8 Hours Left to Get a Free Copy of “Rough Enough”

You still have time, since I live on the west coast of the USA. it’s just past 4PM Pacific Standard Time and the Free Offer through Kindle Books for your PC, or Phone, etc., is still available until midnight PST. That’s still 8 hours away!

Get the Book! https://www.amazon.com/Rough-Enough-Richard-McBee-ebook/dp/B00HCQNBB0/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=book%2F+rough+enough+%2F+by+Richard+Mcbee&qid=1575937017&sr=8-1

When you start a book you may only have a few resources. I actually began this project back in 1994 when my father, Richard Sr., handed me several boxes of old pictures, a couple of Civil War knives, and a writing box. Within the box were 14 letters and a small badly battered diary, written by Richard Headley Clow, my Great Grandfather. The letters were all from the period of 1864 through 1869. The pictures were labeled with full names in some cases, and in others they were scribbled on the back with cryptic words like “Clow’s First Wife, Larpenteur’s Daughter”.

I sat on these clues to another man’s life and times until I retired in 2006, over ten years after the death of my father, the last living soul to my knowledge who had a personal relationship with my Great Grandfather. Of course I had read them and looked at them, but until I began doing research into the actual life and times of Richard H. Clow I didn’t understand fully the breadth and depth of his long, adventurous, and fulfilling life from 1847 through 1926. Oh! That I had started 20 years earlier on this book, when so many others were alive to tell and reinforce his tales.

Below are pp. 215 – 218 of my Copyrighted book so you can see how a man can be born in Nova Scotia and die in Oregon 79 years later and cover a lot of territory before passing on.

Chronological Timeline for Richard Headley Clow’s Life

1847—May 25, 1847: birth of Richard Clow in Nova Scotia, Canada. [The military records are incorrect in stating that Richard Clow was born in Boston, see below].

1853—Richard Clow, at six years of age, travels from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, with his sisters, Agnes (22yr) and Alice (8yr) on the Brig “Belle” to Boston. [Note passenger list (fig. 39) gives the country of citizenship for the three as “Nova Scotia” and the country which they desire to become citizens as “U.S.”]

1853—Approximate year of birth of Mary Bingham, first wife of Richard Clow, in Little Sioux, Iowa.

1861—June 6, 1861: Birth of Melinda Story, second wife of Richard Clow, in Tekamah, Nebraska.

1864—August 18, 1864 to November 2, 1864: Clow’s first enlistment in Civil War (100 days) in 22^nd Massachusetts Volunteers. He was not assigned to a unit from this enlistment.

1865—January 1865: Clow’s second enlistment in Civil War (a 3-year enlistment which only lasts 7 months) in 56^th Massachusetts Infantry, serving at Petersburg through July 1865 when he mustered out at the end of the war.

1865—1967: Clow moves west to live with his brother and family in Minnesota and Wisconsin and farms with them.

1867—1870: On April 26, 1867, Clow signs his third enlistment, a 3 year period in the 13^th Infantry, Company C. He joins in Minneapolis, Minnesota, enlisting from his home in Wisconsin. Known postings are: Ft. Shaw, Camp Cooke and Ft. Buford. Clow’s possible other posting is Ft. Ellis. On April 26, 1870, Clow musters out of the 13^th Infantry, Company C, as a First Sergeant in Dakota Territory and goes to work as a clerk for Charles Larpenteur at the Ft. Buford trading post. During the year of 1870, Clow marries his first wife, Mary Bingham (Charles Larpenteur’s stepdaughter).

1871—May 15, 1871: Clow, his wife, and the Larpenteur family close the trading post at Ft. Buford and travel together from Ft. Buford down the Missouri to farm outside of Little Sioux, Iowa. Clow buys land for a farm and also works for Charles Larpenteur.

1872—Baby Bertie Clow is born January 19, 1872, and dies on March 4 of that same year. She is buried on March 9 according to her tombstone. Clow’s first wife, Mary Bingham Clow, dies on April 6, 1872. Following Charles Larpenteur’s death on November 15, 1872, Clow moves in with the Driggs family after selling off his land.

1873—1875: Clow stays in the Little Sioux, Iowa area and works the farm for himself and his mother-in-law, Rebecca. 

1875—Richard Clow leaves the Little Sioux area and passes through Laramie and Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory en route to the Black Hills.

1876—1879: During the next three years he stakes a claim and mines the Golden Seal Mine outside of Deadwood.

1879—1882: Clow buys and works a small dairy farm in the Black Hills near Deadwood. He rides a guard on the Deadwood to Rapid City stagecoach.

1879—December 24, 1879: Melinda (Linnie) Story, the future wife of Richard Clow, leaves Tekamah, Nebraska, arriving in Deadwood, Dakota Territory on May 15, 1880.

1880—The census of 1880 documents Clow as owning a small farm in an unincorporated town outside of Deadwood, Dakota Territory. It documents Melinda Story as a seamstress in the town of Deadwood.

On November 25, 1880, Richard Clow marries his second wife Melinda Story. The Methodist/Episcopal Pastor, Rev. R. H. Dolliver, presides at the wedding in the town of Deadwood, Dakota Territory.

1881—November 4, 1881: Daughter Cora Cochran Clow is born to Richard and Melinda Clow in Deadwood, Dakota Territory.

1883—April 15, 1883: The Clows leave Deadwood and travel by wagon to Bear Lake County, Idaho, arriving on June 3, 1883.

1888—April 16, 1888: Son Robert Denton Clow is born to Richard and Melinda Clow in Montpelier, Idaho. The birth is documented in the log of births kept by the county midwife Mrs. Francis E. Bridges.  

1891—February 13, 1891: Richard Clow applies for and receives a homestead, Certificate #1096 for lots 3 & 4 of Sec35Twn13SR46E and lots 1 & 2 of Sec2Twn14R46E. This is 158 acres with a contiguous four mile stretch of land that runs along the Idaho/Wyoming border near Raymond Canyon and Raymond Mountain, Wyoming. The Clows begin sheep farming.

1895—Richard Clow incorporates his ranch with two other men, Beckman and James Redman, to form the 320-acre “CBR Sheep Company” outside of Montpelier, Idaho.

1896—The ranch dissolves and Clow goes to court. Richard Clow assigns his stock to his wife Melinda. The final ruling by the Supreme Court of the State of Idaho, March 24, 1897, rules against the Clows.

1898—March 2, 1898: The Clows sell out and leave Bear Lake County, Idaho, traveling by wagon to Granite, Oregon. They arrived on May 5, 1898. Richard Clow takes out several mining claims and tries mining for gold a second time.

1899—July 31, 1899: The Clows leave Granite, Oregon and travel by wagon to Eugene, Oregon at urging from their daughter Cora Clow who was teaching in Eugene. They arrive August 18, 1899. They remain in Lane County, Oregon for five years.

1905—December 26, 1905: The Clows depart Eugene for Mapleton, Oregon, arriving on December 29, 1905. In Mapleton they run a livery stable and a small farm. They then begin managing the Mapleton Hotel about 1907. They do this up until about 1909, after which time they go back to running the horse stable and small farm. Their son, Robert Denton Clow, runs the mail boat between Florence and Mapleton for a period of time.

1907—1913:The Siuslaw River freezes over during the winter of 1907. During this period Richard and Robert Clow are documented in a photograph swimming in the Siuslaw River during the summer of 1907. In 1913, new construction in Mapleton includes Joe’s Warehouse, New Hotel, Bigelow’s Pool Hall, and Noffzinger’s Boat Shop. On April 11, 1913 the ship, Anvil, runs aground on North Beach near Florence, Oregon. The Clow family goes down river by boat to see the stranded ship on the beach and take photos.

1915—July 3: Richard Clow returns to Granite County, Oregon to mine for gold with his son, Robert Clow. A relative, Oma McBee, cousin by marriage of Clow’s daughter Cora to Elmer McBee, travels through Mapleton on her way to teach in the tiny town of Earl.

1921—October 28, 1921: Richard and Melinda Clow move from Mapleton to Eugene, Oregon and buy four acres of land on River Road where they live until August 11, 1925.

1926—March 1, 1926: The Clows buy land from their daughter and son-in-law, Elmer and Cora (Clow) McBee.

1926—November 19, 1926: Death of Richard H. Clow in Eugene, Oregon.

1946—May 25, 1946: Death of Clow’s wife, Melinda (Story) Clow in Eugene, Oregon.

I hope you enjoy the book!