White Bear Clan John O'Leary U.S. Marshal

Will Welton

Novels

Early Times of the White Bear Clan

The White Bear Clan Fancy Man

The White Bear Clan Harmon Bell Texas Ranger

The White Bear Clan Lem Dew

The White Bear Clan Black Thorn

The White Bear Clan Tanner Oaks Texas Ranger

Frontier Doctor of Indian Territory Oklahoma

Trail Drive Cattle or kids

Ai Machonnee Wolf Man

Always Pardners

Cane Longbow Range Detective

Never Too Late

Nights of Terror

Run From A Hanging

Treasures of Indian Territory Oklahoma

Sam Mountain Texas Ranger

Lee Garrett Bounty Hunter

Ghost Riders

The Young West Joey Zackary

The Gathering

Spoofs Treasure (children’s book)

Just a Dumb Okie {Short stories and Jokes} Humor

Kinfolk Matters (W.F. and Frank)

White Bear Clan

Fancy Man

The life of John O’Leary

U.S. Marshal

Author

Will Welton

Originally published in 1998

Titled the Fancy Man

Published in 2007

With the name changed made by the publisher.

Titled the White Bear Clan John O’Leary

U.S. Marshal

This publication I am changing back to the

original title and the words which the other

publisher changed or deleted to include the missing chapter the publishers editor deleted.

Published 2015

ISBN: 978-1-329-04000-7

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents either is products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental unless otherwise noted.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents either is products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental unless otherwise noted.

Towns and places named in Welton Novels were all there at one time. Now they might have the names changed or only be the remembrance of some of the old folks like me. A lot of the towns are underwater, some towns moved to the lakes shore, from the numerous lakes the Corps of Engineers has created.

Dedicated to the

All American Indians of Oklahoma and other

states whom has served in the Armed Forces

of the Military of the United States of

America. The American Indians served in combat during the wars, in which this country has faced, and they received very little credit for their actions. Some gave their life and others gave part of themselves and are disabled American Veterans. My father was one of them and he gave his best as any American Indian would have done.

INTRODUCTION

There is a legend in our family of a bear that saved the chief and several warriors from certain death. As the chief and warriors out hunting to kill some game for food, a large pack of wolves attacked and killed several of the warriors. In the heat of the battle with the wolves, a bear rising up out of the snow, killing some of the wolves and the rest of the pack of wolves ran away. The bear stood on its hind legs and let out a roar while looking at the men watching the bear from laying on the ground, and then the bear turned and walked away from the Indians. The bear was white from the snow, although some of his fur was clear of snow and showed brown, but the chief would not kill it for food since the bear had saved their lives. The chief then declared, From now on, this clan is called the White Bear Clan.

Over the years, the White Bear Clan has not only Indians, and Freedmen adopted into the clan. This is the first novel in the series about the White Bear Clan. If you get a chance to read, the other novels first do not worry, for all are complete novels. These novels are from stories passed on from the family and told about my grandparents and great-grandparents, father and papa are the names, which they used in the telling of their story. Gray Eagle was my great-great-grand father and Hawk was my great-grand father, on my grandmother’s side of the family. In other novels, I have written in this series, some of the people known to me personally. The story has a lot of true accounts based on stories told to me by other people. My father and papa told a lot of the stories.

The towns and places named in these books are all real. As the Indian Territory came closer to becoming the State of Oklahoma, a lot of the town names changed or simply no longer existed. Towns such as America, Ida (Battiest), Dookeslville, Punkabua (Broken Bow), Bismarck (Wright City), Chance, and Scullyville would not make it after the Indian Territory was awarded statehood, some became ghost towns, or just places with some reminisce of where they had been.

This is the first novel of two about John O’Leary and of stories told from over fifty years ago. One of the men who told some of the stories fought under the only Indian General, Stan Waite of the Cherokee in the Civil War between the States. Other members of the family delivered food and supplies to Robbers Cave in Oklahoma, as late as 1915 until the Officers of the Law knew about the cave. In addition, they delivered to other places near the cave until the 1930s to what people of the time called the modern day outlaws.

CHAPTER I

It was a very nice day, the sun was shining and it was getting warmer. The snow was starting to melt out in the sun and that is the sign of spring coming. Here in Nantucket near the ocean it is nice to watch the big ships come in from the ocean. However, setting here and watching them and doing nothing had finally got to John. Thinking about two summers ago when he had gone on a clipper ship, which sailed to Charleston and back. The crew always made fun of him for his size of a hundred-fifty pounds of solid muscle man, standing five foot ten inches and slender as a lean panther, dressed in a fancy suit. Because of being sick and throwing up every day, by the time John returned from his voyage, John had lost about twenty pounds from being sick and he knew then the sailing life for him would not be. John would like to see the world or at least part of it and do something for himself.

Being the fifth son there was not much to expect. John’s oldest brother gets the business and the rest of us can work for our brother or hit the road and find something for ourselves. Two of John’s brothers are working in the mill at Yarmouth. Jobe the brother next to John took the 500 dollars allotted to each of them and left for New York City to find a position. The rest could stay on and work there at the mill, for a salary of ten dollars a week, which was very good for most of the men that worked at the whale oil mill, only got a dollar a day.

John could not stand the smell of the whale oil fumes when they render the whale meat that came in on the ships. Over at Baxter’s Gristmill John could work and grind the corn and wheat. Baxter would pay John twenty dollars a month and meals. John just might take the 500 dollars and head west.

John had heard a lot of the stories told by the fur trappers, which came from the west on ships around the horn and trappers waiting to catch a ship to go back west. One told him to buy alcohol or guns, which were good for hunting, and John could make a fortune. He could up the price ten times more than what he had paid for them in the east.

Since it was getting close to the evening meal John stood up and looked around as he straighten his tie and brushed the grass from the seat of his pants. As he fasten his vest he walked towards the grog shop, Fowl and Fish, that also served meals and it was where most of the mill crew ate. John remembered about the other evening.

Down at the locate pub drinking one night and John happened to see a man that he thought might be a bear. He was over six feet tall and long muscular arms with big hands as he turned to come through the door. He looked to weigh in at over three hundred pounds. John knew that his tailor would have to use a lot of cloth to make him a suit of clothes. In the introduction, John found the man’s name was Gabe Higgins. It seemed that he had been a trapper, turned trader, and they talked about the possibility of getting together and trying a foray, which John had been thinking on doing.

Deciding since this was coming on to the spring of the year it’s best to work at the factory of his family and save up as much money as he possibly could. John wanted to talk to Gabe some more and find out what would be good to buy and carry on his western adventure.

After changing his mind he had his supper with Martha the cook and head house keeper he dressed in his light gray suit, with the light gray tie. John left the house that evening going to the Hogs Head Tavern to meet Gabe at the tavern. John took notes as he listen, talked and drank until the wee hour of the morning. Actually, until the tavern owner made them leave so he could close the place up.

John told Gabe, I would like to visit with you the next evening and finish our conversation.

Gabe said, Sure thing and I will be here about 6 o’clock.

They were standing outside of the pub and a man came up to them. The man pulled a small knife and said, Give me your money or I will cut both of you up.

Gabe laughed and John just stood there and froze in place. John was fixing to give the man his money purse. Gabe said, You need to put your finger nail cleaner up. If you are going into the business to rob people you should get yourself a real knife.

As Gabe was talking, he reached in his coat and pulled a knife out that must have been two feet long. He waved it at the man and said, This is a good knife to rob people with. The man dropped his knife and turning he ran as fast as he could up the street. Gabe and John parted company and went their separate ways.

After another day of ten hours at the mill smelling the fumes of the rendering whale fat John had to scrub hard as his bath to get the smell from his body. Dressing in his three piece suit with a tan shirt and dark brown tie that evening. John asked Gabe a lot of questions on the route he should travel. Gabe said, Just do like me in traveling to the west. I am leaving in the morning by stagecoach and will catch a train whenever I can. If you are bringing a lot of baggage you should go over to the Ohio River and catch a riverboat to St. Louis. Then pick up my horses across the river and ride them on west. My partner will have mules and horses plus some trade goods ready when you arrive.

We agreed to meet in June of the next year in St. Louis. John was to leave a message at Boogers tavern for Gabe that was on the edge of town and he would come to where John was staying. Gabe would get up with John as soon as he came into town. They parted company early that evening for Gabe had a few more things to do and John was going to work at the factory the next morning.

John’s job at the factory lasted until April of the next year. That was as long as John could stand the smell. Getting his money together and catching the next stage out to Hartford Connecticut. There was a lot of talk about a man named Sam Colt who was working on a new type of rifle and pistol. The kind, which will shoot five or six times before you, had to reload them.

John caught the coaches with the two extra suits and three shirts, with colored ties in his valise he took the coaches to where he would arrive at Hartford Connecticut. It had taken four coaches and eight days of travel and he arrived at the train station in Hartford as it was coming dark. It being in the early time of the year it would be pitch black by six o’clock in the evening.

After arriving at Hartford, John took a taxi hack to one of the cheaper hotels that the hack driver had suggested as being clean and cheaper than some of the high class venues. It took John two days to find Mister Colt which had located his gun shop in an older barn four miles from town. He was glad to demonstrate the new weapons to John when John had said he was interested in buying weapons to sell in the west. In addition, Mister Colt was happy John wanted so many of them. Especially after John told him what he planned to do with them. Mister Colt had a man working for him that made a shotgun that was hammerless and used ten gauge metal cartridges. You would put a regular primer cap into the nipple hole in the metal shell and the rest of the shell you put your powder then tap a wad of cloth and load the shell with small balls or whatever scrapes of metal which might fit into the shell. You had to use a wade of cloth in the shell to hold all of it in. John also ordered ten of the shotguns with a hundred of the metal casings. Staying in town for two weeks until the orders that John placed was ready.

After picking up the fifty pistols, a hundred extra cylinders for the pistols, ten shotguns, twenty-five rifles with fifty extra cylinders for the rifles, 2500 precision cap and seventy-five bullet molds to make the lead bullets for the guns. John would still need to pack them in cases. The rifles and pistols were all the same .44 calibers and you would only have to carry the powder, primer caps and the lead to have a reload for either rifle or pistol. You could use just about any type of cloth or other material for wadding. Figuring to buy the powder horns, powder and lead bars farther west. John would not have so much weight to carry and to keep up with on his trip. He stopped down the street from Mister Colts’ workshop and bought 2000 primer caps. A carpenter near Mister Colts’ house made the wooden cases for him to hold the weapons and parts.

Leaving Hartford the next day, in a freight wagon, for John had arranged to take his goods and him to Albany City. Getting a reasonable price on the transportation for the driver had a load of furs waiting on the docks at the cannel north of Albany City. That is where John would load his things on one of the cannel boats. Trying to get on a boat that was going all the way to Buffalo, New York was the best to do. The freight man was a very good-natured person.

They would start early as soon as it was light enough to see and he would keep going until after dark. Along the way, they stopped at several Inns for the night and have the wagon put in the barn and locked up. Twice they stopped at night alongside of the road and slept near the wagon.

When they arrived at Albany, the freight man found a canal boat, which was going all the way to Buffalo and was leaving as soon as John’s things could be loaded. It did not take long for them to load the five wooden cases and John’s valise. The boat Captains name was Franklin O’Shonacey. He said, The boat will be going to travel at night whenever possible. The moon was almost a half moon tonight and it was quite bright. "We will be changing horses about every ten miles for they tire out from pulling the cannel boat and we should arrive at Utica or maybe even get as far as Rome by tomorrow night.

It was two days later and about 7 o’clock at night when they arrived at Rome New York. The boat captain said, I am letting the crew have the night off and if you need someone to guard your things my brother Fred is coming down to stand guard on the boat. You can stay on the boat or get a room over at the Hogs Head Inn that is three blocks down the street. It seemed to John that almost every town or crossroads had a Hogs Head tavern.

John replied, I’m going to do a little shopping and would be back later to sleep on the boat. You be sure to tell your brother Fred that I’m coming and not to throw me off the boat. It did not take him very long to see the sights for most of the shops had closed for the day. Returning to the boat, John hailed the boat, Need to come aboard the boat.

The man on board said, Come on up the plank so I can recognize you as the Fancy Man who is going to help me guard the boat tonight.

Your job is safe from me. I do not have enough finances to splurge my money on a room for the night when I can stay here free of charge. I have to be careful with my spending for most of my savings is tied up in the four crates on your boat. They talked for some time about the cannel up ahead and other things. It was getting late and two men were coming up the gangplank. Fred said, Halt and do not come on board.

Both of the men pulled knives and each man had a long club. The tall man said, We will take the valuables that are on the boat or you will regret it.

It was John’s time to laugh for he had something for them. John said, A friend of mine said if you were going to rob someone with a knife you need a bigger knife then the person you were robbing.

One of the crooks said, Let’s see your knife.

I have a small knife and I really do not like a knife fight. What you two need to do is just leave. John answered as he took two of the pistols from his waist band of his pants.

The one doing the talking asked, What do you mean?

You do not bring a knife to a gun fight. Replied John.

He laughs at John and said, You have only one shot and my friend will just have to kill you.

John laughed and raised his pistol shooting the man in the arm, the other man started on up the plank, and John shot him in the foot. John also put two more shots in their direction. This is when John told them, I still have some shots ready. The men got out of there as fast as they could. The last they saw of the men they were going up the street with one half carrying the one which was shot in the foot.

Fred turned to John and asked, How many more shots do you have left?

Two more in this pistol and he raised his left hand and six more in this one.

Fred went to laughing and finally had to set down because he was laughing so hard. Fred, if you have any trouble tonight let me know because I am going to sleep. If Fred had only known, it was lucky shots, which hit the robbers. John was not very proficient with the pistols at hitting anything.

The next morning when John awoke and finding the crew had already made ready to leave. He rolled his blankets and put his tie on for his father had said a man was not dressed properly until his tie was in place. The crew had the four mules hitched to the tow rope and the crew was pushing off from the tie up point. The captain brought John some coffee and biscuits. As he was eating John asked, How long will it take us to get to Buffalo?

The captain said, It will take about ten days or less. A lot will depend on how long we might have to wait when we arrived at Lockport and also on the weather. Lockport is a large series of locks letting us down to the lake level. I have gone through the locks in one day and it has taken me up to three days to get to lake level because of the boats ahead of me.

Is there anyway which I might not have to wait very long? John asked and he took a bite of biscuit and drank some of the strong coffee.

The captain commented, If it’s going to be a long wait at Lockport you can make arrangements to take a spring wagon into Buffalo and you could be there in one day. I can recommend several of the paddle wheels which were running the lake and the fare would be reasonable in price. The Captain and crew can be trusted that I recommend.

Over the next few days, they traveled at night whenever they were able. Sometimes they would travel along at night and come upon a boat tied to the shore and were unable to get around the boat. It only mean they spent the night setting waiting on daylight until the other boats move up the cannel.

John now knew what the Captain meant by if things worked out right. It took them eight days to get to Lockport and finding there were only three boats ahead of them that day. This means they will get through the locks by nightfall. There was no reason for John to hire a spring wagon and driver at the head of the locks for the trip on to Buffalo. John said to the Captain, I will stay with the boat and maybe you could find the best stern wheeler for me in my trip from Buffalo. They got through the locks by nightfall and the captain was able to get around the two boats that decided to stay the night there at Lockport. This put them arriving into Buffalo the next day very early in the morning.

One of the stern wheeler boats, which happened to be at the docks loading for the trip to Toledo with stops at Cleveland, is the boat the captain pulled alongside and tied up. He was going to unload from his boat to the stern wheeler so he would not have to pay docks fees. John made a deal for passage and for his cargo to be stored in a stateroom where he was going to sleep. John could lock the door when he needed to leave the state room. Cannel boats, which loaded or unloaded, tied to the stern wheeler that day. The stern wheeler was loading up crates from the docks, which arrived there on wagons, and the loading went on until late into the night.

There were a lot of passengers, which came aboard that evening. John turned in early and could hear the goings on until he drifted off to sleep. It seemed like he had only been asleep for a short while when it felt like he was moving and a lot of noise from the rear of the boat. Getting up and looking out the small window to find the boat was moving away from the docks and out towards the middle of the river. He had been told that it would only take about an hour before they were out in the lake.

John got dressed and went down to the dining hall for breakfast. There he met several people, which were going west. Some was going over land after departing the stern wheeler at Toledo. John met several people that would be going by boat down the cannel system to the town of Terre Haute. From there they would be going overland to St. Louis. John listen to all the talk said about getting to St. Louis for he wanted the cheapest and the best way for his cargo and him.

When the stern wheeler arrived at the city of Toledo, it was about noon and the captain of the stern wheeler said, The best place to eat is the hotel which is two blocks over. We will be leaving this evening so listen for the boats whistle.

The town was setting mostly on the river. It had a lot of shops and different establishments, off from the river. Behind the docks and warehouses that were located on the riverbanks. It seemed this was one of the main shipping points for the merchandise from the east, going down river toward St. Louis.

John decided to buy some more of the things that he want to take west with him on his adventure. John thought after eating he would look around and try to book passage on one of the riverboats, which docks down on the river. Noticing several of the boats was loading up with merchandise getting ready to go down river. Gabe had given a list of things, which was easy to carry, John took the list he had written from the talks with Gabe, on the things he could make a lot of money selling or maybe trading for things out west to bring back and sell in the east. Thinking it might be time to check on buying some powder in large quaintly for the pistols and rifles was in order.

John was determined to show his family he could make his own way in life without the family business or money. He would make his own