The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer

  CHAPTER XVIII

  COMES STANLEY, THE CHIEF ENGINEER

  Megory was still on the boom, not quite as much as the summer before,but more than it was some time later, for as yet New Calias was stillregarded as a joke, until one day Stanley, the same wiry-lookingindividual with the black mustache and the piercing eyes, got off thestage at Megory and began to do the same work he had started west ofOristown the year before.

  Oh, it was a shame to thus wreck the selfish dreams of these Megoryitesupon the rocks of their own shortsightedness. Stanley was followed a fewdays later by a grade contractor, who had been to Megory the summerbefore and who had became popular around town, and was known to be agood spender. They had bidden him good-bye along in December, andalthough nothing was said about it, the truth was, Megory did not wishto see any more railroad contractors, for a while, not for five or tenyears anyway.

  It is a peculiar thing that when a railroad stops at some little westernburg, that it is always going to stay ten or twenty years. This hasalways been the case before, according to the towns at the end of theline, and at this time Megory was of the same opinion as regarded theextension to New Calias. So Oristown had been in regard to the extensionto Megory. But Trelway built the road to New Calias, and built it thequickest I ever saw a road built. The first train came to Megory on aSunday in June--(Schedules always commence on Sunday) and Septemberfound the same train in Calias, the "New" having been dropped.

  Megoryites admitted very grudgingly, a short time before, that the trainwould go on to Calias but would return to Megory to stay over night,where it left at six o'clock the following morning. Now at Megory theroad had a "Y" that ran onto a pasture on a two years lease, while atCalias coal chutes, a "Y", a turning table, a round house, and a largefreight depot were erected.

  And then began one of the most bitter fights between towns that I eversaw or even read about.

  Five miles apart, with Calias perched on another hill, and like the oldsite, could be seen from miles around. Now the terminus, it loomedconspicuously. It was a foregone conclusion that when the reservation tothe west opened, Calias was in the right position to handle the crowdsthat came to the territory to the west, instead of Megory. Megorycontended, however, that Calias, located on such a hill, could neverhope for an abundance of good water and therefore could not compete withMegory, with her natural advantages, such as an abundance of good softwater, which was obtainable anywhere in town.

  There are certain things concrete in the future growth of a prairietown; the first is, has it a railroad; the next is, is the agriculturalterritory sufficient to support a good live town (a fair sized town ineither one of the Dakotas has from one thousand to three thousandinhabitants); and last, are the business men of the town modern,progressive, and up to date. In this respect Calias had the advantageover Megory, as will be seen later.

  Megory became my postoffice address after Calias had moved to its newlocation, and about that time the first rural mail route was establishedon the reservation. Megory boasted of this. The other things it boastedof, was its great farming territory. For miles in every directiontributary to the town, the land was ideal for farming purposes, and atthe beginning of the bitter rivalry between the two towns, Megory hadthe big end of the farm trade. They could see nothing else but Megory,which helped the town's business considerably.