The Nagyvradi Brothers

by Laszlo Endrody

  The girl that he brought in with him started to make jerky. I had never eaten jerky or seen it made before; I was very interested in what she was doing. I wasn’t sure what to think of it the first time I tried it, but the more I ate it, the more I liked it. She made bundles of jerky and when we met any travelers she always let them know we had it for sale for 50 cents a bundle. A lot of travelers bought it from her.

  We were in camp one evening and a herd of horses came down on us. Three men were herding them. They stopped and I told them to come into camp and have some coffee with us. They roped off a place for their horses and came back for some coffee. I asked them where they were taking the horses.

  One of the men said, “Missouri.”

  I asked, “Why Missouri?”

  He stated, “We can get 20 dollars for good horses here, but in Missouri we can get 50 dollars for them.”

  “Why is that?” I asked.

  “The wagon train people buy them,” then he went into detail about the wagon trains after we told him that we were from Hungary.

  I noticed that he had some mares and I asked him if the geldings brought in better money. He told me that they did.

  “I have three geldings that I would trade you for some mares,” I propositioned. “They must be broke for pulling a wagon though.”

  He told us that he had some that could pull a wagon. He then asked to see our geldings. They liked them, so we ended up trading three of our geldings for three of their mares. We talked horses with the men all evening. They were on their way to Independence.

  The weather started to change on us in September, so we started moving a little faster. We wanted to get to Nashville by November.

  9

  We pulled into Nashville on the 15th of November. We had four young Hungarians on the ground, three fillies, and a nice colt horse. We decided to stay in Nashville for the winter.

  Luke and I looked around for a place to rent where we could keep our horses and our tribe happy. We found a closed down livery stable with an office and a tack room. We looked the place over and ended up renting it for 20 dollars a month. We were planning on staying there until spring. It only had one potbelly stove and we needed three more.

  We moved in and made camp on the end while we cleaned the two rooms out. After we had the place all cleaned up and put in two more potbelly stoves, we moved in. We bought two mattresses and also bought some cats to thin out the mice. We bought five wagon loads of hay and some straw. We got some boards to close off the cracks in the walls and got enough feed for the horses to last us until spring.

  Nighthorse went hunting and we sent Jake and Sampson out to get firewood. I got them a cross-cut saw and two more axes. Nighthorse and his squaw lived in a stall. They cleaned it out real good. Luckily there were enough stalls for all of our Negro helpers to stay in too. We made sure to buy enough stoves and furnishings so that they stayed comfortable and warm.

  Once we got all of the furnishings for our house, the girls started doing all of the cooking and sewing. Betty started to make some quilts and pillows. It didn’t take us long before we were all set.

  There was a blacksmith across the street. Every time they were busy Sampson went over and helped out the smith. The smith asked me if I would sell Sampson to him, but I refused. When Sampson worked with him he paid him 50 cents a day. Molly would take him food and coffee while he was working.

  One day Sampson stopped in to get me. He said, “Come see this wagon.” It was a big, huge wagon that they called a Conestoga. The man with the wagon told us it would haul three tons. He told us that he was actually looking to get rid of it. He also told us that it needed a six-span to pull it. I asked him if he would trade it for a smaller wagon. He told me he would have to see my wagon first. Both of our wagons were near new, but the New Orleans wagon was the newest and he wanted it, so we traded wagons.

  Sampson went over to the wagon maker and had him look the wagon over. He asked him if he thought the wagon would make it to Missouri and he told him it would. We were planning on selling it once we got to Missouri. We could make some good money off it.

  That December Milly approached me and told me that she could get a job in the hotel working as a maid. She wanted to know what I thought about it. I told her, “I will come with you to the hotel and see what it’s all about.” The hotel manager wanted Milly all right. He said that he would pay her 20 dollars a month and she could also keep all of the tips she earned. I told Milly, “You can work there, but if they start to take advantage of you, get your butt back to the stables.”

  Jake was originally from this area and he wanted to go see his mama. He didn’t want to walk and he didn’t want to ride by himself. He was afraid of everything.

  Jake was downtown one day and saw his ex-master, the one who sold him when he was just a boy. The man stopped at the blacksmith shop with his wagon. He had a young Negro chained in the back of it. Jake snuck in and asked the boy in the back of the wagon if he knew anything about his mother. The boy told him all he needed to know. He actually found out that they were brothers. His brother’s name was Duke. The man saw Jake and told him to get lost. Jake went up to the man and asked him if he remembered who he was.

  Jake said, “You sold me as a boy, Master Jonas.”

  “Who are you out of, boy?” Jonas asked him.

  “Luella, same as Duke,” he replied.

  The man then asked Jake who he belonged to. Jake pointed to me and said, “It’s that man coming down the street.” I was headed home from the barbers.

  The man asked Jake, “Have you been a good boy?”

  “I’ve always been a good boy, Master Jonas,” Jake answered.

  “I’ve been having some problems with your brother, here. I am taking him to the vet now. He keeps pestering the girls,” Jonas stated.

  When I got closer to the blacksmiths, Jake ran up to me and told me all about his mama and his brother. He then asked me to trade him to Jonas for Duke. Jake then told me that he had been gelded. I had no idea, but it all started to make sense now; that’s why Milly didn’t want him. We started to walk across the street to the blacksmiths and I asked him who had gelded him. He said, “Ms. Dede.” Jonas saw us coming across and waited for us. I introduced myself and he did the same.

  I then told Jonas, “Jake here wants me to trade him for your boy, Duke.” Jonas asked me if Jake was a good boy and I assured him that he was. I said, “I guarantee the swap and if you find out otherwise, I would swap back, of course.”

  I then went on to tell Jonas, “He wants to save his brother from a gelding. Jake was gelded by his previous owner.”

  “Well, it is always risky cutting a boy this age. I think we could swap,” Jonas confirmed.

  I told him that I needed to go get the papers on Jake and I would be right back. I signed the ownership papers that Michelle had given me over to Jonas. He gave me a bill of sale as the original breeder. The new boy was speechless. Milly was walking down the street and Jake called her over. He told her that he was leaving. She gave him a hug and kissed him on the cheek. Sampson had heard everything that had gone on, and he also gave Jake a hug goodbye. Jonas turned Duke loose and I told Milly to go introduce him to everyone. I then told Jake, “You’d better run and get your clothes.” He came back with a flour sack full of his things and I gave him a hug goodbye too. I told him to be good and to not ever get sassy or lazy. Jake got in the wagon and he and Jonas headed home.

  Milly took Duke over and told everyone that he was Jake’s brother and that I had traded Jake for him. Everyone was shocked until I told them the reason why. Duke seemed to be happy. We got him some clothes. Milly seemed to be happy with having Duke around too.

  Luke and I both agreed that we needed Sampson and Blue. They fit into our plans in establishing a horse ranch in America. Nighthorse stayed with us because he liked us and we liked him. He was his own man. He
and his squaw, Songbird, could come and go as they pleased. We didn’t know exactly how Duke would be until we hit the road again, but we were hoping for the best.

  Milly was a kindhearted whore, that’s all she had ever known, and we didn’t know exactly what we were going to end up doing with her. Maggy was a lot of help to Betty and Cindy and they absolutely loved her.

  I started sending out Blue and Duke to get firewood and I let them sell some in town so that they would have a little money.

  We had a nice Christmas that year and everybody got a present. For New Year’s we butchered a hog. We made a lot of sausage from the deer Nighthorse killed and the pork. It turned out real good.

  January was a cold month. We stayed home most of the time and we worked with the young colts. On good days we rode some of the horses to exercise them. We showed off our studs in town and got a few breedings. I bought a thoroughbred mare that had a split hoof for five dollars. Sampson and his boss told us that with a corrective shoe the mare would be fine by springtime. She was a nice mare and I figured that she would give us some good colts.

  In February, we started to plan our trip. We planned to go from Nashville to Clarksville, to Princeton, to Paducah, then onto Cairo, Iron Town, and finally into Independence where we would stay until April 15 and then head out again. Both Betty and Cindy were pregnant and we wanted to have a home by that next fall.

  A man came into town. He had lost all of his money and horses gambling. He wanted to sell his buckboard and harness. Milly overheard him talking about it and she came and told me what she had heard. Luke and I went to look at it and offered the man 30 dollars and he accepted. We figured that we’d tow it with the smaller wagon and go six-span on it too, now that we had another harness. We would still have Luke’s stud and the black to ride. Of course, Nighthorse and his squaw still had their horses to ride to.

  When April came around we started to load up our wagons. We got sacks of grain that we laid out in the bed of the big wagon. We were going to put a mattress on top of the grain so that we could sleep on it. The stoves fit side by side in the small wagon. We pushed all four packsaddles together and put them in the small wagon too. My Hungarian saddle also went in there. We put all of our guns in the first wagon, except a carbine and my double pistols. I put those in the buckboard. We put in tall sides on the buckboard and we were going to use it to carry most of the food. We had some tarps to cover it. Instead of sacks, we ordered barrels of flour, beans, and rice.

  On April 14th we paid off everything we owed and pulled out of Nashville heading northwest for Clarksville. Our four spotted colts were a riot. We put halters on the two oldest and tied them up in the back. They were all broke to lead. We just let the two smaller ones run loose, it wasn’t too bad. The gray Comanche mare would have her colt sometime in the summer and that would give us five colts.

  We had a lot of rain and the roads were soft, but our horses were in good shape so we moved along just fine. Finding dry places to camp was a bit of a problem. Sometimes Nighthorse went ahead and had a big fire by the time we got up to him. Hunting was good, so we had fresh meat most of the time. Cindy made good biscuits practically every meal. They went well with the stew and goulash. The girls had about six quilts in the back of the wagon so if it got a little chilly, they would cover up and chit-chat for hours.

  The trip went by pretty fast and we made Cairo by May 12th. We had to wait for the ferry to dock. Captain Chowan’s mate came up to us and told that he had recognized the horses from his ship. He said that he was now a captain on the steamer Vicksburg. He invited us onboard for dinner. It meant getting a later ferry, but Luke and I decided that we’d go have dinner with him. We asked him how his former captain was and he told us that he was doing fine.

  We pulled our wagons over to the dock where he was and went onboard. He served us some drinks while we were waiting for dinner. He pulled me aside and asked me if I’d sell Milly to him. He offered me 800 dollars for her.

  I told him, “No, I’m sorry, she isn’t for sale.” I then asked him why he wanted her.

  “I need a cook’s helper,” he replied.

  We ate a nice meal and said our goodbyes. When we got back to our camp spot, I told everyone that the captain had offered me 800 dollars for Milly. The girls wanted her to go, but Luke felt like we needed to give her back to Michelle. That didn’t sit too well with the girls. Our blacks were sitting at the rails by the galley eating dinner and I walked over to where they were and told Milly I needed to talk to her. Before I could even get a word out she said, “That Captain Walters talked to me, and I really want to go with him. I have saved up 100 dollars and I will add that to the price he offered you for me. Please sell me, please, Master Paul.”

  I told her, “If that’s what you really want, Milly, then I will sell you to him.”

  “Thank you, Master Paul!” she exclaimed.

  I knew that if I had freed her at that time she wouldn’t have been able to survive on her own with the way the United States was. Captain Walters seemed like he would be a good owner, and he would protect his property. I went back onboard and closed the deal with the captain.

  The next day we got on the ferry and crossed to the other side of the river. We then went a ways out of town and set up camp. I needed to go back into town to get some supplies that we were running low on and Betty wanted to come with me. With as many people as we had in our crew, we had to shop and stock up on supplies in every town we went through. We had a lot of mouths to feed.

  After we went through Iron Town, we went into Jefferson City. We didn’t spend much time here, and figured that we’d come back and look things over if we decided to settle in the state. The road was dry and the going was good so we pushed on. There was always something to look at. None of us had been anywhere near the prairie. We saw some riverboats going up the Mississippi in Jefferson City. It looked like we were going faster than they were.

  Luke and I were very interested in purchasing some land so that we could eventually start a horse operation, but we knew that we would have to have a farm to go along with it. We stopped by a couple of farms on our way and asked the farmers a lot of questions about their farms and what it took to run a farm.

  10

  We finally arrived in Independence in early June. The gray mare had her colt and it looked like the other spotted ones. We didn’t think much of Independence, but they had a lot of businesses there. A man came over to us from a livery stable and offered us 150 dollars apiece for our studs and 120 dollars for the mares and their colts. He said he would give us 55 dollars for a way mare and 80 for the thoroughbred mare. He apologized for the prices since he had to hold them until next spring. We told him that we were looking to buy a farm and we needed our horses. He told us that our horses were too good for farming.

  I went to the bank to trade the gold in for some spending money. That banker was sure nosy. I told him I was looking to purchase a nice farm and he told me about a bunch of places that were for sale, but most of the ones with the big holdings were in Kansas. I asked him if he would write down some of the addresses for me so that I could go and see some of them.

  We had looked at five different places and then came upon the Wilson farm that was right on the Kansas River, about 10 miles from town. It had a six-room house, a barn, corrals, a bunkhouse, and a well right next to the house. The house was nicely laid out and also had a nice long porch. We met Mr. Wilson. He was an old gray haired farmer and I asked him why he was selling. He told me that he had lost his wife seven years back and he had also lost both of his sons in a fight with some robbers. The place was too much for him and he wanted to go back east where he had a sister. We asked him how much he wanted for the place.

  He told us, “I am asking 1,200 dollars for everything. That includes 60 cows and a bull or two for replacements.”

  He had 20 acres in corn and 30 acres in oats. He had pastures bordering t
he river, a big garden, and some nice mature trees around his place. We all felt that this was a good place. A lot of work had gone into this place already.

  Sampson came up to me and said, “They have a blacksmith shop, Master Paul.”

  I smiled at Sampson and told Luke, “That there convinces me that we should get this place.”

  Luke said, “The girls will be willing to settle.” They were both about six months pregnant.

  Luke and I told Mr. Wilson that we would buy the place for the price he was asking. We sat down and he wrote us up a bill of sale stating that the cattle and some horses were included in the price. He left us all of his furnishings and loaded up a small wagon and left with his money. Luke offered to ride with him in to town for his protection and he gladly accepted. Nighthorse rode with them too.

  We offloaded into the house. I told the girls to make a list of everything we needed. I said, “Check everything from the pots and pans to the linen.” I also told them to survey the entire house and make a list of any furniture we stood in need of too.

  The bunkhouse was big enough to house the blacks. There was a shed next to the blacksmith shop where a stove once stood. We could put a new one in very easily. We had the stoves already. The barn had a room in it too. I was thinking about putting another stove in the barn for Nighthorse and his squaw.

  Our horses were out with the other six that Mr. Wilson left us. I rode out and looked over the cattle and they looked all right. We would have to break a cow for milking because soon we would need the milk for the children.

  The girls were real happy and it was important that we found the place when we did. When Luke came back from town he looked at all of the fences and made a note of everything that needed fixing. Mr. Wilson had some fencing materials in a shed, so I put three men in charge of fixing up the fences.