Major Hatch: Pembina & the Indian Wars

I started this post to be about Major E. A. C. Hatch¹ (sometimes referred to as Edward Hatch, or Edwin Hatch...) But a much more interesting story emerged about the bigger picture.

What is the bigger picture? I'll tell you. It's about a young Minnesota frontier just opening up to settlement, and citizenry panicking due to rumours, skirmishes, and some actual attacks from native populations. It's about how a bad situation became worse through panic, misunderstandings/miscommunication, and violence - horrific violence on both sides. A lot of what happened was caused by stresses (starvation/famine) brought about by over-hunting of the buffalo and loss of land due to white settlement. The resulting uprising was sadly inevitable.

It was 1863, and the uprisings of 1862 were still very fresh on peoples' minds.

Convinced now that static garrisons and even patrolling soldiers were not sufficient to protect the frontier, civilian authorities took a series of measures to boost the defense of the line of settlement. On July 4, 1863, Adjutant-General Oscar Malmors issued a general order for the establishment of a mounted corps of "volunteer scouts," consisting of experienced hunters and trappers, to patrol the Big Woods from Sauk Center to the northern edge of Sibley County. The scouts were to serve a two-month tour of duty and provide their own arms, equipment, and provisions. In return, the volunteers were to be paid two dollars a day each, with a greater incentive of twenty-five dollars offered for the scalp of each hostile Sioux Indian collected. The general order did not bother to explain the process by which any particular scalp could demonstrate the degree of "hostility" or even the tribal identity of the Indian from whom it was taken.

To bolster the enlisted scouts and the number of dead Indians a reward of seventy-five dollars was offered to any person not in military service who could produce "satisfactory proof" of the killing of a hostile Sioux warrior. This inducement to "independent scouts" was increased to two hundred dollars a head on September 22. This open season on "hostile Indians" enjoyed little success. In more than three months, bounty was paid for only five scalps. The volunteer scouts were mustered out of service on September 20.

To supplement the forces protecting Minnesota, a gaggle of high-powered state leaders, including Senator Henry Rice and Senator Morton Wilkinson, convinced the secretary of war to authorize, on June 12, the formation of a battalion of two infantry and two cavalry companies (the two infantry companies were quickly converted to cavalry.) Recruited in Minnesota and supported by Chippewa auxiliaries, the battalion was to be independent of both Pope's and Sibley's command. Placed in charge of the maverick outfit was Major Edwin A. C. Hatch, a resident of Minnesota since 1843 and a former agent to the Blackfeet Sioux; however, he lacked military experience.

Pope and Sibley were both outraged at this seeming usurpation of their military authority and control. Pope protested to both Halleck and Stanton, particularly about the part of the plan calling for Chippewa auxiliaries. In a letter to Stanton he claimed that "Hatch is but an instrument of Rice." Sibley felt that the raising of the independent battalion was a direct slap at his competence and capability. In his diary entry for July 8 he wrote, "Learned of the order granting authority to Major Hatch to raise two companies of infantry and two of cavalry to serve against the Indians during the existence of this war. The whole thing I regard as a miserable scheme got up by Rice and others, who hate General Pope and do not love me and who wish to annoy and humiliate us both. I have a contempt for the whole humbug inventor and all."

Sibley's and Pope's protestations did lead to a narrowing of the autonomy of "Hatch's Battalion," and it was placed under Sibley's command. At Sibley's suggestion the battalion was posted to the north at what later became the town of Pembina, primarily to guard against possible incursion by those Sante who had fled across the Canadian border after the 1862 uprising and also as a form of exile to this stepchild military formation. A northward march of four hundred miles from October 5 to November 13, during which many of the battalion's oxen and mules perished, brought it to its posting as winter began its usual early siege of the northern woods. High winds, deep snow, and freezing temperatures plagued Hatch's men on the march and as they constructed their cantonment. The mercury fell to forty degrees below zerio as 1863 ended, and on the first day of the new year it fell to sixty degrees below.

The abominable weather and the requirements of construction did not prevent Hatch from aggressive patrolling. For all its efforts, however, the battalion fought only one engagement with hostile Indians. News of a party of Sioux encamped near the old British trading post of St. Joseph, forty miles west of Pembina, sent a dismounted detachment of twenty out on the trail to the trading post on December 15. After a forced march, the white platoon located and closed in, undetected, around the sleeping Indian camp at 3:00AM. As the Indians awakened and began to emerge from their tepees, Hatch's men commenced firing. The fight was completely one-sided. Six Sioux were killed even before they were able to return fire, and the rest fled. Two or three soldiers were slightly wounded.

Aside from that incident, Hatch's Battalion passed a largely uneventful, if arduous winter at Pembina. From that post on the Red River in the northeast corner of Dakota seventy miles below Fort Garry, Hatch devoted much of his military activities to luring hungry and haggard Sioux refugees away from Canada. Ninety-one Sioux did recross the Canadian border during the winter to surrender themselves to the garrison. Among the Indians hoodwinked into captivity by agents of the coattail-riding crony of Senator Rice were Shakopee and Medicine Bottle, both of whom were subsequently hanged.

At the end of the long, hard winter, during which three-quarters of the post's stock died of starvation and cold, the battalion was transferred to Fort Abercrombie to garrison that post and patrol the Red River Valley...The battalion claimed a total of 28 Indians killed and 300 taken prisoner. Although hardly the elite strike force that could deal a mortal blow to whatever hostile Indians remained on the Minnesota frontier, Hatch's Battalion did perform a useful defensive and patrolling mission for the northern half of the state and saved the government the trouble and expense of detaching troops for that purpose from the battlefronts of the Civil War. (From The Dakota War: The United States Army Versus the Sioux, 1862-1865 by Michael Clodfelter)
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...The independent Battalion of Minnesota Volunteers, raised and commanded by Major E.A.C. Hatch, having been ordered to report to me for assignment to duty, was dispatched on 10th of October to Pembina, to hold in check the hostile Sioux who had retreated for safety into Her Majesty's coterminous possessions, where they could not be followed by our troops, as I had received stringent ordered from General Halleck, through department headquarters, in no case to cross the boundary line with a military force. About ninety Sioux men, women, and children came across the boundary and surrendered to Major Hatch, commanding at Pembina. The battalion, with one section of mountain howitzers of Third Minnesota mixed battery, went into winter quarters at Pembina, and remained until about the 1st of May of the present year, when I ordered Major Hatch with his command to relieve the detachments of the Eighth Regiment Minnesota Volunteers at Fort Abercrombie, and at the stations of Pomme de Terre and Alexandria, that regiment having been designated as part of the expeditionary force to join Brigadier-General Sully on the Missouri. The other three sections of the mixed gun and howitzer battery (Third Minnesota) were stationed respectively at Forts Ridgely, Snelling, and Ripley. (From Report of Operations against Indians in the District of Minnesota, written by Brigadier-General Henry H. Sibley, U.S. Army, commanding District of Minnesota, including operations from October 1, 1863 to October 1, 1864; contained in The War of the Rebellion: A compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, published by Government Printing Office 1893)
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Letters to S. D. Dept. of History, from Col. Samuel J. Brown dated Feb. 28 and March 5, 1921: in the latter he says: "My father's "letters to me [from Ft. Pembina] as well as his communications to Gen. Sibley are on file in the library of the Minnesota Historical Society." In one of those letters dated March 23, 1864, Gen. Sibley says to Gen. Pope: "Major J. R. Brown, special military agent, arrived some days ago at Fort Abercrombie from Pembina, having in charge ninety men, women, and children of the Sioux tribe, who surrendered themselves to Major Hatch at Ft. Pembina during the winter. There were originally twenty-one men, 31 women and 39 children, but one man died suddenly on the way. I have ordered all the prisoners to Fort Snelling under guard; and as among the men there are several who were deeply engaged in the outrages perpetrated on this frontier in 1862, I propose, with your sanction, to try the men by a military commission Among these captives are two half brothers and the four wives of the defunct chief, Little Crow." (Rebellion Records, Series I, vol. 34, part 2, pp. 712-13; pp. 539-40 give facts and plans of the government which show the importance of Major Brown's services at Pembina as a judicious negotiator and friend of the Indians. "Minnesota In Three Centuries," vol. III. pp. 422-3—Major Hatch.)

Major Brown came into Dakota Territory in 1863 in General Sibley's army that pursued the Sioux Indians guilty of the Minnesota Massacre of 1862. He was "Chief of Scouts and Chief Guide," in command of a large number of Indian scouts (Dakotas).6 In October, 1863, he was sent "by the Government (with Father Andre) to make peace with the Minnesota Sioux who fled to the North after the Outbreak of 1862,"7 his headquarters' being at Pembina, North Dakota. (From South Dakota Historical Collections)
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E.A.C. Hatch had Civilian experience prior to his military experience, working with the native populations - "In 1856, the year following the Stevens treaty with the Blackfoot nation, E. A. C. Hatch was a pointed agent to these tribes..." (From Bancroft Works, Volume 31, History Of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, 1845-1889, Hubert H. Bancroft, 1890. The History Company, Publishers, San Francisco) Also, in 1863, he helped broker the "Treaty with the Chippewa of the Mississippi and the Pillager and Lake Winniobigoshish Bands."


An interesting piece of trivia about the 1862 uprising is that E.A.C. Hatch was the one to break the news: "The first news of the event, the massacre in the Minnesota Valley, which touched off the flame, reached Stearns county on the evening of August 20th in a letter from E.A.C. Hatch, at Fort Ridgley, addressed to Superintendent Thompson of St. Cloud..." (From One Hundred Years Jacob's Prairie)

¹ - Hatch has been mentioned in this blog before, when I quoted an article in an anniversary edition of a local newspaper. However, that version was most definitely from a particular point of view.

Profile: Major George Seton

Men's Barracks, Lower Fort Garry - Winter of 1857-1858

The Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment men's barracks as seen from the officer’s mess room window at Lower Fort Garry during the Winter of 1857-1858. Following incursions into Canadian territory by American troops, a company of this regiment was sent from Montreal in July 1857 via York Factory. It was at Fort Garry by early October and remained in garrison until 1861. Watercolour by Major George Seton the detachment's commander. (Library and Archives Canada, C-001066)

Seton was one of many military personnel that passed through our area during the 19th century. When researching him in response to a print I recently acquired, I came across a research project being done on his family line by a descendant of his, Nancy Anderson. She has kindly been corresponding with me and has shared a bit of information on Seton, which is hard to come by as you might suspect. Although Seton does surface peripherally in the historic record in several documents, it was mostly in records that mention him in passing - i.e., listing rank/position/location, or he participated in such and such event, etc.

On her website, she states:

...Seton [of the 93rd Highlanders and Royal Canadian Rifles] came to Lower Fort Garry (Red River) in advance of his troops and, in July 1857, met John Palliser of the Palliser Expedition there.

Blackfoot parfleche¹, around AD 1860
From the Canadian Plains, North America collection

She later wrote me with more specific information as regards the intersection of Major Seton with our area, stating:

...from The Palliser Expedition, an account of John Palliser's British North American Exploring Expedition 1857-1860, by Irene M. Spry comes this - "John Palliser and his men set out south, on horseback, from Upper Fort Garry [Winnipeg] to Pembina² Fort in the United States, along the banks of the Red River in July 1857. There was the usual scurry and bustle, swearing and shouting, attendant on a large party setting off from the fort...[I've omitted some description]...The civilized society in question included not only Mr. Swanston of the Hudson's Bay Company, who had received them so hospitably and helped them greatly with their preparations, but also Major Seton, who had come overland to Red River in advance of the troops then on their way from Canada by the Hudson's Bay route, and Mr. Johnson, the Recorder of Assiniboia..... These two gentlemen saw Palliser and his colleagues ten miles on their way next morning. Nine miles farther on, the explorers caught up with the slower carts, just as the men were pitching camp for the night..."

She also said, "The Hudson's Bay Archives information on Sixth Reg of Foot Records is on Reel 4M145, E.67/2-5. I haven't read it yet and don't know what's in it. Probably you can request it through your library or local archives...and there's a Beaver Magazine article, A Soldier at Fort Garry, by George F. G. Stanley, Autumn 1957 that talks about the troops coming to Fort Garry. They made Fort Garry (from Hudson's Bay) on Oct. 13, It says, 'One Major Seton of our Corps had been sent in advance via U.S. Route in order to see preparations made for our accommodation, and right nobly he had done it. Several of the large Stores Houses had been fitted up for the comfort and convenience of the men, and a Separate apartment for each married man.' I know that George Seton later formed part of the government of Assiniboia, but I can't remember what that government was called. That's about all on Seton [as regards our area...]"

¹ - Parfleches are rectangular rawhide containers that fold over like envelopes. They were used in the nineteenth century particularly for holding pemmican, ground dried buffalo meat mixed with fat and berries. This food was vital in the fur trade, where a high calorie diet was required by canoe men.

On the northern Plains, moccasin soles were sometimes made from sections of painted rawhide, re-used either from an older pair or from parfleches made as gifts.

This parfleche forms part of the earliest documented collection of material from the Canadian Plains in The British Museum. It was acquired from a soldier, Major George Seton (1819-1905). Seton was also an artist, trained in creating panoramas for military purposes. He served in the Royal Canadian Rifles from 1853-58, the last two years stationed at Fort Garry, Manitoba (Rupert's Land), at the behest of the Hudson's Bay Company who had requested protection from supposed American and native threats. At the end of his posting he participated in two expeditions, one British and one Canadian, sent out to report on the Canadian Plains. He collected this parfleche while on the British expedition, which reported that the plains of Saskatchewan and Alberta were suitable for farming.

J.C.H. King, First peoples, first contacts: (London, The British Museum Press, 1999)

From British Museum collection: North America (Room 26)

² - "...On 21 July the expedition started on its journey across the plains, heading south up Red River to the American boundary, where they made careful observations in conjunction with a chance-met American land surveyor, Charles W. Iddings. From Pembina (N. Dak.) the party travelled west via St Joseph’s (Walhalla)..." - From Dictionary of Canadian Biography entry on John Palliser. FYI - Charles W. Iddings was a surveyor living over the post office in St. Paul in 1856. He eventually became associated with Joseph S. Sewall of St. Paul, the engineer who built the Wabasha Street bridge. During this connection the two men published a map of Minnesota which is known as the Sewall and Iddings map of 1860.

Map from Muskets to Missiles: A Military History of Minnesota by Virginia Brainard Kunz

Profile: Ezra Woodruff

Ezra Woodruff was the first post surgeon at the new Fort Pembina, arriving in May 1870 as the post officially opened, with the first post commander, Captain Lloyd Wheaton.

An interesting piece of trivia about Dr. Woodruff, that links his time here with our own time, is that he began a process that took over 150 years to complete, that began nearly 200 years ago - repatriating indigenous remains...




At the time he served, there were only about 150 post surgeons in the entire country.

Other known Fort Pembina Surgeons during its existence were: Captain Rudolph G. Ebert, Captain Harry O. Perley

[Source: Medical & Surgical Directory of the United States (1886)]

CentrePort Revisited

I reported on this about a year ago, and now we're finally seeing progress. Groundbreaking has begun on the major construction project - described as "the largest national infrastructure renewal effort in half a century" - that will come to be known as CentrePort.

...milestones include the start of the first stage of development for the four-lane divided expressway known as CentrePort Canada Way and upgrades to Highway 75. These improvements will provide better, more efficient highway access to CentrePort Canada and nearby assets including Winnipeg’s James Armstrong Richardson International Airport and the Canadian Pacific Weston Rail intermodal facility, and ensure that trade moves more effectively across Canada and into the Asia Pacific Gateway, as well as south through the Emerson border crossing, and into the United States and Mexico.

Anatomy of a Print

Boundary Post Rupert Land / Pembina by Major George Seton¹
(The Illustrated London News, January 29, 1870)
Additional Information from Glenbow Archives:
In background Cree medicine man with pipe
leads procession to willow enclose for a dog
dance ritual. Cree camp at right. Midewiwin ritual.

I bought the above print from an antique maps and prints dealer out of London. I've seen this print many times over the years, in different online digital collections, and referenced in different articles and books. I decided to look into the background of the print to finally get to the bottom of who drew it, who wrote the article, who published it, and if the image was actually authentic and/or accurate...

From the accompanying article to the original illustration:

The British-American Frontier.

The revolt of the French and Indian half-breed population in the Red River and Lake Winnipeg district of North America, several hundred miles west of Lake Superior, is rather a troublesome affair. This district is part of the Hudson's Bay Company's vast territory, which has lately been transferred to the Dominion of Canada. The insurrection hitherto has been confined to the neighbourhood of Lake Winnipeg, from which the British Canadians have been expelled; the Governor, Mr. Macdougall, has been obliged to return to Canada, and Fort Garry remains in the possession of the rebels. It is thought these were instigated by some of the French priests to resist the establishment of the Canadian Government, but the Vicar-General of Quebec, accompanied by Colonel de Salaberri, himself a half-breed, has gone to the Red River country to use his influence on the side of loyalty and to persuade the Winnipeg people to lay down their arms.

Another influence to be noted in stirring up the insurrection and keeping it alive is that of American annexationists at Pembina, cooperating with others engaged in business at Red River. Pembina is a settlement of three or four log-houses on the Dacotah side of the frontier, where every white resident but one is said to hold an office of some sort or other. Besides the few residents, there has been an Illinois lawyer, who is described as 'running the machine' in the interests of annexation. All the American versions of the affair have come from him. Hence the exaggerated stories about the Indians being called to arms, for which there has been no foundation except in the circumstance that Colonel Dennis garrisoned the Sonte Fort in the Lower Settlement with fifty Swamp Indians, an inoffensive set of semi-civilized half-breeds who live by farming in that neighbourhood. It has, of course, been the policy of the annexationists to lead the American people and Government to believe the Canadian officials have been inciting the Indians to take up arms. The most recent canard of this sort has been that Macdougall bribed the Sioux to make a descent on Pembina, in revenge for the conduct of the people there². If the trouble should continue, and should tend towards annexation, there certainly would be reason to look for a movement of the Indians in that direction. This, however could not be owing to Canadian influence, but to the fears of the Indians themselves, who naturally dread the prospect of their being brought under American sway. We have to thank Major G. Seton, who was lately in that part of the world, for a View of the plains near Pembina, with the boundary-post there erected to mark the frontier between the United States and British territory of Rupert's Land. the boundless level of rich grass is here traversed by the road, or track, which appears in the foreground. Major Seton's sketch is also an illustration of the habits and costumes of the Cree Indians. These are represented as walking in procession, headed by the Medicine Man, with the sacred rattle in hand, within which is celebrated a 'Dog Feast', so called from their eating dogs on the occasion, and being a mixture of religious ceremony and social mirth. In the half-distance are their tents, made of dressed bison (called buffalo) leather, with their badges or armorial bearings painted upon them, beside which stand their carts, made without a particle of iron, and which are very strong and so light as to be serviceable as rafts when deep water has to be crossed. In the foreground is a group of two young Indians in their gala costume, with their dogs, which in winter are used to drag sledges.

When I first viewed this sketch, I thought it was unrealistic [based on my experience viewing actual photographs of the time] on what the natives looked like. Then I found several specific references concerning the specific event this print depicts. These references, including the above text, explain this was representing the indigenous population in ceremonial dress, which then makes more sense...

¹ - Major George Seton (1819-1905) of the 93rd Highlanders and the Royal Canadian Rifles (British Army). Seton came to Lower Fort Garry (Red River) in advance of his troops and, in July 1857, met John Palliser of the Palliser Expedition there. [From Fur Trade Family History]

² - To our local history's shame, this included behavior such as the instance below, documented in a book published in 1871 based on eye-witness accounts:

...Some officers attached to Major Hatch's battalion had visited the colony and gained some of its residents over to their interests to such an extent that they cordially entered into a scheme for kidnapping one of the principal chiefs, "Little Six," a half brother of "Little Crow," and one of his followers named "Medicine Bottle," were selected as the men to be caught. These Indians having been purposely permitted to drink more alcohol than was good for them, were drugged with laudanum and chloroform, and while in a state of insensibility were conveyed to Pembina, where their surprise and consternation were great when, on waking from their lethargy, they found themselves securely bound and surrounded by a group of soldiers under command of Major Hatch. This incident was commented on somewhat severely by some newspapers in the United States, which amused themselves by trying to magnify it into another "Trent affair." It also excited great dissatisfaction among people in the settlement, who feared retaliation on the part of the Sioux against the English in crossing the Plains during summer...

Another more recent account was more blunt (and in my opinion, honest) saying

Major Edwin Hatch, a subordinate of Sibley operating out of the village of Pembina, just south of the Canadian obrder, retains John McKenzie, an American living in Canada, to bribe a pair of Canadian officials into drugging Shakopee and Medicine Bottle during a "friendly meeting." The two unconscious Indians were then handed over to Hatch in Pembina. After the hangings, the Minnesota legislature appropriated the sum of $1,000 to reward McKenzie for his part in the crime [William W. Folwell, A History of Minnesota (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1924) pp. 443-50. Also see Robin W. Winks, "The British North American West and the Civil War," North Dakota History, Vol 24, 1957.]

By the way, the context was the aftermath of the Dakota War...

Ferry Command Revisited II

A film was made about the Ferry Command operations...
I have written about Ferry Command several other times here on this blog. There is an important update on the books being written about it, and our area's important role within the operation.

As Ted Beaudoin - the author of an upcoming book on the subject - states below, we owe a LOT to the men and women who were part of this effort 70 years ago. My own mother witnessed the events that happened in Pembina/Emerson, two of the locations involved in this massive and critical operation during a dark time for the world. Our communities were two links in a very large and long chain that meant the difference. Ted does not overstate the importance of what this meant. I urge you to read this synopsis of what his book will be about - it's truly awe-inspiring!

BORDERTOWNS: Epilogue

EPILOGUE


Charley Brown was sheriff of the Pembina area, Dakota Territory from 1875 until his death in 1884.

The hangings by the Fort Pembina military took place in the vicinity of what is now Lancaster, Minnesota.

Approximately three years after the disappearance of Pete, S. C. Cady visited the Vaughn homestead. After discussing the rumor as to the location of the Indian body, Vaughn and he searched for and found the corpse. Due to decomposition, the body could not be positively identified.

Manitoulin, the Collingwood boat that transported the McLaren family to Duluth, sank near Collingwood, Ontario, on May 20, 1882, with the loss of 25 lives.

In the early 1950's a shallow trench was dug just north of the present Pembina, ND schoolyard, for the purpose of planting a shelter-belt. Parts of two uniformed bodies were found and an argument ensued as to whether or not there were two complete bodies. It was decided to re-bury the remains in the public park in Pembina. A marker was placed there stating: "An unknown soldier from Hatch's Battalion."

Hatch's Battalion arrived in Pembina in November of 1863 and left on May 5, 1864, on the steamboat International, bound for Fort Abercrombie. There seem to be no existing records of any death or burial of his men while stationed in Pembina. All bodies interred at the Fort Pembina Cemetery during the fort's existence (1870-1895) were moved to Fort Lincoln when the fort was closed; thence again to a final resting place at the greasy-grass, the Custer Battlefield in Montana.

This leads to conjecture that the men were probably listed as deserters at Fort Pembina, but in actuality were murder victims.

C.W.

Lewthwaite's Drugstore

There are many places that are etched in my memory that will never leave me. They were imprinted there when I was a very little girl...those kinds of memories are the strongest there are. Today, I can forget where I put my keys or cell phone at a moment's notice, but these memories not only remain, but often come unbidden to the forefront of my mind.

But I don't mind at all, because they are like old friends. I enjoy revisiting them over and over. One group of such memories are those of place. And one of them, is of the Lewthwaite¹ Drugstore in Emerson...

One of the things I remember about the drugstore wasn't in the store itself but in the back behind it. The pharmacy was located on the corner of two streets. One side of the building butted up against its neighbor to the north (which I think was the Sawatzky Brothers grocery store), while the south side faced the adjacent street. Behind it to the east was the back yard with a high wall between it and the sidewalk. The druggist and his family lived over the store, so that was their private back yard. Despite the high wall, I could see they had something very intriguing to my young eyes - a tree house. And not just any tree house, but an amazing tree house. A tree house worthy of the Swizz Family Robinson. It was built up in the branches of an old large oak or elm tree.

¹ - (Origin Anglo-Saxon) From thwaite, a piece of ground cleared of wood, and lowe, a hill, law, a hill or eminence; in Saxon, Hlewe.

RRV Website Restored

Recently I updated readers about the status of the Red River Valley Website, an early and important website documenting my hometown region's history, created by a distant cousin of mine.

Another native of my area, Kris Baldwin Ohmann, has been working behind the scenes to obtain the over 6,000 files that make up the site. In the past month, Kris was able to visit in person with Dennis, and obtain all the files from his computer. She then came home and obtained information from me to remotely upload the files to the Ancestry.com community Rootsweb, where the site was given a free home in perpetuity. It will be, we are hoping, it's final and secure home long-term...

Thank you SO much, Kris. We - those of us today, and those of us to come tomorrow - thank you for helping preserve our history!

BORDERTOWNS: The Final Chapter

With this chapter, Dear Readers, BORDERTOWNS comes to a close.¹ This was the last [complete] book written by Chuck Walker, and once again I have been very proud and honored to share Chuck's work with you here. His encyclopedic knowledge of my local area was amazing, and we're lucky he was so willing to share it throughout his life in many ways. I wish I had had more time with him, but am thankful for the time I did have...

Now enjoy the last chapter of BORDERTOWNS!


That same morning Joseph discovered his bottle missing and accosted Annette. She disclaimed any knowledge of the bottle, doubting he even had one, for he had been drunk the night before. Joseph began to rage, blaming Pete, cursing him wildly.

Annette objected sharply. "He's never stolen anything in this house. He's your own brother. In fact, he gives us money to help keep us going. If it wasn't for what Marguerite and I bring in, and what Pete gives me, we'd starve." She said vehemently, "You don't bring in one cent!"

Her attempt to shield herself from the sudden blow came too late; the swinging fist knocked her to the floor. She thanked the Lord that Marguerite was at work and not at home to witness her degradation. She had been able to hide most of his abuse over the past years, since he had been careful never to strike her in the presence of Pete or the girls.

"Keep your mouth shut, woman. I bought and paid for you years ago. What I do is my business."

Afraid to rise from the floor, she watched helplessly as he plundered her grocery money in the cupboard. Casting her a malevolent glance, he slammed the kitchen door violently as he left. Regaining her feet, she went to the window to see him heading for Smith's saloon on the corner.

After eating dinner at Mrs. Fisk's boardinghouse, Charley rode to the fort. The wagon, carrying Murphy’s body, had apparently just arrived, for a medical orderly was arguing with the driver.

"Leave the corpse in the wagon! Doc will examine it out here. He won't want the infirmary messed up. Besides, the body goes back to town after he looks it over."

Dr. Appel stepped out of the door just as Charley dismounted. He nodded toward the corpse. "Your project, Charley?"

The image above, an excerpt from the Medical Times & Register [18799-1880], shows how Chuck Walker got the little details down right in his historical novels...Appel was the post surgeon during the time period this story is set in...

"Yes. I'm pretty sure it's a man named Murphy – got himself run over by the early morning train. 'Sposed to have been sleeping on the tracks, but it looks more like murder to me."

"How so?"

Charley explained his suspicions of the accident.

The doctor looked the corpse over briefly, and then turned to his assistant. "Remove the clothes from the man, Fred. We'll have a closer look."

The orderly had a distasteful look on his face as he attempted to remove the blood soaked shirt from the corpse. Struggling to remove both shirt and trousers he finally reached into his pocket, extracting a knife. Cutting the tangled suspenders free, he was finally able to strip the body.

The doctor inserted a rectal thermometer, and then he examined the body in detail. Finally, he checked the torso, musing aloud, "My God! Look at the massive scar tissue on the side of his shoulder. He must have been in a severe accident -- and not too long ago either." He turned to Charley. "A doctor's curiosity, you might say."

Dr. Appel continued to speculate, "You know, you may be right. If this man had his neck on the rail, he wouldn't have the back of his head crushed. Look here!" He pointed at the severe indentation in Murphy's skull. "'Course if a chain or something hung from the train, it could account for this damage." He removed the rectal thermometer; he seemed puzzled. "There's another possibility. What time did the accident occur?"

"About dawn this morning."

Appel snorted in disgust, "Hell, this man has been dead for almost ten hours! He's already loosening up and he's lost nearly all body heat. You'd better take him to the cemetery and plant him quick. He'll ripen fast in this heat. I think a blow to the back of his head killed him, but it's only speculation."

"I kind of figured he was moved to the tracks," Charley said grimly. "Now I'll have to snoop around to find out what actually happened. He's no loss to anyone but himself, no family that I know of. Still, I have to try and ferret out the guilty party."

As the sheriff rode back to town his mind was in turmoil. Could the murderer be Ian or another of the McLaren family? What will I do then? Lordy, I hope not.

That same morning when Joseph Grant entered Smith's saloon for a drink, he expressed his feelings to the bartender. "That damned Pete! He stole the bottle I had behind the stove."

The barman smiled to himself; he knew Pete to be a periodic drunk. Stealing a man's bottle was a joke, for whiskey was considered an essential of life at the time.

The sheriff arranged to have Murphy buried that same afternoon, then spent the remainder of the day checking the saloons of Pembina and St. Vincent. The bartender of the Ryan Hotel in St. Vincent remembered a large, pale-faced man leaving his bar around midnight.

"Was he drunk?"

"Drunk, and mean as hell. He tried to pick a fight but everyone backed down. He was a miserable dog." The bartender grew inquisitive. "I thought his voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't place him."

"Did he buy a bottle of Old Crow?"

"I don't remember him buying any bottle. Hell, we don't sell that brand. Their drummer is a sharper; I don't do business with him." He looked at Charley suspiciously.

“Why the interest in Old Crow?"

"Found an empty near Murphy's body."

The look of surprise on the barman's face was evident when the name Murphy was mentioned. "Jeez! Was that Murphy? He sure fooled me!"

Charley reflected over the bottle. Shucks, even John and I sell that brand in our place, other saloons do too. Still, he sensed something missing when he returned to the jail. He carefully stood the empty bottle on the rear of his desk.
_________________

It was noon when Ben McCune sobered up enough to realize he was stone-broke. Every penny he had realized from the sale of his farm was gone. Even the money gained from selling the yoke and harness of his oxen had been spent. The saloons in St. Vincent gave no credit so McCune determined to go to Pembina. He stayed in St. Vincent just long enough to hear the news of the dead man. The information that the accident took place only a short distance from where he had slept, troubled him.

While crossing on the ferry to Pembina, he attempted to steal Trudo's bottle while the ferryman cranked the drum. The ferryman had allowed McCune free passage when he was broke, provided the ferryman was crossing with a paying passenger.

"Ben, you damned thief, you'll swim or wade from now on." Grasping the cringing McCune by the collar and belt, he threw him off the ferry. McCune momentarily appeared, spluttering and cursing, standing chest deep in the water.

Depressed, soaked, but now sober, he walked the remaining quarter mile to Pembina and sat down, leaning back against the wall of Bradshaw's Pembina House. His daydreaming brought to mind the dead man. Could it have been murder? The more he pondered, the more he was sure the man with the mule had something to do with it. Yes, there was the possibility of a reward there. Struggling to his feet, he turned toward the jail. The door was padlocked and the sheriff or deputies nowhere in sight. Stiffly, Ben sat on the upper step with his back against the door. He finally dozed off.

It was nearing the supper hour when Charley returned to the office and found McCune blocking the door. His hat was pulled down over his eyes and his mouth sagged open, exposing yellowed and crooked teeth. Nudging Ben with his foot and shaking his shoulder, Charley got the man awake and to his feet. McCune was crafty. "Know something about the murder, sheriff. Is there any reward?"

"Reward for what?"

"The murderer of the man found on the tracks."

"How do you know he was murdered?" Charley was amused, thinking, McCune's here to tap me for a drink or a bottle.

"Saw the man."

"What man?"

"The man hauling the body."

The sheriff looked at him grimly, then he thrust McCune roughly inside and onto a chair. "Tell me about it and don't leave out a single thing! You'd better not be lying!"

McCune's eyes scanned the room greedily. "Need a drink. Got any?"

Brown looked at him with disgust. Finally he slid open a drawer of his desk and produced a bottle and tin cup. Pouring an inch into the cup, he handed it to McCune. "Now tell me what you know, or I'll put you in jail and throw away the key."

McCune related what he could remember of the man leading the mule and the load on the mule's back. To make his story stronger, he insisted that the mule carried a body. He looked pleadingly at Charley as he placed the empty cup back on the desk.

Charley debated silently, there were few mules around St. Vincent and I can check the ferry to see if any were brought across the river. He knew mules to be poor swimmers so doubted any had been ridden across. That would almost eliminate anyone from Pembina being involved. Murphy had to have enemies, but Charley knew he also had friends, especially among the railroaders from Emerson. He remembered Brogan and Murphy and other workers had spent that past winter at Roseau Crossing where the girl was killed.

Pouring the remaining liquor from the bottle into the tin cup, Charley handed it back to McCune. "Drink that, and keep your mouth shut tight!"

McCune nodded as he gulped down the raw whiskey; it took both his hands to keep the cup from shaking.

"If you promise to keep this conversation to yourself, you can go to my store and tell John I said to give you a bottle of Old Crow. It's on me."

"Can't I have Scotch instead? It's better than Bourbon."

Charley felt a certain satisfaction. McCune sure wasn't a suspect.

The next morning the sheriff crossed to St. Vincent and began the search for mules. Stopping at each bar he inquired who owned the hybrid animals and who regularly bought Old Crow bourbon whiskey. From there he checked the stables at the hotels and the private liveries.

At Fri's Hotel the bartender mentioned that the only mules he knew of locally, outside of those kept at local livery stables, were those owned by the McLarens. "They have several," he said, "I believe old Pete keeps one of Ian's critters over in Grant's barn."

Charley knew Pete picked up spending money by doing odd jobs with the borrowed mule: water hauling, wood delivery and sundry chores. When the question of who favored Old Crow whiskey came up, the name of Joseph Grant was included. At Smith's saloon the bartender remembered the joke Pete had played on Joseph, by stealing his bottle.

"What day did Grant come in for another?"

"Yesterday."

Stepping from the hotel, Charley found his mind whirling. Things were beginning to fall into place. Oh hell! Damn it all! It's circumstantial, but I'll have to try a bluff.

Leading his horse he walked toward Grant's. As he approached the front of the house, he could hear the sounds of an axe being used. Behind the house he found Pete splitting wood blocks for the kitchen range. The fact that Pete at first glanced up to see him, then ignored his presence, convinced the sheriff of Pete's complicity.

"You know why I'm here, Pete?"

Pete looked at him long and hard, then slowly nodded.

"Why did you do it? Were you drunk?"

Pete resumed chopping.

"I'll have to put you in jail, you know."

The breed looked at him resignedly, and then forcefully buried the axe in the chopping block. Turning to Charley, he said, "I give no trouble." He extended his hands together in front of him, expecting irons.

Charley shook his head. "Don't need them. Come along with me and we'll talk it over."

While the sheriff rode, Pete walked alongside. He seemed morose and taciturn, refusing to discuss the matter, or even speak when Charley shot questions at him.

They crossed on the ferry, then on the piling bridge across the Pembina River. Charley noticed people glancing at them as he and Pete turned toward the jail. When inside the log building, Charley asked, "Why did you do it Pete? You must have had a good reason."

Pete's mind seemed miles away and Charley could get no answer. Finally he opened the cell door and stood to the side. Pete arose and walked in without a word. As the sheriff watched, he lay on the bunk and covered his eyes with his arm.
__________________

News of the murder and the capture of the suspect spread like wildfire after the sheriff went to the barbershop. He was forced to notify his part-time jailer, Captain Bob, that his services were required to guard the jail that evening. Charley knew Bob to be a nondescript person, a part-time barber who drank up every cent as fast as it came in. But to Charley's thinking, a jailer needed only two qualifications: he must work for one dollar a day, and he must be immediately available.

"Did Pete really kill Murphy, sheriff?"

"Yup, sure looks like it. He doesn't deny it but he won't tell me why he did it. There's probably a good reason. Maybe Murphy picked a fight with him. I've been told Murphy was looking for a fight in Ryan's saloon the night he was killed. It seems no one was anxious to take him on." He shook his head. "No loss to the community, but the case may cost the county some money. I want you to take the eight to six a.m. shift at the jail, tonight. I'll be there in the morning to relieve you."

Captain Bob was an important man that afternoon. He spread the news that the sheriff had Pete locked up for the murder of Murphy. Most people were complacent about the capture, but a few looked up the sheriff to congratulate him. The kudos left Charley with a feeling of guilt, knowing of Murphy's crime against Mary. He also knew the McLaren family would not like those facts brought to light. Few people of Pembina actually knew Pete as an individual; to most, he was just another no-account half-breed.
__________________

Pembina was quiet that Monday evening and the jailer, in an effort to avoid the stifling heat inside the jail, moved his chair just outside the door of the lockup.

It was past midnight when a man walked out of the darkness. He appeared to have been drinking heavily and carried a bottle of whiskey carelessly by the neck. After striking up a conversation with Bob, the man offered to share his bottle. At first Bob refused, knowing well he shouldn't drink on duty. After some conversation and further coaxing, the jailer succumbed to temptation. Within a half hour his head fell forward; he lost consciousness.

His visitor disappeared for a few moments, and then reappeared, accompanied by three other men. Picking up the sleeping jailer, they carried him into the jail and closed the door.

When the sheriff arrived the next morning, he found the outside door padlocked. Applying his key to the lock, he removed it and pushed open the heavy oak door. His jailer lay on the floor as if dead. The cell door was open and Pete was gone. The only apparent damage inside the cell was to the small window; the glass was shattered. When Charley attempted to awaken his assistant, he became concerned. The man acted as if drugged. Touching his carotid artery, he found that Bob's heartbeat was steady, but abnormally slow. His breathing was labored and he seemed to be in a deep sleep.

Leaving the jailer on the floor, Charley checked every detail of the cell. There was blood on several of the larger pieces of glass, an indication of possible foul play. He picked the few shards from the floor and disposed of them in the alley trash barrel. Although he had no evidence to support his theory, he knew instinctively that Pete had been taken from the jail by Murphy's cronies and was by now, probably dead.

It was noon before he could get a coherent word out of his jailer. It took threats of bodily harm to finally elicit the information from Captain Bob that he had yielded to temptation and had shared drinks with a stranger.

Charley felt frustrated. Now he had two suspected murders and only one corpse. He knew instinctively that the guilty ones had to be the railroad friends of Murphy and Brogan. He also knew they would have covered up any trace of their guilt. They certainly wouldn't have crossed the river on the Pembina or Emerson ferries. That would have been too obvious. They more than likely used a local rowboat. He would check the two ferries first though, just to be sure.

It had taken just three hours for the jailer's midnight visitors to dispose of Pete. Tired, but elated with their easy success, they walked the rest of the way to the border. Borrowing one of the many boats tied along the shore, they crossed to Emerson, and feeling safe, reviewed the night's work in quiet tones with a bottle of whisky. The laudanum-laced whiskey with which they had baited Captain Bob had done the job on the careless jailer. One of the men laughed, and said, "Murphy was a miserable bastard, but he was our bastard. No breed is getting away with killing a white man. No one will ever find the body either." He sneered, "They'll never be sure what happened to him."

That afternoon Annette had seen Pete and the sheriff conversing by the barn and wondered what they were discussing. She felt no alarm as Pete accompanied Charley toward the ferry, since there were no signs of hostility between them.

When Pete failed to appear after supper, she walked to Susan's house. While mentioning seeing Pete and the sheriff together, Susan's face contorted with fear. Early that afternoon a neighbor had brought the news of Murphy's corpse being found on the railroad tracks. At the time her whole body had seemed to freeze, and she felt a shortness of breath. Now she knew who her attacker was, and what Pete had done with the body. Did the sheriff suspect Pete? Should she see Charley and explain what had happened? What could she do? What should she do? Her first thought had been to tell Ian and her mother; yet, it might create more problems. Perhaps Pete had other business with Charley, as there were many nights he failed to come home. He had also impressed the need of secrecy upon her.

Ian was still in the field when her mother left for home. Susan knew from the look on the face of her mother that she sensed something was wrong.

Word of Pete's arrest for the murder of Murphy made the rounds of the saloons in St. Vincent late that afternoon, but the information never reached the Grant or McLaren families.

The sheriff's afternoon investigation at the two Emerson ferries was fruitless. The operators disclaimed any knowledge of railroad men crossing the river. Charley knew that both ferries closed down at dusk so the men must have used a rowboat as he had suspected. He doubted anyone from Pembina or the fort being involved as few outsiders were in town that weekend. It was on every other weekend when the railroaders were paid, that he deemed he was underpaid as a law officer.

When he returned to the jail late that afternoon, Charley found Ian's gelding tied to the iron hitch post. Since Ian was nowhere in sight, Charley rode to the livery, removed the saddle from his horse, then raised it to the crossbar. He was leading the animal to the corral just as Ian rode into view. While he removed the bridle, Ian said, "I hear you've got my hired man locked up for killing that bastard Murphy."

"Not any more." Charley shook his head dourly.

"What's that mean?"

"Come over to the office and let's talk. What I have to tell you won't set well, but damned if I know what to do about it."

It took only ten minutes for the sheriff to explain the events since Murphy's death. Ian was shocked. "You mean Pete actually killed Eck Murphy? That's hard to believe."

"Believe it! But for what reason?" Charley's shoulders rose questioningly. Looking Ian in the eye, he said, "I've other news for you. Murphy bore that scar you guessed at. He was the man who attacked your sister. I think he recognized her, too. Why else the attacks upon your family?"

Ian was momentarily speechless, and then exclaimed, "Thank God the S.O.B. is dead! Between he and Brogan they caused us a lot of grief." He shook his head. "I'll speak to Annette and the girls; someone must know what happened between Pete and Murphy. I'll say this, if Pete did kill Murphy as you say, he had a darned good reason."

"That's the heck of it! If we knew what happened, and it went to court, Pete would probably go free. Now, thanks to that stupid-ass Bob, he's more than likely dead."

"But why would Pete kill Murphy? Oh, I know he had no use for the man, but who did? As far as I know, there was no personal animosity between them." Ian shook his head in frustration.

"It's for sure something happened between them. It might take some time to find out what is, but eventually it'll come out. Murphy no doubt had it coming, but murder is still murder, regardless."

"You really think a group of men took Pete from the jail and killed him?"

"Ian, I'm almost positive that's what happened, and he's now dead. Ten to one it was those cronies of Murphy and Brogan. Do you remember any of the men that came into my bar that noon of the fight?"

"Not names, but I remember faces, at least two of them. We worked on the same crew when the roadbed was graded north of Emerson. That was in the fall of '77, just after we arrived here.

"By the way, some time back you mentioned that Jack Bell was going to get their names for you. Did he?"

"No. He's never mentioned it. Evidently he's been distracted by other work. Guess he's got enough trouble keeping those C.P.R. workers in line. 'Spose it's up to me to find them. With so many crews working north of Emerson, those men will never be around town in the daytime. But at night, that's when they'll gravitate to the saloons. Can you spare the time to go across the border after supper tonight?"

"Sure, if it will help find Pete. Why don't you meet me at my house after supper? Better yet, come and eat with us. You haven't seen the interior of our new house. After eating, we can ride over to Emerson and check the bars."

Rising from behind his desk, Charley said, "I’m ready for something to eat, then the trip to Canada tonight. I'll have to turn down your invitation to supper, though, 'cause I've got to see Bill Moorhead. I'll be at your place about seven. Somehow, I'm going to get to the bottom of this." He had a grim look on his face.

When Ian returned to St. Vincent, he was surprised to find the house quiet. Entering their bedroom he found Susan lying on the bed. She was fully clothed and had a damp cloth covering her forehead and eyes. She appeared to be asleep. Immediately concerned, he bent over her and called, "Susan . . . Susan!"

She suddenly sat up, wild-eyed, the damp cloth rolling to the bedspread. Tears began to stream down her cheeks. Anxiously Ian gathered her into his arms in an attempt to comfort her.

"Susan, calm down. Tell me what's wrong."

During the next minutes, amid a vale of tears and nervous shaking, she divulged the details of the attack upon her. "Pete saved me. Oh, Ian, he's my Father! He said so."

It took a few moments for her almost incoherent words to make sense; then Ian remembered her tenseness when she visited him that last night of his shift. "My God! Why didn't you tell me then? We could have straightened this out."

She sat back at arm length, imploring, "Please don't be angry with me." Her cheeks were ashen as she attempted to compose herself.

"I'm not angry, but I'll have to tell Charley." Realization came to him that this was not the time to tell her that her father was in all probability, dead. He smoothed back the long hair from her face. "Charley and I are leaving for Emerson after I have something to eat. I'll explain the happenings to him; I may be late in getting home." To ease her mind he added, "Pete's action was justified. I only wish the opportunity had been mine. Don't worry about a thing sweetheart. It will all straighten out." It was mind-boggling when he thought of the consequences that resulted from hiding the truth. Still, he couldn't second-guess Pete's decision to conceal the act. All that remained now was to find Pete, if alive. Or, if dead, find the men who murdered him.

When Charley arrived, Ian asked him to step into the kitchen. Susan, still sick in mind, had gone to her bed. Relating Susan's story, Ian grimly asked, "What do we do now?"

Charley shook his head disgustedly. "Damn that Pete! This is entirely his fault. If he had reported killing Murphy, it could have been settled."

Ian brooded, "Not necessarily. You know how some of the whites hate the breeds. They'd have found some way to punish or do away with him."

The sheriff pushed away from the table and stood his face taut with anger. "Let's go to Emerson and find out who took Pete from the jail."

Two of the saloons in Emerson were nearly devoid of patrons, but the final stop at the Gateway Hotel, yielded dividends. The bartender looked up briefly as they entered, then resumed washing glassware. Ian immediately nudged Charley. "There are two of Murphy and Brogan's friends seated with others at that far table."

At first the men at the table exchanged furtive glances as they recognized Ian and the sheriff. They pretended indifference, keeping their heads down and conferring in low tones. Ian caught the exchange of cagey smiles as one of them spoke up. "Out late on the wrong side of the line, sheriff?"

"Just looking for people who stay up late and wander to my side of the line," Charley challenged.

The tough turned to his friends at the table. "We wouldn't know anyone who would want to do that, do we, men?"

The hostility of the men at the table was obvious. One of the seated men remarked insinuatingly, "Hell no, sheriff. We're good little boys and stay home at night."

The derision on their faces was obvious. Ian realized his was a no-win situation that could turn ugly, seeing he and Charley were outnumbered. He thought it prudent to withdraw. Evidently Charley felt the same, for, turning away from the men, he ordered two beers from the bartender. Obviously ignored, the men at the table exchanged satisfied smirks.

Sipping his beer, Charley said in an undertone, "We've come to a dead end. We've found our men, I'm sure of it. Now it'll take some thinking and planning to bring them to justice."

On the way back to St. Vincent, Charley seemed optimistic. "I'll speak with some friends and we'll wait it out. Some evidence may turn up."

When Ian offered Charley a bed for the night, the sheriff shook his head. "I'll walk the river with my horse. It's so shallow now that the ferry is having problems. The operator has had to hire a shovel gang to keep the cross-channel open. If we don't get rain soon, the steamboats may have to tie up for the remainder of the season."

The next morning when Charley left his room to breakfast at Mrs. Fisk's, he met Ned Cavalier on the street. Ned had a whimsical look on his face. "Cripes, Charley, you're popular. You've got the whole Indian tribe from the north camp waiting at your jail."

"What for?"

"Reckon they want to know what you did with Pete."

"I'd like to know myself. Oh, well, I'll have to face them."

He judged that over fifty Indians turned to watch his approach. Recognizing their chief, Matawin, he asked. "What's this meeting about?"

"Where Pete?"

Beckoning Matawin to follow him inside, Charley thrust out a chair to him. He explained that Pete had been in the cell and had disappeared. Pointing out the broken window in which a few small shards remained, he said disgustedly, "I've got to fix that." He failed to mention that Captain Bob had been drugged and that the cell door was open when he arrived the next morning. Matawin stood, and then walked into the cell to appraise the window. The aperture was too small for a human to crawl through. Apparently satisfied, the Indian chief walked past the sheriff and out the door, joining the group standing outside. The Indians gathered around him while he spoke; then they began drifting back north toward their encampment.

Puzzled, the sheriff locked the outside jail door and began walking back to his store. Meeting Bill Moorhead, he asked, "What do you suppose those Indians wanted?" He explained that he had shown Matawin the cell with the broken window.

Moorhead looked serious. "Didn't you know Pete was a Midewewan? Matawin probably figured Pete changed himself into a bird and flew out the window. I know it sounds crazy, but it's a part of their beliefs."

"You're kidding me!"

"Nope. Go to their camp and ask them if you don't believe me."

Charley could see Bill was serious and not joking. "Oh, I believe you. You've lived with these Indians a lot longer than me. Still, it's hard to believe." He shook his head, realizing how little he knew of the Indian dogma.
_________________

Susan seemed unable to recover from the shock of losing her father. Day after day she moped, as if in a dream world. Ian was frantic to find something to bring her back to reality. Finally Maggy's visit brought some semblance of order to their household. She determined to disclose the secret of Mary's attack. After Susan heard the story, she sat transfixed, as if unbelieving.

"What a horrible experience to have undergone at her age! Oh, Maggy, it happened to me, too, and it would have been worse. I'm glad he's dead, but it won't bring back my Father. Ian tries to keep my hope up by saying he may still be alive, but in my heart I know those men who took him from the jail murdered him. Is there no justice for Indians and we mixed bloods? I've asked my Mother time and time again why they kept their secret from us, but she just looks at me silently and shakes her head. I know she misses Pete, for she sits alone in the kitchen, hour after hour, saying nothing."

"Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that the man your mother married couldn't give her children. You know, you should be thankful to have enjoyed your true father as long as you did. As you have said, he was always the one you girls looked up to as a father. You've said he was always kind to you through the years. He must have loved you both as well as your mother."

"Yes, looking back I remember how he helped with the cooking and work around the house. He was the one who cut and split the stove wood, hauled the ice, and kept us going. He was the one who took us on his lap when we were young. I know he had an occasional drinking problem, but now I realize the tension he must have been under, taking orders from his older brother. He must have constantly worried about being cast out of the house." She looked at Maggy questioningly, "What will mother do without my father to hold things together?"

"We'll take that as it comes. I suspect Ian will take up the slack. Your mother is Ian's responsibility now, and you'll both see her provided for. It's always a problem for older folks when they can no longer work. Someday, I hope things will be different. At least she has her job at the fort and Marguerite is still unmarried and working."
__________________

Almost a month after Pete's disappearance, a Mennonite farmer who lived west of Emerson sought out the sheriff. He had walked across the border from the north, in his quest for supplies. Reaching the jail late in the afternoon, he had difficulty in stating his purpose due to the language barrier.

"I find foot of dead man, dead Indian."

"Where?" asked the sheriff.

"Where I walk from." The farmer pointed north.

"When do you go home?"

"I buy, maybe some time."

"Come back to me then. I'll go with you to see."

Charley waited impatiently until the farmer returned an hour and a half later with his knapsack bulging with supplies. Hurriedly Charley tied the man's bag behind his saddle, and mounted his horse, trying to hasten the stolid Mennonite. Moving north toward the border they approached an uprooted tree where the man stopped and pointed at the ground. Charley knew they stood on the Vaughn homestead land. Slipping from the saddle he immediately saw part of a moccasin clad foot protruding from the ground. As no grass or weeds grew on the spot it was obvious the dirt fill was of recent origin. Charley surmised the recent rains had settled the fill, exposing the foot. A darn poor internment he thought; those railroaders were careless. Breaking part of a branch from the downed tree, he dug away enough dirt to satisfy himself that the body was truly Pete.

Returning to his horse, Charley untied the farmer's pack, and handed it to him. Thanking the Mennonite for leading him to the location of the dead man, he mounted his horse and returned to Pembina.

Just before dark that same evening, he returned with a shovel and completed the burial. All the way home he debated whether or not to divulge this recent turn of events, then decided it would serve no useful purpose. He realized that unless at least one of the guilty parties confessed to the murder of Pete, the culprits would in all probability never be punished.
_________________

It was Mike who finally brought Susan back to full reality. He appeared at the back door early on a Saturday morning carrying two wrapped fish lines and a small sack. Ian looked up from the breakfast table as the boy entered. "Plan on fishing today, Mike?"

"I want to, but can't unless you come with me. Mother won't let me go to the river alone 'cause I can't swim."

Ian looked to Susan. "I can't go with him today. I promised to help the boys move the teams and plows out east. Can you go with him? You like to fish."

She looked interested. "Have you dug up some worms for bait, Mike?"

His face lit up. "I'm after catfish -- got a bunch of frogs here." He held up the small sack. They could see the movement inside as the frogs struggled.

A smile came to Susan's face, the first Ian had seen in nearly a week. His hopes rose when he saw her perk up.

"Susan, you've been working too hard, almost from dawn until dusk. It's either been the house or garden. Take a break and go fishing with Mike."

A flash of color came to her face. "You know, you may be right. I thought hard work would make me forget, but it's just ground my troubles more into me." She turned to Mike.

"Sure, we'll go down to the Red River and I'll show you my favorite spot. How come you don't go swimming with Jerold and Knute?"

"Ah, they're always over at Olanders now, gawking at those two girls."

"Ian, why don't you take Mike swimming sometime?"

"Remember, you're the swimming champion." He smiled knowingly.

Susan almost blushed when she remembered the Sunday afternoon they spent south of the fort, the week before they were married. "It would be unseemly for me to teach him," she said softly, and then she turned to Mike. "Give me a few minutes to put on some old clothes."
_________________

Mary was as regular as a clock about writing home. A letter arrived nearly every week, telling about Army life and their new friends. She often enclosed letters she and Kirby received from the Ralstons. In June the letter that Maggy had fervently hoped for, arrived. Her wishes had been fulfilled. "Oh, Pat! Mary is expecting!"

His head lifted from the newspaper and he nodded sagely, "Guess it was bound to happen. How's Kirby doing? Does she say?"

Maggy's gaze appeared to be on the lamp flame, despite a flying miller that had somehow slipped into the house and was repeatedly attacking the hot chimney. For long moments she was silent, and then said dreamily, "At last our troubles seem to be over. Lordy, it's strange! Mary's troubles began with the railroad; then both of those horrible men met their fate due to the railroad."

"Yes, and this fall after harvest time, Ian and I are quitting the St. Paul and Pacific. We're going to be full time farmers."

Maggy marveled, "Just think, we've two grandchildren on the way, and soon it will be Jerold and Knute thinking of marriage. She turned to gaze at him fondly, "How many grandchildren do you suppose we'll have?"

He smiled as he reached for his pipe. "I hope many, and we're going to spoil every one of them!"

¹ - Actually, there will be one further posting related to this book...Chuck wrote an epilogue, which I will be sharing soon...

Gamble Boys

From Lori Kohut Bianco, Gamble descendant: Alexander Gamble Jr & William Neill Gamble. My guess is this was one of the photos mentioned in the letters, which they had taken after they arrived in Emerson/St. Vincent & sent back to Beaverton in the late 1870s -- the ages appear to be about right.

I will be attending this year's reunion at the end of next month, and visiting many local sites including my family's old homestead, the cemetery, and if time permits, some friends including Hetty Walker, Chuck's wife...