San Antonio Express. (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 48, No. 103, Ed. 1 Sunday, April 13, 1913 Page: 17 of 76
seventy six pages : ill. ; page 22 x 17 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
EDITORIAL, TELEGRAPH, MARKETS
SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 13, 1913
*lJ
Sai\ Anftpivio
A
sA
<*A
J i
r \'i
wrr. riflTHEUSOn
'MOM C**§\-+Hiro
IMP/MS /N ft/It D/riSS
& >< i\ *%. ■ \"f
'.^:u
IiiilW
•f '<.•/<## V^k ®,M£O!; ■ .
William Mathewson, Who Gain-
ed Famous Sobriquet When
He Killed Buffalo to Relieve
Starving Set tiers, Relates a
Story Stranger Than Fiction.
IT WAS in the summer of 1860. There had been little rain on the Kansas
frontier and the sun shone down with such fierceness that it seemed
determined to burn up everything in the way of foliage that attempted to lift
its head. All crops had failed miserably. All the streams were dried up.
There was no grass, the prairie was converted into a veritable desert. There
was no live stock because there was neither feed nor water. This was the
situation in June, and the hottest months of the summer were still ahead.
There came into Kansas City, then nothing but a frontier village, William
Mathewson, who conducted a trading post at Great Bend on the Arkansas
River, over two hundred miles distant. He came to ship his furs to St. Louis.
Mathewson was strong and thirty, a typical frontiersman who had been on the
plains from the lime he was a boy. He had all the resourcefulness that the
hard life he had lived required. He sized up the situation and answered it in
two words.
"Kill buffalo I" he said and returned to his trading post.
It sounded very simple, as simple as Columbus and the egg. Within a
hundred miles to the west buffalo roved the range in thousands. Buffalo
meat was better than starvation. What more simple, then, than to "kill buf-
falo."
It sounded very simple. but It was
Anything but that. The first word of the
phrase whs the "rub." To provide buffalo
meat they must first "kill" buffalo. And
none cf them knew how to do this. The
killing of buffnlo Is a very dlffh ult art.
It requires nerve and what might hi)
■ ailed "finesse." Dressed in tough buck-
skin in order to be able to crawl over
.actus and other growths of the prairie
without being scratched up, the hunter
must first get on the side of the herd
on which the wind'Is blowing In hist di-
rection. The buffalo has a keen sense
of smell, and to approach the herd with
th* wind blowing toward It would be dis-
astrous. The older bulls, which are too
tough for food, are alwaya on the out-
side of the herd. A young cow la al-
waya the leader of the herd, and la In th*
middle. The task of the hunter Is to
crawl between the buffalo Into the very
midst of the herd, pick out the leader and
kill her first. A stampede follows, and
during this the hunter must pick off the
l at young cowa as fast as he can work
with his rifle. To orawl through the
herd to the middle was a feat that few
men In those daya would be willing to
haitard. The hunter In doing tills had to
play wolf," that Is, he had to give the
buffalo the Impression that he was a
wolf or some other kind of animal. If
the attention of a buffalo was attract'd
he must note it Immediately and drop on
ills face to the ground and remain still.
Then he muat be able to recognise .lust
which one of the cows Is leading thu
herd and also to kill her with a single
sltol. All of this was Involved In the
simple advice: "Kill buffalo."
July came on ami August The visible
food supply of the Utile colony began to
reach the vanishing point. The advice
n|' Mathewson was remembered, but
there seemed no way of following It.
"Kill buffalo" became a by-phrase.
Cine evening In September there drew
up In front of Mathowsnn's trading post
a long line of wagons. With tin- wagons
bus a small army of hungry men, who
bait left starving families behind them
in Kansas City. It had dawned upon
them that If they could not "kill buffalo,"
perhaps the man who had given the nd-
vlrc could. They kari come to find out.
And they did find out. Before break-
(ail next morning Hill Mathewson had
killed fifty-two buffalo and before night
many of the wagons were headed home-
ward loaded down with buffalo. The re-
turning wagons met other wagons com-
ing out, and after inspecting the goodly
supply of meat that was being hauled to
the settlement, they all osreed that "Bill
sure was a buffalo killer."
ONLY HUNTED Bl.'FPAIOES.
Ali that fall and winter the wagons
kept coming and returning Iftden with
their precious traffic. Bill Mathewson
abandoned everything else for the time
being and did nothing but hunt buffalo.
The settlers soon began to refer to him
as "Bill, the buffalo killer," and this
finally took form and crystallised la the
shorter soubriquet, "Buffalo BUI." In
those days frontier news was In much
demand In New York, and the metro-
politan papers all had their "correspond-
ents" among the frontiersmen to whom
the little money they could earn In this
way came In very handy that hard year.
The exploits of Bill Mathewson made
good "copy," and It was not long before
the whole country was reading of this
mighty hunter of the buffalo, "Buffalo
Bill." At this time William F. Cody was
14 years old.
"Buffalo Bill" has had a very eventful
career. Ills experiences have been such
as might easily make him the hero of
a hundred romances. What legendary
hero of the nays of chivalry can lay
claim to having rescued at different
times a total of fifty-four women and
children? And yet this la the reoord of
this splendid old man, who Is now in
San Antonio. It detracts not a whit
from the glory ot It that he rescued
them from hostile Indians Instead of
from the dragons and other monsters of
medieval romance. During the Civil
War lie remained on the frontier, taking
the philosophical attitude that "the^ftates
could fight out their own quarrel," as
his business was dealing with Indians,
After the war, when the Indian fWars
broke out, he became attached to the
Government scout service and later wa»
made chief of scouts. In thla service he
was thrown III with all of the noted
character* of the frontier. Kli Carson
was among hla most Intimate friends,
and he could tell many a tale of adven-
ture if he would but break hla rigid rule
ot allmcc. One ot his moat previous |»oa-
v : ,«. >i
i • ij
■< *< sv
cm. wrt. coor ""evFFfiw ant."
sessions Is one of Kit Carson's pistols,
which the latter presented to him.
Like moat of the oldest frontiersmen.
Colonel Mathewson maintains that "had
there been ho aoldlers there would never
have been any Indian wars." Indeed, his
greatest service to the country waa not
In fighting Indians, but In arranging
treaties with them and bringing bloody
wars to an end. Oh more than one Occa-
sion It was Buffalo Bill who brought the
Indiana together to meet a commission
from the Government in a "pow wow."
One In particular, In which the commis-
sioners Included Kit Carson, Colonel
Bent and Colonel Boone, nephew of the
famous Daniel Boone, took place just
five miles from his present home In
Wichita.
"The ways of peace are best," was
Colonel Mathowson'a policy. lie believed,
aa many other frontiersmen believed,
that the Indiana could be taught th*
ways of the white man and thua con-
verted Into a peaceful neighbor. His
own experiences with the Klowas seemed
to bear out this fact. Tim chief of this
tribe became very much Interested In
the way in which he provided hla family
with food at his trading post at Great
Mend. He was particularly interested In
the way stock was raised and sold and in
the use of milk as a food. Colonel
Mathewson gave to the chief a num-
ber of cows., taught tho squaws how to
milk them. It was a very amusing sight
after that to see the little papooaes of
the Indians standing around with their
tin cups to get their share at milking
time, "it would make them fat and
stiong," the chief said. At the chief's ro-
quest a number of his own daughtera
wero taught to sew by the wife of one of
the men who worked for Colonel
Mathewson, and a few of them became
very good seamstresses. Before long the
chief was becoming accustomed to a
number of the customs of the white man
and owned a considerable herd of cattle.
An unfortunate war with this tribe put
an end to these efforts. Colonel Mathew-
son had a similar experience with Black
\jn. riArt/fwsoH
/tow IMS INDJAH LOOKS W
call how Charlotte Templeton, who waa
the daughter of a ranchman on the Con-
cho Kiver In West Texas, was carried
off by a savage tribe of Comanche In-
Kettls, chief of the Cbeyenea.
FltlKNDLY WITH THH INDIANS.
All through his career Colonel Mathew
son maintained friendly relations with a
large number of the Indian tribes. In his d"*»8 ™'ar cloae of the Civil War.
earlv life he drove tho overland stage Tllls Particular tribe wa, one of the most
through a thousand miles of wilderness warllkc tn country, and had never
along the old Santa Fe trail, and thla knnwn *° * wh'te man to e.-
was made possible only because of his cape them alive. In spite of th. order
of the Government against tha offering
of rewards for the return of stolen chil-
dren or women, an order msde nscusunry
because there were whits men among the
Indiana low enough to put them up to
, . ... . committing atich a deed In order to col-
were cases, of course, when this did not ^ ^ rnwaLn]. Mr. Templeton offered
work and he had to use strateip- to out- R g{ ^ ror thfl oC h!,
wit them and recover the prisoner he aiiught#r
friendship with the Indians. On many
occasions this friendship served him In
good stead when he went out among
them to recover a white child or woman
who had been carried off by them. There
national emblem. The mountings are at J
silver and the carvings are Inlaid with
guld. J
Colonel Mathewson ii now elghty-thret j
years of age. He was born In Broom
County, N. Y., In IKi", and went Welt |
when he was about eighteen years ot
age. He now resides In Wichita, Kan., ,
the first bouse of which town lie built I
himself. Though he came here a few
weeks ago for lulling health, he is noW
hale and hearty and will be ready to
return to his business in a short tira*.
"They brought me out here to die," tl*
declared, "but I decided not to."
In spite of the fart that he Is the origi-
nal "Buffalo BUI," he counts William W.
Cody among his friends and maintain*
the most cordial relations with him.
University Group
Story Courses
The extension department of the 1 nl-
versity of Texas Is planning to offer son*
popular reading courses for cluba of
groups of persons Interested In son*
definite kind of work. Some of the field*
In whlcli these courses will doubtless b*
offered ure literature, history, economic*,
sociology, domestic economy, business
training, etc. This work la Intended to
meet the needs of literary, debating aa*
library clubs, mothers' clubs, high school
faculties and teachers' clubs, young peo-
ple's societies and Young Men s Christian
Associations, organisations of bank clerk*
and business men, commercial cluba.
municipal bodlea, labor unions, etc.
The plan contempluted Is to offer to
tbeae various groups of persons, uudeg
the direction of some university Instruc-
tor or lecturer, certain defnlte program*
for a session or year's work. Bach group
will have a lbcal leader or secretary,
who will conduct with the lecturer tha
correspondence relative to the program^
II addition to preparing the program foB
tlie year's work the lecturer will answer
by correspondence with the leader of th4
group any questions or difficulties tbaO
may arise In the progress of the course.
At least once during the progress of th«
course the lecturer will visit the clUI*1
and give one or two lectures, as the con-
ditions may warrant. One of the lec-
tures may be of the Informal seminary
or question and answer type, and an-
other of the popular character, either
for a select audience of the membew
of the group and their guests, or for tbo
general public, as the circumstances au4
the desires of the lecturer and the groap
may determine. The lecturer will also
prepare a select bibliography or from flv*
ti fifteen books suitable for a portable
library on his topic. These hooks will
he sent out by the depsrtment, snd the
club will have free use of them during th*
progress of the eoursc; transportation
charges on the library will be paid by
the group.
The minimum number which may com-,
pose u group Is five. The maximum llm-j
it has not been set. The fe*' for a group
was seeking
This was so In the case of Charlotte
Templeton. Many an old-timer will re-
BUFFALO BILL is spending a few weeks in San Antonio. Not the one you are thinking of. however. Not
William Frederick Cody, whose name has been blazoned from billboards all over the world. Not that Buf-
falo Bill: but Col. William Mathewson, frontiersman, chief of Government scouts during the Indian wars, and the
man who became known from one end of the country to the other juit before the Cirll War by saving the Kansas
border from starvation through his activities >m a hunter of buffaloes. That Buffalo Bill, the original one of that
name, is spending a short time in the city, at 422 San Pedro Avenue.
Colonel Mathewson, whose home is in Wichita, KanM the first house of which city he built when that section
of the country was a Wilderness, came quietly to San Antonio a few weeks ago and endeavored to escape notice.
He is a retiring man of modest disposition who desires nothing so much aa to keep out of the public eye, especially
in connection With his title to the sobriquet of Buffalo BUI. ,
"I was given % man's Job at h time when men were needed. I tried to do it like a man. There is nothing to
be gained by talking.«0but it now," he has repeatedly said to newspaper men who have attempted to interview him.
Many of the big magazines have made tempting offers to him to write a history of his eventful life, but he has
consistently refused them. He has never broken this rigid rule of silence. The argument that the public has its
right to the facts concerning this "man's Job" that he was given to do and the manner in which he answered the
call to be a "man," has never had any effect on him.
Neverthelasa the public has Us rights in the matter. For this reason The Sunday Express gives here for the
first time tome of the things that are known of this remarkable man, including the true story of how he earned the
title Buffalo Bill and how it spread all over the country J nst before the Civil War.
It looked for awhile as If the reward
would go begging, for no man was will-
ing to venture among this savage tribe
of Comanches. When Colonel Mathew.
son heard uf It, and seeing that no one
efse would attempt to rescue the Itttl*
girl, he decided to undertake the task.
The details of how Charlotte was res-
cued are lacking, for Colonel Mathewson
has told them to very few, but it is a
fact that sfter a little over two years
he returned to tireat Betid with the girl.
He returned her to the gruteful father,
but refused stoutly to take tho reward,
Mr. Templeton Insisted that lie must lake
something and oftered hltn a diamond
ring that Ills rather, who served through
the Mexican war, had obtained In Mex-
ico. Colonel Mathewson finally agreed
to take this and cherishes It as a keep-
sake today.
Another of Colonel Mathewson's keep-
sakes la a brace ot two beautiful pistols
thst wag presented to him in 18M In Leav-
•nworth, Kan., at a banquet tendered
to him by the oltlseni of that place. The
handle* are ot aolld Ivory on whloh are
carved the goddess of liberty and the
study course will be a nominal oue, pay-
able In advance by the members of MM
club. The club may In many Instance*
reimbnrae itself by making s smsll ad-
mission charge to the public lecture. !•
many cases the public lectures will t* Us
lustrated with lantern slides.
THE QUOTATIONS USED MOSf
Favorites From Ten Great Writet*
Shown by an English Vote.
The vote of the people as to the
hard-worked quotations from (1) Shake
pea re, (2> Milton. (31 Dryden, (4) Pop
(5) Cowper, (Si Campbell, fTi Byron,
Shelley, tflt Wordsworth, U0> Tennyson,!
has resulted as follows:
1. To be or not to he.
2. They also serve who only stand anf
wait.
n None hut the hrave deserve the fair.
4 A little learning is a dangeroua
thing
5. The cups that cheer hut not Ine-
briate
ti. Distance lends enchantment to til* i
view.
7. Truth Is always strange-strange
than fiction.
8. Hall to thee, blithe spirit!
ft We are seven.
10. 'Tis better to have loved snd 1*
than never to have roved at all.
We think these hard-worked -
have a right tn at leait
dw
m*r'i *uu >'»•*
at all.
irked quota* iofl
an .Ight-MS
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
San Antonio Express. (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 48, No. 103, Ed. 1 Sunday, April 13, 1913, newspaper, April 13, 1913; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth433163/m1/17/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Library Consortium.