Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1909-03-06
The House of the Black
sEA Pate: Ring e.,z.!... 1905


Not once I'm 20 years that he lived
was Matthew Heller seen in the
valley, on land outside his little
circle. What he did, where he OBJ
tained supplies, how he lived, no NOR
tai outside his home ever knew. None
visited him or his wife or his strange,
wild son. 1t was as II they did not
live in the valley at all, save that they
furnished abundant food for conjecture
and for superstitious awe. Many
averred that they had seen the old
man during hunting trips in distant
valleys even In winter, and some were
positive that they had run across the
whole family on the ridges in berry
time, but no one ever saw any of them
on the valley lands, and, strange as it
may seem, though smoke arose daily
from the chimney of the old hut, no
track, year after year, was ever seen
through the snow TO the dwelling. Fur
thermore, in all the century during
which the valley folk had known the
place not one fake of snow had ever
lain within the strange circle about the
cabin.
At length the old man had been seen
no more, though none knew when he
died, or If, indeed, he did die. Then
the old wife came no more to the blue
berry ridges In midsummer, and the
son, dark, silent man, lived alone In
the hut After few years he had
brought from no one knew where a
dark-haired wife, who said little and
who encouraged no advances by the
valley folk. Then, after years, the
grandson Of Matthew Heller, a man of
ambition and energy, had rebuilt the
old cabin, and later, In the early 40s,
had bought of Thomas Hartswick heir
of the original John Hartswick, so acres
of land at the entrance of the gap, and
had built on the little stream near by
set of modern farm buildings-those
now occupied by Allen Farthing. At
first he has prospered. His elder son,
Andrew, who had inherited the shy,
hermit traits of the family, had re-
tired in early manhood to the ancestral
cabin. where he had lived much as his
grandfather had done, but the younger
son, a forceful fellow like his father
had remained at home until an unfor-
tunate affair had forced him to flee
from the valley.
1t would seem from local tradition
that this younger Heller had possessed
q sngularly winning and masterful
personality, and that he had won with
ease the leadership Of the valley boys.
AS a result, however, he had stirred
up a vcnOmOus hatred in the breast
of young Ira HartwiCll, son of the
great estate. and hereditary heir to the
valley lordship. IT was impossible that
Bottom, and the result was a war,
waged on one side with unutterable
meanncss and on the other with
stout defiance In the open. The eli
max mad come suddenly. In a burst
of passion over a taunt about his an
cestry, young Heller had given the
Hartswick scion a thrashing so severe
that the old squire had had him ar
rested at once for assault with attempt
to Kill.
The plight of the -oung fellow was
then indeed a serious one. There was
no lack of witnesses who would swear
to anything the old squire desired, and
it was hard to get a jury in the whole
who would bring in a verdict
against his expressed wish. The out
come was not doubtful. Thereupon,
with the impetuousness of youth, the
Young man had promptly fed the val
ley, fact which naturally prejudiced
his cause. 1t was known after time
that he had enlisted in one of the
Pennsylvania regiments, for the civil
war was in progress, and after Gettys-
list Of the union dead. Thus he had dis
appeared from the annals of the "al-
ey.
Old Hartswick, however, had not
been baked Of revenge. The son hav-
Ing escaped him. he began to persecutC
the father. In five years the farm was
In his hands, and the parents, crushed
down by calamity after calamity, both
died in the old cabin where they had
begun their married life. The elder son
lived on alone, but late in life he mar
ried the daughter of old Poppy Miller,
Both had died of sudden fevers some
years later, leaving twin children,
boy and a girl, to be brought up by the
The boy, Leon, head
strong fellow, had disappeared one
summer day, drowned in a foolish at
Roaring Run, though his body was
never found; and now the girl, LeonOra,
he last of the Hcllers, was living. a |
strange, seldom seen creature, with her |
in the Gap.
SO much for tradition and family his |
tory.
AS for the HaTtswicks, :hey had been
men Of prOperty--hard, grasping drivers |
# business. who had answered in the |
full the wild prayer of old Matthew |
Heller. And of them all the hardest |
lad been the present squire, Ira Harts-
wick, owner Of the village grocery and |
lalf of the valley besides.
The center and focal point of He'll !
Bottom was this store at the heel of the |
stocking, under the shadow of old |
Nance mountain, in the jaws of Bald !
'hurCh of the community, the black ,
smith shop, and the school house, all
IN the mountain side of the road, and |
)r the other side, to balance it all, |
VAS the farmstead Of Squire Harts- |
wick, village in itself.
First there was the mansion-Harts- !
wick Hall-built when the country was |
scarcely of age, of blue limestone and
native mortar, q venerable old Struc- |
I.,I 1, . 4
horse -chestnutS. Behind and around 1t
sprawled a motley collection of build |
ngs. The original log cabin, a tumble |
down affair, used now for q hog pen, |
stood not far from the spring, and
near 1t was the structure indicating the |
second stage of the family-a large |
partly framed, which was oc- |
,upied now by Amos Harding, the |
farmer of the estate. Around these, in |
lawlessness, were smoke |
houses and sheds and sheep pens and
corn cribs, the huge Dutch oven, after
half a century still in active use, and
the great barn, the chief pride and
glory of the estate.
Altogether the effect was homelike
and satisfying. 1t was like a Southern
a little community in itself, |
almost self-supporting and independ-
ent. There was an antique atmosphere
about the old trees, about the rambling
paths and drives, and the old mansion
Itself, weathered and bleached and
1vergrown with Virginia creeper and
1t had sheltered five gen.
erations of one family, thing not
common in America.
The grocery store was also a strik-
ng bit of architecture. 1t had grown
title by little during the many
years. The owner, instead of
earring down and building larger
rs his business and his worldly goods
lad increased, had added bit by bit to
he original structure. The whole his
ory of the valley was written over the
ace of the building, every stage of
;rowth from the original log shop to
he large frame addition of only five
vears before.
Here 1t was that Squire Hartswick
vas most often to be found. Despite
lis abundant property he was close
eckoner of dimes and nickelS and he