Dakota Diary 25 - Epilogue

Mattie Kellogg – became an “artist” although what kind is never mentioned, and a “music teacher”. She married in 1892 and had one son. She continued living in the East, and died young, in 1917 from nephritis.
 

Cora Sue Kellogg- is much harder to trace. In 1893-1900 she worked as a dental assistant in Denver. She married a much older man and moved to Salt Lake City. She had no children. She died in 1938. 

Mr. John Erastus Lester– was a lawyer, and after a few year's out traveling and writing books,he went back and practiced law again in Rhode Island. He died in 1900.

Buffalo Bill – William Cody– kept his Wild West show going until 1915 – although it went through many permutations in that time. He died a poor man in 1917.

Adam Bogardus – only stayed with the Wild West show for one year. He died in 1913.

Captain Grant Marsh– went back to work on the Missouri River after spending about 10 years
on the Mississippi. He wrote a pleading letter to President Teddy Roosevelt to not dam up the Missouri and make it impossible for boats to travel its entire length. He died in Bismarck in 1916.

Colonel Clement Lounsberry– sold his Bismarck DailyTribune in 1884 and later tried unsuccessfully to be Governor of North Dakota. He made many speeches about his role in the reporting of the 1876 massacre, many of them containing references that were not made public back in 1876, showing that he did hold Mark's final report – and that there were things in it that he had kept hidden. He died in 1920.

John Dunn – became a politician and mayor of Bismarck from 1884-5. Dunn County is named after him. 

Christina Dunn– eventually gave the suitcase with Mark's clothes in it to the North Dakota State Historical Society. For some reason his writings from his trip had two pages missing. (pictured above) She gave someone who knew Mark a plug of tobacco from the suitcase. She planted
a spruce tree in 1921 in Mark's honor in Custer Park in Bismarck. She died in 1940.

Fannie Dunn – donated the rest of things relating to Mark Kellogg, including his writings to the Bismarck Tribune and the letter her parents had received from Mrs. Hannah Robinson, Mattie and Cora Sue's grandmother.

The Fisher home was completed in 1884 – so I bent the truth in order to use the description of it in my story. It later became the Governor's mansion and is still available for the public to view.

Linda Slaughter became quite well known, as a women's advocate, a writer and a politician.
She wrote the words for the North Dakota state song. She became a lawyer. She died in 1911.

The Marquis de Mores was rearrested and tried again for the same murder several years later. It was a much bigger deal, this final trial but the outcome was the same. He didn't do well financially out of his developments in Medora, so moved back East about 5 years later. He was killed in 1896 when he took part in trying to quell an uprising in Tunis.

Sitting Bull was both at the ceremony for the opening of the bridge and at the big buffalo hunt which took place later in the year. He joined the Wild West show in 1885. He also became very involved in the Sioux's one big last stand – and he died in 1890.

Annie Oakley joined the Wild West show in 1884 and stayed with it for seventeen years.
She was injured in a train wreck in 1901 which caused spinal damage, but she still kept working part time. She died in 1926.

Calamity Jane joined the Wild West show in 1895. She was fired in 1901 for drunkenness and fighting. She died in 1903.

Dakota Territory split into the two states, North Dakota and South Dakota in 1886, but the
capitol of South Dakota became Pierre, not Yankton.

John Carnahan - After Colonel Lounsberry died in 1926, he stated that the Colonel had
had very little to do with the sending of the message about the massacre, but that he had done it all by himself. He said that on July 5, 1876, Dr. Porter, Captain Marsh and Captain Smith had come and awakened him, but as the line was down until the morning, there
was nothing he could do, but sort the material that had come in. On the morning of July 6th, he started his marathon telegraphing job – although he says that Captain Smith wrote a 250 summary which was also sent to places who were inquiring about what had happened. He says he didn't finish until 5 a.m. On the 7th of July. He had known Mark in La Crosse, which is why he knew where he came from. He says he worked for 80 hours on the dispatch. Doctor Porter however, said that they had first gone to Lounsberry's home,
and attributes 22 hours of telegraphing time to Carnahan.

James Foley– 1874-1939 lived in Fort Abraham Lincoln as a child. He became the North Dakota poet laureate, and also wrote plays, lyrics and short fiction.

Doctor Henry Porter– died while on a foreign vacation in 1903. A whole book has been
written about Doctor Porter, and as he was an eye witness to the aftermath of the massacre, I wanted to put in a few excerpts from it.

The 28-year-old civilian physician came to Bismarck and had little success compared to Dr. Slaughter. He had been involved with two pharmacies which had both failed. So his choice of going on Custer's expedition was largely do to his lack of anything else to do in Bismarck.

Prior to the battle, Porter held Custer in high regard. He was flattered when Custer asked him to replace the other doctor, and go with him on the day of battle. But Dr. Lord refused, and that saved Dr. Porter's life. Porter must have thought very little of Custer when he was in the midst of Reno's beleaguered troops, but he did not publicly criticize him.

Writing about the battle itself, Porter says, “As soon as we crossed the river we encountered 10 or 15 Indians who ran from us, causing us to think that all the Indians would do the same. Reno ordered his troops to dismount and form a skirmish line. Indians charged, “the ground seemed to be fairly alive with them,” said Porter. “They were all naked and their bodies were painted hideously. They all rode their pones bareback.”

“Chief guide Charles Reynolds warned me that I was attracting attention with my 'different' clothing as I wasn't wearing an army uniform. He said, “Look out Doctor, the Indians are shooting at you,” but those were his last words as he was killed. “The Indians in their mad pursuit of our troops, did
not notice me in the timber. They were passing within ten feet of where I was. I placed laudanum on the wound of the soldier and bandaged it as best I could and again mounted my frightened horse. As
I was leaving the poor soldier said, “For God's sake, Doctor, don't leave me to be tortured by those fiends,” but I had to leave him.

“I saw Lieutenant McIntosh being dragged from his horse and they riddled him with pistol shots
as he lay at their feet. Dr. De Wolf was killed just as he reached the summit, leaving me as the only surgeon. I retrieved his body the next day for burial and was able to save his diary and some personal items to send to his widow.

“We took a stand on the top of a steep hill. We fought there for the remainder of the day, surrounded by three thousand savages, while there were only three hundred of us, all told. The men dug rifle pits
with their knives and tin cups. At dark, the Indians stopped firing. Some of the men then crawled down to the river and secured water. The wounded were begging for a drink. I gave them the brandy which they insisted on, although I told them it would make them worse. Next morning, they opened fire on us again. The firing gradually ceased on the 26th at about 4 o'clock. After they left we were able to procure water. Then on the morning of the 27th, General Terry said, 'Custer and his whole
command are killed. We thought you were too.'

“As soon as we could several officers and I went over to where Custer had been found and saw what
General Terry reported to be only too true. Custer's body was stark naked, as white and clean as a baby's. His brother, Tom Custer was horribly mutilated. He was disemboweled, and his head had been crushed by a blow from a stone hammer used by the Indians. He had the Sioux mark of
death, which was a cut from the hip to the knee, reaching to the bone. His heart was not cut out, as had been reported by Rain-in-the-Face. I cut a lock of hair from the head of each officer as he lay, and gave it to their families on my return home.

“After burying the dead we took the wounded on litters 10 or 12 miles to the boat, the Far West and
I was detailed to go down to Fort Lincoln with them. The captain, Marsh, and his boat performed a feat unequaled in steam boating. The steamer nor the gallant captain ever got the full credit owed them. At Fort Buford and Fort Stevenson we stopped a minute to tell the news. At Ford Berthold a wounded scout was put off. Two of the wounded died, and we went ashore to bury them.

“One of my patients was Private Michael Madden and I amputated his right leg below the knee early on the morning of June 27th with only whiskey to dull the pain. He survived.

“My field hospital was in the open air on a tarpaulin in a shallow depression near the center of the hill that was scantily protected. We had sage brushes and sand for our operating board. There were 78
wounds in 38 men under my care. Of those six died, one on the bluffs, three on the steamship and two later at the Fort Lincoln Hospital.

“There has been criticism of the delay in the leaving of the boat after the battle. It took time to make stretchers and carry the wounded and it took us until the 30th to reach the boat. The survivors left about then to march down to the Yellowstone. The Far West could not leave until Gibbons troops were ferried across to the north bank of the Yellowstone. Also, the other reason was that the report of the battle needed to be written in such a way as to make nobody seem culpable.”