Uncategorized
COWBOY DREAMS–THE ADVENTURES OF THE ABERNATHY BROTHERS by CHERYL PIERSON
Welcome to Petticoats & Pistols today, the final day of our special event! Mary Connealy will be giving away our prize today, a $25 AMAZON gift certificate, so be sure to leave a comment to be entered in the drawing! Today, I’m going to post one of the first blogs I ever wrote for P&P about two remarkable young boys, Bud and Temple Abernathy and their true life adventures as long riders. Even now, over 100 years later, they still hold the record for the youngest long riders ever. Here is their incredible story!
In the summer of 1909, two young brothers under the age of ten set out to make their own “cowboy dreams” come true. They rode across two states on horseback. Alone.
It’s a story that sounds too unbelievable to be true, but it is.
Oklahoma had been a state not quite two years when these young long riders undertook the adventure of a lifetime. The brothers, Bud (Louis), and Temple Abernathy rode from their Tillman County ranch in the southwest corner of the state to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Bud was nine years old, and Temple was five.
They were the sons of a U.S. Marshal, Jack Abernathy, who had the particular talent of catching wolves and coyotes alive, earning him the nickname “Catch ’Em Alive Jack.”
Odd as it seems to us today, Jack Abernathy had unwavering faith in his two young sons’ survival skills. Their mother had died the year before, and, as young boys will, they had developed a wanderlust listening to their father’s stories.
Jack agreed to let them undertake the journey, Bud riding Sam Bass (Jack’s own Arabian that he used to chase wolves down with) and Temple riding Geronimo, a half-Shetland pony. There were four rules the boys had to agree to: Never to ride more than fifty miles a day unless seeking food or shelter; never to cross a creek unless they could see the bottom of it or have a guide with them; never to carry more than five dollars at a time; and no riding on Sunday.
The jaunt into New Mexico to visit their father’s friend, governor George Curry, took them six weeks. Along the way, they were escorted by a band of outlaws for many miles to ensure their safe passage. The boys didn’t realize they were outlaws until later, when the men wrote to Abernathy telling him they didn’t respect him because he was a marshal. But, in the letter, they wrote they “liked what those boys were made of.”
One year later, they set out on the trip that made them famous. At ten and six, the boys rode from their Cross Roads Ranch in Frederick, Oklahoma, to New York City to meet their friend, former president Theodore Roosevelt, on his return from an African safari. They set out on April 5, 1910, riding for two months.
Along the way, they were greeted in every major city, being feted at dinners and amusement parks, given automobile rides, and even an aeroplane ride by Wilbur Wright in Dayton, Ohio.
Their trip to New York City went as planned, but they had to buy a new horse to replace Geronimo. While they were there, he had gotten loose in a field of clover and nearly foundered, and had to be shipped home by train.
They traveled on to Washington, D.C., and met with President Taft and other politicians.
It was on this trip that the brothers decided they needed an automobile of their own. They had fallen in love with the new mode of transportation, and they convinced their father to buy a Brush runabout. After practicing for a few hours in New York, they headed for Oklahoma—Bud drove, and Temple was the mechanic.
They arrived safe and sound back in Oklahoma in only 23 days.
But their adventures weren’t over. The next year, they were challenged to ride from New York City to San Francisco. If they could make it in 60 days, they would win $10,000. Due to some bad weather along the 3,619-mile-long trip, they missed the deadline by only two days. Still, they broke a record—and that record of 62 days still stands, nearly one hundred years later.
The boys’ last cross country trip was made in 1913 driving a custom designed, two-seat motorcycle from their Cross Roads Ranch to New York City. They returned to Oklahoma by train.
As adults, Temple became an oilman, and Bud became a lawyer. There is a statue that commemorates the youngest long riders ever in their hometown of Frederick, Oklahoma, on the lawn of the Tillman County Courthouse.
BE SURE TO LEAVE A COMMENT TO BE ENTERED IN TODAY’S DRAWING, A $25 AMAZON GIFT CARD FROM MARY CONNEALY!
- GET SWEPT AWAY HERE: http://www.amazon.com/Swept-Away-Trouble-Texas-Connealy/dp/0764209140/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372275065&sr=1-2&keywords=mary+connealy+books
NEW FROM CHERYL PIERSON! COMING SOON!
Retro Week: Day Three – A Texas Bonanza by Karen Witemeyer
My choice for retro week is a post I wrote back in April 2012. Since both of my Archer brother books are set in the Piney Woods of Texas, I thought it would be fun to look back at the history of Texas’s lumber industry.
What was the leading industry in Texas at the turn of the 20th century?
Oil? – No, that came later.
Cattle? Cotton?
The answer: Lumber.
Lumber? Are you kidding? I live in Texas. There are no trees. Oh, we’ve got some scrubby little mesquite and an occasional oak, but nothing that this California native would call a tree. So how in the world did the lumber industry out-perform cattle and cotton, two Texas staples?
Well, as anyone who has ever driven across this great state can tell you, Texas is a big place. Yes we have desert regions and prairie and grassland and hill country, but over in the southeast is a lovely section called the Piney Woods. And as the railroad worked it’s way west in the 1870’s and 1880’s, lumber men from Pennsylvania like Henry Lutcher and G. Bedell Moore saw the virgin forests of east Texas as a gold mine. Local boys like John Henry Kirby got in on the action, too, buying up and consolidating individual sawmills into complete lumber manufacturing plants. Kirby rose to success so quickly, he became known as the “Prince of the Pines,” having become the largest lumber manufacturer in the state by combining 14 sawmills into the Kirby Lumber Company in 1901.
Not only did the railroad boom make travel to the Texas woods easier, it was also one of the biggest sources of demand for timber. Railroads needed lumber to construct rail cars, stations, fences, and cross ties in addition to the massive amounts of wood they burned for fuel. Each year railroads needed some 73 million ties for the construction of new rail lines and the maintenance of old ones, estimated by the magazine Scientific American in 1890. From the 1870s to 1900, railroads used as much as a fourth of national timber production.
This combination of supply and demand fueled a “bonanza era” for the Texas lumber industry that lasted 50 years, from 1880 until the Great Depression. During this time, Texas became the third largest lumber-producing state in the nation.
Northern investors swooped in to buy up land, sometimes even taking advantage of “use and possession laws” to seize property from families who had owned it for generations. Corruption abounded as logging companies controlled their workers, paying them only in vouchers for the company store despite the incredibly hazardous working conditions. These “cut and get out” operations left acres of land decimated.
Today if you travel through east Texas, you can still see the pine forests, however the trees are younger and more slender compared to the giants that grew there back in the 1880s. Maybe in another 100 years, we’ll find a return of the true Piney Woods of Texas.
Now for the big treat…
Winnie Griggs is giving away a copy of her brand new release, The Bride Next Door, along with a sparkly “I Love To Read” pin. What could be better than a free book and a little book-lover’s bling?
To be entered to win, leave a comment about what you most like about forests.
Happy Summer!!!
For Love of the Wolf
Wolves have always played a fascinating roll in western novels. There is a mystique about the animals that stems as much from misinformation as information. This week I visited the St. Francis Wolf Sanctuary in Montgomery, Texas. It is less than a twenty minute drive from my house, but I felt as if I were a world away.
We parked at the end of a country road and then walked up a gravel path to the place where the mostly rescued animals were held. While caged, they were being tended by a host of volunteers who were also petting and playing with the animals as one would a familiar pet. My fourteen-year-old grandson was with me and he was quickly as intrigued by the animals as I.
The first woman we met was Reverend Jean LeFevre, the founder and the heart behind the sanctuary. As she told us a little about herself and the animals, we could feel her love for them. She has truly led a fascinating life. One of the things she didn’t tell us but which I read on the website explained a lot about her knowledge and respect for the wolves.
“My first hands-on experience with a wolf was White Tornado, in 1976. She was a white wolf living with Grandmother Twylah Nitsch of the Seneca -Wolf Clan- Iroquois Nation, my friend, and a mentor who has blessed my life. White Tornado was an amazing animal, full of energy and love. She showed me the gentleness of her kind and the love and spiritual learning that they can give to us. I have always been fascinated with the Indian lore of the Wolf and their mysticism and feel myself privileged to be able to experience it first hand.”
http://www.wolvesofsaintfrancis.org/founder-saint-francis-wolves.htm
While we were at the site, two volunteer handlers who obviously loved the wolfdogs (a mix of wolf and dog) had us sit still while they led the wolf dogs past us so that they could get used to our smell. Then we were allowed to pet the wolves that seemed to love the attention. It was easy to tell from the feel of the coats which ones were predominantly wolf. Their hair was sticky, almost scratchy.
The mission of the sanctuary as stated on their website is: “Saint Francis Wolf Sanctuary (SFWS) is dedicated to the care of rescued, non-releasable wolves and wolfdogs. We do not breed, buy, sell, or trade them. They have often been rescued from dire circumstances. Many have suffered much at the hands of humans; others were simply discarded by their caretakers. We believe they deserve a stable home for the rest of their natural lives, with an abundance of loving and compassionate care.”
They also help educate the public and try to dispel the myths about wolves. To learn more about the sanctuary, visit their website at http://wolvesofsaintfrancis.org/
And don’t forget that Trumped Up Charges is on the shelves now. When a mother’s love meets a father’s instinct. Read an excerpt at:
A Bride for All Seasons with Robin Lee Hatcher (and Mary Connealy)
A Bride for All Seasons
Novella Collection
Autumn Angel by Robin Lee Hatcher
1) Please share a little about your plot and how your hero and heroine first meet.
Luvena’s parents lost their wealth under questionable circumstances, making Luvena, a young woman with a beautiful singing voice, unwelcome in the fashionable circles she grew up in. She survives losing her parents, one after the other. But then her sister and brother-in-law die in an accident, leaving her the guardian for her young nephew and two nieces. She has no way to support them, other than marriage, and her prospects are not great in Boston where the scandal is still known. So she answers an ad in a mail order catalog.
Clay’s luck has changed. He won an old hurdy-gurdy house in a poker game in the gold boom town of Grand Coeur. But now that he is a changed man, thanks to his friendship with a local minister, he wants to turn the old theater into something grand––an opera house. He needs a wife to work beside him. But no kids. The country is crawling with widows and kids since the Civil War, and he knows from bitter experience that he’s not meant to be a father.
Thanks to the meddling by the Hitching Post editor, Luvena doesn’t know Clay specifically said, “No children,” and Clay doesn’t know the woman whose travel expenses he’s paid is arriving broke and with three kids in tow. Clay has sunk all of his money into the remodeling of the opera house, so he can’t send her and the children back to Boston. They’ll just have to make do until he comes up with the cash.
2) What makes your hero and heroine all wrong for each other? What makes them completely right for each other?
They are all wrong for each other because of the children. Luvena is devoted to her sister’s children, but Clay is packing a load of guilt from the past that has him convinced he should never be a father.
They are completely right for each other because both love God and want to do His will––if they can only discover what that is.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Best-selling novelist Robin Lee Hatcher (author of 70 books) is known for her heartwarming and emotionally charged stories of faith, courage, and love. She discovered her vocation after many years of reading everything she could put her hands on, including the backs of cereal boxes and ketchup bottles. Winner of the Christy, the RITA, the Carol, the Inspirational Reader’s Choice, and many other awards, Robin is also a recipient of the prestigious RWA Lifetime Achievement Award.
A Bride for All Seasons
Novella Collection
Winter Wedding Bells by Mary Connealy
1) Please share a little about your plot and how your hero and heroine first meet.
Megan is a hard working little Irish woman who has raised five little brothers and now finally has a chance to make a life for herself. She answers a mail order bride advertisement and is delighted when a handsome prosperous rancher writes back and then meets with her. They are married the day after they meet. On their way home to his ranch she discovered that a page of his letter to her was missing, the page that tells her he has less than a year to live and he’s searching for a wife to care for his sons after his death.
Megan is shocked and she’s also very skeptical. True David has been sick but he looks like he’s still got a lot of life in him. She’s not interested in accepting his death, that smacks of playing God. If David thinks he’s going to die, she’s got new for him. Not while she’s caring for him. She sets out to drag her hopeless husband back into the world of the living with all the faith, and common sense of a plucky Irish working girl.
2) What makes your hero and heroine all wrong for each other? What makes them completely right for each other?
David is a wealthy man who marries Megan for the most practical of reasons. He wants a mother for his children. Megan doesn’t kid herself that a marriage arranged through a mail order bride catalog is based on love but practical girl though she is, she still had dreams of love…someday. Pessimistic David and determined Megan are no kind of match at all. But perky little Megan fills all the empty places in David’s heart and the terrible losses she had at a young age with her mother and father’s deaths, give her all the skills she needs now to hold David on this side of the Pearly Gates with her bare hands.
A Bride for All Seasons
A Novella Collection
1800s mail-order bride catalogs facilitated many happy marriages. Here are the stories of four couples who owe their wedded bliss to creative editing by The Hitching Post publisher.
“And Then Came Spring“–Margaret Brownley When mail order bride Mary-Jo Parker arrives in town she receives the shock of her life; not only is her fiancé dead, he left behind an eight-year-old son he neglected to mention. But the biggest challenge of all is the boy’s way-too-handsome uncle.
“An Ever-After Summer“–Debra Clopton
Widower Matt McConnell wrote his ad with no room for misunderstanding–Bible believers need not apply. But then Bible-thumping Ellie shows up on his doorstep. Matt’s so desperate for her help that he accepts.
“Autumn’s Angel“–Robin Lee Hatcher
Luvena Abbott’s privileged childhood didn’t prepare her for the hardship she now faces as an adult, especially when it comes to being the guardian of her nieces and nephew. Marriage seems the only answer to her dilemma. Clay Birch hopes to change the hurdy-gurdy house he won in a poker game into the finest opera house in the Northwest, but he’ll need help to do it. Could this unlikely couple actually be the perfect match?
“Winter Wedding Bells“–Mary Connealy
David Laramie is looking for a woman to care for his children. In exchange he’ll make her financially comfortable for life. But no woman wants to marry a dying man. Then Megan responds to his ad. It seems his “edited” letter contained no mention of him dying.
“And Then Came Spring“–Margaret Brownley When mail order bride Mary-Jo Parker arrives in town she receives the shock of her life; not only is her fiancé dead, he left behind an eight-year-old son he neglected to mention. But the biggest challenge of all is the boy’s way-too-handsome uncle.
“An Ever-After Summer“–Debra Clopton
Widower Matt McConnell wrote his ad with no room for misunderstanding–Bible believers need not apply. But then Bible-thumping Ellie shows up on his doorstep. Matt’s so desperate for her help that he accepts.
“Autumn’s Angel“–Robin Lee Hatcher
Luvena Abbott’s privileged childhood didn’t prepare her for the hardship she now faces as an adult, especially when it comes to being the guardian of her nieces and nephew. Marriage seems the only answer to her dilemma. Clay Birch hopes to change the hurdy-gurdy house he won in a poker game into the finest opera house in the Northwest, but he’ll need help to do it. Could this unlikely couple actually be the perfect match?
“Winter Wedding Bells“–Mary Connealy
David Laramie is looking for a woman to care for his children. In exchange he’ll make her financially comfortable for life. But no woman wants to marry a dying man. Then Megan responds to his ad. It seems his “edited” letter contained no mention of him dying.
Renee Ryan’s Winner is…
Jennifer Tipton
Email your snail mail address to Renee at renee@reneeryan.com
Sylvester Graham Bread
Good morning. It’s me, Renee Ryan, taking a break from yet another deadline. I have a giveaway, more on that below. In the meantime, I left my heroine in the kitchen. She’s attempting to make bread in that dang new oven of hers. What she doesn’t know yet, and what I only just discovered as I researched for this blog, is that until a baker became used to the new cooking gadget in the ranch house (AKA the oven), her attempts at baking bread often went astray. First attempts were often described in personal diaries as well-done bricks and were nearly impossible to cut with a knife.
Today, my heroine is attempting to make Sylvester Graham Bread. In the mid-1800s, Sylvester Graham advocated the use of whole grain in baked goods. His reasoning was that the whole berry contained nutrients, so why sift it out? His product was called “graham flour” and was only sought out by those rare few seeking healthy foods. Fashion dictated “pure” white flour, even though most couldn’t afford it.
Although similar to whole wheat flour, it’s not completely the same. Graham flour is still available in health food stores. The special milling of this modern-day version is more true to the Old West, and produces a denser loaf of bread. So, if you want to try this recipe and wish to stay authentic to the Old West, you might want to hop over to the health food store and purchase a sack of graham flour.
Here’s my favorite recipe for Sylvester Graham Bread from the Old West Baking Book by Lon Walters.
BAKING TIME: 30-35 minutes
OVEN TEMPERATURE: 375 degrees
Sponge:
2 cups warm water
¼ cup molasses
1 cup sourdough starter
2 cups graham flour
Bread:
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups graham flour
Mix sponge ingredients. Stir well, place in a nonmetal bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside until mix is bubbling, about 8-12 hours.
To make bread, add salt and flour to the fermenting sponge. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until elastic, or until the dough bounces back when poked. Let rise in a warm spot until double in bulk. Punch down dough. Knead lightly a few times more to get the remaining gas out. Divide the dough in half ad form into round loaves. Place on a well-greased cookie sheet and let rise again until double in bulk. Slash the top gently with a very sharp knife. Place in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes until loaves are brown and sound hollow when “thunked” with your finger.
Wow, that’s a lot of work, right? Can you imagine going through all that and then having to start over because your first attempt was a well-done brick? Anybody willing to try out this recipe? I might, when my book is done. Or maybe I’ll drive across town to my favorite bakery. Seems way easier.
Leave a comment and I’ll put you in a drawing for a copy of my July release, THE OUTLAW’S REDEMPTION
Elizabeth Lane’s Winner
The winner of THE SANTANA HEIR is SHERRY ALLMAN!
Sherry, if you’ll email me your address at elizlane123@msn.com, I’ll get the book right to you.
Win THE SANTANA HEIR
My July book is a story about the ties that bind people together—ties of blood, ties of family, and ties of love. At the center is adorable, eleven-month-old Zac, whose dying mother sacrificed all to bring him into the world and give her barren stepsister, Grace, one chance to raise a child.
Peruvian billionaire playboy, Emilio Santana, sees his own chance in little Zac—the chance to continue his late brother’s bloodline and relieve himself of the responsibility to marry and provide a family heir. The battle over Zac brings Grace to Peru, and a new love in an exotic setting. But things are not always what they seem—and if you think you’ve read this story before, prepare yourself for some surprises.
A few years ago I spent some time in Peru, right where this story takes place. The setting is rich in beauty, history and culture—perfect for a heartfelt love story. I hope you’ll enjoy this one. Here’s an excerpt for you.
Emilio ended the kiss, savoring the way their moist lips clung as they parted. He hadn’t planned to kiss her. But it had happened and, for the moment at least, he wasn’t sorry. Grace Chandler’s luscious curves fit his body as if they’d been molded for that very purpose. Her sweetness flowed through him like hot caramel syrup through ice cream.
So much for his resolve to treat her like a sister. That wasn’t going to happen. He knew himself too well to question his instincts. But right now he needed to get her back to the house. She was badly scared, maybe even injured. Seduction would have to wait.
With a twinge of regret, he eased her to arms’ length. Her cheeks were flushed, her mouth damp and a little swollen. It was all he could do to keep from snatching her close once more and taking up where they’d left off.
“Are you all right, Grace?” Given the way she looked, it was a needless question.
For a moment she regarded him with lust-glazed eyes. Then a transformation came over her. Straightening her spine and squaring her shoulders she impaled him with a glare that would have done justice to Sister Benedicta, who’d whacked his knuckles in her arithmetic class.
“I’ll be fine,” she said. “But what just happened was a mistake, Emilio.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “I had the impression you enjoyed it as much as I did.”
Her look darkened. “I came here to decide what was best for Zac and for me. The last thing I need is having my judgment clouded by a Latin Romeo who’d hit on any female old enough to drive. As far as you and I are concerned, nothing happened here. Understood?”
“Understood.” The barb had stung more than he cared to admit. But long experience had taught Emilio when to advance and when to retreat. This was retreat time. But the conquest was far from over.
Grace Chandler was going to eat her words.
THE SANTANA HEIR is available for pre-order on Amazon. But one reader who posts today will get an advance copy to read. If you’re an international winner, you’ll receive a PDF file. Good luck and thanks in advance for your comments
Renee’s Winners!!!
We have our winners for Renee Ryan’s drawings!
Janine, AmyC and Lori…you each win a copy of THE OUTLAW’S REDEMPTION.
And the Grand Prize Winner is………drum roll please……..
CRYSTALGB!!!!
The winners can email Renee for further details at renee@reneeryan.com