Firecrackers, 50 Cents

In 1879, a Kansas man, Daniel Bockins Budd, received word that his younger brother Philip had died suddenly in a small northern California town close to the Nevada border. A few days later, Daniel Budd left his small farm, his job at the prison in Atchison, his wife, Josephine, and their four small children, and traveled by train to Eureka, Nevada, to settle his brother's final accounts.

Daniel Bockins Budd was my great-grandfather, the patriarch of the Budd family members who live in Wyoming today. His small, hand-written diary recorded the monumental change of direction his life took after he heard of his brother's death. This journal leaves questions among the facts, but it provides the basis for telling and retelling an enthralling frontier-day saga that began with a few lines, penciled into his life's record.

An area newspaper gave notice of Philip's death, but it also indicated some confusion at his passing:

BUDD, PHILIP P. Placer Weekly Argus, Auburn, Saturday, 2–15–1879

Sudden Death at Borland's Hotel — A man named P. P. Budd, a traveler registered at Borland's as belonging to Eureka, Nevada, was yesterday morning found dead in his room. He had arrived only the evening before from Stockton, so we learn, and he seemed to be a respectable-looking miner. He had in his possession $605 in money and a note for $1200. His death is believed to have been caused by disease of the heart. He was about 35 years of age. The news of his death was telegraphed to Stockton where it was thought his friends lived. But the answer came that, so far as known, he had no relatives there. The Odd Fellows of Austin, Nevada, telegraphed to the Lodge here to take charge of the remains, which was done.

When Daniel Budd began his journey, on February 19, 1879, he wrote in his diary, "Started from Atchison, Kansas with three hundred and eighty three dollars." The diary makes numerous references to railroad fare or "R Road fair," as Budd wrote it, and he apparently traveled directly to Eureka, Nevada, where he learned that his younger brother owned a sizeable number of cattle and horses. No facts were recorded, or at least did not survive, to explain how Philip, at age thirty-five, had acquired these assets. My attempts to retrace Philip Budd's presence in Auburn indicate that he had gone to take the mineral baths there, said to be medicinal — and that he had died of natural causes, perhaps the "disease of the heart" as described in the newspaper. A white rock headstone bearing his name stands in the Auburn cemetery, marking his life and death.

Budd's diary goes on to record a three-day train ride to Eureka, where he found a hotel, paid a dollar for a room, and, as his diary says, "wrote to wife." The next morning he "came out on ranch 45 miles" in an area known locally as Grubs Well. The diary doesn't say how he traveled the forty-five miles (a considerable distance), whether by wagon or saddle horse, to locate his brother's property. And it doesn't say who showed him the whereabouts of the cattle, although a March entry — "tired you bet" — suggests a long day's viewing.

After checking into the Eureka hotel, where he headquartered for the duration of his visit, Budd undertook to gather the cattle and to count and brand them, after which they could be sold. The cattle market would be more favorable at a railhead nearer the East Coast, he thought, and he set about organizing a roundup and then a trail drive.

A month later, on March 10, he noted, "Eighty dollars for attorney fees and .75 for dinner, .50 for breakfast and .25 for cup of coffee." He paid for washing, tobacco, and "$5 to the Destitute." Three days later, "Visited my Brother's Grave. Wrote to Wife."

The following week his entry was similar, perhaps indicating that he had begun to feel somewhat settled: "Wrote letter to the children, letter from wife. Shaved and Boots Blacked .50 Segars .50 Went to Church .50." The next day, again: "Wrote to Wife ... Tobaco .25 Beer .10 Bed .50."

These entries suggest that Daniel Budd was an honorable man, since he left more of his money with the church and the "Destitute" than he spent on beer and cigars! Eighty dollars for attorney fees is significant, and that payment must have made a good dent in the small bankroll he'd brought from Kansas.

On March 6, the diary had only one line: "McKay wants cattle." Hugh McKay was a Nevada man, presumably an acquaintance of Philip's, who would become Budd's business partner. On April 13, Budd "wrote to McKay." A month later, the two men signed a formal agreement duly recorded in Eureka County, Nevada, May of 1879. The agreement specified that "as soon as a favorable opportunity offers, and a sufficient amount of money can be realized to warrant a reasonable profit, the two parties will sell the same at any point on their route easterly."

The partners agreed to use Daniel Budd's brand, the 67, and they proceeded to find a crew of cowboys and then "commence," as the diary said, to round up and brand the cattle, bunching the cattle where they found them on the unfenced Nevada rangeland. Budd referred numerous times in his diary to this "rodear," a commonly used Spanish word that means "to encircle" or "surround." He used various spellings in his diary —"rodair," "roder," "rodiar," "roduir," and others. (The word functions interchangeably as a noun or verb, and is used among some cattlemen in present times to mean "roundup," or a gathering of cattle.)

When they had the cattle together and branded, the partners still faced a daunting journey from western Nevada to a point of sale, probably Nebraska, as the diary later indicates. Budd's diary follows this undertaking. To Omaha, it would be approximately fifteen hundred miles, one day at a time. Only in a stretch of the imagination could a reader glean in his account the "life of the cowboy" as it is romanticized in modern-day movies and television shows. What appears as colorful and adventuresome in these dramas doesn't sound so entertaining in Budd's diaries. He recorded mundane details nearly each day, commenting frequently about the weather as he and the cowboys worked their way through the big country. "Snowed some in mountains and Rained," and, "I most froze." His diary names some of the men who helped him find cattle in an area he referred to as Empire Ranch. Here he had "jerked beef and dry bread for diner and super," and remarked, "Would like a change." On June 5, 1879, he "Bought 1 Bay Horse $50.00, suit of Close $19.00," and then "started on Rodair." That...