Red Rowling’s - The King of Big Springs

By George M. Goodwin

Nick Waters had never wanted to be anything but what he was born. The son of an Iowa farmer. 
Then after his pa was killed in the war between the states and his ma died of fever he decided to go into the army himself. After he was wounded, he finished out the war in charge of a prison camp for Confederate soldiers. With the war over, he headed west to find a new home, a wife and maybe children. After some time of drifting around it looked like maybe he'd found just what and who he'd hoped for in the town of Big Springs. 
Not knowing at the time that if he wanted it, it would have to be gained from fighting with a rancher who demanded that the people of Big Springs call him King Red. Nick Waters was not a man who would call anybody king. It was peace he wanted, but if necessary, he'd give them a war like no other.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pale Horse Publications
• Release date: May 31, 2024
• ISBN: 9798227763518

George M. Goodwin

George was born in 1960 in Jefferson County Alabama. The fifth of nine children, eight boys and one girl. The family was raised poor, but not poorly raised. At home, George was taught morals, ethics and respect. Reading, writing and arithmetic at school. Love, honor and obedience to God at church. He grew up on John Wayne movies, country music and the writings of Louis L' Amour, Robert Louis Stevenson, H.G. Wells and Jules Verne.  

Book preview

Chapter 1

Nick Waters had not wanted the job as sheriff of Big Springs. There or anywhere else for that matter, but when it was offered to him, he had taken it anyway. Being a lawman was something he’d never considered doing. He figured he’d done his part in the war and now he just wanted a regular job and a peaceful life. The problem was he’d not been able to find that and he’d soon be twenty-five years old.

It was time to be settling down and having a family. He surely had no plans of spending the rest of his life working as a stable hand and sleeping in a hay loft. Nick was born the son of an Iowa farmer in 1845. His great grandfather Nicholas, who he was named after had joined the revolutionist against England, when he was only a fifteen-year-old boy back in 1775 and fought until the wars end in 1783. In 1791, he and his wife had a son they named Clifford. Clifford grew up to be a businessman, first in Boston, then in 1820, he moved his family to Indiana. In 1821, Nick’s father was born there.

In 1841, he married Nick’s mother and moved to Des Moines Iowa. There they worked their small farm for two years before making a deal on sixty acres in the town of Ames, Iowa. Nick was born there in 1844. They were to keep what their family needed for food.

The rest of the first two harvests would be paid to the man he had gotten the land from as payment for it. He grew up there and was happy just being a farmer’s son. Working the soil alongside his pa and seeing the crops grow until time to harvest pleased him. Just before harvest in 1861, word of the Civil War had reached them. In the spring of 62’ with a good crop either to be sold or stored away, Pa had been called on to join the fight. Eighteen at the time, Nick had wanted to go as well, but his pa had convinced him that he was needed more there.

To tend the farm and watch over his Ma.

I’ve taught you well Nick, how to put in a crop and harvest it alone if need be until I return, he told him. "Then we’ll really show these folks of Ames how to run a farm. Less than a year later, both of his parents were gone. Pa from a rebel bullet and Ma from some kind of sickness a lot of people had.

So, in the fall of 1862, Nick Waters had joined the army of the Union himself. In March of sixty-three, he was given a field commission as a lieutenant for single handedly killing four Confederate snipers who’d had his entire company held down. He was to lead a troop of five other soldiers scouting the area ahead of the company for snipers. Also, looking for the best routes that a whole company of men could travel. The Confederate army it seemed just fought where they could find Union troops willing to do the same.

Chapter 2

The Union on the other hand sent out scouts to map out the areas and routes for as many as a hundred soldiers to travel. They looked at road and trail conditions, water sources and for the best battle positions. They were trained to see and record or remember everything they saw that might be useful. Four short months after being promoted to Lieutenant, Nick and his squad of men stumbled into a nest of enemy soldiers. Through spies or other means, the movement of most troops were pretty well known, within a few miles anyway. These men were completely unknown to be in that part of the country. The five soldiers under his command were all killed and Nick was badly wounded and left for dead himself. For three days, he clung to life unable to do little more than drag himself over and prop against a tree trunk. Then a company of his own soldiers found him and sent for the surgeon.

After some weeks of recovering from his wounds, Nick was promoted to the rank of Captain and spent the rest of the war overseeing a prison camp for captured Confederate soldiers. In 1865, the war ended and Nick found he was suddenly all alone.

He had kin somewhere back east, but he’d never met nor heard from them. He hadn’t the heart to go back to the farm without his ma and pa. Knowing it would not be the same without Pa at his side plowing fields. Instead, he headed west.

Chapter 3

Hopefully, there to build a life for himself. A life of peace that would include a job, a wife and maybe children and no more fighting. During his time as head of the prison, he’d spent none of his meager pay. It was far from a fortune, but he figured it would last him a while. He had found it harder than he had believed to find decent work. Farming and soldiering was about the only skills he had other than a rare speed and deadly ability with firearms. He was a cowboy by no means, although, he did ride well enough. He also didn’t plan to spend half a lifetime searching for the empty promise of gold that may never be found. After a short time, his money gave out and he was forced to take odd jobs just to eat, to merely survive. Mostly it was things like mucking out stalls at a stable or swamping the saloons after closing time. On a couple of occasions, he had been hired to help build a house and once a store building. It was no way for a man of his age to be earning a living, but it had kept him alive for two years. While in Abilene in the year of 1868, he had latched onto a wagon train that was headed to California as a meat hunter for the eight families that made up the train. He would get his share of whatever meals were made from the meat he was able to bring in. On top of that, the wagon master had promised him a dollar a day as soon as they reached California.

Chapter 4

He wouldn’t have gotten the job had they known he’d be going only as far as Arizona with them.

Of course, at the time, Nick hadn’t known that himself. When the wagon train pulled into Big Springs, Arizona, it was supposed to be just for water in their barrels and some needed supplies.

There was something about the little town that appealed to Nick. That pretty girl sitting on her porch swing watching them come into town may have had something to do with it. Two days later, the wagon train pulled out, now short one hunter. Having not finished the trip, the wagon master felt he didn’t owe Nick any payment. Nick had to agree with him.

A deal’s a deal, he said, "and