The Part Taken By the Home Guard
at Spanish Fork
In the Black Hawk Indian War, 1866
& 1867
By George F. Bowen
Spanish Fork, Utah
The Indians began making trouble in the Spring, drove off some stock and killed a man. After this
guards were placed around the town and picket guards were sent on the East
Bench day time and South of town nights to better
protect the stock at night. On June 25th there were no town guards put out, the
Indians came down on the South of the Spanish Fork river past the picket guard,
rounded up the horses and cattle and were driving away when two of the Indians
came up within about 40 nods of the town and drove off a pair of horses from
the pasture. The picket guard, hearing the clatter of horses' feet, went in the
direction of the sound and saw two Indians driving horses. The guard came in
and reported and a posse was quickly gathered to follow the Indians with Major
William Creer in command.
The Indians drove the horses a distance
of about three miles East of where they were seen by the guard and crossed the
River below the bridge that crosses the river on the Salem road from Spanish
Fork Canyon, drove up the canyon and over on Diamond Creek where they were
overtaken by Major Creer and Company. A battle began
at once. One man was killed and another wounded. It was thought that the
Indians were too many for the white men so a messenger was [sent to town] for
help. I, with another man, was sent on picket guard that morning, coming to
town that afternoon we were ordered to go to the relief of Major Creer. The relief party left town about sun down, crossed the East Bench and met the boys at the mouth
of Maple Canyon, bringing the wounded man with them. He died a couple of days
later. The man killed on the battle ground could not be found that night, but
was brought in by a party sent out the following day.
Copied from faded
typewritten document by Brianna Pruett, Great-Great-Granddaughter of George F.
Bowen, June 3, 2003. Some words that were unreadable have been
assumed. These words are: East Bench, and simple words such as "to,"
"was," etc. The section of unreadable words is about 14 characters in
length and guesses are bracketed []. Brianna Lea Pruett, daughter of Karen
Christine Bowns, daughter of Ricorda
Bowen, daughter of William Wallace Bowen, son of George Foster Bowen, son of
David Bowen and Jane Foster Bowen.
Grandpa Bowen and the Rabid Coyote
Lana Williams Rowland
January 3, 1983
My grandparents, Belva
Amelia Gallup and James Miller Bowen, were married on January 3, 1905, at her
parents' home in Mapleton. That night (Tuesday) a reception was held at Tuttle's
Hall in Spanish Fork. This was a popular spot for dances and other festivities
and was located about where Christensen's store is now - on the east side of
Main Street between 2nd and 3rd North. Today, January 3, 1983, would have been
their 78th wedding anniversary. In honor of this occasion
(and also to keep one of my New Year's resolutions!) I asked my mother,
Genevieve Bowen Williams, to relate to me a story of their early years together
in Holbrook, Idaho. This is the story as she told it to me:
GRANDPA BOWEN AND THE RABID COYOTE
As told by Genevieve B. Williams
When I was just a little girl, my
grandfather (George Foster Bowen) sometimes lived with us at the farm in
Holbrook, Idaho. In order to maintain a homestead we had to make a home and
stay there 3 years out of 5, but they didn't have to be consecutive years.
After the homestead was first claimed, I don't remember Grandma (Mary Elizabeth
Miller Bowen) staying out there much. She spent most of her time at the family
home on 1st East and 5th North in Spanish Fork, Utah. In later years, after
Grandpa Bowen died in 1919, she stayed on there and collected Grandpa's $30 a
month pension from the Indian Wars. This income was ample for her needs and she
would have considered herself "well-heeled."
One summer when Grandpa was living with
us there was an epidemic of rabies. Many animals, including dogs, horses, and
coyotes, were affected. People were very concerned because rabies was a serious
disease. Mr. Sweeten, the father of my good friend Genevieve (now Mrs. Lynn
Williams of Salt lake City), was one of several men who had to go to the doctor
in Malad for shots because, even though he hadn't
been bitten, he had come in contact with the foamy froth that came from the
mouth of one of the contaminated animals.
Our house was built up off the ground on
pegs and supported by rocks. Our dog was named Major, but when we found, out
"Major" was about to become a mother we shortened it to
"Maj." She gave birth to her three puppies under the house, and
the boys crawled under the house with an old quilt to make the new mother and
her babies comfortable.
About two days later, early in the
morning, we heard a terrible commotion coming from under the house. Old Maj was making a big fuss and the puppies were all
squealing wildly. As Grandpa Bowen started out the door to see what was going
on, he was pulling his galluses (as he called his suspenders) up over his
shoulders. I was close behind, and then came Russell. Don was much too frightened
to come out, and Wen was just a baby.
I still remember how the sun was just
coming up as Grandpa stepped off the step facing east toward the woodpile. Just
then a wild coyote came slinking, out from under the porch, practically
underfoot. Grandpa grabbed an ax from the woodpile, threw it, and hit the rabid
coyote. He got a hard enough hit to bowl him over, but he wasn't dead and
managed to get away. We were all very frightened and much relieved to find out
that later that same day, a Mr. Anderson (Lela Pratt's brother) did kill a
coyote and we could identify it as the same one because of the wound the ax had
left.
All the boys loved the dog and were very
unhappy, but it was Don who was most upset by this incident. All three puppies
died and Old Maj had to be shot.
