The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer
Page 15
CHAPTER XIV
THE SURVEYORS
The entire Little Crow reservation consisted of about two million acresof land, four-fifths of which was unopened and lay west of MegoryCounty. Of the two million acres, perhaps one million, five hundredthousand ranged from fair to the richest of loam soil, underlaid withclay. The climatic condition is such that all kinds of crops grown inthe central west, can be grown here. Two hundred miles north, corn willnot mature; two hundred miles south, spring wheat is not grown; twohundred west, the altitude is too high to insure sufficient rainfall toproduce a crop; but the reservation lands are in such a position thatwinter wheat, spring wheat, oats, rye, corn, flax, and barley do well.Ever since the drouth of '94, all crops had thrived, the rainfall beingabundant, and continuing so during the first year of settlement.Oristown and other towns on the route of the railroad had waited twentyyears for the extension, and now the citizens of Oristown estimated itwould be at least ten years before it extended its line through thereservation; while the settlers, to the number of some eight thousand,hoped they would get the road in five years. However, no sleep was lostin anticipation. The nearest the reservation came to getting a railroadthat summer was by the way of a newspaper in Megory, whose editor spentmost of his time building roads into Megory from the north, south, andthe east. In reality, the C. & R.W. was the only road likely to run tothe reservation, and all the towns depended on its extension to overcomethe long, burdensome freighting with teams.
With all the country's local advantages, its geographical location wassuch as to exclude roads from all directions except the one taken by theC. & R.W. To the south lay nine million acres of worthless sand hills,through which it would require an enormous sum of money to build a road.Even then there would be miles of track which would practically pay nointerest on the investment. At that time there was no railroad extendingthe full length of the state from east to west, most lines stopping ator near the Missouri River. Since then two or three lines have beenbuilt into the western part of the state; but they experienced muchdifficulty in crossing the river, owing to the soft bottom, which inmany places would not support a modern steel bridge. For from one to twomonths in the spring, floating ice gives a great deal of trouble andwreaks disaster to the pontoon.
A bird's eye view of the Little Crow shows it to look something like abottle, the neck being the Missouri River, with the C. & R.W. trackscreeping along its west bank. This is the only feasible route to theReservation and the directors of this road were fully aware of theiradvantageous position. The freight rates from Omaha to Oristown (adistance of two hundred and fifty miles) being as high as from Omaha toChicago, a distance of five hundred miles.
But getting back to the settlers around and in the little towns on theLittle Crow. The first thing to be considered in the extension was, thatthe route it took would naturally determine the future of the towns.Hedrick, Kirk, and Megory were government townsites, strung in anorthwesterly direction across the country, ranging from eight tofifteen miles apart, the last being about five miles and a half east ofthe west line of the county. Now the county on the west was expected tobe thrown open to settlement soon, would likely be opened under thelottery system, as was Megory county. After matters had settled thisbegan to be discussed, particularly by the citizens of Megory, five andone-half miles from the Tipp County line. This placed Megory in the sameposition to handle the crowds coming into the next county, as Oristownhad for Megory County, excepting Megory would have an advantage, forTipp County was twice as large as Megory. When this was all considered,the people of Megory began to boost the town on the prospects of afuture boom. The only uncertain feature of the matter then to beconsidered was which way the road would extend. That was where the rubcame in, which way would the road go? This became a source of continualworry and speculation on the part of the towns, and the men who feltinclined to put money into the towns in the way of larger, better, andmore commodious buildings; but when they were encouraged to do so, therewas always the bogy "if." If the railroad should miss us, well, the manowning the big buildings was "stung," that was all, while the man withthe shack could load it on two or four wagons, and with a few goodhorses, land his building in the town the railroad struck or started.This was, and is yet, one of the big reasons shacks are so numerous in atown in a new country, which expects a road but knows not which way itwill come; and the officials of the C. & R.W. were no different from thedirectors of any other road. They were "mum" as dummies. They wouldn'ttell whether the road would ever extend or not.
The Oristown citizens claimed it was at one time in the same uncertaintyas the towns to the west, and for some fifteen or twenty years it hadwaited for the road. With the road stopping at Oristown, they argued, itwould be fully ten years before it left, and during this time it couldbe seen, Oristown would grow into an important prairie city, as itshould. Everything must be hauled into Oristown, as well as out. So itcan be seen that Oristown would naturally boom. While nothing had beenraised to the west to ship out, as yet, still there was a growingpopulation on the reservation and thousands of carloads of freight andexpress were being hauled into and from Oristown monthly, for thesettlers on the reservation; which filled the town with railroad men andfreighters. Crops had been good, and every thing was going alongsmoothly for the citizens and property owners of Oristown. Not a cloudon her sky of prosperity, and as the trite saying goes: "Everything waslovely, and the goose hung high," during the first year of settlement onthe Little Crow.
And now lest we forget Calias. Calias was located one and one-half mileseast, and three miles south of Megory, and five miles straight west ofKirk. If the C. & R.W. extending its line west, should strike all thegovernment townsites, as was claimed by people in these towns, who knewnothing about it, and Calias, it would have run from Kirk to Megory in avery unusual direction. Indeed, it would have been following the sectionlines and it is common knowledge even to the most ignorant, thatrailroads do not follow section lines unless the section lines aredirectly in its path. If the railroad struck Kirk and Megory, it was acinch it would miss Calias. If it struck Calias, perched on the banks ofthe Monca Creek, the route the Nicholsons, as promoters of the town,claimed it would take; the road would miss all the towns but Calias.This would have meant glory and a fortune for the promotors and lotholders of the town. It would also have meant that my farm, or at leasta part of it, would in time be sold for town lots.
After I got so badly overreached in dealing in horses, for a time theopinion was general that the solitary negro from the plush cushions of aP----n would soon see that growing up with a new country was not to hisliking, and would be glad to sell at any old figure and "beat it" backto more ease and comfort. This is largely the opinion of most of thewhite people, regarding the negro, and they are not entirely wrong intheir opinion. I was quite well aware that such an opinion existed, butcontrary to expectations, I rather appreciated it. When I broke out onehundred and twenty acres with such an outfit as I had, as against manyother real farmers who had not broken over forty acres, with goodhorses and their knowledge of breaking prairie, acquired in states theyhad come from, I began to be regarded in a different light. At first Iwas regarded as an object of curiosity, which changed to appreciation,and later admiration. I was not called a free-go-easy coon, but agenuine booster for Calias and the Little Crow. I never spent a lonesomeday after that.
The Nicholson Brothers, however, gave the settlers no rest, and createdanother sensation of railroad building by their new contention that therailroad would not be extended from Oristown, but that it would be builtfrom a place on the Monca bottom two stations below Oristown, where thetrack climbed a four per cent grade to Fairview, then on to Oristown.They offered as proof of their contention that the C. & R.W. maintainedconsiderable yardage there, and it does yet. Why it did, people did notknow, and this kept everybody guessing. Some claimed it would go up theMonca Valley, as Nicholson claimed. This much can be said in favor ofthe Nicholsons, they were good boosters, or "big liars,"
as their rivalscalled them, and if one listened long and diligently enough they wouldhave him imagine he could hear the exhaust of a big locomotive coming upthe Monca Valley. While the people in the government townsites persistedloudly that the C. & R.W. had contracted with the government before thetowns were located, to strike these three towns, and that the governmenthad helped to locate them; that furthermore, the railroad would neverhave left the Monca Valley, which it followed for some twenty milesafter leaving the banks of the Missouri. All of which soundedreasonable enough, but the government and the railroad had entered intono agreement whatever, and the people in the government towns knew it,and were uneasy.
I had been on my claim just about a year, when one day RattlesnakeJack's father came from his home on the Jim River and sold me herhomestead for three thousand dollars. My dreams were at last realized,and I had become the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of land;but my money was now gone, when I had paid the one thousand, fivehundred dollars down on the Rattlesnake Jack place, giving her back amortgage for the remaining one thousand, five hundred at seven per centinterest, and it was a good thing I did, too. I bought the place earlyin April and in June the Interior Department rejected the proof she hadoffered the November before, on account of lack of sufficient residenceand cultivation. The proof had been accepted by the local land office,and a final receipt for the remaining installments of the purchaseprice, amounting to four hundred and eighty dollars, was issued. A finalreceipt is considered to be equivalent to a patent or deed, but whenRattlesnake Jack's proof of residence got to the General Land Office inWashington, in quest of a patent, the commissioner looked it over,figured up the time she actually put in on the place, and rejected theproof, with the statement that it only showed about six month's actualresidence. At that time eight month's residence was required, with sixmonths within which to establish residence; but no proof could beaccepted until after the claimant had shown eight month's actual andcontinuous residence.
From the time the settlers began to commute or prove up on the LittleCrow, all proofs which did not show fully eight month's residence, wererejected. This was done mostly by the Register and Receiver of the LocalLand Office, and many were sent back on their claims to stay longer.Many proofs were also taken by local U.S. Commissioners, County Judges,and Clerks of Courts, but these officers rarely rejected them, for by sodoing they also rejected a four dollar and twenty-five cent fee. Aboutone-third of the persons who offered proof at that time had them turneddown at the Local Land Office. This gave the local Commissioners, CountyJudges, and Clerks of Courts, a chance to collect twice for the samework. It may be interesting to know that a greater percentage of proofsrejected were those offered by women. This was perhaps not due to thefact that the ladies did not stay on their claims, so much as it wasconscientiousness. They could not make a forcible showing by saying thatthey had been there every night, like the men would claim, but would sayinstead that they had stayed all night with Miss So-and-So this time andwith another that time, and by including a few weeks' visit at home orsomewhere else, they would bungle their proofs, so they were compelledto try again.
A short time after this and evidently because so many proofs had beensent back, the Interior Department made it compulsory for the claimantto put in fourteen months' actual residence on the claim, before hecould offer proof. With fourteen months, they were sure to stay a fulleight months at least. This system has been very successful.
When Rattlesnake Jack was ordered back, after selling me the place, shewanted me to sign a quit claim deed to her and accept notes for themoney I had paid, which might have been satisfactory had it not beenthat she thought I had stopped to look back and failed to see the rushof progress the Little Crow was making; that the long anticipated newshad been spread, and was now raging like a veritable prairie fire, andstirred the people of the Little Crow as much as an active stock marketstirs the bulls on the stock exchange. The report spread and stirred theeveryday routine of the settlers and the finality of humdrum andinactivity was abrupt. It came one day in early April. The rain had keptthe farmers from the fields a week. It had been raining for nearly amonth, and we only got a clear day once in a while. This day it wassloppy without, and many farmers were in from the country. We were alllistening to a funny story Ernest Nicholson was telling, and "goodfellows" were listening attentively. Dr. Salter, a physician, had justbeen laid on a couch in the back room of the saloon, "soused to thegills," when in the door John M. Keely, a sort of ne'er do well populardrummer, whose proof had been rejected some time before, and who hadcome back to stay "a while longer", stumbled into the door of the localgroggery. He was greeted with sallies and calls of welcome, and likemany of the others, he was "feeling good." He sort of leaned over, andhiccoughing during the intervals, started "I've," the words were spokenchokingly, "got news for you." He had by now got inside and was hangingand swinging at the same time, to the bar. Then before finishing what hestarted, called "Tom," to the bar tender, "give me a whiskey before I",and here he leaned over and sang the words "tell the boys the news.""For the love of Jesus Keel" exclaimed the crowd in chorus "tell us whatyou know." He drained the glass at a gulp and finally spit it out. "Thesurveyors are in Oristown."