Chapter 28

Saturday, May 3, 1884

Cherokee Lands Indian Territory Iron Hammer’s Lodge

“Eli Crow, I see you have returned and now you bring all the marshals and little Crows to see me. I see my own brothers, the Barkleys, with you. How am I so honored this day?”

“Iron Hammer, I came with my friends and young’uns to tell you of a cattle deal we made in Kansas City this week. My little Crows have gifts for your little Hammers and me and my friends are always happy to sit with Iron Hammer and his brothers in his lodge and visit.”

“Come, tell me and my brothers of the cattle deal you have made, Eli Crow. If it is good for Eli Crow, it is good for the Cherokee People,” Iron Hammer spoke as he opened the door to his lodge.

“Iron Hammer, we’re gettin’ top dollar for our cows. The man who’s buying all our cattle will be here in a week to ride a day or two with me and I’ll bring him by to meet you. He told me he’d pay us twenty-seven and a half dollars a hundredweight on the hoof. I figure our cows will weigh over seven hundred and twenty average on the low side and around seven hundred and fifty on the high side. That means we’ll get about two hundred dollars a cow. Reckon how many big cows the Cherokee People have now?”

“We have counted many times, we have two thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine steers and old cows we need to move. That is what the wives of the Barkley brothers have said.”

“That would be about six hundred thousand dollars ... is that right young’uns?”

“Yes Daddy, six hundred eighteen thousand five hundred and forty-three dollars and seventy-five cents, if they all weigh seven hundred and fifty pounds,” Little Eli told them.

“Eli Crow, you have made us a lot of money. What will you do with all your money?”

“My son, the attorney, wants to invest some of it, so our money will be makin’ money. But we’ll put a lot of it back and save for hard times, which we hope we never see again.”

“Hard times always come back, Eli. Good to save and be ready. When your son invests your money, tell him to come see me and my brothers, we will invest some too.”

“I’ll sure tell him. We were all talking on the way over here, Iron Hammer. We’re gonna get some pigs and raise ‘em to kill this fall and have meat for winter. We want to put up some yearling calves and feed them on corn and hay, to have canned beef all winter. We’ll make sure we put up enough for you and your people, Iron Hammer, since you have family livin’ over next to my family,” Eli told him.

“Then we will bring corn to feed pigs and calves for Cherokee People. We are proud to be friends and brothers with Eli Crow and his family.”

When they’d made their way back over to the railroad, they immediately went to work building pens, chutes, and gates. The Barkley brothers had used creosote treated crossties for posts and already had all of them set in the ground. They already had the heavy boards stacked up to make the siderails of the corrals.

The men worked hard until dark, with the young’uns carrying boards to them, holding them in place while the men drove nails in to fasten them to the posts.

“Another two days like this and we’ll have it finished,” William said as they all stood back and looked at their progress on cattle pens and loading chutes. They had built two loading chutes that ramped up from the corrals to the height of the cattle cars. William and his brothers measured the distance and had them spaced apart to load two cars at a time, like they had done in Texas. Joe helped them here, since he had worked the cattle pens in Little Tree, Texas, where he and Eli met.

They came back Sunday morning early and worked on the pens until the women brought dinner. Then they worked until dark again. On Monday they finished the corrals and loading pens, then built watering troughs for each loading pen. On Tuesday, they started building the towers for the windmills, after Williams down at the lumber mill gave them the plans and loaded the heavy timbers. He suggested they set four anchor posts in the ground to secure the legs of the windmill towers against the high winds that were sure to come.

They built them on the ground and stood them up using their horses and ropes, after backing a wagon underneath the top end. They mounted the windmill motor on the towers, then slowly stood them in place. Eli had never driven a well, but the Barkley brothers had. When they had the windmills standing, William took his divining rod and walked around the perimeter of the fence. When it pointed to the ground, he took his boot toe and scratched an X in the dirt. Then he walked down to the other end of the corrals and found another place, marking it with an X in the red dirt.

They started driving pump pipe right in the center of the X. They drove the first one over two hundred feet, hitting good water at one-eighty. They set the tower in place and the Barkleys set the anchor posts at each corner, securing the tower. While they made the connections with the pump rod and linkage, Eli and the others started driving the next pump pipe.

They were down to one hundred and ninety feet, when Joe lowered the nail, fastened to a string, to the bottom and pulled it back out. It was wet six feet up from the bottom and they drove another ten foot section of pipe to have plenty of water.

“William, can that divinin’ rod find oil as easy as it can find water?” Eli asked.

“Never tried it, Marshal. Pa always just looked for water with one. We could give it a try when we finish here, we got a few feet of pump pipe left over.”

“How does that thing know the difference in oil and water, as deep as water is under there?” Duncan asked.

“You have to think about what you’re lookin’ for, Duncan. If you think of water and drinkin’ a cool drink, it’ll point right down at it when you get over it.”

“That sounds kinda witchy to me,” Duncan said, laughing when the young’uns laughed.

“Some folks back in Texas do call ‘em witchin’ sticks, Duncan,” Ben told him.

“You don’t mean that!”

“Yep.”

“Eli, where do you want to look for some oil? I got to try this out,” Duncan said, picking up the divining rod from the wagon and holding the ‘Y’ shaped stick with his palms down, loosely in his grip, just like William had held it.

“Walk out there where that big patch of dead grass is, if we find oil there, it won’t mess up the grazing when we drill a well,” Eli told him, pointing about twenty yards out from the cattle pens.

Duncan walked out to where Eli had pointed; he was grinning, with the divining rod held out in front of him.

“If this witchy stick points to the ground, I’m gonna throw it down and run away from here,” he said and all the young’uns laughed as they walked along with him.

“Remember, you got to be thinkin’ about oil, Duncan,” William yelled to him.

“We’ll help you think of oil, Daddy,” Isaac said as they all thought of the slick black sludge on the black water pools all over their place.

“Lee Yu, are you Lilly Beth thinkin’ real hard about oil?” Duncan said and laughed. He figured he could at least have some fun with the young’uns.

“I sure am. I think you’re about to find oil, Duncan, I feel it,” Lee Yu said, just as the pointed end of the stick flipped downward quickly, pointing to the ground, as Duncan looked at it.

“We found oil, Daddy,” Lee Yu yelled back to Eli, as all the young’uns clapped and danced and yelled.

“I ain’t believin’ this,” Duncan said and walked out away from the place, then turned with the divining rod held out and walked back. When he was over the same place, it pointed to the ground again.

“Eli, you better get over here, either there’s a witch got ahold of this stick or we just found oil,” Duncan said as he made a mark in the dirt.

“Mark it and come help us get this tower lined up over the well, then we’ll come drive the pipe down. We’ll just see if you’ve become an oil findin’ man,” Eli said and everyone laughed.

The first windmill was already pumping a good stream of clear water into the water troughs when they set the next tower and secured it to the anchor posts. William had added a tee on the well pipe and extended the water pipe in both directions from the discharge, down the top of the fence each way, so they could fill three troughs with each windmill. They moved the water troughs in place next to the fence, so the water ran into all three troughs, two on one side of the corral fence, one on the other side in a different pen.

When they had both windmills pumping, they opened all the pens and tied the gates back so the cattle could come here to get water.

Then they all walked out to where Duncan had marked the ground.

“It’s close to dark now, let’s just come back tomorrow and see if we got an oil well or more water. We’ll clean up all our scrap boards while we’re here and be ready to load cows,” Eli told them.

They saddled up and rode back over to the houses. They were all tired and ready for a big supper. The young’uns still had hopes of seeing oil come from the ground like water did. All of this was new and exciting to them and they knew from what they’d overheard this past week, that their world was about to change beyond anything they could ever imagine.

Monday, May 5, 1884 Crow Ridge Cattle Company Tulsa, Indian Territory

The youngest members of the family were already sitting at the table in the kitchen, when the men came in for breakfast.

“I see our work crew is ready for another day of hard work,” Eli said as he got a cup of coffee.

“Daddy, we’re ready to see if Duncan found oil,” Lee Yu told him.

“It was all you young’uns that made it happen when you thought so hard about oil. I just carried that witchy stick,” Duncan told them and they all laughed.

“Daddy, are we going back to drive a pipe down where the witchy stick pointed to the ground?” Isaac asked.

“Well, we got some extra pipe, I think we need to find out if we’re oil people, cow people, water people, or maybe we’re all of them. What do you think?”

“Yeah, this is fun, let’s go do it,” Lilly Beth said and the rest cheered in approval.

After breakfast, they headed to the barn to get their horses. The Barkley brother’s horses were saddled and they had already saddled the young’uns horses too. They were ready. By the time they rode over to the railroad spur and gathered the pipe to start driving it into the ground, Sissy drove up with all the women in the wagon. The Barkley brothers wives were with them. All of them wanted to see if oil was really about to be discovered on Crow Ridge Cattle Company.

Sissy had her camera set up on the tripod, facing away from the morning sun and back a few feet from where the men were preparing to start driving pipe. While the men posed in a half circle, with the first pipe started in the ground, the young’uns gathered in front of them, grinning at the camera. Sissy took her first photograph and let it expose for a few minutes, before she pulled the dry plate from the camera.

The kids backed up and the men took turns driving the pipe, using the heavy driver that slipped over the top of the pipe, sliding it up and down as they lifted it then pulled down hard on the weighted driver.

When they had driven seven, ten foot sections of pipe, Joe took a string and a big nail and lowered it to the bottom of the driving point. When he slowly pulled the string out they were all standing close to see if it was covered in oil. As Joe held the string up for all to see, the thick, black oil was running down the string and dripping off the nail. Joe held it just right as Sissy took another photograph. Eceryone cheered and danced when they looked down to see oil seeping up and bubbling out of the pump pipe, slowly making a puddle of slick, black oil on the ground. Sissy hurried to get this photograph. This was big – they had struck oil with just a water pump pipe.

William handed Duncan a pipe cap and they closed the well off.

“Is that all there is to an oil well?” Juni asked.

“I don’t think the thick oil will seep through the screen on the driving point like water will. Smitty told me they used a big drill to drill a hole in the ground and the oil sometimes gushed into the air fifty to sixty feet before they could get it capped,” Eli told her.

“How did we get oil in this pipe and get water in the other pipes, Daddy?” Caleb asked.

“I reckon cause we drove the water pipes down deeper. Smitty said the water was deeper than the oil. I don’t know all about how it’s made down there, but the men he’s bringing back with him are supposed to know all about it.”

“Looks to me like the oil and water would get all mixed together down there,” Duncan said.

“Me too, Duncan. But we do know one thing, you and that witchy stick can sure find oil,” Eli said and everyone laughed and cheered again.

May 6, 1884 Crow Ridge Cattle Company Tulsa, Indian Territory

Eli and all the young’uns were saddling up to ride down to the train depot and the post office too when they heard a train whistle that just kept on blowing and blowing. They rode out of the barn and headed east, toward the railroad spur and sidetrack. The train was pulled over on the newly completed sidetrack and some men were unloading equipment onto the ground.

When they rode over past the cattle pens and loading chutes, they saw Mr. Howard Claymore standing on the flat car, directing the men as they unloaded what Eli knew had to be cattle weighing scales and boom poles.

Mr. Claymore waved to them and walked to the steps at the end of the flat car. He saw Eli get off his horse, and he climbed down from the flat car to walk out to where Eli was.

“Good to see you again, Mr. Claymore, I hope you’ve had a good trip down,” Eli said as he reached out to shake hands.

“Marshal Crow, good to see you again. Yes, it was a pleasant trip down through the Indian Territory.”

“Welcome to Crow Ridge Cattle Company,” Eli said as the man reached up to grab two luggage bags from the porter standing at the back of the Pullman car.

“Thank you, Marshal, it feels good to be out in the open like this. I was raised on a small ranch in Kansas and attended school at the college in Lawrence. I have always loved the open plains, and to come here and see the Indian Territory and meet you at your ranch is like going back home. I hope you’ll let me ride with you for a few days, while we bring the cattle cars down to load.”

“Sure you can, let’s get your bags and head on over to the house. When we get you settled in a room, you can ride with me all you want to. We’ll go meet my friend Iron Hammer and his brothers. They are Cherokee and sold me this land a few years ago.”

“I’m looking forward to meeting the Cherokee People and seeing all your land.”

“You remember all my young’uns; this is Lee Yu, Lilly Beth, Michi, and Kia. This boy here belongs to Marshal Duncan, he’s Isaac. This boy is Pike, his daddy is Deputy Moses Kidd. These are all my boys here, Caleb, Micah, Ezra, and Eli Jr.”

“Good to meet all of you, I saw you back in Kansas City but never knew your names.”

“Good to meet you, Mr. Claymore. Welcome to Crow Ridge Cattle Company,” Little Eli told him and they all said hey to him.

“Mr. Claymore, you can ride my horse back to the barn, I’ll ride with Lee Yu,” Lilly Beth told the man and crawled from her horse over on Lee Yu’s horse.

“Lilly Beth, that’s sweet of you. I hope you have this horse broken to ride, I’d hate to be bounced down on this red dirt.”

They laughed as they started toward the house, Eli carrying his luggage bags.

“Marshal, you sure have some fine cattle pens. Have you arranged for the cattle cars to be brought in yet?”

“No, I was waiting for you, just to be sure you didn’t back out on our deal.”

“Then we’ll need to go to the depot and tell them to bring them on down. We can get started while I’m here.”

“When we get you settled at the house, we’ll ride down to the depot and tell them. Do you know how to do all that?”

“Yes, I’ll take care of it if you like. We’ll need a lot of them here at Tulsa and even more down in Texas. We’ll need more than two trains running to pull them all up there on time, if the railroad will help us. We’ll have to let them schedule them so they can keep up. By planning ahead, they should be able to gather up enough cattle cars and engines to keep us loading once we start.”

“Can you do all that too? I’ll watch so I can do it the next time.”

“Sure, I’d be glad to show you how to order freight cars and ask for more freight engines. You said you should top out at over ten thousand that we’ll load down at Little Tree, Texas, so we’ll need at least two hundred cars to be loaded there. Then with yours and your friend Iron Hammer’s cattle combined, you’ll top out at nine thousand up here. That’s another hundred and eighty cars. Marshal, this will be the largest shipment of cattle I have ever moved at one time from any one man.”

“Well, this is our first time to sell our cattle, and I sure am glad we caught the market high. We waited for three and four years on some, to sell off.”

“You sure hit it good on this one, that’s for sure. I’ve already contacted the meat packing company I sold to and they’ve contracted three more slaughter houses besides theirs to handle the load.”

Eli took Mr. Claymore to the depot and told the man who he was and what they wanted to do. The telegraph operator had never ordered more than one or two flat cars at a time, and only one box car, once before.

When he sent the message to the main office in Kansas City, he immediately received a message asking to confirm his number of cattle cars.

“Mr. Claymore, they want to know if you really need one hundred and eighty cattle cars sent down here.”

“Tell them we’ll need to move at least one hundred and eighty car loads out of Tulsa, as soon as they get us enough cars lined up to start. We can load two cattle cars at a time, as fast as they can put them in place.”

“Yes Sir, I’ll send that to them.”

“Then we’ll need to move at least two hundred car loads out of Little Tree, Texas, within a week after the last load leaves here. They’ll need to keep that in mind and not let the cars go to another job until we’ve loaded all nineteen thousand head.”

The man was grinning as he sent that message and waited. Sure enough, the reply came back, wanting another confirmation for the numbers at both locations.

“They want confirmation again, Sir.”

“Tell them we’ll need to move at least one hundred and eighty car loads out of Tulsa, as soon as they get us cars. Then we’ll need to move at least two hundred car loads out of Little Tree, Texas within a week after the last load leaves here.”

The clicker started again in a few minutes and the operator handed the message to Mr. Claymore. It was from the main man at the Kansas City office.

Got you covered Claymore stop Will have first cars tomorrow stop

Howard Claymore handed the message to Eli and they grinned at each other.

“We’ll let them worry about it now, Marshal. I sure would like to ride over your land and look at your cattle. I’m excited that you keep telling me they’re tick and disease free.”

“Then let’s go. I hope you don’t mind me stopping to get the young’uns. I like havin’ them with me when I ride over our lands.”

“I love kids, Marshal, and yours are the best mannered I’ve ever seen. Smart too, where do they go to school?”

“My wife and my sister schooled them, until my wife passed, that is. Now the women tell me they’ve hired us a real school teacher when we were up in Kansas City. He’ll be here in about a week or so to be a teacher for all the young’uns around here, even the Cherokee.”

“Marshal, I didn’t know about your wife, I’m sorry to hear that. I just assumed your wife was one of the women at the house.”

“No, I reckon I need to introduce you to all of them. They’re my women, Mr. Claymore. I love ‘em and they love me.”

“Marshal, you don’t have to explain, I have no problem with you and your family. The way I see it after meeting all of you in Kansas City, you have more love and happiness in your family than I’ve seen in a long time.”

“Thank you, Mr. Claymore. My sister Rose and me lost our ma and pa when we were young, and I reckon it’s made us want to have a big family and love them more.”

“Eli, please call me Howard. I feel like I’ve made a real friend, no longer than we’ve known each other.”

“I do too, Howard, and thanks.”

They stopped back by the house and saw the young’uns horses still saddled and tied by the barn. Eli didn’t have to holler for them, they heard the horses and all ten of them ran out the door.

“Where’s Duncan, Moses, and Joe?” Eli asked.

“They said to tell you they were riding back over to the cattle pens to check the windmills,” Ezra told him.

“Y’all get on them horses and we’ll show Mr. Claymore our ranch and he can meet Iron Hammer and his brothers,” Eli said and looked at Howard Claymore, then pointed as Caleb and Micah helped their sisters up on the big horses.

“Eli Crow, you’re a man that has been blessed,” he told him.

“Thank you, Howard. I agree.”

With all the young’uns riding with them, Eli and Howard rode north to the Barkley brothers’ land. The roof of the house was complete and all the outside walls were up and covered. They could hear sawing and hammering from inside the house, and rode on to the east and south to see more of the Crow Ridge Cattle Company lands.

After meeting with Iron Hammer and his brothers, they rode back over to the railroad where the cattle pens were.

Eli introduced Howard to the Barkley brothers as they looked over the loading facility closely.

“Joe, I need you to go down to the other ranch, after we start loading here. We’ll need to have Don start getting the cows rounded up for the drive over to Little Tree. It’ll take a week or so to get them all rounded up and moved through Cheyenne and Arapaho lands. I know White Elk and Spotted Owl will help.”

“I’ll be there to help, Eli. Are y’all comin’ down when you finish here?” Joe asked.

“We’ll probably ride on down early so Howard can see the herd as they leave there too. If you happen to start loading before we get there, just be sure and get a hard count on all the cows.”

“We will, that was one thing I was good at down there,” Joe told him.

May 7, 1884 Crow Ridge Cattle Loading Pens Tulsa, Indian Territory

By noon, the railroad began parking cattle cars on the side track and all the way down the long loading spur. They were getting close to loading, and they were excited.

Howard and Joe showed them how to make sure the offside door was closed and secured on all the cars. They sure didn’t want a door to come open in transit and lose any cows along the way.

A young messenger from the depot rode a pony out to where they were preparing to start loading cattle the next day. He handed Eli the message and rode off.

Eli Crow, Tulsa stop M McLoughlin arrive Tulsa May eight stop eighteen eighty four stop

That was all it said. It took Eli a few minutes to figure out what it meant and who it was. This was the new teacher the women had hired, he would be here tomorrow. Just what he needed, a school teacher to show up while they were about to start loading cattle. He’d just have get the young’uns to go meet him at the depot. As bad as he wanted a teacher for all the young’uns, he didn’t have time for all this to happen right now.

That night at supper, he mentioned this to the women as they sat at the table.

“Rose, I reckon we’ll have to let the young’uns go meet the school teacher at the depot. We’ll be busy loadin’ cows at daylight. We’re expecting the two trains to pull in sometime in the middle of the night.”

“We can do it, Daddy,” Little Eli spoke up quickly.

“I know you can, y’all been there with me enough to know how to act. Just go to the depot man and tell him who you’re waitin’ on and he’ll make sure the man finds you,” Eli said, wondering why the women and girls found that so funny.

The next morning before daybreak, the men were at the loading pens when they heard the whistles of two trains echoing in the distance. They stood and watched the strangest thing happening before them.

There were two trains, with fifteen empty cattle cars each, backing down the tracks, one behind the other. The first locomotive backed all the way past the side track and the second locomotive stopped with the one passenger car even with the cattle pens.

Eli, Howard, and the others, all sat on their horses, watching as a young woman walked out of the Pullman car, with the porter carrying her three bags. She was tall and wore a long dark gray dress with a big gray hat over her black hair that was pulled up into a big bun in back.

She spoke to the porter and he pointed to where they sat on their horses, as he placed her baggage on the ground. She was looking right at Eli as she reached up and pulled the long hat pins from her hat and took her big hat off. Reaching back, she pulled the hairpins from the bun and let her long black hair spill down her back as she shook her head.

“Eli, who you reckon she is?” Duncan asked.

“Don’t know, but she’s Cherokee. Maybe she’s kin to Iron Hammer.”

Eli rode over and stepped down to meet the young woman. She was smiling as she reached out to shake his hand.

“You’re Marshal Eli Crow. I’d know you anywhere, from your sister’s description. I’m Miranda Juleen McLoughlin, your new school teacher, “ she smiled and grabbed his hand in both of her gloved hands, shaking his whole arm as she smiled.

“Uh, I reckon I was expecting a man. I mean, well, I never knew they hired a woman. Miss McLoughlin, do you ride a horse? I already sent all my young’uns down to meet you at the depot.”

“I was raised on a ranch and I love riding horses. Will you help me with my baggage, Marshal Crow?” she said as she smiled ... she looked exactly like Rose when she smiled like that!

“Yes, I mean, well, let me get you a horse and we’ll ride back over to the house and you can meet the women. Well you already met them. What I meant was, you can see them ... I’ll be right back.”

He didn’t know when he’d ever been this flustered in front of a woman. Unless it was the first time he saw Clarissa get out of the buggy that day in Fort Smith in all that snow with her long red hair blowing all over her head.

“Howard, I’m gonna take your horse. You’ll be countin’ as they load anyway. I’ll be back as soon as I take this new school teacher over to the house.”

“You go right ahead, Eli. She sure is a beautiful young woman, isn’t she?”

“She sure is, Howard. I’ll be back soon,” Eli said as he led the horse Howard had been riding, over to where Miranda was waiting. He was smiling all the while, realizing the women had set him up.

Howard Claymore and Joe Johnson took over the loading operations. They’d both done this many times, and with the way the Barkley brothers had built the loading pens, this was going to be the easiest either of them had ever loaded cattle.

They were loading fifty head in each cattle car, and the pens with the loading chutes, would easily hold one carload. Howard sat on a big seat atop one gate post and Joe sat at the other, counting as the Barkleys drove them in the loading pens. When each had fifty, they closed the gate.

When the cattle car was in place, they opened the door of the chute and drove the fifty cattle up the ramp into the cars and closed the doors. While the train engine pulled two more cars in place, they had the next two loads already counted.

It took the engine a few minutes to pull the line of cars up to exactly where the doors on the next two cattle cars were lined up with the loading chutes. They could load two cars and have the doors closed and secured in a matter of minutes. The only delay was the engine lining up the next cars to be loaded.

There was room for thirty cars on the loading spur, and another thirty cars on the long sidetrack. The engineer told them that each engine would pull fifteen loaded cars at a time and when these first two trains were loaded, they would head back to Kansas City. There were two more trains waiting on the side track at the water station between here and Parsons and they’d be down here as soon as these two loads went by.

The day before, they had set the scales up in one of the empty pens and the Barkley brothers took over. They roped a cow’s head, then her hind legs. Then they threw her to the ground to tie her front legs. With the canvas sheet on the ground, they rolled the cow over on it, hooked the corners of the canvas to a rope and pulled the heavy canvas sheet up, lifting the cow up on the boom pole that held the scales. Howard Claymore weighed twenty five head randomly from each of the six pens.

When he took his average, he came up with seven hundred and eighty four pounds. Howard was very pleased. Eli, Duncan, Moses, Joe, and the wild ass Crow kids were even more thrilled. That was two hundred fifteen dollars and sixty cents per head.