A New Life
Chapter 1

Copyright© 2006 by The Old Guy

Science Fiction Sex Story: Chapter 1 - The continuing story of Alex from "I Fell Through" as he and his wives begin homesteading in the Willamette Valley.

Caution: This Science Fiction Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa   Consensual   Romantic   Science Fiction   Time Travel   Historical   Harem   Interracial  

September 15, 1847

We spent the night getting reacquainted again and telling each other of our adventures. Claire told us about her trip as well.

(Claire's Story)

We began our ride determined to get the information we needed in order to file our claims and meet the rest of you in Oregon City. We figured that riding would not be a problem. After all, we have ridden all during the trip out here. We found out the hard way the difference between riding for a short period and riding for an entire day. When we reached Laurel Hill where we made camp for the night everyone was so tired that we barely had energy to move. We set up the tents and then took out the food we had ready, warmed it up, and stumbled into bed. It was then that I began to miss you very much because it was really difficult to get to sleep without someone to sleep next to. I had forgotten what it was like to sleep alone.

We women got up early the next morning and made breakfast. After breaking camp, we mounted our horses and began to ride again. We rode around Laurel Hill and reached the Sandy River by noon. We saw a lot of bears in various berry patches eating their fill of the abundant harvest. Several times we had to yield the roadway to the bears until they moved away. In spite of this we made a good distance until we reached an area of bogs and fallen trees. We stopped along the banks of a stream and the men went fishing. They speared a salmon and we made a good noon meal for all of us from this one fish. After we ate, it was time to mount up and continue on our journey. However, we ran into bogs so many times that we finally dismounted and used a long stick to test the ground before us and walked for the rest of the day. When it was time to stop we found a small clearing and made ready for the night. We ate a quick dinner of leftover fish and journey bread and went to sleep. I realized how much I had become accustomed to having you help me when I kept looking for one of the men to offer to help us get ready for the night.

Joseph showed us a gap through the mountains that led to the Valley and we managed to cut off two days' travel by not following the Barlow Trail to the end and coming back. It started to rain and we had a wet ride for the entire day. By the time we got through the mountains and into the Valley, no one felt much like eating and we had to force ourselves to make dinner and eat. It was then that I really appreciated you, Alex, for the men acted as if they thought that we women should do all the work in the camp with the exception of shooting or catching dinner. We grumbled as we pitched the tents and gathered wood for the morning's fire while the men took care of the horses. I would rather have taken care of the horses instead of cooking and setting up the camp. The only game we saw today was the bears and occasional birds and we are running out of provisions.

We resumed our journey the next morning and made much better time since we were in the open valley. As we traveled we noticed the rolling fields of dried grass with occasional clumps of oaks and pines on the foothills. We were surprised at the lack of game in the valley, seeing only occasional deer in the distance. I wondered about that. We had planned on supplementing our supplies with game but from the appearance of the valley we were not going to be able to do that. Finally Joseph managed to shoot a small deer of a rather indifferent quality which was barely enough to serve as a single meal for all 10 of us. We had deer steaks and cornbread for dinner with several varieties of ripe berries for dessert. We cracked the leg bones of the deer for the marrow with which to flavor tomorrow's corn mush. Unless we are able to find someone from whom to buy provisions I fear that we will be hungry by nightfall tomorrow.

We had been hunting as we traveled through the valley, but without success. All we saw were small deer in the distance that moved away rapidly when they saw us approach. We gathered berries and a root that Joseph calls cammas. These are small bulbs about the size of a large thumb that when peeled we boiled and ate as we would potatoes. We spent a good two hours gathering enough for a meal. We had only a small portion of corn meal to make mush in the morning. Joseph told us we should be in an area that had been settled for some years by nooning tomorrow.

We continued our journey the next morning and finally began to find signs of civilization in our trip across the valley. Occasional fields of wheat were showing up as well as scattered houses the further we traveled. We begged housing at one of the houses and were gracefully welcomed by the landowner. The women joined his wife in helping to fix dinner. We had pork cutlets and peas. We slept on the floor of the house while the men slept in the barn. In the morning we thanked our hosts who refused to accept anything else for their hospitality. We were able to find a ferry that took us over the Willamette for ten cents each. We were also able to buy food at the same location and purchased peas, beans, beef, and wheat flour. Corn meal was not to be had in the country at this time. I asked about that and the storekeeper told me that no one grew corn in the valley because it didn't grow as well as wheat and barley.

We arrived at the Eola hills and began to lay out the plats for the land grants. We were able to find where a large stream flowed into the Willamette River and used that as a reference point for the plats from there. I used trigonometry to find the corners of each section and we marked them as claimed. Altogether, we spent two days laying out the plats and describing each one in as much detail as we could.

We finally finished and returned to the ferry. After crossing the Willamette we headed toward Oregon City. The valley is filling up rapidly along the river. This is because it is the main means of transportation between October and June. We saw numerous people riding and working in the fields as we went along. Along the Willamette River we never had a night where we had to sleep in the tents. All the people we stayed with were gracious and we learned a lot from them about the climate and the best methods of growing gardens and crops here.

We arrived in Oregon City two days ago and were just wandering around town waiting for you to arrive when I saw two people I thought I recognized. As I got closer to them I saw that hussy Abigail wearing one of my best dresses. I greeted her and Henry and they acted like they had never seen me before. When I told them who I was she accused me of being a liar and that's when I lost my temper and called her a thief. Henry stepped between us and I used one of the throws you showed us and started to pull Abigail's hair when the others grabbed me and pulled me away.

The sheriff showed up and that lying hussy told him that I assaulted her for no reason and was pretending to be someone else who was dead. That's when he arrested me. When I protested he gagged me. The next day is when you came in and got me out. (This is the end of Claire's story.)

September 16, 1847

I walked through town and looked at the various stores to see what they had to offer in the way of seeds and farming equipment. I was disappointed about the quality and choices that were available and I thought that the prices seemed excessively high. During my walk I again met the sheriff, William Livingston Holmes. He told me that the complaint against Claire had been dropped by the complainant so he had dismissed the charges. He did warn me that any fighting was strongly discouraged in Washington District. When I asked him about buying seed and farming equipment, he recommended that I go to Fort Vancouver and check the Hudson Bay Company store there as the local stores did not have as much variety.

I sent one of Johan's boys with Elizabeth to pick up the items that had been taken from their wagon. I didn't want Claire anywhere near those people the way her temper was flaring up. Besides I was counting on Claire and Corrie to set up the lottery for the land grants. We had decided that the lottery would consist of us drawing lots from a pot held by Mr. Abernathy since he had no interest in the outcome. The lottery worked this way: the person holding the number drawn would match it to the numbered plot. We were going to have the drawing following dinner tonight.

Elizabeth finally got back and I was surprised at how much stuff she had with her. I asked her about it and she said, "The people of the other wagon train really aren't bad people. They felt bad that they had left us for dead. They decided to give Claire some things that they thought she'd like, to show how sorry they are." She picked up a dress and looked at it with satisfaction, "At last I can stop looking like a cross between a man and some strange creature."

Claire appeared and gave a cry of delight when she saw the pile, "Mamma's chairs and our pots! My dresses!" Then she started to notice the other items. "What's this?" she said holding a small sewing kit up.

"The people wanted to apologize for leaving us and sent you some gifts, hoping you'd forgive them", explained Elizabeth.

"Forgive them! Never!" Claire shouted and stomped off. Elizabeth gave me an apologetic look and went after her to calm her down. Louise and I just looked at each other and began to shake with repressed laughter.

"Isn't Claire usually the calm one?" Louise asked, chuckling as she watched Elizabeth following Claire like a chick following a hen. I just nodded my head afraid to say anything and laugh out loud. Eventually Claire calmed down enough to accept the gifts but I don't think she ever really forgave the other people. For the rest of her life she always avoided talking about her life on the trail prior to Wyoming.

At last it was dinnertime. Everyone ate around the large fire and impatiently waited for Mr. Abernathy to arrive with the pot full of numbers. We had one of the older students number the back of each plot description with a number between 1 and 35 and Mr. Abernathy had done the same with a like number of paper pieces. Finally he appeared and started asking questions about the members of the wagon train, such as who had the biggest family, who had the youngest child, etc. As people answered to the affirmative he had them come up and pick out a number. Finally he asked who had the shortest wife and Elizabeth let out a squeal, saying, "Me! Me!" Like a small child she ran up and closing her eyes picked out our number. Holding it in her closed fist she returned to us and slowly handed it to me.

I opened the slip and read out the number, '21!". Louise ran forward and grabbed number 21 from the remaining pile of plats.

Claire looked over my shoulder and nodded, "I think I remember that area." She looked at the drawing and the description, "We have a small area of hilly ground on which to build a house and barns and a large open area that will be good for planting wheat or corn. We share a small stream with the next plot and we also have two small ponds in the flat area of the plat. There is about 60 acres of woodlands in the hills behind the high ground.

I looked at her, "How far are we from the river and the town plat?"

"About two miles from the town and three miles from the river." I nodded slowly, satisfied with the possibilities that the area represented. Our land was far enough from the river not to flood but still near enough to reach easily when we harvested our crops. We were close enough to the town so that when Claire started the school, it would be easy to get to in the morning. If the people were going to insist that I act as a doctor then I was going to have an office in town. I looked at my wives and saw they had been thinking about the plat themselves. I looked at each of them and slowly, one by one, they nodded in acceptance. We would not be trading our plat to anyone else.

Finally there was one plat left, #22, the one next to ours. Mr. Abernathy looked around in puzzlement, "Who hasn't claimed their number?" Everyone looked around and finally started looking at the one person who had not come forward. Willy looked around in panic until, with a light shove from Ola, he was pushed toward the pot. Taking the plat from the hand of the grinning Mr. Abernathy, he stumbled back to his seat where a satisfied looking Ola held his hand. I looked at Louise and Elizabeth who wore shit eating grins. I just shook my head. Women!

September 17, 1847

I had made arrangements to go to Fort Vancouver after the lottery to purchase the seed and farming equipment that I needed. I also wanted to exchange my raw gold for British pounds, as there was no circulating metal currency available in Oregon. Wheat had been established by the Provisional Government as the currency with a set rate of one dollar per bushel. I wanted to have something more portable and more widely accepted than that. When I told my wives about the trip, they all acted like children about to go to a candy shop. I wondered just how much money I was going to leave there.

We loaded our gold into saddlebags. I looked at the gold that had seemed like so much when I first found it. It turned out that we needed more than we had believed when we began because our needs kept growing. We rode our horses to the ferry where we crossed the Columbia at a cost of fifty cents for all of us and the horses. Reaching the Washington side we headed toward the Hudson Bay Company headquarters.

We reached the company store and I asked to see the clerk in charge. I was introduced to a young man named James Allen Grahame who upon being advised of my needs informed me that the company did not have such large sums of British pounds available to exchange for raw gold. He offered to give me credit but I declined. I was about to leave when he suddenly asked if I needed to change the entire amount into coinage. I asked how much he was willing to take and he offered to exchange ten pounds of gold for 545 pounds. I accepted and after we weighed the gold I found that I had just over 32 pounds of gold. I asked if he had any American gold or silver money on hand and I found that he had a total of $1000 that he could use for trade. This took care of another 3 and a bit more than a half pounds of gold. I was left with a bit more than 18 lbs of gold.

I was at a loss for what to do with the remaining gold. I definitely did not want to take it back with me. Mr. Grahame asked if there was something that our town might need that could be manufactured or brought to our location. After some thought I asked, "How much it would cost to hire an engineer to build a sawmill or gristmill?" He gave it some thought and finally admitted he didn't know exactly but he believed that I could buy the parts and labor for around 200 pounds for the gristmill and perhaps 100 pounds for the sawmill. I told him that if he had anyone who was skilled in the construction of these to send them to me in Salem.

I asked if I could leave the remaining raw gold there as a credit balance and was surprised at how fast he was willing. This led me to believe that I could have gotten more for the gold elsewhere. I ended up with a balance of over 900 pounds in credit after exchanging the gold. I returned to my wives where I found that having 900 pounds in credit might not be too much after all. I don't think I've ever seen three women enjoy shopping so much. We ended up buying a new farm wagon and a pair of horses to haul it before I even got to buy the seed and farm equipment I came here to get! By the time they were through they had purchased white muslin handkerchiefs, "bed ticking linen," and even white cotton shirts with linen "collars & bosoms" as well as the more utilitarian eating utensils, trousers and shirts, tobacco, pipes, pots and dishes. Each also bought items for their specific interests.

Louise bought a big cook stove with a water holding container that would keep water hot and 2 cast iron single Canada stoves for the house. Claire made arrangements to have sufficient metal hardware and glass windows to be delivered to our township by October to make a 20 foot by 30 foot school house, paper, writing supplies and books. Elizabeth was more interested in buying seeds and wanted to buy dairy cattle. She was able to buy the seeds for her garden vegetables and field seeds of which she bought some of everything the store had: Early Green Peas; Early White Peas; Early White Turnip; Early Yellow Turnip; Dutch Turnip; Lapland Turnip; Yellow Swedish Turnip; Flax; Hemp; Early Angus oats; Potatoes; Barley; Buckwheat; and Winter Wheat. I objected to the amount of turnip seed she bought until she told me that was for winter-feed for the cattle. We were both upset when we learned that the company would not sell any dairy cattle.

I bought a horse drawn plow and harrow, three scythes and a horse drawn hay rake. I arranged to have some fruit trees and hardware for our house as well as everything but the seed to be shipped to us in Salem. The shipping cost for these items by the river ship Mogul was almost as much as the cost for everything else! We spent around a hundred pounds before my wives let me escape.

I was in a hurry to return to Oregon City and we departed late in the afternoon driving our new farm wagon. We headed toward the ferry and entered an area of forest leading to the river, when I heard, "Stand and deliver!"

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