Lieutenant John Holbrook, Sergeant John Wheeler

by Laszlo Endrody

  I bought a grain drill to plant the wheat and everybody was waiting to see if it would work. When David moved the plows to the Wilson farm, he had to leave the teams: one to pull the grain drill and two to harrow. The other four started plowing at the Wilson’s. I went out to try this grain drill and I set it for wheat and loaded it. After a big piece was harrowed, I went to plant the wheat. It was easy for the horses so I locked a metal harrow behind it and left a smoother field. The seed was going out the way it was supposed to. The machine definitely made work a little easier and we ended up with a real nice field.

  Chapter Four

  The priest sent another soldier out who had just gotten out of the army. His name was Pete and he was an infantry corporal. He had three horses, two geldings and a nice mare. He said that the mare was pregnant and would be having a colt soon. I told him that if he worked a team, he would get an extra 20 dollars a month.

  David had him plow one day and then the next day he harrowed. He fixed himself a place in the barn where he slept. The girls were really excited about him and wanted him in the house.

  David got married that Sunday after the church services and he invited everybody for a nice dinner at the hotel restaurant. I got to be a witness and a captain from the First Calvary was the second witness. Eva was happy that she was married again to a nice man. She told Teresa that she would be a very good wife for David.

  Pete stayed in the barn and worked for David. Having an extra team sure helped. Then Pete went and bought a three-room house close to the priest’s farm. There was an 18-year-old girl working for the priest that he liked very much. The place he bought had 20 acres with a corral and hay shed. The house had a main room with a table and chairs and a couch to sit on and a nice bedroom with two beds. Pete had some bandit money, so he was able to pay for everything. The third room was very small; it was like a storeroom. In the back of the house, it had a cook shed with a big kitchen stove with an oven and a shelf with all the pots and pans. The cook shed was partially open, but it could be closed in the winter. Across from it was a big wood shed. Pete bought the place for 250 dollars and moved in. He asked Lydia, the 18-year-old girl, if she wanted to earn some money because he needed someone to clean everything. He told her he would pay her 40 dollars gold. That was more money than Lydia had ever had at one time. Her clothes were rags and she needed everything; shoes, warm clothes for winter, underwear, and at least one warm dress. He bought himself a new buckboard for 80 dollars. He had a team and a harness, so he had a way to get to work.

  He told David about the place he bought. He told him that he would be coming to work with his team. David told him that would be fine. Lydia started cleaning everything and worked late every day. Pete would take her home in the evening with the buckboard. Pete bought a bunch of supplies and filled the small room in the house with sacked items. He also bought some bacon and ham, some lard to cook with, and some nice dishes and silverware.

  Lydia worked a week and got a lot done. He gave her 20 dollars and wanted to know if she wanted to go shopping after church. She told him she would love to go shopping so she could buy some new clothes. The grocer told him that if he wanted something on Sunday he just needed to bang on the store door.

  They went to church together and the priest was happy to see them. They sat in the back. After church, he took her to the store and banged on the door. He wanted to know if the grocer’s wife would get some clothes for Lydia.

  “She needs everything,” he told her. “She needs warm dresses, hose, and underwear.” The grocer’s wife took Lydia to the other room and got everything she needed. She came out in a nice dress looking beautiful with a big bag full of clothes. She left wearing her new dress.

  She went up to the counter to pay but didn’t have enough money to pay for everything.

  Steve asked the grocer, “How much does she need?”

  “She needs an extra 2 dollars, but she has credit. She can pay that when she has it,” the grocer said.

  “She has that right now,” Pete said and paid the 2 dollars.

  “I will work that off,” Lydia told Pete.

  Pete thanked the grocer for letting them in and they got on the buckboard and went to the hotel restaurant for lunch.

  “You are very nice to me, but you should get a young girlfriend to take to the restaurant,” she told him.

  “You are young and beautiful,” he assured her.

  They went in and she just wanted a bowl of soup, so he just ordered soup too. After they ate their soup, they had coffee and he ordered some apple pie for both of them. They had a nice conversation.

  He told her, “I have a house that needs some furnishing and I have a storeroom full of sacks of food, but what I really need right now more than anything is a wife.”

  “You will have no problem finding a nice girl that has not been married before,” she assured him.

  “I would rather have one that has been married to a soldier before,” he stated. “I know not too many men feel this way, but I have seen too many husbands die and how devastating their death was on their wives and children. I am not very good at talking to girls, but I would love to have a wife and some children in time. Do you think that some girls would like someone like me?” he asked her.

  “Oh yes, many girls would be very interested,” she stated.

  “How about you? Would you be interested in becoming a wife again?”

  “I would be very interested, but how old are you?” she asked him.

  “I’m 21,” he said.

  “My husband was 39 and he just wanted to break me in. I had to do everything. I would like someone much younger and much more loving if I were to get married again,” she told him.

  Pete paid the bill and they drove down in the buckboard to the shoe store. They had some shoes in the display window that were high lace up shoes for winter, as well as some light shoes for winter with higher heels.

  Pete pointed at the shoes and asked, “You need the lace up kind for the winter and light ones for the summer, right? Would you like to try some on?”

  “Yes,” Lydia said.

  The storeowner started bringing out shoes and measured her feet. He brought out some nice shoes to see if they fit. They were very nice shoes and they fit nicely.

  “We’ll get those. Just wear them out today,” he told Eva. “Could she try on a few for winter?” Pete asked the storeowner.

  “I have ladies boots or laced up shoes,” the shopkeeper told him.

  “Let’s try the boots,” Pete said.

  The shopkeeper brought out some nice boots and he helped her pull them on. She walked in them and she liked them.

  “We’ll get those. How about some work shoes?” Pete asked.

  The storeowner brought out some shoes that weren’t fancy but they were all leather. The shopkeeper had three different kinds. She got some that fit her perfectly.

  “We’ll take them,” Pete stated. “How about a fancy high heel?”

  The shopkeeper brought out some French ones and she tried them on.

  “Pull your skirt up a bit so your husband can see them,” the shopkeeper told her. She pulled her skirt up a bit and they looked nice.

  “Do they feel good on your feet?” Pete asked.

  “Yes,” Lydia stated.

  “We’ll take the four pairs of shoe’s we’ve chosen,” Pete told the shopkeeper.

  It came to 34 dollars and they took the packages out to the buckboard.

  When they got to Pete’s house, they dropped off Eva’s things to hide them from the orphans and other women for a little while.

  “Do you want me to stay the night?” she asked him.

  “I don’t want you to just stay tonight, I want you to stay every night from now on,” he told her. “If you stay this week, I will marry you next Sunday. We can talk to Father Williams and see if he will marry us.”

  “I would really love to kiss you right now, Pete” Lydia stated.
>
  “You can kiss me anytime you want,” he assured her.

  “Go put the horses away and then come back,” she said.

  He went and put the horses in the corral and gave them some hay and oats. When he returned she was half undressed. All of her things were on the extra bed.

  “Sit down and watch me take it all off,” she ordered him.

  He quickly sat on the bed and said, “You don’t have to tell me twice.”

  She stripped for Pete and stayed the night with him. She was happy that she was going to be a wife again. She stayed with Pete from them on.

  That next Sunday they got married and she went back to work on Monday. Pete took her to work and he went to work as well. After work, he picked her up and they went home. They made all kinds of plans on furnishing the place, and he had the money to do it. He was making 50 dollars a month, which was a lot of money.

  David was getting the plowing done and Pete started harrowing with his buckboard team. The grain drill made the planting very simple. Burney ended up driving it and he did a fine job.

  A couple weeks later, the priest asked Pete to take the orphans to school because the man that was supposed to couldn’t do it. Pete took them even though it would make him a little bit late for work, but he wasn’t worried because he knew that the priest and I were good friends. David went with Pete too. He rode his gelding and Pete told him that it was nice to have a friend.

  It took a little longer than expected, but it wasn’t a problem. When they got back to the priest’s house, the priest needed Pete and David to harrow because the seeding had gotten stopped. They tied David’s gelding to the back and went to harrow. Afterwards, they headed to the Wilson farm. Before they could get there, they saw three men on horses with a packhorse coming towards them.

  “Do you have your gun?” Pete asked David.

  “No,” David said.

  “I have two guns under the seat, and they’re both loaded,” Pete handed one to David and said, “They look like bandits.”

  “You’re a life saver, Pete.”

  They both had their guns in their lap with one on the gun. The three men came up to them and split up bandit-style.

  Pete told David, “I will shoot the minute they tell us to stop.”

  As soon as one of the men waved for them to stop, Pete shot at the men and Dave did too. Pete ended up getting two of them and Dave got the other. They both jumped down and got the bandits’ horses and tied them up behind the buckboard. Then they went over to the bandits to check them for money. All three were loaded. Pete ended up with a bunch of paper money and two money belts, as well as two guns and a Henry. David ended up with a bunch of cash and a money belt too. Two of the horses were U.S. branded, but they had on roping saddles, so David took the saddles and put them in the buckboard and let the horses go. The other two horses didn’t have brands, so they kept them tied to the buckboard.

  Pete told David, “We’ll split the two unbranded horses.”

  “I’ll take the mare, she looks nice,” David stated. “How much money did you get, Pete?”

  “I don’t want to make you jealous,” Pete said.

  David laughed and said, “Thanks for the gelding.”

  The mare had a military saddle, so he pulled it off and let it lay by the dead bandits. He took the saddlebags off, along with a rifle scabbard with a Henry and he put them on his buckboard and they left.

  “When will all of this bandit business stop?” David asked.

  “They want horses they can sell and there are a lot of military men on the roads,” Pete told him. “They’re killers. They sell the unbranded horses in the next state to farmers and other people going west. They get good money for them,” Pete replied.

  “What are they doing this far north?” David asked.

  “It’s probably easier for them. We looked like a couple of farmers to those bandits. In Kentucky, everybody is in uniform still,” Pete said.

  “Yeah,” David said, “confederate.”

  “Doesn’t matter, they are all gunmen.”

  “I see what you mean, Pete.”

  “They’ve all been in battles just like you and I,” Pete told him. “They don’t just get horses to sell, they get to kill hated Yankees.”

  With the horses in the back, they headed back to work. When they got there, Burney was uncoupled from the grain drill and was harrowing.

  David told Pet, “Let Burney get back on the grain drill and you go and harrow.” “The boys are all plowing, so I will go see the boss and check if he needs any of the supplies we got from the bandits.”

  When David came to talk to me, I told him that I didn’t need the roping saddles that he had.

  I told Pete, “Give me back my .44 and you can have the six in the wagon.”

  He gave me back my guns and I loaded them up and put them under the seat. David left and took the new gelding with him. Pete uncoupled his team and while he was waiting on Burney to come up, he went and unsaddled his mare. She was pretty big, probably pregnant. He figured it would be nice to get a new colt. He put her in the corral so that she could get used to it and then raise her future colt there.

  Pete went home and found out that his wife Lydia was lonely being at home all by herself when he was gone.

  “I will talk to the priest and have a little girl come home with us sometime so you won’t be lonely,” he told her.

  When he told her that, Lydia got very excited and said, “There is a lovely little girl, about 7 years old, that lost her mother and she has no dad. He died in the war. Could we adopt her? She is a little sweetheart. You would love her too.”

  “I will leave that up to you. Where would we put her bed?” Pete asked.

  “We’ve got that room full of sacks, we can just move them to the cook shed,” Lydia said. “We’ll make room for her.”

  “What about a baby of our own?” Pete asked.

  “I’ll get pregnant as soon as I can and give you a nice son. She can help me with the baby,” Lydia replied.

  “Well, we can talk to the priest and see what he says,” Pete assured her.

  He talked to the priest the next evening. The priest suggested that he ask the little girl if she wanted to come over and stay for a while and see if it would work out.

  “We can find another girl to work for us and that way you can stay home with the little girl and take her shopping and do the work around the house that needs to be done,” Pete told Lydia.

  “Let the girl decide where she wants to go,” the priest said.

  The little girl’s name was Cindy. Lydia went and asked Cindy if she would like to stay at their house for a while. Cindy was excited and wanted to go. Pete went out and bought a couch for the big room and told Lydia to make it into Cindy’s bed until they could clear out the other room. He planned on making an additional room in the cook shed for a storeroom.

  “We will get a builder to come out and make us a storeroom. We need to build a regular chimney for the cook stove too. The pipe that is sticking out isn’t safe,” Pete said.

  Soon after, Pete asked the builder to come out and explained what he had in mind.

  He told him, “I want a regular chimney built for the cook shed and a storeroom added so we can have more room in the house. One room is full of sacks and groceries. If we had a daughter, she would need her own room.”

  “If you wanted to build a shack, you called the wrong builder. Everything I build would have to have a proper foundation. To build onto this house wouldn’t be expensive, though. It would have one supporting wall already. In my opinion, you should build a regular kitchen with a chimney, add a big room for a dining room, and if you wanted inside water we could add a small room and drill a well,” the builder told him.

  “How much would that cost?” Pete asked.

  The builder took out a sheet of paper and started to write some figures down then he told Pete, “Your back door would go into the dining room
so the dining room would need a backdoor to go out to your outhouse. We would build a proper kitchen with a storeroom and dining room and an inside pump for water and the room on that side could be a bathroom. We can build a second chimney so you can have a stove in there as well to warm up water for a bathtub.”

  “So how much would all that cost?” Pete repeated.

  “It would be around 450 to 500 dollars, but you would double the size of your house,” the builder stated. “I don’t know what kind of pump you would need, but it would be extra. The one I would get runs 35 dollars. The pump man might give you that price or another one, but he’s got lots of choices,” the builder told him.

  Lydia, Cindy, and Sergeant Bexter went over to Pete’s to see what was going on.

  “How much is one of those bathtubs?” Pete asked him.

  “A copper bathtub is 22 dollars and the stove would be 25 dollars,” the man stated.

  “What do you think, Lydia?” Pete asked.

  “I would be very happy with whatever you decide,” Lydia assured him.

  “What do you think, Cindy? Would that room be okay to be a girl’s room? After it’s painted, of course,” Pete stated.

  “I think it would be great. It would need a bed and a dresser and a place to hang my dresses, but it has a great window,” Cindy replied.

  After talking to Lydia and Cindy, Pete then told the builder, “I like what you’ve suggested. How much do you need down and when can you start?”

  “If you want the inside water, it would be 200 dollars down and I can start next week. You will have to take everything out of the cook shed. You can bring everything back into your kitchen and dining room. You will have two windows looking from your dining room, one door, a window from your kitchen and a window from your bathroom. You will have to buy your own bathtub and stove though,” the builder told him.

  Pete went into the bedroom and got two 100 dollar gold certificates and gave them to the builder and the builder gave him a receipt. He added the three rooms and well onto the receipt. Pete took the receipt and put it away with his papers. His papers were all paper money and gold certificates. After the builder left, they sat down and discussed the color of the girl’s room.