heres a piece of family history i stumbled across not to long ago.. some of the dates might be wrong so i will check it out and update it when i can some one had the foresight to right the story down in detail not to long after it happened;
southern saskatchewan approx. 1879
my great great grandfather and his brother had settled in the souris valley in south eastern saskatchewan, just south of the present day town of Oxbow. one morning they woke up to dicover that overnight 600 head of beef up and disappeared. it was clear that they had been rustled. it didn't take long to saddle up and with the help of a nieghbour they headed off south towards the U.S border, which was only 9 miles distant. the rustlers had a good head start on them and where pushing the herd hard, as evident by the dead calves along the trail that had fallen behind and where either shot or left for dead. i forget what town they rode into, but they reported there problem to the locals, who told them that a herd bearing the brand bar-over-W had passed through the day before but that they should be careful because the man ramroding was a close reletive to none other then frank and Jesse james!! now my grandfather at the time never knew who the james where and there for didn't really care who it was that stole his cattle, just as long he got a chance to "read em from the book". back on the trail they came upon a lone calf, lost and bawling for it's for it's mama, so grand pappy hoists him up over the saddle and figures that when they got near the herd this little feller would let em know. they hadn't gone more then five miles when the little guy starts gettin excited and they came upon the herd bedded down in a ravine. there was 5 rustlers and the next day when the rolled out of bed theres my great great grandpa sittin by the fire with a coffee cup in one hand and old cap-and-ball Remington army .44 in the other, and a double barreled express gun at his feet. they wern't so stupid as to try and make a fight of it and agreed to ride in peacefully. well one di try to make a break across the prairie, but a Sharps .50 put a stop to that. the 4 remaining men where handed over to a deputy U.S marshal and they started the long trek back north.
neat huh?
