Reuben Aaron Waller: El Dorado’s Buffalo Soldier

Reuben Aaron Waller was born into slavery in Missouri and died a free landowner, veteran, father, grandfather, prolific storyteller, and beloved friend and neighbor in El Dorado, Kansas, at a reported age of 105.

Reuben was a member of the 10th U.S. Cavalry, Company H, and was present at the rescue of Forsyth’s Scouts after the Battle of Beecher Island. His memoir, History of a Slave Written by Himself at the Age of 89 Years, is considered a primary source not just for military frontier life and the Beecher Island rescue, but also for Reuben’s own life. He also penned a lesser known memoir of his life as a buffalo soldier titled Five Years A Soldier On The Plains.

When he died in 1945, Reuben had been credited with being a centenarian (over 100 years old), a body guard in the Civil War, a Confederate soldier, spending time “with Buffalo Bill” on the plains, casting a vote for Abraham Lincoln, being present at what he described as General Sherman’s surrender at Appomattox, and fighting in the Spanish-American War.

Reuben told many stories about his life and gave several interviews, and other documents also provide insight into his life. While some core details in his narratives align with known events, others are inconsistent. Reuben had a clear tendency toward embellishment, often blending his firsthand experience with secondhand accounts and presenting them with a dramatic and engaging flair.

@midwesterndeathtrip
Reuben Aaron Waller was born into slavery and died a free man at age 105. Reuben had what some might call a photographic memory. When he was a boy, he would accompany his master so he could see, hear, and remember things for him. As a child, Reuben claimed he was a whiskey distiller. He was so good at what he did, his master sold him south to make whiskey for Confederate troops. Reuben served alongside his master, rebel army general William C. Couch, for at least 29 battles in the Civil War. Reuben was present when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appotomax Courthouse. “I saw that old rascal Lee reach down like this and pull out his sword. Then he raised it up like this and handed it to that old rascal Grant. Grant held it up the same way and saluted with it. Then he handed it back to Lee. Then they both cried like babies. I saw the flags of truce go back and forth. I was just 50 or 60 yards away from … Lee and Grant.” Reuben also served in the Indian wars in Colorado and Kansas as a buffalo soldier, a term coined by natives for the Black soldiers with “hair like buffalo” who fought ferociously. Reuben came to Kansas after the Indian wars and settled in Butler County, where he lived for the rest of his life. He married four times, and said “all of my wives were good women.” Another fun fact: Reubens grandpa also lived to see 100. He died at age 106. You can visit @tkaam1 online or in person to learn more about Reuben. Reuben is buried at Sunset Lawns Cemetery in El Dorado, Kansas. #cemeterytok #eldorado #civilwar #buffalosoldier #fyp
♬ Buffalo Soldier – Bob Marley & The Wailers

Who Was Reuben Waller?

The story of Reuben Waller isn’t as clear-cut as many make it seem. There are quite a few primary source documents available for Reuben after 1880, but most of what is repeated about his life prior to that comes from Reuben’s own mouth and memory, which wasn’t always consistent.

For example, when Reuben wrote his memoir in 1929, History of a Slave Written by Himself at the Age of 89 Years, he said he was born in 1840 and that his first memory was of stars falling in 1849.

“I was born January 5th, 1840, and the first sensation of my life was the falling stars in 1849. All the slaves and their masters got together and began a mighty fixing for the Judgment Day. (History of a Slave Written by Himself at the Age of 89 Years)

He later recounted it as not his first memory, but the most exciting memory of his life, occurring on Christmas Eve, but the only meteor shower recorded in 1849 was October 31.

“On the night of Christmas Eve, 1849, was the event of the great falling stars. It was the most exciting time that I ever witnessed in all my life. There was an old master and old mistress with their 75 slaves all on their knees, joined in one of the greatest prayer meetings that was in old master’s power to lead, because he saw the stars were all leaving the heavens and, even if he wasn’t in the habit of leading prayer meetings, old master thought maybe the stars had come to take him and old mistress and their slaves back to heaven with them.” (The El Dorado Times, December 25, 1930)

Most biographies about Reuben say that his birth year of 1840 is “a matter of record,” because slaveholders kept detailed records of their slaves. But I had trouble finding any slave records that directly recorded Reuben’s birth date or any details of his life at all. If his age was “a matter of record,” I thought those records would be easy to find.

I did find an article written by Victor Murdock in 1941 stating that Reuben’s birth year of 1840 was “a matter of record.” But it seems Murdock came to that conclusion not because there is any tangible record of Reuben being born in 1840, but because Reuben said it was so.

The Wichita Eagle, March 16, 1941

The 1880 Federal census, 1885 Kansas census, 1895 Kansas census, 1910 Federal census, 1920 Federal census, and 1925 Kansas census all have Reuben’s birth year as 1850, contradicting what he publicly claimed later in life. When he married his second wife in 1902, it was reported that he was 52 years old, making his birth year 1850. In addition to multiple census records, Reuben testified in legal proceedings in 1880 as part of his homestead proof claim that he was 30 years old. If he was 30 years old in 1880, his birth year was 1850.

Reuben’s homestead proof claim testimony from May 24, 1880. Source

If Reuben was born in 1850, that means he wasn’t a centenarian, and he was 95, not 105, at the time of his death in 1945.

Most people assume Reuben was born in Kentucky, probably because that’s what his obituaries stated, and so do many biographies for Reuben that exist today. However, Reuben said that he was “conceived in Tennessee and born in Platte county, Missouri,” and the aforementioned census records that record his birth year as 1850 also state he was born in Missouri.

“[Reuben’s] master was one of five brothers who owned plantations in Missouri, Tennessee, Louisiana and Kentucky. The slaves were moved from one place to another. ‘I was conceived in Tennessee and born in Platte county, Missouri,’ he said, laughing.” (Hutchinson News, August 5, 1940)

Reuben claimed that he had a photographic memory and spoke of being tasked to remember things for his enslaver when he was just a boy. He claimed to retain this impeccable memory his entire life.

“When I was nine years old my master used to take me around with him to remember things for him. I can remember things that happened when I was eight years old as well as those when I was 50.” (Hutchinson News, August 5, 1940)

When Reuben recounted his Civil War stories for Elliott Penner of Hutchinson News in 1940, Penner wrote that memories were “indelibly stamped on Waller’s memory. They are as clear as his recollections of the screams of misused slave girls in the night.”

“My master was what they called a good man to his slaves, but slaves could not be happy when they had to get out of their beds for a white man to see the slave master take up with their daughters.” (Hutchinson News, August 5, 1940)

Reuben also said he worked as a whiskey distiller for his enslaver, and he was so good at what he did, his enslaver sold him south for $1,400 to make whiskey for Confederate troops.

“The secret of good, ‘golden pure’ whiskey, Waller declared, was the purification. He described the charring of oak bark and oak barrels used to absorb the ‘fusil oil’ in the whiskey. As for drinking: ‘I drank it, of course, but I never was what you would call drunk until I got in the army with Custer.’” (Hutchinson News, August 5, 1940)

Reuben said that he served during the Civil War alongside his enslaver, whom he identified as rebel army general William C. Couch. I searched for records of a Confederate general by that name but found none. There were men named William Couch who served in the Confederacy, but I couldn’t link any of them to Reuben.

“My master was William C. Couch, a general in the rebel army. His slaves were with him. There were thousands of us on the rebel side, all starving and half-clothed. There were thousands more on the Yankee side, well fed and warm.” (Hutchinson News, August 5, 1940)

Reuben claimed to have been present for as many as 29 battles in the Civil War. He also described witnessing the surrender of Robert E. Lee to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, though his account is highly dramatized, riddled with inaccuracies, and inconsistent with the truth.

“I saw that old rascal Lee reach down like this and pull out his sword. Then he raised it up like this and handed it to that old rascal Grant. Grant held it up the same way and saluted with it. Then he handed it back to Lee. Then they both cried like babies. I saw the flags of truce back and forth. I was just 50 or 60 yards away from … Lee and Grant.”

“Then everything was still. We all waited – we didn’t know for what. A gun went, ‘Boom.’ Then here come the rebel soldiers from one side and the Yankee soldiers from the other side, and then they were all hugging and kissing . . . oh, it was a sight to see.”

“More important, the starving rebels and the slaves were fed. Lincoln, bless his dear old heart, rolled out wagon loads of provisions and fed us – it took a
week before we all were satisfied.” (Hutchinson News, August 5, 1940)

I wasn’t able to verify Reuben’s Civil War service, which isn’t unusual because of his status as a slave.

The Wichita Eagle, March 16, 1941

After the Civil War, Reuben was freed and began his exodus from the south to Kansas, along with thousands of other freed slaves. In 1867, he chose to join the 10th Cavalry, the first all Black regiment formed during peacetime. These men were buffalo soldiers, a term coined by natives for the Black soldiers with “hair like buffalo” who fought ferociously, and a title that Reuben embraced.

Reuben served for five years in the 10th Cavalry during the Indian Wars and in addition to his essay History of a Slave Written by Himself at the Age of 89 Years in 1929, he wrote nearly 30,000 words titled Five Years a Soldier on the Plains, which was printed in The Herald in Towanda, Kansas over a series of months in the fall of 1889. The 10th Cavalry, Company H (Reuben’s company) was present for the rescue after the Battle of Beecher Island, but Reuben present two very different stories of the event in the two essays written forty years apart.

Like his memory of the Appomattox Court House surrender, Reuben’s retelling of the rescue at Beecher Island is inconsistent with the truth. In 1889, he wrote:

“Now I will just give you a description of the battle field as we found it, can you imagine a plot of ground fifty yards square with fifty dead men, horses and mules all laying in the sun. Some of them had been dead 10 or 12 days, and they were swollen beyond all human shape. The Indians had not left one man, horse or mule alive, all had been massacred. The man they had sent to us was the only one that was left; it was the saddest sight I ever saw, the man that came to us, when he got back and saw his comrades that he had left so gallant a few days before, preparing for the fight the next day, he cried out Oh! my friends! and wept like a child.” (Five Years a Soldier on the Plains, 1889)

In reality, just six men were killed in the battle and buried on site, while 15 to 26 survived to be rescued by the 10th Cavalry. Reuben later tells a different tale of the Beecher Island rescue, which is more consistent with actual events. In 1929, he wrote:

“And what a sight we saw—30 wounded and dead men right in the midst of 50 dead horses, that had lain in the hot sun for ten days. And these men had eaten the putrid flesh of those dead horses for eight days. The men were in a dying condition and Carpenter and myself dismounted and began to rescue them. By this time all the soldiers were all in the pits and we began to feed the men from our haversacks. If the doctor had not arrived in time we would have killed them all by feeding them to death. The men were eating all we gave them, and it was a plenty. Sure, we never gave a thought that it would hurt them. You can imagine a man in starvation, and plenty suddenly set before him. He can’t think of the results until too late. That is the condition that Company H, 10th cavalry, fixed for the Beecher Island men. We were not aiming to hurt the boys. It was all done through eagerness and excitement.” (History of a Slave Written by Himself at the Age of 89 Years, 1929)

The inconsistencies in Reuben’s Beecher Island story could be due to yet another inconsistency across Reuben’s many stories about his time as a buffalo soldier. Reuben did not mention in either detailed narrative that during his five years as a soldier on the plains, he spent nine months in the hospital after being shot in the jaw in Wyoming.

“[Reuben] fought in the Indian wars in the west five years—except for nine months in a hospital while his shattered jaw was healing.” (Hutchinson News, August 5, 1940)

Not all of Reuben’s stories were dramatized by him. Some of them were in fact quite dramatic, like when recounted how the 10th Cavalry helped rescue Matilda Friend after she was attacked and scalped, and her son was kidnapped by natives. The Friend family relocated to El Dorado after the tragedy, and after his service with the 10th Cavalry ended in 1873, Reuben claimed a homestead in El Dorado.

“Several years ago, I was helping to run a threshing machine and we went to [the Friend] house and the men were talking of her having been scalped by the Indians and I recognized her by the description of the time and place that the incident occurred. I asked her if she remembered that on the morning that she was scalped by the Indians, how the colored soldiers swooped down on them and saved her life. I told her that I was one of those soldiers, and we made it hot for those Indians. She looked at me in astonishment. I have never seen her since. That was one of my adventures that she can witness to, if you ask her.” (Five Years a Soldier on the Plains, 1889)

By 1880, Reuben had built a 14×16 frame home, a 20×30 stable, a hen house, a corn crib, 700 fruit trees, and 1/2 mile of hedge on the 160 acres that he claimed northwest of the center of El Dorado. Reuben farmed his claim for over a decade before relocating closer to the heart of the city. His former homestead was known as “the Reuben Waller farm” for years after he moved. At his home in town, Reuben still farmed, dabbling in raising hogs and growing peanuts, millet, and other crops.

The Walnut Valley Times, El Dorado, KS, October 17, 1894

Reuben often hunted with friends in and around the Flint Hills, even after being mistaken for a deer and getting shot in the legs. He got caught up in the court system a few times, and was one of many called to serve as a juror in the Clara Wiley-Castle murder trial, but he was dismissed.

As a citizen of El Dorado, Reuben was a member of the Colored Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church, and is credited by some as being one of the founders. He helped raise the money to build the Lane Chapel CME Church on 5th & Washington, and he held several positions at the church including trustee and superintendent of the Sunday school.

Reuben lived for seventy-two years in El Dorado, and outlived four different wives. His first wife Susan bore all seven of Reuben’s known children before she died in 1898 the same year she gave birth to her seventh child.

El Dorado Daily Republican, December 19, 1898

Reuben married his second wife Rachel in 1902, and after an apparently contentious relationship, Rachel died in 1906. He married his third wife Anna in 1907, and then in 1910 after severely burning her arms in a gasoline explosion, she died several months later from heart failure.

He married his fourth wife Jennie in 1911 and she filed for divorce within two years saying Reuben was “too rough,” but they ultimately stayed together until Jennie died in 1940. Reuben, who was accused by others of having a “peppery temper,” was quoted as saying “all of my wives were good women.”

Reuben died suddenly at his home on Atchison Street on August 20, 1945. No matter his age when he died, or the inconsistencies in the stories he told, Reuben had a long, eventful life filled with a range of experiences: good, bad, exciting, traumatic, interesting, and remarkable. People in El Dorado knew him as a man of honesty and integrity and considered him a respected neighbor and friend.