George Edward “Huste” Bartlett
feature By: Leo J. Remiger | April, 24
In the Vol. 24, No. 17, August 11, 1898 issue of Shooting and Fishing, there appeared the following article regarding a man who had once been a buffalo hunter:
KILLING OFF THE BUFFALO
I know it was shameful to kill the buffalo just for their hides, but when all the hunters were doing it, what was the use of one staying out? The slaughter lasted about four years, from 1880 to 1884; that is, in the part of the country that I was in, and that was Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming, all of which were territories then. The buffalo were killed by the thousand. It was no trick at all for one man who understood his business to kill from fifty to one hundred in a day, and at times, with a good stand and in a good location, it was just as easy to kill two or three hundred.
A buffalo hunting outfit usually consisted of a good four-horse team and big, strong camp wagon, one expert hunter, ten skinners, and the cook, who drove the team; and this one hunter, with everything favorable, can keep the rest pretty busy and have plenty of time to rest himself and keep his guns in good shooting order. Of course buffalo hunting was always carried on in cold weather. The hunter would leave camp early, riding a good, strong, as well as fast horse, to look for the main herd. When he sighted the buffalo the next thing to do was to get a good position, and sometimes the hunter would have to wait for hours, sitting in a clump of bushes on some hill, or in the absence of bushes keep out of sight on low ground until the herd, or part of it, had moved so as to make a good stand. A favorite position was to get the buffalo on some flat piece of ground or table-land into which a ravine or gully headed; then by piling up some snow, weeds, or stone, or whatever was convenient, the hunter lay flat on the ground at the head of the gully, and could shoot all the buffalo he wanted as long as he kept out of sight. The buffalo seem to become bewildered, and the smell of blood coming from the dead lying around had an attraction which held them to the spot. They would paw at it and poke the dead ones with their horns. Generally fifty or sixty were all the hunter wanted, for if he killed too many the skins would freeze on so tight they were hard to get off; so he killed what the skinners could handle, and left the rest to walk around until he got another stand the next day.
I had a stand once, and a good one, too, that never fails to come to my mind when the word “buffalo” is mentioned. I was lying in the head of a ravine, picking out the good robes and shooting very close (as it was best to drop the game at every shot) when it came time to wipe out my gun. We used Sharps Old Reliable .40-90’s in those days, and used to wipe them out every ten or twelve shots. The wiping tools were a hickory wiping stick and the brush end of a buffalo tail, the hair of which is quite silky and makes a very good wiping material. This was hung at the hunter’s belt so as to be ever convenient. I started to wipe my rifle, and when the wiper was about half way down the barrel it stuck, and I could neither push it through nor pull it out. I talked to the gun, but it was no go, it would not warm up enough to start the hair. I had only about half the number killed that I wanted, so had to do something or lose the balance of my stand. I backed down the ravine, out of sight of the buffalo, mounted my horse and rode about a mile to the creek, where there was a good supply of dry brush, built a fire as quickly as possible and placed my rifle across the hottest part.
It was a case of either kill or cure, and I let the gun stay there until I could smell the hair burn in the barrel, then I pulled my wiper out, gave the fire a kick, rode back to my buffalo, and finished my day’s work in good shape. I used the gun all the rest of the winter, and it shot as well as ever. I guess the gun got cool fully as soon as I did, but there was surely a hot time on a cool day for a little while that day.
– George E. Bartlett,
Marlin Fire Arms Co.1
Well, I have to tell you, a hunter that used the “silken hair” from a buffalo tail to wipe his gun certainly deserves taking a closer look at. The fact that same hunter managed to get the tail hair and hickory rod stuck in the barrel, left his stand to ride off and start a small fire, which once burning he laid the gun across the hottest part of the fire and left it there until he could smell the buffalo hair burning – who wouldn’t want to know more about this individual?
It turns out George Edward Bartlett had an extremely eventful life in his 52 years on “the green side of the grass”. A short time-line of his life would look like this:
1859: He was born in New Haven, Connecticut on 25 August, 1858, or 1859. Conflicting information exists regarding his birth date. His headstone in the Angelus Rosedale Cemetery, Los Angeles, California reads 1859.
1873: In 1873, Bartlett moved with his folks to Sioux City, Iowa.
1874: In 1874, young Bartlett left home and found work at the reservation trading post located at the Yankton Agency, in south-central Dakota Territory.
1876: In 1876, Bartlett joined some gold prospectors who were heading to the Black Hills. Their claims didn’t provide a suitable yield and all the men returned to Yankton.
1877: In 1877, Bartlett again returned to the Black Hills with another party of prospectors. Once again, the prospecting venture proved a failure.
Looking for work he obtained his next job as an express rider, carrying mail between Rapid City and Fort Pierre. Bartlett wrote, “For years I lived out of doors, slept in the snow and ate meat straight, with coffee on the side if I was lucky. That was when Dakota was a territory. I hunted for a living, then carried mail, and by the way, I took the first United States mail sack into Deadwood, in the Black Hills, in 1877, traveling from Fort Pierre on the Missouri river alone on horseback, a distance of 210 miles, and made the trip in three nights, for I rode by night, not because I am a relation to an owl, but the noble red man looked for dainty mail carriers in those days, and I was only 17 years old.”2
Jim Foral wrote in an article titled, Eyewitness to the Massacre at Wounded Knee:
Bartlett’s 60-mile round-trip route took him from Cheyenne River Station (near present-day Wasta) east to Deadmans Creek. He rode at night to avoid Indians. Caught out in a blizzard one night, he holed up in a hollowed-out cottonwood stump for three days with only a single jackrabbit for food. When the weather finally cleared, he recovered his horse and completed his route. It was during his time as a rider Bartlett first fractured his right knee, a recurring injury that would plague him for life.
They called him "Husté," which means "lame" in Lakota, and painted a placard bearing his new name to hang over the store’s front door. Some playfully referred to him in English as "Wounded Knee," after the creek that coursed 50 yards behind the store.3
1878: Bartlett continued his story: “Then I worked for the Coad Bros., who owned the great C – 12 outfit on the Platte river and counted their cattle by the thousand. Later I worked for the Hash Knife Co., another cattle company.”
1879: Bartlett continued: “John B. Raymond, United States marshal for Dakota Territory, engaged me to help out during a big term of the United States Court in Deadwood. I was made a special deputy United States marshal for the time being. I guess my work suited pretty well, for in less than six months I had a regular government commission as a deputy and held it for fourteen years. I traded with Indians in the meantime and established the store at Wounded Knee, now famous for the Sioux ghost dance fight, Dec. 29, 1890.”
1893: Bartlett continued: “When the Indian trade played out I wasn’t long in finding something else. I engaged with the great Forepaugh show to take fifty Indians out for it, and after traveling for five or six years with circuses and theatrical companies…” 4
According to Jim Foral’s article: “A promoter hired Bartlett to shepherd a band of Pine Ridge Indians to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. While there he and his wards signed on with a minor traveling Wild West show, the captain himself putting on a shooting exhibition. Other opportunities followed.”
1896: Foral continues: “On the road with Adam Forepaugh’s Circus in 1896, Bartlett added a Deadwood stagecoach to his performance and became a popular attraction. Newspaper reporters, intrigued by his shooting skills and real-life adventures with a gun in the Old West, often grilled him to satisfy their Eastern audience’s appetite for hair-raising, bloody adventures. For the most part Bartlett obliged their requests for rehashes of the shootout at the Stoneville Saloon and the occasional question about his memories of Wounded Knee.”
1897: Foral continues: “In 1897 he hit the road with a traveling theatrical troupe, appearing that January in the melodrama “The Great Train Robbery” at Heuck’s Opera House in Cincinnati, Ohio. Between performances he took questions from The Cincinnati Times-Star. The reporter in particular sought validation of accounts that women and children were killed at Wounded Knee. Speaking hesitantly, Bartlett confirmed that in the ferment of the initial fight soldiers regarded all Indians as hostile and shot them indiscriminately. The troopers then chased down fleeing survivors. In the wake of the killings, he added, many soldiers were heard to remark that accounts with the Sioux for the Custer massacre had been “partly squared.” Bartlett later sat down with a writer from The West Coast magazine, who paraphrased him as saying, “The “battle” was a deliberately planned, ferocious slaughter of Sioux men, women and children.” 5
1898: Bartlett continued from his 1900 article: “I finally landed in New Haven, nearly three years ago, and commenced work with the Marlin Co. And a very pleasant engagement it has been. I have been treated royally.”
“The Marlin Co. has put out a new gun, the new Marlin repeating shotgun, which in my estimation is the best repeating shotgun in the world. I have seen it grow, as it were, and to use another would be like changing my entire nature. I’m going to take one with me to Europe, and if I don’t make a hit with it among those laminated steels over there – I will do the best I can.” 6
In Recreation magazine, George Shields published:
Marlin’s New Demonstrator
Colonel George E. Bartlett, who has accepted a position with the Marlin Fire Arms Company, has had a lifetime of adventure and unique experience in the West.
The past 20 years of his life have been spent among the Indians. For several years, a government scout, later, United States Deputy Marshal, and proprietor of the Wounded Knee trading post he has lived near the red men and has had an opportunity to study them in all their phases. He has treated them as his friends; they have accepted his friendship and return their own.
After the battle of Wounded Knee, Colonel Bartlett was a hero. It was only a few hundred feet from his trading post, that the battle took place and he tells some thrilling stories of his part in this bloody tragedy.
Colonel Bartlett, who has for years used a Marlin rifle, will test all guns made by the company, and will represent them at Sportsmen shows, giving exhibitions of rifle and pistol shooting, in which he is an expert. He was a central figure at the Boston Exhibit, where the Marlin’s had a large booth.7
1899: Tom Keller, representative of Kings Powder Co. and Peters Cartridge Co. visited Bartlett, no doubt testing the waters to recruit him as an exhibition shooter. The article in Shooting and Fishing that mentions the visit is an entertaining read. Bartlett told Keller about a hunt on which he killed three bears. Bartlett thought Keller enjoyed the story but was chagrined when Keller didn’t comment on the story and instead commenced to tell Bartlett about the seven carloads of powder he had sold the day before. Bartlett wrote: “Of course I like to see Tom do business, but just at that time he might have asked me where I smoked now.” Bartlett then proceeded to get even with Keller by providing a description of how Indians prepare a dog for a feast."8
At the regular monthly shoot of the New Haven Gun Club, held November 14, 1900, Bartlett, still employed by the Marlin Fire Arms Co., carried off the honors of the day, as well as most of the cash. Bartlett broke 133 out of 150 of the targets thrown, breaking the last 50 targets straight. Of those last 50, 20 of them were doubles. As a further demonstration of the new Marlin repeating shotgun, he broke four thrown in the air at once.10
1901: George E. Bartlett had made plans to sail for Europe in March, and give exhibitions with gun and revolver. Miss May Clinton and her shooting partner, Miss Pauline Cooke, known in the theatrical profession as “Cooke and Clinton,” were to accompany him. The show was scheduled to open in Copenhagen in April, 1901. For some reason the trip was cancelled.
Jim Foral continued the story of Bartlett as follows: “That spring the Peters Cartridge Co. of Cincinnati persuaded Bartlett to represent their firm in the same fancy shooting capacity he’d enjoyed with Marlin. By then he was a polished showman with a national following. Exhibition shooters customarily crowned themselves with the honorific title of “Captain.” In following tradition, Bartlett took on a dual captaincy of sorts.
“For a decade the Captain toured the country for Peters, plinking nuts, coins, rocks, washers and other thrown objects out of the air with a rimfire rifle. His trademark stunt, reducing a thrown brick to dust with a high-powered Remington rifle, was always a crowd-pleaser. His routine was among the first captured by motion pictures.”11
1911: George Edward Bartlett died on August 19, 1911, at his home in Los Angeles. His obituary was sent nation wide by an Associated Press dispatch. An example published in the El Paso Morning Times, El Paso, Texas, on August 11, 1911, mentioned that Bartlett was considered one of the greatest rifle experts in the country. For many years he acted as United States marshal in Pine Ridge Reservation, in South Dakota, that he served a long time as a captain of Indian police and was wounded in the battle of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, and for a time conducted a trading post near the scene of the conflict.12
1918: E.A. Brininstool wrote the following contribution to Camp Fire concerning his association with George E. Bartlett:
Los Angeles
In answer to “D.W.” in a late issue of Adventure as to my probably referring to Capt. George E. Bartlett in one of my letters to Camp-fire, I would state that such was the case. Bartlett was a very intimate friend of mine for several years prior to his death in this city about six years ago. And I had charge of his funeral, as he would not even see anyone but me during his last illness. He is buried in Rosedale Cemetery here. I have his entire collection of Indian relics, from which the photos were taken which are to be shown in Adventure some time in the future.
The inference is also correct about his finding the little Indian girl on the battle-field of Wounded Knee three days after the fight, and her adoption by Gen. Colby. The girl was married some five years ago to a man in Oregon or Washington. It is also true that Calamity Jane saved Bartlett’s life on one occasion by nursing him through a very serious sickness. At the time of the Ghost Dance uprising in December, 1890, Bartlett was the only scout at Pine Ridge who had the nerve to visit the hostile camp of Chief No Water on White Clay Creek, at the insistence of Gen. Miles, to secure some very valuable information. Both Buffalo Bill and Gen. Miles said when he left that they never expected him to return alive.
“D.W.” refers to a horse-thief whom Bartlett shot. I have the saddle, cartridge-belt and knife which Bartlett took from the dead outlaw. A bullet-hole through the cantle of the saddle, which also clipped the top of one of the shells in the thief’s belt, testified to Bartlett’s marksmanship-together with the bullet-hole through the body of the outlaw.
Bartlett was well known and highly esteemed by the Sioux and, as he spoke the Sioux language fluently, he was of great service to the army officials as an interpreter at the councils and powwows with the hostiles. Later he traveled on the road for the Peters Cartridge Company of Cincinnati, demonstrating their ammunition, and was called “the marvelous marksman” because of his dexterity with firearms. In the collection of Indian trophies mentioned above, I have the beautifully beaded buckskin suit which Bartlett wore at Pine Ridge about 1886, and several of the ghost-dance shirts which went through the war and which were supposed to be “bullet-proof” by the savages. I also have in this collection the finest and most beautiful war-bonnet I have ever seen in any collection of Indian trophies. Bartlett told me he had refused three hundred dollars for it.
– E.A. Brininstool13
Captain George Edward Bartlett, a “polished showman with a national following” and his story of the buffalo hair-tipped cleaning rod and a rifle roasted over a fire. What do you think – an honest story of the hide hunting era or a “windy” to entertain the masses during one of his shooting demonstrations?
Sources:
1 Killing Off the Buffalo, George E. Bartlett, Shooting and Fishing, Vol. 24, No. 17, Shooting and Fishing Publishing Company, 293 Broadway, New York, August 11, 1898, PP 332-333
2 Shooting and Fishing, Vol. XXIX, No. 7, 293 Broadway, New York, November 29, 1900, Page 133. Now math has never been my friend, but if he was born in 1859 and he was carrying a mail sack in 1877 that would make him 18 and not 17.
3 Eye Witness to Massacre at Wounded Knee, Jim Foral, published on line August 2018 at: https://www.historynet.com/eyewitness-wounded-knee.htm
4 Shooting and Fishing, Vol. XXIX, No. 7, 293 Broadway, New York, November 29, 1900, Page 133
5 Eye Witness to Massacre at Wounded Knee, Jim Foral, published on line August 2018 at: https://www.historynet.com/eyewitness-wounded-knee.htm
6 Shooting and Fishing, Vol. XXIX, No. 7, 293 Broadway, New York, November 29, 1900, Page 133
7 Marlin’s New Demonstrator, Recreation, Vol. VIII, No. 5, George O. Shields, 19 West 24th St., New York, May 1898, Page 410
8 Story Tellers, Shooting and Fishing, Vol. 25, No. 15, 293 Broadway, New York, January 26, 1899, Page 307
9 Shooting and Fishing, Vol. XXVIII No. 26, 293 Broadway, New York, October 11, 1900, Page 512
10 Shooting and Fishing, Vol. XXIX, No. 7, 293 Broadway, New York, November 29, 1900, Page 133
11 Eye Witness to Massacre at Wounded Knee, Jim Foral, published on line August 2018 at: https://www.historynet.com/eyewitness-wounded-knee.htm
12 Find a Grave – George Edward Bartlett: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/43233143/george-edward-bartlett
13 The Camp-Fire – A Free To All Meeting Place For Readers, Writers, and Adventurers, Adventure, Vol. 18, No. 1, The Ridgeway Company, Spring and MacDougal Street, New York City, July 3, 1918, Page 181