Fiction: Jaudon – An American Family (a novel) [6]

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Chapter 6. Rio Grande

True to his word, Rafael spoke to Juan about giving his daughter’s hand in marriage. Juan wasn’t happy about it, but, J.F., as James now wanted to be called, wasn’t someone who took being told no lightly. While Juan’s daughter Juana was sweet, gentle, and loving, J.F. Jaudon was hard and in some cases cruel.
    Juan cared for and loved his daughter a great deal, but in the end, the welfare of the whole family came first. Juan, at 40 years old, would have a hard time finding another job if he were let go from the ranch.
    Almost two months to the day after J.F. signed the cattle-drive contract, the bank notified him of a deposit of $12,000 into his account – his cattle had been sold, and the first herd to reach Abilene that season got top dollar.
    He gave Sara $200 (a lot in those days) and told her to prepare for a wedding at the ranch. The guest list included the names of any and everybody who was somebody in Texas. The Mayor of San Antonio and three of the city’s bankers attended the wedding.
    Others came from Austin, Houston, and Brownsville to San Antonio, where they would stay in hotels and be transported to the ranch in the cars of the day or on horseback or by buggy. Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving had been invited, but they were on another cattle drive and sent their regrets.
    The first night of their marriage set the tone for the rest of it. Juana felt as though she were one of the cattle being sold to the highest bidder. She submitted, but there was no passion, nor would there ever be. J.F. Jaudon had just turned 19 and was on his way to making that fortune he had dreamed about back on the Sabine River.
    Rafael had returned to San Antonio from the Abilene cattle drive the day of the wedding and stayed there until after James left for his honeymoon. He didn’t want to attend the wedding. He was devoted to James but he knew what a bastard he could be, and Rafael wasn’t happy with the role he had had to play in the marriage arrangement.
    And when, on the drive, he had killed a couple of bandits and a few Indians, he didn’t feel good about that either. But James, if there was a choice, would always take the gun over talk. Rafael didn’t think it was because James wanted to kill, he just didn’t seem to care one way or the other.
    Rafael had been with James the day he shot two Indians for taking a steer for food. Afterwards, James said, “If they had asked, I would have given them the cow.” James had rules that he made up (or revealed) as he went along, but once he let you know about them, they were forever and nobody had better break them.

James and Juana honeymooned in Brownsville. They stayed at the hacienda of Alejandro Cortez, who had been their honored wedding guest, and the only one to be accommodated for the night in James’ new house.
    Inviting Alejandro Cortez to the wedding was all a part of J.F.’s plan for getting a hold on the cattle of the Rio Grande. Alejandro had the only bridge across the Rio Grande River, and at high water it was the only passage between Mexico and Texas, and the cattle on the Mexican side just stayed there. But not for long.

    J.F. was content with the arrangement. He wanted in on the Mexican cattle on the other side of the river, and what easier way than to have a Mexican wife?
    A week after the newlyweds left the Cortez hacienda, a contract was signed between Alejandro Cortez and the Circle J Ranch. James would pay Alejandro $10 per head of cattle and pick them up, already branded, to drive north from holding pens close to what is now McAllen, Texas.

    One month later, Rafael and a crew of cowboys drove 1,000 head of cattle north from those pens and hooked up with Goodnight and J.F. (whom Rafael and Sara still called “James” when they were alone with him).
    The day after Rafael arrived with the herd, he, Goodnight, and James and their cowboy trail hands began a three-month drive of close to a total of 3,000 cattle to the California gold country, where they fetched $70 per head. This was what turned out to be the last large cattle drive before the railroad came to San Antonio.

    It was a long, hard trip, with flooded rivers and Indian attacks coming out of nowhere. They passed through New Mexico and south of Denver toward the California gold. James lost a number of his cattle to Indians, and so did other ranchers.
    The Kiowa Indians were the worst. The Comanches would charge at the trail riders and in the confusion drive off a few head of cattle. But the Kiowa came at night on quiet feet and left with cattle as quietly as they had come. James never shot at a Kiowa, and he never saw one close up.

    The buyers at the selling pens paid in gold dust, $70,000 worth of it going to James. Now came the job of getting home with the gold. Even the Indians knew the value of gold.
    Everything went well until just south of Denver, where a band of ten outlaws jumped them. But Goodnight and James and their men were ready, and seven outlaws were killed on their first attempt. Goodnight and James mounted their horses and chased after the last three. It took them over an hour, but they caught them and brought them back to where the others had set up camp. Two of the outlaws were dead and lay across their saddles. The third was riding, but wounded.
    Goodnight threw a rope over a tree limb while James pulled the outlaw from his horse. Goodnight fitted the noose over his head. “You have one chance to live,” shouted Goodnight for everyone to hear. “Who are you working with in my camp?”
    Goodnight had three different trails he came back on and never used the same one twice in a row – someone had talked. James stepped forward and hit the man across the face with his pistol. “Answer the question. We know you were alerted by somebody, and you’ll talk or you’ll hang – slowly – and I’ll laugh as you shit and piss yourself.”
    The wounded man was at the point of passing out. But Rafael was looking at the other cowboys rather than at the outlaw.
    When James tightened the rope, the outlaw screamed, “I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you!”
    Rafael saw a cowboy in the back make a break. “There he is,” he hollered, “he’s making a run for it.”
    Two cowboys jumped the runner and dragged him to Goodnight. “Tie his hands and feet,” he told the two cowboys. “J.F., take the rope off of that asshole. We have a new use for it.”

    James removed the noose, pulled out his pistol, and put a bullet in the wounded outlaw’s head. Then he transferred the noose to the neck of the cowboy who had betrayed him and Goodnight.
    Without another word, James and two other cowboys pulled the rope and held the traitor off the ground until he stopped kicking. Then one of the cowboys tied the rope off to the tree, and they all joined in stacking the bodies of the ten dead outlaws around the tree. Goodnight wrote a sign and nailed it to the tree:
            TAKE WARNING, THIS IS THE FATE OF OUTLAWS

In the year 1876, Alexander Graham Bell & Elisha Gray applied separately for telephone patents, and the U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled Bell the rightful inventor.
    And at age 27 that year, J.F. Jaudon was one of the richest men in Texas, and he had built his own house, some distance away from the original compound on the Circle-J Ranch.
    James bought a hundred head of Angus cows that year and began breeding them with the longhorn. The result was a stronger, bigger Angus. After accumulating enough mixed heifers and a mixed Angus bull, he started a breeding process that got him out of the longhorn business within three years.
    He celebrated his 30th birthday with the birth of his second child by Juana – two sons, the older named Jesús and the new arrival José. Three days after José’s birth, Juana hemorrhaged and passed away. James gave the two boys to Juan Garcia – who was now in his 50s – to raise.
    Rafael now had two daughters, sisters to his son, Ricardo. The older daughter was named Maria after her mother and was about the same age as Jesús. The younger was born around the time Juana gave birth to José and was named Sara, after J.F.’s sister.
    When Claude and Ricardo were 13, they were sent to live in San Antonio during the week and attend a real school. Before that, Sara (James’ sister) had taught all of the kids. On weekends, Claude and Ricardo would return to the ranch.
    Claude was a big kid – even at 13 he looked like a grown man and nothing like his father. He had curly blond hair, broad shoulders, and a quick smile. His nose was a little broader than most, and he was as strong as an ox. He was liked by many but never knew whether it was for himself or for his father’s money that he was popular.
    Claude and Ricardo were both handsome, in their different ways. Ricardo was smaller, browner, with dark, straight hair. Of the two, Ricardo did better in school. Claude was smart without studying, whereas Ricardo studied day and night.
    The next generation would be nothing like their fathers.

Copyright © 2019 by Ed Rogers