The Thanksgiving turkey
William Sternberg came to Kansas with his brother Theodore in 1866. Their older brother, George, was the post surgeon at Fort Ellsworth and later, the upgraded post of Fort Harker. George’s descriptions of the country around Fort Ellsworth inspired his father, the Rev. Dr. Levi Sternberg, to make plans for the entire family to move to Kansas.
Thirteen year old William and 26-year-old Theodore left Ohio ahead of the rest of the family. Once they reached Fort Ellsworth, they intended to help George establish the new home that would be headquarters for the Sternberg family. Sternberg’s Cottonwood Ranch was located near the fort in a bend of the Smoky Hill River. Twin brothers Charles and Edward arrived the following year, just before the rest of the family.
Charles was a natural explorer and found himself intrigued by the many fossil leaves found in the shale rock underlying the prominent Dakota Sandstone outcroppings. An abundance of fossils could be easily found in the hills above the river valley. He and his discoveries were the beginning of the famous dynasty of Sternberg fossil hunters.
But brother William was infatuated with nature’s bounty instead of impressions left behind by plants that had thrived in an ancient past. No, Will’s interest lay in the abundance of flora and fauna thriving in the prairies that had become his beloved home. In his retirement, he wrote of those early days in Ellsworth County.
“When I was a boy, living on a ranch in the early days in Kansas, every wooded stream and every ravine that had patches of sumac bushes growing in them were alive with wild turkeys, and many a royal bird has fallen to my gun.”
Will was a natural horseman, riding over the prairie herding the family ponies as they grazed the surrounding unfenced open range. One of his favorite winter pastimes involved chasing turkeys from horseback. After flushing a flock from the deep prairie grass, he would “mark their flight and gallop after, pick up their trail in the snow and keep flushing them until they became tired from running in the deep snow and from frequent flights. They then take to any cover they can find. Blanketing your horse, you then take up the trail on foot. Thereafter, the birds get up singly and will not take to flight until you are close upon them, making it an easy matter to get as many as you can carry.”
On a memorable day just before Thanksgiving, Will set out on foot with gun in hand to bag a wild turkey for the holiday table. He found the trek in snow nearly a foot deep invigorating, and soon was rewarded with an immense bird. The journey home proved to be more challenging than he had expected, considering the weight of the trophy bird he was packing. Will was beginning to feel as though he would never get home.
A bitter north wind had blown up, and seeking shelter behind a steep creek bank, he came upon a band of colts standing in the protection of that same bend in the creek. One of the colts was Will’s favorite pony. Doc was only 2 years old and unbroken, but he loved the sugar Will always carried in his pocket. Will carefully placed his gun and the turkey on the bank about 5 feet above the creek and began to coax Doc toward the bank. Doc eventually moved between Will and the creek bank, and with his left hand firmly grasping Doc’s mane, Will reached for the gun and turkey with his right hand. In an instant, Will was mounted and for one brief moment, Doc stood perfectly still.
The calm was broken when Doc realized a feathered stranger had joined the affair. A sudden bolt brought Doc to a full gallop in just a few steps. The terror-stricken pony fairly sailed over the deep snow as the flapping of turkey wings drove him frantically home.
“Several times I was nearly raked off by boughs, but I hung to his mane for dear life. It was a wild ride.”
The corral was a post-and-rail affair, and two of the rails at the gate were up, but Doc took them in a flying leap. Will was hanging on to hide and hair, while somehow keeping his gun and turkey in the clutches of those frozen fingers. Doc came to a sudden halt, trembling and snorting beneath the shelter of the cottonwood shed. It is safe to say that as Will dismounted, he was trembling as much as Doc. He only recalled, “I felt sorry for Doc, but was grateful for the ride.”
That Thanksgiving, tales were told around the Sternberg holiday table and old times remembered, but none was ever so exciting as Doc’s great race for home and Will’s triumphant arrival with the beautiful Thanksgiving turkey successfully stalked on The Way West.
“The Cowboy” Jim Gray can be reached at 220 21st Rd., Geneseo, KS 67444, (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@ kans.com.