Eben Melville Sadler
1858-1942

 
Eben Melville told a story of the Cheyenne Massacre which occurred in the spring of 1868 when he was ten years old.  There were 5 men in 2 wagons and ox-teams hunting buffalo. They were part of a settlement of people near Clyde, Kansas.

After the 5 men failed to return, a group of volunteer men or scouts went out to search for them. They found a camp-fire near Down, Kansas, which they were reasonably sure had been the camping grounds of these missing men, because the scouts founr a certain queer piece of the wagon hitch used only on governtment wagons, which these men had.  In September, 1868, 6 months later, the scouts found the dead bodies on Little Cheyenne Creek (up the creedk 1/2 mile from the Sadler Homestead). they dug a shallow grave on the hillside and with blankets, rolled the remains of four men into this grave.  Then the fifth man was lying near the bed of the creek, he was buried down there. Soon their relatives came and took the bodies with them.

Eben Sadler said the leader of the scouting party often stayed at the home of father, Milton P. Sadler .  They moved on to the Sadler homestead on April 15, 1871  In the ashes near those bodies, where apparently the Indians burned the wagons and ox-yokes, they found the iron hitching rings and bolts, etc. 

Eben Melville SADLER was born on 30 Jun 1858 in Spartanburg, Crawford, Pennsylvania. He died on 12 Feb 1942 in Randall, Jewell, Kansas.

He was married to Ruth Ann HOCKETT (daughter of Jehu HOCKETT and Hannah FRAZIER) on 7 Feb 1885 in Jewell County, Kansas. Ruth Ann HOCKETT was born on 13 Feb 1868 in Marshalltown, Iowa. She died on 15 Jun 1932 in Randall, Jewell, Kansas. Eben Melville SADLER and Ruth Ann HOCKETT had the following children:

  i. Velma Goldia SADLER.
 ii. Silvia Clara SADLER.
 iii. Viola May SADLER.
iv Martin Melville SADLER .
 v. Lillian Adel SADLER