Gus Bellport
Kansas cowboy, Rush County pioneer. Born: 23 January 1845, Fayetteville, Ohio. Died: 13 February 1933, LaCrosse, Kansas
Augustine Joseph (Gus) Bellport knew the trail as well as any cowboy. He traveled the Old West from Kansas to Wyoming, Colorado to Texas and his adventures crossed paths with William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, General George Armstrong Custer, and William “Wild Bill” Hickok. A witness to the Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty, Bellport enjoyed sharing stories about the adventures he had experienced.
In 1866 Bellport left his home in Ohio in search of gold in Montana. When he reached the end of the train line in Leavenworth, he and three friends chose one of the few options to continue their trip west. They joined a U.S. Army freighting unit that supplied forts in present-day Utah and Wyoming.
Bellport drove a mule team pulling a supply wagon. “A six mule team is not easy for an inexperienced man to handle,” he wrote in his memoir. “He must drive from the left hand rear mule which he rides. This mule is called the saddle mule and with a strap to the bit of the right hand rear mule which is called the ‘wheeler’ he guides the wagon with a single line to one of the lead teams.”
Becoming adept with the teams, Bellport continued his work as a teamster, delivering goods to forts in Kansas and Colorado Territory. Quarantined at Fort Harker during a cholera epidemic where nearly 900 soldiers died, Bellport successfully avoided the illness. Here he met James Butler Hickok whom he considered a “bully and not worthy of the reputation that he gained for himself.”
Bellport also came to doubt the character of General Custer whom he encountered at Fort Hays. He noted that Custer was returning from a buffalo hunt, splattered with blood and carrying three tongues, the only parts of the animals that were utilized from the kills.
The Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty in 1867 brought together the U.S. government and five Plains Indian tribes. The treaty cleared the way for white settlement, allowed railroad expansion, and resolved the southern Kansas border. As part of the treaty, Bellport delivered clothing, arms, and ammunitions to the 13,000 American Indians gathered there.
Bellport then operated a livery in Leavenworth; among his regular customers was William Cody. Bellport next turned to the cattle industry. The Powers Company named him foreman of a ranch near Ellsworth. Bellport and a team of cowboys traveled to San Antonio where Texas longhorns had been gathered. They drove the herds north along the Chisholm Trail to the trail’s end at Ellsworth. Bellport learned the rules of cattle herding, offering special attention and cowboy songs to calm the cattle. “And the riders are stationed far enough apart that the singing of one is heard by the next one down the line,” Bellport recalled, “and they keep in contact this way.”
After spending five years on the trail for the Powers Company, Bellport started his own ranch in Rush County. He and his wife, Magdalene, operated the ranch until the 1880s, when they opened a bakery, grocery, feed store, and later an icehouse in Rush Center. In 1927 Bellport attended the 60th anniversary of the Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty. He was the only person at the celebration who had been present at the original event. He continued to be known as a source for stories about cowboys and the Old West throughout his life.
Entry: Bellport, Gus
Author: Kansas Historical Society
Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.
Date Created: January 2010
Date Modified: March 2011
The author of this article is solely responsible for its content.
