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 to
own more land myself, I told her how I could buy a relinquishment and
she could file on it and then we would marry at once. Now when a young
man and a girl are in love and feel each other to be the world and all
that's in it, it is quite easy to plan, and Miss Rooks and I were no
exception. Had we been in South Dakota instead of Southern Illinois, and
had it been the month of October instead of January, nine months before,
we would have carried out our plans, but since it was January we
mutually agreed to wait until the nine months had elapsed, but something
happened during that time which will be told in due time.
I enjoyed feeling that I was at last engaged. It was positively
delightful, and when I left the next morning to visit my parents in
Kansas, I was a very happy person. While visiting there, shooting
jack-rabbits by day and boosting Dakota to the Jayhawkers half the
night, 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 be
graduated from the high school the following June, and wanted to come to
Dakota in the fall and take up claims, but had no money to purchase
relinquishments. I agreed to mortgage my land and loan the money, but
when all was arranged it was found one of them would not be old enough
in 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 with
unusual 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 asking
why she did not answer my letters. In due time I heard from her stating
that she had been afraid I didn't love her and that she had been told I
was engaged to Daisy, and as Daisy would be the heir to the money and
property of her parents she felt sure my marriage to Miss Hinshaw would
be more agreeable to me than would a marriage with her, who had only a
kind heart and willing mind to offer, so she had on the first day of
April married one whom she felt was better suited to her impoverished
condition.
Now, what she had done was, in her effort to break off the prolonged
courtship of the little fellow referred to in the early part of this
story (and who was still working for three dollars a week), she had
commenced going with another--a cook forty-two years of age, and had
thought herself desperately in love with him at the time. I had not even
written to Miss Hinshaw and knew nothing whatever of any engagement. I
was 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 find
life all sunshine and roses with her forty-two-year-old groom. Lots
of excitement was on around Megory and Calias, and as I liked
excitement, I soon forgot the matter.
[Illustration: Had put 280 acres under cultivation. (Page 153.)]
With the location of the land office in Megory and its subsequent
removal from east of the Missouri, it was found there was only one
building in the town, outside of the banks, that contained a vault, and
a vault being necessary, it became expedient for the commercial club to
provide an office that contained one. Two prosperous real-estate
dealers, whose office contained a vault, readily turned over their
building to the register and receiver until the land office building,
then under construction, should be completed. A building twenty-five by
sixty feet was built in the street just in front of the office, to be
used as a temporary map room, and to be moved away as soon as the filing
was over.
The holders of lucky numbers had been requested to appear at a given
hour on a certain day to offer filings on Tipp county claims. By the
time the filing had commenced, the hotels of both towns were filled, and
tents covered all the vacant lots, while one hundred and fifty or more
autos, to be hired at twenty-five dollars per day, did a rushing
business. The settlers seemed to be possessed of abundant capital, and
deposits in the local banks increased out of all proportion to those of
previous times.
Besides the holders of numbers, hundreds of other settlers, who had
purchased land in Megory county, were moving in at the same time,
bringing stock, machinery, household goods and plenty of money. Those
were bountiful days for the locators and land sharks.
When Megory county opened for settlement a few years previous, it was
found that the Indians had taken practically all their allotments along
the streams, where wood and water were to be had. The most of these
allotments were on the Monca bottom below Old Calias. In fact, they had
taken the entire valley that far up. The timber along the creek was very
small, being stunted from many fires, and consisted mostly of
cottonwood, elm, box-elder, oak and ash. All but the oak and ash being
easily susceptible to dry rot, were unfit for posts or anything except
for shade and firewood. This made the valley lands cheaper than the
uplands.
The Indians were always selling and are yet, what is furnished them by
the government, for all they can get. When given the money spends it as
quickly as he possibly can, buying fine horses, buggies, whiskey, and
what-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 the
larger part of southern South Dakota and northern Nebraska, and own a
lot of it yet. Be it said, however, it is simply because the government
will not allow them to sell.
The breeds near Old Calias were easily flattered, and when the white
people invited them to anything they always came dressed in great
regalia, 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 of
Cutschall, owned all the land just south of Old Calias, in fact the
site where Calias had stood, was formerly the allotment of a deceased
son. The father, known as old Tom Cutschall, was for years a landmark on
the creek.
Now and then Nicholson Brothers had invited the Cutschalls to some of
their social doings, which made the Cutschalls feel exalted, and higher
still, when Ernest suggested he could get them a patent for their land
and then would buy it. This suited Cutschalls dandy. Ernest offered
seven thousand dollars for the section, and they accepted. At that time,
by recommending the Indian to be a competent citizen and able to care
for himself, a patent would be granted on proper recommendation, and
Nicholson Brothers attended to that and got Mrs. Cutschall the patent.
Tom, her husband, being a white man, could not be allotted, and she had
been given the section as the head of the family. It is said they spent
the seven thousand dollars in one year. The company of which the father
of the Nicholson Brothers was president made a loan of eight thousand
dollars on the land, and shortly afterward they sold it for twenty-three
thousand dollars. The lots had brought more than one hundred thousand
dollars in Calias and were still selling, so this placed the "Windy
Nicholsons," as they had been called by jealous Megoryites, in a
position of much importance, and they were by this time recognized as
men of no small ability.
Years before Megory county was opened to settlement, many white men had
drifted onto the reservation and had engaged in ranching, and had in
the meantime married squaws. This appears to have been done more by the
French than any other nationality, judging by the many French names
among the mixed-bloods. Among these were a family by the name of
Amoureaux, consisting of four boys and several girls. The girls had all
married white men, and the little while Old Calias was in existence, two
of the boys, William and George, used to go there often and were
entertained by the Nicholson Brothers with as much splendor as Calias
could afford. The Amoureaux were high moguls in Little Crow society
during the first two years and everybody took off their hats to them.
They were called the "rich mixed-bloods," and were engaged in ranching
and owned great herds in Tipp county. When they shipped it was by the
trainloads. The Amoureaux and the Colones, another family of wealthy
breeds, were married to white women, and the husbands, as heads of
families, held a section of land and the children each held one hundred
and sixty acres.
Before the Nicholson Brothers had left Old Calias and before they had
reached the position they now occupied, as I stated, they had shown the
Amoureaux a "good time." They did not have much Indian blood in their
veins, being what are called quarter-breeds, having a French father and
a half-blood Indian mother, and were all fine looking. George had seven
children and the family altogether had eleven quarter sections of land
and two thousand head of cattle, so there was no reason why he should
not have been the "big chief," but so much society and paid-for
notoriety had brought about a change to him and his brother. William,
who had always been a money-maker and a still bigger spender, with the
fine looks thrown in, had shown like a skyrocket before bursting.
A rich Indian is something worth associating with, but a poor one is of
small note. The Amoureaux spent so freely that in a few years they were
all in, down and out--had nothing but their allotments left, and these
the 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 like
the others had "blowed his roll," but happened to have an allotment in
the very picturesque valley of the Dog Ear, in Tipp county, near the
center of the county, and when a bunch of promoters decided to lay out a
town they made a deal with Oliver, taking him into the company, he
furnishing the land and they the brains. They laid out the site and
began the town, naming it "Amoureaux" in honor of the breed, which made
Oliver feel very big, indeed.