The Hanging of Big Steve Long, a Western

By Burr Cook

This novelette is a fast moving western. A New York family named Hansom moves west by wagon train on the Oregon Trail. The wagon master turns out to be a gunfighter who falls in love with Carla Hansom. They have many adventures along the way including an encounter with an outlaw sheriff known as Big Steve Long. This is the first of a saga of six stories. These stories are bundled into one book called "Western Stories, the Laramie Saga".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Burr Cook
• Release date: Feb 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310633362

Burr Cook

Burr lives in Syracuse, New York, has 4 children, several grandchildren and says that Great grandchildren are arriving at an alarming rate. Burr is a history buff and works hard on his family's genealogy and has a web site at www.burrcook.com which is partially biographical. He may be contacted through this site. He has traveled extensively throughout the US, Europe and Asia by air, rail and highway. Burr has enjoyed a 50 year career in information technology, has owned a worldwide seminar business and a company called “Cyburrsource” providing the public with internet connections. He is now semi retired and enjoys a life as a freelance writer of action/adventure/romance stories primarily in a historical western setting.

Book preview

The Hanging of Big Steve Long, a Western

Copyright 2015 Burr Cook

Published by Burr Cook at Smashwords

Second Edition

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Preface

Prolog

Chapter 1 The Journey

Chapter 2 Big Steve Long

Chapter 3 The Lazy L Ranch

Chapter 4 Beth Returned

Chapter 5 Ranching

Chapter 6 The Hanging

About The Author

Books by Burr Cook

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The Hanging of Big Steve Long, a Western

Preface

This is the first book of the Laramie Saga although it works well as a standalone novelette. The story is almost entirely fictitious although there are some historical figures mentioned herein. The facts surrounding these figures are true to the best of my ability. The names of these folks are as follows: General Sherman Civil War veteran; Kit Carson Indian scout; N. K. Boswell rancher and Sheriff of Albany county, Wyoming Territory; Rollie Hard Luck Harrison, prospector, Big Steve Long, Outlaw Marshal of Laramie City and his two half brothers Ace and Con Moyer; William Pitt for whom the city of Pittsburg was named; George Donner who led the Donner party on a disastrous journey over the Sierras. Also, historically significant was the Zane family including the famous Elizabeth Betty Zane, Ebenezer Zane, their parents and siblings; The Wetzel family including the man known as Wetzel who loved Betty Zane.

The descriptions of the Overland trails and points of interest along the route are somewhat real.

All other names are strictly fictitious as well as the incidents surrounding them.

The westward trails such as the Oregon/California, The Mormon Trail and The Overland Trail were well traveled by the end of the Civil War. The Oregon Trail actually began at Kansas City or more correctly Independence Missouri, a suburb. The gold rush of 1849 was when the routes really took shape.

The complete Laramie series is made up of six books which are as follows: The Hanging of Big Steve Long, Laramie Saga Book 1, Badlands Bart, Laramie Saga Book 2 a Western, The Laramie Lawmen, Laramie Saga Book 3, Cattle Call Songs, Laramie Saga Book 4, The Z-Bar Ranch Incident, Laramie Saga Book 5, and The Lakota Cattle Drive, Laramie Saga Book 6.

Prolog

The Hansom family lived in New York City throughout the Civil War. The parents William and Marilyn lived with their two children a son Jack and a daughter Carla. Jack had recently returned from the war. He served under General Sherman as a ranking officer and was awarded medals. The daughter Carla was barely twenty years of age and had worked as a nurse in an army hospital.

Just why they had decided to leave New York and go west was something they couldn’t tell you but they had made the decision and were pretty much prepared to leave. It was early spring of 1867.

The family was not extremely wealthy but they were considered to be fairly well to do and were more than able to purchase a couple wagons, with canvas covering to keep out the weather, and to buy horses. Their plan was to make those purchases at Kansas City. Although they had heard talk about it they did not know that in a couple short years there would be a railroad completed all the way to the west coast.

Their journey began with a train ride to Philadelphia. They were leaving in early spring so as to avoid the mistakes made by those who went their own way such as the Donner Party in 1846, which took far too long getting over the mountains. Many of them perished as they were caught in the Sierra winter. It was much wiser to get off to an early start and to stick with the known routes.

The Hansom family detrained at the station in Philadelphia where they stayed at an Inn for two nights while sightseeing and making arrangements and some purchases for the next leg of their journey. At one time this had been the nation’s capitol and among the many sights to see was the liberty bell with its crack. They learned that the Greek meaning of the city’s name, Philadelphia, is "The City of Brotherly Love".

From this famous city they found themselves on a train headed for Pittsburgh over tracks with more ups and downs. This railway followed