"Range Roses": A Novella

By Jeanne Follett

It was the mid eighteen hundreds, the era of immigrants and the discovery of a new world and a new life in the Western Plains of the Americas. The book Range Roses, written by Jeanne Follett, is the portrayal of three women, all European, from different backgrounds and cultures. It tells of how these heroic individuals united during the worst of times in what was eventually determined to be the days of the Open Range Wars. It was a time in history when the immigrants had the right to claim land and establish ownership for the homesteads they would build for their families.

As the women of the open plains, their work was unending. Not only were they to keep up the homesteads but also they were the driving force behind their men and children, reminding them to never surrender and never give up, and so it was to be. Often though, the men and boys were killed by outlaws, who were referred to as range riders. The range riders were hired by those who wanted to be great cattle barons of the new west. With such sorrow in their hearts over the loss of family, many of the women became aimlessly lost. Because they had no one to help provide for them, the lesson learned was--if we don't take care of ourselves, no one else will. Thus, as this story is told, they would travel the courageous trail of those who wanted to survive, learning that the hardships they endured often outweighed the rewards. This all changed one day when the three women who called their outfit the Range Roses, came into play. These women knew that desperate times brought desperate measures, and against all odds, the first all-woman wagon train was born, with mothers, children, and tied-up livestock in tow. They continued to dream, and once gathered, they began their trip, heading to California!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885050265

Book preview

Copyright © 2022 Jeanne Follett

All rights reserved

First Edition

Fulton Books

Meadville, PA

Published by Fulton Books 2022

ISBN 979-8-88505-025-8 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88505-026-5 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Autumn 1876

The rains came in early that autumn, cold and some days mixed with snow. Alexandria had made her way to California alone. She had managed to save their one and only horse that she and her husband had bought at a sale barn in New York City. The horse was a good horse, with a strong back. Her name was Maya.

These were the days of the beginning of the Lincoln County Range War.

Alexandria and her husband, with their two sons, had traveled across the ocean from a small country in Europe, named Italy. They, as many other immigrants, voyaged to America with a few belongings and giant dreams of becoming prosperous landowners.

This is their story. I remember it from when I was a little girl. As I grew up, my mother would occasionally speak of stories her mother had told her, stories about my great grandmother’s journey to America. She said my grandmother had been a young woman when she left the old country, with many stories to tell, but the adventure with the women who called themselves the Range Roses was her favorite. Why? Because she was proud to say, she was one of them… By the way, my name is Alexandria.

Earlier in that month of October, my great grandmother, along with her sons and her husband, had recently put up a fence line that claimed their new domain in Lincoln County. They had fenced off several acres and filed their claim at a nearby claim office in a town that was close to them. They had been living on that land for almost a year, and they were good people. Their only goal was to be happy in life.

Her boys and her husband had built their beautiful house, and life seemed so joyful. There was love in everything they did together as a family.

It was an early Sunday morning. They all sat together for breakfast. After breakfast, the father and the two boys readied to make the trip with the wagon, back up to the high-aspen groves, to cut timber. They had cut timber in that area before. The oldest boy hitched up Maya. Then they gathered their cutting saws and pickaxes. Before going over to board the wagon, they hugged and said their goodbyes. Alexandria put a sacked lunch in the wagon for them to enjoy later.

Don’t be late and be careful! she called out to them, but they just waved.

Busy cutting the trees and trimming, they worked together to load the wagon. They had spent quite a long time on the mountain, and the father said that it was now time to head back to the homestead. As they were beginning to leave, a posse of range riders came down off a nearby ridge and circled them in. The father didn’t get a chance to say anything, and before he knew it, the riders had dismounted their horses and dragged him and his sons from the seat of the buckboard wagon and tied their hands behind their backs. The boys and the father protested and fought, kicking and shoulder slamming the riders. At that point, the range riders gagged them with their handkerchiefs. They stood them up in the back of the wagon on the long laid out timbers and put hanging ropes around their necks.

The last words heard said by one of the riders was, This ought to scare them and send a message that they will not own any of this land!

Without hesitation, they hung them. They were goons for hire and had no regard for the immigrants that came to help settle the Western Plains. The great cattle barons of that era made sure that the lands being claimed by foreigners were not going to be theirs. So it was a sad and terrible day for Alexandria and her family. When Maya returned alone with the buckboard still harnessed to her, Alexandria immediately became frightened. She knew something bad had happened. So she unhitched the wagon, mounted Maya bareback, and started riding to find her family.

Even though the horse was tired, Alexandria knew that she had to push her onward. They reached the mountain area where the family had previously cut timbers for the home. She called their names and wandered the nearby canyons, looking for them. Suddenly, as the last of the days sun was setting, she approached a streambed where many horse tracks marked the ground. She followed them into an aspen grove. There she then saw her beloved husband and two sons. The slight breeze moved their bodies from front to back, side to side. She could hear the sound of the tree branches rubbing together, as the bodies hung. Shocked and dismayed, she rode up to each one of them and slowly cut the ropes. Each body was lowered over the horses’ wither, and slowly, one by one, she would lower each of them to the ground. Pinned on each of them was a torn piece of paper that read, Foreigners go back! As she climbed off of Maya, she walked over to each of them and was able to slowly move their bodies side by side. The night’s darkness was closing in on her as she remained there in shock. All she could do was sit next to them and groom their bodies with her long-fingered hands as the night owl watched.

The darkened hours moved on, and while Maya grazed, Alexandria realized that she was now all alone and that the dreams they had all shared from the time they left Italy, during the boat ride and wagon trip across country, were gone. It wasn’t until the early morning sunrise that she finally broke down in tears.

She cried and carried on like a mad woman, ranting and raving to herself, What am I going to do without all of you? I love you and miss you. How could this happen to my family?

Alexandria was a petite woman in stature. In Italy, she was renowned for her beautiful voice and the wonderful songs she would sing in the Italian villages.

When she was a young girl, her mother would encourage her to sing. Having to say goodbye to her aging mother was the hardest part of leaving the Old World behind.

Never would Alexandria have imagined that she would be alone and that her family would be destroyed.

That day, as the early morning sunlight dressed the beautiful tall aspen trees, she knew it was time to bury them. She mounted Maya and returned to the house to get a shovel. She gathered blankets to return to the site of their bodies.

But, before she left the house, though despondent and weakened from the trauma of her loss, she realized that after burying her husband and boys, she would never be able to return and stay in that place again. So she gathered a few mementos and put them in a wine-colored velvet carrying bag that she hung over Maya’s neck. Then she struck a match off the front door and lit a small rag wrapped around the end of a stick. She stopped for a moment and gazed around the inside front room of the house. She saw the beautiful rocking chairs made by her husband, sitting in front of the handmade stone fireplace and the violin on the mantle that her husband had loved to play as she would sing.

Then, stepping back, she looked up to the heavens, and said, Goodbye, my beloved ones! She threw the burning torch inside.

As she and Maya climbed the nearby hill that overlooked their house, she turned once more, and with her eyes filled with tears, she saw the rooftop of their home covered with gray smoke. With great sorrow, she returned to her family. Their bodies were now cold and stiff. She dug one large open grave so they could stay together. After many tears and fears, she covered them. And on the hanging tree, she took her husband’s old bowie knife and carved out each one of their names inside of a heart.

She looked at Maya and walked over to her. She wrapped her arms around Maya’s neck and prayed.

Then, mounting her, she looked back at the tree and the grave and spoke, I will survive. I will live for you. Then she blew them a kiss and rode out of the aspen grove, remembering that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

She was headed to California. At least, that was what her husband had told her to do.

He’d say, If anything ever happens to me, pack up the boys and head to California!

And so yes, yes, that was exactly what she did.

A New Beginning

Alexandria and Maya endured great hardships on their journey to California. The winter snows had arrived, and at times, they found themselves as welcome guests in homes with mostly women and children, who had also lost their men in the range wars.

The Lincoln County Range War in New Mexico, which was old Mexico at the time, was just the beginning of other seemingly endless land and water disputes. There was the Johnson County War, which took place at the Powder River and also the Tonto Basin War which was an Arizona territorial war, just to name a few. At times, different church groups and families surviving the disputes of the range riders would open their doors to Alexandria and Maya, sometimes housing them for as long as a month at a time. Then it seemed to Alexandria that as quickly as the snows had come in the previous autumn, they soon came to an end in the spring. The days were long and trying. She had promised herself that she would survive so that the dreams of her family would live on in some way. She just wasn’t sure what would come next upon her arrival in California. Alexandria always departed from her stays at the various homes, wondering if she would somehow someday meet up again with the individuals who had helped her and Maya along the way. She silently wished them well. You see, she always kept her grieving quietly in her heart. She spoke very little to any of the people who helped her. Although her words were sparse, Alexandria knew that they somehow understood her spirit’s suffering. Finally, the day came—the day that she and Maya stood together, looking down into a small valley where a town came into clear view. She was eager to ride to the bottom to see if they had finally reached the new territory.

As she rode in, her appearance was a curious sight to see! Some of the people on the boardwalk stopped and pointed at her. The next thing to do was to find a place for her and Maya to stay.

At the far end of town, there was a dress shop. Stopping in front of the water trough, she tied up Maya and wandered in through the door of the shop and stopped in front of the counter.

The shop was quiet, and from behind some hanging curtains, an elderly woman appeared.

They looked at each other, and the shop owner said, May I help you?

Why yes, responded Alexandria. Could you please tell me if I have made it to California yet?

"Well, you sure