Very few
people know about a young lady named Olivine Peridot. Her story is
sketchy, but worth telling if you don’t mind a few
embellishments I’ve added to fill in blanks. She was born in
1871 to a delicate mother who died shortly after Olivine’s
third birthday, and a doting father, who was a cattle rancher in
Lincoln, North Dakota.
The
Peridot Ranch wasn’t a thriving business for Jack Peridot,
and he had had a hard life even before he was widowed, leaving him
with the sole care of a toddler. Soon after the death of his wife,
the stream dried up and the few cattle he had died. Despairing, he
sold his land to a railroad baron, James Jerome Hill and bought an
ox and cart, some salt pork, flour, sugar, and coffee beans, and a
bolt of emerald green fabric that just matched his daughter’s
eyes.
I’m
sure Olivine was scared and excited as they spent their last night
in their home. The next day must have started really early for them
as they loaded up and started the long journey as they headed west.
Along the way, Jack would stop at a town and ask for work, doing
whatever was required to buy enough for the next leg of their
journey. He’d hope to keep his daughter with him when he
worked, but it wasn’t always possible. Sometimes he could
find a schoolteacher to take Olivine for the time he was working,
but occasionally he’d have to drop her off at the local
saloon and let the ladies of the night keep an eye on
her.
As you can
imagine, this kind of hard-scrabble life wasn’t easy on
either father or daughter, but in the many years of crossing the
country, Olivine grew up into a lovely, sweet young lady that could
ride, shoot, spit and swear as well as any man.
As they
came to this area, there were rumors of a pretty decent wage being
paid to haul rocks out of a local forest. When he went to apply for
the job, he was amused to discover that the same man that bought
his property in North Dakota so many years ago is the same man now
offering him a job. Jack worked for Mr. Hill for many years, and
then in 1900, when the land was sold, he started working for Mr.
Denkmann because by then, he and his daughter had made a home for
themselves in what was rapidly turning into the town of
Arlington.
By this
time, if you’ve done the math, you’ll realize that
“young lady” doesn’t really apply to Ms. Peridot
anymore. Along the way she went and grew up and had (by that
day’s standards) become an old maid. Still, she seemed happy
to be with her father and as he was in his declining years, she
cared for him in their home. She’d take treats to the men
working the forest land where her father had spent the best years
of his life, and while they treated her as “one of the
guys”, she was also known as the local sweetheart for the
delicious desserts she concocted for them.
One day as
she was cleaning the house she discovered a faded bolt of fabric
tucked away in a cupboard. Her father ran his liver-spotted hand
over the material and I’m sure Olivine gasped as he pulled
away the first faded layer to reveal beautiful emerald green fabric
that was a delight to touch. He told her that it was high time she
had a gown that suited her and her emerald eyes, so that very night
Olivine started sewing. It took many nights of sewing by the fire
but when she was finished, she had a stunner of a dress. The next
morning, she put it on, and then took a large basket of goodies
into the forest for the men she’d known for years. The
strangest thing happened. The men did not see the familiar woman
they’d taken for granted all this time, and not a one of them
could keep their jaws shut when she walked by. She had to laugh
– she was the same old Olivine – because suddenly the
men were acting like boys, jumping off springboards and offering to
carry her basket to a clearing and helping her over fallen
logs.
Olivine
never wore the dress again, but after that day, the men always
looked at her just a bit differently and it wasn’t long
before a man started courting her. J. P. Jonquil was a widower with
two small children and he’d not considered taking himself
another wife, but he changed his mind that day. Three months later,
as he kneeled before her as she sat on the end of a felled log, he
said, “You see the rings on the log, here? Each ring
represents one year of the trees life. I can’t even count all
the rings on this one, but I want to give you this ring (here he
pulled out a gold band) and ask if you’ll be my wife for as
many years as this ol’ tree has rings.”
Naturally,
she said yes. Maybe her story doesn’t end with a
“…and they lived happily ever after” but from
what I’ve learned from the research I’ve done about
her, that it wouldn’t be far from the truth.
Enjoy your
hike down the same path Olivine
took to deliver treats to the loggers. You’ll find a cache in
the end of a log similar to the one Mr. Jonquil proposed to Ms.
Peridot on. Take a moment to count the rings, maybe you’ll
discover how long they were married.