Chapter 4

We had to go through town to get to the main road. The General Store owner had sent for an Army map of the Indian territories, although I thought I remembered the trail I had taken. The trail was about three hundred miles according to the map, so the trip would take a little less than two weeks to get there. I would have to stay away from heavily populated areas once we were across the Mississippi to keep from being conscripted. I had a plan and would have Tia help me with it. I figured on going back to being the addled guy being looked after by an Indian woman.

Our days were mostly the same. We were pushing hard to make time. We would stop late and make a small fire to heat up more beans, jerky, and hardtack. I was thinking that we were making better than thirty miles a day. The horses ate the grass beside the creeks and rivers we stopped at. I gave them a little of the grain that we brought with us each night. We were up early in the morning, watered the bushes, and had some tea or coffee with more jerky and hardtack. We crossed the Mississippi on the ninth day, and immediately got away from the beaten trail. We saw wagon trains heading west, wondering why they would travel in the winter. The war must be worse than I thought.

We skirted the outskirts of the nearest town to the homestead, and came up on it from the heavily wooded area to the south. We sat on a little hill about a quarter mile away and watched the house. I saw Mom come out and do something. My little brother left the house with his rifle. My sister began hanging out clothes. I finally saw my father as he brought the two mules from the barn. We didn’t see anyone else so we walked our horses to the house. My dad saw us, grabbed his rifle, and stood waiting for us.

I pulled my warm hat off so he could see my face. The man smiled and told me to put the animals in the barn real quick and get into the house. He said there were always soldiers coming by.

I introduced Tia to everyone and her to them. My mom asked if we had been married yet, and I said honestly that we hadn’t had time so far. I said to Dad, “I came back here to take you to where I live now. I want you to get out of here before this becomes a bad place to be. You haven’t chosen sides and I’m sure the armies have taken all your livestock.”

Mom said, “They’ve even taken all our chickens. The pigs were the last to go. We were wondering what to do.”

“Then you’ll come to live with me. We have a big home for you to live in, and have another home that will be ready soon. Pack up everything you can and put it in the wagon. Bring all your heavy clothes and the bedding that you want to keep. I want to travel light and fast. We need to get you across the Mississippi and away from the soldiers quickly. I’ll still be your addled son who can’t talk except for signing. We have cash for food and clothes when we get to your new home.”

My brother came home with a long face. He said, “The soldiers have killed all the game. I didn’t even see or hear a squirrel.” I explained to him what we were going to do and the family immediately started packing the wagon. Dad told my brother to go to the neighbors and get his extra mule before the soldiers ate it too. The soldiers had killed the man because he had hollered the wrong allegiance. His wife had disappeared.

My brother was back very quickly. Dad asked, “Should we wait for morning?”

I told him, “No, let’s leave now if you’re ready and get across the Mississippi before morning. There will be time to sleep in a day or so.” I was really afraid that we would be stopped and our few possessions stolen.

Tia and I rode off to the side of the road watching the wagon as it made its way to the river. We bought passage on the barge for two dollars and were soon in Arkansas. There were several wagon trains staged on that side of the river, so I went to a couple of wagon masters to ask about any Conestoga wagons that might be for sale. I was asked if we needed oxen, but I said I had two mule teams.

Mom didn’t understand why we needed the big wagon, so I told her, “It will be warmer at night, and we’ll be picking up a couple of things on the way. We can use it at the farm without the top on it.”

We pushed hard and were making almost twenty-five miles a day. I asked Tia if she wanted to visit her tribe, but she said that she liked the village we were making better.

When we reached the location of the buried chests, I told Dad, “You are about to see more money than you thought possible. There has been more gold than could be believed since I’ve been on this trail, Dad. I’ll tell you all that has happened, but we need to dig up two chests full of coins first.”

We dug the first one up, then went to the next dense patch of trees, and dug the second up. We stored both chests under a bunch of kitchen stuff near the front of the wagon.

We did go out of our way to visit with the Cherokee village that remained at that location. Tia found out that they had many buffalo hides, so I ended up trading my father’s Mississippi rifle and ammo for several hides. I left them with a ten dollar gold piece. They knew money and knew that it would buy things at the white man’s store.

We stopped at a small town that had a General Store, gunsmith, hotel, saloon, café, and livery as we crossed the Arkansas River. The gunsmith was a Henry and Springfield dealer and had some of the new Springfield large bore rifles. I bought three and all the paper cartridges he would let me buy. We were able to buy a lot of the copper Henry cartridges. He did say that he knew the next two towns had dealers who would also have cartridges. I bought two more scabbards for Tia and me for the other side of our saddles. Tia wasn’t apprehensive about the new rifle and said that it worked as well as the Henry she already had.

This was a really good trip as we hadn’t been challenged by any Army people and had no highwaymen problems. I spoke to soon as we approached our own small community. Tia and I were off to the side of the road as we always liked to ride out of sight. A lone horseman came out to the road and waved a shotgun at the wagon. He was sitting his horse and yelling for the men to give him their money belts, and then he would enjoy the women.

‘Bang’ and the man fell from his horse. Tia was holding her Henry and said, “Shoot good. Man no bother women.”

I went through the man’s clothes while Mom told me how horrible it was that I would loot the dead. “How do you think I lived for almost a year, Mom? People who try to hurt you die and give you what they had. Dad would have died, as well as my brother, defending you if the soldiers had decided to make you and Sissy as their concubines. They would have taken everything you had. You and Sis would also be dead as soon as they tired of you.”

Mom had a tear run down her face with the realization of how close they had come to that.

We had found other items, such as a man’s pocket watch with a gold chain and some women’s jewelry, when we were finished going through the man’s things. We could only guess what the man had done so far.

I boosted my brother up into the saddle on the dead robber’s horse and adjusted the stirrups for him. I told him, “Brush this horse until he shines and oil all your tack until it can’t take any more when we get home.” Dad was excited that his youngest had a horse of his own. I had taken the Springfield from the scabbard and made sure that rifle was as good as or better than he had. He was sitting on the horse with some big boy pride. I put the shotgun and a pouch of the paper and shot wads in the wagon next to Dad. He nodded saying it was good to have a close-up gun. The percussion caps for the rifle and the shotgun were the same, so he could use the same cap box for both.

We drove into town with the Conestoga top off, but with the bands that hold it up still mounted. I stopped at the General Store to introduce my parents and siblings. I told the store owner to honor all my parents’ needs and I would settle up with him at least monthly. They would need clothing and food for a while until they could get used to our way of life. Dad used the big black horse and rode with me to the house that was being built. The carpenters were coming right along, but I had made the round trip much faster than planned.

I left a hundred dollars with the store owner, and we traveled out of town toward our farm. We hadn’t been gone a month, so not much had changed. I showed Mom the big house and Dad the barn and stock I had. Dad could see that I had worked hard to get all the feed ready for the winter.

I checked on William’s house and discovered that he wasn’t the neatest person. That house was a mess. He had clothes spread all over the bed and had not washed anything since we had been gone. I was happy the smoke house was still cooking, and knew the meat there was probably overdone.

Mom and Tia had been working together to keep us in our basic diet during the two weeks it took to get here. We had purposely passed communities that could have provided us a variation in what we had to eat, but I had tried to impart to the family that the less dust we stirred up, the fewer problems we would encounter.

Tia immediately had a big pot of beans on the stove to soak faster than normal. Mom was interested in the roots and plants that Tia put into the raw beans. The two women went out to where the garden had been and used a small trowel to dig up some potatoes, onions, turnips, and the last of the carrots.

Dad and I went to the smoke house and cut a piece of meat off here and there. Dad said that it was probably past time to pull everything and commented on how much there was. I described the night the hogs came and rooted around. We probably did some overkill, but they didn’t leave until four of them were down. The worst part was having to clean them when it was already time for bed.

Mom and Dad went through the big house and decided that they could live there for a while if Tia didn’t mind them using our kitchen as the stove had been pulled from theirs. I told Mom that we could order a stove and it would be here in a month or two, but she said that she might enjoy working with Tia as they learned each other’s culture.

I was watching as the two were signing to each other and remembered that Mom had been the person to teach all us kids to sign. I heard Tia tell Mom to sign and say the words at the same time. Tia said she would do the same so both of them would learn each other’s words.

My sister and brother could go to Tia and ask something by signing, and then go off to what they were doing. Dad asked me what I had done with the chests. I took him to the barn and showed him a storm cellar that was covered by a dry trough. He nodded and said, “We should never run out of money here.” He was being melancholy and said, “We worked so hard to make our land feed us and give us an income, and then the war took it all away. I was afraid for my family every day, thinking that they would take your brother and we would never see him again. Your sister had several close calls, but escaped each time. I would have been killed for going after the man who took her. Your mom would have been as bad, and those men thought nothing of killing a woman. You came for us at exactly the right time.”

We took one of the hams inside and sliced some pieces off. The meat was perfectly smoked and the ham went well with the fast cooked beans.

William showed up and said he had eaten supper at the café. He didn’t realize we were back already. He asked, “Do you want me to move to the barn? The bed in the house I’m in is the better bed.”

“Stay where you are, William. We might want to find some more clothes for my dad, but I think there’s enough for both of you, so stake your claim while you have a chance. We’ll get busy and do some clothes washing so that you have clean clothes to go to work in. You’re getting a little fragrant, so you need to take a bath. We might all want to use your tub, but we’ll leave your room alone.”

I was up early the next morning feeding the stock. I brushed the bay down and saddled him for William. He came from his house in time for a breakfast of thick pieces of bacon, lots of eggs, and some bread fresh from the oven. Tia loved the bread and had Mom show her how to make it. She even said that my biscuits might be a little better than Mom’s, but I liked Mom’s best.

My sister, Rebecca, thought that having an older sister was a wonderful thing. The two did their chores together. They gathered the eggs and had to candle all the unmarked eggs. We were going to have a bumper crop of chickens.

It was cool this morning and I wanted to go to the west side of what they said was the Canadian River to see if I could find a cattle rancher I could buy beef from. The General Store owner said there were no big ranchers in this area, but a few families had some beef. I had Tia come with me and we packed Benny and rode west. I thought we could go farther southwest, but we constantly heard that the area was considered the badlands.

We were able to cross the river in a low area and walk out of the valley onto a beautiful plain. The first thing we saw was thousands of buffalo. I remembered what the Indians from the nearby village said about so many in one area. Now was the decision time. Should we kill a buffalo or maybe we might be able to trap some young ones and raise our own meat that way?

The buffalo herd was so vast it took all day to get past them. We had decided to travel south as it looked like the buffalo were moving north. I saw some buildings off in the distance and headed that way. We approached the buildings and two men came out carrying rifles in a ready mode. I took my hat off and held my hands up. Tia did the same to show we weren’t threats.

I stopped to give them plenty of room, and asked, “I’m looking for a cattleman who will sell me a steer and possibly a young female and bull. I can pay you hard money for them.”

The older man said, “You’d pay for them if you took them off my land. Our families don’t have that much stock, but enough to sell some to you.”

I introduced myself as Andrew Jefferson Davis, and my woman, Tia. The man told me his name was Grant and his oldest boy who was with him was named Martin. I asked if I could see the stock and he had Martin bring their horses. We rode out to a good-sized herd of Herefords and walked our horses among them. Grant pointed out a couple steers that were ready to butcher, and then two heifers and a bull calf. He and his son maneuvered their horses back and forth to put a steer, a bull calf, and the two heifers together and then sort of herded them out of the larger herd. We walked the animals back to the buildings where Grant said, “Can you give a hundred for the bunch?”

I sort of looked at him like that might be a little steep. He and his son spoke in low tones, and Grant came back with, “I’ll make a deal right this minute for fifty. I’m a little short of cash, so you’ve hit me at the right time.” I smiled at the man and dug my gold pieces out. I was able to pull two double eagles and an eagle out. I grimaced like I was spending more than I should and handed the coins over to the man. He said, “I can send Martin and one of his brothers with you if you need some help herding them back to the other side of the river. You have to feed the boys and maybe give them a little something.”

This was perfect. We had the beef stock I wanted, and help to get it back to the farm. It took us almost all night to get the stock to the farm. They ate breakfast and I made both of them sleep for a while. They didn’t like the feather bed and slept on the floor. I guess that feather bed was going to be for sale.

They wanted to get home, so we made them some sandwiches with homemade bread and ham. I pulled a ham from the smokehouse, a slab of bacon, and gave them each a silver dollar. They rode out very happy.

I told Dad about the huge herd of buffalo and he said he’d love to see it. I said that I should go tell the men at the nearby Indian village about the herd. Tia went with me and jabbered away at the men. They weren’t that enthusiastic about hunting in the winter, but their women nagged them enough that they gathered a hunting party.

Dad, me, my brother, and Tia took off and met the hunting party at the river crossing the next morning. We came from the valley and were astounded by how many animals there were once again. The oldest brave in the Indian hunting party said he had never seen a buffalo herd this large. I didn’t want to kill a bunch of animals, only what we could eat. I figured that one young buffalo would feed my family for most of the winter if we also ate the pork and chicken we had.

Dad asked, “Do you think you can kill one of those beasts with a rifle?”

“The Henry is a big bullet, Dad, and I can shoot several bullets in one animal to get him down.”

The older brave said, “This will be a first hunt for most of these braves. It is good there are so many buffalo so they won’t spook when we hunt. I think we want to take four of them home with us. We’ll use travois with one buffalo on one travois.

Dad said, “Maybe we should get more than one. You could even smoke one.”

“You taught me to never take more than we need. I think one young male will give us meat for most of the winter. You shoot one next time.”

“Let’s watch the braves to see how they kill a buffalo. They all have multiple spears, so that must be the best weapon for a buffalo.”

They cut out a good-sized bull at the direction of the older brave and came up on him. Four braves threw their spears that stunned the animal, followed by him falling to his knees. He didn’t make a lot of noise, so the other animals weren’t spooked.

They repeated the operation three more times, with only one big bull giving them a problem. The bull didn’t fall and kept spinning around with his head lowered. The spears had done their damage, and he finally went to his knees and fell over.

Dad said, “The younger males are closer to the main herd. Maybe you should go ahead and take a big one.”

“Patience, Dad, look over there. Those two are doing some horn wrestling and are jostling each other over toward us. The smaller one is mean and trying to gore the other. I think he will taste good on our table.”

I put the rifle barrel over my saddle and tracked the two until the smaller one lunged and knocked the bigger one over. The smaller one shook his head and snorted. The Henry made its big noise, and the bullet went into the bull’s eye and exited the back of his head.

The buffalo shook his head only once and staggered before falling over. The bigger buffalo looked around, trying to figure out what was wrong with his adversary. The Henry was about the most accurate rifle you could find at less than two hundred yards. This shot was only about a hundred fifty feet.

The roan was used to me shooting from his saddle and wasn’t startled by the noise. I said to our group, “Let’s go field dress this beast so that we can drag him home. Tia will get mad at us if we ruin the meat or the hide. We have Benny with the makings for a travois, so we’re prepared to haul the carcass.”

Dad and my brother were fascinated that I was knowledgeable about field dressing the big animal. Tia had taught me to let my razor sharp knife do the work. She was digging for the scent glands in the rear legs right away, making sure they were removed so the meat wouldn’t become tainted. The two of us took our heavy coats off so that we wouldn’t get blood on them. It was cold enough that the insides of the animal were causing some steam to rise off the carcass. We had to rake the offal out from the animal’s ribcage. Tia offered me the buffalo’s heart, but I waved her off. I was willing to save the liver, but didn’t want to eat the heart raw. Tia salvaged all the delicate intestines to make pouches with.

We finally pulled the carcass up on the travois that Dad had mounted on Benny. We tied the animal to the poles. Looking around, our Indian friends were just about to be ready to go as well. This had been a successful hunt for everyone.

The trip back was slower, but that was expected. Dad was anxious to get back, so I told him, “Take Bob and go on home. You might have to do chores if William stays in town again.” Dad and Bob left moving fairly fast. Tia and I led Benny as we followed the hunting party toward home.

As we rode side by side, Tia said, “Good braves hunt. Tribe not hungry all winter. Can get deer and fish.”

“We won’t be hungry either. I feel very good that we have plenty of food for a long time. We have our own village now.” Tia was broadly smiling as we rode along.

We went to the trail we used to get to the houses from this direction when it was time to split up. Everyone came out of the house to look at the huge carcass as soon as we were in the yard area. We took our coats off once again, and began skinning the animal and cutting the meat into manageable chunks. The best place to put the meat was in the smoke house. The temperature was icy cold, so the meat would keep for a long time. The good pieces need to age, and a lot of the meat would have to be cut up to be small enough to cook and make jerky.

Dad took Mom, Bob, and Rebecca to town to go to church on the next Sunday. I thought that I’d let Dad prepare the local church going population to expect me with my Indian woman to come in soon. They came home excited that they had met so many new people. The family learned of my defense of the Grotowskis and eliminating some very bad men. Dad hadn’t heard of this before.

They also learned the school had a new teacher, and Bob and Rebecca would be welcome to begin school again on Monday. I was almost envious, because my siblings would learn more than I had the opportunity to learn. The schools back in Tennessee were just beginning to be regular by the time I was needed on the farm. There was no more school when the war came. The one room building was used as headquarters for whatever Army occupied the area at the time.

We were lucky as both our parents had been taught to read and write. I remember spending many evenings reading progressively more difficult books by candlelight. Lanterns were too expensive to operate, so we used candles that we could make from animal fat. Mom taught us all to write beautifully. We had a small blackboard and river caulk to learn to print, and later to write in the flowing cursive style both our parents used. My siblings could already read and write, but they needed to learn mathematics, science, geography, and history to be as knowledgeable as adults.

Dad taught me how to cipher from the time I was five or six. He was always using a stick on the ground to show me how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. He said that you had to use numbers and fractions to know how much to pay for things and how to negotiate. He said that you used numbers to figure on the amount of seed you needed so that you could keep the seed from the current harvest for the next year.

While we ate a good Sunday dinner that Tia had fixed, I told Dad, “I’m going to use the big scythe that’s in the barn and cut the corn stalks. We can use them for any outdoor cooking fires. They would be good for the ground if we could grind them up or plow them under. We might be able to plow that field now and again in the spring, but the ground is going to be frozen soon. It’s the same for the wheat field. We really don’t need the straw from the wheat stalks. One thing we need to do is to clear more of that brush so that we have bigger fields. Do you think we could plow those two fields under, or should I cut them down?”

Dad said, “You should be able to do what you want if you plow within the next couple of weeks. Remember there are four mules and two draft horses out there that need to be worked. Do you have a plow and harrow?”