High Rider Part 13

Not in a hurry, they ambled along in the warm September sun, one of those perfect fall days that the prairies rise to every so often. John loved this country, despite its ability to deal a cruel hand occasionally. He had always been able to play the cards and come away with something, and a man could be proud of that. He was proud, too, that he had come so far from a rice plantation in South Carolina-and in more ways than one. By the sheer power of his character, he had forced people to see John Ware the man, not John Ware the coloured man, although he knew that his experience in Medicine Hat told a story that was a long way from a happy conclusion. But this was as good as he'd felt in a long time, out here on his ranch, riding side by side with his oldest boy, the son he was first proud of, teaching him as a lad the things that John had not learned until he was a man. There would be good money in the sale of the beeves, and he would make sure some of it went into the boy's pocket. No one should work for nothing unless he works for himself.

Suddenly, Molly stumbled and lurched as she stepped in a badger hole, lost her balance, and went down, with John underneath her. He heard more than felt a tremendous crack in his neck. Molly scrambled to her feet, unhurt, but John could not move, yet he could have sworn he was trying. He saw Bobby looking down on him, terrified and confused.

Ah, Bobby, I believe I've gone and broke my d.a.m.ned fool neck.

The words formed in his mind but not in his mouth. There was much more that he wanted to say but a kaleidoscope of images, so vivid and clear, replaced his thoughts. The last one sent him tumbling into the dark abyss from which he had risen at birth.

EPILOGUE.

News of John's death reverberated across the southern range. Ranchers were in shock. John Ware dead? Impossible! He had been one of those rare human beings who seemed invincible. And even more impossible was the way he died. After he had broken hundreds of wild horses, a tame one did him in. The irony was stunning.

His funeral service was held at the Baptist Church, Mildred's church, where her own service had been held. Few of those attending could believe that the flower-bedecked coffin contained the body of John Ware. Speaker after speaker-anyone who cared to-arose and told stories of mythological proportions that would become part of John's legend, and if they were not quite the truth, then, as Mark Twain said, they ought to have been. Others told stories about how John had touched their lives, about his generosity, how he always gave and asked for nothing in return. Perhaps the most heartfelt tribute came from a young horse rancher from British Columbia who had once worked with John at the Quorn. He said, "Everything I know about how to make my ranch work, and everything I know about horses, I learned from John. But the most important lesson he taught me was that the highest honour you can pay another human being is not love but respect. He showed me that through his actions as much as he did through his words. That's how the best teachers teach, and John was one of the best."

Calgarians had never before witnessed a procession as long as the one that followed John's coffin to Union Cemetery, where his family and friends laid him to rest beside Mildred. Modest to a fault, he would have been surprised had he been able to see it.

His estate included a thousand head of cattle and many horses, and was settled by a lawyer named R.B. Bennett, who would become prime minister of Canada many years later. Nearby ranchers bought the stock. In 1958, the house near the Red Deer River was dismantled and relocated in Alberta's Dinosaur Provincial Park to a spot not far from its original site. It is on display for visitors to the park. The last surviving members of the Ware family were Nettie, who died in March 1989 in Vulcan, Alberta, and Arthur, who died two months later in Burnaby, British Columbia.

With John's pa.s.sing, the old ways of the west had begun their own slide into oblivion. There was little left of the southern range that was not in use and cut into smaller parcels. It had become difficult to tell the difference between a farmer and a rancher, because in most cases they were the same. But thirty-five years after John's unexpected departure from the home he had worked so hard to find, when the old ways had all but disappeared completely, a group of men gathered to found the John Ware Society, because they thought that both deserved to be remembered.

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

The "factual" parts of High Rider are based on Grant MacEwan's John Ware's Cattle Country. First published in 1960, it is the "definitive" work on John Ware; however, MacEwan does not provide his sources of information. Some of it may have come from older ranchers who remembered Ware, and some, possibly, from Nettie and Arthur, who were still alive when he wrote the book. That said, they were so young when their father died, it's hard to know how much they actually knew of him and how much was hearsay. But if we can accept that MacEwan's words are facts, then the following elements in this story are true: Ware was a slave on a plantation in South Carolina; he did confront his master over the maltreatment of his little sister and was whipped for it; he did meet up with his ex-master on the way out of town after the war, but did not seek revenge; and he did walk to Texas. (Surely he must have had adventures along the way, so the single chapter of his trek is fiction.) He learned his ranching skills from a family named Murphy, whose name I changed to Cole because there wasn't enough information available to present them fairly. But Ware did have a wild ride toward the Brazos River. He was invited to stay in the Murphys' house because they liked him so much, and he stayed for a decade. He rode in the horse race as described and was given the horse for his efforts. He trailed cattle north with the Murphys' son, and while MacEwan says that Ware a.s.sumed responsibility for the herd while the rest of the crew enjoyed Dodge City, there's room for speculation. With the limited information available to him at the time, MacEwan might have a.s.sumed that Dodge wouldn't be a welcoming place to a black man, when, in fact, it was just the opposite. So the Dodge City chapter is pure fiction, but Holliday and the Earps were there at the time, as were Eddie Foy and the man who tried to kill him.

The trail drive out of Texas probably terminated in Montana rather than Ogallala, and though the adventures experienced along the way may not apply to Ware's journey, they are all based on historical fact. Ware did go to Virginia City to mine silver with his friend, although his friend's name was Bill Moodie. They did separate and eventually meet up in Pocatello, where they joined Tom Lynch on the drive to Alberta. Since I couldn't find out what happened to Moodie, he became Duffy, whose life and death are fictional.

In Alberta, all the characters are real (including Molly and Bismarck), except Duffy, of course; Adam Newby, who is a composite character; Jack Strong; and the magistrate-but he is based on a real magistrate who dropped drunk and disorderly charges against Ware and paid him to break a wild horse. Ware may or may not have played a part in the Jumbo Fisk affair, but he was working in Calgary for the I.G. Baker Company at the time. The British n.o.blemen are based on real characters who visited the Quorn Ranch. They did go on a "fox" hunt, and Ware did scoop up one of them, who later rewarded him with a Prince Albert coat. All of the other events in Alberta are real too, from Ware riding Mustard over the cutbank to his death from Molly's stumble.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

My thanks to: Diamond Joe White, whose great song "High Rider" first brought the story of John Ware to my attention; Jean Gallup, Interpretation Officer at the Bar U Ranch National Historical Site of Canada for her warm welcome there; and Ross Fritz, cowboy, also of the Bar U, for taking some time away from his beautiful Percherons to chat about John Ware over a cup of coffee. Thanks also to all the talented folks at TouchWood Editions who helped put this book together, especially Marlyn Horsdal and Cailey Cavallin for their expert guidance. And, as always, thanks to Jaye for her unfailing encouragement.

BILL GALLAHER is a well-known singer and songwriter. He is the author of The Wild Jack Strong trilogy, which includes The Frog Lake Ma.s.sacre, The Luck of the Horseman, and The Horseman's Last Call. Please visit billgallaher.ca.

More from Bill Gallaher.

The Horseman's Last Call.

The Wild Jack Strong Trilogy.

The Horseman's Last Call presents the closing chapters in the life of Wild Jack Strong. The story opens with Jack content on the ranch he had always dreamed of, with a loving wife and an adopted son. His good friend Jim Spencer and Jim's family live just down the road, so life couldn't be better.

However, things take an unwanted turn when war breaks out in Europe and Jack once more feels the need to heed his country's call. But the war changes his life in unexpected ways as he discovers that not only does loyalty sometimes go unrewarded, it can also be one-sided.

The Horseman's Last Call is the third and final volume in the Wild Jack Strong trilogy that began with The Frog Lake Ma.s.sacre followed by The Luck of the Horseman. The series recounts how one man's life is impacted by the great events of Canadian history, from the Riel Rebellion in 1885, through the Anglo-Boer War and the First World War, to the On-to-Ottawa Trek of 1935.

The Luck of the Horseman.

The Wild Jack Strong Trilogy.

A follow-up to The Frog Lake Ma.s.sacre, The Luck of the Horseman is a cleverly written ride from the days of the Wild West. The story begins ten years after the Frog Lake ma.s.sacre. Jack Strong is doing a poor job of dealing with a devastating personal tragedy. He reconnects with Sam Steele, an old acquaintance and police officer, to a.s.sist in a hunt for a man wanted for murder. During the hunt, Jack meets a roaming cowboy named Jim Spencer. Soon Jack and Jim find themselves risking a challenging cattle drive over the Chilkat Pa.s.s to Dawson City, where the Klondike gold rush is in full swing.

The Luck of the Horseman is a tale of friends.h.i.+p, and war, and of love lost and love found. It is the second part of a three-part story that chronicles the life of Jack Strong, from the Frog Lake ma.s.sacre of 1885 and subsequent hunt for the Cree chief Big Bear, through the Anglo-Boer War, to the First World War and the Boxcar Rebellion of 1935.

The Frog Lake Ma.s.sacre.

The Wild Jack Strong Trilogy.

In the spring of 1884, Jack, an adventurous young man, packs his bags in Victoria, BC, and heads for the prairies, looking for a new life and hoping to get involved in an Indian war. Instead, he lucks into an exciting job in the fur trade and meets and befriends many of the great chiefs of the Cree nation, such as Poundmaker and Big Bear, and ends up between a bullet and a target when the North-West Rebellion erupts. After witnessing the historic Frog Lake Ma.s.sacre and the murder of his friends, Jack is captured by the Cree warriors and, later, guides the famous Inspector Sam Steele on the hunt for Cree Chief Big Bear.

The Frog Lake Ma.s.sacre is the first book in a trilogy about a young man who is trying to forge an independent life for himself in the huge and newly established country of Canada. Along the way, he discovers that bravery and loyalty bring their own rewards.

The Journey.

The Overlanders' Quest for Gold.

Bill Gallaher's bestselling novel The Journey follows a group of three adventurous Overlanders-two young men and one remarkable woman-as they travel west in 1862, from the Manitoba prairies to the goldfields of the Cariboo.

With his gift for storytelling, Gallaher brings this intriguing era to the page as he vividly recounts the overland trek of the spirited Catherine Schubert, who made the trip in an undetected state of pregnancy; James Sellar, a combative young man of rigid determination; and Thomas McMicking, the visionary captain of the often unruly company.

Copyright 2015 Bill Gallaher.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise-without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (ACCESS Copyright). For a copyright licence, visit accesscopyright.ca.

TouchWood Editions.

touchwoodeditions.com.

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION.

Gallaher, Bill, author

High rider / Bill Gallaher.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-77151-115-5 (html).--ISBN 978-1-77151-116-2 (pdf)

1. Ware, John, 1845?1905-Fiction. I. t.i.tle.

PS8563.A424H54 2015 C813'.6 C2014-908210-X.

Editor: Marlyn Horsdal

Copy editor: Cailey Cavallin

Proofreader: Christine Savage

Design: Pete Kohut.

Cover images: John Ware, Glenbow Archives NA-263-1 (detail).

Horse and rider, Glenbow Archives NA-4571-11 (detail).