Chapter 95

With the slow moving wagon train, the trip back to Tulsa took the better part of three days.

The second day on the trail after leaving Crow Valley, they saw the line crew that had contracted to string electric wires along the railroad right-of-way. They were stringing both electrical and telegraph wires on the same poles as they worked.

Eli wanted to visit with the men, and while the wagons kept rolling, he rode up to where they were digging holes to set the poles.

“Hello, Marshal. We saw the long wagon train coming in the distance and figured you might be some settlers who failed to stake a claim when they had the land run over yonder in the new lands,” the man said as Eli rode up to him.

“We’re from Tulsa and we’re headed back home now. A few in our group did manage to stake some claims. What I rode over to talk to you about, was the electrical wires you’re stringing. I suppose you’ll follow the railroad all the way into Texas?”

“Well, maybe not all the way to Texas for a while yet, but we’ll try to run wires to all the new towns and what few houses there are along the way between here and the new lands. You got a place you need us to run wires to?”

“I sure do. You’ll come to it a little over thirty miles ahead of you. There’ll be a small river that crosses the wagon road and runs under a trestle where the railroad has a high bank. You can look back to the north through that trestle and see a wide valley that runs north as far as you can see. I’d like to have wires run north, up the west ridge of that valley all the way to the big lake that’s up there, maybe forty miles or so.”

“That’s a long ways to run a secondary line off the main line. How many houses will there be up that way?”

“There’ll be ten by this time next year, and we’ll add more later. We’ll want electric wires run to all the barns and storage sheds too.”

“That’s more than enough dwellings to justify setting poles and stringing wires that far. Have you already got men who can wire the houses and barns? You know that we only run the service to the buildings, don’t you?”

“We don’t have any men I know of who can do that in these parts. Do you know of any we can get to come do the work?”

“My brother is a certified electrician from back in St. Louis. When I got this contract, I convinced him to come out here so he could make some money in this new land that was about to bust wide open.”

“Where’s he at now? I need him to wire the houses as we build them and make sure they’re safe too. I’ve heard there’s a risk of electrical shock and even fire if the wires aren’t run right.”

“He knows all about that, Marshal. He’ll do you a good job too. He’s back there in my crew that’s pulling the wires up on the poles so we can string them. I can cut him loose and he’ll be right on the job for you. He’s just working for me until he can get his own business started.”

“Can he also wire houses that are already built, and still make them safe?”

“He does that all the time. He’s made a living at it for ten years now and never had a failure.”

“He’s my man then. We have plenty of houses for him to start on back east of Tulsa and the carpenters have already started building the first three new houses over northwest of here.”

“He’ll need to hire a couple of men to help him with all of that. But he’ll do you the best job you can get and do it for less money than most. You’ll have to pay his hired help until he can get on his feet, though.”

“Get him over here. I need to have him start as soon as he can. He’ll be busy for close to a year, just on all my homes, barns, oil loading facilities and warehouses. Not even talking about my ice houses.”

“You’re Marshal Eli Crow, aren’t you? I should have known that before now, you being Indian and a Marshal too. I’ve heard of you. Good to finally meet you, Marshal.”

“I’m him, and we got a lot of things going on out here too. We’ll need electricity run to all our oil wells too if he can set electric motors and hook them up to pump oil.”

“He’s your man, Marshal. I’m not just saying that because he’s my brother either. He’ll want to make sure you get the best job possible. A good word from you would keep my brother busy for years to come.”

“Where’s the best place to get the wire from? I’m not sure there’s even any electric wire to be had close to Tulsa.”

“He can handle all of that for you. Let me get him over here and you and him can talk and make your deal. We’ll be up at that valley you spoke of in a week to ten days. We’re stringing close to five miles of wire a day.”

“Do you think you’ll ever string wires all the way to Texas, down beside the railroad? I have another place back there about thirty five to forty miles on down the line past this one in the valley. Down there where they’re just now laying new track is where I need to have the other one wired.”

“Are you talking about that big ranch house over there amongst all those pecan trees?”

“That’s it. We have men there now building another big cattle and oil shipping terminal like the one just east of Tulsa.”

“I’ve been by there when we were surveying and mapping out for these lines to run down there. We’ll be there in a month or so, even with branching off for your place in the valley and connecting to the lines at Moore and Oklahoma City. I reckon you knew there were already two new towns that have started up between here and down there?”

“I knew there was talk of a town called Oklahoma City, and we saw the makings of another town when we came through there. From what I saw, there’ll be a railroad coming down from Kansas that crosses this one, headed on down into Texas.”

“Yep, that’ll be the ATSF that comes down from the north and runs on into central Texas. There’s gonna be big things happening out here like never before too, from what we got wind of.”

“We were all back there to stake out claims on some unassigned lands a few weeks ago. We’ll be building houses all over that place down there and we’ll need electricity run to all of them.

“Is this your brother coming here?” Eli asked as he saw a younger man walking toward them.

“This is him.

“Marshal, this is my brother John Lewis Whitfield, he goes by John L.”

“John L. I’m pleased to meet you. Your brother has just about got you hired on for the next year or more if you can start to work for me right now. I’m Eli Crow, United States Marshal out of Tulsa.”

“Marshal, pleased to meet you too. I see you’re heading back toward Tulsa now, is that where you’ll want me to start?”

“We’ll need to get some wire in here first, but you can start back there and I’ll tell you where the new houses are being built. You may have to go from one to the other, but however you do it is fine with me as long as you do it safe and get them all done.”

“If it’s alright with you then, I’ll hitch a ride back to Tulsa and we can get the wire ordered and sent down here. That’ll take at least a week and I can hire me some helpers by then.”

“Sounds good to me. Where’s your duds?”

“Back at camp about three miles east of here. I can grab them when we go by.”

“Good, just step over there and hop up on this wagon coming here. That’s my two men who run the oil loading terminal for me back in Tulsa, and their wives. They can fill you in on a lot of the wells and warehouses we have that we need wired, besides all the houses and bunkhouses.”

“Otis, I want you and Carter to meet John L. Whitfield. He’ll be stringing electric wires to our homes, the bunkhouses, the oil wells, and the oil loading terminal in the coming months,” Eli said as he rode near John L. while the young man climbed up to sit next to them on the wagon seat. Their wives were sitting on the seat behind them, just inside the canvas cover, as they all welcomed the newcomer.

When they arrived in Tulsa, they took the wagon train right down main street to cross the river on the wagon bridge.

“There’s J. M. Hall’s Store and Post Office. We can order the wire you need from him, unless you got a better place back east to get it,” Eli said as he rode next to the wagon and pointed out a few places to John L.

“We can get it local, Marshal. I need to set me up an account with him too, so I can order for myself when we get all your work done.”

“Then why don’t you step off here and we’ll go inside and get you set up. I expect you’ll be busy for months if not years, after you get mine done, with folks adding electricity as it comes close to their homes.”

Eli rode up to get the horse Analisa had been riding. She had decided to ride the wagon seat the last two days, since her backside was still sore from the saddle.

Grabbing the saddle out of the back, he saddled the horse and led it back to J. M. Hall’s Store where John L. was waiting for him.

Inside Hall’s Store, Eli introduced John L. to the Halls and everyone in there. They ordered enough wire to get started and Mr. Hall said he’d keep it in stock, now that there will be more and more people wanting to get their houses and businesses wired.

Eli ordered enough barbed wire for a hundred and fifty miles at five strands, and ordered a railroad flat-car load of creosote treated, five inch cedar fence posts seven foot in length.

“Marshal, that comes to three thousand rolls of barbed wire, you must be going to double fence your whole place over there at Crow Ridge with that many posts and that much wire,” J.M. Hall said when he took the order.

“We’ve just bought my sons and daughters some land about fifty miles or so west of here and we’ve already got cattle on it. We figured we’d need barbed wire to keep them in and to keep others from taking them out.”

“You’ll need enough steeples for that many posts at five strands each, right? I have a good supply of them, but I’ll order plenty more to keep in stock just in case you need more.”

“Yep, I was about to forget them. We’ll need some cross-ties too, for corner posts and for our section posts to stretch wire from. You better put us down for a thousand. Can you get them or do I need to order them from the railroad?”

“I can get them brought in and can request that the railroad drop an order that size off there at your new place, to save you from hauling them that far on wagons.”

“We need to have about a fourth of that order sent on down here to Tulsa as soon as they can put it together, so we can get started.”

“We can do that, Marshal and it should be here in ten days or less. I’ll telegraph the order in to speed it up. I reckon you’ll have men over there at the new place to unload the rest of the big shipment?”

“There’ll be plenty of men there if we know when they’ll arrive. I know they’ll be passing right by when they send railroad supplies down to where they’re still laying track. Just have them to stop and tell someone when they’ll be down there with this order.

“They will know the place, there’s a trestle at the south end of the valley and the linemen will have the electric poles over there by then and running us a line north to the new home places in a week or less.”

“We’ve been wondering where all that lumber and building materials was headed to a week or so ago. We thought maybe they were going to build a town over there west of here, as much as they hauled out of here in one day. One man told us he counted twenty-five double-hitch wagon loads in that train that left here.”

“You may as well put the word out for me, that my six boys and six girls will be living over there as soon as they get the houses built. Let it be known too, I’ll be that way kind of regular myself, just in case anyone thinks it’ll be easy pickings with some younger folks living there.”

“I doubt anyone will bother your young folks over there, Marshal. We’ve all heard how those Young Bucks can handle a gun. Besides that, you’ve about run all the ones away from here that’re that crazy!”

By the time the men and women had unloaded the wagons at the houses and bunkhouses, all of them knew who the new man was that Eli had brought with them from the crew that was setting poles by the railroad.

They unloaded their personal belongings at the big house, then had the Bucks park the two wagons with food and camp supplies in the barn to unload the next day.

The Bucks and their friends were off once more as soon as they had the wagons in place. They wanted to show the Blasingames the oil loading terminal and the cattle loading pens. They were proud that they had a key to the office and drilling supply warehouse and were able to show that off too.

They took them back across the river to the ice house where they introduced them to Izzy Gilboney and his brother Benyamin. While there, they took a twenty-five pound block of ice back to the house with them and told the men at the ice house that they were back home and would need ice at all the houses and bunkhouses on their next run.

“Uh, Eli, uh, did...” Izzy stuttered as he looked at Little Eli.

“Yep, I saw Dad put your names on a hundred and sixty acres each over there. He or Jon David one will have the papers for you, I’m sure.”

“Thanks, Eli. That was very nice of your father. He is such a fine man,” Izzy told him with a big grin on his face as he looked toward his brother, Benyamin.

Tulsa, Indian Territory
May 20, 1889

The Blasingames said their goodbyes at the big house, then were escorted to the train station in Tulsa by their girls, and the four Bucks who loved them.