by Terry Grosz
After a few moments of blowing across the lip of his coffee cup before he took a sip, Old Potts said nothing in return to Iron Hand’s question. Then he said, “I ain’t never had a family other than what I now have here in Big Foot, Crooked Hand and you. So I don’t know how to factor in a kid any too well. However, I think I know what you are feeling and I think I understand. That being said, what do you plan to do about what you are now facing?”
“I think I would like to take my share of the furs to St. Louis and sell them. Then I would like to go to Astor’s fur house in St. Louis, take my share of the fur money I have coming to me from our previous years’ trappings, build myself several keelboats, and go into the freighting of provisions business up and down the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. I say do that because I think with this frontier opening up, there would be a good business opportunity to be had in shipping provisions upriver to the likes of you and the boys, not to mention any other pioneers who want to come up here and settle in this vast, resource-rich wilderness. Plus, before I left St. Louis several years ago and hooked up with you and the boys, I heard tell of a steam-powered boat being invented called a ‘steamboat’ that could soon drive itself upriver with a set of sternwheel or sidewheel paddles. When that happens, that will open up the west and I would like to be a part of that history,” said Iron Hand, with just a tinge of excitement over what he figured could be happening in the future.
“I knew it! That be that military training you got back at that Army academy years back. I just figured you having that faraway look these last few days might be because of that,” said Old Potts with a grin of realization. “Well, if that be the case, I say you and White Eagle go for it!” Then after another pause to blow on his coffee to cool it down some more, he said, “If you two go off and do that, we could pick up Otis Barnes as your fill in. He is a damn good and frontier-steady man, and would fit in with our bunch like some of that homemade jam I am going to have on one of your biscuits this morning, if you would just get them out from that ‘Dutch’ and serve them,” said Old Potts with a big grin.
Then he got a frown on his face and said, “How you be going to do all of that? I mean, going all that way back to St. Louis through some mean-assed Arikara Indian country and damn hostile ‘war-hoops’ at that?”
“The way I figure it, I can join up with some other trappers who want to go back to St. Louis in order to sell their furs for a better price and in a larger group for the protection that offers. With a group like that, we could fight off or bluff our way home to St. Louis,” said Iron Hand.
About then Iron Hand became aware the Dent brothers, Big Foot, Otis and Crooked Hand had been quietly listening to the entire conversation with Old Potts from the front of their nearby lean-tos.
“Well, the cat is now out of the bag,” said Old Potts with a shake of his head. “So, I guess it is time for some Iron Hand special biscuits with some of that homemade jam slathered all over them that we picked up the other day at the fort’s warehouse. What do you say? Then all of us can talk it over since we are all ‘family’ here.”
During breakfast and afterwards, Iron Hand discussed his feelings and hoped-for plans with his fellow group of trappers. They were understandably sorry to contemplate the loss of one of their own but also understood fully why Iron Hand felt the way he did. They also included Otis in their conversations because he had indicated an interest in further trapping and seeing some more country, versus running with the Dent brothers trying to locate and kill Black Bill Jenkins and the rest of his killing clan. Finally, it was decided to bring Otis into their group of trappers, provision up for the four of them for another trapping season, and then the original group of Old Potts’s trappers right out of the blue came up with a surprise deal for Iron Hand to consider.
Old Potts and his group of trappers realized they had more than enough credit with McKenzie from past years of trapping successes to carry them on for as long as they wished to remain on the frontier trapping. As such, Old Potts, Big Foot and Crooked Hand suggested that Iron Hand and White Eagle take all of the year’s trappings as a stake in any business deal he wished to get involved in back at St. Louis. However, if he got into supplying the Missouri River trading posts with goods from St. Louis with the boats he wished to buy, he was to bring up the essential supplies they would need for each trapping season for his old crew at the St. Louis prices. Additionally if they wished to get out of the trapping business sometime later, he would give all of them a free ride back to St. Louis. Lastly, the three original trappers from Old Potts’s group wanted Iron Hand to take ALL of the money they had coming being held for them in the St. Louis fur house, and use it in his new business. That way if and when his former trapper friends returned to St. Louis, they would have some steady income derived from Iron Hand’s hopefully thriving supply business to comfortably retire on. Iron Hand could hardly believe what he was hearing from his friends, but seeing the wisdom and potential in their proposal, agreed to it.
Taking a big bite from one of Iron Hand’s still too-hot-to-eat biscuits and then chewing rapidly to avoid getting mouth-burned, Old Potts said, “Besides, it makes no difference in the long run how much money we all have back in St. Louis if we all get our topknots removed and left out on the prairie for the birds and wolves to pick at. If that be the case and God’s will, then you and that there boy can have it all.” With that statement out into the cool morning’s air, the rest of the trappers mouthed their approval as they too were now mouthing a piping hot biscuit slathered with rich strawberry jam recently purchased from the fort’s stores for a princely sum…
The next day, Old Potts and his group of trappers met with McKenzie and had him draw up the papers of credit from their previous year’s trappings that the American Fur Company owed them and signed all of the funding owed over to Iron Hand in proper document format. At McKenzie’s suggestion, $5,000 was left in his fort’s account in case the trapping market bellied up, leaving Old Potts, Big Foot and Crooked Hand up high and dry when it came to having any funds to fall back upon so they could continue making a living.
That settled, the entire crew plus their new partner, Otis Barnes, went shopping for those provisions the four new partners would need for the coming trapping season. Additionally, it was decided by the new group that they would return to their previous trapping grounds up on the Porcupine since they already had a well-built cabin for all the men, their provisions and fur storage. Following the end of their shopping for those needed provisions, several crocks of rum were brought back to their camp, and while Iron Hand put together another of his buffalo stew and biscuit dinners all to be topped off with an apple cobbler, the rum flowed freely among the men.
However, the trappers had no more than sat down to their supper, when the Dent brothers returned to camp in an excited mood. They had word from several Free Trappers who had been trapping in the Medicine Lake area that they had run across four individuals fitting Black Bill Jenkins and his three red-headed brothers’ descriptions! As such, they requested help in getting together all their needed provisions the next day and the day following that endeavor, they would leave the fort for the Medicine Lake country in their quest to run Black Bill and his kin down, and kill the lot for killing their parents, uncle and aunt several years earlier back in Missouri.
Two days later, the Dent brothers left Fort Union en route to the Medicine Lake area on the hunt for Black Bill and his kin. But not before all of the men pitched in and cast up a small mountain of pistol and rifle balls in case the Dents ran into some kind of killing grounds that needed a lot of flying lead in order to make their way through it… Little did Iron Hand realize that he would, almost a year later, run across the Dent brothers’ six beautifully matched buckskins in an unlikely place and under unlikely circumstances. Additionally, little did Iron Hand and White Eagle realize what would be the ramifications of that unlikely meeting taking place along the shores of the Missouri River with a sizeable force of Arikara Indians, se
veral kegs of rum and a handful of swivel guns.
Two days later, word had gotten out around the fort that Iron Hand and White Eagle would be taking a year’s worth of fur trappings via pack string down to St. Louis for sale. Come nightfall that same day, four Free Trappers rode into Old Potts’s camp, dismounted and asked if this was the campsite of one Free Trapper named Iron Hand. Iron Hand, cooking around the firepit, allowed that he was Iron Hand and what could he do to help them. The four men exchanged handshakes and then one man named “Adam York” said, “It’s not what you can do for us but what we four can do for you. We had planned on going to St. Louis so we could get a better price for our furs as well and then getting out of the trapping business altogether, take our proceeds, buy a farm and go back to farming for a living. If you would care to join us, from what we hear you are a good man to have around, especially with that Hawken you are carrying. We really could use the extra firepower going through all that Indian country we must travel through to get to St. Louis, if you would care to oblige us. Care to join us, my friend?” he asked.
That evening, Old Potts’s group and the Brothers York had supper together and feasted on buffalo steaks, Dutch oven biscuits and apple cobbler. During that meal, the men planning on making the long trip to St. Louis with their plus, got to know one another fairly well. In just that short period of time over supper, it became apparent that the York brothers were good men and had been very successful trappers. With the men travelling down the Missouri River and through deadly Arikara, or Sahnish, Indian country with extra shooters, made a lot of sense because now there would now be five shooters and a boy to defend the fur train heading south. That evening over several cups of rum, it was decided that the Brothers York and Iron Hand would join forces and see if they could safely force their ways south through Indian country all the way to St. Louis, and keep their furs and ‘topknots’ in place while doing so.
That bit of good luck was followed with even more before the five men could finalize their plans. Two more Free Trappers wanting to head south to St. Louis to sell their furs had heard that the Yorks were going to do so as well. The next day, all of the men met and found that they were agreeable in timing and temperament to make a trip to St. Louis, thereby allowing the formation of an even larger group of now seven shooters and a young Indian boy learning to shoot as well. With that kind of firepower, most wandering groups of hostile Indians encountered would hopefully think twice before making any kind of a frontal assault on such a well-armed band of determined fur trappers. However, any kind of a night attack instituted against the seven trappers by a superior force would understandably be a ‘horse of another color’…
The next day, Iron Hand and White Eagle provisioned up for the several months’ long and dangerous trip to St. Louis. Then as a precaution, Iron Hand had all their horses re-shod by the fort’s blacksmiths and purchased extra shoes, files, nails and picks as well. Then Iron Hand taught White Eagle how to cast a small mountain of bullets for their rifles and pistols around their campfire after supper had been served and eaten. Following that, a trip the next day was made to the fort’s warehouse storing their gunpowder, and several kegs of fresh powder were procured for the trip as well. Wanting to eat well on their trip to St. Louis, Iron Hand made a trip to the fort’s cast-iron portion of their warehouse and purchased several Dutch ovens and three three-legged frying pans. Now they were finally ready to begin a rather long and dangerous trip south to St. Louis, the frontier capital of the known west.
Typical of Old Potts, he once again got antsy to be on his way back to their cabin on the Porcupine once he saw Iron Hand getting ready to leave for St. Louis. Well, that and the fact of the loneliness he would soon be feeling, being without a very dear friend and excellent trapper, namely Iron Hand, as a member of his party, fired up his ‘traveling-moccasins’. Two days later, Old Potts, Big Foot, Crooked Hand and Otis ‘Otie’ Barnes said good bye and wished each other well when it came to ‘keeping one’s hair’.
Iron Hand stood on the fort’s walls watching his dear friends and ‘frontier family’ as they finally disappeared off into the wilderness. He really felt a twinge of guilt for letting his friends leave without him, then caught himself with the realization he was about to make a new life for himself and a young Indian boy who had nobody but him going for him. Besides, The Great Spirit had willed such a venture, it was now about to happen, and it was not nice to piss off The Great Spirit.
Two days later, the York brothers--Adam, Arnold, Andrew and Alexander, Jim Tweedle and Robert Caster, Iron Hand and White Eagle assisted the fort’s personnel as they ferried all the men’s furs, provisions and horses across the Missouri River to its eastern side. However, during that operation, Iron Hand took out some time to discuss his future keelboat plans that had been spinning around in his head with his good friend McKenzie. Upon hearing Iron Hand’s keelboat upriver shipping plans, McKenzie told Iron Hand that any and all goods he could bring upriver to Fort Union, he would purchase the same at fair prices. Upon that the two good friends agreed, and then Iron Hand got back to his duties of transferring his goods across the river for the trip to St. Louis. Those endeavors took the entire day, so the men camped on the far side of the river that night, exhausted from all the work getting across the river safely but typical of the men of the day, happy to be off on another dangerous adventure.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE BROTHERS YORK, THE ARIKARA, WHITE EAGLE COMES OF AGE, IRON HAND, AND ST. LOUIS
The next morning way before daylight, Iron Hand, now the designated camp cook, was into making biscuit dough and staking venison steaks over the campfire. As he continued making breakfast, the Brothers York, White Eagle, Robert Caster and Jim Tweedle saddled all their riding horses and packed their pack animals for the day’s long travels to the south.
“Breakfast is ready,” yelled Iron Hand, as he set his biscuit making Dutch ovens off the coals, so the biscuits would not burn and would be ready to serve once the men arrived to eat. With the rush of hungry men, Iron Hand quickly realized that when he cooked in the future, he had better have lots of chow handy because from the actions of his fellow trappers that morning, he had a mess of ‘chow hounds’ in camp with ‘no bottoms in their bellies’!
Soon, the only sounds coming from that trappers’ camp were the sounds of happy men making ‘merry’ over a frontier meal served piping hot and with lots of it to go around. In fact, the deer killed the night before by Adam York had its entire hindquarters and back straps consumed by those seven hungry men and one Indian boy, along with two Dutch ovens full of biscuits! Following breakfast, the camp clean-up and finishing with the stock, the men found themselves ready to leave the Missouri River headwaters area and proceed southerly along the river through Indian Territory towards St. Louis.
For the following week, the trappers followed the Missouri River east-southeasterly as they and their animals settled into their daily traveling routine. As they did, they passed vast herds of elk, buffalo and antelope, usually killing one of those animals in the afternoon for their supper meal that evening. Then as Iron Hand and White Eagle processed the most recently killed animal and set up their camp, the rest of the men unpacked and unsaddled their livestock, curried them down, hobbled and let them out to water and graze. After supper and right at dusk, the men brought their livestock back into camp for the evening and taking turns, one man kept the campfire going all night and an eye on their valuable animals since they were now deep in hostile Indian country.
Then come the following morning, Iron Hand and White Eagle tended to the making of breakfast and the rest of the camp’s cooking duties, while the rest of the men checked their pack animals over to make sure they weren’t getting ‘sored’ up over being improperly packed, and let them out to graze and water once again. Once breakfast was served, the men quickly ate their meal and gulped down their trapper’s coffee, then began packing their animals once again for the day’s daylight-to-dusk journey. As they did, Iron Hand and White Eagle
cleaned up and packed their camp’s cooking and sleeping items, and then began saddling all the men’s horses for the day’s travels. Thus began the daily regimen for the next several months as the men finally turned almost due south as they followed the mighty Missouri across the vastness of the living prairie.
After several weeks of travel, the trappers found themselves in the vicinity of the Cannonball River where it entered the Missouri River from the west. Skirting a large herd of buffalo, Arnold York shot and killed a cow buffalo for their supper that evening. While the rest of the men stopped their travels, let their stock graze and waited, Jim Tweedle and Robert Caster quickly removed large portions of meat from the animal’s hindquarters and its back straps. When the men were finished with the butchering process, they left the remains of the animal for the wolves, magpies and ravens. With that meat loaded up on top of several sturdier pack animals, the men made for a stand of nearby cottonwood trees in order to make their evening camp. That evening as the men made camp, Adam and Andrew York took all their pack and riding animals hobbled as they were, and watched over them as they grazed throughout the nearby adjacent river bottoms. As they did, Iron Hand and White Eagle prepared their campsite, started a fire and made ready their evening meal. That was when the two York brothers brought the horse herd into camp earlier than they normally did.
