One-Legged Ben
by
Mildred Stone

Note: Benjamin Franklin Stone (1871-1907) was the son of Andrew Larkin Stone
Photos courtesy of Zelma Stone Shules

~Preface~

This is a collection of stories about three generations of the Stone family, beginning with Larkin Stone.  These are actual events, and as they are passed down by word-of-mouth, some details may vary, depending upon the storyteller.  I do not claim to have the details authentically correct, rather to save the stories as handed down, as nearly correct as possible.

Ben Stone c1890

Two young brothers stopped their horses to rest a bit. It was late afternoon. They had ridden all day. The horses were lathered and wet with sweat. The older man, Jim, was four years older than the younger, Ben. His face showed fatigue and lines of worry. Ben, with bowed head  and slumped shoulders, showed extreme fatigue and lines of pain. Could he go farther?  He had no choice. To give up would be to die. He had to get home to a doctor or  - with a glint of hope,  maybe  ---. It was in the late 1880's, somewhere in the country around Chickasha or Comanche, Oklahoma.  They were strong men, hard men living in a hard time. They were the sons of Larkin and Elba (Jones) Stone who had married in Texas, had their first son, Jim , in Comanche, Texas, then  moved to Oklahoma where the next three children were born. The children grew up near Chickasha, living off the land, but mostly ranching.  They married and started their families there, and the boys still worked together on the ranch.

"How are you doing, Ben?"  inquired Jim with concern.

"Let's get off the horses and rest a bit." answered Ben, clenching his teeth and trying to hold back the pain in his leg.

They had been working stock out at a line shack.  When chasing a steer, Ben's horse had stumbled in a gopher hole and fallen. Ben, when falling, had hit a snag which went deep into his lower leg. That was three days ago, and he had helped Jim at the line shack until last night his leg was more swollen and the gash was red and angry looking.

"We've got to get you home or to a doctor." said Jim emphatically.

"But it's a three day trip to get there."

"We'll leave things here and start early in the morning." said Jim with finality.

Ben spent a sleepless night with the pain in his leg increasing.  Morning finally came. There was a red streak from the wound, traveling up his leg. He was sick and could hardly get around. Jim hurriedly got the horses up and everything ready to go. When Jim tried to help Ben onto his horse, Ben said shortly, "You get on your horse. I'll get on mine." After a second try, with clenched teeth because of the pain, he made it up onto his horse.

Jim said to himself regretfully, "How can he possibly make it home!"

When they stopped to rest they tied their horses and then sat down on a log. Ben pulled his torn pant-leg up and was horrified at the swelling and increased red lines running up his leg. "Blood poisoning!" he gasped. "Jim, you're going to have to cut my leg off."

"Ben , I can't do that.  How could I cut it off?"

"You have a sharp knife, don't you?"

"Even though it is sharp, I couldn't possibly cut off your leg."

"Jim, I'm going to die, and you are too, if you don't cut off my leg." said Ben emphatically.

Jim built a campfire and put a branding iron in to heat, took his already sharp knife out and whetted it a few licks, then set about  the gruesome task. He knew it was the only chance for Ben's life. He gave Ben a stick to clench between his teeth. Ben had lain down on his back. He caught a bush on each side to hold onto with his hands.

"Hold on tight, Ben, this is going to be rough!" said Jim as he started in.

Even through all the excruciating pain, Ben never lost consciousness until Jim finished cutting and took the red hot iron and started searing it to stop the flow of blood. After finishing, Jim sank down weak and nauseated, thankful that Ben was unconscious, wondering if he had saved Ben's life. He didn't know it then but he had!

In about 1890, Ben took his wife, Ruth (Burkes) Stone and their small son, Alba, to Argentina, South America to join his Uncle Jarad Jones, who had settled in the mountains about 500 miles inland from Buenos Aires and was prospering as a rancher.

Jarad Jones and his wife, Barbara.

Jarad was the first of the kin to go to South America, though quite a number of the Stones followed after Ben and his family, stayed up to a few years, and then returned to the States. Jarad never left there, and his descendants are still on the ranch he settled.

Ben was the first to follow soon after Jarad. He prospered with freighting, using mule-drawn wagons and two-wheeled ox carts. His freighting line ran from a town near "Uncle Jarad’s" to Buenos Aires  ---  500 miles one way, and taking two months or more to make the trip.

Ben's wife, Ruth, with son, Alba, stayed with him there until Alba was five years old.  He was a sickly boy and Ruth grew discouraged and dissatisfied with Ben away so much, so she took Alba and came back to the States. Sometime later Alba died and the family lost track of Ruth.

Andrew Suttal (Sut), second son of Larkin and Elba Stone was living in Rising Star, Texas, when he married Edna Demarie Hoover. After their first son, James Ernest, was born in 1891, they moved to Oklahoma, where their next four sons were born: Leroy Madison (Roy) born in 1893, in Ninnecah,  David Larkin (Bud)  born in 1894 in Dixie, and Alanzo Suttal born in 1897, but died  in 1898 or 9. Then their last son, Claude Brooks was born in 1900 in Chickasha.

When Claude was about two years old, Sut and Edna took him and went on horseback across the Washita River, to see some friend neighbors and to transact some business. They left the three older boys at home to take care of themselves and the chores. While they were there it came a hard rain and the river flooded. They waited another day to try to get across the river, but the rain didn't let up and the river didn't run down.

"We've got to get home to see about the boys and the chores." commented Sut.

Edna frowned and answered, "But how can we get across the river?"

"The horses can swim it."

"But they will go downstream and we won't be able to get out of the river. I'm afraid and we have little Claude to think about."

"Don't be afraid, I'll stay close below you to help you, and Claude can ride behind you and hold around your waist. Come on, let's go."

With fear in her eyes and misgivings, Edna agreed to go.  She was worried about the older boys at home and what mischief they might get into being by themselves so long. But looking down at the muddy, raging river with brush, logs, and debris washing down, she wondered how they could possibly make it.  But Sut could always do what he set out to do; so if he felt they could do it, she would trust him.

He put Claude up behind Edna with instructions: "Claude put your arms around Mama's waist, like that, now hold on tight because Mama will have all she can do to rein the horse."

They stepped their horses down into the shallow edge. The horses didn't like it. They didn't like the smell of the muddy water, they didn't like the looks of the rushing, tumbling water and they didn't like the terrible roaring sound.

Sut had said, "When you get to the deeper water, head him into it as fast as you can and aim as straight for the other shore as you can. I'll be right with you." He assured her.

Everything seemed to go very well until they hit the deep water and neared the main current of the muddy churning water. Edna couldn't keep her horse going straight across. He tried to swim with the current downstream. Sut stayed below her and kept pushing them as straight across as he could. They had to watch for logs and trees. The roar was so loud they couldn't hear each other. Edna was trying to yell something, but Sut was doing all he could to keep them going. Directly, he felt something wash and lodge against his leg down in the water. He reached down and pulled Claude up out of the water. He had either fallen off or had gotten washed off Edna's horse and just happened to lodge against Sut's leg. He then realized what Edna had been trying to yell at him.

In 1906, Ben's brothers, Jim and Sut, decided to take their wives and families and go to Argentina. Uncle Jarad was building up his ranch and doing well; Ben had a thriving freighting business and wanted his brothers to come over and work with him.

Jim and Sut talked it over; "Maybe it's our chance to build up something good. We're not getting ahead here very fast.  Let's try it."

So, to South America they went, Jim and Martha (Mattie) and their three boys and two girls; ages from one to eleven years; and Sut and Edna and their four boys, ranging in age from six to fifteen years.

They went by train from Oklahoma to New York, then by ship to Liverpool, England where they stayed about two days, and then sailed to Buenos Aires. From there they probably went on Ben's freight line the five hundred miles up the river to Uncle Jarad’s.

Ben Stone's wagon train in Argentina

They worked with Ben for scarcely a year before Ben met his death on a freighting trip. He was hauling  on a two-wheeled ox-cart. When stopping for the night, they would use props to balance the cart when unhitched from the oxen, then sleep under the cart for protection from the weather. In 1907, one morning after sleeping under the cart, Ben started out from under it. He hadn't propped it well and it tipped and caught him on the back and broke his back. They buried him there about one hundred and fifty miles from Buenos Aires. He was just 35 years old.

 
Ben Stone's death certificate - written in spanish.

Jim, Mattie, and their children came back to the States. Mattie couldn't live with that hard, rough life, and Jim didn't find it as prosperous as he had hoped. Sut and Edna stayed another year and a half after Ben died. Sut and the older boys continued the freighting line. Ernest was 16 then, Roy 14, and Bud 13. The boys by this time could do a man’s work. They were strong, energetic and liked to play tricks on each other. On one of their trips, they had stopped for lunch and a short rest. Roy went to sleep, and Ernest and Bud got his lines and tied him up. When he awoke and found himself tied, he went into a rage.  Thinking they had used their lines to tie him, he got out his razor sharp knife and cut the lines all to pieces  ---  only to find out it was his own lines. He then had to start in to mend his lines before they could go on.

Sut finally grew discouraged and discontented. He was ready to come back to the States. "Well, Edna," he said, “This hasn't worked out as well as we hoped. That and losing brother Ben and brother Jim leaving. Let's make a raft, pack up and float down the river to Buenos Aires and go back to Oklahoma."

"Yes, Sut, I'm ready, you know it has been terribly lonesome for me and Claude, with you and the other boys gone so long at a time and with the other hardships here, and our folks are all over there."

"It's settled then. Me and the boys will build the raft. It has to be big enough to carry the six of us, your two big trunks, supplies for the trip out, and what of our belongings we can take. Of course we don't have much and that's good because we can't take much."

So, two and one half years after they went to South America, they packed all they could get of their clothes and belongings in the trunks, loaded it and what they could on the raft, and started down the river. Though Edna was anxious to go home, she fearfully wondered how they would make it 500 miles by raft down the river. She was afraid of the water and could not swim. The older boys were grown enough to help, but Claude was just past eight years old.

The raft, though strongly built, was crude and rough. They had peeled long poles to help guide the raft  It would take them about a month or six weeks to get down the river. They would drift all day, and at night, with the help of the poles, push the raft to the edge and camp on shore for the night. Edna dreaded most the snakes along the river shore. They were in the grass and hanging from the dense trees.

Most of the river was rough water. Edna had a box or low stool to sit on. It wasn't easy to stay on it, so after some time she began to develop a "carbuncle” or boil on her seat. It grew bigger and more painful and soon she couldn't sit, but she couldn't stand, and there was no room to lie down. Finally Sut told her, "We're going to have to lance that carbuncle. The core is ready to come out."

"But I can't stand for you to even touch it, much less cut it open."

"Edna," he said with finality, “It’s got to be done."

"Ernest," he called, "You and Roy come and help hold your mother while I lance the carbuncle."

According to the story as handed down, "They held her and lanced it, and she yelled like an Indian" but, Oh, the relief when the core popped out.

They came on down the river, sometimes it was smooth, most of the time it was rough, and sometimes through rapids that threatened to capsize the raft, at which times all hands had to work to keep their supplies and belongings on. They came to one such place where the river made a turn and the current rushed into a rocky bluff. The current was too strong for them to keep the raft away from the bluff. It  wrecked on some large rocks. They lost one of  the trunks and a lot of the supplies, but were fortunate to save their lives. They had to push over to the shore and repair the raft before they could go on.

From Buenos Aires, they sailed back to Liverpool, then on to New York, finally returning to Oklahoma by train. They remained in Oklahoma for seven years, then migrated to New Mexico.