AUGUSTA'S JOURNAL
VOL. IIIBy MARJORIE LUND CRUMP RALPH EUGENE CRUMPAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2009 Ralph & Marjorie Crump
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4490-2698-1Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................VINTRODUCTION - AUGUSTA'S JOURNAL.................................................................VII33. Mr. Diggle January 10, 1859..................................................................134. The Martins' Supper Party, January 12 to January 19 1859.....................................1135. Eldorado - Blissful Days, January 1859.......................................................2136. Eldorado's First Wedding, January 23 to March 2nd, 1859......................................2737. Eldorado's First Accidental Death, Spring 1859...............................................3738. Eldorado - An Intriguing Offer from Texas, Late Spring 1859..................................5739. Eldorado - Abandoned to Indians, Summer 1859.................................................7140. Chelsea - The Glennis Bemis Story, August 1859...............................................8341. Eldorado - Adda Returns to Lawrence, August and September 1859...............................9942. Eldorado - Jacob Eastman Chase, September 11 to late September, 1859.........................11143. Lawrence - A Visit with Adda, October and November 1859......................................12744. We Settle a Score, November, 1859............................................................15145. News of John Brown's Raid at Harpers Ferry, November, 1859...................................16346. Paul, the Disciple, Has a Disturbing Message, November and December 1859.....................17147. Eldorado's First School "Marm", December to Christmas Eve, 1859..............................18748. My Strange Social Status, December 1859 to July 1860.........................................20749. Meditations On The Road to Lawrence, March 12 to March 15, 1860..............................22950. Lawrence D. H. Montague to the Rescue, March 16 to June 1860.................................24151. Conversation With A Proslavery Lawyer, June and July 1860....................................25752. Adda and I Sell Our Eldorado Claims, July 8 to July 19, 1860.................................279
Chapter One
33. Mr. Diggle January 10, 1859, Eldorado
It's a terribly cold day. It's not just the icy temperature; it's the incessant down valley wind. It has snowed some, not much, but the wind has piled up little snowdrifts here and there.
In the afternoon, a stranger knocked at the door. Our neighbors just open the door and walk in, although some of them will shout some greeting, as we do when we visit them. But with the knock on the door I knew it was a stranger, so I became a little guarded.
I no sooner opened the door and he presented his calling card. While the door was open, I couldn't help but notice the black, newly painted, elegant one-horse shay tied up outside. That canvas roof was obviously not from around here. That kind of roof wouldn't last a season out here in our western Kansas wind.
I asked the stranger to step inside. As he removed his hat, exposing a handsome head of prematurely gray hair, I took a good look at his business card: Mr. Randolph H. Diggle, Senior Agent, Corcoran and Riggs Bank, Lawrence, Kansas. He took his topcoat off (which had a brown fur collar of a source unrecognizable to me) and draped it over one of our high kitchen chairs.
I'm familiar with Corcoran and Riggs. Father had some dealings with that bank while Adda and I were in Lawrence. I'm pretty sure he borrowed money from them for the syrup mill. It was my impression that Corcoran and Riggs were originally a Southern outfit but by opening a bank in Lawrence, they had acknowledged that the Free Soil people were here to stay and would probably be the main source of the territory's prosperity, but confirms that the bank will do business with anyone who is worthy of credit.
Mr. Diggle wore an Eastern business suit that included striped pants, a buttoned-up vest, which sported a heavy gold watch chain that hung on his ample chest in two little catenaries. From the chain dangled a yellowish white elk's tooth. (It was secured to the chain with a heavy gold bezel that contained some engraving that I couldn't read.) Mr. Diggle wore gray buckled-up canvas spats that covered the tops of his laced-up, polished shoes, quite an impressive outfit for a prairie traveler. I couldn't imagine him going any farther west in this costume. In fact, I wondered what sort of dandy would come even this far dressed like this.
Adda asked Mr. Diggle what had brought him so far west.
With an air of studied politeness that made it obvious he had no intention of revealing his mission to a mere female, he said he had some financial business with Mr. Samuel Stewart, President of Eldorado. "Have I found his residence?" he asked.
I didn't want to explain to Mr. Diggle that Father is dead. Mr. Diggle was entitled to know that, but I haven't come to the point where I can bring myself to say it. Just when I think I've accepted Father's death, an inquiry about him, like Mr. Diggle's, brings up renewed pangs of grief and a choking emotion and I realize that I'm not over it. Adda doesn't share this problem, but she sensed my reluctance to tell a stranger that Father wasn't alive anymore. Maybe she felt it wasn't any of his business, `least not until we got to know him better, so she remained quiet for which I was grateful.
"Yes, this is the Stewart claim," I managed, "but Father isn't here just now. Won't you sit down, Mr. Diggle, and warm-up." To change the subject, I suggested I make a pot of tea.
Adda went to the sideboard, got three cups and saucers and arranged them on the table.
Mr. Diggle glanced around the room. While surveying our cabin, he busied himself with smoothing down his gray leather gloves, one glove at a time, one finger at time, as if he expected to coax something out that had traveled with him in the glove, perhaps a small mouse, a little toad, maybe a pet cricket. Nothing detectable came forth.
Adda asked Mr. Diggle if he was "westbound."
"Oh my, no, I have to take care of several business transactions in Emporia, Chelsea and some of your other towns out here, then I plan to return to my offices in Lawrence. He asked Adda if she would oblige him by putting the feedbag on his horse. "You will find it under the seat of my shay. I bought the oats yesterday in Chelsea and the bag should be at least half full." His request was polite, but left no doubt that it was an instruction he expected to be carried out. Adda sprang up to locate her jacket and cap with earflaps to carry out our imposing guest's wishes. As she stood in the doorway behind Mr. Diggle, she looked at me and raised both eyebrows and grinned.
It wasn't all that late in the winter's day but it was already starting to get dark.
I invited Mr. Diggle to stay for supper, telling him that he'd have to take potluck. But I felt rather smug about the invitation, since I knew that I had several stuffed sage hens roasting in the oven and a few minutes before his arrival, I had put into the back of the oven a dozen or so sweet cornmeal muffins of my own recipe. Chase likes the little pieces of fried smoked ham rind I grind up and add to muffins. I give them some little...
