The girls’ wagon got loaded fast. They were working hard and staying warm. They loaded the posts on the sergeant’s wagon, trying to keep them all together. The boys were trying to help with everything. They all liked Milly and the sergeant. The work went on and they all did a fine job. Milly’s wagon was full by noon and the girls started cutting some pieces off of the cougar meat to fry up for lunch. When it was ready, all of the girls and boys got some food and ate. Most of the men were at the other wagon, along with the buns. The Quaker sergeant went over to where the food was being served and told the ladies that the rest of the men still needed some food. Milly told him to come over and have lunch, and to bring the coffee and buns back with him. He went back to the wagon to tell the men that lunch was ready, but nobody came wanted to go. They didn’t want to share any of the buns either. Sergeant Wells went to the sack the buns were in and took out ten of them, and the men got really angry with him.
After lunch, they took off for home and unloaded the firewood from Milly’s wagon. The girls from town stayed and the rest went out to the farm to unload firewood from the wagon and left the posts on the other wagon. They put up the horses. They had two deer on the wagon that they skinned out and then took the meat inside. I watched the operation, they were all working hard. Sergeant Wells told me how it went with the men on the other wagon. He stated that they had no leadership and that the Quaker sergeant could not control his men. “Next time, that bunch can go on their own,” he said. “They do not want to work with us.”
I had four men that came in from Philadelphia with a buckboard and I assigned all four of them to the fence job. They came to work early in the morning; six girls and six boys also came to work with us. They all pounded the steel posts in and unloaded the cedar posts. We then hitched up two horses and took the wagon up to the fence. All of the new men were ex-army and worked very hard. We let them work.
I told Milly that I thought I saw what looked like a couple of wolves prowling around the north end of the fence in the brush. Milly kept her Henry with her at all times. We started walking towards the brush where I thought I saw the wolves when suddenly they ran for us. Milly shot twice and both wolves were down. One of the new men headed toward the wolves and Milly told him, “Don’t go out there. There may be more in the brush, and some of them are mad. The two I shot were mad. No healthy wolf would go after a group like us.”
“That was quite a distance, young lady,” one man marveled.
“I know. We don’t want wolves around,” she stated.
Sergeant Wells came up and talked with Milly. He suggested they start the new men digging the holes for the cedar posts, and Milly agreed with him.
“Which one of you is in charge?” asked one of the new men.
“We are both foremen; we work together at times,” Sergeant Wells told him. “We both know the job. If Milly tells you not to go out there, you better pay attention. Mad wolves are no nice puppies. Milly is very easy to work with. She shot a cougar yesterday, and we ate it for lunch. She is a hardworking girl.”
The other gang went out again to get more fence posts. I told them we needed the posts to be six feet long, no shorties, and two ten-footers for the gate post. They went and picked up four girls and some buns from town, and then they headed to the cedars. They had some fresh jerky from the kitchen. I asked Miller to ride out there with them to see how they managed. When he came back, he told me that the Quaker sergeant once again had no control over the men.
“The best thing we can do is put the two Quakers back on the disc and send the other three men back to Gettysburg,” Miller suggested. “That ex-lieutenant is the one that stirs up the other two.”
“What if I fire the lieutenant first?” I asked John. “Then we could see how the other two sharpen up.”
That’s exactly what I did. I fired the lieutenant, and the other two quit. They took their horses and left town. This was no job for a gentleman.
The fence men were doing a very good job. When Milly asked for a certain girl, I put the girl on full time. The girls were getting one dollar a day, same as the men.
Chapter Six
The priest came out with a young woman. He introduced her and told me that she had a little boy; she was desperately in need of a job. I told Betty to put her to work.
“Did you have breakfast?” I asked the woman.
“I have not eaten for a while,” she answered.
Betty made her sit down and she cooked her two eggs, some bacon, and a toasted a slice of bread with butter and then poured her some fresh coffee with milk and spoonful of sugar.
“Where is your boy?” I asked her.
“He is at the orphanage.”
She ate very slowly, so I knew that she had not eaten for a while. Betty fixed the priest three eggs and some bacon; he sat down and ate every drop. I told the girl that she could work for us and we gave her a room. She was very happy.
“How old is your son?” I asked the girl.
“He is five years old.”
“Check with Maggy to see if you can bring him out here,” I told her.
That night at dinnertime, Maggy asked her how old her son was and she told her that he was five. Maggy said they would have fun with them around.
Maggy told her, “I also have a daughter here who is five, the kids can play together. There is no problem bringing him out here.”
“Thank you Maggy. Are you the owner?” the woman asked.
“My husband is half-owner. I only own two horses and my buckboard. So now you have some transportation and can go to town to shop,” Maggy explained.
When Milly came in, the girl asked Maggy, “Who is that woman?”
“She is the fencing foreman,” Maggy answered. “They are building six miles of fence and she is one of the bosses.”
“Who is the fellow with her?”
“He is a fencing foreman too. They work on the same fence. He thinks that she is terrific. She doesn’t mess around and gets the work done. She also uses some women for fencing, so they can have an income too. These women had nothing before they came home from the war. Mr. Wheeler and my husband bought this big farm and hired some homeless girls, and some boys from the orphanage to plow. Nobody else would give them a job. All of the boys in the bunkhouse are orphans. The priest brought them out here to help with the plowing. They also work on the fence,” Maggy told her.
After breakfast, a buckboard with two mules left, and a wagon with two horses took a group of women, boys, and men to the fence. Milly was the last to go onboard and carried her rifle. When they arrived at the fence, two men started to drive steel posts; they each had a girl assigned to help keep the posts in line and to have the posts ready. The other men went to dig the holes for the cedar posts. They also had girls assigned to help them. That was the order of the day; each girl would stay with her digger and the girls would fill the holes and tamp the dirt around the poles. The boys were to help bring the posts up where they would be needed. The wooden posts were just dropped off and had to be taken up to where they were needed. Some of the posts that were too small were all piled up and would be used for firewood. The teams started to work together, and in the end, they all liked this system. Soon they ran out of steel posts, so they started to dig holes for cedar posts. Every 30 feet a cedar post was planted. Both foremen helped line the posts; they wanted a straight fence.
They were starting to run out of wood fence posts, so they took two wagons and cut more cedar posts. Each team would stay together on that too. The boys would load the wagon, and two extra girls would make coffee and keep the fire burning for lunch. Milly shot a deer and the girls had to skin it so they could have some steaks for lunch. They had three skillets. Firewood went on one wagon with posts in the back stacked up high. The other wagon was for posts only. The boys did all the loading.
When lunch time came around, everybody gathered in to eat, and so did a young bear. He came close and then walked away. A couple
hours later, a big female bear with three big cubs came by. This was dangerous. A female with cubs would charge if she did not like something. They all had a discussion later and everybody was warned that if a female came by not to move around and to just let it go away.
Milly shot a four-pointer and the girls cleaned it out and put it onboard on top of some posts. Sergeant Wells told everyone that they would go out again tomorrow with the two wagons to get more cedar posts. They had to take advantage of the good weather.
Early that next the morning they hitched up the two empty wagons and headed into town to pick up the girls. The sergeant went to the bakers and got some buns while the girls got ready. Then they headed out for the cedar forest. They picked a new spot and found a lot of good trees that would make great fence posts. They all worked together and the boys started loading the wagons. They were doing really well. One girl started a small fire and another girl was making coffee. As soon as the coffee was ready, all of the men wanted a cup.
Shortly after the men finished drinking their coffee, a company of four riders rode into their camp. The men were dressed in dirty confederate clothing, each wearing two guns apiece and carrying Henry’s.
As soon as Sergeant Wells saw the men, he said, “Bandits.” He then said, “Milly, get your Henry ready and I will go get the Spencer.”
“I have my .44,” Mason stated.
Sergeant Wells then said, “Okay, let them come in a little closer. We want them in short-gun range. Milly, you come behind the wagon with me and we will get the first two. Everybody else just sit tight; let them come to us. Mason, Milly and I will get the first two; you get the one with the pack horse, and everyone else aim for the one in the back. If we don’t fight, they will kill us and then take our horses and food.”
“We have to fight,” Mason agreed.
“I will get the one in front on the horse with the white socks,” Milly said.
“That’s fine,” Wells told her. “I got the one next to him.”
“Shoot any time. I am ready,” Mason assured the sergeant.
“Squeeze it off and reload fast,” instructed Wells.
As soon as Milly squeezed it off, Wells shot next to her, then Mason shot, and Milly shot again. Within a matter of seconds, all four men were down. The boys gathered all five of the bandits’ horses. Sergeant Wells told two of his men to dig a hole in the ditch. Wells, Milly, and Mason went to look the horses over, and one had a U.S. brand.
“Milly, you know which two are yours. We are going to turn this U.S. horse free,” Wells instructed. “Leave the saddle with the dead man, it’s army too.”
The other saddles were all roping saddles. Milly took her two horses and asked David to take them for her. Mason said he got a mare, and Milly told him that she may want to trade. The packhorse was a filly and Sergeant Wells got a thoroughbred. The boys took the horses and went to the bandits to get all of their guns. They also checked for money belts, and they all had one. Milly’s had two, with a lot of cash in them, over 1,000 dollars. They also got four Henry’s and a lot of .36 Confederate short guns. Milly asked what those men were doing out there. The sergeant told her that they had stayed the night in the trees. Mason also had a lot of money from his money belt.
Milly looked over Mason’s mare and told him, “You can have that Morgan; I’ll keep the one with the socks.” The mare also had socks.
“That is a trade, Milly,” Mason agreed.
Both of Milly’s bandits were shot in the head. Mason told her, “I could have used you in my platoon fighting the rebels.”
After they were finished with the bandits Wells said, “Let’s go back to work, men. We need to get these wagons loaded.”
They went back to work and the sergeant told them all to help themselves to the six-shooters. There was enough so that everyone could have one. Milly put the extra Henry in a rifle scabbard on the gelding. She figured it was worth 100 dollars; but she also figured she might need it. Sergeant Wells told her to get a horse brand so that she could brand her horses. He was getting one too so he could brand his filly; she was a nice one.
Well said, “I will get a gelding to go with her, that way I will have myself a nice team.”
“I heard that the grocer at the Amish store can get you a young stud,” Milly told him.
“That would be great, and I could get a buckboard too,” Wells stated.
“That’s what I want too,” Milly replied.
“When we get back in to town, let’s go to the smith get our brands made up. Mason will probably want one too. Let’s talk to Maggy about where she got her buckboard at. She bought two and got them at a good price,” Wells said.
When they got in to town, Milly put her two horses in the corral in the back of the house. The priest was there and she gave him 100 dollars for the orphans. The priest loved her Milly. She told him that they had a fight with some bandits and the bandits lost. The priest told her that he would pray for their souls.
Milly and Wells then went to the smith. Milly wanted a rocking MB for her brand, and the smith made it up for her. Mason and the priest helped Milly brand her horses. Then Mason went and got himself a brand. The sergeant branded the filly and then went out with his wagon. Milly waited for Mason to get his gelding branded. Milly was very happy with her two horses; they were a matching pair. She asked the priest if it was safe to leave them at the corral. He told her that he would watch out for them, so she left her two saddles at the corral and took the rifle and saddlebags with her on the wagon. Mason took his out to the farm. They went out and put up the horses, and then went inside to eat.
I asked the sergeant what had happened on their journey. He told me all about the fight with the four bandits.
“They were going to take the four big horses, so we took theirs instead,” he explained.
“Good for you,” I told him.
“Milly got two of them, she has a nice team. She wants to get herself a buckboard.”
“Tell her to see Maggy, she bought two new ones,” I told him.
“I may buy one myself,” Wells said.
“You better marry that Milly, sergeant. We need her to stick around here,” I told him.
“I am planning to go west after a while, I would take her with me,” he stated.
“I would hate to lose you,” I told him.
Everyone was sitting around the table eating dinner and discussing the excitement of the day. One of the boys brought in a four-pointer and took it into the kitchen so the girls could skin it out. I thanked Milly and Mason for protecting the big horses, if we would have lost them I would’ve been in big trouble. Milly asked if she could go in to town and take care of her horse in the morning while the men unloaded the four wagons. I told her she could bring them out here so they would be safe. The two sergeants also brought their horses out too.
“I want to buy a buckboard and order one for the sergeant too. I also need to buy a set of harnesses for the horses,” Milly stated.
Once again I told her, “You need to talk to Milly about that.”
Milly then asked Maggy about getting a buckboard. Maggy told her that she would go with her into town the next morning to see what they had.
Early that next morning, they hitched up her two horses and Maggy drove in with Milly. They went by the town house and Milly’s horses were gone. Milly asked the priest what had happened to her horses. He told her that the sheriff took them because they were stolen horses and she could be arrested for stealing them. Milly told Maggy to take her to the sheriff’s office. She grabbed her Henry and went in to his office.
“Where are my horses, sheriff?” Milly asked.
The sheriff got up and said, “They are not your horses.”
Milly shot the sheriff in the left knee. “Did you not see my brand on their left shoulder? Get those horses out front right now, or there will be a job opening for town sheriff real quick.”
“You’re a horse thief!” he excla
imed.
The deputy tried to pull his gun but Milly shot him in his right wrist. “Get the horses out front or the sheriff will be going to the undertakers,” she threatened.
“I can get the gelding, but not the mare. The judge has the mare,” the deputy confessed.
“Get the horses out here, or that judge will hang for stealing my horse.” Just them the judge walked in. “Where is my Mare?” Milly asked him.
“She is not your mare, she is mine,” the judge told her.
Milly shot the judge in the left knee and said, “Tell that deputy to bring my horse out front or you’re going to be gut shot in a matter of minutes.”
The judge just stood there and the sheriff told Milly, “You will be hung.”
Milly shot him in his other knee, and he fell to the ground. Then she pumped another bullet into the chamber and shot the judge again and he fell down too.
She told the judge once more, “Tell the deputy to get my mare, you rotten horse thief.”
The deputy went for the mare and Milly sat down in the sheriff’s chair keeping her eyes on the two suspects. The deputy came stating that her horses were out front. She went out to look at them and asked him where the saddles went. The sheriff told her they didn’t have the saddles. So, Milly went out back and there were her saddles. She headed back in to the jail, kicked the door open, and saw the deputy handing a shotgun to the sheriff. She quickly put a bullet in the sheriff’s elbow. The sheriff just laid there bleeding. She told the deputy to carry the two saddles out and put them on the buckboard. He jumped up and did as she told him.
“You will hang!” exclaimed the judge. Milly shot him in the knee another time.
“If you come after me or send someone after me, you will be buried that same day, you horse thief,” she threatened the judge.
The judge told the deputy to get the doctor. The deputy looked at the judge with disgust and said, “Get him yourself. I quit. I ain’t working with no horse thieves.”
Lieutenant John Holbrook, Sergeant John Wheeler Page 14
