Yearly - Template

1856 Emigration

Outfitting Station	Departure	Captain	Souls	Wagons	Handcarts	Arrival in SLC
Iowa City	June 9	Edmund Ellsworth	275	4	52	Sept. 26
Iowa City	June 11	Daniel McArthur	222	4	48	Sept. 26
Iowa City	June 23	Edward Bunker	300	5	60	Oct. 2
Iowa City	July 15	James G. Willie	500	5	120	Nov. 9
Iowa City	Aug. 25	Edward Martin	575	7	@145	Nov 30
Florence	June 5	Philemon Merrill	200	50		Aug. 13-18
Florence	June 10	Canute Peterson	320	60		Sept. 20
Florence	June 15	John Banks	300	60		Oct. 1
Iowa City	July 30	Wm. B. Hodgetts	150	33		Dec. 10-15
Iowa City	Aug. 1	Dan Jones/ Hunt	300	56		Dec. 10-15
Mormon Grove	Aug. 10	Abraham O. Smoot	97	43		Nov. 9
Texas, Kan. City	May	Jacob Croft	58	15		Oct. 11
Matagor. Bay, TX (Santa Fe Trail)	April 7	Preston Thomas	34	8		Sept. 17
Mississippi		Benj. Matthews	@30	@8		July 19
3(?) - Independent: Clapp (14 wagons-TX), Boley (13 Wagons-St. Louis), Hawkins (8 wagons-S. Africans)
Totals:			3,361	358	425

In April, 1856, a distressingly similar series of events that led to the Grattan massacre in 1856, began with the Cheyenne tribe. This time the cause was a stray horse.

A contingent of troops had been stationed at the Platte bridge, evidently on guard duty, when a small band of Cheyenne arrived for purposes of trade. The officer in charge had been informed that the Indians possessed four stray - not stolen- horses belonging to whites. He demanded the animals, promising to reward the Indians for finding and herding them. The natives surrendered three but claimed they had found the fourth animal much earlier and at a different place. The troops were then ordered to arrest three of the Indians. Two tried to escape; one succeeded, the other was killed, and the prisoner ultimately died in captivity. In the course of their precipitate flight the remaining Indian killed an old trapper.

In August there were further incidents. Following a misunderstanding between two Cheyenne warriors and the driver of a mail carriage, Fort Kearney troops attacked the peaceful Cheyenne encampment and killed several Indians. But before the attack the Cheyenne chiefs had already disciplined the two braves, who themselves had been fired upon first by the stage driver. The fleeing Cheyenne attacked several parties of travelers they encountered, killed at least 11 persons, and took 3 captives. One of those killed was Almon Babbitt, Utah Territory's delegate to Congress.