As described in the Armstrong and Swinbank accounts, Sam's early adventures out West, prior to the War, were unquestionably high adventure. He may, however, have stretched the truth in places.
Sam's Departure (1858)
Sam was undoubtedly the first of the Belonger children to leave home. Simon, the oldest brother, married in 1861 and based on the births of his children, could not have left the Midwest (at least permanently) until the late 1870s.
Sam, however, was eager to see the world. His obituary describes him leaving home in 1858 from Hastings, Minn. We don't know how he came to Minnesota. The obit essentially agrees with the Armstrong account, though Armstrong says Sam was 18, which would have placed his departure in 1857.
Additional estimate for Fort Kearney, South Pass, and Honey Lake wagon road. indicates that Sam traveled the California Trail, via the Lander road, to Sacramento, probably in 1859.
Name and Residence: S. H. Blonger, Minnesota
Number of Wagons: 7
Number of Persons: 17
Number of Stock: 129
Destination: California
If indeed Sam traveled this route, he would have started through Iowa, or Missouri, at Independence or St. Joseph or Lawrence, through Ft. Kearney, Nebraska, through Laramie, Wyoming, and South Pass, to Ft. Hall, Idaho, then down along the Humboldt river in Nevada, and finally Sacramento.
Sam and Buffalo Bill (1858?)
The Armstrong account tells the story of Sam and Buffalo Bill encountering Indians on a scouting trip near Denver, and killing all eight to make good their escape. The Swinbank account says Sam and Bill once had to shoot their way past forty Apache. Important events for Sam, if true, but not likely. That he was b experience an Indian fighter, however, is much more plausible.
Sam's obituary describes Sam crossing "the plains and mountains to Sacramento, Cal.", and there he was engaged in "freighting" and driving a stage between Sacramento and Austin, Nevada. Austin didn't exist prior to 1862. We know that Sam voted in Colorado in 1861, so its plausible to assume he first lived in Colorado, say 1858 to 1861, then went West to California, to the Sierras and the Nevada desert, where things would have been lively, without doubt. We also know he received land in California in a swap in 1865. This scenario sheds no light on Sam's supposed service during the war.
Bill Cody, on the other hand, was all of eleven years old in 1857, though he was working wagon trains in Kansas and Nebraska. In 1859, Cody did spend time prospecting at Cherry Creek (Denver), but he wasn't successful. Sam might have met the boy at this time. Cody returned to Kansas after two months. In 1860-61 he was riding for the Pony Express on the Plains. During the later years of the war, he was scouting and spying for the army in the South, and worked as a scout in 1865, in Kansas.
The possibility still exists that they were acquainted during this period, but Cody's autobiography does not mention Sam (though some of Cody's tales are strangely similar to Sam's), and they generally seemed to be in different regions during this time.
Likewise, the gamblers' lifestyle may very well have introduced them, whether during the Seventies when the boys had saloons all over the West, or later in Denver, where the Western gamblers often congregated in the gay Nineties, and the Blongers had their saloons and poker rooms.
The dime novels and magazines of the period may someday yield information. Hundreds of short novels about Cody and other Western men made them legends in their own time, and these stories have their many bit parts as well.
Sam in Central City (1861)
Whatever Sam was doing out west after leaving Wisconsin, he definitely was in Central City, Colorado, in August 1861. That's when "S.R. Blonger" is recorded as voting in the 1861 Territorial Election, soon after the new Colorado Territory had been carved out of the Kansas, Dakota and Utah Territories. "R" was Simon's middle initial, not Sam's (H.), but Simon was married in Wisconsin just three months later, and there is no indication that Simon ever left Wisconsin prior to 1878 or so. What Sam was doing in Central City (mining, one would have to assume), and how long he stayed are still unknown.
Sam in Nevada and California (1864-65)
Sam's obituary stated that "he was engaged in 'freighting' and in driving a stage coach over the mountains between Sacramento and Austin, Nev." The Austin newspaper confirms, at least, that he arrived in Austin, via stage, in late '64, and left in early '65.
Sam Sends Lou to Chicago (1867)
Lou's obituaries and his pension
file give differing, but not necessarily conflicting, accounts of his time in
Chicago. The obituaries describe Lou as a teamster, hauling wheat to flour mills, and later
operating a horse-drawn street car. Lou's pension file, by contrast,
paints him as a semi-invalid, unable to earn a living by manual labor, who was
sent to Bryant's Business College by his brother Sam. With a little
imagination, it is not hard to marry these accounts. Lou may have attended
the college while still trying to hold down a job that didn't require the kind
of heavy work that would aggravate his leg injury.
According to an online source, Bryant and Stratton National Business College
was founded in Providence, R.I., in 1863 to serve the needs of returning Civil
War veterans seeking preparation for business careers (it's now known as Bryant
College). It is unclear when the Chicago branch might have opened.
If Sam saw his 18-year-old brother as a businessman, he was unbelievably
prescient.
Whether or not Sam spent any time in Chicago is still an open question.
|
