The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer

  CHAPTER XVII

  ERNEST NICHOLSON'S RETURN--THE BUILDING WEST OF TOWN--"WHAT'S IT ALLABOUT"

  The big hotel from Calias had not long since been unloaded and decorateda corner lot in Megory. All that remained in Calias were the buildingsbelonging to Nicholson Brothers, consisting of an old two-story framehotel, a two-story bank, the saloon, drug store, their own office and afew smaller ones. It was a hard life for the Caliasites and theMegoryites were not inclined to soften it. On the other hand, she wasgrowing like a mushroom. Everything tended to make it the prairiemetropolis; land was booming, and buyers were plentiful. Capital wasalso finding its way to the town, and nothing to disturb the visibleprosperity.

  But a shrewd person, at that very time, had control of machinery thatwould cause a radical change in this community, and in a very short timetoo. This man was Ernest Nicholson, and referring to his return, I wasat the depot in Oristown the day he arrived. There he boarded an autoand went west to Megory. On his arrival there, he ordered John Nogden toproceed to Calias, load the bank building, get all the horsesobtainable, and proceed at once to haul the building to--no, not toMegory--this is what the Megoryites thought, when, with seventy-six headof horses hitched to it, they saw the bank of Calias coming towardMegory. But when it got to within half a mile of the south side,swerved off to the west. About six that evening, when the sun went down,the Bank of Calias was sitting on the side of a hill that sloped to thenorth, near the end of the survey.

  Now what did it mean? That was the question that everybody began askingeverybody else. What was up? Why was Ernest Nicholson moving the bank ofCalias five miles west of Megory and setting it down on or near the endof the survey? There were so many questions being asked with no one toanswer, that it amused me. Then someone suggested that it might be thesame old game, and here would come a pause, then the question, "What oldgame?" "Why, another Calias?"--some bait to make money. Then, "Oh, Isee," said the wise town dads, just a hoax. That answered the question,just a snare to catch the unwary. Tell them that the railroad wouldbuild to the Tipp County line. Sell them some lots, for that is what the"bluff" meant. Get their good money and then, Oh, Ha! Ha! Ha! it was toofunny when one saw the joke, and Megoryites continued to laugh. Had notNicholson Brothers said a whole lot about getting the railroad; and thatit was sure coming up the Monca. It had come, had it not. Haw! Haw! Haw!Ho! Ho! Ho! just another Nicholson stall, Haw! Haw! Haw! and Nicholsonsgot the laugh again. The railroad is in Megory, and here it will stopfor ten years. One hundred thousand people will come to Megory toregister for Tipp County lands, and "Watch Megory grow" was all thatcould be heard.

  Ernest would come to Megory, have a pleasant chat, treat the boys, tella funny story, and be off. Nobody was mean enough or bold enough to tellhim to his face any of the things they told to his back.

  Ernest was never known to say anything about it. His scheme simply keptJohn Nogden moving buildings. He wrote checks in payment, that the bankof Calias cashed, for it was open for business the next day after it hadbeen moved out on the prairie, five miles west of Megory.

  The court record showed six quarter sections of land west of town hadrecently been transferred; the name of the receiver was unknown toanyone in Megory, but such prices, forty to fifty dollars per acre. Thepeople who had sold, brought the money to the Megory banks, anddeposited it. All they seemed to know was that someone drove up to theirhouse and asked if they wanted to sell. Some did not, while others saidthey were only five miles from Megory, and if they sold they would haveto have a big price, because Megory was the "Town of the Little Crow"and the gateway to acres of the finest land in the world, to be openedsoon. "What is your price?" he would ask, and whether it was forty,forty-five or fifty per acre, he bought it.

  This must have gone on for sixty days with everybody wondering "what itwas all about", until it got on the nerves of the Megoryites; and eventhe town dads began to get a little fearful. When Ernest was approachedhe would wink wisely, hand out a cigar or buy a drink, but he never madeanybody the wiser.

  A lady came out from Des Moines, bought a lot, and let a contract for ahotel building 24 x 140, and work was begun on it immediately. This wasgetting ahead of Megory, where a hotel had just been completed 25 x 100feet, said by the Megoryites to be the "best" west of a town of sixthousand population, one hundred fifty miles down the road. Wheneveranything like a real building goes up in a little town on the prairie,with their collection of shacks, it is always called "the best building"between there and somewhere else.

  I shall not soon forget the anxiety with which the people watched thebuilding which continued to go up west of Megory, and still no one thereseemed willing to admit that Nicholson Brothers were "live," but spenttheir argument in trying to convince someone that they were only windjammers and manipulators of knavish plots, to immesh the credulous.

  What actually happened was this, and Ernest told me about it afterwardsin about the following words:

  "Well, Oscar, after Megory turned our offer down, I knew there were justtwo things to do, and that was, to either make good or leave thecountry. Megory is full of a lot of fellows that have never knownanything but Keya Paha county, and when the road missed Calias, andstruck Megory, they took the credit for displaying a superior knowledge.I knew we were going to be the big laughing stock of the reservation,and since I did not intend to leave the country, I got to thinking. Themore I pondered the matter, the more determined I became that somethinghad to be done, and I finally made up my mind to do it." ErnestNicholson was not the kind of a man to make idle declarations. "I wentdown to Omaha and saw some business friends of mine and suggested tothem just what I intended to do, thence to Des Moines and got father,and again we went into Chicago and secured an appointment with Hewitt,who listened attentively to all that we had to say, and the import ofthis was that Megory, being over five miles east of the Tipp Countyline, it was difficult to drive range cattle that distance through asettled country. They are so unused to anything that resemblescivilization, that ranchers hate to drive even five miles through asettled country, besides the annoyance it would habitually causecontrary farmers, when it comes to accommodating the ranchers. But thatis not all. With sixty-six feet open between the wire fences, the rangecattle at any time are liable to start a stampede, go right through, anda lot of damage follows. I showed him that most of the cattle men werestill driving their stock north and shipping over the C.P. & St. L. Nowknowing that the directors had ordered the extension of the line to getthe cattle business, Hewitt looked serious, finally arose from hischair, and went over to a map that entirely covered the side of the walland showed all the lines of the C. & R.W. He meditated a few minutes andthen turned around and said: 'Go back and buy the land that has beendescribed.'" It all seemed simple enough when it was done.

  By the time that the extension had been completed to Megory, thebuilding that had been moved west of town had company in the way of manynew ones, and by this time comprised quite a burg, and claimed the nameof New Calias. The new was to distinguish between its old site and itspresent one. After Megory turned them down, Ernest had made adeclaration or defiance that he would build a town on the Little Crowand its name would be Calias.