Week 16: April 16 thru 22nd

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Working links are Red, other references, use Navigation Panel choices.
Names in bold will be found in Players; bolded Titles in References.

4/16 of…1836

Born in London, United Kingdom: Andrew Smith Hallidie, engineer inventor.  {001}

1859

Denver, CO, recorder John Scudder and Auraria, CO, treasurer Peleg Bassett end their long time friendship with the final confrontation in their disagreement over the virtues of their respective communities. Bassett went after Scudder with a pick handle and Scudder shot him in the chest. Bassett lived about eight hours and Scudder left town.  {001}

1866

Dutch Flat near San Francisco, CA. Builders for the Central Pacific Railroad, Charles Crocker and James Harvey Strobridge test nitroglycerin as a replacement for black powder during the construction of the Summit Tunnel. The test is a great success and in spite of the deaths of many Chinese workers, it is eventually used until the advent of dynamite. Nitro materially aids in the completion of the Trans-Continental Railroad. But the fallout from the rest of the nitro shipment is catastrophic…  {001}

1866

The Wells-Fargo Parrot Building, California and Montgomery Streets, downtown San Francisco, CA. All the rest of the crates have gone to local construction sources; the one sent here is leaking some sort of oil. Employees decide to open the crate… its nitroglycerin levels every surrounding building, leaving fifteen dead. California bans the explosive and Nobel’s invention of dynamite is still a year away.  {001}

1874

Alferd Packer arrives at the Los Pinos Indian Agency near Gunnison, CO, with a tale of desperation, murder and cannibalism in the winter time mountains.  {001}

1881

Bat Masterson arrives by train from Tombstone to support brother Jim in Dodge City, KS. Disembarking from the train, he sees A.J. Peacock and Al Updegraff on the street and immediately challenges them. Shots are exchanged, Bat sheltering  behind the railroad embankment and his antagonists using the corner of the city jail. Jim Masterson and Charlie Ronan join the fray from a nearby saloon. Updegraff is killed. Fines are assessed and Ronan and the Mastersons clear out of Dodge.  {001}
see:
Wk. 15, 04/09/1881 – Ed Masterson

1965

Britt Wood, dead at 70. Bit player, onetime Hoppy sidekick: Range War (1939), Stagecoach War (1940).  {001}

1969

Oregon Trail Landmark/Register, Names Hill, WY, placed on the National Register of Historic Places.  {001}
see:
The Originals Index – Landmarks and Registers – Names Hill

2005

Western Shoshone activist Mary Dann, age 82 , killed in an accident on her Nevada ranch. Photo U.S. PD, 1979, crop from a photo by Ilka Hartmann. [More to follow…]  {001}

4/17 of…1865

“The Bread Riots” break out in Virginia City, MT, sparked by a lack of flour.

1873

The Modoc War. Having the day before cut off the defenders of Captain Jack’s Stronghold at Tule Lake, CA, from their water supply, a morning assault finds that the Indians have melted away from the caves. The three day battle is over. The army has lost an officer and six enlisted with thirteen more wounded. Indian losses are two small boys attempting to open a cannon ball and several sick women.  {001}

1878

Ford County Sheriff Bat Masterson arrests William “Bill” Tilghman and Henry Martin for horse theft. Martin goes to trial but Tilghman is released in Dodge City, KS. (Who did Bill know?)  {001}

1879

Liberty Hall, Hastings, NE; the court of Judge William Gaslin finds Print Olive guilty of second degree murder in the deaths of homesteaders Ami Whit Ketchum and Luther Mitchell and sentences him to life in prison. Appropriately placed bribes and appeals result in a new trial (1880) and in the end no punishment. However, the whole messy business has depleted the family coffers and a harsh winter has killed much of the herd. Print will move operations to the Sawlog and Smokey Hill Rivers near Ellsworth, KS.  {003}

1881

Samuel M. “Doc” Cummings accompanied his brother-in-law Marshal Dallas Stoudenmire on evening rounds. They  encountered an ambush laid by one Bill Johnson and several others unknown. Johnson rose from the top of a pile of  bricks and fired a load of buckshot at Stoudenmire and missed. Cummings and the marshal returned fire—Johnson’s testicles were shot away and seven other shots struck with deadly effect. Following reports from other hidden shooters had no effect, and the perpetrators were scattered into the night by a short charge from the marshal. El Paso, TX.  {001}

1900

George Sutherland ‘Flat Nose’, ‘Big Nose’ Curry, age 29, was chased by a posse led by sheriffs William Preece and Jesse Tyler for rustling cattle. A long range rifle shot to the head by Tyler or maybe posse member, ranch foreman Doc King, ends it. Legend claims skin flayed from his chest was made into moccasins and wallets by souvenir hunters. Near Castle Gate, UT. Kid Curry was peeved. Photo: U.S. PD pre-1900  {001}

4/18 of… 1847

Brigham Young organizes his Mormon travelers into a military column, fearing Indian attack. They are but two days out of Winter Quarters, NE, and it is almost one hundred more days to the Salt Lake Valley.  {001}

1877

Seven Kansans, six of whom were black, established the Nicodemus Town Company. Their goal was to establish the first all-black settlement on the Great Plains. African American W.H. Smith served as the town’s president and W.R. Hill, an experienced white land speculator as treasurer. The location for the town, chosen by Hill, was along the northern bank of the Solomon River, an area suitable for developing farming. The town itself was located on a 160-acre plot, of the 19,200 acres of the township.
Early promotional efforts were directed towards attracting people with enough money to develop the town. Smith and Hill mailed publications describing the resources and benefits of moving to the area to prospective migrants across the South. Residential lots cost $5 while commercial lots were $75. Additional fees were charged for establishing settlers on the land. Efforts succeeded in bringing groups of colonists from Eastern Kansas and Kentucky. Most of the group consisted of former slaves from Kentucky in search of a new livelihood. The population reached about 600 people in 1878. However, most of the people who settled in the town, subsequently moved on. Not enough of the $75 commercial lots were sold to keep the town growing. Years of poor harvests also contributed to declining population. By 1884, less than 50 people remained in the town. Later efforts to bring a railroad route through Nicodemus failed and most businesses moved away. The community survived mostly as a social center. In 1976, Nicodemus was named a National Historic Landmark.
One theory claims the town was named after the biblical figure Nicodemus. Another, holds that the town was inspired by the legendary account of an African prince taken into slavery who later purchased his freedom.  Photo: U.S. PD 1885 – Nicodemus, KS  {001}
see also:
Wk. 36, 09/09/1903 – Blackdom, NM
Players – Timelines – Timelines A-L – Black History Timeline

1881

Fort Keogh, MT. One hundred and fifty-six Sioux Indians surrender to the Army.  {001}

1886

El Paso, TX Madame Fat Alice Abbot’s soiled dove, Bessie Colvin, fled the coup to work for Etta Clark’s bordello on the other side of Utah street. Abbott soon followed, pounding the door with her fist. When Clark opened the door, Six foot, 200 pound Abbot, punched her in the face. The pain and anger sent the diminutive but pugnacious Clark in search of a gun. She fired a shot into Abbot’s pubic arch! Clutching her groin, screaming, ‘My God! I’m shot!’ Abbot staggered down the steps and collapsed in the street. Clark’s parting shot missed as she smiled and closed her door. Abbot survived and although the El Paso Herald mistakenly reported the event as the “Public Arch Shooting“, the Pubic Arch Shooting became the toast of the town and Fat Alice was humiliated by people in the streets. In the trial on 05/12 1886, it took the jury less than fifteen minutes to buy, five foot, 100 pound, Clark’s plea of “Self Defense”.  {001}

1906

The Great San Francisco +2 Earthquake and Fire. Thought to have been somewhere between 7.6 and 8.25 on the Richter scale, it claimed an estimated 3,000 dead, 300,000 homeless and perhaps 25,000 structures burned over the three days the fires raged. The immediate economic loss was estimated to be about $400 million. Among the buildings destroyed were the offices of the Wells Fargo Company, thought by some to have possibly contained records of the activities of James B. Hume, Fred Dodge, Wyatt Earp and other agents in the west. Photo U.S. PD 1906  H.D. Chadwick, Post & Grant Ave.  {001}
see:
next article

1906

World-renowned tenor Enrico Caruso was performing at San Francisco‘s +2 Grand Opera House.  Beginning at 5:12 a.m. and lasting for a little over a minute the earthquake violently shook the Palace Hotel.  A startled Caruso stumbled out of the shattered hotel into the street, and choking on dust was horrified that the experience might have ruined his voice, so he began singing. Photo: U.S. PD? internet – Enrico Caruso.  {003}
see:
article just above

1925

William Joseph Cody, Jr. born in Los Angeles, CA. Movie actor.  {001}

4/19 of… 1863

Capt. Moses A. McLaughlin, Second California Cavalry (volunteers) takes 42 men and arms for twenty more from Camp Babbitt, CA to Keyesville (Camp Independence) intending to deal with settler complaints about stock and property thefts and a killing or two perpetrated by Indians (thought to be Owen’s Valley Paiute or Kawaiisu); some local, some new arrivals, in the Kern River Valley.
“…accompanied by a detail of twenty men of my command and Lieutenant Daley, with Jose Chico as guide, I left camp, and at dawn surrounded the camp of the Indians, which was situated about ten miles from Keysville, upon the right bank of Kern River. I had the bucks collected together, and informed Jose Chico and the citizens who had arrived that they might choose out those whom they knew to have been friendly. This was soon done. The boys and old men I sent back to their camps, and the others, to the number of thirty-five, for whom no one could vouch, were either shot or sabered. Their only chance for life being their fleetness, but none escaped, though many of them fought well with knives, sticks, stones, and clubs.” from Capt. McLaughlin’s report to his commander, Col. E. C. Drum, Assistant Adjutant-General, San Francisco, CA.  {001}

1878

Wickenburg, AZ. Two men held up the stage near town and got away with express and mail. Deputy U.S. Marshal Joe Evans leads a posse to Ehrenburg to arrest the miscreants: one killed, one wounded.  {001}

1897

Apparently, a “native of the planet Mars” destroyed Judge J. S. Proctor’s windmill and his flower garden at his home in Aurora, TX. An alien airship collided with the structure and exploded, killing the pilot and casting debris over several acres. The incident reported in the Dallas Morning News* of this date. As you see, they still didn’t yet know what a UFO was, out there in Old West Texas.  {001}
see also:
*Find the Dallas Morning News article here:
The Originals Index – Lost Treasurers of the Old West –
Hoaxes – Aurora, TX 1897
and here: Just for Fun Pages – Strange Things in Old West Skies
– Aurora, TX 1897
Had you thought that this business began in 1947?
Here too is the newspaper article for the 1878 incident,
granddaddy to the genre. – Doc

1909

Dead is James Brown Miller {01} aka: Killer Miller, Killin’ Jim, Deacon, age 42, hired killer. Extradited from Forth Worth, TX, and lynched in the livery stable at Ada, OK, along with the men who had hired him for the murder of local rancher A.A. “Gus” Bobbit.* He is believed to be the most productive killer in the Old West, with twelve in fourteen fights. That is, if bushwhacking counts as a “fight”. My vote stays with Wes Hardin** as a “real” shootist, exhibiting both courage and talent. However, there is always U.S. Marshall Bass Reeves.*** Photo: U.S. PD pre-1909, unknown.  {001}
see also:
*Photo Gallery Index – Hangings and Shootings (Caution!) – 1st. photo
**Wk. 33, 08/19/1895 – Wes Hardin
***Wk. 02, 01/12/1910 – Bass Reeves

1924

The first presentation of The National Barn Dance on Chicago’s WLS-AM Radio. The grandaddy of almost all western music shows, it persisted through numerous changes (ABC Saturday nights 1933-52) until 1968 and sparked, among others, The Grand Ole Opry, Hollywood Barn Dance and Louisiana Hayride. It featured such regulars as Gene Autry, Lulu Belle and Scotty, Pat Buttram, Patsy Montana and other western luminaries: Smiley Burnett, George Gobel, Homer and Jethro, Bill Monroe and many others as guests. Ad U.S. ©? c.1924, Fair Use.  {001}
see also:
Wk. 06, 02/08/1999 – Lulu Belle and Scotty
Wk.40, 10/02/1998 – Gene Autry
Wk. 02, 01/08/1994 – Pat Buttram
Wk 16, 02/16/1967 – Smiley Burnett

1950

Walter ‘Wat’ Putney, age about 80, died in Pinedale, WY. The recon man, known as the “jack-of-all-trades”, last survivor of the Wild Bunch. After the Wild Bunch days, he ranched on Bridger Creek until 1912 and later  became owner of the Camp Stool Ranch near Crow Heart Butte; moved to Pinedale, WY (1923) where he bought a saloon. Photo: U.S. PD 1897  {001}

4/20 of…1842

The Adelsverein (The Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas) was a colonial attempt to establish a new Germany within the borders of the Republic of Texas. The first Adelsverein sponsored immigrants arrived in Galveston, TX in July 1844. A separate agreement was made with the Darmstadt Forty (1847), to settle socialist colonies within the land grant; of the seven colonies established, six failed when the funding ran out, that and conflicts about of social structure and authority. Members moved elsewhere, to other Adelsverein settlements in Texas or returned to Germany. Adelsverein ended its colonization campaign in Texas in 1853 due to excessive debt. Logo: U.S. PD 1842.  {001}.

1867

Fourteen miles east of Livingston, MT, scout and explorer John M. Bozeman is killed and Thomas Cover wounded by Blackfeet Indians. Photo: U.S. PD pre-1867 The Bozeman Trail, Vol II, 1922.  {001}

1878

Point of Rocks, Texas. Comancheros kill three settlers.  {001}

1872

Kiowa Indians led by Big Bow and White Horse attack a wagon train, burning sixteen and killing several immigrants. Howards Well in Crockett County, TX.  {001}

1882

Youngers Bend, OK. Belle and Sam Starr are arrested for horse theft.  {001}

1892

Robert “Bob” Ford has  left town for a breather, at the suggestion of Creede, CO, vigilantes. He will shortly return to Creede and set up business, but at the moment, here in Pueblo, CO, he is having an altercation over a diamond ring with a fellow named Edward O’Kelley…  {001}

1914

The Ludlow Massacre. Camp guards employed by Colorado Fuel and Iron Company and units of the Colorado National Guard attack a tent city occupied by striking miners of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and their families. Two women and eleven children were found asphyxiated and burned to death under a single tent, with the overall death toll estimated at between nineteen and twenty-five. This was the worst single event of a strike against Colorado’s three largest coal mining companies, lasting from September 1913 to December of 1914 and costing perhaps 200 lives. Photo: U.S. PD Cover of the June, 1914 issue of The Masses by John French Sloan.  {001}
see:
Photo Gallery Index – Mining Photos – Ludlow Massacre

4/21 of… 1810

Rufus Easton, who had been appointed the first postmaster west of the Mississippi River, handwrote the first St. Louis postmark. He was also responsible for the construction of the first post office building in St. Louis, very near where the Gateway Arch stands today. Easton would continue to serve as postmaster until January, 1815. Illustration: U.S. PD Wikimedia.  {001}

1836

Battle of San Jacinto: the decisive battle for Texas Independence. Having trained together for but three weeks, Texian troops led by General Sam Houston defeated General Antonio López de Santa Anna‘s+2 Mexican army in just 18 minutes. Three survivors of the Goliad Massacre fought in this battle. Santa Anna barely escapes, but not for long… {001}
see also:
References – Dictionary – Runaway Scrape, The
Wk. 10, 03/06/1836 – The fall of The Alamo
Wk. 12, 03/19/1836 – Battle of Coleto Creek
Wk. 13, 03/27/1836 – Goliad Massacre

1862

Having been established by an Act of Congress, the United States Mint at Denver opened for business in late 1863 as a United States Assay Office, beginning in the facilities of Clark, Gruber and Company, located at 16th and Market Streets. These, having been acquired by the government for $25,000, which then simply printed the money for the purchase at the new location. However, unlike Clark, Gruber and Company, Denver minted no coinage of gold as first intended. Several reasons were offered by the Director… “… the hostility of the Indian tribes along the routes, doubtless instigated by rebel emissaries (the Civil War) and bad white men.” Although the Assay office was quite busy, It would be years before any coins would be struck in Denver…  {001}
see also:
The Originals Index – Trade in the Old West
– Commerce in the Old West – 1859

1870

Edwin Stanton Porter born in Connellsville, PA. American film director  {001}

1877

Ojo Caliente, NM. Indian agent John P. Clum and twenty-two Apache policemen arrest Geronimo and a number of other Apache chiefs without firing a shot. Victorio and 400 warriors come in the same day. All this because the Apache respected and trusted Clum.  {001}

1877

The Wild Cat Horse Guards formed in Nemaha County, KS. An organization of owners of horses and mules who had their animals appraised and registered. If the animal was stolen they received two-thirds of the noted value. Similar groups had formed in other locations beginning in the 1850’s.  {001}

1882

Gambler/gunfighter “Cockeyed Frank” Loving, age 28 or 29, cashes in his chips, dying from a gunfight wound in Trinidad, CO.  {001}
see:
Wk 15, 04/15/1882 – Shootout!

1897

The Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy, Elsa Lay, Bub Meeks and Joe Walker made off with $8,800 in gold and silver from  paymaster E. L. Carpenter of the Pleasant Valley Coal Company at Castle Gate, UT. Carpenter did his best at pursuit but to no avail; less than $1,000 was recovered.  {001}

1910

Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clements), “The Father of American Literature” died at age 74 in Redding, CT. Steamboat Pilot,* journalist, author, political satirist, lecturer and world renowned humorist. Numerous articles, fiction & non-fiction, travel, etc.; short stories and two very famous novels: Tom Sawyer (1876) and Huckleberry Finn (1885). In (1835) and out (1910) (as he predicted) with Halley’s Comet. Way too much for The Reader, look him up and read his words!  TYH!! Photo: U.S. PD Mathew Brady (1871)  {001}
see also:
PLAYERS – Timelines Index – Timelines M-Z Index
– Mark Twain Timeline
*Photo Gallery Index – Transportation Photos – Steamboats
Photo Gallery Index – Pushin’ Up Daisies – Mark Twain
Quotes Index – Commentators Quotes – Mark Twain
Quotes Index – Rules to live By – Mark Twain

1946

Aldo Leopold, died in Baraboo, WI. A professor at the University of Wisconsin: American author, philosopher, naturalist, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist. Best known for his book A Sand County Almanac (1949). He was a founder of the science of wildlife management and influential in the development of modern environmental ethics and the movement for wilderness conservation. His ecocentric or holistic ethics, emphasizing the land, biodiversity, ecology, nature and wildlife preservation had a profound impact on the environmental movement. Photo: U.S. PD, internet. The Aldo Leopold Wilderness is located in New Mexico, north of Emory Pass (1980).  {001}

4/22 of… 1836

Santa Anna+2 captured by the victorious Texans, the cream on yesterday’s amazing turn of events.  {001}

1864

Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864, which authorized the minting of a two-cent copper coin bearing the phrase “In God we trust“. The first U.S. coin to do so. Just under 20 million coins were struck in the first year.
CC U.S. PD 1864 two cent coin, large motto  {001}

1873

Dissolution of the Texas State Police. Nearly forty ex-members would become Texas Rangers.  {001}

1889

At high noon, the first Oklahoma Land Run (Rush). An estimated 50,000 people participated, and by nightfall they had laid claim to 1.92 million acres, but the “Sooners” were already there and had all the best land staked out. Photo: U.S. PD, This from the 1893 Rush.  {001}

1893

The passing of E.F. Beale (Edward Fitzgerald “Ned” Beale) at age 71 years. A naval officer, military general, explorer, frontiersman, Indian affairs superintendent, California rancher, diplomat, and friend of Buffalo Bill Cody, Kit Carson and Ulysses S. Grant. He fought in the Mexican-American War and became famous as the man who carried the first gold samples east from the California gold strike of 1848;* thereby contributing to the gold rush. This fella was a piece of work! Look him up and TYH! Photo: U.S. PD pre-1893  {001}
see also:
The Originals Index – Trails – E.F. Beale Expedition
*Wk. 04, 01/24/1848 – Sutter’s Mill
Quotes Index – Commentators Quotes
– Commerce, Industry, Mining and Transportation about E. F. Beale

1930

After a twelve city traveling exhibition and being viewed by an estimated 750,000 people, some 120,000 voted for their three favorites. One of twelve three foot model sculptures from national and international artists which were commissioned by Oklahoma oilman Ernest Whitworh “E.W.” Marland was to be chosen for a commemorative statue to “Pioneer Woman“.  The winner, “Confident” by British Sculptor Bryant Baker was rendered by the artist as as 27 foot tall 12,000 pound bronze. Some 40,000 people attended the unveiling and dedication at Ponca City, OK. A tribute to Oklahoma pioneers was presented by Will Rogers. The event was carried on a live 90 minute radio broadcast and included speeches by President Herbert Hoover and others. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Photo: © Carptrash via Wikipedia.  {001}
see:
Quotes Index – Women Quotes – “Pioneer Woman” – Betty Wollman

1984

Noted photographer and environmentalist.  Ansel Adams, age 82, died in Monterey, CA. At 14, his parents gave him two gifts. A Kodak #1 Box Brownie camera and a trip to Yosemite National Park. He was so captivated by the mountains and the forest that he returned to the park every summer for the rest of his life. Working in black & white, his photos of Yosemite and other rough country landscapes, first published in 1921, have become iconic images of the American west. Photo: U.S. P.D. c. 1950 J. Malcolm Greany.  {003}

End: Week 16, April 15th thru 22nd.

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{001} C 05/21; E 08/18: F 06/11; P 10/17