Lieutenant John Holbrook, Sergeant John Wheeler

by Laszlo Endrody

  As it turned out, the neighbors came back and started to plow the land again. Wells told them to go home, but one of the neighbors shot and killed him. Mason went out and shot both of them and took them in to town. The sheriff was told that the two men killed Wells. They had trespassed onto their land and started plowing again, after they had been told not to previously. “They started shooting at me, so I shot back,” Mason told the sheriff. They went out and got the horses and sent them back, the two plows stayed.

  They had a hearing and the Amish bishop claimed that the two men were murdered. He stated that he wanted those people ran out of their county. The bishop was finally told that those people were Pennsylvanians and they belonged here, and that what he wanted would involve bringing in the state police. The fact of the case was that they shot Jeff Wells, and when Mason went out there they started shooting at him but Mason shot back and did not miss. They were both dead.

  When Mason came to work, he reported that Sergeant Wells had been shot dead by his neighbors. He explained what had gone on with the neighbor; and he told me that Milly just had a baby boy, and that Jeff was dead. I told him to take charge of the fencing and I would go over with Betty to see Milly.

  “I heard that the bishop wanted to run us out of his county, there is state police in Pennsylvania,” Mason told me.

  “He is just running his mouth. He is not running anybody out of this county,” I assured him.

  Milly got Jeff’s box where he kept his savings. He had over 3,000 dollars. She put all of her money with his so that young Jeff would get the money. It would be spent only to improve young Jeff’s property.

  As it turned out, the neighbor left two plows in the dirt and his wife went west with some friends and left the property and did not pay her taxes. After six months, it went up for sale and Milly decided to bid on it to see if she could get the place. She drove in with one of her girls and Mason and bid the opening bid of 500 dollars, and that is where it stopped.

  They had 80 acres in grass and clover ready to cut. Mason was happy for her. He asked her to go west with him, but she told Mason that she would not give up little Jeff’s farm. She would stay farming both farms and make a nice farm out of the place.

  She had to cut the hay; her barn was almost empty. She went and bought a mower and a rake. Mason cut the 80 acres for her and the priest sent out a young man to rake it. They started hauling it with Mason’s wagon. The first load was left at the corral. There was a lot of fresh raw hay in the load, so they fed that out and then started to fill the barn. There were no signs of snakes in the barn, so the young man stayed in the barn room. After haying, they started to plow. The priest got her three more boys and they all started plowing. They wanted 100 acres in oats. It was time to harvest and get it trashed.

  On the new farm, there was another barn. They had an old plow that Mason told Milly could be put back in working shape by a smith. They loaded it on the buckboard and took it in to the blacksmith. He fixed it up and sharpened it. Now they had another plow. She had the horses and the four plows start working away. They harrowed and then I went over with the seeder and drilled in the oats. I was using her mower, so we worked together on equipment.

  The two biggest farms in the county were not Amish, they were ours and we were good people. The house on the new farm was getting full of homeless girls. Girls were coming from other counties to have a home. They were all very happy that Milly ordered them a wagon full of groceries, the Amish grocer delivered it. The girls went to work on both farms, so they got a little bit of money to buy the things that they needed. Working on Betty’s fence kept a lot of the girls busy. There was no work for women anywhere else, so they sure tried to do the best they could. When they went after posts, they would go with five big wagons. Everyone but Milly went, she stayed home with little Jeff. The two girls went to make some money.

  Mason got himself a nice girlfriend and they moved in to the barn room. He was getting ready to go west the following spring. He had the money; he just needed to finish the canvas and the barrels, buy the groceries, and butcher the three hogs. Then he would pull out with six-in-hand with a riding horse tied in the back. He was going to Wyoming where his wife could vote. You could read in the newspapers how the women in Wyoming were running for jobs that were men’s jobs. The men laughed, but the girls took it seriously. The eastern senators wanted the president to put an end to that foolishness, but President Grant was not about to do that. Wyoming was the first territory that gave women the same rights as men. They could vote, run for any job, and serve the same as men. Women wanted to go to Wyoming territory; that included Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. Wagon trains that were going to Oregon were full of women who wanted to stop in Wyoming, and a lot of them did. Brigham Young gave the women in Utah the right to vote too. Of course, the church told them how to vote. Milly liked the rights that the girls had in Wyoming, but she figured that the rest of the country would all have it soon enough. She did not know it, but it took a long time for that to happen.

  Chapter Nine

  I was becoming a serious farmer now and so was Milly. The fence line went on, along with the discing and burning of the brush. Betty would have grass as soon as it was all in. It was a mile wide and two miles long. It was a lot of ground for two men to cover with four horses discing. We ordered some bigger discs for the heavy horses to pull. We were hoping that it would make a difference.

  Mason was ready to go as soon as the snow was gone that spring. The oats were harvested and hauled to the trash machine. Thirty sacks went on Mason’s wagon when he left. We missed his horses, he took seven.

  I told the Amish grocer that I needed two teams of big Amish horses and I also ordered two wagons. Milly wanted both mares bred, so she could have another team. The priest sent out another young man and he worked hard. Milly wanted to put another 100 acres in oats, 100 in corn, and 40 in potatoes. Then they would plow until it froze, and that was for winter wheat. Milly got two more plows and the priest got her two more boys that had plowed before. They bought five tons of wheat for seed, hoping to use it all. They kept it all on one wagon so it would be easier to fill the grain drill. I had to put in close to 1,000 acres of oats, along with what Milly had harrowed too. I was going from farm to farm getting it all done. As soon as I caught up with the harrowing, I shifted to Milly’s, it took half an hour. We were the biggest producers around. It would be great when Milly had all of her acres in production.

  She now had two barns and she kept them full of hay. She had a milk cow for the new farm and she kept two dry cows in the corral with four calves and one steer. She needed a bull. They had some Herefords in Ohio and she ordered two. They shipped the bulls on the railroad. When they came in, Miller was really excited so Milly let him have one for a year. Miller loved that. He had three Hereford-cross females, so if he could get a three-quarter Hereford bull he would use him until they could get some shipped in. When the pasture was finished, they would need several.

  Miller liked Milly a lot. She would let him bring over his Mares and put them in with Jeff’s stud, he was a nice one. It was all free for Miller, and he really liked that. Miller had enough help and some new men were looking for work, so he sent them over to Milly.

  Milly wanted to get all of her acreage producing. She divided it in to 100-acre fields and she did the same on the new farm. It was easy to plant with the machine, so she ordered one for herself. Now they could go two a field with two machines and get it seeded in less time. She bought two more plows and got two more boys that were looking for work. The priest loved her. She was a good Catholic for being a Lutheran.

  Once the baby was old enough where she could leave him with the girls, she went hunting and brought in the meat. At times she would shoot two or three deer and take them over to Miller. She ended up buying a corn planter too. Corn had to go in during May, and it was needed. We could both plant corn at the same time. The corn planter could also make the windrows for the potatoes, sinc
e they were planted by hand. One girl would make the holes with a hoe and another girl would drop in the potato, then the other girl would come behind her and close in the hole.

  The new farm had a big corn crib. We did not know how much corn it could hold. We had a lot of pigs that we let roam free and we never had any problems with any snakes. However, we heard that there were a lot of snakes in Betty’s pasture in the brush. We would have to put some hogs in there. Milly hayed twice a year and both barns were full. She had her Hereford bull at the new farm with the cows and calves, he settled down pretty well. She had lots of milk and made cottage cheese and butter.

  When little Jeff got to be five years old, the priest brought a young man out who had a little daughter that was also five. Little Jeff took her up to his room where all of his toys were and they played together. Milly buttered two slices of bread and took them up to the kids for a snack. Jeff gave the girl a slice and she loved it. Then Jeff went to Milly and she gave him two glasses of milk and he gave one to the little girl, she loved that too.

  It was almost lunchtime and Jeff told little Linda they needed to go down to the kitchen to eat. They went in the kitchen and sat down at the little table, and Jeff asked what was for lunch. The girls told him it was mashed potatoes and gravy with roast deer. The girls fixed two plates and the kids ate every bit. One girl asked if they wanted some rice pudding, and Jeff told her they both wanted some. They each got a bowl of rice pudding and they ate every drop of it. Then they went back up to Jeff’s room and laid on his bed, both kids fell asleep. They had their nap.

  While they were sleeping, Milly and Linda’s father looked in Jeff’s room; then they started to talk farming. He had lost his wife and his farm and was trying to make a new start. His little girl was helping him and she had found a good place.

  The little girl told her father, “Let’s stay here, daddy.”

  “You can stay with me,” Jeff told Linda.

  They went back up to his room. There was another room close to Jeff’s and Milly put the man and his daughter in it. The two kids, when they got tired, lay down on the bed and went to sleep. Milly went in and took their shoes off and covered them up.

  In the morning they put their shoes back on, but did not know how to lace them up. They went down in the kitchen and the girls laced them up for them. The girls asked them what they wanted for breakfast. Jeff said he wanted scrambled eggs. Linda was impressed when the eggs came out scrambled with toast and butter. The kids wolfed down their breakfast and Jeff said to Linda, “Let’s go out and I will show you the new calf in the barn.”

  The kids went into the barn and Jeff saw a snake. He grabbed Linda’s hand and ran out. Milly and David, Linda’s dad, were there and Jeff told them there was a snake in the barn. David grabbed a shovel and went in the barn and saw the copperhead and killed it. He brought it out and there was a sow, so he threw it to her and she gobbled it up.

  “Did it bite you?” David asked.

  “No” said Linda. “Jeff saved me from that snake.”

  David came over and told Jeff, “That was a fine thing to do. Nice meeting you, Jeff. I hear this is your farm.”

  “I have two farms,” Jeff told him.

  “I saw your other farm too,” David replied.

  “Have you kids had any breakfast yet?” Milly asked.

  “We had scrambled eggs and toast, it was good,” Jeff told her.

  “Did you like it Linda?” asked Milly.

  “It was very good,” Milly said.

  They went back to the house and up to Jeff’s room and played. Milly and David were talking farming and had breakfast together. Milly asked him if he wanted to run the farm, David told her that he hoped to get a job there. She said that she would like him to run the farm, and if he needed to know anything he could ask her.

  They harnessed up her two horses and hitched up to the buckboard. The two kids came out and wanted a ride. They put both kids in the back and Milly told David, “Let’s go to town. You kids sit down on those skins. I forgot I had the deer hides in the back, you can sit on those.” Little Jeff held Linda’s hand.

  They stopped at the restaurant and got a table. Milly ordered four slices of apple pie, two glasses of milk, and two cups of coffee. The kids ate their pie and drank their milk. She asked them if it was good and they both said yes.

  When they finished their pie, they went back home. Once they got there, they dropped the kids off and told them to go and play. Milly told them they would be back for lunch. The kids went upstairs to have some fun. Milly went to the edge of the property and showed David the 100 acres of oats, the 100 acres that would be turned in to corn, and the 80 acres for potatoes and other garden crops like beans and peas that could all be put in with the corn planter. Then she showed him the winter wheat field that was showing green, 200 acres. The rest needed to be plowed up and used as needed. David told her that they needed to keep the plowing going. He said that they would have to stop during the harvest, but as soon as they were finished with that, they would need to start plowing again. It would take time, but in the end they would make out.

  David told Milly, “The 200-acre wheat filed will give you a nice income, the oats too. I don’t know about the corn, but it is good to feed hogs and milk cows. The pasture is growing good, but both barns are full. We will have to cut at times when we have no other work going on. We really should have more men for harvesting the wheat and oats. Corn will be harvested with the girls. We will have to build another corn crib, probably over at your place. We have to feed the hogs all winter, and they will use a lot of corn. Once the corn is gone, we can have the girls clean some cobs and sack some corn for seed. We can take some to the mill for cornmeal, same with the wheat. It is good to feed horses some oats in the winter. Well fed animals take the cold easier.”

  Milly went to the house and found the kids at the kitchen table eating and drinking milk. Those kids had a healthy appetite. They were growing and needed good feeding to stay healthy.

  Milly and David were having coffee when Jeff told them that he had something important to tell them. He told them that he and Linda were going to be married. He said, “She will be my wife.”

  Milly told him that was fine with her, “But I don’t think you two are old enough to get married just yet, son.”

  “That’s alright. We will wait and get married as soon as we can,” he assured her.

  Linda asked Milly, “Are you and my dad going to get married?”

  Milly replied, “I don’t know, Linda. I haven’t been asked yet.”

  “You better ask soon, Daddy. Okay?” Linda told her daddy.

  “Honey, just go and play now,” he told his daughter. “Soon you will be going to school, and then you have to study.”

  “Where is school?” she asked.

  “It’s in town, honey. Both of you will go to school together,” Milly told her.

  “That’s alright, Daddy.”

  The next day they went to the big farm next to them and Milly introduced David and little Linda to everyone. They were going to town from there, so they made sure to bring a gun just in case they ran in to some bandits. Milly grabbed her Henry.

  “Has this happened before?” David asked.

  “Yes, a couple of times,” Milly replied.

  The sheriff was on his way out to see Milly. He wanted to know if she had a stud horse because he had a mare that he wanted bred. On their way into town, Milly and David found the sheriff lying in the middle of the road. They stopped and checked on him. He had been shot in the shoulder. They loaded him up in their buckboard and headed for the doctor in town. They left the sheriff with the doctor and went to tell the deputy at the jail that the sheriff was with the doctor. The deputy and the judge both headed to the doctor’s.

  Milly and David went to the store and left a big order, as well as an order for the house in town, one for the priest and the orphans, and one for the new farmhouse. They didn’t order f
lour, and figured they could get some from the mill, along with some cornmeal as well. It would be little cheaper.

  On the way home, they went on the main road and met up with two bandits leading three horses. One of the horses was the sheriff’s. David was driving the buckboard and Milly told him, “Bandits.” They split and Milly lifted her Henry and shot the man on her side; he fell from his horse. David Shot the man that was telling them to stop and he fell from his horse. The six horses just stood there and David jumped off and started to tie the horses in the back. Two of the horses were U.S. branded, with army saddles. They had four more in the back that were not branded. They were probably heading for Ohio. They went through the bandit’s pockets and found a lot of money, both of them had a money belt. David got a nice new hat. All of the guns went in the buckboard.

  When they got home, they unsaddled the three horses and put them in the corral. Milly asked David to take the two U.S. branded horses and the sheriff’s horse in to town and leave them at the jail. He did what she asked and the sheriff was happy that his horse was back. The judge took the two U.S. horses home to work with. Milly wrote a letter to the U.S. Marshal stating that they took two U.S. horses in to the sheriff and the judge took them home with him to work. She explained to the marshal that the horses had been taken from two dead bandits. She sent the letter off to the marshal.

  After receiving Milly’s letter, the U.S. Marshal sent out a sergeant and a corporal to pick up the U.S. horses who found that the judge was not only in possession of the two horses Milly had written him about, but also another two U.S. branded horses, four in total. The marshall had the judge arrested for holding U.S. horses and not turning them in immediately. The law applied to everyone, even judges. Milly got a thank you letter from the army.