The Heart Remembers

P
ROLOGUE
 

W
hen the challenge of the Western frontier began luring men and women westward in the middle of the nineteenth century, they found a land that was beyond what they had imagined. From the wide Missouri River to the white-foamed shore of the Pacific Ocean, wherever they settled, they clung to the hope of a bright new beginning for their lives.

Often their hopes were dashed by fierce opposition from the Indians who had inhabited the land long before them. At times there was also struggle for survival against the hard winters and the loneliness of the vast frontier.

Those determined pioneers who braved the elements, the loneliness, and the attacks of the Indians proved themselves to be a hardy lot and were unknowingly entering upon a struggle that would ultimately give their descendants control of half a continent.

In his book
The Winning of the West
, Theodore Roosevelt said, “The borderers who thronged across the mountains, the restless hunters, the hard, dogged frontier ranchers and farmers, were led by no one commander. They were not carrying out the plans of any far-sighted leader. In obedience to the instincts working
half-blindly within their hearts, they made in the wilderness homes for their children.”

These commendable accomplishments, however, were not without tremendous cost of life. Of all the perils confronting the settlers of the Wild West, serious illness, injuries from mishaps of countless number, and wounds from battles with Indians and outlaws were the most dreaded. The lack of proper medical care resulted in thousands of deaths.

The scarcity of medical doctors on the frontier in those early years made life extremely difficult and sometimes unbearable.

As towns were being established in the West, little by little, medical practitioners east of the Missouri River caught the challenge of the frontier and headed that direction.

Communities that grew around army posts and forts had the military doctors to care for them. But many towns had no doctors at all. However, as time passed, this improved. By the mid-1870s, towns of any size at all had at least one doctor. The larger towns had clinics, and a few even had hospitals.

Often the frontier doctor had to travel long distances at any hour—by day or night—in all kinds of weather. Time and again the doctor’s own life was in jeopardy. He might ride on horseback or drive his buggy thirty miles or more to a distant home in the mountains, to a home in a small settlement on the prairie, or to a ranch or farm where he would care for a patient.

He would perform surgery when needed, set broken bones, deliver a baby, or administer necessary medicines. Most of the time, he would sit with his patient for hours before leaving his or her side, then sleep on the return trip while his horse found the way home.

Quite often the frontier doctor’s only remuneration consisted of fresh vegetables from a garden, maybe a jar or two of canned corn or beans, a plucked chicken, or a chunk of beef cut from a
recently-slaughtered steer. Not everyone had sufficient funds with which to pay him.

The successful frontier doctor was not only a hardy man, but was obviously dedicated to his profession.

In this Frontier Doctor trilogy, we will tell our readers three stories involving just such a physician.

I
NTRODUCTION
 

I
n our third book of the Orphan Train trilogy,
Whispers in the Wind
, we introduced teenagers Dane Weston and Tharyn Myers, who were orphans living on the streets of New York City in the spring of 1871. Dane, who had just turned fifteen, had endeared himself to thirteen-year-old Tharyn by risking his own life to save hers, and soon they became very close, calling each other brother and sister.

After a lengthy period of separation—during which they both realized their feelings for each other went deeper than a brother-sister relationship—they eventually found each other, and Tharyn accepted when Dane proposed marriage. The story of the extraordinary events leading up to their marriage was told in
One More Sunrise
, book one of the Frontier Doctor trilogy.

In the second book,
Beloved Physician
, Dane and Tharyn were married in June 1881.

At the same time, there was an Indian uprising in the area, led by a few renegade Ute chiefs. One of these renegades was Chief Tando, whose village was in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, not far from Central City.

In the third week of July, Melinda Kenyon—Tharyn’s close friend from the orphan train days, who now lived in Denver—was
riding alone along the South Platte River. She was captured by Chief Tando and a band of his warriors, who happened to be riding nearby. Leaving evidence that made it appear Melinda had fallen from her horse and drowned in the river, the Utes took her to their village near Central City to make her a servant to the chief’s squaw and other women in the village.

In Denver, Melinda’s fiancé, Dr. Tim Braden, her family, and friends, were all stunned at what they believed was her death. When word reached Tharyn and Dane in Central City, they were equally stunned.

One day in mid-September, Dr. Dane Logan had just delivered a baby on a mountain ranch owned by a family named Drummond a few miles southwest of Central City when a band of Utes led by subchief Nandano were seen stealing cattle from the ranch. A gun battle ensued, and Chief Tando’s son, Latawga, was wounded in his left thigh. The others in the band galloped away, but were soon pursued by an army patrol from nearby Fort Junction. Dr. Dane Logan saved the young warrior’s life by keeping the ranchers from murdering him and by removing the slug and bandaging the wound lest he bleed to death.

Carrying Latawga on his horse with him, Dr. Logan took him to the Ute village. Latawga was laid on a blanket on the ground, and in the presence of the other Indians, he told his father and mother how Dr. Dane Logan had saved his life.

As Chief Tando was thanking him, Dr. Logan looked up to see a young blond woman running toward him from among the tepees and calling out, “Dane! Dane!”

Suddenly he recognized her and gasped, “Melinda! You’re alive!”

Thy word have I hid in mine heart.
P
SALM 119:11

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.
R
OMANS 10:10

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.
E
PHESIANS 3:17

ONE