Chapter Seven

Key City, Iowa Territory,
November 22, 1833

The lady in the green dress was small. But the way she walked made her seem tall. She said again, “Are you stealing that horse? Well, Mr. Ginn? I heard you had trouble with that in Illinois. Stealing horses. That’s why you came here. Hmm?”

The shorter man, Rick Ginn, said “Shut up, you . . .” Then he stopped. He saw even more people coming out of the log cabins, and the Land Office. They were all looking at him. He looked at the taller, dirty man. Then he said, “Ed, let’s get out of here,” and they moved away. They went into the woods at the bottom of a steep river bluff. People stood outside for a few minutes, talking. They watched the two men go into the forest. But it was too cold to stand outside for long. The lady in the green dress walked over. She said to Penny, “Hello! Where are you from?”

Penny answered, “We came with Mr. and Mrs. Butterman. There they are.” She pointed. Ella and Jonathan Butterman came out of the Land Office and walked to the wagons.

Mrs. Butterman smiled at the lady in the green dress. They talked for a few minutes. The lady’s name was Mrs. Wheat. The other lady was her sister, Miss Mallow.

Mrs. Wheat said, “Mr. Butterman, you should be careful. Rick Ginn and his brother Ed are interested in your horse, there. The Ginn brothers are horse thieves. Lucky for you, your man there,” she pointed at Nate, “stopped them.” Jonathan Butterman looked at Nate.

“Well, we thank you,” Mrs. Butterman said to Nate. “And thank you, too,” she said to Mrs. Wheat.

Mr. and Mrs. Butterman talked to Mrs. Wheat and Miss Mallow a bit more. Mrs. Wheat told them there were about two hundred people in Key City. Most of them were men. “They’re mostly mining lead,” she said. “It gets pretty loud at night. The men mine during the day and drink whiskey at night. We don’t really go out.”

Miss Mallow said, “But we’re hoping to start a school, soon. There are a few families with children here. We had more families here last August, but . . .” she stopped talking.

Mrs. Wheat looked at her sister. “What my sister wants to say is that we had a lot of sickness just a few months ago. A lot of people died.”

Mr. Butterman asked, “What kind of sickness?”

Mrs. Wheat answered, “Cholera. From the water.”

Everyone was quiet for a minute.

Miss Mallow said, “But no one’s been sick for a few months. It’s fine now. Just be careful where you get your drinking water from.”

“Yes,” said Mrs. Butterman quietly. “Of course.”