As long as men have gone into battle, men have studied war

An extraordinary anthology of work from the foremost writers on military history today, all recipients of the Pritzker Military Museum and Library’s annual Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing

James M. Allan R. Millett Gerhard L. Rick Atkinson Carlo D’Este Max Hastings Tim O’Brien McPherson award-winning Weinberg three-time Pulitzer acclaimed author author of more Vietnam War Pulitzer Prize- military historian World War II veteran Prize winner, author of World War II than 20 books, veteran and author winning author of concentrating on and author of A World of the Liberation battle histories and many of them of several award- more than a dozen the Marine Corps, at Arms: A Global Trilogy, a narrative biographies of the histories of major winning works of books on the Civil World War II, and History of World War history of the U.S. war’s major leaders battles and fction based on War and its legacy the Korean War II and other books military in Europe, campaigns of his experience in on that confict 1942–1945 World War II that confict

Order your copy today! Item: WHGOW $27.00 (incl. S&H) HistoryNetShop.com •1-800-358-6327 Weider History Group, P.O. Box 8005, Dept. WW404A, Aston, PA 19014 FEATURES getty images After a long fight and a tough fght, Chief Joseph (1840–1904) surrenders to the Army, in this lithograph by Frederic Remington. Cover 24 Chief Joseph’s 38 The Capture of New Story Guiding Principle Mexico’s Rustler King By Candy Moulton By Paul Cool The Nez Perce leader is famed for His leadership skills set apart crime vowing, “I will fght no more forever” boss John Kinney from other outlaws, after his surrender in Montana yet he was undone by his failure to Territory in 1877, but he lived by pay import duties on smuggled cattle. the words, “Never sell the bones of your father and your mother.” 46 Chambers of Horrors By Paul L. Hedren William “Persimmon Bill” Chambers 32 Stagecoach was a horse thief and ruthless murderer To Yosemite who in 1876 made life miserable for travelers on the Black Hills Road. By William B. Secrest Highwaymen stopped one stage headed for California’s Yosemite Valley, but fnding no express box 52 Fort Dilts and aboard, they stopped a second stage before the dust cleared. Fanny’s Bid For Freedom ON THe COveR: To honor his father, Chief Joseph By Bill Markley vowed to keep their Wallowa Valley homeland, As besieged emigrants holed up in but he had to flee in 1877 and was never allowed to return. (Cover photo: National Anthropological primitive earthworks on the prairie, Archives, No. 1605207; colorization by Slingshot the surrounding Sioux sent them a Studio, North Hampton, N.H.) message scribbled by a white captive.

april 2014 WilD WEST 1 DEPARTMENTS

3 Editor’s Letter 20 Western Enterprise By Jim Pettengill 4 Weider Reader While manager of the Gold King mine near 5 Letters Telluride, Colo., in 1889, L.L. Nunn made good use of a controversial new technology. 6 Roundup “No sale” was the order of the day when guns 22 Art of the West reportedly owned by Jesse James and Wild Bill 6 Johnny D. Boggs Hickok came up for auction. Author Candy Inspired by early Navajo jewelry, Santa Fe 20 Moulton notes 10 great places to visit on the silversmith Dennis Hogan has forged his Nez Perce Trail. Sam Houston calls for “cool, own naja (inverted crescent) designs. deliberate vengeance” for victims at the Alamo and Goliad. Jim Younger scrawls his last words. 60 Ghost Towns By Les Kruger 11 Interview John O. Meusebach built a general store By Candy Moulton and lived in Loyal Valley, Texas, for almost New Mexico journalist Sherry Robinson has long 30 years, but its best known citizen was listened to Apache voices and now discusses her former Indian captive Herman Lehmann. book on the history of the underappreciated Lipans. 11 60 62 Collections 12 Westerners By Linda Wommack Three men have strapped on Colt revolvers, while Mountain men, miners, outlaws and lawmen 64 a fourth wears a sash. —they all get their due at the Sweetwater 14 Indian Life County Historical Museum in Green River, Wyo. By Sherry Robinson Lipan Apache scout Johnson helped Colonel Ranald 64 Guns of the West Mackenzie track down renegade Comanches and By Lee A. Silva Kiowas during the Red River War. E. Remington & Sons’ powerful double-barreled 14 derringer proved a most popular concealable 16 Pioneers and Settlers self-defense weapon for more than 60 years. By John Koster Seth Eastman, once married to an Indian woman, 66 Reviews mostly rendered respectful paintings of Indians, Candy Moulton looks at books about Chief but he is also the artist who painted Death Whoop. Joseph and the Nez Perces, as well as several on-screen presentations, plus reviews of 18 Gunfghters and Lawmen recent books and a DVD review of the third By R.K. DeArment season of Maverick. In 1880s Colorado Sheriff “Doc” Shores called Telluride Marshal Jim Clark “a real fghter 16 72 Go West! 72 with a gun or any other way.” The Durango & Silverton rides high in Colorado.

Visit our WEBSITE www.WildWestMag.com for these great exclusives: Onlineextras April 2014 More on Sherry Robinson “I’m so used to reading descriptions of Apaches as smallish and wiry that it was a surprise to find repeated descriptions of Lipans as tall, handsome people,” says the New Mexico author and journalist. More on Dennis Hogan “I became interested in the history of early Southwestern art and admired the jewelry of early native silversmiths working long before commercial production,” the artist explains. Stagecoach Restoration www.WildWestMag.com Take a close look at an 1890s Yosemite Stage and Turnpike Co. Discussion: Chief Joseph might be overrated as a war touring coach masterfully restored by a family-owned business chief but not as a headman for his people, the Nez in Letcher, S.D. Perces. In what order would you rate the following Digital Subscriptions Indian leaders overall (in war and peace): Chief Joseph, Wild West is now available in digital versions for any device, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Black Kettle, including PC, iPad, iPhone and Kindle. Visit www.historynet. Satanta, Cochise, Mangas Coloradas, Victorio, Dull com/wild-west-digital. To add the digital edition to an existing Knife, Spotted Tail, Geronimo and Quanah Parker? subscription, call 800-435-0715 and mention code 83DGTL.

2 WilD WEST april 2014 EDITOR’S LETTER ‘Fight No More Forever’ Sounds Good

ome Western Indians had a Perces into Canada to seek sanctuary way with words. No doubt at with Sitting Bull, while Joseph was one times things were lost in trans- of the 68 warriors who surrendered to GroUP MANAGiNG Editor roger L. Vance lation, but at other times some- the U.S. Army. “After days of siege the thing was gained. Here’s a fa- Nez Perce people were tired, wounded ® S vorite “no bull” quote from the Lakota and no doubt hungry,” says Candy Moul- leader Sitting Bull: “If the Great Spirit had ton, who wrote a biography of Chief Jo- desired me to be a white man, he would seph and the cover article about him in have made me so in the frst place. He put this issue (see P. 24). “All the headmen Vol. 26, No. 6 April 2014 in your heart certain wishes and plans; except for White Bird and Chief Joseph in my heart he put other and different had been killed. Joseph made the deci- Editor Gregory J. Lalire desires. It is not necessary for eagles to sion he would surrender and told this to Mark drefs Art Director david Lauterborn Managing Editor be crows.” Lakota Chief Red Cloud, who Old George and Captain John, Nez Perce Martin A. Bartels Senior Editor fought and spoke well, gave this assess- men who had been scouting for the Army Lori Flemming Photo Editor ment of how U.S. government offcials but who had daughters in the Nez Perce

SPECiAL Lee A. Silva treated his people: “They made us many camp.” The two scouts relayed Joseph’s CoNtriBUtorS Gregory F. Michno promises, more than I can remember. words, including his famous quote— Johnny d. Boggs But they never kept but one; they prom- “Hear me, my chiefs. I am tired; my heart ised to take our land, and they took it.” is sick and sad. From where the sun now diGitAL Brian King Director Gerald Swick Editor Historians credit the oft-repeated line stands, I will fght no more forever”—to Barbara Justice Senior Graphic Designer “A good day to die” or “It is a good day Brig. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, who had to die” to an Oglala Lakota participant reached the battlefield on the evening PrESidENt & CEo Eric Weider Bruce Forman Chief Operating Ofcer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn—either of October 4. After the message was de- Pamela dunaway Chief Marketing Ofcer Crazy Horse or Low Dog. Had Lt. Col. livered, and recorded for posterity by George Armstrong Custer heard such an Lieutenant Charles Erskine Scott Wood, Karen G. Johnson Business Director utterance from the enemy at Last Stand the general’s aide-de-camp, Joseph rode rob Wilkins Military Ambassador and Partnership Marketing Director Hill, would his reply have been an au- to the soldiers’ camp and handed his George Clark Single Copy Sales Director dacious, “You bet!” or a humble, “That’s rife to Colonel Nelson A. Miles. easy for you to say”? I’ll leave it to Custer Chief Joseph’s memorable sentiments AdVErtiSiNG Karen M. Bailey Production Manager/Advertising Services detractors and Custer advocates to battle helped him achieve everlasting fame, but [email protected] over that hypothetical dialogue. historians have questioned the accu- richard E. Vincent National Sales Manager [email protected] The most lyrical and spiritual Indian racy of Wood’s transcription. “Did Joseph Kim Goddard National Sales Manager words came from Black Elk through utter that defining statement: ‘From [email protected] writer-ethnographer John G. Neihardt, where the sun now stands, I will fight rick Gower Georgia no more forever’?” asks Moulton. “Truly [email protected] whose 1932 book Black Elk Speaks was terry Jenkins Tenn., Ky., Miss., Ala., Fla., Mass. based on their conversations as trans- only the chief, Old George and Captain [email protected] lated by the Oglala Lakota holy man’s John could say for certain. But because Kurt Gardner Creative Services Director son Ben Black Elk. How much of the Indian culture relies so strongly on oral dirECt rESPoNSE russell Johns Associates, LLC book is Black Elk and how much is Nei- tradition in recording important events, AdVErtiSiNG 800-649-9800 • [email protected] hardt remains open to debate, but that I believe that while he may not have said Stephen L. Petranek Editor-at-Large takes nothing away from such winning those precise words, he did convey that words as, “Any man who is attached to precise meaning.” Subscription information 800-435-0715 things of this world is one who lives in Joseph was no military leader, let alone Yearly subscriptions in U.S.: $39.95 Back Issues: 800-358-6327 ignorance and is being consumed by the a “Red Napoleon,” as the press called ©2014 Weider History Group snakes of his own passions.” Diamond- him. Looking Glass, killed in action be- Wild West (ISSN 1046-4638) is published bimonthly by back rattlesnakes, I presume. fore the surrender, and other Nez Perce Weider History Group, Inc. 19300 Promenade Drive It was not a Lakota, however, who pro- chiefs devised the strategy during the Leesburg, VA 20176-6500 vided the most memorable 19th-century skillful retreat from the pursuing Army. 703-771-9400 Periodical postage paid at Leesburg, VA and additional mailing offices. Western Indian quote of them all. Credit Nevertheless, Joseph was a man of prin- postmaster, send address changes to Wild West P.O. Box 422224 goes to Nez Perce Chief Joseph, a leader ciple, and no matter what his exact words Palm Coast, FL 32142-2224 of the fantastic 1877 Nez Perce “flight were that day at Bear’s Paw, he never List Rental Inquiries: Belkys Reyes, Lake Group Media, Inc. 914-925-2406; [email protected] and fight for freedom”—a 16-week, fought again (at least not on the battle- Canada Publications Mail Agreement No. 41342519 1,000-plus-mile arduous trek from the field) and for the rest of his life spoke Canadian GST No. 821371408RT0001 Wallowa Valley in northeast Oregon to eloquently against the injustices of U.S. The contents of this magazine may not be reproduced northern Montana Territory. After the policy toward his people. “Chief Joseph in whole or in part without the written consent of Weider History Group. September 30–October 5 Battle of Bear’s was cool.” You can quote me on that. PROUDLY MADE IN THE USA Paw, White Bird led several dozen Nez Gregory Lalire

april 2014 WilD WEST 3 WEIDER READER A sampling of decisive moments, remarkable adventures, memorable characters, surprising encounters and great ideas from our sister magazines

American History Military History World War II As Good as Coal Rebel of the Cause Nazis at Madison Square

Early settlers in After the Ameri- Almost 6 mil- southern Iowa can Civil War lion German looking for cook- former Confed- immigrants ing and heating erate guerrillas came to the fuel found coal such as Jesse United States more readily and Frank between 1820 available than James still be- and World timber, but not lieved in the War I. In the until the 1870s Lost Cause and 1850s Texas did coal mining really take off in the continued to take the war to the enemy had 20,000 German-Americans, but state. By 1920 coal production was in by robbing Yankee banks—or so the they were a diverse bunch—from peas- decline, but in the 1890s Iowans took no legend goes. Later, across the ocean, ant farmers to intellectuals, with dif- small amount of pride in their coal, as is legendary guerrilla leader Michael Col- ferent religions and customs. For a look evident in this excerpt from “People’s Pal- lins paid back the British “in their own at some later not-so-diverse German- aces,” by Richard Selcer, in the April issue: coin” as he fought to secure Irish inde- Americans, see “When Swastikas Hung pendence. Ron Soodalter recounts that in Madison Square Garden,” by Ronald The second half of the 19th century was fght in “Michael Collins: Rebel of the H. Bailey, in the March/April 2014 issue. the Great Age of Expositions that dis- Cause,” from the March 2014 issue. played national pride and celebrated In six decades and at three locations progress and technology. Rural Ameri- Many in Ireland and abroad would have Madison Square Garden had hosted cans—72 percent of the U.S. population thought Michael Collins the last person spectacles ranging from circuses and in 1880—had something else to cele- to offer the hope of peace. Over the pre- concerts to sports championships, but brate: nature and the bountiful produce vious three years he had earned an inter- never anything like this. On February 20, of the earth. Ambitious rural expos ruled national reputation as the most brilliant, 1939, America’s premier indoor arena by Kings Cotton, Corn and Coal sprang ruthless and effective guerrilla leader of bristled with swastikas, bulging with up in the heartland, where local boost- his day and—in the words of one recent 22,000 people all too ready to give the ers were eager to attract new investment biographer—was arguably “the origina- Nazi salute. The German-American and new blood. In 1889 three Ottumwa, tor of modern urban terrorism.” Bund’s “Pro-America Rally” ostensibly Iowa, boosters had the idea of showcas- Collins’ involvement in the struggle for honored the birthday of George Wash- ing the local coal industry with a modest Irish independence began when he was a ington, whom Bundists referred to as “exhibition center.” The resulting Coal teenager. He joined the Gaelic League at “America’s first Fascist.” But the orga- Palace was a strange mix of Gothic and 16 and, three years later, the clandestine nization really meant to dramatize the Byzantine details—all built out of coal. Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), an growing strength of the nation’s most The turrets, recalled Carl B. Kreiner in order committed to establishing a repub- prominent fascist movement. Hundreds 1922, “were veneered with cubes of coal lic through armed revolution. In Dublin of men from the Bund’s paramilitary laid so as to expose three sides and refect in April 1916, 25-year-old Collins partic- Uniformed Service—wearing garrison the light from the different faces.” Inside, ipated in the Republican movement’s caps, brown shirts, swastika armbands “corn, oats, wheat, rye, barley, millet, ill-fated Easter Rising against British and Sam Browne belts—lined the aisles blue grass, timothy, clover and fax were forces. In its grim aftermath 16 men were and the front of the stage. Against a huge skillfully arranged in brilliant masses of court-martialed, put against a wall and portrait of America’s first president, color,” and there were “beautiful panels shot; another was hanged. Collins nar- speakers spewed hatred. They vilified containing pictures in corn symbolical of rowly escaped execution and was among President Franklin Roosevelt as “Rosen- agriculture, industry, mechanics, music, the hundreds of men sent to English in- feld” and his New Deal as the “Jew Deal.” art, literature, geography and com- ternment camps. The British would come merce.” The most unusual feature was to regret the blunder that allowed Collins a miniature working coal mine below to escape the fring squad. Predictably, the main floor that visitors could tour Irish poets and ballad singers extolled the To subscribe to any in mule-drawn pit cars. The Coal Palace tragic glory of “the Rising,” as new lyrics Weider History magazine, was such a public relations success it re- were put to old traditional tunes. call 800-435-0715 or WHG go to HistoryNet.com. opened for a second season in 1891.

4 WILD WEST aprIL 2014 LETTERS ‘Incidentally, both Frank and Ann James were cremated, thereby assisting in the elimination of possible grave/body tampering’

KINGSTON FACTS 1882. However, the Black Range was Vic- INDIAN WOMEN The “Ghost Towns” piece by Melody torio’s hunting grounds, and there’s a Carole Nielson did a creditable job re- Groves on Kingston, N.M., in the Oc- great possibility he encountered miners. porting about sociopath Ben Wright in tober 2013 issue, perpetuates myth. And the Kid most likely rode through the “Wright Was Might Among Oregon Indi- Kingston and Percha City were not the area. It is indeed possible someone else ans,” in the December 2013 issue. I was same but distinct communities sepa- signed President Cleveland’s name to frankly shocked she referred twice to rated by several miles. There is no doc- the registry. Over the past 140 years doc- native women as “squaws.” This deroga- umentation that Kingston swelled to uments have been lost, burned, stolen, tory term went out with the buggy whip 2,000 people at the end of 1882. The misplaced, changed and overall not and is, as you know, no different than 1885 territorial census counted 329 handled as carefully as historians would using the N word when referring to Afri- souls in Kingston and Percha City com- prefer. In citing exact numbers of resi- can Americans. Frankly, I’m surprised bined. U.S. Census data and corrobo- dents and plats of land in Kingston and you let it pass your red pencil. rating documents show that Kingston elsewhere, it’s a close to impossible task. As to her report about the heinous topped out at about 1,500 people in Who’s to say for absolute certain? I wagon train attack by the Modocs, as 1890; the town had 568 lots. It reached appreciate the attention Craig Springer I recall they had good reason to carry 7,000 people only in writings published gave my article. What’s most interesting out this attack (though they certainly decades after the town was all but aban- about history is that it keeps changing— can be condemned for killing women doned. Mark Twain never set foot in the more we search, the more we learn. and children). That said, one must con- New Mexico, though a character in his sider what had been going on in the book Roughing It, William [“Sheba”] FRANK JAMES’ GRAVE killing felds of California ever since the Hurst, died in Kingston. A prankster I attended the Western Writers of Amer- Anglos arrived. Raids on Indian villages signed President Grover Cleveland’s ica [www.westernwriters.com] Conven- to kidnap Indian children for slaves name to the Victorio Hotel guest regis- tion in Las Vegas, Nev., in 2013 and went on for decades, as did the frequent try on an evening when the president rape and murder of native women. was partying with his wife in Mary- Both sides—native and Anglo—fol- land. Victorio and Billy the Kid never lowed up any attack with racial over- visited Kingston either; they were both kill, murdering each other without dead years before the mining camp regard to sex or age. In the end Anglos was founded. Kingston had more than almost succeeded in extinguishing the three newspapers; 11 operated over the native population of California, then span of a decade, never in competi- placed the remnants on reservations, tion, and most only lasted a few months. starving many of them to death. During the purported peak of 7,000 Pax Riddle souls in 1885 the town lacked a news- while there received the August 2013 Phoenixville, Pa. paper. And Percha Bank holding $7 mil- issue of Wild West with Frank James on Editor responds: Paxton Riddle, author of lion in silver—that figure is probably a the cover. I was previously a subscriber the 1999 novel Lost River about the Modoc mutation of the $6.9 million total value of when I owned a home in Tucson and War, is right about the offensive term. metal mined from Kingston and Percha often visited Tombstone. Having that Oklahoma-born author Carole Nielsen, City from 1882 to 1902, as reported in a issue as a motivator, I revisited Frank who is part Cherokee (a great-great-great 1903 U.S. Geological Survey report. But James’ grave site in Independence, Mo., grandmother was forced to walk west this is factual: The Percha Bank Museum where I reside. Although the article did from Tennessee to Indian Territory in the is one of the coolest around, and you not mention it, I’m sure you were aware “Trail of Tears”), says she meant no dis- should visit. It’s privately owned, so leave of the location. Ann Ralston, Frank’s respect and used the term to “show the a donation. I am the co-author of Around wife, was a member of the Hill family, thinking of the time.” Wild West’s policy is Hillsboro, a history of Hillsboro, Kings- and the marker for Ann and Frank (see to use “American Indian woman” or some ton and Lake Valley. See www.hillsboro my photo, above) are in the small “Hill variation thereof and only keep “squaw” history.blogspot.com. Cemetery” within Hill Park. Inciden- in quoted material from an earlier time. Craig Springer tally, both Frank and Ann were cre- We slipped up. A Roundup news item Hillsboro, N.M. mated, thereby assisting in the elimina- (see P. 8) addresses another offensive Melody Groves responds: It’s true that tion of possible grave/body tampering. term, “redskins,” as in the Washington Victorio and Billy the Kid were dead be- Don Russell Redskins. Team cheerleaders were once fore Kingston was proclaimed a town in Independence, Mo. called the “Redskinettes.” No longer.

APRIL 2014 WILD WEST 5 ROUNDUP News of the West Wild West Another Kid Image? ’s Top 10 Only one docu- AUTHOR CANDY MOULTON LISTS GREAT mented photo- PLACES TO VISIT ALONG THE NEZ PERCE graph of New Mex- NATIONAL HISTORIC TRAIL ico outlaw Billy the Kid is known to ex- 1. Old Joseph Gravesite and Monument. Chief Joseph spent his life ist, though many devoted to remaining in—or returning to—Oregon’s Wallowa Valley because the bones of his father and mother rested there (see related article, P. 24). purported “Kid This memorial to his father, Old Joseph, marks the spot near Joseph, Ore. images” have sur- faced over the years. The latest is a tintype 2. Dug Bar. Chief Joseph and his Nez Perce followers crossed the Snake River supposedly depicting the Kid (see detail from their Wallowa Valley homeland at this point during high water runoff in late spring 1877. The road is steep and rough, or you can take a jet boat ride of his face, above) and his Bosque Re- from Lewiston, Idaho. dondo friend Daniel C. Detrick. Accord- ing to the Las Cruces Sun-News, Doña Ana 3. White Bird Battlefeld. Walk the steep slopes of this site near White Bird, County resident Joe Soebbing claims the Idaho, setting for the opening battle of the Nez Perce War. tintype was from the estate of Sheriff Pat 4. Big Hole National Battlefeld. Lodgepoles and prayer bundles left at this Garrett, who shot and killed the Kid in site near Wisdom, Mont., by descendants of the Nez Perces who were attacked Fort Sumner, N.M., on July 14, 1881, and here at dawn on August 9, 1877, are reminders of the violence that once that he bought the tintype from some- marred this peaceful place. Visit during the annual remembrance program one who got it from Pauline Garrett, Pat’s [www.nps.gov/biho]. granddaughter. Soebbing said he knows 5. Nez Perce Creek. Near this stream on the western side of Yellowstone that more research needs to be done to National Park, between Madison Junction and Old Faithful, Yellow Wolf satisfy historians’ standards. The only encountered a party of Montana tourists in 1877, taking them hostage. accepted image of Billy the Kid, in which 6. Clarks Fork Yellowstone River. When the Nez Perces exited Yellowstone he poses with his Winchester Model 1873 National Park, the Army believed they would head toward Cody, but instead carbine, is also a tintype, one of four iden- the Indians crossed through the rugged Clarks Fork Canyon and struck out tical images recorded on a single metal north into Montana Territory. This beautiful, rugged landscape is little changed plate. Billy gave that plate to Dedrick, who from the time Chief Joseph and his people passed through. later gave it to his nephew Frank Upham. 7. Bear’s Paw Battlefeld. Near Chinook, Mont., just south of the Canadian In June 2011 his descendants put it up for border, this battlefeld remains isolated and untouched. Markers indicate the auction at Brian Lebel’s Old West Show sites where Chief Joseph, Looking Glass, White Bird and the other Nez Perces & Auction in Denver. Collector William put up their final defense against an army under the command of Brig. Gen. Koch bought the tintype for $2.3 million. Oliver O. Howard and Colonel Nelson A. Miles. 8. Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument Interpretive Billy Slept Here? Center. This museum in Fort Benton, Mont., displays the rifle Chief Joseph Did Billy the Kid surrendered to Colonel Miles at the Bear’s Paw Battlefeld—a tangible reminder of Joseph’s pledge to “fght no more forever.” spend a night or two at the tony 9. Baxter Springs. Exiled to the Quapaw Reservation near this Kansas town, Corn Exchange the Nez Perces with Chief Joseph suffered greatly, mainly due to the difference Hotel in Mesilla, in climate from their homeland. New Mexico Terri- 10. Chief Joseph’s Gravesite. Chief Joseph returned to the Pacifc Northwest tory? A signature but spent his final years in Colville, Wash., where he is buried. He never found in a hotel returned to his beloved Wallowa Valley. register suggests he did. The date? with the signature “William Bonney” at lock and Richard Brewer all signed in March 15, 1876. The name? William Bon- the top. Was that our Billy? The hand- on September 22, 1877, paying $1 each. ney. Speculation and a good bit of writing of the signature and that of the The Corn Exchange was a social hub. The evidence suggest he was in Arizona Kid’s famous letter to New Mexico Terri- building that housed it is on the National Territory in spring 1876. Could he have tory Governor Lew Wallace bear similar- Register of Historic Places and since 1939 stayed at the Corn Exchange en route? ities. The capitals W and B are similar. It’s has housed La Posta de Mesilla restau- David G. Thomas’ 2013 book La Posta quite possible Billy slept there. His pals rant [www.laposta-de-mesilla.com]. includes a photo of the hotel register did: Charles Bowdre, Josiah “Doc” Scur- —Melody Groves

6 WILD WEST aprIL 2014 ROUNDUP Jesse James Gun a No-Sale West Words “The advance of the enemy is at San Felipe. The moment for which we have waited with anxiety and interest is fast approaching. The vic- Somebody got one of Annie’s guns, but tims of the Alamo, and the names of no one took home one of Jesse’s six- those who were murdered at Goliad, shooters. Heritage Auctions’ [www.ha call for cool, deliberate vengeance. .com] Legends of the West auction last fall in Dallas featured a Colt Single Action Strict discipline, order and subordina- .45-caliber revolver, Serial No. 70579, tion will insure [sic] us the victory.” confirmed by three generations of the —Texian Army General Sam Houston wrote these words on April 7, 1836, two James family as having belonged to Jesse. weeks before he won the decisive Battle of San Jacinto in the Texas Revolution. Though the gun (see photo, above) was expected to fetch well over $1 million, price (the consigner’s expected mini- Springfeld Trapdoor no one met the $400,000 opening bid. mum bid), let alone its estimated value A Springfield Model After Robert Ford shot down James in of between $300,000 and $500,000. On 1873 Trapdoor carbine April 1882, Jesse’s Colt passed down to August 2, 1876, former lawman Hickok (see photo, at left) sold his son, Jesse James Jr., who later gave it was gambling in Nuttal & Mann’s Saloon for $35,650, double its as security for an unpaid medical bill. The when drifter Jack McCall fatally shot him estimate, at the Cow- Colt next went to U.S. Sen. Harry Hawes from behind. Hickok never had a chance an’s Auctions [www of Missouri, and then to U.S. Rep. Frank to draw his weapon. The Smith & Wes- .cowanauctions.com] Boykin of Alabama, who sold it to a col- son (Serial No. 29963) up for auction, Historic Firearms and lector in 1975. The gun appears in a pho- with rosewood grips and a blued fnish, Early Militaria Auction tograph of Jesse Jr.’s display of his father’s is rated in good condition. Documents in Cincinnati last fall. effects, published in the 1936 book The included in the lot relate how Dead- A Model 1816 Spring- Crittenden Memoirs, written by Henry wood’s sheriff got the gun and how it field flintlock mus- Crittenden, son of Missouri Governor then passed down through the Willoth ket, frst type, realized Thomas Crittenden. “Put simply, it is family of Deadwood to current owners $11,500, and a Model one of the most important frearms ever Leo Zymetke and family. 1855 Springfeld pistol- to appear at auction,” Tom Slater of Heri- Why the gun failed to sell is open to carbine sold for $2,415. tage Auctions said before the no-sale. speculation. But Hickok biographer A Colt Single Action Annie Oakley’s 16-gauge Parker Broth- Joseph Rosa has long had his doubts Army revolver realized ers hammer shotgun, with a $100,000 about this Smith & Wesson and another $18,400, and a Colt opening bid, went for $293,000 and in- one, too. “As far back as 1961 I was aware Dragoon $7,475. cluded the shotgun’s canvas scabbard of two such pistols, both with similar and documents regarding the gun’s prov- stories and non-authentic accompany- Annie Oakley Letter enance. Also opening at $100,000, a gold ing materials,” he says. “Indeed, there is Sharpshooter Annie Oakley was often coin charm bracelet worn by Oakley nothing accompanying the pistol(s) that gracious when she received good re- brought $245,000. Heritage also sold is contemporary to the day or days fol- views, as is evident from a letter sold last several George Armstrong Custer items, lowing Hickok’s murder, and the claim fall at Swann Auction Galleries’ [www including his monogrammed lap desk that Seth Bullock, sheriff of Deadwood, .swanngalleries.com] Autographs auc- ($37,500) and an elk skin jacket ($30,000). took charge of the pistol(s) is garbage. tion in New York. Her letter, dated July 6, Seth did not arrive in Deadwood until 1889, is addressed to an editor (John S. Wild Bill Gun Also a No-Sale after Hickok’s death, and he was later Gibson of the Iron Era of Dover, N.J.) and A Smith & Wesson No. 2 revolver said to elected sheriff of the county, not the signed “Annie Oakley/Buffalo Bill’s Wild have been carried by James Butler “Wild town of Deadwood. So as far as I am West/Paris France.” Oakley writes: “I am Bill” Hickok on the day he was killed in a concerned the weapon lacks authenti- very thankful for the very kind and fat[t]- Deadwood saloon, failed to sell at a Bon- cation, as do all the other alleged Hickok ering notice you gave me in your paper. hams [www.bonhams.com] Arms and pistols in various collections. The only To be considered a lady has always being Armor auction in San Francisco last fall. authenticated Hickok weapon is the rife [sic] my highest amb[i]tion. Again thank- Bidding started at $150,000, but the high removed from his coffin in 1879 and ing you and with best wishes to your es- bid of $220,000 fell short of the reserve now owned by Jim Earle in Texas.” teemed wife.” The letter went for $6,500.

aprIL 2014 WILD WEST 7 ROUNDUP

Chiricahuas and Arizona from an earlier time. Many college sports tory of Texas and the Texans (1968) and Westerners still teams have changed their Indian nick- Comanches: The Destruction of a People closely associate names, but none of those monikers were (1974), died in San Antonio on Decem- Chiricahua Apaches considered as offensive as “redskins.” ber 1. “Rangers, cattle drives, Injuns and with Arizona Terri- In fact, the Florida State Seminoles (with gunfghts may be mythology, but it’s our tory, including the tomahawk chops and all) are still going mythology,” he said in a 1998 interview. Tombstone area, strong with the blessing of Chief James though they’ve never Billie, Seminole tribal chairman. In a See You Later, Michael Hickey officially been per- Washington Post article last fall Bob Michael M. Hickey, 74, an author who mitted to return since Drury and Tom Clavin, authors of the published his own books about the O.K. being removed from the territory in 2013 book The Heart of Everything That Corral gunfght, John Ringo’s fnal hours 1886. Last fall Pascal Enjady, great-great- Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, an and the death of Warren Earp, died in his grandson of Perico, one of Chief Naiche’s American Legend (see review, P. 68), native Honolulu last October 6. Hickey Chiricahua warriors, was in Tombstone suggested Snyder rename his team the hosted a popular annual gunfghter sym- for the Arizona premiere of Two Year Washington Red Clouds. “Such a move,” posium in Arizona from 2000 to 2009. His Promise [www.twoyearpromise.com], a they write, “would not only ease tension Talei Publishers also published books by documentary about that deportation of between American Indians and the NFL, the likes of Richard Lapidus, Tim Fattig, 523 Chiricahuas to the East, with a focus but naming the team after Red Cloud Glenn Boyer, Ben Traywick, Phyllis de la on how Naiche’s men were detained would also signify strength, intelligence Garza, Rita Ackerman and Ron Fischer. at Fort Pickens, Fla., separated from and perseverance—qualities any NFL their families for more than two years. team would be proud to project.” Wild See You Later, Frank Mercatante To chronicle his ancestors’ ordeal, En- West, which featured Red Cloud on its Western bookman extraordinaire and jady conducted hours of video interviews April 2012 cover, just might endorse such World War II Marine veteran Frank Mer- and blended in earlier audio accounts of a name change, although the Washing- catante, 91, died in Grand Rapids, Mich., talks with actual survivors. “What better ton White Clouds and Washington Black on November 17. Many authors and place to debut this wonderful docu- Clouds also warrant consideration after researchers drew on his expertise on mentary than historic Schieffelin Hall,” the team’s dreadful season. George Armstrong Custer literature. said Don Taylor, Tombstone’s city his- torian. “Tombstone is in the heart of Speaking Yurok See You Later, Andro Linklater Cochise County, which was a large part In the early 18th century some 3,000 Scottish historian Andro Linklater, 68, of the original Chiricahua Apache home- Yurok Indians [www.yuroktribe.org] whose books Measuring America (2002) land.” Enjady has also presented the inhabited villages at the mouth of the and The Fabric of America (2007) argued 90-minute flm at the Chiricahua Event Klamath River in northern California. that the Wild West was won not by Win- Center in Rodeo, N.M., and at the Inn Today roughly the same number of chester rifles or Conestoga wagons but of the Mountain Gods in Ruidoso, N.M. Yuroks live on federally recognized res- by the Gunter’s chain (or surveyor’s line), ervations and rancherias in the region. died November 3 in Kent, England. Redskins Forever? However, with the passing of tribal elders, The movement use of the Yurok language has also faded, Famous Last Words to have Washing- the number of fuent speakers falling to ton’s National a half-dozen in the 1990s. But there’s ÒAll relations stay away Football League been a resurgence, according to an arti- from me. No crocodile tears team change its cle in the Los Angeles Times, as Eureka wanted. Reporters, be my name from “Red- High and four other Northern California friends. Burn me up.Ó skins”—deemed offensive by many schools have launched Yurok language people—has dragged on for decades. programs. “At last count,” the Times re- —Jim Younger penned these words Last fall Ray Halbritter of the Oneida ported, “there were more than 300 basic on the envelope of his October 19, Indian Nation, a leader in the “Change Yurok speakers, 60 with intermediate 1902, suicide note (as published on the Mascot” campaign, presented his skills, 37 who are advanced and 17 who the front page of the next day’s St. case to NFL Commissioner Roger Good- are considered conversationally fuent.” Louis Globe-Democrat). Although ell. But Redskins owner Dan Snyder Those numbers, thanks to the schools, paroled after serving 25 years of a considers the name “a source of pride for are clearly growing. life sentence at the Minnesota State our fans” and “a badge of honor” and is Prison in Stillwater, Jim was in de- determined to keep it. Wild West’s policy See You Later, T.R. Fehrenbach spair because his parole terms for- is to refrain from using “redskins” in our Texas native Theodore Reed Fehrenbach, bade him to marry Alix Mueller, whom articles, unless it is in quoted material 88, author of the popular Lone Star: A His- he had met while behind bars.

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Events of the West Bowie Knives “A Sure Defense: The Bowie Knife in St. Louis at 250 America,” featuring 200 examples of the In 2014 the Mis- iconic American knife, runs through souri History June 22 at the Historic Arkansas Museum Museum in St. in Little Rock. Call 501-324-9351 or visit Louis celebrates www.historicarkansas.org. the 250th anni- versary of the Polish Take on Westerns “Gateway to the “Rebranded: Polish Film Posters for the West” in an ex- American Western” runs at the Denver hibit called “250 Art Museum Feb. 16–June 1. Visit www in 250: 50 People, .denverartmuseum.org. 50 Places, 50 Mo- ments, 50 Im- Cowboys of All Kinds ages, 50 Objects,” which runs Feb. 14, “Cowboys Real and Imagined” runs 2014–Feb. 15, 2015. Among the featured through March 16 at the New Mexico people is James Eads (see photo, above), History Museum/Palace of the Gover- a self-taught engineer who in 1874 built nors in Santa Fe. Call 505-476-5200 or the first bridge to span the Mississippi visit www.museumofnewmexico.org. River at St. Louis. Call 314-746-4599 or visit www.mohistory.org. WWA in Sacramento Sacramento hosts the Western Writers Butch and Sundance of America Convention June 24–28. Visit The documentary series American Expe- visit www.westernwriters.org. rience premieres Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, produced and directed WWHA Roundup by John Maggio (Billy the Kid), on Feb. 11 The 2014 Wild West History Association at 9 p.m. ET. Check your local listings. Roundup is set for the Denver Marriott West in Golden, Colo., July 22–26. Visit Yosemite Pictures www.wildwesthistory.org. “Carleton Watkins: The Stanford Al- bums” showcases the work of the land- Buffalo Soldiers scape photographer whose iconic images “The Buffalo Soldier: An American Horse- convinced Congress and President Abra- man,” an exhibit honoring the historic ham Lincoln to protect Yosemite for all contributions of black soldiers and their time. It’s showing at the Cantor Arts American quarter horse mounts, will Center at Stanford University April 23– show at the American Quarter Horse Hall Aug. 17. Call 650-723-4177 or visit www of Fame & Museum in Amarillo, Texas, .museum.stanford.edu. February–April 2014. Call 806-376-5181 or visit www.aqha.com/museum. Ledger Art Exhibit “Stories Outside the Lines: American Western Art Indian Ledger Art” shows original and Feb. 1–March 16—Masters of the Amer- contemporary examples at the Heard ican West Fine Art Exhibition and Sale, Museum in Phoenix March 27–Sept. 28. Los Angeles (323-667-2000). Visit www.heard.org or call 602-252-8840. March 1 and 2—Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair, Phoenix (602-252-8848). Little Cowboy March 1–April 13—Western Spirit Art The sixth annual Best Little Cowboy Show & Sale, Cheyenne Frontier Days Gathering, featuring Texas music, danc- Old West Museum, Wyo. (307-778-7290). ing and other diversions, takes place in La March 20–24—Exhibition and Sale to Grange, Texas, March 13–16. Visit www Beneft the C.M. Russell Museum, Great .bestlittlecowboygathering.org. Falls, Mont. (406-727-8787).

10 WILD WEST aprIL 2014 INTERVIEW

Sherry Robinson Has a Ball Researching The History of the Unsung Lipan Apaches

The writer relates their fght for survival in early Texas By Candy Moulton

ew Mexico journalist and historian Sherry Robinson of Albuquerque started the more the proj- her writing career reporting on the Navajo Nation for the Gallup Indepen- ect grew. Their his- dent. She later focused on the Apaches, visiting important sites, reading the tory is complex and books of Eve Ball (Indeh: An Apache Odyssey and In the Days of Victorio) every bit as com- N and going through Ball’s papers at Brigham Young University [home.byu pelling as those of .edu] in Provo, Utah. The Apache oral histories collected by Ball (1890–1984) provided the better-known the base for Robinson’s 2000 history Apache Voices: Their Stories of Survival as Told Apaches. to Eve Ball. Her latest book, I Fought a Good Fight: A History of the Lipan Apaches (see review, P. 68), is based on Robinson’s own thorough research of the Lipans, whom Any signifcant research moments? no other writer has fully explored. She tracked down and interviewed descendants of I had a great many lightbulb moments. the early Lipans, who once roamed Texas hunting buffalo, trading, fghting and form- One of the biggest was in piecing together ing various alliances. Robinson (photo at right) spoke with Wild West about her work. the evidence of an Eastern Apache con- federacy. As far as I know, I’m the frst to Why is oral history so important to you? fles. Eve had interviewed Apache elders write about it. I also tracked other Eastern I use as much oral history as possible from the Mescalero Reservation over sev- Apache groups—confederacy members because only then do I have the voices eral decades and hadn’t used all her ma- and Lipan allies—through time. All those of my subjects. The trouble is, there isn’t terial. When I realized that, my mission people the Spanish and French encoun- that much oral history from Apaches, and changed. The result was Apache Voices. tered didn’t just evaporate. Another was using oral history requires a lot of check- discovering Apaches living under the ing. Any of us, in retelling a story, can be Was writing about Apaches a challenge? noses of the Comanches when many a forgetful or fuzzy about dates and details. The biggest challenge is writing about historian has written that Comanches Sometimes an event has been told and people who don’t especially want to ap- pushed Apaches out of the southern retold so many times it’s more myth than pear in any more books or flms. Because Plains and wiped them out. Hardly. fact. At other times oral history reveals so much nonsense has been written an undocumented event, like the Lipans’ about Apaches, they’re understandably Did Lipans and Mescaleros interact? presence at the Alamo. Oral history is suspicious of yet another four-eyed Lipans and Mescaleros were close allies best, I think, when it provides a com- scholar who wants to write a book. So from the 1700s on, but their beliefs and mentary or viewpoint. For example, the you can’t just stroll onto the reservation habits are somewhat different, as is their Lipans’ version of Colonel Ranald Mac- and expect people to open their doors. language, and they occupied different kenzie’s raid in 1873 is riveting and tragic. It was only because my Lipan sources territories. They were fast friends, but found Apache Voices factual they were each band had different allies, and the How did Apache Voices come about? willing to speak to me. Lipans had many non-Apache allies. On an archaeological tour of Apache sites in southwestern New Mexico I saw some Why did you focus on the Lipans? Did you fnd any surprises? of the beautiful places where the Warm In the process of writing Apache Voices, I was pleasantly surprised at what avid Springs Apaches lived. The tour leader, I came across occasional mentions of traders the Lipans were and how clever attorney and rancher Tom Diamond, Lipan Apaches. I wasn’t familiar with and persistent they were in cultivating introduced me to Eve Ball’s books, which them and got curious. When I could fnd new trading partners. And we always I enjoyed. Like many women who read very little information, it became an in- hear about Apaches fighting from am- Ball, I was fascinated with Lozen, the war- vitation to write. Journalists are always bush, but the Lipans also were capable rior woman, and wanted to write about drawn to the untold story. I fgured this of European-style combat. her. I found Eve’s papers at BYU, took a would be a small group and a short proj- week off work and immersed myself in old ect, but the more I learned about Lipans, Read more at www.WildWestMag.com.

APRIL 2014 WILD WEST 11 WESTERNERS

A Touch of Sash

In the 1993 Western film Tombstone the bad guys (the Cowboys) are easily identifiable, though not all wear black hats. Instead, they wear red sashes. Most experts agree this assist to the moviegoer was not true to history. But that famously stylish gunfighter to the north, Wild Bill Hickok, reportedly did tie on a red sash as part of his Sunday best. Farther north, in Canada, MŽtis men (descendants of French Canadians and First Nation people) wore woven red sashes as part of their regular attire. Three of the four men in this photograph (date and location unknown) wear holstered Colt Single Action Army revolvers, introduced in the early 1870s, while the man second from right sports a sash. Author Lee Silva says the four ill-fitting hats might have been props supplied by the photographer to Òwannabe cowboy customers,Ó though the four ÒdudesÓ probably showed up at the photo studio wearing their own boots. As for the sashÑat least one poser thought it a realistic touch. (Photo: Courtesy Lee A. Silva)

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The Trusted Lipan Apache Scout Johnson Helped Colonel Mackenzie Find the Enemy He and other Lipans and Tonkawas worked against the Comanches By Sherry Robinson

olonel Ranald S. Mackenzie and yellow. They were tall, 5-foot-8 or drove his 4th U.S. Cavalry more, with the scout sergeant, known to from Fort Concho north into the white men only as Johnson, brushing the Texas Caprock in August 6 feet. Scouting allowed them to fight C 1874, commanding three of their old enemies, the Comanches. Mack- fve columns the Army felded to corner enzie had a high opinion of the Fort Grif- renegade Kiowas and Comanches. With fn scouts and considered them essential Mackenzie were some of the best scouts to any campaign in the Texas Panhandle. on the southern Plains—Tonkawas and Some claimed Johnson was half Mexi- Lipan Apaches from Fort Griffn. can, but the most reliable sources, in- Men from both tribes had long served cluding Mackenzie himself, said John- as scouts for the Army and the Texas son had a Tonkawa father and Lipan Rangers. Following a massacre of their mother; in Apache tradition that made people by Comanches and other tribes him a Lipan. He had been living with the early in the Civil War, the Tonkawas had Tonkawas, but in 1873 he became a Lipan moved from fort to fort, settling at Fort headman. Johnson trained the boys of Griffn in 1868. Lieutenant Richard Henry the tribe to become warriors. Carrying Pratt, who would later found Carlisle a whip, he made them jump in the river, Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, As a scout sergeant, Johnson could seek even if they had to cut a hole in the ice. shaped the demoralized Tonkawas into vengeance against Comanche enemies. The Red River War, pitting Comanche, an effective trailing and fghting force. Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne and Southern The Lipans and Tonkawas had been Arapaho warriors against the U.S. Army, allied for decades, especially after Li- began in June 1874. The hostile tribes pans rescued their Tonkawa friends from usually evaded the troops, which aggra- Texas colonists bent on wiping them out. vated the impatient, impulsive Macken- In 1873, when Mackenzie raided Apache zie. The colonel learned on September 20 and Kickapoo camps in Mexico, captured that many of the enemy had moved north Lipans asked to join the Tonkawas at into the Palo Duro Canyon area and sent Fort Griffn and also serve as scouts. “The the reliable Johnson to locate the camp. Lapans [sic] are anxious to come to this Two days later Johnson returned, an- point to settle down with the Tonkawas nouncing the enemy was at hand. and to be at peace with the military,” Troops threaded the canyon trails wrote Captain John W. Clous. “To ac- leading to Palo Duro, whose amber- complish all this, they claim the good and rust-colored walls sheltered five office of [Chief] Castile and his tribe, camps comprising hundreds of lodges. who are the friends of the whites and On September 28, with scouts in the who by their friendship are in good cir- lead, Mackenzie’s men scrambled down cumstances, while the Lapans are poor.” 900 feet to the canyon foor. Some of the When the Lipans arrived in 1874, they Tonkawa women, angry at the Coman- erected seven tepees in a pecan grove on ches, fought alongside their husbands.

Collins Creek, west of the fort. On en- photos: DEGoLYER LIBRARY, southERn mEthoDIst unIvERsItY After routing the renegade Indians and listment the scouts were given English Johnson wanted to marry Ida Creaton, but capturing their herd of some 1,400 horses, names but still painted themselves red her brother would not permit the match. the troops burned the camps.

14 WILD WEST aprIL 2014 Mackenzie gave Johnson his choice of 40 horses to reward his discovery and let the other scouts choose horses. The sol- diers then shot the remaining horses to keep the enemy afoot. The Battle of Palo Duro claimed few lives but left the rene- gade tribes destitute, forcing them to straggle into the Fort Sill reservation (in what was then Indian Territory and is now Oklahoma) in coming months. Johnson’s new wealth may have in- spired thoughts of matrimony. He had befriended the Creaton family and, dur- ing frequent visits to their home in the town of Fort Griffn (adjacent to the fort), had become enamored of Ida Creaton. shERRY RoBInson photo One Sunday afternoon Johnson, dressed Remnants of the outpost remain at the Fort Griffn State Historic Site near Albany, Texas. in a suit, paid a call. In 1928 the Dallas Morning News described the visit: left Indian Territory to hunt in Texas and a sheriff’s posse now and then but had engaged in a bloody scrap with buffalo no other work, and drought destroyed Johnson offered John Creaton 20 ponies hunters. Captain Phillip L. Lee, com- their crops. Still they hung on. for his sister, saying, “She make much mander at Fort Griffin, had orders to Most frontier towns loathed their In- pretty squaw.” return them to the reservation. In early dian neighbors, but not Fort Griffin. In Creaton said Ida wasn’t for sale: “We May, Johnson learned the Comanches 1881 citizens sent a memorial to the need her here. She don’t want to marry.” were camped at Silver (aka Quemado) state legislature noting that the Tonka- Johnson argued, “Twenty ponies big Lake. The soldiers reached the camp at was’ “sacrifce in fghting for whites” had lot for one wife.” sunrise on May 4. Lee split his forces to earned them the hatred of other tribes, The answer was still no. A few weeks approach from the south and north. The and that exposure and war had further later an inebriated Johnson lunged at Comanches scrambled for their horses reduced them. They asked legislators to John Creaton, who struck the scout ser- as the soldiers attacked. In the brief fght buy at least 3,000 acres, appoint an agent, geant on the chin and carried him to the four Comanches and one soldier died. It build comfortable quarters, buy farm fort to cool off in the guardhouse. was the last fght for troops at Fort Griffn. tools, and provide food and clothing for Captain Javan B. Irvine, post com- two years. “This is a step that should have Misinformation aside (Lipans didn’t mander and acting agent, pleaded in been taken long ago,” the petition stated. buy their wives but did offer generous 1879 for supplies for his scouts. His pre- Two months later, with the fort soon gifts to prospective in-laws), we might decessor had reduced the already small to be abandoned, the Fort Griffin Echo dismiss this yarn altogether if not for an ration by a third to stretch supplies over spoke up for the Tonkawas: archived portrait of Johnson and Ida; the the fiscal year, and he was running out two struck a standard pose for husband of funds. He noted that even a casual The Tonkawas have lived in Texas many and wife, which tells us Ida did have observer could see that they were “in a years, they look upon Texas as their home, a relationship with the tall, handsome destitute, starving condition.” and they have no desire to leave it; on the Johnson. Her family probably objected. One rancher allowed the scouts’ fami- contrary, they dare not go where any of Despite the scouts’ good work in the lies to plant on his land and even took the wild tribes can get at them, for then Red River campaign, the Indians at Fort them hunting. They earned a little money there would be no Tonkawas left after the Griffn faced starvation after an 1874 gov- selling pecans to the local mercantile. battle which would certainly follow. ernment order halted rations to them. Irvine suggested buying or leasing land The Interior Department, however, au- for them. The government wanted to In October 1884 the Tonkawas and Li- thorized $375 in 1875 to buy cows and move both groups to Indian Territory, pans left Texas and eventually settled on goats for the 119 Tonkawas and 26 Li- but Johnson and the other headmen the vacated Nez Perce reservation in pans, “whose condition,” according to objected. They were born in Texas and Indian Territory. Around 1892 disease Lt. Col. George P. Buell, “ is so deplor- had lived there in peace, they argued. did to Johnson, the valiant old scout ser- able that something should be done for The Fort Griffin scouts got a reprieve geant, what bullets couldn’t. Tonkawas them.” Buell also sent scouts out under in 1880, when they served during the absorbed the Lipan remnant, but Lipan the protection of troops to hunt buffalo. final outbreak of Victorio, chief of the descendants among the Tonkawas still Johnson saw action again in spring Warm Springs Apaches in New Mexico visit relatives at the Mescalero Reser- 1877, after a small group of Comanches Territory. After returning, they helped vation in New Mexico.

april 2014 WilD WEST 15 PIONEERS AND SETTLERS

Once Married to an Indian, Seth Eastman Wed a White Gal and Painted Death Whoop The controversial painting shows a Dakota lifting an enemy’s scalp By John Koster

eth Eastman was a cartogra- rying Stands Sacred (Wakan Inajin Win), pher who taught mapmaking a 15-year-old Dakota girl whose father at West Point, while his own was a chief known as Cloud Man. Prob- career was all over the map. ably from Stands Sacred, or her rela- S Eastman was an expert on the tives, Seth learned to speak passable Dakotas and other Indian tribes, but he Dakota and to appreciate the culture abandoned his Indian wife, whose de- of the Dakotas. Eastman’s paintings of scendants through their only daughter Indians—with one notorious exception were among the most notable Indians —portray them sympathetically, mostly of the 19th and early 20th centuries. in peaceful activities, as in Rice Gatherers He was a Union general during the Civil or Chippewa Playing Checkers. War—though his second wife had writ- When Eastman was reassigned to ten a best seller that defended slavery by West Point in 1832, the marriage ended, attacking Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle though Stands Sacred had already borne Tom’s Cabin. Contemporaries described a child named Winona (First Girl). Stands Eastman as an accomplished artist images: library of congress Sacred might have wanted to stay with Seth Eastman was a soldier and an artist. whose rather gentle paintings treated her relatives, though perhaps someone Indian culture with respect and affec- north to Fort Snelling, the northernmost had whispered to Eastman that Poca- tion; yet one of his best known paint- outpost of the new United States, facing hontas had died after contracting dis- ings was later excised from the halls of British-held Canada. Constructed on ease in white society, or that being for- Congress as racist propaganda. His life bluffs near the confluence of the Mis- mally married to an Indian woman was was as full of contradictions as the new souri and Mississippi rivers, Fort Snelling a poor career move. Winona, raised by American nation itself. was a regular castle, with a stone round her abandoned mother and Dakota rela- The frst American Eastman was Roger, tower straight from the Middle Ages and tives, married and had five children of a carpenter who arrived in 1638, in the a garrison that quartered as many as 24 her own. Her husband, Wakanhdi Ota generation before King Philip’s War, and offcers and 300 enlisted men. It stood as (Many Lightnings), was a full-blooded died in 1694. Roger’s descendant Robert, a peacekeeping bastion between the Dakota and warrior in the Great Sioux described as a “gentleman devoted to lands of the Dakotas (or Santee Sioux) Uprising of 1862 who later converted to scientifc pursuits and possessing much and Ojibwas (Chippewas or Anishi- Christianity. Their oldest son became talent as an inventor,” had hoped his nabes). Explorer Zebulon Pike had pur- the Rev. John Eastman, a Presbyterian firstborn son Seth, born in Brunswick, chased the site and 100,000 adjoining minister. Another son, Hakadah (Pitiful Maine, on January 24, 1808, would at- acres in 1805 from Dakota warriors. Last, because his mother died at his tend Bowdoin College. Instead, Seth, the The 1830s were the era of novelist Sir birth), was rescued from abandonment eldest of 13 children, entered the new Walter Scott, and living in a castle, East- by his grandmother Stands Sacred. Ha- U.S. Military Academy at West Point, man must have related to Scott’s pro- kadah was renamed Ohiyesa (Winner) N.Y., at age 16 in July 1824. He studied tagonist Ivanhoe, whose exotic love of and later still became Dr. Charles East- engineering and art—central to map- the Jewish heroine Rebecca—based, ac- man, a graduate of Dartmouth College making—and graduated in 1829 with a cording to some experts, on real-life and Boston University medical school, a second lieutenant’s commission in the heiress-intellectual Rebecca Gratz of major force in both the YMCA and the 1st U.S. Infantry. First sent to remote Philadelphia—rekindled the Romantic Boy Scouts, and an author whose books Fort Crawford (near Prairie du Chien, fascination with “Princess” Pocahontas, on Indian life remain in print. Wis.), then being rebuilt of native rock by another exotic beauty. Eastman fulflled In 1835 Seth Eastman married Mary Zachary Taylor, he was soon transferred his role as a Romantic by formally mar- Henderson, the 17-year-old daughter of

16 WILD WEST APRIL 2014 a surgeon at the Military Academy. The Hendersons stemmed from the First Families of Virginia, who were slave- holders. But Mary, too, was fascinated by Indian life, and when Seth was promoted to brigadier general and appointed com- mander of Fort Snelling in 1841, Mary went with him to write a book that be- came Dacotah, or Life and Legends of the Sioux Around Fort Snelling. Mary Eastman’s book perhaps wish- fully incorporates the legend of the death of the lovelorn Princess Winona—though both Seth’s daughter, Winona Eastman, and former wife, Stands Sacred, were still living at the time of publication in 1849. The tone of Mary’s books, however, is sympathetic to Indians, and Seth’s illus- trations for her books are also humane— with one exception: Death Whoop. Seth Eastman’s health had slumped during a posting to Texas after leaving Fort Snelling. He pulled strings to get a transfer east “to the duty of painting.” Through his and Mary’s persistence he was able to finagle a government com- mission to illustrate Henry Rowe School- craft’s multivolume study of North American Indian tribes. One of his key illustrations was Death Whoop, a melo- dramatic portrayal of a Dakota warrior ululating as he scalps a fallen enemy. Eastman’s Death Whoop was a cut above his other works in terms of gruesomeness. Art curator Felicia Wivchar of the U.S. House of Representatives says Death Life As It Is, in which she defended slav- tee chairman Rep. Morris Udall of Utah, Whoop first appeared in the 1851 vol- ery as benefcial to the slaves. The 1852 and the painting came down. ume The American Aboriginal Portfolio publication sold between 20,000 and Death Whoop—which may have been —by Mary Henderson Eastman. 30,000 copies. Abolitionists remained removed and replaced once before in “Every nerve in his body is thrilling with more impressed with the works of Har- the 1940s—returned to a Capitol hear- joy,” Mary wrote of the Dakota warrior. riet Beecher Stowe or Frederick Douglass. ing room in 1995, when the curator at “His bloodstained knife he grasps with In 1867 the U.S. House Committee on the time sought to restore the integrity one hand, while high in the other he holds Indian Affairs commissioned Seth East- of the historically signifcant collection. the crimson and still warm scalp.…Right man to depict nine scenes of Indian life But down it came again in 2007. It hasn’t joyfully falls upon his ear the return of his for display in the Capitol. One of the reappeared since, though Eastman’s death-whoop; it is the triumph for his vic- paintings was an oil version of Death more benign paintings of Indian life are tory, and the death song for his foe.” The Whoop. The painting hung in the Capi- regarded as Western classics, and his Ro- anthropology is a bit skewed—a “death tol until 1987, when U.S. Rep. Ben Night- mantic landscapes of the Hudson Valley song” is sung by a dying person, not by horse Campbell, a Cheyenne from Col- near West Point are widely appreciated. one about to kill—but the image caught orado, said he found Death Whoop in- During the Campbell push to remove on so mightily that Death Whoop, the sulting and depressing. Campbell added the gory painting in 1987, Udall told least typical of Eastman’s Indian paint- that none of the other Capitol art de- Campbell that Frank Ducheneaux, a ings, appeared as the title illustration for picted either African slavery or Japa- Lakota attorney and counsel to the com- fve out of six of Schoolcraft’s volumes. nese-American relocation during World mittee, had told him Death Whoop was Having artistically, perhaps, disowned War II, and he felt Death Whoop was the one of his favorite paintings. “He’s a his former in-laws, Seth next saw Mary only work defamatory to a significant Sioux,” Campbell reportedly replied. “In pen an attack on Uncle Tom’s Cabin American minority group. “If it offends that part of the country some of them called Aunt Phillis’s Cabin, or Southern you, it offends me,” concurred commit- haven’t given up yet.”

APRIL 2014 WILD WEST 17 GUNFIGHTERS AND LAWMEN

A Formidable Fighting Man, Jim Clark Served as Marshal of Telluride, Colorado Bad behavior cost him the job, but he later got back his badge By R.K. DeArment

s the mining camp of Tellu- named Cummings. The young man mother abetted in his crimes by con- ride on the western slope of rejected his stepfather’s name and re- cealing the ill-gotten cash for him, but the Colorado Rockies boomed tained the surname “Clark.” As a teen he his stepfather never spoke to him again. in the 1880s, the usual assort- also showed little respect for the prop- Tradition has it a schoolteacher named A ment of crooked gamblers, erty rights of his stepfather, stealing one William Quantrill boarded at the Clark muggers, stickup men and rogues of all of his mules and heading for the wilds home and became quite friendly with sorts descended on it. The town fathers of Texas with a boyhood friend. In San young Jim Clark. When the Civil War needed a tough fighting man as city Antonio he and his pal sold the mule and broke out, Quantrill enlisted into his marshal. In 1888 they turned to Jim bought six-shooters, new clothes and Confederate guerrilla band this 20-year- Clark, a big, burly 47-year-old with a boots that a contemporary described as old admirer who had grown into a big, wide reputation as a formidable fight- “high top...with stars on the front.” The broad-shouldered bear of a man and a ing man with fsts or guns. clothes and boots would wear out over crack shot with pistol or rife. Clark later Clark had no previous experience as the years, but the six-shooter would be claimed he was a favored lieutenant of a lawman but plenty of experience with a part of Clark’s apparel the rest of his the infamous partisan leader and con- the lawless class. Born in Missouri’s Clay life. Brandishing his new weapon, Clark ducted secret missions for him. Later County in 1841, James Clark was still committed his second felony, relieving newspaper editors accepted this fction quite young when his father died pre- a rancher outside San Antonio of $1,400. and added, with no reliable evidence, maturely and his mother married a man When he returned to Clay County, his that during the war and subsequent ban- images: R.K. DeaRment collection

Jim Clark had plenty of experience on the wrong side of the law before being elected town marshal of Telluride, Colo., above.

18 WILD WEST aprIL 2014 dit period Clark rode with the outlaw town marshal. He was a good marshal, of a legendary figure.…I had heard, gang of fellow Quantrill partisans the but he was a very brutal man. He knew among other things, that he was a James and Younger brothers, killing he had lots of enemies, so he kept a great fighting man, and physically a more than a score of men. The same Winchester rifle in each of four stores strong man—in fact a real fighter with journalists reported Clark also found just to have one handy in a hurry, and a gun or any other way.” Clark was, time to serve as a government scout he carried two guns in his pants. He Shores admitted, an impressive figure and Indian fghter. was a dead shot and kept in practice of a lawman, but he had also heard Clark may well have fought as a Con- by shooting out the letters in the signs that he had ridden with the likes of federate guerrilla during the war, for on the Lone Tree Cemetery fence.” An- Quantrill and the James boys. Worse, in later years he made no secret of his other old-timer, son of a Telluride store- it was suspected he still “stood in” with deep-seated Southern sympathies, but keeper, related how Clark served as a outlaws, tipping road agents to gold historians recording the activities of bill collector for his father. “A lot of Cor- shipments by stagecoach to enable Quantrill, the James boys and the Youn- nish miners traded at our store, and lucrative holdups and then sharing ger brothers, both during and after when they owed us money, they’d duck in the proceeds. the conflict, have found no mention of away from it as they came by. My father On June 24, 1889, three men held up Clark’s participation. Newsmen evidently would tell Jim who they were, and he’d the Miguel Valley Bank in Telluride, confused the name Cummings, the sur- making off with $20,750. The three were name of Clark’s stepfather and mother, identifed as Tom McCarty, Matt Warner with the history of a well-documented and a 23-year-old cowboy named Robert veteran of the guerrillas and the James LeRoy Parker, later to become legendary gang named Jim Cummins. under the alias “Butch Cassidy.” Marshal Other contemporary newspaper ac- Clark was conspicuously out of town counts claimed Clark participated in when the stickup occurred, and it was stagecoach robberies in the Black Hills widely believed he was complicit in the in the 1870s, but his name hasn’t turned crime and a recipient of part of the loot. up in histories of that period. Such suspicions, compounded by his How Jim Clark spent the years be- frequent violent outbursts of temper tween the end of the war and his 1887 and brutal treatment of arrestees, lost appearance in Telluride, Colo. remains him his job. A man named A.M. McDon- a mystery. By the time he showed up in ald replaced him as city marshal. that mining boomtown, however, he Clark went to Leadville where he re- was reckoned, as the papers noted, a mained several years, working in the gunman of the first order, “one of the When killed in 1895, Clark, above, was mines and frequently giving vent to his best shots in the world.” He frst took a packing this Allen & Wheelock revolver. violent temper. One of these outbursts menial job as a ditchdigger, bending his almost cost him his life. On Christmas powerful back to excavate for a pipe- Eve 1889 he got into an altercation with line into town. But when he noticed the Mike McGreavey, who pulled a pistol, town peace officers seemed incapable pushed the muzzle into Clark’s stomach of controlling the rowdies and toughs and eared back the hammer. But as he terrorizing the citizenry, he strode into pulled the trigger, a bystander knocked the mayor’s offce and said, “If you give down his arm, and the bullet went into me a special appointment as a police- walk around town and spot them when Clark’s leg instead of his gut. man or special deputy I will arrest those they were drinking or gambling. All he Clark worked for a time as a detec- fellows for you.” Presented with a badge, had to do was tap them on the shoul- tive for the Denver & Rio Grande Ex- he marched out into the street and be- der and mention father’s name, and press Co., but by 1893 the ruffan crowd gan collecting troublemakers, cracking they’d hotfoot it to the store and pay up. had again taken over Telluride, and city them over the head with his six-shooter Jim used to come in the store whenever offcials called him back as city marshal. and dragging them to the hoosegow. Im- he wanted a hat, and he never paid for He served in that capacity until the night pressed that Clark had restored order one either. I guess he thought he was of August 6, 1895, when an unseen and without firing a shot, the city fathers entitled to them.” never identified assassin gunned him promptly dismissed the city marshal Cyrus Wells “Doc” Shores, sheriff of down on the streets of Telluride. Ironi- and installed Clark in the office until Colorado’s Gunnison County, frst met cally, the man who had fought for the voters confirmed their decision in a Jim Clark during the winter of 1888–89 Confederacy and always espoused the special July 1888 election. and described him as “a large, effcient- “Lost Cause” was buried in the Grand One veteran of Telluride’s early years looking brown-eyed man with a dark Army of the Republic section of Tellu- recollected: “I remember Jim Clark, the mustache.” He was, said Shores, “sort ride’s Lone Tree Cemetery.

april 2014 WilD WEST 19 WESTERN ENTERPRISE

L.L. Nunn Made His Mine Proftable By Running His Mill With AC Power The Coloradan also educated engineers on the new technology By Jim Pettengill

he year was 1889, and L.L. Nunn had a problem. He was manager of the Gold King mine, a few miles south of T Telluride, Colorado. The Gold King sat at 12,000 feet, and operating costs of $2,500 per month were pushing it into bankruptcy. But Nunn had a plan, one that would use a controversial new technology and help transform energy use worldwide. Born in 1853 into a large Medina, Ohio, farming family to parents who encour- aged education, Lucien Lucius Nunn kept studying whether in school or not. He attended classes at the Cleveland far left: cornell university library; www.rockymountainpower.net Academy and studied law in Germany L.L. Nunn used an AC generator at his Ames plant, right, to power the Gold King mill. and at Harvard before heading west in 1880 to seek his fortune. In Leadville, pered, and by 1888 he had acquired con- as Tesla gave almost magical demonstra- Colo., he and business partner Malachi trolling interest in the San Miguel Valley tions of AC passing harmlessly through Kinney opened a fancy restaurant called Bank and become manager of the Gold his body to illuminate lightbulbs. While the Pacific Grotto, which failed almost King and other mining properties. direct current worked well for lighting, immediately. Nunn and Kinney moved Ore at the Gold King had to be milled DC generators could not send suffcient to Durango, Colo., and opened another to concentrate the mineral values be- current long distances. Although un- Pacifc Grotto, but they failed again. fore shipment. The problem was fuel to proven, alternating current could theo- The pair had planned to move next power the mill. Mining operations in the retically deliver power to locations far to Tombstone, Arizona Territory, but district had already stripped the slopes from its generating plant and might be stories of Apache attacks in the area at higher elevations of trees for fuel and just what Nunn needed to power his mill. convinced them to stay in Colorado. mine timbers, and hauling in coal by Nunn contacted George Westinghouse Although just 5-foot-1 and 115 pounds, mule train was breaking the budget. and had him supply a single-phase 100- Nunn was known for his physical stam- Nunn was a progressive man who read horsepower generating plant and Tesla- ina. In 1881 Nunn and Kinney walked voraciously. He knew about the “battle designed synchronous motor to drive some 70 miles from Durango to Tellu- of the electric currents” raging between his stamp mill. A 6-foot Pelton water im- ride, where they found work as carpen- Thomas Edison, committed to direct pulse turbine would drive the generator. ters. Carpentry proved more lucrative current, and George Westinghouse, The equipment began arriving in mid- than the restaurant business—they built proponent of alternating current, aided 1890, and Nunn’s brother Paul, a talented the first bathtub in town, lined with by former Edison engineer Nikola Tesla. engineer, supervised construction. zinc, and ultimately rented it to miners The fght to control the distribution of Few engineers knew much about alter- —but Nunn continued to study law and electric power could not have been more nating current at that time, so L.L. Nunn in 1882 was admitted to the bar. His legal vicious. Edison backhandedly promoted hired a number of promising young en- practice concentrated on mining law, the use of “more lethal” alternating cur- gineering students and offered them and he invested in area mines as well rent for executions by electric chair, specialized training, a modest salary and as real estate. Nunn’s businesses pros- which he called “Westinghousing,” even room and board in return for hard work

20 WILD WEST aprIL 2014 The plete degree pro- grams at Cornell. Original In 1896 the Nunn brothers formed the Telluride Pow- Western er Co. and installed upgraded machin- ery in the Ames Vacation plant. Nunn ex- panded into Utah Preserving and Protecting in 1897, building Dude Ranches and a plant at Provo Their History Since 1926. www.coloradopast.com Canyon with a line Nunn’s 1906 stone powerhouse at Ames continues to operate. that carried 44,000 volts and trans- and innovative thinking. This work-study mitted power 32 miles to the mines at program became known as the Tellu- Mercur. He later expanded Telluride ride Institute. Nunn reportedly tracked Institute to the Provo plant. the locations of the students with pins The Nunn brothers opened AC plants in a map in his front hallway, thus the in Montana, Idaho, Mexico and, in 1905, students became known as pinheads. on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls for By spring 1891 the plant was nearing the Ontario Power Co. In 1906 Nunn had completion at the small settlement of a new stone powerhouse built at Ames, Ames, 2.6 miles from the Gold King and and its 1904 General Electric generator 3,000 feet lower in elevation. On June 19 with twin Pelton wheels continues to a small group of workers gathered to produce power for today’s electrical grid. watch as Nunn threw a switch to put the Nunn’s educational efforts also thrived, plant online. A 6-foot electric arc snapped highlighted by construction of Telluride across the small control room, and the House at Cornell University, which pro- motor at the remote Gold King surged vided free room and board to promising into action. The moment marked the male engineering students. In 1917 he world’s frst commercial transmission of established Deep Springs College in Cal- AC current for industrial use. The plant ifornia for young men willing to do hard produced 3,000 volts at 133 Hertz and physical work and to study intensely. ran fawlessly for 30 days. After a routine Despite his outward energy and suc- inspection it was returned to regular ser- cess, Nunn paid a price for his hard work. vice. Gold King’s operating costs imme- He regularly drove himself to work 20- diately dropped from $2,500 per month to hour days and suffered periods of deep just $500. The mine was turning a proft. depression. Clandestinely homosexual In 1892 Westinghouse engineer Charles in a time when society would have reviled Scott announced that the Ames plant had him for such a disclosure, he despaired lost less than 48 hours of planned oper- at the inability to have a relationship. ating time over three-quarters of a year of Although diagnosed with tuberculosis operation, despite the trying operating in 1910, he maintained his schedule, his conditions and severe weather, and that philanthropic educational foundations service was being expanded to other area and his dignity in the community. mines. Nunn’s plant in the remote moun- L.L. Nunn died at age 72 in California tains of southwest Colorado had proved on April 2, 1925, leaving a legacy few can the practicality of AC power. match. Alternating current has become Within a year Nunn had extended AC the dominant electrical system world- power to several other mines and con- wide. Telluride House at Cornell, Deep verted Telluride, Colo., to the new form Springs College and the Telluride Associ- of power after a legal struggle with the ation, which developed from the Telluride & Western Museum existing DC company. Each year saw Institute, continue to help gifted students. more pinheads graduate from the Tellu- And the tiny Ames powerhouse that Nunn www.duderanch.org ride Institute, many going on to com- built still stands in Colorado. 1-866-399-2339

aprIL 2014 WILD WEST 21 ART OF THE WEST Santa Fe Silversmith Dennis Hogan Crafts Modern Jewelry With History The corporate dropout learned classic 19th-century techniques By Johnny D. Boggs

he naja—an inverted cres- cent—is an iconic shape pres- ent in Navajo jewelry since the mid-1800s. And it was that tra- T dition that led Dennis Hogan, a silver, turquoise and leather artist in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to create a series of tufa-cast, hand-forged najas of silver and turquoise. “I was just fascinated with it, because it’s just one of those great, archetypical designs,” explains Hogan. “I love the history behind the naja.” But while many believe the naja a true Navajo design—consider the squash blossom necklaces that dominated the Southwestern jewelry scene in the 1970s —Hogan believes the design is much older. “I don’t think we can put any Images: courtesy of dennIs Hogan ownership to the design,” the artist says. Here are two of Dennis Hogan’s tufa-cast, hand-forged najas with Royston turquoise.

It is known that Spanish Moors added Hogan’s love of history then led him in crescent-shaped pendants to their another direction. “I became interested in horses’ bridles to ward off evil spirits. the history of early Southwestern art and And when conquistadores arrived in the admired the jewelry of early native silver- Southwest, the Kiowas, the Utes and the smiths working long before commercial Navajos soon picked up on the design. production,” he explains. Once again When the latter began silversmithing in he adapted. Having learned such classic the 1860s, they incorporated the naja. methods as tufa casting and hammering “The Navajos adapted a lot,” Hogan says. ingot silver, Hogan creates his jewelry So has Hogan. Reared and educated in using late 19th-century techniques. Indiana, Hogan shucked a career as a f- “Silver became my canvas,” he says, nancial planner and the Midwest lifestyle “and hammering became my process.” in 1996 to become a “corporate dropout, Upscale stores such as Garland’s Indian almost a society dropout,”in New Mexico. Jewelry [www.garlandsjewelry.com] in “I studied painting at DePauw Univer- Sedona, Ariz., and Ortega’s on the Plaza sity,” he says, “and always enjoyed the [www.ortegasontheplaza.com] in Santa Western landscape.” He first landed in Fe carry his creations. The Sundance Abiquiú, N.M.—Georgia O’Keeffe coun- catalog [www.sundancecatalog.com] try—and tried his hand at fne-art paint- has showcased his works, and he has de- ing. Then he met Charlie Favour [www signed logo-branded jewelry for the non- .charliefavour.com], who taught him the proft Western Writers of America. “I’m art of braiding leather. Before long Ho- just interested in history and Southwest- gan was making a name for himself as a ern art,” he says. “Jewelry has allowed me leatherworker. He still does leatherwork, to combine those passions.” and his silver and turquoise pieces often Hogan’s Western Writers of America bolo. incorporate hand-braided Italian leather. Visit www.dennishoganjewelry.com.

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SPECIAL SAVINGS: 2 assorted-postpaid, 3 or more assorted less 10% - postpaid Continental USA. Free literature on western books, art, John Wayne items, photos, and more with order only! Our 35th year Roger M. Crowley’s Old West Shop PO Box 5232-14, Vienna, WV 26105 Phone: 304-295-3143, Email: [email protected]. Famous for vowing, ‘I will fght no more forever,’ the Nez Perce leader never gave up the fght to return to his homeland in Oregon’s Wallowa Valley By Candy Moulton ‘Never sell the bones of your father and your mother.’

imple words, and who would even imagine doing such a thing? But for Joseph, chief of the Wallowa band of Nez Perce Indians, they had great mean- ing when his father shared them. Joseph had seen the white people come into his land with their canvas-topped wagons, and he had seen an erosion of tribal lands in the Columbia Basin when Washington Territorial Governor Isaac I. Stevens, who doubled as territorial super- the greenwich workshop, seymour, conn. intendent of Indian Affairs, conducted a treaty council in into his father’s shoes upon his death went deep into his heart 1855. The chief knew that the men and women traveling and became the guiding principle for the remainder of his life. to the West—particularly those coming into the region long Chief Joseph is most remembered for his surrender state- used by the Nez Perces, Cayuses, Umatillas, Wanapums and ment to federal troops commanded by Brig. Gen. Oliver O. Palouses—would want more territory. Howard and Colonel Nelson A. Miles at the Bear’s Paw (or Bear As Joseph’s father lay near death in 1871, his eyes clouded Paw) battlefeld in northern Montana Territory in 1877: “I am with age, he told the son who shared his name: “My son, my tired of fghting.…Hear me, my chiefs. I am tired; my heart body is returning to my mother earth; my spirit is going very is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight soon to see the Great Spirit Chief. When I am gone, think of no more forever.” But this man who had been fghting for the your country. You are chief of these people. They look to you rights of his tribe for more than a decade would not rest for to guide them. Always remember that your father never sold the next quarter century in his desire to return to the Nez Perce his country. You must stop your ears whenever you are asked land of his youth—the Wallowa Valley of northeastern Oregon. to sign a treaty selling your home. A few years more and white What had brought Chief Joseph and the Nez Perces to that men will be all around you. They have their eyes on this land.” windswept battlefeld in north-central Montana? And what These fnal instructions for the young man who would step would Chief Joseph do in surrender?

24 WILD WEST APRIL 2014

Accompanied by five of his cold and tired fellow Nez Perce tribesmen, Chief Joseph Rides to Surrender, in an 1982 painting by Howard Terpning.

he Nez Perces alternately call themselves the Nimí- ance from spiritual visions. When he was around 11 years old, ipuu (“The People”) and Iceyéeyenim mamáy’ac Joseph, following tradition in his tribe, went on a vision quest. (“Children of the Coyote”). Once they had acquired By the time he returned to his village, he had received a spirit horses, sometime in the early 1700s, they separated helper who gave him a song and power related to thunder, into bands that ranged through the Columbia Basin from the thus his name Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt (roughly translated central and northern mountains of what would become Idaho as “Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain”). and western Montana to the valleys of what would become Fifteen-year-old Joseph rode with his father in 1855 to the northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington. Born in council near the Walla Walla River organized by Governor early 1840, Joseph spent much time at the Christian mission Stevens in Washington Territory and Joel Palmer, superin- in Lapwai (in present-day Idaho), was baptized, learned to tendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon Territory. There he wit- speak English and studied the Bible until age 7 when his nessed the first erosion of Columbia Basin Indian country father, in anger over treaty terms, withdrew from Christian and sovereign rule. “After the council was opened,” Joseph infuence and reverted to the Nez Perce “Dreamer” faith, in recalled some years later, “[Stevens] made known his heart. which men and women lived from the bounty of the land, He said there were a great many white people in the country, roamed freely throughout their territory and received guid- and many more would come.”

april 2014 WilD WEST 25 “I think you intend to win our country,” Walla Walla head- commissioners resorted to personal pressure. They adjourned man Yellow Bird (or Yellow Serpent) told white offcials. Palm- the council and held private meetings with tribal headmen, er said the treaty would protect the Indians from those “whose starting with those who had indicated support for the govern- hearts are bad” who were scheming “to get your horses.” ment position—most of whom were Christian Nez Perces. Yellow Bird knew that Stevens, who was survey leader for a Talks resumed during the official council, but the real northern railroad route across the country, clearly wanted the action occurred late into the night and early morning of Indian land cessions to aid the project. In the end, while other June 4–5, 1863, when the Indians gathered at their own tribes saw erosion of their territories, the Nez Perces retained council fire in the center of their extended village. The most of their lands, including the Wallowa Valley. Old Joseph, smoke of their pipes drifted around the council lodge and satisfed he still controlled the homeland, scrawled an awk- into the night air as the debate began. It still wafted hours ward X on the treaty beside his name. Returning to the valley, later when Big Thunder, according to eavesdropping Ore- he promptly found a piece gon cavalry Captain George of parchment 16 inches wide Currey, “made a formal an- by 18 inches long and drew a nouncement of their deter- map of his territory. By 1863 young Joseph stood nearly 6 feet and weighed more than 200 pounds. He was strong and handsome. He parted his hair on the right, twisting it into braids, and swept his pompadour up and to the left, sometimes coating it with white powder to make it more prominent. Already he was stepping in his father’s tracks as spokesman for the Wallowa band. That year the Nez Perces gathered at Lapwai in anoth- er council with federal Indi-

an Affairs representatives to weider history group archive work out an agreement that Chief Joseph (left) and his would halt the march of younger brother, Ollokot white settlers and miners (above), cherished their onto their lands. The coun- valley as their father did. cil document, which became known among the Nez Perces mination to take no further as the “Thief Treaty,” led to part in the treaty.” the permanent fracturing of Currey and 20 Oregon cav- Nez Perce power. national anthropological archives, no. 1008900, suitland, md. alrymen rode to the council Twenty-three-year-old Joseph rode with his father, his 20- grounds after midnight on June 5. On seeing the fire still year-old brother, Ollokot, and others from the Wallowa band burning in the Nez Perce lodge, the captain and his troopers to the treaty grounds, where they intended to make it clear quietly moved closer, then watched and listened as the 53 that whites on Nez Perce land must leave. Although no Nez Perce headmen talked. After Big Thunder’s frst formal settlers or miners had yet encroached upon the isolated comment, Currey sat in shocked silence as the Indian head- Wallowa Valley, Joseph and his companions supported the man, “in an emotional manner, declared the Nez Perce nation other Nez Perce bands on whose land whites were already dissolved.” The Dreamers from the anti-treaty faction and building cabins and tearing the ground as they dug for gold. those supporting Lawyer and the pro-treaty Christian Nez From the moment the council opened, the Nez Perce Perces shook hands. Then, Currey later recalled, Big Thunder Dreamers faced trouble. White negotiators proposed trim- announced “with a kind but frm demeanor that they would ming the reservation from nearly 12,000 square miles to less be friends, but a distinct people.” than 1,200 square miles, a reduction that included all of the The powerful Nez Perce Nation had just split apart, but Wallowa band’s territory. But the headmen had behind them unlike the American republic even then embroiled in Civil some 3,000 members of the Nez Perce Nation. Unable to col- War, the Nez Perce people would never fully reunite. “I with- lectively bully the Indian leaders into signing a new treaty, the drew my detachment,” Currey wrote in his official report,

26 WILD WEST APRIL 2014 “having accomplished nothing but witnessing the extinguish- had become blind and feeble,” he said, “He could no lon- ment of the last council fires of the most powerful Indian ger speak for his people. It was then I took my father’s nation on the sunset side of the Rocky Mountains.” place as chief.” It was four years later the dying Old Joseph Even before that landmark tribal gathering Old Joseph and warned his son of white men eager to grab the tribal home- White Bird, the Nez Perce headman from Salmon River coun- land and demanded of him, “Never sell the bones of your try (in present-day Idaho), had departed the council grounds. father and your mother.” They did not agree with the treaty and by leaving would not be By then the decision was out of the younger man’s hands. On bound by it. In their culture a headman could negotiate only May 28, 1867, a month after ratifcation of the 1863 treaty, the for his own band, not for people from another part of the tribe. U.S. General Land Offce had offcially included the Wallowa The headmen who put their names or marks on the 1863 Valley in the public domain, thereby opening it to general treaty “sold what did not belong to them,” Joseph’s cousin settlement. The frst white stockmen pushed cattle into the Yellow Wolf said. Joseph put area in the spring of 1871. it another way: “Suppose a Before his father’s death white man should come to Joseph had spoken for him me and say, ‘Joseph, I like in council with government your horses, and I want to agents; after burial he wore buy them.’ I say to him, ‘No, the title Chief Joseph with my horses suit me; I will a dignity and solemnity that not sell them.’ Then he goes belied his age. At 31, he was to my neighbor and says to the youngest and least ex- him, ‘Joseph has some good perienced of the Nez Perce horses. I want to buy them, leaders, but soon he would but he refuses to sell.’ My be catapulted onto a nation- neighbor answers, ‘Pay me al stage, all due to the power the money, and I will sell you and pull of a piece of land. Joseph’s horses.’ The white “There is nothing should su- man returns to me and says, persede it,” he told treaty ‘Joseph, I have bought your officials. “There is nothing horses, and you must let me which can outstrip it. It is have them.’ If we sold our clothed with fruitfulness. In lands to the government, this it are riches given me by my is the way they were bought.” ancestors, and from that time Old Joseph did not sign the up to the present I have loved Thief Treaty, and when he re- the land and was thankful ceived a copy of it, he tore that it had been given me.” it to pieces. And that was not Although some advocated all he did. “In order to have violence, the young chief did all people understand how not want blood spilled in his much land we owned,” Jo- beloved Wallowa Valley and seph later recalled, “my fa- avoided sparking a war, while ther planted poles around it.” weider history group archive insisting the settlers who had Piling rocks into cairns and Chief Looking Glass, posing in 1871 when he was about 40, was moved in must leave. He placing 10-foot-high poles one of the Nez Perce leaders during the 1877 fght and fight. maintained the position his in them along a high ridge late father had taken: “If we above Minam Creek on the western edge of the Wallowa ever owned the land, we own it still, for we never sold it.” band lands, Old Joseph, like a mountain lion or a grizzly bear, Joseph led the Wallowa band through the quagmire of gov- again marked his territory, telling his sons as they helped ernmental negotiations, relying on diplomacy to preserve his him, “Inside is the home of my people—the white man may homeland and in the process becoming the best known of take the land outside. Inside this boundary all our people the Nez Perce anti-treaty leaders. Federal investigators agreed were born. It circles around the graves of our fathers, and with Joseph’s claim he had not relinquished the Wallowa we will never give up these graves to any man.” Valley, President Ulysses S. Grant issued a June 1873 executive order that restored the valley to his people, and government oseph did not witness the breakup of his nation. He officials recommended removal of encroaching settlers. had mounted his horse and begun the 75-mile ride The U.S. Congress, however, rescinded Grant’s order, and as back to the Wallowa Valley before that fateful tribal a result settlers stayed and pressure mounted to relocate the council started. By 1867 he had a new role. “My father Nez Perces, as had been done with dozens of other tribes.

april 2014 WilD WEST 27 General O.O. Howard wrote of his frst encounter with the Toohoolhoolzote and Looking Glass. On May 3, 1877, the Nez Perce leader, in the spring of 1875 on the Umatilla Indian military and the non-treaty Nez Perces convened yet another Reservation, northwest of the Wallowa Valley: “Joseph put council. By its conclusion days later the decision was made: his large black eyes on my face and maintained a fxed look The bands had until mid-June to move permanently to the for some time. It did not appear to me as an audacious stare; reservation centered at Lapwai, Idaho Territory. but I thought he was trying to open the windows of his heart to me.” Initially Howard supported Joseph’s claim to the Wallowa, iolence over the forced removal erupted in mid-June writing: “I think it a great mistake to take from Joseph and his when warriors Shore Crossing, Red Moccasin Top band of Nez Perce Indians that valley. The white people really and Swan Necklace attacked and killed several do not want it.…Possibly Congress can be induced to let these white settlers on the Salmon River in Idaho Terri- really peaceable Indians have this poor valley for their own.” tory. Days later, on June 17, 1877, U.S. volunteers and Nez While Howard may have considered the Wallowa Valley Perce warriors fought the opening battle of the Nez Perce “poor,” Joseph saw it as a most special place. “[It] had always War at nearby White Bird Canyon. The Indians killed 34 belonged to my father’s own people, and the other bands soldiers, while the Nez Perce had three wounded. had never disputed our right to it,” he said. “Our fathers were That summer thousands of the Nez Perce people zigzagged born here. Here they lived, here they died, here are their across Idaho and Montana territories, mostly seeking to graves. We will never leave them.” outrun pursuing federal soldiers, though warriors fought The issue of removal of non-treaty Nez Perces centered on skirmishes and battles along the way. On July 11 in Idaho Joseph’s band. The chief’s oratorical ability, and his people’s Territory the Nez Perces withstood a surprise attack by Gen- wealth of cattle and horses, made him the lead Nez Perce eral Howard and again inflicted stiffer casualties on the spokesman and diplomat in the estimation of the whites. soldiers in the Battle of the Clearwater. Chief Joseph joined Frontier newspapers in Oregon and Idaho ascribed to Joseph other warriors in confronting the soldiers along a ridgeline, an authority over all bands he simply did not have. Other but recognizing the enemy’s superior numbers, he retreated tribesmen had a stake in the issue. Each band had its own to warn families in the village and prepare a withdrawal. In headman and so retained autonomy. The tribe had occasion- their rush to flee the people left behind many of their pos- ally designated one prominent man to speak for all bands, but sessions. They crossed Lolo Pass and headed south through it never recognized that individual as supreme over all others, the Bitterroot Valley. On the morning of August 9 in western as did the frontier military and popular press of the period. Montana Territory, Colonel John Gibbon attacked the Nez The 1863 treaty provisions that affected Joseph’s people Perce encampment near the Big Hole River, killing or wound- also required removal of Nez Perce bands under White Bird, ing dozens of tribal members. There Joseph played a vital role

Chief Joseph was not considered a Nez Perce war leader, but he fought well during the flight and surrendered with great dignity.

28 WILD WEST APRIL 2014 , november 3, 1877

Frank leslie’s illustrated newspaper

In the September 1877 Battle of Bear’s Paw, Colonel Nelson Miles’ troopers attacked the Nez Perce camp, which Joseph helped defend. in controlling the Indian horse herd, which was essential By nightfall on the first day of battle all Nez Perce leaders for the people to maintain their fight. The soldiers suffered except Joseph, Looking Glass and White Bird had been killed. some 30 killed and 40 wounded. Gibbon did not pursue. For the next four days the Nez Perces held out against the Between August 23 and September 7 in Yellowstone National besieging troops. White Bird and Looking Glass remained Park the feeing Nez Perces had several encounters with white adamant against surrender. Then Looking Glass was shot and visitors, killing two of them and holding one group of tourists killed, becoming the last Nez Perce casualty of the battle and hostage for three days. The Indians managed to stay one jump leaving only Joseph and White Bird to lead the tribe. Having ahead of the soldiers, though. After leaving the park, they tried for years to avoid war, and after enduring four months slipped through an Army juggernaut, crossed through Crow of constant movement that had debilitated his people, Joseph country—where they had thought they might find sanctu- made a decision. “I could not bear to see my wounded men ary—and pushed north toward Canada. There, they believed, and women suffer any longer; we had lost enough already,” they could join the great Lakota leader Sitting Bull. he later recalled. “My people needed rest—we wanted peace.” But as Joseph and his young daughter caught horses early in From the shelter pits, with his weary people around him, the morning of September 30, Colonel Nelson Miles’ troopers Joseph sent the message to Howard that became one of the attacked with a vengeance in what became known as the most famous quotations of the Indian wars: “I am tired of Battle of Bear’s Paw. Joseph put his daughter on a horse and fghting. Our chiefs are killed.…The little children are freez- sent her toward Canada, while he returned to defend the ing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the camp. Yellow Wolf watched as “hundreds of soldiers charging hills and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where in two wide, circling wings…were surrounding our camp.” they are—perhaps freezing to death.…Hear me, my chiefs. Shot in Head described the attack: “We rode the lead-cut air. I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now Bullets were buzzing like summer fies.” stands, I will fght no more forever.” “I called my men to drive them back,” Chief Joseph said. “We fought at close range, not more than 20 steps apart.” oseph’s surrender speech became the defning state- Bullets few in every direction, felling soldiers and Indians alike, ment of his life and of his people. Relayed to Miles including Joseph’s brother Ollokot, struck in the head by a and Howard by two old Nez Perce men who scouted soldier’s bullet. “The soldiers kept up a continuous fre,” Jo- for the Army, the speech was recorded by the general’s seph recalled. “Six of my men were killed in one spot near me.” aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Charles Erskine Scott Wood. After

APRIL 2014 WILD WEST 29 , november 3, 1877

Frank leslie’s illustrated newspaper Miles accepts Joseph’s rifle in this depiction of the surrender. Some of the Nez Perces, including Joseph’s daughter, fled to Canada. the scouts delivered his message, Joseph mounted a horse Fort Leavenworth defned “hellhole” for Chief Joseph and and rode toward the soldiers’ camp. He rested his Winchester his desperate, suffering people. In a camp two miles from carbine across the saddle pommel and clasped a gray blan- the fort, situated between the Missouri River and a lagoon, ket around his shoulders. Face stoic, his long hair hanging in the Nez Perces suffered from fevers lurking in contaminated two braids over his chest and pompadour tied up with a piece water and from the early summer plague of mosquitoes that of otter fur, he wore buckskin moccasins, leggings and war spread malaria through the “miserable, helpless, emaciated shirt, the latter ripped and torn by bullets. Welts on his wrists specimens of humanity,” wrote a contributor in the monthly and forehead marked where bullets had grazed him. Joseph’s journal Council Fire and Arbitrator. “I cannot tell you how most loyal warriors walked beside him as he approached much my heart suffered for my people while at Leavenworth,” camp and extended the Winchester to Colonel Miles. “We Joseph later said. “The Great Spirit Chief who rules above could have escaped from Bear’s Paw Mountain if we had seemed to be looking some other way and did not see what left our wounded, old women and children behind,” Jo- was being done to my people.” seph later said. “We were unwilling to do this.” Of the 700 On July 21, 1878, the Nez Perces, now under jurisdiction Nez Perces who had camped of the federal Offce of Indi- along Snake Creek near the an Affairs, were herded onto Bear’s Paw Mountains, 448 railroad cars and shipped to became Miles’ prisoners of Baxter Springs, Kan., for set- war, 25 died on the battlefeld tlement on a portion of the and the remainder, many fol- Quapaw Reservation. At Bax- lowing White Bird, made their ter Springs many others fell way toward Canada. desperately ill with malar- Joseph second-guessed his ia, and with no quinine for decision to surrender. “Gen- treatment more than a quar- eral Miles had promised that ter of the band perished. “It we might return to our own was worse to die there than country with what stock we to die fighting in the moun- had left,” the chief said. “ I ©ap/corbis tains,” Joseph recalled. Indi- thought we could start again. Brigadier General Oliver O. Howard poses beside Joseph in 1904. an Affairs Commissioner Ezra I believed [him], or I never A. Hayt, a 55-year-old New would have surrendered.” Instead Joseph and those Nez Yorker, met with Joseph in October 1878, and the two rode Perces who followed him into surrender were removed to across southern Kansas and northeastern Indian Territory Fort Keogh, Montana Territory, then down the Yellowstone (present-day Oklahoma) in search of a better place for the and Missouri rivers to Fort Abraham Lincoln in Dakota tribe. Thus, in June 1879 the Nez Perces moved to northeast- Territory. In November they were sent farther downriver to ern Indian Territory, where the red soil did little to nurture Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. their souls. They called it Eeikish Pah (“The Hot Place”).

30 WILD WEST APRIL 2014 Joseph, who had told Nelson Miles and O.O. Howard he would fight no more, turned to the only weapons left to him: oratory and diplomacy. He sent his first petition seeking relief for the Nez Perces in December 1877, appealed to Commissioner Hayt in the fall of 1878 and in early 1879 took his cause to Washington, D.C. There Joseph stepped up to the podium seeking justice and reform, and for the rest of his life he would remain relentless in the pursuit of better conditions for his people and a return to the Wallowa Valley. Aware of the chief’s unrelenting campaign, Howard encouraged him, “You, Joseph, will show yourself a truly great man, and your people can never be blotted out.” Joseph lobbied Congress and presi- dents, military commanders and Indian Affairs officials to return to his home- land, winning his battle in the court of public opinion by enlisting the support of Christians and Indian reformers. Agents serving the Nez Perces took up their cause, but it was the 1880 promo- tion of Nelson Miles to brigadier gener- al and his assignment as commander of the Department of Columbia that made it possible for the Nez Perces to return to the Columbia Basin. Miles backed Chief Joseph’s claim that the Indian sur- render entitled them to again live in their homeland. In May 1884 the U.S. Senate approved an appropriation bill that would repatri- national anthropological archives, no. 6478800, suitland, md. ate the Nez Perces. It took nearly a year Chief Joseph was not happy about never being allowed to return to the Wallowa Valley. for the federal order, issued on April 29, 1885, that sent the 268 survivors home. But not all would go Joseph continued his efforts to return to the Oregon valley of to Idaho. “When finally released from bondage,” as Yellow his childhood. In 1903 he presented his case for the Wallowa Wolf put it, those who endorsed the Christian religion would Valley over a shared meal of bison with President Theodore settle at Lapwai in Idaho Territory, while those who adhered Roosevelt. He appealed to residents and university students to the Dreamer faith would be sent to the Colville Indian in Seattle. He had backing from infuential men who admired Reservation in Washington Territory. The question an inter- his grit and determination, but with his goal unachieved, preter asked, Yellow Wolf said, was, “Lapwai and be Christian, Joseph died on September 21, 1904, in his lodge at Colville. or Colville and just be yourself?” Only Joseph had no choice. He would be sent to Colville. A regular Wild West contributor and the executive director In 1887, when Congress approved the Dawes Act that appor- of Western Writers of America, Candy Moulton is a lifetime tioned tribal lands to individual Indians, some Nez Perces at member of the Nez Perce Trail Foundation [www.nezperce Colville took advantage of the provisions and returned to trail.net] and author of the Spur Award–winning biography Lapwai for acreage, but Joseph and his most steadfast sup- Chief Joseph: Guardian of the People, which is recom- porters did not. Joseph held firm to his claim on Wallowa, mended for further reading along with Let Me Be Free: The believing he would one day be allowed to resettle in the land Nez Perce Tragedy, by David Lavender; Nez Perce Summer, of his younger days. “Never for a moment did his heart turn 1877, by Jerome A. Greene; Children of Grace: The Nez from his old home to the new one,” missionary Kate McBeth Perce War of 1877, by Bruce Hampton; and The Flight of recalled. “The grave of his father was there.” the Nez Perce, by Mark H. Brown.

APRIL 2014 WILD WEST 31 to Yosemite The back-to-back robbery of two stages headed for California’s Yosemite Valley led to more than a few trials and tribulations By William B. Secrest

irst described by members of an 1851 military Turn-of-the-century tourists expedition, central California’s awe-inspiring take in the majesty of the Yosemite Valley soon became one of the most Yosemite Valley. Getting there, F popular natural attractions in the world, draw- though, could be hazardous. ing visitors from far and wide. There to greet them were men with darker motives. Travelers always car- The highwaymen then calmed ried money, and by the early 1880s, with the coming of the the excited horses of the second Sierra snowmelt and spring tourists, robbers gathered along coach and called for driver Foster stage roads into the canyon. to throw down the box. Foster On the evening of May 22, 1885, Phil Toby was driving his did not argue the point—the ex- stage from the railroad town of Madera headed for Raymond press box contained little of val- and on to Yosemite. Temperatures were already on the rise, ue. After robbing the two male and the foothill grasses were turning from green to golden. passengers, the duo then ordered Oak trees gave way to towering pines as the road climbed to Foster to also resume his drive Raymond. A second stage, driven by Jake Foster, kept just far to Yosemite. A rider soon brought enough behind Toby’s coach to avoid the dust. Around 5 p.m., news of the robberies to Wawona. about nine miles below the Wawona stage stop, two masked Informed by telegraph, the sher- men appeared. They had blackened their hands and any ex- iffs of Fresno, Mariposa and Mer- posed skin on their faces and wore their clothes inside out. ced counties promptly rounded “Phil, stop and throw down the express box!” shouted one up posses and hit the trail in william b. secrest collection gunman, pointing a shotgun at the driver of the frst coach. search of the two robbers. An ini- “The box is not in my stage,” Toby replied. “If you don’t tial reward of $1,200 for the capture of the pair provided believe me, get in and see.” The other robber jumped up some inspiration. John Washburn joined the Mariposa on the stage and confirmed there was no express box. The posse. He and his brothers were big property owners with holdup men then ordered the passengers from the stage and holdings that included mines, hotels and the Yosemite Stage robbed them of money, jewelry and other valuables. “The & Turnpike Co. Tom Beasore, a half-blood Indian tracker, ladies were not interfered with,” noted a local account, “not accompanied Washburn. even to admire the beautiful and costly diamond earrings The robbing of Yosemite stages was serious business, af- that one of the lady passengers wore.” The outlaws then fecting the local economy in various ways. A drop in stage ordered the passengers back into the coach and told Toby traffc due to fear of crime also meant a drop in sales for local to drive on. The stage lurched forward, the horses urged on merchants. The Wisconsin State Journal, half a continent by several pistol shots into the air. away in Madison, reported at the time: “Highwaymen are

32 WILD WEST APRIL 2014

infesting the Yosemite Valley route. A few days since a stage- spent additional minutes undoing knots to expose a small coach filled with California tourists was waylaid and the pistol that, according to an observer, “would make a high- members of the party plundered to their last cent. Several wayman as mad as blazes if he were shot with it.” The owner robberies have occurred on the route during the past month.” then carefully rewrapped the gun and restored it to his valise. Dour as the stage holdups might be, it did prompt some “Do you think they will rob us?” giggled a beaming wom- humorous responses, as reported by the Madera stage offce an passenger in the office. “Oh, no, madam,” said a male clerk at the time. Learning of the robbery while purchasing passenger, “there is no danger at all. You needn’t be in the a ticket, a portly traveler denounced the cowardly passenger least alarmed.” victims. Demonstrating what his own response would have “Oh,” she said, “I do wish they would!” and her face fairly been, he frantically searched his pockets for the key to his beamed with enthusiasm at the idea of a romantic encounter valise, then unlocked it and produced a small bundle. He with real, live robbers in the dark mountain forests.

APRIL 2014 WILD WEST 33 william b. secrest collection leFt anD oPPosite bottom; toP miDDle: Hank JoHnston A photographer staged this Yosemite stage “holdup” around 1900 in the vicinity of the May 22, 1885, double stage robbery site.

Mariposa report stated that passengers in the stages Once Mullery found a horse, he and Beasore resumed fol- A driven by Toby and Foster had lost $1,300, along with lowing the tracks. Howard eventually joined them, along rings and watches. The two men in Foster’s stage with Constable George Moore and four other men. The trail were not named, but the Mariposa Gazette listed Toby’s pas- did lead toward Fresno Flats, ending at a small cabin out- sengers as “W.H. Waite and wife, of Providence, R.I.; Mr. side of town owned by Charley Myers, who did farming and Chance and wife [English], of Raymond’s Excursion Party; Mr. handyman work in the area. His parents lived nearby. Harris, of Los Angeles; and Mr. Duncan, with a party of four.” The posse was contemplating its next move when Meade Mariposa Sheriff John Mullery and Undersheriff William and Rapelje rode up. The lawmen obtained a search warrant J. Howard, a former California Ranger who in 1853 helped and decided that Howard, Meade, Rapelje and Moore should track down outlaw Joaquín Murietta, left at 2 the following make the arrest. Entering the cabin, the four men found Myers’ morning, May 23. At Wawona they joined forces with Wash- brother-in-law, William Prescott, asleep in the bedroom and burn and Beasore, and the four proceeded to the robbery site. woke him up. The startled Prescott, who ft the description of The holdup had taken place in Fresno County, and Sheriff one of the robbers, said Myers had gone south to Coarsegold. Oliver J. Meade took the frst train north for Merced. There Meade and Rapelje went after Myers while Howard continued he joined Deputy Sheriff Hiram Rapelje, whom he knew to question Prescott. Before long the lawmen had both suspects to be a former Yosemite stage driver. The two met up with before the local justice of the peace. Neither Myers nor Prescott the other offcers at the crime scene. The lawmen soon found could make bail. The justice of the peace set a hearing date, and the outlaws’ campsite. From the food the robbers had eaten Meade took the prisoners to Fresno. On June 17 The Fresno and the fact they had known the stage drivers by name, the Weekly Expositor announced the arraignment of the two sus- offcers were certain they were looking for two local men. pects and remarked that “travel to Yo Semite [sic] has fallen Mullery, Howard and Beasore checked out a mountain pass off greatly since the robbery of the coaches a few weeks ago.” before Howard followed another lead, agreeing to meet the others later at Wawona. Meade and Rapelje rode to Gertrude n late August 1885, three months after the robbery and to search for any sign of the outlaws. Returning from their trek, I just before the trial was to begin, the San Francisco Mullery and Beasore went over the holdup site once more. Morning Call published a letter that had first appeared In the lawmen’s absence Scott Burford, who operated a in The Times of London. The author was “W. Chance,” one of stage stop near the robbery site, had discovered overlooked the passengers on Phil Toby’s stage that fateful day. Chance footprints beneath some foliage. He pointed them out to wrote it “as a warning to those of my fellow-countrymen who Mullery, who noted the tracks led south toward Fresno Flats. intend visiting the ‘Far West.’” It read in part: Certain the highwaymen had left the marks, the sheriff was elated. Mullery needed a fresh mount and alert Howard, so We had arrived at San Francisco from Japan and were on our he and Beasore headed for Wawona. En route they ran into way to visit the celebrated Yosemite Valley. Leaving the railway Howard and arranged to meet him later at Fresno Flats. at Madera on the morning of the 22nd of May last, we were con-

34 WILD WEST APRIL 2014 veyed the remaining 100 miles by stage (a chara- in Toby’s stage, but the Englishman had fled no banc drawn by six horses), the road journey complaint at the time and apparently wasn’t occupying two days. Our party consisted around to testify at the trial, which didn’t of 12 persons—six men, four ladies and begin until early September. James Daly, two children—all Americans except our- the newly elected Fresno County district selves. Late in the afternoon of the frst attorney, enlisted Mariposa County dis- day, at a spot called Fresno Flats, some 20 miles from Clark’s Hotel, our rest- Charley Myers, who worked as a ing place for the night, the stage was farmer and a handyman, was one stopped by two masked men armed of the two accused stage robbers. with guns and revolvers. One with his gun covered the driver while the other trict attorney George Goucher, who was leveled his at the passengers. also a state assemblyman, to assist in We were all completely taken by surprise. prosecuting the case. Goucher enjoyed They threatened to shoot upon the slight- his liquor in barrooms, but he knew his est move on the part of any of us. “If any man way around a courtroom. moves, I’ll shoot him, or woman either” were the Attorney Walter D. Grady, owner of a Fresno exact words used. We were none of us armed, nor, opera house, was a co-counsel for the defense. He indeed, with the ladies present, would resistance in either was also a known drinker, whose booze-induced case have been justifiable. We were then ordered brawls were fodder for the local press, particu- to alight, ranged in line and made to hold up our larly the time he bit off part of a San Fran- hands under a threat to shoot if we disobeyed. cisco waiter’s ear. Joining Grady on the One of the robbers, revolver in hand, went defense was Patrick J. Reddy, one of the down the line and relieved us of our watch- most feared attorneys in the West. Reddy es and chains and money, while the other, had lost an arm in a shootout in Virgin- standing a short distance behind, kept ia City, but the disability never slowed his gun leveled at us, as he had been doing all along, ready to shoot if we William Prescott, the other accused made any show of resistance. robber, was Myers’ brother-in-law The robber actually had the cowardice and was arrested in Myers’ cabin. to hold his revolver to the face of each lady as he searched her. Our stage carried him down. He was also a state sena- the box of the Wells, Fargo Express Co., tor and a wealthy mine owner. He too containing money and valuables. The high- enjoyed a few drinks at the end of the day, waymen asked for and were given this, and with Grady or otherwise. In 1880 Wells, Fargo for its sake, doubtless, the stage was attacked, & Co. had retained Reddy to prosecute stage the unfortunate travelers suffering themselves in robber Milton Sharp. After securing Sharp’s con- consequence. As long as the Wells, Fargo Co. are allowed viction, Reddy presented Wells, Fargo with a bill for to send the treasure entrusted to them in an ordi- $5,000. The company balked, offering the attorney nary stage, the attacks will continue. But travel- half the amount. Reddy rejected the offer and ers can be warned what to expect. My advice said he would take nothing. From then on, to them is to leave behind valuable watch- though, the attorney worked pro bono for es, not to take with them more money stage robbers being prosecuted by Wells, than they actually require for the visit to Fargo. His vindictiveness haunted the the valley. The tourist must not expect company until Reddy’s death in 1900. to hear anything of these robberies at any of the ticket offices or hotels in Fresno County Sheriff Oliver Meade San Francisco or elsewhere. In fact, the helped capture the robbery suspects possibility of their occurrence is certain and took them to jail in Fresno. to be denied. I may add that we found American tourists from the East quite as Hi Rapelje, summoned as a witness in ignorant as ourselves of their occurrence the September trial of Myers and Prescott, and equally indignant at their possibility. was waiting in Fresno on September 1 when local Deputy Sheriff Johnny White The Mariposa Gazette account of the rob- asked for his assistance in arresting a fugitive bery had named Chance among the passengers working at a nearby sheep-shearing camp. Rapelje

APRIL 2014 WILD WEST 35 Myers’ barn. Reddy countered with a long diatribe about how such an item could be found in any paint shop in the country. Goucher fnally asked if he was through with his speech. “You don’t call that a speech, do you?” replied Reddy. “If you call that a speech, you will be astounded when you hear one!” After brief testimony by Wells, Fargo detective Jonathan Thacker, Hi Rapelje took the stand. The lawman and former stage driver was well known and respected in the area. In 1879 he had been given the privilege of driving ex-President Ulysses S. Grant into Yosemite. Rapelje was hot-tempered, however, and the exchange was sharp when Reddy went into his bad- gering routine. The offcer described how under a bale of hay in Myers’ barn he had found a sack containing two under- shirts, two overshirts and a pair of trousers. The undershirts were black around the cuffs and collars—damning evidence. But nothing fazed Reddy. “Couldn’t that black,” he asked the deputy, “be from the perspiration of a hardworking man?” Rapelje shot back, “I never worked hard enough to know.” Testimony fnally closed on September 22. Reddy spent an entire day delivering a defense summation described as “able, eloquent and ingenious.” Goucher, though, gave a convinc- ing argument, and on the following day the jury brought in a unanimous verdict of guilty. Sadly, Charley Myers’ infant son

fresno county library collection died the very hour the verdict was delivered. Judge Campbell Myers and Prescott were tried and convicted in the Fresno scheduled sentencing for the following month. County Courthouse, but the pair later stood trial twice more. and White were pals from their stage-driving days, and Hi readily agreed to go along. The fugitive, Gervasio Romero, had vowed never to be taken alive. When White informed Romero he had a warrant, the fugitive pulled a pistol from his vest. He fred a shot at White and then at Rapelje, missing both times. The two offcers returned fre, and each was on target. The coroner later stated the dead man had marks from wounds all over his body, including a large buckshot scar. Jury selection in the Myers-Prescott case came the next day, and the trial opened in the Fresno County Superior Court on September 3. Judge James B. Campbell presided.

n the first day stage driver Phil Toby testified the O robbers had used his name, and others corroborated his statement. William Howard took the stand next. He told of his interview with Prescott at the Myers home and produced a written statement he had taken from the suspect. Reddy questioned every detail of that interview. Prescott and Myers had each told the offcers they had been hunting hogs in the mountains at the time of the robbery. But when the offcers took Myers into the mountains to show where he and Prescott had been hogging, he had gotten “lost.” Witnesses confrmed the suspects had borrowed a rife and a shotgun from friends. A great deal of testimony related to the footprints that led from the robbery scene to Myers’ cabin. Tracker Tom Beasore attested to a worn spot on one track that was consistent from

the robbery site to the cabin. The attorneys then addressed left and opposite: William b. secrest collection other evidence. For instance, the bandits’ faces and hands had This document is from the second trial, which was required after been blackened, and the offcers found a can of blacking in the California State Supreme Court reversed a guilty verdict.

36 WILD WEST APRIL 2014 On October 22, after reading the charge, Campbell asked On January 3, 1887, the second trial began with several if there was any reason sentence should not be passed. The fresh faces, but a mostly familiar scenario played out. “The well-prepared Reddy stepped forward with affdavits showing trial of the case of Prescott upon the charge of robbing the that during the trial the jury had not obeyed the admonitions Yosemite stage drags along,” reported the The Fresno Weekly of the court, having separated at various times and commu- Expositor, “with nothing new and but little interest. The trial nicated with outside parties. Regardless, in early November, is simply threshing over the old straw of the previous trial.” Campbell denied the motion for a new trial and sentenced The second trial took just over two weeks. The jury was se- each of the defendants to 20 years at San Quentin State Prison. questered at 11 p.m. on January 18, 1887, and at 4 p.m. the On November 7 the San Francisco Chronicle responded to next day reported to be seven for conviction and five for what the complaining passenger Chance had written about acquittal. It was a hung jury. Reddy took the local train for stagecoach robbery in the Wild West: San Francisco, while the judge lowered bail for the defen- dants, and they scrambled to gain their release from jail. The two young men who robbed the stage-load of Yosemite The third trial began on the last day of November tourists last spring were sentenced yesterday at 1887. There were no surprises or new evidence, Fresno to 20 years each in San Quentin. This although several new corroborative wit- will probably be balm to the lacerated feel- nesses testifed. Surprisingly, on Decem- ings of Mr. Chance, the English tourist, ber 4, according to The Fresno Morn- who metaphorically frothed at the ing Republican, “Hon. Pat Reddy mouth in the London Times over scored a point because Sheriff his treatment in the Wild West. The Mead and deputy, in the kind- sentence for a similar crime in the ness of their hearts, gave the suburbs of London would not be jurors a drink. Yesterday, look- more severe than this. Defense attorney Pat Reddy But the Chronicle had spoken had a ready tongue and held too soon. Reddy was not done a grudge but won cases. fghting for his clients. He took his case before the State Su- ing at the wistful ones, he preme Court, claiming the con- [Reddy] said, ‘As two or three viction was based solely on cir- of the jurors like a toddy, I move cumstantial evidence and charging the sheriff allow them to have the sheriff with misconduct for hav- one, whenever convenient.’” ing taken the jurors to saloons and On Christmas Eve the third and bought them drinks. “He paid out some final trial ended with a gift for the considerable money in and about the defendants. When the jury foreman an- trial,” noted Reddy, “and had no expecta- nounced they were deadlocked once again, tion of being repaid therefore except in case of Judge Campbell discharged them. Reel Terry conviction.” At least twice the sheriff had taken the jury then moved the prisoners be discharged, and this to saloons and bought them drinks. On two other occasions the was done. More than $25,000 had been spent on the trials, jury had been treated at saloons—once by a fellow juror, and and the county could stand no more. “The prosecution,” re- once by one of the defendants’ counsel. The State Supreme ported the Republican, “made a gallant fght, and if ever any Court reversed Campbell’s ruling and ordered a new trial. men had cause for gratitude, Prescott and Myers certainly Reddy had been impressed by Goucher’s performance at owe Senator Reddy more than they can ever repay.” the frst trial. Prior to the new trial Reddy offered him a part- Stagecoach robberies on the road to Yosemite persisted nership. Goucher would man a Fresno office, while Reddy into the 20th century. In summer 1905 highwaymen allowed would live in San Francisco “and visit Fresno from time to one passenger to take a remarkable photograph of the rob- time as business requires.” Goucher would not be assisting bery in progress. In 1911 robbers hit the last stagecoaches the prosecution this time. just before auto stages took over the route. And, yes, you For the second trial a new district attorney, Aurelius “Reel” guessed it—a new era was initiated on July 24, 1920, when Terry, headed the prosecution, assisted by local lawyer highwaymen stopped and robbed fve auto stages. S.J. Hinds. Nephew of the notorious David S. Terry, who had killed U.S. Senator David C. Broderick in an 1859 Califor- Californian William B. Secrest writes often for Wild West and nia duel, Reel was just as cantankerous as his uncle. He had is the author of more than a dozen books. For further reading been wounded by Walter Grady in the latter’s opera house see California Desperadoes, Lawmen and Desperadoes and during a shootout over politics. Of course, Pat Reddy would Perilous Trails, Dangerous Men, all by Secrest, and John Boes- again be in charge of the defense. senecker’s Badge and Buckshot and Gold Dust and Gunsmoke.

APRIL 2014 WILD WEST 37 The Capture of New Mexico’s Rustler King ‘The days of the rustler are ended,’ said John Kinney, whose failure to pay import duties played a hand in his downfall By Paul Cool rohibition-era crime boss Al Capone could such career criminals as Jessie Evans, Jim McDaniels and have learned a valuable lesson from 19th- Charles Ray (aka “Pony Diehl”) and quickly learned the trade century boss rustler John Kinney: Be sure of rustler. Soon—inevitably—they and other criminals like to pay the taxman. Capone was famously them became infamous members of what historian Frederick P convicted in 1931 not for illegal bootlegging Nolan has called the “Chain Gang,” a small army of inter- or murder but for failure to fle his tax returns. linked bands of rustlers “working” from the Great Plains to Riding as high in the American Southwest as Capone would California and on both sides of the Mexican border. in Chicago a half-century later, Kinney was on the verge of Reckless men like these soon found themselves sharing escaping justice when federal Treasury agents, investigating another profession. Repeatedly during the decade after Kin- his failure to pay import duties on smuggled cattle, alerted ney’s arrival in the American Southwest, corrupt movers and New Mexico Territory’s militia to the rustler king’s where- shakers discovered a need for his type. Here the law too abouts. Instead of the high life he was planning to enjoy, often wilted before the power tucked in scabbards and Kinney would spend three years in the slammer. holsters. Southeast New Mexico Territory warehoused scores Kinney was a young man in a hurry. He was but 22 when he of young men with testosterone to burn. Hardscrabble farm- frst exhibited a taste for mayhem, just 24 when he displayed ers, ranchers squatting on watered land, merchants one a talent for violence on a scale surpassing his peers, perhaps mistake away from dashed dreams and saddlers with no only 27 when he turned his organizational skills to his own particular purpose in life provided the muscle that unscru- beneft rather than others. He was but 30 when his misdeeds pulous authorities and monopolistic businessmen needed caught up with him. to lock out their would-be replacements. John Kinney’s place and date of birth are uncertain, but Between 1877 and 1882 any borderlands county sheriff family tradition, prison records and Kinney’s own statements —from El Paso, Texas, to Lincoln, New Mexico Territory, suggest he was born in Massachusetts sometime in 1853. His to Tombstone, Arizona Territory—needing a small army of widowed mother moved the family to Chicago, and there the gunmen to enforce order could hire such men as killers. teenage Kinney enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1868. What set John Kinney apart from his equally lawless friends The Army marched Kinney through much of the West during were his leadership and organizational skills. More than his fve-year tour. After his discharge, he chose to make his once it was Kinney who got the assignment to commit under- mark in New Mexico Territory. There he threw in with a color-of-law mayhem on a scale useful to corrupt politicians bunch of lawless and homicidal desperadoes that included up and down the Rio Grande.

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, by gary zaboly

kinney’s posse riding into lincoln

In July 1878, as depicted in a Gary Zaboly painting, John Kinney leads his gang into Lincoln, New Mexico Territory, to fight in the Lincoln County War on the side of the “House.” The previous year Kinney and his gang saw action in the El Paso Salt War. is frst opportunity came in December 1877 during keeping the election honest had racked up a sorry record since the El Paso Salt War. Kinney was in Silver City, their surrender to the insurgent Tejano militia in the El Paso H New Mexico Territory, when El Paso County Sheriff Salt War. But Sergeant Marcus Ludwick was in charge that Charles Kerber sent him an urgent telegram ask- day. He and 10 Rangers backed down Kinney’s men, granting ing him to raise volunteers to rescue the Texas Ranger detach- El Paso its frst honest election since the end of the Civil War. ment besieged in San Elizario, Texas. Within the day Kinney Kinney returned to New Mexico Territory. During the next raised a posse of 25 men and rode east. He picked up more few years he cleared up old criminal charges, briefy pinned men in Mesilla, New Mexico Territory, including Jessie Evans. on another deputy’s badge to escort the Kid from the jail in Grant County Deputy Sheriff “Dangerous Dan” Tucker was Mesilla to the one in Lincoln and may have found time to ostensibly in charge of the Silver City men, but the worst of the scout for the Army in the Victorio campaign. But hiring out bunch, the ones who raped and plundered in El Paso, were his services to others was losing its attraction. Kinney’s ex- identifed as “Kinney men.” They were a gang with badges, pansive imagination soon conjured up designs much more perhaps the frst Southwest border area criminals to be sworn lucrative than protecting someone else’s empire. in on a large scale to fght a local war. The activi- n March 1879 Kinney ties of the Kinney gang opened up a butch- in the Rio Grande Valley I er shop in Mesilla, established a precedent the harbinger of a for future wars in places much larger scheme al- as widespread as Lincoln ready germinating in his and Tombstone. mind. Under the radar Kinney stayed on in El he began constructing the Paso, dually occupied as early Southwest’s most a saloonkeeper and Ker- organized criminal en- ber’s deputy sheriff, until terprise. His operations he abruptly departed for surpassed anything ever Lincoln County. The trig- witnessed in neighboring ger, according to rumor Arizona Territory. There and tradition, was a sum- rustling was largely the mons from District At- work of the so-called Cow- torney William Ryner- boys, small gangs with son to fght in the Lincoln ever-changing lineups— County War. Kinney and bandits acting as inde- his Rio Grande posse took pendent contractors, hir- the side of the Lawrence ing themselves out like Murphy–James Dolan Caribbean pirates for each “House,” the business raiding voyage. monopoly supported by Kinney operated on a corrupt politicians of the wholly different scale, us- Santa Fe Ring. The Kin- ing scores of rustlers who ney gang’s dramatic gal- routed both livestock and lop into Lincoln on the profts to just one man— first day of the climac- new mexico rustlers, bennett & burrall, photographers, courtesy palace of the governors photo archives (nmhm/dca), negative no. 014264 Kinney himself. His oper- tic fve-day battle (July 15– Some historians believe that’s John Kinney standing between the ations ranged from Socor- 19, 1878) turned a devel- two seated men in this photo of well-armed “New Mexico Rustlers.” ro, New Mexico Territory, oping victory by Alex- south to the Mexican state ander McSween’s Regulators into a standoff, broken only of Chihuahua, and from El Paso west toward Silver City and by the Army’s intervention. down into Sonora, Mexico. While other rustlers worked closely The war petered out following the Lincoln fght. Billy the Kid with cooperative butchers to quickly eliminate evidence of and many other unemployed hard cases turned to hit-and- their crimes, Kinney was savvy and systematic enough to elim- run thievery, but Kinney had grander ideas. He and his follow- inate the middleman whenever he could. His ranch just south ers returned to El Paso, where they attempted to hijack the of Rincon, New Mexico Territory, locally dubbed “Kinneyville,” November 1878 elections and secure virtual control of county included a slaughterhouse and dressing station. This gave government. Kinney and ally Charles Kerber, the unpopular Kinney the fexibility to ship either beeves or choice cuts by incumbent sheriff, expected little opposition from the only rail to wherever he could find buyers. With no middleman other armed force in town. The Texas Rangers charged with taking a cut of his profts, Kinney made the most of an opera-

40 WILD WEST APRIL 2014 tion that reportedly stole thousands of horses and cattle from tumble politician, 44-year-old Fountain’s accomplishments honest ranchers. Eventually, people began to talk, and the were many. Sheldon’s orders handed him a fresh opportu- press took notice. The Santa Fe New Mexican took to calling nity for further glory, this time against an old adversary, John Kinney “King of the Rustlers.” Kinney. Fountain quickly got Threats of violence and violence to work, putting three com- itself were tools of Kinney’s trade. panies into action in a series Like any effective crime boss, he, as of sweeps up and down the author Nolan put it, “played the role Rio Grande Valley and west of holy terror to the hilt.” Fear of into Lake Valley. So effective crossing the rustler boss and his pri- were these measures that by vate army rendered the various law- the end of March the militia men in his kingdom impotent, though had broken the back of large- friendship with Kinney, rather than scale organized rustling in fear, seems to have motivated Grant the territory. And among the County Sheriff Harvey Whitehill. The first to fall prey to Gover- sheriff’s cozy support of the rustler, nor Sheldon’s offensive was even after Kinney’s kingdom fell apart, Kinney himself. is otherwise unfathomable. The rustler king fled west As 1883 opened, reported thefts across New Mexico Territory of livestock skyrocketed. The New to escape capture, but not Mexican claimed Kinney’s men rus- even Arizona Territory was a tled an estimated 10,000 head in Jan- safe haven. On March 7, 1883, uary alone. The number was doubt- the Shakespeare Guards un- lessly exaggerated. When later ar- der Captain James F. Black rested, Kinney henchman Margarito apprehended the fugitive.

Sierra confessed to knowledge of 17 robert g. mccubbin collection Kinney and brother Tom were separate thefts of 171 horses, cattle El Paso Sheriff Charles Kerber asked Kinney for help taken completely by surprise and oxen over six months. At that during the Salt War and then made him his deputy. on the Gila River, five miles rate Kinney’s men would have had into Arizona Territory, be- to carry out 1,000 thefts in January to meet the New Mexican’s yond present-day Duncan. Kinney’s wife, Juana, was also estimate. No matter how dubious the fgures, however, other present, which perhaps explains why Kinney offered no reports indicated Kinney’s wife and brother were banking real resistance when confronted by Captain Black’s force. huge sums for him in El Paso. The circumstances that led Black Anger and frustration over to Kinney’s camp have never been mounting thefts of livestock fully explained. Historian Philip J. convinced Territorial Gov- Rasch stated, “Sheldon learned that ernor Lionel A. Sheldon it Kinney himself was on the Gila and was time to eradicate Kin- ordered Black to capture him at ney’s operation. Short of a any hazard.” presidential finding of in- Although Rasch did not identify surrection, the U.S. Army the source of Sheldon’s information, was forbidden by the 1878 Sheriff Whitehill’s biographer, Bob Posse Comitatus Law from Alexander, provides the added detail taking out such criminals. that “Frank Cartwright, superinten- Fortunately, Sheldon had dent of the Sierra Grande Co. at Lake another force at hand: New Valley, one way or the other learned Mexico’s volunteer militia. of John Kinney’s visit and promptly On February 12, 1883, he or- telegraphed Fountain, who at the dered the militia’s com- time had not a precious clue as to the mander, Major Albert Jen- slippery fugitive’s whereabouts.” By nings Fountain, to take the the time Black’s Shakespeare Guards field and treat the rustlers reached Silver City, they “began cut- as public enemies. ting for meaningful sign west of town.”

Throughout his life as a sol- robert g. mccubbin collection Obviously, then, they knew where dier, lawyer, crusading news- District Attorney William Rynerson reportedly called to hunt, but how they knew has been paperman and rough-and- on Kinney to lend a hand in the Lincoln County War. until now a mystery.

APRIL 2014 WILD WEST 41 newly discovered report to Secretary of the Treasury Charles J. Folger by acting Special A Agent William Penn Howland of the U.S. Customs Service describes how federal agents located John Kinney on the Gila and assisted in organizing the columns necessary to surround the rustler and prevent his escape. Howland’s involvement in the search for Kinney began on Thursday, March 1, in Benson, Arizona Territory, where he and U.S. Customs Collector Abner Tibbets met to investigate the smuggling of cattle from Sonora. They determined that rustlers had brought a smuggled herd across the border, tracing the cattle to Lordsburg, New Mexico Territory, and from there north to the Gila River. Tibbets dispatched a mounted inspector named Wilson, who knew the country well, to fnd the herd. What Wilson and other unidentified scouts found on the Gila was a party under Kinney reportedly in possession of several hundred animals. Wilson needed reinforcements. Wilson got word to Howland at Lordsburg. The special agent immediately wired Kinney’s where- abouts to Tibbets, who was already at El Paso. Tibbets lost no time in telegraphing Governor Sheldon before heading for Lordsburg, reaching town on Sunday, March 4. A day was lost as Tibbets, Howland and Deputy U.S. Marshal S.L. Sanders waited for the gov- ernor’s men to arrive. At last, on Monday, Captain Black, a saloonkeeper by trade, and 17 other men of the Shakespeare Guards arrived on Sheldon’s orders. That night they started with Sanders for the point on the Gila where Wilson had spotted Kinney. Meanwhile, Howland and Wilson rode all night across the Burro Mountains to Silver City, arriving there at 4 a.m. on March 6. They hoped to raise a force in town but could not fnd men they could trust. As Howland reported, “Men ordered out promiscuously would be worse than none as nine-tenths of them would be in league with Kinney and would betray and

This deteriorating onionskin map belonged to Special Agent William Howland of the U.S. Customs Service. The “+” (circled by us) in the fold marks the spot where Captain James Black’s Shakespeare Guards took Kinney and party by surprise on March 7, 1883. national archives and records administration frustrate any plan.” Silver City’s leading men offered no help. All were said to be in mortal fear of Kinney and his led one party in a long detour into Arizona Territory, pass- gang. The customs men split up. Wilson rode down the Gila to ing through the Peloncillo Mountains to Whitlock’s Cienega, meet Deputy Sanders and Captain Black. Howland rode to Fort then turning north and east, hitting the Gila at a point Bayard to plead for the Army’s help. Colonel William Bedford beyond where Kinney was expected. The other party, led Royal was apologetic, but he could not bring his 4th Cavalry by Captain Black, took a more direct path but split up, with into play without orders from Brig. Gen. Ranald S. MacKenzie, half going down each bank of the river. the department commander at Santa Fe. On the morning of Wednesday, March 7, Kinney’s party Sanders and Black had also ridden all night after leaving relaxed at Ash Springs, five miles inside Arizona Territory, Lordsburg. As they approached the Gila, the deputy marshal not far from York’s Ranch, to water the horses and mules.

42 WILD WEST APRIL 2014

The water hole lay in a hollow with high rocks on either side, Territory, appeared from the west, closing the trap. Kinney too narrow for cattle, so Kinney pushed them downriver to surrendered without a struggle. Instead, he tried to talk his way an open pasture. For the unwary traveler the hollow was also out, but nobody, not even Harvey Whitehill, who some reports a natural ambush site, as the late George York discovered placed at the scene, was buying what Kinney had to sell. during the Apache outbreak 17 months earlier. Kinney, brother The militiamen escorted Kinney’s party, along with three- Tom, wife Juana and their companions were just breaking dozen horses and mules, back to Lordsburg. There the rustler camp at about 8 a.m. when Black’s Shakespeare’s Guards took king was thrown unceremoniously into a sidetracked boxcar them by surprise. At almost the same moment Sanders’ envel- to await the arrival of A.J. Fountain and transportation to oping party, weary from their 30-mile march through Arizona Las Cruces for trial.

APRIL 2014 WILD WEST 43 Special Agent Howland begged his superiors for an Army fate.” Kinney told escort to Arizona to gather up Kinney’s “great number of the reporter: “The smuggled stolen cattle on the Gila and its cañons.” Howland days of the Rustler also urged the Treasury secretary to remain on the offen- are ended anyway in sive. With Kinney and his lieutenants captured or killed, New Mexico. All his continued pressure, according to Nolan, “would so crush the property have [sic] combination of CowBoys and desperadoes that [they] would been swept away, hardly rally again this summer, and if so, feebly, as the great and he might as well combination which now extends from the Pecos River in be in Leavenworth Texas to Arizona would be without leaders for a time at least.” prison as out of it Kinney faced 17 separate indictments for larceny and buy- without money.” ing stolen cattle, handed down by the grand jury of New When his convic- Mexico’s 3rd Judicial District. Fountain, now the govern- tion was reversed ment’s attorney, concentrated on prosecuting the territory’s less than three years best case, a single charge of stealing 16 beeves. Fountain later, he went home

did the job in two days, and on April 13, 1883, Kinney’s jury for a retrial that nev- robert g. mccubbin collection took just eight minutes to convict the surprised crime boss. er took place. From Albert J. Fountain helped break the Fountain escorted Kinney to prison at Leavenworth, Kan. this point on, says back of the rustling operation and As the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe train carrying the deposed author Nolan, “Kin- then prosecuted crime boss Kinney. king, eight other prisoners and Fountain’s guards rolled into ney sinned no more.” Kansas City on May 2, an Illustrated Police News reporter He may have served in Cuba during the Spanish American War was there to greet them. The journalist reported that Kinney as a civilian scout and quartermaster, although the Army reject- “expressed himself freely and did not appear to worry over his ed his pension claims. He owned a couple of mines and lived comfortably—perhaps on his ill- gotten savings accounts in El Paso. By the time John Kinney died of Bright’s disease at age 66 on August 25, 1919, he had thoroughly rewrit- ten his life story. His obituary in the Prescott Journal-Miner proclaimed that he “was known in the Southwest as one of the most daring and cou- rageous in the annals of men who were sacrifcing and unfinching to preserve law and order.” In death, if not life, he became “one of the most generous and best loved men ever to grace the early life of the thrilling days of the border.” Not bad for the Southwest’s frst crime boss.

The Pima County Public Library [www.library.pima.gov] in Tucson named Salt Warriors: Insurgency on the Rio Grande, by Paul Cool [www .paulcoolbooks.com], a Southwest Book of the Year. For further reading: The Lincoln County War: A Docu- mentary History, by Frederick Nolan, and Sheriff Harvey Whitehill: Silver City Stalwart, by Bob Alexander.

Kinney, at left, poses in Cuba in 1898, his criminal career a dozen years in the past. He would rewrite his life

robert g. mccubbin collection story before he died at age 66 in 1919.

44 WILD WEST aprIL 2014 The Shakespeare Guards’ Pursuit of Chatto

s needed, the men of the Army chased but never caught sight settlers before seeking shelter in the Shakespeare Guards left their of the marauders. Hysteria rose as the Burro Mountains. Sometime around A silver mines, shops and sa- death toll mounted. noon on Wednesday, in Thompson Can- loons to defend Grant Coun- Word that Chatto’s raiding party was yon and quite by accident, the raiders ty from Indian raids and rustler dep- sweeping east brought the Shakespeare crossed paths with Judge Hamilton Mc- redations. Formed in 1879, they were Guards back into the feld. Blocking the Comas, wife Juniata and their 6-year- officially designated Company F, 1st Apaches’ path to the settlements of New old son, Charley. The warriors killed the Regiment, New Mexico Volun- adults and carried off the child. teer Militia. The unit’s autho- The McComas family was still rized complement was 45 offcers alive, relaxing in the shade of a and men, but the usual strength walnut tree, when Captain Black’s on patrol was closer to 20. The company, disappointed at its fail- guards were issued uniforms to ure to find the Apaches at Stein’s match those of the U.S. Army, but Pass, returned to Shakespeare New Mexico Territory had trouble (which is a present-day New Mexi- funding and supplying the men co ghost town). Within hours the with first-rate weapons. (Some telegraph brought word of the mas- territorial militia units carried sacre. The guards’ horses were worn old Austrian needle guns.) Follow- out, and fresh mounts were hard to ing Kinney’s capture, the guards secure. Not until noon on Thursday received praise from Governor could Black’s company, 22 strong, Lionel Sheldon and new carbines. ride south in pursuit. They were reorganized as one Over the course of six days the of four companies in the new 1st Shakespeare Guards followed Chat- Cavalry Regiment. to’s trail, lost it, returned to Lords- It is doubtful any of Captain burg for provisions, headed back James F. Black’s Shakespeare south, took a detour for more sup- Guards ever forgot the eventful plies and resumed the search. five weeks that began with the Despite their wanderings, Black’s bloodless capture of John Kinney. men outpaced two companies of After turning over their prison- the 4th Cavalry and, incredibly, er to A.J. Fountain, Black’s men gained on the Apaches. After fnd- came home to applause and free national anthropological archives, suitland, md. ing fresh signs, the guards crossed drinks from strangers. The back- Unlike Kinney, the Apache Chatto, posing above five miles into Mexico and set up slapping and return to everyday in a 1903 photo, eluded the Shakespeare Guards. camp. Then, on April 4, they broke life was short-lived. camp and rode back north. Just two weeks after Kinney’s arrest Mexico’s bootheel, with the chance of The homecoming of the Shakespeare some two dozen Chiricahua Apaches ambushing them, seemed the best strat- Guards two days later brought both crossed from Sonora into Arizona Ter- egy. Captain Black’s riders headed relief they had not been “annihilated” ritory just west of Tombstone in a raid southwest to the Peloncillo Mountains, and consternation at their failure to to secure ammunition for their Win- aiming to stop the ferocious Chatto’s retrieve the captive boy. One contem- chester repeaters and other modern advance at Stein’s Pass, which was the porary news account indicates Black’s rifles. Under the leadership of Chatto, likeliest crossing point. scouts had stumbled upon Chatto’s they ripped across southeast Arizona The militia miscalculated. Anticipating band, their strength doubled by rein- at a lightning pace, covering 50 miles or the white man’s strategy, Chatto turned forcements. If so, withdrawal was a more each day. Attacking any isolated his Chiricahuas northeast. The maraud- wise choice. Still, there was no dis- party in their path, Chatto’s band soon ers raced from the San Simon Valley guising that this time the Shakespeare killed a dozen miners, freighters, stock- to the Gila. On Tuesday, March 27, they Guards had failed, an outcome erasing men and others. Some bloody corpses crossed into New Mexico Territory near the pride gained by Kinney’s capture. revealed the most savage butchery. The present-day Virden, killing another nine P.C. In 1876 ‘Persimmon Bill’ Chambers committed several ruthless murders and dished general mayhem on folks traveling to and from gold country on the Cheyenne–Black Hills Road By Paul L. Hedren

n 1876, during the heady, freewheeling days was captured and served out the war in the Union prison of the Black Hills Gold Rush, the name William on Johnson’s Island in Sandusky Bay, Lake Erie, Ohio. F. “Persimmon Bill” Chambers curdled Hillers’ The newsman in 1876 described a pleasant featured, well- imaginations. News of his lawlessness was head- dressed man about 5-foot-9, rather well built and weighing line fare in the Cheyenne and Laramie news- perhaps 140 pounds, with short brown hair, bright blue eyes, papers—he the fancifully monikered horse thief, a small, well-shaped nose, thin lips shaded by a blond mus- I ruthless murderer and coy newshound, with Wyo- tache, and a chin covered with a short brown beard. “The only ming and Dakota landmarks like Fort Fetterman, features indicating his ferocious disposition,” wrote the cor- Hat Creek, Indian Creek, the Cheyenne River and Red Canyon respondent, “[were] his very heavy protruding eyebrows and his lair and oozing with the blood of victims. Travel on the his thick, heavy lower jaws.” Albert W. Merrick, publisher of Black Hills Road north of Fort Laramie and through Red Can- The Black Hills Daily Pioneer, supposedly also encountered yon was treacherous enough, especially beyond the Hat Creek Persimmon Bill, at a stage station in mid-1876, and recalled Breaks, where an Indian trail to Powder River country crossed quite a different character, being “tall,” he said, “swarthy, this citizen’s road. But Chambers also hit that span hard, keen-eyed, with coal-black hair, straight as an Indian’s.” dishing mayhem with seeming impunity. Persimmon Bill By his own account Chambers was several years making his Chambers’ outlaw run was mercifully short-lived, but his way to Cheyenne, drifting through Fort Collins, North Platte legacy is tied to several of the most heinous murders com- and Sioux City, always in trouble but eventually taking ranch mitted on the Cheyenne–Black Hills Road in 1876. During his employment in Wyoming with Malcolm Campbell, not yet the spree this critical avenue to a prosperous new gold country famous Wyoming lawman but then a businessman holding a was one of the most dangerous roads in America. contract to produce charcoal for Fort Fetterman. Campbell is Much of what is known today about the early life of William one of the few, aside from that frst newsman, to speak kindly Chambers comes from the outlaw himself and is mostly of Chambers, whom he recalled as the best herder he ever had, derived from a chance encounter in April 1876 with a news- who stayed with him for two years before going “to the bad.” man traveling the Cheyenne–Black Hills Road to the Dakota It is hard to imagine Campbell knew about Chambers’ nefar- goldfelds. Evincing a beguiling charm and a certain eager- ious background, but that changed as the name Persimmon ness to tell his story, Chambers told of his North Carolina Bill became regular fodder in Wyoming newspapers. roots and of his Civil War service, supposedly first with a Confederate infantry outfit and then, after a desertion and he frst known mention of the nickname “Persim- another enlistment, with a Union cavalry regiment. As with mon Bill,” or “Persimmons Bill” as it sometimes much about Chambers, such details do not always check out. T appears—a name never explained but likely re- Chambers’ propensity for gunfghting reportedly stemmed fecting the same astringency as that unique fruit from those Civil War years, as Bill related having shot a fellow when unripe—appeared in the March 9, 1875, Cheyenne Daily Union soldier in Bowling Green, Va., over a woman’s atten- Leader. Chambers was then serving time for horse rustling in tion. Chambers said he fled and rejoined the Confederates, the Cheyenne jail, the “Hotel d’O’Brieno” as the paper called

46 WILD WEST APRIL 2014 it—a teasing reference to Laramie County Sheriff Nicholas O’Brien. The Leader observed that Cham- bers and an accomplice both had reputations as “very hard char- acters, with a weakness for hov- ering occasionally on the outskirts of the Indian horse herd near Red Cloud,” meaning the Red Cloud Agency in northwestern Nebraska. A grand jury would soon investi- gate, the mention continued, but in the meantime, “Indian horses will become scarce in the horse markets at Sidney, Cheyenne and Laramie City.” But Persimmon Bill seems to have evaded any con- sequences in this instance and was soon free. Chambers was singled out in the Laramie Daily Sentinel a few weeks later when three Indians appeared in town on the trail of horses sto- len from them by a rustler named “Persimmon Bill.” Bill later boast- ed of his skill at thieving horses and the enterprise it spawned, telling some chance-encountered Black Hills travelers he was the “leading spirit” of a regularly or- ganized band of horse thieves. Its members, he said, were stationed at different points between the Black Hills and the San Juan coun- try in southwestern Colorado, and that horses stolen in Colorado were brought north and disposed of, and when rustled in Wyoming were taken south and sold. Bill noted that every case of horse theft in Colorado or Wyoming over the past four or five years could be traced to members of this gang. Another chance encounter north of Cheyenne, this time between a young bullwhacker working for the Charley Clay freighting outft paul hedren collection; colorization by Weider history Group and Chambers, painted a believ- Artist Herman Palmer sketched the confrontation between herder William Hooker, top left, able picture of the outlaw. The and outlaw William “Persimmon Bill” Chambers for Hooker’s 1924 book The Bullwhacker. herder, William Francis Hooker, was on the trail of a stray bull. When topping a hill he spotted “Do you know me?” Chambers asked, still pointing the gun. a horseman coming on. As that rider drew near, he raised “Sure,” young Hooker replied. “Sure I know you; you’re his carbine and pointed it straight at Hooker. Hooker recog- Persimmons Bill. I saw you last year at Hunton’s place nized the rider almost immediately. “He was a tough-looking near Fetterman.” customer, filthy dirty, hair hanging far down his back, and A short conversation ensued, with Chambers begging for face covered with [a] straggling beard.” food and explaining he had not eaten since leaving Fort Lara-

april 2014 WilD WEST 47 WyominG state archives, department of state parks and WyominG state archives, department of parks and cultural resources

Above: The Cheyenne–Black Hills Road was dotted with stagecoach stations like this one at Hat Creek, near the heart of Bill’s lair. Below: Charles Metz prospered here in Custer City, then he cashed out, but on the dangerous road to Laramie, Metz cashed in. library of conGress mie the day before. Hooker noticed Chambers rode “a big the services of the U.S. marshal in Cheyenne and support from American horse that bore [an] uncanceled ‘U.S.’” Hooker fna- Fort Sanders on the Union Pacifc Railroad near the other end gled some bacon and corn pone for Chambers, who admon- of the Medicine Bow Road, the supposed route of the out- ished him to keep the encounter quiet. “If you squeal on me,” laws’ escape. Three days later one of Bill’s accomplices, named he said, “they won’t get me, for I’ll be a long way from here Brown, was arrested at Fort Fetterman. Some 10 days later an before they can start; but, boy, I’ll get you.” offcer from Fort Sanders apprehended the other accomplice, Bill’s rustling and petty thievery surfaced as occasional news William Madden, at Medicine Bow. But Persimmon Bill eluded in Wyoming during the winter of 1875–76. But an episode the chase, evidently making his way to Rawlins, a rowdy rail- near Fort Fetterman on March 4, 1876, thrust ill-tempered, road town west of Medicine Bow, and then doubling back hair-triggered Persimmon Bill into the headlines. When a toward the Black Hills. Stealing horses as he moved, Cham- band of Arapaho Indians living near Fort Fetterman tracked bers was spotted at Medicine Bow, Owen’s Ranch, Bull’s Bend stolen horses to a ranch on the Medicine Bow Road, three and south of Hat Creek on the Cheyenne–Black Hills Road. miles south of the fort, they lodged a complaint with the Keeping tabs on Bill made good news in Cheyenne, as on post commander, Major Alexander Chambers of the 4th April 21 when the Daily Leader reported he was now in the U.S. Infantry. Major Chambers dispatched Sergeant Patrick Black Hills, “and when not engaged in his thieving busi- Sullivan of Company F, 4th Infantry, with the Indians, and on ness, loafs about the towns there, having plenty of money and returning to the ranch, they encountered Persimmon Bill and spending it freely.” In hindsight such reports provide critical two partners. Bill claimed the ponies as his own, but Sullivan evidence linking Bill to the most notorious killing spree in attempted an arrest. The moment Sullivan’s back was turned, early Black Hills history, frst the heinous murders of the four- Bill and an ally fred shots at the sergeant, one entering the member Charles Metz party and then Henry E. “Stuttering” sergeant’s back and exiting his left breast, killing him instant- Brown, a Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage Co. manager. ly. The Indians fled, and Bill and his accomplices robbed Each episode bore Chambers’ imprint and earned the outlaw Sullivan’s body of a gold watch and money, later claimed to another nickname, “Scourge of the Black Hills Trail.” be $300 but according to the Army amounting only to $30, and alighted for cover south in the Laramie Mountains. ews of the so-called Red Canyon Massacre, or The Army identifed Sullivan’s killer as the “desperado named Metz Massacre, a sordid affair occurring on the William Chambers, (alias) Persimmon Bill,” and marshaled NCheyenne–Black Hills Road some 10 miles north a considerable response—the government offering a $1,000 of the Cheyenne River crossing, splashed across reward for Bill’s apprehension, and Major Chambers enlisting the Cheyenne newspapers beginning on April 21. The location

48 WILD WEST APRIL 2014 itself, Red Canyon, was a unique Black Hills feature. A narrow victims had been atrociously mutilated, the two women, in defle some seven miles long from its mouth to its head, Red the term of the day, “ravished,” and the party’s trunks and Canyon sliced through luminous brick-red sandstone that cast boxes broken open and their contents strewn about. a vibrant crimson tone on virtually everything, with high-rising The freighters carried the Metzes to the Cheyenne River ranch red stone sidewalls, an ever-present red powdery dust and for burial, while Simpson and Briggs were buried where they even the creek running the canyon’s foor fowing a tinged red. fell in the canyon. The murders were attributed to Indians, The canyon was an easy avenue leading from the surrounding and the arrow recovered from Briggs’ body was displayed at prairie directly northward into the Black Hills and on to Custer the Stebbins, Post & Co. Bank in Cheyenne. But many early City and was a favored route used by early Hillers, freighters Hillers also quickly surmised Persimmon Bill was involved and and the Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage. But Red Canyon likely even led the assault, as he’d been lurking about Custer also featured blind corners, masking groves of cottonwoods City beforehand, and the massacre had the look of murder for and scrub vegetation, and secluded side canyons, all perfect money. Although searchers later gathered Metz family papers for ambush. From the earliest days of the Black Hills Gold and opened letters from a hilltop overlooking the canyon, no Rush, Red Canyon was a fearful passage from which there cash or gold ever turned up. Jesse Brown, a Black Hills pioneer was no escape. One Hiller captured that anxiety perfectly in and early chronicler, was among those fngering Persimmon a few apt verses, scrawled on a sign at the canyon entrance: Bill, writing that he personally explored the killing ground and saw where “persons had concealed themselves behind pine Look to your rifles well bushes that had been cut and planted in the ground, and foot- For this is the Canyon of Hell prints all show[ed] boot or shoe tracks, besides…knee prints The Red Canyon in the ground [that] showed the weave of cloth.” Barely had news of the Metz Massacre settled across Chey- Charles Metz, a Laramie City baker lured to Custer City in enne and the gold country when another murder occurred, February 1876, made a quick and prosperous living there this time of the well known and respected H.E. Brown of Oma- until the placer boom drifted from French and Spring creeks ha and Salt Lake City. Brown had come to Cheyenne in Feb- in the central hills northward toward Deadwood. Instead of ruary to manage the Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage, Mail and joining the northbound rush, Metz seized an opportunity in Express Co., owned by the Gilmer, Salisbury & Patrick part- mid-April to cash out, for a goodly sum of placer gold some nership of Salt Lake City. As the fedgling company’s business said, and return to Laramie. Although freighters advised Metz expanded that spring, Brown was named superintendent of the against traveling alone south from Custer, on April 16 he em- danger-fraught “up line” north of Fort Laramie to Custer City. barked, believing his danger was from Indians lurking the Stocking stations with hay, grain, horses and equipment prairie and Powder River Trail and not short of there. The party was steady business for Brown, a man of sound character but of four—Metz, his wife, their black cook, Rachel Briggs, and also a quick temper and pronounced stutter. Thieves preyed their driver, a teamster named Simpson—was dining under on company stock, especially on the leg between Hat Creek the shade of cottonwoods midway through Red Canyon when and Red Canyon, and when a fine team intended for use attackers struck. Metz fell dead instantly, shot through the on the run north through Red Canyon went missing, Brown head and body. Rachel Briggs fell nearby, an Indian arrow in investigated and in due course encountered none other than her back. Simpson fell dead about a half-mile from the wagon, Persimmon Bill at the Cheyenne River stage station immedi- and Metz’s wife was killed still farther away, shot through the ately south of Red Canyon. A mere fve days had elapsed since heart. Freighters who discovered them the next day noted the the Metz killings. Chambers’ reputation as a rustler was well larry ness collection paul hedren Left: The Metz murder site in Red Canyon, photographed by D.S. Mitchell of Omaha in September 1876, was ever after a point of morbid curiosity on the storied Cheyenne–Black Hills Road. Right: With some effort the curious can fnd the massacre site today.

april 2014 WilD WEST 49 Frank LesLie’s iLLustrated newspaper , 1877 From Cheyenne a freight wagon and a stagecoach head for the Black Hills together—not a bad idea on a road fraught with danger. known, and Brown accused him of the theft and threatened to A critical element in the case linking Chambers with the Metz kill him if he did not quit the stage road. Chambers denied any slayings came from the outlaw himself in a rambling interview involvement and melted into the darkness, quietly remarking that frst appeared in the Laramie Daily Sentinel on April 29, to others at the station he would get even with Brown. 1876, and was reprinted widely thereafter. The interview had As Brown and two companions, Charlie Edwards and stage occurred about a week earlier, putting it in timely proximity driver Silvin Bishop “Curly” Ayres, sped southward toward to both the Metz and Brown slayings. While en route to the Hat Creek, making a night run on April 21 in one of the com- Hills a Sentinel correspondent had chanced upon a band of pany’s fast freight wagons, they came under attack around Sioux on Indian Creek “out on a lark from one of the agencies,” midnight some 18 miles north of the Hat Creek station. A the writer presumed. “In the party of redskins was a pleasant- shower of bullets rattled the wagon, but only Brown and a featured, well-dressed white man, who, upon being asked if mule were struck. Brown’s wound was serious, the ball slicing he was a captive with the Indians, laughingly responded: ‘No; the cartridge belt at his waist, smashing a shell, and the ball I am Persimmon Bill; some call me Sogerkilling Bill, while and torn cartridge cutting deeply into his abdomen. Brown, those who desire to be polite call me Government William.’” laid out in the wagon, told his companions to save themselves As the visit progressed, some 18 or 20 Indians escorted the and the surviving stock by riding on to Hat Creek. Sometime newsman into their camp, and Bill drew the reporter to his after the companions had departed, Brown recovered enough own fre, making him welcome and assuring him of his safety. to mount the wounded mule and resume the trail himself. After stretching out on a buffalo robe, Chambers commenced At Hat Creek the company men formed a party to recover telling his story, visiting his upbringing in Carolina, his es- Brown, whom they presumed to be dead. Instead, the riders capades in Wyoming, Nebraska and Iowa, and his killing found him slumped over but alive on the road several miles of Sergeant Sullivan at Fort Fetterman, where he derived the from the Indian Creek station, his mule at his side. They re- name “Sogerkilling Bill.” Chambers’ remorselessness troubled turned to Hat Creek with Brown and summoned a surgeon the reporter, and in his story he labeled the outlaw a “cold- from Fort Laramie, 70 miles south. The stage man was still blooded murderer” and noted how Bill laughed at Sullivan’s alive when Dr. Charles V. Petteys arrived many hours later, slaying, saying, “I am death on soldiers and government but there was little to be done, and Brown expired. Sol- property, and that’s why they call me Government Bill.” diers brought Brown’s body to Fort Laramie for an autopsy. The irony of Chambers consorting with Indians barely days Doctors there retrieved the fatal bullet, and his body was after the Metz killings was apparently not grasped by the packed and forwarded to Omaha for burial. reporter, who closed his tale by recalling that Lt. Col. Luther P. Bradley at Fort Laramie offered a $1,000 reward for the y now Persimmon Bill Chambers’ reputation was outlaw, “dead or alive.” Chambers’ ironic friendship with in full fower. The U.S. Army wanted him. Wyoming Indians from the Red Cloud or Spotted Tail agencies had B law offcers wanted him. He was implicated in the another twist, too, but apparent only much later. Metz Massacre, despite the probable participation On June 2 the Cheyenne Daily Leader reported that William of Indians. And since witnesses had seen the face-off between Hawley, former sheriff of Rawlins, had struck Persimmon Stuttering Brown and Persimmon Bill at the Cheyenne River Bill’s trail and with a chosen band of daring men was attempt- station just hours before the stage man was struck down, ing his capture, though there is no record of an arrest or death. it was immediately assumed Chambers was connected. Meanwhile, the Army moved to better secure the landscape

50 WILD WEST APRIL 2014 terrorized by Chambers, in June establishing infantry camps on the Cheyenne–Black Hills Road north of Fort Laramie— one at the head of Sage Creek, in the Hat Creek Breaks adjacent to the stage station, the other at the mouth of Red Canyon, a few miles north of the Cheyenne River station. Bill’s world was being hemmed in, and just as quickly his trail went icy cold. Persimmon Bill’s name occasionally appeared in local news- papers after this, but he was never again linked to outlandish episodes. One brief mention placed him with Sitting Bull in the days following Lt. Col. George Custer’s June 25 loss at the Little Bighorn, while another had him feuding with Deadwood outlaw “Texas Joe.” But one passing mention in the Omaha Daily Bee, on October 14, 1876, said more in a few words than anyone immediately grasped. A Hiller, having just returned to

Omaha from the goldfields, told the paper that Persimmon imaGes: WyominG state museum Bill, the noted horse thief, had been reported killed. Faint and In 1875 Laramie County Sheriff Nicholas O’Brien (inset) held false reports of sightings cropped up a while longer, but then Chambers in the Cheyenne city jail, within the county courthouse. Chambers’ name simply dropped away altogether. On May 3, 1879, The Cheyenne Daily Sun related a tale of no stake in Chambers’ story and functioned in that quixotic Persimmon Bill’s death, a report confdently offered by Nick fringe of the Indian frontier, at places like Fort Laramie, on Janis, a credible old French-blood Missourian married to a the North Platte River, and on the margins and in the midst niece of Red Cloud, long an interpreter at Fort Laramie and of the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail Sioux agencies. He was a more recently a rancher in the North Platte River valley 30 respected and trustworthy individual in both the white and miles east of that post. “Persimmon Bill’s dead,” Janis said, Indian worlds, a man noted for his honesty and unimpeach- “and I know the man that killed him. He was killed in the Red able integrity. He said he knew Persimmon Bill’s killer, an Canyon in the fall of ’76 by a party of injuns from the agency. Indian, and in every probability he did. In the end it appears How was he killed? Why, this way. A train had been taken in, that horse rustler and murderer Persimmon Bill Cham- and that imp of Satan got up a row about dividing the plun- bers, the “Scourge of the Black Hills Trail,” died about as der and got shot by a young buck before he knew there was he lived: cold-blooded, quick-triggered, ruthless and alone danger. Oh, yes, Persimmon Bill is dead, boys, you can bet in Dakota’s Red Canyon in 1876. on that.” One might infer that one of the Indian cohorts who had joined Chambers in raining death on the Metz party, Paul L. Hedren is a retired National Park Service superintendent then camped with him when visited by the Laramie Daily and the author of many books exploring the history of the north- Sentinel correspondent, had rained death on Bill too. ern Plains, including Ho! For the Black Hills: Captain Jack Craw- Several other versions of Chambers’ demise exist, but while ford Reports the Black Hills Gold Rush and Great Sioux War. colorful, they are neither well timed nor confirmed. Only Hedren adapted this version of Persimmon Bill’s story from a Janis’ version of Persimmon Bill’s death rings true. He had longer article in the Autumn 2009 issue of Annals of Wyoming.

buried at the Chey- Persimmon Bill’s Victims enne River stage station and then elltale reminders of Per- reburied in the Greenhill Cemetery simmon Bill Chambers’ in Laramie, Wyo. One source sug- 1876 murder spree remain gests a stone was placed atop their T Killed at the scattered burial sites graves on which was inscribed of his victims. by Indians in Red Canyon. That stone Fourth U.S. Infantry Sergeant Pat- is lost today, and the Metz graves are rick Sullivan was initially buried in the not marked Fort Fetterman Cemetery. After the In 1876 H.E. “Stuttering” Brown’s

Army abandoned that post in 1882, remains were interred in Omaha’s paul hedren collection it reinterred soldiers’ remains at the Prospect Hill Cemetery per his wife’s recognize this notable Omahan and Fort McPherson National Cemetery in instructions, but the grave was never Wild West plainsman and placed a Maxwell, Neb. There visitors will fnd marked. She by then had relocated to marker atop his grave (see photo, Sullivan’s marked grave. Salt Lake City. Some 135 years later above). Today Brown’s grave is a fea- Charles Metz and his wife, whose the nonprofit Omaha Corral of the tured attraction on many Omaha name seems lost to history, were frst Westerners undertook a campaign to Old West tours. P.H.

APRIL 2014 WILD WEST 51 Fort Dilts and Fanny’s Bid forFreedom Sioux raiders, while besieging emigrants holed up in primitive earthworks, forced a captive white woman to communicate their demands —she added a plea of her own By Bill Markley

osiah Kelly and Andy, a black hired hand, watched about 14 miles west of present-day Douglas, Wyoming. As they helplessly from their hiding place where they had crossed the creek that late afternoon, more than 200 Oglala been gathering wood as Oglala Sioux (Lakota) war- warriors rode up to the wagons. riors murdered three members of their wagon train At frst the visitors seemed friendly. When they requested and took four others captive on July 12, 1864. Josiah, gifts, Josiah and the others willingly gave them items, includ- J his 19-year-old wife Fanny, Fanny’s 7-year-old niece ing Josiah’s prized thoroughbred. The warriors, seemingly Mary Hurley and hired men Andy and Franklin had content, urged the emigrants to move on and steered them joined a train of fve wagons heading to the Montana Territory toward an ominous looking rocky glen. When the emigrants goldfelds. Josiah’s health was poor, and he and Fanny thought balked, the Oglalas insisted they make supper for the warriors. it might improve if they headed west to seek their fortune. While the travelers were preparing camp, the warriors fred on The trip from their home in Geneva, Kansas, had been typical them without warning, instantly killing Franklin, Noah Taylor of westward emigrants at the time—hard travel, but also some and a Methodist minister named Sharp. William Larimer and pleasant experiences—until they neared Little Box Elder Creek, Gardner Wakefeld were seriously injured, but escaped. The

52 WILD WEST APRIL 2014 The Greenwich workshop, seymour, conn. Lakota warriors are Watching the Wagons, in a painting by Frank McCarthy. In September 1864 Lakotas did more than watch the James Liberty Fisk wagon train, harassing it and besieging it for more than two weeks.

warriors ransacked the wagons and rode off with Fanny and fortifcation dubbed “Fort Dilts” and held out under siege as the only other woman, Sarah Larimer, as well as the two chil- they waited more than two weeks for help. dren—Mary Hurley and Sarah’s 8-year-old son, Frank. That night Sarah and Frank successfully escaped the Oglalas. Fanny hree days after Fanny Kelly’s capture and 700 miles helped Mary escape, but the girl wasn’t as lucky as the Lari- to the east, 29-year-old Captain James Liberty Fisk mers. Her captors tracked her down. A search party that T of the U.S. Quartermaster Corps led a civilian wag- included Josiah Kelly later found Mary, scalped, with three on train out of Fort Ridgely, Minn., westbound for arrows protruding from her back. There was no sign of Fanny. the Montana goldfelds. The party comprised 170 men, women But Fanny Kelly did not disappear from the historical record. and children in 97 wagons pulled by mules and oxen. Fisk had Amazingly, two months later in what would become North led wagon trains to the Montana goldfelds twice before, but Dakota, she appeared again. Captive Mrs. Kelly found herself during a more peaceful time in Dakota Territory, before ar- part of a highly dramatic trail incident in which another emi- mies led by Generals Henry Sibley and Alfred Sully battled grant wagon train party fell under attack, cobbled together a the Dakota and Lakota Sioux and infamed the countryside.

april 2014 WilD WEST 53 Fisk’s July 1864 train would Sully had left on his cam- have to pass through hos- paign without him and, worst tile territory. still, was escorting a competi- In 1862, due to the insensi- tor’s wagon train. Fisk tried to tivity of Indian agents and a order Phillips to escort them scarcity of promised food and to the Yellowstone, but the supplies, the Dakotas were lieutenant followed his orders beginning to starve. After to return to Fort Wadsworth. some of the frustrated young Undeterred, Fisk asked Col- men murdered several white onel Daniel J. Dill, command- farmers, the tribe rose in sup- er of Fort Rice, for an escort. port and killed hundreds of At frst Dill told Fisk he could Minnesota settlers. The Army not spare any troops. But retaliated for this Sioux up- after listening to Fisk’s argu- rising, fighting and chasing ments, he reluctantly agreed the renegades into Dakota to provide an escort of men Territory, where the Dakotas Sully had left behind to recov- joined forces with their sym- er from sickness and injury. pathetic Lakota relatives. Dill had asked for 50 volun- Generals Sully and Sibley teers and got 45. Sully had left were operating in Dakota behind a number of horses Territory against them, build- that were also in poor condi- ing forts and attempting to tion, and the volunteers chose defeat them. By 1864 it was the fittest of these as their a mighty unfriendly region. mounts. Second Lieuten- The federal government had ant Dewitt C. Smith, who commissioned Fisk—captain was awaiting the decision and assistant quartermas- of a court-martial against ter, commanding the North kansas sTaTe hisTorical socieTy him, would command them. Overland Expedition—to pro- Captured by Oglala warriors on July 12, 1864, Fanny Kelly was Smith’s orders were to ac- tect the wagon trains headed traded to a band of Hunkpapas, who later encountered Fisk. company the emigrants only for the goldfelds. The Union as far as the Yellowstone and sought to boost the gold min- then return to the fort. Sec- ing industry to help finance ond in command was Ser- its war effort. geant Willoughby Wells of Near Minnesota’s western Brackett’s Battalion, Com- border in eastern Dakota Ter- pany B; he and his guard de- ritory, Major John Clowney’s tail had just arrived with encamped troops were build- a steamboat loaded with ing Fort Wadsworth (later supplies for the fort. Fisk Fort Sisseton). On reaching had obtained a 12-pounder the camp, Fisk asked Clow- mountain howitzer from ney for an escort. Clowney Fort Snelling, Minn., with a assigned 50 men command- limited supply of canister ed by Lieutenant Henry F. and powder. With the escort, sTaTe hisTorical socieTy of norTh dakoTa Phillips to accompany the weider hisTory Group archive howitzer and armed men of wagon train as far as Fort Captain Fisk, left, expected to join up with Brig. Gen. Alfred Sully, the wagon train, Fisk believed Rice, then under construc- right, at Fort Rice, but Sully had departed with another train. he had enough firepower tion on the Missouri River. to withstand a Sioux attack. There Fisk expected to join General Sully’s expedition, re- The wagon train and its escort headed westward from Fort maining with it until reaching the Yellowstone River, where Rice on August 23. During the frst night on the trail fve of the they would part company. Fisk reasoned at that point the volunteers had a change of heart and returned to the fort. wagon train would be out of Sioux territory, and it would be Sully’s army had marched west pursuing hostile Lakota and relatively safe to continue to the goldfelds. Dakota tribes. Fisk followed their trail about 80 miles west of The wagon train reached Fort Rice in mid-August with little Fort Rice until it swung north, not the direction he wanted to mishap. On arrival Fisk became upset when he learned that head. He determined to blaze a new, shorter trail through

54 WILD WEST APRIL 2014 library of conGress This engraving of the July 1864 attack frst appeared in Fanny Kelly’s 1871 Narrative of My Captivity Among the Sioux Indians. unknown territory, due west between the Black Hills to the participated. Two warriors teamed up against Corporal south and the Little Missouri River badlands to the north. Thomas Williamson of the 6th Iowa Cavalry, beating him Every Sunday was a day of rest for hu- with their clubs and stabbing him with mans and beasts. Fisk arranged shoot- their knives. Williamson fought them off ing matches each Sunday. The second in hand-to-hand combat, but then Sitting Sunday out from Fort Rice, Fisk held a Bull rode up and shot an arrow into the contest between the best civilian shot in corporal’s back. Williamson turned and the wagon train and the top marksman fred his pistol at Sitting Bull, hitting him from among the soldiers for a $10 prize. in the hip and knocking him out of the Sergeant Wells won and used his money fight. Despite his many wounds, Wil- to buy tobacco for the troops from one of liamson mounted his horse and returned the emigrant storekeepers. to the wagon train, reporting to Fisk on In late afternoon on September 2, some the situation. Williamson later died from 180 miles west of Fort Rice, one of the his wounds. The Hunkpapas killed the wagons upset while trying to cross Deep rest of the rearguard and ransacked the Creek. Fisk directed the wagon train to two wagons. continue, leaving behind a second driver Fisk and the wagon train were about a with his wagon and a rearguard, 12 men mile beyond the creek crossing when they altogether, to right the wagon, fx it and heard the shooting. Sergeant Wells was then rejoin the rest of the train. ahead of the wagons with an advance Within minutes more than 100 Hunk- party when he saw in the distance Hunk- papa Sioux attacked the two wagons and papas surrounding the rearguard and two rearguard, cutting them off from the rest heriTaGe aucTion Galleries, dallas wagons. Wells and his men galloped their of the wagon train. Gall and Sitting Bull, Sitting Bull, posing in 1881, took a bullet horses back to protect the rear of the train who would later both become famous, to the hip at the September 1864 siege. from attack. Jefferson Dilts, a scout and

april 2014 WilD WEST 55 former Army corporal, urged found a good defensive posi- his horse far ahead of the res- tion between two ridges with cue party to reach the rear- a bowl-shaped depression guard. Dilts shot down some in which they could corral half-dozen warriors, but as the animals. Here they made he finally turned to retreat, camp for the night. The war- three arrows struck him in riors sporadically shot their the back. (The brave scout new frearms into the camp, would travel on with the Fisk but fortunately for the emi- wagon train but would die grants, the Hunkpapas were from his wounds after 16 days not very accurate with them of agony.) Undeterred, the —yet. The besieged party did Hunkpapas continued to ran- not light fres that night. But sack the wagons, taking new they did make time to bury Sharps carbines, thousands their fellow travelers who had of rounds of ammunition, been killed that day. Wolves liquor, cigars, canned goods, outside camp howled at the stationery, silverware and scent of blood and death. other valuables. After two Adding to the misery, a vio- hours of fighting the rescue lent thunderstorm struck. party temporarily drove off September 3 dawned to the Hunkpapa attackers and reveal the emigrants’ cattle had enough time to recover standing in 2 feet of frigid the bodies for later burial. water. The wagon train re- As the wagon train contin- sumed its journey, while the ued west, the Hunkpapas ha- Hunkpapas continued their rassed it. The emigrants soon Kelly hands Jumping Bear a warning letter to take to Fort Sully. long-distance harassment by imaGes: library of conGress Kelly herself fnally arrives at Fort Sully, three months after she let the Fort Dilts defenders know she was being held captive.

56 WILD WEST APRIL 2014 shooting at people and animals. They managed to kill several draw, though they remained within sight of the train. The emi- oxen and horses. The emigrants made camp after a nine-mile grants were elated at the turn of events. A would-be saloon- advance. When a large number of Hunkpapas gathered for a keeper by the name of McCarthy toted around a bucket of massed attack, the soldiers loaded the howitzer and fred a whiskey and tin cup and served a drink to whoever wanted shot of canister at them. After that they kept their distance but to celebrate with him, until Fisk put a halt to it. continued to mill around and fre at the emigrants. They did The Hunkpapa warriors still meant business. Their number not attack the camp that night. had increased to at least 300 warriors, and they were closing in on all sides. Fisk realized his group would not be able to he next morning some of the emigrants, without move ahead or, indeed, get out of this situation without help. Fisk’s knowledge and with the Minnesota massa- Lieutenant Smith and 14 men volunteered to try to break T cres still fresh in their minds, left behind a box of through Hunkpapa lines and ride the nearly 200 miles back strychnine-laced hardtack for the Indians to fnd. to Fort Rice for a rescue party. They selected the fttest horses, Just how many Hunkpapas died from eating the poisoned muffing their hooves, and left the defensive enclosure that joan penninGTon Two months after her capture Kelly alerted the besieged Fisk wagon train to her plight. By then Sully had returned to Fort Rice. hardtack is unknown, but according to one account, by the night during a storm. The Hunkpapas did not discover their end of the campaign “more had died from eating bad bread escape until the next morning when they spotted the horses’ than from bullets.” tracks. A large group of warriors sped after the troopers, hoping The Hunkpapas stepped up their attacks on the wagon train. to overtake them before they reached Fort Rice. Lieutenant Smith believed the warriors were again forming Resolved to fortify their position, the emigrants unpacked to make a massed attack, so after progressing only a few miles, plows, hitched oxen to them and plowed up prairie sod to the emigrants stopped at a good defensive position near water. erect an encircling wall. When fnished it was 2 feet thick and As they were circling the wagons, unhitching the livestock and 6 feet high with rife pits and loopholes from which to shoot bringing them into the wagon corral, the warriors advanced at attackers. They named their sod fortification Fort Dilts close enough to shoot arrows into the enclosure. One Hunk- after mortally wounded scout Jefferson Dilts. papa leader, a good rifle shot, ventured a bit too close and Later that September 5 three Hunkpapa riders rode toward was shot and killed. That prompted the other warriors to with- the fort bearing a white flag on a makeshift staff. The emi-

APRIL 2014 WILD WEST 57 grants held their fre as the trio planted the fag between the ndeed it was Fanny Kelly who had scribbled the note. two groups. Once the riders had returned to the main body Sometime after taking her captive that July, the Oglalas of Hunkpapas, Fisk sent a detail out to investigate. Beside Ihad traded her to the Hunkpapas. Some of the Hunk- the fag, stuck in the ground, they found a message wedged papas could speak English, but none could write it, in a forked stick. so they told Fanny what to write and warned her not to add Written in English, the message demanded that all the emi- anything. They watched her closely, counting her words, but grants immediately depart Hunkpapa territory and leave be- Fanny outfoxed them by combining words, enabling her to hind wagons loaded with goods in tribute. But the message inform the wagon train of her plight. said far more than that. It also said that Fanny Kelly had writ- Fisk did not trust the note. He wrote back, telling Fanny to ten the note and was being held captive. She pleaded with show herself. She did so, standing atop a nearby bluff, and the them to rescue her. men at Fort Dilts spotted her through a spyglass. Appreciat- ing the risk she had taken, Fisk negotiated two days for her release, including driving out a wagonload of goods between the hos- tile camps. But the Hunk- papas demanded too high a ransom, and in any case Fisk and the others did not trust them to actually release Fanny. Meanwhile, Smith and his men were riding hard. At one point they lost the trail but later regained it, only to discover that the pursuing Hunkpapa war party was on the trail— ahead of them. Fortu- nately for Smith and his men, the war party never discovered the troopers. Believing Smith and his men had already reached Fort Rice, the war party eventually broke off and rejoined the main Hunk- papa band, still harassing the emigrants at make- shift Fort Dilts. Smith and his exhausted troopers reached Fort Rice after three days. General Sully had just returned from his cam- paign against the Sioux, having fought them at the Battle of Killdeer Moun- tain on July 28 and the Battle of the Badlands on August 7–9. He was furi- ous Fisk had proceeded for Montana Territory with bill markley phoTo such a small escort. Sully This marker at the Fort Dilts State Historic Site in North Dakota relates the Fisk wagon train siege. would now have to mount

58 WILD WEST aprIL 2014 a rescue operation. He ordered able to persuade Jumping Colonel Dill to lead a 900-man Bear, a Hunkpapa friend, relief expedition. By the time to get word to Major Alfred Dill reached Fort Dilts on Sep- E. House, Fort Sully’s com- tember 20, the Hunkpapas mander, about the ruse. were gone. They had grown When more than 1,000 weary of sniping at the fort and Hunkpapas showed up with left to hunt buffalo. their captive, Major House Fisk requested an onward allowed just 10 chiefs into escort to the goldfields. Dill the stockade with Fanny told the emigrants they could and then ordered the gates return with him to Fort Rice closed. “In my opinion, had but would be on their own the Indians attacked the if they continued west. Fisk Scout Jefferson Dilts’ heroics inspired the namesake “fort.” fort, they could have cap- couldn’t win this argument, tured it,” recalled 1st Lt. Gus- and he and the other emigrants bid their stout little sod fort tav A. Hesselberger. Fanny was free. Husband Josiah was farewell and returned to Fort Rice with Dill. The 1864 expedi- informed of her rescue and joined Fanny as soon as he could. tion disbanded, but Fisk persevered and would lead a fourth In later years Fanny wrote a memoir of her ordeal, Narrative of emigrant group west in 1866. My Captivity Among the Sioux Indians, which remains in print. Meanwhile, the news was out about Fanny Kelly. The mili- Fort Dilts is not forgotten. The sod wall, wagon ruts and tary let it be known among friendly Hunkpapa contacts it graves are preserved within Fort Dilts State Historic Site [www wanted the captive woman returned and would give presents .history.nd.gov/historicsites/dilts], eight miles northwest of to whoever returned her to Fort Sully, near present-day Pierre, Rhame, N.D. A site marker, interpretive sign, fagpole, registra- S.D. On December 12, 1864, three months after the Fort Dilts tion box and barbed wire fence are modern, but the fort made fight, Hunkpapas arrived at Fort Sully with Kelly. Some of out of desperation looks much as it did 150 years ago. the Indians claimed they had negotiated Fanny’s release and brought her to the fort out of friendship and for the presents Bill Markley of Pierre, S.D., is a member of Western Writers the military had offered for her safe return. Kelly believed the of America [www.westernwriters.org]. Suggested for further Indians intended to use her return as a ruse to get a large num- reading: Fanny Kelly’s 1871 narrative; Terrible Justice, by ber of warriors into the fort to take it over. She apparently was Doreen Chaky; and The Dakota War, by Michael Clodfelter. bill markley phoTos Five markers at the site of makeshift Fort Dilts, which served the Fisk party well, honor soldiers who died in the September 1864 siege.

april 2014 WilD WEST 59 GHOST TOWNS

Loyal Valley, Texas By Les Kruger

• Settled in 1858 in the southeastern corner of Mason County, the community was first called Cold Springs after the source waters that fed nearby Cold Creek. German immigrant farmers heavily pop- ulated the area. Even today the German influence remains prevalent around Fredericksburg, 25 miles to the south. • In 1869 one of the early pioneers, John O. Meusebach, built a general store and named the place Loyal Valley, reportedly out of his personal loyalty to the Union during the Civil War. He platted the town and served as its postmaster, justice of the peace and notary public. Meusebach remained there until his death in 1897. left and below: Pioneer memorial library, fredericksburg, texas • As the town grew in the 1870s it opened Herman Lehmann poses for a family portrait in 1899, after he became “civilized” again. a church, a school, several small stores and a livery stable. Loyal Valley’s primary the Apaches, one of whom tossed the memoirs of his captivity in Nine Years agricultural products were cotton and boy from horseback in his haste to fee. Among the Indians: 1870–1879, often re- cattle. A two-story inn served as a stage- Herman remained with his captors. Over garded as a defnitive look at frontier life coach stop for the route between San An- the next several years they raised him as among the Indians. Herman Lehmann tonio and El Paso. Operating the inn an Apache and taught him their ways. died in February 1932 and is buried in was Auguste Buchmeier (or Buchmeyer), • In his fifth year of captivity the small cemetery in Loyal Valley. whose frst husband, Moritz Lehmann, Herman was forced to kill • Around the turn of the century a had died in 1862. A year later she had a medicine man in a fight. local baseball team, the Loyal Lads, married stonemason Philip Buchmeier. Knowing this meant certain began competing against other • A notable story out of Loyal Valley con- death at the hands of vengeful communities. Horse races on the ad- cerns the Buchmeiers’ children. One warriors, he left the Apaches. joining prairie were also popular. The afternoon in May 1870 in a wheat field Quanah Parker’s Comanches ulti- population numbered fewer than 200 near the family home, Apache raiders mately accepted Herman into at the time and would decline, es- accosted their sons, Herman and Willie, their tribe, and he lived with pecially after the stage stopped and daughters Caroline and Gusta. The them for four years. running and weary travelers no Apaches took Herman, 10, and Willie, 8, • Herman found his return longer stopped in Loyal Valley. captive. After shooting arrows at young to white society at age 19 By 1919 the post office had Caroline, the Indians assumed they had traumatic. It was difficult closed. People gravitated to killed her, but she had fallen when she to give up the Indian life- Mason and Fredericksburg to fainted. Baby Gusta was also unharmed. style he had learned. White do business. By the mid-1930s • A few days later Willie was able to escape man’s clothing and food the population had plum- when a passing cavalry patrol spooked was foreign to him, and be- meted to some two dozen res- coming “civilized” again was idents, and the San Antonio an arduous process for both highway bypassed the town in Herman and his family. the 1950s. Today Loyal Valley, • Eventually Herman married just east of I-87, is undergoing and had his own family. At nearby preservation efforts. Cherry Springs he opened a saloon and dance hall on the main route Even after returning to his between Mason and Fredericks- family, Lehmann liked to dress burg. In 1927 he published the up in his favorite Indian regalia.

60 WILD WEST aprIL 2014

Clockwise from top left: Former Indian captive Herman Lehmann’s grave in the Loyal Valley cemetery; the building in which Auguste Buchmeier ran her inn and stage stop; the Loyal Valley church; a marker images this Page: les kruger highlighting the Lehmanns; the cemetery itself; and overgrown roadside ruins. COLLECTIONS

Mountain Men, Miners, Outlaws and Lawmen Get Their Due in Sweetwater This Wyoming museum also honors explorer John Wesley Powell By Linda Wommack

he rich history and cultural 1874 rife—both of which Johnson used heritage of southwestern Wyo- while sheriff of Sweetwater County. ming is on proud display at the Even more than the stagecoach, the Sweetwater County Histori- railroad brought business to the area T cal Museum in Green River. and served to promote mining. On dis- Established in 1967, the museum occu- play are mining artifacts from the Union pies the renovated 1931 post offce build- Pacific Coal Co. and the personal be- ing, since added to the National Register longings of 19th-century Chinese resi- of Historic Places [www.nps.gov/nr]. dents. Besides working as miners, the The museum calls Green River home. Most of the exhibits and artifacts date Chinese served as “tie hacks,” cutting from 1820 to the present. Collections cov- and 1871, while a life-sized bronze of the timber in the mountains and floating er such major themes as the fur trade, explorer graces the museum grounds. the logs down the Green River to town, mining, transportation, communication, An Overland Stage crossing two miles where they were made into railroad ties. civic and economic development, and from Green River brought commerce and Outlaws and lawmen get plenty of ex- ethnic diversity. Among the standouts is prosperity to the town, whose stores and hibit space. Among the guns on display a display of the six fur trading rendezvous blacksmith shops supported the stage are a .44-caliber Army Remington Model held along the Green River in the 1830s operations. One excellent exhibit cen- 1863 revolver taken from outlaw “Big and for the last time in 1840. Indians took ters on early Green River resident William Nose George” Parrott before he was part in each of these annual gatherings of A. Johnson, who came north from Texas lynched in Rawlins, Wyo., in April 1881; mountain men, and the museum offers in 1846 at age 13 and went on to become a .36-caliber Navy Colt Model 1851 taken several Indian-related exhibits. One col- a legislator in the Wyoming Territorial from a member of Big Nose George’s lection of remarkable Sioux ledger art Assembly in 1875. Before turning to poli- gang; and a .44-40-caliber Winchester pieces dates from the 18th century. tics, Johnson was a fur trapper. He lived Model 1892 saddle ring carbine that The town of Green River sprang up among the Shoshones and had a family Green River Chief of Police Joseph Payne before the Union Pacifc Railroad arrived with his Indian wife, Jonny; rode for the Sr. used during his two terms (1896–98 in 1868, and it was later designated the Pony Express; and in 1868 provided sup- and 1900–01). Also look for a section of county seat. South Pass City was the frst, plies for soldiers at Fort Bridger. Elected hanging rope from the Rawlins prison from 1867 to 1873. The museum houses sheriff of Sweetwater County in 1878, he and shackles used to restrain William a desk frst used in the county offces in kept busy for the next two years dealing L. Carlisle, who was imprisoned after South Pass City and then moved to the with the outlaw element, mainly cattle robbing a train at the Green River station new Sweetwater County Courthouse rustlers, and reportedly shot down a crazy in February 1916. Certain exhibits high- in Green River. Rock Springs attorney killer named “Mountain Jack.” During light more recent history. To help relate Douglas A. Preston later acquired what is the 1885 massacre in Rock Springs, in the 1978 Rock Springs murder trial of Ed now known as the “Preston desk,” which which rioting white miners killed close Cantrell, curators present the cowboy is stamped on one corner with the words to 30 Chinese miners, Johnson hid a Chi- hat worn by the accused, who had ad- Sweetwater County. In 1869 one-armed nese immigrant known as “China Joe.” He mired defense attorney Gerry Spence’s Civil War veteran Major John Wesley later employed the man, who took the hat and asked to wear it during the trial. Powell mapped the area, including name Joe Johnson. When former Sheriff The Sweetwater County Historical Mu- Sweetwater County, and named Flam- Johnson died in Green River in 1910, he seum, which also boasts a large pictorial ing Gorge and other land features. That was wrapped in a Navajo blanket and collection and makes local history ma- was the year Powell frst went down the buried in a wooden coffin he had fash- terials available to researchers, is at Green River, or Seeds-ke-dee (Crow for ioned years earlier. The exhibit includes 3 E. Flaming Gorge Way in Green River. “prairie hen”) by boat. An exhibit high- a .45-caliber Colt Model 1873 revolver and For information call 307-872-6435 or visit lights Powell and his expeditions of 1869 holster and a .45-caliber Sharps Model www.sweetwatermuseum.org.

62 WILD WEST APRIL 2014 photos: sweetwater county historical museum

Johnson; anda portrait ofbadmanParrott,big noseandall. William L.Carlisle; a.45-caliberSharpsrifeused bySheriff Wyoming hanging; thepairofshacklesusedon trainrobber A. Johnson;aleather-sheathed blackjack;aninvitationtoa Preston; aportraitofSweetwater CountySheriffWilliam crimes; thedeskofRockSprings attorneyDouglasA. Parrott; this19th-centuryledger listscriminalsandtheir Remington revolverusedbyoutlaw “BigNoseGeorge” Green RiverexplorerJohnWesley Powell;a.44-caliber Clockwise fromtopleft:Alife-sizebronzeofone-armed GUNS OF THE WEST

Remington Double Derringers Were Sometimes Twice as Nice They were the longest-lived of all the Old West handguns By Lee A. Silva

n 1850 Henry Deringer produced his namesake gun, a big-bore, back- action-lock, single-shot, cap-and- ball pocket pistol. The unique de- I sign became so popular in the West that dozens of competitors and outright counterfeiters copied it, often calling their versions “derringers” (with two “r’s”) to avoid a lawsuit. After the Civil War, E. Rem- ington & Sons manufactured a small, two-shot pistol that the company called a “deringer” (with one “r”) in early advertis- ing. But as far as present-day terminology, Flayderman’s Guide to Antique American Firearms notes, “Either spelling is permis- sible, acceptable and correct.” In a 2008 book called Dr. William H. Elliot’s Rem- ington Double Deringer the four authors explained they used the one “r” spelling to honor Henry Deringer. But no matter how you spell it, this popular double-barreled Remington pistol became the most iconic cartridge derringer of the Old West. William Harvey Elliot, born in Leicester, Mass., on April 23, 1816, practiced den- tistry, wrote articles about it and invented dental instruments, but he was more inter- ested in developing new gun designs. He was living in Ilion, N.Y., when he received his frst gun patent, for a pepperbox pistol, on August 17, 1858. It was about this time that percussion firearms were being re- placed by guns that would fre breech-load-

ing, self-contained cartridges. In May 1860 Douglas s. DrummonD collection Dr. Elliot’s original design evolved into a A late derringer (top), one in a pipe case, and one with a knife with matching inscriptions. six-shot .22 Short caliber cartridge pepper- box now known as the Remington Zig-Zag barrels themselves revolving—a .22 Short to produce a “repeating” pistol that could Deringer. E. Remington & Sons produced caliber fve-shot and a .32 Rimfre caliber shoot a larger man-stopping caliber than it in 1861 and 1862, while Elliot’s own Elliot four-shot. Also produced by E. Remington his .22- and .32-caliber pepperboxes. At Arms Co. marketed it. The Zig-Zag, in turn, & Sons, they are now more commonly that time in the evolution of the self-con- evolved into two other multibarreled “pep- known as the Remington-Elliot Deringers. tained cartridge the .41 Short Rimfre was perbox” pistols with a rotating firing pin The basic design of Elliot’s legendary the most powerful pistol cartridge that had that fred stationary barrels instead of the double derringer grew out of his desire been developed. But that caliber would

64 WILD WEST APRIL 2014 have made Elliot’s pepperboxes too large Jones was a deputy U.S. marshal in Cali- to be the kind of concealed pistol he wanted fornia and in 1868 went to Nevada, where to make. So he settled for a spur-trigger, he served as a U.S. senator for 30 years. bird’s head–gripped, two-barreled, over- An article in the August 10, 1872, Army and-under “repeater,” with a fring pin that and Navy Journal speaks glowingly of the moved up or down for each barrel each Remington, noting, “The weapon is es- time the hammer was cocked. A small lever pecially designed as a defensive one…its on the right side of the frame released the convenience for the pocket…and its cer- barrels so that, hinged at the top rear of tainty of execution in cool hands—we the barrels and the top of the frame, the do not know of a rival to the ‘Double barrels pivoted up and back to load or Deringer.’” Author Irvin Anthony writes unload the gun. In later production a melodramatically about the gun in his simple sliding ejector was added to the 1929 book Paddle Wheels and Pistols: left side of the 3-inch-long barrels. “For the gambler’s service was invented The little pistol with the big punch came the derringer. This was a short, double- in either blued or nickel fnish. At frst the barreled pistol. It fired a heavy slug of

grips were walnut, but after about 1888 Douglas s. DrummonD collection a bullet from its rimfre copper cartridge. they were made of black rubber. Prices This original box for the double derringer The bore was .41 caliber, well on its way to ranged from $6.50 in the beginning up came with instructions on how to load it. a half-inch diameter. Thrust at one across to $9.50 after the turn of the century. And a pile of money, which had tempted eager gold or silver plating, engraving, and pearl and inscribed from Buffalo Bill Cody to hands to seize it, the effect of a derringer or ivory grips could be added at extra cost. Colonel Prentice Ingraham, one of the was tonic. On more serious occasions it Remington manufactured the derringers dime novel authors who helped create defended the gambler’s life from a mur- from 1866 to 1935 without a major change the legend of Buffalo Bill. Another double derous attack of some player whose losses except for a handful made with 4-inch bar- derringer, this one silver-plated, pearl- had turned his head. A glance at a derrin- rels and a spelling change from “deringer” gripped and engraved, bears the inscrip- ger’s ugly snout had a tendency to check to “derringer” after the company went tion Wm. Fielder from Buffalo Bill. an uplifted knife in mid-air, or to make bankrupt in 1888. Altogether about 150,000 Fielder was an Indian agent friend of Cody. a haste-fushed face turn ashy white.” were produced. This production run of 69 A third—nickel-plated, walnut-gripped And in his 1881 book On the Border With years makes the Remington-Elliot double and engraved—is inscribed with the name Crook, Captain John G. Bourke tells a story derringer the longest-lived handgun of the of James C. Fargo of Wells, Fargo & Co. that illustrates one reason a powerful Old West period, beating out the fabled James Congdell Fargo’s brother William pocket pistol was so popular on the fron- Colt Single Action Army, made from 1873 was one of the company’s founders. A tier. In 1870 Tucson, according to Bourke, to 1940, by two years. fourth, Serial No. 4851, is plain and nick- former U.S. marshal of Arizona Territory Out of the hundreds of double derrin- el-plated, bearing ivory grips on which Milton Duffeld tangled with town tough gers that are known to have Old West his- is inscribed Sen. J.P. Jones/Gold Hill Nev. “Waco Bill.” After Duffield knocked him tory, one, Serial No. 5181, resides in the It is accompanied by a matching spear- down with one blow, Waco Bill started Autry National Center in Los Angeles. It point bowie knife with ivory grips carved to pull a revolver from his holster. Bourke, is nickel-plated, ivory-gripped, engraved with the same inscription. John Percival tongue in cheek, ends the story this way: “In Arizona it was not customary to pull a pistol upon a man; that was regarded as an act both unchristian-like and wasteful of time—Arizonanas [sic] nearly always shot out of the pocket without drawing their weapons at all, and into Mr. ‘Waco Bill’s’ groin went the sure bullet of [Duffeld].” Early flmmakers discovered the menac- ing look of Elliot’s double derringer, and it appeared in many Hollywood Westerns. Designated in later years as the Model 95, it remained so popular during World War II that many GIs carried it as a backup gun. Eventually, William Harvey Elliot re- henry deringer’s pocket pistol , by john e. parsons ceived more than 130 patents for improve- from ments and inventions of frearms. He died In 1872 Remington ran this ad showing the price list for the “double repeating deringer.” a wealthy man on March 27, 1895.

APRIL 2014 WILD WEST 65 REVIEWS

Must See, Must Read Books and movies about Chief Joseph and other Nez Perce Indians By Candy Moulton

BOOKS ON-SCREEN Chief Joseph, Guardian of the People Nez Perce Summer, 1877: The U.S. Army The West: Episode 6, (2005, by Candy Moulton): The frst title and the Nee-Me-Poo Crisis (2000, by “Fight No More For- in Forge Books’ American Heroes series, Jerome A. Greene): An account of the 1877 ever” (1996, on DVD, this biography won the Spur Award from Nez Perce War from the military point of PBS): Episode 6 of this Western Writers of America and has re- view, this blends solid writing with pre- eight-part documen- ceived praise for the author’s engaging cise details of the Army’s role in the fight tary on westward ex- narrative and fast-paced retelling of the of the Nez Perces. Greene followed up pansion, produced by Nez Perce leader’s story. Charlie Moses, a with Beyond Bear’s Paw: The Nez Perce Ken Burns and Stephen Ives, focuses member of the Chief Joseph band of the Indians in Canada (2010), which relates on the period 1874–77 and profles three Nez Perces, credits it for continuing the the history of White Bird and the other main characters: Chief Joseph, Sitting story of Joseph’s life beyond his famous tribal members who fed the Bear’s Paw Bull and Brigham Young. surrender speech in 1877 Montana Ter- battlefeld to live in Canada. ritory, following the chief into exile I Will Fight No More in Indian Territory (present-day Okla- Following the Nez Perce Trail: A Guide Forever (1975, on DVD, homa) and ultimately back to the Pacifc to the Nee-Me-Poo National Historic Echo Bridge Home En- Northwest (though he didn’t make it Trail With Eyewitness Accounts (second tertainment): This David back to his ancestral home in Oregon). edition, 2005, by Cheryl Wilfong): If you Wolper Productions TV want to actually get on the ground and movie features Ned Ro- The Nez Perce Indians and the Open- follow the route the Nez Perces took in mero as Chief Joseph ing of the Northwest (1965, by Alvin M. their 1877 fight, you must get a copy of and James Whitmore as Brig. Gen. Oliver Josephy Jr.): Josephy—one of the finest this book, which highlights important O. Howard. Sam Elliott portrays Captain historians ever to write about the Amer- sites on the route along with precise di- Charles Erskine Scott Wood, and re- ican West, particularly Indians—relates rections on how to fnd them. releases feature him on the flm case, no the history of the Nez Perces in this en- doubt for his selling power. The history gaging narrative. It is the frst book you Nez Perce Nation Divided: Voices From is so powerful and moving that producers should read to learn about the overall Nez Perce Country (2004, by Dennis managed for the most part to stick to the history of the tribe that was friendly to Baird): The focus here is on the division facts. The film received two primetime Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. of the Nez Perce tribe, refecting on both Emmy nominations, one for writers Jeb historical and contemporary aspects. Rosebrook and Theodore Strauss, an- Yellow Wolf: His Own Story (1940, by other for flm editor Robert K. Lambert. Lucullus Virgil McWhorter): This is a Let Me Be Free: the Nez Perce Tragedy first-person account of the Nez Perce (1992, by David Lavender): This detailed Sacred Journey of the War by one of the men integral to the account of the Nez Perce people, from Nez Perce (1997, on DVD, fight, often in the thick of battle, who also their early encounters with Lewis and PBS): Nez Perces have a served as an advance scout for the tribe. Clark through the war they waged in big voice in this hour- Virtually every writer who ever penned 1877, earned Lavender a Spur Award for long documentary, co- an account of the Nez Perce hegira has history. This was one of the first ac- produced by Idaho Public drawn on Yellow Wolf’s recollections. counts to demythologize Chief Joseph. Television and Montana

66 WILD WEST AprIL 2014 Public Television. In oral history fash- one’s personal diary, albeit without the Colorado and California. He witnesses ion, tribal members, including descen- accompanying guilt. the expansion of rail service to the West, dants of those who participated in the The book retains a remarkable narrative as well as confrontations with Indians in 1877 war, tell the different parts of the cohesion thanks to McChristian’s exten- which he played a direct role. There are fascinating story. The narrator is Hattie sive footnotes. The life of a solider was, a number of rousing scenes, including Kaufman, a Nez Perce news anchor on as Matthews candidly admits, often mun- this entry during his post at Fort Bascom, CBS at the time (her memoir, Falling dane—not that he was necessarily inter- New Mexico Territory, in August 1872: Into Place, came out last September). ested in risky adventure: About 1 o’clock a.m., I awoke from a Horse Tribe (in development): Written As regards myself, [I] can’t say that I felt sound sleep by the report of several and directed by Janet Kern, this docu- very rejoiced at the prospects of a fight Carbines, connected with the most un- mentary focuses on the Nez Perce con- with Indians, $13.00 a month is not an earthly yelling it has ever been my mis- nection to the Appaloosa horse in both incentive to throw ones life away. And as fortune to listen to. It sounded to me historic and contemporary times. The to my patriotic feelings, I candidly say, like all the Devils incarnate, and all the film screened in early form in Moscow, I have none. I have never been blessed Demons of Hell had issued forth in that Idaho, but the final cut is not yet avail- with the inspiration. And while riding one lonely spot to make the night hid- able. Creating such a flm is diffcult for along my thoughts went back to little eous with their orgies. No pen is capable an independent producer, as fnancing Maryland, to green felds, friends, Loved of describing my feelings at that moment. is always a hurdle. parents, Brothers and Sisters, and the day I would be free to enjoy the plea- Sometimes, too, a gentle humor per- BOOK REVIEWS sures of my home and the company of vades his insights, such as the day he Frontier Cavalry those ‘loved Ones at Home.’ attempted to iron his own clothing: Trooper: The Letters of Private Matthews’ journey takes him across the As I had never done any ironing before [I] Eddie Matthews, country, from his home in Maryland to had some doubts about the success of the 1869–1874, his Army service in Arizona, New Mexico, thing. Thought I had better experiment a edited by Douglas C. McChristian, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 2013, $55. Douglas C. McChristian, a retired re- search historian for the National Park Service, has penned six excellent chron- icles of the American West, including his Spur Award–winning Fort Laramie: Military Bastion of the High Plains. In this tome he acts instead as editor of a voluminous treasure of letters penned by Private Eddie Matthews to his family during the post–Civil War era. The book serves as a chronicle of a man’s life and also as a journal of westward expansion. Wild West contributor John Koster earns a nod from the author in his intro- duction. It was Koster who brought the Matthews letters to light in a 1980 Amer- ican Heritage article and preserved the trove Matthews’ granddaughter Ora Bub- litz had industriously typed out. Thus the letters are largely uncorrected; orig- inal spellings (or misspellings) are com- mon, and in some spots are minor gaps where words were illegible or missing. Such peculiarities make the overall ex- perience not unlike peeking into some-

april 2014 WilD WEST 67 little before trying my hand on a white (many whose names would disappear; readers have encountered Red Cloud shirt, had no starch, but that made no sorting them all out was no small task) many times on these pages over the last difference. Spread out my towel, grasped also battled the Comanches. The Lipans, quarter century, and as recently as the the iron firmly, burnt my sore hand a usually outnumbered by their enemies, April 2012 issue the Lakota legend was little and made a lunge out. Result: towel survived in Texas by becoming not only on the cover in glorious color. In the late looked like a yellow cat singed. Iron was guerrilla fghters but also guerrilla traders 1990s Red Cloud got much deserved at- too hot.…Concluded a man couldn’t and guerrilla hunters. “Historians have tention with Robert W. Larson’s solid iron cloth[e]s unless he knew how. often written that the Comanches drove biography Red Cloud: Warrior-Statesman Lipans from their territory, and thereafter of the Lakota Sioux and the too-long-for- That simple story belies the under- the Lipans were inconsequential,” Rob- gotten Autobiography of Red Cloud: War lying and mostly unspoken premise of inson writes. “Subsequent records reveal Leader of the Oglalas, edited by R. Eli the book: That Matthews’ story is not bitter conflict between Lipans and Co- Paul. Earlier books of note on the subject so much that of a soldier as an intimate manches; farther along the time line include James C. Olson’s Red Cloud and view into an era long past. chroniclers describe an alliance be- the Sioux Problem (1965) and George Martin A. Bartels tween the two, followed by warfare. And E. Hyde’s 1937 classic Red Clouds Folk: so on. Snapshots in time aren’t reliable.” A History of the Oglala Sioux Indians. I Fought a Good The greatest of the 18th century chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, two other Fight: A History of in the area was Picax-andé of the Lipiyans Lakota standouts who didn’t accomplish the Lipan Apaches, (affliated with the Lipans but not part of as much as Red Cloud, remain more visi- by Sherry Robinson, the tribe proper). The viceroy gave him a ble in the public eye (even if there are University of North formal commission as head chief of the no fully accepted images of Crazy Horse). Texas Press, Denton, Lipiyans, Lipans, Mescaleros and three And considering how many books have 2013, $32.95. other groups, but later the Spanish with- come out about George Armstrong Custer When it comes to held their support, and he died in battle and the Battle of the Little Bighorn (with Apaches on the fron- with the Comanches in 1801. “Picax-andé mentions of participants Sitting Bull and tier, the Chiricahuas—thanks in no small should take his place alongside Cochise, Crazy Horse), there is certainly room for part to such notable warriors and chiefs Geronimo and Victorio as one of the another book or fve about Red Cloud and as Geronimo, Cochise, Mangas Colora- greatest Apache leaders in history—pos- the Indian war of 1866–68 that became das and Victorio—are by far the best sibly the greatest,” suggests Robinson. known as Red Cloud’s War. Yes, the Lako- known. Lacking the Chiricahuas’ highly The Lipans had their share of nota- tas and Cheyennes won the Battle of the publicized individuals and notoriety, ble chiefs, including two friends of the Little Bighorn, but they didn’t have long Mescaleros, Jicarillas, Western Apaches, Texians and the Texas Rangers—Castro, to celebrate that triumph, as the Great Plains Apaches (formerly the Kiowa- captain of his own Lipan Ranger com- Sioux War of 1876–77 ended as expected Apaches) and Lipans often fall under pany, and Flacco, a reliable scout and with the defeat of these so-called hostiles. the historical radar. The last group fnally spy during the Texas Revolution. Later, But on December 21, 1866, Red Cloud gets its due in this book by Sherry Robin- Lipans and Texans didn’t get on so well. achieved an earlier Plains Indian military son, who previously wrote Apache Voices But during the Red River War in 1874 the rout known today as Fetterman’s Fight. and is interviewed in this issue of Wild Lipan known as Johnson served under What’s more, he is credited with win- West (see P. 11). She meticulously covers Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie (see “Indian ning his war, since the U.S. Army aban- the Lipans from their interaction with the Life,” P. 14). In the appendices of her doned its three Bozeman Trail forts, and Spanish to their present-day effort to re- book, Robinson lists all the Lipan chiefs in 1868 Red Cloud’s people gained legal claim their identities (and receive federal whose names she uncovered. control of the Powder River country. recognition). “For a small group they had Editor That triumph endured for eight years. an outsized impact through three cen- Red Cloud needs to be put in context turies and were often described as the The Heart of to understand his full story—as a ferce second most powerful tribe in Texas after Everything That warrior who showed little mercy for his the Comanches,” she writes in her intro- Is: The Untold tribal enemies, as an effective guardian duction. “Lipans were as clever, fearless Story of Red Cloud, of the Powder River country against white and resourceful as their better publicized an American invaders in what became the state of Wy- cousins [Chiricahuas] to the west, and as Legend, by oming and, fnally (he lived until 1909), as a group far more diverse.” Bob Drury and an Indian wars survivor who tried to min- The warlike Comanches, as noted in Tom Clavin, imize the damage the U.S. government most histories of the Southwest, stymied Simon & Schuster, inficted on his people and their culture. Spanish ambition, but Robinson argues New York, 2013, $30. Coauthors Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, the Lipans did their part to frustrate vice- The subtitle of this book doesn’t hold though they have no background in Old roys and generals. Lipans and their allies much weight in some circles. Wild West West writing or research, have done quite

68 WilD WEST april 2014 well in that regard. They cover consid- ov’s writings and the impressions of aside, those two flms are far from great erable ground in frontier history and those who knew him, Rezanov harbored (arguably a great Kid film has not yet the history of white-Indian relations, a larger-than-life ambition to carve out been made), but they get great cover- enabling the lay reader to better grasp an American empire. When he returned age by author Boggs, who earlier wrote Red Cloud’s actions and statements. to California in 1806, Rezanov wrote to Jesse James and the Movies. In the silent Occasionally they move a bit too swiftly, the Russian minister of commerce, “Not era studios filmed more pictures about such as when they mention Sand Creek through petty enterprise but by great Jesse than Billy, and Boggs says it took and seem to rest blame for that deadly undertakings have mighty commercial the 1939 box-offce success of 20th Cen- affair on the shoulders of Ned Wynkoop. bodies achieved rank and power.” Marry- tury Fox’s Jesse James to convince a major And their insistence on using the in- ing the 15-year-old daughter of the garri- studio, MGM, to put Billy on its A-list, correct spelling “Fort Kearney” (the Ne- son commander at Yerba Buena—later with 1941’s Billy the Kid (starring Robert braska fort was named after General Ste- to be the great city of San Francisco, but Taylor). “This strange Billy film, billing phen Watts Kearny) might annoy those of in May 1806 a town dwarfed in size and itself as ‘the first true story’ about the us who have long made an effort to delete importance by the Russian port of Sitka outlaw, is pure fiction,” writes Boggs, that extra “e.” Others no doubt could care —Rezanov envisioned the Russian Amer- who adds it was “ full of history-twisting less. The authors make Red Cloud come ican Co. eclipsing Spain as the dominant and moral whitewashing [and] wasn’t alive as a fesh and blood man, albeit one colonial power in the New World. anywhere near as entertaining as Jesse with extraordinary qualities, and they Like so many Western pioneers, how- James.” Nevertheless, Hollywood never seem to have done plenty of homework ever, Rezanov harbored weaknesses as completely gave up on Billy, and Boggs on that never-dull era. In short, their outsized as his strengths. A charming discusses 75 Kid movies, from awful hearts are in the right place. In The Heart and skilled diplomat and daring gam- ones like 1966’s Billy the Kid vs. Dracula of Everything That Is they tell a good yarn, bler, he could also be a volatile bully. (starring John Carradine—no, not as the even if the story has been previously told. Rezanov’s saga ended somewhat anti- Kid) to the 1988 blockbuster Young Guns Editor climactically in 1807, but his death left and its 1990 sequel, Young Guns II. a legend that Russian posterity and even Editor Glorious the Soviet Union proudly embraced. Misadventures: The author’s project to retrace Rezan- Radio Rides Nikolai Rezanov ov’s steps was largely inspired by the the Range: and the Dream of hottest show in 1986 Moscow— Junona A Reference a Russian America, i Avos, a rock opera named for two of Guide to Western by Owen Matthews, Rezanov’s ships and centered around Drama on the Air, Bloomsbury his ill-starred romance in California. 1929–1967, edited USA, New York, Jon Guttman by Jack French 2013, $28. and David S. The exploration and conquest of the Billy the Kid on Siegel, McFarland American frontier required a rare breed Film, 1911–2012, & Co., Jefferson, N.C., 2013, $49.95. of bold, ruthless, often eccentric vision- by Johnny D. Boggs, Watching Gunsmoke on TV was (and aries, whether they came westward from McFarland & Co., remains) a treat, but no more so than Spain, the Netherlands, France, Britain or Jefferson, N.C., hearing Gunsmoke on the radio. The the newly minted United States…or east- 2013, $39.95. radio version ran from April 26, 1952, ward from Russia, as did the remarkable No doubt the Billy to June 18, 1961, overlapping with the protagonist of Glorious Misadventures. In the Kid legend would TV version for four years (when 90 per- 1803, while President Thomas Jefferson have endured absent cent of the small-screen episodes were was ordering Meriwether Lewis and Wil- motion pictures, which more often than adapted from radio scripts). The rather liam Clark to explore the newly acquired not have distorted his legend. Think The rotund William Conrad was radio’s Mar- Louisiana Territory, Tsar Alexander I sent Left Handed Gun, starring Paul Newman shal Matt Dillon, the role associated with Nikolai Rezanov on a mission with mul- as the Kid; Billy in truth was no southpaw. TV’s towering James Arness, but it didn’t tiple ambitions—among other things, to Think Howard Hughes’ censor-vexing matter. It was the voice that counted, establish Russian diplomatic and trading 1943 curiosity The Outlaw, in which Billy not the body, and what a voice Conrad relations with Japan, to expand the hege- (portrayed by the otherwise forgotten (later the title character of the TV detec- mony of the Russian American Co. from Jack Buetel) and Pat Garrett (Thomas tive show Cannon) possessed. its Alaskan base deep into Spanish Cali- Mitchell) cross trails with their some- In the Golden Age of radio, though, fornia and beyond, and perhaps to com- time friend (in Hollywood fiction only) Conrad couldn’t top John Dehner, who plete the frst Russian circumnavigation. Doc Holliday (Walter Huston), and Billy turned down the radio Dillon role be- As journalist Owen Matthews discov- gets tangled up with Doc’s untamed gal, cause he didn’t want to be typecast as ered in the course of researching Rezan- Rio (Jane Russell). Their flawed history a Western actor, but then went on to

april 2014 WilD WEST 69 appear in nearly half the 480 Gunsmoke episodes and was the leading man in two other CBS radio adult Western series— Frontier Gentleman (1958) and Have Gun–Will Travel (1958–60). Yes, Dehner played gun-for-hire “Paladin,” just like Richard Boone on the TV version, which actually preceded the radio version. Dehner also was a supporting actor on a fourth superb CBS radio show, Fort Lara- mie (1956), which starred Raymond “Soon to Be Perry Mason” Burr. That show was created by Norman Macdon- nell, who earlier teamed up with writer John Meston to capture the gritty realism and details of Gunsmoke’s Dodge City. The programs mentioned above are just four of more than 100 American West radio programs (with half-hour or 15- mintute episodes) discussed by various knowledgeable authors in a book that provides everything but sound effects. For the history-minded, some entries— like the ones on Fort Laramie, Tales of the Texas Rangers (1950–52), Wild Bill Hickok (1951–56) and Death Valley Days (1930– 44)—not only describe each series but also say to what extent it was based on facts. The Lone Ranger, which frst rode onto the radio airwaves on January 31, 1933, and made 3,377 broadcasts in 21½ years, gets plenty of attention, but so do lesser-known shows, including ones that might not have actually aired, such as The Adventures of Annie Oakley and Tagg. The Western radio world was a relatively small one and, as one might expect, a man’s world. But Kathleen Hite wrote some of the best Gunsmoke episodes and 29 of the 40 Fort Laramie episodes, while Ruth Woodman (née Cronwell) created the long-running anthology show Death Valley Days. Many of the more popular shows were juvenile Westerns, starting with Bobbie Benson, the frst version of which ran from 1932 to 1936. I took a spe- cial interest in that one, because my late mother regularly listened to this Hecker H-O cereals–sponsored show when she was a 6-year-old New York City “cowboy” (never a cowgirl). The book says no audio copies are extant, which is unfortunate. But I can read all about it here and settle for listening to the 474 (out of 480) avail- able episodes of Gunsmoke. Editor Chronicling DVD REVIEW form of law and order to control a rowdy the West for Maverick: town when hired as sheriff. Other stand- Harper’s: Coast The Complete outs include the Bart episode “A Tale of to Coast with Third Season, Three Cities,” guest starring the likable Frenzeny & 26 episodes, Pat Crowley; “Maverick & Juliet,” which Tavernier in six discs, involves a family feud that culminates in 1873–1874, by 1300 minutes, a one-on-one poker duel between broth- Claudine Chalmers, Warner Archive ers Bret and Bart; “A Flock of Trouble,” in University of Collection, $59.99. which Bret wins a sheep ranch in a pok- Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2013, $45. Sadly, James Garner’s third season (1959– er game; and “Greenbacks, Unlimited,” Harper’s Weekly, which frst rolled off the 60) was his last as gambler Bret Maver- where Bret and Foursquare Farley (Gage presses in 1857, provided enough news ick, although Bart Maverick (Jack Kelly) Clark) rob the Denver Bank multiple about the United States and the world to would carry on for two more seasons, and times to foil the plans of a professional proudly call itself “A Journal of Civiliza- a couple other Mavericks (Roger Moore’s safecracker played by the brilliant John tion.” What made it extra special to many Beau and Robert Colbert’s Brent) would Dehner, who in the second season was people then (and now, too), though, was appear in the fourth season. Bart did it equally good as a dishonest banker in not so much the text (stories and adver- alone in the ffth and fnal season. Writer/ “Shady Deal at Sunny Acres.” tising) as the wood engravings. A decade creator Roy Huggins had left after two The quality of the show would dip with later, the work of two young French art- seasons, during which time Bret and the departure of Garner, who was able ists, Paul Frenzeny and Jules Tavernier, Bart’s highly quotable Pappy, the original to escape his day player contract with caught the eye of brothers John and Beau Maverick, never actually appeared. Warner Brothers. It’s a shame WB was James Harper. In 1873 the Harpers hired But he does in the third season’s frst ep- too stubborn to realize how iconic the the duo for a coast-to-coast sketching isode, fttingly titled “Pappy,” with Garner Maverick character was, and how large tour that would include “the most inter- taking on the old man’s role as well. a part of that was due to Garner. We all esting and picturesque regions” of the The third season shifted Maverick deserved to see Bret dealt another hand. West and Southwest and cover perhaps more into the realm of a traditional Louis Lalire and Greg “Pappy” Lalire as many as 7,000 miles. comedy, rather than a drama with comic Like the old Harper’s Weekly itself, this elements, in that more characters and 272-page book has solid text (about the scenes present themselves merely for life and work of Frenzeny and Taver- the sake of a punch line. A prime exam- nier), but also a wealth of images (119 ple is the notorious team in the epi- black-and-white illustrations and 13 sode “Full House.” Cole Younger, Jesse color illustrations). These “special art- James and about every other household ists,” the label Harper’s Weekly gave to outlaw mistake Bret for the never-before- its illustrators in the field, viewed the seen “brains” of their all-star organi- frontier with the same fresh eyes as some zation. Each badman introduces him- of the emigrants they sketched—the self through his wanted poster: “Sam difference being, of course, that Fren- Bass, $10,000 Dead or Alive,” “Jesse zeny & Tavernier (as they signed their James, $25,000,” etc. Lastly, a small kid work) documented what they saw with comes up and introduces himself as 100 vivid sketches. They didn’t merely “William Bonney, $1,000.” Bret asks, draw landscapes or portraits. Instead, as “Only $1,000?” To which Billy deadpans, Chalmers notes, they drew action scenes “I’m just getting started.” Even Belle “with accurate, practical details and Starr shows up, with an eye for Bret specifc places so that future emigrants that angers Younger. Such scenarios are could use these reports as a reliable quite ridiculous, but Maverick has pre- source of information.” Among the sub- viously dipped its polished boots in his- jects the Frenchmen cover so well are tory with enjoyable results, as when Bret the Plains Indians’ Sun Dance, San Fran- encounters Doc Holliday in season one. cisco’s Chinatown, a bear hunt in the Overall, season three might not be as Rockies, a prairie windstorm, a Mor- consistently excellent as the frst two sea- mon domestic scene titled “Bringing sons, but it provides some of the show’s Home the Fifth Wife” and a gory buffalo funniest episodes. In “The Sheriff of Duck carcass (at least it is in black and white) ’n’ Shoot,” which seems a sort of prequel labeled “Slaughtered for the Hide.” to Garner’s 1969 Western Support Your Editor Local Sheriff, Maverick brings his own

april 2014 WilD WEST 71 GO WEST! Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, Colorado

William Diehl, Big Diehl PhotograPhy, alBuquerque, N.m.; iNset: William heNry JacksoN, liBrary of coNgress

In 1880 the Denver & Rio Grande Railway founded the town of Durango to serve the mines high in southwest Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. From completion of the 45-mile narrow-gauge spur to Silverton in 1882, trains hauled more than $300 million in ore from the district’s mines to smelters in Durango. Photographer William Henry Jackson later made his fortune selling colorized images of the Western rail lines, including this stretch of the Durango & Silverton along the Animas River (inset). Today summer visitors can take restored trains [www .durangotrain.com] from Durango upriver to Silverton, a memorable 3½-hour ride into the high country. 72 WILD WEST APRIL 2014 How Jesus became the most infuential fgure of all time!

Who he was What he taught Where he walked How he became... Jesus of History Photo credit: © North Wind Picture Archives/Alamy. Picture Wind © North credit: Photo

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hether we believe he was the Son W of God or simply a sage country rabbi, Jesus—a Jewish carpenter from Nazareth born some 2,000 years ago— became the most infuential single individual in history.

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