INCIDENTS

This part of Wyoming is rolling prairie. Riding horseback for hours on end, going up to the ridge and into the swales was tiresome and very wearing on the man and beast. These hills and valleys posed a real problem for the Union Pacific Railway when laying tracks across the land. So, when laying the track, they brought in grout to fill in areas where it was not convenient to level in other ways, and laid the track level across what might be called a “bumpy” country.

Consequently, this track became a very convenient trail for horsemen to use, thus avoiding the constant up and down of the natural terrain. These were the circumstances that found Dad lounging in his saddle as “Smuggler” carried him along the railroad track.

There is a definite, but gentle slope of the land downward in an Easterly direction, as the land rises to meet the mountains to the West. The trains traveling East, could literally “coast” down toward the East. Using no power, they virtually made no noise. The engineer on one of these trains saw Dad, but made no noise until he was quite close to him and then he blew his whistle. Horses don’t like train whistles or any other noise that trains make, especially the half wild animals of the plains in those days. “Smuggler” went into the air and came down sliding on his haunches on the rough grout of the fill, cutting himself on his rump and between his legs. The whistle startled Dad also and the danger to him created by the engineer caused him to instinctively pull his gun and put two shots into the cab of the train.

Further down the track there was a place where the engines took on water from a tank beside the track. When Dad got there the attendant told him that the engineer of the train was shaken up that he could not drive the train and had had to have his assistant run the train. He had not been hit but had been scared out of his wits. Well, turn about is fair play. He could have killed Dad by his prank of frightening the horse Dad was riding.

One morning the men had gathered at the corral, it was dark and cold, the horses were frisky, including “Smuggler”. However, the saddles were being cinched up and the men were getting a few “crow hops” out of their horses. Dad had saddled “Smuggler” and with one foot in the stirrup, “Smuggler” gave a jump and caught Dad with the pummel of his saddle on Dad’s eye tooth, breaking it, and leaving the nerve exposed. The pain was excruciating. The nearest dentist was in Cheyenne.
Dad was not a tea-totaler. He took a “chaw” of tobacco and jammed it against the tooth, and a bottle of whiskey to deaden the pain, got on his horse and started to ride. It was something like thirty miles to the nearest railroad. I believe it was at the same water tank referred to above, that he found a freight train taking on water. He climbed into the caboose and sat down at the time it was empty. Shortly the crew came aboard, and promptly told him he would have to get off. He explained his circumstances, but they insisted that it was “against company policy”. Dad had his gun, of course, and whether he drew it or not, I do not know, but he made it clear that he was in such pain that he would share it with anyone who tried to throw him off. Upon arriving in Cheyenne, he got off the train in the yards and dodged the railroad constables.

It was early morning, and when he found the dentist’s office, it was closed, the dentist lived over the office. Dad knocked, and banged on the do.: until the dentist came down and let him in.

He had sympathy for Dad, took him into his office cared for him, and then let. him sleep and rest in the waiting room until the first patients arrived.

The gold tooth he got that day was still with him until I was grown.

It must have been during the winter that Dad came down with rheumatic fever and was sent to Fremont, Nebraska to a hospital. His family back “home” heard about this and, I believe it was his brother “Bob” that had notified the ladies of the Church in Washington and they contacted the folks in Fremont. In this way it became the “duty” of Mrs Forney to visit the “poor suffering boy from the East”. However, Mrs Forney was a busy woman. She ran a boarding house in Fremont, and keeping house in those days was a real job of work. After a few trips to see Dad, she sent her daughter, Pearl. After Pearl’s first trip, Mrs Forney made no more visits to see Dad.

During his convelesance, He stayed at Mrs. Forney’s boarding house. The friendship between Pearl and Harry prospered, and he recovered. He had to return to Wyoming.

When he returned Jim Henry joined him again and they took some time off from ranching. They went to the County Court House and examined the land records for land that. was available for homesteading. Carefully checking the maps of the area. Then they set out to look at the sites they had found available.

They made camp near the Green River, I was told. Then one evening, five cowhands rode into camp. The conversation went something like this: “What are you boys doing out here?” “We are looking at some land for setting up a spread.” “Well now, this here land belongs to the R Davis Ranch.” “According to the County Land Records this land is open for homestead.” “The County records are wrong. This is part of the R Davis Ranch. Now, boys, you can hunt, fish and camp here as long as you want. When you are through leave.” The five men rode off into the sunset. There was the gauntlet.

Did being a cattle rancher involve killing sheep and a gun fight over a legal claim to land? These were important and pertinent questions for two Eastern “strangers” to consider. Certainly, Dad did not want to kill sheep and ultimately kill the men that owned them. Nor did the prospect of getting a foothold in a strange land, buying cattle, building shelter, learning an entirely new way of living, at the point of a gun appeal.

All of this was not related to me specifically, but the common sense of the thing seems apparent Dad’s six gun was a thirty-eight, mounted on a forty-five frame
While fooling around at Haygood’s ranch there had been some target shooting, and Dad had demonstrated, what we will call a “superior” skill with his weapon, and he had been chided for not shooting one of the sheep herders who had been within his demonstrated range and ability. on one occasion, He had taken a shot at a coyote that was said to be a mile away, and the dust flew up so close that the coyote jumped away. This was from horse back. This was all very well. But shooting men, in what was for sure a private war for uncertain gains, was losing its appeal.

Dad packed his things on his pack horse and took his leave of the dream of being a “Cattle King” He led his animals across four hundred miles of prairie to Fremont. On his way he passed many covered wagons going the other way. People seeking their “fortune” in a new, strange and still harsh land.

When he reached Fremont, he established himself in the Forney Boarding House. Where he had previously found “the Pearl of great price”.