Hearts of Julesburg -- a tale of the Wild West by Donna Schlachter

Today, in America, there are plenty of opportunities for women to perform work once considered for men only, but not so much in 1861. Particularly in the Wild West. But that doesn’t deter Annelise Harper. Her new persona, Andy Harper, is physically able to keep up with her male counterparts in most areas. Since folks didn’t bathe often in those days, she manages to keep her secret until…

Well, that would be a spoiler, wouldn’t it?

My main character, Annelise Adams, an orphan, decides the Pony Express is her answer to her longing for adventure. But, of course, they don’t hire girls. So she cuts her hair, dresses like a boy, and is hired.

Did women actually ride for the Express? Rumors hold that several did, either disguised as boys or young men, or in their own right. Calamity Jane, for example, is believed to have ridden alongside the roughest and toughest of male riders, dressed in her trademark skirts.

The town of Julesburg, Colorado, was named after a scoundrel who lived there, owned most of the town, and ruled with an iron fist. Jules was not a nice person, and eventually he committed enough crimes that he skedaddled, just ahead of a new law that decided to take back the town.

It’s no wonder then that Clint Baker, an ex-convict, heads there. He has nobody and nothing, except that he served his time for his part in a bank heist in another state. And now here he is, trying to prove the old Clint is dead and this new man is somebody worth knowing.

But his past keeps haunting him, in the form of his cellmate, who wants to drag him back into the life.

Can he resist the lure of easy money? Or is he really on the straight and narrow?

And, in case you’ve not read any of the other books in the series, the Pony Express began in April 1860 and ceased operations in October 1861. That’s right. Such an iconic part of American history lasted about eighteen months.

During that time, following a trail that covered some 2,500 miles from Independence, Missouri to San Francisco, California, the company employed hundreds of men and young boys, riding thousands of horses, who lived in one of the 250 homestations or waystations along the route.

Each rider was assigned a particular route that covered a hard day’s ride east or west, and they traded out mounts every fifteen to twenty miles, depending on the terrain.

 

Unlike the romantic movies, television shows, and novels written about the Express, the job was difficult, tiring and tiresome, and sometimes dangerous. Nothing stopped the mail from getting through. Not floods, snowstorms, bandits, wild animals, or native uprisings. Surprisingly, not a single rider was killed or died, although many horses perished from the hard work, or were stolen or simpy went missing.

Perhaps the sense of adventure engendered by the Pony Express is what keeps it in the minds of folks. Maybe the fact that the Express united a country at a time when mail otherwise took months to travel the southern route, or go down around South America and come up the other way.

Ultimately, the company closed, being in debt some $600,000, when the telegraph connected the east and west coasts, but before that, the Express helped families stay in touch, carried President Lincoln’s acceptance speech, and allowed businesses to expand from sea to shining sea.

My latest Pony Express book releases tomorrow, September 29th, and it’s titled Hearts of Julesburg. As the name suggests, the story is set in the rough and tumble town of Julesburg, Colorado, in 1861.





You can pre-order the ebook here: https://www.amazon.com/Hearts-Julesburg-Pony-Express-Book-ebook/dp/B0C7FDMC4





About Hearts of Julesburg

Can a young woman who wants more adventure, and a young man running from his past, slow down long enough to allow God to intersect their lives?



About Donna:

A hybrid author, Donna writes squeaky clean historical and contemporary suspense. She has been published more than 60 times in books; is a member of several writers groups; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; ghostwrites; edits; and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, traveling extensively for both, and is an avid oil painter. She is taking all the information she’s learned along the way about the writing and publishing process, and is coaching writers at any stage of their manuscript. Learn more at https://www.donnaschlachter.com/the-purpose-full-writer-coaching-programs Check out her coaching group on FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/604220861766651





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Julesburg, Colorado

by Susan Page Davis

My topic this month is a somewhat gruesome one, as the settlement at Julesburg, Colorado, was the scene of much violence.

Julesburg was a trading post, established in 1859 for Jules Beni, a French trader. This little hamlet in northeast Colorado became an important stop for many travelers. When a branch of the Oregon Trail dipped south from Wyoming into Colorado, Julesburg was on the route, and it became a Pony Express station in 1860-61 and a stop on the Leavenworth & Pike’s Peak Express stage line and later the Overland Stage.

Pony Express statue at the Julesburg Welcome Center
photo by Tom Arthur

The trading post was located on the south bank of the South Platte River, at what was called the Upper California Crossing. People who did not want to follow the Oregon Trail along the North Platte to Oregon and California would at this point branch off toward what became the city of Denver.

Besides the trading post, Julesburg grew to have a store, a saloon, a blacksmith shop, a warehouse, stables, homesteaders’ cabins, and the stagecoach station. The settlement became a magnet for gamblers and criminals.

Modern day Julesburg,
photo by J. Stephen Conn

Jules Beni himself was accused of cheating his customers and overcharging them. The post was robbed several times, in fact, so often that after a while Jules was accused of being involved in the thefts. For about a year, he was the agent for the Leavenworth & Pike’s Peak Express Company and managed the stage station. During this time, the station was robbed many times. The robbers seemed to target only the stages carrying money or other valuables. It wasn’t long before “Old Jules” was accused of being behind the activity.

When Ben Holladay, the “stagecoach king,” took over the mail route that ran through Julesburg, his division agent for that section of trail, Jack Slade, fired Beni. People tried to change the name of the town to Overland City, but it didn’t stick. People kept on calling it Julesburg, and it was known as the toughest town west of the Missouri River.

Virginia Dale station, Colorado. It is claimed that
Jack Slade is on the left, and his wife,
Virginia, for whom the station is named,
next to him.

Jules Beni and Jack Slade had several fights. Slade at one point found horses clearly stolen from the company on Beni’s ranch and repossessed them. Beni vowed vengeance.

Later, Slade was at Julesburg. Some say he chased some thieves there who were stealing horses from the stage line, and Beni was with them. Other sources claim Slade was there and unarmed when Beni attacked him.

At any rate, Beni shot him several times, emptying his six-shooter at Slade, and ended with a shotgun blast. He told his men that when Slade was dead, they could put him in a packing box and bury him. Everyone who witnessed the shooting assumed Slade would die. Jack Slade, though badly wounded, was far from dead. He got up and yelled at Beni not to trouble himself with his burial, and the that he would live to carry one of his ears on his watch chain—which he later did.

Robber's Roost at Virginia Dale, a well known stage station of the Overland Route from 1862 to the opening of the railroad. At one time the home of Jack Slade. Larimer County, Colorado.

Slade killed Beni in 1861 or 1862. He had been warned repeatedly by friends along the stage line that Beni was out to kill him. Slade claimed the old trader had made another attempt on his life, and indeed, sources say Beni tried to ambush Slade at his ranch at Cold Springs. Slade caught him and told him to make a will. He tied Beni to a fencepost and shot him several times. There are several versions of the story, each more gruesome than the last, but since there is no hard evidence that Slade tortured Beni in the ways some writers have described, we’ll leave it at that. But it’s certain that when Beni was dead, Slade cut off his ears for trophies, and so Old Jules was dead. Slade went to Fort Laramie and turned himself in, but was let go.



Julesburg depot, 1886

Slade became increasingly violent after this, and was fired by the stage line in 1862. He became known for picking fights and shooting up saloons. Slade was hung by vigilantes in 1864.

The violence at Julesburg, however, was not over. In January and February, 1865, Julesburg and the stage line were attacked many times by Indians. It is believed this was in retaliation for the Sand Creek Massacre. The Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota tribes were involved. On January 7, they attacked Julesburg, defeating about 60 U.S. Army soldiers and around 50 armed civilians.


In the following weeks, the Indians reportedly burned twelve ranches, destroyed more than 100 tons of hay, and attacked a wagon train. They also returned to destroy all of the buildings at Julesburg and cut about 75 miles of telegraph lines west of Julesburg. Ben Holladay presented his claims for losses from the stage company to Congress, totaling about $115,000, a huge fortune at the time.

SURPRISE!  If you would like to enter the drawing for a copy (print or e-book) of The Lady’s Maid, leave a comment below. In this book, an English lady and her maid take to the Oregon trail, and they stop at a trading post that is a little like (but not nearly so violent as) Julesburg. The drawing will be held June 29.

Susan Page Davis is the author of more than forty published novels. A history major, she’s always interested in the unusual happenings of the past. She’s a two-time winner of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and also a winner of the Carol Award and the Will Rogers Medallion, and a finalist in the WILLA Awards and the More Than Magic Contest. Visit her website at: www.susanpagedavis.com .