Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Daniel Jacobs was letting his mules, Jake and Bob, pull the wagon at a walk. He'd planned on ten days to take him from Granby, Missouri to the area designated for the Oklahoma Land Rush, but he'd packed enough food for a month. He wanted to get there at least a week before April 22 so he could look around and find the place he wanted. That would save time, and time was important. The rules of the Land Rush where that all those seeking land would line up at a starting line, and at the sound of a cannon shot, would race to claim their parcels of land. It was first to claim and first to own, and being slow was a guarantee of not getting anything.

Daniel wasn't certain about what he was looking for, but he'd know when he found it. I would have to be good farmland with water on the property because he'd need water for his mules. He also intended to raise a milk cow and a few cattle as well as crops and the cattle would need water too. There would have to be at least some trees because he'd need trees to build a cabin, barn, and a fence. Once he'd claimed the parcel of land, about a hundred and sixty acres he'd heard back in Granby, he'd build a cabin and set about starting a farm.

Moving to Oklahoma wasn't a decision Daniel had taken lightly. He'd thought hard about it in the short time he'd had to make the decision. In the end it seemed like the only way to leave his past behind, a past that at a minimum could put him in prison for a long time. At a maximum, it could quite possibly mean him choking to death while hanging from a gallows in Christian County, Missouri. If what he'd read in the newspapers was true, that had happened to a man he knew.

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After the Civil War ended and with the completion of the railroad to Springfield, Missouri, the area in which Daniel grew up experienced prosperous times. It also experienced much the same problems it had experienced during the Civil War.

During the Civil War, Missouri was technically part of the Union, but there were many people in Missouri who sided with the Confederates. Some of those Confederate sympathizers joined the "Bushwackers", a loosely knit group of men supposedly fighting in support of the Confederacy but in reality, killing people from both sides and stealing for their own benefit. One such man was Jesse James, a young man who had ridden with Bloody Bill Anderson, the leader of one such group who had earned the "Bloody" part of his name for good reason.

In the aftermath of the war, most of the Bushwackers had been either killed or were arrested and put in prison. A few continued the killing and robbing sprees they'd done as Bushwackers, but now as common criminals. Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang robbed banks and killed those who attempted to stop them were among those until they were finally brought to justice.

The politics at the time were changing due to the reconstituted Democratic Party's stated policies that depicted Missouri as being a victim of the Federal Government and by portraying the post-war Republican government as traitors to the state of Missouri. By 1873, the government of Missouri was firmly in the hands of the Democrats. Missouri was still a free state, but the government was rapidly turning the state into "free" for some and not so free for others. The government also allowed, and in some cases encouraged, men from outside of Missouri who were former Confederates to come to Missouri where they took advantage of the local citizens.

The rural residents of Missouri were not happy with the way the state government was operating, and end result was the formation of the "Bald Knobbers", a group of Missouri men in Taney County who were ostensibly a vigilante group formed to aid local law enforcement in the apprehension of criminals like Jesse James and to "encourage" outsiders to leave. The group met on the open peaks, or "knobs", of the Ozark Mountains, hence their name. Other chapters in other counties followed suit.

The Taney County Bald Knobbers did in fact initially do what their stated purpose was, but their activities soon were challenged by the "Anti-Bald Knobbers", a similar group of men who had supported the Confederacy. As time went on the animosity between the two groups resulted in more fighting just as had been done by the Bushwackers in Missouri and the Jayhawkers in Kansas Territory during the war.

Those resulting conflicts resulted in the killing of one of the Anti-Bald Knobbers and constituted an embarrassment to the Governor of Missouri. At his firm recommendation, the Taney County of the Bald Knobbers was disbanded.

Not so with the group of Bald Knobbers in Christian County. Their primary goal was initially the re-establishment of morals in Christian County, a situation brought on by the completion of the railroad to Chadwick. The railroad opened up a market for lumber for railroad ties, and also opened a market for saloons and women of ill repute. The Christian County Bald Knobbers sought to eliminate both by intimidation and in several cases, by burning a saloon to the ground.

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Daniel's problems began the night he joined the Christian County Bald Knobbers. Like all the Bald Knobbers, Daniel was firm in his Christian beliefs and since the state government didn't seem to be doing anything to rid the community of those sin parlors, he thought it his duty to do so.

He was a member for only a month by the time of the meeting in a cave on property of the group leader on the night of March 11, 1887. At the meeting that night, the topic for discussion was the disbanding of the group as had been the case with the group in Taney County. Some of the younger members disagreed, and one of those younger members was Daniel. He felt that they'd been doing good by ridding the community of evil, and disbanding the group would be giving in to the people who owned the saloons and brothels.

When that group of young men left the meeting, they put on their signature masks - black, horned hoods with faces painted on them with white paint - and went to the home of William Edens, the most prominent member of the Anti-Bald Knobbers. He had been threatened before about his public opposition to the group, and that public opposition was the main reason the leader of the Christian County Bald Knobbers wanted to disband. The disagreement between the two groups hadn't yet resulted in murder as it had in Taney County, but their leader was certain that at some point it would.

Daniel and the rest of the young men were resolved to end Eden's opposition. After finding him not at home, the group continued up the same road to the cabin of William's parents. There, in addition to William's parents, they found William and his wife along with William's sister, her husband and their two young children.

Daniel had been one of the men who planned to enter the cabin, but he wasn't carrying a shotgun like a few were. He had expected the group would just repeat the beating they'd given William before and then warn him to stop opposing them. When some of the Bald Knobbers opened fire before crashing through the cabin door, Daniel had run away. He'd joined the Bald Knobbers because he wanted to eliminate the moral sins that seemed to be overtaking Chadwick. He'd never considered killing someone to that end.

The Bible said killing was a sin, and Daniel couldn't have any part of it, yet, there he'd been in the midst of gunfire meant to kill others. He knew that once the killings were discovered, the government of Missouri would stop at nothing to bring all those involved to justice. Though they'd all worn their masks, at some point, and probably sooner than later, that government and the Anti-Bald Knobbers would have the names of all the men who belonged to the Christian County Bald Knobber's organization. If those men weren't first killed as revenge by the Anti-Bald Knobbers, they'd be arrested, tried, and put in prison. His only choice was to get away from Christian County as soon as he could.

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Daniel walked back to the farm he'd been farming by himself since his father and mother had passed. As he walked, he thought about where he could go and what he could do to support himself once he got there. All he knew was farming, so it would have to be farming again or at least something to do with farming.

As he walked, he mentally listed what he'd need to begin farming again. He didn't own much in the way of equipment because his father didn't have anything except for a plow. The plow was almost a necessity if the field was much larger than just a garden plot.

Daniel done the rest of the field work just as his father had -- by manual labor. The crop was planted by hand, cultivated with a hoe, and harvested by walking through the field and pulling the ears from the corn stalks or mowing the oats and wheat with a scythe, tying them in bundles with twine, and then leaving them standing in the field to dry.

Daniel had loaded the ears and dried shocks into the mule-drawn wagon and taken them to the barn. There, some of the corn was used to feed the mules, milk cow, and chickens, and some was ground into corn meal by using the grinder his mother had had since he could remember. The wheat was ground into flour for making bread by using the same grinder. Oats were fed to the chickens and to the mules when they weren't working. The mules and milk cow needed hay to eat over the winter, and it was harvested the same way - cut with a scythe, raked into piles to dry, and then put into the mow in the barn by hand.

By the time Daniel had arrived at the farmhouse, he'd developed a plan, a plan he wasn't sure of, but the only plan he thought would take him out of danger and maybe give him a future.

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By the light of a kerosene lantern, Daniel put the set of grain boards on his wagon. That second set of sideboards increased the height of the sides by about a foot. He then put on the bows and canvas top. His father had used the bows and canvas top to take the family to church on Sunday. The top kept some of the road dust off their clothes, and if the weather was bad, kept them dry. Now, the farm wagon with those bows and canvas top was going to be Daniel's home until he found a place where he felt safe.

He was careful in what he selected to take with him because the wagon was a little less than three feet wide and only ten feet long, and even with the side boards was less than three feet deep. With so little space, anything he took had to be critical to his survival.

Of all the things on the farm besides food, Daniel couldn't think of anything he couldn't do without except for his one-bottom walking plow. It was heavy, but he managed to get it into the wagon bed and then lash it to the left side so it wouldn't move around. It took up almost half the wagon bed on that side.

His next necessity was food so he loaded all the food he had into the flour sacks his mother had saved for the next year's crops. He'd need meat, so he also put in the shotgun he used for hunting along with the forty shotgun shells he had. He'd need a way to cook, but he couldn't take all his mothers pots and pans and other cooking tools. He settled on a stew pot, a frying pan, and a coffee pot and a coffee cup. A pewter plate, a fork and a spoon, and his mother's large butcher knife completed his kitchen. All these things went into the wood box his father had made to hold firewood for the kitchen stove. When he saw there was enough room for it, he put his mothers grain mill in as well. If he found another place to farm, he'd need the grinder for turning corn and wheat into cornmeal and flour.

He'd have to have a place to sleep, so he pulled all the blankets from his bed. These he rolled up and placed in the front of the wagon under the wagon seat.

He'd also have to have other clothes to wear, so he gathered up his spare shirt and pants as well as those his father had left behind. Those went into the wood blanket chest that also held the blankets for his parent's bed. It was with the blanket chest that Daniel ran into a problem.

The blanket chest would fit in the wagon bed, but wouldn't leave him anyplace to spread out his blankets and sleep. Daniel didn't mind sleeping outside, but at that time of year, it was common for the weather to turn chilly at night or to rain. He needed a place inside the wagon to sleep. It was after walking around the wagon that he found the answer.

Like all farm wagons Daniel had ever seen, the rear axle and front axle were connected by a timber about two inches thick, four inches wide, and a length matching the wagon bed supported by those axles. His wagon was the same except for one difference. When his father had had the blacksmith in Chadwick make the wagon, he asked the blacksmith to make that timber, called a "reach", about three feet longer than the reach on most wagons. That was because during the months between harvest and spring plowing, Daniel's father had taken the box off the wagon gears, moved the back axle back as far as it would go, and used the wagon gears to haul the logs he cut that he sold for railroad ties. With just the wagon bed on the wagon gears, almost three feet of that reach stuck out behind the end gate of the wagon.

By sitting the blanket chest on the extended reach and lashing it to the endgate and sides of the wagon, Daniel was able to carry the blanket chest and still have room inside for everything else he absolutely had to have as well as a space about a foot and a half wide and six feet long for his bed.

In the boxes on the front and on each side of the wagon went some things he thought he might need and some things he knew he would need. The box in the front held his lantern and kerosene, flint and steel and tinder for making a fire, and a hatchet for chopping firewood. In the other two boxes went all the rope he had on the farm, a few tools and some nails he'd need should he have to work on the wagon, and a curry comb and brush for Jake and Bob, his two mules that would pull the wagon. He couldn't take any feed or hay for Jake and Bob, but the grass was up and they could graze at night. Grass wouldn't keep the weight on them, but they wouldn't be working hard.

The last things Daniel loaded were tied to the sides of the wagon, and were an axe, a shovel, a hoe, a hay rake, and a scythe.

It was almost daylight when Daniel had the wagon loaded. He frowned when he saw how little he was taking, but there wasn't room for more. He'd have to make do with what little he had until he got to a place that had never heard of Bald Knobbers. After tying the small pouch that contained the three dollars he had inside his trousers, Daniel went to the barn, put the harness on Jake and Bob, and hitched them to the wagon. As the sun peeked over the treetops, Daniel climbed into the wagon, sat down on the seat and started driving up the road that would lead him to Joplin.

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Daniel had never been to Joplin, Missouri, but he'd chosen Joplin for two reasons. It was only a couple hundred miles from his farm. He'd have to go over or around some mountains on the way, but it would take him only about ten days to get there, less if he drove from first light to dusk.

The other reason was Joplin was on the line between Missouri and Oklahoma Territory. He'd heard that the Federal Government was going to open up parts of Oklahoma Territory to settlers. According to what he'd heard discussed after church, any settler could claim a hundred and sixty acres for free as long as he built a house and started farming. There was also talk of some of that land being used to build towns and settlers could claim part of that land to use for a business.

Daniel didn't want to live in a town. A town meant a Marshal or a Sheriff and either would surely know about what had happened in Christian County, Missouri. Since he'd abandoned his farm, he'd be suspected of being a member of the Bald Knobbers. There might even be a reward for his capture.

No, a town wasn't someplace he'd feel safe. His only option was a return to farming some ways from a town. His only knowledge was about farming, and he'd brought enough with him to start farming. It would be really hard work, but he'd get by.

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Daniel drove into the tiny little town of Granby, Missouri on the twentieth of March and after looking around a little, decided Granby would be a better place to stay than Joplin. It was small enough it had no Marshal or Sheriff and was far enough from Christian County that it wasn't likely word of the Bald Knobber killings would have gotten that far. There was also something he desperately needed in Granby if he was going to succeed in Oklahoma Territory. He needed money for supplies and to start farming and there were lead and zinc mines in Granby that might have jobs available.

After adopting the name of Isaac Johnson in case his real name did find it's way to Granby, Daniel began looking for a job. After a day, he realized two things. The first was the mines didn't have any jobs available for a stranger who didn't know anything about mining. The second was that most of the men in Granby were already working in the mines and there was a shortage of men to do other jobs.

He gave up looking for a mining job and instead asked at the other businesses in town. On his third inquiry, this time at a livery stable that also ran wagons hauling freight from the railroad terminal to the mines, he found a job. It didn't pay as much as he could have made in the mines, but it had a side benefit. The owner of the livery stable had trouble keeping men who knew about horses and mules because every time a mine needed unskilled labor, his man would leave. He offered Daniel the job at twenty dollars a month and he could live in a room over the stable. Daniel would keep the stable clean, feed the stock, and use the livery stable team and wagon to take goods from the railroad station to the mines.

Daniel took the job even though he could have waited and maybe made more in the mines. One of his concerns was that everything he owned was in his wagon and he'd have to leave it unattended if he worked in the mines. By working at the livery stable, he could keep his wagon with the livery stable wagon and put all his belongings except the plow in his room over the stable. He could also keep his two mules in the stable at just the cost of their feed.

Daniel also thought that working in the livery stable would be a position that didn't see many people. The owner of the livery stable took care of all the rentals and other things that required talking to people. Daniel would just be a nameless man who cleaned stalls and drove a wagon to the mines a couple times a week. That with his assumed name would keep him hidden from anyone with any knowledge of his past.

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For the next two years, Daniel worked at the livery stable and saved every cent he could. News of the killings in Christian County did reach Granby, but there was never any mention of Daniel Jacobs in any of the Joplin or Granby newspapers. What Daniel did read in those newspapers made him certain he'd done the right thing.

During the raid, Edens and his brother-in-law had been killed along with two of the Bald Knobbers. Eighty of the Christian County Bald Knobbers had been rounded up. Seventy-six of them had been tried, convicted, and sent to prison. Four others had met a worse fate, including the leader of the group. That man hadn't participated in the murder, but he was their leader and that was enough of a crime. He and the other three had been tried, convicted of murder, and sentenced to hang. Three had met their date with the gallows, but one, the son of the leader of the group, had escaped and disappeared. Daniel knew that if he'd stayed on his farm there, he'd have been one more of the seventy-six if not an addition to the four.