Homesteader

It was ten in the morning and as I sat in the bar drinking whiskey I watched Anna move around the bar looking for some business. I couldn't help but wonder why she plied her trade in this place. The place being the Longhorn Saloon. I couldn't understand why some man hadn't snapped her up and taken her away from a life of whoring. I'd spent two dollars for some time with her several times and had considered it money well spent. I'd like to do it again. I had the money, but I didn't have the time. Old man Brewster down at the feed store should have my wagon loaded and ready to go and if I left right then I should be out to my spread by nightfall. If I stayed here and dallied with Anna it would be after midnight before I got home although it might be worth it.

Anna finished her circuit around the bar without finding any takers and she finally got to me.

"Morning Frank. Got some time for a little fun?"

Maybe next time I'm in if some man hasn't taken you away from your whoring."

She laughed and said "That ain't likely. Only one man comes in here I'd do that with and he ain't interested in taking a woman like me to wife."

"Then he is a fool,"

She looked me right in the eye and said "You don't look like no fool to me Frank."

"Me? You'd leave here with me?"

"Ask me and find out."

"You got any idea of what your life would be like away from here?"

"I grew up on a farm so I've a pretty good notion."

"How fast can you pack up your possibles? Brewster should have my wagon loaded by now and we need to get on the road if we want to get to my place by dark."

"Give me ten minutes" she said and she hurried off upstairs.

I waved Titus over and told him to top off my whiskey. As he poured he said:

"I couldn't help but overhear what was said by you and Miss Anna. You know if you do what you plan Mattson ain't going to like it."

"Mattson might own this saloon, but he don't own her."

"Ain't the way he's gonna look at it. You do it and he's gonna want a piece of your hide. You best be ready for him."

I sipped my whiskey and wondered just what would Mattson might do. Then I shrugged. Whatever it was I'd do my best to handle it same as I had everything else I'd met up with since I signed up for the war.

I saw Anna coming so I finished my whiskey and stood up. She was carrying a satchel and a sack. I took the satchel from her and we walked out of the saloon and down to the feed store. My wagon was ready to go and I settled up with Brewster, got Anna and her goods situated on the wagon and was checking the horses and harnesses when I heard:

"Get yer god-damned ass off that wagon and back to where it belongs."

I moved around the horses and saw Zack Mattson storming up to the wagon and hollerin at Anna. She looked fearfully at me and I told her to just sit still. I put myself between Mattson and the wagon, dropped my hand to the Colt Dragoon holstered on my right side and said:

"Back up there. She's with me now and you got no say in it."

"Hell I don't. She ain't going anywhere as long as she owes me."

"What she owe you for?"

"Room and board."

Without taking my hand off my gun and my eyes off Mattson I asked Anna how much she owed and she said "I don't know; he never told me."

"How you been paying him up till now?"

"With the money I make whoring."

"How much does he get from each man you do?"

"He takes it all."

"Then I don't guess you owe him anything. Fact is, it sounds like he owes you some. Why don't you get back to your saloon and figure out what you owe her and we can pick it up next time we come back to town."

"Like hell I will. Get down off that wagon bitch and git back to work."

I pulled my Colt, pointed it at Mattson's head and said "The one who had best git back to that saloon is you. Now git!"

He backed away saying "This ain't over. You ain't seen the last of me" and then he turned and headed back to his saloon.

I climbed up on the wagon, took the reins in my hand, slapped the horse's flanks with the long ends as I said "Go boys; take us home." We started moving and five minutes later we was out of town and moving along. It would take a while to get to my place so it gave us time to talk and get to know each other. I asked Anna to tell me a little about herself.

I found out she was nineteen years old, grew up on a farm in Ohio where her parents worked for the man who owned the farm. As she grew older she was put to work on the farm and sometimes in the kitchen working with her mother. The owner died and her folks decided to come west and find a place of their own. Anna and her nineteen-year-old brother decided to come with them.'

They were caught by Indians out on the plains. There were five wagons travelling together and they formed a rough square and tried to fight the Indians off. They were just about to be overrun when a column of calvary showed up and the Indians fled. Out of the thirty-one people who were on the wagons only nine survived. Anna was the only one of her family to make it. The calvary escorted the survivors to town and left them there. Anna had no money and she couldn't find work. Old man Barnes let her sleep in the hayloft of his livery stable for free, but she got so hungry that when a cowboy offered her a dollar to spend some time with him she did it just to get some money to eat on. Once she started she never stopped. The Mattson had offered her room and board if she would ply her trade in his saloon. It was only after she had been there two weeks that she found Mattson was charging her for the room and board.

Then she wanted my story.

"Born and raised in Monroe, Michigan. Worked at the Monroe Wagon Works building wagons and buggies during the week and on my uncle's farm on weekends. I signed up with the 27

th

Michigan Infantry in late '62 expecting to go off and fight the Reb's. Ended up in New York trying to suppress the draft riots. Did see some fighting at Spotsylvania Court House and Appomattox. Was involved in the siege of Petersburg. Mustered out in June of '65 and when we got home we found all the jobs taken by those who didn't go to war.

"Bill Hendricks told us about the Homestead Act of that Abe had made into law in '62. We could settle on 160 acres for only eighteen dollars and all you had to do was live on it and improve it for five years and then it was yours free and clear. Twenty-three of us decided to do it and a train of eighteen wagons and a herd of cows came out here and settled. All my neighbors are boys I went to war with. And we still help each other out when needed.

"We were the first bunch to get here and had our choice of homesteads. We drew lots to see who could choose first and I got lucked out and got to pick first. I picked the one I got because it's got a pretty good-sized creek running through the back of it and if I was gonna raise beef I'd need ample water.

"At the end of five years I filled out the papers needed and the place is all mine now and I don't owe a cent on it. I don't need to run my beef south to the trailhead to ship them to the slaughter houses cause the Army saw fit to build a post here. I sell my beef to them and the town folks and trade some with the boys I come out here with. That's pretty much it for my story."

We reached my place just before dark hit. We moved her goods into the cabin and then I took the wagon to the barn, unhitched the horses, got them in their stalls, fed and watered, and then I left the wagon to unload in the morning and headed up to the cabin.

I come into the cabin and found Anna naked on the bed waiting for me. All I could say was that if she was ready so was I. She lay there and watched me as I took off my clothes and when I was down to my long johns she asked:

"You eat pussy? I love to have a man go down on me."

"I do, but not tonight."

"How come?"

"Too soon."

"Too soon?"

"Got to give it some time. There been other men in there. Got to give it some time for their presence to fade."

"Ain't no one been there in two days."

"Maybe tomorrow then."

"Promise?"

"I do."

We did it twice then and then again when we woke the next morning. And after that it seemed like she wanted to do it all the time.

The next morning she asked if I had any chickens, pigs, sheep or just cows. I told her just cows and then she wanted to know what I wanted her to do around the place.

"Don't want to just sit here all day waiting for you to come back from cow tending."

"What would you like to do?"

"Plant a garden; maybe get some chickens to raise and get eggs from."

"You know how to garden?"

"Done it for years."

"Make me a list of what you need and we'll get it next time we go to town."

That night when we went to bed she looked at me longingly and I knew what she wanted so I did it. She sure did like it. Then she returned the favor and I sure liked it as much as she liked what I'd done to her. She'd sure enough gotten better at it since the last time. Last time was about a year back. I'd gone to town for supplies and I went to hook up with her. She said she was sorry, but it was her woman's time of the month. I started to leave, but she took hold of my arm and told me she could still help me and when I asked her how she told me to follow her up to her room so I did. It were my first and I liked it. Not as much as a coupling, but a close second.

It were three days later that Zack Mattson and two riders showed up at the place. And he yelled out "Hello the house."

It were pure luck I was in the barn when they showed up. Mostly I'd be out looking after the cows, but I'd come back to get some salt blocks. Anna opened the door and Mattson said:

"Get your stuff. I'm taking you back where you belong."

Anna closed the door on him. Mattson laughed and said "That ain't gonna help you none. If I can't break the door down I'll just set fire to the place and smoke you out."

They was facing the cabin so they didn't see me come up behind them and when I said "I don't reckon I'd much like that" it startled them some. Mattson wheeled his horse around to face me and his men followed along.

"We come to get my property" Mattson said.

"She ain't your property. Abe done outlawed slavery. She ain't yours. She's here of her own free will."

"Don't matter none. She's going back with me."

"How's she going with you if you're dead?"

I had my revolver with me. Always carried it when I was out and about. Never knew when you might come across a rattler or a coyote. Even saw a wolf one time. I put my hand on it and Mattson said:

"They's three of us and only one of you. You can't take us all three."

"Maybe not, but I'll get at least one and that would be you and with you gone and not able to pay them they might just turn and ride off."

From the cabin we heard "I got the one in the red shirt in my sights" and we heard the click of a hammer being pulled back.

"Now I only got to worry about two, but you will be the first one to go."

Mattson turned to the other two and said "I'll double your pay." And as he was saying that I pulled my Colt Dragoon and when I pulled back the hammer and Mattson heard the click he turned back to me and I said:

"Do it or get off my land."

Mattson was angry and angry people sometimes do stupid things and I waited for him to start the fight. But his two men weren't angry and they didn't much like their odds if gun play started. Anna already had my Henry cocked and was sighted in on one and my Colt was already in my hand and pointed their way. They turned their horses and headed off.

"This ain't over" Mattson said and then he turned to follow his men. As he did it I called out to him "Mattson" and he turned to look at me.

"If there is a next time I will kill you. Understand?"

He gave me a nasty look and then rode off.

I went into the cabin and as Anna put the Henry in its place I asked her if she really could have shot the man in the red shirt and she told me that she could.

"When Paw died I picked up his rifle and was shooting at Indians. This wouldn't have been no different."

I went over to my trunk and dug down to the bottom and took out a Sharps four barrel pepperbox pistol I took off a dead Reb at Spotsylvania. I handed it to her and said:

"It ain't got no stopping power since it's only a.22 caliber. If you need to use it go for the head when you shoot."

I took her down back of the barn and let her shoot it and get accustomed to it and then I told her to keep it handy when I wasn't around.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

We settled in. She got her chickens and had her garden and I had my beef and hay fields.

One night when I come in from haying I found her a bit flustered. Before I could ask she told me she had to shoot a man that day.

"He's down in the barn. I had to drag him down there. I couldn't leave him in the yard cause somebody might come along. One of the men who come here with Mattson the day we run them off. He told me to get my stuff and he'd take me back to Mattson's where I belonged."

As she was picking up her stuff she picked up the pepperbox, turned and remembering what I'd said she'd shot him in the face and he went down. Her shot to the face went into his left eye and that were it for him.

I buried him under one of the horse stalls, tossed some hay on the ground and then put the horse back in his stall.

She worried about what to do with his horse and I said I'd just use it to plow the fields and it wouldn't ever be seen in town so we wouldn't have to answer questions about it. If someone did see it and ask about it I'd tell them I found it in my hayfield one morning with a bloody saddle on it and I was meaning to take it to town with me the next time I went.

Only question I ever got on it was from Jacob Winters. He was one of the boys I went to war with. He stopped by one day. He asked when I'd got the third horse and I told him how I'd come to get it. He told me he'd give me a boar and two sows for it (he raised pigs) and I took him up on it. We did that, us boys from Michigan. We traded with each other for things. That's how Anna got her chickens.

I got a few more things out of the man Anna shot besides his horse. He had one of them new Winchesters, a Colt Peacemaker and $38 dollars in his pocket. I liked the feel of the Peacemaker so I gave my Dragoon to Anna to keep around the cabin and started carrying the Peacemaker. Once I traded the horse to Jacob I cleaned the blood off the man's saddle so Anna would have a seat to go riding on. It were a McLellan and there were plenty of them around.

The fact that the man come around convinced me that Mattson wasn't gonna let things be. Didn't matter none that she'd be of no use to him, what with her being three months with child and all, but he didn't know that. I believed that Mattson was a coward and instead of coming himself (I did tell him next time I saw him I would kill him) he was sending his hired hands. Why only one this time? No idea, but it didn't matter none. I was going to have to do something. Couldn't expect Anna to be able to handle it alone if I was in the fields and more than one showed up.

Wasn't one to wait for the axe to fall so I saddled up Horse One, that was the name I give him. The other one was Horse Two. One and I headed for town at first light. Didn't have no plan. Just gonna go into Mattson's saloon and see where that would take us.

Didn't have long to wait. I'd no sooner slapped a dollar down on the bar and told Titus to bring me a whiskey when I heard:

"What the hell are you doing in here?"

I turned and saw Mattson and said "Having a whiskey."

"Not in here you ain't. Get out of here and don't come back."

Without turning my back on Mattson I asked "Titus? Who gets this place when Mattson dies?"

"Don't know. He ain't got no kin that I know of."

"Reckon you could run it until someone might come along?"

"Don't know. I've only ever worked behind the bar."

"You might just get the chance to see if you can do it. What do you say Mattson? Ready to see if he gets a chance to see if he can do the job? You want me outta here you gonna have to put me out. Thing is, I don't think you can do it. You're heeled. Go for it or git outta here and let me drink my whiskey in peace. You man enough to try me or are you the yellow belly I spect you are?"

They was six other folks in the place besides me, Mattson and Titus. Three at one table, two at another and one sitting alone. They all knew me and that I was a farmer and a rancher and not no gun hand so they knew something bad was going on if I was challenging Mattson. They heard everything was said and they was all looking at Mattson to see if he was going to take being called a coward.

Mattson knew all eyes were on him and he tried to back things down.

"Damn it Dalton; ain't no woman worth dying over."

"Then why you keep trying to get her when she don't want to come."

"I ain't tried but that one time."

"Not what that Bart feller told me when I caught him trying to get Anna away. Said you told all them guys worked for you that you'd give thirty-five silver dollars to the one who brung Anna to you. I told him the next time I saw him I'd kill him. Must have believed me cause I ain't seen him since. Been a while since I run him off, but then I got to thinking about them other boys you offered money to. I cain't be round the house all the time so I finally figured out you couldn't pay nobody nothing if you was dead. So here we are. You win and all you got to do is go out and get her. I win I ain't got no more worries."

"Damn it boy, you had no bidness taken her outta here. She owed me money."

"Not the way we figure it. You gave her room and board and took everything she made here. Room and board any other place in town is seventy-five cents a day. Anna never made less than three dollar a day. Way we count it is that you owe her at least a hunnert and fifty dollars. Never pushed you for it cause she was just glad to be gone from here."

"Ain't the way I see it. She worked here so she was mine."

"I guess you one of them folks what never got the word. Abe freed the slaves. Outlawed slavery. He might be gone, but even so slavery ain't been reinstituted. She was free to do what she wanted and she wanted to go from here with me. Now the question is how many times I got to call you a yellow-bellied coward for you slink off and prove me right or draw and prove me wrong?"

I could see he were gonna take being called a coward in front of everyone in the room and I couldn't have that. As long as he was alive he was able to pay people to do his dirty work and Anna wouldn't be safe. I took a deep breath and then said:

"Okay, coward it is."

And then I turned my back on him and picked up my whiskey glass with my left hand. In the back bar mirror I could see the smirk on his face as his hand went down to his gun. I dropped the whiskey and my right hand went for my gun as I turned and took two quick steps to my right. Mattson's shot went into the bar right where I had been standing only seconds ago, but my shot took him in the chest. He stood there with a shocked look on his face, but stil with a gun pointed my way so my second shot went into his forehead just above his right eye and down he went. I turned and asked Titus for a whiskey. He set it on the bar and I picked it up and turned to face the room. I took a sip and then said:

"Y'all saw it. He was gonna back shoot me. Lucky for me I was looking in the mirror and saw him go for his gun."

I turned and said to Titus "Looks like you got a saloon and a hotel to run now."

"Don't know how."

"Last I knowed you was sweet on Nancy Meigs. You know enough to run the bar part and I'll just bet she could handle the hotel part."

I turned to face the crowd, pulled out pocket watch, looked at it and said "It's been fun gents, but if I want to get home by bedtime I need to be going." I stepped over Mattson's body and headed for home.