WWW.STETSON.

COM
AUGUST 2016 WILD WEST 11
28
HOLLIDAY
IN MONTANA
By Peter Brand
Ever the gambler, Doc Holliday
left Leadville to try his luck in Butte
40
FOUNTAIN OF
THE RED PIPE
By Bill Markley
Minnesota quarries are
Indians sacred source for
ceremonial pipe bowls

34
ADELIA EARPS
DUBIOUS MEMOIR
By Scott Dyke
The alleged recollections of Wyatts
52
FATHER
little sister do not pass muster
OF THE
FIGHTING
EARPS
By Nicholas R. Cataldo
Roving Nicholas Earp put down roots
in Californias San Bernardino County

46
THE HATFIELD
WHO WENT WEST
By F. Keith Davis
In search of peace, this foe of the McCoys
pulled up stakes in West Virginia

2 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

 D E PA R T M E N T S

4 EDITORS LETTER
8 LETTERS
10 ROUNDUP
14 INTERVIEW
By Johnny D. Boggs
Texas State Historian Bill ONeal
has written more than 40 books

16 WESTERNERS
Dime novelist Ned Buntline was adept
at promoting himself and others

18 GUNFIGHTERS
AND LAWMEN
By Bill ONeal Romanticized as a Southern
hero, Cullen Baker was nothing but a killer

20 PIONEERS
AND SETTLERS
By Jim Winnerman Residents of Old Mines, Missouri,
10
sustained a French dialect for 250 years

22 WESTERN ENTERPRISE
By Ramon Vasconcellos A.P. Gianninis Bank of Italy
grew into the multinational Bank of America

24 ART OF THE WEST

By Bill Markley Travis Erickson works a one-man
quarry at Pipestone National Monument

26 INDIAN LIFE
By David McCormick Navajo medicine man
Bai-a-lil-le tamed lightning and deed whites

66 STYLE NEW!
Showcasing the West in art, lm, fashion and more

74 COLLECTIONS
By Linda Wommack Historic Fort Walla Walla Park
offers visitors a museum and pioneer village

76 GHOST TOWNS
By Jessica Wambach Brown A scion of the
namesake brewing family nanced Molson, Washington

78 GUNS OF THE WEST

By George Layman Soldiers and outdoorsmen made
good use of .69-caliber smoothbore muskets

80 REVIEWS
The Lone Star State historian recommends books and videos
about frontier-era Texas. Plus eight reviews of recent books

58 88 GO WEST
Californias Owens Valley is a cure for headache and heartache

DOC & KATE ON THE COVER

By Gary Roberts Obscured by his reputation as a killer embittered by illness, Doc Holliday was a
In real life and on-screen they were among child of the Old South who became a mythical gure in the Old West. (Adapted
the Wild Wests best-known yet curious couples from Don Crowleys Doc Holliday: Well Ill be Damned!; color added by Brian Walker)

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 3

 EDITORS LETTER

DOC & KATE:

SOUL MATES?
As I write these words, spring is in the air. But as you read this, its already time to bid farewell Faye Dunaway as Kate
to summer and embrace the fall. Such is the speed of life, especially after you reach a certain age. and Stacy Keach as Doc
Whatever that age is, John Henry Doc Holliday likely didnt reach it. After graduating from the share a tender moment
in the 1971 lm Doc.
Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in 1872, contracting tuberculosis and taking his practice west,
he cut his teeth on gambling and frontier adventure. And Wild West aficionados are glad he did.
Doc died at age 36, which might have been longer than he expected, though historians have disputed
the notion of a fatalistic Holliday consciously placing himself in danger. Regardless, he packed a lot
of living and more than a few knives and rearms into those three-plus decades.
He is best known, of course, for his friendship with Wyatt Earp and participation in the October 1881
gunght near the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territoryinterconnected circumstances long played
up in books and movies. The story of the friendship of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday is the stuff of legend,
historian Gary Roberts wrote in his December 2012 Wild West feature Brothers of the Gun: Wyatt and Doc.
Neither mans story can be told without the other. True enough, but Holliday would have other clashes
and other friends during his six post-Tombstone years. Docs saloon life in Leadville, Colo., and Butte,
Mont., where a local newspaper reported he made a great many warm friends among the sporting frater-
nity, are the subject of Peter Brands Holliday in Montana (see P. 28). In Docs last years Wyatt appar-
ently didnt go out of his way to visit his old
friend, though they did have one last meeting in
THEY LIVED AS a Denver hotel in June 1886, according to Earps
HUSBAND AND WIFE wife, Josie. When I heard you were in Denver,

IN TOMBSTONE Doc reportedly told Wyatt, I wanted to see you

once more. Holliday admitted his days were
numbered, and Wyatt was moved to tears at
their parting. Doc died on the morning of Nov. 8, 1887, at the Hotel Glenwood in Glenwood Springs, Colo.
But this is spring for me (and it was for you), so lets not dwell on sad partings and the autumns and Wild West editor
winters of our lives or those of our Western heroes. The Earp-Holliday friendship was, Roberts noted, Gregory Lalire wrote
the 2014 historical
rooted in courage and loyalty and largely imperious to the opinions of others. In the 19th century, novel Captured: From
he adds, such close male relationships were considered normal, manly and even ennobling. And, the Frontier Diary of
of course, female relationships were also part of the picture. Wyatt had Josie (Sadie to him), and before Infant Danny Duly.
His article about base-
that his Urilla and his Mattie (to name only the ones considered wives). Doc once had his own Mattie ball in the frontier West
a rst cousin (though whether any romance was involved has long been debated) who went on to become won a 2015 Stirrup
a nun and served as the inspiration for the character of Melanie Hamilton in Margaret Mitchells novel Award for best article
in Roundup, the member-
Gone With the Wind. Holliday moved on to the not necessarily endearing Kate Elder. In this issue of Wild ship magazine of West-
West Roberts provides fresh insight into the stormy off-and-on relationship between Doc and Big Nose ern Writers of America.
Kate (see P. 58), who met in St. Louis in 1872 and lived as husband and wife in Tombstone in spring 1881.
ABOVE: PAUL ANDREW HUTTON COLLECTION

In the 1930s Kate (the onetime Mary Katherine Horony) spoke about the late Doc but also suggested
she had had a thing forif not a fling withbad boy John Ringo, demonstrating she still had much
to hide about her early days. She and Doc saw little of each other after 1881, butat least according to
herat his request she came to see him in the summer of 1887 when he was dying in Glenwood Springs.
Many unanswered questions remain as to how well (or not) they treated one another and whether they
were soul mates, ill-matched lovers or something in between. I prefer to think of what they had together
as a frontier love storyafter all, it is springor used to be.

4 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

 Eagle heads often grace
pipestone bowls made
by Travis Erickson, an
enrolled member of MICHAEL A. REINSTEIN CHAIRMAN & PUBLISHER
the Sisseton Wahpeton DAVID STEINHAFEL ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Oyate (a Sioux tribe).

OCTOBER 2016 / VOL. 29, NO. 3

GREGORY J. LALIRE EDITOR

DAVID LAUTERBORN MANAGING EDITOR
GREGORY F. MICHNO SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR
JOHNNY D. BOGGS SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR
JOHN KOSTER SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR

STEPHEN KAMIFUJI CREATIVE DIRECTOR

BRIAN WALKER GROUP ART DIRECTOR
DIT RUTLAND ART DIRECTOR
LORI FLEMMING PHOTO EDITOR

CORPORATE
ROB WILKINS DIRECTOR OF PARTNERSHIP MARKETING
MICHAEL ZATULOV FINANCE

DIGITAL
JOSH SCIORTINO ASSOCIATE EDITOR

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The Gamblers War In Tombstone 2016 HISTORYNET, LLC

It raged during the fall and winter of 188081,
wrote longtime Wild West contributor Roger Jay
(who died in 2014), and if the Earp brothers and
Doc Holliday had lost it, theyd have had no choice
but to clear out of Tombstone, Arizona Territory.
Extended Interview With Bill ONeal
I always travel to the sites Ill write about, taking
photos and measurements and soaking up the
atmosphere, says the Texas native and official
Lone Star State historian.
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More About Travis Erickson
My teaching from my grandfather and uncles, The contents of this magazine may not be reproduced in whole or part
says the Dakota Sioux artist, is that the pipe without the written consent of HistoryNet, LLC.
is a stick and a stone stuck together, and when
PROUDLY MADE IN THE USA
you pray with it in a ceremony, it becomes a
sacred pipe.

6 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

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 LETTERS
CRY
WOLF
Wolf West, by Dan Flores, in the June 2016 issue is a romantic tale
at best. The few facts thrown in to hide the real message of this article does not
make it legitimatetripe is tripe. The emotional slant of the article in favor of
an unlimited number of wolves in the West is also an open slap to those forced
to live with wolves and to those men and women whose lifestyle includes
hunting. Interesting that Lewis and Clark were mentioned. Wonder what
their opinion of wolves was when they nearly starved to death in the Bitterroot
Mountains when wolves roamed at will? An area in the 20th century that
boasted elk and deer numbers by the thousands is now, with the reintroduction
of the wolf, decimated to population lows approaching those of 100 years ago.
Rodney A. Fosback
Colville, Wash.
Dan Flores delivered an interesting, factual account of the history of the
wolf in the West. I enjoyed not only the science of the lineage and ecology
but also the written accounts of the way the wolf acted with non-Indian new-
comersthat is, rather indifferent. Flores gives us his usual well-researched
information. After laying out the eons-long history of the wolf, he turns to
the relatively recent period in which the wolf goes from large numbers
(alongside the bison) to next to nothing, owing to human depredation. The
comparison is a stark one. No less dramatic is the shift in governmental
policies regarding the wolf, from eradication to reintroduction.
As someone who lives in an area where wolves now reside, I have heard
plenty about this hot topic. Flores keeps a level head in presenting the controver-
sy, even if with a tinge of lament for the passing of the wolf west and a coloring
of the earlier human actors as thoughtless (conditions were altogether different
back then). He astutely observes that the present-day culture of the West is and
always has been a mix of many cultures, implying there are many interests
involvedwhere once economics was the driver of policy, now science and the
Endangered Species Act play a larger role. Flores stops short of an opinion on
how it should go for the wolf and for us, and I will too. But whatever the future
landscape, it will not be the historical wolf west but a patchwork of different
scenarios, depending on locale and what different groups can work out. It will be
hardest on the individual, whether wolf or person. The genie is out of the bottle.
Kim Phillips
Hamilton, Mont.
8 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016
SPIKED CUSTER
In your June 2016 issue John Kosters story on
spiked helmets (When Soldiers Wore Spikes) was
a good one. Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong
Custer was very proud of his dress helmet. To my
knowledge there are no known photos of Colonel
Custer wearing it, so here is my drawing of him
in full dress.
Don Moore
Killeen, Texas
ON THE SCOUT
Editors note: Several readers have corrected our editing
mistake in 8 Great Frontier Army Scouts, by Paul
Hutton, on P. 10 of the August 2016 issue. The No. 8
scouts name should have read Archie McIntosh (not Wil-
liam Wells); the description refers to McIntosh. The No. 9
scout would have been William Wells but had to be cut
for space reasons. Here is Huttons description of Wells:
A white captive of the Miami Indians, he went on to
marry Chief Little Turtles daughter and helped defeat
Arthur St. Clairs army in 1791. He then switched sides
and led a band of former Indian captive scouts who aided
Anthony Waynes campaign against the Western Indian
Confederacy in 1794. He became an Indian agent and
died heroically in the defense of Fort Dearborn in 1812.
precocious
READER
Its never too early to
learn about the Wild West
and Wild West. We love
your magazine. The child
in the picture is my 3-year-
old daughter.
Connie Price
Via email
Send letters to Wild West, 1600 Tysons Blvd.,
Suite 1140, Tysons, VA 22102 or by email to
wildwest@historynet.com.
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 Texas-born Linda Darnell
stars as Doc Hollidays
gal (named Chihuahua
not Big Nose Kate) in
John Fords 1948 classic
My Darling Clementine.

9 WESTERN FILM STARS

FROM TEXAS
1 Gene Autry was king of the singing cowboys,
lming 93 big-screen horse operas from 1934
through 1953, starring in long-running radio and TV
The Missing, No Country for Old Men and The Homesman
(which he also directed).

shows and boasting a Country Music Hall of Fame

recording career. 6 Dan Blocker, who topped out at 6-foot-4 and
320 pounds, starred as Hoss Cartwright in
13 seasons of the TV series Bonanza. Blocker also

2 Tex Ritter followed in Autrys bootsteps with

his own radio, lm and recording career, starring
appeared in several big-screen Westerns.

in 71 horse operas and singing the haunting title song

to the 1952 Western classic High Noon. 7 Linda Darnell, beautiful lm star of the 1940s
and 50s, graced a number of Westerns, including
The Mark of Zorro, Buffalo Bill and the John Ford classic

3 Dale Evans, Queen of the West, co-starred

in 28 lms with husband Roy Rogers, as well as
My Darling Clementine.

The Roy Rogers Show (195157).

8 Fess Parker hurtled to stardom in the title role
of the 195455 TV miniseries Davy Crockett and

4 Audie Murphy, the most decorated U.S. sol-

dier of World War II, starred in 33 Westerns,
notably opposite James Stewart in Night Passage and
later starred for six seasons on TV as Daniel Boone. His
more than a dozen Westerns include Old Yeller, based
on the childrens novel by fellow Texan Fred Gipson.
Burt Lancaster in The Unforgiven.

5 Tommy Lee Jones was unforgettable as

Woodrow Call in the acclaimed TV miniseries
Lonesome Dove. His big-screen Westerns include
9 Willie Nelson rst appeared on-screen opposite
Robert Redford in the contemporary Western
The Electric Horseman. In a 1986 made-for-TV remake
of Stagecoach he played Doc Holliday. Bill ONeal

1 0 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

 ROUND UP

James Leavy: Here Is Our Game, which ran in

WWHA honored
Erik Wright for his
article in Wild West.
The Wright Stuff V owner J.D. Kinnear appeared in the June 2016
The Wild West History Association [wildwesthistory.
org] presented its latest awards in the Western
history niche during its ninth annual convention,
held July 69 in Oklahoma City. Among the winners
were Wild West contributors Erik Wright, John
Boessenecker and Pam Potter. Wright received the
Six-Shooter Award for best magazine article for
MAMMAL
IN CHIEF
V
the February 2015 Wild West. Of the hundreds of
gamblers and gunmen in the trans-Mississippi West,
Wright wrote in that feature, few fostered a more
fearsome and geographically transcending repu-
tation than Leavy. Wright dedicated the article
to his late friend and fellow Leavy researcher
Mark Dworkin, whom WWHA recognized
last year for his posthumously published book
American Mythmaker: Walter Noble Burns
and the Legends of Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp
and Joaqun Murrieta.
Boessenecker, who has written about the
likes of Tiburcio Vsquez, Bob Paul and Frank
Hamer in books and Wild West articles, re-
ceived WWHAs lifetime achievement award.
Potter, whose article about Tombstone stage line
Wild West, received the Presidents Silver Star
Award for her long and dedicated service to
WWHA. Also honored were Gary and Margaret
Kraisinger for best book (The Western Cattle Trail,
18741897) and Jack DeMattos for best article WEST
in the WWHA Journal (Buckskin Frank Leslie
Revealed, June 2015).
WORDS
Nge^llp^
\Zgi^klnZ]^
Today there are lhf^>nkhi^Zg
ihp^kmhZb]nl

bison in every state

With passage of some 20,000 on public bg^lmZ[eblabg`
the National Bison land and about 162,000 lhf^lmZ[e^
Legacy Act last spring on private farms and `ho^kgf^gm%
the bison (aka buffalo) ranches. Nearly 5,000 bmblbg^obmZ[e^
is ofcially Americas reside in Yellowstone maZmma^pahe^
national mammal. National Park [nps. h_F^qb\hfnlm
The shaggy icon shares gov/yell] alone. The [^lpZeehp^]
top honors with the problem there is not ni[rma^
bald eagle, recognized how to save bison Ngbm^]LmZm^l
as a national symbol but how to reduce the
in 1782. At one time herd to a manageable Juan Almonte,
tens of millions of nally passed legisla- Other factors in- target population of former aide-de-
bison roamed the tion to protect the cluded competi- around 3,000 animals. camp to Antonio
continent. In the species. The cause tion with horses Relocation of bison Lpez de Santa
latter half of the of its near extinction for graze and water, from the park is Anna in 1836,
said these words
OPPOSITE: PAUL ANDREW HUTTON COLLECTION

19th century Western is more complex, as drought, the intro- problematic due to
market hunters deci- Dan Flores pointed out duction of domestic the risk posed to live- in 1857 as Mexico
mated the great herds, in his award-winning cattle and the spread stock by brucellosis. spun into turmoil
and the bison was article Where the of such diseases as Ironically, culling two years after
near extinction by Buffalo Roam, in the brucellosis, tubercu- the herd remains the Santa Annas nal
1894, when Congress April 1997 Wild West. losis and anthrax. most viable option. ouster as president.

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 11

 ROUND UP

PULITZER
TO STILES
T.J. Stiles became
a two-time Pulitzer
Prize winner last
spring for his
biography Custers
Trials: A Life on the
Frontier of a New
America (reviewed
in the June 2016
Wild West). In
2010 the author
received his first
Pulitzer for the
biography The First
Tycoon: The Epic

NOMINATE THE ALAMO!

Should John Waynes 1960 epic The Alamo be If enough of us le a nomination, he says, perhaps
listed on the National Film Registry in the Library the powers that be will recognize its importance.
of Congress? To be eligible a movie must be at The author points to Wayne lms already on the Na-
least 10 years old and culturally, historically or tional Film Registry: The Big Trail (1930), Stagecoach
aesthetically signicant. The registry includes 675 (1939), Red River (1948), The Quiet Man (1952),
such lms and will add another 25 at years end. The Searchers (1956), Rio Bravo (1959) and The
John Farkis, author of Not ThinkinJust Remem- Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). To nomi-
berin: The Making of John Waynes The Alamo, nate The Alamo visit loc.gov/programs/national-
Life of Cornelius heads the list of those pulling for the Wayne classic. film-preservation-board/film-registry/nominate.
Vanderbilt. Alfred
A. Knopf published
both books, as well
as Stiles 2002 work REDSKINS REDEEMED?
Jesse James: Last The nickname of the National Football Leagues Washington Redskins
Rebel of the Civil has sparked much controversy in recent years. So the results of a recent
War. In his review Washington Post poll may come as a surprise. According to the survey
of Custers Trials of 504 American Indians across every state and the District of Columbia,
Paul Andrew Hutton nine in 10 respondents are not offended by the Redskins moniker, seven
notes that while in 10 did not consider the word disrespectful to Indians, and eight in 10
Stiles says little would not be offended if a non-Indian called them that name. Redskins
about the Battle of owner Daniel Snyder, who has adamantly refused to change the teams
the Little Bighorn, name, naturally celebrated the results, while others dismiss the poll.
he writes a story Regardless, Wild West will continue to use the terms American Indians
for all readers or Indians rather than Native Americans or Redskins.
interested in a
changing America
and in the incredibly
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
talented yet fatally
limited young soldier
who so perfectly
LEAVE ME ALONE, FOR GODS SAKE!
dened his age. Mortally wounded 7th U.S. Cavalry Private Henry Klotzbucher said this to concerned comrades
during the Valley Fight at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876.

1 2 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

 ROUND UP

Events of the west

coastlandacross Call 405-478-2250
nearly 20,000 square or visit national
feet of indoor and cowboymuseum.org.
outdoor spaces at
the Autry Museum
in Griffith Park, Los
Angeles. Featured
are two exhibition
galleries of art, arti-
facts and objects,
many on loan from
the Southwest Mu-
seum of the Ameri- Defeat of
can Indian, as well Jesse James V
as a new ethno- Northeld, Minn.,
botanical garden. hosts the annual
Helldorado to King of the Cow- Boundaries: Explor- Call 323-667-2000 Defeat of Jesse James
Days V boys Roy Rogers. ing Yellowstones or visit theautry.org. Days Sept. 711,
Tombstone, Ariz., Up for grabs is a Great Animal Migra- during which volun-
revisits the Wild pair of engraved, tion, focuses on the teers will reenact the
West with its annual silver-plated Colts migration of elk and Sept. 7, 1876, North-
Helldorado Days with ivory grips in other wildlife in the eld Raid, in which
festival Oct. 2123, a Hollywood-style greater Yellowstone the James-Younger
featuring gunfight Buscadero rig. Happy ecosystem. The exhi- gang targeted a bank
reenactors, line Trails is the nations bition features inter- but met with disaster.
dancers, cowboy only known childrens Visit djjd.org.
storytelling, West- charity that actively
ern music, a pa- supports shooting Prix de West V Curtis
rade, gun raffles sports and responsible The National Cowboy Photography
and vittles aplenty. gun ownership. For & Western Heritage The publication of
Visit tombstone more visit happytrails. Museums annual Christopher Cardo-
helldoradodays.com. org or call 855-788- Prix de West invita- zos Edward S. Curtis:
4440 to purchase tional art exhibit, fea- One Hundred Master-
Happy Trails tickets (you need not turing more than 300 works coincides with
Drawing W be present to win). active maps, cultural Western paintings and a traveling exhibition
On Dec. 17 the objects, videography, sculpture by contem- of the photographers
Happy Trails Chil- Yellowstone photography and porary Western artists, images. The exhibit
drens Foundation Migration artwork. Call 307-587- continues in Okla- visits the Glenbow
holds its Silver Screen On view through 4771 or visit centerof homa City through Museum in Calgary,
Legend XIX drawing, 2016 at the Buffalo Bill thewest.org. Aug. 7. Above is Alberta, through
dedicated as usual Center of the West in The Lake of Glass, an Sept. 18; and the
Cody, Wyo., Invisible California oil by Andrew Peters Flagler Museum in
Continued of Council Bluffs, Palm Beach, Fla.,
Opening Oct. 9, the Iowa, which won the Oct. 11Dec. 31.
exhibition California 2015 Purchase Award The exhibit and book
Continued relates and was added to feature fine photos
the states ecological the museums perma- of Indians. Visit
storyfrom deserts to nent art collection. edwardcurtis.com.

Send upcoming event notices to Wild West, 1600 Tysons Blvd., Suite 1140,
Tysons, VA 22102-4883. Submit at least four months in advance.

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 13

 INTERVIEW
BILL ONEAL TALKS TEXAS
THE LONE STAR STATE HISTORIAN HOLDS FORTH ON EVERYTHING
FROM SAM HOUSTON TO FRONTIER FORTS BY JOHNNY D. BOGGS
Longtime Western historian Bill ONeal keeps
very busy. Appointed Texas state historian
by Governor Rick Perry in 2012, ONeal has
taught at Panola College in Carthage since 1970
and blogs weekly about his revelations regard-
ing Texas history [lonestarhistorian.blogspot.
com and lonestarhistorian2.blogspot.com].
He has written more than 40 books, includ-
ing Sam Houston: A Study in Leadership (2016)
and the forthcoming Frontier Forts of West Texas.
ONeal recently made room in his packed
schedule to speak with Wild West.
What led you to write about Sam Houston?
In 2012, shortly after being appointed state historian, I was asked
to present a lecture at the Bullock Texas State History Museum
[thestoryoftexas.com] in Austin and was assigned the topic Lead-
ership Qualities of Sam Houston. Ive been fascinated by Old
Sam Jacinto all of my life, and I lectured about him for more than
30 years in my Texas history classes at Panola College. So it was
a pleasure to develop my ideas about Houston as a leader, and
the audience response was so strong that I used the topic on other
occasions. It was a particular thrill to deliver the keynote at the San
Jacinto Monument [sanjacinto-museum.org] on San Jacinto Day
2014. This was a subject that needed to be developed into a book.
What were his best qualities and worst aws?
In combat Houston exhibited raw physical courage. He led from
the front and suffered severe wounds leading charges at Horse-
shoe Bend and at San Jacinto. Sheer physical size is an asset
for a military leader, and with his imposing physique Houston
commanded instant respect from other soldiers. He was an
extraordinary orator, a useful gift in both military and political
leadership. Houston held powerful convictions, and he readily
assumed responsibility for his actions. Although he made friends
easily, when crossed, he would excoriate his adversaries ruth-
lessly, thus developing bitter enemies. And he drank heavily,
a trait noticed by the public and proclaimed by his enemies.
What prompted your book on west Texas forts?
Texas has seen more combat, civilian as well as military, than
any other state or territory. The U.S. Army built more forts in
Texas than in any other state, but by the time we became a
state, the conicts between Anglo settlers and American Indians
had ended in east Texas, and the military frontier had shifted
westward. Many of these forts have been wonderfully pre-
served, while others are in ruins. But at all of these sites the
19th-century ghosts may be felt. In Texas the Army learned to
1 4 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016
utilize cavalry against horseback warriors,
and forts were not fortiedthey were mili-
tary towns, bases from which to launch pa-
trols and pursuits. The U.S. Camel Corps oper-
ated in Texas, and so did all four regiments of
buffalo soldiers.
What does being the state historian
mean to you?
I was astounded when notied of my appoint-
ment. Im in my second term now. Im pretty
much allowed to freelance, so I function as
an ambassador for Texas history. I speak at
historical events and for every type of group in the Lone Star
State. Now Ive been asked by a university press to write a book
about my state historian travels around Texas, in sort of a Charles
Kuralt manner. Its been one of the most delightful and meaning-
ful gigs in my career as a historian.
So does being state historian open any doors?
My ofcial status has opened many historical doors, including
ones to the basements or attics of museums, where I get to see
and handle great stuff not on public display.
What drew you to a career in Western history?
I fell in love with the Old West watching Western movies when I
was growing up. I started reading history books about the real-life
characters and events that were part of these lms. By the time
I was in college, I had a list of places I needed to visit, and Ive
been attacking that list for more than half a century. And since
there was not a book on the Arizona Rangers, I wrote one. Ive
written many other books I wanted to read, and fewer than half
of my books have been about Texas.
What about your sideline in baseball history?
Ive been hooked on baseball since boyhood, and I grew up
watching Texas League games. One of my early books was a
centennial history of the Texas League, and that led to ofcial
league histories of four other minor leagues. At Cooperstown
I was welcomed as the King of the Bush Leagues.
Read the full interview online at WildWestMag.com.
BOOKS BY ONEAL: He has written, among many others, The
Johnson-Sims Feud: Romeo and Juliet, West Texas Style (2010);
Cheyenne, 18671903: A Biography of the Magic City of the
Plains (2006); Historic Ranches of the Old West (1997); The Arizona
Rangers (1987); and Encyclopedia of Western Gunghters (1979).
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 WESTERNERS

ALIAS BUNTLINE
Dime novelist Edward
Zane Carroll Judson,
an expert at promoting
others (most notably
Buffalo Bill Cody) and
himself, was better
known as E.Z.C. Judson
and best known by his
pseudonym, Ned Buntline.
In the early 1880s he
signed both names on
this cabinet card portrait
of himself, inscribed on
the reverse SARONYS
IMPERIALS, 680 BROADWAY,
N.Y. Napoleon Sarony
(182196) was a popu-
lar portrait photographer
whose subjects included
General William T. Sher-
man and writers Mark
Twain and Oscar Wilde.
Judson, who was born
the same year as Sarony
but died 10 years earlier,
served in the Navy and
in 1844 adopted his
pen namebuntline
being a nautical term for
a line used to furl a sail.
Buntline or Buntline
Special was also the
name ascribed to long-
barreled revolvers Judson
allegedly ordered from
Colt and presented to
Western lawmen Wyatt
Earp, Bat Masterson,
Bill Tilghman, Charlie
Bassett and Neal Brown.
That story, however,
originated in the writing
of another Western yarn
spinner, Stuart Lake.
TONY SAPIENZA COLLECTION

1 6 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

...like Teddy Roosevelt, Sitting Bull or Julius Caesar
Search PERSONALITIES at HistoryNet.com
More than 5,000 articles available online

HistoryNet.com
 GUNFIGHTERS & LAWMEN

No doubt Cullen Baker

looked nothing like this
fellow from the cover
illustration of The First
Fast Draw, but author
Louis LAmour very
loosely modeled the
protagonist after Baker.

SWAMP FOX
OF THE SULPHUR
TENNESSEE-BORN KILLER CULLEN BAKER
HIT HIS STRIDE AFTER THE CIVIL WAR BY BILL ONEAL

I n the humiliating aftermath of the Civil War many dispirited

Southerners rallied around Cullen Baker, a cold-blooded
Arkansas killer they propped up as a deant ex-Rebel who
continued to champion the Lost Cause against detested
Union occupation troops and Freedmens Bureau agents. Some
of his fellow former Confederates sheltered, fed and supplied
the fugitive, helping him elude pursuing soldiers and posses.
But Bakers long string of killingsinto the double digits
actually began well before the war. The killers bloody tally
prompted Western writer Louis LAmour to looselyalbeit very
looselybase his 1959 novel The First Fast Draw on Baker.
In fact a shotgun was Cullen Bakers preferred weapon, and
many of his killings were outright murders of unarmed or un-
suspecting victims. Baker killed his rst man when he was 19.
In the midst of the Civil War he deserted the Confederate army
to become a wanton guerrilla raider. He was clearly mentally
disturbed, and his continual drinking deepened his psychosis.
Yet despite his reputation as a vicious, homicidal, alcoholic
deserter, Baker somehow managed to glean sympathy and even
a measure of respect during an era of frontier gunplay.
Born in 1835 in west Tennessees Weakley County, Cullen
Montgomery Baker moved with his family to Texas when he

1 8 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016


was 4, and they eventually settled on a farm in
Cass County. The hot-tempered youth enjoyed
hunting and became a crack shot but was prone
to misbehavior, stghts and heavy drinking.
In January 1854, when he was 18, Baker married
Mary Jane Petty, but marriage didnt improve his
disposition or stem his drinking habit. That fall
in a drunken rage he bullwhipped an orphan boy.
When middle-aged neighbor Wesley Baily came
forward as a witness, Baker promptly shot him
in front of his family and then ed to Arkansas.
After his wife fell ill and died in 1860, Baker left
their little girl with in-laws and largely forgot her.
With the onset of the war the following spring he
returned to Texas and joined a Confederate cav-
alry company out of Jefferson. He soon deserted
that unit and in February 1862 enlisted in another
cavalry company at Linden, north of Jefferson.
In the midst of his checkered Confederate service
Private Baker married 15-year-old Martha Foster
of Cass County and went AWOL to be with her,
before wangling a disability discharge in 1863.
Baker soon headed up a band of fellow criminal mis-
ts that hid out in the southwest Arkansas bottom-
lands and swamps of the Sulphur River. Rumors
had it the Swamp Fox of the Sulphur killed three
or four Union troopers and a number of slaves.
A year after the war Bakers young wife died.
Increasingly unbalanced and dissipated, he erected
an efgy clad in her clothing. Within two months
he proposed to his late wifes 16-year-old sister,
Belle. The girl and her parents stify declined. Belle
instead married schoolteacher Thomas Orr. Pre-
dictably, Baker began to bully Orr, who had a de-
formed hand. After Baker tried to hang the teacher,
Orr rallied fellow citizens against the outlaw.
Baker resumed his deadly depredations in north-
east Texas, southwest Arkansas and northwest Lou-
isiana, leading his gang in raids that inevitably ended
in robbery and murder. In Queen City, Texas, store-
keeper John Rowden confronted the outlaw, and
Baker triggered a load of buckshot into his chest.
After his cold-blooded killing of a Texas freedman
on his own farm, Baker faced determined pursuit
by William Kirkman, an agent for the Freedmens
Bureau, which Congress had established in 1865
to help freed blacks during Reconstruction. On
June 25, 1867, Kirkman and several soldiers caught
up with Baker in Boston, Texas. In the ensuing
wild street shootout Baker killed Private Albert
Titus with a shotgun blast, but Kirkman winged
the outlaw leader in the arm. Elusive as ever, the
wounded Baker managed to escape.
PHOTOS: BILL ONEAL
Their game of cat and mouse continued more
than a year, but in the early morning hours of Oct. 7,
1868, Baker cornered Kirkman in his Boston ofce
GUNFIGHTERS & LAWMEN
Above: Baker enlisted in
the Confederate cavalry
outside the Cass County
Courthouse in Linden
Texas oldest courthouse
in continuous operation.
Left: A Confederate
marker caps his grave
at Oakland Cemetery
in Jefferson, Texas.
and, with three accomplices, opened re. Riddled
with 16 shotgun and pistol balls, Kirkman triggered
one shot before falling dead. Baker next went to
southwest Arkansas to get bureau superintendent
Hiram Willis, who had issued scathing public con-
demnations of the outlaw leader. On October 24
Baker and a half-dozen gang members confronted
Willis in a buggy on a business call, accompanied
by a driver, an area planter and the local sheriff.
When Willis went for his gun, the outlaws killed
him, the driver and the planter. The sheriff bolted.
Six days later Baker and other outlaws murdered
two more freedmen. When freedman Jerry Shefeld
publicly boasted he would lead pursuers to their
hideout for a small reward, Baker and accomplices
shot him down outside Queen City on December 6.
Baker and men eluded the soldiers and citizens
posses by crossing state borders and slipping into
the Sulphur River swamps. But posted rewards
assured relentless pursuit, and schoolteacher Orr
led the posse that ultimately caught up to the gang.
On Jan. 6, 1869, just east of Queen City across the
Texas line in Arkansas, the pursuers surprised Baker
and a cohort as they ate lunch. One account claims
an accomplice had laced their food and liquor with
strychnine, though to be certain, posse members
red bullets into Baker and his henchman.
Possemen found a shotgun, four revolvers, three
derringers and six knives on Bakers corpse. Orr
took the two bodies to military authorities in Jeffer-
son. Bakers grave in that citys Oakland Cemetery
bears a Confederate military marker, but the killer
had brought no honor to the defeated South.
OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 19
 PIONEERS & SETTLERS

English French Missouri French

insect insecte betail
corn husk cale capot de mas
skillet polon esquilette
fried pastry ptisserie frite galette chouage
peashooter sarbacane ptard
blackbird merle tourneau
opossum opossum rat de bois
raccoon raton laveur chat chouage
bullfrog grosse grenouille ouaouaron
slow moving au ralenti poc poc
potato pomme de terre patate

MISSOURI FRENCH IS
STILL SPOKEN HERE
THE ENDANGERED DIALECT WAS THE FIRST LANGUAGE
OF SETTLERS AT OLD MINES BY JIM WINNERMAN

Q uelle surprise! Many Midwesterners once spoke

a dialect known as Missouri French, one of five
French dialects that originated in the United States.
While Missouri French, Muskrat French and Mtis
French are all but extinct, Louisiana French and New England
French (a subgroup of Canadian French) remain relatively vi-
brant. As late as the 1940s Missouri French was the rst language
spoken by several thousand residents of the Old Mines commu-
nity in the eastern reaches of the state. The dialect dates from the
1700s when French-speaking miners and trappers migrated south
from Canada to nd a rich mix of cultures. Out of necessity these
settlers incorporated American Indian, African, Spanish, Cajun
and English words into their everyday discourse. Eventually
the language developed its own accent. Community elders and
interested linguists have since preserved the distinctive dialect.
Today perhaps only a few dozen speakers remain fluent,
although many area residents recall a scattering of words and
phrases learned as children, when Missouri French was widely
spoken at home.
Ask around Old Mines for someone who speaks Missouri
French, and most people point to Kent Bone, a uent speaker
and an avid student of the French history of the region. Bone is
pleased to explain how the dialect varies from both classical and
Canadian French, and he is well versed in the studies conducted
on Missouri French since the early 1920s.
The Missouri French accent is closer to Canadian French
than it is to Louisiana French, Bone explains. He should know,
as he has made repeated visits to Quebec City and Louisiana.
After I begin speaking, I get some strange looks, he admits.
It does not take long for someone to ask what version of French
I am speaking.
Missouri French originated in a 50-square-mile area centered
on Old Mines, named for the areas once prodigious lead mines.
There are myriad reasons why the dialect survived. Foremost,

2 0 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

 PIONEERS & SETTLERS

the area remained geographically isolated well

into the 1800s. There were few roads, and the rail-
ways bypassed the area, so outside communication
was minimal. Another reason was the strong sense
of community. French settlers arranged their land
in long, narrow plots, their homes clustered to-
gether with farmland fanning out like spokes from
a hub. The purpose was to enjoy the communion
and security of village life. The resulting emphasis
on family and community precluded the need to
assimilate. The Old Mines region comprised as
many as 30 such isolated French hamlets. Finally,
into the early 20th century the local St. Joachim
Catholic Church [stjoachim.org] continued to offer
Mass and the sacraments in Missouri French. Visible reminders of Old Mines surviving French Opposite: French crosses
The demise of Missouri French began in the heritage include surnames on area mailboxes. mark settlers graves in
the Old Mines cemetery.
early 1900s when public education and English Plenty of Aubuschons, Beguettes, Boubans, Lal- Above: A spinner demos
lessons became compulsory in Missouri, prompt- mondires, Rouleaus and Theabeaus still live here, her craft on the porch of
ing the clergy at St. Joachim to present church notes Bone, as well as many others with French a cabin preserved by the
Old Mines Area Historical
services in English. About the same time improved surnames. The same names grace markers in Society. Below: Reecting
mining machinery put a number of local laborers the old town cemetery, many topped with tradi- local heritage are signs
out of work, and many of these young men went tional French crosses. Other reminders include such as this (a lutin is
a French hobgoblin).
overseas during World War I. If they spoke Mis- business signs in Missouri French. A yellow-black-
souri French when they entered the service, they and-red sign beside Bones driveway warns of a
seldom spoke it by the time they returned. During LUTIN CROSSING, a reference to a mythical French
World War II a similar phenomenon affected many hobgoblin. And each spring and autumn locals
of the remaining speakers. In the postwar period and visitors gather at Old Mines for two grand
English became the path to mainstream jobs and ftes (see sidebar, below), celebrating local French
a brighter future. Finally, improved highways and heritage with traditional food, music, reenactments
modes of communication opened up the Old Mines and period festivities.
community, exposing locals to people with varied Missouri French continues to defy the odds, and
ethnic backgrounds and languages. residents proudly recite Old Mines unofcial slo-
Does Missouri French have a future? One person gan: On est toujours icitte (We are still here).
working to ensure it survives is Dennis Stroughmatt,
a student of Missouri French who makes his living
performing traditional songs in the dialect. The
singing ddler tours internationally, each year in-
troducing thousands of people to the dialect. One
of my goals is to preserve the language, he says,
as well as the Missouri French culture and music.
Stroughmatt himself was amazed to discover that
many of the centuries-old songs he learned in Mis-
souri French are played in many French-speaking
countries using the same tunes. Because of the ANNUAL FTES
small isolated area where Missouri French was spo- La Fte a Renault, held the third weekend in May, marks the early
ken, he explains, many of the words used are 1700s arrival in the region of pioneering French lead miners under
similar to Old Norman French, dating to the 1700s. Phillippe Franois Renault. During the festival more than 200
ABOVE AND RIGHT: JIM WINNERMAN; OPPOSITE: KENT BONE

In a recent issue of the journal Archaeology Strough-
matt explained the joy he gets singing songs that
are as much as 500 years old with people who are
two or three times my age in a language that by
all historical accounts should have been dead 200
years ago. He thrives on the history as much as
the music itself. I am likely the only singer who
has had anthropologists come to my concerts for
a reason other than listening to the music.
reenactors stay in tents on the green below St. Joachim Catholic
Church, dressing and living the part of early settlers. Participants
even bake bread in dome-shaped ovens reminiscent of the period.
Fte de lAutomne, held the rst Sunday of October, features globe-
trotting singer and fiddler Dennis Stroughmatt, who performs
traditional Missouri French songs. Attendees to both events can
also take in storytelling and sample traditional French food. The
Old Mines Area Historical Society hosts both events. For more
information email oldmines@yahoo.com or visit omahs.weebly.com.

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 21

 WESTERN ENTERPRISE
HE SHOOK UP THE
BANKING INDUSTRY
A.P. GIANNINIS INNOVATIVE BANK OF ITALY GREW INTO THE
MULTINATIONAL BANK OF AMERICA BY RAMON VASCONCELLOS
O n the morning of April 18, 1906, San Francisco
Police Sergeant Jesse Cook noted how horses along
the waterfront neighed and pulled anxiously at their
carts, as if disturbed by some unseen phenomena.
Minutes later Cook heard a deep rumble, deep and terrible and
watched Washington Street buckle, as if waves of the ocean were
coming towards me. Reporter Fred Hewitt of The San Francisco
Examiner later described how a little after 5:12 a.m. the dome of
the recently completed City Hall, symbol of San Franciscos pres-
tige and modernity, sloughed its masonry into the streets below.
Only its steel frame remained visible to the terror-stricken popu-
lace, who could only stand by as a 7.8 magnitude earthquake and
subsequent res destroyed much of the city, killing 3,000 people.
Fearing his business might be a total loss, A.P. Giannini,
founder of the start-up Bank of Italy, trekked 17 miles on foot
2 2 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016
A.P. Gianninis genuine
concern for depositors
enhanced his standing
in the Italian-American
communities throughout
California. His Bank of
America was a huge
success coast to coast
and helped put his face
on a 1973 U.S. stamp.
from his San Mateo home. Given the devastation he witnessed
en route, Giannini later admitted, I didnt have much hope for
the bank. Miraculously the building, on Montgomery Avenue
in North Beach, remained intact, but the res were spreading.
Appreciating his customers dire need to access their deposits
in the wake of the disaster, Giannini had the vault contents
loaded into two wagons for transport to a secure location. To
TOP LEFT AND OPPOSITE RIGHT: HERITAGE AUCTIONS, DALLAS
disguise the contents from roving looters, bank ofcials topped
off the wagonloads with crates of oranges.
Two days later Giannini opened a temporary bank on Wash-
ington Street using two barrels spanned by a wooden plank
and extending credit on a face and a signature. His expedi-
tious response and genuine concern for depositors needs
enhanced the bankers standing within San Franciscos growing
Italian-American community.

The Giannini family had migrated from north-
ern Italy to northern California in the 1860s, and
Amadeo Pietro was born in San Jose in 1870. Trag-
ically, his father was murdered when A.P. was still
a boy. So, when it came time to learn a trade, the
ambitious youngster entered the produce brokerage
and loan business owned by stepfather Lorenzo
Scatena. L. Scatena & Co. served Italian-American
merchants requiring working capital and farmers
accustomed to making short-term deposits.
Californias Legislature had not always been
favorable to banking institutions. To prevent banks
from issuing inated paper money with few gold or
silver deposits on hand to secure their value, the
state constitution of 1849 decreed that no such
associations shall make, issue or put into circulation
any bill, check, ticket, certicate, promissory note
or other paper, or the paper of any bank to circu-
late as money. Toward the end of the 19th century
the Legislature eased its banking regulations, given
savings institutions positive impact on Californias
growing economy. The modied state constitution
of 1879 omitted all references to banks.
Believing loan institutions should serve the little
fellow, Giannini launched Bank of Italy in 1904.
He went door to door in North Beach to drum up
deposits and enlarged his customer base by advo-
cating small loans, some as little as $25. The young
banker ran newspaper ads like the following:
ONE DOLLAR
It is not muchbut it is worth saving. With one dollar
you can open a savings account which may be the
beginning of your fortune. If in this moment you
have one dollar which you may either spend thought-
lessly or place in a safe place, come to our bank and
deposit it. It will earn interest together with other
funds which you may be able to deposit.
His personalized approach proved timely, as
much of the Italian-American community sought
out Bank of Italy for construction loans in the wake
of the earthquake. Business boomed, and a 1918 arti-
cle in Life quipped how San Franciscans regarded
Giannini: While A.M. stands for the rst half of the
day and P.M. for the latter half of the day, A.P.G.
[Amadeo Pietro Giannini] stands for all day. By
1925 Bank of Italy had obtained nearly 3.5 million
in deposits and opened nearly 5,000 accounts that
year alone, all originating from the deposits and
loans of Californias Italian-American communities.
Three years later the bank became the fth largest
in the nation, with 280 branches in California.
In 1909 the Legislature had passed the California
Bank Act, which allowed branch banking. Giannini
quickly adopted this model, establishing Bank of
WESTERN ENTERPRISE
Italy branches statewide and ensuring his directors,
We could diversify our risks and our business
through units based on different geographical
sections and trades. Throughout the Roaring
Twenties the aggressive banker continued to open
branches and acquire smaller banks. In 1930 Gi-
annini decided the banks Los Angeles subsidiary,
Bank of America, would serve as the moniker for a
planned transcontinental branch system. As a trust
company in New York City shared the same name,
Giannini simply purchased it under his holding
company, Transamerica. Bank of America now
had branches on the Pacic and Atlantic coasts.
In the 1930s Giannini confronted the Great De-
pression and an attempted takeover of Transamerica
by a partner of the holding rm. And while the sol-
vency of Bank of America calmed depositors and
creditors alike, Giannini, like other bankers, faced
the scrutiny of federal examiners then seeking to reg-
ulate the industry. In a backhanded testament to Gi-
anninis business acumen, the chairman of the newly
created Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
even criticized how the banks small army of depos-
itors had enabled Bank of America to ultimately
hold half the total deposits insured by the FDIC.
When Elisha Walker attempted a proxy bid for
control of the holding company in 1932, Giannini
elicited Italian-American shareholders to give him
their votes. Across the branches Italian-American
employees voiced a common refrain: We dont
know Walker. Look what A.P. Giannini did for
our people. Before he came we were dagos; now
we are Americans! Giannini thwarted the bid.
By the time of Gianninis death in 1949, his Bank
of America had nanced the Golden Gate Bridge
as well as several major lm studios. He had also
implemented installment credit, auto loans and a
lease program by which farmers could continue
working on foreclosed properties. Giannini donated
untold millions to charitable causes, and his personal
assets at death amounted to less than $500,000. I
never had the money itch, he said more than once.
Today Bank of America has nearly $9 billion in Giannini built his Bank
of Italy by stressing to
loans outstanding and $1.2 trillion in depositsa tes- depositors that even the
tament to Gianninis belief in the little fellow. small accounts mattered.
OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 23
 ART OF THE WEST
PIPESTONE AND A PRAYER
DAKOTA SIOUX PIPE MAKER TRAVIS ERICKSON QUARRIES
AND SHAPES THE SACRED RED STONE BY BILL MARKLEY
T he methodical cadence of steel on steel rings out
on a warm June evening. In a pit 18 feet below the
surface of the tallgrass prairie Travis Erickson de-
livers well-placed strikes with a sledgehammer to
a deftly positioned wedge. After several powerful blows a thick
slab of pipestone breaks from the rock formation.
Travis, a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate [swo-nsn.
gov] and a fourth-generation Sioux pipe maker (see related
article Fountain of the Red Pipe on P. 40), leans the sledge-
hammer against the quartzite wall of his one-man quarry at
Pipestone National Monument [nps.gov/pipe] in southwestern
Minnesota and hefts the pipestone slab. I like working with the
bottom pipestone layer the best, he explains. Its the hardest.
2 4 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016
Fourth-generation pipe
maker Travis Erickson,
opposite right, expends
much time and labor
to craft pipes like these.
His more ornate pipes
depict such animals as
bison, horses and eagles.
I can do lots of detail work with the bottom layer. It has a nice,
illuminating red luster.
Travis has been hand-quarrying pipestone for more than 35
years. Before working the rock, he takes the time to burn sage,
pray and offer tobacco. When I burn the sage, it is showing
respect to Mother Earth.
Once Travis frees the stone, the true art begins. Lots of times
when I look at a pipestone block, it tells me what it wants to be,
he says. Once I have my piece of stone picked out, Ill lay my
pipe pattern on it, draw it in pencil, then use my hacksaw to
cut the pipe out of the rock. Ill use the rasp leits aggressive
on one side and smoothing on the other. The rough side knocks
down the pipestone quickly to the basic shape I want. I use the

ner side to shape it the way I want it. I use sand-
PIPE IMAGES: COURTESY OF DAVID RAMBOW AND ERICA VOLKIR; PHOTO OF ERICKSON BY BILL MARKLEY
paper to nish the pipe. I drill my holes with a steel
drill bit. We use beeswax to darken the stone.
While the tradition remains sacrosanct, tech-
niques have changed. In the old days they rubbed
the pipestone against the quartzite to knock it
down to the shape they wanted and used flint
to drill the holes. They would use bear grease or
buffalo fat to darken it.
Travis works are showcased at the National
Museum of the American Indian [nmai.si.edu] in
Washington, D.C. Its a living, but rst and fore-
most its a spiritual undertaking. The artist ex-
plains his process: Im looking at this piece of
stone and saying, What do you want to be? and
then I see the image of a bear paw holding a bee-
hive. All right spirit, thats a good idea. He carves
ART OF THE WEST
simple elbows and T-shaped pipe bowls as well as
ornate gures of bears, buffalo, horses and eagles.
Travis draws power from the quartzite and pipe-
stone. I get recharged spiritually and mentally
when Im working my quarry, he says. The pipe-
stone belongs to Earth Mother. She allows me to
take it out. What is the most sacred thing on earth?
Some say the pipe, but I say no. The most sacred
thing is God loves you so much. He put you on
this earth so you can experience life in your way.
That is my truth. Each person has their own truth.
My teaching from my grandfather and uncles
is the pipe is a stick and a stone stuck together,
and when you pray with it, it becomes a sacred
pipe. Then you are responsible for the journey of
that pipe in your life. My belief is one truth of many.
It is my truth. Prayer works. And I am happy.
OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 25
 INDIAN LIFE
THE DEFIANT ONE
NAVAJO SHAMAN BAI-A-LIL-LE TAMED LIGHTNING AND RESISTED WHITES,
BUT HE COULDNT FIGHT OFF A BIG SNAKE BY DAVID MCCORMICK
R egarding friend Joseph A. Jody Lymans swollen,
maggot-filled wound, Lemuel Hardison Lem
Redd Jr. fought the urge to vomit. The men were
part of a ve-man Mormon posse that had tracked
a pair of horse thieves to the Crossing of the Fathers on the
Colorado River in fall 1881. In an exchange of gunre with the
rustlers Lyman had taken a bullet to the leg, which had shattered
his femur above the knee. One man had gone for help from the
Mormon settlement in Bluff, Utah Territory, 100 miles east, but
Redd and the two others who remained with Lyman wondered
whether their friend could hold on that long. Days later they
heard the beat of approaching hooves. They hoped the riders
were rescuers and not the rustlers.
To their relief it was a band of friendly Navajos. The headman,
a medicine man named Bai-a-lil-le (One With Supernatural
Power), slid off his pony and went directly to Lyman. After
examining the injured mans leg, he made a poultice from the
esh of a prickly pear cactus and applied it to the wound. Lyman
recovered to live another 44 years. Some of Bai-a-lil-les tribes-
men held him in awe for his power to heal, as well as his seeming
2 6 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016
Soldiers ultimately caught
up to the deant shaman
Bai-a-lil-le at his hogan
(similar to Robert Drapers
Navajo Hogan, below).
ability to draw or withhold the rain and call down lightning on
his enemies. Others, though, feared he was a sorcerer.
Born in 1859 in Canyon de Chelly (near present-day Chinle,
Ariz.), Bai-a-lil-le stirred up trouble as a youngster and was
banished from his clan. He settled on the Navajo Nation near
Aneth, in the southeast corner of Utah Territory, but ill wind
seemed to follow him. The Navajos there accused Bai-a-lil-le
of hastening the death of a sick woman by inserting a clump
of hair into her body. They, too, forced him into exile. Drifting
north, he settled among the Mormons and learned English.
When the enmity toward him had subsided in Aneth, he re-
turned to his people a more learned and much feared medicine
man. He soon demonstrated his healing power by treating the
wounded member of the Mormon posse.
On April 15, 1884, Bai-a-lil-le and other Navajos got in a row
with white settlers at Henry Mitchells trading post on the San
Juan River near Aneth. In the melee one Indian was killed, while
Bai-a-lil-le took a glancing blow from a slug to the forehead.
Knocked to the ground, he soon revived and ed to his bands
refuge some 30 miles northwest of Shiprock, New Mexico Terri-

tory, on the fringes of the Navajo Nation. There, left
largely undisturbed, his followers did not experi-
ence the white mans yoke as had other Navajos.
And from there Bai-a-lil-le railed against the forced
assimilation of Navajos into the white world.
In 1903 Bai-a-lil-le ran into a headwind when
Indian agent William T. Shelton established the
Northern Navajo Agency and San Juan Boarding
School at Shiprock. On paper anyway the deant
medicine mans band fell under Sheltons authority.
A by-the-book disciplinarian, the agent had little use
for wards unwilling to toe the line, while Bai-a-lil-le
clung stubbornly to Navajo traditions, scofng at
Shelton and the power of the government he repre-
sented. Shelton intermittently sent envoys to parlay
with Bai-a-lil-les band, all of which were rebuffed.
Tensions escalated as Bai-a-lil-le strong-armed other
Navajos into noncompliance and on several occa-
sions threatened to kill Shelton.
In the fall of 1906, in an effort to wipe out a
scabies infestation among reservation livestock,
Shelton ordered the Navajos to dip their sheep in
provided vats of insecticide. Bai-a-lil-le refused, in-
stead trading his animals for whiskey and rearms
in Cortez, Colo., against the agents orders. In Feb-
ruary 1907 Shelton sent yet another delegation of
Navajo headmen to parlay with Bai-a-lil-le, hoping
to nally persuade the adult members of his band
to enroll their children in the boarding school, of
which Shelton was superintendent. In no mood to
listen, Bai-a-lil-le and his warriors brandished their
weapons and red into the air as the envoys left.
That spring Shelton sent still more delegations,
appealing to Bai-a-lil-les followers to both school
their children and end their longstanding practice
of polygamy. The recalcitrant shaman replied with
further death threats. Should the Indian police and
OPPOSITE TOP: HERITAGE AUCTIONS, DALLAS; OPPOSITE BELOW: COURTESY OF C. KUTAC; RIGHT: WETHERELLFAMILY.COM
soldiers press the issue, Bai-a-lil-le warned, he and
his warriors would fan out in the rocks and shoot
to kill. He also threatened to call down lightning
on any Navajos who didnt fall in line.
Shelton nally appealed for intervention from
Francis E. Leupp, commissioner of Indian Affairs in
Washington D.C., and Leupp in turn implemented
President Theodore Roosevelts Big Stick diplo-
matic policy. On Oct. 22, 1907, Troops I and K of
the 5th U.S. Cavalry left Fort Wingate, New Mexi-
co Territory, under the command of Captain Harry
O. Williard. His ordersrun down the troublemaker.
Bai-a-lil-les band was camped on the south bank
of the San Juan River about 4 miles southeast of
Aneth. At dawn on October 28 Williards dismount-
ed cavalrymen rushed the medicine mans hogan
and began scufing with its occupants. An enraged
Bai-a-lil-le ercely resisted until one of the troopers
knocked him cold with blows to the head with the
INDIAN LIFE
butt of his revolver. Williard then ordered his cav-
alrymen to ride out and subdue the surrounding
hogans. In the 20-minute skirmish that followed,
Bai-a-lil-les relatives paid dearly. Troopers killed
his son-in-law Little Wet, mortally wounded his
son-in-law Little Warrior and wounded his nephew
Fuzzy Hat in both legs, though with help the latter
managed to escape into the underbrush. The brief
clash marked the last cavalry charge against hostile
Indians in the United States.
Troopers bound Bai-a-lil-le and nine others and
hauled them off to Shiprock, where Shelton had
them paraded before his agency wards as exam-
ples of bad Indians. Perhaps seeking leniency,
the medicine man admitted his guilt and vowed
to amend his ways. Regardless Indian Commis-
sioner Leupp arbitrarily sentenced him and his
lead follower Polly to 10 years hard labor at Fort
Huachuca, Arizona Territory. The others received
two-year sentences.
That wasnt the end of it. In late 1908 the Indian
Rights Association lobbied for the release of the
prisoners, assailing the government for sentencing
them without any pretense of a legal hearing.
After months of legal wrangling, the government
released the prisoners in early 1909.
Soon after returning home, Bai-a-lil-le got into
an argument with fellow Navajo Cream Color
Horses and threatened to call down lightning on
him. Unimpressed by the threat, Cream Color
Horses replied, You, Bai-a-lil-le, are going to be
swallowed by a big snake, and I place the San Juan
River as the big snake. (The sidewinding river
symbolized a snake to the Navajos.) Cream Color
Horses medicine proved stronger. In May 1911 Bai-
Indian agent William T.
a-lil-le and another man tried to cross the swollen Shelton (third from left in
river in a boat when it capsized. The other man rst row) had his hands
made it safely to shore, but Bai-a-lil-le, weighted full with Bai-a-lil-le and
in 1907 got help from
down by his pistol and cartridge belts, vanished the U.S. Cavalry to deal
into the belly of the big snake. with the Navajo shaman.
OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 27
 HOLLIDAY
IN MONTANA
Wanted in Arizona Territory and tracked to Colorado, the notorious gambler
and Earp associate sought refuge in booming Butte By Peter Brand
 I n July 1884 John Henry Doc Holli-
day was down and out. He was livingand slowly
dyingin Leadville, Colorado. The Rocky Mountain
mining town sat at more than 10,000 feet, and
the altitude and harsh winters had contributed to
Docs demise. Already suffering from tuberculosis,
he faced the added burden of recurrent pneumonia.
Due to his poor health he had lost his job dealing
faro and had pawned all his jewelry just to make
ends meet. Adding insult to injury, the March 1
Salida Daily Mail had reported that Hollidays one-
time close friend Wyatt Earp and fellow gambler
Johnny Crooked Mouth Green had visited that
mountain town some 60 miles south of Leadville
apparently without seeking out Doc.
Earp and Holliday had proved a tough combi-
nation three years earlier in Tombstone, Arizona
Territory, where Holliday had clashed with rival
gambler John E. Tyler, and Earp, after his own
confrontation with Tyler, had pressured the gam-
bler to leave town. The resulting humiliation and
loss of income left Tyler with hard feelings. As luck
would have it, he had relocated to Leadville. There
Doc was alone and vulnerable. Seeing a chance
to restore some of his lost pride, Tyler went on
the prod and confronted Holliday in a saloon on
the evening of July 21, practically inviting Doc to
pull his gun. But Doc was unarmed, as he could
not afford to be arrested for carrying a concealed
weapon. He had little choice but to take vile abuse
DOC HOLLIDAY IN 1879 PHOTO TAKEN IN PRESCOTT, ARIZONA TERRITORY; COLOR ADDED BY BRIAN WALKER
from Tyler and his cronies and to beat a shameful
retreat from the saloon.
Doc, already at a low point, then made another
bad error of judgmenthe borrowed a paltry $5
from William J. Billy Allen, a bartender and
co-worker of Tylers. Allen was a powerfully built
31-year-old with a hard reputation; he was ru-
mored to have killed a man in Illinois before drift-
ing into Colorado and joining the Leadville police
force in 1880.
When Allen pressed Holliday to repay the loan,
a broke Doc could only beg for more time. Allen
gave Holliday a deadline of August 19 at noon and
warned Doc that if he didnt pay up, he would re-
ceive a beating. Billy repeated the threat to others.
On the afternoon of the 19th, hours past the dead-
line, Allen strode through the door of Hymans
saloon to confront Holliday. Doc, noting that Billys
hands were in his pockets and believing him to
be armed, reached beneath the bar, raised his
pistol and red. His rst shot missed, but his sec-
ond caught Allen in the upper right arm, nicking
an artery. Bystanders bustled off Billy to the doctor,
while authorities charged Doc with assault and
threw him in jail.
At a subsequent hearing several witnesses testied
Allen had threatened Holliday over nonpayment
of the loan. Some pointed out the obvious physi-
cal discrepancies between the men. Docs fellow
gamblers were especially sympathetic and testi-
ed Holliday had had good cause to believe Allen
meant him harm, especially in light of the rumor
Billy had previously killed a man. At the conclu-
sion of the hearing, however, the judge bound over
Holliday for trial. Doc spent several days in jail
before the gambling fraternity put up his bail.
John Tyler must have been pleased to see Holli-
day on his knees, but he was grappling with his
own demons. His drinking habit was getting the
better of him, and on November 15 Tyler paid $8
and costs in police court on a charge of being drunk
and disorderly.
Meanwhile, Holliday struggled on in Leadville.
How he managed to sustain himself is uncertain,
but his friends may have taken pity on him and
paid his bills or provided him a stake with which
to gamble. Doc managed to stay out of further
trouble and dutifully showed up for his trial in
late March 1885. His defense team contended he
had shot Allen out of fear for his life, and the jury
agreed, acquitting Doc.
The embattled gamblers spirits must have lifted,
and his luck at the faro table seemed to have im-
proved, too, as in June he was able to lend $50 to
fellow gambler Curly Mack. On June 12 the Aspen
Daily Times reported Holliday had collected the
outstanding debt in a Leadville saloon a few nights
previously. After watching Curly win big at the
faro table, Doc had apparently reclaimed the $50
at gunpoint. Flush with cash and buoyed by the
warmer weather, Holliday decided to take a break
and a risk. He would leave Colorado and head
north to try his luck in new surroundingsButte,
Montana Territory. There he would no longer have
OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 29

Getting His Due
When a bullying Billy Allen
came to collect an overdue
loan, Holliday shot him.
to worry about John Tyler or Billy Allen. He could
start with a clean slate.
The move to Butte was a bold stroke for a man
still wanted in Arizona Territory for his partici-
pation, with Wyatt Earp and his federally depu-
tized posse, in the March 1882 revenge killing
of Frank Stilwell in Tucson. Holliday, who had
arrived in Colorado little over a month after the
shooting, had already evaded one unsuccessful
extradition attempt by Arizona authorities, and
he must have been mindful the same thing could
happen in Montana.
Earp himself had ventured to Aspen in early
May 1885 and partnered in the Fashion saloon.
Though he stayed through fall, there is no record
Wyatt ever tried to contact Doc in Leadville, and
its telling Holliday chose to leave Colorado rather
than, say, relocating to nearby Aspen to reunite
with Earp. It certainly suggests a rift of sorts re-
mained between the former friends. Sadly for Doc,
he would continue to face his challenges alone.
Butte was booming in the summer of 1885. The
silver-rich town had lured miners from around the
world and boasted a population of 14,000. Many
Leadville residents were joining the rush to Mon-
tana Territory. The Butte Daily Miner proudly an-
nounced Hollidays arrival on July 13, acclaiming
Doc as well known throughout the entire country
and a hale fellow well met. Holliday booked into
the recently renovated Revere House on Main
Street, which offered guests a central location and
free transportation to and from the train depot. The
hotel advertised 65 handsomely carpeted rooms,
complete with walnut furniture, spring beds and
a parlor on each floor for the convenience of its
guests. And the nest delicacies were available in
an adjoining restaurant, which served meals at all
hours. Doc, it seemed, would indulge in as many
comforts as possible, despite his chronic illness.
He quickly settled into saloon life, the Semi-Weekly
Miner later reporting Doc made a great many warm
friends among the sporting fraternity. Butte happily
catered to its growing population of gamblers, partic-
ularly around the time of Docs arrival, with the
summer horse racing season in full swing. Hordes
of citizens and professional gamblers alike attended
the races, which predominantly featured trotters. But
sporting men were spoiled for choice. During Docs
seven-month stay Butte offered a variety of other
ways for gamblers to win and lose large sums. Faro
COURTESY OF REGINA ANDRUS
and stud poker were ever popular in the saloons,
local tracks and rinks held foot and roller-skating
races, and boxing matches and billiard tournaments
attracted the best exponents from the West Coast.
Bookmakers held money on every event.
 What a Butte
Silver-rich Butte was
booming when Doc
went there to gamble.

Among the more successful horse owners and trainers was Unfortunately for Doc, his failing health and drinking habits
Isaac Ike Morehouse, who with partner William Gwin also caught up with him, just as they had in Leadville. That winter
ran the most popular gambling hall in Buttethe unimagina- in Butte he contracted a heavy cold, which, coupled with his
tively named Gwin & Morehouse on Main. The saloon and advanced tuberculosis, left him in a seemingly irritable and aggres-
gaming rooms occupied the front of the building, while the sive state. On the evening of Jan. 15, 1886 he was drinking heavily
Eureka Chop House leased the back rooms. Holliday frequented at the Gwin & Morehouse saloon, perhaps in an effort to self-
both during his stay in Butte. But Docs name was conspicuously medicate and alleviate his discomfort. At some point Doc took
absent from newspapers between August and November 1885, a break from the bar to have a meal at the adjoining Eureka
suggesting he kept out of trouble and conducted himself in a Chop House. There, according to a later report, he approached
peaceable and likely lucrative manner. Commenting later on a man seated on a high stool at the counter. Holliday made
Docs stay, the Semi-Weekly Miner claimed he made several gun drunken overtures to the stranger, but the man didnt recipro-
plays, but the paper itself offers no contemporary reports to cate. Annoyed by the rebuff, Doc reportedly drew his pistol,
support that assertion. took aim at the strangers head, then forced the
Anyone who did cause trouble in Butte had to Chief in Lodge Robes man to dance a quickstep by hopping on and
contend with Chief of Police David F. Meiklejohn Butte Police Chief David off his stool. Eureka proprietor Frederick Wey and
and his force. Scottish-born Meiklejohn was a F. Meiklejohn is out of patron Oliver P. Blaine witnessed the abuse and
uniform in this portrait.
veteran lawman, having rst worked with Morgan may have intervened to stop further trouble. No
Earp on the Butte police force in 1879. He had a shots were fired and Holliday eventually moved
hard reputation and was not averse to administer- on, leaving behind a badly traumatized victim. The
ing tough justice when making arrests. In 1888 Semi-Weekly Miner denounced Doc for his cowardly
Meiklejohns brutality would lose him his position attack on an innocent and inoffensive person.
IMAGES: COURTESY OF CINDI SHAW

on the police force. During Docs stint in the city,
however, the 37-year-old Scot was large and in
charge, and Holliday for the most part behaved
himself. The gambler maintained ties with family
or friends, as the December 30 Semi-Weekly Miner
listed a letter waiting for him at the post ofce.
Responding to a complaint, Chief Meiklejohn
went looking for Holliday, nally spotting his sus-
pect in the Arcade Chop House on Main. Traveling
salesman George T. Buffum claimed to have wit-
nessed what happened next and retold the story
in a 1905 newspaper interview. He said that when

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 31


Meiklejohn walked through the door, Doc, ex-
pecting gunplay, backed against a wall. Instead,
the chief walked up to the bar, bought a drink and
invited Doc to join him. Holliday obliged, and a
few minutes later the chief calmly placed the sickly
gambler under arrest.
Doc had been wise not to resist arrest. That very
night a Butte policeman shot a thief, and the next
day the Semi-Weekly Miner quoted Chief Meiklejohn
as saying, The entire police force has been in-
structed to shoot any thief or other criminal who
does not submit to arrestand the boys intend to
obey the order.
Holliday was released pending investigation.
On February 17 District Attorney William Y. Pem-
berton presented the case against Holliday, and the
3 2 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016
Docs Endgame
After the Tombstone
shootout, Holliday found
less lethal excitement in
Colorado and Montana.
grand jury indicted Doc on a charge of drawing
and exhibiting a deadly weapon. The indictment
listed a John H. Brumley as the rst witness in the
case, possibly indicating he had been the victim
of Docs drunken gunplay. The next day Deputy
Sheriff Joseph Buzzo went to Docs hotel room to
serve a warrant only to nd him conned to bed.
The attending physician, Dr. Clark Johnson, told
the deputy Holliday was too sick to be moved to
the county jail, and any attempt to do so would
endanger his life. The deputy accepted the diagno-
sis and allowed Doc to remain in his room, with the
expectation he would furnish bond and await trial.
Doc was in troublelikely unable to afford bond
and certainly too sick to survive a jail term. Adding
to his worries was the fear that reports of his pres-
ent legal troubles might prompt Arizona Territory
lawmen to launch another extradition attempt.
Holliday decided he was through with Butte. On
February 19, acting on a rumor the gambler had
vanished, a Semi-Weekly Miner reporter went to
Docs lodgings and learned the patient had re-
covered sufciently to pack his bags and was last
seen boarding an eastbound train. Some claimed
Holliday had departed for St. Paul, Minn., while
the Deer Lodge New North-west suggested he might
be hiding somewhere in Butte. In truth Doc had
hopped a train and headed back to the relative
safety of Colorado, specically the gambling clubs
of Denver.
As fate would have it, on June 11 the Rocky Moun-
tain News reported that Wyatt Earp and wife Josie
had arrived in Denver from Trinidad and were
staying at the Brunswick Hotel. According to Josies
Holliday Indicted later recollections, she and Wyatt ran into Doc in
District Attorney William a hotel lobby on one of their visits to Denver. If
Y. Pemberton presented a
case against Doc in Butte. that meeting did in fact occur, it would likely have
happened during this particular stopover. Josie re-
lated the sentimental tale of how Doc had heard
Wyatt was in town and wanted to meet with him
one more time, as Holliday knew his days were
PETER BRAND COLLECTION; MAP BY JOAN PENNINGTON
numbered. She claimed the old friends had recon-
ciled and parted on good terms, sadly and silently
knowing they would never see each other again.
In July and August 1886 Denver experienced
an inux of gamblers and condence men arriving
for the summer horse races. As part of an ongoing
civic reform agenda, police cracked down on the
sporting fraternity, making use of a new vagrancy
law to deal with suspicious types. Unfortunately
 TYLER
& ALLEN
John Tyler eventually
left Leadville and re-
turned to California,
where he was well
known from his days
bucking the tiger in
San Francisco in the
1870s. He spent some
End of Holliday
time in Grass Valley
Doc died with his boots
off at Hotel Glenwood before his battle with
in Glenwood Springs, the bottle again got
Colo., on Nov. 8, 1887. the better of him.
Broke and desperate,
he landed in Spokane
Falls, Wash., scoring
for Doc, he was swept up in one such crackdown, Peter Brand [tombstonevendetta.com], a re- a job dealing faro at a
arrested with two other gamblers on August 3. searcher and writer of the American West, local gambling resort.
It seemed Denver, too, was done with Doc, though is based in Sydney, Australia. Recommended
But Tyler couldnt
control his heavy
by then he was too sick to care. Packing his meager for further reading: Spitting Lead in Leadville:
drinking, and on the
possessions, he eventually made his way back to Hollidays Last Stand, by Roger Jay, in the morning of Jan. 21,
Leadville. He apparently wintered there with no December 2003 Wild West, and Doc Holli- 1891, he collapsed
further trouble from John Tyler or Billy Allen. day: The Life and Legend, by Gary L. Roberts. on the street after
In May 1887 Doc bade farewell to Leadville and an all-night bender
headed on down the line to Glenwood Springs to and died of a heart
avail himself of the purported healing waters of attack. The sporting
the local hot springs. It would be his last stop. fraternity paid for the
Curiously, the September 9 Leadville Evening 52-year-olds burial
Chronicle advised readers Holliday was in New in an unmarked grave.
Orleans, raising the possibility he had visited the
Billy Allen recov-
ered from the gun-
Big Easy at some point after leaving Denver the
shot wound inicted
year before. In fact Doc was slowly wasting away by Doc Holliday and
in Glenwood Springs, where he bravely eked out a went on to become
living as a bartender in a local saloon. By October re chief of Cripple
he was confined to his hotel bed, no longer able Creek, Colo. He later
to work or even move about. The sporting crowd joined the Klondike
in Leadville heard of Hollidays dire situation and Gold Rush to Alaska
took up a collection in early November. The funds and was appointed a
deputy U.S. marshal in
RIGHT: BOB STINSON; ABOVE: DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY

arrived too late. Doc, only 36, had died in his

room at the Hotel Glenwood on the morning of Nome. He ultimately
November 8. He was buried later that same day,
moved to Seattle,
Eternal
where he lived out his
attended by a large group of mourners. Reporting Holliday
Docs marker days. Allen died on
on Docs death, Leadvilles Carbonate Chronicle March 21, 1941, at the
is at Linwood
best summed up the tormented gambler, lauding Cemetery in Washington Soldiers
him as one of the most fearless men on the frontier Glenwood Home in Orting.
whose devotion to his friends in the climax of Springs.
He was 87. P.B.
the ercest ordeal was inextinguishable.

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 33

Remembering Adelia
Although she lived to be
nearly 80 and was the
sister of Wyatt Earp
(opposite, in detail from
Don Crowleys Wyatt
Earp: The Last Summer),
Adelia Edwards was
largely forgotten until
her alleged memoir
surfaced in the 1970s.

3 4 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

OPPOSITE: SCOTT DYKE COLLECTION; ABOVE: THE GREENWICH WORKSHOP, SEYMOUR, CONN.

Wyatts little sister was a footnote in the

eld of Earpianauntil an imaginative
Englishman put pen to paper By Scott Dyke

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 35

Dear Daughter
Mary Virginia Ginnie
Edwards, born in 1880,
was the rst of Adelia
Edwards nine children.
 Young Wyatt
Earp was about 21 when
he posed for the photo
at right in 1869 or 70,
probably in Lamar, Mo.
yatt Earp never seems to
wear out his welcome. He had a measure of fame
in his lifetime, and well after his 1929 death his
name rode to the forefront of Western lore as lms,
television and countless books dissected his life.
Historians have since rigorously analyzed, parsed
and investigated all things Earpiana, a eld with a
long record of contentious debate. The late Earp
biographer Lee Silva best stated the case: If these
guys put as much effort into researching Wyatt
as they expended attacking each other, we would
certainly know more about Wyatts life.
One document that has survived decades sans
such scrutiny is the memoir of Adelia Earp Ed-
wards, Wyatts younger sister. Adelia Douglas
Earp was born in Pella, Iowa, on June 16, 1861.
Wyatt was 13 when Nick and Virginia Earp wel-
comed their third daughter and youngest child into
the world (see related story about the family, P. 52).
Adelia was their only daughter to survive child-
hood. She lived nearly 80 years, dying in San Ber-
nardino, Calif. on Jan. 16, 1941. Bookended by the
advent of two major wars, her otherwise unremark-
able life went unnoticed until some 30 years after
her passing. A young English researcher named
David Cruickshanks changed all that. Adelia was
to be more than a footnote.
Cruickshanks rst foray of record into Earpi-
OPPOSITE: SCOTT DYKE COLLECTION; ABOVE: PRIVATE COLLECTION
ana was a 1970 letter to then respected Earp writer
and researcher Glenn G. Boyer. The letter (on le
in my collection) relates Cruickshanks fervent
interest to learn more about the Earps and their
comings and goings. Soon thereafter he was on the
trail of Earp author Alford E. Turner and another
young researcher, Robert F. Palmquist (see sidebar,
P. 39). What followed would change the landscape
of the Earp eld.
Cruickshanks decided to be a player. He noti-
ed Turner and others of a letter in his possession
written by an S.D. Allen and given Cruickshanks
by his father. Dated 1938, the letter expounded on
an arrest by Wyatt in Dodge City and also opined
on Earp in general. Cruickshanks contacts asked
to see the original, but he demurred. Turner refer-
enced the letter in his 1980 book The Earps Talk.
Boyer, however, was skeptical and challenged its
authenticity. In his les (also part of my collection)
Boyer noted that Cruickshanks admitted the hoax
after questioning. Ironically, Boyer was later cen-
sured regarding the veracity of his own work and
eventually written off by many in the eld. Thats
another matter. But Boyer, who died in 2013, did
accomplish signicant research, and I discovered
the Cruickshanks le while sifting through his
immense collection. Boyer had never mentioned
the Englishman to me, and I was curious. In one
corner of the file a notation dismissed the Allen
letter as an unimportant fraud by an Earp nut.
Clearly Boyer had slight interest in Cruickshanks
at the time, but when Adelias memoir later ap-
peared, the Earp researcher had much to say.
Boyers doubts aside, the Allen letter carved out
a place for young Cruickshanks. After Turner gave
it an airing, Allen Barra excerpted it in his popu-
lar 1998 book Inventing Wyatt Earp. Despite never
producing the original, Cruickshanks had garnered
a measure of acceptance.
Thus encouraged, the Englishman expanded his
subject, claiming to have inherited a collection of
sorts from his late uncle. He sent a trial balloon
statesidethe rst rendition of Adelia Earps mem-
oir. Boyer again voiced skepticism. When Cruick-
shanks followed up with a second iteration, Boyer
ran out of patience and red off a dismissive letter.
Regardless, it was not long until the memoir, type-
written and purportedly put on paper by a fellow
named Conrad in the early 1930s, found its way
to Californias Colton Public Library, a known
repository of Earp family history.
OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 37
No-Tell Estelle Four out of Nine
Adelias daughter Estelle, Adelias children (from
posing here with husband left) Estelle, Muryl,
Bill Miller, never made George and Florence
mention of a memoir. pose for a 1958 photo.

Earl Chan later produced an edited rendition of the memoir Adelia and husband left Kansas for San Bernardino, Calif.,
not be the rst or last time the self-published author, who died in May 1877, while Doc arrived in Dodge in 1878, according
in 2003, claimed credit for Earp-related work. Chan had put to biographers Gary Roberts and Karen Holliday Tanner. Its
his name on what was essentially a reprint of the Colton Public doubtful she ever saw him, let alone knew him. Holliday was
Library manuscript. Lee Silva later tried to chase down the in Texas when Adelia left Kansas, and he didnt exhibit any
original at Colton but came up with nothingthe document outward symptoms of tuberculosis until late 1878. At that point
had disappeared. As far as I know, no one to date has checked Doc, with Big Nose Kate in tow, headed to Las Vegas, New
the background or veracity of the memoir, which reportedly Mexico Territory, for the purported healing properties of its
chronicles the Earp brothers lives from youth to the time of hot springs (see related story, P. 58). Adelia and Bill are buried
the interview. Though lacking provenance, it took a place at in San Bernardinos Mountain View Cemetery, near her uncle
the Earp table. As recently as 2013 Andrew Isenberg referenced James Earp.
the memoir in his book Wyatt Earp: A Vigilante Life. What makes Adelia Earp Edwards memoir even more suspect
is that no one in the tightly knit Earp clan ever indicated Adelia
The time lines in the memoir raise serious doubts. Take, had been interviewed. If she had, daughter Estelle likely would
for example, a reference to Dodge City Mayor James H. Dog have known about it and conveyed the information to Boyer,
Kelley. In the account Adelia claims to have been impertinent to who would have been all over it like a duck on a June bug.
the drunken mayor when he stopped by the Earp place in Dodge, Cruickshanks remains an enigma. From 1970 to 2001 he had
and that her mother, Virginia, subsequently switched her. The at least six different addresses in England. An address he claimed
problem with the story is that Kelley was elected on April 2, 1877, in June 2001 appears on two letters (part of the David de Haas
and on April 9 Adelia married Bill Edwards in Rice County, Collection), one of which he sent to the late Michael Hickey,
some 150 miles from Dodge City. How likely is it a betrothed a noted Earp publisher. The Englishman was threatening to
young woman got a licking from her mother a week before her file suit after Hickey excerpted the memoir in his 2000 book
wedding and arrived in time for the nuptials? The Death of Warren Baxter Earp: A Closer Look.
The memoir also mentions an occasion in 1903 when Adelia Adelias memoir remains dubious to say the least. If the TOP LEFT AND RIGHT: SCOTT DYKE COLLECTION; LEFT: KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

served drinks to Wyatt, Virgil and James Earp in a room at the manuscript isnt the real deal, one wonders what motivated
Los Angeles hotel owned by Albert Billicke, an Cruickshanks to produce it, and why so many
Earp friend from Tombstone. She said they had a Treated Like a Dog Earp researchers and writers through the years
In her memoir Adelia
real ne time. But Adelias dispensing of spirits is claimed to have been have accepted it. That said, such occurrences are
highly questionable, as by then shed been married impertinent to Dodge City hardly rare in the field of Earpianaanother re-
a quarter-century to a chronic alcoholic. Indeed, Mayor Jim Dog Kelley. minder we should regard any new revelation with
Earp genealogist Esther Colyn repeatedly said some degree of skepticism and employ all due
Adelia was death on alcohol because of Bill, an diligence to determine its validity.
assertion conrmed by Adelias daughter Estelle
Miller, the fourth of their nine children. Bill Ed- Scott Dyke, a newspaper columnist in southern
wards nally drank himself to death in 1921. Arizona, has pursued his dual passions for
The memoir also references Doc Holliday, whom the Old West and all things Wyatt Earp since
Adelia described as a very sick young man. But moving to the state from North Carolina in 2002.

3 8 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016


HISTORY LESSONS
Adelias own story might be anything but
in any case it remains problematic By Bob Palmquist
In his essay Historicism English writer C.S. Lewis likened
the research and writing of history to trying to assemble a
puzzle with a number of pieces missing. The problem is exac-
erbated when pieces one does have dont belong in the puzzle.
The uncritical use of dubious historical sources has marred
many works of history and biography. Abraham Lincoln
biographers, for example, had accepted as genuine a trove
of letters supposedly written by Lincolns New Salem, Ill.,
sweetheart, Ann Rutledge, until historian Paul Angle exposed
the Rutledge Letters as forgeries. More recently writer
Clifford Irving produced a phony memoir of reclusive billion-
aire Howard Hughes and seemingly was on his way to fame
and fortune until Hughes himself denounced it as a hoax.
Western American history has not been immune from this
phenomenon. The perennially best-selling rst biography
of Wyatt Earp, Stuart Lakes Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal
(1931), largely reads as if dictated to Lake by the aging gambler
and lawman. About a decade after its publication, however,
literary critic and Belle Starr biographer Burton Rascoe asked
Lake why his polished prose and the quotations reportedly
supplied to Lake by Earp in interviews were so similar. Lake
fessed up in a private letter to Rascoe that in fact Wyatt, being
delightfully laconic, or exasperatingly so, had never dic-
tated a word of Frontier Marshal. Despite Lakes admission,
which Rascoe mentioned in his Belle Starr book, subsequent
Earp biographers continued to source Wyatts recollections.
Similarly, Frank Waters, after interviewing Virgil Earps
widow, Alvira Sullivan Earp, in the 1930s, turned out a manu-
script titled Tombstone Travesty that largely attacked the
Earp brothers. When Allie Earp repudiated the manuscript,
Waters withheld publication until well after she was dead.
His end product, The Earp Brothers of Tombstone (1960), di-
verged even more sharply from the earlier version Allie had
dictated, yet writers lauded the book as Allies own story.
Which brings us to the curious document that apparently
surfaced in the late 1970s as ostensible recollections of Adelia
Earp Edwards, the Earp brothers little sister. At least two
versions of the manuscript exist. The rst was the typewritten
document donated to Californias Colton Public Library and
circulated among a number of Earp writers, in-
cluding yours truly. The second was the version
self-published by the prolic Earl Chan in 1998
and again in 2000, the title page of which states
the manuscript was written in 19321934 and
had been transcribed and edited from the origi-
nal. If this was meant to suggest the editor had
transcribed Adelia Earp Edwards recollections
from an original handwritten document pro-
duced by her, it was almost certainly untrue.
The Colton Public Library edition, produced by
English Earp researcher David Cruickshanks,
claimed to be an as dictated to manuscript; as far as I know,
no handwritten version of the work has ever come to light.
Cruickshanks was well known to a number of Western
history researchers in the late 70s. The Londoner reportedly
was for a time a member of the English Corral of the West-
erners [english-westerners-society.org.uk], whose members
included the late Hickok biographer Joseph G. Rosa. In 1978
I was working closely with Glenn Boyer and Alford Turner,
and Glenn put me in touch with Cruickshanks, who had con-
tacted Boyer somewhat earlier. Dave and I exchanged sev-
eral letters and transatlantic phone calls. Eventually Cruick-
shanks sent me a copy of the Wild West Remembrances of
Adelia Earp Edwards; he also sent copies to Boyer, Turner
and Doc Holliday biographer Gary L. Roberts. All concerned
inquired about the original, but no one received so much
as a glimpse of that document, not even a photocopy.
Cruickshanks version is a rambling set of random stories
Adelias purported recollections of her brothers and parents
with critical annotations by her alleged amanuensis. The
latter shadowy gure (a would-be Stuart Lake?) supposedly
scribbled complaints in the margins to the effect that just
as shes getting interesting, his subject would veer off in a
new direction with an unrelated story.
Adelias stories themselves contain a number of discrep-
ancies. For instance, she relates that Wyatt and Morgan Earp
were off buffalo hunting in 187172, producing enough in the
way of marketable hides to enable the brothers to buy her new
clothes. Subsequent research has shown that both Earp boys
were indeed busy during that time periodnot on the buffalo
range, however, but in the red-light district of Peoria, Ill. In
another passage Adelia suggests the Earps Tombstone trou-
bles stemmed in part from a romance between James Earps
stepdaughter, Hattie, and one of the McLaury boys. Diligent
research has also debunked this tale, which derived from
Waters 1960 screed The Earp Brothers. Cruickshanks Adelia
asserts that gambler and gunman Luke Short was in Dodge
City in 1876, and that she met him there during the Earp fam-
ilys brief sojourn in Dodge in 187677. This almost certainly
derived from Lakes Frontier Marshal, in which the author
has Wyatt saying that Dodge City businesses included the
Long Branch Saloon, with Luke Short running the gambling.
Short likely did not arrive in Dodge that early. Adelia further
claims Warren Earp never married, when in fact he did.
Even this short list suggests historians should further
scrutinize the Wild West Remembrances of
Adelia Earp before citing it as genuine. A look
at the original manuscript, if one exists, would
help. More detailed information on the pur-
ported transcriber of Adelias memoir would
likewise help the process. Until some intrepid
researcher tackles such tasks, the writer buys
Adelias stories at his own peril.
Tucson attorney and historian Robert F. Palmquist
has researched and written extensively about the
Earps and other true Tombstone tales.
OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 39
 FOUNTAIN
OF THE
RED PIPE
From hallowed Minnesota quarries Indians have long extracted
the stone for their ceremonial pipe bowls By Bill Markley
 German Fascination
In 1881 German artist
Rudolf Daniel Ludwig
Cronau (18551939)
rendered The Great
Rock Quarry That Is a
Holy Place of the Red
Race, colorized here
by David Rambow.

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 41

Catlin and Catlinite
George Catlin painted the
quarries and took samples
of the sacred pipestone,
later deemed a new rock
form and named catlinite.
A ll the things of the universe are joined to you who smoke the pipeall send their voices to Wakan Tanka, the
Great Spirit. When you pray with this pipe, you pray for and with everything The Sacred Pipe, by Black Elk, Oglala Lakota holy man
The ceremonial pipe is central to the religious practices and
cultural traditions of many Indian tribes in the United States.
It comprises two basic partsa wooden stem, representing the
male, and a stone bowl, representing the female. When joined
together, the complementary parts represent the people as a
whole. Among many tribes the origin of the most sacred pipe
bowls are the quarries at Pipestone, Minn., in the southwest
corner of the state.
According to Sioux tradition the Great Spirit sent a ood to
cleanse the Earth. The blood of those killed in the ood seeped
into the ground and congealed into the present-day pipestone
formation. For centuries various tribes have gathered at the site
to quarry the soft red stone and fashion it into ceremonial pipe
bowls. When passing around the pipe, people send up prayers
with the smoke.
The pipestone quarries are a wellspring, says Dave Ram-
bow, former ofce manager of the Pipestone Indian Shrine Asso-
4 2 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016
ciation [authenticpipestone.com]. The elements of the pipe
cover sky, earth, water and wind. The stone bowl is of the earth,
the wood stem is of the earth, the smoke is of the earth but
ascends into the sky, carrying the prayers to the Great Spirit.
Geologists believe the pipestone rock formation originated
more than 1.6 billion years ago as ancient rivers and streams
deposited layers of red clay atop sandstone. Over the millennia
the watercourses deposited additional layers of sand atop the
clay. The overlying sand ultimately metamorphosed into 10- to
15-foot thick layers of hard Sioux quartzite, and the resulting
heat and pressure compressed the clay into a layer of soft pipe-
stone up to 18 inches thick.
Archaeological digs in the region have turned up signs of
human activity dating back some 9,000 years, while evidence
suggests people have used the southwest Minnesota pipestone
quarries for perhaps 3,000 years. Soft enough to carve yet
durable enough to permit extended use, pipestone became a
 prized trade commodity throughout North Amer-
ica. Members of such tribes as the Iowa, Oto,
Dakota, Lakota, Mandan, Chippewa, Omaha,
Ponca, Sauk and Fox traveled long distances to
quarry the stone. Tradition held that pilgrims to
the sacred quarries were to refrain from violence Pipestone
while on-site, even when encountering members National
of warring tribesthough some have challenged
the veracity of that claim.
Monument
Early French-Canadian fur traders, known as
coureurs des bois (runners of the woods), heard of
the quarries, and one of them, Pierre-Charles Le
Sueur, is thought to have been the rst European
to visit the site, sometime in the late 1600s. Meri-
wether Lewis and William Clark knew of the quar-
ries but did not see them firsthand during their
180406 expedition. The country watered by this
last river [Pipestone Creek] is remarkable for fur-
nishing a red stone, of which the savages make
their most esteemed pipes, Lewis wrote. The
Pipestone Falls
Indians of many nations travel vast distances to Winnewissa Falls Pipestone National
obtain this stone, and it is assertedthat all na- is at top, while the Monument [nps.gov/
stereograph above,
tions are at peace with each other while in this
taken by William
pipe] lies just outside
district. While wintering in the region in 1831 Illingworth in 1870, Pipestone, Minn.,
32, New Yorkborn explorer and fur trader Philan- shows Double Falls. 25 miles north of I-90.
der Prescott and party visited the quarries. They The monument is open
tried blasting through year-round, though
the quartzite with gun-
hours vary by season.
The -mile Circle
powder, to little effect,
Trail leads through
and after a full days tallgrass prairie past
digging collected only active quarries to
enough pipestone to Winnewissa Falls and
make 20 pipes. other cascades. High-
In 1832 artist George lights include the ledge
Catlin traveled up the on which guide Joseph
Missouri River to record La Framboise carved the
OPPOSITE: NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY; RIGHT: BILL MARKLEY; FAR RIGHT: DAVID RAMBOW AND WILLIAM ILLINGWORTH (1842-93)

life among the various initials of 1838 Nicollet

tribes and render por- expedition members,
traits of individual Indi-
as well as Leaping Rock,
to which John Frmont
Path to Red Pipe ans. Two of his subjects
John The Pathnder made his Fourth of July
a Mandan chief and a Ponca chieftold the artist leap that year with the
Frmont made his way
to the site in 1838. of the fountain of the red pipe, gifted him with American ag. Visitors
pipes and insisted the Sioux Indians had since are welcome to watch as
claimed the quarries as their own. Obsessed with quarriers labor to reach
seeing the site rsthand, Catlin set out to visit it in and remove the pipe-
Leaping Rock 1836 with English travel companion the Rev. Rob- stone. The visitor center
Frmont leaped this ert Wood. At the Traverse des Sioux river cross- includes a museum
gap on July Fourth. and continually shows
ing, some 150 miles from the quarries, the travelers
encountered a group of hostile Santee Dakotas an award-winning
who claimed to be the protectors of the pipestone.
22-minute interpretive
lm, Pipestone: An
The Santees detained the pair, warning them no
Unbroken Legacy. From
white man has been to the red pipe, and none April to October on-site
shall go. After convincing the Sioux they werent artisans demonstrate
government agents, Catlin and Wood pressed on, the art of carving and
hiring French-Canadian trader Joseph La Fram- shaping pipes from the
boise of the American Fur Co. to guide them the sacred stone. B.M.

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 43

last 50 miles. On August 17 the trio reached the the quantity of rude iron tools scattered about,
pipestone quarries. Catlin not only wrote about he questioned the antiquity of the site, though he
and painted the quarries but also took samples of was impressed by the amount of labor the Indians
the sacred pipestone. These he sent to Boston-based had expended in throwing off the quartzite to
geologist Charles Thomas Jackson, who analyzed obtain the pipestone.
them and deemed them a new rock form that he Another notable visitor was photographer Wil-
named catlinite. liam Illingworth (see sidebar, opposite), best known
Surveying the Stone
French geographer and
for later accompanying Lt. Col. George Arm-
Though Catlin had assured the Sioux he was Renaissance man Joseph strong Custers 1874 Black Hills Expedition. In
not a federal agent, his popular paintings and writ- Nicollet led the 1838 1870 he was a partner in the Sioux City, Iowa,
survey party to the site.
ings brought the pipestone quarries to the govern- photographic firm Gurnsey & Illingworth when
ments attention. In 1838, two years after guiding he learned of the pipestone quarries and became
the artist to the quarries, La Framboise led a 15-member Corps fascinated. So on May 28 he packed his gear and supplies into
of Topographical Engineers survey team to the site. Funded by a wagon, headed north more than 100 miles along the Big Sioux
the War Department, the party was led by French geographer River to the falls of the Big Sioux and then on to the pipestone
and Renaissance man Joseph Nicollet and included young Lieu- quarries and adjacent waterfalls. He took more than 20 stereo-
tenant John Frmont, the future Pathnder of expeditions still scopic images of the quarries and falls, which looked even more
farther west. The purpose of the Nicollet expedition was to map dramatic in the heavy rains that drenched him every day but
the region between the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers. one during his trip. When Illingworth returned home on June 8,
The party reached the pipestone quarries in late June and stayed The Sioux City Journal reported he was so much of a sight that
nearly a week. Nicollet asked La Framboise to carve expedition he was immediately photographed by Mr. Gurnsey. Gurnseys
members initials and the month and year into one of the rock photo of his intrepid partner has yet to surface.
ledges. While alone and busily doing so, the guide was startled Nine days later the newspaper ran the following seemingly
by a hand on his shoulder and a voice asking what he was doing. inconsequential notice: Charles Bennett of Le Mars [Iowa] is
Fortunately for La Framboise his interrogator was an old friend in the city. Bennett, perhaps inspired by Illingworths photo-
from the Wahpekute Dakota tribe. The friend and his party had graphs, also became obsessed with visiting the quarries, which
been tailing the expedition for several days. Nicollet invited the he did three years later with wife and friends. Soon thereafter
Wahpekutes to camp alongside his men, and the Indians were he hatched a plan to start a town near the site, convinced the
delighted when the soldiers used gunpowder to blast through waterfalls would draw tourists. In 1874 he and two friends regis-
the upper layer of quartzite to get to the pipestone. On the tered homestead claims in the area, and within a couple years
Fourth of July a high-spirited Frmont clambered atop a rocky he platted the townsite of Pipestone and was its primary booster.
bluff with an American flag and then jumped a 5-foot gap to As Bennett anticipated, the town soon thrived as tourists ocked
what is known today as Leaping Rock, where he unfurled and to the quarries and waterfalls.
planted the banner. The expeditions visit was peaceful, and In 1881 German artist Rudolf Cronau visited the pipestone
it soon moved on to map the rest of the region. quarries, befriended such tribal leaders such as Struck-by-
Awareness of the extraordinary pipestone site dramatically the-Ree, Crow King, Gall and Sitting Bull and rendered heroic
increased with the 1855 publication of Henry Wadsworth Long- portraits of Indians at the quarries. Through Cronaus paint-
fellows Song of Hiawatha. His popular epic poem directly refer- ings and writings the German people came to share Americans
ences the great Pipestone Quarry and deies Gitche Manito, fascination with the quarry and its Indian overseers.
the mighty, He the Master of Life, who stood atop the quarries
and instructed the Indian nations to cease their warring, fashion As the century wore on, it became more and more difcult
the red stone into pipes and smoke to peace. for Indians to travel from their reservations to the quarries. In
Legend aside, various exploratory and scientic surveys to their absence white settlers encroached on the protected parcel
the quarries continued into the late 1800s. Under the increasing to farm and graze animals and to quarry pipestone as souve-
public scrutiny, the Indians of the region struggled to retain nirs for the tourists. In 1887 Captain J.W. Bean and 10 soldiers
control of the site. In 1858 the Yanktons signed a treaty with peaceably evicted the squatters and replaced the boundary
the U.S. government that sent them westward 150 miles to a markers. Regardless, through the turn of the century the Yank-
reservation in present-day South Dakota. Thanks to a provision tons fought a continual battle to retain control of the site, a
OPPOSITE: WILLIAM ILLINGWORTH (1842-93)

insisted on by Chief Struck-by-the-Ree, however, the Yanktons number of them relocating there to quarry the stone and craft
retained rights to 648-acre tract of land encompassing the quar- their pipes. In 1893, against their wishes and over their protests,
ries, with a federal guarantee they would have free and unfettered the federal government built an Indian school and allowed a
use of the quarries. railroad right-of-way through the parcel. Government ofcials
In the fall of 1866 Massachusetts-born geologist Ferdinand repeatedly tried to strip the Yanktons rights to the quarries, and
Hayden, who would soon launch his extensive surveys of the the tribe responded by going to court. Finally, in 1929 the
Rocky Mountain West, visited the site for a day. Remarking on government bought the land from the Yanktons for $328,558.90,

4 4 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

though it granted them the right to continue quar-
rying their sacred stone.
In 1937 Congress established Pipestone National
Monument, tasking the National Park Service with
protecting and managing its natural resources,
while authorizing members of all tribes to quarry
pipestone for traditional purposes. Several fami-
lies have carried on the pipe-making tradition,
passing the skills from generation to generation.
In 1946 the NPS began issuing permits to Indians
interested in using the stone, though the number
of permits remained low until interest in pipe-
making rekindled in the 1960s.
Today, on obtaining a permit, enrolled members
of federally recognized tribes can remove the stone
at no cost. The waiting list is long, however, as
digging is limited to 56 active quarries. A stalwart
individual or a few close family members typically
work a quarry. Before starting work, depending
on their traditions, the quarriers may purify them-
selves through a sweat lodge ceremony or by burn-
ing sage, or they may leave an offering or pray at
the site. Regulations permit the use only of hand
toolssledgehammers, picks, chisels, wedges, shov-
els, pry bars, etc. Power tools, heavy equipment
and explosives are forbidden. Quarriers rst have
to remove any plant cover and soil. Then comes
the intense labor of breaking through the thick layer
of hard Sioux quartzite. Experienced quarriers ex-
ploit natural cracks and ssures in the rock, driving
wedges into them to bust out chunks of quartzite.
Still, it may take crews months if not years to break
through. On nally reaching the pipestone layer,
quarriers must use caution to remove intact sheets
of the soft stone, thus providing carvers as much
workable material as possible.
The pipestone is relatively easy to work using
saws, knives, les, rasps and sandpaper. Traditional
pipe makers used buffalo fat to draw out the rich
red luster of the pipestone; today many use bees-
wax. The nished product is truly a labor of love.
Wahpeton Sioux Travis Erickson, a fourth-gener-
ation quarrier and pipe artisan, has put 35 years
of blood, sweat and tears into creating his exquisite
pipestone bowls, some of which are on display at the
Smithsonian Institution (see Art of the West, P. 24).
I can say there is a connection between me and the
pipestone, between me and quarries, Travis says
of his lifes work. Its a spiritual connection.
Bill Markley [billmarkley.com] of Pierre, S.D.,
works for the South Dakota Department of Envi-
ronment and Natural Resources and is a staff
writer for Roundup, the membership journal of
Western Writers of America [westernwriters.org].
Sacred Stone,
Fated Photographer
Englishman William Illingworth, whose Time Lapse
stereoscopic images of Pipestones water- Compare the William
Illingworth stereograph
falls, cliffs and quarries fueled public in- in hand to the same
terest in the region, was driven by a love spot at Pipestone more
for the scenic outdoors. Born in Leeds on than 140 years later.
Sept. 20, 1842, Illingworth had settled with
his family in St. Paul, Minn., by 1850. As a young man he moved
rst to Chicago and then Philadelphia to study photography,
returning to St. Paul in 1863 to open a studio. By 1866 he was
married with a young son and making a good living as a portrait
photographer. But he was always looking for new opportunities.
The public had become enthralled with stereoscopic views of
scenery and daily life, so that year Illingworth partnered with
George Bill to take 30 stereographs of Captain James Liberty Fisks
fourth wagon train from St. Cloud, Minn., to the Montana Territory
goldelds. Unable to afford to publish the views themselves, they
sold the negatives to John Carbutt, who took credit for the photos.
It was a portent for Illingworth, who had nancial trouble most of
his life, was widowed twice and divorced once.
In the early 1870s, while taking stereoscopic views of the con-
struction of the Northern Pacic Railroad, Illingworth may have
met Lt. Col. George Custer and other members of the 7th Cavalry,
which had been assigned to protect the surveyors and work crews.
In 1874 Captain William Ludlow, chief engineer of the military
Department of Dakota, signed on Illingworth as a teamster, but
his real job was to take stereoscopic views of Custers Black Hills
Expedition, and he made 70 wet plate negatives. Our photog-
rapher has obtained a complete set of magnicent stereoscopic
views of Black Hills scenery, Custer wrote wife Libbie from the
eld. Illingworths best-known photo is of Custer, scout Bloody
Knife, orderly Private John Noonan and Ludlow posing with a
grizzly bear Custer shot in the Black Hills. Illingworth, wrote
St. Paul Daily Press reporter Fred Power, has had the good for-
tune not only to get some good pictures but also to prove himself to
be one of the best shots on the expedition, which is considerable.
After the Black Hills Expedition, Illingworth continued to
photograph scenic vistas (many of them in Minnesota), pioneers
and Indians. After the divorce from his third wife in 1888, his
business and health declined and his alcohol intake increased.
On March 16, 1893, he ended his life with a shot to the head from
his hunting rie. Fortunately, much of his work survives. The South
Dakota Historical Society [history.sd.gov] acquired the Black Hills
Expedition negatives, while the Minnesota Historical Society
[mnhs.org] has a wide variety of his images. B.M.
OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 45
 THE HATFIELD
WHO WENT
WEST In 1896 feudist Johnse Hateld pulled up stakes in West Virginia
and rode to Washington in search of elusive peace By F. Keith Davis

46 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

ALL IMAGES FROM THE COLEMAN C. HATFIELD COLLECTION

Tip of the Hat

Johnson Johnse
Hateld bid his
family farewell and
headed northwest
to nd respite from
the notorious feud.

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 47

Clan Patriarch
The formidable William
Anderson Devil Anse
Hateld encouraged
his son to seek a new
identity in Washington.

ohnson Johnse Hatfield reined in Coys daughter), the blood feud between the Hat-
his dapple-gray stallion to wonder at elds and McCoyswho lived along the Tug Fork
the immense sweep of the Great Plains. tributary of the Big Sandy River, in West Virginia
The year was 1896, and his rst excursion outside and Kentucky, respectivelyhad reached a boiling
Appalachia had brought him to the doorstep of the point. Relations between the families had festered
American frontier. His father, William Anderson through the years, and Johnse was directly involved
Devil Anse Hateld, had supplied him with the in some of the most brutal episodes.
horse and a hardy pack mule several weeks before, In 1882 three McCoy boysTolbert, Pharmer
but the westward journey had been rough. The and Randolph Bud McCoy Jr., all sons of Ranl
wide open grasslands contrasted sharply with the murdered Ellison Hatfield, a brother of Devil
forests and rugged mountains of Logan County, Anse. In retaliation the Hatelds captured the trio,
West Virginia. For someone used to generating tied them to pawpaw trees on the Kentucky side of
attention, Johnse felt especially small and exposed the Tug Fork and riddled them with bullets. Their
on the prairie. Yet he knew there was no turning alleged killers included Devil Anse, eldest sons
backno return to the Hateld-McCoy feud. Johnse and Cap, and Ellison Cottontop Mounts
Ignited by an 1878 trial over ownership of a hog (Ellison Hatelds illegitimate son).
and inamed by the 1880 love affair of Johnse and Making matters worse, Johnse later participated
Roseanna (family patriarch Randolph Ranl Mc- in the extraordinarily brutal raid against Ranl

4 8 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

McCoys Pike County, Ky., cabin on New Years Day 1888.
Crazy Jim Vance (an uncle of Devil Anse), Cap Hatfield,
Charlie Mitchell (alias Charlie Gillespie), Tom Mitchell and
Ellison Mounts joined him. During the early morning assault
the raiders torched the cabin and gunned down two of Ranls
grown children, Calvin and Alifair, in the front yard. Crazy Jim
then knocked Ranls wife, Sally, unconscious with the butt of
his rie. She survived but suffered considerable brain damage.
It wasnt anything that would soon be forgotten.
Pike County authorities drafted indictments and offered sub-
stantial rewards for the capture of those who participated in the
atrocities, the highest bounties falling on the heads of Johnse,
Cap and Devil Anse Hateld. Bounty hunters, posses and Ken-
tucky road detectives duly scoured the mountains of southern
West Virginia for their quarry.
By 1896 Johnse and his immediate kinthose not already
dead or serving time in prisonhad spent more than a dozen
years eluding mounted raiders and such wily road detectives
as William J. Kentucky Bill Napier. The Hatfields lived in
perpetual anxiety, concerned bounty hunters would gun them
down or authorities would spirit them across the river to face
the gallows in Kentucky.
Though just 34 years old, Johnse was exhausted. He sought
his fathers advice, and Devil Anse suggested he pull up stakes
and head west to Washington state. Anse had kept tabs on Sam
Vinson, a Logan County acquaintance who had ed to Washing-
tons Spokane County after being accused of killing a McCoy.
Hed heard Vinson had opened a tavern in the county seat of
Spokane. If Johnse could track him down, he might be able to
get established in the region under a new identity.
As Johnse and his father had worked timber for decades, a
new beginning in the forested Northwest made sense. By then
Johnses wife, Nancy (Roseanna McCoys cousin and daughter
of Union soldier Asa Harmon McCoy, whom Crazy Jim Vance
had murdered after the war in 1865), had left him. Adding insult
to injury, a year earlier she had married Franklin Bad Frank
Phillips, a Pike County deputy, bounty hunter and archenemy
of the Hatfield clan who days after the New Years 1888 raid
had tracked down and killed Vance.
Keen to avoid the fate of Crazy Jim, Johnse started packing
for the long trip.
Johnse covered more than half the distance to Washington
riding the horse Devil Anse had given him, sleeping on the
OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 49
 ground beneath a wool blanket and surviving on
hardtack, beans, jerky and coffee. Somewhere in
Oklahoma Territory he sold his horse and mule
and boarded a passenger train for the rest of the
journey. Arriving in Spokane, he combed through
the city till drawn to a saloon with a sign outside
that read FINE KENTUCKY WHISKEY.
Johnse strolled inside to query the barkeep and
discovered Sam Vinson. Relieved at having found
his fathers friend, young Hateld downed several
shots of bourbon as the pair chatted about their
families, past events and news from back home.
Sam was even able to point Johnse to a job at a
nearby logging camp. After that brief encounter,
however, Johnse Hatfield disappeared from the
record for more than a year.
Back in Pike County, Nancy McCoy Phillips,
Johnses resentful ex-wife, heard a number of ru-
mors about him, specically that he had relocated
to the Northwest and might be going by the name
Jim Jacobs. She disclosed the information to her
family, which promptly organized a heavily armed
posse. On Ranls dime, detectives Dan Cunning
Cunningham, Alpheus Alf Burnett and Treve
Gibson set out with several others for Washington.
After making inquiries at several timber opera-
tions en route, the band found themselves at a
camp on the headwaters of the Snoqualmie River
east of Seattle. There Cunningham gave the log-
ging crew a description of Johnsea tall, blue-eyed,
light-haired man from West Virginia, possibly
going by the name of Jim Jacobs. According to Hat-
eld family history, Midgie Staunton McCarthy,
a young woman who happened to be in camp at
the time, overheard the posse talking to the timber
crew. Although history doesnt record their relation-
ship, Midgie knew Jacobs (Hateld) and scribbled
a note to him, which she sent by a Siwash Indian.
The note directed the foreman of his logging crew,
Tell Jim to look out!
Sometime after receiving the warning, Johnse
spotted seven resolute searchers riding mules along
a ridge near his camp. He immediately ung down
his ax and ed into the woods. A fellow crewman,
a local Indian, led him to a nearby river bordered
by an especially dense thicket. Johnse crawled deep
into the underbrush, pushing painfully past the
clawing sticks and sharp thorns, and watched from
his vantage point as the trackers scoured the rugged
Hated Hateld terrain around him.
Johnse participated According to accounts from Coleman A. Hat-
in some of the most
violent encounters eld, Cap Hatelds eldest son, as the detectives
with the McCoys. closed on Johnses hiding place, a gaggle of honk-
Hateld Family Portrait
The clan remained largely intact, if not exactly
all smiles, at the time of this 1888 group photo.
ing Canada geese settled around the thicket, providing a dis-
traction. Expecting the lawmen to nd him anyway, the fugitive
was thankful when they moved on.
Once certain the detectives had left, Johnse dove into the river
and swam to the far bank. Afraid to return to the timber camp,
he decided to foot it to Seattle. From there he caught a steamer
to British Columbia, where he again landed a job cutting timber.
Conditions were difficult, as the trees were much larger than
those in Washington, with massive exposed root systems. To
get close enough to fell the trees, work crews had to raise tall
scaffolds beside the trunks.
Years later Coleman A. Hatfield recorded that during the
manhunt for Johnse in Washington, Sam Vinson devised a plan
to fool the pursuers. The Spokane barkeep thought that if Ranl
McCoy and the bounty hunters believed Johnse was dead, they
would end their search. Sam rst contacted Johnse to obtain a
lock of his blond hair, then sent it to his oblivious parents, with
a scrawled condolence letter explaining how Johnse had been
killed in a terrible accident while felling trees. When Devil Anse
and wife Levicy received the tuft of hair and read the note, they
were distraught, and word quickly spread along the Tug Fork
that their eldest son had died in the Pacic Northwest.
Soon afterward Cap Hateld, then working outside Gunnison
City, Colo., received a letter from his wife, Nan, advising that
his brother Johnse had apparently perished in a freak logging
accident. In 1898 Cap decided to return home to West Virginia.
Still unwilling to accept Johnses death, however, he chose rst
to search for answers in Washington. There Cap asked around
the camps after any loggers hailing from southern Appalachia.
He eventually heard of one light-haired West Virginian working
in British Columbia. Venturing north, he soon found his older
brother. Johnse was equally thrilled to see Cap, and they spent
several days together at the camp.
Cap ultimately persuaded Johnse to return with him to Logan
County. The brothers reasoned that running was no longer the
answer, as Ranl, his family and supporters seemed willing to go
to the ends of the earth to capture or kill a Hateld. That being
the case, Johnse figured he stood a better chance back home
under the watchful eyes of his father and kinfolk. Still, to boost
the odds one or the other of them would evade capture, Johnse
and Cap took separate routes home.
For nearly two years the Hatfield patriarch and matriarch
had believed their eldest son to be dead in the Far West. But
in early 1898 a well-dressed 36-year-old strolled up to the front
gate of their Main Island Creek home. Devil Anse and Levicy
couldnt believe their eyes. With tears flowing, they raced to
the gate to embrace Johnse.
After returning home to West Virginia, Johnse still had his
share of trouble. On June 18, 1898, a gang of men led by Hum-
phrey E. Doc Ellis, a business rival of the Hatelds, waited
in ambush along the railroad tracks outside Gilbert. Knowing
Johnses daily routine, they waylaid him as he passed and hauled
him to the Kentucky side of the Tug Fork. Pike County authori-
ties promptly arrested Johnse, tried him for murder and ultimately
sentenced him to life in the Kentucky state prison. In 1904,
having served just four years, he secured a pardon after rescuing
the visiting lieutenant governor from attack by a fellow inmate.
Regardless, his time in prison had sobered the once cocky
Johnse Hateld. According to Coleman A. Hateld, he eventu-
ally married Rebecca Browning, a kind, levelheaded woman who
provided the stability he had lacked in his unrestrained youth.
The couple reportedly named their rst daughter, Midgie, in
honor of Midgie Staunton McCarthy, the Washington acquain-
tance who had warned Johnse and saved his life out West. (Other
Hateld biographers dispute Colemans accounts, claiming that
Johnse and Rebeccas daughter Midgie had been born years
earlier, in 1892, and that by the time Johnse returned from the
Pacic Northwest he was already married to Roxie Browning,
Rebeccas cousin.)
Johnses brother Cap served honorably as a lawman and,
after hitting the books and passing the bar, opened a law rm
in the city of Logan with son Coleman. Caps stepson, Joe Glenn,
also studied the law and eventually joined the practice, as did
Caps granddaughter Aileen Hateld.
As the era of the infamous Hateld and McCoy feud passed
and the gunre ceased, the remaining family members found
relative contentment and peace. Even patriarch Devil Anse
Hatfield mellowed with the years. On Sept. 23, 1911, Uncle
Dyke Garrett, a former Confederate chaplain, Appalachian
circuit-riding preacher and longtime friend, baptized the
ol Devil in the icy waters of Main Island Creek. Grace had
come to the Tug Fork. Anse would live another 10 years, dying
of pneumonia at age 81 in his Island Creek home on Jan. 6,
1921. Johnse died of a heart attack at age 60 in his cabin at
Wharncliffe, W.Va., on April 19, 1922. Brother Cap lived until
the summer of 1930, dying at age 66 of a brain tumor at Johns
Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
F. Keith Davis, founder and CEO of Woodland Press
[woodlandpress.com], in Chapmanville, W.Va., appeared
in the companion documentary to the History channels
award-winning 2012 miniseries Hatelds & McCoys,
starring Kevin Costner as William Anderson Devil Anse
Hateld. Davis is the grandson of William Cap Hateld.
Recommended for further reading: The Feuding Hatelds
& McCoys, co-authored by Davis and Dr. Coleman
C. Hateld, great-grandson of Devil Anse Hateld.
OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 51
Sons of a Gun
Nicholas Porter Earp and
second wife Virginia had
eight children, including
the ve boys below: (from
left) Wyatt, Virgil, Morgan,
Warren and James.

5 2 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

 FATHER
OF THE
FIGHTING EARPS
Nicholas Earp, peripatetic patriarch of the family
that included lawmen Wyatt and Virgil, put down roots
in southern California By Nicholas R. Cataldo
T he legend of the Earp
brothers lives on in books, lm and
even a 1950s television series. But
while writers largely focus on the
Earps escapades in Kansas and Ari-
zona Territory, usually placing Wyatt
front and center, less well known is
that the family spent much of its time
in southern Californias San Bernar-
dino County. And while the boys
garner most of the attention, it was
IMAGES: COURTESY OF NICHOLAS R. CATALDO AND SAN BERNARDINO HISTORICAL AND PIONEER SOCIETY
their colorful father, Nicholas Porter
Earp, who invested his sons with their
thirst for adventure, willingness to con-
front adversaries and ability to make
a buck. Described by family members
as alternately religious and profane
and prone to regarding his world in
black-and-white terms, Nick Earp
knew only two kinds of peoplefriends
and enemies. His friends could do
no wrong, his enemies nothing right.
The third of Walter and Martha
Ann Early Earps nine children, Nick
was born in Lincoln County, N.C., on
Sept. 6, 1813. His father was a school-
teacher, justice of the peace and Meth-
odist Episcopal preacher. Soon after
Nicks birth Walter moved his fam-
ily to Hartford, Ky. At age 23 Nick
courted Abigail Storm, and the two
married on Dec. 22, 1836. Abigail
gave birth to their son, Newton Jas-
per, on Oct. 7, 1837. Daughter Mariah
Ann followed on Feb. 12, 1839, but
died that December. Abigail pre-
deceased her daughter, falling ill and
dying at age 26 on Oct. 8, 1839.
Nick didnt remain a widower long,
marrying 19-year-old Virginia Ann
Cooksey (18211893) on July 30,
1840. Their marriage lasted nearly
53 years, and they had eight children:
James Cooksey (18411926), Virgil
Walter (18431905), Martha Eliza-
beth (184556), Wyatt Berry Stapp
(18481929), Morgan Seth (185182),
Warren Baxter (sometimes written as
Baxter Warren, 18551900), Virginia
Ann (18581861) and Adelia Douglas
(18611941). The sons (aka the Fight-
ing Earps) were, in this order, better
known to Western history: Wyatt,
Virgil, Morgan, Warren and James.
Nick, who stood about 5-foot-8
with brown hair and blue eyes, was
OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 53
 Golden Union
Virginia and Nick
pose in California in
1890 on their 50th
wedding anniversary.
a jack-of-all-trades. As a young man he farmed in Kentucky,
captained a riverboat in Iowa and became an expert cooper.
In 1847 he served as a cavalry sergeant in the Mexican War,
and in 1863 he was appointed an assistant provost marshal for
recruitment in the Union Army. He also dabbled in politics and
at times served as a lawman.
In late 1845 Nick and Virginia took their budding family to
Monmouth, Ill. Two years later, as the war with Mexico heated
up, he joined neighbor Captain W.B. Stapps company of Illinois
Mounted Volunteers as a sergeant. Nick mustered in at Quincy,
Ill., on Aug. 6, 1847, and was discharged that Christmas Eve for
medical reasons. His pension papers indicate that a kick from
a mule had inicted a hernia, leaving him with a lifelong dis-
ability. Apparently, Earp had no hard feelings. On the birth of
his fourth son on March 19, 1848, Earp named the boy after
his commanderWyatt Berry Stapp.
5 4 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016
In return for his Mexican War service, Earp received a 160-
acre federal land grant and in 1850 moved his family to the farm-
ing town of Pella, Iowa. In later years Nick told the San Bernar-
dino Society of California Pioneers that in 1851 he left his grow-
ing family in Iowa and joined the California Gold Rush in hopes
of bringing home a measure of the riches. But after months of
slogging out a living as co-manager of a trading post near the
goldelds at Hangtown (present-day Placerville), Earp was more
SAN BERNARDINO HISTORICAL AND PIONEER SOCIETY
than ready to return to Iowa. Detouring through southern Cali-
fornia on the return trip, he passed through the beautiful San
Bernardino Valley and vowed to return someday and settle down.
In 1856 Nick moved his family back to Monmouth, and the
next year he served as constable at the Warren County Court-
house. Mostly though, he and his boys worked the family farm
until the Earps again packed their bags and returned to Pella in
1859. In the early 1860s he served as mar-
shal of Pella, handling mostly administra-
tive chores. Nick, whose family roots lay
in the divided border state of Maryland,
sided with the North during the Civil War
and recruited for the Union Army. Like
their father, sons James, Newton and Virgil
all saw Yankee service, while the underage
Wyatt, Morgan and Warren stayed on the
farm. James took a bullet to the left shoul-
der at the 1861 Battle of Fredricktown, Mo.
(not to be confused with Fredericksburg,
Va.), and spent long months in recovery.
He was nally discharged in March 1863.
By then Nick was preparing for yet
another move, this time to his Shangri-la,
the San Bernardino Valley. In the spring
of 1864 he led a Californiabound wagon
train out of Pella. Accompanying him were
wife Virginia, sons James, Wyatt, Morgan
and Warren and toddler daughter Adelia,
as well as three neighboring familiesthe
Rousseaus, Curtises and Hamiltons.
According to Jesse W. Curtis, a great-
grandson of one of the party, the train set
out with 30 people on May 12, 1864. En
route three children were born to the other
families. Sarah Jane Rousseau, who kept
a diary of the trip, recalled that after the
group made camp that rst night, seven
more wagons straggled in late. By the time
the train reached its destination, it com-
prised about a dozen wagons.
In her account of the long journey
Rousseau wrote lyrically about all she saw
and experiencedbroad rivers, birds, the
tallgrass prairie, thunderstorms, Indian
encounters, sickness among the party and
the trip mileage. She also shed light on the
sometimes-abrasive personality of their
tough, no-nonsense wagon master. Take,
for example, her July 78 entry, written
while the party rested at Fort Laramie:
We have to keep close watch day and
night over the stock. Mr. Earp went out
to see about the guards (military guards)
and found they had got up a dance. And
he told them they must quit their dancing
and be on duty. One of the soldiers told
him to mind his own business and or-
dered him off. It made him [Nick] awful
mad, and he was for killing. He used
very profane language; he could hardly
be appeased. But he cooled down after
awhile, and all was quiet.
As the wagons rolled on in the still
summer heat, party members grew testy,
and dissension spread within the ranks.
Of course, Earps cantankerous demeanor
didnt help. On July 30, as the train ap-
proached Fort Bridger (in what would
become Wyoming), Rousseau again had
reason to mention Nick:
Earp got angry with the whole train be-
cause they passed him. He took it as an in-
sult, talked pretty hard to all. Some thought
he had taken a little too much liquor. He
used very profane language and told the
whole train that he would give up the cap-
taincy unless they would adhere to the
rules he gave. After being detained an hour
or more very unpleasantly, we rolled on.
Her November 24 entry, describing the
aftermath of a ght between Warren and
another boy in the train, afrmed the truth
of the expression the apple doesnt fall
far from the tree:
This evening Mr. Earp had another rippet
with Warren [Earps youngest son] for
fighting with Jimmy Hatten. And then
he commenced about all the children.
Used very profane language and swore
if the childrens parents did not correct
their children, he would whip every last
one of them. He still shows out more and
more every day what kind of man he is.
Warrens rst documented altercation
was a preview of the Earp temperament
that would plague Nicks youngest son
to his last days.
The Earps seven-month saga nally
ended when they arrived in San Bernar-
dino on Dec. 20, 1864, and set up camp
near present-day Meadowbrook Park, a
spot then just east of town. Within days
Nick had rented a farm on the Carpenter
Ranch, in what is now the city of Red-
lands. In an April 2, 1865, letter to one-
time Pella neighbor and friend James
Copla, Nick touted his familys new home
in a update rife with misspellings:
Oh dont I wish you and anay others of my
friends was here to help me to eat apple
peaches and graps this fall and drink wine.
This is the finest climate in the world
altho I dont know that I shall stay here and
I shall not fore I did not start from home
expecting to stop hear when we got heare
we are all so near run through that we
would not go any longer.
We can say what we please heare and
none dare molest or make us afraid I have
enjoyed my self here cince i have bin
hear and seen more peace and freedom
than I did the last three years I stayed in
Iowa heare people that are Seces [favor-
ing secession from the Union] make no
boan in saying so they hollow for Jef
Davis when they pleas.
The Earps soon moved a few miles west
along Cottonwood Row (in present-day
Loma Linda). At the time the nearby city
of San Bernardino was ush with saloons,
gambling halls and a ourishing red-light
district. It proved Nick Earps kind of
town, and he managed to nd ample ex-
cuses to visit the intersection of 3rd and
D streetsnicknamed Whiskey Point,
as it hosted saloons on all four corners.
Championing the cause of the common
man against what he called the hypocrisy
of big business and politicians, Nick be-
came a popular figure and was elected
grand jury foreman in 1867.
The Earp patriarch soon learned his
sons had inherited their fathers inveter-
ate wanderlust. Historian Glenn G. Boyer
once interviewed Estelle Miller, daughter
of Wyatts sister Adelia. Miller told Boyer
that shortly after arriving in San Bernardi-
no, young Wyatt made it known he wasnt
cut out to be a farmer. After slipping away
for a few days vacation, the teenager
dutifully returned home only to receive
a whipping from his crusty old man, who
then booted him off the family farm.
The Earp brothers also inherited their
fathers combative temperament. All were
good ghters and had little difculty fac-
ing down any trouble that came their way.
Adelia Earp Edwards noted in her un-
publishedand possibly spuriousmem-
oir (see related story, P. 34), purportedly
written in 193234, that when it came to
temper, second youngest brother Morgan
took no backseat to his brothers:
Morgan was in a ght with a buffalo hunter
one day, and it would have come to shoot-
ing if [oldest brother] Newton had not
OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 55
Home Base
This 1865 photo captures
downtown San Bernardino.
Nick had moved his family
to the namesake county
the previous December.
gotten between them and talked them
into shaking hands. Morgan had a very
terrible temper, while Newton was always
very even in his ways.
Into the late 1860s Nick ran the farm
with increasingly less help from his boys.
James and Morgan went off to Nevada
and Montana Territory, while Virgil and
Wyatt worked as teamsters with a Salt
Lakebound wagon train and later for
the Union Pacic Railroad. By the fall of
1868 a restless Nick decided to leave the
Golden State and return with Virginia
to the Midwest. James, Virgil and Wyatt
initially went with them but, being chips
off the old block, didnt stick around long.
Soon, with brother Morgan in tow, the
older boys sought money and adventure
by engaging in such pursuits as buffalo
hunting, stage driving and law enforce-
ment. Along the way they met and be-
friended such colorful characters as Doc
Holliday, Bat Masterson and Luke Short.
For the time being youngest brother War-
ren continued to live with his parents.
In 1876 Nick sold property and again
pointed his wagon west, traveling with
Virginia, Warren, Adelia and Bill Edwards
(Adelias future husband). In early 1876 the
party pulled into Dodge City, Kan., where
Wyatt was working as deputy marshal. Ac-
cording to Allie Earps unpublished 1934
memoir, they settled down for the next
several months in Peace (present-day Ster-
ling), Kan., where the eldest Earp brother,
Newton, lived with wife Jennie. There Vir-
gil and Allie rented a house for the winter.
Soon after Adelias wedding to Bill
Edwards, on April 9, 1877, Nick again
shook the dust off his feet and led an
5 6 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016
11-wagon train to California. Among the
party that set out on May 8 were Virgin-
ia Earp, Warren Earp, Adelia and Bill
Edwards, Allie and Virgil Earp, and New-
ton and Jennie Earp. James and Morgan
remained in Dodge with Wyatt.
By late 1877 the Earp caravanminus
Virgil and Allie, who had dropped out at
Prescott, Arizona Territory, and Newton
and Jennie, who had grown homesick
and returned to Kansaswere back in
San Bernardino. Nick had trouble find-
ing work. He bid for a janitors position
at the courthouse but lost out to another
applicant. He and Virginia moved on to
the small farming community of Temes-
cal (a few miles southeast of present-day
Corona), where he farmed and ran a gro-
cery for the next couple of years. Adelia
and Bill lived with them, as did tempera-
mental 22-year-old Warren, who cooled
his heels a few more years before striking
out in the footsteps of his older brothers.
In the meantime, Nick, likely missing
the excitement of town life, moved the
family to Colton, a few miles southwest of
San Bernardino. In the fall of 1880 he be-
came embroiled in a heated discussion
perhaps of a political natureat one of his
new hangouts. The October 14 San Ber-
nardino Daily Times described the affray:
This afternoon as Mr. Earp and several
other gentlemen were conversing in
Mr. Ritlers store, Mr. Baily came in and
made some abusive remarks, interrupt-
ing the conversation. Mr. Ritler asked
the crowd to leave his store, whereupon
Mr. Baily attacked him and left some
bruises on his face. No arrests had been
made at the hour of going to press.
Later that fall Nick resurrected an old
saloon he renamed the Gem, though by
then Colton had more churches than bars.
He advertised his joint in the Novem-
ber 27 Colton Semi-Tropic:
GEM SALOON, N.P. EARP, PROPRI-
ETOR, Keeps on hand the best Whiskey,
Wines, Brandies, Gin, Rum, Porter, Beer
and Cigars. Fancy Cocktails, Tom and
Jerry, at all times whenever called for.
Call on N.P. Earp and test his superb
Tom and Jerry. He is always on hand
and ready to wait on customers.
The following year came the main
event, the reason the Earp name still reso-
nates todaythe so-called Gunght at the
O.K. Corral on Oct. 26, 1881, in Tomb-
stone, Arizona Territory. In that show-
down, which claimed the lives of two Mc-
Laury brothers and one Clanton brother,
Virgil, Morgan and the Earps friend Doc
Holliday suffered wounds, while Wyatt
emerged unscathed. Back in San Bernar-
dino, Nick Earp must have been pleased
his law-enforcing boys had won their ght
with the Cowboys, although there is no
known public record of his reaction.
ABOVE AND OPPOSITE: SAN BERNARDINO HISTORICAL AND PIONEER SOCIETY
Nick got into his own scrape the next
month, as reported in the San Bernardino
Daily Index on Nov. 27, 1881:
A difficulty occurred in front of the
Farmers Exchange Bank this afternoon
between Byron Waters and a gentleman
named Earp. Earp had been quarreling
with a man named Ralph, and Mr. Wa-
ters interfering, he received a torrent of
abuse from the old gentleman, which he
resented in a lively manner. Earp was
 led off somewhat damaged about the eye
and badly lamed by falling.
Just what set off Nick is unknown, but
perhaps the debate arose over what his
boys had done in Tombstone.
Worse news soon followed out of Ari-
zona Territory. On December 28 shotgun-
wielding ambushers shattered Virgils left
arm during a revenge-motivated assassi-
nation attempt. And on March 18, 1882,
the Cowboys struck again, gunning down
Morgan from ambush as he shot billiards
with brother Wyatt.
In the wake of Morgans death Virgil
took a westbound train to his parents
home in Colton to recuperate. Nick was
elected justice of the peace in 1884, and
Virgil, despite his crippled arm, was elect-
ed village constable in 1886. The next
year, when Colton incorporated, voters
chose Virgil as their first city marshal,
while Nick served as city recorder.
In 1888 San Bernardino County wit-
nessed the formation of an organization
that would have a profound impact on
Nick Earps life. That January aging Forty-
Niners George W. Sutteneld, Benjamin
B. Harris and Sidney P. Waite placed a
notice in The Colton Chronicle asking any-
one interested in the formation of a society
to preserve the history of the county to be
present at the courthouse on the 21st of
that month. Thirty former frontiersmen
gathered that day as charter members of
what became known as the San Bernar-
dino Society of California Pioneers. Under
its stringent requirements, prospective
members had to have arrived in Califor-
nia before Dec. 31, 1850, and settled in San
Bernardino County before April 26, 1853
the date of the countys incorporation.
As in other fraternal organizations,
then and now, members of the so-called
Pioneer Society had their share of con-
flicts. For the most part, however, their
meetings revolved around square dances,
picnics and holiday celebrations, during
which members swapped yarns about
the old times. Nick Earp was an eager and
active participant.
That said, Old Nick could still be feisty.
By 1898 the 85-year-old claimed the dis-
tinction of being the Pioneer Societys
oldest member and toted a prestigious
ceremonial cane at each meeting. On one
occasion a younger member angered the
short-tempered Earp, and Nick reported-
ly broke the cane in two over the mans
head. But Earp did enjoy lighter moments
with fellow pioneers, such as the time he
engaged in a singing duel with Captain
Nelson G. Gill for the prize of a panful
of baked beans. The two sang a medley
of traditional songs, including Erin go
Bragh, My Heart Is Light, Hunters telle, near Los Angeles, where he died at
of Kentucky, Excelsior and The Indi- age 93 on Feb. 12, 1907. He had outlived
ans Lament. Each also sang an original,
humorous composition. The committee
declared the contest a draw and had the
duelists split the beans.
Such happy interludes came fewer and
farther between for Nick, especially as
he lost more family members. His be-
loved Virginia died on Jan. 14, 1893. Nine
months later Nick married widow Annie
Elizabeth Cadd Alexander, 30 years his
junior. But the pairs initial infatuation
fizzled, they were unable to bridge the
generation gap, and their union proved a
marriage in name only. Nick often left the
San Bernardino ranch Annie had inherited
to stay with daughter Adelia in Yucaipa.
In December 1897 Nick severely injured
his left shoulder when thrown from a horse,
May-December Pair
Nick and third wife
Annie, who is standing
in front of her seated
husband, attend a
Pioneer Society picnic
soon after marrying in
1893. They didnt last.
and thereafter his health steadily declined.
It didnt help when he lost two more sons.
First, on July 6, 1900, youngest son Warren,
who was prone to heavy drinking, angry
outbursts and bouts of violence, was killed
in a saloon brawl in Willcox, Arizona Terri-
tory. Then, on Oct. 19, 1905, Virgil died
of pneumonia in Goldeld, Nev. Nick ulti-
mately entered a veterans home in Saw-
six of his 10 children. Storied family patri-
arch Nicholas Porter Earp is buried apart
from his wives, sons and daughters at the
Los Angeles National Cemetery.
Nick Cataldo writes a local history column
for Californias San Bernardino County Sun
and is the author of Images of America: San
Bernardino California (2002) and The Earp
Clan: The Southern California Years (2006),
which are recommended for further read-
ing along with Wyatt Earp, A Biography
of the Legend, Vol. I: The Cowtown Years
(2002), by Lee Silva; Virgil Earp: Western
Peace Ofcer (1994), by Don Chaput; and
Wyatt Earp: Facts, Vol. V, By Wagon Train
From Iowa to California1864 (1997),
by Glenn G. Boyer.
OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 57
DOC&
Deadly Dentist
Doc Holliday takes
aim in this drawing
by artist Robert
Shooy Shufelt.
 KATE The ery relationship between Doc Holliday and Big Nose Kate
COLORIZED KATE IMAGE BY GREG PROCH; OPPOSITE: SHOOFLYART.COM

is the stuff of legendbut what of it is true? By Gary L. Roberts

In the mythology of the Western gunfighter they made the

perfect couplethe deadly dentist and the nastiest whore
in Kansas. Fiery, intense, amboyant and violent, they were
the stuff of melodrama. The world of the gunfighter seemed
Later Kate largely a bachelors club, with wives and girlfriends screened
Doc was dead and behind the proprieties of Victorianism, even in the Wild West.
Big Nose Kate was
about 40 when she But Doc Holliday and Kate Elder were out there for all to see.
sat for this portrait. She was an undeniable part of who he was.

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 59

S he is remembered as Big Nose Kate, though
the documentary record offers little evidence she was called
by that sobriquet, other than in an 1896 article Wyatt Earp
wrote for the San Francisco Examiner. There was no love lost
between Wyatt and Kate, but he did describe her as handsome,
in a way, and attributed the moniker to her reputation as a
strong, bold character, not her physical appearance.
John Henry was a handsome young gentleman with a soft
Georgia drawl and impeccable manners. Kate was nine months
older than him and certainly more worldly, but she was still
young enough to see him as a way out. She must have been
crushed, then, when in July 1872 Dr. Holliday bid her farewell
and returned to Georgia to claim his inheritance and start his
own practice in Atlanta.
Later references to her as Big Nose Kate turn up mostly in Kate continued to work as a prostitute in Missouri and Kansas.
reminiscences written by men who harbored contempt for her, Wyatt Earp referred to her as Kate Fisher in his writings, which
Doc and the Earps. Few women faced more accusations of suggests he met her well before she showed up in Wichita in 1874
perversion and obscene behavior than Kateall in the form of as Kate Elder. There is no record of when and how they met,
supposed recollections, many of them secondhand or even but by the time Holliday returned to Georgia, Wyatt was already
thirdhand. Writer Joe Chisholm called her a badmans girl a veteran of the night trades. By 1872 he and brother Morgan
who wasnt afraid of badmen. Thats a fair characterization (each with a woman in tow from a brothel in Peoria, Ill.) and their
of a woman who knew more than one badman in her time older brother James (newly married to Nellie Bartlett Bessie
and survived them all. But while she is remembered as Docs Catchim, who hailed from a similar background) were in Missouri.
irascible consort, her own story remained largely unknown. In 1873 James and Bessie landed in Ellsworth, Kan., while
hell was in session in the crowded cow town, and Wyatt and
Born in Pest, Hungary, on Nov. 7, 1850, Mary Katherine Morgan may well have been there too. By the time James and
Horony was one of Michael and Catherine (ne Boldizsar) Bessie moved to Wichita that September, Kate had taken up
Horonys seven children. Her father also had four children from with a Kansas saloonkeeper named J.S. Elder. While Elder ran
a rst marriage. In 1860 the family immigrated to the United
States, soon settling in Davenport, Iowa, where her father worked
as a doctor. In the spring of 1865, however, both parents died,
leaving their brood in dire nancial straits. By the time lawyers
John henry
had sorted out the family estate in 1867, Mary Katherine had was a hand-
decamped for parts unknown.
Kate later claimed to have stowed away on a riverboat, and at
some young
least one account suggests she assumed the surname of the boats gentleman.
captainFisher. Kate Fisher was also the name of a nationally
acclaimed actress of the period, noted for her portrayal of Lord
Kate was
Byrons romantic hero Mazeppa, for which she scandalously nine months
rode across the stage in pink tights on horseback. It might have
been a tempting alias for a runaway. older than
By 1870 she was living in St. Louis as Kate Fischer, her
profession recorded as whore. Her fate was scarcely surprising.
him and
Both St. Louis and Kansas City had become booming gateways certainly
to the West. Theaters, brothels, gambling emporiums, dance halls
and saloons were the primary employers interested in young,
more
unattached single women. The big cities also served as recruiting worldly,
grounds for such professions in towns farther west.
By 1872 Kate was working at a theater and saloon in the Fifth but she was
Ward. It was there she met John Henry Holliday. Young Holliday
was a doctoral graduate fresh from the Pennsylvania College of
still young
Dental Surgery and still months shy of his 21st birthday. Unable enough to
to practice dentistry until he was 21, he traveled to St. Louis, where
classmate A. Jameson Fuches Jr. offered him work in his prac-
see him as
tice on Fourth Street, near the establishment where Kate worked. a way out
6 0 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016
 his place in Great Bend, farther up the Ar- BIG-SCREEN

KATE
kansas River from Wichita, Kate worked in
town for Bessie Earp, though she used Elders
name when arrested for prostitution in June
1874. She was arrested again in August, this
time giving her name as Kate Earb [sic ], and
promptly quit Wichita for Great Bend and They were hardly the Romeo and Juliet of the Wild West, but the
Elder. As late as November 1874, however, she dysfunctional romance between Doc and Kate has been a major sub-
was still receiving mail in Wichita as Kate plot for the majority of O.K. Corral/Wyatt Earp lms since the 1931
Fisher. The multiple aliases make for a con- publication of Stuart N. Lakes Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal. Three
lms based on Lakes bookFrontier Marshal (1939), My Darling
fusing paper trail.
Clementine (1946) and Powder River (1953)feature the fabricated
Soon after arriving in Great Bend, Kate was
love triangle between Doc, his saloon girl paramour and his old ame
arrested for assault and battery and ned $10 from the East as a central plotline. Many of the lms depicting Doc
and costs. But a greater problem for her liveli- and Kate change the characters names, including In Old Arizona
hood was that a new reform mayor was deter- (1928), Dawn at Socorro (1954) and Warlock (1959), while several of
mined to shut down the houses of ill fame. the O.K. Corral lms, including Law and Order (1932) and Hour of the
When Elder left Great Bend, parting ways with Gun (1967), simply omit Kate. When she has appeared, some of Holly-
Kate, she took up with two enterprising high woods nest actresses have played her, including Binnie Barnes,
rollers named Tom Sherman and Colonel Linda Darnell, Corinne Calvet, Piper Laurie, Jo Van Fleet, Dorothy
Charlie Norton. Coincidentally, Norton was Malone, Faye Dunaway, Joanna Pacula and Isabella Rossellini. Thats
a product of Peoria and during the Civil War quite a cinematic output (see more images on P. 63) for a tortured soul
who was but a bit player on historys stage. Paul Andrew Hutton
had served in the same regiment as James Earp.
Sherman was a hard case and a killer. He had
served as an Army scout and was one of the
rst arrivals in Dodge City, then a hellhole for
hide hunters and Santa Fe Railroad workers.
He acquired a nasty reputation. On March 13,
1873, he shot a man outside his dance hall and,
on nding him still alive, reportedly told by-
standers, Id better shoot him again, hadnt I,
boys? And he did at point blank.
As the reformers gained momentum in Great
Bend, Sherman returned to Dodge City, Nor-
ton followed, and Kate worked at Shermans
dance hall. In the fall of 1876 Sherman, Norton
and others established a Texas Panhandle camp
called Hidetown (soon renamed Sweetwater),
on the Rath Trail near Fort Elliott, to service
the needs of buffalo hunters and soldiers. Kate
was working there for Sherman in January 1876
when Bat Masterson gunned down Corporal
Melvin King in a shootout that also claimed
the life of Mollie Brennan, another soiled dove
Kate had known in Ellsworth (see Bat Master-
son and the Sweetwater Shootout, by Gary
Roberts, in the October 2000 Wild West ).
For a time both Sherman and Norton fol-
lowed seasonal opportunities between Dodge
and Sweetwater (present-day Mobeetie). The
end came for Norton in July 1877 when a Texas
lynch mob strung him up for a killing. Mean-
COURTESY OF MICHAEL BLAKE

while, Sherman earned enough infamy in the

Lone Star State to be memorialized by cowboy Joanna & Val
Frank Maynard in a ballad titled The Dying Pacula played Kate
and Kilmer was Doc
Cowboy, whose first line reads, As I rode in the popular 1993
down by Tom Shermans barroom. Maynards Western Tombstone.

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 61


Dodge Days
In 1878 Kate and Doc
settled in at the Dodge
House and shared life
in Dodge City, Kan.
ballad, minus the reference to Sherman, was eventually revised
into the classic cowboy song The Streets of Laredo.
By August 1877 Sherman and Kate had moved on to the rough
cow town of Fort Grifn, where the services they provided
were in demand. A few weeks later a young man getting around
on a cane checked into the Occidental Hotel and was soon a
regular at saloons like Smiths, John Shannseys Beehive and,
of course, Lottie Denos Gus. Everyone seemed to know the quiet-
spoken gambler, still recovering from a recent gunshot wound.
It was not his first visit to The Flat. He had lived in Fort
Grifn in 1875 until falling afoul of the law during a crackdown
on gambling. Rumor had it he had also killed a black soldier
there. In any case he had left town on the run. He had tried his
luck in Denver, Cheyenne and Deadwood, but by the end of
1876 he had returned to Texas. Most regarded him as a sporting
man unafraid of trouble. They called him Doc Holliday.
Kate must have been shocked when she met the gambler
and recognized her John Henry, the gentleman dentist she had
met in St. Louis ve years earlier. The details of their reunion
have been lost, but he certainly couldnt have hidden the per-
sistent cough that revealed his consumption. Doc doesnt appear
to have told her much about his reasons for coming to Texas or
his adventures since, but Kate wasted no time in attaching her-
self to him. That fall, with the cattle season over, they headed to
Eagle Pass, where Doc wintered gambling at Old Blues saloon
and performing dental work for the Mexican army across the
Rio Grande. They moved on to Brackettville and Jacksboro
before returning to Fort Grifn.
There Doc met Wyatt Earp. Kate was not happy to see Earp.
Wyatt later told a dramatic story about how Doc killed a man
named Ed Bailey in a card game, and Kate rescued him from an
irate mob by setting re to a shed behind the hotel and spiriting
away Doc in the confusion. Kate called the story a fairy tale,
but she and Doc did quit Fort Grifn in a hurry and were settled
in at the Dodge House by the time Wyatt returned to Dodge City
in May 1878.
Doc lived quietly in Dodge, dividing his time between gam-
bling and dentistry. He kept out of trouble, though he did enjoy
the Dodge City sporting crowd. Earp, Masterson, Luke Short,
William H. Harris, Joshua J. Webb, Chalk Beeson and others
were congenial companions. Earp insisted Doc saved his life that
summer in a scrape with cowboys that sealed their friendship.
6 2 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016
Doc left Dodge after being falsely accused of burglarizing Robert
Wrights store in December 1878. That may have provided the
impetus, but when he and Kate left Dodge that winter, the greater
threat was his worsening consumption.
Doc almost died on the wagon trip over the mountains to
Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory. By spring he had recovered
sufciently at the Montezuma hot springs near town to return
alone to Dodge, answering Bat Mastersons call for gun handlers
to aid the Santa Fe Railroad in its ght with the Denver & Rio
Grande over passage rights through Colorados Royal Gorge.
When the courts temporarily resolved the matter, Doc returned
to New Mexico Territory. Apparently, the escapade strained
his relationship with Kate, however, as in 1881 a Las Vegas edi-
tor reported she had skipped to Santa Fe. Doc went to gamble
in the end-of-track town of Otero. Aiding Masterson again, he
was on hand when the forces of the Santa Fe and the Rio Grande
clashed in Pueblo, Colo., on June 1l, 1879. Joshua Webb had a
tooth knocked out in the melee, and Doc sent him back to Dodge
sporting a new gold crown.
Returning to Las Vegas, Doc opened a saloon with Jordan
Webb, got into a few minor scrapes and killed a hard case named
Mike Gordon. Kate also eventually returned. But Las Vegas had
developed a bad reputation for violence and crime. Doc dis-
posed of his saloon, and by August he was preparing to leave
when Wyatt Earp and wife Mattie and James Earp and family
arrived. The Earps were headed west to Prescott, Arizona Terri-
tory, to pick up Virgil and family and then on to the silver mining
camp of Tombstone. Wyatt encouraged Doc to join them.
Kate was furious. She wanted nothing to do with the Earps.
Doc and Kate traveled with them as far as Prescott but remained
behind when the Earps left for Tombstone. Still, the relationship
between Doc and Kate had been strained to the point they again
parted ways. She headed for Globe, while he returned to Las
Vegas to settle his affairs there. He stayed long enough to ex-
change shots with Charles Wright, the man who had accused
him of robbing cousin Bob Wrights store in Dodge. Doc then
headed to Prescott for a summer of gambling.
But Wyatt was persistent, and Doc registered to vote in
Tombstone on Sept. 17, 1880. Kates history for this period is
lost. She later claimed to have opened a hotel in Globe while
trying to patch up things with Doc. By March 1881 she had
reunited with Doc in Tombstone when someone tried to rob
the Benson stage. Two men were killed in the botched affair,
and early in July an intoxicated Kate fingered Doc as one of
the bandits. She was the one who ended up in trouble with the
law, however, as Marshal Virgil Earp arrested her for being
drunk and disorderly. Unleashing a string of epithets at the
OPPOSITE MAGES: PAUL ANDREW HUTTON COLLECTION
Earps, she returned to Globe.
Kate made another attempt at reconciliation with Doc in
September 1881, and she was with him in Tombstone in time
for the October 1881 Fremont Street shootout that pitted the
Earps and Holliday against the Clantons and McLaurys. Docs
loyalty to Wyatt had proven greater than his commitment to
Kate (or so she believed), and she left in the midst of the hearing
presided over by Justice Wells Spicer. Kates own recollections
are the only evidence she ever saw Doc again.
BIG-SCREEN

KATE

Three Great Kates

Clockwise from top left:
Doc (Kirk Douglas)
confronts Kate (Jo Van
Fleet) and John Ringo
(John Ireland) in 1957s
Gunght at the O.K.
Corral; a French poster
pitches the 1946 John
Ford classic My Darling
Clementine; Isabella
Rossellini and Dennis
Quaid were marvelous
as Kate and Doc in
1994s Wyatt Earp.

World-Weary Pair
Faye Dunaway and
Stacy Keach had a
forgettable ride as Kate
and Doc in the 1971
box-ofce op Doc.
 Horony Sisters
That might be Kate
at left, but this circa
1867 portrait more
likely depicts her
younger sisters.
Doc spent most of the rest of his lifeonly six yearsin Colo-
rado. Kate may have tried to see him or nd information about
him in Colton, Calif. (home to Wyatt Earps parents and other
family members who had left Tombstone). In June 1882 she
passed through Tombstone while traveling by stage from Colton
to Deming, New Mexico Territory. No documentation supports
her later claim Doc called her to his side as he lay dying in
Glenwood Springs, Colo., in 1887. The only person mentioned
in his obituary as a condante was rst cousin Mattie (by then
Sister Mary Melanie), back in Georgia.
On April 2, 1888, San Franciscos Daily Alta California listed
letters waiting at the post ofce for M.K. Horony and Mrs. J.
Holliday. Some time later Kate made her way to Colorado for
a reunion with her brothers and their families. It was there she
met George Cummings, a blacksmith and miner. Giving her
name as Mary Horoney, she married Cummings in Aspen,
Colo., on March 2, 1890. George was enterprising and popular,
but he had a drinking problem and was reportedly abusive.
In 1896 the couple moved to Bisbee, Arizona Territory, but their
marriage ultimately ended in divorce.
Mary Cummings worked at the Cochise Hotel in Cochise,
Arizona Territory, until June 1900 when she took a job as a
housekeeper for a crusty old miner named John Jessie Jack
Howard. Mary had nally found someone as ornery as she was,
and the pair remained together for three decades. Howard died
on Jan. 3, 1930. In his will he left Mary the homestead and his
mining properties. She stayed on the property until able to sell
the shack she had shared with Howard. On Sept. 1, 1931, based
book for Bisbees Brewery Gulch Gazette. He also wrote to Mary
Katharine Cummings in Prescott, enclosing a copy of Frontier
Marshal with his letter. He remembered her from Globe, Maz-
zanovich explained, and he wanted to tell her side of the story.
She consented.
Her story was fascinating. It dripped with contempt for Wyatt
Earp, blaming him for destroying her relationship with Doc, and
sought to rehabilitate her own reputation. While Kates sense
of humor peeked through, her outrage over Frontier Marshal
dominated the account. Her deceptions were many, but she did
provide evidence, some of it slight but important, to establish
that Mrs. Cummings was indeed Kate.
Cummings had hoped Mazzanovich would publish her story
in book form, but he died in 1934 with the project unnished. Joe
Chisholm, then editor of the Brewery Gulch Gazette, tried to resur-
rect the project. He courted Cummings, calling her a sweet-faced
little woman with keen intellect and droll humor, but she grew
suspicious of him. Chisholm borrowed heavily from Mazzanovich
in an unpublished manuscript titled Tombstones Tale: The Truth
of Helldorado, but in 1937 he too died before he could publish it.
Cummings had already expressed frustration with other writers
trying to get the information for nothing. In 1935 she enlisted
the aid of a Mrs. W.J. Martin to nd someone to tell her story.
Martin introduced her to Arthur W. Bork, a graduate student at
the University of Arizona. He spent three years working with
Cummings but lacked the experience to create what she wanted.
Kate eventually gave up. In a letter to a niece in 1940 she wrote,
There are quite a few that want me to write up things, but they
dont want to give me any thing, [so] I dont write.
Cummings recollections are perplexing, but they are im-
portant. They constitute the only record of Doc and Kates life
together. Yet strangely she communicated no real sense of affec-
tion for Doc, only a desire to portray him as a good man in
order to prove herself a good woman. The story stands in sharp
contrast to the romantic portrait she drew of John Ringo, whom
she said gave her $50 to enable her to leave Tombstone after the
street ght. He was noble, she said. Every time I think of him,
my eyes ll with tears. But she did admit to Chisholm, I loved
Doc, thought the world of him; and he always was kind to me,
until he got mixed up with the Earps.
Doc and Kate, who died in 1940 at age 89, lived dark lives.
For a time they needed each otherseemingly she more than he.
Doc could be genteel, even likable, though he grew cynical and
embittered as life slipped away in his mid-30s. He had forced
himself not to rely on others. Kate was of a coarser cut, born of
a life spent in the company of hard men on the roughest edges
of frontier society. She needed her John Henry to be stronger
and forever blamed Wyatt Earp for Docs weakness.
SHARLOT HALL MUSEUM, PRESCOTT, ARIZ.

on her relationship with Howard and after months of effort,
she was admitted to the Arizona Pioneers Home in Prescott.
The ghosts of the past found her there. Earlier that year Hough-
ton Mifin had published Stuart N. Lakes Wyatt Earp: Frontier
Marshal, which was less than kind to Big Nose Kate. Another
colorful Arizonan, Anton Mazzanovich, soldier, author, actor
and architect, wrote a series of scathing articles about Lakes
Georgia author Gary L. Roberts has written widely on the subject
of frontier violence and is the author of Doc Holliday: The Life and
Legend (2006). Also recommended for further reading is Anne
E. Colliers article Big Nose Kate and Mary Katherine Cummings:
Same Person, Different Lives, published in the October 2012 Journal
of the Wild West History Association [wildwesthistory.org]. Roberts
also cites the research of Roger Myers, Chris Penn and Kenneth Vail.

6 4 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

...Gettysburg, Gallipoli, or the Berlin Wall
Search EVENTS at HistoryNet.com
More than 5,000 articles available online

HistoryNet.com
STYLE

Skyline Arch, Arches

National Park, Utah,
from the national parks series
by artist Anthony J. Rudisill
(30 by 40 inches, acrylic on
board). See PP. 6869.

6 6 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

STYLE
In our new section we
showcase present-day
Western standouts in art,
lm, fashion and more.
This issue features a
photo shoot with actress
Francesca Eastwood (star
of Outlaws & Angels),
the works of Anthony J.
Rudisill, Michael Cuneo
and Bill Churchill, and
a few stylish surprises.

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 67

STYLE

The Giant Sequoias, Sequoia

National Park, California

Canvassing the National Parks

The U.S. National Park Service [nps.gov] marks its
centennial this year, and painter Anthony J. Rudisill
has gotten into the spirit of the occasion as much as
anyone with his national parks series of acrylics,
featured here. Prompted by his continuing fasci-
nation with Americas national parks, he has de-
voted the last six of his 82 years to depicting more
than 38 landscapes and seascapes that capture the
beauty of these natural preserves.
I hope the series will inspire an appreciation of
the parks among a new generation of Americans,
says the Philadelphia native, who as a boy was in-
spired by ornithologist and painter John James
Audubon to render field sketches of birds. As an
adult Rudisill crisscrossed the United States to see
rsthand Americas natural treasures. That, in turn,
inspired him to create his national park series.
In 2014 the Noyes Museum of Art [noyesmuseum.
org], in Oceanville, N.J., featured a selection of his
30-by-40 acrylic on board paintings. Rudisills art-
work has also shown in many other notable public
spaces, including the Smithsonians National Mu-
seum of Natural History [naturalhistory.si.edu], in
Washington, D.C. To learn more about the artist Yosemite Falls,
and to see his entire national parks series of acrylics, Yosemite National
visit Rudisills website [ajrudisill.com]. Park, California

6 8 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

Spring Thaw,
Cascade Creek,
Yosemite National
Park, California

Shafer Canyon Overlook,

Canyonlands National Park, Utah
STYLE

Western Trends
Fashion pays homage to the
West this season in such looks
as this leather jacket and belt
from Old Gringo [oldgringo
boots.com], Sass & Bides
shiver dress [$490, sassandbide.
com], Charles Albert earrings
[charlesalbert.com] and Debi
Lynn necklace [debilynn.com].
PHOTO: JEFF BERLIN
 Michael Cuneo Belts a Home Run
These handcrafted belts by Michael Cuneo are all repurposed
or recycled using vintage buckles and coins he sources from
around the world. Some of the buckles are sterling silver,
some nickel silver, still others copper or brass. Cuneo then
takes authentic vintage coins like Indian head pennies, buffalo
nickels, sterling silver ying eagle quarters and half-dollars
PHOTO CREDIT
and meticulously shapes them into domes. I also often use
vintage coins from outside the United States for their size and
tonal qualities, Cuneo says. My belts symbolize the unique,
rugged Wild West lifestyle of those who forge their own trail.
The true spirit of the West is bold, brave and courageous.
I want my belts to reect this fearless quality. Visit Michael
Cuneo Belts online [$85$350, michaelcuneobelts.com].
STYLE

That Other
Eastwood
Its fair to say that
stunning, blue-eyed,
22-year-old Francesca
Eastwood was born
to act. Her dad is lm
legend Clint Eastwood,
while her mom is actress
Frances Fisher, who
most recently starred in
the ABC drama Resur-
rection. Francescas
latest lm, Outlaws
and Angels, stars Chad
Michael Murray, Luke
Wilson and Eastwood
as Florence Tilden.
The plot unfolds as
outlaws on the lam
invade the home of an
unsuspecting, seemingly
innocent frontier family
to hide out for the night.
An unexpected game of
cat and mouse ensues,
leading to seduction,
role reversal and, ulti-
mately, bloody revenge.
Eastwoods manic and
chilling role is both
twisted and unforget-
table. Now available
PHOTO LEFT: YOSHI OHARA; TOP LEFT: AF ARCHIVE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

on DVD and Blu-ray.

7 2 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

 Turquoise Saddle Horn,
The Fallen at available at the Autry
Little Big Horn Museum of the American
West store [theautry.org]

Carving out a History Niche

Bill Churchills works of wooden art average two to three weeks to complete. He primarily uses mahogany, walnut and poplar,
selected for their color. Unless hes attending an art show or visiting a gallery, youll nd him working away in his home studio.
The humble, self-taught artist explains his process: It has taken years of trial and error to nally achieve the various results
you see on my workand Im still learning. As you can see from my website, each carving requires a slightly different approach
or technique, and Im always looking for new ways. To see and learn more, visit Churchills website [churchillsculpture.com].

Well Armed
Cash Parrott (yes,
thats his real name)
grew up on a ranch in
Acton, California. Last
year Cash and father
Shawn took second
in the nation in the
U.S. Team Roping
Championships. The
duo also handcraft
these granite-hard
bracelets ($250$450)
out of rasp and buff
them to a brilliant
nish. See more online
[love2rope.com].
 COLLECTIONS

This original Walla Walla

stagecoach rst carried
passengers in the 1850s.

WANDER AND WONDER

AT FORT WALLA WALLA
THE HISTORIC PARK FEATURES A MUSEUM
AND PIONEER VILLAGE BY LINDA WOMMACK

v isitors to Fort Walla Walla Park, in the southeast

corner of Washington state, experience a double
treata chance to wander through 15 frontier-
era buildings from the region as well as a mu-
seum with five exhibit halls featuring interactive attractions.
Its scarcely enough room to relate the regions rich history.
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark passed through the
region in 1806, and trappers and traders followed on their heels.
In 1818 the North West Co. built a fur trading post named Fort
Nez Perces in the lush valley. Three years later the North West
Co. was subsumed by its bitter rival the Hudsons Bay Co. (HBC),
which acquired the post and renamed it Fort Walla Walla, as it
lay near the mouth of the Walla Walla River.
By the 1840s travelers and settlers were pouring into the Walla
Walla Valley, prompting clashes with local Indian tribes. When
raiders burned the fort to the ground in 1855, HBC abandoned
the post. That site now lies beneath the Columbia River. The
Army built a stopgap post the following year before establishing
a more permanent Fort Walla Walla in fall 1858. Occupying a
1-square-mile parcel of land, the fort included ofcers quarters,
soldiers barracks, a blockhouse, mess hall, hospital, stables and
a cemetery. The garrison engaged in several clashes with area
tribes in 1858 during the Yakima War and again two decades later
during the Nez Perce War. Soldiers from Fort Walla Walla con-
tinued to patrol the valley until the Army closed the post in 1910.
The Veterans Administration took over the property in 1921.

7 4 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

 COLLECTIONS

Today the site is preserved as a 208-acre park,
encompassing recreational facilities, the Jonathan
M. Wainright Memorial VA Medical Center and
the Fort Walla Walla Museum [fwwm.org] and ad-
joining Pioneer Village. The 15 period structures
and the historic post cemetery are on the National
Register of Historic Places and offer an intriguing
look at a bygone era.
Greeting museumgoers at the entrance to the
main hall is an 1860s stagecoach built by the famed
Abbott, Downing Co. of Concord, N.H. This light
mud coach featured an early iteration of present-
day seat beltsleather straps designed to hold
passengers in their seats and absorb the bumps
and dips of crude frontier roads. If frontier fashion
has a greater hold on you, stroll along the Heri-
tage Fashion Runway, showcasing a variety of
womens dresses, bonnets, shoes, gloves and a
range of period accessories.
Also within the main hall is the Military & Indian
People Gallery. Military exhibits include a dio-
rama of Lewis and Clarks 1806 passage through
the Walla Walla Valley, as well as uniforms, weap-
ons and personal items in the circa 1910 ofcers
parlor. Of particular note are a late 18th-century
infantry ofcers American eagle pommel sword
and a 38-star (187790) garrison flag. The Lloyd
Family Indian Artifact Collection centers on more
than 250 items presented as gifts over the years to
pioneer Albert G. Lloyd and family by area Palouse
Indians. Featured are woven baskets and other
containers, beadwork and moccasins.
Adjoining exhibit halls showcase one of the
nations largest collections of horse-era agricul-
tural equipment, notably a pre-combine stationary
threshing machine, a 1919 Harris wheat combine
with replica 33-mule team, an 1896 Russell steam
engine, a cook wagon and a cigar-shaped water
wagon. Various other wagons, buggies and sleighs
round out the displays.
Paths lead from the exhibit halls to the Pioneer
Village, where markers delineate the boundaries
of the old fort. Across the entrance road lies the post
cemetery. The oldest gravesite, dated Feb. 3, 1859,
holds the remains of Private Jacob Leonard, Com-
pany B, 9th Infantry. Youll also nd three promi-
nent monuments. One honors the 34 members of
ALL IMAGES: FORT WALLA WALLA MUSEUM COLLECTION
After advanced training at Fort Bragg, N.C., the sol-
diers shipped out for France on Christmas Eve 1917.
The village comprises period structures relo-
cated here from the surrounding region. Among
several pioneer homes are an 1877 cabin, complete
with an outhouse, and another cabin that housed
the family of Walla Walla scout and interpreter Illa-
Poot-Mii, who assisted the Army during an 1855
treaty council. Displays include such common
household items as butter churns, washtubs, even
a spinning wheel and loom.
Businesses include a harness shop and black-
smith shop, each showcasing tools of the trade.
The Union School and Toner School look ready
for classes, while the Union also boasts an 1871
organ originally shipped to Washington via Cape
Horn. Visitors can also tour a carriage house, a jail,
a railroad depot and a doctors ofce.
With so much to see, touch, explore and do,
its best to plan a full days excursion. Call 509-
525-7703 for more information.
Top: The Lloyd Family
Indian Artifact Collection
includes this beaded
satchel. Above: This
detailed exhibit features
a replica 33-mule team
harnessed to a 1919
Harris wheat combine.
Left: This early 20th-
century photograph

Walla Wallas 1st Cavalry killed during the bloody of an Indian elder and
June 17, 1877, battle with Nez Perces at White Bird a young boy is inscribed
on the back Pasco Sam
Canyon in Idaho Territory, while a second honors and Tony Lloyd Neslum.
1st Cavalrymen killed three weeks later near Cotton-
wood. The nearby Cannon Monument, centered
on two World War Iera French 155s, honor the role
Walla Walla soldiers played in the war. In 1917 local
men volunteered for the 1st Battalion, Washing-
ton Field Artillery and mustered at Fort Walla Walla.

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 75

 GHOST TOWNS
MOLSON, WASHINGTON
A LENGTHY LAND DISPUTE SPLIT THIS FRONTIER TOWN
INTO THREE BY JESSICA WAMBACH BROWN
I n 1900, looking to cash in on the north-central Washington
gold rush, John William Molson of Montreals prominent
brewing and banking family nanced from afar the develop-
ment of a town in his name on the Okanogan prairie, just
2 miles south of the Canadian border. Within months fanciful ads
from promoter George Meacham drew 300 settlers, and Molson
soon boasted an assay ofce, a bank, a post ofce, a newspaper,
a general store, a drugstore, a dental ofce, a law rm, a livery
stable, a blacksmith shop, three saloons and a 34-room hotel.
When Molsons hills failed to yield the anticipated ore, the
population dropped into the low double digits, and in 1901 the
7 6 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016
Molson State Bank,
in business from 1912
to 1924, operated out
of this well-preserved
building; its interior is
at right. The windmill
at lower right overlooks
Molson, while the hills
behind it are in Canada.
towns absentee namesake pulled his backing and closed the
bank. Within a few years rumors of a coming railroad brought
an influx of wheat- and oat-raising homesteaders, and the
1906 completion of a Great Northern Railway line resurrected
Molson as a key stopover on a route connecting Spokane, Wash.,
and Princeton, B.C.
As Molson swelled to its peak population of 700, livery stable
owner John H. McDonald staked a 160-acre parcel, which curi-
ously included most of the townsite. Only when McDonald served
eviction notices in April 1909 did indignant residents and pro-
prietors discover Meacham had failed to acquire title to the land.
 GHOST TOWNS

way 97 this side of the Canadian border. Visitors can Above: This early
take in two historic collections [molsonmuseums. 20th-century law ofce
was relocated to Old
org]. The Old Molson Ghost Town comprises sev- Molson for preservation.
eral preserved buildings from Molsons heyday, Below left: The remains
including Molson State Bank, homesteaders cabins, of a 1904 shingle mill.
a law ofce, a shingle mill and the assay ofce from
the nearby Poland China Mine. The separate 1914
canada
schoolhouse showcases period mining and farm-
ing tools and household artifacts. Both are open
molson
roughly Memorial Day through Labor Day. Call
While some dug in and sued McDonald, others 509-485-3292 or email info@edenvalleyranch.net
simply picked up and moved a half-mile north, for more information. washington
putting down new, titled roots closer to the tracks.
Although the two settlements ofcially remained oregon
a single town, Old and New Molson (as they were
known) engaged in lively, sometimes heated com-
petition. In 1914 citizens erected a three-story school-
house between the settlements, giving rise to yet
another unofcial community known as Central
Molson. In 1920 the rivalry peaked when New
Molson residents had one of their own appointed
postmaster and then literally hauled the post ofce
building north to New Molson. By the time the
feuding parties resolved the land dispute in the late
1920s, Old Molson sat largely abandoned. With the
fading of the mines, the arrival of the Depression
and the closure of the rail line in 1935, New and
ALL IMAGES: JESSICA WAMBACH BROWN

Central Molson also went into decline. The post

ofce closed in 1967, and the school two years later.
Distinctions between the settlements are long
gone among the 21 hardy residents who make their
home in Molson. The farming community lies 15
miles east of Oroville, the last town on U.S. High-

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 77

 GUNS OF THE WEST
SMOOTH OPERATOR
THE VERSATILE .69-CALIBER SMOOTHBORE MUSKET SERVED IN THE EAST
AND WEST FOR MORE THAN 40 YEARS BY GEORGE LAYMAN
T he .69-caliber muzzleloading musket, which spanned
the Model 1795 through the U.S. Model 1842, was
one of the longest-serving rearms issued to the U.S.
military. Based on the French Charleville musket
used by the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War,
it was Americas rst armory-produced standard-issue shoulder
arm. Originally a intlock design made at the Springeld and
Harpers Ferry armories, it saw successive improvements and was
manufactured by both the government and private contractors
for more than four decades.
On the heels of the Model 1795 came the U.S. Model 1808,
Model 1812, Model 1816 and variants and, nally, the Model
1842, in which the percussion cap ignition system replaced the
intlock. Between 1812 and the late 1830s the government sold
older .69-caliber variants as surplus, and thousands made their
way West. Members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition used
military muskets of this caliber, as did participants in the 1832
Black Hawk War in the Midwest and Seminole wars in Florida.
The single-shot smoothbore .69 used a patched round ball
backed by an average load of between 50 and 70 grains of black
7 8 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016
powder. It could not only swallow a 375-grain round ball but
also handle a devastating combination load of buckshot and
ball dubbed a buck and ball. More akin to a small-gauge shot-
gun than a rie, the smoothbore could handle almost any type
of small game load, including bird shot. The initial flintlock
ignition system required daily care and maintenance and fre-
quent inspection. The jaws of its hammer, or cock, held a sharp-
edged, well-knapped piece of flint that, when the trigger was
pulled, struck the upright frizzen and sent a shower of sparks
into the pan, igniting the priming powder and setting off the
main charge through an adjoining touchhole. The flintlock
system was reliable in ideal conditions, but the introduction
of any moisture could foul up the workshence the expression,
Keep your powder dry.
In the late 1820s the government began to sell off surplus
1795s and 1808s to make room for the Model 1816 and variants,
which remained in production at both Springeld and Harpers
Ferry through about 1839. To make up for production short-
falls, private contractors such as M.T. Wickham of Philadelphia
and J. Pomeroy of Pittsfield, Mass., also produced the 1816.
 GUNS OF THE WEST

A converted example of
1795 the original Springeld
.69-caliber musket.

This Model 1816/22

1816 Springeld musket was
manufactured in 1833.

Mountain men Jim Bridger and Kit Carson, among evinced by surviving examples. Western gun deal-
others, were known to have carried surplus .69-cal- ers offered surplus smoothbores at affordable prices
iber muskets as backups to their superior civilian- well into the 1870s. Plains Indians also made use
made ries. The big-bore military muskets regained of the muskets, often cutting the barrels down to 18
a measure of popularity once converted to the inches and shortening the stocks so as to conceal the
far more practical percussion cap system. Shooters weapons beneath tepee blankets. The abundance of
no longer had to tote a supply of ints or a second natural int allowed them to keep intlock variants
powder horn containing lighter grade priming pow- in ring order. They also devised means of keeping
der for the pan. All that was required were balls, their percussion versions shooting. In the absence
patches and caps. of newly manufactured caps, they lled used caps
The nal military-issue .69-caliber musket was with a paste made from soaked match heads. And if
the Model 1842. Between 1844 and 55 the Spring- round balls or conical projectiles were unavailable,
eld and Harpers Ferry armories produced some they crafted improvised loads from bits of leather or
275,000 Model 1842s. Several thousand were issued bone or scrounged for used bullets after a skirmish.
in the closing months of the 184648 Mexican War. Necessity, after all
By the outbreak of the Civil War the Army had
begun replacing the .69 smoothbore with the far
more accurate .58-caliber Model 1855 Springeld
ried musket. Regardless, the Confederacy elded
more than 15,000 smoothbores seized from federal
armories in the South, and the Union also put them
to extensive use.
Trappers, hunters and homesteaders continued to
make good use of the powerful .69-caliber smooth-
bores, often shortening the unwieldy 42-inch barrels
of the Model 1816 and Model 1842 muskets, as
ALL IMAGES: HERITAGE AUCTIONS, DALLAS

1842
Close-up of a Model
1842 Springeld
last of the military-
issue .69-caliber
smoothbore muskets.

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 79

 REVIEWS

MUST SEE, MUST READ

BILL ONEAL RECOMMENDS BOOKS AND VIDEOS ABOUT FRONTIER TEXAS

The Men Who Wear BOOKS

Sam Houston (2002,
the Star: The Story by James L. Haley):
of the Texas Rangers Houston has intrigued
many biographers,
but with massive
(2000, by Charles research Haley has
M. Robinson III): produced the nest
A highly informa- account to date of
tive account of the the 19th-century Texas
icon. The authors
Rangers, focusing
award-winning book
on the history of
explores Houstons
those belonging to extraordinary career
the worlds most as a statesman and
famous body of soldier, as well as
lawmen. It covers the controversies
their origin as surrounding the
frontier warriors, larger-than-life leader.
battling Mexican No one has written
bandits and Co- about his complex
manche war parties, personality with
to their exploits such understanding.
as quick-triggered
Lone Star: A History
lawmen. The Men
of Texas and the
Who Wear the Star Texans (1968, by
is a fast-paced T.R. Fehrenbach):
account of such Any Texan would be
legendary Rangers drawn to this sweep-
as Captain Jack ing, adventurous history
Hays, Captain of the Lone Star State.
Leander McNelly, Fehrenbach chronicles
Major John B. Texas as a Spanish and
Jones, Captain John Mexican colony, as an
Hughes and a host independent nation, as
part of the Confedera-
of other courageous
cy, as a violent frontier
Texas adventurers.
state and as a cattle
and oil kingdom.

Empire of the Summer

Moon: Quanah Parker
and the Rise and Fall

8 0 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

 REVIEWS

of the Comanches, the with epic adventures, Billy Bob Thorntons

Most Powerful Indian quirky characters and poignant portrayal
Tribe in American poignant romance of Davy Crockett,
History (2010, by S.C. along the way. the cast is mediocre.
Gwynne): Never has Dennis Quaid, though
the cruel conict be- Giant (1956, on DVD, a ne actor, fails to
tween Texans and the 201 minutes on two capture the larger-
Comanches been better discs, Warner Home than-life persona of
portrayed. As the sub- Video): Long known General Sam Houston.
title indicates, Gwynne as The National
centers his book on Movie of Texas, The Unforgiven
the last and greatest the ranching epic (on VHS and DVD,
Comanche chief, Qua- was lmed in the 125 minutes, MGM).
nah Parker, as well as Lone Star State with From a novel by
his mother, Cynthia an all-star cast featur- Alan LeMay (who
Ann Parker. Empire ing Rock Hudson, also penned The
of the Summer Moon Elizabeth Taylor and Searchers), this 1960
was a Pulitzer Prize Sam Houston: James Dean. Novelist lm brings to life
nalist and recipient American Statesman, Edna Ferber loosely the vicious struggle
of both the Texas Book Soldier and Pioneer based Reata on the between Texas ranch-
Award and Oklahoma King Ranch and wild- ers and Kiowa warri-
Book Award. (2016, on DVD, 171 minutes): A magni- catter character Jett ors. Burt Lancaster
cent documentary produced and co-directed Rink after oil tycoon stars alongside Texan
The Searchers (1954, by Denton Florian. Exhaustive research Glenn McCarthy. war hero Audie Mur-
by Alan LeMay): If revealed such treasures as an image of Eliza Dean, who died in phy in one of his best
youre too big to play Allen Houston, Sams rst wife, who de- an auto wreck before roles. Legendary di-
cowboys and Indians, stroyed all possible personal correspondence the movies release, rector John Huston
pull on your boots and portraits and requested her grave be earned an Academy created memorable
and hat and settle unmarked. Fortunately for us, her resting Award nomination for scenes of early Texas
down with this capti- place in a family cemetery is marked, while his portrayal of Rink. cattle ranching and
vating book for an relatives held on to certain artifacts, including of desperate combat
evening on the Texas the small portrait of a pretty young Eliza. The Alamo (2004, between warriors and
frontier. LeMay based on DVD, 137 min- settlers. Audrey Hep-
his novel on a real-life utes, Buena Vista burn, fragile and so-
raid and subsequent Home Entertainment). phisticated, is miscast
pursuit of captives. VIDEOS features high drama Far more accurate in her lead role as a
Director John Ford Lonesome Dove (1989, and rich characteriza- than John Waynes young frontierswoman.
adapted the novel for on DVD, 384 min- tions. The cast is led 1960 epic, this remake But the supporting
the epic lm featur- utes on two discs, by Robert Duvall and also depicted the spec- cast is superb, featur-
ing his greatest star, Rhi Entertainment): native Texan Tommy tacular victory at San ing rugged Charles
John Wayne. So after This sprawling mini- Lee Jones as retired Jacinto that avenged Bickford, silent lm
the good read, watch series, based on Larry Texas Rangers who the Alamo and won star Lillian Gish,
one of the best West- McMurtrys Pulitzer decide to drive cattle Texas its indepen- Doug McClure
erns ever lensed. Prizewinning novel, to Montana Territory, dence. Aside from and John Saxon.

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 81

 REVIEWS

States Marshal reghts (notably becoming a damn Jew

Wyatt Earp and his Wyatts one-man boy? Earp became
federal strike force stand at Iron Springs) angry and left. Charlie
enjoyed massive and Earp and posse killed [identity uncertain]
powerful backing to many (exact number said that Holliday
seek out and destroy unknown) Cowboys knew he had said it
the Cow-boy menace and delivered what wrong, he never saw
that caused mayhem Hornung calls an them together again.
along the United enormous psychologi- The Otero Letter
StatesMexico bor- cal blow. The author also shares a reported
der in the late 1870s argues Wyatt had the revelation about Josie
and early 1880s. support of political Marcus not mentioned
Parts 1 and 2 of (Republican Party) by Stuart N. Lake in his
Hornungs book and nancial (Wells Earp biography nine
Frontier Paladins Fargo and railroad) years earlierEarps
and Some Jokers gures, who either woman was a Jewess.
and The Lion of spoke up for him Hornung has much
Tombstonego over publicly or else to say about religion
well-covered ground worked quietly be- and about why it was
about the myths and hind the scenes to hardly strange no one
legends surrounding protect the men who has found a marriage
Earp and the Cochise had conducted the certicate for Wyatt
County war with the deadly but crucial and Josie. Whats
Wyatt Earps Cow- Cowboys (think Clan- mission. Among those more, he argues that
tons, McLaurys, Curly supporters was Otero, Earp and a new, well-
boy Campaign: The Bill Brocius and John and one of the lines supported posse re-
Bloody Restoration Ringo). It wasnt Hor- in the letter (addressed turned to Arizona
of Law and Order nungs intention to to Dear Old Friend) Territory from Colo-
Along the Mexican do an in-depth review he supposedly wrote rado and assassinated
Border, 1882, of the Tombstone saga, states, Father sent John Ringo (which
by Chuck Hornung, McFarland & Co., which would have me to see to the com- others say was a sui-
Jefferson, N.C., 2016, $39.95 made the book three fort of the Earp posse, cide). The debate on
times as long. But because his railroad that point continues,
In 2001 author Chuck subject of debate his informative time supported the boys. as it does with so many
Hornung was leang about its authenticity line (which includes The letter goes on to other Tombstone saga
through a copy of and historical value weather reports and say that Wells Fargo matters. No doubt the
Miguel Antonio Otero ever since. Part 3 of personal comments arranged safety in Otero Letter, though
Jr.s My Nine Years as Hornungs latest book labeled Authors Colorado, and the it does seem to clari-
Governor of the Territory analyzes every line in Perspective) sets Santa Fe Railway fy a few points and is
of New Mexico, 1897 the letter, which makes the stage for the gave them passage a wonderful nd (if
1906 that hed pur- for fascinating reading lesser-known story to Trinidad [Colo.]. it is indeed the real
chased at an Albu- no matter what one of the Earp posses Other authors thing), will only add
querque ea market thinks of Earp and all stint in New Mexico have noted that be- a few pieces to the
when he discovered that killing business Territory and Hor- fore moving on to fascinating puzzle.
an undated and un- in and around Tomb- nungs careful scru- Colorado, Wyatt and Editor
signed carbon copy stone. I believe, tiny of the letter. friend Doc Holliday
of a letter. The Otero writes Hornung, Deputy U.S. Mar- had a rift in Albuquer- Sam Houston:
Letter, which con- the Otero Letter shal Wyatt Earps que, and the Otero A Study in Leader-
tains information has provided the campaign against the Letter gives a reason ship, by Bill ONeal,
about the time Wyatt tools to perceive the Cowboys, following for their falling out: Eakin Press, Fort Worth,
Earps vendetta master design behind the crippling of his They were eating Texas, 2016, $19.95
posse spent in Wyatt Earps Cow- brother Virgil and when Holliday said Sam Houston,
Albuquerque after boy Campaign, often murder of his brother something about Bill ONeal writes,
leaving Arizona Terri- misnamed as Wyatt Morgan, has been Earp being a Jew boy. radiated leadership.
tory in the spring of Earps Vendetta Ride. called extralegal at Something like [italics Few, if any, will argue
1882, has been the Deputy United best. In a half-dozen added] Wyatt are you that statement from

8 2 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

 REVIEWS

the Texas state histor- biographies, includ- dable body of law- delivers a fascina- man Outlaws life
ian. Houstona com- ing Marquis James men. Outlaw helped ting, warts-and-all and times.
bat veteran who rose Pulitzer Prizewin- when sober, that is, study of a man who Gentleman, brute
from private to major ning The Raven and when his professional- literally walked the or both? Texas Ranger
general, a lawyer, James L. Haleys Spur ism and prociency line between the buffs seeking a new
a U.S. congressman Awardwinning Sam with a gun made him a best and worst of badge for their dis-
and senator, an emis- Houston. Although not legend among legends. human nature. Rele- play shelves can read
sary for the Cherokee as in-depth, ONeals When Outlaw vant photographs about Baz and decide
engaging and informa- was in his cups, and illustrations for themselves.
tive study deserves it was a different further evoke law- Jon Guttman
a place alongside story. His judgment
those masterpieces. went by the board,
Johnny D. Boggs and he became the
sort of mean drunk
Whiskey River even close friends
Ranger: The Old needed to give a wide
West Life of Baz berth. In an El Paso
Outlaw, by Bob brothel in the early
Alexander, University morning hours of
Nation, a governor of North Texas Press, April 4, 1894, his
of Tennessee and Denton, 2016, $34.95 Achilles heel nally
Texas, and a two- When John Entwistle, caught up with him
time president of the bass guitarist for The in a tragic altercation
Republic of Texas Who, wrote Dr. Jekyll involving, among
was unquestionably & Mr. Hyde in 1968, others, fellow Ranger
an assertive, inde- he was inspired by Buckskin Joe Mc-
pendent, ambitious the effect alcohol had Kidrict and Constable
Type A personality. on the groups notor- John Selman.
ONeals book iously irresponsible Whiskey River Ranger
focuses on Houstons drummer, Keith Moon. is the latest in a series
leadership qualities, He might just as well of biographies retired
how he obtained them have been alluding lawman Bob Alexan-
and how this Tennes- to Baz Outlaw. der has mined from
see, Texas, Western Who? you might the rich vein of ore
and American icon ask. Contrary to his that is Texas Ranger Hornswogglers,
managed them. Its family name, Georgia- history, each focusing Fourflushers &
not always a glamor- on an individual who
ous portrait of the contributed to the
Snake-Oil Salesmen:
controversial and hard- organizations legend. True Tales of the
headed gure. ONeal As in previous studies Old Wests Sleaziest
reveals Houstons he presents a wealth Swindlers,
warts, too, including of documentation to by Matthew P. Mayo, TwoDot, Guilford, Conn.,
his hard drinking. back his play. And and Helena, Mont., 2015, $18.95
That Houston loved as before, even after
Texas is manifest, but separating fact from Crime was rampant Matthew Mayo ex-
he also loved America, legend, what remains in the Old West, but amines such agile-
and his words to the is a rip-roaring tale. not every felon earned brained imam
U.S. Senate during born Bazzell Lamar Detracting somewhat his ill-gotten gains artists and the fasci-
the Compromise of Outlaw gained fame from the narrative is with a gun. A paral- nation they still hold
1850 predated Abra- as one of the early Alexanders tendency lel faction of silver- over frontier scholars.
ham Lincolns on the Texas Rangers whose to get carried away tongued devils re- It might be argued
eve of Civil War: For a exploits in the latter by his own prose and lieved people of their the best swindlers
nation divided against half of the 19th century belabor a point with valuables with words, (in strictly relative
itself cannot stand. helped establish what repetition and ex- woven into elaborate terms, of course) are
Houston is the sub- arguably became the cessive psychological cons and out-and-out those believers in the
ject of many excellent worlds most formi- speculation. Still he lies. In his latest book W.C. Fields maxim

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 83

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You cant cheat U.S. government,

an honest man. which broke virtually
That is to say, their all of its promises to
elaborate traps, of- American Indians,
ten involving accom- save its promise to
plices and temporary take their land. The
fronts, draw in marks proles are enter-
who themselves ex- taining, but caveat
pect disproportionate emptor: The dialogue
gain for relatively that colors many of
little investment, the narratives may be
an expectation that too good to be true
seems (and, of course, and as the conversa-
is) too good to be true. tions lack footnotes,
Such nefarious activi- the reader is left to
ties eventually con- take a leap of faith as
CLASSIFIEDS ferred mythic status
on such infamous
to their authenticity.
That would be a lot
AUDIO/VIDEO bunco artists as easier to do were it not
BOBS FILMS. 1930s to 1970s Jefferson Soapy for the books subject.
out of print and hard to find Smith and Doc Baggs. Jon Guttman
films. Free catalog. Bobs Films, The career of Ed-
PO Box 291746, Port Orange, FL ward Zane Carroll It Ends Here:
32129. rmauro5@cfl.rr.com Judsonwho under Missouris Last
the nom de plume Vigilante, by Joe
BOOKS/PUBLICATIONS
Ned Buntline (see Johnston, Missouri
VINTAGE WESTERN P. 16) made a for- History Museum Press,
MAGAZINES. Back Issues of tune writing highly St. Louis, distributed
Wild West, True West, others. embellished (if not by the University
Contact: Magazine House downright ctional) of Chicago Press,
541-536-5227. LWalker@ biographies of legend- 2015, $24.95
magazinehouse.us ary frontier heroes The title last vigi-
REAL ESTATE itself featured enough lante of Missouri
adventurous twists native Joe Johnstons
CUSTER BATTLEFIELD for and turns to have new title is Edward
sale. www.townforsale.net
Readers made a good Bunt- OKelley, the man
might Find line story. For aci- who shot the man
onados of the crimi- who shot Jesse James.
certain nal genre, however, But as the author
LAST DITCH AT miscreants
Pursuing
Pirates
THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL
OF MILITARY HISTORY

ANZIO
Allied soldiers foil erce
more
the accounts of lesser-
known con men (and
notes in his epilogue,
Maybe there will
disturbing
German counterattacks
Americas Most
Explosive Word
Pledging
Allegiance
women) may hold always be another
than
The Backstory
Terror in
Tobacco
Country more fascination. someone willing to
Greeces
Uncivil War
The Man on the
Flying Tank
distracting. That said, readers take up that sword.
Marc Mitscher:
Carrier-War
Champion
might nd certain So perhaps it doesnt
October 2016
HistoryNet.com
al swearen- miscreants more dis-
gen, for turbing than distract-
instance, ing. Al Swearengen,
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HistoryNet is the worlds largest
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to subscribe to any of our nine titles to ruin in the Dakota Territory.
sleazy dives Mayo even reserves
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OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 85

 REVIEWS

all end here. While characters out of The bulk of the

civilians are no longer the real West, but book, though, deals
interested in going what about this with state building
nose to nose with Red Galvin fellow? and bickering west
hardened criminals, Although Johnson of the Mississippi.
Johnston adds, they doesnt explicitly The invisible lines
understand that the state it in the book, drawn up with the
law needs their help. Galvin is a com- participation of poli-
In this, the third posite of several ticians, settlers and
entry in the Missouri newsmen from a sometimes American
Vigilantes series (fol- time when reporters Indians redened
lowing Johnstons rarely got bylines. enormous tracts
The Mack Marsden The author invented of land the United
Murder Mystery: Vigi- dialogue after glean- States gained through
lantism or Justice? ing through old purchase, conquest,
and Necessary Evil: newspapers for the war and treaty.
Settling Missouri With facts. Most of the Unique factors
a Rope and a Gun), imaginary conver- contributed to the
the author relates a sation comes when evolution and ulti-
wealth of intriguing OKelley relates his mate shape of these
historical informa- incredible life story lines, the author
tion in a lively fash- to Galvin. In short, concludes, yet their
ion, although purists OKelley was a fan existence fullled
are likely to object to of Missouri outlaw Creating the an essential goal for
some of the methods Jesse James who, American West: 19th century Amer-
Johnston employs to while avenging Boundaries and ica. State boundaries
tell his tale. Jesses murder Borderlands, remade a diverse,
OKelley is only by killing assassin by Derek R. Everett, University of Oklahoma, complicated land-
part of the story. Bob Ford, failed to Norman, 2014, $29.95 scape into a distinctly
The book opens escape drunken ob- American West.
with reporter James scurity. It all makes Next time you comprise a key chap- Intranational
P. Red Galvin of for entertaining read- look at a map of ter of our national boundary making
the St. Louis Post- inglike a fast-paced the United States, history. In contrast might not be as
Dispatch heading to novel in partsthough note all those state to their common important to an
the Missouri State some readers may borders you once interpretation as understanding of
Penitentiary to inter- prefer a more straight, almost learned in stale anachronism, frontier history as
view inmate Laura if not as spirited, nar- school and then he writes, the liens are, say, manifest
Bullion, girlfriend rative. Composite mostly took for that both divide and destiny or the coun-
of Wild Bunch mem- reporter Red Galvin grantedunless unite the country trys international
ber Ben The Tall also relates anecdotes perhaps youve from within remain borders (mainly with
Texan Kilpatrick. about real-life outlaws lived on one of essential, conse- Spain/Mexico and
The book ends in William The Missou- those borders. In quential elements British Canada), but
circular fashion with ri Kid Randolph this engaging book of American life. it does have its place
Wells Fargo messen- and George Collins. author Derek Ever- Everett rst sum- and is fascinating
ger David A. Trous- Red, Johnson writes, ett states his case for marizes the boundary stuff. For example,
dale becoming a loved and hated regarding the Ameri- making processes Missouri and Iowa
vigilante hero by those criminals whose can frontier in terms in the Eastern states, had a bloodless con-
shooting Kilpat- names he had typed of intranational some of which cher- ict (the so-called
rick during a failed countless times, and borderlands. In ished their sea to sea Honey War) over the
train robbery, and he thought he saw other words, the de- colonial land grants, divide between them,
the ever-romantic them perhaps more bating, negotiating even though there and while outsiders
Laura then crying clearly than anyone and inghting that was no way for them might nd it amusing,
until she could cry else. Sounds like a went into dening to govern land be- regional politicians
no more. Laura bit of self-reection state boundaries (most yond the Appala- and settlers bickered
and the Tall Texan on the authors part. of which were once chian Mountains, let over that boundary for
are two interesting Editor territorial boundaries) alone the Rockies. more than 40 years.

8 6 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

 REVIEWS

That is just one of when backpackers Belles with a look

the 19th century reach that remote line at the women who
case studies Everett in the wilderness, it supported the male
considers in depth. does seem to matter border raiders.
Others deal with they have stepped Relying heavily
the western Arkan- out of Montana and on Union provost
sas boundary, the into Idaho. Western marshals papers
Oregon Country historians will enjoy from the National
boundaries, the this book, particu- Archives, Wood pro-
California-Nevada larly the informa- vides sketches of the
boundary, the New tive maps, almost wives and mothers,
Mexico-Colorado as much as geogra- daughters and sisters,
boundary and, most phers will. And most female friends and
recent, the Dakota everyone will be in- lovers, and, nally,
boundaries. spired to reexamine aiders and abettors
Establishing states that old map of the of the Missouri guer-
involved far more United States. rillas. Some are rel-
than drawing lines Editor atively well known,
on a map. Political others wholly ob-
representation or Bushwhacker scure. Some might
lack of it, law en- Belles: The have been spies,
forcement, personal Sisters, Wives while others were
identity, economic and Girlfriends simply women who
opportunity, ethnic of the Missouri stood by their men. Soap Suds Row:
divisions and philo- Guerrillas, by Union justice sel- The Bold Lives of
sophical differences Larry Wood, Pelican dom discriminated, Army Laundresses,
all came into play. Publishing Co., Gretna, banishing many such 18021876,
One of the big dif- La., 2016, $24.95 women from Mis- by Jennifer J. Lawrence, High Plains Press,
ferences from the During the Civil War souri and sending Glendo, Wyo., 2016, $18.95
start was whether to sympathetic Missouri- several to prison.
divide the land along Sarah Jane Smith From 1802 through men before they ever
such geographic fea- was even sentenced 1876 Army laundresses saw a soggy dollar.
tures as rivers and to death, although were the only women For their labors the
mountains or to ofcials ultimately paid and recognized laundresses had to
institute geometric released her due by the U.S. govern- deal with cholera and
boundaries. The to failing health. ment. Even after the dysentery, accidents
geometry-versus- Wood includes ofcial practice ended, and boredom, eas
geography debate heartrending stories some washerwomen and drunken soldiers.
percolated during from a savage war. received rations until One was even brought
almost every proposal Consider Sallie May- 1883, while others up on assault charges.
for a new line to be eld: After Union were granted modest In 1866 one luckless
drawn in the Western troops killed her housing until 1893. soldier made a dispar-
United States, writes ans referred to Con- husband in battle In this offbeat his- aging remark to the
Everett. In the end, federate irregulars and left his body to tory author Jennifer wrong laundress at
he says, geometry usu- as The Boys, and rot for days before Lawrence, who has Fort Bascom, New
ally won out. Just over most histories of those burying it, she ex- played a laundress as Mexico Territory. The
one-third of boundar- bloody years in Kan- humed the body a historical reenactor, woman warned the sol-
ies incorporate rivers. sas and Missouri herself and carted provides details of the dier shed cut out his
A bigger surprise: focus on such boys it to a cemetery womens dutiesno, tongue if he mouthed
Only the part of one as William Quantrill, for reburial. they were not largely off again. He didand
line corresponds to a Bloody Bill Ander- As Wood sums prostitutesand an she did, slicing off the
chain of mountains son and the James up: Bushwhacker overview of their lives. tip of his tongue as
the Continental Divide and Younger brothers. belles suffered cruel- Their pay, which var- he slept off a drunken
and Bitterroot Range Ozarks historian Larry ties of war just like ied from fort to fort, bingeone way to
between Idaho and Wood takes a different their men. was deducted from curb his language.
Montana. Somehow tack in Bushwhacker Johnny D. Boggs the pay of enlisted Johnny D. Boggs

OCTOBER 2016 WILD WEST 87

 GO WEST
OWENS VALLEY, CALIFORNIA

WILD IRIS, BISHOP, CALIF., PETER B. KUNASZ PHOTOGRAPHY, PBKIMAGES.COM; INSET: STILL FROM WESTWARD HO (1935)

Indigenous tribes once used the roots of wild iristhe

blooms in this eld outside Bishopto treat toothache.
In the 1935 oater Westward Ho (inset) John Wayne
cured heartache by serenading co-star Sheila Bromley
amid another peaceful meadow in the Owens Valley, a
location for hundreds of lms. East of the Sierra Nevada,
the valley stretches some 75 miles from Mono Lake south
to mostly dry Owens Lakethe latter depleted due to a
vitriolic water war with the thirsty city of Los Angeles.
Benign outsiders now come to hike or horseback ride the
high country, ski, camp and seek to summit 14,505-foot
Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the Lower 48.

8 8 WILD WEST OCTOBER 2016

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