Chapter 100

Abilene, Texas Saturday, July 20, 1889

After a fourteen-hour train ride from Tulsa, the Blasingame girls and the four Young Bucks from Oklahoma Territory arrived at the train station on the outskirts of Abilene just as darkness set in. The Blasingames were there to meet them, having been notified by telegraph message earlier in the day when their train was scheduled to arrive.

The Blasingames had made their own rules for the visit of the four Young Bucks. The boys were to stay with the family of the girls they were sweet on, in order for the parents to get to know them more personally. The Bucks were in agreement with this, knowing the four couples would spend most of their waking hours together on the ranch and traveling to see other places in the Abilene area.

Beginning early the next morning, the girls had their ranch chores to take care of and the Bucks pitched in to make short work of the daily chores. They spent fun times riding across the Blasingame ranch, moving cattle from one pasture to another and spending time with the Blasingame families.

Abilene, Texas
Saturday, July 27, 1889

For entertainment, the Blasingames took the four couples to the local community dance the last Saturday night they were there. This started out as a fun time for all, with the Bucks showing off their dancing skills. Their partners were now doing the dance steps as well as they did.

The fun came to an end, with a very tense situation while they were at the social dance. Three local young men who had attended the dances on many previous occasions while the Blasingames were there, confronted the Blasingame girls about never dancing with them, then bringing Indian boys to the social dance with them this time.

Caleb, Micah, and Pike were already out on the dance floor having fun and dancing to the lively music when the three young men made the worst mistake of their lives by intruding upon Ezra and Samantha as they were heading to the dance floor.

One of the young men grabbed Samantha’s wrist, snatching her away from Ezra as the other two shoved Ezra aside.

Ezra whirled around and laid into the closest one, with a right to the side of the man’s jaw and a hard left to his chin. He hit the floor hard and lay there, moaning as he held his hands to his face.

The second man cussed Ezra and took a wild swing at him ... and the fight was on... sort of!

Before Micah, Caleb, and Pike could get to him, Ezra had already knocked each of the three rude young men to the floor.

With right crosses to each of their jaws followed by a left hook to their chins, he sent the first two of them to the floor on their backs.

The third young man, the one who had grabbed Samantha, took a bloody beating to his face. There was nothing he could do to stop it, or even defend himself from Ezra’s onslaught. As Samantha stood and watched, Ezra beat the man’s face until his nose was broken and his right eye was closed, with a deep, bloody gash over his left eye. As if that wasn’t enough, Ezra followed with a hard right to his jaw that staggered him to his knees. With the young man swaying and ready to fall over, Ezra threw an uppercut to his chin that sent him sprawling backward on top of his friends, out cold.

Ezra was standing over them with his fists clinched, daring any of the three to get off the floor and fight him like a man, when the other Bucks came running over to help.

“Ezra, we need to leave before the law arrives. The youngest two are the town marshal’s sons and they’re always starting trouble,” Samantha pleaded with him.

“If any one of you ever reaches for Samantha, or any of her kin again, I’ll come after you and you’ll wear an ass whupping for a year when I get through with you,” Ezra growled down at the young men sitting on the floor, still afraid to stand.

“You had no call to jump on us and hit us like that. We’ve always been friendly with these girls. We’ve known them for years and we always see them here at these social dances. You’ll have hell to pay when our daddy gets here—you’ll see. You better get ready too ‘cause he don’t like Indians,” the youngest of the three yelled at him, kicking at Ezra with his boots as he still sat flat on his butt with a crowd gathering round.

“We don’t care for people who disrespect women back where we come from either,” Micah told him as he pulled Ezra away so the three young men could stand.

“Then you better head back to where you come from if you know what’s good for you,” the oldest of the three spoke, spitting blood into his bandana and standing on shaky legs now that Ezra wasn’t hovering over him.

Ward and Wade Blasingame had been visiting with friends across the room when Cecily ran to get them. They rushed over to try and smooth out the ruckus before there was any more trouble between the local boys and the Young Bucks.

The Blasingames and the four Young Bucks made it out to where their buggy horses and their saddle horses were tied. They were ready to leave when the town marshal rode up in a hurry. Someone had already sent word and informed him of his sons’ fracas with the young Indian boys from up in Oklahoma Territory.

“Ward, Wade, you and the wives just hold up there a minute. I need to talk to all of you about these rude young men you brought to the dance tonight,” the tall, well-dressed lawman spoke in a loud, angry voice as he rode up and reached out to roughly grab hold of the bridle on one of the buggy horses.

“Weldon, take your hand off that horse’s bridle. We don’t treat our animals or our friends the way you and your boys treat folks,” Wade Blasingame spoke loudly as he stepped to the ground, followed quickly by his brother, Ward.

“Don’t raise a threatening voice toward me, Wade. You’ll be in even more trouble than these wild-ass heathen Indians you’ve brought here to parade around town with your young daughters in front of others, as if they were some of your prize bulls or Quarter Horses!”

“Weldon, you’re out of line with that remark about our family and you know it. You need to settle down and go have a word with the folks inside who saw the whole thing. All you heard was that some strangers jumped your sons. That’s not what happened. Your boys were rude to one of our daughters after being warned numerous times in the past to stay away from them. If you force this issue, we’ll file charges against them for the things they’ve said and done in public to our girls. You know yourself that your sons are much too old to be spending time with our daughters. We’ve told you so in the past and we’re tired of having to repeat it,” Ward Blasingame said as he reached up to turn the team of buggy horses away from the lawman, causing him to release the bridle.

“I’ll get to the bottom of this and I’ll come see you out at the ranch. You best keep these Indian Bastards out of my town in the meantime, or I’ll lock all of them up on charges of assault, battery, and disturbing the peace,” Town Marshal Weldon Fikes spoke in his threatening, loud voice to make sure those in the small crowd that had gathered could hear him well.

A local man, who had been in the community building earlier, broke through the crowd and walked straight toward the mounted lawman.

“Marshal Fikes, you and your boys are in the wrong here. You had better come down off that horse and start being the law for all the people here instead of just your family and friends. You have an election coming up in a few weeks and you could be at risk of losing that badge that you use to bully folks,” the short fat man spoke to the lawman as he looked up at him.

“Mayor, you don’t have a dog in this hunt and you best stand back out of the way or you’ll get run over by the hounds. You have an election coming up too, same as me and I could swing the vote against you in this election if I was a mind to.”

“Weldon, you’re way out of line with your loud, threatening talk tonight. Now let this family and their friends get on with their business at hand and you go talk to a few of the folks who saw what really happened in there. This is an embarrassment to this town and to our citizens with you out here hollering at one of the most respected families in the whole county,” the Mayor countered.

There was a resounding cheer raised by the ever-growing crowd as Mayor Bronson scolded the big bold lawman.

“You Blasingames just keep them heathen Indians away from my town until I get to the bottom of this! That is a direct order from the law enforcement of Abilene!” Marshal Fikes yelled down at Ward and Wade Blasingame before jerking the reins on his horse harshly. He rode straight through the crowd of folks who were standing close so they could hear the exchange between the mayor, the Blasingames, and the town marshal.

“Ward, you and Wade take your family and guests on home. He’ll find out what really happened in there and settle down after he cools off some,” Mayor Burt Bronson spoke to the Blasingame men, after pulling them away from the women in the buggy and the crowd that still lingered.

“Mayor, we don’t have a vote in your town elections, but if we did, we’d not only vote against him, we’d campaign against him too. That man has taken his public position personally and caused a lot of friction among the citizens of Abilene and Taylor County residents as well,” Ward said as he spoke his piece.

“I, for one wish the city would annex part of your land so you and your families would have a vote in the city elections, Ward. We need more families like yours and Wade’s to have a say in the local elections and be involved in city government,” Mayor Bronson told him as he walked with the two men to their buggy.

“Ezra, I want to thank you and also commend you for protecting Samantha and for standing up for the honor of all our girls over there tonight,” Deanne Blasingame told him after they’d arrived at the ranch.

“I want to add my thanks to what Deanne said too, Ezra. Ward and Wade both have told those young men that they are much too old to be trying to court or even flirt with our daughters. Their past actions have taken the fun out of us going to the Saturday night socials as it is,” Donna Blasingame said, adding her opinion to what her sister had said.

“Ezra, what was it they did or said? We were on the dance floor when Cecily yelled and pointed toward you,” Micah said, wanting to get the details of the short but decisive fight.

“Samantha and I were walking toward the dance floor when that tall ugly one stepped between us and grabbed her hand. He grinned at me then turned and told her to come dance with him,” Ezra told him.

“Ezra Honey, you’re just like your daddy when it comes to giving out details,” Samantha said, then continued to the others, “he’s right about how it started, but then that one’s brother and their friend stepped up to Ezra and shoved him off the dance floor. By the time I had jerked my hand free from the one who had ahold of me, Ezra had already knocked the front teeth from their friend’s mouth and turned just in time to block a punch from the brother of the one who was trying to hold me back from helping Ezra.

“I kicked the one who had ahold of me, on his shin with my boot, and he reached out to slap me just as I pulled loose. He never even came close as Ezra stepped in and hit him right in his mouth, busting both his lips. Then he knocked his long crooked nose to the other side of his face with the second swing of his right fist. Finally, Ezra hit him over his right eye with his left fist before he fell to the floor on his knees. While he was wobbling on his knees, Ezra hit him under his chin so hard that his head snapped back like his neck was broken. He fell backwards on top of the other two who were already on the floor. He never even knew what hit him or where it came from, it happened so fast.”

Samantha turned to Ezra and reached out to take his hand, “Ezra, Honey, I love you more than I ever thought a girl could love her man. I’d marry you tomorrow if my parents told us we could,” Samantha ended her description of the fracas with a declaration of her love, a hug, and a kiss on the lips for Ezra.

“We’ve seen those boys get by with just about anything they’re big enough to do over the past five or six years. There’s been a lot of complaints filed with the Mayor and the city aldermen over their utter disregard for the respect of women and girls in Abilene,” Wade said as he tried to explain about the ongoing trouble the marshal’s boys had been in.

“I doubt this little to do will die down quietly this time either. They are very vindictive and they always have a dozen, and even two dozen at times, of their friends whom they call Abilene’s Finest, when they gather in front of the stores in town or down at the stockyards or train depot. One of them will try to pick a fight with a stranger, so the others can join in if there’s anyone trying to break it up,” Ward told them.

“Ward’s right. We’ll have to watch them very carefully until your train leaves tomorrow. You girls better stick together and stay close to the Bucks too,” Wade added.

“If one of them ever puts his hands on Samantha or any of the others again, he’d better be ready to live the rest of his life as a cripple,” Ezra spoke up with a grim look on his face.

“You Young Bucks had better be very aware of who is around you and who is at your back until your train leaves tomorrow, like Wade told you. Those boys use numbers to win their fights and the fights don’t usually last long either,” Ward cautioned them.

“Mr. Ward, we’ll try our best to stay out of their way to keep from causing all of you trouble and more embarrassment while we’re here, but you can be sure of one thing. If they jump one of us, they’ll have all of us to whip before it’s said and done,” Pike told them with a stern voice as he looked around the room at all of them.

“DAMN IT! I wish Eli and Isaac were here. Eli’s always got a cool head about him and can think of ways for us to handle things like this,” Ezra said later as the four Bucks and the four girls sat on the front porch and talked.

“I know exactly what Eli would say if he and Isaac were here,” Pike told them.

“What, Pike?” Caleb asked.

“He’d tell all of us, ‘Get ready, we’re going in after them. They wanted a fight, and now we’re taking it to them on our terms’.”

“Damn right he would, Pike. Just like we did with those fancy dudes who came back to Tulsa that time after we’d already told them they’d better never come again looking for trouble,” Ezra said.

“You heard Dad say that they always had a dozen or more friends nearby, itching to join a fight if anyone stood up to them,” Belinda told them.

“I’d say a dozen makes the odds just about even,” Micah said and the four Bucks laughed when the four girls looked at him with funny expressions.

Abilene, Texas
Sunday, July 28, 1889

Town Marshal Weldon Fikes never went out to the Blasingame ranch Sunday morning while the Bucks were there. Word came to them early that morning that he’d found out the truth about his sons acting so rude at the social dance, and made them clean the community building and grounds Sunday morning as punishment for their deeds.

The Blasingames had taken the four Young Bucks with them to morning services at the church before they were to leave at 2:00 pm for Tulsa. This was the only train to Fort Worth making connections into Oklahoma Territory for the day, this being Sunday.

They had eaten at the hotel after church, before taking the Bucks to meet their train. They were nearly thirty minutes early and they already had their tickets as they made final plans for when they’d get to meet again.

“Here comes trouble,” Ward Blasingame told them when he spotted the three young men who had started the trouble at the social dance. They were walking slowly out of the train station, accompanied by three of their friends.