Page:The Indian History of the Modoc War.djvu/254

This page needs to be proofread.


rob the Utes, and also make money through army contracts. The Judge before whom he was arraigned disappointed the villains by allowing Colonel Meacham to give bonds for his appearance for trial six months later, instead of sending him to prison; hence he was detained but one day by this arrest. He proceeded at once to Los Pinos, paid the Utes the money due, according to promise, and returned in safety to Wash- ington about Christmas. He reported for trial in April, 1881, but the prosecution was not ready. (The villians who started this prosecution never dared to let the case go to trial, and it was finally dismissed by orders from the Department of Jus- tice, at Washington).

He then proceeded, under orders from Colonel Manypenny, Chairman of the Ute Commission, to White River Agency, charged with the difficult and perilous duty of getting these wild and rebellious Indians, who had killed Agent Meeker two years before, and who had no agent since, to sign the Ute agreement, and surrendering their old home, move on to Uinta. He succeeded, but the perils, excitement and privations incident to his year and a half of service as a Ute Commissioner, had so exhausted his already shattered constitution that he returned to Washington, October 15, 1881, in very feeble health. He was not confined to his room save for a day or two at a time, occasionally, but continued to edit "The Council Fire, and visit the Indian office on public business; but despite the most skilful medical treatment, the best nursing, and good social influences, he continued to lose flesh and strength. His phy- sical body was slowly but surely sinking to the grave, and his spirit pluming its pinions for an immortal flight. He had premonitions of the approaching change, but when it came it must have been a surprise to him, as it was to his physicians" and other friends. The final summons came at 3 P. M., Feb- ruary 1 6, 1882, in the form of a stroke of apoplexy, as he sat beside his editorial table in his chamber. He was buried at the Congregational Cemetery, Washington, D. C.

His family consists of his widow, a son, George F., a young man of twenty-five, educated in the Willamette University.