Chapter 107

They did make that trip in September. Eli wanted the family to visit their hotel in Santa Fe then come back through Albuquerque on their week-long trip. They even made it down to Las Cruces to stay two nights at that hotel before heading back home.

Eli knew the women would be having babies in the spring and he was already planning trips to Kansas City after the babies were born.

In April of 1890, Eli took his Cherokee brothers, Iron Hammer, Iron Hand and Iron Eyes, with their families for a week long train trip. They stayed at The Wyandotte three days then made a sweep up to St. Joseph, Missouri. From there they turned west through Nebraska before cutting down through Kansas to Oklahoma City and back to Tulsa.

Eli also took White Elk and his Cheyenne Council for a trip on the Crow Oil Limited. From Little Tree they rode up to Kansas City for two days, then east across the state of Missouri to St. Louis. He had already planned a different route back, and took them down to stay at their hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. From there they headed west to Fort Smith before returning to the Cheyenne Villages in Oklahoma Territory.

Before January 1, 1890, they had electricity connected in all the homes on Crow Ridge, the office, bunkhouses, the oil loading facility, and the ice house in Tulsa.

Crow Ridge
Tulsa, Oklahoma Territory
September 21, 1892

Pike L. Kidd and Cecily Faye Blasingame, though the youngest at 16½ years of age, were also to be married this day, having shown they were more than mature enough to wed.

The ten couples were excited about taking their honeymoons together. Kia and Michi Crow had decided to wait a year and marry on the same date as their brothers and sisters. They lived with Jere Joe and Jonny Bill in their new homes at Crow Valley before marrying. When the two sisters approached their dad about this plan, he agreed with the arrangement when they promised they would not get pregnant until after they were married.

“Will you girls stop fidgeting? We’re trying our best to get you dressed and downstairs in time for Judge Parker’s arrival,” Clarissa fussed at the ten young women who were about to wed.

They wanted to wed at Crow Ridge in order for Judge Parker to perform the ceremony. He wasn’t in the best of health, yet he’d already asked Eli if he could come to Tulsa to do the honors.

Jon David and the Little Bucks were at the train station awaiting his arrival early that morning. Judge Parker’s wife, Mary was accompanying him.

The men were downstairs with the ten grooms-to-be. Jud and Martha McClanahan were there to see his brothers marry two of Eli’s daughters. White Elk and four of his council members of the Cheyenne had traveled by train to be here. He was excited to see his grandsons wed two of Eli’s daughters.

Ward and Wade Blasingame, with their wives, Donna and Deanne, had arrived three days earlier to help with the preparations.

Iron Hammer, Iron Hand and Iron Eyes of the Cherokee People were waiting in the yard. They’d been friends of the Crow family for years and had seen their own children and grandchildren grow up, attend school and remain friends with Eli’s sons and daughters to this day.

Eli, Duncan, Moses and Jefferson had taken the six Young Bucks and the other four young men to the barn early on the morning of the wedding.

Eli told them he had made plans for the Crow Oil Limited to take them to New Orleans for a three day stay at the Los Hotel de Cuervo-New Orleans. From New Orleans they would go to Jacksonville, Florida. Included in their packet were directions to Los Hotel de Cuervo-Jacksonville where Jon David had already secured reservations for the large wedding party by telephone.

Eli gave each of the young men ten thousand dollars as a wedding gift and for spending money on their honeymoon. Duncan, Jefferson and Moses handed each of the ten young men ten thousand dollars as a wedding gift and to spend on their brides while on their honeymoon.

Eli was sparing no expense as he saw his sons and daughters wed. They had proven they were more than mature enough to marry and start families.

They had informed Eli and the other parents beforehand that there would be a total of thirty-four passengers on the honeymoon train. This came as no surprise to any of them. The families were already aware of the living arrangements for each homestead at Los Valle De Cuervos. Each of Eli’s sons and his daughters wanted a big family just like their dad.

They were landowners; they ran large prosperous beef cattle breeding operations at Crow Valley. They were young millionaires, they had planned their own lives and mapped their own futures. All of them were planning large families.

As the meeting with the men and the grooms was breaking up, Rose came out to the barn and she and Jefferson pulled Ezra aside to have a talk with him.

“Ezra, your mother and I wanted to talk to you before your wedding today.

“You and the other Bucks will be sworn in as Deputy U.S. Marshals on your twenty-first birthdays, and I told your mother a few months ago that it would be better if you changed your name to Ezra Whitehead Crow before you married, so you and Samantha would have the Crow name on your wedding day,” Jefferson said as he looked at Ezra, tears in his eyes as he talked in a strained voice.

“Dad, when Momma first told me about this, she told me that both of you had decided it would better for me to have the same last name as my brothers when Sam and I married. I’m not going to lie to you, I was excited about it, but I hope you understand that no matter what Samantha’s and my last names are, I still love you as my dad.”

“And I’ll always love you as my son, Ezra. Your mother and I talked this over at length before we said anything to you and we both agreed that you, Samantha and your children will benefit from this in the future. Your legacy that comes with the Crow name will be fulfilled and the name Crow will help all of you stand proudly beside your Crow brothers as U.S. Marshals. From this day forward, you will be known as Ezra Whitehead Crow, Blood Brother to the Young Bucks.

“Jon David already has the legal papers in his possession. You are now officially Ezra Whitehead Crow.”

“Dad, I want to do something for you in return. Momma told me a long time ago that your grandfather’s last name on your mother’s side was Kell. I’ve already asked Samantha that if we have a son, could we name him Kell W Crow, no middle name, no period, just Kell W Crow.”

“Ezra, you’re going to make me cry and I hate to cry,” Jefferson told him and held his arms out.

Ezra and Samantha Crow were married, along with her sisters and his brothers and sisters on this day.

During the wedding ceremony, each of the ten brides was attended by their constant companions, the young cousins of ‘Los Vaqueros del Valle de los Cuervos.’

Tom and Mildred McInnes were here to witness the special weddings of Eli Crow’s daughters and the Young Bucks. They too had more than a passing interest in two of the marriages.

McKenna and McKenzie McInnis were members of the wedding party, attending their best friends, Kit and Ruby Halloran. The McInnis sisters had made their homes at Crow Valley since arriving in early August 1889.

Their parents had finally realized there was no changing their daughters’ minds and agreed to their wishes. They met with Eli, Kit and McKenna in the fall of 1889 and talked openly about the young adults’ feelings for one another. When Eli told them that McKenna and their children would have the Crow name and be accepted as equals among the Crow families, the McInnises agreed to the arrangements. They also met with Isaac, Ruby and McKenzie that fall and were told that McKenzie and her children by Isaac would have his name with the same conditions.

Attending Kit were McKenna, Alba and Lupe. The attendants of the brides were each dressed as beautifully and elaborately as the brides themselves.

Kit and her three constant companions had already made special plans for their future. Little Eli was aware of their plans, which also included him. They talked openly about their life together and were even more excited now that Kit and Little Eli were about to be married.

Attending Ruby were McKenzie and Belèn, holding hands and smiling.

Neva and Perla were attending Lilly Beth.

Carmela was attending Lee Yu.

Samantha was attended by Ynez.

Conchita was Cecily’s attendant.

Attending Belinda was Tonia.

Jimena was Abigail’s attendant.

Attending Kia was Sancha.

Benito Attended Michi.

From that day forward, the Mexican girls and the McInnes sisters bore the same last name as the couple they lived with. That is the way it would be with the married couples as they made plans to live their lives in close unity at Crow Valley.

Crow Ridge Oil Loading Terminal
September 21, 1892

Judge Parker and his wife left by train for Fort Smith shortly after the ceremony.

Long before the Crow Oil Limited left Tulsa with the twenty couples and their companions, Eli and Jon David made sure that Big Eddy, Hat and Oaty knew the responsibility they were taking on ... Not only for the men, but their wives.

The three men assured both Eli and Jon David that as long as they were alive, nothing would happen to the young men and women on this trip.

The men were told to stay with the train at all times and whenever the honeymooners were off for a stay at the hotels, they were to make sure the entire train was secure.

They had been on enough trips with Eli, Jon David and the others that they knew about getting clearance on the rails before leaving one point and heading to another. They had railroad maps and they knew how to read them.

The kerosene headlamp on the Crow Oil Limited had been replaced with the new Westinghouse carbon arc headlamp and dynamo in preparation for this long trip. This new lamp could illuminate the railroad brighter than daylight for hundreds of yards. Even the rights-of-way were illuminated by the light.

This was the first trip Big Eddy, Hat and Oaty would make without Eli and Jon David Crow aboard, but they were very capable of handling the Crow Train.

The McInnes, the Blasingames, the entire Crow family and all their friends were present to see the newlyweds off.

As the Crow Train rolled off the sidetrack onto the mainline, Big Eddy was blowing the whistle. The men, women and kids were waving long after the train rolled down the ridge to cross the Arkansas. Each of them was wiping their eyes as they loaded up to head back to their homes.

Aboard the Crow Train, the party had already started. The thirty-four young people were excited about taking their honeymoons together. From the time they rolled out on the mainline headed south toward Muskogee, the young men and women were laughing and celebrating the fact that they were now married. It had been a long wait and though they were together most of that time, that was nothing compared to what they felt now.

Leander (Oaty’s wife) was helping Louella (Big Eddy’s wife) and Ida Mae (Hat’s wife) as they finished cooking the meal they’d been preparing. When the women had asked the brides what they wanted for their first meal on their honeymoon trip, the girls let the grooms decide.

The six Young Bucks wanted to have a Thanksgiving Dinner meal with turkey and stuffing and all the side dishes. After describing to the other young men what was included, they also voted to have Thanksgiving dinner a month early on the train trip to New Orleans.

They ran the five hundred miles to Houston in twelve hours, stopping three times for water and taking on coal once. They had only three delays when they had to wait for an oncoming train to pass.

Big Eddy pulled into the train yard at Houston to shut down for the night. It was another three hundred-fifty miles over to New Orleans, but they’d get an early start and be there by noon the next day.

America’s Railroads:

From the advent of the coal-fired steam locomotive, the speed along the rails of America’s railroads increased dramatically over the next two decades.

During the 1860s and 1870s, coal was accepted as the best fuel for locomotives, and all major railroads began abandoning wood. By 1880, more than 90 percent of all railway fuel was coal.

As railroads progressed west across the plains, coal was the only logical option.

There weren’t enough forests on the plains to supply the amount of wood needed to fire steam locomotives. Coal maintained thermal heat more readily than wood, and with the discovery of coal in Kansas, Indian Territory and Wyoming, coal-fired locomotives became the standard west of the Mississippi.

By the late 1800’s the speed of the coal-fired locomotives had increased from a lumbering twenty-five to thirty-five miles per hour pulling loaded trains to an amazing fifty to sixty miles per hour.

On November 18, 1883, The General Time Convention, a railroad trade group seeking to simplify train schedules, replaced local time with standard time in the United States and Canada; and four standard time zones went into effect:

Eastern—Central—Mountain—Pacific.

Prior to this, all trains had run on local times, with each community setting its time independently, which made scheduling connections virtually impossible.

There were 164,000 miles of railroad in the United States in 1890.

In 1890, Union Pacific’s Overland Limited ran on a 71-hour schedule between Omaha, Nebraska, and San Francisco, California.

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa-Fe Railroad introduced the California Limited in November 1892. The journey took 83 hours and 50 minutes from Chicago, Illinois, to San Francisco, California.

The Sunset Limited began running from New Orleans to San Francisco in 1894, operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad.

September 24, 1892
Los Hotel de Cuervo–New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana

Upon arrival at New Orleans Central Station, they hired six horse-drawn carriages to transport them and their combined luggage to the hotel downtown.

Eli, Kit, McKenna, Alba and Lupe were in the lead carriage. They were looking at the older houses, store buildings and shops as they laughed and talked. They turned down Canal Street and saw the streetcars on rails pulled by horses.

“Yas’suh, where all y’all from?” their driver asked as he leaned back over his seat to talk to Eli.

“We’re from up in Oklahoma Territory,” Eli said as he twisted around to look at him.

“What part of Louisiana is that?” he asked.

“It’s not a part of Louisiana. It’s a territory up above Texas on the map. We’ll soon be a state in a few years.”

“Oh, I see. Y’all gonna be here in N’awlins long?” he asked.

“Three nights is all. We’d like to see the city while we’re here though.”

“Them next five carriages behind mine are my brothers. We’d be glad to show y’all around.”

“Can you show us the best places to eat? We want to see the Mississippi River, the French Market, and Jackson Square too.”

“We can do dat. What time y’all want to start out?”

“How about waiting until we get our rooms, then taking us to the French Market Café today? Then we could start again at 9:00 in the morning to see the city, if that’s OK?” Eli said as he looked at Kit to see her and the others nodding.

“We can do dat,” the driver said when Eli slipped him two tens.

When they arrived at their hotel, the carriages lined the curb as the drivers began ringing their bells.

Suddenly, there was a brass band marching through the double front doors and down the steps of the hotel. There were twenty members in the band and they played loud, lively music with trumpets, trombones, tubas and clarinets while some members danced and played their horns.

A short fat man walked out the entrance door behind them. He wore a black top-hat and red coat with tails, and black pants as he smiled and marched right up to the carriage where Eli was still seated.

“Mr. Eli Crow, I presume?” the man said and bowed at the waist with his top hat in his right hand.

Eli looked at Kit and the others. They were smiling and he was too as he realized that somehow they recognized their party.

“Yes Sir. How did you know that?” Eli asked.

“Your brother, Mr. Jon David Crow himself called me personally and informed me that you and your party would be arriving today. He told me there would be thirty-four members in your party and that we were to cater to all your needs while you were here.”

The brass band was still playing, and as the members marched up and down the sidewalk, Eli stood in the carriage and looked back to see Isaac and Ezra standing in the next two carriages behind his. They were looking his way, waving, pointing and laughing.

Eli looked at the man, then smiled as he stepped down to the sidewalk. The man reached out his white gloved hand and Eli shook with him.

“Giles Ricard Montague, at your service, Mr. Crow,” the man smiled and bowed once more.

“Pleased to meet you, Mr. Montague. I’d feel better if you just called me, Eli.”

“As you wish, Mr. Eli. Please allow me to assist your lady friends from the carriage,” the man said, turning quickly to clap his hands toward the front entrance.

There were six bellboys dressed in top hats and red tails hurrying down the steps. Each of them ran to one of the waiting carriages to assist the girls as they stepped down from the carriage.

Mr. Montague turned in time to take Kit’s hand as she stepped to the sidewalk. He turned again and again as he steadied each of the young women stepping from Eli’s carriage.

For a group of young women, some of who had never seen a hotel, especially one of this size, they smiled and lifted their hands to be held while holding their long skirts up with their other hand like ladies when the young men reached out to steady them.

Kit and Ruby knew the procedure and were smiling when the other young women met them on the sidewalk where they stood laughing.

“Please follow me, Mr. Eli. We have the entire top floor prepared for your group. Your father, Marshal Eli Crow, and your brother, Mr. Jon David Crow, have instructed us to spare no cost and no effort to make your stay most memorable with us here at Los Hotel de Cuervo–New Orleans,” the man said and marched ahead of them to the feisty, fast music being played by the brass band following them.

The entire top floor was actually four large connecting suites. Each of the suites had private sleeping accommodations for three couples.

The suites were arranged so that each of them had connecting balconies facing east, overlooking the Mississippi River and the shipping wharf.

Jon David, Amanda, Sissy and Joe had filled them in on where to go, what to eat, and what to be sure to visit while here. First on their agenda was for the girls to change from their traveling dresses to more comfortable dresses without the bustles and the hoops.

Next on the agenda for the first day was finding the French Market and eating seafood at one of the cafés they were told had the best seafood in New Orleans.

Though they had all eaten fresh water fish, crawfish and turtle (tortuga the Mexicans called it), none of them had ever eaten seafood of any kind.

While the girls were changing, the young men sat on the balcony and looked down at the river and the wharf where there were ships being off loaded by huge steam-powered cranes with long boom poles, blocks and tackles.

“Eli, did you tell your driver we wanted to find a place to eat?” Ezra asked.

“I sure did. He said he and his brothers would take us to the French Market Café today then be back to get us at 9:00 in the morning. I gave him two tens, and we need to make sure we pay them good and tip them for staying with us.”

“All of us gave our drivers a ten. We’ll make it up when we go back down,” Ladd told him.

Their brides and their women came out on the balcony in a rush. They were excited about being in New Orleans and they were ready to try seafood for the first time.

At the French Market Café, the young women were the first to order Café-au-lait, strong coffee with thick steamed milk added. Sissy and Amanda told them they would like the taste, though it was very strong.

They ordered French pastries, beignets, a deep-fried fruit filled pastry that the young women loved and so did the men.

The men ordered a sampler plate of all the fried seafood on the menu. The women stuck with fried shrimp, fried oysters and fried clams.

No one was brave enough to eat raw oysters on the half shell, though Amanda and Sissy told them that Jon David and Joe had tried them and loved them with spicy hot sauce on them.

They walked through the French Market after they ate. The women bought beads and trinkets by the sack fulls.

Back at the hotel, they gave each of the carriage drivers an extra forty dollars and confirmed arrangements for them to pick them up at 9:00 the next morning.

As darkness fell across the city, the whole group sat on the balcony and watched the lights dance on the waters of the Mississippi and listened to the sounds of music playing far off in the distance.

When they went to their separate bedrooms, the women informed their men that beginning on this trip, there would be no condoms until each of them were confirmed with child. They had waited long enough and they wanted to start families while they were young.

The McInnes sisters and the young Mexican cousins were included in their plans to start big families.

At the end of the second day in New Orleans, they made plans for the carriages to come back the next morning at the same time.

This time, they rode back over to the train station where the Crow Train was parked on a sidetrack.

“Big Eddy, we want you, Hat and Oaty to take your wives and kids on a trip around New Orleans. I told Jermaine, the carriage driver to take you to the French Market first, then to a nice place where y’all can eat. Here’s a hundred dollars for each of you. Buy your wives and kids some things to remember this trip by. We’ll stay here with the train until you get back,” Eli told the three men.

“Eli, Jon David told us not to leave the train for no reason. I’d hate to go against him,” Big Eddy pleaded.

“I’ll make it alright with Jon David when we get back. We want all of you to see New Orleans, visit the French Quarter, the French Market and have some of the spicy Cajun food like we ate.”

“Jermaine, we want you and your brothers to take us back to the hotel when you return, so be sure they come back later too. Then we’ll need all of you back at the hotel by 9:00 in the morning to bring us back to the train so we can leave for Florida,” Eli told him.

“We can do dat.”

Before the other five carriages left, they gave each of Jermaine’s brothers forty dollars for any business they may have missed.

The morning they left, Ezra and Eli tried to pay their hotel bill but were quickly informed that Jon David Crow left strict instructions for all hotel and dining bills be sent to Crow Oil Corporation in Tulsa.

Jermaine and his brothers delivered them to the train yard where each of the six carriage drivers were given one hundred dollars for taking care of their travel needs while in New Orleans.

They were now on their way across Mississippi, through Mobile, Alabama, and on to Jacksonville, Florida — five hundred and fifty miles away.

Along the Gulf Coast, there were long stretches where two sets of rails ran side by side and Big Eddy let the Crow Train run. Even with the water stops and loading coal two times from the overhead coal bins, they pulled into Jacksonville at 10:00 that night.

Back in the Pullman coaches, the newlyweds decided to stay with the train and go to the hotel early the next morning.

It was midnight before Big Eddy, Hat and Oaty had the locomotive bedded down safely for the night and walked back to the caboose for a night’s sleep.

September 28, 1892
Los Hotel de Cuervo–Jacksonville
Jacksonville, Florida

Eli had talked to a conductor on a train in the rail yard that was waiting to be switched and the conductor sent word to the station that there were passengers on a private train that needed transportation to their hotel.

There was no fanfare when they arrived at this hotel like it had been in Kansas City and New Orleans. When they walked in carrying their luggage, the man at the desk looked up at the crowd of young people before him.

Eli and Ezra stepped up to the counter as the man continued to look them over.

“I’m Eli Crow and we have suites reserved. There are thirty-four of us and we’re supposed to have the entire top floor.”

“OH MY – OH MY! You’re the Crow party? How did you get here? We sent the carriages to the train station over an hour ago to bring you here!”

“We arrived by private train during the night and made arrangements for transportation here,” Ezra told the man.

“We had such a huge welcome planned for all of you. Would you please wait right here and let me gather the bellboys?”

“If you’d just show us to our rooms, we’ll each carry our own luggage,” Ezra told the man before he could leave.

“Yes, of course. Please follow me. I feel so embarrassed ... I apologize for the mixup and for not giving you the special welcome we had planned.”

“If you feel that it’s really important, you can still welcome us when we come down for dinner. We’ll need a couple of hours to bathe and relax,” Eli told the man as they entered the large elevator.

“Yes. Yes, please let us do that. When you say dinner, did you mean your noon meal?”

“Yes.”

“Would you be offended if I asked you to wait until later today when we have our dinner meal?”

“That would be fine. No need to feel embarrassed either; we didn’t let you know of our change in plans and we arrived late last night and just stayed on the train,” Ezra told the man.

“Mister, we saw the sign downstairs about dinner cruises on the St. Johns River. What would we have to do to get our names on one of those cruises while we’re here?” Lilly Beth spoke up.

“We already have plans for an exclusive private dinner cruise tomorrow evening starting at 7:00 and returning to the hotel at 11:00. Would that be satisfactory?”

“YES!” Each of the girls sounded off after looking around and agreeing.

“Mister, we’ve never seen the ocean and we’ve never seen a beach either. Is there any way you could arrange for us to be taken to the beach while we’re here?” Lee Yu spoke up just as they arrived at the top floor.

She was grinning and the other girls were too. They had talked of this among themselves since learning they were coming here.

“Yes Ma’am, of course we can. Would you like us to arrange a private party on the beach for your group? The hotel leases a large beach property with an option to buy and we sometimes arrange private parties for our celebrity guests.”

“YES!” The girls answered loudly as they laughed among themselves.

“Do you wish me to make arrangements now for your, uh, dinner meal?” the man asked.

“Yes, please do and make reservations for us at your dinner meal later also,” Eli told him.

“We will, Mr. Crow and we will have the welcome party as we had planned at that time also.”

The hotel rooms and suites here were nearly identical to the hotel in New Orleans. The entire top floor was made up of four connecting suites, with each suite sleeping three couples.

When they had put their luggage away and the girls had bathed, they once again met their men on the balcony. The connecting balconies overlooked the St. Johns River where steamboats and skiffs passed by far below.

“Look straight down and you can see the paddle wheeler with Hotel de Cuervos on the sides and on the sign between the tall smoke stacks,” Isaac told them when they joined the men.

“OH! I don’t like looking straight down like that. This hotel is really tall,” Cecily said as she stood next to Pike.

While the girls were getting their purses, the young men had a private talk that led to them talking about personal feelings.

“Eli, the girls say they want to walk down the street after we eat and visit some of the shops we passed on our way here. I told them it was fine with me as long as we stayed together as a group,” Lane told him.

“We’ll have all afternoon to shop and explore before our dinner and welcome party. I’d like to stop at that shop where we saw all the knives displayed outside, anyway,” Eli said and grinned at his brothers.

“I’d like to buy Samantha a new necklace with some of the money Dad and the others gave me. I saw one in a catalog at the other hotel and started to say something to all of you about it,” Ezra said as the young men gathered.

“That’s a great idea, Ezra. I want to buy something nice like that for Kia, too,” Jere Joe agreed.