Dakota Diary - 22 - The Concert

June 30 -July 3

We spent the rest of that week practicing what we were going to sing and play for the concert on the 4th of July - only a few days away now.

We kept searching the newspaper for any more about the Marquis’ situation.

On June 30th we read that JP Bateman had acquitted all three men “on the grounds that they were provoked to shoot and did so in self-defense.” O'Donnell and Wannegan, on the other hand, were to
be charged with manslaughter as having “provoked the affray,” which resulted in the death of their companion.

We thought it was all over, and between ourselves, thought that maybe the Marquis would do quite well out of this extra publicity. We had sent a story off to Mr. Bennett as soon as we returned, but I’m sure the paper would have already heard about it from other sources. Any publicity is good publicity, our good friend Mr. Barnum used to say.

But it wasn’t over yet. On Monday, July 2nd, only two days later, the Marquis was served with an arrest warrant as he left a Mandan barber shop. O'Donnell, who had been protesting his innocence since his arrival in town - or perhaps sympathetic friends from the Little Missouri neighborhood - had reached Daniel Collins, Mandan’s other Justice of the Peace, and persuaded him to arrest the Marquis and his men on the same charges from which they had been absolved. two days earlier.

Charged with the murder of Luffsey, the Marquis and his two men were arraigned before Collins on the morning of July 3rd after delays which insured that enough legal talent had arrived by train
“to make the sidewalks groan.”

Justice Collins overruled a motion by the Marquis' attorneys (including our friend John Stoyall)  for dismissal on the principle of double jeopardy and set a hearing for the 6th of July.

So we shall have to wait until after our party is over to hear what the final outcome will be.

From the time that we got back to Bismarck until the party, all the town could talk about was the Marquis' situation. Most people felt he had been justified, and we backed up that point of view - having felt the angry and lawless vibrations the whole time we were in Medora. I wrote quite a good second article for Mr. Bennett, and since it was from the perspective of somebody on the spot, I was pretty sure he would use it. Because of the immediacy of the situation, I decided to ask Mr. Carnahan if I could send a telegram rather than a letter, and he said, that as he was working for the Tribune, he couldn’t do that for me, but he suggested I go to the post office. 

 4th July

Dressed in our best finery, we arrived early at the brand new house of the Fishers which was between 3rd and 4th Streets on Avenue B. Mrs. Fisher (who never asked us to call her by her first name, but we knew it was Addie) said she was pleased that we'd arrived early, and she showed us where we would be performing, and then said, “How would you girls like a tour of the house? I'm so proud of it, and I can’t possibly let everyone come around to all the rooms, but I would like to see what you think. And maybe you might want to send an article about it to the New York Herald.”

On the main floor was the formal parlor where the grand piano was, so we knew this would be the room in which we would perform. The piano was in a big bay window. There was an archway with a spindled lattice hanging from it which had been drawn back. This second parlor was a larger room and it was set out with chairs in rows. There was a very attractive fireplace which had an over-mantel with a mirror.

The kitchen was large, and Mrs. Fisher said the family ate most of their meals there. The sink, on the west wall, had a pump that drew water from the cistern. There was a green and black range. The built-in icebox was filled with ice from the adjoining shed. Mrs. Fisher told us that ice deliveries were no problem even in the heat of the summer.

Then we went into the formal dining room - again a very large room, today set out with cups for coffee, and a wide range of cakes. There was an attractive fireplace with over-mantle in this room too.

Up the magnificent wooden staircase we first went into the northeast bedroom, very large, and
used by Lilian, who Mrs. Fisher explained was her daughter by her first marriage. 

The southeast bedroom, also very good sized, was the master bedroom. There was a small room adjoining it, which Mrs. Fisher said was Asa’s study. From there we went to see the outside porch, which she thought might make a useful sleeping place in the very hot summer months.

The southwest bedroom was meant as a guest room, again very large. Currently Mrs. Betty Fisher, Asa’s mother, who was in her mid 60s, and a widow, was staying there.

The two northwest bedrooms, at the rear of the house were for servants, but Mrs. Fisher said they
didn’t yet have servants, but that might well come with time, when she found how much work it would be to keep such a large house clean. 

“I expect when you came in through the front porch, you noticed the wooden panels with a floral
design. I am particularly proud of those, as they were my idea.” We agreed with her that they were very lovely.

Just then, we noticed that a group of people we did not recognise, carrying bags and boxes, came
towards the porch. Mrs. Fisher said, “Ah, the actors are here.” She shouted out to them, “Welcome. Come this way. I'll show you where you can go to put your things.”

She ushered them directly upstairs to one of the servant's bedrooms, and then came back down.

“I will introduce them to you presently they come down. The order of procedure will be this. Asa
will welcome everyone to our home. The play will be presented, and then you girls will come on as the finale. I expect that will be about 4 o’clock. Will that suit you?”

We agreed that it would and went back into the parlor so that I could run my hands over the piano keys just to see how it sounded.

Perhaps five minutes later, the acting troop made their way back down the stairs, and were ushered
into the parlor where we were.

“My I present Misses Mattie and Cora Sue Kellogg. These are our actors. This is Thomas Jefferson
(not the real one)” she said with a giggle, “and his wife Annie. And this is Charles Vaughan (he comes from England) and his wife Henrietta. The Vaughn’s have a young daughter, but she isn’t with
you today, is she?”

“No, we managed to get Samuel Whitney, the man who runs the boarding house where we stay to look after her for today. I think she would have found the crowds here too much,” said Henrietta.

We shook hands all around, and then Mrs. Fisher took them to see the area she had planned to use as their stage - somewhat to the right and front of the piano.

“Do you have many props?” she asked. “And will this space be sufficient for what you need to
portray?”

“We have done it in smaller areas,” said Thomas. “And our props are few - and won’t get in
the way of how you have laid out your house.”

“Well, as I told the girls, Asa will give his speech of welcome first, and then you will be next.
I assume you will introduce it yourselves.”

“Well, actually, it would be better if somebody else introduced it, as we want to appear as the
characters we are portraying. Perhaps Mr. Fisher could do that. We can give him a sheet telling him what we want him to say.”

“Well, I'll have a word with him. He doesn’t like changes sprung on him at the last minute, but
I will ask.”

“If he doesn’t want to do it, I'm happy to do so,” I volunteered, and the actors looked most
grateful.

“Well, let's leave it like that then, and I don’t need to disturb him. He's practicing his
little speech right now.”

The guests had started to congregate on the lawns, and having brought picnic hampers and
blankets to sit on, they were adding a happy and friendly atmosphere. We had brought our lunch too, so we took our picnic and went to join Linda and her family.

Most of the people in the group we had met before, and we smiled and waved at the familiar faces.
Then after we had eaten, Mr. John Carnahan, came over, looking very grave. We wondered if he had got into trouble over telling us that we should use the telegraph at the post office.

“I wonder if I might see you ladies on your own,” he said awkwardly.

“Certainly,” we said, and putting the remains of our meal away, we got up from our blanket and
went over to the side of the porch.

“I am very ashamed to have to tell you something, but I cannot sleep at night for worrying about
it,” he started.

“Whatever it is, I’m sure it's not worth losing sleep over,” said Cora Sue, who rather fancied him, I thought.

“I have heard talk that you are trying to find out about what happened to the coal shares and
gold claim that your father said he was going to leave you,” he said.

“Yes, that’s right. We were hoping to see Arthur Packard when we were in the Badlands, but with
all the excitement of the murder, we forgot all about it. We heard that he probably was the one who owned the coal mine that Pa had taken shares in.”

“Well, I'm not going to find this any easier to say by dragging it out. Your Pa gave me those coal
mine shares, and he gave me his gold mine claim too. It was when he gave me your address, just before you left - saying that I was to contact you if anything should happen to him.”

“Oh, so you've had them all the time. Why didn’t you say so before?”

“Well, I don’t have them any more.”

“What do you mean? Did you lose them?”

“Well, yes, so to speak I did lose them. I lost them in a gambling debt. I staked them when I was
losing, and I lost even more.”

“But you knew they were for us. You said Pa told you that they were for us.”

“Yes, and I'm very ashamed of what I did. I will make it up to you, girls I swear I will. I will
send you some money each week out of my pay until I pay it off.”

“How much do you think they were worth?”

“Hard to say. But I know your Pa thought they were valuable - worth a few hundred at least. If I
pay you five dollars a month, will that do you?”

We hesitated, not knowing what to say.

“I don’t make much money, and I don’t think I could give much more than that, and still be
able to eat and pay my rent.”

“Oh, Mr. Carnahan, we don’t want your money, do we Cora Sue?”

“No, we don’t need it. We both have jobs and a place to live and even though we are spending a
packet at the moment, we rather hope to have a little bit left out of it at the end of our vacation. No, don’t send us anything. But, I still don’t understand. You did know where we lived. You contacted
us when Pa died. Why didn’t you send the claims off straight away?”

“Well, I sure intended to. I found out your address in La Crosse and everything, and then Colonel
Lounsberry went on and on about how he made Mr. Bennett pay you girls money to make up for your Pa’s death. He said it was $2000, and I thought, well, if they have all that money, what need do they have of this. So I kept it. And then, as I was telling you, not long after that, I lost it.”

“Mr. Bennett has given us money, and over the years it has come to much more than $2000 - but
it was earmarked for our education. It is the leftover from that, and a bit extra that he tacked on, that we are spending on this trip - which we felt was a very important part of our education.”

“Mr. Carnahan, who were you gambling with when you lost our claim deeds?”

“I don’t rightly think I should tell you. He didn’t know they were supposed to be yours. So if you went and asked him for them back, I don’t think he would have any need to give them to you - or what they were worth.”

“I agree with you, we can’t get them back or their equivalent, but I am just curious as to who it
was had them.”

“It was Colonel Lounsberry himself. I don’t know whether he cashed them in or if he still has
them, but he didn’t know they were supposed to be yours.”

“Wouldn’t he have known that Pa had bought shares in the gold mine? Other people knew about it.
Mr. Stoyell said Pa had told him.”

“Well, I can’t answer that for him, but it certainly wasn’t me that told him who they were from. Anyway, girls, I didn’t want to spoil your day, but I just had to tell you. I hope you don’t hate me too much for what I did. I'm truly sorry and if I could do it over again, I would.”

“Please don’t be upset Mr. Carnahan. That is twice now that you have provided us with information about our Pa that we wouldn’t have had otherwise. And we are grateful for that. It is a shame that you lost them, but as you said, it was understandable that you should have reckoned, and
rightly, that our education was already paid for. We certainly don’t hate you. And thank you for your honesty. We have a feeling that that is something in short supply around here sometimes.”

Just then Mrs. Fisher indicated that we were all to come in and get settled for the start of the
performances.