Chapter 9

In the morning, George Franklin, Henry Horn, and Rocky Sedgewich were found in the cabin with Burt Weatherly. George was sketching the plan to become a house for Itea and myself.

I wanted specific changes (configurations.) I wanted the roof raised so the attic could be high enough to stand upright and walk around. “Kid, go to a hip roof if you desire. It will only add $300 to the total cost.”

I also wanted a chimney with two separate flues in the center of the house. One is for a kitchen range, and the second is for a cast iron parlor stove to heat the other rooms, including the second floor. “This will last us through having two or more children.”

“Kid, that is making a lot of sense. You had better figure on another $200 for the extra windows and inside doors to the attic. Can you stand that?”

“Easily, George. I have what Henry paid me for the five acres, and I have a bit more than that.”

Henry said, “That will be big enough for Tom and his family and for Dorothy and I to have an extra bed if the family visits.”

“What about you, George? What size house do you need to be comfortable? You are staying here, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am. I would need a cabin the size of Burt’s house. I’ll get a letter from the mills I usually order from and fill out my orders. It will probably take a week for them to get the order by mail, three days to fill it, and another week to get it. So, in three weeks, that will be here. The men I’m hiring will be on site by then. They can live in army tents. I have contacted a used army supply depot for used items that the army is selling, and there are no wars in the foreseeable future. There will be six to ten tents on the pallet, and they will come by train.”

“How many men do you think will come?”

“Ten men, anyway, and maybe a half dozen more. Over the years, they often didn’t stick to just one specialty. Some would lay bricks when their preferred work was putting in stairs. Most all will roof a house. Many are widowers, and they are lonely if they don’t see their former crew members a few times a year. Good food and a small keg of beer in the evening before they crawl into a tent will keep your cost down.”

“George, bill Itea and me for whatever the cost is to put up the houses. I’m not asking you to skimp. Bill us for the actual expenses in every instance. I imagine Itea will be around watching with me a lot. We think it will be an excellent way to learn more about you.

“Itea said something about waking up warm and a strange smell to her. It was the smoke smell of the Brave holding her she didn’t recognize. As a baby, she went to you for a hug a couple of days ago and said the way you smelled was what she was looking for again. Yours was the smell that brought a flashback of living with you and you holding her. Also, you used to hold her, and she could always hear your watch ticking.”

“I’m so glad you told me about her remembering me.”

Henry said, “I never often held Althea as a baby. I hope some of my grandkids will have children. I sure have missed a lot of closeness, and I may have something I can enjoy in my old age.”

I had Roland, Dugan, and Whitney in front of me. “Hey Guys, there will be a lot going on around here. We don’t have cows, but what I’ll be asking of you to do something you won’t like to do. Currently, three houses are planned for Tom, me, Sam Buckland, and his family. Henry Horn will be building his own house, and we won’t be involved in what he is building because he has given out the contract to a construction company.”

“Anyway, I’m upping your monthly pay by $10 more. I have a bunch of army tents coming and ten more men to do the building. George Franklin will be bossing that crew of men. He may hire someone to do the cooking for his crew. If you like Karen’s cooking, I’ll make sure she cooks enough for you.”

“Where do we start?”

“First, I want to get Itea a house to live in. She wants a cellar in it. I don’t want her to sleep in the tepee this winter. I don’t want to sleep in one, either. First, get on your horses, and two of you ride up to the farming area. See if you can rent a team, wagon, and one of those scoops for moving dirt so we can dig the cellar. Have any of you used one before?”

“I watched a big one being dug using a scoop years ago. I guess I can handle the scoop, okay.”

“Harvest time is coming, so I’ll buy all this equipment. Dugan, why don’t you scout the town and see if any is available? We need a team as soon as possible. Percherons would be ideal. I’ll ride over and talk to Sam. He might be able to help me out.” I didn’t pay much attention. Whitney got on his horse and rode toward town. Dugan rode with Roland out Jenkins Road so he would be going up to look for the scoop, wagon, and team up in the farming area. I followed along behind them, stopping at Sam’s Blacksmith’s shop.

“Hey, Kid, I was wondering when you would stop by. You’ve been around several days but haven’t stopped over.”

“No, Sam, I know I haven’t. I’ve been to Ohio and back. Itea has found a lot of ancestors: two Grandfathers, a Grandmother, Uncles, and several cousins. I sold the plot of ground next to the railroad spur to one of the grandfathers. Itea and I had trouble in the east with some train robbers, but that came out all right. I’m here looking for a team of horses and a scoop for digging cellar holes. Do you know of any?”

“There is one farmer up in farming country who does that. It is best if you hire him to dig them for you. It’s cheaper, and you won’t be spending so much money. The dirt around here is easy to dig, and if you carefully keep the sides square, you only have to build forms for the inside. Pour your cement between the dirt wall and the form making up the cellar wall. He is the one I used here. You’ve got the punchers hanging around and put them to work with shovels to keep the walls from caving in. I just saw a couple of them go by ahead of you.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not very organized. All this is new to me, and I feel like I’m spinning in a circle most of the time.”

“I shouldn’t wonder. Hilda asked me when I would pick out our lot to build on. She wants it to be located facing the open land, about the third lot in on Jenkins Road, next to where Mr. Weatheryl has his. Is that acceptable to you?”

“Perfect, Sam. Do you remember Tom Horn coming here with me? He is one of Itea’s uncles and will be building beside you somewhere near. He has a wife and two young kids. I went to Ohio with him, and he is a great person.”

“Good, glad to hear about him. When are you going to get the business going making and repairing wheels you spoke about?”

“Probably not before spring. There are a lot of homes to be built before winter sets in. We want to get the homes framed and roofs on, and then work can be done inside. You’re going to see a lot of carpenters around soon. Ten men are building my home, Horn’s home, and maybe one for Tom’s father, who bought that commercial lot to house the farm equipment supply depot.

“That’s Henry Horn. He has hired a building company to build the store and some warehouses. I’ve ordered army tents for some of these workers to live in. I’ll have these put up across Jenkins Road somewhere in that empty land between here and where I sold the land for the equipment depot.”

“I can see why you won’t start your own business for a while.”

I mounted and took off at a run, catching up to my two men before entering the farming country. “How come you are after us?”

“I saw Sam, and he gave me the name of someone with the equipment to dig cellar holes. He does it for so much a day for him and his horses. Let’s look him up; at least he will know what he is doing.”

I had never talked to any of the farmers before this. I stopped at the first farm. He had a crop of corn on a vast farm that wasn’t ready to harvest yet. “Hi, I’m Matt Jenkins. Can you direct me to the farmer who digs cellars?”

“Sure, go up the road here until the end of this corn field, turn left, and he lives at the first farm you visit. He’s good, and he’ll treat you right. Say, before you ride on, I hear there is going to be a concern about opening an equipment store selling farm equipment. I like to look over the equipment before I buy. Is there any truth to this?”

“There is. I’m Jenkins, and I sold the land to Henry Horn, who is building the store and warehouse beside the railroad tracks.”

“I’m also wondering if he will be building storage silos. We have to order cars now to ship produce and often lose some of our crops if the cars don’t arrive on time.”

“I’ll mention it to him. He’ll be around there full-time. If you ride down there, he should be available to talk to you.” I shook his hand and waved so long. I was spending more time on this than I anticipated and was a little frustrated.

We rode into the yard where directed. I knew we must have it correct because the scoop was lying upside down alongside the entrance. There was a man just coming out the house door. All three of us, armed, must have caused him some concern, and he looked like he wanted to turn back inside.

I looked around, and I could see he had two small wooden silos. There also was a Windmill turning. There was not much sound as the arms of the windmill weren’t turning very fast.

We dismounted and then could see plant fiber blown into a pile off to one side of the silo. Six men were operating a threshing machine powered by a diesel engine. A pipe was going to one of the box wagons from the machine.

I introduced myself, “I’m Kid Jenkins. Sam Bucklin told me you dig cellar holes. If you can’t get to it, I’d like to rent a team and wagon and that scoop I see out at the edge of your yard.”

“I don’t guess I can help you. We are threshing buckwheat today. We have to get it done today. I’m shorthanded as it is.”

“Is there anything we three men can help you with?”

“I can use you. Have you ever picked up bundled sheaves out of the field? There is not much to it. I’ll send a man along with you. We can get this job done by an hour before dark. Where is it you want a cellar dug?”

“You dug Sam Bucklin’s cellar. Looking east across the field at the other end of Jenkins Road is where we want the first one. I have two others that need doing.”

“You must be the Jenkins who gave Sam his land.”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“If you want to pick up sheaves today, I’ll load up and be at your place about 9:00 tomorrow. The other two, we’ll see how it goes?”

“You have a deal. What’s first?”

“I’ll have you loading bundles of sheaves onto a wagon. There will be one man by the headboard in front who will drive the horses. One of you men will be by the tailboard, and both will place the bundles in the same direction. The way we load the conveyor feeds the bundles into the thresher. The other two men on the ground will pitch the bundles in tumbles up the same way, with seeds always in the same direction. You’ll get onto it, and when you get good at this, the horses won’t even have to stop walking. My man will direct you until it becomes automatic.

“I have enough wagons, so when you get one load, we leave that nearby and hitch onto an empty wagon. Days when we expect rain, we cover the loaded wagons and thresh it on sunny, dry days.”

We entered the field behind the buildings. The harvesting was two-thirds completed. I said, “Boy, there are a lot of tumbles ready to be picked up. Is Mr. Boyd cutting more tomorrow?”

“Not for another week. We had a wet spell and didn’t get it planted for a week after the bigger part was finished last spring, so Boyd’ll be down at your place tomorrow.” That was good to know. “Let’s get this picked up.” It did take us the rest of the day. A kid in a pony cart brought us water when we were near the house, and there was a platter of lamb sandwiches. Riding on an empty wagon, we had time to eat lunch on the way back to the field. We three did all right because we finished loading the bundles at 5:00.

“See you tomorrow at about 9:00, as I promised. You men would make good farmers, hanging in there like any men I hire. Thank you.” We mounted our horses and headed for home. The work hadn’t been heavy; the only time to rest was on the way back to get another load of bundles.

I stopped at Sam Buckland’s and asked where he got sand for the cement. “Kid, it is on your land from that big hump halfway across the far edge of your open land at the bottom this side of the steepest part of the hill. That’s the closest sand I could find. I still have the dump cart here I borrowed to get it moved. You have to shovel it on, but dumping it saves a lot of work. There is no reason you can’t use it until the owner shows up asking for it. You can use the team of horses I just bought to pull the cart. I’ll sell them to you for what I paid for them.”

We arrived home at 7:30, hungry and tired, but overall, it was a good day, and things were moving right along. George Franklin walked over and gave me more good news. “Rocky and I went to a lumber yard looking for boards and dimension timbers to build forms for the cellars. They will be coming tomorrow, so we can knock them apart after the cement sets in three days and use them again. This was okay. Did you find the scoop you were looking for; you were gone all day?”

“Yeah, we did, and in fact, there will be a team, men, and the scoop here to start digging it at 9:00 tomorrow morning. Whitney, Dugan, and I loaded sheaves of Buckwheat onto wagons all day and watched them thrash it. I wonder if I shouldn’t turn the field into growing and harvesting something like that. That would keep the field open. Itea and I love stepping out to enjoy the sunset.”

“Little enough enjoyment after a hard day’s work, not having a lot of the hustle and bustle around, you can always get ready for the morrow. Weatherly has asked if I wouldn’t move in with him permanently. I can’t see any reason not to.”

“I hope you do. It will make Itea and me very happy.”

“Good enough, I’ll tell Burt.”

I found a decent buckboard to purchase. Again, Sam Buckland put me in touch with the seller. The buckboard did need new planking, which was no problem. Anyway, I could buy cement locally to get the footings in. There wasn’t any stone around for the cement mix so that it would be cement and sand for the footings and cellar walls. The farmer, Boyd, said he would harvest the remainder of his Buckwheat crop on Thursday.

George’s men had arrived by then. We were waiting on the footing for our house to cure, so I sent all three of my punchers up to Boyd’s to give him a hand. They were gone all day. I had Franklin’s men mixing cement for the cellar walls. When the punchers returned, they said that Boyd would be down to scoop out another cellar hole on Saturday. I told Tom that he could be next to get a home started.

He refused, saying Sam Buckland had been so helpful that I should have done his house first.

“Alright, Tom, we’ll do it that way.”

There was plenty to do, and Tom had his two kids to watch and care for. Olivia, now living in the Tepee with Itea and me, said she would watch them, and there was room sleeping next to her. The pallet of army tents arrived, and they went up.

Tom and Jenny decided to stay on-site in a tent instead of in a hotel in town. Jack was out of his mind with happiness with all the kids near his age to play with. Four more of Franklin’s crew showed up. These had their wives with them. George asked me if he could buy stoves to install in four tents to cook meals and relieve Karen of the chores.

Rocky stepped forward and said he would buy them. “I promised Kid and Itea I would shoulder some of the expenses of getting settled. I jumped ahead by purchasing a house. Kid and Itea have incurred many expenses, and I’ll pick them up, and that is the least I can do.”

The weather was good. When the last plot of buckwheat needed harvesting, George had abundant help, so six of his men traveled to the Boyd farm and completed loading his wagons. Boyd’s crops were harvested and stored almost two weeks early, even after he had dug three cellar holes. The walls in Itea’s and my home had the sills on top of the cement walls. Lumber for building was sitting on flat train cars at the spur and was being unloaded and transported by wagon to the separate home sites.

Itea and Olivia helped the four wives by looking after and feeding the men doing the building. Jon and Karen didn’t mix much with the crowd of newcomers. Jack was everywhere, and all the men seemed to enjoy kidding with him. George liked the boy and didn’t mind him hanging around.

When our home was framed and closed in, Tom hired the crew of George’s to build his home. His house was halfway between the Weatherly Cabin and the Farmer’s Road. Sam and Hilda’s house was positioned three lots from Farmer’s Road.

I had in mind a grocery store built on the first two lots, including space for parking wagons, buggies, and horses for the farmers coming over from the next valley. I sold the two lots to the owners of the general store in town. Bartering would undoubtedly occur with the farmers, benefitting both stores and selling groceries. They might not have this ready to open until June of next year.

When the house was closed in, George and Burt spent most of their time there. George built the stairs to the second floor. Burt was George’s fetch person. Then, they paneled the walls milled at the shop where we bought the boards, and they came all ship-lapped and installed vertically in all the rooms. The two bedrooms had closets built with some shelves in the cupboards. Work on the second floor was left until last.

We inherited Tom and Jenny’s two kids and Jack when we moved home. They stayed in the upstairs room. Tom’s new home quickly took shape, and he promised the kids they would move to his house very soon. Living in the Tepee wasn’t that much fun anymore. I offered him and Jenny another bedroom downstairs, but they stayed in one of the tents.

Itea was excited, not realizing how much room there was. She said, “That’s where I’m going to make moccasins. There is room enough even with one bedroom up here. It will be light enough to work most of the day because of all the windows you said we should have. Oh, I love it already.” It was what I was aiming for.

The stairs constructed were to be open on one side. The large brick chimney went up through the roof, off the center of the ridgepole. That would warm the area, and the door could remain open if it were too cold.

Karen looked at the room position and declared that I should have another chimney at the end of the house so that people could come into the kitchen and have a chimney for the cookstoves there. The bedrooms on the other end of the house need cooler or even cold. “Brave and Squaw can keep warm, somehow.”

Finding water was a problem. The spring near the cabin wasn’t big enough for all of us. Deciding what to do slowed us down, and I knew I couldn’t sell more lots along the road if there wasn’t water. Jon Pecour was the one who came up with the answer. He didn’t stay in the tepee with Karen all the time. He was always out circulating the homes being built. He was often out walking in the surrounding area. I knew this, for he had run onto the remains of Burt Weatherly’s ranch buildings and asked me about it. “They were burned many years ago. You’ll have to ask one of the old timers.”

It was a week later when he came to talk again. “I found out from Burt. He told me the whole story. He said you were a young man and did something terrible, but it wasn’t surprising at your age. That’s why he owns the cabin, and you turned the title over to him the first time you came back from up country. He respects you and is very glad you are his friend.”

“We are friends, enough said.”

“Kid, I understand you are worried about how to get water to these house lots you are selling. I believe I have an answer to your problem. You own the water rights to that creek where it crosses your land. There isn’t much way to tap into it without building a large reservoir to draw from. And you still would have to pipe it the distance along Jenkins Road.

“You have that big pond in the middle of your open land, but that will take a pump of some sort. A windmill could do it if the wind blows continually. You would then have to have a large tank to store it. You could install a pump at the pond along with the windmill, but someone would have to run the pump at least once a day to fill the tank after you built the tank. That would need an engine of some kind. Fuel for an engine would be ongoing and add to the cost.

“You sound like you might have an answer for me.”

“Maybe. Have you ever followed the creek’s path beyond where it crosses onto your land?”

“No, no reason to. My father noted there would always be enough water to water all the cattle if this was a ranch. That is why he bought the water rights to that section of the creek. You have followed the creek, and there is an answer to my problem?”

“Yeah, I have followed to its source. That mountain behind your land has a significant swamp and is the creek’s source in the swamp. The good news is a crack in the mountain just beyond your land. I’ve seen these before, and God knows how deep the crack goes down into the ledges. I tossed stones into that crack. The water was clear, and I watched the stone go down out of sight.

“The crack in the ledge is a hundred feet across at water level and is more than three times that before the creek shallows out and continues along the other side of your land until it comes to where it crosses onto your land. You have rights to that part of the creek already.

“There is your reservoir. The creek is no more than three hundred yards on the other side of your property. If I were a young fellow, I’d consider buying water rights to the swamp and the creek encompassing that ready-made reservoir. You may never know when the farmers on the other side of your hillside, where the creek runs, might take a notion to tap into the swamp and the creek. You can head them off. If you don’t tie up the whole creek and leave a section for someone else, you won’t be hurting them and show you aren’t greedy.

“Pipe and digging it in will be costly, but you have covered your water problem as soon as you have bought the water rights. You can charge so much to hook onto the water line when you sell a lot and so much each year after that. You could cover your land with houses and live high on a hog for the rest of your life.”

I stared at Pecour. “I know shit about doing all that. I do need water for my land that I can use. Who would show me how?”

“First thing, boy, is to get that water under control. Is there a government land office in town?”

“Yeah, there is. How much do you think it will cost?”

“Hard to say. You probably must tell the land agent why and what for that particular water. I could show you where it is on a map and point out where the boundaries are. That would do you the most good. If word gets out what you are thinking about doing and don’t, you might lose the chance of having the rights or later have to pay more than just for the water rights. You had better jump on it when you can. The land office will have a map of the area.”

I stood there thinking. “Would you walk me through this? I should have enough money. I’ll have money to replace the cost of the rights if I can provide water for every lot I sell.”

“There is that. Do you want to get on a horse and ride up there? It would be best if you didn’t take my word for something as costly as this will be. Better have your wife go with us.”

“I intend to. Itea and I are partners in everything.”

“I figured. I’ve been watching you two.”

“Jon. Would it be all right if Rocky Sedgewich rides with us?”

“I’m not surprised at that, and Rocky says you have been like a son to him.” I went into the tepee, and Itea helped Karen cook. Olivia was over-talking to her aunt. We didn’t need her.

“Itea. Jon wants to ride across the open land and up on the top of the ridge, Which is where the creek comes down from the next mountain. Would you like to ride with us?”

“Yes, of course, Karen, we have finished the dinner; come with us?”

“Okay, me come.”

We went out, saddling enough mounts for all of us to ride when Rocky rode in on his horse. We were halfway across the open land when I explained why Jon and I were heading for the hill beyond my flat land. Jon was telling Karen why, and Itea was listening to him more than I was. He was speaking in Shoshoni, her first language.

“By God, Kid, I will foot much of this cost. I have a bank full of money and haven’t spent hardly any.”

“We’ll see Rocky. I’m jittery about this because I’m out of my element, not knowing how things work.”

“Yeah, but your mind is taking this all in, and I can’t see you have made any mistakes in what is coming at you.”

Pecour led us across my open land and up the hill to my north boundary. We were about 400 feet from the stone marker at the northeast corner of my land. “Kid, it is about 1200 feet to the creek that comes off the steep part of the hill.

“Lined up and squared with your marker would be approximately three acres extending the line parallel with the creek. You might as well buy that much more land. We can mark that on the land map. When I see the land map, it should show an area encompassing the swamp and the creek. I’ll mark so many feet outside from the center of the creek and the swamp.

“The land agent can tell you what that area is, including the swamp and a section of the creek from which you want to draw water.”

We went to the creek and examined it. Jon tossed a white rock into the pool about a hundred feet across and three hundred feet long. We watched it descend, and it was still going down when it went out of sight. “That, Jon, is certainly a huge tank of water.”

We followed up the side of the hill until we came to the swamp. The water in the swamp didn’t just seep; before it started its journey downhill, we could see the channel starting in the middle of the swamp, and it was bubbling. The creek bed where it left the swamp was six feet deep and not more than four feet wide but full at the beginning of its descent. It soon broadened out and merged into the pool below. Where it came out of the pool, the creek bed spread out, and the water didn’t rush so fast.

Thinking of where I owned water rights already, there couldn’t have been any loss in its travels. The ford where the road crossed the creek was thirty feet wide at the point so men could walk across it without any trouble. Then I thought of one more item I wanted to deal with, “Burt Weatherly’s ten-acre house lot is on the other side of the hill. Will that show on the land map?”

“It certainly should. Why?”

“I want him to be able to draw water from this creek. He may want to sell the land someday with another source of water. I’ll buy him that right when I get this under control.”

“Kid, that’s damned nice of you, you do look out for your friends,”

“Thanks, Rocky. Jon, do you have any ideas on how to describe this?”

“I do; I’ve done this in several places where I’ve traveled in my lifetime.”

“Have you ever seen the like of that swamp up there on the shelf?”

“I can’t say that I have, but I’ve been several times up there to look at the hot springs in this same territory. That’s a sight worth looking at sometime in the future. We might as well head down. Maybe stop and get a bite to eat and then get this settled this afternoon.”

On the way down, Itea asked me if I would own all the water from the swamp.”Sweetheart, in a way, I am. I’m hoping to have exclusive rights to it. If I can, I can add some money to each of the lots I sell and get some back that way. It will take years, though, because it will only return a little money at a time.

“Rocky was saying that the water he gets from the town is terribly slow, running out of the faucet. Maybe I can run a pipe as far as his house. He can have all that he wants to use. We’ll see how it goes and how much it costs to pipe it down to this level where there are houses.”

“That is like buying water rights and giving it to Burt Weatherly. You are helping out your friends.”

“The very same.” After chewing on a cold ham sandwich, we headed into town and the land office. We hitched our horses in front of the same building where Steven Nickerson had his office on the second floor. He was coming down the stairs.

“What are you people up to now?”

I answered, “I found a place on that creek directly behind Weatherly’s property. I would purchase the right for him to draw water from the creek and give it to him. The creek’s source isn’t far from my back line, so I thought I would buy the land and the right to draw water from the creek.”

“That’s a long way from where you are building homes and selling lots, right?”

“It is, and I don’t think the town will grow that much in my lifetime to sell lots to cover my open land, but you never know.”

“Kid, I’ve never been up in that location; do you mind if I come in and look at the map to see what’s up there?”