Introduction:

The Greenhalgh family immigrated to the Road Island Colony during the late 17 hundreds a few years before the American revolution. They changed their name to Green and roamed between the colonies for many years before settling in New York. The reason for their original move was that some of their cousins had been accused of witchcraft and they didn’t want any suspicion cast upon them.

They weren’t witches or anything like that, they did however seem to have a knack for healing poor land and buying property that was undervalued. They would work the land and make more from it than the previous owner ever did. When they eventually sold it they would get way more for it than what they paid for it. This wasn’t due to any magic, it was due to how they took care of the land and the hard work they put into taking care of it.

They stayed in New York for several generations. However as westward expansion grew a number of the younger sons and daughters began to move west as well. Wherever they went their knack for healing the land and buying the right properties went with them. One thing that remained the same throughout the generations however was that they believed in getting the best education that they could. Granted the education in the west during that time period wasn’t what it is today.

One of their grandsons, Samuel Green, settled in California. There he established a large ranch and married a woman named Mary Worthington. To neither of their knowledge Mary was the great granddaughter of a witch who had been killed at Salem during the witch trials held there. Her parents hadn’t known about it as her grandparents never talked about it and her parents were born long after it.

None of the Worthington’s ever showed any signs of being magical, unless you count the good luck they seemed to have. Her grandfather seemed to know what business to invest in and when to do it. And her father had been one of the first to discover gold and made quite a fortune in the early days of the gold rush. Her father used the money he made from the gold to expand her grandfather’s upon many businesses.

Samuel and Mary had had eight children, four boys and four girls. All of the kids had the gifts of both of their parents. All grew up helping to run the ranch. Despite what many people might think was proper, there was no division of duties. Each could ride, rope, mend or build a fence, and shoot as well as anyone else in the area. And in this area they often had to drive off or even kill bandits intent on stealing their cattle.

When the first railroad came through they were quite lucky. It didn’t cut across their land, however it was only a day’s journey away. Making it easy for them to sell cattle across the country.

It was on the first trip to sell cattle that John, the oldest son, met the girl that would later become his wife. Her name was Jane and she was nearing her fourteenth birthday and he had just turned twenty. (Back then girls especially tended to marry young.) Her father owned and ran the local stockyard and she happened to be in the office when he went in to negotiate the price of the cattle. She, like the Green kids, had helped her father in the business most of her life. Though she had been kept away from a lot of the rougher stuff. She mostly helped around the pens and with feeding and of course helped her mom with the cooking and such. They were married a year later and she moved to the ranch with John.

They had four children all baring the gifts of their grandparents. The youngest son was especially gifted, but didn’t like life on the ranch. Rather he didn’t like working for his older brother, he liked the ranch and ranch work just fine. He just wanted to be the one in charge. He had ideas on how to improve things that his brother didn’t agree with. So when Jacob turn nineteen, he saddled up his horse and gathered enough food, water, and money to last him for a few days and left the ranch. He headed towards the north-east.

Along the way he encountered numerous people some good and some not so good. The good ones he generally stayed with and helped for a few days and was paid with meals and a safe place to sleep. The bad ones he tried to avoid as much as possible though he did have to kill a couple who tried to rob him. He quickly gained a sense of people he could trust and people he couldn’t.

He arrived in a small town in Kansas. He had been riding for much of the day and all he really wanted was a meal and a bed at the local hotel. Fortunately he could get both at the hotel. He had paid for a room and a meal and was sitting in a corner of the dining room when two men walked in. Both had bandannas around their faces and guns in their hands. They pointed the guns at the hotel owner and demanded that he hand over any cash he had.

Jacob stood up and said, “Why don’t you pick on someone else?”

The two men immediately turned to face him. One said, “Why don’t you mind your own business?”

Jacob said, “Normally I would, but I hate cowards who hide behind masks.”

Both men lifted their guns to shoot him down, but Jacob was faster and both men fell to the floor dead. As it turned out both men had done this many times and had sizable bounties on them. They had even been known for leaving the clerks they robbed dead. The reward for them was two thousand dollars each which was a great deal of money in those days. The local sheriff came running as soon as the shots were heard and identified the two men.

Ely Jackson, the local sheriff, sat down with Jacob as he finished his meal, which wasn’t more than a bite or two anyway. Ask Jacob, “What brings you to our little town? Are you a bounty hunter, cause those two have quite a bounty on them?”

Jacob replied, “No, just passing through. My family has a nice ranch in California, but I’m looking for a place of my own. My brother and I didn’t quite see eye to eye on some things, and I decided to strike out on my own.”

The sheriff said, “Would you consider staying here for a while. I could use a good deputy and the people around here for the most part are good folks.”

Jacob thought for a few minutes and said, “I suppose I could. It wouldn’t hurt to stay for a while and get to know some others. What does the job pay?”

“Forty dollars a month plus a little extra if you have to escort a prisoner somewhere, but that doesn’t happen often,” he said.

“Deal,” Jacob said.

Jacob had been working as a deputy three months when he saw her. She had come into town with her mother and a couple of the ranch hands. They had driven the wagon up to the general store and parked it out front. Jacob asked Ely, “who are they?”

Ely replied, “Oh, that’s the Equellan’s they own a ranch south of town. Most of the towns folk won’t have much to do with them. They say that they are odd have visions or something.” It was about the time that Ely finished speaking that the youngest girl turned around and looked at them. Her mouth fell open as if she’d seen a ghost or something. (He’d learn later that she had seen him in a dream but hadn’t thought him real.)

Six months later the local bank was held up by four men. They got away but not before one had been shot and killed. Ely and Jacob headed out after the remaining three. They were riding fast south of the town Ely managed to shoot and kill one before being shot out of the saddle himself. Jacob got the remaining two, but was wounded himself in the process.