Table Rock Sentinel Dec 1983

THE SOUTHERN OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY STAFF OF THE JACKSONVILLE MUSEUM OFFICERS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES Director ......................... C. William Burk 899-1847 Richard Orr ............................... President Administrative Assistant ....... Dottie Ellen Bailey 899-7222 Robert Butler ..................... First Vice-President Librarian ...................... Richard Engeman 899-1847 Rod Reid ...................... Second Vice-President MembershipiVolunteer Coordinator ... Maureen Smith 899-8203 Mark Merriman .................. Secretary/Treasurer Historian/Newsletter Editor ....... Marjorie Edens 899-1711 Newsletter Features .............. Raymond Lewis 899-1711 Registrar of Collection ............. Greg Gualtieri 899-1847 Curator of Exhibits ................ Jime Matoush 899-7522 Programs Director ................. Dawna Curler 899-8203 Photographer ....................... Doug Smith 899-7522 LAURA NEUBER WALLINGTON 1896-1983 SOHS members will remember Mrs. Wallington as the winning contestant in the titanic popularity contest of 1908 and the proud owner of the brand new Reo sports car. She was an attractive young girl and a beautiful lady. TH E TABLE ROCK SENTIN El :2 • "' St' �,�..:.�(\ • �� ,��t> � �'\� � � � �� , \(�,-,,� � ElL elI{ BART, THE P@"" A h�ghwayma� w�o pul�ed 28 stagecoach robberies , ripped off that many Wells Fargo money boxes yet d�dn t do-�n any of the good guys , abduct the ingenue or end up dangling from a rope, has earned respect. And when he turns out to be a poet with a sense of humor he deserves his niche in company with the other famous bummers of the west . LACK BART might have worn a white tacle he made and relished every second - , hat and joined the cluster of law of it. 1m- men on the scent of rowdy western As John Shine brought the horses to a desperados, but he wouldn't have had so sudden halt, the man walked up to the much fun or ended up with his name per team and crouched behind one of the horses manently scratched into the record of im to protect himself from possible rifle mortal knights of the road. He chose in fire. stead to don a black derby,b ecome a bush "Please throw down the box, " he called. ranger and indulge his taste for fine Then, turning to either side of the road, haberdashery. There is nothing unique he shouted, "If he dares to shoot, give in that, but Black Bart, working alone, him a solid volley, boys. " didn't ride a horse, fire a shot, steal In the fading light of the late after from ladies or threaten his pigeons with noon the driver could see at least six mayhem. gun barrels pointed at him, partly con His adventures as a western bandit be cealed by the rocks and brush beside the gin� on July 26, 1875, in California's road, and he didn't waste anytime pre Mother Lode country. On that date John senting his side of the debate. He tossed Shine, driver of the stagecoach on the down the sacks of mail and the Wells Fargo Milton-to-Sonora run, was held up by a strong boxes which had been, as usual, man who was standing in the middle cf stored under the driver" s seat. At the the road on the crest of a steep hill, same time an agitated female passenger, at a spot where the driver had just fearing gunfire or--horrors--worse, pulled the horses out of a sharp turn. pitched her purse out the window. The The outlaw was wearing a white linen highwayman picket it up and handed it duster, socks over his boots to dis back to her, saying, with a courtly bow, guise his footprints, and a flour sack "Lady, I don't want your money. I only over his head with eyeholes cut out. He collect Wells Fargo boxes. " had crowned his ensemble with a derby Dragging the loot into the bushes he hat perched atop the flour sack. It's ordered John Shine to drive on and dis pretty certain he was aware of the spec- appeared into the brush. The unnerved 3 DECEMBER 1983 driver giddiapped the horses, held his self behind the lead horse, he gave nis breath and looked neither left nor right command, "Throw down the box. " as he drove between the two rows of gun After the driver had complied with the barrels pointed at his head. order, and the boxes and mailsacks lay at A little later John Shine began to in the road, the highwayman gave the think about his arrival at Sonora. He order, "Drive on. " The stagecoach rolled would report the loss of the Wells Fargo down the hill while he broke open the boxes and the mail to the sheriff, and, lids of the boxes with a hand axe, re although no one could have expected him moved the contents, and then slit the to have offered more resistance--a lone mail sacks with the T cut which was to man against a gang of desperados--he become part of his signature. might be criticized for making no ef The very next day the same masked man fort to retrieve the mail and the mail robbed the Alturas-Redding stagecoach. sacks. Hoping that his assailants had He had apparently made his base in no cause to hang around the scene of the northern California or southern Oregon, crime, he turned the stage coach around and he had certainly obtained inside in and retraced the route. In the last formation about the driver and the light of day, as he approached the spot freight. The robberies occurred when from the opposite direction, he could no one was riding shotgun alongside the clearly see that the menacing gun bar driver, and when the Wells Fargo boxes rels were only a bunch of sticks jammed contained a good deal of gold coins and into the boulders. The mail sacks lay gold dust. beside the road, each one slashed with His last two hold ups netted him a two cuts in a T shape. Letters and nice boodle, and he wasn't hurting for papers were scattered in the dust amid want of money. A month later, though, bootprints camouflaged by socks and all on August 3, 1877, he stopped the Point made by one man only. The boxes, their Arena stage near the Russian River and lids smashed, were empty. Scooping up again made off with plunder. This time the mail , the sacks and the broken boxes, he added a new touch to his operation. John Shine set his team once more on the After he had emptied the boxes and the way to Sonoma, grateful to be in one sacks, he stuck a folded paper to the piece but considerably chagrined at trunk of a nearby tree. On it he had having been tricked by a lone gunman. written an original poem and signed his name: • he daring of the hooded brigand, I've labored long and hard for bread : his ruse with the sticks and his For honor and for riches� c �.c civility toward the lady passen- But on my corns too long you've tred� ger made an interesting story which soon You fine-haired sons of bitches. Tappeared in the newspapers. But the Black Bart� the PO-8 mystery bandit didn't seem to be overly greedy for more than his share of ill The poem taunted the lawman, but now, gotten gains; there were no further re at least, the mysterious hold-up-man ports of robberies that fit the pattern had a name. of his operations, and after awhile his The intervals between robberies be story slipped back into the limbo of came shorter. It was apparent Black Bart yesterday's news. was getting a good deal of amusement out A whole year passed before he struck of his dishonest activity, a fact which again. This time he hit the Roseburg the agents who were assigned to track Redding stage at Cottonwood, not far him down failed to appreciate. In the from the Oregon border. As the driver series of robberies which followed the wheeled the coach around a sharp turn fourth holdup, he no longer attached at the summit of the hill, he suddenly the poem to a tree; he left it in the found himself facing the man in the empty Wells Fargo strongbox. His second outrageous get-up, calmly pointing a poem had a little less profanity and was gun at his head. Although the bandit not so disrespectful, but it was just no longer wore stockings over his boots as much a pain in the neck to the agents and had given up the bluff that he was and the lawmen. one of a gang, he followed the same Here I lay me down to sleep� procedure as before. Concealing him- To wait the coming morrow� 4 THE TABLE ROCK SENTINEL Perhaps success� perhaps defeat driver would be most concerned with his And everlasting sorrow. driving. After he had emptied the strongbox, Let come what may I'll try it on� he'd leave his verse, always signed with MY condition can't be worse� a flourish, Black Bart, the PO-S. None And if there's money in that box of the poems would have brought a liter Tis money in my purse. ary award, but there were few poets who had his following. There is no recorded instance that he was generous to the poor, but he appeared to think of himself as a sort of Robin Hood. The following example presents that claim: I rob the rich to feed the poor Which hardly is a sin. A widow never knocked at my door But what I let her in. So blame me not for what I've done� Black Bart had not harmed anyone during I don't deserve your curse� his robberies, and he made those in And if for any cause I'm hung authority look ridiculous.

Load more