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The next year we concentrated on breaking more ground and putting in more oats and corn.
That fall we had 30 beautiful geldings to sell. We took them to Leavenworth just to see if the army wanted them. They paid us 52 dollars apiece for them and wanted more. While we were there, we asked if they wanted any steers and they told us that they would pay us 20 dollars for steers that were 800 pounds or larger. We told them that we would bring them 20.
While we were taking the steers to the army, Luke and our Mexican helpers were getting ten more geldings ready. As soon as we got back, Luke took the ten geldings to Fort Leavenworth and got 55 dollars apiece for them. They were very pleased with our product. We took our time taking them the next ten and they paid us the same.
We took anything that did not rate as a calvary mount in to Independence. This included geldings and mares alike. We could also get 55 dollars apiece for the horses in Independence. We were starting to make some money again.
That next spring I went to St. Louis with Betty again. When we got home, I asked Luke to go back to Kentucky and find us a good thoroughbred stud prospect. He left and two months later came back with a beautiful two-year-old horse. I was very happy with his purchase. Cindy got to visit her folks again too.
The following year our boys would be turning six and we knew that they needed to get some schooling. We decided to buy a house in Independence and our wives would take turns staying with the kids during the school year season. Luke and I would ride in on weekends and visit and then head back to the ranch during the week. The house we bought had stables in the back and we kept a couple of horses in town so that the girls could ride around in the buckboard.
Close to the end of the school year, Cindy was staying in town with the boys and got very sick. She sent young Paul for the doctor. The doctor gave her some powder to help her, but it made her quite groggy and out of sorts. After the doctor left, there was a knock at the door. Young Luke opened the door and there stood a tall man wearing spurs like his father wore on his boots. Luke asked the man what he wanted. The man told him that he was a Texan who had come upriver looking for work.
The man told young Luke, “I was told that your folks have a ranch and that I might be able to get some work.”
Young Luke then asked the man, “Are you hungry?”
“Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve had much of anything to eat,” the man replied.
Young Luke then told the man, “You’re hired,” and the man smiled at him.
Luke then got six eggs out and fried them up. He put some bread on the table and a plate. He put the eggs on the plate and then told the man, “Dig in.”
After the Texan finished eating, Luke told him to go to Livery stable and ask for Floyd. He said, “Tell him that young Luke Nagyváradi hired you as a rider and sent you to borrow a saddle. Then come back here.”
Tex didn’t know what to think, but the food sure hit the spot. When he had finished eating, he went to see Floyd. He told Floyd that young Luke Nagyváradi had sent him to borrow a saddle. Floyd told him, “There are six of them over there. Take the one you want.”
When the man got back to the house, young Luke had a gelding tied up out front and he was outside waiting for him. He told the man, “Saddle up.” Then he told the man how to get to the ranch. He said, “You ride out of town on this road for about four hours than cross a creek. After you cross it, you’ll stay on that road until you come to the Kansas River, about two hours later. Cross the river and then turn left. You’ll stay with the river until you see a trail. Take that trail and it will take you to our ranch. When you get there, ask for Paul or Luke. Luke is my dad. Tell them that I hired you. Also, tell my dad that my mother is very sick and he needs to come be with her.”
Tex got on the horse and rode out. It was probably the best horse he had ever ridden. It was getting dark when he crossed the river. The horse turned on its own and started to pick up speed. Mile after mile he continued to ride. He then noticed a light in the distance. The horse began to run even faster and rode toward the ranch. He was almost to the ranch when the light went out. He then took out his gun and fired two shots in the air. The light quickly turned back on. The moon was out so he let the horse lead the way. He rode into the yard and Luke and I were standing outside waiting for him. He told us, “Young Luke Nagyváradi hired me to be a rider. He also sent me to tell his father, big Luke, that his wife is sick.”
The two Mexicans came out of the bunkhouse and I told them to saddle up two horses. Tex then told us that his saddle had been borrowed from Floyd. Luke told Pedro in Spanish, “Take the saddle of his horse and put it on one of the other horses. We need to take that saddle back to Floyd.”
The Texan asked Pedro where he could put his horse. Pedro told him to follow him and they unsaddled the gelding and put him in a small stall. Pedro then gave the horse some corn and some hay.
The Texan came back over to Luke and I. We asked him if he was hungry and he stated that he was. We told him to come with us and we went to get him something to eat. Luke asked him, “So what do we call you?”
“Just call me Tex. That’s what all of my friends call me,” he replied.
Betty came in and started to fry him up a huge steak. I then asked him, “Who was it that hired you?”
“A young fellow by the name of Luke in Independence,” Tex answered. “He said that I could have a riding job.”
“Well, that’s good enough for me. Young Luke usually knows who to hire,” I agreed.
Betty started laughing but didn’t say anything. Luke came into the kitchen carrying his saddlebag. He got a cup of coffee and refilled Tex’s cup too. He asked Tex, “Did you ride straight through?”
“Yes, I did,” Tex replied.
Luke then said, “Well, I am off. Send someone for me if I’m not back in two days.”
Betty told him, “I am leaving for Independence in the morning. Sampson will take me in the wagon.”
Tex finished up and thanked Betty for cooking him such a fine meal.
I told Tex, “One of those Mexicans can direct you to a bunk. Don’t bother starting in the morning. You’ve had a long ride; rest up some.”
“I never miss breakfast, it’s part of my pay,” Tex replied.
He trooped outside and spoke to the Mexicans in Spanish and one of them directed him to the bunkhouse. Tex found a big pile of blankets and took three of them to his bunk. He kicked his boots off and went to sleep. When the Mexicans came in to go to sleep, Tex was asleep with his gun next to his hand.
The next morning Tex got up when he heard the rooster crow. He stretched, put on his boots and hat. He then put on his gun belt and put his pistol in the holster. The Mexicans got up too. Tex asked Pedro where the coffee was. Pedro told him, “Follow me, Tex.” They went back to the kitchen and a big black woman was cooking some beans, bacon, steak, and potatoes. A little black girl came up to Tex and asked him, “What do you want?”
Tex told her, “You just fill that plate up, honey. If you want to see a miracle, I will show you how I make the food disappear.”
One of our Indian friends came in and sat next to me. The little girl filled up a plate and took it to him. He smiled at the girl and started eating. Some black men came and sat down just like they were white folks. Tex had never seen that before. He told the cook, “The food is real good.”
I then said, “Sampson, I need you to take Betty in to town. Blue, help him hitch up and then you take the wagon with the wire on it and then get back to your fencing.”
Blue said, “Yes sir, Master Paul.”
I then stated, “Jose, Pedro, and Tex, you three will work with the new geldings.”
“Yes sir, boss,” Tex replied.
That night when we all met for supper, I asked Tex what he thought of the place. Tex answered, “Hell, this is a horseman’s paradise.”
The next day when Sampson came back from taking Betty to Independence he brought back sad news; Cindy was gone. I saddled up our black gelding and rode in to town. I knew how much Luke loved her and I wanted to be there for my brother.
The following morning we buried her. After the funeral, we all rode out to the ranch. It took us a while to get over the loss of Cindy, and I wasn’t sure if Luke would ever get over losing her. But the work had to go on.
That same year, a neighbor ten miles away wanted to sell his place and so we bought him out. He had some cattle, so we took our cattle over to his place and ran the two herds as one. Slowly we acquired all of the land between the two places. Our cattle herd kept growing. We supplied the army at Fort Leavenworth with all of their beef and horse needs.
Slowly all of the mares we bought to start our operation were gone. They had been paired up with new geldings and most likely ended up in Oregon.
We had to hire more and more help. Tex became our foreman. He handled the cattle and Luke and I still handled the horses.
Jerimiah still came by every year, but he no longer brought us horses. He couldn’t find better horses than the ones we already had.
13
In 1861 the Civil War broke out. Our boys were 11 years old at the time. Luke decided that one of us should go and fight, so he volunteered. He went with a steamer to St. Louis and asked for a commission. He got a hearing with a Colonel Decker. He told Decker about being a Hussar captain in the 1848 war in Hungary and that was a company commander. He also told him that he had received the highest decoration that a soldier could receive in Hungary. Decker gave him a pass to stay in the Riverview Hotel and told him that he would contact him as soon as his commission came through. He was there for three days when he received a temporary commission as a lieutenant colonel that had been signed by a General Freeman. He was assigned to an Illinois Horse Regiment as its operations officer. It took him less than a month to move up to deputy commander. His commanding officer, Colonel Lowe, was a West Point man. In less than a year Colonel Lowe was promoted to bridge general. Luke got the regiment in 1864 when Sheridan picked Luke for bridge general and put him on his staff. His commission was signed by President Lincoln.
Back home in Kansas the horse and cattle business was booming. The main buyer of our horses and cattle was the army. They were basically buying up everything with four legs and paid top dollar.
Our two boys were now working with the cowboys. They both loved Tex and he taught them every trick he knew. He also showed them how to throw a steer and the boys practiced every chance they got. They started with the small steers and worked their way up to the big ones. They roped, branded, and rode anything big enough to carry them.
The ranch was real short on help, so I started selling off more stock to ease the pressure from all of us. Calvary grade geldings were bring 120 dollars green. We were getting extremely rich. I sold down to 600 head of cattle and kept only the young breeding stock.
When the war ended, Luke made his way home just in time for Christmas in 1865. I told him that he had earned a vacation, but Luke said that he had been alone for far too long and he missed his family. He was ready to get back in the swing of things so that he could get back to his normal life.
Luke had the chance to stay in the army with a demotion to lieutenant colonel. Most brig generals had been reduced to majors. Luke was highly decorated and accomplished a lot during his service. He was almost always on the fighting front. Grant wanted a very small army in place during peace time, but he only wanted the most experienced army in the world.
A week later a letter arrived from Hungary. Uncle John had informed us that our father was not well and hadn’t been for some time. He really wanted to see the two of us one last time.
I told Luke, “It looks like you will be going home to Hungary. Dad will be so proud of you and all of your accomplishments, so I want you to go first. When you come back, Betty and I will go.” Luke agreed that he would go and he would take our boys with him. It would be good for them.
We started making plans. They would go to New York by rail right after Christmas and then go by steamer to Paris, then by rail to Vienna. From Vienna, they would take a boat downriver to Budapest, then by rail to Debrecen, and from there go by carriage or horseback to our village. I asked Luke to return our swords to Hungary, and also asked him to try to return Van Stollen’s sword to him or to his family. We still had it with us. I also wanted to return the family ring back to Count Rukovsky, since his younger son was part of our family.
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It was just after New Year’s when they took the steamboat, Andrew Jackson, down to St. Louis where they boarded a train. It took them three days on the rails before they reached New York. They checked into a hotel and went to see the shipping agents to see how they could get to France. They got lucky and were able to book a passage on the S.S. France. She was departing from New York four days later. Luke was glad that he took the boys. They kept him company, but mostly kept him busy. They were both 15 now and were good-looking young men. Luke was very proud of them. They were typical western boys who didn’t let anything stand in their way.
It was a 14-day crossing to France. From there, they went to Paris. Here, Luke had a new pair of boots made for himself, along with a new jacket, but still wore his campaign hat. Under his jacket he had on his old Mexican officer’s belt with a cross drawn Holster. He carried a .36 Navy Colt in the holster and another in his pack. The boys each had on a black suit and when they left Paris Luke told them to wear the two swords as they were traveling home. The boys didn’t speak Hungarian except for a few simple phrases that they had picked up from their fathers. Luke had Van Stollen’s sword strapped to his suitcase. It was evident that Luke was some kind of military man, but only those that recognized his campaign hat knew who he had fought for. He also had on his Mexican spurs and the boys did too, but with smaller wheels. To say the three of them stood out in Paris was an understatement.
They boarded the train in Paris and sat in a first class car. Their seat was about two seatings wide with another seat of the same size facing them. The car filled up fast. Luke took the window seat. He then pulled his hat down over his eyes and started to doze off.
A lady and a girl about two years younger than the boys entered the car looking for a seat. They were heading towards the boys when young Luke jumped up and said to Paul, “Excuse me, Your Lordship,” and stepped out to help the ladies with their packs. The boys had been trying this lordship business out on each other and couldn’t wait for an opportunity to try it out on someone. Luke told the boys that in Hungary they would be addressed as that, and the boys got a kick out of it. After they thought about it for a minute, they both came to the conclusion that neither one of these ladies could speak English, so they just laughed. Just then, the young girl replied, “Thank you, Your Lordships,” and both boys laughed again. The ladies sat down across from them and young Paul almost tripped over the sword he was wearing.
The girl asked the boys, “Are you going to a war or something with those swords?”
Young Luke answered, “His Highness, The General, was trying to cut down on luggage so now we’re stuck wearing these silly things.”
The girl’s mother then smiled and asked, “How can His Highness, The General, sleep with all of this noise?”
The boys told her, “He can sleep through almost anything, unless it’s cannons going off. Then he wakes up and gets on his charger and God help the enemy.”
“He wears French boots, strange spurs, a strange belt with some kind of gun under his jacket, and some type of military hat. What army is he in?” asked the lady.
Young Luke answered saying, “He is no longer needed until the next war, so he told them that he was tired and came home. As to what army he was in, it was the American Union Army.”
The lady then asked, “So did you boys fight in t
he war too?”
Paul told her, “We offered our services but we were turned down.”
“Why on earth would they turn you down?” asked the lady.
“Because neither of us knew how to play a drum,” young Luke answered.
The girl laughed and her mother smiled. Paul then asked the lady where they were headed and she told them Vienna. The boys told her that they were stopping there for a while but were then going on to Hungary. He said, “Our family has a small estate there but we have never been. We were both born in America.”
Luke said, “While we’re in Vienna, my dad wants to see some Austrian general that he knows.”
The lady then asked, “Which one? I know practically all of them.”
Young Luke clapped his hands together close to his dad’s ear and Luke startled awake. He lifted his hat up and looked over at his son. Young Luke asked him, “What’s the name of that Austrian General you want to see in Vienna, Dad?”
“It’s General Van Stollen,” he said as he started to pull the hat back down over his eyes, but then suddenly noticed two sets of beautiful blue eyes looking at him. They were looking at the terrible saber scar on the left side of his face. He touched his scar and said, “I tripped and fell on my sword.”
“I believe that, Sir, if you say so, but on the other hand, I don’t think you’re the kind of man that would fall on his own sword,” the lady stated.
“What makes you say that, dear?”
“Well,” she said, “you don’t look like a phoney.”
Paul then asked the lady, “Do you know where General Van Stollen lives?”
“Why yes I do,” she replied.
Luke then told her, “We were so fortunate to have met you. We can get the directions we need from you.” He then caught himself looking into her lovely blue eyes and asked what her name was.
She said, “I am Lydia Van Linden and this is my daughter, Teresa.”
The Nagyvradi Brothers Page 12
