ROBERT E

GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Blacksmith.

Has blind horse -- according to Brian. (#0102)

Had serious crush on Grace, until he married her. (#0202)

He reveals during a fevered delirium that his children, who were slaves, were taken away from him. (#0102)

He refuses to make metal bindings help Custer chain Cloud Dancing. (#0103)

Robert E helps build the schoolhouse. (#0114)

Robert E helps Daniel Watkins build a camera. (#0115)

Robert E gives Grave an engagement ring in a glass of lemonade, and, after some initial conflict regarding where they are to be married, (which Sister Ruth helps resolve) the Reverend marries them in the church. Mike and Sully are Maid of Honor and Best Man, respectively. Together, they give Grace and Robert E a Bible for their wedding present. (#0202)

Robert E makes Josh, an orphan, a peg leg. (#0204)

Robert E backs Matthew in a high-stakes poker game. Matthew loses his money. (#0217)

Robert E buys a house in the center of town, eliciting much angry excitement from townsfolk and visiting KKK members. Robert E is beaten, covered with white paint, and nearly strung up when he buys a house in town from an auctioneer who happens to spearhead the local branch of the KKK. It is revealed that Robert E's former owner branded an "V" on his back, which he shows to Brian. (#0221)

Robert E votes for the first time, in a Mayorial election. He votes for Mike, although he's not initially sure women should be in politics. (#0222)

Robert E is very supportive to Grace through her frustration about not getting pregnant; but he does tries to reason with her about her rather unreasonable resentment of Myra's ability to conceive contrasted with her own inability. (#0315)

Robert E, certain the world is going to end thanks to its collision with Stowe's meteor, decides to spend his last days on earth lazin' around; something he's never done before. Eventually he figures out he doesn't like it and gets up to help Grace with the dishes. (#0316)

Robert E takes the opportunity to advance his status as a craftsman and a capable freeman when he avails himself of the opportunity presented him by Jackson Tait, a railroad man, to fix a locomotive steam engine, (something he's never done). Robert E's vouched for by Mike, who actually volunteers him for the job. Under intense pressure, both internal and external, Robert E becomes a real slave driver, even suggesting, when the Chinese men he's hired to help him fall mysteriously ill, that he must replace the man. Mike intercedes and shows him the error of his ways. Eventually the Chinese men recover (it was lead poisoning) and Matthew and Sully help him complete the job on time. (#0317)

Robert E helps build the stage at Grace's Cafe for Dorothy's production of "Romeo and Juliet," he's cast as Capulet. (#0320)

Robert E is initially reluctant ("he ain't our kind, he's an Indian!") to adopt the Indian baby Mike and Sully dub "Live In Hopes." Eventually Grace persuades him to agree to the adoption, only for Mike to convince the couple to give the baby back to Cloud Dancing so that he may be raised with the free Cheyenne in the north. This is heart-breaking for Grace and Robert E. (#0323)

Robert E is resistent to Grace's climbing Pike's Peak with the other women -- he doesn't think women can do it. (#0409)

Robert E comes up with the suggestion for Sully to sit in Mike's place on the council so that Sully may vote against Preston's proposed hotel/casino in her absence. (Robert E got the idea from reading the town charter.) When Sully's interest is piqued by Robert E's obvious reluctance to allow the hotel into the town, Robert E reluctantly confesses that, while he was escaping from his southern master, he killed a white man who was chasing he, his brother and his brother's little boy. He's been made particularly uneasy lately by a bounty hunter who's been in town hunting for another black man, and he's afraid a hotel/casino in Colorado Springs may bring in more of these kind of people. When Robert E admits he's never told Grace about this because he's afraid Grace might leave him, Sully advises Robert E to come clean with her when she gets back from her expedition to Pike's Peak with Myra, Dorothy and Mike. Upon Grace and the other womens' return, it is implied that Robert E plans to tell Grace of his past at the episode's close. (#0409/10)

Robert E embraces the idea of adopting Anthony, the little orphan boy from shantytown, (see "ANTHONY", below) but it's touch and go persuading Grace to accept the boy. In the end, Robert E and Grace do adopt Anthony, even in the face of the heartbreak that may lie ahead -- for Anthony is ill with a disease that is, as of the 1860's/70's, unnamed (it's sickle cell anemia) Robert E carves Anthony a wooden bicycle in this episode. (#0413)

Robert E has made (and presents to him before the whole town at the end of the episode) Matthew a sign that reads, "Matthew Cooper, Sheriff," by way of acknowlegement of his new stature and position in the community. (#0414)

Robert E goes on expedition (consisting of Matthew, Sully, Preston, Hank, Jake, Preston and visiting politician Ezra Leonard) to retrieve Caleb, the kidnapped son of Ezra Leonard, from desperate mountain man Noah McBride. (#0418/19)

Robert E declines Matthew's offer of the job of Deputy during Johnny Reed's hanging. His explanation is that "... I already seen my fill 'a hangin's." (We presume he means when he was a slave.) Even so, when a lynch mob tries to hang Johnny, Robert E comes to Matthew's (and Johnny's) defense with a blast from his shotgun. (#0420)


MEDICAL:

His forge explodes and his chest and right arm is badly burned in this accident. Nursed back to health at Dr. Mike's homestead after Jake refuses to allow him in the barbershop because he is black. (#0102)

Has whipping scars on his back. (#0102)

Gets dysentery from drinking bad pond water, which Loren and Jake took from a contaminated pond on the Indian reservation. (#0211)

Robert E is beaten up and nearly hanged by KKK members. (#0221)

Robert E thinks he's having a heart-attack. As it turns out, it's just a panic attack, brought on by his fear that Stowe's Comet will collide with the earth and extinguish all life. (#0316)

Robert E strains his back moving Dorothy's new printing press. (#0422)

Preston asks Robert E to run a buggy service from his soon-to-be-built resort into town. Robert E appears to be mulling the offer over. (#425)



GRACE _____?

GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Olive's housekeeper. Pretty black woman, proud profile, fine bearing. (Creole accent?) (#0101)

Grace tries to get Robert E to build her a coffin. (#0101)

Mother is dead (I lost my mother before I ever had a chance to tell her what she meant to me. I promised myself I'd never let it happen again. (#102)

Grace, backed by Miss Olive's money, goes into partnership with Miss Olive to open "Grace's Cafe." (#0109)

Grace assists Dr. Mike during Brian's brain surgery. (#0114)

Robert E gives Grave an engagement ring in a glass of lemonade, and, after some initial conflict regarding where they are to be married, (which Sister Ruth helps resolve) the Reverend marries them in the church. Mike and Sully are bridesmaid and Best Man, respectively. Together, they give Grace and Robert E a bible for their wedding present. (#0202)

Grace feeds Horace, Matthew, Colleen and Brian when they're quarantined in the clinic. They're sequestered because Matthew has contract typhus from blankets gifted by the Army to the Cheyenne, and they've been exposed to Matthew. (#0206)

Grace makes an awesome meatloaf, and a famous pumpkin pie. (All episodes)

Grace wins 3rd place for her Halloween costume. (#0207)

Grace backs Matthew in a high-stakes poker game. Matthew loses her money. (#0217)

Grace's hair is chopped off by the KKK when she and Robert E are "uppity" enough to purchase a house in town; she bravely buys a hat to cover her shown hair at the General Store. (#0221)

Grace tangles with Robert E over whether women (specifically Mike) should be allowed to run for office. (#0222)

Olive Davis leaves Grace her interest in Grace's Cafe in her will. (#0304)

Grace writes a foundling home in an attempt to adopt a baby when she's unable to conceive. She also resents Myra for her ability to get pregnant when she can't, but she's able to overcome her resentment of Myra to wholeheartedly Colleen and Dorothy deliver Myra's baby when Mike's away on Pike's Peace accompanying Sam Lindsay during her final hours. (#0315)

Grace, certain the world is ending, buys fine china and changes her cafe's name to Chez Grace's, as she's determined to make her restaurant's last days their finest. (#0316)

To the town's surprise, Grace agrees with Hank when he suggests Samantha, Myra and Horace's baby, may be crying because she's swaddled; Grace sends Colleen and Brian off with fried chicken as they leave town with Ethan Cooper, their con-man father, after a vicious custody battle. Naturally, Ethan's wife, Lillian, changes her mind at the last minute. (#0319)

Grace allows Dorothy's production of "Romeo and Juliet" to be held in her cafe. Grace is cast as Lady Capulet. (#0320)

Childless Grace's heart is broken once again when Mike and Sully bring her an Indian baby to raise (later named "Live in Hopes" in honor of Black Kettle's prophetic words) and she and Robert E decide to adopt it, only to be asked to give it up (they do) when Cloud Dancing decides to take it to a free tribe of Cheyenne in the north. (#0323)

Grace caters Mike's wedding rehearsal dinner, but the dinner's spoiled when Mike's mother, Elizabeth Quinn, interferes by handing her the menu for it, instead of letting Grace do it herself. (#0326/0327)

Grace is humiliated when Dorothy's book exposes the fact that she can't have children, until Robert E convinces her that people admire her for herself and that her state of childlessness means nothing to anyone but herself. (#0406)

Grace admits to Dorothy and Myra that she doesn't feel that they respect her opinion. Dorothy and Myra assure her this isn't so. (#0409/10)

Grace, along with Dorothy, plays an angel in the Reverend's "living nativity" spectacle which he put on at Christmas. (#0412)

Grace is initially resistent to the idea of adopting Anthony (see "ANTHONY", below) because of her heartbreak over losing the Cheyenne baby. Her fears mount when she learns that Anthony has an unidentifiable disease. However, she softens in the end and decides to accept Anthony into her heart, even in the face of the heartbreak that may lie ahead. (#0413)

We learn that Grace is from New Orleans. (#0416)

Unbeknownst to Robert E, (whom she does not consult because she knows he would disapprove) Grace invests she and Robert E's savings in con-men Curtis Roper and Randolph Cummings' "home-refrigeration-box" scam. Fortunately for Grace and Robert E (and other townsfolk), Sully wires ahead to Mike and the Reverend, who are in Denver immunizing some Indian School children, and Mike and the Reverend cook up a bait-and-switch scheme of their own, thus managing to get the people of Colorado Springs' money back. Grace admits to Anthony that she's learned a valuable lesson: "Sometimes people aren't what they seem to be, Anthony." (#0416)

Grace is reluctant to allow Anthony to attend public school -- she fears children will be cruel to him due to his color. This is revealed when Brian, upon discovering that Anthony can't read, urges Grace to allow Anthony to attend school with him, even offering to help Anthony keep up. (#0421)

Grace, seeing Mike's medical book open to the section on "Leprosy", puts two-and-two together with Horace, who's received a mysterious telegraph regarding beautiful visiting artist Isabelle Maynard. Together, they come to the correct conclusion that Isabelle has leprosy, which they blab to the town, causing Jake to call an emergency town meeting, with the end result being that the town decides Isabelle should leave. In same episode, Preston invites Grace to be in charge of his soon-to-be-built resort's dining room; she appears to be mulling it over. (#0425)

Grace caters Mike's baby shower. (#0427)

Grace caters Preston's ground-breaking ceremony for the new hotel. (#0428)


MEDICAL:

Grace is canning fruit when a jar explodes and a piece of glass flies into her eye. David Lewis, Mike's former fiance, operates on her and she has a complete recovery. (#0226)

Grace cannot bear children (this is an ongoing story-line).



ANTHONY (Adoped son of Robert E and Grace)

GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Anthony, a young black boy of about 8, appears in Grace's cafe one day, where he's apprehended while trying to steal a pie. Mike, Sully and Robert E immediately become interested in the boy. They take him back to shanty-town, where they learn that his mother died a few months ago. Robert E then offers to take Anthony home with him. However, when Robert E arrives home and suggests to Grace that they adopt the boy, Grace is resistent -- after all, the last time she tried to adopt a child, a Cheyenne infant, it was taken away from her. To compound matters, Anthony seems to be smitten with a mysterious and dangerous disease that Dr. Mike is unable to name. As time passes, Robert E grows more and more attached to the boy, even teaching him how to whittle, while Sully and Brian teach Anthony how to ride a bicycle, and even Grace softens and lets Anthony help her bake some pies. Unfortuntely, during all this, Anthony's mysterious, painful attacks grow worse. Finally, Mike, discovering that Anthony's spleen is dangerously enlarged, operates and removes it. When he recovers, Robert E presents Anthony with a carved bicycle, telling him that soon he'll send away to Chicago for a real one. Grace, meanwhile, has had a "Change of Heart" about the boy, and decides to adopt him, in spite of the pain engendered by the fear of losing him that she will have to live with. (#0413)

Grace is reluctant to allow Anthony to attend public school -- she fears children will be cruel to him due to his color. This is revealed when Brian, upon discovering that Anthony can't read, urges Grace to allow Anthony to attend school with him, even offering to help Anthony keep up. (#0421)

Anthony appears in last episode of the season. (#0428)


MEDICAL:

Anthony has sickle cell anemia, a disease which was unidentified as such in the 1860's. Mike operates to remove his spleen, which was dangerously enlarged. (#0413)