Chapter 6

It turned out to be an open winter. We had no time to sit by the fire. Charlie and Pete pushed things along and the timbers were dressed out and moved to the warehouse. The floor of the warehouse at loading dock level was the first portion to be constructed. Soon the shell of the building was being put together and we could say we had a warehouse. Canvas was our major expense, but it was something that could be used over and over again and later sold as used.

The warehouse floor was built and we were using it for storage already, loading goods onto it when we could find something that we could sell. It was covered with canvas. The frame for the warehouse was being worked on right on site. Logs were brought in and hewn into shape and as soon as a section was finished they were raised and covered with canvas.

By the first of February, we had the frame up and the roof on. Charlie put the crew to work riving shakes. Not only that, she wanted the roof tight so she set up a foot clamp so the billet could be held so one side of the shake could be smoothed with a draw shave. There was a four inch section on the other side smoothed as well to take care of the overlap. With the wood being cedar, this should last for fifty years.

The frame was enough off the ground so it could be excavated under and cement poured for a good solid foundation later on in good weather. When this was finished, then the siding could be nailed on. Sarah thought this way constructing the building was rushing it too fast, but Charley pointed out that the freight crew she was using would be out hauling freight come spring.

Hank approached me one day, “Brady, I met Alex Majors of the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company today. You must know they have the mail contract carrying mail by stagecoach? Majors, has a plan for getting mail through to California in ten to twelve days from St. Jo.”

“Hank, I have heard that, but I don’t see how. Why?”

“Well there’s some fact to it. He was out to the ranch looking for horses. He said I was small enough to be a rider. He wanted to know if I could ride.”

“Christ, Hank, you’re too young. You ain’t been fourteen long.”

“Don’t matter. The boys were telling him about me and the mule race we had a bit ago. Majors’ outfit is going forward with riders moving mail by horseback. They’re setting up stations already. The stations are about ten miles apart. You pick up the mail, hit the saddle, take off at a gallop and go ten miles. They are going to give you a horn to blow before you git there so the next station will know to git another horse saddled and ready for you. You pile off that the horse and onto another and take off.

“The distance a rider goes depends on the terrain. You ride from 70 to 100 miles When you git to where the next rider is, you pile off and hand the mail pouch to him and lay over until you pickup mail coming from the other direction. Then you make the same trip only coming the other way back to your home station.”

I thought about this before commenting. “Maybe it’ll work. They are a big outfit and have hundreds of men and oxen working for them. They do have numerous mail contracts for delivery of mail. Nothing like this or as fast. What are they calling this operation?”

“I think they are going to settle on the Pony Express. The mounts they will be using aren’t much bigger than ponies and generally fourteen-and-a-half-hands high. These are picked for their stamina and speed. They have already got three hundred head lined up and they want four hundred. They’re hiring riders even younger than me. I’d like to give it a whirl.”

“There’s Indians out there you know?”

“I know Brady, but I can carry a gun. Do you think Berta will let me have one of her pistols?”

“Maybe. You talked to Charley and Harry about this yet?”

“Nope, but if you think I can handle it and if you tell them I can, they will let me. The pay is $100 a month. It would give me a good stake.”

“How many riders are they hiring?”

“120 men is what Mr. Majors said. ‘Course there’s a lot more men involved. Each swing and home station has a stock tender and assistant and there are smiths to tend to the horses feet to make sure the horses are shod with well fitting shoes. The horses are as important as the rider riding them because they are always at a gallop. Some of the home stations have one or two attendants because they are combined with stages and the slower mail coaches.

“The stations in the unsettled parts of the route are going to be pretty lonely. There are also the Indians to worry about. The Pauites in Nevada are especially worrisome. I guess Mr. Majors and his two partners have given this a lot of thought.”

“I can put in a word for you with Charley, but it really is up to your Uncle Harry.”

“Not hardly. We all do what Charley says. You know that.”

“I guess I do. Did Majors, say why all this is happening?”

“Something about war may be coming and the government doesn’t want to lose California to the slavery faction. Brady, what’s a faction?”

“A group of people that believe in one thing different than another group. What else did Majors have to say?”

“Something about getting the government contract to handle all the mail west of St. Jo. He figures if this is a success then he and his partners will have it locked in.”

“They might at that, but you never can tell. Eventually there will be a telegraph all the way to California and not many years from now there will be a railroad going through the middle of the country and on to the west coast. We’re going to see some big changes in our life time.”

Rumors flew about what was being proposed and the results did come together. Hank was hired and he found he was nowhere near the youngest rider, but there were few that were smaller than he. Some were as young as eleven. Hank’s small stature was what the company was looking for. Also he was strong and could handle the mounts with ease.

Hank, his clothes and equipment, the saddle, and the mail pouch, was fifteen pounds less than the 165 that the horse was to carry. The .36 cal Paterson pistol and the special made holster he got from me weighed in at two pounds, 12 oz. He also carried a knife. Mail began to move on April 3, 1860.

Hank was assigned the route west of Casper, Wyoming along the Sweetwater River for 73 miles. This was a well traveled route since it had carried settlers to the California gold fields the decade before. It was still traveled extensively by people following their dreams west, looking for homes in the gentler climes along the Pacific coast. The horn he carried was to not only get the attention of the way station attendant but to warn travelers to clear out of the way, as he galloped through.

Day and night the express riders galloped. After ten or more hours in the saddle Hank would layover for thirty some odd hours and then be on his way for another ten hour gallop. It took only two minutes or less to dismount from one horse and be on his way atop of a different mount, returning to his original home station. He might be on as many as seven to nine different horses in each direction. It would depend on how far apart the stations were and the terrain between.

Hank’s home station was a little over two hundred miles from the Crossing, and was a regular stage stop that fed travelers. Hank’s food should be better than at places in the mountains or in the desert. He was strutting just a little up until it was time for him to leave. He and Charley clung together and both had misty eyes when they pulled apart.

“Charley, don’t you worry about me. I’m strong and able. I’ll be safe. Brady gave me a Paterson for protection. I’ll be straddling good fast horses. They tell me this job won’t last but a couple of years. What a chance for me to pile up a little bit of money. All the country is waiting on is for the telegraph to reach across the country and then there won’t be the need. I’ll be home before you know it. I’m going to save every bit of it and then I’ll be set for life.”

“Hank, you’re brave just like Pa and Ma were to strike out trying to make a better life for us. Brady has freighters going up in that country and we’ll be in touch.” We watched Hank leave with a bunch of other riders heading over the trail. He would drop off as they came to their station and when it was Hank’s station coming up, the others would continue on. Fourteen years old and weighing not much over a hundred pounds. What an experience!

The War Between the States was coming and this increased our goods being shipped with our wagons. If there was freight for the military, it was always escorted by troopers. If attacked, the freighters were rarely bothered. The Republican administration worried about the territories coming under the flag of the secessionist southern states. There were hot debates going on in the towns and fledgling communities about which side should prevail. Whenever two men got together there was apt to be discussion about the coming conflict.

To the east and south of us in Kansas and Missouri, guerrilla warfare was taking a terrible toll on the populace, but we were relatively peaceful. I won’t say we were untouched, but mostly it was business as usual.

More and more talk was about a railroad being built to cross the continent, but we knew it would be years before we would see it completed. More to the point, the telegraph was advancing toward us. California already belonged to the Union as a free state. Information was needed to travel far and fast, hence the Pony Express.

We at the Royal Flush yard had other thoughts on our mind. Robert Boyd came into the world near the end of March. He was a fine, healthy boy with a great pair of lungs. Was he spoiled? You bet! That changed soon with all the attention he received. He got used to having other people around soon enough and the minute there was a stranger in the house, I swear he started showing off, by gurgling and kicking his feet.

I came home from our office at the livery stable. “Brady, I had company today. Addie and Little Eva came to see Robby. Addie has had an offer on the place she bought from Parks when you men ran him out of town. She wondered if there was any land for sale out here near the freight yard. I think she wants a piece of the land we bought.”

“Well she isn’t getting any. Anything extra we have is across the creek and we may need it ourselves if we get any bigger. Besides that, do we want two unattached women out here?”

“Addie is soon to be Paddy’s wife so that just leaves Little Eva. Have you looked at her lately?”

“Nope, haven’t laid eyes on her.”

“Look at her the next time you see her. She is so cute and pretty. Boy if that Aden Park had been smart and treated her right she would have been a goldmine for him. She’s young, but that’s what he was charging for her by being so youthful.”

“She’s trouble then. How old is she?”

“Six months younger than Charley. Remember, when Eva stayed with Charley for a few weeks? She moved out of her own accord and back with Addie because she knew she was cramping Charley and Pete. I think she is intelligent too.”

“What’s this leading up too?”

Berta giggled, and then asked, “What do you mean?”

“Berta, I’ve known you for a year and a half. Six months of that was alone in a cave. I know something is up when you start throwing out comments.”

“I guess you do. Brady. Eva wants to invest her money. You said one time that we should borrow to buy stock of our own for the warehouse and I disagreed with you. I’ve changed my mind.”

“Continue, Berta. If you haven’t got this thought out yet then think out loud and I’ll listen.”

“Paddy doesn’t like living in town. He wants to get back to freighting and you’ll be putting on more men. He does want Addie close by where he works. Would you look for a piece of land she can buy?”

“I can do that. The town is moving in this direction and we are a couple miles from town. I’ll talk to George Cosgood to see if he thinks any of the land between here and town could be bought.”

“Good.”

“How much land is she looking for?”

“Enough for a small house, a garden, and a small diner where she can do some baking.”

“What does she want to have a diner way out here for? Where would the customers come from?”

“She has to have something to do and she wants to get out of town where she is not so well known. She isn’t going to have a big menu. Just stew, coffee and donuts. She wants to concentrate on baking bread, donuts and cake to sell. Addie thinks Eva can dress up pretty and go around town peddling these things.”

“People will remember Eva was a whore.”

“Not if she comports herself correctly. There is going to be a lot of trail traffic this year and she thinks those who pass by will want to buy what they don’t have time to bake. I have tasted some of what Addie will be baking. It is a lot better than I can make.”

“Maybe I ought to sample some of her bread?”

“I thought you would. She has ordered three sizes of loaf pans consisting of a half pound, a pound and a two pound size. The smaller ones are crusty and yet chewy on the inside. She said she can bake bread loaves without a tin to match what would be baked in a fireplace or Dutch oven. Of course everyone likes donuts.

“She thought she would start doing this where she lives now and ordered the tins from the smith, but decided she wanted a place where she could expand. She has already put an order in for a large range.”

“That’s going to take a lot of wood.”

“No it won’t. They discovered coal north of here back in ‘43. Since then there has been other discoveries not too far away.”

“I knew that. I just forgot about cooking with it. Maybe we should look into using it.” Berta brought me one of the smaller loaves. I pulled it apart and took a bite. This was better than mother baked and I had dreamed about her bread since I left home. “Maybe she has something with this idea. I’ll see George Cosgood tomorrow about the land.”

The price of land had increased dramatically in the last year. Berta and I had bought 40 acres of land for five dollars an acre. The owner of the property that was next to the yard on the town side wanted $50 acre. Addie ended up buying two acres for $85.00. Charley talked to Addie and Eva finding out what they would need for buildings. Charley even got them started on building the bakery. With the promise of what was to come, the freighters if not out on the road, helped to put things up in a hurry.

Hank came home in August of ‘62 when the Pony Express ceased operating. He was still small, but was more compact. He regaled us of his exploits. He had a confidence about him of a man in his twenties, but here he was only sixteen. I had seen him a couple of times in the last eighteen months. Additionally, I had missed seeing him as many times. Whenever we had a freight load to deliver near his station, I was on the wagon. I never knew if I would be seeing him for it was a toss-up of him being on layover at the opposite end of his route.

Hank was some surprised at the commercial growth that had occurred while he was gone. The world was changing fast. There was a war going on in the East and this made a shortage of supplies and equipment. We did manage to keep our warehouse filled with items that I knew we could sell. We began another, larger warehouse, worried some if the war dragged on, whether we could buy goods to fill it. I had engaged a goods buyer and had him headquartered in one of the small towns along the Missouri River.

We were still on the list of freighters that the Army used to haul supplies for their forts. There wasn’t much profit in this, but we made up for that by usually doubling our money for the items we sold out of our warehouses. We also leased space in Denver.

Hank approached me, “Brady, do you have anything for me to do? Tell the truth, I don’t know what I want to do with my life. The telegraph is in across the country. The company needs men to patrol along the line and to operate their stations. I don’t know as I want to do something like that. It’s pretty lonely riding or sitting at a desk all day. Charley wants me to partner up with her and Pete now that they are running that construction outfit they bought from Branch Biggers. She’s talking about starting a family.”

“Hang around for awhile, something will turn up. Grab a bunk and get a seat at the table. That way you won’t be spending your money.”

“Thanks, Brady, I will.” I knew Hank was a hard worker and would at least earn his bed and food giving a hand when needed or just to help out around the stock. He couldn’t sit by and let others do all the work. He was around for a few days and then went out to the ranch where we kept our stock. After he was out there a couple of weeks, he came in and said he and the men had set up a target shoot. Some of the men claimed to be fast as well as accurate. He thought he might try both.

“Maybe I can earn some pocket change.”

“I take it you’ve been practicing?”

“Yeah, a might. Nothing to do while I was waiting on my time to mount up and carry the mail.”

“Are you any good?”

“I don’no, but I don’t think you would lose much if you put five dollars on me to win.”

“When’s the shoot?”

“This Sunday. A lot of men are signed up so we’ll begin at nine in the morning.”

“I’ll be there. It’ll be okay if I bring Berta won’t it?”

“Sure, I’m giving back the Paterson you lent me and I’m ashamed I haven’t before this. I know Berta can handle a gun, so if she wants to try her hand at it she might practice up this week. There are three other woman signed up. They won’t be competing against the men, but against each other.”

“What are you using for a weapon?”

“I bought a .36 caliber Remington. I needed a little heavier one riding like I was. Didn’t need it once, but it was there. I bought a spare cylinder for the gun, and can exchange cylinders when riding if I need more than six shots.

I talked to Berta and she remembered going out to ranch and to a horse race two years ago and what fun that was. She was excited and before I knew it, she left Robby with Sarah and she was banging away out behind our house.

“Brady, are you shooting? You used to be pretty good.”

“No Berta, people might remember I killed a man when I first came here. Someone might want to try me for real.”

Brady, good thinking. Maybe I shouldn’t either, they might remember I did too.”

“Yes, you should. It’ll give you something to think about and I doubt anyone would challenge you. Hey, I wanted to ask you. You know with the telegraph in, you might send your uncle a wire, letting him know why you and Felix didn’t arrive like you said you were going to. If the government ever gets the trains running cross country, we might just travel out to see him. If we should go, part of the way will have to be by ship. I haven’t seen the Atlantic and I’d like to see the Pacific, just to say I had seen an ocean.”

“Brady, they probably don’t have a telegraph where he lives.”

“They’ll know in the office up at Laramie whether the telegraph will deliver in that area. They’ve had the telegraph on the west coast for awhile now. I’ll check the next time I’m up there. We also could send a letter. It will take a long time to get there and back, though.”

“I think I’ll write anyway. We’ll send a telegram too, if you think it would reach him.”

“No time like the present. Ask him in your letter what his farm is like. How successful he is might determine if we want to visit someday.”

“I’m not going to travel that far.”

Don’t say never. Remember, there is a corporation that has been formed to begin building a railroad across the country. It won’t be many years before we can get on a train and travel to either coast if we want to. I would imagine the war will be over by then.”

“How long before a railroad is finished, do you think?”

“Berta, within ten years, for sure. There are railroads everywhere in the east already.”

“How are they going to build railroads through the mountains?”

“I don’t know, Berta, but they will find a way.” I was still thinking about the gun shoot on Sunday. “So are you going to shoot?”

“No, I’m not, but I would like to watch it.”

“We’ll go. Hey, did that mule ever race again? I’ve forgotten all about him with Hank not being here to ride him.”

“He has raced some, Brady, but there hasn’t been anyone to sit on him. Hank has been exercising him since he got back. Maybe they could get a couple of races in before cold weather.”

“I hope so. Hank has had a lot more experience in a saddle in the last two years.”

Sunday came and we rode out to the ranch where the extra stock was held. There was a crowd of people. All of the freighters were there that weren’t out on the trails. This shoot was for both rifle and pistol. Hank said. “Brady, I’m going to be entering in several of these contests. I expect I’ll be doing pretty good with my pistol. If you are going to lay any money on me, wait until the mounted shooting starts.”

“You’re good at that?”

“I think I’m damned good. I’ve done a lot of practicing. I want to win something to pay for all the powder I burnt up. I never had to use the skill in the eighteen months I was riding. Maybe it will pay off now.”

Hank entered several of the pistol contests and did come in second in one and third in another. We felt good for him because this was all free-hand shooting. He was drawing and firing. This showed how fast as well as accurate he was. He didn’t enter any of the rifle contests. “I think I’m about average in those, but haven’t practiced that much. I didn’t have a rifle to shoot with because we didn’t carry that while riding express.” It came time to ride and shoot.

There were two contests to shoot from while on a horse. One was a pendulum where you had to shoot at it swinging while riding at a gallop. To win you had four charges in your gun. When your gun was empty, the target stopped and the number of times you hit it were counted. There were three tries for those men who got at least one hit in the first round and two hits in the second. You also could be disbarred if it was determined that your horse wasn’t riding at a fast enough gait.

The other contest was shooting at rabbits. Rabbits had been caught and two released for the contestant to shoot. The man that released them was behind a barrier and he had a dog that would bark on command. This would scare the rabbits and they would run like hell. It was pretty hilarious because none of the rabbits ran in a straight line, weaving and bobbing, in two different directions.

Here too, the men had to adhere to when they could begin firing and they had four minutes to shoot their two rabbits while maintaining their mount at a gallop.

One rabbit dodged around the barrier and got into the crowd of bystanders. A man scooped it up and told his young daughter she could have it for a pet if she could find something to put it in. The girl went and begged one of the cages that the rabbits had arrived in.

Hank won both contests, shooting from a horse. At the end of the meet it was decided to have a horse race the following Sunday.

Berta sent off a letter to her uncle and I had chased down the village he lived in and it had a telegraph station as close as twenty miles. Berta sent off a cryptic wire that she was alive and Felix was dead and to expect a letter. She received a wire back saying her uncle would write her. Berta was excited to think she still had a relative and she began writing a letter every month.

That evening Berta came and sat in a chair next to me. “Brady, Robby will be two-and-a-half years old when he has a sister or brother. Are you okay with that?”

“Absolutely. We wanted a large family, didn’t we?”

“Yes, but Brady, I haven’t been able to help you much lately with the business. I always thought I would stand beside you as your partner like it was when we were up in the mountains trapping three years ago.”

“You still are. This was our plan. Look sweetheart, we have put together a business that is well run. We are well respected and although we are both from the lower class, we have come to climb that peak so now everyone knows it. I’d say we have come a long way. You have contributed in so many ways.”

“Brady, you make me feel so good.”

“It’ll get better in our lifetime. The President signed a bill causing a railroad to be built across the country, starting at the Missouri river so it isn’t just talk any more. I’m surprised he took the time to promote it like he has, what with war breaking out and everything.”

“What’s that going to do to the Indians?”

“Berta, it will be another reason for them to fight the white man for encroaching on their lands. I understand there have been several surveying crews attacked already. The army will be busy on escort duty. I’m going to issue guns to all our men. You know there will be recruiters from both sides in the area. I think our men, if they go to fight, will fight for the north.”

“Brady, not all of them. Jeff and Emery will go for the south if they go at all.”

“You know if this war goes on for a long time we are going to be short of help.”

“Brady, we’ll make do. We’ll up the pay a little and there are men somewhere that can handle a mule team even if they are old. I could handle a team if I had someone to show me how.”

“You can’t, you are incubating babies.”

“Brady, you know what I mean? It’s war time. Someday, when our men go to war, the women of the country will fill the jobs until their men get home. You see Mormon men and women side by side pulling carts.”

I snickered, “Most usually two women and both of them the man’s wives.”

“Would you like to have two wives?”

“No, not at all. I love you and I know you love me. I know it would hurt you if I said you had to share my love with another woman. I won’t ever knowingly hurt you.”

“Brady Boyd, you’re making me cry.”

“Let’s go inside, I want to hold you.”

Hank Horshack, small in stature, came and went as his fancy took him. He came in to see his sister, Charley and his uncle, Harry, a year after he was let go by the Pony Express. I was there. “Brady and Berta, you have been family for a few years now. Sis and Uncle seem to have made a home for themselves with you, but I guess I’ve got the wandering spirit and I’ve decided to head out for California.

“The two men up from Texas that taught me how to ride and rope are thinking of leaving and I’m going with them. They tell me there are a lot of cattle in California and I want to look them over. The reason they want me with them is the gun I carry on my hip. We’ll be going through a lot of unsettled country and they think three men can make it where two can’t.

“Charley, I’m leaving $100 with you. Use it as your own. I’m taking the rest of what I earned riding for the Express with me. Maybe I can find a bit of land or something and start a life of my own and I’ll make sure it isn’t as cold as it is here. I’ll let you know where I end up, but it won’t be too soon. Brady, you never should have put me on your horse that time you found me.”

He mounted his horse and had one thing more to say, “I’ll miss you guys and if your thoughts turn to me at times, think well of me.” Charley walked up to his stirrup with tears in her eyes. He still didn’t make a very big pile on the horse. She reached up and grasped his hand, kissing the back of it. Then turned to Pete and buried her head in his chest. Hank, looked at her a minute and then dug his heels in and rode off down the trail where he was meeting the other two men. None of us expected we would ever see him again.

By 1863 nine men who worked for our freight company left for the fighting. Seven went for the Union and two went for the South. All were younger than thirty-years. Both men that fought for the South never returned and we knew of two who fought for the Union was killed during a skirmish somewhere In Maryland. One man, we never did hear what happened to him. Four of the nine returned and took up the reins as if they never left.

With the war over, we now had to deal with the Indians and the building of the railroad. This was tied in closely together. I lost two men in 1866 when a bunch of Indians held them up demanding food. The men didn’t think the men would fight and told the Indians to get lost. I lost four mules, finding one of the butchered animals less than a mile from where the two men were massacred.

Soon Cheyenne became a railroad town. It was wild and it was always a worry when the women had to be in town. The town offered delights that attracted first the surveyors and later on those that were preparing the roadbed. We were close to where the two railroad construction crews were going to meet.

The army had its problems. In 1866 there was the Fetterman Massacre of 80 soldiers where Red Cloud and Crazy Horse had planned revenge for the massacre of 200 Cheyenne at Sand Creek two years earlier by the Colorado Militia. Colonel Phil Kearney had built a fort in Wyoming and it was being harassed continually. As the railroad tracks were advancing toward Promontory Point in Utah, the Indians saw their hunting lands destroyed and made forays against everything white.