The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer

by Oscar Micheaux

  CHAPTER XVI

  MEGORY'S DAY

  The first day of May was a local holiday in Megory, held in honor of thefirst anniversary of the day when all settlers had to be on theirclaims; and it was raining. During the first years on the Little Crow wewere deluged with rainfall, but this day the inclement weather wasdisregarded. It was Settler's Day and everybody for miles around hadjourneyed thither to celebrate--not only Settler's Day, but also theadvent of the railroad. Only the day before, the surveyors had pitchedtheir tents on the outskirts of the town, and on this day they could beseen calmly sighting their way across the south side of the embryo city.Megory was the scene of a continuous round of revelry. Five saloons werecrowded to overflowing, and a score of bartenders served thousands ofthirsty throats; while on the side opposite from the bar, and in therear, gambling was in full blast. Professionals, "tin horns", and"pikers", in their shirt sleeves worked away feverishly drawing in andpaying money to the crowd that surged around the Roulette, theChuck-luck, and the Faro-bank. It seemed as though everybody drank andgambled. "This is Megory's Day", they called between drinks, and itwould echo with "have another," "watch Megory grow."

  Written in big letters and hung all along the streets were huge signswhich read "Megory, the gateway to a million acres of the richest landin the world." "Megory, the future metropolis of the Little Crow, Watchher grow! Watch her grow!" The board walk four feet wide could not holdthe crowd. It was a day of frenzied celebration--a day when no one daredmention Nicholson's name unless they wanted to hear them called liars,wind jammers, and all a bluff.

  Ernest was still in the East and no one seemed to know where he was, orwhat he was doing. The surveyors had passed through Megory and extendedthe survey to the county line, five miles west of the town. Theright-of-way man was following and had just arrived from Hedrick andKirk, where he had made the same offer he was now making Megory. "If" hesaid, addressing the "town dads" and he seemed to want it clearlyunderstood, "the C. & R.W. builds to Megory, we want you to buy theright-of-way three miles east and four miles west of the town."

  Then Governor Reulback, known as the "Squatter Governor," acting asspokesman for the citizens, arose from his seat on the rude platform,and before accepting the proposition--needless to say it wasaccepted--called on different individuals for short talks. Among othershe called on Ernest Nicholson; but Frank, the Junior member of the firm,arose and answered that Ernest was away engaged in purchasing the C. &R.W. railroad and that he, answering for Ernest, had nothing to say. Ahush fell on the crowd, but Governor Reulbach, who possessed a welldefined sense of humor, responded with a joke, saying, "Mr. Nicholson'sbeing away purchasing the C. & R.W. railroad reminds me of the Irishmanwho played poker all night, and the next morning, yawning and stretchinghimself, said, 'Oi lost nine hundred dollars last night and seven andone-half of it was cash.'"

  The backbone of the town was beginning to weaken, while there were manywho continued to insist that there was hope. Others contractedrheumatism from vigils at the surveyor's camp, in vain hope of gainingsome information as to the proposed direction of the right-of-way. Thepurchasing of the right-of-way and the unloading of carload aftercarload of contracting material at Oristown did little to encourage thebelief that there was a ghost of a show for Calias.

  In a few days corral tents were decorating the right-of-way at intervalsof two miles, all the way from Oristown to Megory. In the early morning,as the sound of distant thunder, could be heard the dull thud of clodsand dirt dropping into the wagon from the elevator of the excavator;also the familiar "jup" and the thud of the "skinner's" lines as theystruck the mules, in Calias one and one-half miles away.

  A very much discouraged and weary crowd met Ernest when he returned, buteven in defeat this young man's personality was pleasing. He was frankin telling the people that he had done all that he could. He had gone toOmaha where his father in-law joined him, thence to Des Moines, wherehis father maintained his office as president of an insurance company,that made loans on Little Crow land. Together with two capitalists,friends of his father, they had gone into Chicago and held a conferencewith Marvin Hewitt, President of the C. & R.W. who had showed them theblue prints, and, as he put it, any reasonable man could see it would beutterly impossible to strike Calias in the route they desired to go. Therailroad wanted to strike the Government town sites, but the presidenttold them that if at any time he could do them a favor to call on him,and he would gladly do so.

  In a few days a man named John Nodgen came to Calias. Towns which hadfailed to get a road looked upon him in the way a sick man would anundertaker. He was a red-haired Irishman with teeth wide apart andwildish blue eyes, who had the reputation of moving more towns than anyother one man. He brought horses and wagons, block and tackle, andmassive steel trucks. He swore like a stranded sailor, and declared theywould hold up any two buildings in Calias.

  The saloon was the first building deserted. The stock had not beenremoved when the house movers arrived, and in some way they got the dooropen and helped themselves to the "booze," and when full enough to begood and noisy, began jacking up the building that had been the pride ofthe hopeful Caliasites. In a few weeks a large part of what had beenCalias was in Megory and a small part in Kirk.

  It had stopped raining for a while, and several large buildings werestill on the move to Megory when the rain set in again. This was thelatter part of July and how it did rain, every day and night. One storebuilding one hundred feet long had been cut in two so as to facilitatemoving, and the rains caught it half way on the road to Megory. Aftermany days of sticking and floundering around in the mud, at a cost ofover fourteen hundred dollars for the moving alone, not counting thegoods spoiled, it arrived at its new home. The building in the beginninghad cost only twenty-three hundred dollars, out of which thirty centsper hundred had been paid for local freighting from Oristown. Themerchant paid one thousand dollars for his lot in Megory, and receivedten dollars for the one he left in Calias.

  This was the reason why Rattlesnake Jack's father and I could not gettogether when he came out and showed me Rattlesnake Jack's papers. Itwas bad and I readily agreed with him. I also agreed to sign a quitclaim deed, thereby clearing the place, so she could complete her proof.Everything went along all right, until it came to signing up. Then Isuggested that as I had broken eighty acres of prairie, the railroad wasin course of construction, and land had materially increased invaluation--having sold as high as five thousand dollars a quartersection--I should have a guarantee that he would sell the place back tome when the matter had been cleared up.

  "I will see that you get the place back"--he pretended to reassureme--"when she proves up again."

  "Then we will draw up an agreement to that effect and make it onethousand dollars over what I paid", I suggested.

  Everybody for miles around had journeyed thither tocelebrate. (Page 108.)]

  "I will do nothing of the kind," he roared, brandishing his arms asthough he wanted to fight, "and if you will not sign a quit claimwithout such an agreement, I will have Jack blow the whole thing, thatis what I will do, do you hear?" He fairly yelled, leaning forward andpointing his finger at me in a threatening manner.

  "Then we will call it off for today," I replied with decision, and wedid. I confess however, I was rather frightened. In the beginning I hadnot worried, as he held a first mortgage of one thousand, five hundreddollars, I had felt safe and thought that they had to make good to me inorder to protect their own interests. But now as I thought the matterover it began to look different. If he should have her relinquish, thenwhere would I be, and the one thousand, five hundred dollars I had paidthem?

  I was very much disturbed and called on Ernest Nicholson and informedhim how the matter stood. He listened carefully and when I was throughhe said:

  "They gave you a warranty deed, did they not?"

  "Yes, I replied, it is over at the bank of Calias."

  "Then let it stay there. Tell him, or the old man rather, to have thegirl complet
e sufficient residence, then secure you for all the place isworth at the time; then, and not before, sign a quit claim, and if theywant to sell you the place, well and good; if not, you will have enoughto buy another." And I followed his advice.

  It was fourteen months, however, before the Scotch-Irish blood in himwould submit to it. But there was nothing he could do, for the girl hadgiven me a deed to something she did not have title to herself, and hadaccepted one thousand, five hundred dollars in cash from me in return.As the matter stood, I was an innocent party.

  About this time I became imbued with a feeling that I would like "mostawfully well" to have a little help-mate to love and cheer me. How oftenI longed for company to break the awful and monotonous lonesomeness thatoccasionally enveloped me. At that time, as now, I thought a darlinglittle colored girl, to share all my trouble and grief, would beinteresting indeed. Often my thoughts had reverted to the little town inIllinois, and I had pictured Jessie caring for the little sod house andcheering me when I came from the fields. For a time, such blissfulthoughts sufficed the longing in my heart, but were soon banished when Irecalled her seeming preference for the three dollar a week menial,another attack of the blues would follow, and my day dreams became asmist before the sun.

  About this time I began what developed into a flirtatious correspondencewith a St. Louis octoroon. She was a trained nurse; very attractive, andwrote such charming and interesting letters, that for a time theyafforded me quite as much entertainment, perhaps more, than actualcompany would have done. In fact I became so enamored with her that Inearly lost my emotional mind, and almost succumbed to her encouragementtoward a marriage proposal. The death of three of my best horses thatfall diverted my interest; she ceased the epistolary courtship, and Icontinued to batch.

  Doc, my big horse, got stuck in the creek and was drowned. The loss ofDoc was hardest for me to bear, for he was a young horse, full of life,and I had grown fond of him. Jenny mule would stand for hours everynight and whinny for him.

  In November, Bolivar, his mate--the horse I had paid one hundred andforty dollars for not nine months before--got into the wheat, becamefoundered, and died.

  While freighting from Oristown, in December, one of a team of dapplegrays fell and killed himself. So in three months I lost three horsesthat had cost over four hundred dollars, and the last had not even beenpaid for. I had only three left, the other dapple gray, Jenny mule, and"Old Grayhead," the relic of my horse-trading days. I had put in a largecrop of wheat the spring before and had threshed only a small part of itbefore the cold winter set in, and the snow made it quite impossible tocomplete threshing before spring.

  That was one of the cold winters which usually follow a wet summer, andI nearly froze in my little old soddy, before the warm spring days setin. Sod houses are warm as long as the mice, rats, and gophers do notbore them full of holes, but as they had made a good job tunneling mine,I was left to welcome the breezy atmosphere, and I did not think thecharming nurse would be very happy in such a mess "nohow." The thoughtthat I was not mean enough to ask her to marry me and bring her into it,was consoling indeed.

  Since I shall have much to relate farther along concerning the curiousand many sided relations that existed between Calias, Megory, and othercontending and jealous communities, let me drop this and return to theremoval of Calias to Megory.

  The Nicholson Brothers had already installed an office in thesuccessful town, and offered to move their interests to that place andcombine with Megory in making the town a metropolis. But the town dads,feeling they were entirely responsible for the road striking the town,with the flush of victory and the sensation of empire builders,disdained the offer.

  In this Megory had made the most stupid mistake of her life, and whichlater became almost monumental in its proportions. It will be seen howin the flush of apparent victory she lost her head, and looked back tostare and reflect at the retreating and temporary triumph of her youth;and in that instant the banner of victory was snatched from her fingersby those who offered to make her apparent victory real, and who ranswiftly, skillfully, and successfully to a new and impregnable retreatof their own.

  The Megory town dads were fairly bursting with rustic pride, and werebeing wined and dined like kings, by the citizens of the town--who hadcontributed the wherewith to pay for the seven miles of right-of-way.Besides, the dads were puffed young roosters just beginning to crow, andwere boastful as well. So Nicholson Brothers got the horse laugh, whichimplied that Megory did not need them. "We have made Megory and nowwatch her grow. Haw! Haw! Haw! Watch her grow," came the cry, when thereport spread that the town dads had turned Nicholson's offer down.

  Megory was the big I am of the Little Crow. Then Ernest went away onanother long trip. It was cold weather, with the ground frozen, when hereturned.