Wheels in the Dust

By Stan Briney

After growing up with slavery on his family’s plantation in South Carolina and later receiving his degree in 1855 from the Yale School of Law, Benjamin Cartwell’s life becomes dramatically altered. Ben discovers just surviving on the raw and dangerous Western frontier challenging when asked to assist staging mogul John Butter

• Language: English
• Publisher: LitFire Publishing
• Release date: Dec 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9781641515634

Stan Briney

Stan Briney's penchant for creativity and detail is clearly shown in his work as a professional artist and in his recent works in freelance writing. This is his first novel. The author obtained Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from the State University of Iowa followed later by his graduation from medical school. His medical specialty in Diagnostic Radiology provided him a long and distinguished professional career in both clinical and academic medicine. Since early childhood and without formal art training, his natural born talent in art has earned him recognition and honors. Following his retirement from medicine in 1995, he has developed a very successful second career as an award-winning professional artist. His realistic bronze sculptures and illustrations can be found in private art collections, homes, offices and schools within the United States. Briney and his wife reside in the cattle ranching country of north central Texas where he has a small art studio and gallery in their country home. The Briney's have three children, five grown grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The publication of any book is much like the production of a play on stage. Many individuals contribute their part from behind the scenes. The subsequent quality of the production relates, in a large part, to their expertise at what they do. I am only the Author and therefore am indebted to all of those employees of Litfire Publishing who have given of their talents and dedication to the publishing of WHEELS in the DUST. I especially want to express my deep thank you to their Fulfillment Officer, Isabel Sanders. She has worked with me on previous publications and I am deeply indebted to her for her patience, kindness and timely interest to detail. It is so greatly appreciated.

DEDICATION

I wish to dedicate this book to my mother and father and to my wife. I owe so very much to all three.

** PROLOGUE **

Remember boys, nothing on God’s earth must stop the U.S. Mail.

Colonization in the early 17th century of America’s eastern shore created the continent’s first western frontier. With man’s natural curiosity for the unknown, migration westward was inevitable and responsible for creation of new settlements. Of major consequence to this development was the desire for a transportation system to facilitate movement of mail, supplies and people.

By 1800, the Mississippi River was dividing the already settled eastern one-third of the United States from the nearly two-thirds to the west which was yet to be explored and settled. The decade of the 1830s saw the establishment of the Indian Territory. Cultural differences and nefarious dealings by the federal government created mistrust. Prior to the 1830s, the demand for mail and passenger transit from the eastern states to the west coast was essentially non-existent. However, after the discovery of gold in 1849, thousands of frenzied men made their way to the gold fields to become rich. By year’s end 1849, the population of California had swelled to over 100,000 residents. This dramatic and continual growth brought demands for rapid and improved transportation of people, mail and express.

The decade of the 1850s found America divided by culture, ethnicity, social values, economy and poor communication between the two coasts. Improved communication became a necessity of life and for Washington, a vexing problem to solve; one of many.

Fortunately, there were visionary men who were capable of matching problems with solutions. John Butterfield, the chief architect for the Overland Mail Company, was one of those men. The overland mail whether carried by stagecoach or by the short-lived Pony Express, filled a void before and during the Civil War.

As a Southerner growing up on his family’s South Carolina cotton plantation, Benjamin Cartwell learned at a young age that slavery was an accepted and essential part for the creation of a prosperous Southern economy prior to the Civil War. Gifted with intellect and financial means, Ben received his education at the Yale School of Law. Following his education is when, as a young lawyer, he experiences the real diversity of cultures inherent to both the North and the lawless and dangerous Western frontier.

In this novel I have interlaced my fictional characters with authentic places, times and people during the mid-1800s. I have used the idiom that I believe was fairly typical for the times. I have also employed journalistic bias-free language when I’ve used the n-word. I also beg the indulgence of my readers for any omissions or errors that I may have inadvertently created that relate to historic facts.

Enjoy!

Stan Briney

CHAPTER 1

November 1853

South Carolina

Thick gray clouds have hidden the sun nearly all day. Accompanying those clouds is a steady, cold wind out of the northwest bringing a significant chill to the air. Standing alone by his second-floor bedroom window, Benjamin Grayson Cartwell is totally lost in thought while peering out across the cotton fields, now quite bleak after the harvest. The morning’s gray light only adds to the dreary appearance, a far contrast from the untold millions of plants when in full bloom. Benjamin’s handsome boyish looks belie his age of barely 22 years. The slender Southern gentleman is the son of the prominent Joshua Cartwell family, second generation South Carolina cotton planter. Ben’s thoughts are now on the forthcoming days and months. His lapse into day-dreaming is interrupted by a knock on his door.

Massa Ben, I has yo’ laundry ready.

Upon opening the door, Ben confronts the domestic slave girl carrying a large wicker basket that contains his clean and neatly-folded laundry. Codgie Jefferson, only junior to Ben by two or three years, is the delightful and strikingly attractive daughter of one of the Cartwell’s long-time respected slave families. She and her family have been loyal workers on the plantation for years. Her mother, Angie is the cook and house slave while her father, Ezra is supervisor over the other twelve plantation slaves.

I do thank you Codgie. Once again, I see you’ve done a masterful job on my things.

Massa Ben, yo’ has good safe trip up to dat new school.

With her customary bashful smile, she turns quickly and descends the mansion’s winding stairs. When watching her from his doorway, Ben smiles and begins to recall how he and Codgie have really grown up together and all the delicious meals mother Angie has prepared. He will miss them. By this time tomorrow, he will have begun his journey to New Haven where he knows everything will be so much different.

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As a youth, Ben’s parents were concerned that he should receive some formal education so they sent him to live with his grandmother in the city of Columbia where he attended grammar school. During the summer months when out of school he lived at home on the plantation and was assigned daily tasks and field work by his father. Before bedtime, his mother encouraged him to read from the family’s small collection of books. His mother insisted he read from a different book each week, then tell her what he had learned. Often compelled by his father to work alongside the family’s slaves, Ben learned about hard work and learned to respect each one of the family’s slaves.

Quite by chance when age sixteen, Ben gained his first interest in the Law. One day in Columbia a small crowd of people were gathered outside the Richland County courthouse. Quickly becoming curious, he queried a gentleman onlooker and learned that county court was in session with a trial involving the stabbing death of a plantation owner by a white man. There had been some dispute over the purchase of three pigs. Now with his interest thoroughly peaked, Ben rushed to the courthouse door but was denied entrance into the court room. Disappointed, he resigned himself to follow reports of the trial in the city newspaper.

With law books not plentiful or easily obtained, most practicing lawyers had at one time read the law by serving an apprenticeship in someone’s law office. Intrigued with his new interest, Ben set his mind to find work in a law office in the city. He was optimistic his father would know some lawyer who would permit him to file papers, clean the office or do other odd jobs.

Joshua Cartwell was well-known and had many friends in Columbia, one being a practicing lawyer who welcomed Ben’s offer. While engaged with his cleaning chores twice a week, he kept closely attuned to what conversation he might overhear between the lawyer and his client. The work only added to his fascination and after working there for one year, Ben’s aspirations needed to be fulfilled. His desire was to attend an established college where professors were teaching the Law. A few months later his letter requesting admission to Yale’s School of Law in New Haven, Connecticut was accepted and admission granted.

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November 20, 1853

The early morning is sunny but chilly when Ben’s heavy steamer trunk, filled with clothing and personal items, is loaded onto a buckboard for the twenty-three mile trip to the train depot in Columbia. Inside the entry foyer of his family residence, Ben is showered with affectionate good wishes by his family and several of the slaves. Standing quietly to the side, both Angie and Codgie reveal their happiness for him but also some sadness as they witness their young master preparing to leave. Ben will be sorely missed by everyone. Unbeknownst to Ben, Angie has tucked one of her small sweet cakes into his heavy coat pocket.

Amid parting cheers, Ben climbs aboard the buckboard wagon and shares the driver’s seat with Thaddeus, a tall spindly slave, who is quite close to Ben’s age. The young black man’s life has been spent on the plantation as a son of one of the slave families. Since childhood, Thaddeus has been taught construction skills by his father. After Ben’s final farewell, Thaddeus gives his customary clucking sound to the team and they begin a slow trot down the winding tree-lined lane to the dirt road. Ben will be boarding one of the Charlotte-South Carolina Railway Company’s trains on the first leg of his long trip to New Haven.

As the buckboard squeaks and grates along the road on its way to Columbia, Ben and Thaddeus joke and share a friendly conversation. They pass by fields of twisted dark stalks that are the remnants of the cotton harvest. Some still have white cotton tufts that were missed by the slaves during harvest. When gazing across a field, the remiss fibers create an illusion of a white canopy above the darkened soil beneath.

When reaching the depot, Thaddeus moves Ben’s heavy trunk inside, bids him a good trip, and rushes back to the wagon for his return to the plantation. Ben makes a quick survey of the large schedule board above the ticket office window. His journey to Connecticut will require transfers onto more than one railway line that will take him through Charlotte, Washington D.C., New York City, and finally to New Haven. The first ticket purchased here will take him to Charlotte, North Carolina. After boarding and finding a bench seat, he peers out the train car window and sees his trunk being loaded into the baggage car. Although filled with excitement, there still remains a touch of wistfulness when he realizes it will be some time before he will be returning home.

CHAPTER 2

Late afternoon, November 29, 1853

New Haven, Connecticut

With considerable weariness after his long journey Ben steps down from the railway car onto the plank walkway leading to the train depot. The past several days have brought him little restful sleep, several meals of questioned quality, and hours spent being jolted around in rocking train cars along with periods of restless waiting inside various depots. There are patchy collections of dirty snow from a day or two past that remain on the platform. Their presence remind Ben that he has arrived in a quite different climate. The change in weather will be an unwelcome adjustment for him to make. As he walks along the platform, a sudden gust of frigid wind rudely confirms his thoughts.

Despite Ben’s travel weariness, he took great delight in the scenery and points of interest along the way such as the cities of New York and Washington. After spying his steamer trunk off-loaded onto the platform, he hails an idle coach driver and hands him a scrap of paper with a penciled New Haven address. With his trunk secured inside the stagecoach’s rear boot, he hurries to take a seat inside and out of the wind. Well-dressed for the weather with a heavy fur-lined coat, the driver takes his seat and with a light snap of his whip, his team begins drawing the heavy coach down the cobblestone street.

The Concord coach’s ride is quite smooth and comfortable as they move down the wet street. After a short distance, it turns left and proceeds along an avenue that borders the New Haven Harbor. Despite the rapidly diminishing daylight, Ben is able to view the Long Island Sound in the distance and after traveling farther north, two rocky ridges come into view. Ben will learn later that they are well-known landmarks for New Haven since it was first settled by English Puritans in 1670.

As the stagecoach draws closer to the town center, a large open square comes into view surrounded on all sides by a variety of merchant businesses. After the driver turns the coach onto Wooster Place that borders the square on one side, Ben is captivated by the assortment of large residences having classic-type architecture. Most are two and three-story with little distance separating them. To Ben, Wooster Square is obviously an affluent and fashionable area. Besides Wooster Place, the remaining three streets that border the square are Greene, Chapel, and Academy.

After turning right onto Chapel Street and traveling a short distance, the driver brings his team to a halt in front of a majestic four-story home. Its unique architecture favors one style that Ben had admired earlier. Several row houses, each with a similar style, are seen farther down the street.

Here’s where we stop, Mister Cartwell. It’s #11 Chapel and your destination. I hope you’ve enjoyed your ride and getting to see part of our city. I’ll get that trunk for you.

The driver wraps his reins about the brake lever and jumps down onto the wet cobblestone street. When opening the coach door, he’s quick to admonish.

Do watch your step on this old street. They get mighty slippery when wet like this.

Many thanks, sir. I truly enjoyed the scenic ride. My best to you.

After placing several coins in the driver’s hand, Ben pauses for a brief study of the home and its surroundings. With good fortune, it will remain his residence while at Yale. Knowing that his rented quarters will be on the ground floor, from the exterior appearance half of his quarters will actually be below ground level. The residence has a large veranda with a wide stairway leading up to the main entrance and the second story. The veranda and its front stairs hide a small private stairway and entry leading to the basement floor. Arched crown masonry envelope each of the tall narrow windows on the upper three stories. A cupalo sits high atop the very steep roof. Across the front only a low manicured hedge of ivy separates the magnificent home from the street.

Ben instructs the driver to move his trunk outside the entrance to the ground floor. After adding an expression of appreciation to the driver, Ben ascends the entry stairway onto the veranda. Using the ornate iron knocker located on one of the massive carved wooden doors, he raps a time or two. Moments later, a door is opened and he is greeted by a black matron with a pleasing, warm appearance.

Ma’am, permit me to introduce myself. I’m Benjamin Cartwell from South Carolina. My father, Joshua Cartwell and Mister Bristol have corresponded and arrangements have been made for my rental of quarters while I am attending school here at Yale. We received Mister Bristol’s postal confirming the arrangement and I have it here.

Oh yessiree, I duz know. Mister Bristol, he dun tol’ me to be expectin’ you and for me to see you got settled real fine. He say he’s lookin’ forward to meetin’ you. I’m Hannah. I has been with Mister Bristol for a mighty long time - yessiree - one long time. Let me welcome you to our town and the Bristol home. I’ll gets your things moved into your livin’ quarters and will shows you around.

During the following hour, Hannah has given Ben a tour of his ground floor quarters as well as other portions of the Bristol home. He finds his quarters most comfortable, nicely furnished and certainly adequate for his needs.

During he and Hannah’s long, friendly and informative conversation, she relates details about Mister Bristol and his family situation. Although he and his Misses have been married many years, they’ve remained childless. Many years ago, Mrs. Bristol chose not to live in the Chapel Street residence, but favored living permanently in the couple’s small summer cottage on the shoreline of the New Haven Harbor. Ben learns that Hiliary Bristol is an artist of some renown and was educated as a young woman in Paris. Hannah continues that Mrs. Bristol spends most of her time painting and sculpting in her cottage studio while Mister Bristol has always favored living on Chapel Street with the convenience it offers to his factory. At this point in their conversation, Hannah makes it very clear to Ben that she is a free domestique and receives wages from Mister Bristol. She adds with a good deal of pride that she has worked for Bristol in this house since she was young and has always enjoyed having her own private quarters on the top story.

While Hannah is giving her tour she explains that all meals are served in the dining room on the second floor and that with few exceptions, Mister Bristol keeps to a firm schedule for his meals. Ben is surprised in learning that Bristol has given instructions to Hannah that she will provide meals and laundry service for him. For this evening, Ben foregoes having dinner and chooses instead a restful first night in his new quarters.

CHAPTER 3

On November 17, 1794 James Kent, a well-recognized lawyer for his time, made a profound and accurate statement relating to the education of Law and the subsequent practice of it in America. He was speaking to a group in New York City when he proclaimed, a lawyer in a free country should be a person of irreproachable virtue and goodness.

Ironically, the American Revolutionary War played a significant role in what and how Law would be taught to students. The few teachers of Law at the time believed their obligation was to prepare a young man for public life in a democracy. Therefore, Law should be taught and learned as an act and virtue of patriotism. Although some minor controversy regarding that philosophy would persist, the major concern was directed toward morality and the time period’s contemporary politics, rather than educating and qualifying students in providing legal services to private clients.

A majority of the early law educators in America were not academic. Teachers of Law remained far more attentive to the political policies derived from the mould of Thomas Jefferson. Much like medical education at the time, the teaching of Law in college and university classrooms came almost entirely from lectures. On the western frontier, preparation for a profession in Law was left to one’s self-education. Quite remarkably, a few of those frontier lawyers proved to be talented, notably Abraham Lincoln.

Seth Perkins Staples chose to read the Law for two years in the New Haven office of the respected Judge Daggett. In September 1799, Staples was admitted to the State Bar in Litchfield, Connecticut, then returned to New Haven where he began a private practice. In light of the current scarcity of printed treatises and law books at the time, Staples became obsessed in his personal search for and acquisition of his own library of extraordinary proportions and financial value.

Knowledge about Staple’s coveted library soon spread and brought a growing number of students to his office door, all seeking to use his valued books. Within a brief period, he found himself not just busy with his law practice, but also the proprietor of a school of law with a reference library for the many students. For several years he combined his teaching and private practice, but ultimately found himself overwhelmed while becoming both physically and mentally exhausted. It prompted him to seek assistance from a much younger man who had been one of his former students.

Samuel Hitchcock, by now an already highly respected judge, was unable to refuse his mentor’s request. Together, he and the tired and aging Staples shared in the formation and direction of the New Haven School of Law in conjunction with their joint private practice. Regrettably, during the years 1824 and 1846, the New Haven School of Law floundered. Following Samuel Hitchcock’s death and with Judge Daggett now in advanced age, three other prominent New Haven attorneys volunteered to teach on a temporary basis for two years until Yale University was successful in recruiting a small faculty. During the interim, Hitchcock had become heir to Staple’s valued law book collection and kept it in active use until his death. The poorly-informed executor of Hitchcock’s estate hastily offered the entire collection to Yale for a sum of $4,200. This price meant little to Yale administrators since they had no interest in establishing a Law School on their campus; the coveted library would serve them no purpose. The administration simply declined the executor’s offer and the entire matter was closed.

But deliverance came from a handful of leading members of the Connecticut State Bar. They shared a concern over Yale’s staunch indifference and refusal to have a law school and for the loss of such a valued library. Two of them petitioned the University to save the library before it became fragmented and lost. The small group of concerned and angry lawyers shared a common mindset that a quality library is the backbone of any law school. They felt such a library would entice a faculty of scholars. They offered Yale a deal in 1845. They would agree to contribute one-half of the $4,200 asking price. However, the university must then guarantee continued use of the collection to the group and assume the balance of cost, plus interest. Literally being shamed into accepting the offer, Yale would ultimately become one of America’s most prestigious schools of law.

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Feeling both excitement and a good deal of trepidation, Ben joins with his fellow classmates. They will comprise Yale’s 1855 law class. The majority of the thirty-eight students are from New York and the bordering northeastern states. Ben is the only Southerner. The first year curriculum includes the drawing of pleadings, declarations, investigation, contracts and other instruments. Each week a student court is convened that involves the students participating in varied roles. Little time is left for a social life for the law students. Being the only student from a southern state, Ben finds his classmates have some reservation in their acceptance of him. Without question, cultural differences become apparent and it’s easily recognized. Despite their cultural and social differences, with time new friendships are created.

One evening soon after the start of classes, Ben is invited to join Mister Bristol for a glass of sherry and then have dinner so they might become better acquainted. During a very relaxing and informative conversation over one of Hannah’s excellent meals, a friendship begins to develop. During their time together and from the friendly conversation that follows, Ben has an opportunity to learn a great deal about the mild-mannered and intellectual Willis Bristol. Like others of his time, Bristol has capitalized from the personal benefits from being part of an industrious and financially prosperous business family in the Northeast. It becomes evident to Ben that Willis Bristol lives by his word and no one ever must question where he stands on any issue. Several members of the extended Bristol family have been involved in the leather industry for years with some dedicating themselves to either the manufacturing part of