Chapter 27

After their meal, they rounded the young’uns up and headed them back upstairs. The elevator had to make two trips to get them all to the top floor. By the time they had the younger ones settled and into bed, it was after ten o’clock and they had a busy day planned for tomorrow. The baseball game started at one o’clock and they were scheduled to play two games before dark.

The grownups talked for another hour before heading off to their separate rooms and to bed. They still wanted to spend time together, talking, remembering, planning and just being together.

Jon David and Amanda roomed with Sissy and Joe. They sat up in their room until after midnight, talking about Eli and how losing their momma had affected him.

Sissy awoke before daylight and roused Joe from his sleep. She wore her new flannel gown and he wore his flannel sleep britches she had made him just for this trip.

“Joe, come out on the balcony with me and let’s see the lights of the city. I think this is the best time we’ve ever had as a family and I just wish Momma could have been here with us to see this.”

They slipped out the door onto the narrow balcony and sat on a bench against the wall as they looked out over the town. They could see the lights reflecting off the waters of the Missouri River in the distance and Sissy snuggled close to Joe. She turned to look at his face as he looked over the tops of the buildings surrounding the hotel. Sissy smiled as she leaned over to kiss his lips on the side, then pulled herself over to sit on Joe’s knees, straddling his legs. He pulled her close and they leaned together, both as happy as they could ever be.

“Joe, let’s do it out here. I think I could get a baby right here. I’m so happy and I love you so much,” she whispered to him.

“Sissy, we’re out in the open. What if there’s somebody lookin’ up here from one of them windows down there?” he said pointing down to the dark buildings across the way.

“They’re all asleep, Joe ... please love me.”

Joe looked at her in the dim light, then smiled as he helped her lift up enough to raise her flannel gown. She loosened the cord at his waist and held him tight as they rocked and held each other in the early morning hours.

There on the tenth floor balcony of the Wyandotte Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, Sissy Crow Johnson knew she and Joe had put their first baby in her belly.

Monday April 28, 1883 Kansas City, Missouri

When the sun came up in Kansas City that Monday morning, so did the wild ass Crow kids. They were up, faces and hands washed and dressed before any of the grownups were out of bed. While the younger ones waited, Kia and Michi went through the connecting door into their daddy’s room. He was awake and saw them sneaking into the room.

“You girls are up early, I reckon the others are up too?” he said quietly, to keep from waking Tin Yu and Maryanne.

“Yes Daddy, we wanted to go down and eat breakfast, if you’ll let us.” Kia said.

“Will you promise to make your brothers and sisters stay inside the hotel and act like they got manners?”

“We will, Daddy, we already told them we had to be good or we may not get to go to the ballgame. We’re all too excited to stay in our rooms though.”

“You go ahead, I’ll be down soon. Tell the boys I’ll get their butts if I hear they’ve messed up.”

“We will, thanks Daddy, we knew you’d let us.”

Eli rolled out of bed as soon as the girls had left the room. He pulled his buckskins on, found his moccasins and went to wash his face. When he was dressed, wearing his hat and his gun, he went to find Duncan and Moses. They were sitting on a bench near the elevator. They knew he’d be up early.

None of them knew how to get the elevator to come up to the top floor, so they went to the door marked Stairs, and walked down the stairs to the lobby and into the dining hall. Eli was proud when all the Crow kids waved, never yelling or hollering at them when they walked in. The three men sat at a bigger table next to the kids and ordered coffee.

As they sat drinking coffee and talking, the waiters brought huge plates of eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy to the table for all the kids. They must have been starved.

“Eli, what you got in mind for today, ‘sides the baseball game?” Duncan asked as they enjoyed their coffee.

“I wanted to find the stock yards and see about makin’ a deal on our cows while we’re up here. We’ll have our corrals and our railroad spur built soon. We need to get both herds of grown cows off the grass and get them young cows to eatin’ and the baby cows weaned off their momma’s.”

“Them big Shorthorn bulls sure have made their mark on our herd in the past three years, ain’t they?” Duncan said.

“Yup that was a good bunch of bulls there. Them cows are as big and fat as any I’ve seen all over the territory. We need to get some of the younger bulls and take down to the other place and start them making calves down there too.”

“Excuse me gentlemen, but did I hear you say you have beef cattle ready to sell?” A man across from them at the next table asked as he turned from his friends to speak.

“Well, yes Sir, but we didn’t mean to talk so loud. We was just talkin’ about what we need to do and what we got goin’ on down home,” Eli said as they looked at the men at the table next to them.

“You weren’t talking loud, we were just looking at you three marshals and heard your conversation. You’re not from around here are you?”

“No Sir, we’re from Tulsa, down in Indian Territory. We’re under the jurisdiction of Judge Isaac Parker, out of Fort Smith,” Eli told them.

“How many head of cattle do you have to sell? That is if you don’t mind me asking. I’m a cattle buyer, by the way.”

“I reckon we got over six thousand or so there at Tulsa and way more than that down in the western part of the Territory. Is there a good price on cows now?”

“You mean you may have over twelve thousand head? I’d bet they’re tick infested too aren’t they?”

“We probably got maybe ten thousand head of grown cows down on the west part of the territory. Ain’t none of our cows got ticks either.”

“Are you saying they’re completely tick free? That’s close to impossible in this day and time.”

“Well it may be, but we got’em and we’re lookin’ to sell ‘em if the price is right. We ain’t able to load them on the rail cars just yet though, we got to get our spur built first.”

“Marshal, my name is Howard Claymore and I’m very interested in your big herds. You say you can load them on rail cars and not drive them, they’re tick free and they’re all fat and healthy?”

“Well, I reckon you’re right on all three counts. I’m Eli Crow and this is my friends and partners, Duncan and Moses Kidd. We own the cows and we got some friends there in Tulsa who have close to three thousand.”

“You mean you got over sixteen thousand head and your friends have some more?”

“Yes Sir, I reckon Iron Hammer and his brothers have close to three thousand just as fat and just as tick free as the ones we got.”

“Can your friend, Iron Hammer have his loaded on train cars too?”

“Yes Sir, we’re neighbors and best friends. He’ll load his at our spur when we get it built.”

“When do you think you’ll be ready to load and move your cattle by rail?” The man asked, turning his chair completely around to face them.

“Maybe two – three weeks at most, the way it looked when we left. Down at the other place, we can drive them about a day and a half over to Little Tree, Texas and load that big herd from there. I reckon the buyer pays the freight?” Eli threw at the man, grinning.

“We can work that out, if you have that many head of tick and disease free cattle. I’ve bought cattle at Little Tree, Texas in the past but I’ve had to be particular, some herds were tick infested.”

While they were talking back and forth, the other men of the family started coming in and sitting at the table with Eli. The women were there soon after that, and there was family talk and kids talking, and the cattle dealing got shoved aside for the time being.

“Marshal Crow, I’d like to meet you and your partners after you finish your morning meal with the family. I’m in need of beef to fill a big contract with a packing plant back east and I’m very interested in your herds. Clean, fat, disease and tick free cattle will bring a premium in today’s market.”

“We’ll meet you in the lobby as soon as we’ve finished here. I was about to go looking for the stock yards, but I’d be willin’ to hear your offer. I reckon as many cows as we got, I’d need to get more than one offer, since our herds are disease and tick free, guaranteed on delivery.”

“Get your offers, Marshal, I’ll still have the best deal for you. Here’s my business card, you can check me out with anyone here in Kansas City. I’m a man of my word and I’m honest in my dealings.”

“Thank you, Mister Claymore, we’ll meet you shortly in the lobby. It’s been a pleasure to visit with you.”

“Dad, are you about to make a deal on your cattle?” Jon David asked as the other men sat at the same table with them.

“Well Moses, Duncan, and me was just talkin’ about it when that man over there heard us. He was talkin’ about likin’ what he overheard us say and wanted to know more. We never talked a price though. I reckon we’ll get down to dickerin’ as soon as we meet again.”

“I was reading yesterday’s Kansas City Star, up in the room this morning, and beef is close to an all time high. There were quotes in the markets of over twenty dollars a hundredweight on the hoof and premiums for choice beef cattle,” Jon David told them.

“Jon David, you don’t mean that,” Duncan said, he knew that was more money than there was in the world.

“It was in the paper yesterday, in the market section. How many head of cattle you got, Dad?”

“We got about sixteen thousand grown cows we’re plannin’ to move out, on both places that is. I figure we got six thousand, or more at Tulsa. Then with what we got on Chickasaw lands, Cheyenne lands and our lands over there, we got at least ten thousand. I expect it’ll be closer to the high side, when we get a good hard count on ‘em. I reckon Iron Hammer’s got maybe twenty-eight hundred to three thousand cows he needs to move.”

“What would be the average weight per head?”

“I’d guess seven-fifty, would be a good average, we’ve had good grass all spring.”

“Dad, do you realize that’s almost two and a half million dollars, just at market price, no premiums, at sixteen thousand head and seven hundred and fifty pounds average?”

“Whoooooweeee,” Joe said as he leaned over to hear what Jon David said.

“HOT DAMN Eli, you don’t reckon?” Duncan said as he grinned at Eli, then the rest of the men.

The women overheard what they were talking about, then looked at each other, before all of them looked at Amanda.

“You need to get Jon David up to Tulsa right away, Amanda, he’s going to be needed,” Rose told her.

“Rose, you need to get Jefferson up there too. They’ll need him working with Jon David and Dad to put together all they’re talking about. I can see it all just like he does now. Tulsa will be on the map as soon as they strike oil and I have no doubt they will make it happen,” Amanda said.

“I’ll have Jefferson up there with us before the end of the month, you just get that attorney of ours up there. We’ll all live in the big-houses again until we can have more built. Us women need to be planning the things we’re going to be working on. We can be buying land to build houses and boardinghouses and rent houses, like we did in Fort Smith. If Tulsa takes off like they’re talking about, we need to be out in front of it, like Eli is talking about,” Rose said.

“We’ll be up there permanently by the end of the year. We may have to go back and forth a few times before then, but I’m as excited as Jon David and Dad are now, after hearing all they’ve talked about since we arrived here yesterday,” Amanda told them.

“Rose – Amanda, we’re going to need a school and a teacher, not just for our family but for the Cherokee and all the ones that come to work with the oil drilling and the ones that will move to Tulsa when it starts growing too,” Clarissa told them.

“We’ve talked about that before, Clarissa. Us women need to take that on, and bring a teacher in now. Our kids are about to the limits of our ability to teach them and Eli wants them to all be educated like Jon David and Amanda,” Rose told them and they all agreed. Eva, Catt, Tin Yu and Juni were excited that their kids would all grow up to have the best education money could buy.

John David spoke to Eli, “Dad, there’s talk in Fort Smith that Indian Territory will be named Oklahoma Territory as soon as the government reaches an agreement on a settlement with all the Indian Tribes. There’s already been a proposal for the reservations to be divided up and the individual Indians allowed to each own a certain amount of land in their names. What isn’t taken by Indians who can afford it, will be sold to the citizens of the land. That law will pass legislation in the coming years and there’ll be very little reservation lands left. There’ll be no more Indian Territory when it happens...

“There’s an opportunity for people to make good money on mineral rights, and we need to be out front on that too, before others get involved. We’ll need to be on the lookout for other lands to purchase also. We’ll need to incorporate a Real Estate and Land Company to do this and not do it as individuals. Jefferson has said he’d like to buy land and real estate, he needs to head this up...

“Amanda and I have been investing our money, plus most of what her Uncle Walter gave her when we got married, into the stock markets and we’ve made some really good returns. You need to let me invest some of your money also, instead of it just lying there, especially the money you’ll get for the cattle,” Jon David told them.

“We’ll do some investing with it, Jon David, but I never had anything in my life and neither have our partners. We’re afraid to risk too much ... we may lose it,” Eli laughed.

“I’ll watch over it for you, Dad. Amanda and I are very careful where we invest and we’re just as cautious as you are.”

“You come meet with me and the cattle buyer, Jon David. I want top dollar for our cows. We got some clean stock and we want all we can get. It’ll take us two or three years, maybe even more to build up another herd this big and we may not get as much for cows by then.”

“Dad, you’re too smart for any man to deal with, but I’ll be there to make sure the language is right and I’ll read the contract before you sign.”

“That’s another reason we need you and Amanda with us at Tulsa, Jon David. To watch out for the legal stuff as we do our part.”

“How much longer will the four of you be marshals, now that you’re about to open up that gold mine your friend Smitty talked about?” Doc Harrod asked as he sat listening to the discussions.

“Not long, that is unless they can work it out to where we just wear the badge and keep the peace and not ride all over the Territory.”

“Oklahoma will be a state in five to six years, maybe even less. You may just get what you ask for,” Jon David told him.

“Let’s go sell some cows,” Eli said to all of them.

“Eli, you’n Jon David go sell the cows, we’d just get lost in the dealin’. We’ll keep the young’uns busy until you get through,” Duncan told him.

“He’s right, Eli, we’ll keep the women company and the kids corralled,” Moses agreed.

“We’ll see all of you as soon as we get through. I’m sure when Dad gets through with this cattle buyer, the man will have to take the rest of the day off,” Jon David said and the men laughed and agreed. Duncan and Moses looked at one another. They knew how Eli could just keep on and wear a man plum down, if he’s not careful.

“Mr. Claymore, this is my adopted son Jon David Crow. He may be a little bit young, but he’s the best damn lawyer in Fort Smith, Arkansas. He looks over all my legal stuff and he’s gonna sit in on our cattle dealin.”

“Jon David, I’m pleased to meet you. I got to tell you, if you’re anything like Marshal Crow, I’ll just throw my hands up now,” the man laughed.

“Mr. Claymore, he’s not only my Dad, he’s my inspiration and my hero. If you have a top price, we’ll listen to it now. We don’t have time for you to come inspect the herds before you set a minimum on them. We’re here in Kansas City to sell beef cattle. If Eli Crow tells you his cattle are disease and tick free, you can count on it.”

“Jon David, I’m paying three cents over market for good beef. I got more premiums over that, but they’re hard to meet. I’ll have to come look at the cattle first hand before I can commit to all of it, but if those cows are tick and disease free, I’ll pay twenty-four dollars a hundred on the hoof, and I’ll foot the freight bill.”

“Save your time, Mr. Claymore, I read in the paper this morning where we can get that price at the stock yards and you know it. I’m sorry we kept you. We’ll be getting ready to go to the ballpark soon, but I think Dad and I will ride on over to the stock yards and just visit around, then meet the family at the ballpark. As I told you, if my Dad tells you something, count on it. When we leave Kansas City, we will have a solid offer for our cattle. If a man wants to come inspect the cattle he’s bought, as they’re loaded, he’s welcome. You have a wholesale contract and you got it by keeping your word. You’ll get more contracts like this one in the future because you sell good beef and people trust you. Eli Crow has two huge herds of number one beef. You could have made good money on my Dad’s cattle, Mister Claymore, had you made us a better offer. Good day to you, Sir,” Jon David said and turned to leave. Eli looked at Mr. Claymore and walked off with Jon David.

“Twenty-seven dollars and fifty cents and I pay the freight. When I get there, I’ll be counting cattle, not inspecting them.”

“Mr. Claymore, you just bought yourself a two or three big herds of healthy cows. Dad will send you a telegram when he gets the loading facility built at Tulsa.”

“Eli Crow, you need to pin a badge on this boy of yours, he’d make a fine U.S. Marshal. I’ll see you in a week or so. I’m going to come down and ride with you for a few days. It’s been too long since I got out of the city. I’ll bring the scales and we can weigh a few random head as we count, then figure the grand total.”

“We’ll be expectin’ you, Mr. Claymore, just tell the men on the train you want off on Crow Ridge Cattle Company and you can walk over to the house from there. Or just get them to throw the scales off there and blow the whistle long and loud, if we hear it, we’ll come get you.”

“How will I know your house if you’re not around?”

“You’ll know it ... just look to the west when you get off the train,” Eli said.

They shook on the deal and parted ways. Eli looked at Jon David and grinned.

“You had me worried, Jon David. I just thought I was tough to deal and dicker with.”

“I knew he had more to offer and I wanted you to get it all. He’d already told us he had to fill a contract and with tick and disease free cattle. He knew he’d get another big contract from that meat packing plant back east if he sold them number one beef.”

“You ‘n Amanda get your stuff packed when you get home, Jon David. I need y’all up there with me,” Eli said and grabbed his hand, pulling him close into a one armed hug with his left arm.

“Give us until the end of the summer, we already have one partner coming in, we’ll have another by then.”

They caught up with the family back in their rooms. They were all anxious to know what kind of deal they’d made on the big herds. Even the boys and girls knew what was going on and they were excited too as they kept quiet and listened while the men and women talked.

“Eli, how’d y’all come out down there,” Duncan was the first to ask.

“We did good, Duncan, or maybe I should say Jon David did good. He gave me a good lesson in dealin”.

“Ain’t no way,” Duncan said, and Moses and Joe agreed.

“The man offered three cents over market plus some premiums if we met his marks. Then he hit us with twenty-four dollars a hundred weight, with him payin the freight. Jon David told him he better get his money right cause we could get that at the stock yards, and he knew it. Jon David turned around and left me and Mr. Claymore standing there.

“I just followed Jon David and the man called out twenty-seven fifty a hundred and he pays the freight.”

“You got twenty-seven dollars and fifty cents a hundred and they average seven hundred and fifty pounds?” Clarissa asked, wide eyed.

“Yup and I figure we got six thousand at Tulsa of our own that’ll weigh more than seven hundred and fifty, by the time we get ready to load them and we fill ‘em up with water at the corrals. I figure we got over ten thousand down at the other place that will weigh at least a hundred more each.”

“Eli Crow, you’re gonna corrupt my husband,” Amanda said and ran to hug both men.

“Eli, have you put that in figures yet?” Jefferson asked.

“No, how much is it, Jefferson?”

“That’s over three million, Eli.”

“Whoooooweeee,” Joe and Sissy yelled, along with all the kids. The kids didn’t know what a million was, but they knew there probably wouldn’t be much money left in the world, when their daddy’s got paid over three million dollars.

“William Barkley and his brothers get some of that, I was countin’ theirs too, and Don Cowden gets a fourth of the herd down at the other place, all of it won’t be ours.

“Eli, you Duncan, Moses, and Joe will still end up with over two and a half million, between the four of you,” Jefferson said.

“Jefferson, that money belongs to all of us. We’re family and we all work hard to make our way. When you get up to Tulsa, we’ll see about getting’ us a place to start buyin’ and sellin’ lands. Then, when they make the deals and Oklahoma becomes a state, we’ll start buyin’ mineral rights, like Jon David said.”

“Eli, we’re going to build a schoolhouse as soon as Carl and Donald get moved up there, so we can educate these kids and the kids of the Cherokee too,” Rose told him.

“Rose, you and the others see about hiring the best teacher you can find, and get that schoolhouse built like you want it. We need smart kids and I want Iron Hammer’s kids to be educated too. If need be, we’ll keep having school at the house until we get one built. The school teacher can live with us til we get better arrangements.”

“We take care of it, Eli. All of us want smart kids,” Tin Yu said. She and the others had already talked a long time about this.

Eli met the photographer and got their photographs. He told him they’d be right back to take the pictures of the marshals. He caught Duncan, Joe, and Moses and they posed just like he told them as he took four photographs of them standing tall and erect with their hats on and their guns showing.

They ran the kids through the facilities and made their way downstairs to the front desk. The manager was smiling as all thirty six members of the Crow family came to meet him.

“We have your carriage waiting,” he said and walked with them to the revolving door. The boys kept going around the dolor, one full lap, before they came out the other side.

There was a rubber tire trolley car, pulled by a team of horses waiting for them on the cobblestone street. They were the only passengers and it was full.

The driver pulled the rope on his bells and as they rang out, he drove his team out into the busy streets of Kansas City with the Crow family taking in the sights. They rode three blocks and turned down another street. This street was lined with shops of all kinds and the women were pointing and talking and laughing as they picked out the ones they wanted to visit.

The ride across the Missouri River bridge was an experience in itself. They had to keep hold of the wild ass Crow kids as they yelled, pointed and talked at once, while looking down at the river below.

Three blocks later, they pulled up in front of the main gate to the ballpark and there were people walking everywhere.

“You young’uns hang close together and watch out for one another. You’ll get lost in this crowd and we’ll never find you,” Eli told them as they all stood looking at the crowd and the tall rows of seats all around the place. Jon David had the tickets the hotel manager had given them. When they had made their way to the entrance, a man took all the tickets and tore them in half, then handed the stubs back to Jon David.

“You’ll need a stub to get back in, if you leave,” the man told them as they were ushered into the walkway that led to where the seats were. The usher led them to a row of seats directly across from the pitcher’s mound, with third base in front of them.

“We got really good seats, we can see the whole game from here,” Jon David told them as they filed into the two rows of seats and sat down.

The players were on the field, throwing the balls around and running all over the field of play before the game started. The kids were excited, they’d played the game but never knew the all the rules and never knew if they were playing it right. Now they would see firsthand just how to play the game of baseball.

The home team was the Kansas City Red Legs and the visiting team was the Omaha Corn Shockers. Needless to say, when the teams were introduced at home plate, the home team received cheers and the visitors received jeers. The announcer was yelling into a big round funnel as he called for the game to start.

The kids were sitting on the edges of their seats, the crowd cheering as the pitcher and catcher ran out to warm up. When the game started, the crowd was yelling at the home plate umpire, calling him bad names and telling him to get some glasses so he could see. The Crow kids looked at each other and laughed at all this, they’d never heard such stuff.

A man came by selling brown paper bags of popcorn, and roasted peanuts. Doc, sitting on the end of one row, told the man he wanted thirty six bags of each.

He had to go back three times to get more, but they finally got all their popcorn and peanuts. Little Eli, Micah, Caleb, Ezra, Isaac, and Pike were sitting in the front row, with Isaac on the end. They were cheering no matter who was at bat. They were having fun and they were learning all about baseball. The third batter up to the plate hit a foul ball that went back over the backstop and they all yelled for him to hit one their way.

The very next pitch, the batter hit the ball hard, right at the open place between the rows of seats where the steps were. Isaac reached out with his left hand and snagged the ball from the air and they all danced and yelled and slapped him on the back. Just about that time, the man sitting behind Isaac, reached over and took it out of his hand as Isaac stood showing it off to his daddy.

Duncan, Moses, Joe, and Eli all stood up, looking down the row at the man as he put the ball in his coat pocket. Duncan made his way down the row and out to where the man sat looking up at him.

“Mister, my boy caught that ball, either you hand it back or I’ll take it myself and hand it to him,” Duncan said, red faced.

“He jumped in front of me to catch it, it would have been mine if he’d let it go. I sure as hell ain’t going to let a damn kid have my baseball,” the man said as he stood facing Duncan.

He’d just gotten to his feet when he was grabbed by the back of his neck. He heard a low whispering voice as it blew against his neck.

“Give the boy his ball, Mister, or I’ll take it myself,” Eli whispered to the man.

“Go to hell Injun, just cause you’n your friends are wearing badges, don’t give you a right to come here and run roughshod over civilized folks,” he said as he tried to pull away.

Eli reached down and pulled the ball from the man’s pocket, then handed it to Isaac. “You ought to be plum damned ashamed of yourself, takin’ a ball from a kid,” Eli said as he shoved the man back down in his seat.

“You lay another hand on any of these kids and I’ll come back and whup your ass all over this baseball park,” Eli growled into the man’s ear.

“I’ll get the police to come get your stinkin’ ass. Ain’t no sorry ass Injun gonna talk to me this way.”

“Go get ‘em if you think you can convince ‘em you didn’t take that ball from that boy, in front of all these people. Now, if you don’t stop cussin’ me, I’m gonna take you down under these seats and whup your ass til your britches won’t fit,” Eli told him and they all sat back down. Eli sat between Isaac and Little Eli, right in front of the man.

Jon David looked at the others and grinned. The women looked down the line at one another, smiling.

The home team won the first game, and the rude fan who’d grabbed Isaac’s foul ball left the park. The visitors won the second game and were booed.

By the time they made their way back to the hotel, it was dark already and they were all hungry. The kids and the men walked up the ten flights of stairs to their rooms while the women rode the elevator. When they’d all relieved themselves and freshened up, they made their way back to the lobby where they met, before they went into the dining room for supper.