The following Monday morning, after Liz and Betty had finished setting up the dress shop, Scar drove the team of drafts pulling a large wagon in front of the ranch porch. It was ready to be filled with Jake and Betty’s possessions. They were moving to their new homes and businesses in Flat Peaks. The clan worked hard loading the wagon. Occasionally, things were rearranged so additional items could be loaded, and even then, a few things had to be left for a future trip.
Finally, the wagon traces tightened, and the drafts stepped into the pull. It was a bittersweet departure for the clan. Bitter because Jake and Betty would no longer be an active part of the Double D. But sweet, because they were each entering into a business they enjoyed and the beginning of an independent lifestyle allowing each to earn their own livelihood. The loaded wagon crossed the homestead creek with Thomas and Jake in the driver’s seat. Mr. and Mrs. Douglas, Liz, and Betty followed in their double-seated buggy. Scar was off to the side on Maude.
The trip was longer than normal due to rest stops. By the time they arrived it was noon, and to their surprise, town folks were milling in front of both shops, ready to help the town’s new residents move in. They even had a spread of food on tables in front of Betty’s shop. Three hours later, goodbyes had been said, and the Double D folks were on their way home.
Jake had printed GRAND OPENING posters for his newspaper and Betty’s dress shop and hung them around town. The posters invited people to the Grand Openings on Saturday, September 23, 1878. Food would be served, tours of both facilities would be available, and demonstrations would be conducted on how the sewing machine and printing press worked.
The day was a big success. Liz and Mrs. Douglas helped Betty at the dress shop. Scar and Douglas stayed with Jake. The women at Jenny’s Café stayed busy all day cooking and carrying food to the event. Horses and buggies from the outlying ranches lined the hitching rails, and nearly everyone in Flat Peaks turned out. Men and women alike gathered around the printing press in amazement as they watched the printed pages come from the machine with each turn of the crank. The main attraction for the ladies was the sewing machine in the dress shop. They were mesmerized watching the material slither under the rapid up-and-down movement of the needle as Betty worked the treadle.
Borrowed church benches were placed in front of both shops where folks sat eating the café’s delicious food, topped off with pie. Finally, by late afternoon the benches started to empty as folks left to do their evening chores.
Early Monday morning after Saturday’s grand opening, Betty and Jake each hung an OPEN FOR BUSINESS sign on their front doors. They were ready to begin their new endeavors.
During the grand opening, Betty had five women pick out material for new dresses, and two of the ladies bought enough material for three dresses. The women planned to come back to the shop a few days later to pick out the pattern and get measured.
Jake was eager to start working on his first newspaper, which was due out Friday. He had started setting type an hour before opening the shop and continued his work until well after dark. The days were long, but by Friday noon he had placed several copies on the counters of every business in town with a small poster, FLAT PEAKS NEWSPAPER—5 cents.
The eight-page newspaper contained several stories about current happenings. There was a story about last Saturday’s grand openings, an article concerning the high cow prices being received, and another about favorable ranch conditions due to timely summer rains. A progress report about the approaching Union Pacific railroad covered a half page. However, the lengthiest article was about the town council’s successful negotiations with the Union Pacific, whereby the railroad would pay for the construction of pens and animal loading facilities beside their tracks, one mile east of town. Construction to start come spring.
The article pointed out the coming of the railroad would end the need for the long cattle drives the local ranchers knew so well.
By mid-October, the Double D men were busy with the annual job of cutting the ranch’s winter firewood. Scar and Tony trimmed branches from dead fallen trees in the wooded area east of the homestead and dragged them to the sawing area by the barn with two draft horses. Mr. Douglas and Thomas pulled the two-man crosscut saw across the logs, cutting them into two-foot lengths, causing sawdust to accumulate in a sizable pile. Every so often the sawdust had to be hauled away. Mr. Douglas was reminded of the time he and Bart had made a punching bag by filling a burlap bag with sawdust and hanging it from a beam in the barn. It was still there. He remembered the endless hours Bart spent punching the bag and the training he passed along to the boy from what he had learned from his father many years ago in Ireland.
The men had taken a break and were sitting on a log when Mr. Douglas asked, “Thomas, you’ve been quiet all day. In fact, you haven’t been yourself for a week or two. I can tell you have something on your mind. What is it?”
Thomas shrugged. “I’m okay, Herb. I guess the thought of another long cold winter must have me a little depressed.” But Douglas knew something else was at the core of the matter. His friend had been through many harsh Colorado winters without complaining.
Mr. Douglas had picked up his end of the two-man saw, but Thomas hung back. “I wasn’t honest with you, Herb,” he said with a downcast expression. “It’s not because of the upcoming winter that I’m down in the dumps. It’s because I’m all alone. I have the Double D folks, who are like family to me and would do anything I asked of them, but I don’t have a special person to share my life with, a person to love and who loves me. There’s no one to share my innermost thoughts with. There’s…”
Mr. Douglas cut him short. “You don’t have a wife and are lonely. Is that what you’re trying to say, Thomas?”
“I guess so,” he answered. “You have Mrs. Douglas, Bart has Liz. Tony has Morning Sun or soon will have her, and I believe Jake and Betty will get together someday.” Thomas paused, looking at the ground. Mr. Douglas waited for him to finish saying his thoughts. “I don’t have anyone anymore, Herb. It’s not right for a man to live by himself…not to have a wife and children. I know I shouldn’t feel this way, but I’m jealous of your love for Mrs. Douglas and the love other couples at the Double D have. Every time I see couples holding hands or a look of affection pass between them, I cringe. I know it’s not right to feel this way, but I can’t seem to control myself. I don’t know what to do, Herb. I can’t get these bitter thoughts out of my mind.”
“Do you remember married life, Thomas? Do you remember what it was like to have a wife by your side, who shared the good times and bad?” Thomas nodded. “Can’t you love again? Can’t you find another woman to share your life with, Thomas?”
“I still love my wife, Herb. I guess I always will. I don’t think another woman could ever take Virginia’s place,” he said and then paused. “I think about her and the children several times every day.”
“Where do they live, Thomas? Has she remarried?”
“I don’t know if she’s remarried, and I’m not sure where she lives. We lived in Baltimore, Maryland before we moved to Flat Peaks in fifty-five. I’ve always thought she moved back there, but I’m not certain.”
“Why don’t you find out, Thomas? Find out where they live…find out if she remarried. You’ll never have peace of mind until you do.”
With watery eyes, Thomas told of his separation from his wife. Douglas had heard the story before but never with the emotion and feelings that Thomas was now delivering. “I treated her terrible the last two years we lived together. I came home drunk every day. I gambled away the ranch we both had worked so hard to get. I didn’t give her any money for her needs or the children’s.” Thomas wiped his eyes. “I totally neglected her and the children.” Thomas had to pause again. “The last time I heard from her was in a letter, Herb. She said she and the kids were going back east and she never wanted to see me again.” Thomas turned and went back to the saw. The sawdust piled higher as the men worked through the rest of the morning.
Thomas and Mr. Douglas were unusually quiet during the noon meal. The other folks at the table could tell something serious was occupying their minds, so the table talk was on subjects not pertaining to them. After eating, the four firewood men returned to their jobs.
Thomas and Mr. Douglas went back to their sawing, but after a few minutes, when three logs had been cut, Douglas straightened up and released his end of the saw. “Thomas,” he said, “we need to continue our conversation concerning your wife and children. I can’t get your situation out of my mind. Why don’t we sit and talk for a spell?” Thomas laid the saw down and followed Mr. Douglas to a nearby log.
Mr. Douglas wanted to get Thomas talking. He wanted the whole story, so he started with a simple question. “I know your wife’s name is Virginia, Thomas, but what are your children’s names?”
Thomas was eyeing the ground. “My daughter’s name is Mary. My son was named after me, but he’s called Tommy, at least that’s what we called him.”
“How old are they, Thomas?”
“Virginia is five years younger than me. She was twenty-nine when we moved to Flat Peaks in fifty-five. That was twenty-three years ago. We’d been married for twelve years when we moved. We didn’t think we’d ever be able to have children but five years after we got here, Virginia became pregnant with Mary. We were beside ourselves. After seventeen years of marriage, we were going to have a baby. Two years after Mary was born, Tommy came along.” Thomas paused for several seconds. “Virginia has been gone for fifteen years, so Mary’s seventeen and Tommy’s fifteen.”
“Have you heard anything at all from them, Thomas?”
He shook his head. “A few months after Mrs. Douglas got me sober, I wrote to Virginia’s folks in Baltimore, hoping they were still alive and would give me advice on her whereabouts, but the letter was returned.”
“Would you like for me to go with you to find her, Thomas? I’d be happy to help out.”
“We both can’t be gone from the ranch, Herb, especially since we bought the Ross place.” The men were silent as they sat deep in thought. Finally, Thomas asked, “Do you really think I should go, Herb?”
“Not before tomorrow morning,” he answered. When the men’s eyes met, they both were wearing big grins.
Four days later Thomas went to Denver by stagecoach and then boarded a train for St. Louis—the first of his stops on his way to Baltimore.