Chapter 11

May 9, 1848

We reached St Joseph, Missouri before noon and we decided to take a while to look around. St Jo had grown since we were here three years ago. Then, it was just becoming a town. Now, it looked more like St Louis.

We left Sam, Matt, and Timmy camped with the mules, wagon, and all of our pelts in the same field we had camped in three years before. Ab and Pris went off to see someone Ab knew who was in the fur trade. He wanted to see if there was enough difference in the price we would get to make it profitable to continue on to St. Louis.

John, Tess, Lettie, Wanda and I decided to do a little exploring. We rode into town and tied our horses to a hitching rail in front of the general merchandise store. As we were walking down the street from there, Lettie squeezed my arm and nodded toward an imposing new building.

"My, isn't that grand," Lettie said.

The building was impressive. It was four stories tall. A sign on the front proclaimed it to be the Excelsior Hotel. The front was mostly marble and there was an intricate scroll worked into the stone. We walked over to take a closer look at the scrollwork and I saw a notice posted that was of some interest.

Notice of Public Auction

On May 11, in the year of our lord, 1848, there will be a Public Auction at the ranch formerly owned by Alton Graves.

To be Auctioned off to the highest bidder:

1200 acre Ranch with house and buildings
400 head of beef cattle
60 head of horses
11 saddles and tack
Wagons
Furniture
Tools
Many smaller items

Purchase is to be by cash only, to be paid at the end of the auction.

Auction starts at 10:00 AM.

We were standing there reading the notice when a portly gentleman stopped to talk with us. "Are you interested in the auction?" he asked.

"We might be," I said. "Why is this being auctioned off?"

"I'm Joe Arnold," he said as he stretched out his hand to be shook.

John and I shook his hand and we introduced ourselves. "Poor old Mr. Graves died a couple of weeks ago. His widow is an old lady, and she doesn't want to try to run the ranch by herself. She decided to sell everything off and move back east."

"Do you know anything about the cattle or the horses?" John asked.

"Not really. I do know that Mr. Graves always had the best stock of anyone in the area, though."

"They'll probably sell for more than we can afford, then," I said.

"Oh, I don't know about that. Although the town is booming, the farmers and ranchers around here have been having a hard time of it. There's talk that the railroad will soon be coming to St Louis; but right now, there's not much of a market," the man said. "Besides, the 'cash at auction's close' is going to prevent most people from bidding."

"Well, I'm not sure if we'll be here when they have the auction, but if we are, we might stop by. Where is the Graves' place?"

Mr. Arnold gave us directions, then excused himself and went about his business. It wasn't too far out of town, so we decided to ride out there in the morning.

We had started to turn away from the hotel, when Lettie said, "Jase, I've never stayed in a hotel. Do you think we could afford to stay one night, here?"

"Oh, God, it'd be great to sleep in a real bed again, even it was just for one night," Tess said.

John and I agreed that a night in a real bed would be nice, so we went in and got two rooms for one night. We went up to look over our rooms before we went on with our exploring. Lettie and Wanda walked around the room, touching things and smiling.

When we finally left the room, we ran into Ab and Pris almost immediately. We told them we were going to spend the night in the hotel, and Pris insisted they go in and get a room as well.

"I think I have some good news for us," Ab said after they came back out. "My friend says the prices for furs aren't much different here than they are in St Louis. If we can find the cattle and horses we want here, we could save ourselves a couple of weeks of travel."

"That is good news," John said. "We may have some good news, too."

John went on to tell them about the auction.

"Okay, I agree we should ride out in the morning. Right now, let's really splurge. We saw a restaurant up the street. I think we should treat ourselves to something to eat, that our women don't have to cook."

The bed in our room actually had a feather tick on it. My wives and I made the most of it.

May 10, 1848

We got an early start and arrived at the Graves' Ranch before too many people were stirring. It didn't look like anyone was around at all, but you could tell they had been making preparations for the auction.

The cattle were in a good-sized pasture off to the east of the house, and the horses were in a smaller pasture off to the west. We rode over to the pasture the cattle were in, and dismounted. The cattle appeared to be mostly Herefords, and they looked to be in good shape. We tried to do a quick check as to the females verses males, and came up with a figure of about twenty females to each male.

We were standing there discussing them, when a young person walked up. At first I couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl. He was wearing a homespun shirt and trousers and a hat that was as big as Kentucky. The clothes looked like they hadn't been washed in a month or two, and he had dirt smudging his face and hands.

"Hi, I'm Joe Adams," he said. "Are you interested in the cattle?"

We introduced ourselves, then I said, "We're looking to buy some cattle and some horses. We just wanted to come out and look these over, before the auction tomorrow."

"Well, look all you want. Mrs. Graves might be willing to sell before the auction. if the price was right."

Joe looked off to his left and said, "Uh, oh. Here comes pap."

We looked over in that direction and we saw one of the biggest men I had ever seen coming toward us. When he got close, he said, "Get your ass back to mucking out that barn, Joe."

Joe took off like he'd been stung by a bee. The man looked at us and said, "I'm Joe Adams. I'm foreman of this ranch. What can I do for you folks?"

I don't know why, but I took an immediate dislike for the man.

"We were just wanting to look over the cattle and horses before the auction," Ab said after he had introduced us all.

"Well, you can look, but it won't do you much good. I don't think Mrs. Graves would be willing to sell before the auction, unless you wanted them all."

"We just might want them all," Ab said. "If the price was right, that is."

"You'd have to talk to Mrs. Graves about the price," Adams said.

We went over to the horse pasture, and looked them over carefully. There were probably half a dozen that looked like they were over the hill, but for the most part, they looked good. They looked to be mostly mares, but there were a few geldings, and one stallion. Adams stayed with us the whole time.

"Would it be possible to talk to Mrs. Graves?" Ab asked.

Adams said he'd see, and left us standing there while he went to the house.

"What do you think?" I asked Ab.

"They look good. So do the cattle. I don't know if we'll have enough money to buy them all, though."

"Let me do the dicker," I said. "Pap taught me a lot about bargaining."

Ab and John agreed that I could do the talking with Mrs. Graves. Adams came back out on the porch with an older lady. She looked like she was close to seventy. Adams waved us over.

When we got over to them, I said, "Good morning, Mrs. Graves. I'm Jase Tackett. This is my wife Lettie, and her sister Wanda, Ab Smith and his wife Pris, and John Ware and his wife, Tess."

"Good morning folks," Mrs. Graves said with a smile. "Have a seat. Joe tells me you might be interested in my cattle and horses."

"Yes, Ma'am. We have ranches in Oregon. When we went out there a couple of years ago, we weren't able to take a lot of livestock with us. We've done a lot of trapping since then and we brought all our furs back to sell and we'd like to take a herd back to Oregon."

Mrs. Graves smiled again and looked at the women.

"It's not easy getting a ranch going. My husband and I were some of the first people in this area. After you get settled, it isn't a bad life though. My husband and I were very happy, here."

"I expect we'll be, too," Lettie said. "Getting the house built and getting a garden growing the first year were the hardest."

"We lived in a soddy our first winter here," Mrs. Graves said. "It wasn't easy, but we made do."

"Do you have any idea what you'd want for the cattle and horses, ma'am?" I asked.

"I talked it over with my banker and he says he doesn't think the cattle will bring more than six or seven dollars a head at auction," she said. "I don't expect we'll get more than twenty dollars a head for the horses."

I did some quick ciphering and said, "That'd be anywhere from $2,400 to $2,800 for the cattle and another $1,080 for the horses. That's providing they all sold. Would you take $3,500 for all of them?"

"That'd be on the low end of what he estimates, but, you're right. All of them might not sell. Could you folks come up with that much money?"

"I think we can, ma'am. We'll sell our furs this afternoon. I believe we'll have that much later today."

"You all seem like nice folks. If you can come up with that much before the auction tomorrow, then they're yours."

"Should we bring the money to you, or should we pay it to your banker?"

"See Silas Dowdy at the bank and pay him. He'll be out for the auction, and he'll let me know."

"Thank you, Ma'am. Do you have an exact count on the cattle and horses?"

"According to Joe, there are 412 cattle and 62 horses. The $3,500 is for all of them, though."

"Thank you again, Ma'am. We'd better go in and get our furs sold. We'll be back out for the auction, though. I think we're gonna want to bid on some of your other things, too."

We left her sitting in a rocking chair on her porch.

"I hope we can be that contented when we're that age," Lettie said as we rode off.

We stopped by our camp, and Sam and the boys helped us take the furs into town. We found the North West Fur Trading Company, and Ab went in to talk to them while the rest of us waited outside.