 
 mediately for the defense, and had all of my 
 arms well loaded, and the ammunition handily 
 distributed. My most effective weapon in those 
 days was an old musket of the army type, sawed 
 off until the barrel was very short, so that it 
 could be used on due occasion as a war club 
 and with terrible effect, and I am sorry to say 
 that I was often compelled to wield it in this 
 fashion, for this conflict in the District of Lake 
 Michigan was for several years worse than an 
 Indian warfare, and resolved itself into a struggle 
 of the survival of the fittest, and I laid claim to 
 the latter right. 
 
 On the following morning, as had been dis- 
 closed to me by my Swedish friend, at about three
 
 Battles on the Lake Front 229 
 
 o'clock, I both heard and discerned a gang of 
 men approaching my habitation, and I promptly 
 challenged their presence by an inquiry as to their 
 purposes on my premises, which at once started 
 a controversy of words, and shortly thereafter 
 advances on their part were met by defensive 
 blows on my part. I made a great deal of noise, 
 and thus aroused the people who lived in the 
 neighborhood to the westward, who afterward 
 told me that they heard much of the colloquy. 
 
 Finally, after many blows had been struck, 
 they made a rush for me, and I retreated in good 
 shape, climbing up the steps of my old scow, 
 on which my house was built. It stood about 
 three feet above the ground, hence the necessity 
 for steps. I had my trusty musket handily placed 
 for use at the top of these steps. Perceiving that 
 I was closely pursued, and that one of my pur- 
 suers (the chosen one spoken about by my 
 Swedish friend as selected to finish my career 
 with a well directed rifle bullet) was making 
 the balls from a Winchester whizz uncomfortably 
 close to me, I seized the old musket, which I had 
 previously well loaded with an extraordinary 
 amount of small shot, and gave them two charges 
 at close range from different angles as they were 
 trying to get aboard at the bottom of the steps.
 
 230 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 I shall never forget the ludicrous situation 
 which resulted from these well directed shots. 
 It seemed that everybody had been hit, for never 
 in my life have I seen so many pairs of shoes 
 sticking up in the air at one time as on that 
 occasion. It seemed to tumble every one of them 
 to the earth. Such howling and squalling I 
 have never heard since the Indian demonstra- 
 tions of my boyhood. Then there was a wild 
 scramble to escape further damage, and I wit- 
 nessed their ignominious flight without hav- 
 ing my skin punctured by any of their bullets. 
 I was told that a number of them had their 
 faces filled with shot. A few had shot in their 
 tongues. The doctors on the North Side were 
 kept busy for several hours picking these small 
 shot from different portions of their anatomy. 
 
 Later a squad of police came to arrest me 
 on a serious charge, but I held them off, and told 
 them that when they sent a single officer down in 
 a decent fashion that I would surrender; but 
 that I would not go with a gang. I further 
 declared that I did not trust them a bit further 
 than I did the gang I had that day vanquished, 
 but that I was afraid of no living man when he 
 came singly. They acceded the point, and went 
 about their business. Afterward Officer Kehoe
 
 Battles on the Lake Front 231 
 
 came down and advised me that I was wanted 
 at the Chicago Avenue Police Station, and as 
 I had already made arrangements for giving bond, 
 I went with him, signed my bond and returned to 
 the homestead within a very few minutes. 
 
 Next day the case against me was tried out 
 in police court, and I defended myself, examining 
 the state's witnesses on cross examination. I 
 was able to speedily disclose the fact that these 
 men had been hired by certain millionaires to 
 come down to my premises for the purpose of 
 ejecting me forcibly and unlawfully. I then 
 testified about the information which I had re- 
 ceived from a friend, and the manner in which 
 I had met them, without disclosing the identity 
 of my informant, and the judge thereupon dis- 
 charged me, saying that I was guilty of no of- 
 fense under the law; and that even if I were 
 not lawfully in possession of the lands (a matter 
 upon which he did not pretend to pass) that I 
 could not be ejected without due process of law. 
 He also declared that the courts were open to 
 adjudicate such matters as that; that force was 
 unlawful; that even though I were ejected by 
 such means it would not determine the matter; 
 and that I could recover possession of the premises 
 upon an appeal to the courts.
 
 232 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 On another occasion they hired a gang of 
 constables, deputy sheriffs, private detectives, and 
 thugs to forcibly eject me. These officers were 
 not there in their official capacity, but unofficially 
 as hired tools of these millionaires, and I was 
 fully aware of this fact. This gang busied them- 
 selves in trying to gain possession of my home 
 and to remove my household and other effects 
 therefrom. We had numerous clashes every day 
 for almost a week, and there were many personal 
 encounters resulting in considerable bloodshed. 
 They were numerous, and I could not watch 
 everywhere at one and the same time. 
 
 I had at that time two habitations. One was on 
 the old scow, in the upper story of which my 
 wife and I lived, while on the first floor I 
 had a sort of shop, with work bench and drill 
 presses, and other pieces of simple machinery 
 such as I needed in the boat business. My wife 
 could usually hold the fort in the upper story 
 while I skirmished around on the outside and 
 tried to protect the place from invasion. I also 
 had the other boat with cabin on it, and I tried 
 to prevent them from destroying it. It was 
 all that I could look after and I had my hands 
 full. 
 
 One day they almost succeeded in ejecting us,
 
 Battles on the Lake Front 233 
 
 being able three times to throw our furniture 
 and piano from the house, but each time I man- 
 aged with a little assistance to drive them off by 
 the use of my guns and replace the furniture in 
 the home. They would swear out warrants, and 
 while I was away, take advantage of my absence 
 to throw the household effects out of the house. 
 I was also obliged occasionally to make trips 
 down town to buy provisions and ammunition, for' 
 these would run out. During these absences, 
 which the detectives were always looking out for, 
 advantage would be taken to attempt ejection. 
 My wife, however, was a brave woman, and able 
 to handle a gun when necessary to keep them 
 from the top story of the house, and they learned 
 to respect her commands after receiving a few 
 bird shot in places where they would have pre- 
 ferred more ease. 
 
 During this week I had also turned the tables 
 on them somewhat by swearing out John Doe 
 warrants for a number of them whose names were 
 unknown; in fact, all were unknown personages 
 to me. I had also taken the constable who had 
 the service of these writs on his hands into my 
 house, as well as a few trusted friends of fighting 
 caliber; so on the very next appearance of the 
 gang on the premises we sallied forth and ar-
 
 234 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 rested them after a stubborn fight, and I had 
 the satisfaction of taking them to the Chicago 
 Avenue Police Station and locking them up; 
 but it required a good beating to subdue them, 
 and make them take this sort of medicine. 
 I was in the mood for that sort of work just then, 
 and many a constable, detective, and sheriff felt 
 the butt of that old musket about his head and 
 shoulders, and many of them passed into the 
 dreamland stage by the same route. They were 
 a rough gang of crooks and nothing less than just 
 such work would reduce them to subjection. 
 
 During this week about eighty police camped 
 on the borders of the premises, anticipating the 
 possible death of some of the combatants, and 
 these gangs of hired crooks often called on the 
 police to assist them; but the police at this stage 
 of the situation refused to interfere, and rather 
 seemed to enjoy watching the beatings which we 
 administered from day to day. At times there 
 were hundreds of citizens attracted to the locality 
 by the scrimmages, which were almost of hourly 
 occurrence, and by adroit language and action I 
 managed to draw the sympathy of the crowd, who 
 were adverse to the tactics employed by these hired 
 tools of those who were too cowardly to come to 
 the front in person and fight their own battles.
 
 Battles on the Lake Front 235 
 
 I think it was the attitude of these crowds 
 which largely tempered the feeling of the police, 
 who like to be popular whenever it is possible. 
 Finally the police began to jolly and jeer at 
 the gangs of hired tools, when they saw that I 
 was getting the best of my opponents, and that 
 they were not going to be able to eject me. I did 
 not have many friends who had the nerve to give 
 a helping hand, but there were a few hardy spirits 
 who put in some good licks for me whenever they 
 were called upon. With their aid I was always 
 able to get my household goods back into the house 
 whenever they were thrown out by the gangs. 
 We did not have our meals on time that week, 
 but we didn't miss a single one, of that you may 
 be sure. 
 
 One evening near the close of the week I had 
 gone down town to sign some appearance bonds, 
 and before going I had an idea that possibly 
 some of the detectives and officers would try to 
 get into the house before my return, since they 
 were always on guard and watching for my pos- 
 sible absence to get a chance to do some dastardly 
 act. It occurred to me that if they succeeded, in 
 getting possession of the lower story I would 
 not be able to get to my guns, and that I could 
 not drive them away with my revolvers. So I
 
 236 Captain Streeter f Pioneer. 
 
 loosened a board on the outside of the house, a 
 piece of weatherboard, and slipped both the 
 musket and the double-barreled shotgun inside 
 and then replaced the board, and went on my 
 way. It was then almost dark, and my action 
 was unobserved. 
 
 After I had transacted the business down town 
 and was returning home, I met a small boy who 
 was a friend of mine, and he told me that five 
 deputy sheriffs had taken possession of the first 
 story of my house on the scow, but that my wife 
 was holding the fort above. We at once cau- 
 tiously approached the house, and I removed 
 the guns from their hiding place, and then care- 
 fully took a peep into the first story of the house. 
 These officers had brought an oil stove into the 
 place to keep them from freezing, and a lamp 
 to afford a light, and were all huddled closely 
 about the stove, laughing and joking about the 
 easy manner in which they had outgeneraled me 
 and obtained possession at last of the coveted 
 place. They had forgotten the old saying that 
 "he laughs best who laughs last." 
 
 It was no laughing matter with me, and they 
 were soon painfully aware of that fact. I care- 
 fully considered the situation, and then made up 
 my mind that the logical thing to do first was to
 
 Battles on the Lake Front 237 
 
 rob them of that light, when I would have them 
 at my mercy, for not one of them would dare 
 to come out of the door. I knew that they could 
 shoot, too, but I figured that I could only lose 
 an arm at most, so I carefully drew aim at the 
 light and pulled the trigger, protecting myself 
 as best I could. Fortunately their shots went 
 wild, while I poured a devastating and deafening 
 round of shot into their midst, and at the same 
 time yelled like a Comanche Indian. I taunted 
 and goaded them with the suggestion that I now 
 had them just where I had so long wanted them, 
 and that I proposed to make short work of them, 
 when in fact I did not mean to kill them, but 
 I did mean to give them the scare of their lives, 
 and to beat them up and puncture them with 
 shot before I allowed them to escape me entirely. 
 They had been particularly insulting in their 
 remarks during the scrimmages of the week, 
 and this rankled considerably in my bosom, as 
 well as the known fact that if they had once 
 found a favorable opportunity to murder me they 
 would have done so with the greatest gusto and 
 abandon. They begged like good fellows for 
 liberty and safety, promising to depart never more 
 to disturb me or my possession of these premises. 
 They stated that they had been hired to come
 
 238 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 there to eject and kill me, but that they personally 
 had no quarrel with me, and if liberated they 
 would never lift a finger against me again, and 
 in fact promised to befriend me if given the 
 chance. 
 
 I was to all intents and purposes inexorable. 
 I told them that I did not have the opportunity 
 to entertain them very often, and that I was loth 
 to abandon the hospitalities of the occasion; in 
 fact, that I thought I would be derelict in my 
 duty as a host if I did. As an interlude I would 
 occasionally cut loose with a round of revolver 
 shots from the brace of forty-four caliber weap- 
 ons which I carried and used at that time. They 
 had long since exhausted their ammunition and 
 were virtually at my mercy, a fact which I did 
 not forget nor really abuse. 
 
 I finally kicked in the door and told them 
 that they could clear out as fast as they felt in- 
 clined to do, but they now seemed loth to run 
 the gauntlet past me, evidently fearful of some 
 impending danger. And in that they were not 
 a bit mistaken, for I had prepared a suitable 
 reception for them. After a great deal of con- 
 sultation, they evidently decided that the safest 
 mode of exit was a running jump out of the door. 
 I managed to land on them much after the fashion
 
 Battles on the Lake Front 239 
 
 of hitting a swift ball with a bat, using in lieu 
 of the latter the old sawed-off musket. 
 
 I managed to connect with three of them in 
 rapid succession, and the point of contact was in 
 the neighborhood of the neck, consequently they 
 all dropped on the sand without a murmur or a 
 sound. The remaning two thought that all had 
 gotten safely away. These two made the run 
 at the same time by some mutual blunder, and 
 butted into each other at the doorway, and I 
 landed on both of them about the shoulders 
 instead of the neck. It may have been possible 
 that they were taller than the others, but be that 
 as it may, they jumped out on to the sand yelling 
 like demons and I was in close pursuit, shooting 
 over them as I ran. They were headed toward 
 the lake, and seemed afraid to turn from a straight 
 course, so I ran them into the water, where they 
 were compelled to swim around for fully half 
 a mile in the cold anchor ice, and finally came 
 ashore and sought refuge in the Chicago Avenue 
 water-works pumping station, where I was told 
 they thawed out and related their terrible ex- 
 perience amid the joshing of the members of the 
 fire company nearby, who had witnessed their 
 entrance to the plant. They admitted that they 
 had made a mistake in taking possession of my
 
 240 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 house, and stated that they were through with 
 employment in that line for all time to come. 
 
 While they were in the water I could have 
 killed them easily, but I only desired to frighten 
 them so badly that they would never venture back 
 to my premises again, and I fully accomplished 
 my purpose. 
 
 On returning to the house I found that the 
 three men whom I had batted on the fly were still 
 unconscious and showed no signs of immediate 
 recovery. The boy who had given me timely 
 warning expressed the opinion that they were 
 all dead, a statement in which I did not concur. 
 However, I told him to go and hunt up a cab- 
 man and have them taken to a hospital, and he 
 was not slow in complying with my request. I 
 paid the cabman three dollars and he hauled 
 them away to the nearest hospital, where they 
 were soon resuscitated, and they never troubled 
 me afterward. 
 
 Upon investigation I discovered the reason 
 why they had not all been killed by my bom- 
 bardment. There was a workbench in this room, 
 and this bench had a solid oak top four inches 
 thick on it. This bench they had thrown over 
 on one side and got back of the oak top, and 
 by lying flat on the floor had escaped my bullets,
 
 Battles on the Lake Front 241 
 
 which had riddled the walls on all sides. They 
 must have got some of the small shot, however, 
 from the shotgun at the first volley, and it was 
 this shot no doubt which made them drop to the 
 floor for safety. My wife Maria was faithfully 
 on guard above, and they were afraid to attempt 
 a passage of the stairway up to her quarters, for 
 she could have swept them all with one well 
 directed load of shot. They seemed to be fully 
 aware of this fact and gave her a wide berth. 
 Evidently they were aiming to hold the fort 
 below and starve her out by siege methods, not 
 counting on my being able to dislodge them. 
 They had never thought about what they would 
 do, nor the predicament they would be in, if 
 the light went out! Such people never think 
 very far nor to much purpose. They were merely 
 hired tools, and were simply trying to earn their 
 money.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE DISTRICT OF LAKE MICHIGAN 
 
 It has always been my contention that my tract 
 of land, my homestead, did not lie within the 
 borders of the State of Illinois, Cook County, 
 nor the corporate City of Chicago. This view 
 was based fundamentally upon the indisputable 
 fact that this tract of land was not within the 
 borders of the old Virginia grant whose boun- 
 daries passed through the Straits of Mackinaw, 
 thence down the eastern shores of Lake Michigan 
 to a point now best designated by Michigan 
 City, Indiana, thence in a south-westerly direc- 
 tion to the Kankakee River; thence down that 
 river to the Illinois River; thence down that 
 river to Cairo, Illinois, where there was a junc- 
 tion of this river and the Ohio; thence along 
 the north bank of the latter river in an easterly 
 direction to the Alleghany Mountains. In view 
 of this fact I contended that none of these gov- 
 ernments had any right to exercise any functions 
 of government within the borders of my home-
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 243 
 
 stead, which I named the "District of Lake 
 Michigan." I had proceeded to organize a ter- 
 ritorial government under the Constitution of 
 the United States of America, and held an elec- 
 tion of officers to fill all of the necessary offices, 
 and had them sworn in before a United States 
 judge of the nearest district, who was at that time 
 sitting in the City of Chicago. Under this gov- 
 ernment I was district clerk of the territory. 
 
 My object at that time was to prevent these 
 other governments and their officers from usurp- 
 ing and exercising any authority in this territory, 
 which I have always claimed they had no legal 
 right to do. 
 
 It may be of further interest to state at this 
 point that when the National government pur- 
 chased from the Indians and the French govern- 
 ment the remainder of the lands which made up 
 the total of the Northwest Territory, they did not 
 acquire the frontage on Lake Michigan, but 
 bought merely to the meander line of that lake. 
 The State of Illinois was carved out of this pur- 
 chased tract of land and the lands described in 
 the Virginia Grant, hence it did not acquire the 
 bed of the lake as is popularly supposed, and as 
 many astute judges have nevertheless decided in 
 the face of the indisputable facts. This only
 
 244 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 illustrates how prone judges are to disregard 
 facts and truths where powerful interests are 
 arrayed on the one side and weaker personages 
 on the other. I do not mean to infer that this is 
 always true quite the contrary but it has been 
 too often the case; so much so that the people 
 of the country have begun to demand the direct 
 election of all judges, state and national, and 
 further, that every one of them shall be subject 
 to the popular recall at any time. 
 
 In this connection we may pause to remark that 
 if the people wish this to transpire, who shall 
 say nay? Are the people not sovereign in this 
 country? If they are not in fact at this time, 
 what is to hinder them from becoming so? I 
 say that it is high time that we sweep every 
 stumbling block from our path, though we over- 
 throw the Constitution to do it. We would be 
 violating no principle and no precepts of the 
 old Declaration of Independence in so doing, 
 for it declares our inherent right to do that very 
 thing whenever we decide that such a course is, 
 in our judgment, the wise thing to do. Let there 
 be no slavery to this old instrument if it prove 
 the last bulwark and breastwork of the dollar 
 hogs of America. 
 
 It would seem from some of the latest expres-
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 245 
 
 sions of that supposedly august body known as 
 the Supreme Court of the United States, that 
 such has come to pass; and I am voicing the 
 opinion of the ablest member of that body, now 
 passed away, the late Justice Harlan, who did 
 not hesitate to rebuke his brethren for their 
 recreancy to Americanism, to the true spirit of 
 our institutions, and the best interests of the whole 
 people. He did not hesitate to point out clearly 
 that they had reversed the former decisions of 
 that body on the precise point at issue, in order 
 that they might compromise the situation most 
 favorably to the dollar hogs, and thereby render 
 a judgment which would in its last analysis and 
 effects be as harmless to their vitality and law- 
 less power as though written upon water instead 
 of parchment. 
 
 By its effects, or rather lack of effect, it has 
 already been judged. It has proved a blessing 
 in disguise for the dollar hogs and their pet in- 
 stitution known as the modern trust. They are 
 praying and hungering for more of the same doc- 
 trine. Such decisions will never deliver the 
 American people from the slavery of the dollar 
 hogs nor put a mouthful of bread into hungering 
 mouths. It is high time for the Supreme Court 
 to reverse itself again. Let us hope it will land
 
 246 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 on the right side next time. Its members need 
 to look at these matters from the shoes of the 
 whole people instead of the dollar hog con- 
 tingency and their sleek lawyers. They need to 
 take one good squint through the spectacles of 
 the whole people, and while they are doing so 
 try to locate that lost piece of mechanism within 
 their bodies known as the human heart. Perhaps 
 their vision would be keener and truer if they 
 tried out this process. I know they would not be 
 compelled to violate any portion of their oath of 
 office, nor any instrument known to the legal 
 profession, nor any statute known to the law, 
 by so doing. On the contrary, as Justice Harlan 
 has painfully pointed out to the American people 
 (and it was to them that his dissenting opinion 
 was directed, for he knew full well that so far 
 as his associates were concerned, it would fall 
 upon unhearing ears), they would more nearly 
 line up with every landmark of the law and the 
 clear decisions of their honored predecessors. 
 
 Since this decision the Sherman Anti-Trust 
 Law has become popular among the corporations 
 and trusts, where before it was odious, and all 
 of the apologists and advocates of the dollar hogs 
 of America are now bubbling over with praise 
 for this supposedly and hitherto praiseworthy
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 247 
 
 statute, in which they never before perceived any 
 good. All of the great commercial associations 
 and their officers are lauding its virtues to the 
 skies, and really have the temerity to embarrass 
 the Supreme Court by openly stating that their 
 change of attitude has been due to this change of 
 its construction and application by that court. 
 
 Thus for the first time in the history of the 
 world we behold the anomaly of outlaws and their 
 parasites falling in love with the Law. The lead- 
 ing counsel of these outlaws are open in their 
 defense of the measure as it now stands, and have 
 even had themselves interviewed by representa- 
 tives of the press, to whom they unfold their 
 bitter opposition to the idea that Congress should 
 change the law in any manner. One of them, 
 counsel for both Rockefeller and the Beef Trust 
 barons, and the author of the infamous "immunity 
 bath" plea, even has the effrontery to say that 
 this body is not competent to attempt a change 
 in any of its provisions, and to use his exact 
 language, "this is no law for bunglers to fool 
 with"! 
 
 We presume he thinks himself capable of fool- 
 ing with it ad libitum. He has often fooled the 
 law itself, and the dear people as well; in fact, 
 his entire time and attention for the past seven
 
 248 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 years have largely, if not wholly, been devoted 
 to this very profitable endeavor. We should be 
 pleased if he would be frank enough to give the 
 dear people and Congress an itemized bill of his 
 receipts from such corporations since the advent 
 of his "immunity bath" plea. What would the 
 law amount to if he had the opportunity to sug- 
 gest all the changes he would love to see made 
 in it? We should be more than pleased if he 
 would give the people and Congress a full out- 
 line of the exact changes he would love to have 
 made in this one law. If there is one single 
 change in his program which would operate 
 favorably in behalf of the people and to the 
 detriment of the trusts which he represents, then 
 we will change our opinion of him as a trust 
 "barker." It is now our candid opinion that if 
 he were permitted to inject any substitute para- 
 graphs and to blue pencil old ones, that the law 
 would be even less potent than when it was ap- 
 plied to his dear clients, the "Beef Trust barons." 
 The truth about the matter is that he is only 
 aroused to this outbreak because of the known 
 fact that Congress intends to make such changes 
 in the law as are necessary to restore its former 
 vitality, of which this decision of the Supreme 
 Court robbed it, and to make its application and
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 249 
 
 scope more drastic against all combinations in 
 restraint of trade, whether reasonable or un- 
 reasonable in other words, that it may be clear 
 that all combinations in restraint of trade are abso- 
 lutely and unequivocally prohibited. This would 
 naturally rouse the ire of a corporation and trust 
 lawyer, who is wont to look at every law through 
 the spectacles of his clients, rather than through 
 those of the people. The opinions of such a 
 lawyer as they may, or may not, affect the citizen- 
 ship of the land are of very little value. 
 
 But this is not the first time that the Supreme 
 Court has been guilty of such conduct in matters 
 vital to the interests of the great body of the peo- 
 ple. Many years ago we had an income tax law, 
 which was repeatedly held to be constitutional 
 by the Supreme Court. Then we didn't have one. 
 Finally Congress, as the servant of the whole 
 people, passed an income tax law. This law 
 had a clear majority of the court on its first 
 hearing, but for some unknown and unexplained 
 reason, during the interim one of these judges 
 reversed himself and the law was declared un- 
 constitutional, and the people's will was defeated, 
 and the will of the people reversed by the very 
 creatures they had themselves created. 
 
 And do not lose sight of the fact that they
 
 250 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 thereby reversed the repeated decisions and opin- 
 ions of the gre^t and able judges who had in years 
 gone by passed upon exactly the same proposition 
 that was then before them. Does it not strike 
 you that such conduct required a world of assump- 
 tion and courage of a doubtful kind? In the 
 language of the street, would you not place it in 
 the category of unprecedented "nerve" and "gall"? 
 But they were equal to the necessary emergency 
 and managed to force it down the throats of the 
 American people. Now we have a new income 
 tax law, which is constitutional until it is declared 
 unconstitutional, and the sleek lawyers of the 
 big trusty corporations are burning the midnight 
 oil to prepare the necessary briefs to have it so 
 declared; and it will surprise me greatly if they 
 are not successful. Where there is a will there 
 is a way. 
 
 That almighty word "unconstitutional" has be- 
 come more almighty than the people themselves 
 as it has been wielded recently by the Supreme 
 Court It is the dollar-hog panacea for all 
 obnoxious laws that have escaped their trusties 
 in Congress and the White House. When the 
 people have made it so hot for their representa- 
 tives that they have been obliged to pass unwill- 
 ingly much needed legislation along the lines that
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 251 
 
 would help them most, and the President has been 
 afraid to veto the measures, then the word goes 
 out that it is unconsitutional, and can't be en- 
 forced, and that the Supreme Court will so de- 
 clare it. Quite recently we have had some Attor- 
 neys General who have had the brazen impudence 
 to refuse even to try to enforce such laws, or 
 to defend them before the courts, thus virtually 
 taking unto themselves the veto power, the nulli- 
 fying power. 
 
 Slich officers ought to be impeached, and when 
 we obtain the recall power of all public servants 
 they will be recalled very promptly for such work, 
 or rather lack of work. Too often the Supreme 
 Court has taken up the specious pleas of these 
 sleek corporation lawyers and saved the dear 
 corporations by declaring the obnoxious law to 
 be unconstitutional. Too often have they been 
 kind to the dear corporations and unkind to the 
 people who pay their salaries, but who have never 
 yet elected one of them. 
 
 In this day and age a man ought to be ashamed 
 to serve in any office which is not an elective one, 
 and that by a direct vote of the whole people. 
 No honorable man will deny the fact that the 
 United States Senate is being greatly purged by 
 the law which compels the election of every mem-
 
 252 Captain, Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 her by the direct vote of his constituency. The 
 old plea of justification, that we heard for more 
 than a century, upholding the opposite doctrine, 
 the undemocratic doctrine, has gone down to de- 
 feat forever, and so will the false philosophy 
 which now justifies the appointment of Federal 
 officers by the President, and state officers by the 
 Governor of a commonwealth; and so on down 
 the line of appointive officials everywhere. It 
 has no place in a democratic republic, and the 
 day is not far distant when it will be utterly 
 wiped out. 
 
 Justice Harlan pointed out, without mincing 
 his words, that his colleagues on the bench, 
 in order to reach the opinion which they handed 
 down in the case under consideration, were 
 obliged to usurp legislative functions which they 
 do not lawfully and rightfully possess. In order 
 to bring about the declaration of law which so 
 mightily aids the dollar hogs of the country, they 
 had to legislate a word into the written law 
 which was not there, which had never been put 
 there by the Congress of the people of this 
 country, a word which that body squarely refused 
 to put in the law. 
 
 The whole doctrine which they advocated was 
 dependent upon this unlawful action on their
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 253 
 
 part, according to Justice Harlan. In doing this 
 they were obliged to reverse the decisions of their 
 honored predecessors, not in one case but in 
 several cases involving the precise point at issue. 
 It would seem that under such circumstances they 
 were unpardonably perverse, yea, that they were 
 willfully determined to do the thing they did, 
 regardless of precedents or the written law. Un- 
 biased courts are not wont to do these things, and 
 more especially so where the result is sure to 
 work great harm to the great body of the people, 
 as this decision was bound to do, according to 
 the keen review of it by Justice Harlan, from 
 every standpoint. 
 
 This proneness of the highest court in the land 
 to interpret the written laws most favorably to 
 the predatory corporations of the land, to the 
 great detriment of the people, this apparent de- 
 termination of this supposedly sublime body to 
 refuse to interpret the laws as they are written 
 by the representatives of the people, is, in my 
 humble opinion, soon to be ended. The people 
 have a right to have their laws interpreted as 
 they were written, not as they should have been 
 written by permission of these overlords of Law, 
 not as the King would have them written, but 
 as they are written by the people. That old
 
 254 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 kingly idea was shot to pieces more than a century 
 ago. We need no overlords in this country, and 
 by the eternal justice of that decision we are 
 not going to tolerate any at this late day. The 
 people have a right to be sovereign in this country, 
 and no personage, however high he may imagine 
 himself to be elevated, has a right to thwart 
 their will by substituting his own opinion for their 
 opinion. These officers of the people are entitled 
 to no consideration or respect whatever unless 
 they line up with the absolute administration of 
 the will of the people. 
 
 The government is no holy body. It is noth- 
 ing but a piece of machinery, which the people 
 themselves out of physical necessity have created 
 to do their bidding, because they cannot carry 
 out their public desires and the business of the 
 nation in any other methodical or business-like 
 way. These officers of the law and land every- 
 where, from the highest to the lowest, are the 
 servants of the people, nothing more, and we are 
 paying them for their work. If they don't like 
 the job they can quit at any time; and we ought 
 to have the right, or rather we do have the right, 
 but ought to have a law by which we could sepa- 
 rate them from the job at any time that we do 
 not like the quality of their work in our behalf.
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 255 
 
 I am sorry to say, however, that during the past 
 twenty-five years there has apparently grown up 
 a disposition upon the part of the people to treat 
 their officers and servants as though they were 
 overlords and rulers. This is a false attitude, 
 which I am glad to say is just at the present writ- 
 ing undergoing a change. Its existence perhaps 
 grew up out of the political boss system, where 
 nothing could be obtained in the way of rights, 
 or wrongs either, except by the intercession of the 
 "boss" of the ward, legislature, congress, etc. 
 
 I am also compelled to say that I even dislike 
 to see the chief executive of a state or nation 
 intermeddle too much with the affairs of the other 
 branches of government. It savors too much 
 of the "boss" system with which we have been 
 cursed so long, and which is responsible for the 
 ease with which the dollar hogs of the land have 
 controlled our institutions of every class, public, 
 private, and eleemosynary, and enslaved the white 
 race without their consent. 
 
 I do not like to see the President of the country, 
 or rather of the people, our highest paid servant, 
 laying down the law to senators and representa- 
 tives, who know their duties just as well as he 
 does, and are just as likely to do them. The 
 people will speak to them in no uncertain way
 
 256 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 if they fail to perform their duties as they wish 
 them to do. The people will shortly, in my 
 humble judgment, put the initiative and refer- 
 endum, as well as the popular recall, into work- 
 ing shape in every branch of the public service. 
 It has proved salutary wherever it has been tried, 
 and there is no good reason why it should not be 
 put to work universally. It has always been a 
 part of the methods of the business world; yet 
 strange to say these Big Business fellows are the 
 very ones who inveigh against its adoption by the 
 people in the public service. 
 
 This ought to prove a strong argument in its 
 favor. They never champion any real reform, 
 and we do not expect them to do so. An empire 
 would suit their tastes much better than a demo- 
 cratic republic, for they could then buy franchises 
 and valuable privileges to exploit the people. Of 
 course in recent years they have not fared so badly 
 in this country, for the plain reason that the 
 political boss system has enabled them to control 
 almost every blessed thing which they desired 
 to exploit, as we have very pointedly called at- 
 tention to elsewhere in this story. Things, in fact, 
 have run so smoothly for them that they do not 
 relish a change, and especially one which would 
 forever limit their activities to the very minimum
 
 A Recent Photograph of Captain Streeter
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 257 
 
 of possibilities. They are accustomed to the 
 maximum of possibilities. We could not expect 
 them to join the anti-slavery movement, nor to 
 wave an abolition banner on the march. 
 
 Again, how often have the courts of our land 
 declared stock gambling transactions, and the 
 very institution itself, the Stock Exchange, to be 
 lawful, when every honest citizen in the land 
 knows full well that they are dishonest, unlawful 
 gambling hells; that in these very places daily 
 the biggest gamblers on earth operate with im- 
 punity, and under the protecting decisions of the 
 highest court in the land. That here daily the 
 fruits of our fields, of our husbandmen, are made 
 the pawns of these gaming kings of high finance. 
 Here the youth of the land are taught that to be 
 a "Board of Trade man" is considered an honor 
 among the select circles. 
 
 Just ponder over this: To be a Board of 
 Trade gambler is considered a tribute to one's 
 ability to separate some less shrewd operator from 
 his pile of money, and that is supposed to be an 
 honorable operation and business. But where do 
 they get this money to gamble with, every one of 
 them? We all know where the big trust manip- 
 ulators who are the biggest in the game, got theirs ; 
 but where do the smaller fry get theirs? They get
 
 258 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 it from still smaller fry all over the land, and the; 
 get it from foolish people who imagine that the; 
 can beat the game. Think of the country banker 
 who play the game with the money of their de 
 positors. Scarcely a day goes by that we do no 
 read of their undoing. Clerks and trusted mei 
 all over the land are tempted and go the sam 
 route to destruction. But it is not always th 
 small bankers and business men who play th 
 game and are uncovered. 
 
 Every big city in the country has had it 
 example in very recent years, and in Milwauke 
 the honored ex-president of the American Banker 
 Association used millions of the money belongin 
 to depositors in playing the wheat market i 
 Chicago, which he was unable to replace, an 
 he had to pay the penalty. In Peoria the forme 
 president of the American Teachers Associatior 
 a school superintendent and banker as well, wer 
 the same route. 
 
 In New York the great money panic of 190 
 was precipitated by the action of certain financiei 
 who caught certain bankers and board of trad 
 operators in close quarters and crushed ther 
 unscrupulously, because they knew by the magn: 
 tude of their gaming transactions in copper stock 
 on the board of trade that they must of nece;
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 259 
 
 sity have used the moneys of the depositors of 
 their string of banks. In order to make a killing, 
 and in order to forever eliminate them from the 
 banking world, they caused an investigation and 
 a run to be made on this string of banks, which 
 brought about the desired results. 
 
 But it did more than they anticipated that 
 it would. It caused almost every bank in the 
 country to suspend payments to its depositors, and 
 the best business concerns in the country to do 
 business on paper solely. In pulling down these 
 stock-gambling competitors they almost paralleled 
 the feat of Samson, who pulled down the taber- 
 nacle on his own head to destroy his enemies. 
 But in the end they reaped a handsome harvest, 
 for with the revival of business operations they 
 were the only ones able to buy up the tons of 
 stock securities which had gone to the very bottom 
 of stock quotation values, and later resell them 
 to a gullible public. In Chicago and Pittsburg 
 we have had repetitions of this conspiracy to pull 
 down a competitor both in the banking and stock 
 gambling world ; so well known are the examples 
 that I do not need to mention names to be under- 
 stood. But still it goes on. In Memphis we have 
 a recent example of the same sort. One of the 
 biggest bankers, a most trusted man, uses more
 
 260 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 than two million dollars of the money of the de 
 positors in the cotton market gaming down ii 
 New York, and is unable to restore the losses. 
 
 Who has all of these millions and billions o 
 squandered moneys? The big fish always eat u 
 the little fish, and so it is in the stock-gamblin 
 world. These outlaw stock gamblers, these gam 
 biers beyond the law, hold and keep the untol 
 billions stolen by thousands of defaulting offi 
 cials, both public and private, who have bee 
 and are now languishing in the prisons of th 
 nation ; moneys which were gambled away in th 
 stock exchanges of the boards of trade all ove 
 the land. This is the principal business of th 
 kings of finance in this, the twentieth centur 
 of so-called civilization in the heart of Christer 
 dom, in justice and freedom-loving America. ] 
 begins to look like some of our citizens enjo 
 entirely too much liberty and freedom, as we 
 as a monopoly of the interpretation and adminii 
 tration of that chameleon-like article called jus 
 tice. 
 
 When a man loses his money at the gamin 
 table of some small fry gamekeeper who is opei 
 ating without the sanction of the written law, th 
 money may be promptly recovered by an actio 
 at law in most states, and in some the wife or
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 261 
 
 conservator may sue if the head of the house 
 declines or is afraid to take such action. Why 
 should a different rule prevail in dealing with 
 the big fish? Will some Solon of the army of 
 lawyers for the outlaw dollar hogs answer this 
 query in a straightforward manner? Or perhaps 
 some sage on the Supreme Bench of the land will 
 be good enough to give us a straight answer to a 
 plain question in behalf of the dollar hogs. I 
 can imagine the owlish look of wisdom which 
 steals over his wizened countenance as he repeats 
 that old falsity of the supposed maxims of equity, 
 that he who comes into a court of equity must 
 come with clean hands. What a convenient piece 
 of rubbish to aid dollar hog gamblers and crooks, 
 and how it likewise relieves the lazy judges of 
 an enormous amount of labor and real work, to 
 which most of them are strangers. 
 
 Our courts have repeatedly and almost uni- 
 versally declared that race-track wagering and 
 transactions are gambling, but they refuse to apply 
 the same rule to board-of -trade gambling. Why? 
 Because it would catch too many of the big 
 fellows, and they won't stand for it. The poli- 
 ticians, who make the judges with the money of 
 these big fellows, show them that there is a higher 
 law which they dare not trespass upon if they
 
 262 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 value their reputations, their political futures, and 
 especially if they desire to succeed themselves. 
 This is the unwritten law, of course, but it is 
 none the less potent. It is almighty. It makes 
 all of them scratch their heads and think twice 
 before they pass upon the proposition. 
 
 In the recent prosecution of the bucket shop 
 king of Chicago, the Department of Justice at 
 Washington, and the President of the United 
 States, were persuaded into the belief that they 
 might not have sufficient evidence to convict the 
 king of bucketshoppers, although he was caught 
 with the goods on him, as the men of the street 
 are wont to express it, so they allowed him to 
 plead guilty and pay a fine of ten thousand dol- 
 lars, which this poor innocent was perfectly will- 
 ing to do, not because he was guilty, but simply 
 to get rid of this insignificant sum of money, and 
 to show his loyalty to the old Flag, and to prove 
 to his friends in the Department of Justice and 
 to the President that he was a "good fellow" and 
 had no desire to overwork them. 
 
 The time is coming when this sort of discrim- 
 ination will end, when gambling will be gam- 
 bling, whether it be big or little fry who indulge 
 in it; and the boards of trade, so-called, will pass 
 into oblivion along with the memories and cus-
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 263 
 
 toms of the Forum at Rome, where the same 
 spirit prevailed, that spirit which said it was 
 right that only the fittest should survive, and that 
 justice could only belong to the strong. 
 
 And the time is not far distant when every pub- 
 lic servant in the land will be elected by the 
 people, from the highest to the lowest, and will 
 be held personally responsible for his opinions 
 and acts in the discharge of his public duties. 
 God speed the day, if justice is ever to reign in 
 our midst! 
 
 We established our government in the District 
 of Lake Michigan without any flourish of author- 
 ity or blare of trumpets, and, in fact, without any 
 undue demonstration. One of my outhouses was 
 converted into a temple of justice, and a sign 
 placed above its door proclaimed its august char- 
 acter. Our deliberations, elections, and other 
 necessary assemblages were held in this building 
 until the police authorities of Chicago regarded 
 it with secret disfavor, and one night, in company 
 with numerous hired thugs, during my temporary 
 absence, tore down the structure with great gusto 
 and unusual demonstration, as I was informed 
 by spectators, and stole the lumber of which it 
 was built. I never knew to what purpose they 
 devoted the loot, and did not care very much,
 
 264 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 for it was not very valuable. Then they filed a 
 charge against me which they designated as un- 
 lawful assembly, and had me arrested. I waived 
 arraignment and let them bind me over to the 
 grand jury, which indicted me, as was naturally 
 to be expected from a body which hears only 
 one side of a controversy, and which usually 
 harkens to the advice of the state's attorney, who 
 in this case was as usual under the domination of 
 the millionaires. Upon the trial of the case I 
 was found not guilty and discharged. 
 
 Shortly after this one of my warmest friends 
 and defenders, William H. Niles, conceived the 
 idea that he could declare himself military gov- 
 ernor of the territory without the necessary ap- 
 pointment by the chief executive of the nation. 
 In this move I had no part, and it was done 
 without my knowledge or consent. I admired his 
 nerve and fighting spirit, but I did not approve 
 his judgment, for I knew full well that he was 
 making a mistake from a legal standpoint. His 
 declaration of authority over the territory, which 
 was purely civil and had no relation whatever to 
 the title to the land itself, was undertaken under 
 the cover of darkness, which does not bode good 
 to any cause. 
 
 But be that as it may, one fine morning the resi-
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 265 
 
 dents of the district awoke to find Governor Niles 
 on hand with about forty or fifty gentlemen as 
 his military escort; and for some unknown reason 
 they had taken the precaution to dig intrench- 
 ments and throw up breastworks on the borders 
 of the district, and these were even surmounted 
 with barbed wire. His men were all armed 
 with old muskets, which were loaded with powder 
 and ball, for what purpose nobody seemed to 
 know, since there was no immediate occasion for 
 warlike preparations. I was soon advised of 
 these happenings and with others at once took 
 occasion to survey the situation. 
 
 Governor Niles was not long left in peace 
 or in possession of the territory, for his presence 
 seemed to have about the same effect upon the 
 Chicago police that is usually produced by a 
 red banner waved in the face of a bull. From 
 their conduct on this occasion one would naturally 
 have surmised that the gravest danger threatened 
 the inhabitants of the entire city, and perchance 
 that Tecumseh and his vanquished hosts of dead 
 warriors had suddenly been resurrected and were 
 about to storm the city. Hundreds of blue- 
 coated "bobbies" swarmed about the borders of 
 the territory, fussing about just as so many 
 bumblebees might do in the neighborhood of their
 
 266 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 disturbed habitat. And, like those testy little 
 insects, they did not apparently know just whom 
 or what to sting. 
 
 One of their noble officers, Captain Barney 
 Baer, finally appeared on the scene and rode 
 within hailing distance of Governor Niles, who 
 immediately ordered him to halt and get out 
 of the district. This he did not feel inclined 
 to do, and the governor promptly shot down 
 his horse. Captain Baer thereupon ran for cover, 
 feeling that the neighborhood was an unhealthy 
 spot. 
 
 At this juncture the police approached me 
 and wanted to know the meaning of the situation. 
 I told them that it was as unexpected to me as 
 it was to them, and that I had no part in it, 
 which they were disinclined to believe. Conse- 
 quently our colloquy resulted in a quarrel which 
 had no reasonable basis in fact. They threatened 
 my arrest if I did not call Niles out of the dis- 
 trict; but I declined to do this because he was 
 a friend and I secretly admired his grit. 
 
 The police made so much fuss, and threatened 
 the governor and his men with such dire con- 
 sequences, that the courage of the latter began 
 to ooze away, and one by one they silently and 
 stealthily dropped out of the ranks until the
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 267 
 
 governor was almost deserted. At this point the 
 police plucked up courage enough to arrest him, 
 and under the circumstances, he offered no fur- 
 ther resistance. 
 
 After his arrest the police, who should have 
 protected their prisoner, permitted hired thugs 
 to rush in to him and strike him viciously; but 
 the governor was a husky individual himself and 
 gave them almost as good as they gave him. 
 It was, however, a disgraceful spectacle, which 
 the police would have had no difficulty in pre- 
 venting. Niles was not convicted of the serious 
 charge upon which he was arrested, so the whole 
 affair turned out to be a roaring farce, in which 
 the police received the bulk of the laughter. 
 It was the old story of much ado about nothing. 
 
 At one time about fifty Siberians who were 
 on their way to the neighborhood of Houghton 
 Lake, where they had purchased considerable 
 land, asked permission to camp on my premises 
 for a few days in order to rest their tired horses 
 and to recuperate a little themselves. I had 
 no objection whatever, and, in fact, was pleased 
 to accommodate them, so they settled down peace- 
 fully on my homestead without any sort of 
 demonstration whatever. Not long after a swarm 
 of policemen came buzzing curiously about the
 
 268 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 camp, thinking, as I afterward learned, that these 
 poor people were Indians. Knowing that the 
 Pottawatomies were friends of mine, by a great 
 flight of imagination, they came to the conclu- 
 sion that the Pottawatomies were on deck to 
 aid me in some unknown scheme. Consequently, 
 the police were immediately aroused to oppo- 
 sition, and the Siberians were ordered to move 
 on in double quick. 
 
 I happened to hear this order given and im- 
 mediately appeared on the scene and informed 
 the police that these people were here with my 
 permission, and that I proposed to see that they 
 were not molested. I told them that they might 
 just as well move out of the district if they wished 
 to avoid serious trouble. They knew from the 
 manner in which I spoke that I meant business, 
 and they speedily decided to get legal advice 
 before starting any trouble. They did not re- 
 turn, so I presume they were informed that they 
 were entirely too hasty and would better not 
 proceed further in that direction. 
 
 During these years the police, who had en- 
 tered into a coalition with the millionaires, acted 
 much as though the title to these lands was in 
 the police department, and that it was a part of 
 their jurisdiction to try and determine questions
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 269 
 
 of title to realty, a function which has always 
 been delegated to the civil courts of our land, 
 a fact which I had learned long years before I 
 had ever seen the city of Chicago. I had read 
 Blackstone's Commentaries and numerous other 
 legal works before reaching my majority, and 
 my father gave me much practical advice from 
 time to time during the progress of many law- 
 suits in which he was counsel. I could best most 
 of the pettifoggers who were practicing around 
 the justice shops and police courts any day, and 
 I made some of the best lawyers in Chicago 
 respect my opinions and my rights as well from 
 time to time. I nearly always defended myself 
 in the brushes with the police, deputy sheriffs, 
 detectives and thugs, and seldom got the worst 
 of it when I had a fair trial. I always appealed 
 if I was not accorded my rights, and came out in 
 good shape in the upper courts. 
 
 The year after the World's Fair at Jackson 
 Park, a gang of these hired officers, during my 
 absence, burned our house on the old scow, after 
 having first set our furniture and piano out 
 on the ground. Notwithstanding the fact that 
 all this occurred within the eyesight of the 
 police, none of the persons guilty of both arson 
 and housebreaking were apprehended, nor was
 
 270 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 any effort ever made to apprehend them. This is 
 only one of many incidents which proved the con- 
 nivance of the police department with the million- 
 aires in their efforts to eject me, and thus aid in 
 robbing me of title to this land, a matter in which 
 they had no legitimate concern, and which was 
 entirely foreign to their business. The civil courts 
 alone could lawfully determine that question, 
 and it was a dastardly interference on their part, 
 which did not stop at criminal acts under cover 
 of darkness, to aid these lawless tools of those 
 who did not possess the courage to come out into 
 the open and attack me, or into a court of civil 
 jurisdiction and challenge my rights upon the 
 premises which I created, occupied, and owned. 
 Their other acts of like character were legion, 
 and I could not attempt to enumerate them. I 
 can merely take time to relate a few which indi- 
 cate the situation clearly and unmistakably. 
 
 I ordered a big moving van to the scene as 
 soon as I found my home destroyed and my things 
 lying unprotected on the ground, and also put 
 up a tent. Then I immediately constructed two 
 small houses and had them hauled to the premises. 
 During the following night the police hauled 
 them away and planted them, van and houses, 
 upon a piece of ground belonging to the city
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 271 
 
 near the Randolph Street bridge. They also 
 drove off a wagon and contents belonging to a 
 friend of mine from Michigan, by the name of 
 "Billy" McManners, who had settled upon the 
 district by my permission. 
 
 We went down to the place where our things 
 had been thus unlawfully removed by the police, 
 and took possession of them, and I can assure 
 you that any person who came about and at- 
 tempted to interfere with us received as complete 
 a beating as we were able to administer, police 
 and hired thugs alike. We made no discrimina- 
 tion in favor of or against any of them, and 
 accepted all comers. We had many bloody bat- 
 tles before we headed our wagons back to the 
 district, which we did as soon as we were fully 
 prepared to do so. 
 
 When we approached the district at Superior 
 Street the police appeared in force and attempted 
 to head us off, but the bullets from our Win- 
 chesters whizzed so uncomfortably close to their 
 ears that they retired from the scene of action, 
 appearing content to hover on the outskirts of 
 the district for several days, during which time 
 we wiped the earth with scores of them. At 
 that stage in our affairs we were really desperate 
 and would brook no interference with our rights
 
 272 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 from any source, and we impressed that fact 
 almost hourly upon them. The crowds of people 
 standing about almost constantly gave us their 
 warmest sympathy and from time to time cheered 
 us on to fresh courage. It was something of an 
 inspiration to know that the justice of our posi- 
 tion was being recognized by the truly disinter- 
 ested. 
 
 In a malignant effort to annoy and harass us 
 the police went before one of the judges in Cook 
 County and made representations that the two- 
 year-old-child of Me Manner's was being improp- 
 erly cared for, although its mother did little else 
 than care for it, and sought to have the child 
 removed from their custody. Upon these false 
 representations the court sent physicians down 
 to examine the child and to remove it if they 
 felt inclined to do so after an examination. We 
 were so enraged at this palpable and despicable 
 scheme to injure our rights that we gave the 
 doctors a good drubbing and ran them out of 
 the district, as well as the policemen who came 
 with them. Then came warrants, which we ig- 
 nored also, not having any time just at that 
 juncture to waste in fruitless pettifogging while 
 our possessions were not yet fixed in our new 
 houses, and while our interests were being men-
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 273 
 
 aced by the police and the hired thugs who hung 
 on the borders of the district like so many hyenas, 
 only waiting a convenient opportunity during 
 our absence to swoop down and destroy our 
 habitation and home. 
 
 We finally got our possessions fixed once more 
 in our houses, and continued to defend our homes 
 from day to day against all persons who pre- 
 sumed too far on our acquaintance, and such 
 gentry were numerous. However, our reception 
 parties were too warm for their comfort and 
 they never tarried very long at a time. They 
 often skulked about during the night, seeking 
 for an opportunity to set fire to our houses or 
 to ascertain some fact that might be advantageous 
 to their nefarious designs, and we were often 
 apprised by friends of their presence and exact 
 location. 
 
 Whenever we were able to learn their exact 
 whereabouts, one of us would usually make some 
 sort of demonstration to attract their attention, 
 and while thus interested I would make a detour 
 and get in their rear, and then the old musket 
 came into full play. Using it as a club, a trick 
 which I had well learned in many a battle in 
 the Civil War, with a few swift and well directed 
 blows I toppled them over into dreamland, and
 
 274 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 if any were left unscathed they beat a hasty 
 retreat, glad to escape the fate of their fellows. 
 
 Two sons of a well-known millionaire were 
 caught in this fashion, both of them husky young 
 athletes who prided themselves on their prowess 
 in that direction. They had cherished the fond 
 hope that they might catch the old man napping 
 and doubtless crack his skull or break his neck, 
 and thus more speedily end the fruitless war- 
 fare, which no doubt was expensive to the family 
 exchequer, and the defeats galling to the young 
 bloods. I left them in such a bruised and bat- 
 tered condition that they had to be carried out 
 of the district in ambulances, and to my knowl- 
 edge they never again visited my premises. 
 
 I also served a crooked and pestiferous lawyer 
 in the same fashion when he too persistently at- 
 tempted to bluff and annoy us. He carried a 
 broken arm in a sling for many a day, and his 
 bruised and battered countenance was a ludicrous 
 picture in police court when I was arraigned for 
 assault some days after the encounter. He never 
 came about the premises afterward, although I 
 knew that he was still directing the movements 
 of others. I gave him to understand that he 
 might not be able to get away if I ever found 
 him upon the premises in the future, and he
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 275 
 
 was wise enough to know that I meant exactly 
 what I said. 
 
 During my absence for a few hours, at one 
 time, Captain Shaack, with other police officers, 
 unlawfully entered my house and took two re- 
 volvers away with them to the Chicago Avenue 
 station. When I learned of this I was thoroughly 
 enraged, and I resolved that I would have the 
 matter out very speedily with this plundering 
 captain of police, so I grabbed up my old musket 
 (I already had two revolvers strapped to my 
 belt) and went at once to the police station, 
 where I cornered Captain Shaack in short order. 
 
 Covering him with my musket, in the presence 
 of other officers, I demanded my revolvers, and 
 at the same time told him with due emphasis 
 that he was an outlaw, and that he knew full 
 well he had violated the Constitution and the Bill 
 of Rights when he invaded my house and stole 
 them; and further, that if he ever interfered in 
 such an unlawful manner with my possessions 
 again, I proposed to shoot him, or he would 
 shoot me. I also told him that no old renegade 
 like him who had been chased out of Philadelphia 
 because of crooked work could ever violate my 
 rights with impunity and escape disgrace; that 
 I had investigated his record in the East and
 
 276 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 stood ready to prove it. This was a rare piece 
 of news to his officers, and it had a very visible 
 effect on his countenance. "Captain," he said to 
 me, "you can have your weapons and we will 
 say no more about it." He then ordered the 
 revolvers brought to me, and I carried them back 
 home. I was never troubled by the captain after- 
 ward. 
 
 On another occasion I had used the butt of that 
 same old musket on his head and shoulders, and 
 knocked him out completely, so he knew that I 
 meant business. I had looked out of my window 
 on the old scow one night and saw Captain 
 Shaack and Officer Kehoe approaching my prem- 
 ises as they passed under a street light, and sur- 
 mised that they were up to some trick, or they 
 would never have sallied forth at such an hour 
 as midnight; so I slipped out, musket in hand, 
 and hid behind a short stretch of fence about 
 ten feet high. They didn't realize my presence 
 until I sprang at them like a tiger, and delivered 
 a knockout blow on the head and shoulders of 
 Shaack, who dropped like a log. Then I sprang 
 for Kehoe, shouting at him as I did so, "I've 
 got you now!" But the latter ran as fast as he 
 could in the direction from whence he had come, 
 and I then returned to attend the captain, who
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 277 
 
 had recovered use of himself, and was running 
 as fast as his condition would permit. 
 
 I let him go, but shouted dire threats and im- 
 precations at him at the top of my voice, to 
 impress him with the fact that this was danger- 
 ous territory to invade under cover of darkness, 
 and that in the future he would better keep his 
 distance. I was also advised by a very reputable 
 family, who claimed to be in possession of the 
 facts, that he was an accomplice of Dan Coughlan 
 in the murder of Doctor Cronin, and I have no 
 doubt that he was crook enough to have been 
 guilty of anything which would bring him a 
 dirty penny. I know he would have willingly 
 connived at my murder if he could have accom- 
 plished it; but he was very much afraid of my 
 wits and the experience that I had passed through 
 in the army. I was a little too handy with the 
 use of firearms and clubbed muskets to suit his 
 taste. 
 
 I had a highly interesting experience with the 
 successor of Captain Shaack one night just before 
 I had taken my household goods out of the van, 
 at the time my house on the scow was burned, as 
 I have already related. I had a tent up, and the 
 van stood beside the tent, and was only partially 
 unloaded. Among other things it contained two
 
 278 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 big iron safes, which made effective breastworks 
 for me to fire from whenever the police and the 
 hired thugs appeared on the premises. These 
 safes were hard to beat for defensive operations. 
 
 Captain Max Heidelmeier and some of his 
 men had been prowling around under cover of 
 darkness for the purpose of obtaining, if possible, 
 some strategic advantage over me, and of pre- 
 venting me from removing my goods and placing 
 them permanently in the two houses which I had 
 moved on to the premises. The captain made the 
 mistake of separating from his men, and attempt- 
 ing to do a little scouting on his own hook. My 
 friends McManners, Hulkey, and Niles captured 
 him before he had proceeded a hundred yards, 
 and marched him under cover of firearms to the 
 van, where I was holding the fort between the two 
 iron safes. 
 
 I was alive to the situation, and resolved to 
 make the most of it, by scaring the old captain 
 as nearly to death as I was capable of doing. 
 I ordered the boys to disarm him, and then march 
 him up to the open end of the van, where I 
 would administer the death sentence. They car- 
 ried out my orders to the letter; and I then com- 
 manded him to kneel and pray before I pulled 
 the trigger of the old musket, with which I had
 
 The District of Lake Michigan 279 
 
 him covered. He fell upon his knees instantly, 
 and implored me in the most abject and beseech- 
 ing manner that I had ever seen any human being 
 beg for life (and I had witnessed many such 
 scenes in the army life) until I really feared for 
 his reason. He said he would take a solemn oath, 
 if I would not kill him, that he would never 
 molest me in the future, and that he would never 
 send any more of his men on to my premises to 
 harass or annoy me, and that he would faithfully 
 befriend me if opportunity ever offered a chance. 
 I appeared reluctant to swerve from my appar- 
 ently fixed determination to end his dishonorable 
 career without further consideration, but finally 
 said to the boys that I had a notion to try him 
 out and see if there was any manhood left in 
 him, and if his oath was worth anything. I also 
 cautiously added that I could get him anyhow 
 at any time that I wanted to; in fact, had already 
 had several chances to have killed him within 
 the fair boundaries of the law, but had desisted. 
 I then ordered his release, and he made his exit 
 from the district in record time, and ever after 
 that he treated me with proper and just consid- 
 eration, such as an officer ought on all occasions 
 accord to every citizen, no matter what their cir- 
 cumstances or station in life.
 
 280 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 In the long years that I have been in possession 
 of the homestead on the lake, and in the lake, I 
 have had a thousand battles with these unlawful 
 invaders, of one character or another, of which 
 the ones I have related are more or less typical, 
 and I think I may truthfully say that since the 
 doctrine of the adverse possession of realty has 
 been a part of the jurisprudence of the land, I 
 have maintained my possession with a greater 
 degree of hostility than any man who ever lived, 
 and with more openness and notoriety; so much 
 so that my very name has for years been associated 
 with the tract in the mind of everyone. It has 
 long been known as "Streeterville" to the people, 
 the press, public records, and documents of the 
 city, county and state.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 TRIED FOR MURDER 
 
 In this battle for my rights I was loyally sec- 
 onded and assisted by my wife, Maria Streeter, 
 who has passed away. I think a braver and more 
 loyal hearted woman never lived, and I feel that 
 as a matter of justice to her memory a word 
 should be said of her, before this story is ended. 
 Her maiden name was Mulholland. She was 
 born in Belfast, Ireland, and possessed every noble 
 trait of her race, with none of their faults. Her 
 father was an officer in the British Army, and 
 was killed in the Crimean War. In her early 
 womanhood she had been a school teacher in her 
 native land, but she came to America with her 
 sister, to live with their uncle, the late John 
 Ward of Detroit, the millionaire shipbuilder and 
 owner. It was there that I first met and knew 
 her, although we were not married for several 
 years thereafter. She married a man by the 
 name of Jordan, from Pennsylvania, who was 
 a Union soldier, and with whom she only lived 
 a few short months before he went away to
 
 282 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 defend his country, never to return to her again. 
 
 Left alone, she operated a commission business 
 in Pittsburgh for a few years with profit, and 
 finally sent for her aged mother to cross the 
 Atlantic and join her, that she might spend her 
 remaining days with her children, both of whom 
 were in America. My wife, soon after her 
 mother's coming to this country, removed with 
 her to Chicago, and it was not long thereafter 
 that we were married. Later this good old lady 
 died on the District of Lake Michigan, where 
 she was making her home with us. 
 
 It may be truly said that when my wife married 
 me it was "for better or for worse," and she stuck 
 to me through every experience, through sunshine 
 and shadow. She never expressed herself as 
 sorry for her decision. She had a sunshiny dis- 
 position, always looking on the bright side of 
 life, and no matter what the situation, though it 
 were fraught with hardship or danger, she could 
 always see the clouds lined with silver. To 
 have been blessed with such a helpmate was in- 
 deed a wonderful inspiration to me, for if ever 
 a man needed such companionship, I certainly 
 did. I should have been miserable with a discon- 
 tented or a cowardly woman. Her Irish love for 
 home and its defense won many a battle on the
 
 Tried for Murder 283 
 
 lake front, for she could use a musket loaded with 
 bird shot to good effect, as many a thug who 
 thought to force an entrance to the Streeter home- 
 stead could painfully and reluctantly testify. 
 
 Those were days to test the stoutest heart, and 
 she proved herself to be pure gold, tried out in 
 a crucible test such as few women of this country 
 have ever been called upon to pass through. She 
 died on the District in 1904, and I was not per- 
 mitted to be at her bedside as she left these shores 
 for her last voyage, nor to minister to her wants 
 during her last illness, for I was at that time 
 incarcerated for the alleged commission of a crime 
 of which I was not guilty, and I shall now relate 
 the circumstances which led up to and resulted 
 in that situation. 
 
 During the winter of 1902 a notorious Missouri 
 outlaw and crook by the name of John Kirk 
 had been imported to Chicago for the express 
 purpose of assisting in removing me from this 
 mundane sphere, for which he was to be paid a 
 stipulated sum, if he succeeded. Of these facts 
 I have ample proof. He was associated with the 
 other thugs and so-called officials who were en- 
 gaged in the same pursuit, and one night they 
 made a raid into the district to carry out their 
 murderous and felonious purpose.
 
 284 Captain Streeter t Pioneer 
 
 They commenced operations by shooting at the 
 houses of McManners and Hulkey, both of whom 
 were in possession of these houses with their 
 families by my permission and consent. The rifle 
 shots passed entirely through these houses, and the 
 occupants were obliged to seek shelter outside 
 their homes. They concealed themselves in the 
 tall weeds near their homes, and endeavored to 
 locate the direction of the rifle shots. They finally 
 ascertained that they came from a little shed 
 which had been used for a shelter by a man who 
 kept track of the loads of sand removed from 
 the sand pit a short distance away near Oak street. 
 McManners and Hulkey then opened fire on this 
 shed purely as a matter of defense, and the occu- 
 pants fled to the cover of the tall weeds which 
 grew all about. 
 
 I was much farther away, and in my home 
 when I heard the shooting, and likewise took to 
 the weeds for safety, and for observation, but I 
 did not engage in the shooting, because I was 
 not in danger at that time. While concealed in 
 the weeds I saw a certain lawyer, accompanied 
 by a disreputable detective, pass by and secrete 
 themselves in the weeds not far from me. They 
 did not discover my presence, and I did not 
 disclose it to them.
 
 Tried for Murder 285 
 
 I simply watched their operations with interest. 
 They took deliberate aim at the party which was 
 firing on McManners and Hulkey and blazed 
 away. Somebody yelled as if shot, and then they 
 sneaked away. The firing ceased entirely at this 
 stage, and upon closer investigation I learned that 
 a man had been shot whose name was John Kirk. 
 The patrol wagon came, and McManners and 
 Hulkey were arrested and hauled away to the 
 police station, where they were put under arrest, 
 and later charged with his murder. 
 
 I went over to the police station to investigate, 
 and to be of assistance to them, and while there 
 I also was arrested, charged with being accessory 
 to the alleged murder. I was liberated on bail, 
 but was unable to find bail for my friends. My 
 associates who went on my bond knew that I 
 would never decamp and leave them in the lurch ; 
 in fact, they well knew that I could not be driven 
 away from the homestead, but I was not able 
 to satisfy them that McManners and Hulkey 
 would not run away if liberated on bail. This 
 was always a source of great sorrow to me, for 
 these two friends always imagined that I did not 
 put forth enough effort to secure bail for them. 
 They reasoned that if I could get bail so easily for 
 myself, that I ought to have been able to obtain
 
 286 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 it for them. But this was not true. We often 
 learn in this life that things are not always 
 as they seem. Nothing would have pleased me 
 more than to have secured the liberty of my 
 friends on bail, for they were both fearless and 
 noble fellows, for whom I shall always entertain 
 the greatest admiration and gratitude in my heart 
 of hearts. 
 
 It was several months before our case was called 
 for trial before Judge Cavanagh and a jury of 
 our peers. After days and weeks of effort on the 
 part of the state and its attorneys to convict us 
 by perjured and false testimony, the jury dis- 
 agreed. Then a wait of almost a year occurred 
 before we were placed on trial for the second time. 
 This time we were arraigned before one of the 
 most incompetent judges who ever graced the 
 bench; he was such an insignificant character, and 
 has since fallen into such oblivion and disgrace 
 that I shall not even mention his name. He knew 
 about as much about presiding over a court of 
 justice as the average justice of the peace in the 
 neighborhood of Bingville or Podunk. 
 
 During the interval which had elapsed, the 
 hired and crooked attorneys of the millionaire 
 colony had been busily collecting and preparing 
 an abundance of new perjury and false testimony,
 
 Tried for Murder 287 
 
 and this fact, coupled with unfair and assinine 
 rulings of the court, which kept from the jury 
 most of our most valuable and pertinent testimony, 
 resulted in our conviction of a crime of which we 
 were not guilty, while the real murderers today 
 walk the streets of Chicago unscathed. 
 
 They killed this man for the very purpose of 
 saddling the offense onto us, and then brazenly, 
 and with the boldest effrontery, came forward and 
 testified that they had seen us shoot the very man 
 whom they had killed in cold blood, the man 
 whom they had imported to take my life. And 
 they selected the darkness and its shadows to 
 aid them in accomplishing their purpose. 
 
 Unfortunately in our defense we were not 
 blessed with the services of competent counsel, 
 though our attorneys doubtless did the best they 
 could under the circumstances; but I am now 
 persuaded that if we had possessed the foresight 
 and acumen to select competent counsel we would 
 never have been convicted. Little can be expected 
 of pettifoggers, and their clients are rarely dis- 
 appointed. But the average citizen in Chicago 
 has little opportunity to judge of the competency 
 or ability of attorneys. In the smaller cities and 
 towns it is different. There the citizen knows 
 the result of every case that every member of
 
 288 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 the bar ever had, and every one of them is judged 
 by the community at their true worth, for their 
 judgment is based upon an open record. In the 
 great cities few lawyers are ever heard of unless 
 they are either extraordinary personages or no- 
 torious characters. So the average citizen in 
 selecting counsel has just about as much of an 
 opportunity to select counsel intelligently as if 
 he had selected their names from a hatful while 
 blindfolded. It is like a leap in the dark. You 
 know the result after you have landed. 
 
 After our conviction we were granted a stay, 
 and after this had elapsed we were granted 
 further stays, and then the stay ran out and 
 nothing was done for weeks. Finally we were 
 sentenced. Then began the fight to save us from 
 life imprisonment. In my case several applica- 
 tions for a writ of habeas corpus were made before 
 different judges, only to be denied, because my 
 lawyers did not set up proper and available facts. 
 However, I finally obtained the services of an 
 able colored lawyer by the name of Anderson, 
 who knew his business thoroughly, and fortunately 
 our application was made before one of the ablest 
 and fairest judges who ever served the people 
 of Cook County in that capacity, a man uni- 
 versally beloved by the people of this city, county,
 
 Tried for Murder 289 
 
 and state, and now honored as the chief executive 
 of the state, Edward F. Dunne, and may he live 
 long and prosper. 
 
 Upon our application for the writ he ordered 
 my production in court upon the following day, 
 and served notice upon the state's attorney to 
 appear and defend. A postponement, however, 
 resulted, and the matter did not come up for hear- 
 ing for three days thereafter. At that time my 
 counsel presented the propositions with force and 
 much ability, and the state's attorney was unable 
 to produce any authorities in point which refuted 
 the position taken by my counsel, and Judge 
 Dunne ordered my discharge from further cus- 
 tody. 
 
 Thus was a man lifted from the very depths 
 of despair to the heights almost of heaven. From 
 prison to the enjoyment of the sweets of liberty 
 and freedom is a long journey. I have often 
 wondered if Judge Dunne ever realized the 
 smallest fraction of the gratitude which filled my 
 heart, and the deep appreciation with which I 
 have always remembered his action. It is true 
 that it was but an act of justice which ought to 
 characterize the action of every judge upon the 
 bench, but experience teaches us that it does not. 
 I venture to say that there were very few of
 
 290 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 them who would have had the sturdy manhood 
 to liberate me when they knew the gauntlet of 
 criticism which they would have to run from the 
 highbrows who had succeeded after so many years 
 of effort in landing me in durance vile. But 
 like that other great commoner, John P. Altgeld, 
 he did not seem to care a straw about their criti- 
 cism or praise. He did his duty and let that 
 suffice for all the rest. He has not been forgot- 
 ten, and his record will live in years to come to 
 guide the pathway of others who may not possess 
 his noble and fearless traits, and will need the 
 inspiration of his record to hold them fast and 
 true to the right course. 
 
 My friends attended this hearing by the hun- 
 dreds, filling the court room and the corridors of 
 the building to overflowing. After the decision 
 of Judge Dunne they crowded round me and 
 carried me out of the room, and I was only 
 rescued by the sheriff, to whose office I was 
 obliged to go to carry out certain necessary for- 
 malities. They followed me there, filled that 
 office, and finally became so numerous that the 
 doors were locked and barred to them. It was 
 a great demonstration, and I shall never forget 
 the sympathy and earnest concern of these friends 
 who had faith in my cause and stood faithfully
 
 Tried for Murder 291 
 
 behind me in those dark days. Those were the 
 days that tried men's souls and tested the real 
 qualities of friendship. 
 
 Immediately thereafter the state's attorney had 
 my friends, McManners and Hulkey, brought 
 into court and liberated, not wishing to undergo 
 any further repetition of the crushing defeat 
 which they had received in my case at the hands 
 of Judge Dunne. Perhaps they thought also that 
 since the man they were really after had escaped 
 their trap, that they might just as well liberate 
 his lieutenants, against whom they had no real 
 animus. All their venom was used on me. 
 
 During my imprisonment my wife died on the 
 District, and I was unable to be at her bedside, 
 but was permitted to attend her funeral. This 
 was the saddest and keenest sorrow that the 
 machinations of these millionaires ever inflicted 
 upon me. Retribution has already come to many 
 of them and their families. Disaster has over- 
 taken many of them, and death has claimed others 
 wholly unprepared for its visitation. My wife 
 did not die of any disease, she died of a broken 
 heart, and these millionaires were as truly her 
 murderers as though they had stabbed her to the 
 heart with as many dagger thrusts as the mur- 
 derers of Caesar inflicted upon him.
 
 292 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 She thought there was no hope for my liber- 
 ation, and that my life and her own was a closed 
 book, and feeling thus she had no wish to live 
 longer. Was any love ever greater than this? I 
 have never heard of love that surpassed it. If 
 there had been only the least little ray of hope 
 she would have survived, but she could not dis- 
 cern even the faintest, and life died within her. 
 In the hour of my liberation my thoughts were 
 of her, and my inward wish and prayer was that 
 she could have lived to witness it. It would 
 have been a greater joy to her than it was to me, 
 and I shall not attempt to minimize the exhilara- 
 tion and joy which surged through me when 
 Judge Dunne said the words which set me free 
 from an unjust bondage which seemed eternal. 
 
 While I was thus deprived of liberty, my in- 
 terests in the district were protected by my wife's 
 niece and her husband, Nonie Hollst and Herman 
 Hollst, who resided continuously on the district, 
 and attended my wife in her last days. I had 
 other friends and agents also who assisted them 
 in caring for my interests, although some depre- 
 dations were committed in my absence. After 
 my release I was on the district almost every 
 day looking after my affairs in person as well 
 as by agents.
 
 Tried for Murder 293 
 
 After a time I built a commodious brick build- 
 ing upon the premises, and have ever since resided 
 therein with my family, having married an 
 estimable lady from Indiana in April, 1906. Her 
 maiden name was Elma Lockwood. Her father 
 was a famous lawyer, and had often given me 
 advice in former years. I was extremely fortunate 
 in this union to obtain a companion blessed with 
 indomitable courage and fighting blood. 
 
 Considerable fuss was made in certain quarters 
 at the time I moved into my new building, but 
 it was a tame affair compared with the old-time 
 encounters. My friends rallied about me in great 
 numbers and gave me a rousing house-warming 
 party. The police were, of course, still hostile, 
 but this time they apparently had no orders from 
 on high, and did not cause much trouble. Per- 
 haps they had been instructed to use bluff and 
 bluster, but to go no further. I have no doubt 
 that they were told the courts of law are the only 
 arbiters of title to real estate, and that they can- 
 not interfere between contesting parties and at- 
 tempt to decide the matter themselves and there- 
 upon eject the party they believe to be an un- 
 worthy claimant. 
 
 Our days have consequently been more peace- 
 ful in recent years, although we are always pre-
 
 294 Captain Streeter, Pioneer 
 
 pared to defend our rights. Trespassers are 
 driven off the premises almost daily; unwarranted 
 signs of realty dealers are torn down and used 
 for kindling the morning fires; and the persons 
 nailing them on fences and buildings are driven 
 away whenever seen. I have also prevented the 
 fencing of all lots to which I now claim title, 
 with a few exceptions. I have rented and sold 
 many lots, and have exercised sole dominion and 
 authority continuously over the district against all 
 comers against the whole world. 
 
 Recently one little action has been commenced 
 in a civil court to test the ownership in reality to 
 the two lots upon which my house is now stand- 
 ing, but it was brought under the subterfuge 
 name of an action to partition this real estate be- 
 tween persons who pretend to be the real owners 
 of this realty, and who pretended in their petition 
 to be unaware of the exact nature of my posses- 
 sion, which fact they however admitted, and made 
 my wife and me parties thereto, and asked that 
 we be required to appear and set up whatever 
 claim we might have to said lots or suffer default. 
 It is needless to say that we have appeared and 
 by our answer and cross-bill given them the warm- 
 est reception that they have ever experienced. 
 It has been a surprise party to them.
 
 Tried for Murder 295 
 
 I shall not attempt to weary the reader with 
 the details of these pleadings. In my cross-bill I 
 have fully set out the conspiracy which was con- 
 cocted years ago to rob me of my possession and 
 lands, and the conspiracy which is now being 
 conducted in the management and manipulation 
 of this suit by the parties and lawyers in charge 
 thereof. 
 
 In due time this case will be tried on its merits, 
 and the facts elicited before a jury of our peers, 
 who I feel confident will do justice to me and 
 mine. If they will not do justice to one who has 
 in years gone by, in the darkest hour of our 
 nation's history, shouldered a musket to defend 
 their firesides, and the glorious institutions and 
 principles of our forefathers, then to whom will 
 they do justice? Let their finding of facts make 
 answer, and the Court will adjudge accordingly. 
 I am confident of ultimate victory, for my cause 
 is founded in justice and equity. Why should I 
 not prevail?
 
 SERS.TYOF.LLINO.S-URBAHA