Hard times fell upon the small town of Sherman; the stock market crashed just three years prior resulting in successful businesses floundering.  The cattle trade that had once provided the town with prosperity had all but dwindled to nothingness.


The Great Depression drove the majority of the town into poverty. It's people had to survive off of the meager rations of the town's harvest. So bad had the impact of the depression been that all but two of the town's grocers shut down. The grocers that survived the devastation were Wilder's Bakery Produce along with Ostertag's Slaughterhouse.

Mr. Wilder, the crotchety old man who ran the produce store, was first of many to go missing.  Gossip had it that his benevolent wife, Kat, had finally grown tiresome of his unfaithfulness and killed him. To most people, although amusing, it was highly unlikely of such action being taken - especially from a woman with such a heart of gold. In midst of not knowing the whereabouts of her husband and through perpetual mourning, she maintained the produce store with a smile on her face day in and day out.  When fall harvest was gone, she would hold a festival in appreciation of the towns' children that had been working so hard in the fields for their families. To the naked eye of a child, Kat wasn't the safest nor most sane looking individual. However, when a child were to face their fear and come to greet her, surprises and games awaited to occupy their time while waiting for their parents to return from the local slaughterhouse.

One night that year, Kat Wilder arranged for a town festivity accompanied by a traveling circus. Locals and non-locals came from a few towns over to see this circus that was to be held on this very night.  After the night began to get busy, things started to happen - strange things.  One by one, people and animals were vanishing; first the clown entertainers, then a few dogs and then a few more people. By the end of the night, no one had even realized so many people were 'hiding'.... well, someone knew..

The Ostertag's, Henry and Margaret, had all but good times in the final years of life.  In 1935, the family was approached by a small group of rustlers, who accused them of stealing cattle from nearby farms to preserve their own business. In the family's defense, Henry denied the accusations while reaching for a firearm bracketed on the wall. Without second thought, the rustlers scurried away from the slaughterhouse and back to their homes. The very next evening, while Henry and Margaret were closing, the rustlers returned and stole all of the cattle pinned behind the establishment. After all the cattle were gone, two of the men set the slaughterhouse aflame.  Trying to get their teenagers Hatch and Kraven out of the burning building, Margaret Ostertag was barricaded in the office.  Upon Henry getting to his trapped wife, his nineteen year old son Hatch followed him into the inferno.  As he was approaching them, a section of the roof collapsed atop of his parents, killing them instantly.  Hatch saw his parents die before his very eyes and began to run in their direction, when suddenly he was struck in the head by a wooden beam from above him.  Kraven, the older of the two, ran in to drag his brother back outside to safety, only in time to watch the majority of the building be devoured.

In early 1944, the reconstruction of the slaughterhouse was underway.  Since the night of the accident, Hatch has had no recollection of the events past or current. In a doctor's report, his brain was damaged so severely that his ability to talk would cease and that he would not live to see the age of forty-five.  While recovering some of his parents' belongings from their home, Hatch found a few books - diaries - and read them all the way through. He immediately ran to find his brother Kraven to show him his findings. Much to Kraven's astonishment, a lot of old questions were now answered. "Where did Ma and Pa get the meat to provide for the town?"  "What happened to the people of the town?"  Reading on, he discovered his father's log book dated up to the day before his parents passed. "....Today, a bunch of rustlers came in to accuse me of stealing their cattle! I pulled out Betsy and warded them off - and they weren't too happy..." Hatch and Kraven both knew what they had to do to carry on the legacy - a tradition in the slaughterhouse of the Ostertag family.... and even better, they new exactly where and how to begin.

Later that year, the slaughterhouse had been rebuilt. It rested upon the very spot of the burnt down establishment as well as where the Ostertag parents died.  Business was good for the butcher brothers Hatch and Kraven.  It seemed as if on a daily basis, people were lined up across the lot so they could purchase 'the state's best meat'. The property, however, was not equipped with a cattle or swine pin.  Instead, when asked about it only FEW times, it was said to be underneath the slaughterhouse in order to keep better eye on their precious products - no one has ever seen this area. Oddly enough, more people were being reported missing, so to help out the town, Hatch and Kraven would hang 'Missing' posters on their walls and would bring meat supply by the masses to families who have lost their loved ones.  For instance, little Tommy Surta's father came up missing just recently.  After hearing rumor, Kraven brought the family some meat for them to go on, seeing as they had no money whatsoever. Tommy Surta thanked Kraven so kindly and began to pray.  "Dear God, thank you for Mr. Kraven for bringing my family some food.  I wish my Pa could be here right now........" He continued to pray, and Kraven chuckled inside a bit. Little did Tommy Surta know, his Pa was actually already there.




How it all began....