The Legend of Eli CrowChapter 47
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December 27, 1884 Tulsa Depot Tulsa, Indian Territory
Jon David and Joe were at the train depot when the train pulled in from Kansas City. Jon David had gotten a telegraph message that there would be twenty-one, young Negro women aboard the train arriving on the twenty-seventh. There were only two Pullman cars and a caboose connected to that train.
The preacher from the Negro church in Kansas City had made the trip down to Tulsa, escorting the young women personally, since the young women were all daughters of members in his church.
At the Crow house, the twenty-one ex-Buffalo Soldiers were cleaned up and anxiously awaiting their arrival.
“Reverend Jonas Holyfield, I presume,” Jon David greeted the older, silver haired man as he stepped down from the Pullman car in the rear.
“Yes Sir, and you must be Mr. Jon David Crow. I would have known you anywhere, just by the correspondence we have carried on,” the preacher said as he and Jon David shook hands.
The hired hands were all standing out on the front porch as they saw the two wagon loads of young women about to cross the Arkansas River. They walked out in the yard and lined up across the front of the house, each of them dressed in their blue uniforms for the first time since they came to work here.
As the mules stepped into the cold waters of the Arkansas river, the Buffalo Soldiers start singing ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’ to their brides-to-be.
The Crow women and girls stood on the porch, singing along with them as the two wagons made their way to the top of the ridge. They could hear the young Negro women, led by their preacher in the first wagon, singing along with them.
When they stopped singing, there were whoops and yells as the young women were helped to the ground, each with a carpetbag, containing their only belongings.
“Reverend, it’s too cold to stand out here and introduce all these men and women, let’s go inside where it’s warm and make the introductions,” Jon David said.
“You lead the way, Mr. Crow, we’re about frozen as it is. There wasn’t a lot of heat in that Pullman car we rode down here on. The porters came back there where we were and took all the wood and carried it up to the white folks’ car.”
The Crow women had pushed the tables to the middle of the dining room, to make room on each wall for this meeting. The Buffalo Soldiers lined up along one wall, facing the young women who were lined up against the other wall, facing the smiling men who now held their campaign hats in their hands.
Eli, Duncan, Moses, and Joe stood aside and watched the whole thing take place. They were proud for the ex-Buffalo Soldiers, now that another, almost forgotten, lifelong dream of theirs was about to be fulfilled.
The tables were set and loaded with food enough for all, waiting for the mass wedding and the meal afterward, as the preacher and Jon David talked in the other room.
The twenty-one, young Negro women from Kansas City stood nervously staring at the floor, awaiting the introduction of their husbands to be. Occasionally, one of them would cast a glance upwards, toward the smiling women of the Crow family. They felt out of place at first, then as they saw the Crow family still smiling at them, they quickly felt this was where they were meant to be. This is where their lives would change forever.
“Reverend Holyfield, you can call me by my given name ... I am Jon David. It took us a long time to get these men to call us by our names.”
“Thank you, Jon David. I want to meet with Sergeant Willis first. I have brought my own niece down here to meet this man. I read your description of him to her and she snatched that paper from my hand and read it aloud a dozen times. She’s just shy of twenty years old, but she’s a fine young God fearing, Christian woman and a fine cook too. She has been to school and earned a diploma and even had some higher school classes too. She was about to be a teacher up there in our church, when this all come about...
“She asked me if she could meet her man first, so the two of them could help the others meet and get to know one another. If I remember your last correspondence correctly, you have arranged for the men and their wives to have a day and night together, before the men return to work?”
“We have arranged for them to have the rest of the week off as it stands now, Reverend. I’ll introduce you to Sergeant Willis ... by the way, he wants to just be called Willis now that he’s out of the cavalry and works here with us. You can then make the introductions as you go down your list. I take it the remaining young women have also made their choices as well?”
“Yes they have. There were over fifty young women who came to us when the news got out up there. The deacons and myself talked to each of them and narrowed it down to this twenty-one here today. Each of them already knows the name of the man they want to be married to, we told them that was alright.
“Jon David, let’s get this ceremony started. I’m about as excited as all them young ladies in that other room. Would you allow this old black preacher to say a few words to the Lord, for all these folks we’re about to introduce and marry?”
“This is your show, Reverend. I think that would be very appropriate, since these young women have come this far to meet their men for the first time, and marry them. They’ll surely need some prayers to help them ... these men are as rough and tough as they come.”
When they walked back into the dining room, all eyes were on Reverend Holyfield as he took two sheets of paper out of his breast pocket as he began to speak.
“I asked Jon David if I might say a prayer and give thanks to the Lord before we start this ceremony...
“Would you bow your heads, please?”
“Lord, we’re here today to introduce these men and women to each other, to match them up and marry them. We ask you to bless this home we’re in and bless this big family that has taken it upon themselves to help their hired hands find wives. Our small job is done now, Lord. They’ve asked for them and I’ve delivered them. Lord, it is now up to you and the newlywed couples as they make a life together out here on this new land. We ask you to bless each of them and watch over them as they begin their life together. Amen”
...”Now, I got this list of men and have matched it to my list of young women who have come here today to meet their new husbands. I’m going to start with the man formerly known as Sergeant Willis, of the Buffalo Soldiers. Sergeant, Jon David told me that you wished to be called Willis, but if you’ll step over here next to me, I want to tell you and your men something.”
Willis stepped up to the preacher – the big man grinning broadly as he stuck his large, calloused hand out to shake with the preacher. They were both smiling wide and Willis’ eyes were already about to overflow, he was so happy and so excited.
“Willis, I just wanted to take this moment to tell you and your men about these young women.
“When we first received Jon David and his wife’s letter at our church, I almost threw it in the trash! I just knew none of our fine young women would ever want to come all the way out here in this savage land and marry up with the likes of you and your men. Men who have been in the cavalry since you were just boys. Men who have never known what it was like to have a woman as a wife and treat her as good as these young women want to be treated and deserved to be treated.
“I got to tell you, Willis, I was wrong. I sat and looked at that letter, then I showed it to the deacons of the church and we all pondered on it for a week. When we met again, we decided that it wasn’t up to us to decide what our young women of the church may want. We decided to present that letter to the congregation. Well, I read this letter aloud in church that next Sunday and before I even got to the end of it, there were over fifty hands raised, waving like they were drowning and calling out for help...
“After church services that day, the deacons and myself took the names of all those who wanted to know the story behind this letter, the first of its kind we’d ever heard of. We let the young women read the letter written by Jon David’s wife, Mrs. Amanda Crow. I think it may have been a woman’s touch in those words that made these young women want to meet these big, burly former Buffalo Soldiers with dreams of marrying and loving a man like that. Whatever it was, it sure caused a ruckus amongst all the marrying age young women. It sure made us appreciate that people like the Eli Crow family wrote this letter to our church.
“Willis, I want to introduce you to my own young niece. She must have fell in love with you, just by Jon David and Miss Amanda’s words. She told me she wanted you, Sergeant. Here she is, Miss Lorice Holyfield, your bride-to-be.
“Come over here, Lorice, Honey. You wanted this big man, now come get him and love him like you told me and your momma you were going to love him when you got here!”
Willis was looking up and down the two rows of young women, knowing he would be happy no matter which one she turned out to be. All eyes in the room were on the twenty-one young Negro women, when suddenly, the two young women in the middle of the front row moved slightly. Willis thought one of them was her and he smiled in their direction. Then he saw a small hand as it pushed between the two women in the front row. There stood a tiny young woman with a big smile, big eyes and long hair braided down her back in tiny braids.
When she walked slowly over to her uncle, carrying her carpet bag, she looked even smaller. Like a doll. She never stopped smiling as she looked up at Willis, with her big brown eyes just about to overflow, the same as his.
Willis had no thought of kneeling in the floor at her feet, but his knees gave out, they were shaking so bad. When he hit the floor on his knees with a loud thud, he reached up and took the young woman’s carpetbag and placed it behind him.
He had dreamed about this since he was a boy, though years ago he had given up on this dream ever coming true. Now it was about to happen and his throat was knotted up until he could hardly breathe.
With a hard swallow that moved his big chest, he took her small hands in both of his as he looked into her eyes and spoke, “Miss Lorice, if you’ve not already changed your mind when you saw me, I’d like you to be my wife. I promise you in front of Eli Crow’s family, your uncle, and God above, that I will love you as long as I live,” he managed to say, his deep voice quivering, his hands shaking so hard, he was shaking the little woman all over.
“Sergeant, I think I may have loved you when I first saw your name and read about you. I came here to be your wife and I’ll be your wife until my time is done on earth. I hope you want a houseful of young’uns, Sergeant, ‘cause I want a big family.”
Lorice Holyfield looked Willis in the eye and smiled that big smile once more. When Willis raised to stand on his wobbly knees, he picked her up and held her in his arms, with her feet dangling off the floor as they hugged and held each other.
“You two just step over here out of the way and let me introduce all the other young women and their chosen husbands-to-be. We’ll get this ceremony over with and then we’ll all eat a big meal, since Jon David has told me that all this food was prepared special for us.”
After the introductions were made and the men met their brides, they had a few minutes to visit as they nervously began to know each other better. The wedding ceremony took place with all the couples standing together on one side of the room and Reverend Jonas Holyfield standing before them.
By the time they were married and had eaten the big wedding feast, the men and women were finally beginning to talk and laugh together.
Joe took Reverend Holyfield back to the depot to catch a late train back to Kansas City and the men took their new wives to their rooms at the bunkhouses.
They had five days together before the men had to return to work on the drilling rigs.
No one had noticed Turk and his sons as they watched the twenty-one young Negro women and the older black man get off the train and climb aboard the two wagons headed to Crow Ridge. They were there later when the deputy brought the old Negro man back, alone, to catch the northbound train.
Crow Ridge Cattle Company December 28, 1884
While the women were making breakfast, Eli walked out on the front porch with his mug of hot coffee. He stretched and looked over toward the loading pens, just as he did every morning since they had started loading oil. The sun was just coming up over the cattle pens and the oil loading facilities on this cold, clear morning. Eli looked back toward the river and across to the small town of Tulsa.
There, down in front of his house, on the far side of the river was a burning cross!
Eli flung his coffee out of his mug and ran back inside. He slammed his mug down on the table so hard, he rattled the tableware.
“ELI!” Rose yelled as he scared the women.
He never spoke as he buckled his gunbelt on, grabbed his hat and ran from the house, pulling his heavy coat on as he ran toward the barn.
Clarissa ran to the back door to see where he had gone in such a hurry as Rose and Miranda ran to the front door. They knew he must have seen something outside to make him run from the house like that. They both saw the burning cross and yelped.
“What is it?” Clarissa asked as she ran to the door.
“Is that what I think it is?” She asked, as she too looked out.
“Yes, and there goes Eli. I knew something must have made him mad, the way he slammed that cup down and ran from the house. I just wish we could have a normal, peaceful Christmas like we used to,” Rose said as they watched Eli ride straight to the river, where he walked his horse across the sandbars and shallow water.
The sun was already up enough so that Eli could see the horse tracks and the boot tracks, where someone had dug the hole and set the cross in the icy mud. He took his rope and threw it over the top of the still burning cross and wrapped the end around his saddle horn. Eli nudged his horse and pulled the cross over in the loose mud. He left his rope on the smoldering cross and rode up the bank, following the tracks.
He followed them for miles – west of Tulsa, to where they cut back to the southeast, toward the backside of town.
The sun was up and shining bright on the cold, clear December morning as Eli tracked the three horses to the rundown shack that belonged to Turkey and his boys. Stopping out a ways from the shack, he tied his horse and ran quietly and swiftly, right at the back door.
Eli kicked the door in, with his Colt already in his hand. Turkey and his youngest son sat at the small table with Soapy and another young man Eli had never seen.
“What in the hell are you doing? You God Damned sumbitchin injun. Come a bustin’ in here like this while we’re havin a peaceable meal at home. I ought to kill your stinkin’ ass for bustin’ that door down like that.” Turkey yelled as he jumped up from the table and reached for his old pistol.
Eli shot him in his upper right arm before he could even get his hand on his gun. The youngest boy of Turkey’s sat with his back to the door and had turned his head to look back at Eli.
“You God Damned bastard, you shot my Pa.” He yelled, reaching for his gun. Eli swung his pistol barrel hard, clubbing the boy across the side of his head knocking him out of his chair onto the floor.
The other young man sitting beside Soapy jumped to his feet.
“Set your ass down, boy! I’ll shoot you right between your damned eyes,” Eli growled at him.
“Where you out of, boy? I don’t remember seeing you around here before,” Eli asked when the boy slowly sat back down.
“I’m from down in Mississippi. Turkey and Soapy are my uncles.”
“What’s your name and what are you doing here in Tulsa?”
“My name’s Seth Turk. My cousin Buck sent word for me to come up here and help with some things that they had workin.”
“Things like burning crosses on the other side the river in front of my house?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just got here yesterday and we been here all night.”
“There was a cross burning over on the other side of the river on my land this morning. Did you cross that river, stand it up, then set it afire?”
“We never crossed the river with that cross.”
“So, you stood the cross up on this side and set it afire?”
“I didn’t say that, you got me all mixed up.”
“Soapy, were you with them?” Eli looked down at Soapy as he looked up at Eli, his eyes red and bloodshot.
“Marshal, I ain’t been nowhere but right here. I woke up and they was gone, then I woke up and they was back.” He slurred his words as he talked.
“Get your drunk ass over there in that corner and lay on the floor, Soapy. You’re hanging out with the wrong people and it’s gonna get your ass killed.”
Soapy tumbled out of his rickety chair and fell to the floor on his hands and knees. He rolled over and curled up in the corner of the small room with his face to the wall and his knees drawn up to his chest.
“What’s this boy’s name?” Eli asked Seth, pointing to Turkey’s youngest son. The boy was trying to rouse up from being rapped on the head with Eli’s pistol, then fell back and lay still. Turkey had his eyes open, glaring at Eli.
“All I ever heard him called was Spider. I never knew if that was his true name or not.”
“Don’t you be telling that sumbitch’ injun a Goddamn thing about our family,” Turkey said as he pulled himself up straight, holding his free hand over his bloody gunshot wound.
“I’ll kill you yet, you stinkin’ ass God Damned, Nigger lovin’ sumbitchin’ injun,” Turkey railed at Eli.
“You cuss me again and I’ll take the hair off your head, then cut your nuts out while you’re still alive. Now you keep your mouth shut while Seth and me have a us a talk,” Eli said, his eyes drawn down tight and his jaw set as he leaned over close to Turkey.
“I’m through wastin my time. Now you tell me who set that cross afire and where you got the coal oil.” Eli turned to look at Seth, pulling his knife out and swiping it across in front of his face, then laying the blade against the boys cheek.
“They had the coal oil, I just helped cut and nail the timbers for the cross and helped dig the hole.”
“You lousy bastard, I told you to keep your mouth shut. I tried to tell my boys you wouldn’t be worth a damn with this mess,” Turkey yelled at his nephew.
Eli leaned over the small, shaky table and cut the straps off Turkey’s bib overalls.
“You crazy bastard, you just cut me with that damned knife. You already shot my good arm all to hell.”
“You got a knife, Seth?” Eli asked as he looked around at the older boy.
“I got a pocket knife is all.”
“Get it out ... Is it sharp?”
“It’s sharp as a razor, I reckon.”
“Get over here and cut your uncle Turkey’s nuts out then.”
“HELL, I AIN’T GONNA DO THAT!”
“Then hand me your knife and I’ll use it to cut yours out after I take your scalp.”
“Marshal, you’re loco ... you’re crazier than hell.”
“I ain’t loco, but I’m mad as hell. Now get over here and cut your uncle’s nuts out or I’ll cut yours out, then take your scalp. Then I’ll pour some of this coal oil on you and set your ass afire.”
“Marshal, I don’t think I can do that to my Ma’s own brother.”
Eli pulled his Colt and placed the muzzle behind the boy’s ear. He pulled the hammer back slow, letting it click twice as he did.
“You want to die?” He growled as he leaned close.
“No Marshal, but I just don’t think I can cut my own uncle’s nuts out like this.”
“Then get down on your knees, I’m gonna blow your brains out,” Eli growled as he leaned over the boy.
“Don’t kill me. I’ll cut him!”
“Get his britches down then and cut them nuts out like you was cuttin’ a hog.”
“Boy, don’t you listen to this crazy bastard. You can’t cut my nuts out ... that’d kill a man!” Turkey sat back in his chair and yelled.
“If I don’t, I’ll get killed. At least this way, we’ll both be alive!” The boy answered his uncle.
“Look Marshal, you can’t make this boy do that. I’ll stop cussin’ you and I’ll leave Tulsa, if you’ll let me ride.”
“Too late, Turkey. When Seth gets through with you, you won’t be so apt to set crosses afire around here and you’ll not ride a mule again for quite a while either.”
“Boy, get your ass down here between your uncle’s stinking legs and cut him like I told you to,” Eli said and poked him hard with the gun barrel behind his ear.
Eli leaned over, his big knife in his left hand and laid it across Turkey’s throat.
“You move and you’ll cut your own damn throat as your nephew cuts your nuts out.”
Turkey yelled as his nephew’s knife sliced through his nut sack.
“NOOOOOOO!” He yelled, but it was too late. Seth had one of his bloody nuts on the table in front of him and was cutting the other one out.
“Now, get some of that coal oil over there in that jug and slosh on him so he’ll heal up.”
“ARRRRRRGGGGHHH.” Turkey yelled, then passed out when the coal oil was dashed over the gaping hole where his nut sack hung empty.
“Now! Cut your cousin.”
“Marshal?”
“Cut him or I will, after I cut yours out.”
Spider was laying sprawled out on the floor unconscious as Seth cut his britches apart and took his nuts.
“Douse his nut sack with coal oil now,” Eli told him.
“Now, put his nuts in his mouth so he’ll wake up with them like that. I’m damned tired of all this hell raisin’ going on around here while I’m trying to celebrate a peaceful Christmas with my family.
“Is one of them horses yours out there, Boy?”
“It sure is Marshal, you gonna let me ride?”
“If you’re within a hundred miles of here by dark today, I’ll catch up to you and cut your nuts out. Then I’ll take your scalp and drag your ass backwards all the way back here naked and tie you to a burning cross myself. If there’s any more of you brave souls down there in Mississippi who wants to come to Tulsa and burn crosses, tell’em I said come on. United States Marshal Eli Crow will be here waitin for ‘em.”
“Marshal, my horse won’t make a hundred miles before dark.”
“Then you best not sleep tonight when you stop to rest that horse. I’ll cut you in the dark and you’ll not know it until you start bleeding.”
“I’m gone, Marshal,” Seth said and jumped up from the floor. He stumbled, then ran through the open doorway, tripping and falling on the frozen ground, then crawling to his horse.
Eli reached down and grabbed Soapy by his overall straps and dragged him outside.
“Soapy, I’m gonna let you live, but you better get on that mule of your brother’s and ride all the way to Kansas before you stop, you hear me?”
“I hear you, Marshal. I’m gone,” Soapy said and pulled himself up to climb in the saddle.
“I’m gonna come lookin for you in a few minutes, if I catch up with you, I’ll kill you anyway. If I ever set eyes on you again as long as I live, no matter where I am, I’ll shoot you on sight. Now get gone from here before I change my mind and kill you right here.”
With Soapy whipping the mule and kicking him in his ribs, the old mule finally got up to a slow singlefoot gait. That was all he was going to do.
Eli dragged Turkey and Spider outside, then poured two jugs of coal oil all over the shack.
He found some matches and struck three at once, flicking them back inside the open door just as he backed out.
“Eli, the women told us there was a burning cross down on the other side of the river earlier this morning, what was that all about?” Duncan asked.
“That was Turkey and his boys. I reckon they thought that would warn us about our hired hands and make us get rid of them. It didn’t work this morning and it ain’t gonna ever work either!”
“Dad, they said you rode down there and took the cross down. Did you find them?” Jon David asked.
“Yep, I went to see them early this morning. Tracked their horses from the cross right to the shack they live in, out west of town.”
“Eli, did they own up to puttin’ the cross up?” Moses asked as they sat around the kitchen table, drinking coffee.
“More or less. I ran Soapy out of Tulsa, he was too drunk to have helped them and I let him go. I told him if I ever saw him again as long as I live, I’d shoot him on sight.”
“Eli, we saw that black smoke back over there across the river earlier. Did their shack burn down?” Joe asked, already knowing the answer to that.
“Yup, there was a scuffle and a lamp got knocked over, burning the place to the ground. I reckon we’ll have to meet up with the three older boys of Turkey’s before it’s all said and done. They weren’t there. Turkey and his youngest won’t sit a saddle for a few weeks and neither will ever be a daddy.”
Micah ran into the kitchen and yelled... “DAD! There’s a burnt cross down in front of the bunkhouses, looks like it didn’t burn good last night.”
“Get your horses saddled, we’re gonna hunt down some more of the Klan members and explain a few things to them,” Eli told the men as he pushed back from the table.
The women were about to finish cooking the men a late breakfast, as they listened to them talk. When they jumped up from the table and left, the women pushed the pans back off the hot eye on the cookstove.
“Rose, do you think there will be much more of this? What about our girls and the Young Bucks, will they be safe going back across the river now?” Miranda asked as they watched out the front windows when the men rode past, headed to the charred cross down the slope from the bunkhouses. William, Ben, and George Barkley were with them.
She told them, “We used to have a lot of that back in Missouri. I was young, but I knew what it was. I really believe our Pa was a part of it all. He never said, and we never talked about it when he would come back home after being out all night. I would imagine Eli and the others will put a stop to this. I believe Eli is getting more like Pa every time something like this happens. Tulsa’s not a big town though and there can’t be that many of them here. Yet that is. They always seem to come when there’s black people close by, trying to make a decent living.”
“Then we’ll just have to caution our girls, and the Bucks to never be alone and always watch their backs,” Clarissa added.
“Yes, we’ve always taught them that. We’ll just have to make sure they understand how serious it is now,” Rose told them.
“Get your rope on that thing and pull it down, William,” Eli spoke with a growl in the cold air as they rode up to the tall, charred cross.
“Eli, I see the tracks where they carried the cross up here from the riverbank, they must’ve brought that thing across on a boat, as big as it is,” Moses told him as he rode back from the river.
“How many?”
“Looks like it was four that carried it up here, near as I can tell.”
“Then they must have one more helping them with this cross burning, Turkey don’t have but four sons one is too sore in his straddle to ride this morning.”
“Little Eli, you Bucks head on back over there and break the ice in the watering troughs. I don’t want any of you Bucks to ever cross this river alone again. Make sure your sisters are never alone out here, even on our side of the river,” Eli told the Bucks as they rode their horses down to get a good look at the burned cross.
The Young Bucks wanted to be a part of this, but they looked at each other and mounted up to ride back down the line to all the windmills and watering troughs.
“Let’s go down river a ways and cross over, then ride back up this way on the other side to find where they left from. They would’ve had to start across upriver to paddle over here, they wouldn’t have paddled upstream,” Eli told them.
“Jon David, I don’t want you being alone over there anymore either. It’d give them pleasure to get you down over there away from us,” Eli told him.
“I’ll make sure I am armed and have company when I go to the depot or to Perryman’s to the post office from now on.”
“We need to tell Jefferson and Howard to be careful too. They aren’t as skilled with guns as we are and they’ll be the ones them bastards try to take down first, if they can’t get to our young’uns. They know better than to face off with us,” Eli told them as they rode south toward the railroad bridge to cross over.
“I sure was hoping they’d let us ride with them this morning, since they were just going across the river to look for sign,” Ezra said as they stopped at the cattle pens first and hacked the ice until they had it chopped up. The cattle were milling around, waiting for this and more came when they rode up on their horses. There were open hay sheds built and piled full of hay for them to eat during the winter, and the cattle stayed close.
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