The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer

by Oscar Micheaux

  CHAPTER XXVIII

  THE BREEDS

  Here the story may have ended, that is, had I taken her to the minister,but as everybody had gone land crazy in Dakota and I had determined toown more land myself, I told her how I could buy a relinquishment andshe could file on it and then we would marry at once. Now when a youngman and a girl are in love and feel each other to be the world and allthat's in it, it is quite easy to plan, and Miss Rooks and I were noexception. Had we been in South Dakota instead of Southern Illinois, andhad it been the month of October instead of January, nine months before,we would have carried out our plans, but since it was January wemutually agreed to wait until the nine months had elapsed, but somethinghappened during that time which will be told in due time.

  I enjoyed feeling that I was at last engaged. It was positivelydelightful, and when I left the next morning to visit my parents inKansas, I was a very happy person. While visiting there, shootingjack-rabbits by day and boosting Dakota to the Jayhawkers half thenight, I'd write to Miss Rooks sometime during each twenty-four hours,and for a time received a letter as often. Two sisters were to begraduated from the high school the following June, and wanted to come toDakota in the fall and take up claims, but had no money to purchaserelinquishments. I agreed to mortgage my land and loan the money, butwhen all was arranged it was found one of them would not be old enoughin time, so my grandmother, who had always possessed a roving spirit,wanted to come and so it was settled.

  When I got back to Dakota and jumped into my spring work it was withunusual vigor and contemplation, and all went well for a while. Soon,however, I failed to hear from Jessie and began to feel a bit uneasy.When three weeks had passed and still no letter, I wrote again askingwhy she did not answer my letters. In due time I heard from her statingthat she had been afraid I didn't love her and that she had been told Iwas engaged to Daisy, and as Daisy would be the heir to the money andproperty of her parents she felt sure my marriage to Miss Hinshaw wouldbe more agreeable to me than would a marriage with her, who had only akind heart and willing mind to offer, so she had on the first day ofApril married one whom she felt was better suited to her impoverishedcondition.

  Now, what she had done was, in her effort to break off the prolongedcourtship of the little fellow referred to in the early part of thisstory (and who was still working for three dollars a week), she hadcommenced going with another--a cook forty-two years of age, and hadthought herself desperately in love with him at the time. I had not evenwritten to Miss Hinshaw and knew nothing whatever of any engagement. Iwas much downcast for a time, and like some others who have been jilted,I grew the least bit wicked in my thoughts, and felt she would not findlife all sunshine and roses with her forty-two-year-old groom. Lotsof excitement was on around Megory and Calias, and as I likedexcitement, I soon forgot the matter.

  Had put 280 acres under cultivation. (Page 153.)]

  With the location of the land office in Megory and its subsequentremoval from east of the Missouri, it was found there was only onebuilding in the town, outside of the banks, that contained a vault, anda vault being necessary, it became expedient for the commercial club toprovide an office that contained one. Two prosperous real-estatedealers, whose office contained a vault, readily turned over theirbuilding to the register and receiver until the land office building,then under construction, should be completed. A building twenty-five bysixty feet was built in the street just in front of the office, to beused as a temporary map room, and to be moved away as soon as the filingwas over.

  The holders of lucky numbers had been requested to appear at a givenhour on a certain day to offer filings on Tipp county claims. By thetime the filing had commenced, the hotels of both towns were filled, andtents covered all the vacant lots, while one hundred and fifty or moreautos, to be hired at twenty-five dollars per day, did a rushingbusiness. The settlers seemed to be possessed of abundant capital, anddeposits in the local banks increased out of all proportion to those ofprevious times.

  Besides the holders of numbers, hundreds of other settlers, who hadpurchased land in Megory county, were moving in at the same time,bringing stock, machinery, household goods and plenty of money. Thosewere bountiful days for the locators and land sharks.

  When Megory county opened for settlement a few years previous, it wasfound that the Indians had taken practically all their allotments alongthe streams, where wood and water were to be had. The most of theseallotments were on the Monca bottom below Old Calias. In fact, they hadtaken the entire valley that far up. The timber along the creek was verysmall, being stunted from many fires, and consisted mostly ofcottonwood, elm, box-elder, oak and ash. All but the oak and ash beingeasily susceptible to dry rot, were unfit for posts or anything exceptfor shade and firewood. This made the valley lands cheaper than theuplands.

  The Indians were always selling and are yet, what is furnished them bythe government, for all they can get. When given the money spends it asquickly as he possibly can, buying fine horses, buggies, whiskey, andwhat-not. Their only idea being that it is to spend. The Sioux Indians,in my opinion, are the wealthiest tribe. They owned at one time thelarger part of southern South Dakota and northern Nebraska, and own alot of it yet. Be it said, however, it is simply because the governmentwill not allow them to sell.

  The breeds near Old Calias were easily flattered, and when the whitepeople invited them to anything they always came dressed in greatregalia, but after the settlers came there was not much inter-marrying,such as there had been before. A family of mixed-bloods by the name ofCutschall, owned all the land just south of Old Calias, in fact thesite where Calias had stood, was formerly the allotment of a deceasedson. The father, known as old Tom Cutschall, was for years a landmark onthe creek.

  Now and then Nicholson Brothers had invited the Cutschalls to some oftheir social doings, which made the Cutschalls feel exalted, and higherstill, when Ernest suggested he could get them a patent for their landand then would buy it. This suited Cutschalls dandy. Ernest offeredseven thousand dollars for the section, and they accepted. At that time,by recommending the Indian to be a competent citizen and able to carefor himself, a patent would be granted on proper recommendation, andNicholson Brothers attended to that and got Mrs. Cutschall the patent.Tom, her husband, being a white man, could not be allotted, and she hadbeen given the section as the head of the family. It is said they spentthe seven thousand dollars in one year. The company of which the fatherof the Nicholson Brothers was president made a loan of eight thousanddollars on the land, and shortly afterward they sold it for twenty-threethousand dollars. The lots had brought more than one hundred thousanddollars in Calias and were still selling, so this placed the "WindyNicholsons," as they had been called by jealous Megoryites, in aposition of much importance, and they were by this time recognized asmen of no small ability.

  Years before Megory county was opened to settlement, many white men haddrifted onto the reservation and had engaged in ranching, and had inthe meantime married squaws. This appears to have been done more by theFrench than any other nationality, judging by the many French namesamong the mixed-bloods. Among these were a family by the name ofAmoureaux, consisting of four boys and several girls. The girls had allmarried white men, and the little while Old Calias was in existence, twoof the boys, William and George, used to go there often and wereentertained by the Nicholson Brothers with as much splendor as Caliascould afford. The Amoureaux were high moguls in Little Crow societyduring the first two years and everybody took off their hats to them.They were called the "rich mixed-bloods," and were engaged in ranchingand owned great herds in Tipp county. When they shipped it was by thetrainloads. The Amoureaux and the Colones, another family of wealthybreeds, were married to white women, and the husbands, as heads offamilies, held a section of land and the children each held one hundredand sixty acres.

  Before the Nicholson Brothers had left Old Calias and before they hadreached the position they now occupied, as I stated, they had shown theAmoureaux a "good time." They did not ha
ve much Indian blood in theirveins, being what are called quarter-breeds, having a French father anda half-blood Indian mother, and were all fine looking. George had sevenchildren and the family altogether had eleven quarter sections of landand two thousand head of cattle, so there was no reason why he shouldnot have been the "big chief," but so much society and paid-fornotoriety had brought about a change to him and his brother. William,who had always been a money-maker and a still bigger spender, with thefine looks thrown in, had shown like a skyrocket before bursting.

  A rich Indian is something worth associating with, but a poor one is ofsmall note. The Amoureaux spent so freely that in a few years they wereall in, down and out--had nothing but their allotments left, and thesethe government would not give patents to, the Colones had done likewise,and together they had all moved into Tipp county.

  Now there was another Amoureaux, the oldest one of the boys, who likethe others had "blowed his roll," but happened to have an allotment inthe very picturesque valley of the Dog Ear, in Tipp county, near thecenter of the county, and when a bunch of promoters decided to lay out atown they made a deal with Oliver, taking him into the company, hefurnishing the land and they the brains. They laid out the site andbegan the town, naming it "Amoureaux" in honor of the breed, which madeOliver feel very big, indeed.