John Cline Recalls Helping Find Massacred Hunters in 1864

Lincoln Republican, 10 October 1912

Forty-eight years ago John Cline, a member of a freighting party, came out from Salina and found the bodies of J.L. Moffitt, T. Moffitt, J.W. Houston, and J. Tyler, Lincoln county’s first settlers, slaughtered by Indians. On last Sunday Mr. Cline, now a resident of New Cambria, in Saline county, went out with John McCurdy and revisited the scene of the massacre for the first time.
It was in a rocky spot near Beaver creek, two and one half miles southeast of Lincoln, on what is now the Dan Day farm, that the Moffitts, Houston and Tyler lost their lives on Aug. 6, 1864. The lapse of nearly half a century had not dimmed Mr. Cline’s recollection of the scene, and he went over it with keen interest, pointing out the exact spot where each body was found, and describing graphically the whole affair.
Mr. Cline was a young man 22 years of age in 1864. He had just returned to Salina from a trip to western Kansas with a freighting outfit when Mrs. Houston, wife of one of the murdered men, arrived in that city with the news of the massacre. Cline and 12 other men at once came out, found the bodies and buried them a short distance from where they fell. The graves of Houston and Tyler are still there. The bodies of the Moffitts were disinterred and taken to a family lot in the east, a few weeks after the first burial.
“The first night we camped at the Haines and Mead ranch, east of Tescott,” Mr. Cline said in describing his experiences. “The next day about 10 o’clock we got to Beaver creek. We scattered out over the prairie hunting for the remains of the boys, and we found where their wagon track left the cabin and then followed it over the prairie we saw where the track turned around and started east toward the creek. Frank Harrington was ahead and I saw him stand on a rock and wave his hat. We went to where he was, and there we found the boys lying between two ledges of rock. I knew the Moffitts before and so I recognized them. ‘Jock’ Moffitt was crouching on his knees with his head between two rocks. His brother, Houston and Tyler lay a little to the east, all with their heads to the north. The wagon and team were south of them, the horses dead and the wagon partly burned. It was evident that the Indians had been fighting from the north, and some of their number had gone around and made an attack from the rear. There must have been nearly 75 arrows sticking in Jock Moffitt’s back.”
A written statement was obtained from Mr. Cline by John McCurdy for the historical records of the old settlers’ association.

 

Moffitts Show Regard for Christian Bernhardt

Lincoln Republican, 15 October 1914

Love of Country, Patriotism and Pride in our Flag are rooted in the achievement of the past of any people. We love our flag, not so much for the promise it holds for the future, as for the Love and service and sacrifice to which it called us in the past.
Under the gloom of the ages lies buried civilizations which when the hand of chance reveals them to us, amazes us with their splendor, buried for countless ages because their histories, if ever written, have perished from the earth, because their monuments, if ever erected, have crumbled into dust in order that the noble acts of those who lived today, who lived in the years that have gone, may be an inspiration for those upon whose shoulders much fall the responsibilities which pass from generation to another in the current of human life, it becomes a necessity and a duty as well, that the passing drama of human events, the never ceasing accretions of human history, shall, at the hand of some one, fired with love and reverence and truth, be recorded, that those to whom shall come the priceless heritage of freedom and liberty, shall know something of what it costs in love and effort, of sacrifice and life, to hand it down in all its splendor to those who should come after.
To the task of compiling this record of the community in which you live, one of our citizens have, through months and years of painstaking application, devoted himself, with no thought of reward of compensation, the tangible result of his efforts are the monument which now graces your courthouse lawn and the volume of reminiscences which has permanently fixed the record of the struggles of the heroic pioneers who wooed and won your beautiful land from the control of a nature and more savage man. The result which is not so apparent, but which is, we hope, of greater value far, is the interest and inspiration which we trust may come to those whose lives may be influenced in love of home and native land by a study of those stirring chapters of your early history.
In the accomplished [sic; accomplishment?] of this self imposed task it has so happened that those in whom those you address you not have special interest, have been given a prominent part.
On this day when the pioneers are gathered together to live again the joys and sorrows of the days that are gone; when hearts are sad with the memory of faces no longer in their accustomed places, when memory of unpleasantnesses are mellowed by the passing years and the thought that the days allotted to each of us are drawing to their twilight and beckoning hands are signaling from the other shore; we speak to you across the wide expanse which separates us, to ask that you will, as a special favor for us, and on our behalf, present to your fellow citizen Mr. C. Bernhardt, the slight token of our appreciation of the service he has so freely and unselfishly rendered and which it is our great pleasure to transmit to you for that purpose.
We sincerely hope he may live many, many years to make use of it, and that it may give to him some slight measure of the satisfaction we experience in presenting it.
We beg the privilege of again assuring all your people of the warmth and permanence of our regard for them because of the generosity and hospitality with which they received us on the occasion of our recent visit among you and to express the hope that to all of you, may come the blessings of peace, prosperity and long life.
Signed,
D.W. Moffitt
May Moffitt Hunt
Lizzie Moffitt Fleming
Martha O. Moffet [sic]

Inscription on cane:

Presented to C. Bernhardt, Oct. 1, 1914. As a token of esteem and appreciation of his labor in perpetuating the early historical events of Lincoln County in which we are especially interested.
The Clan Moffitt

The above is the presentation speech, delivered by C.H. Berry on Old Settlers Reunion Day, Oct. 8, 1914, dedicated and signed by the four Moffits that visited here in Lincoln the 6th day of August, the 50th anniversary of the massacre of their uncle J.L. and Thomas Moffitt.
Being so that weather and roads were very bad on the morning of that day and also the night before we did not have the crowd we expected, a good many of the oldest settlers from Salina that intended to come, were not able to do so, owing to the bad roads and our miserable railroad service for this.
The Moffitts feel very grateful to the citizens of Lincoln and Lincoln county and appreciate what Lincoln county has done and also the entertainment accorded them at the recent visit here.
[a line or two seems to be missing here] to me should be regarded as a token of esteem in appreciation for all that made this possible. I studied out and planned the entire business and brought it to a successful conclusion and that is all there is to it. I never thought of any reward as I did [not] know that any were left to give any reward, my reward was ample in making a success of the entire undertaking and the more I see and hear of it the better I appreciate the value the monument stands for. It represents 15 of our early settlers so it can not be taken to merely represent a sentiment.
C. Bernhardt

Monument in Illinois for the Moffitt Brothers

Lincoln Sentinel-Republican, June 30, 1938

Fine Monument Marks Final Resting Place of Brothers Slain Here by Indians in 1864

Interest in the early-day history of Lincoln county and a desire to have an actual record of the last resting place of two young men who were massacred by Indians on Aug. 6, 1864, led Grover Lyne to communicate with the newspaper editor in Kewanee, Ill., where the bodies of John L. and Thomas Moffitt were taken for burial.

Mr. Lyne sent a copy of the Sentinel-Republican which contained a story of the massacre with his request for a picture of the graves of the martyrs and recently received in reply a copy of the Kewanee, Ill., Star-Courier and excellent pictures of the monument that was erected in Wethersfield cemetery where interment was made

The monument is a large twin obelisk of granite which rests between the graves of the two brothers slain by the Indians in Kansas. Engraved near the base of the monument are these words: "They were Massacred by the Indians in Kansas while hunting." No mention is made of Lincoln county.

One of the twin obelisks bears the inscription "John L. Moffitt, died Aug. 6, 1864, in the 27th year of his age," and the other is inscribed "Thomas Moffitt, died Aug. 6, 1864, in the 23rd year of his age."

The lines below the names tell the fate of these young men. The Star-Courier sent Mr. Lyne reprinted nearly word for word the story which had been published in the Sentinel-Republican, recalling the massacre and F.A. Cooper�s desire to paint the scene as it actually occurred, accurate in every detail.

Mr. Cooper has now abandoned the original water color which he had started of the massacre and is now painting it on a canvas, 3x4 feet, using oils which will be more enduring and serve as a better medium of expression. Mr. Lyne�s interest in historical data and his enthusiasm for accuracy have been motivating forces in having the picture painted.