Collected Stories 8

LIFE OF O. E. HOBACK as told to Edna Greet (Vernon’s grandmother)

    Uncle Joe went to Casper in 1902 or 1903.  He had married a girl named Eva McGrath in New Mexico a few years before, and they had two babies.  He worked for W. S. Kimball a jeweler and watch repairman.  He also took care of the watches for the railroad men, and was leader of an orchestra.  He and Oscar played a lot together, and Joe tried to get Oscar to quit the blacksmith work and make a career of music, but Oscar couldn’t see it.

     In the fall of  1904 Oscar went to Wolton and set up his own blacksmith shop, and so was there when the railroad was being built in 1905 and 1906.  But he was restless, and in 1907 he went to work for the Noble and Bragg outfit at Nowood. 

     While at Wolton Oscar acted as deputy sheriff.  It was necessary one day to arrest a character who went by the name of “Black Mike.”  Oscar went after him while he was in a saloon, and for fear of shooting a friend by mistake, Oscar threw his gun under a table and went after Black Mike bare handed.  Before he could be disarmed, Black Mike discharged his gun, tearing off the middle finger of Oscar’s left hand.  But Oscar succeeded in putting him under arrest, and Black Mike swore vengeance, once he was out of prison.  A few years later, after Mike had finished serving his term, word got to Oscar that Black Mike was on his trail.  The conductor on the train got word to Braskets that Mike had dropped off the train at Moneta.  Braskets told Della Dove, who told Willard Truesdell, who in turn told Oscar.  Oscar decided to look Black Mike up, instead of waiting for him to show up.  He found him in the Dew Drop Inn in Lost Cabin and approached him.  Black Mike acted very friendly, and wanted to shake hands and forget it all, but Oscar refused.  He then wanted to buy Oscar a drink, but Oscar said “No – I only drink with friends.”

     Oscar had his violin with him, so of course that called for an impromptu dance.  Afterward word got to Oscar that Black Mike had stuck his gun in Brasket’s stomach that night, and then apologized, saying that he thought Brasket was Oscar.  Oscar went to the sheriff in Casper and told him he was giving the law ten days, but at the end of that time he was going after Black Mike himself.  At the end of the ten days  he hadn’t heard anything, so he looked for Mike, but couldn’t find him.

Find me here!

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