Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1909-08-18

Offering in two days ride to take the
men before him to the pass called by
the Indians the Box, and to take them
through it. Glover called it find, and
a big one, and though more immediate
matters in the strategy of territorial
control then came before him, the pre-
liminary was ordered and McCloud's
findings were approved. McCloud him
self was soon afterward engrossed in
the problems Of operating the noun
tain division; but the dream of his
fife was to build the Crawling Stone
line with a maximum grade of eight
tenths through the Box.
The prettiest stretch of Crawling
Stone valley lies within 20 miles of
Medicine Bend. There it lies widest,
and has the pick of water and grass
between Medicine Bend and the Mis-
sion mountains. Cattlemen went into
the Crawling Stone country before the
Indians had wholly left it. The first
house in the valley was the Stone
ranch, built by Richard Dunning, and
it still stands overlooking the town of
Dunning at the junction of the French
man creek and the Crawling Stone.
The Frenchman is fed by unfailing
springs, and when by summer sun and
wind every smaller stream in the mid
die basin has been licked dry, the
Frenchman runs cold and swift be-
tween its russell hills. Richard Dun
ming, being on the border of the In
dian country, built for his ranch
house a rambling stone fortress. He
had chosen, it afterward proved, the
choice spot in the valley, and he
stocked it with cattle when yearlings
could be picked up in Medicine Bend
at ten dollars head. He got together
a great body of valley land when it
could be had for the asking, and be-
came the rich man of the Long Range.
The Cummings were Kentuckians.
Richard was a bridge engineer and
builder, and under Brodie built some
of the first bridges on the mountain
division, notably the great wooden
bridge at Smoky creek. Richard
brought out his nephew, Lance Dun
ming. He taught Lance bridge-build-
ing, and Murray Sinclair, who began
as a cowboy on the Stone ranch,
learned bodybuilding from Richard
Dunning. The Cummings both came
west, though at different times, as
young men and unmarried, and as far
as western women were concerned,
might always have remained so. But
a Kentucky cousin, Betty, one Of the
Fairfield Cummings, related to Richard
within the sixth or eighth degree,
came to the mountains for her health.
Betty's mother had brought Richard
up as boy. and Betty, when he left
Fairfield, was a baby. But Dick-as
they knew him at homeland the
mother wrote back and forth, and he
persuaded her to send Betty out for
trip, promising he would send her
back in a year a well woman.
Betty came with only her colored
maid, old Puss Dunning, who had
taken her from the nurses arms when
she was born and taken care of her
ever since. The two-the tall Ken
lucky girl and the bent mammy-ar-
rived at the Stone ranch one day in
June, and Richard, done then with
bridges and looking after his ranch
interests, had already fallen violently
in love with Betty. She was delicate,
but, if those in Medicine Bend who re-
membered her said true, lovely
creature. Remaining in the mountains
was the last thing Betty had ever
thought of, but no one, man or woman,
could withstand Dick Dunning. She
fell quite in love with him the first
time she set eyes on him in Medicine
Bend, for he was very handsome in
the saddle, and Betty was fairly wild
about horses. So Dick Dunning
wooed a fond mistress and married
her and buried her, and all within
hardly more than year.
But in that year they were very
happy, never two happier, and when
she slept away her suffering she left
him, as a legacy, tiny baby girl. Puss
brought the mite Of creature in it's
swaddling clothes to the sick mother
very, very sick then-and poor Bet
ty turned her dark eyes on it, kissed
it, looked at her husband and whis-
pered "Dicksie," and died. Dicksie
had been BettyS pet name Tor her
mountain lover, so the father said the
child's name should be Dicksie and
nothing else; and his heart broke and
soon he died. Nothing else, storm OF
flood, death or disaster, had ever
moved Dick Dunning; then a sin
gle blow killed him. He rode
once in a while over the ranch,
great tract by that time of 10000
acres, all in one body, all under fence.
up and down both sides Of the big
river, in part irrigated, swarming with
cattle-none of it stirred Dick! ano
with little Dicksie in his arms he
slept away his suffering.
So Dicksie was left, as her mother
had been, to Puss, while Lance looked
after the ranch, swore at the price OF
cattle and played cards at Medicine