Chapter 27

The Tanner ranch headquarters was something to see. For miles, as far as a man could see the wooden rail fence ran east and west from the main entrance. There were three main houses out front, built in the shade of huge trees and all the barns and smaller buildings were spread neatly behind them. There were wagons lined up in a neat row to one side of the lane that led to the houses. There were hay mowers and plows of any size and style placed neatly along the fence behind the wagons.

Hanging on the opposite fence were three large wooden Oxen yokes fastened to the top of the fence telling of a time gone by, never to be forgotten by some and never even remembered by others.

Jedadiah Tanner was thirty years old when he came through Kansas Territory in the spring of 1850. He, his wife and young sons were California bound, there was fortunes to be made out there and he wanted his family to have part of it.

His wife was pregnant and not having a good time of it either. They had problems along the trail as well and fell completely out of the wagon train they had joined in St. Louis, Missouri.

He had his life’s savings with him and all the household goods they could pack into two big wagons. Jed Tanner was the son of a successful merchant back east in Philadelphia, but when his father died, he felt his true fortune lay in California. He sold the business and all their holdings and headed west. His wife Delia had begged him to continue, assuring him she would be better soon. Jed and his family were camped by the trail near a sparkling creek in the open plains. The grass was as green as he had ever seen, the land was flat and a man could see forever. Other than the big trees along the creek bank, trees were few and far between.

He had thought of maybe turning back to St. Joseph, Missouri or maybe Kansas City and waiting until next spring. He just didn’t know what he would do.

Early on the third morning they were camped here, two men rode into their camp and Jed invited them to join his family for breakfast. As they sat around eating biscuits, gravy and salt meat out of tin plates, the men told Jed of a land deal they were working on. They told him that a man could buy some of this Kansas prairie land for as little as a dollar an acre, and there was soon to be a homestead act also that would make it even easier to add to a man’s ownings.

The men were headed over to Topeka to file a claim on some land they had staked out about twenty five miles west of here. They invited Jed to come along with them and even showed him a map with all the markings of the Kansas Territory on it. One man had been a surveyor’s assistant and knew how to read a map enough to point out exactly where they were sitting. Jed looked at the map, scratched his head, talked it over with his wife and made up his mind to settle here. He knew that if this didn’t work out, he could always pick up and move on west, he and his family were still young.

Two weeks later Jed and his family rode back to this very spot, with three wagon loads of lumber and the tools needed to build a house and barn, he also had the deed to fifteen hundred acres of prime, Kansas prairie land in his pocket. They were now land owners. They picked a place along the highest bank of the creek for their home site, then set in to building their fortunes here in this new land. As soon as he and his boys had a room of the house enclosed to live in, they set out with a land map and descriptions of their new land to mark the corners and boundaries.

By winter that first year they had their home mostly built and had bought a few head of cattle. The boys were busy during the summer cutting and hauling the grass hay to the barn for winter. Winter came at the Tanner family that year with a vengeance and at times the snow was up to the roof top of the small barn where they fed their few cattle. The winds howled across the flat prairie, whipping the falling snow so hard, it blew through the cracks in the walls and drifted up inside the house near the doors and windows.

Spring came with the melting of the deep snow banks and the rippling creek was running full. The cattle had survived and now were eating their fill of the green grass. Their bellies swollen with calves that would soon lead to the huge herds of the ‘TTT’. In the years to come, they bought more land and grazed the open range of government lands nearby as well. They bought longhorn cattle from a man down in Dodge City and bred this range hardy breed to their own stock. Now they had over thirty five hundred head of prime healthy beef. They sold nearly twenty five hundred head each year on the market and bred back all the heifers of breeding age, they bought the best young heifers at the sale barns each spring and bred with their strongest bulls to build herds of the finest Kansas beef there was.

Jed and Delia Tanner still live in the original home built here at this site over twenty five years ago. His sons Daniel and Talmon now run the ranch. Through their selective breeding and culling of stock, they’ve improved the blood lines of their cattle to the point that other ranchers came to them each spring to get good heifers and young bulls for their own operations.

Sheriff Williams introduced Tom and Cal to his wife’s brothers and in no time they were all sitting around as if old friends meeting again.

They sat under the shade of the large trees and the Tanner brothers told of the history of the ranch and how Gene Williams had stolen their sister Delia right out from the arms of her suitor at the time. The brothers and Gene laughed at the story they told, they loved to tell it to anyone that would listen.

“We were glad he did though, we sure didn’t like her beau that much, and neither did ma and pa. He was kinda uppity and looked like a scarecrow to Dan and me,” Talmon said.

“Hell I saw him last year at the sale barn over in Stockton and he looked like warmed up death then, if Dee had married that man, I’d have had to kill off any kids they had to keep from causing a stampede when they walked by,” Dan laughed.

“I know what you mean, remember that last cattlemens association meeting we had, he was there with his hired bullies and he looked worse than they did,” his brother agreed.

Tom and Cal looked at one another, there was something about where this story was going that had their full attention now.

“Just what is this man’s name if you don’t mind me asking?” Tom said.

“Will McDonnough from over in Rooks County, you may have met him since the two of you ride for the association now,” Dan said.

“Yep we’ve met and I reckon it’s just a matter of time til we meet again,” Tom said.

“Sounds like you and McDonnough may have rubbed horns back a ways Tom,” Talmon said and winked at his brother.

“Well, I reckon you could say we don’t see eye to eye on some of the stuff he stands for, not just with the cattlemens association but private matters as well.”

“I may as well tell you all right now cause, Tom ain’t gonna say nothing,” Cal said.

“We’ve had a couple of dealing’s with his hired gun Mac Willamacher, the German farmers we met call him ‘Widowmaker’, and the last time we saw them together they were at the trial of four of his riders that had raped two young farm girls over’n Rooks County.

“Tom and I caught them red handed and I won’t even tell you what all Tom did to them, but we took them to Sheriff Red Neely in Stockton and he put them in jail, except for one that Tom shot. He had to have his leg cut off and the Doc kept him. When Will McDonnough got word of his men being arrested, he rode in the next morning with Mac Willamacher and four more of his riders, all up in a cloud of dust. As I said before we had already had a run in with Willamacher and when he saw Tom, he was gonna be a rooster in front of his boss and take this Injun down to size. He made the mistake of spitting on Tom’s moccasins and cussing him. Tom just stuck his fist up in under the man’s rib cage and then jacked his jaw with a good hard left. Willamacher was layin in the dirt hurtin for air before he knew what had happened.

“I would pay to have seen that,” Dan said and laughed.

“That ain’t all either, Will McDonnough still wanted to convince the sheriff that he needed to let his men out on bail and was talkin all high and mighty to the sheriff when he made the mistake of callin Tom some bad names. Tom slapped that man’s face twice before I knew what was happening. Hell I heard the slaps then it come to me that Tom had slapped the man twice in the face.”

“My God what happened then?” Dan asked wide eyed.

“Well that was the end of it, they must’ve figured out that Tom didn’t take to bein’ pushed around so they all jumped a horse and took off faster’n they came in.”

“Damn I would have given a prime heifer to have seen that,” Talmon said and they all laughed.

“Cal likes to color up a story some when he tells his take on things, it wasn’t that exciting at the time,” Tom said and smiled.

“Boys, I’m gonna tell you both right now that whatever you need from me and my brother or any of the folks around here, you got it. We been needing someone to get a handle on the dispute between the cattlemen and the farmers. Most of the cattlemen are like us, we have no quarrel with the farmers, but there are some that seem to be itchin to run the farmers out of Kansas altogether,” Talmon said.

“We do appreciate any help you can throw our way, and we’ll try our best to find out who’s behind the trouble, if we haven’t already run up on them,” Tom said.

Tom, Cal and Sheriff Williams rode back into Osborne another way and the sheriff showed them were he and his wife had picked out a place to build their house. Covert Creek ran into the South Fork of Solomon River just south of Osborne and before they got to the inlet, the sheriff pointed out a place on a high bank overlooking the creek bottom where it made a sweeping bend. They rode out on the point of the bend and looked up and down the creek. They all agreed this would be a great place to build a home. This was on Tanner land and the Williams’ had been told to pick any place they wanted to build a home.

They crossed the creek and rode a mile or so then crossed the South Fork of Solomon River at a low water crossing. They were almost back to Osborne and Tom noticed Cal was getting fidgety in his saddle. Sheriff Williams stopped off at his house and the two deputies rode on into town.

“Tom I reckon I’m gonna get me a hot bath at the barber shop, what about you?”

“Yep, I need to scrub some of the trail dust off me too, we’ll get us some clean clothes and head over that way.”

“Tom?”

“Yep.”

“When a boy and girl is close together like we was earlier with Callie and Cathy, what do you reckon a girl is thinking when a boy like me is thinking about the things he thinks about?”

“Cal, my mom told me that girls and boys want the same thing, only a girl will want hers spruced up a little.”

“What does that mean Tom?”

“Well, my mom said that a girl wants to hold a boy and touch him too, but she wants to be told she’s pretty and that you like her. She wants to be talked to and wants you to tell her things.”

“What things does she want a boy to tell her?”

“Just things, things about him and what he likes and don’t like. You know just every day things.”

“Well that don’t make much sense to me if she is wantin the same things I want, for her to be worrying about what I think about every day things.”

“Well, Cal it’s just hard for me to explain. I don’t know enough about this boy and girl stuff either to be givin you lessons in how to act.

“If you asked me about horses, I could talk a day or two on that, if you asked me about guns, I could talk like I had some sense about them too. But you keep askin me about girls and I’m scared I’ll tell you wrong. My dad told me that all girls were different.”

“I’ll never get all this figured out now Tom, I didn’t know they were all different, I thought they’d all be alike, like boys are.”

“Well Cal it’s kinda like ridin a horse the way I see it. The first time you rode, you didn’t come back thinkin you were an expert and you didn’t feel like you could give somebody lessons in how to do it right. Horses and girls are a lot alike, but they all are different from one another. Some don’t like to be rode, some like to be petted, some like to go fast and some like to go slow.

“My dad told me that the fastest way to climb a mountain was to go slow.”

“What in the world does climbing a mountain have to do with courtin’ girls?”

“What he was saying was, don’t hurry a girl up, just take your time and she’ll show you what she wants.”

“I just don’t reckon I’ll ever be able to figure this courtin stuff out.”

“Look at it like this Cal, if a girl leans up close to you with her lips puckered, she wants to kiss, if she touches your hand, she wants you to touch hers. The rest will happen when it’s time.”

“What if she don’t lean up close to me and I want to kiss her?”

“Then you be the one to lean up close, if she wants a kiss you’ll know.

“Just go slow and don’t touch her anywhere until you know she wants to be touched there.”

“I’m so scrambled up now about it, that I know I’m gonna mess it all up.”

“You’ll be alright Cal, when the time comes, nature will take over and you’ll do what a boy is supposed to do. Just remember that girls like to feel as good as you do. No matter how much you want to hurry up and get down to business, you just take your time so you make her feel good too.”

They were walking up the street to the boarding house when the man from the livery stable drove up in a big buggy pulled by two horses and stopped in front. Tom’s horse had followed he and Cal and stood by the rail. The man tied the team to the hitching rail and walked back toward the stable, just as Tom and Cal went in the door. Callie and Cathy saw them as soon as they came through the door and greeted them with a smile.

“We want you to meet our mother and daddy,” Callie told them and led them to the dining room.

Mr. and Mrs. Bowers sat at the dining table drinking coffee when their daughters walked in with the two young men in tow.

“Mother, Daddy we want you to meet Tom Cooper and Cal Randal, the ones we were telling you about,” Cathy said.

Tom and Cal stepped up and shook hands with them both and though they both had a knot in their throats, they were able to speak.

“Tom you and Cal watch out for my girls, they’ve been plotting with their mother all morning and fixing a big basket full of food,” Mr. Bowers said and smiled.

They young men smiled and looked from him to his wife, then to the girls standing there. They were red faced and just about to tear their hats up twisting them in their hands.

“The buggy is out front, you young folks go and have a good time, girls you be back in time to help your mother with supper cooking and serving,” Mr. Bowers told them.

The girls hugged their mother and daddy and the four of them went out, with Cal carrying the big basket. Tom drove the team and Cathy sat up front with him, Cal and Callie sat in the back seat and held the basket.

“Go south out of town, we know a place where daddy goes fishing that will be a good place to have a picnic and sit on the river bank,” Cathy told Tom.

She then slid over on the leather seat and hooked her arm with his as he drove the team, she looked up at him and smiled real big.

“Tom tell me about where you grew up and how you came to be in Kansas as a lawman,” Cathy said making conversation.

Tom told her about growing up on the northern plains near the Sioux, about the trading post and meeting Mr. Bill Cody. He seemed at ease talking to her with his slow easy way of talking, even though he was knotted up inside. In the back Callie sat next to Cal and he was so nervous he wasn’t sure he could talk. She could tell he was and started asking him where he came from, how long he and Tom had known each other. Soon Cal was telling her all about the places they had been and the things they had done since he met Tom.