by Carolyn Newman
HUERFANO — To continue our story about 19-year-old Benton Canon who accidentally shot himself in the chest during an 1866 hunting trip: we learn about his flight from Indians while he was still critical and lying in a lumber wagon.
“Speeding along we passed the stage station on the Muddy kept by Mother Johnson, and the Randall Ranch on the St. Charles, spreading the alarm as fast as we could. Pueblo was reached at last, the horses puffing and blowing, almost completely run down. Governor Hinsdale was the first man we met. We related what we knew of the facts and the settlers began immediately to make preparations for the defense of the town.
“I stood the last stretch of the terrible race better than I expected, but Doctor Wagoner took us in charge at once, seeing to it that I was kept quiet and had the proper care, for which I felt very grateful.
“Signal smokes we could see all day long, as well as signal fires at night. It seemed that the whole country was alive with Indians. But the race itself had been for nothing! It was true, however, that three people had been killed at Gardner, and that Billy Potts was murdered near the Cucharas River. But the Indians had not followed the course of the river downwards, but had turned back towards the mountains. The truth of the matter was, as we learned a few days later, what Patterson and Kentuck had seen was a troop of soldiers, dispatched from Fort Garland as an escort for a government officer who was on his way to Washington. This military escort had been sent by Kit Carson, then Commander of the Fort. Our men had seen this troop enveloped in the dust and, frightened as they were, had mistaken these soldiers for Indians. We had escaped an imaginary danger!
“A few days later we found that Kit Carson had sent runners to the Indians, and with the aid of Ule (Ouray), had them all corralled at Fort Garland. A big ‘Pow Wow’ was held at the fort with compromises made and peace restored.
“The Pattersons returned home to their ranch, but I remained a month longer under the care of the doctor. By that time I was as well as ever.
“Joe Hendricks, my young friend who had but recently arrived from Illinois, harvested the crop of corn I had planted. I sold the entire yield to Kit Carson (for 12 cents a pound), but after I liquidated all the expenses of my sickness (Note: the doctor charged Benton $300 for each of the two trips he made to the ranch) I had only my buckskin horse left. I was completely ‘broke’. “
This concludes the 1866 episode in Benton’s life – but he had others. Always an entrepreneur, he started a Walsenburg mercantile business, bought ranches and cattle and horses, and served 10 years as county treasurer. Then he was off to Grand Junction, serving Mesa County as treasurer, became a banker, state senator, he even laid out the town of Palisade (he owned most of the property there). His love, he said, was back in Huerfano County, where he came back briefly in 1915 to help organize the Huerfano County Pioneer Association. In 1921 he sent out a letter telling Huerfanos “It is a pleasant duty to furnish data” about their lives for a History of Huerfano County. The book was never published, but shortly before his death in 1927, he sent his collected historical material to Louis B. Sporleder. Copies of the material is in the Huerfano County Heritage Center, 114 W. Sixth, Walsenburg.
The History Detective is a service of the Huerfano County Historical Society huerfanohistory.org The Heritage Center’s phone is 719-738-2346. The center’s manager is John Van Keuren carlynewmn@aol.com.
