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BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
20th Century History of
Delaware County, Ohio
and
representative citizens
Publ:
Chicago, Ill. :: Biographical Pub. Co., by James R. Lytle
1908
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BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX 1908>
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ELMER A. WIGTON.
There are few residents of Delaware County, in all probability, who
have passed through so many thrilling experiences and survived more
dangers or encountered more adventures than Elmer A. Wigton,
who spent many years on the frontier, on the outskirts of
civilization, but who now is an esteemed citizen of Liberty
township. Mr. Wigton was born in Brown Township,
Delaware County, Ohio, June 22, 1839, and is a son of Sylvester
and Elmina (Perry) Wigton.
The paternal grandfather, THOMAS
WIGTON, was born in Pennsylvania in 1777 and came to
Delaware County in 1819. He settled on a farm in Kingston
Township, near the Blue Church, where he lived until 1852, when he
moved to "Berkshire. Four years later he settled on a farm
between Berkshire and Sunbury, a property that is occupied by his
grandson, Charles Wigton, and his mother. Thomas
Wigton died in 1877 when almost 100 years old. His
children were respectively as follows: David, Sylvester,
Abiram, Jacob, James, Frazier, William, Mrs. Samuel Hall, Mrs. Orlin
Root, Mrs. Joel Root, Mrs. Benjamin Lee, Mary Jane and Mrs.
Peter Colum, all of whom are now deceased.
The maternal grandparents of Mr. Wigton were
William Perry and Electa Perry. After the death of
William Perry his widow married Benjamin McMaster.
The Perry children were: William A., Elmina Rachel,
Philemon F.; and the McMasters children were: Robert
Gordon, Horace P. and William A.; and the children of the
McMaster-Perry marriage were: George, Esther, Hiram
and Eloisa.
The father of Mr. Wigton was born in
Pennsylvania, in 1812, and was seven years of age when he
accompanied his parents to Delaware County. He died in Brown
Township, in March, 1873, aged sixty-one years. In 1837 he
married Elmina Rachel Perry, who was born in Liberty
Township, Delaware County, Ohio, Oct. 11, 1819. After the
death of Sylvester Wigton, she married Dr. Besse, of
Delaware. The parents of Mr. Wigton settled in Brown
Township, one and one half miles west of Eden, when the country was
yet all covered with frost. They had two children: William
Perry and Elmer A. The former was born June 14,
1838. In 182, just before entering the army, he married
Esther E. Holt. He was a member of the Ninety-sixth
Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was killed at Arkansas Post,
in February, 1863.
ELMER A. WIGTON always had a
strong instinct of direction and a faculty for woods travel.
When a mere child of only four or five years of age, he would go far
out into the dense woods alone and ramble about in every direction,
amusing himself by throwing sticks at wild turkeys, and when he
thought he had them driven far enough away, he would strike out in
the right direction for the little cabin which was his home at that
time. This latter feat he would perform as accurately as a pig
would have done if it had been carried away in a sack and then
turned loose.
About 1844 or '45 Brown Township was almost an unbroken
wilderness, with the exception of the small patches that had been
cleared around the cabins of the few hardy pioneers that came in
from the East to establish new homes for themselves. Many
times these settlers would become uneasy about their children when
they had not seen or heard them for an hour or two, fearing they
were lost in the woods. In those days there was more of
harmony and friendly feeling existing between neighbors than now.
They would take their families and pay their neighbors a visit and
have a good time and a good dinner. On such occasions a strong
cup of coffee, with cream and maple sugar, hot biscuit with butter
and maple syrup or honey, chicken and dumplings, fried ham, boiled
eggs, mashed potatoes, boiled parsnips, pumpkin pie and cakes
sweetened with maple sugar - all the cooking done on the fireplace -
would have been considered a good dinner, and would not be very bad
to take now.
At one time a family, the children of which ranged in
age from eight to twelve years, came to the cabin of
SYLVESTER WIGTON,
the father of the subject of this
sketch, where they were cordially received. Neighbor settler
and Mr. Wigton were busily engaged in talking, when all of a
sudden neighbor said, "Where are the children? I haven't heard
them for some time; I am afraid they are lost." Mr. Wigton
looked up in his good natured manner, and said, "They are not lost,
for little Elmer followed them, and he will keep with them.
when he gets hungry and tired, he will say, 'I am going home.'
they will all be hungry about that time, and that little pig will
start out on a bee-line for home." Neighbor said, apparently
with some surprise, "Suppose they have rambled around in the woods,
until they do not know where they are, and he starts out in the
wrong direction:" Mr. Wigton said with a smile, "He was
never known to go the wrong way; I have had him in test for over a
year. He has followed me many times into the woods, so thick
with spice brush that a person could not see out one rod from where
he started, and I would then ask him, 'Which way is home?' He
would raise his little hand and point the right direction every
time.
Mr. Sylvester Wigton was also a good woods
traveler. He was never known to get lost, or to hunt for the
moss which is always more plentiful on the north side of the
standing tree in order to keep his course, although he traveled many
dark, cloudy nights through the woods, and showed many lost persons
to their homes.
Elmer A. Wigton in his boyhood days, went to
school winters in the old log schoolhouse, and in the summer
assisted his father in clearing the land and raising crops.
This life continued until Mar. 6, 1860, when he left the parental
roof and started for the West, going by rail to Cincinnati, where he
took a steamer down the Ohio River. Then he took the steamboat
"White Cloud" and went up the Missouri for Leavenworth, Kansas.
It was the month of March, when the Missouri River is lower than at
any other time of year. It was then so low that in many places
the boat had to be moved by use of the spar and capstan. Many
times passengers were landed and walked up the river a mile or more
until deep water was reached, when the boat would make a landing and
take them aboard. On March 26th he arrived at Leavenworth,
having been twenty days on his journey. He remained in the
city the first night; in the morning taking his grip-sack, he
started out on the Lawrence and Leavenworth road, continuing on that
road until he came to the stream, Little Stranger. Here there
was a hotel which was a stage station on the route between
Leavenworth and Lawrence. Here he took dinner and in the
afternoon, abandoning the road, he went across the prairie in a
southwesterly direction, and at night put up at John Wright's
on the south bank of the Big Stranger, where he remained a week,
daily walking about the adjoining country, and down into the
Delaware Reservation which was near by. The Indians were more
of a curiosity to him at that time than they were later. Since
then Mr. Wigton has passed weeks at a time without seeing any
other class of people.
On the 16th of April he started on another tramp, going
in a westerly direction. After traveling fourteen miles, he
pulled into the little town of Osackee. The next day he took
the stage for Le Compton, which was the first proposed capital of
Kansas. He remained in this town and vicinity during the
greater part of the summer of 1860, and in August left for the
southern part of Kansas and northern part of Indian Territory.
In October, 1860, while stopping at Le Roy, on the Neosha River in
southern Kansas, he first met Capt. E. H. Mosley, the great
trader and trapper of the Southwest. He was a hardy
frontiersman, about fifty-four years of age, with long brown hair,
and flowing whiskers mixed with gray. He wore a drab coat and
a badger-skin cap, to which raccoon skin was hanging in the rear.
While on the plains he always had a revolver and a long knife
hanging to his belt, and would entertain newcomers from the east
with his thrilling adventures and hair-breath escapes from the
Indians. This humorous old pioneer took quite a fancy to young
Wigton, giving him a new name, which clung to him for years -
Wild Buck. The Captain insisted on Buck accompanying him to
the extreme frontier, which he consented to do. Soon after
this an old Indian trader had returned to his trading post, which at
that time was situated on the southwest bank of the Arkansas river,
about one mile west of where Wichita now stands. At that time
the region was the home of the wolf and the buffalo. The old
captain and a man named Moxley on the west bank of the Little
Arkansas river, at the crossing of the old California trail of '49,
which place is now within the limits of North Wichita, had the only
houses west of El Dorado, which is situated on the Big Walnut,
twenty-five miles east of Wichita.
At the time young Wigton arrived at the trading
post, Captain Mosley had several men in his employ putting up
hay, there being numerous stacks which had been mowed on the
surrounding prairie. A few days later an old Frenchman
accompanied by an Indian came into the post, and requested
Captain Mosley to take some merchandise and go with them to
their camp, as they had many buffalo robes and other articles of
traffic to dispose of. After loading some prairie schooners,
Captain Mosley said, "Now, Buck, come and go with me,
and we will see Indians in their purity. We will be off in the
morning, as the wagons will be loaded tonight, and then we will have
nothing to do but to yoke up the oxen - there were six yoke to a
wagon - and start." In the morning when all was ready to
start, Captain Mosley said to the little Frenchman, Lobo
by name, "I will expect you to guide me to your camp, as you have
not yet told me where it is located." At this request, Lobo
told the Indian in his native tongue to act as guide. The
Indian adjusted his blanket and started on about twenty paces in
advance of the rest of the party. The whole outfit was soon
moving, and Buck was standing with his rifle on his shoulder
ready to start out on his first trip to an Indian camp.
Captain Mosley gave a few orders to the men who were to remain
at the post, and shouldered his favorite old rifle, "Sweet Lips," as
he called it, said "We will go." Captain Mosley and Buck
walked slowly and steadily on their way, about a quarter of a mile
in the rear of the outfit. They did not come up with it until
it had reached a little stream called the Cow Skin, about eight
miles from the post. Here they had unyoked the oxen and struck
camp to remain for the night. By this time there were many
clouds in sight giving prospects of rain. By the time the cook
had dinner ready, the clouds had become dense, and Captain Mosley
said "I wish it would rain, for it has not rained for so long that I
have almost forgotten what it looks like." This was in the
fall of 186, the driest year ever known in that part of the country.
Night passed but without rain, though it was still dark and cloudy.
they broke camp at an early hour, and before they had traveled one
mile drops of rain began to fall and soon it was raining quite hard
and the prairie was becoming quite muddy. Captain Mosley,
Buck, Lobo, the extra man and the cook, sought shelter in the
wagons, while the ox-drivers and the Indian walked on in the rain.
While the Captain and Lobo were busy talking, Buck was
seated in front on a package of goods looking out into the rain.
After a short time, Captain Mosley came to the front of the
wagon and seated himself on same goods. His face wore an
uneasy expression. He said, "Well, Buck, how are you
making it sitting here in silence this rainy day?" "Captain,"
was the answer. "I do not think I will ever learn to travel on the
plains, although when I was four or five years old I was
considered equal to a pig in traveling in the woods. Now here
I am with an Indian guide at our head - and I have heard that they
were the best guides in the world and can always strike their point
under any circumstances - and I have been sitting here all the
morning looking out in front, with an eye on the guide, and my mind
wholly on the run of our travel, and it does seem to me that we have
been steadily swinging to the left, and are now headed to the north
of the place we came from this morning. I have never felt so
completely lost in my life." The Captain said, "Buck,
you are right; that damned Indian has turned us around, and I am
going to get out and do some guiding myself." The Frenchman
said. "That Indi-on is a good gui-eed. He was raised on the
prair-ree, and he does known where he does go. "I do not
care what he knows, I am going to get out and guide this outfit."
By the time he had alighted from the wagon, the Indian had stopped
and was looking at the ground. When Mosley came up to
him he was standing as still as a mile-post, and gazing at the
tracks they had made an hour or two before. The Captain turned
the outfit around to a southerly direction and headed toward the
Ninnesqua, and the Indian crawled into a wagon and covered his head
with a blanket. When they had gone about a mile, it stopped
raining and the sun came out. Mosley threw his blue
blanket on the ground, motioning to the teamsters to pick it up and
continue on. As Buck was tired of riding, he jumped out
of the wagon and started on at a rapid pace to overtake Mosley.
By the time he caught up with him they were at the banks of the
Ninnesqua, and Mosley was looking for a place to stop for the
night. After locating the camp, they were busily engaged in
gathering wood. the sun was still shining, but low. they
had a fire burning when the wagons came up. Coffee was soon
made and the cook was occupied in making bread. Each man had
his piece of buffalo meat cooking in a manner to suit himself.
This was the second day out from the post, and they were only
twenty-five miles away. When they had finished supper the sun
had set, it was growing dark, the wind had shifted to the northwest
and the air was getting quite cold. The stars were shining and
everything was wet with dew, and the silence of the night was soon
broken by the keen sharp yelling of the coyotes and the low mournful
howl of the gray wolves. In the morning there was a heavy
white frost on the vegetation, apparently the first frost of the
season.
After supper the Indian had crawled out of the wagon
and walking to the camp said, "I know where I am now, our camp is
about five miles (holding up the fingers of one hand to indicate the
number) from the place. Mr. Indian now acted as guide. As we
reached the summit of the elevated prairie, we could see vast herds
of horses grazing on the descending prairie, and farther on could be
seen small clumps of trees, which were at the head of a small stream
called Shumacusse. This was the long looked-for camp, and the
first Indian Indian camp Buck was ever in. In this camp
could be seen Indians for the smallest pappoose in a parted raw-hide
baby-cage suspended from the limb of a tree up to the big lazy buck
sunning himself on the south side of a hill. Buck made
himself useful in assisting the Captain in measuring out
merchandise. Many times during the day the Captain and he were
invited into the lodges of the chiefs and of the noble bloods for a
feast, which invitation could not be refused without insulting the
Indian. The cook, the extra man and the teamsters were invited
into the lodge of Lobo and the other lodges of low rank.
Lobo was living with an inferior looking old squaw, and
though he had lived many years with the Indians, he seemed to be of
low rank in the village. By evening the cargo was very much
reduced. When the cargo from a wagon was removed, the cover
and bows were laid aside and the bed of the wagon was filled with
buffalo robes, piled up until the top of the load projected
over the sides and from there up would be ten feet wide and seven
feet high, there being many hundred robes in the pile. Trading
had about ceased when night came on. Bon-fires were being
kindled. Small brush was gathered and saturated with buffalo
tallow, and these when set on fire produced a brilliant light.
As the fire began to burn, one could see the numerous warriors
taking from their belts a small sack containing red, yellow and
black paint, and a small looking-glass inserted in a board handle
like a hair brush. In the morning the wagons were started back
with the cargo. Mosely and Buck remaining in the
camp. They were gone about four days, and by the time they
returned, the entire stock of merchandise was sold out. The
return cargo consisted of buffalo tallow and robes, dressed buckskin
and robes. Mosley was to guide the outfit back.
He stayed in just about one foot behind Buck, and every once
in a while would ask, "Where are we going now?" Buck would
reply. "I think you are about right," and then conversation would be
resumed.
After they had been back at the post a few days, an outfit
was rigged up for a wolf hunt. Flour, coffee, sugar, dried
fruit, beans, for the men, and a large stock of strychnine for
ammunition for the wolves. The party consisted of Ashby,
Engal, Condit, Hayden, Moffit and
Wigton. When the party was ready. Mosley
said, "If you are attacked. Ashley, you are Captain of
this outfit, and I will expect every man to be under your command.
Buck, you are the guide of this party, and Ashley, I
want you to understand that he is the guide of the party.
Buck, you go south to the Cimron (Cimarron), and if you cannot
find plenty of wolves there, go up the Cimron until you do find
them."
It stood six days to reach the Cimarron, and then there
were no buffalo or wolves. They started slowly up the stream
until they reached the salt plain country. There they found
plenty of wolves and made a grand hunt. The party got over a
thousand wolf skins. Each man got one-half of what he made,
the Captain furnishing all supplies, except fire arms and blanket.
Baits poisoned with strychnine were set about dusk at evening for
the wolves. One day on reaching camp, it was discovered that
the Indians had been there, cut the tents and cut up the wagon and
pitched it into the stream. They had taken all the provisions,
so the party started back to the trading post. The third day
they were going a little north of east, and when they reached a
certain point a dissension arose as to the direction they should
take. The party broke up, different ones going in the
direction they thought right, only Moffit, the youngest man in the
party remaining with Buck, the official guide. They
reached Mosley on the fourth day, having had nothing to eat
since the morning of the day they started back, except a few black
walnuts which they had found on the evening of the third day.
When Mosley saw them, he said, "What the devil are you doing
there?" "We have been robbed by the Indians." "Have they
killed the men?" "No, the men left me at the Minnesqua."
"Well, that's a devil of a note; which way did they go?" He
was told the direction taken by the different men. It was
several days before the balance of the party staggered into camp one
and two at a time, and most of them and badly frozen limbs. In
the interval Mr. Wigton spent two days with an old hunter,
James Dewit.
Early in 1861, a party came down off
the Cimarron River, to the trading post, reporting that two of their
party, Shaw and Green, had been killed by the Indians.
Mr. Wigton with Mr. Ashby and Mr. Ingle,
went in search and found Shaw's body, which had been scalped,
but Green's body was never recovered. In a few days,
Mr. Wigton and his companions returned to the post and shortly
afterward Captain Mosley went back to his residence on Fall
River, twenty-five miles east of Eureka, Butler County, Kansas.
Mr. Wigton there raised some recruits to pursue the Indians, who
had a council and camp at the mouth of Fall River. It was this
camp that Mr. Ingle raided, carrying off the Indian horses to
Leroy, where they remained a few days, when Captain Mosley
came with his ox-train of hides, to ship to St. Louis from
Leavenworth. When the trader reached St. Louis they found that
city in an uproar, and Captain Mosley could not sell his
cargo and left Mr. Wigton in charge, while he went to Peoria,
Illinois. Subsequently, Mr. Wigton placed the cargo of
hides on a boat and shipped the same to Peoria, where Mr.
Mosley traded the most of them for corn, which he shipped to
Kansas.
Mr. Wigton then left Captain
Mosley and went to Michigan. He also visited Chicago, and
then returned to Leavenworth, going thence to Denver, from which
city he went back to Leavenworth with a four-mule team, in
preparation for entering the Government transportation service.
He remained at different points in Kansas and Nebraska until June,
1862, when he started south with the first and second Indian
regiments to Fort Scott, where he was employed in handling
transportation. He was a member of the noted Colonel Coffey
expedition and in December, 1862, participated in the fight at Perry
Grove, later at White River, and at Springfield, Missouri, in March,
1863, after which he returned to Fort Scott. In the fall of
this year he went to Fort Smith to pass the winter.
Up to January, 1865, when Mr. Wigton reached
Leavenworth again, his life was one round of dangerous adventure and
on several occasions he was the only member of his party who
entirely escaped injury. He remained in the service of the
Government until October, 1865, when he was honorably discharged,
having spent the previous summer putting up hay on the plains.
He remained at Fort Scott, engaged in a traffic business for a time
and then went down into the Indian Nation, with Chester Tuttle,
of Topeka. He remained variously engaged on the frontier of
Kansas until 1875, and then went into Western Texas, and in the
spring of 1879, from there to Las Vegas, New Mexico. A few
days later he went to Fort Union, in the Government employ, under
Captain Hooker, as chief packer on the Apache expedition and
remained out in the transportation service until September, a number
of the men and horses of the troop being killed in the meanwhile.
He remained at Las Vegas also as interpreter for Orin & Hosick,
of Chicago, dealers in hides. In 1882, he made a prospecting
trip west of Las Vegas for coal and worked a coal bank that would
have been profitable if transportation facilities had been near.
Mr. Wigton then built a small mill near Mineral Hill and he also
often served as a guide to tourists in the mountains, who visited
the Mineral Hill Resort, which is 10,000 feet above sea level.
The time came, however, when Mr. Wigton felt a
longing for the scenes of his early life and he came back home in
February, 1896. He is a member of Lodge No. 421. Odd
Fellows, at Ashley, Ohio. In politics, he is a Democrat.
He is engaged in the milling business at the old Beaver Mill, which
he owns. He speaks Spanish, keeping himself in practice by
reading aloud to himself Spanish papers. He also speaks four
Indian tongues.
Source No. 1:
20th century history of Delaware
County, Ohio and representative citizens -Chicago, Ill. :: Biographical Pub. Co., 1908 by James R. Lytle
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