Dr. Jeff Broome:
The Dietemann Murders



The following article, appearing here in two parts, was published by Dr. Jeff Broome in the Denver Westerners Roundup, VOL. LX, No. 1, January-February 2004. It is reprinted on this web site with the express permission of the author.



Indian Massacres in Elbert County, Colorado:

New Information on the 1864 Hungate and 1868 Dietemann Murders


Part 2

by Jeff Broome

© 2003 All Rights Reserved



PART 2


The Dietemann Murders



Little new information regarding the Dietemann massacre has emerged, than what was originally in the newspaper accounts of the time. Unlike the Hungate massacre, modern archeology does not provide us with any new interpretation. However, the depredation files of Apollinaris Dietemann and Anton Schindelholz provide much information that helps to give a more complete story of this sad massacre. It corrects errors found in the newspapers and later pioneer reminiscences.


The first report of Henrietta Dietemann and her young son, John, comes from the Rocky Mountain News, August 26, 1868. It doesn't report their deaths, but instead says they were captured, and places the emphasis of the raid upon the settlements in and around present-day Kiowa. The article notes that about forty settlers lived in the area, half of them at the "basin," which is where the creek ran. The same newspaper has a commentary about the reported raid, and notes that it involves the same Indians who had two weeks earlier made a devastating and murderous raid along the Saline and Solomon Rivers in the vicinity of present-day Beloit and Lincoln, Kansas. It concludes that these acts point to "the serious intentions of the Arapahoes and Cheyennes to make war." Those who believed this were entirely correct in their fears, and it wasn't going to end until the action at Summit Springs eleven months later. 39


The August 27 edition of the Rocky Mountain News corrects the earlier misinformation of the capture of Henrietta and little John:



Last evening about seven o'clock a team came into town bringing the remains of Henrietta Dietermann [sic] and her boy, the persons spoken of yesterday as having been captured, the latter about five years old, killed by the Indians on Comanche Creek, Tuesday. The boy had been shot several times and his neck broken, the woman had been shot through the body, outraged, stabbed, and scalped. Decomposition had set in and the sight was horrible. They were killed near their house, Mr. Dietermann [sic] being absent. A man who was about to marry Mr. Dietermann's sister, his said sister, and a daughter of the Dietermanns considerably older than the murdered boy, were at the house at the time, but escaped. About thirty Indians came after the man who brought away the bodies Tuesday night, but he succeeded in getting into the station safely. The remains were taken to an empty house in front of the Tremont House, where for an hour or two people came and viewed them. 40



After the bodies were brought to Denver, a Coroner's Inquest was soon held for the murdered thirty-one year old mother and five year old son. John Benkleman was one of the jurors. The newspaper reported his testimony. He first recounts a harrowing encounter with Indians near his cabin where three other persons were living. His cabin was near the Dietemann home. One of the men was rounding up stock about a quarter of a mile away when the Indians came upon him and tried to take the horses he had rounded up. The man was not armed and immediately raced back toward the cabin. Other Indians came out of a draw and tried to ambush him while he was retreating to the safety of the other men inside the cabin. The other men, hearing the gunfire from the Indians, came out and relieved him. Still, the Indians were able to steal about twenty-five horses. Shortly after this incident they were told of the Dietemann killings and asked to come to Kiowa Station and help with a search party to retrieve the bodies. They soon joined the gathering men. Benkleman testifies what happened next:



... so we joined in with two men who were present when the deceased were captured. They guided us to the place where it occurred, and we found the little boy about thirty yards from the place where first captured, dead. After making further search, we found the mother about fifteen yards from where the boy lay. We then sent four men after a wagon, to convey the bodies to Denver, where they now lay. These Indians are supposed to be Arapahoes. The deceased were both about four miles from their home, in company with some others, trying to make their escape to a neighbor's house, but from fatigue from traveling, were a little behind their comrades, when they were cut off by some Indians concealed under a bank. When we found the said bodies, they were horribly mutilated the mother was shot (by a gun or pistol) in the front of the right shoulder, her face badly bruised as though she had been beaten with a revolver or club, bruises were also found nearly all over her body she was also scalped. I think she must have been dead about five hours she had, also, from evident signs, been ravished, which was the conclusion of myself, and those that were with me, signs of great struggle were also visible where she lay. 41



W. F. McClelland was sworn in as the surgeon for the Coroner's Inquest. He testified that the cause of death of the mother was a gunshot and other violent bruises. The boy had five arrow shots and many bruises. He concluded: "I give as my opinion professionally that the mother is pregnant about seven months gone." 42 How many Indians were involved in the raid that killed Henrietta and little John? One newspaper report said as many as 150 northern Arapahoes were the culprits. They were armed with weapons recently given them at Fort Laramie, and in addition carried papers signed at Fort Laramie attesting to their peacefulness. 43 While this may be an accurate estimate of the total number of Indians entering Colorado Territory for the purpose of looting and murdering settlers, it was a much smaller party of Indians that raided in and near Comanche Creek. 44


Besides the newspaper accounts already noted, very little has been published regarding the Dietemann massacre, and few, if any accounts, note Henrietta's pregnancy. Indeed, the death of Henrietta and her son receive the scantiest attention when they are mentioned. Probably the earliest account comes from Irving Howbert, which was published in two books written in 1914 and 1925:



On August 27 [sic], 1868, the Cheyennes and Arapahoes killed Mrs. Henrietta Dieterman [sic] and her five-year-old son on Comanche Creek, about twenty-five miles northeast of Colorado City, in a peculiarly atrocious manner. The Dieterman family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Dieterman, a daughter about twelve-years-old [sic], a son of five years, a sister of Mr. Dieterman's, and a hired man. The sister was soon to marry the hired man, and he and Mr. Dieternman had gone to Denver to buy furniture for the new household, leaving a German farmhand temporarily in charge. On the morning of the 27th [sic], something happened to alarm Mrs. Dieterman. She evidently believed the Indians were near, for she hurriedly started with her sister-in-law and the two children for a neighbor's house some distance away. After having gone a few hundred yards she remembered that she had left a considerable sum of money in the house, and with her small son went back to get it. They reached the house, got the money, and started away again, but had gone only a short distance when they were overtaken by the Indians, who at once shot and killed both of them. The savages shot the boy repeatedly and finally broke his neck. The mother was shot through the body, stabbed, and scalped, and the bodies of both were dreadfully mutilated. Those who afterwards saw the victims said that it was one of the most horrible sights they had ever looked upon. Meanwhile, the sister-in-law and daughter ran to where the German was working in the field near by. He stood the Indians off by pointing the handle of his hoe at them, making them believe it was a gun. 45



Fortunately, the depredation files housed in the National Archives gives a more complete and accurate story of the Dietemann massacre. From these documents (the relevant affidavits are listed below), this story emerges: Two days before the raid, Henrietta's husband Apollinaris and long-time business partner Anton Schindelholz, journey to Denver. Their purpose was two-fold, to procure furniture and supplies, and to obtain a marriage license so Anton can marry Apollinaris' sister, Maria Dietemann. Maria had only been in America for a few weeks. Her marriage might well have been arranged before she came over from Alsace, France.


While Anton and Apollinaris were returning from Denver, on the morning of August 25, Indians came upon the Dietemann premises along Comanche Creek. There were two ranch hands then living and working for Apollinaris and Anton. Indeed, a second house had just been built next to the Dietemann house. This was for Anton and Maria once they were married. One of the ranch hands came running to the Dietemann house with Indians closely pursuing him. He had encountered them a short distance from the house when he went to round up some horses. The Indians boldly entered the area near the house and stole the horses.


Henrietta and the others felt it best to flee the house and travel down the creek and away from Kiowa to a neighbor's house, the opposite direction from which they earlier saw the Indians and where they felt they would find better protection. Before leaving the house, Henrietta took her valuables, which included several thousand dollars, about $400.00 of it in gold pieces, which she hid in a money belt. The rest was rolled up and hidden inside the clothing over her bosom. When they had gone between three and four miles, one of the ranch hands saw some horses in a nearby draw and thought it wise to take one and ride over to the Kiowa settlement and report the raiding Indians. Before he got to the horses, however, several Indians suddenly came out of the draw, yelling and firing their weapons.


Henrietta was a little behind the rest of the party and thus fell into the Indians' hands. They quickly shot her. Maria and one of the men were protecting the two Dietemann children. The daughter, Henrietta, was barely three years old. She was carried on the back of the ranch hand, Benedict Marki. John, five years old, was apparently holding the hands of both Benedict and Maria.


When little John saw his mother fall to the Indians, he yanked his hands free and ran back to her. The Indians quickly killed him, first by grabbing him and violently breaking his neck and then shooting him with arrows. In the meantime, while this was happening, the two ranch hands and Maria and little Henrietta, turned from the south to the northwest and fled about six miles to the protective settlement on Kiowa Creek, called in 1868 Middle Kiowa.


Anton and Apollinaris soon heard of the murders at the Running Creek stage station. Quickly they unhitched their wagons, and raced their horses into Kiowa, where they met with the surviving members of the deadly raid. A party of about a dozen men then went in search of Henrietta and John. They soon found them where they had been killed. Apollinaris there learned that his money was missing. This money had been for payment of the sale of his business on Plum Creek in present-day Castle Rock, where he ran a hotel and sold provisions and stock to travelers on the road to Denver. Both his children were born there, John sometime between the fall of 1862 and summer of 1863 and Henrietta on July 18, 1865. He had moved to Comanche Creek after selling his business and property and most of his stock, just a few short weeks before his wife and son were murdered.


John Benkleman, the man testifying at the Coroner's Inquest of August 27, also lost stock at the time the Dietemanns were murdered, as did seven other settlers. 46 He testifies that he was part of the party that discovered the dead mother and son, and then accompanied them in the wagon that brought them to Denver. His testimony matches pretty well with what was reported in the Rocky Mountain News August 28. He notes that after the years 1864 and 1865 there really had not been any Indian trouble until the raid when Mrs. Dietemann was killed. His principle residence at the time was a suburb of Central City called Bortonburg, where he was a butcher. But he had a ranch near Kiowa and was visiting his three employees there on August 25 when the Indians first struck near his cabin, rustling several horses.


The raid began about nine o'clock in the morning. As soon as the theft occurred, one of his ranch hands, Thomas Morrison, quickly mounted another horse and went after the Indians. Armed with a rifle and revolver, he took with him two Shepherd dogs and succeeded in retrieving most of the horses back from the Indians. But when the men then went over to the protection of the settlements at Kiowa the Indians returned, broke the corral and again stole the horses.


Once Benkleman and the other men reached the settlers in Kiowa, only about eleven horses could be mustered for the search party to find the Dietemann dead. Benkleman was a close neighbor of the Dietemanns. He noted that Henrietta was killed in the afternoon and her body found about six or seven o'clock that evening. 47


In 1892 Maria Schindelholz was no longer married to Anton. She was now Mrs. George Wortman, having married him in Boulder on May 21, 1885. From her testimony it is clear the Indians first appear at the Dietemann home before attacking at the Benkleman ranch. Her memory remained vivid:



During the summer of 1868 my brother and Mr. A. Schindelholz to whom I was going to be married, built a couple houses for both families to live in, on Comanche Creek, near together, and when they were completed my brother and Mr. Schindelholz went to Denver to get what was necessary to furnish the houses, to get a marriage license, and they left on Sunday morning, the 23rd of August, 1868, for Denver, and left us at home, his wife, two children, and two hired men, and myself, with the intention to come home about Tuesday evening. On Tuesday morning, about eight o'clock, the 25th of August, 1868, about twenty-five or thirty Indians came right near our house, with a herd of horses that they had stole all over the country and one of the Indians came up to the house and took two horses that were picketed in front of the house, one of which was my brother's and the other A. Schindelholz', and they took all the horses, about seven or eight in number, that were grazing near the house and two mares and a colt, belonging to my brother, were taken at that time. I saw the Indians drive them off. I know that they were Indians, and the people told me that they were Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians. After they had the horses away we got frightened and thought it wasn't safe there, and my brother's wife wanted to go away to some neighbors, and those neighbors were ten miles away so we took all the valuables along that we had in the house that we could carry, and my brother's wife and two children and the two hired men, Benedict Marki and Mr. Lawrence, and myself, and started up the creek to the nearest neighbor, which was about ten miles. It must have been about nine o'clock when we started but as we was about half the way we seen five or six horses grazing in a gulch. Before leaving the house we took all valuables along, which was of course this money, and I seen my brother's wife take the money along, and she counted it before going, and she put the paper money in her bosom, and she put the gold in a buckskin belt. She counted it before putting it on her person, and she said it was between seven and eight thousand dollars. She kept the money in the house, as they expected to go down to Arkansas to buy some cattle after our marriage, so I was positive that she had the money with her. She took the money along. I saw her put the money on her person before we left the house. She took her gold watch and chain, worth about $100.00. Then all of us started up the creek and when we got about five miles we seen five or six horses grazing in a gulch, and one of the hired men (Lawrence) wanted to go and take one of those horses and ride over to Kiowa to tell the people we were in trouble, but as we neared the horses some Indians came out of the ravine and shot at us, about five or six in number and they commenced to shoot at us and we commenced to run, and my brother's wife wasn't able to run, and the Indians overtook her and shot her, killed her and scalped her, and the little boy I had hold of with my hand, but he run toward his mother, as he thought he was safer with her, and they took a hold of him and killed him. She had the money on her person when the Indians killed her, and no one disturbed her on the road going except the Indians. The balance of us turned our course and went to Middle Kiowa. All the white people in that neighborhood was together there at Middle Kiowa, as it was safer, and we stayed there until all the trouble was over and we knew that the Indians were gone. I saw them shoot my sister-in-law with a revolver, in the breast, and they shot the boy with arrows, and one of them took a hold of him and I saw them break his neck. I didn't know that his neck was broken at the time, but I saw them take a hold of him and twist his neck. This occurred about ten o'clock. After we was at Middle Kiowa about two or three hours, my brother came from Denver and A. Schindelholz, also, and about a half a dozen of the men went to hunt the remains, which they found at the same place we left them, and the next day they fetched them into Denver to be buried. I saw the remains when they were brought in to Middle Kiowa. 48

Benedick Marki, Mr. Dietemann's principle ranch hand, also had a vivid memory of that fateful day in August 1868:
I was an ordinary hired man. The household goods were all destroyed and the dresses of the women were all torn up and distributed in the yard, and the dishes broken in the house, and the tables and chairs were throwed over and knocked to pieces, some of the bedding was destroyed in fact, everything in the house was destroyed. All that we ever took from the house after the Indians were there that was of any value was a little bedding of but little value. A few days before the 25th of August, Mr. Dietemann and Mr. Schindelholz went to Denver and left his wife, two children, his sister, and two hired hands, of which I was one. On the morning of the 25th of August I went about two miles north of where Dietemann lived, which was on Comanche Creek in Elbert County, about 45 miles, or a little more east and south of Denver, after three head of horses belonging to Dietemann, and I got home with them and picketed one, the Indians were chasing me, and I didn't have time to picket the other two horses they cut the one loose that I had picked and drove it with the others off, and I never saw them afterward.... Immediately after the horses were taken, the family packed up what thing they could carry and we walked up the creek about four miles, and the Indians came after us. There was another party of Indians there in a washout. They came for us, and Mrs. Dietemann was a little behind. I was carrying the little girl on my back, and I had the little boy by the hand. I walked up the hill, and when I looked back the Indians had grabbed Mrs. Dietemann, and with a pistol shot her through the breast. The little boy was with me, and he wanted to run back to his mama, and he went back to her and got killed. From there we went on about six miles to Kiowa: Mr. Dietemann's sister, Mr. Lawrence, and myself, and the little girl went on to Kiowa. There we met the people of the whole neighborhood, were there, huddled together, on account of the Indians, and we told them what happened, that the Indians killed Mrs. Dietemann and her son. We organized a party at Kiowa and went back to hunt for them, and found Mrs. Dietemann and her son both killed. Some of the settlers went with us, there was 16 or 18 in the party. I cannot name them all, but can name a few: Mr. Wood, Mr. Gleason, Mr. Dietemann, Mr. Schindelholz, and Mr. Lawrence and myself, and others. We did find the woman pretty naked, her dress was over her face and she was scalped. We found the boy, and he was shot by lances, as near as I could call it, and was stabbed all over. 49

Mr. Apollinaris Dietemann testified:
I heard on Running Creek, about fourteen miles from where I lived, that a family had been killed on Comanche Creek. I immediately feared it was my family, as my family was the only ones then living on Comanche Creek. I went on about five miles in the direction of my ranch to Middle Kiowa. At Middle Kiowa I found all the members of my family, except my wife and boy, and was informed by them that my wife and boy had been killed by the Indians. About a half a dozen of the men, and myself amongst the number, went to hunt for the remains of my wife and son. We went five or six miles in the direction of my ranch, and found the bodies about three or four miles south of my ranch.... I found my wife scalped and shot through the breast, and the boy with his neck broken, and with four or five arrow shots in his body. 50

Mrs. L. J. Fahrion, a young woman in 1868, who saw the bodies of Henrietta and John when they were brought into Kiowa, testified on April 8, 1916:
Bands of Indians raided the country in this locality, then called Douglass County, now Elbert County. Comanche Creek, about six miles from Kiowa, was one of the streams raided. On that day [August 25, 1868] the bodies of a woman named Mrs. Dietemann and a boy, who had been killed by the Indians were brought to Kiowa. I saw the bodies. They were said at the time to be the bodies of the wife of Apollinaris Dietemann and their boy. This family had just located on Comanche Creek. They were the only persons killed in the raid of that day. I helped lay out the bodies and assisted the two women, both of whom are now dead, who prepared the bodies. I held the washbowl at the time. Her scalp was entirely taken off and her clothes were partially torn off. There was no belt or money on her body at the time. 51



After the murder of his wife and young son, Apollinaris moved to Minnesota where he later married a second time. Sometime in 1875 he had another daughter. But tragedy again struck and by late May his wife Catherine died and then by August infant Mary had also died. He buried his second wife and child near Minnesota Lake, Minnesota. With his surviving daughter of the Colorado Indian raid, "Hattie," he then met Catherine Fitterer. He married her on July 11, 1876. They had a daughter, Ida, born in late November 1877. By 1885 Apollinaris was again living in Colorado, where he ran a saloon in Denver at 3023 Market Street. Daughter Hattie married Jake Weinman and eventually settled in Los Angeles. She died in 1950. Daughter Maria Ida married Rudolph Roesch and had ten children. She died in Denver in 1952. Apollinaris died in Denver December 14, 1909. His first wife and son John are buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Golden, as is Apollinaris, though their graves are not together. John, however, is buried in the same grave with his mother. Marie Catherine Dietemann, Apollinaris' third wife, died in Denver in 1923. 52





NOTES FOR PART 2 - THE DIETEMANN MURDERS


39 For a thorough and detailed account of these devastating raids in north-central Kansas see Jeff Broome, Dog Soldier Justice, 7-34.


40 The Rocky Mountain News, August 28, 1868.


41 The Rocky Mountain News, August 28, 1868. It is interesting to note that residents of Denver were given the opportunity to view the mutilated remains of both the Hungate family and Henrietta and John Dietemann when their remains were brought to town.


42 The Rocky Mountain News, August 28, 1868.


43 The Rocky Mountain News, August 31, 1868.


44 Little has been written on the Colorado Indian war of 1868. Perhaps the best source that shows the extent of the war is found in Irving Howbert, Memories of a Lifetime in the Pike's Peak Region (New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Son, 1925), 177-214

.
45 Irving Howbert, The Indians of the Pike's Peak Region (New York: The Knickerbocker Press, 1914), 195-196 Memories of a Lifetime, 183-184. There are other obscure accounts of the Dietemann massacre, which can be found as follows: The Denver Republican, December 21, 1892 The Field and Farm (Frontier Tales), October 28, 1893 Genealogy and Biography, A Portrait and Biographical Record of Denver and Vicinity (1898).


46 Others filing claims for losses are Wendling, Spencer, Neff, Smith, Coplen, Williams, Butters and Dunham. John Belkleman Indian Depredation Claim #4936. Indian Depredations Claims Division, Record Group 123. National Archives Building, Washington, DC.


47 Benkleman Indian Depredation Claim, Stipulation, 5,6.


48 Apollinaris Dietemann Indian Depredation Claim #4941. Record Group 123, National Archives Building, Washington, DC, 22-24.


49 Apollinaris Dietemann Indian Depredation Claim, 29-31.


50 Apollinaris Dietemann Indian Depredation Claim, 12-13.


51 Apollinaris Dietemann Indian Depredation Claim, Mrs. L. J. Deposition.


52 Biographical information regarding Apollinaris Dietemann and his family were graciously provided to me by a descendant of Theodore Fitterer, a brother of Apollinaris' third wife. Judy Penhiter of Duluth, Minnesota has accumulated a rich array of genealogy on her ancestors. A special "thank you" is in order to her for her assistance and enthusiasm in this project.








Dr. Jeff Broome is a retired professor of Philosophy and History formerly at Arapahoe Community College (Littleton, CO). He received his M.A. degree at Baylor University in 1976, and earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 1998. Prior to teaching, he was a detention counselor with the Arapahoe County (Colorado) Sheriff’s Department and Treatment Director for the Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center.


Dr. Broome has published articles in the Journal of the Indian Wars, Pacific Historical Review, Wild West, Denver Westerners Roundup, Greasy Grass, and Research Review. He was awarded the Lawrence A. Frost Literary Award from the Little Big Horn Associates, and contributed a chapter, Libbie Custer's Encounter with Tom Alderdice . . .The Rest of the Story, (Custer and His Times, Book 4, Little Big Horn Associates, 2002). Dr Broome’s book, Dog Soldier Justice: The Ordeal of Susanna Alderdice in the Kansas Indian War (Lincoln County Historical Society, Lincoln, Kansas, 2003), is now in its 2nd printing.


Order a copy of Jeff Broome's

Indian Massacres in Elbert County, Colorado:

New Information on the 1864 Hungate and 1868 Dietemann Murders


The pamphlet includes never-before seen photographs of the Hungate massacre site, plus artifacts and personal items recovered there. Available for $12


To order, contact Jeff at the link below:

E-Mail Jeff Broome



Dr. Broome's book

Dog Soldier Justice: The Ordeal of Susanna

Alderdice in the Kansas Indian War

is available at Amazon


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