Belle Starr: The Mysterious Stranger

in #history5 years ago (edited)

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Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

We're continuing with the story of Belle Starr who was branded "The Bandit Queen" after her many successful robberies in the Old West. But at this point in my series she has retired from her outlaw ways and has declared her place will no longer tolerate fugitives of justice.

She also made a commitment to the federal Indian agency that she would not harbor any criminals.

The influx of white settlers

I found this very interesting...each native Indian living on the reservation was given an alotment of land to do as they please and many enterprising Indians leased out their land or a portion of it, to ambitious white settlers, many of whom had come from the Southern states which were devastated by the Civil War.

The reservation allowed what they called "Five year improvement leases." Under these agreements settlers could come and clear the land and raise crops rent free. But the catch was that they were required to build a cabin and a grain storage building, dig a well, and clear and cultivate a specific number of acres each year.

If at the time the lease expired the tenant wanted to remain on the land they would pay the owner one fourth of their crop as rent.

Creative land development

This was an inovvative way that the Indians could get their land developed and start bringing in an income and it was very successful because obviously the settlers flocked to these lands as it was rent free for the first five years.

Belle was approached by a couple who wanted to rent some of her land but she was hesitant about the man who she said had a "hard" face and a distinct coldness about him. And she should know shouldn't she? After running with outlaws her entire life including her association with Jesse James. She could read people.

She told friends that this new tenant named Edgar Watson "had an aura of cruelty about him" that she did not like. However, his wife was wonderful, loving, caring and cheerful. Go figure.

Belle has a new friend

Later, friends of Belle described Mrs. Watson as "A young woman of MORE than ordinary refinement and quite chummy, and Belle saw in her a potentially good neighbor."

The Watson's had been on the lease program in the neighborhood for one year but Edgar was regarded as mysterious. He was not friendly and didn't associate with others and the Indians didn't trust him. One of the qualifications for the yearly renewal of leased land was that you had to have three Indians vouch for you.

Well, Edgar had trouble finding any who would vouch for him so his current lease owner suggested he just rent some land from Belle and that's how Belle met them and why they were paying for rent instead of using the free lease program.

Sorry for getting into these details but in order to make sense of this whole situation I had to explain it further.

So you had Belle who wanted some income, you had the Watson's who wanted to stay in the area because the soil was rich and the crops were prosperous and then you had Mrs. Watson who had become a friend of Belle's so it seemed like a win win deal didn't it?

An alarming development

Belle and Mrs. Watson spent lots of time together and were very happy with their new friendship. Then one day Mrs. Watson let slip that the reason they were in Indian territory was that Edgar was wanted for murder in Florida! They were avoiding the law and basically in hiding.

Great. Now Belle has a dilemma. If the reservation police or the federal agents find out about Edgar they could kick her out and off her land. They had threatened to do exactly that if she was ever caught harboring fugitives again.

Belle tries to get rid of Watson

She went to Watson to refund his money but he refused it and they had a heated exchange of words. Then she mailed a letter to him with the cash, explaining that she had already rented the land to another man named Tate.

When Watson got the letter he went to Tate and told him that there were so many agents and deputies going to her place all the time that it was only a matter of time before they took her into custody and as her tenant he, Tate, might even be accused of aiding in her criminal activity.

Even more anger between Belle and Watson

Tate promptly advised Belle that he wouldn't be able to go through with their agreement. Belle was furious. Watson showed up at her cabin to talk about the situation and Belle cursed him for interfering with her business affairs and then added..

"I don't suppose the United States officers would trouble you any but the FLORIDA OFFICERS MIGHT!" At this point Watson knew that Belle had gotten his dark secret from his wife. It shut him up and he got on his horse and rode off.

Later that month he moved back into a rental cabin where he was before but this time he was renting instead of leasing. Belle didn't see him again but Pearl was listening to the conversation in the cabin and scolded her mother for being so careless. Belle just laughed it off.
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This post may seem like it's full of minutia but I guarantee you that it's not and is vital to the comprehension of the rest of Belle's story which continues tomorrow. She thinks she's "fixed" her problem but I'm not so sure.

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck

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PS- ya know....you might just be a redneck if:

You missed fifth grade graduation because you had jury duty!

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This girl can't stay out of trouble.

Very true sir, very true. She was very savvy and street smart but made some unwise decisions.

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howdy esteem, it is my pleasure and thank you for the upvote, God bless you!

Oh my! He sounds nasty!

howdy there Melinda! yes Ma'am he was bad news, a stange couple too with her being nice and him being a psycho but then I guess we see alot of that these days. Just ask Mrs. J! lol.

Hey did you see that data post today? lol. that thing ain't accurate though, gott take it with a grain of salt. Well, I don't know what time frame they're using do you? If it's 24 hours then it's not accurate because they've had me down for much more than a days worth and today they had a guy down for 316 and he doesn't hardly comment at all! So i guess we need to figure out what amount of time those numbers are for befor i bash them too bad, but right now I don't trust them.

I was thinking the same thing with those numbers. I felt like I was busier the day before, so maybe some of those numbers got tacked on to the list today. Who knows? It is good to know that it's not perfectly accurate though, I would hate to depend on it.

yes the one guy showing 316 votes so I knew it couldn't have been accurate, the most I've done in a huge day, like 16 hours was about 200. and that's too dang much! lol.

200! Until I started hanging out with you I was content with 50!

I don't know if I'm a good influence or a bad one! lol..after awhile you have to ask yourself if this is the way to be spending your time. Mrs. J has severe doubts! and I don't blame her. I like the theory that alot of the experts are saying these days though, that there are many big, institutional investors waiting to come into the crypto market when it reaches bottom because they want the best chance to make money so they are helping to force the market down. Then when they jump in the market will go up.

Well... some 5th graders think way better than old people... just saying... hahaha

howdy blacklux! well yes Ma'am some 5th graders think better than SOME old people. At least I hope it's just some! lol.

Oh oh! I see trouble brewing for Belle.

Howdy sir Vincent! Yes sir, it could be trouble for her but she seems to be able to get out of bad situations. Thanks for reading and commenting!

I had the feeling there was going to be more to that guy. Poor wife, I hope she wasnt in trouble when he found out about her slip-up.

Hey janton, never a dull moment in Belle's life, haha. So the saga continues.

Janton, you must be a redneck if you take 20 years or so to get to grade 5, lol.

haha! yay angiemitchell you got the redneck joke! Someone else wrote me and they didn't get it but yes, that's a classic joke about people taking forever to graduate. But of course now days they would just pass them through even if they didn't know anything.
Much of our High School education over here is horrible.

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howdy there steemitboard! I like rewards thank you, the numbers ain't bad!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh I see!!! Now I understand!!!

sorry about the cover photos but at least you found yesterdays and now it makes sense.

Everything is okay now, except the fact that Bell is dead :(

It's crazy how life works. Even if she had a a good intuition, it was enough to protect her from getting killed!

I know Miss Lena....what's ironic is that she decided to live a peaceful and law abiding life and as soon as she does that she gets killed! Too young too. How has your weekend gone so far?

I know Janton, very ironic indeed and sad :(

Oh my weekend, thank you for asking! Well, I got this new but cheep light that is used by carpenters, painters and other workers. I found out on YouTube that it can be used for food photography as well, but it's not as good as I was hoping for. Anyway, I am going to do another photoshoot now and try different setting. Will see if I get it work better.

How is your weekend 😊

Howdy Miss Lena! Well that new light thing is an interesting idea but it's too bad that it doesn't work very well, does it work at all? Or was it a waste of money?

My weekend has been great. Yesterday it was sunny and 73 degrees so we got alot of sun. today is sunny and cooler but with blue skies and is a typical Texas winter day and I'm mostly working on catching up on steemit, missed half a day because of church.

Do you work on your Monday veggie thing on Sundays?

Today photoshoot went much smoother than the last one, so maybe it's going to work well after all. I guess I had to try few different angles and it is possible that every photoshoot will require something little different. I don't give up easily, lol. Oh and I am going to post the Fruits and Veggies Monday later. It's not that much work, I just copy everything except the intro.

Well, I must admit, I am jealous of the weather you are having; Texas winter, lol. That's not a winter!!! Altough, we had few warmer days too actuality and even some sun. I am going to read your new post now.

Howdy back Miss Lena... oh I'm so glad the new light may be something you can work with now. Any help is good although I don't know how much help your photos need, none that I know of! lol.
Yes the Texas winters are quite mild, I think the average daytime high in the winter is like 50 degrees F which would be 10 C and usually the sun is shining even if it's cool.

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