COUNTRYSIDE YARNS
TALL TALE OR TRUTH? YOU DECIDE!
Brotherly Love?, Part 2
by Janis Stein

Join in the continuation as two brothers spend their day in court while the rest of the farmers in the county spend their day making hay.

And so it went, year after year. By the time Louisa’s boys grew into men, they had become skilled farmers in their own right. With all of their hard work over the years, Frank had secured an additional 120 acres of prime farmland. It had been his lifelong dream to see all four of his sons farming side by side. With Frank getting on in years he would help John, his eldest, who would take over operating the home farm, and William, Richard and Robert would each farm 40 acres, with each son’s property bordering the others’.

Robert and Richard replaced their constant bickering with a new desire to become profitable farmers, and it did Frank’s heart good to see his youngest sons, now neighbors, vow to work together and, in the process, set their frustrations with each other aside. In the past, they had argued, it seemed, simply for the sake of arguing, and often the pair fought so hard and so long, in the end they couldn’t remember what it was they were fighting about to begin with. Finally, finally, Louisa thought there would be peace among her children.

Their peace, however, was short-lived.

In no time at all, the brothers fell into their long comfortable routine of trying to out-do the other. If Robert grew a record corn crop, Richard claimed his yield was just a tad better. If Richard’s prize-winning hog earned a blue ribbon at the county fair, Robert claimed it was only because Richard had been mooching Robert’s grain to feed his swine.

Their relationship was anything but brotherly love, and word spread throughout the county of this feud between Robert and Richard. Old-timers placed bets on when the brothers’ arguments would come to blows. Heated words escalated, and it wasn’t long before one brother took a swing at the other, and within the week, the pair stood mute before the judge in the county court when asked to explain just how the local tavern had sustained so much damage.

With each passing year, the brothers found themselves more and more on opposite sides of the courtroom, facing the judge and eager to see in whose favor the judge would rule. The gallery filled to overflowing each time Robert and Richard had a court date, and the spectacle they made proved more entertaining than the Saturday night movie.

The following year’s election brought a new judge to the bench, and Justice Jacob Buhl brought with him a reputation as being fair and just in the sentences he handed down to those unfortunate souls who stood before him. Folks visiting in town with a few spare minutes filled the gallery whenever court was in session, for Judge Buhl’s common sense approach to the law was as entertaining as it was refreshing. Appearing once before the judge, for many offenders, was all it took to start walking the straight and narrow. The judge simply did not like when people wasted money and time on petty issues. Of utmost importance was to serve the people by upholding the law, and Judge Buhl did as fine a job as any who wore the robe before him.

June of 1932 proved unseasonably warm, and the day held promise as the morning sun climbed ever higher in the sky. By early afternoon, most folks all around the county were fixing to make hay – all, that is, except for two brothers. Robert and Richard’s hay lay in the field this day and there it would stay, for they had a court date.

As the brothers stood before Justice Jacob Buhl, Richard alleged that cows owned by Robert broke into his premises and destroyed his crops. While Robert attempted to refute the claim, witnesses speaking on behalf of Richard made the day’s appearance in court a short one. Judge Buhl ruled in favor of Richard and ordered Robert to pay a judgment of $25 for crop damage, plus an additional $6 in costs that Richard incurred to repair the fence.

Will Robert and Richard ever see eye-to-eye? Be sure to look for the conclusion in next month’s issue.

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