Week 34: August 20th thru 26th

< previous… next >

Use Cmd/Ctrl+F to search Week 34.
Working links are Red, other references, use Navigation Panel choices.
Names in bold will be found in Players; bolded Titles in References.

8/20 of… 1862

Lake Shetek Massacre, aka: Slaughter Slough. The beginning of the Dakota War. Pushed to the breaking point by forced resettlement on reservations, treaty violations by the U. S., late or unfair annuity payments by Indian agents and increasing hardship and hunger; a council of Dakotas decided to wage war on the whites. Some 40 Sisseton Dakota Sioux Indians attacked settlers, killing 15 and taking a dozen women and children captive; 21 settlers survived and escaped to safety. A band of pacifist Lakota later ransomed eight surviving captives. Slaughter Slough is a wetland, in Murray County east of Lake Shetek in southwestern Minnesota.
White Reaction was strong and Abraham Lincoln authorized the execution of the Dakotas involved in the massacre and kidnapping.  {001}
see also:
Wk. 52, 12/26/1862 – Mankato Hanging
Photo Gallery Index – Memorials Monuments and Sculpture
– Slaughter Slough Monument

1872

West Lake Settlement Massacre, MN: About 30 Dakota Sioux Indians+2 attack and loot several cabins and kill thirteen settlers; men, women and children. As with the above article, part of the Dakota War+2.  {001}

1871

The Newton Massacre, Perry Tuttle’s Saloon at Newton, KS. Railroad man Mike McCluskie is attacked and shot to death by Hugh Anderson for the previous killing of his friend William Bailey. This sparks a violent shootout that leaves Texas cowboys Billy Garrett, Jim Martin, Henry Kearnes and McCluskie’s friend Patrick Lee, dead. Anderson was shot twice in the leg and two others were wounded.  {001}

1876

Thomas Jefferson “Jay” Olive dies of wounds sustained at the Cattle Pen fight*. Print Olive makes a recovery and in September hunts down and kills former friend Fred Smith whom he believes made the sh0t that killed Jay.  {003}
see:
*Wk. 31, 08/02/1886 – Cattle Pen fight

1876

Civil War soldier, doctor (1867), prospector and Deadwood, SD‘s first minister, Henry Weston Smith (Methodist) arrived in May of 1876. He had no church, but preached the Gospel on Main street, to anyone who would listen (usually in front of Bent and Deetken’s drug store.) Telling friends, “The Bible is my protection. It has never failed me yet”, he would also walk to the nearby mining camps to do the same. This Sunday, on his way to Crook City, he was shot dead by persons unknown. Was it hostile Indians? Or perhaps a hired killer, paid for by the owners of Deadwood’s brothels and saloons? In 1914, on the anniversary of the murder, The Society of Black Hills Pioneers erected a monument near the location of his death.  {001}
see:
Memorials, Monuments and Sculpture – Preacher Smith Memorial

1942

Born: McKendree “Mike” R. Long. Paratrooper, Viet Nam vet, historian, firearms collector, author and contributor to The Old West Daily Reader. He has two western novels published: No Good Like It Is (2010) and Dog Soldier Moon (2011) and a third one, tentatively titled Higher Ground, on the way. Find Mike’s books on his website.* Old West Daily Reader Contributor 007.  {001}
see:
*Links to Friends)

1977

Died: Edward C. “Eddy” Waller, age 88. Vaudeville and theater actor, character actor, sidekick+2. “Nugget Clark” to Rocky Lane in 32 films from 1947 to 1952: The Wild Frontier (1947), Gunmen of Abilene (1950), Desperado’s Outpost (1952) then with Kirk Douglas in Man Without a Star (1955), and The Far Country (1955) with Jimmy Stewart. Waller made some 250 films and did a number of TV shows. Photo: ©? Cinefania, Fair Use) {001}

1995

Adios to “First Rodeo Queen” Alice Greenough Orr, age 93, at Tuscon, AZ. Rancher’s daughter, bull rider, trick rider, rodeo performer, movie stunt woman. Four times World Saddle Bronc Champion. She retired from rodeo at age 52 in 1954 but continued to do some movie work until she was 80. Cowgirl Hall of Fame 1975. This lady was a piece of work! One of the great ones! TYH! Photo: U.S. PD  {001}

2013

The passing of American author Elmore John Leonard, Jr., at age 87 in Bloomfield Hills, MI. Most of his westerns were early: Three-Ten to Yuma (1953) M (3:10 to Yuma) – 1957 & 2007, Hombre (1961- M 1967), Valdez Is Coming (1970) M- 1971 and two other westerns that became films. In total, nineteen novels and short stories by Leonard have been the basis for movies, and seven for TV productions. Three of his novels and a short story are the basis for the excellent TV series, Justified (2010 thru 2014 season). TYH! Photo: U.S. PD, 1989 MDCarchives.  {001}
see also:
Wk. 32, 08/07/1957 – 3:10 to Yuma
Wk. 36, 09/07/2007 – 3:10 to Yuma
Quotes Index – Movies and TV Quotes – Elmore Leonard

8/21 of… 1849

Having run the trading post since the early 1830’s, William Bent, insulted by the government’s paltry offer for his property, removes his belongings, blows up Bent’s Old Fort, CO, and sets the ruins afire! It’s true that there may have been other issues, such as: not allowing various Indians or others to take over the fort — and there was also the fact that cholera was running rampant on the plains that year. Sketch: c. 1840’s U.S. Army Lt. J. W. Abert.  {001}
see:
The Originals – Resources & Hazards – Disease – Cholera

1863

The bloody raid on Lawrence, KS, by Quantrill’s Raiders. Homes and buildings burned and perhaps 200 men and boys massacred. It is probable that Frank James and some of the Younger brothers participated in the raid.  {001}

1863

The first private school opens in Virginia City, MT.  {001}

1883

Wells Fargo offers a $500 reward for the three bandits who took $5,000 from a pack train and killed the messenger near Globe, AZ Territory.  {001}

1883

Wyoming: dead at 68, William Adams “Wild Bill” Hickman. Utah territorial legislator, bodyguard for Brigham Young, Mormon partisan and assassin. He was excommunicated in 1868 by the LDS Church (Mormons). In his 1871 autobiography, later published by Beadle as Brigham’s Destroying Angel, he claimed numerous murders committed at the behest of church officials. A very convoluted tale… he was never charged or tried. Photo: U.S. PD c. 1860  {001}

1905

Sequoyah, State of – The Sequoyah Constitutional Convention met in Muskogee, Indian Territory*  {001}
see:
References – Dictionary – Sequoyah, State of

8/22 of… 1779

Governor Juan Bautista de Anza elected to continue north at night through the San Luis Valley to avoid detection by the Comanches. They crossed the Rio Grande River at La Loma Del Norte and suffered bitter cold as they pursued their night march.  {003}

1848

Following the Mexican-American War (1846-48), New Mexico is annexed to the United States by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.  {001}

1889

Deadwood Dick (Nat Love) married, and a year later went to work for the Pullman Company as a railroad porter. He later worked for General Securities Co. of Los Angeles, CA. He died in Los Angeles in 1921. A top hand and all ’round real cowboy. This man knew a Who’s Who of the western icons and was liked and respected by all. His 1907 book, The Life and Adventures of Nat Love Better Known in the Cattle Country as Deadwood Dick,* is one of the finest books ever written about the life of the American cowboy. (Even so, as with most old-timers, you will need a little salt here and there.)  Photo: from Nat’s Book (the end of his Pullman career). TYH!  {001}
see:
*References – Books used as Reference

1899

“The City of Mines“, the prosperous gold mining town of Victor, CO lost fourteen city blocks (an estimated 800 structures) to a devastating fire. Within six months after the conflagration, the city had been rebuilt – in brick.  {001}

2009

Elmer Kelton, well recognized western writer dies at San Angelo, Texas at age 83. Some books and awards: Buffalo Wagons (1957), The Day the Cowboys Quit (1971), The Time It Never Rained (1973), Eyes of the Hawk (1974), Slaughter (1992), The Far Canyon (1994) and The Way of the Coyote (2002) all won Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America. The Time It Never Rained (1973 ), The Good Old Boys (1979 ) and The Man Who Rode Midnight (1988 ) have received Western Heritage Awards from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  Photo: U.S. PD 2007 Larry D. Moore.  {001}

8/23 of… 1810

John Jacob Astor paid $37,860 to Fanning & Coles for a 10-gun merchant vessel, the 290-ton bark, Tonquin.* She was to be used by the Pacific Fur Company in the fur trade on the Northwest coast of America.  {001)
see:
*The Originals Index – Trade in the Old West
– Commerce in the Old West – 1810, Tonquin

1877

Texas Ranger John Barclay Armstrong arrests John Wesley Hardin and three companions on a train in Pensacola, FL, killing one Jim Mann in the process. Armstrong was outside of his jurisdiction but he got his man.  {001}

1877

A military telegram and a newspaper article (Arizona Weekly Star) mark the first use of the alias “Kid” for “Henry Antrim”, soon to be known as “Billy the Kid”.  {001}

1891

Dalton Gang member “Black Faced Charlie” Bryant, although handcuffed while being taken by railroad express car to jail, recovers his pistol and shoots U.S. Deputy Marshal Ed Short in the chest. Short returns fire with a rifle, killing Bryant — then expires. Near Waukomis, OK.  {001}

1962

Edmund “Hoot Gibson” Richard Gibson, age 70, died in Los Angeles, CA. Bronc rider in Dick Stanley’s Congress of Rough Riders (c. 1910). Rodeo performer (All Around Champion at the 1912 Pendleton Round-Up), actor, director, producer, soldier (WW I), stuntman, sidekick+2, silent and “talkie” western film star 1910 thru 1960. A few films: Pride of the Range (silent- 1910), His Only Son (silent- 1912), Action (silent-1921), Flaming Frontier (1926), The Riding Avenger (1936), The Law Rides Again (1943) & The Horse Soldiers (1959) with John Wayne. Inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, OK (1979). Photo: U.S. PD  {001}
see also:
Photo Gallery – Pushin’ Up Daisies – Hoot Gibson
The Originals Index – Entertainment in the Old West
– Rodeos and Wild West Shows
The Pretenders Index – Young Guns – Kurt & Hoot

8/24 of… 1777

The Viceroy of New Spain appointed Juan Bautista de Anza+2, governor of New Mexico, in hopes that he could do something about the Comanche raiding problem. Arriving in Santa Fe late in 1778, he surveyed the provinces and visited all the pueblos. Taos was fortified with four strongholds, the settlers were organized into towns or plazas containing at least twenty families. His quarry was Comanche leader Cuerno Verde (Green Horn), who has been entirely too successful in his frequent raids on Spanish settlements and the camps of friendly tribes.  {003}

1790

Sergeant Jose Ignacio Olivera and a detachment of nine soldiers were dispatched by Commandante Felipe de Goycochea to search for a runaway neophyte from Mission San Buenaventura (CA) named Domingo. They were also directed to search for silver outcrops which had been reported in San Emigdio Canyon. The troupe was attacked by Indians while prospecting and two soldiers were killed.  {001}

1855

Col. William S. Harney  sets out to deal with the Sioux in the aftermath of the Grattan Massacre: “By God, I’m for battle—no peace.”  {001}
see:
Wk. 33, 08/17/1854 – an Indian killed a cow…

1857

The Panic of 1857: Events as diverse as falling world grain prices, the balance between free and slave states, a maritime disaster* and an embezzlement which caused a bank failure… these combined with other factors to lead to an economic and business collapse which then spread worldwide. Railroads failed and the economic boom that had spurred western expansion ground ever slower. Many of these same issues between North and South then slowly came to a head and resulted in the Civil War which, in turn, led to an economic recovery. Look it up; it will all sound so familiar.  {001}
see:
*Wk. 37, 09/12/1857 – sunken gold…

1869

The final patent date marked on a .44 cal. Smith and Wesson Model No. 3 “American”. One of the first “six- shooters” of the old west. The U.S. Army took delivery of 1000 in 1871. Owned and used by some of the best and worst of the legends: Buffalo Bill, John Wesley Hardin, Texas Jack Omohundro, Dallas Stoudenmire and others. Then too, just maybe… Wyatt Earp was packing one at the OK Corral.  {001}

1874

Lone Tree Massacre – A survey party led by Capt. Oliver Francis Short (Civil War) was massacred by a Southern Cheyenne war party led by Chief Medicine Water and his warrior wife Mochi. Short, his 14-year-old son Truman, and four other members of the party were killed, three were scalped. (Present day Meade County, KS.  {001}
see:
Photo Gallery Index – Indian Photos – Indian Warrior Women – Mochi.

1880

The passing of Ute Chief Ouray near the Los Pinos Indian Agency (Southern Ute Reservation), Ignacio, CO. As a young man he had fought against traditional enemies Kiowa and Sioux; then he became chief of the Tabeguache (Uncompahgre) Ute in 1860 at the age of 27. Astute and aware, Ouray saw his world was to be overwhelmed by the oncoming white culture, and expended great effort save his people and their way of life. Respected by both sides of the cultural war, (save perhaps the most militant of his own tribe), his wisdom and skill at language and negotiations certainly saved lives on both sides. His early death at 46 years was a great loss to his times. He was buried in a secret location by his people. This was one of the great ones, look him up! TYH! Photo: U.S. PD.  {001}
see:
Photo Gallery Index – Indian Photos
– Ouray and Chepita & Ouray’s re-internment

1889

Tom London (Leonard Clapham) born in Louisville, KY. Early movie actor.  {001}

1896

“Bounty hunter” Bill Dunn shows a posse led by Heck Thomas to a hideout near Lawson, OK. William “Bill” Doolin (aka: Will Barry) attempts to shoot it out and gets off two shots before a shotgun blast from Dunn and rifle fire from Thomas end it. The Three Guardsmen have just cut the head off the snake! A famous death Photo of Doolin* testifies to their efficiency. They took death portraits of a lot of bad men in the old days… proof that it was the outlaw in question for rewards, courts, the credibility of the populace and perhaps some darker purposes, like exhibitions and side shows. The gang’s survivors (steadily becoming fewer) would soldier on for a while. Photo: U.S. PD pre-1896 unknown.  {001}
see:
*Photo Gallery Index – Hangings and Shootings (Caution!) – Bill Doolin
The Originals Index – Outlaw Gangs Index – Doolin Gang – Wild Bunch
PLAYERS – Timelines Index – Timelines M-Z – Three Guardsmen Timeline

8/25 of…1718

The French had laid claim to the Louisiana Territory in 1682. Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville founded the city of New Orleans, naming the new settlement for Philippe II, the Duke of Orléans. Regent of France, the duke was ruling for the boy King, Louis XV. The strategic location at the mouth of the Mississippi River controlled the access to America’s great heartland waterways.
Two engineers laid out the original walled village in a mosquito-infested swamp, inclined to hurricanes and hemmed in by hostile natives. Named the Vieux Carré, it would become known as the French Quarter. France sent an initial populace of prisoners, slaves, and bonded servants. These “colonists” threatened a revolt, so the French government sent ninety female convicts culled from the Paris jails. These ladies of questionable virtue were escorted by Ursuline nuns until they could be wedded off to the waiting men. The city’s French character would be amalgamated with Native American, African, and Spanish cultures. Following a fire that destroyed most of the early structures, the quarter was reconstructed in the style of the Spanish who controlled the city at the time. Statue: Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville.  {003}

1804

Staying for a time with a band of Wičhíyena Sioux on the Vermillion River (SD), members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition were invited to see the “Mountain of the Little People”. Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and 10 other men traveled about 9 miles (14 km) north of the river’s junction with the Missouri River to climb the knoll.  Lewis wrote in his journal that the Little People were “deavals” (devils) with very large heads, about 18 inches (46 cm) high, and very alert to any intrusions into their territory.” The Sioux said that the devils carried sharp arrows which could strike at a very long distance, and that they killed anyone who approached their mound. Lewis reported, that the Little People terrified the local population, the Maha (Omaha), Ottoes (Otoe), and Sioux would not go near the place. The Lakota people, who came to live near the “Spirit Mound” after the Wičhíyena Sioux, have a story no more than 250 years old which describes how a band of 350 warriors came near the mound late at night and were nearly wiped out by the ferocious Little People (the survivors were crippled for life).
An interesting side note: Due to extensive damming of the Missouri River, Spirit Mound* is one of the few places where historians can identify a precise spot where Lewis and Clark actually stood on their historic journey.  {001}
see:
References – Dictionary – Little People
The Originals Index – Landmarks and Registers – Spirit Mound.

1819

Allan Pinkerton born in Glasgow, Scotland. Detective.  {001}

1836

Bret Harte (Francis Brett Harte) born in Albany, NY. American author.  {001}

1869

Pond City, Kansas. Self-confessed killer of six men, John Langford pulled off his boots, put the rope around his neck, climbed the tree and jumped to his death so the vigilance committee wouldn’t have the pleasure of hanging him themselves.  {001}

1877

Olympic gardens in Denver, CO. Two madams, Kate Fulton and Mattie Silks, have the first duel between women in the city — complete with seconds, back to back, three paces turn and fire! Both miss, but Kate’s bullet wounds Cortez “Cort” Thompson, the subject of the duel. There were some “business” issues as well.  {001}

1887

Preacher, town marshal, and peacemaker Jasper Ward, age 36, killed in a confrontation with Ute Indians near Meeker, CO. One of only two killed that day, Ward had been trying to calm the situation. It was said that Garfield County sheriff James Kendall had stirred up a false “Ute uprising” for political revenge against Ward who had opposed him in the democratic nomination for sheriff.   {001}

1916

President Woodrow Wilson signed an act founding the National Park Service as a part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, with Stephen Mather as Director. He served until 1929. Photo: U.S. PD, Stephen Mather – 1916.  {003}
see:
References – Dictionary – National Park Service

1919

McKinney Gang leader John William Young McKinney takes his last breath in Prescott, AZ. Born in 1847, 1848 or maybe 1853, take your pick. Soldier for six years and then turned outlaw. Rustler, thief, gunfighter and killer. He led the gang, also known as the “Rio Grande Posse“, in the Salt War (TX) and the Lincoln County War (NM). Did time for cattle rustling, later served in Cuba during the Spanish American War and finally became a successful miner in Chapparral Gulch, AZ.  Photo: U.S. PD pre-1919.  {001}

1926

Thomas Moran, age 89, died in Santa Barbara, CA. Colorist, illustrator, painter. Moran’s talent had made him chief illustrator at Scribner’s Magazine (late 1860’s) when Jay Cooke, director of the Union Pacific RR,  proposed to F.V. Hayden* that Moran be added to the 1871 Hayden Geological Survey (Cooke paid Moran’s expenses). As with the photographs by William Henry Jackson, Moran’s paintings helped influence the decision of congress to create Yellowstone National Park. Two of Moran’s paintings hang in the Capitol in Washington, D.C.: The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone (1872 and Chasm of the Colorado (1873). Photo: U.S. PD 1890-96 Napoleon Sarony.  {001}
see also:
*Wk. 51, 12/23/1887 – Dr. Ferdinand Vanderveer Hayden

 1975

Jasper Joseph Inman Kane, age 81, died in Santa Monica, CA. Actor, movie and TV director, editor, screenwriter with Republic Pictures. Kane directed the best of the early western actors: In Old Santa Fe (1934) w/Ken Maynard, King of the Pecos (1936) w/John Wayne and Muriel Evans, Git Along Little Dogies (1937) w/Gene Autry and Smiley Burnette, King of the Cowboys (1943) w/Roy Rogers and Smiley Burnette — and numerous others, 125 picture in all. Photo: U.S. ©? Fair Use.  {001}

8/26 of…1779

Governor Juan Bautista de Anza’s+2 troops leave the San Luis Valley and begin a march over Poncha Pass. Three days later as they moved east they chanced upon a herd of buffalo; fifty head were taken and dressed at their camp near Florissant.  {003}

1873

Tres Pinos, CA. Outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez kills George Redford during a robbery at the Snyder store.  {001}

1873

Susan Blow came from a well to do family who believed in education and she became a teacher with a penchant for innovation. After the Civil War, she traveled to Germany where she was captivated by Friedrich Froebel’s work with young children. Froebel called it “kindergarten” — a garden of children, with teacher “gardeners.” She saw children learning language, math, and science conceptions through play. Blow founded the first public kindergarten in the U.S in St. Louis, MO. She traveled and wrote extensively to promote the benefits of kindergarten. She wrote; “If we can make children love intellectual effort, we shall prolong habits of study beyond school years.” At the time of her death in 1916, over 400 communities included kindergarten in their public school programs.  {003}
also noted in: Firsts in the Old West

1879

LCW: John H. Beckwith, age 30?, killed by rustler John A. Jones over the ownership of a herd of cattle. Lincoln County, NM.  {001}

1892

“Miner’s rheumatism” takes Osborne Russell in the county hospital in Placerville, CA, at the age of 78. This hearty old-timer left behind one of the finest accounts of the everyday life of a trapper/hunter in the burgeoning American fur trade of the late 1830’s and early ’40’s. Read his “Journal of a Trapper: 1834-1843 and be amazed at the fortitude and courage of all who followed the trade, be they white or Indian. TYH!  {001}
see also:
Dictionary – “Rocky Mountain College”

1895

Yreka, CA vigilantes introduce Lawrence Johnson, Louis Moreno, William Null, and Garland Stemler to the court of Judge Lynch.  {001}

1911

Porum Range War – Davis Faction sympathizer Charlie McClure is shot down while riding home from the Davis ranch (OK).  {001}
see also:
PLAYERS – Timelines Master Index- Timelines A-L – Porum Range War Timeline

End: Week 34, August 20th thru 26th.
< previous… next >
{001} C 11/21; E 08/18; F 06/11; P 08/21
{003} C 09/19