the Sackett Companion (1992) (18 page)

BADITO: Near the opening into Huerfano Valley.

SPANISH FORT: Near Oak Creek are the ruins of an old Spanish fort built around 1820.

REYNOLDS GANG: A band of outlaws led by Jim Reynolds, who claimed they were robbing others to raise money for the Confederacy, but there is no evidence that any of the money went any further than the gang itself. There are stories that they hid most of the gold that came from the Kenosha stage holdup. Supposedly the thieves buried the gold, intending to come back after they had eluded their pursuers. (The heavy gold would of course have been a handicap in their escape.)

However, such stories probably originated in the hopeful imaginations of those who wanted to believe. Outlaws rarely let go of any gold they acquired until reaching the nearest saloon or bordello. Nor did they trust one another, and with good reason. They were all thieves.

The Reynolds gang was estimated to have included twenty-two men, any one of whom might have returned to take the buried gold for himself, as the others realized. Despite many such stories, few outlaws ever buried any loot. Indeed, when one checks the records few had much to bury. Reynolds and several of his men were captured, and en route to Fort Lyons they suddenly departed this life. There is no record of any tears being shed.

TAZEWELL: Rugged country; the area was settled about 1800, and named for Senator Henry Tazewell. The county seat of Claiborne County, Tennessee.

JUDITH COSTELLO: A daughter of the Irish Nomads, horse traders known throughout the southeastern part of the country. She was sixteen at this time and cute as a button. When Flagan and Galloway took on the job of escorting her west they got more than they expected, but Flagan had his doubts from the beginning. It did him no good, no good at all to doubt. Even though he dodged and sidestepped, he couldn't get away, and maybe her grandfather knew it all the time.

BLACK FETCHEN: Came from somewhere up near Sinking Creek but the family had moved in from elsewhere. A handsome scoundrel with brothers and cousins who rode together for all the wrong reasons, but a daring, dangerous man, just the sort who might catch the eye of an impressionable young girl.

EVAN HAWKES: A cattle drover, a tall, spare-built man with reddish gray hair, who bore some resemblance to Andrew Jackson.

BAT MASTERSON: He was born William Barclay Masterson in Iroquois County, Illinois. He moved further west as a teenager, grading for the railroad, then hunting buffalo. He was involved in the Battle of Adobe Walls, when several hundred Kiowa and Comanche Indians attacked that trading post, was briefly a deputy marshal, and later was elected sheriff of Ford County, Kansas.

His first gun battle was with Sergeant King, who objected when Molly, whom King considered his girlfriend, paid attention to Bat Masterson. King opened fire on Bat and Molly threw herself in front of Bat, taking the bullet meant for him. Molly was killed, but Bat killed King.

Later when two troublemakers killed his brother Ed, who was deputy marshal, Masterson killed both men in the gun battle that followed.

Masterson was to engage in one more gun battle when he went to the aid of his brother Jim back in Dodge. As he left the train, he was attacked, and he shot and wounded Al Undegraf. His other activities in Colorado and Tombstone have no place here. As a peace officer or gambler he visited Trinidad, Creede, Silverton, and Denver, to name but a few. At times he served as referee for prizefights and eventually lived the last twenty-five of his years as a sportswriter in New York for the old Morning Telegraph. He died at the typewriter there. Some years ago I interviewed Louella Parsons, the Hollywood columnist, on Bat. She had worked for the Telegraph, and Bat had often advised and guided her in her first months on the paper. He had also been a friend of Teddy Roosevelt, who knew many of the old-time frontiersmen and enjoyed their company.

WYATT EARP: A deputy marshal in Dodge City, an officer in various other places, a buffalo hunter, occasional gambler. A man well-known on the frontier, Wyatt Earp was a controversial figure. When years have passed and the evidence is conflicting I have established my own rules for judging men: I judge them by who their friends were. By and large Wyatt's friends were on the side of the angels. His enemies usually ended up in jail or were killed by peace officers. Pony Deal and Ike Clan ton, for example, were killed resisting arrest in eastern Arizona.

All men and women, no matter what their time, have their enemies and detractors. Wyatt has been overpraised by some, viciously attacked by others. In Tombstone the opinions one got depended very much on the political stance of those involved. The Earps were Republican, and Johnny Behan was a Democrat. That Johnny was friendly to the outlaw faction has never been denied. Another element was that Wyatt won the affections of the lady in whom Johnny Behan was interested.

Despite what the movies say, the only shooting in which Wyatt was involved in Dodge was when a drunken cowboy rode down the street shooting wildly. A couple of his bullets came through the walls where Eddie Foy was on stage performing, Foy dropped to the stage. Wyatt and another officer yelled at the man to halt, and when he did not, they both fired. One of them killed him.

THE LADY GAY: A saloon, dance hall, and gambling house operated in Dodge City at the time of my story and for several years before and after.

In writing my stories I try to present as accurate a background as possible. The stories may be fiction, the settings are not. In such situations as are presented in this story, Earp and Masterson would undoubtedly have appeared in their actual capacity, as I have had them do. Masterson's as well as Earp's reactions are typical both of their characters and the times.

BOB WRIGHT: Mayor of Dodge City, trader in buffalo hides. Prominent local businessman.

CHALK BEESON: Part-owner of one of Dodge City's first saloons, occasionally a city official, a man with many friends, few enemies.

LARNIE CAGLE: A young man who thought he was good with a gun. He didn't live long enough to find out he wasn't.

TORY FETCHEN: One of the clan from the mountains. He went into a dark barn with the notion of killing a Sackett. It was a darkness from which he never emerged.

COLBY RAFIN: A cousin of the Fetchens who rode with them, rode from Tennessee to a pass in the Colorado mountains. He reached the pass with James Black Fetchen but he did not leave it. Neither did Fetchen.

KYLE SHORE: A good cowboy turned into an occasional gun-for-hire fighter in cattle wars. A tough but loyal man.

BURR FETCHEN: One of the Tennessee Fetchens who rode west with his brother James Black Fetchen. Involved in the killing of Laban Costello.

RUSS MENARD: A gunman-outlaw working with the Fetchens. He bought a lead ticket to wherever he was going that night on the Muleshoe. He died game, but he died.

MOSS REARDON: A tough old survivor, who survived once again.

LADDER WALKER: A top-hand in any outfit.

TIREY FETCHEN: He had been one of the Reynolds gang, or so it was believed. Killed in Colorado, fighting with the Sacketts. Three of the Fetchen outfit pulled out for Tennessee, deciding that following James Black Fetchen was leading them into trouble.

Many of the old trading posts are gone. Several of these survived briefly, then vanished, leaving nothing behind. Towns began and were abandoned. Indian attacks, local disagreements and the changing fortunes of those living there led to some sites being abandoned. Some left to prosper in other areas, some simply drifted away to be lost in gold and silver camps that sprang up overnight and vanished when the rich ore played out.

The story told in THE SKY-LINERS is simple enough. Two young men agree to escort a young lady to the home of her father in Colorado. What happens after develops as a result of the personalities involved, the country itself, and the circumstances that attended their travel through it.

The period of exploration was past, and so was most of the Indian fighting. The country was beginning to settle down into communities that would become towns, and towns that were on the verge of becoming cities.

The law had arrived but was mostly occupied in keeping the peace in towns. What happened outside the populated areas was something else, and a man was expected to take care of himself.

Feuds or fighting such as I've described in this story actually happened. The best known are probably the Lincoln County War in New Mexico in which Billy the Kid was involved, the Tonto Basin War in Arizona, and the Johnson County War in Wyoming. There were dozens of others. These included the fighting between the Regulators and the Moderators in Texas, as well as the Sutton-Taylor feud, the sheep and cattle wars, and fights over land, mining claims, and rights-of-way for roads or railroads.

Such fights continue to this day, only they have moved from the gun battle to the court room, but are no less viciously fought. Yet as recently as when I was sixteen, a neighbor was killed in a fight over a waterhole in Arizona, and another, somewhat later, was killed over another waterhole in Oregon.

The men who settled the West were a hardy lot, as were their women, and they did not accept being pushed around either by people, events, or even the elements.

Once, on a television show, I was asked what particular quality western men and women possessed. I probably said something about courage, but on the way home (when one always thinks of what should have been said) I knew my reply should have been "Character, character and dignity."

It is true. Wherever you see them, the men and women who went west, old now and often poor, they carry themselves with pride and they possess a quiet dignity that comes from having met the worst that life can offer, and survived.

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THE MAN FROM THE BROKEN HILLS

A word of explanation seems appropriate about THE MAN FROM THE BROKEN HILLS. This story has been included among the Sackett stories since its publication, but it is actually a Talon story, as are RIVERS WEST and MILO TALON. At the time the book appeared the decision was made to call it a new Sackett story because Milo's mother was a Sackett. Now, with the publication of THE SACKETT COMPANION, I've decided to no longer list THE MAN FROM THE BROKEN HILLS as one of the Sackett stories.

As many of my readers are aware, I started writing this series with the intention of showing how the United States and Canada were opened to settlement, as seen through the eyes of three families: the Sacketts, the Chantrys, and the Talons.

The first book of the Talon series remains to be written, though it has been started, and put aside for the time. The first of the Chantry series was FAIR BLOWS THE WIND, in which the vessel abandoned with much of its cargo of silver still aboard is the same hulk in which Barnabas Sackett takes shelter on a sandy island in the river.

When and how that silver will be discovered again remains to be told in a future story, but at least now you know the connection. It is not often I share such secrets beforehand.

A few words about THE MAN FROM THE BROKEN HILLS. It is rare in a western story to find cowboys actually working. They are in town, in a saloon, on a trail, but rarely involved in doing what a cowboy does. I have tried here and there to show him at work, and some of this is in BROKEN HILLS.

Some of the best riders and ropers were Hispanic, but in the early days they were only found in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Without a doubt, the riatas used by California ropers were the longest used anywhere, except in Mexico itself. A California rope, of plaited rawhide, might measure eighty-five feet, although sixty-five was more common. The average Texas cowboy used a rope of about thirty-five feet.

In my story RIDE THE DARK TRAIL, which is a Sackett story, I introduce Barnabas and Milo Talon for the first time, and one gets the family connection. But THE MAN FROM THE BROKEN HILLS is definitely a Talon story, and so it shall be listed from now on.

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A SACKETT
GENEALOGY
AND FAMILY TREE

The Sackett family genealogy presented here has nothing to do with any Sackett family except the one created in my stories.

In creating the characters in my stories it has also been necessary to create a family tree. Not, I might add, the easiest thing to do.

Names present a problem for the simple reason that a name once used in a story cannot be used again without the possibility of confusion. In family histories sons and daughters were often named for their parents, uncles, aunts, or in-laws, with the same name often repeated many times. This can present a problem for those researching family history, as the duplication of names presents difficulties and strict attention must be paid to dates, marriages, and such.

Several of my readers have attempted, for their own satisfaction, to put together a genealogy of the Sacketts, but unfortunately for their efforts, all the names were not available to them, as many generations had been skipped over to be left for future stories. Naturally, I sympathize with their frustration in trying to grasp the relationships, hence this book.

One of the ideas attending a SACKETT COMPANION was to offer enough of a family tree so the relationships could be understood and to provide a bit more history than accompanies the stories, which are all basically historical.

For the benefit of the curious I might add that none of the characters in the Sackett-Chantry-Talon series is based upon members of my own family or of anyone else whom I know or know of. Having lived with history most of my life, and having worked and traveled in many parts of the country, I have tried to create characters who, if they did not live as I have written, very well could have. The events in which they took part were actually happening, and happening to people like those of whom I write.

It is often overlooked that white men had been on this continent for some 250 years before the United States became a nation, and many of the patterns of behavior had been established by the ruling powers of Spain, France, and England or by their subjects. Relationships with many Indian tribes had been developed long before there was a United States, and when we became a nation we inherited both the good and bad feeling that resulted from previous dealings.

Often, in considering our history, it has been assumed we were always the powerful nation we eventually became, but this was far from the truth. At the time of our war with Mexico, for example, our standing army was less than one-third the size of theirs, comprising some twenty-five thousand men scattered in garrisons in outposts mostly in Indian country.

In 1803 we acquired the Louisiana Purchase from France, a vast stretch of territory which more than doubled the size of the country but which was virtually uninhabited except by nomadic and warlike Indians. The few scattered settlements were largely located along the Mississippi or its tributary rivers.

Texas became an independent nation in 1836, and some nine years later joined us as a state. Mexico had threatened that if such became the case, it meant war. Shortly after that, war began with the annihilation of an American patrol by a much larger force near the border between Texas and Mexico. This precipitated the war with Mexico. Neither in a military or a financial sense were we prepared for such a conflict.

When Barnabas Sackett landed in Carolina, the land was in theory a possession of the King of England. Spain possessed Florida where the French had also made attempts to establish themselves. In Nova Scotia, far to the north, the French were already settled, as well as along the St. Lawrence River.

Barnabas had no grant from the King, nor had he any official right to be where he was beyond the right of possession. Hence his desire to avoid the colony that was later established at Jamestown, in Virginia. It was also the motive behind his desire for further exploration westward, as he could foresee a time when their location at Shooting Creek might be usurped by the King or some colonial official.

It is always interesting to speculate on how much exploration was done by Long Hunters and others before there was any recorded movement west. The few reports we have are those official explorations or those by men who could write, and who took the time to write.

In the East a man's family name could open doors for him, but in the West it meant nothing. A man was known by his deeds, and whether his word was good or bad. Names meant nothing and often a man lived out his western years known only as Slim or Shorty or some other such name without anybody knowing or caring what his real name was. That was still true during my knockabout years.

There is an amusing poem entitled What Was Your Name In The States? that makes the point very well. The fact was that nobody cared. Often a man went to his grave with only a nickname on his tombstone because he was unknown by any other.

The movement of the Sacketts toward the West was part of what was happening at the time. Aside from mountain men, trappers, and fur traders, the first movement west was that of the Mormons to Utah, followed and accompanied by the Gold Rush to California and the Land Rush to Oregon. With the Civil War's end many young men returned to plantations devastated by war or to cities already crowded with men seeking jobs.

Tell Sackett had joined a cattle drive through Indian country to the ranges of Montana, and unaware of what had happened to him, Tyrel and Orrin started west to find a home for their mother. Lando, gathering his few belongings, had started south and west to find a better life for himself as did Flagan and Galloway. None of these Sacketts knew any others of the name outside their immediate family, but all had heard of the Clinch Mountains Sacketts of whom everyone in the mountains knew.

Colborn or Colly Sackett, as he was known, had disappeared into the western mountains some years before. He was the
father of Tell, Tyrel, Orrin, etc. His brother Ethan, after much trapping in the mountains, had gone west guiding a wagon train (BENDlGO SHAFTER) and their sister Echo had remained, so far as they knew, at Tuckalucky Cove.

Many stories of the Sacketts remain to be told, and some may, for various reasons, remain untold. The ramifications of any family can stretch out in every direction and eventually grow so tangled and complicated that following every line is virtually impossible.

In this COMPANION to the Sackett stories I have chosen to follow only a few branches of the family, those immediately concerned with the published stories, and in the main lines of descent. In some cases--for example, Macon, Mordecai, and Trulove Sackett--I have included their stories in THE SACKETT COMPANION but have not included them on the family tree. Their exact connection to the rest of the Sacketts is information that is yet to be revealed. Occasionally I have used only the first names of wives leaving their stories to be told at some later date. Nor shall I, at this time, provide the full line of descent for the sons and daughters of Barnabas.

In drawing up the family tree of the Sacketts I have arranged a number of marriages for better or worse, and these couples have given birth to a colorful assortment of children, all of whom I have named. Even writing their names is a challenge: what is their story? How did they get together? Yet I have other stories to write first and these must simmer on the back burner for the time being. One morning I will awaken and know that is the day for that and I shall write it. By that time my subconscious will have put together many of the ingredients and it will also have directed my reading, somewhat, so the necessary material is there.

One thing I have discovered. For each story there is a time in which it must be written, and it is often fatal to begin too
soon.

Nobody can suggest a story to me. At least, not one that I will write. My stories must come from within me and from
what I have learned or am learning. If someone else has a story that is their story, not mine.

My characters are very real to me. They are created from the materials my life has given me or which history has provided. Once created the characters often take on a life of their own, and often I find that I cannot leave them alone, and must return and offer a further glimpse of their lives and fortunes.

When the idea occurs to me I get a few lines on paper, sometimes about the story, more often the beginning. Once that is done the story remains mine forever and I can return to it at any time. Some stories come to mind on the spur of the moment; others, such as THE LONESOME GODS, THE WALKING DRUM, and LAST OF THE BREED were years in the developing. There is no set rule for me, at least.

Barnabas Sackett had four sons and a daughter. Brian and Noelle returned to England with their mother, he to read for the law at the Inns of Court, she to become a lady in surroundings more suited to that development.

Jubal went west to disappear into the mountains. That he met and married a Natchez Indian girl they knew, but beyond that, nothing.

So the Sacketts with whom my present stories deal are largely descendants of Kin-Ring and Yance.

Kin married Diana Macklin, and in due time they had three sons and a daughter who lived. These were Philip, Malaby, Anne, and Bretton.