At least two versions of this story exist. One is copied from A Sketch of the Life of Erastus Bingham and Family, pg 61-62, as compiled by Norman F Bingham, Lillian B. Belnap, and Lester S. Scoville. The other, from an article in the Ogden Standard Examiner, “He Laughs Best Who Laughs Last,” June 28, 1936.

[The first story is not specific about age, and one could easily assume that this was an adult man trying to intimidate a young herd boy. However, the second version makes it clear that this was a confrontation between two juvenile boys.]

From A Sketch of the Life of Erastus Bingham and Family:

[Brigham Heber Bingham] moved to Ogden with his parents in 1850 and was baptized the 10th of December 1851 in Farr’s Mill pond and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

While living at Bingham’s Fort he was one of the herd boys, the boys worked three weeks at a time, and then they would have two weeks off to do something else.  While he was laying off one time, a band of Indians, several hundred in number, came and camped within a mile of the Fort.  The Indians would take the dinners away from the herd boys and drag them around by the hair of their heads and frighten them with threats of death.  At the end of his two- week layoff when it was his turn to herd again, his father told him the Indians would not bother him. He said to himself, ‘if they get my dinner they will know how they got it’.

William Payne and Nathaniel Leavitt were captains the day his turn came to take the cattle to the herd grounds near the present town of Plain City.  The captains went to hunt some lost cattle which had strayed away the day before and left him alone with the herd.  He saw an Indian riding toward him as fast as he could, he felt the Indian intended to run over him, so he jumped to one side and as the Indian passed, he struck his horse over the head with a club.  The horse jumped to one side and almost threw the Indian off, but he held on to the mane and pulled himself back on the horse.

The Indian turned around and came back, and when the Indian saw that Brigham Heber was preparing to strike the horse again, the Indian stopped and asked for a biscuit.  Brigham Heber gave the Indian about one third of his dinner and the Indian insisted on more.  He refused to give the Indian more and said he would be eating the rest of it himself.  The Indian looked him in the eye for a few minutes and then rode away.

From the Ogden Standard Examiner article, “He Laughs Best Who Laughs Last,” June 28, 1936:

By Edwin A. Bingham

Bingham’s fort, built in 1854, was never needed for a refuge in warfare because the Washakie Indians about Ogden were generally friendly. We had learned the truth of Brigham Young’s statement “It is cheaper to feed than to fight them.”

This is a story that my father, the late Brigham H. Bingham, often told to his children.

HUNT TOGETHER

The Indian children often came to beg and remained about our homes to play with us. The boys would go ahunting together, or rest and eat berries along the streams. But the older fellows were mischievous to the point of downright meanness.

We boys took turns at going in pairs to herd the neighborhood cattle out on the flat. We often had our lunches stolen from us by this miscreants.

One day I had to go alone because my partner, Ambrose Shaw, was ill. I trailed the stock out to where Plain City is now situated, and on coming up out of a hollow, I saw an Indian boy on his pony scouting among the cattle. I knew that he was looking for me and my dinner. He saw me at once and spurred his horse at full speed to run me down. There was no chance for me to escape, but I didn’t intent to go down under those hoofs without a fight.

I carried a shalila (a stout stick of maple)and as he came for me I hit the horse’s head with all my might. It stopped him so quickly that it nearly upset the rider. But he straightened himself up, circled around and came for me again. The horse tried to avoid me this time. The young Indian forced him to me and yelled “Whoa” and “I want your dinner.”

“Well,” I said, “if you are a better man than I take it, but I get hungry as well as you do. I need my dinner and I am going to keep it if I can. Now come on.”

He broke into a loud laugh. He called me “Brave, Chief, Captain,” and rode away. Whenever we met after that he was always courteous but I knew that he would try again to outdo me and he did. He planned for me to take defeat where all would see it.

[Following this story is another one in the same article about a clay pellet game-battle between the settler boys and the Indian boys, taking place on the banks of the Ogden River and featuring Brigham Heber Bingham and the boy from this story. Read it here.]