Glacier County Chief

Man Who Helped to Build Fort Keogh Taken by Death

By D. J. O'MALLEY (NNA KId)

A recent issue of the Eau Claire, Wis. Leader carried the announcement of the death of Oliver Cromwell, one of the last (if not the last) of the large number of civilians sent from St. Paul in 1877-1878 by government contractors to erect two military forts following the Custer massacre on the Little Big Horn. These forts were Fort Keogh, near the present town of Miles City, and Fort Custer, near Hardin.

In the fall of 1876 the war department authorized the building of two cantonments to house United States troops while the two forts were being constructed, the battle of the Little Big Horn having alarmed the nation to an extent not justified by the facts.

Oliver Cromwell, who was to be employed on the construction of Fort Keogh, was born at Rushville, Ill., in 1853. Early in life he followed Horace Greeley's advice to "go west, young man," and at the age of 18 he was a driver on the Overland stageline running between the towns of Pueblo and Las Animas, Colo., where he witnessed many stirring events. Cromwell drove stage for three years, when the discovery of gold in the Black Hills interested him.

Prospected in Black Hills

Cromwell prospected in the Black Hills for nearly two years, with indifferent success. Then he decided he would like to be a lumberjack in the Minnesota and Wisconsin woods. The fall of 1876 found him in St. Paul, but he found it wasn't easy to get a job in the woods. He then went to Minneapolis and worked as a cooper during the winter of 1876-1877.

In the spring of 1877, Cromwell learned men were being hired for work in the construction of the two Montana military cantonments. He decided to go west again, and was hired by the contractors. With a large crew, he went by rail to Bismarck, Dakota territory, then the railhead of the Northern Pacific.

At Bismarck the crew embarked on a Missouri river steamboat, the Josephine. The Josephine had not traveled very far when smallpox broke out among the boat's crew. There was no doctor aboard, so a volunteer was asked to go to Fort Stevenson, some 65 miles eastward, to bring help while the boat was tied up at the bank. One of the construction company's carpenters responded. The man had to make the trip on foot, with only the sun and stars to guide him.

Carrying only a small package of food and a revolver, the man set out on his perilous trip—perilous, for bands of hostile Sioux still roamed that vicinity.

On the afternoon of the fifth day after the volunteer had left, those aboard the Josephine saw a number of mounted soldiers coming over the ridge a mile or so east of the boat.

They were followed by an army ambulance and a six-mule team. The man had made the fort by sheer luck.

He reported the situation to the commanding officer, who immediately sent a doctor with an escort of soldiers to the boat.

Forgot Volunteer's Name

Cromwell, in telling of this incident many years later, said he could not remember the name of the man who made the hazardous journey for help.

The doctor held the boat in quarantine until danger of an epidemic had passed. Three of the smallpox victims died and were buried on the banks of the Missouri, and after three weeks' delay, the Josephine proceeded up-river.

At another time, Cromwell related, while one of the steamboats was unloading at the landing near the Keogh cantonment, a number of mounted Indians suddenly appeared on the opposite side of the river and opened fire on those around the boat. One of the civilians was wounded and one of the mules was killed by the Indians' fire.

The alarm was quickly sounded and in a short time a company of the Fifth infantry, mounted on Indian horses, rode to the landing. The soldiers rode aboard the boat, which steamed to the opposite bank, and the soldiers took off in pursuit of the fleeing Indians. Late that afternoon the soldiers returned, bringing back 16 Indians and 22 ponies. They had overtaken the Indians on South Sunday creek and had forced them to surrender. When asked about the extra ponies, one of the soldiers said:

"Well, when we started back there were six Indians who were not in any condition to ride, so we brought in their horses."

Buffalo Roamed Near Fort

Cromwell said he thought the name of the officer in command of the pursuing soldiers was "Butler." (Capt. E. C. Butler was in command of company C of the Fifth infantry at that time. Captain Butler's younger son, Thomas Butler, is the present postmaster at Miles City.)

One day in the fall of 1877 a small herd of buffalo that had swum across the Yellowstone was seen grazing on the flat between the cantonment and the new fort. Many of the civilians owned horses, and nearly all of them were the owners of rifles. They obtained permission to see if they could get a buffalo for their mess tables.

They hurriedly saddled up, got their rifles and rode to where the buffalo were feeding.

They returned before long and got a team and wagon to haul in their kill. They said they had killed two of the animals and were elated at their luck. One did not seem as jubilant as the others. When asked if he had killed one of the buffalo, he replied:

"No, dammit. I forgot my cartridges, and both the other fellows' guns were of a different caliber than mine." In his hurry to get his first shot at a buffalo he had grabbed his rifle, but had forgotten his ammunition.

In July, 1878, about 100 of the workmen at cantonment No. 1 on Tongue river were released, Cromwell among them. He returned to St. Paul and finally obtained his coveted job as a lumberjack in the Minnesota woods, later being transferred to a sawmill job at Eau Claire.

The writer of this article, whose stepfather was a soldier in the Second United States cavalry, was living at the cantonment at the same time Cromwell was employed there, but was not acquainted with him. It was but a short time before Cromwell's death that I became aware of the fact that he and I were both residents of cantonment No. 1 in 1877-1878.

Cromwell died Oct. 3, 1939, at the age of 86. He is survived by a son and a daughter at Eau Claire, Wis.