The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer
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CHAPTER XX
THE OUTLAW'S LAST STAND
After the vigilants had frightened the outlaws into abandoning theiroperations in the valley, the thieves skulked across the reservation toa strip of country some twenty-five miles northeast of where Megory nowstands. Here, on the east, the murky waters of the Missouri seek theirlevel; to the north the White River runs like a cow-path through thefoot hills--twisting and turning into innumerable bends, with itslime-like waters lapping the sides, bringing tons of shale from thegorgeous, dark banks, into its current; while on the south runs theWhetstone, inclosed by many rough, ragged brown hills, and to the westare the breaks of Landing Creek. In an angle between these creeks andrivers, lies a perfect table land known as Yully Flats, which is themost perfectly laying land and has the richest soil of any spot on theLittle Crow. It took its name from a famous outlaw and squaw-man, by thename of Jack Yully. With him the thieves from the Keya Paha Valley foundco-operation, and together had, a few years previously operated as themost notorious band of cattle rustlers the state had known. For ahundred miles in every direction this band plundered, stole, and ran thecattle and horses onto the flats, where they were protected by thebreaks of the creeks and rivers, referred to. Mixed with half, quarter,eighth and sixteenth breeds, they knew every nook and crook of thecountry. These operations had lasted until the year of the Little Crowopening, and it was there that Jack Yully made his last stand.
Although the valley could not be surpassed in theproduction of grain and alfalfa, the highlands on either side were greatmountains of sand. (Page 126.)]
He had for many years defied the laws of the county and state, and hadbuilt a magnificent residence near a spring that pours its sparklingwaters into a small lake, where now stands a sanitarium. Yully had beenchief overseer, dictator, and arbitrator of the combined forces ofLittle Crow and Keya Paha County outlaws and mixed bloods. The end camewhen, on a bright day in June, a posse led by the United States Marshalsneaked across the Whetstone and secreted themselves in a cache betweenYully's corral and the house. Yully was seen to enter the corral andhaving laid a trap, a part of the men, came in from another directionand made as if to advance when Yully made a run for his house, whichtook him alongside the men hidden. Before he could change his course hewas halted and asked to surrender. He answered by dropping to theopposite side of the horse and began firing. In the skirmish thatfollowed the horse was shot and fell on Yully, but in the shot'sexchange two of the posse and Yully were killed.