Week 45: November 5th thru 11th

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Names in bold will be found in Players; bolded Titles in References.

11/5 of… 1870

It’s the second train robbery in the U.S. Mastermind A.J. “Big Jack” Davis, aided by R.A. “Sol” James, Tilton Cockerell, and James Gilchrist rob the eastbound Central Pacific Train #1 early in the morning, just east of Verdi, NV.  {001}
see:
Wk. 40, 10/06/1866 – First!

1871

Wickenburg Massacre. Six miles from Wickenburg, AZ, mid-morning: fifteen Yavapai Apache warriors attack a stagecoach. Six men, including the driver, are shot and killed. The only (wounded) female passenger and one male traveler somehow manage to escape. Among the dead is 25-year-old Frederick Wadsworth Loring, a correspondent for Appleton’s Journal (Boston). Beyond the public outrage over the massacre, Loring’s murder will have grave consequences for the Yavapai. Photo: U.S. PD 1871 by unknown – taken about 48 hours before the massacre: Loring in his campaign costume with his mule, Evil Merodach.  {001}
see also:
Quotes Index – Indian Quotes -Politicians, Soldiers, Preachers & others…
– Charles Reade
The Originals Index – Memorials, Monuments and Sculpture
– Wickenburg Massacre

1878

Virgil Earp is elected constable of the 2nd precinct, Prescott, Arizona Territory.  {001}

1877

Dodge City, KS. An afternoon disagreement between Lone Star Dance Hall co-owners Dick Moore and Bob Shaw boils over into a gunfight — precipitating the arrival of Deputy Marshal Ed Masterson. Masterson is shot by Shaw, who then receives several rounds in return. Moore and bystander Frank Buskirk are wounded by stray bullets. Everyone recovers.  {001}

1911

Born: Leonard Franklin Slye (Roy Rogers) in Cincinnati, OH. Recording, radio, movie and TV star.  {001}

1916

Everett Massacre, (aka: “Bloody Sunday“). Everett, WA: armed confrontation erupted between the local authorities, vigilantes (200) and members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). “The Wobblies” attempted to land two shiploads of protesters in support of the local shingle workers’ strike. A resulting gunfight between the ship (Verona) and the dock, along with the ensuing panic, killed at least five unionists and two deputies (by friendly fire). Many more were injured, including Snohomish County Sheriff Donald McRae. Eventually, all charges against union leaders and members were dropped. No vigilantes or lawmen were ever charged.  {001}
see also:
References – Dictionary – Industrial Workers of the World

2003

Dorothy Fay Southworth, aka “Dorothy Fay“, age 88, died in Woodland Hills, CA. “B” western movie actress in Frontier Scout (1938) and Rainbow Over the Range (1940) w/ Tex Ritter.  {001}

11/6 of… 1865

The final act of the Confederate States of America came with the surrender of the CSS Shenandoah to HMS Donegal offshore from Liverpool, England. The Shenandoah had fired the final shot of the Civil War at an American whaling vessel in the Arctic.  {001}

1876

Lampasas, TX. Outlaw Scott Cooley and Tombstone cowboy-to-be John Peters “Johnny” Ringo get some help breaking out of the calaboose.  {001}

1896

Sheriff Frank Canton had been investigating a variety of suspected activities (rustling, theft, etc.) of the bounty hunting Dunn brothers (Bee, Bill, Dal, Calvin and George) around Pawnee, OK. Bill Dunn took umbrage at Canton’s pursuit of his duties and went into town to kill him. His two shots missed, but Frank’s two didn’t. Most of the problems, along with the bounty hunting, ceased.  {001}

1938

The Red Ryder comic strip, syndicated by the Newspaper Enterprise Association, eventually garnered over 14 million readers. It was published in 750 papers and translated into ten languages worldwide.  {001}

11/7 of… 1850

Mary Katherine Harony born in Budapest, Hungary. She will become Big Nose Kate, a soiled dove.  {001}

1861

Jeff Davis Milton born near Marianna, FL. Texas ranger, lawman.  {001}

1893

Women win the right to vote in Colorado, the second state to pass women’s suffrage. The nineteenth Amendment is still twenty-three years in the future.  {001}
see:
Quotes Index – Women Quotes – Elizabeth Cady Stanton

1897

Dan “Dynamite Dan” Clifton — cattle rustler, bank robber, and member of the Doolin Gang — ran out of luck at the hands of deputy marshals W.H. “Hess” Bussy, George Lawson and Chris Madsen near Checotah, OK. Shot out of the saddle early in the day, Dan later tried a frontal assault on the lawmen as they approached a cabin in which he had taken refuge. No luck.  {001}
see:
The Originals Index – Outlaw Gangs Index – Doolin Gang – Wild Bunch
Quotes Index – Gunfighter Quotes – “Dynamite Dan”
PLAYERS – Timelines Index – Timelines M-Z – Three Guardsmen Timeline

1908

Wild Bunch member Butch Cassidy (Robert Leroy Parker, aka George Cassidy, William T. Phillips) is allegedly killed in a shootout with police and soldiers at Bonifacio Casasola’s boarding house in San Vicente, Bolivia. Some claim he escaped and lived until 1937 — a very controversial issue among Western historians. Horse: Babe. Photo: a crop from the famous Fort Worth photo that undid the gang.  {001}
see:
Wk. 29, 07/20/1937 – Butch Cassidy again?
Photo Gallery Index – Lawmen and Outlaws Photos – entire photo

1908

Wild Bunch member Sundance Kid {33} (Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, aka: H.A. Brown, Harry Long, Harry A. Place, Frank Smith) dies with his partner in crime (see above entry). After a successful robbery the week before,* their career is derailed by a brand on a mule. The victors claimed that both men were badly shot up and that one had killed the other, then committed suicide. Assertions that Longabaugh survived and returned to live as William Henry Long until 1936 in Duchesne, UT, were disproved by DNA tests on exhumed remains in 2008. Photo: as above.  {001}
see:
*Wk. 44, 11/03/1908 – Payroll heist…
Photo Gallery Index – Lawmen and Outlaws Photos – entire photo

1911

Outlaw John W. Gates is sprung from the Luna County, New Mexico Territory, jail by John and Reynold Greer. Sheriff Dwight B. Stephens and Chief Deputy James Kealy are left standing unarmed in their stocking feet.  {001}

1917

The Tulsa Outrage. Convicted by Judge T.D. Evans of the crime of not owning any war bonds, twelve members of the Industrial Workers of the World and five witnesses who had testified in court on their behalf, are delivered by the police into the hands of a vigilante group. This bunch is composed of the Knights of Liberty, a short-lived faction of the Ku Klux Klan. The victims were taken at gunpoint to a deserted location, tied to trees, whipped, then tarred and feathered. Tulsa, OK.  {001}

1937

Alleged to have been born in 1850, 1852 or 1857, take your pick. John Miller died at the Arizona Pioneers’ Home (Prescott, AZ) at age 80, 85, or 87. Horseman, rancher, maybe a bit of a gunfighter. Noted here because he is yet another candidate for a surviving Billy the Kid. Unlikely, but he confided to a select few that he was and a few others claimed it was so… Where is that missing trunk that can allegedly prove he was the Kid? It’s a convoluted tale, too complicated to relate here, look him up. Photo: U.S. PD pre-1923.  {001}
see also:
Wk. 52, 12/27/1950 – Brushy Bill

1978

“Cattle Annie” crossed over the Great Divide at 95 years of age. She was a paramour and lookout for the Doolin Gang in the Oklahoma Territory c. 1890’s. However, this firebrand had a criminal career all her own with partner “Little Britches” (Jennie Stevenson, aka Jennie Stevens, Jennie Midkiff, maybe etc…) before they fell in with Bill Doolin. These two young teens, both excellent horsewomen and packing pistols they knew how to use, sold whiskey to the Indians, stole horses, acted as runners and lookouts for outlaws, and generally raised hell in the Indian Territory. Eventually they each garnered time at the reformatory in Framingham, MS. “Little Britches” disappeared from history shortly after leaving Framingham. “Cattle Annie” ran through a husband or two and a stint in a wild west show before settling into a calmer life. Both of these ladies were portrayed with considerable latitude on the silver screen in: Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1981), starring Amanda Plummer as Cattle Annie and Diane Lane as Little Britches.  {001}
see:
The Originals Index – Outlaw Gangs Index – Doolin Gang – Wild Bunch

11/8 of… 1859

Stage robbers Sam White and Francisco Nunez are killed by lawmen Charles P. O’Neil and Dan Gay outside of Auburn, California.  {001}

1874

The Southern Pacific RR begins work on the Tehachapi Loop near Bakersfield, CA.  {001}

1876

First woman in the United States elected as a justice of the peace is Mary Davis, at Tie Siding, WY.  {001}

1878

Sam Bass Gang member William Collins, about to be brought up on charges for the Mesquite, TX train robbery*, had jumped bail in Austin, TX and fled to Pembina, Dakota Territory. Yet, even this far away, he was identified and U.S. Marshall William Anderson and Pembina County Sheriff Charlie Brown were waiting at the local post office when Collins came to check his mail. During the attempted arrest, Collins went for his gun and was shot by the marshal, who quickly retreated from the building. When the marshal returned to see what had happened to Collins, he was shot and killed by the dying outlaw.  {001}
see:
*Wk. 15, 04/10/1878 – Mesquite, TX
The Originals Index – Outlaw Gangs Index – Sam Bass Gang (no Gang page yet)

1887

John Henry “Doc” Holliday {19} died in bed of tuberculosis in Glenwood Springs, CO. Legend claims his last words to be, “Well I’ll be damned, this, is funny!” Harelip Charley said Doc’s last words were whispered to Big Nose Kate and that she would not reveal what he had uttered. Photos: U.S. PD pre 1923 – LH, Hotel Glenwood c. 1887 courtesy Glenwood Springs Historical Museum. RH, Doc’s graduation photo, from the Holliday family.  {001}
See also:
PLAYERS – Timelines – Timelines A-L – Doc Holliday Timeline
Photo Gallery Index – Pushin’ Up Daisies) – Doc Holliday
Photo Gallery Index – Doc Holliday Photos
Quotes Index – Doc Holliday Quotes
Photo Gallery Index – Weapons Photos – Doc Holliday’s Guns

1889

Montana admitted to the Union as the 41st state. “Big Sky Country”. Seal of Montana U.S. PD.  {001}

1893

Influential American author and historian Francis Parkman, age 70, died in Jamaica Plain, NY. His works include Parkman’s Oregon Trail (1847-49), The Jesuits in North America (1867), La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West (1869), and A Half Century of Conflict (1892). Photo U.S. PD, unknown 1889  {001}

1916

First woman elected to the U.S. Congress is Jeannette Pickering Rankin (R)-Montana, at large, and again in 1940 for 1st district. Photo: U.S. PD, 1917 Matzene – Chicago.  {001}
see:
Quotes Index – Women Quotes
– Elizabeth Cady Stanton

11/9 of… 1847

Mary Hallock Foote born in Milton, NY. Illustrator, author.  {001}

1857

Rescuers bring the Fourth Hand Cart Company (Willie) into Salt Lake City, UT, eighty-five days after their departure from Florence, NE.  The company tallies a loss of 68 from their original 404.  {001}

1871

The Colorado mining boom town of Central City sees the the birth Florence Rena Sabin, she will become one of the first female frontier doctors and much more…  {001}

1874

Lt. Frank D. Baldwin leading Company D, Fifth Infantry, and Company D, Sixth Cavalry with attached scouts, rescue Adelaide and Julia German who were taken captive by Indians near Smokey Hill two months earlier.* The troops won a major engagement and the fleeing Indians left behind their camp and the captives. (KS) {001}
see:
*Wk. 37, 09/11/1874 – German Family Massacre

1881

Shakespeare, NM Territory: Outlaw gunfighter and rustler Sandy King, who had some association with the Clanton‘s,* had been arrested earlier in the month by lawman “Dangerous Dan” Tucker for the wounding of a storekeeper during a dispute. When Tucker arrested King’s friend Russian Bill Tattenbaum for rustling, the Tombstone Vigilantes took the opportunity to have a mock trial at the Stratford Hotel and convict both outlaws of rustling and being a “general nuisance”. Sentenced to hang that same day, Tattenbaum pleaded that many others who had committed the same crime had not been hanged. King asked for a glass of water because his throat was sore “after talking so much to save my life.” The vigilance committee promptly lynched them both and left the bodies hanging for a few days as a warning to other outlaws. The following morning,  a Coroner’s jury inquest brought in a verdict of suicide by hanging. {001}

see:
*The Originals Index – Outlaw Gangs Index – The Cowboys

1919

Edward Samuel Paxon dies in Missoula, MT at age 67. Frontier scout, soldier, writer and painter. He is best remembered for his portraits of Native Americans, and particularly for his depiction of the Battle of Little Bighorn in the painting “Custer’s Last Stand”. Photo U.S. PD unknown, pre- 1919.  {003}

1967

Charles Bickford, age 76, died in Los Angeles, CA. Usually a supporting actor, Bickford played in a number of westerns: The Plainsman (1936), The Big Country (1958), The Unforgiven (1960) and others. In his final role on NBC TV’s The Virginian (1967), he played the owner of the Shiloh Ranch, John Grainger. Photo U.S. PD, trailer frame from Johnny Belinda (1948).  {001}

11/10 of… 1861

Pistol, at a measured seventy-one yards: Thomas Coleman “Cole” Younger makes his first kill with Quantrill’s Raiders against federals near Independence, MO.  {001}

1865

Henry Wirz, the Confederate commandant of Camp Sumpter (Andersonville Prison), was hanged after court martial for conspiracy and murder — the only southern official executed for war crimes. It is estimated that 12,500 of the 45,000 prisoners who passed through the gates into “hell”, died there. The condition of the survivors was appalling.  {001}

1873

The Vasquez Gang robbed the Jones Store at Millerton in Fresno County, CA.  {001}

1890

Leonard Brock, (the Burrows Gang) commits suicide by jumping from a fourth floor cell block in prison (TX?).  {001}

1934

William Ellsworth “Elzy” Lay, age 65, died in Los Angeles, CA. An old buddy of Butch Cassidy, Elza had a saloon on “the strip” in Utah where he and a partner counterfeited silver dollars, robbing trains and banks on the side. His nefarious activities led to a life sentence in the New Mexico State Prison.  {001}
see:
Wk. 2, 1/10/1906 – Elza Lay released

1946

Edward H. “Ed” Morrell, last surviving member of the Evans Gang, passes in Los Angeles, CA, at age 78. Sentenced to a life term in 1894, he did fourteen years in California prisons, five in Folsom and the remaining nine in San Quentin (five of those in solitary confinement). He became known as the “Dungeon Man” of San Quentin. He was pardoned in 1908 and became an advocate for prison reform and the abolition of corporal punishment. His one-act play, The Incorrigible (1914), was based on his experiences. His memoirs, The 25th Man: The Strange Story of Ed. Morrell, the Hero of Jack London’s Star Rover came in 1924. There’s more to this story, look him up.  {001}
see:
The Originals Index – Outlaw Gangs Index – Evans Gang (Chris)

1964

A heart attack at 51 ends the varied career of Jimmy Dodd (James Wesley Dodd), the final actor to play the sidekick “Lullaby” in Republic Picture’s Three Mesquiteers movie series Shadows of the Sage (1942) and Riders of the Rio Grande (1943), and four others. Starting in 1955 he appeared in over 300 episodes of the Mickey Mouse Club as head Mouseketeer. Go figure.  Photo: U.S. PD, McFadden Publications, crop from group photo.  {001}

2006

Jack Palance (Volodymyr Palahnyuk), died at age 87 in Montecito, CA. Westerns: Shane (1953) with Alan Ladd, Arrowhead (1953) with Charlton Heston, Compañeros, a noted spaghetti western (1970), Young Guns (1988), Last Ride of the Dalton Gang (TV, 1979) and an Oscar for Curly Washburn in City Slickers (1991) — See it!! Photo: U.S. PD from The Godchild (1974). TYH!  {001}
see:
Quotes Index – Movies and TV Quotes – Jack Palance

11/11 of… 1812

John W. Gunnison born in Goshen, NH. Army office, explorer, topographer.

1829

Born in Oneonta, NY, Carleton Watkins, American photographer.  {001}

1842

Ben Thompson born in Knottingly, England. Gunfighter and lawman.  {001}

1872

The board of directors of the San Francisco and New York Mining and Commercial Company receives a letter from government geologist Clarence King informing them that he has examined their new investment in the Colorado Territory, “… discovering the new diamond fields to be a fraud.”  {001}
see:
The Originals Index – Lost Treasures of the Old West
– Hoaxes – The Great Colorado Diamond Hoax of 1872

1873

Edward T. “Red” Beard, age about 45, dies of shotgun wounds delivered by Rowdy Joe Lowe. {001}
see:
Wk. 43, 10/27/1873 – Gunfight!

1875

Colfax County War. Manual Cardenas is captured, confesses to the murder of Rev. Tobly, names his co-conspirators and is shot dead by “squatter” sympathizers on the way to jail. Dr. R.H. Longwill, a grant shill and man for the Santa Fe ring in Cimarron, is pursued to Ft. Union by Clay Allison and a posse, but escapes.  {001}

1889

Washington is admitted to the Union as the 42nd state. “The Evergreen State”. Seal of Washington State, U.S. PD.  {001}

1897

… or maybe ’98. Local cowboy Billy King shot to death by deputy sheriff Burt Alvord who claims self defense in Wilcox, AZ.  {001}

1940

Monogram Pictures releases Take Me Back to Oklahoma starring Tex Ritter, sidekick Slim Andrews and Bob Wills, and the Texas Playboys. Directed by Albert Herman, it was a typical short “singing western” showcasing Ritter, the Playboys, Tex’s horse White Flash and Andrews’ mule, Josephine.  {001}

End: Week 45, November 5th thru 11th

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