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Monday, March 24, 2014

HELL ON THE BORDER by CHERYL PIERSON




It was said, "There is no Sunday west of St. Louis--no God west of Ft. Smith."


Indian Territory. A perfect haven for outlaws of every kind. They could run west of Ft. Smith where lawlessness reigned, where there were no consequences for any crime--until Judge Isaac Parker and his U.S. Deputy Marshals took charge.


By 1870, the Indian Territory had become a hellhole not fit for honest citizens. The last civilized gateway into the territory was in Arkansas--Ft. Smith.


The Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole) who had been relocated to Indian Territory, had their own judicial system for the Indians of the Nations. But their courts had no jurisdiction over intruders who found their way into the Territory.


In 1875, President Grant appointed Judge Isaac Parker to what later became the Western Judicial District of Arkansas, including not only several counties in Arkansas and a strip along the Kansas border, but all of Indian Territory as well. The total area of the court's jurisdiction was nearly 74,000 square miles, with Indian Territory accounting for over 70,000 square miles of that area.


The lawmen, or the "Men Who Rode for Parker," numbered less than 200 at the outset. Only one carried the title, "U.S. Marshal." The rest were deputies. The marshal's salary was $90 per month. The deputies received no salary at all. They could arrest for any crime committed in the 74,000 mile area--with or without a warrant. They earned usually no more than $500 per year. Up until 1898, a fee system was in place that allowed a deputy to collect $2 for each arrest he made. In addition, he could receive 6 cents per mile for going to the location of the arrest, and 10 cents per mile for himself and his prisoner to return to court.


JUDGE ISAAC PARKER

No arrest meant no payment, and if he should happen to kill a suspect in attempting the arrest, the deputy was expected to pay for the suspect's burial.


After all the deputy's expenses were tallied, the U.S. Marshal deducted 25 percent from the total before he paid the deputy the remainder.


During the 21 years of Judge Parker's tenure, over 65 deputy marshals were killed in the line of duty. Some references list the number as high as 100.

MARSHAL BILL TILGHMAN

Being a U.S. Deputy Marshal was even tougher in real life than Hollywood could ever portray. The lonely existence these men led, riding out in search of desperate criminals over vast areas of land for a $2 arrest fee, is unimaginable today. The turnover rate was high due to the danger, the low pay, and the enormous amount of territory they had to cover. Weeks of separation from their families was also a deterrent.

MARSHAL CHRIS MADSEN

But the facts show what those deputy marshals did to bring Indian Territory back under the law again. Judge Parker tried over 17,000 cases during his time at the Western Judicial District of Arkansas--and there were never more than 200 men on the payroll to accomplish these arrests. Order could not have been restored without these men, willing to risk their lives to bring justice back to the wild borderlands of Arkansas, Kansas and Indian Territory.

MARSHAL HECK THOMAS

Kaed Turner, the "marshal" in my book Fire Eyes, is just this kind of loner to begin with--until he finds the love of a lifetime in a most unexpected place. In the excerpt below, Kaed is recovering from a brutal beating at the hands of a band of outlaws with Jessica's care. He's making good progress!


EXCERPT FROM FIRE EYES


The bath could be put off no longer. Kaed lay quietly, watching Jessica’s nervousness.

“Jessi.” When she looked at him, his bones liquefied. She wanted him. All question of how the night would end were answered as their eyes met and held over an achingly sweet moment.

Jessica sank her teeth into her lower lip, her fingers moving to the tiny row of buttons at the front of her day dress. She slowly began to work them open. “Kaed, would you, um, I mean, well, I need to get my bath now.”

“I suppose that means I need to at least turn my head.” His mouth was dry. It was hot in the cabin all of a sudden.

“Uh-huh.” She kept right on unbuttoning the buttons, caught in his gaze. “And close your eyes.”

Yeah, well it wouldn’t matter if he did, he thought. He’d still see the picture she burned in his mind as she stood there opening those buttonholes.

Her fingers hesitated at the button just above the rich swell of her breasts. Kaed wet his lips, not turning his head or closing his eyes.

“Kaed?” Her voice was a husky whisper. That made him close his eyes. The sound of his name on her lips had him imagining doing all the things that a man did with a woman. All the things that were soon to come.

God. The heat was unbearable.

“Huh?” He slitted his still-swollen eyes open and saw she had released that button and moved down to the next one. He gritted his teeth.

“Turn…your…head.” A teasing smile played about her mouth, as if she knew exactly what he was thinking, what he was imagining.

Turning away would be a good thing right about now. If he could only persuade his neck to cooperate.

“Yeah. Okay.” He turned his face toward the window. Sort of.
“I’m trusting you.”

Kaed sighed, frustrated. “I know.” It was the one thing she might’ve said that would have kept him true to his word, that part about trusting. He couldn’t betray that. “I’ve gotta move slow. Hurts.”

“Don’t—” The dress whispered to the floor.

“I won’t,” he gritted, the words bitter in his mouth. Then, he thought of something. “It’s hardly fair, though.” He heard the delicate splash as Jessica slipped into the water.

“What do you mean?”

He heard her trailing water across her shoulders and neck with the washrag, blissfully unaware of the effect she was having on him, and on a certain part of his male anatomy. He was aching for her. But he managed to make his voice casual.

“I mean, you’re going to help me bathe.”

The dribbling water stopped, and he heard her breathing quicken.
“Yes, I know. But I don’t need any help.”

After a moment the splashing began again. He imagined she was washing her hair. “Jessi?”

She didn’t answer, but he knew she was listening. He grew tired of the game. He wanted her to know what to expect. What was going to happen. To anticipate it as much as he did.“Jessi, I want you.”

It took everything in him not to turn and look at her as he said it, to see the expression on her delicate features. “I’m going to make love to you tonight.”


I'M GIVING AWAY ONE PRINT COPY OF FIRE EYES! PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT AND YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION SO THAT I CAN E-MAIL YOU IF YOU WON!

If you just can't wait to see if you won, you can purchase FIRE EYES at B&N, Smashwords, and Amazon. Here's the Amazon link to all my work:
www.amazon.com/author/cherylpierson

www.prairierosepublications.com

17 comments:

  1. Hi Cheryl! Fire Eyes is next on my TBR list! You ladies do have a lot of interesting facts, and they are so informative to a Brit who is trying to 'write the West'. Heck those Deputy Marshals were a tough bunch! This post has come at a very opportune time, my WIP is centred around a Deputy Marshall! But I have him going undercover to infiltrate a gang. Do you think they would do that? Great post!

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    1. Hi Jill! I am so lucky to have been born and raised right here in what was Indian Territory. And you know it wasn't so long ago! My grandmother (Dad's Mom) came here from Texas, across the Red River in a covered wagon. Her mother (the story goes) was pregnant and they stopped for one day and one night for her to have the baby, then on they went. And her with 3 other little ones! Oh, what a life!

      The Deputy Marshals intrigued me, too. I know that they did take the occasional odd assignment. In fact, in my latest book, The Half-Breed's Woman, the hero, Jaxson McCall is a Dep. Marshal who has been hired to track down the debutante stepdaughter of a very prominent Washington D.C. figure.

      Lots of good info out there on them and pictures, too. Good luck and have fun with your research!
      Cheryl

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  2. An informative overview of what the 'law' was like in that time. When put into the context of what was happening in the rest of the country it becomes even more amazing. A tough time.

    For those who haven't read Kaed's story, they are in for a treat. Doris

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    1. Doris, thank you so much for your kind words about Fire Eyes. I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

      The "law" WAS something else "back in the day" wasn't it? Very uncertain, in many ways, but many things were a hanging offense that today would be a slap on the wrist.

      Glad you enjoyed the post.
      Cheryl

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  3. I can't imagine Rudi g out into such danger all alone to track down and capture dangerous criminals for two bucks. What did it buy? Just think king about what their wives had to endure boggles my mind. They must have been the strongest women on Earth. The hard part to swallow was at the deputies had to pay the funeral cost for a criminal they killed in an attempt to arrest. Shoot, a dirt hole and a gunny sack would have been my funeral plan if I had been one of those deputies.
    Fire Eyes was the first book of yours I ever read. I liked it so much I've been reading your books ever since. Keep 'em comin'.

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    1. Sarah, it's no wonder that Rooster Cogburn drank like he did, is it? LOL I did a blog post on another U.S. Marshal, Jack Abernathy, that I"ll put up here one of these days. His wife died when his kids were still young, and he had promised his two boys they could take out on their own and ride to Santa Fe. And he let them...when they were 5 and 9!

      I agree, a gunny sack and a dirt hole would be my method, too. LOL

      Thank you so much for your constant support and the VERY kind words about Fire Eyes and my writing. I appreciate you, Sarah!

      Hugs,
      Cheryl

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  4. The Deputy Marshal info. was very interesting as I'm from the U.K. And I enjoyed your excerpt from Fire Eyes. Are you thinking of doing a Deputy a Marshal series?

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    1. Julie, when I wrote Fire Eyes, I had a lot of people who wanted to know that. I hadn't really thought of it when I wrote the book, but when people asked about it, it made me wonder if I should do it. Travis Morgan is the younger marshal that the protagonist, Kaed Turner, has taken under his wing. He's a dep. marshal in his own right now, but still sometimes a bit hot-headed. My plan is to someday write a story about him and one of the young girls he helped rescue. I have an idea for it, but just haven't had time to sit down and get to work on it!

      Glad you enjoyed the post.
      Cheryl

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  5. Fascinating post. I'm saving it for future reference. As for Fire Eyes, I was getting warm just reading the teaser! Definitely on my Want to Read list (mango8@msn.com)

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    1. Alisa, this was the first book I ever had published, so it is dear to my heart. When it first came out, I had had to cut a LOT of the secondary plot, being told that the company it was published with "only" did romance (in other words, they did not CARE about the secondary plot!) LOL That was hard to swallow, but I wanted to get the book out there. Later on, I got my rights back for it and the publisher I went to with it encouraged me to add back in the parts I'd cut. I 'm so much happier with it now.

      The history of the U.S. Marshals and Indian Territory is so interesting. It must have just been fascinating (and dangerous!) to live here then.

      Cheryl

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  6. I read the biography of Heck Thomas a number of years ago. Love learning about the Deputy U.S. Marshals. Loved your wounded hero in Fire Eyes!

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    1. Kathy, thank you. That means a lot coming from you--I admire your writing, too. Kaed's story was one that just grabbed me and wouldn't let go. I know people often say that, but that book was really fun to write and the let me know as I was writing it that I would never stop writing. It was a passion.

      Cheryl

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  7. I think FIRE EYES is the first Cheryl Pierson book I ever read. It certainly made me a fan! Kaed is one tough, no-nonsense hunk...except when it comes to Jessica. They're perfect together, and the book is a page-turner.

    As for Isaac Parker... He's probably STILL gritting his teeth over the Henry Starr debacle. :-D

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    1. Thanks, Kathleen! I'm so glad you loved FIRE EYES. Kaed and Jessica were perfect for each other--just goes to show, love will find a way, even in the middle of I.T. LOL

      Isaac Parker was one odd duck, wasn't he?

      I used him in another one of my books, my latest release, The Half-Breed's Woman.
      Cheryl

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  8. Hey, you mentioned several of my favorite federal marshals in this one!

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    1. I met Bill Tilghman's gr gr granddaughter at the Cowboy Museum when I worked there a few years back. She had her little boy with her, cutest little red-headed kid about 2 years old. His first name was Tilghman. The legacy lives on! LOL

      Thanks for coming by, Troy. "Hey...I thought you was dead." (Hadn't seen you around for so long. )
      Cheryl

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  9. AND MY WINNER IS....

    ALISA BOISCLAIR!!!!!

    Alisa, if you will please e-mail me at fabkat_edit@yahoo.com and provide me your mailing address, I will get your book in the mail to you as soon as possible! Congratulations, and thanks for commenting today!

    Cheryl

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