Today in Old West History
April
April 1
1865- Iowa- the Betrand, a 161-foot stern-wheeler strikes a snag in the Missouri River and sinks in 10 minutes. 150 tons of its cargo will be salvaged in 1969 in what is now the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge.
1867- Colorado Territory- Blacks vote in elections for the first time, there was no opposition.
1877- Arizona Territory- Ed Schieffelin, prospecting in Apache country is told all he would find is his tombstone. On this date he struck one of the richest silver veins in the Old West. Ed names his bonanza “Tombstone”.
1877- Dodge City, Kansas- Wyatt Earp resigns as police officer to prospect for gold in the Black Hills.
1878- Lincoln, New Mexico Territory- Sheriff Brady of Lincoln County and one of his deputies were killed in a hail of bullets, by Billy the Kid and/or his gang, as they walked down a street in Lincoln.
1884- Puerto de Luma, New Mexico Territory- Juan Patron, of Lincoln County War fame, is shot in the back and killed by Mitch Maney, a drunken Texas cowboy.
April 2
1867- Lawrence, Kansas- the Kansas Pacific Railroad sells Delaware Indian land.
1868- Topeka, Kansas- local paper reports that “…government detective W.F. Cody and “Wm. Haycock”- Wild Bill Hickok- deputy U.S. Marshall, brought eleven prisoners and lodged them in our calaboose on Monday last.”
1870- Wyoming- Indians kill six settlers at the headwaters of the Sweetwater River.
1876- Wichita, Kansas- police officer Wyatt Earp gets into a fistfight with William Smith, a candidate for city marshal, and is fined $30 and released from the force.
1880- Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory- Dave Rudabaugh at this time was a member of the Dodge City Gang, a group of refugees from Dodge City, Kansas, now hanging out in Las Vegas. Dave tried to break John J. Webb from jail. However, Webb didn't want rescuing as he was expecting a pardon any day from the territorial governor. A jailer, Antonio Lino Valdez, was killed during this unwanted rescue.
1885- Frog Lake Saskatchewan - Wandering Spirit massacres nine white settlers and Metis at Frog Lake; takes one man and two women prisoner with seven other Crees.
1901- Sonora, Texas- William Carver, who had ridden with the Wild Bunch, was killed by Sheriff Bryant.
April 3
1817- Texas Ranger William Wallace, AKA Big Foot Wallace, was born. He was given his alias when he moved to San Antonio to track down a thieving Indian known as "Big Foot" (he never got him). In 1842 Big Foot was part of a party of 159 prisoners ordered shot by General Santa Anna. The officer in charge would not shoot all of them but instead put 144 white beans and 16 black beans in a gourd and shooting only those who drew a black bean. He died at the age of 82 in 1899.
1860- St. Joseph, Missouri- the first Pony Express rider streaked out westward towards California. This was a mere 60 days after the decision to establish mail service between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California was made. Originally the trip took twelve days but was trimmed to nine. The young riders made $125/month and were expected to ride 30 to 70 miles a day.. Despite numerous stations being wiped out and their staffs murdered by Indians only one mail rider was killed by Indians during the pony Express's 19 months existence (though many were wounded). The enterprise was owned and operated by the firm of Russell, Majors, and Waddell.
1861- West Point, New York- Cadet George A. Custer receives three demerits for throwing snowballs near the barracks.
1868- Rock Creek, Wyoming- a wood chopping party is attacked by Indians, killing one woodcutter.
1882- St. Joseph, Missouri- Jesse James was shot and killed by Robert Ford.
1885- 2.75 million acres of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Dakota Territory are opened for settlement by the U.S. Land Commissioner. The land had been taken fraudulently by cattlemen, claim jumpers, and railroad corporations.
1892- Wyoming- the Johnson County War, over cattle, rages.
1898- Chilkoot Pass, Yukon Territory- an avalanche kills 88 men during the Klondike gold rush.
1908- Former hotel bellboy and top western gambler Riley Grannan died with an estate of $100. A few years before he had put $250,000 on a horse and won.
April 4
1858- Langley, British Columbia -the Fraser River gold rush begins.
1878- New Mexico Territory- Dick Brewer, ranch owner and foreman of John Tunstall's horse ranch, died when the top of his head was blown off by Jesse Andrews, AKA Buckshot Roberts, at Blazer's Mill.
1878- Texas- Sam Bass and his gang rob the Texas and Pacific at Eagle Ford.
1896- Yukon- the discovery of gold is announced.
April 5
1859- Western part of Kansas Territory (present day Colorado)- the “State of Jefferson” is formed by residents.
1863- Utah in the Battle of Spanish Fork 140 cavalrymen route 200 Indians.
1869- Johnson County, Texas- outlaw Benjamin Bickerstaff and his men roared into the town of Alvarado on this night and "hurrahed" the town by firing weapons into the air and some into the store windows. Irate citizens spilled into the street heavily armed, warned in advance of the arrival of the gang, and gunned down several members, including Bickerstaff who was shot dead from his horse by a load of buckshot from a shotgun fired almost point blank into his face.
1872- Montana Territory- the first Cypress Hills Massacre occurs as American wolfers and Assiniboine Indians fight in the Sweet Grass Hills, near the Canadian border.
1879- Dodge City, Kansas- in the Long Branch Saloon Frank Loving, onetime cowhand and faro dealer, shoots it out with a hide-hunter and gunman named Levi Richardson. Levi fired off 5 rounds, before Frank got one off, and missed all 5 times. When the smoke cleared Frank began squeezing the trigger of his gun with cool deliberation hitting Levi 3 times. A coroner's jury ruled a self defense verdict. Frank was shot dead about a year later in Trinidad, Colorado.
April 6
1857- Caborca, Mexico- Henry Crabb's forces are wiped out when they encounter Mexican military forces.
1862- Tennessee- the future explorer John Wesley Powell loses his right arm in the Battle of Shiloh.
1875- Indian Territory- Chief Black Horse and ten other Indians are killed near the Cheyenne Agency. Nineteen enlisted men are reported wounded.
1880- Utica, Montana Territory- future western artist Charles Russell arrives from St. Louis.
1886- Newton, Kansas- an “anti-dude” club is formed its members set fines for various infractions: $5 for carrying a cane, $10 for wearing kid gloves and a plug hat, and $20 for parting one's hair down the middle.
1900- New Mexico Territory -George Scarborough died from wounds received during a long drawn out gunfight with four suspected rustlers near San Simon. George was a peace officer and a cattle detective who was known as the man who killed the man who killed Wes Harden (George killed John Selman Easter Sunday 1896).
April 7
1857- snow falls in every state of the Union in a late-season freeze. In Houston the temperature reaches 21 degrees Fahrenheit.
1867- Fort Larned, Kansas- Major General Winfield Scott Hancock arrives for a conference local Indian chiefs. He is currently organizing a 1,400-soldier campaign against the southern plains tribes. Hancock's chief field commander is Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer.
1874- Texas- a stagecoach robbery between Austin and San Antonio is attributed to the James-Younger Gang.
1879- New Mexico Territory- soldiers surround the camp of Bill Campbell and Jesse Evans near Dowlin's Mill. The two escape but the soldiers capture an army deserter named Texas Jack.
1882- Tombstone, Arizona Territory- the Tombstone Nugget reports that Turkey Creek Jack Johnson is riding with Wyatt Earp's gang. Johnson has a $2,500 bounty on his head.
1889- Wyoming- the Cheyenne Weekly Mail published his most bitter attack on the Jim Avrill and Cattle Kate, a letter that caused gunman Frank Canton to insist that Averill and his prostitute partner be eradicated. On July 20, 1889 they were lynched.
1898- Oklahoma Territoty- outlaw Richard West, AKA Little Dick due to his height, ran with the Dalton and Doolin gangs in the early 1890s. At some later date West became employed as a wrangler at the Arnett Ranch near Guthrie. He was shot while resisting arrest on this date at the Arnett Ranch.
1928- Norman, Oklahoma- Actor James Garner (Maverick) is born.
April 8
1862- Sante Fe, New Mexico Territory- Confederate troops abandon the town.
1867- Kansas- a blizzard prevents Indian chiefs from attending a conference at Fort Larned.
1872- Raymond, Alberta Canada- Ray Knight 'Father of Canadian Rodeo': conceived, coined, organized first Canadian stampede (rodeo) (the first was the Raymond Stampede in 1902); the town of Raymond was named for him.
1875- Alberta- the political history of Alberta began with the North-West Territories Act. It defined the North-West Territories as the area formerly known as "Rupert's Land," and the "North-Western Territory" (with the exception of Manitoba).
April 9
1869- London England - Hudson Bay Company shareholders accept terms of Rupert's Land Act of 1868; Hudson Bay Company cedes its territory to Canada.
1878- Dodge City, Kansas- Marshal Edward Masterson was killed by a drunken cowhand named Jack Wagner as he went to investigate a disturbance at the Lady Gay Dance Hall. His brother Bat was only a little distance away and shot both Jack Wagner and his partner Alf Walker. Wagner and Walker staggered into the Peacock Saloon. Wagoner died the next day while Alf took a month to die.
1886- a first class rail ticket from Kansas to California costs $12; a second-class ticket is $7.
1892- Buffalo, Wyoming- Frank M. Canton, AKA Joe Horner (1849-1927), lawman-gunman Canton had joined Frank Wolcott's Regulators, a group of more than fifty gunmen hired by the cattlemen to wipe out the settlers in Johnson County, especially the settlement at Buffalo. Wolcott, Canton, and Tom Smith led this small army toward Buffalo when they heard that Champion and a fellow gunman, Nick Ray, were holed up at the nearby K.C. ranch. As they approached the ranch, Canton spotted Jack Flagg driving a wagon near the ranch; this man was on the murder list of the Regulators and the gunmen fired at him. He managed to escape but left his wagon which the Regulators torched and then sent crashing into the log cabin ranch building where Champion and Ray were defending themselves. The place blazed up and Champion, his clothes smoking, dove through the front door with two six-guns firing, but fifty guns zeroed in on him and he was riddled with bullets, dying instantly.
April 10
1859- Denver, western part of Kansas Territory (present day Colorado)- the towns' first hanging takes place. Vigilantes hung a man accused of strangling his Hungarian immigrant brother-in-law. The future lawman Dave Cook was in the crowd of on-lookers.
1865- Fort Dodge, Kansas- the fort was established to protect the Santa Fe Trail from Indians. The post was designed to protect the U.S. mail and emigrant wagon trains on the Santa Fe Trail, and to serve as a base of operations against hostile Indians. It was located on the left bank of the Arkansas River on the "Long Route" of the Santa Fe Trail a few miles southeast of the present Dodge City. The site lay near the intersection of the "wet" and "dry" routes on the Santa Fe Trail. In 1867 Fort Dodge was relocated and rebuilt in stone buildings. In 1868 Comanches and Kiowas attacked Fort Dodge killing four soldiers and wounding seventeen. Fort Dodge was abandoned October 2, 1882.
1875- Regina Saskatchewan - Northwest Mounted Police ordered to build a post on the site of the city of Calgary.
1875- Black Hills, Dakota Territory- the U.S. Cavalry escorts the Gordon party, illegal miners, to Fort Laramie.
1876- Arizona Territory- Apaches from the San Carlos Reservation kill the Sulphur Springs station keepers and a San Pedro rancher.
1878- Mesquite, Texas- Sam Bass and his gang rob the Texas and Pacific at Mesquite. This was the gang's last job as the county sheriffs, Pinkertons, U.S. marshals, and the Texas Rangers were intent on capturing the gang.
1881- Mesilla, New Mexico Territory- William Bonney, aka Billy the Kid, is convicted of the murder of Sheriff Brady. The Kid is sentenced on the 15th to be hanged on Friday, 13 May. He is turned over to Sheriff Pat Garrett.
1883- Texas- E.C. Abbott, AKA Teddy Blue signed up with the FUF Ranch to drive cattle to the Yellowstone River in Montana and the outfit left on this date and reached Arnell's Creek, near Forsyth, Montana Territory in October
April 11
1858- Western part of Kansas Territory (present day Colorado)- Gold seekers call for a convention to petition the federal government for statehood. Colorado eventually becomes a state in 1876.
1862- Sante Fe, New Mexico Territory- Union troops occupy the town.
1866- New Mexico Territory- two companies of the 1st Arizona Infantry battle Indians between Forts Lincoln and Whipple in present-day Arizona, killing 16.
1868- Fort Berthold, Dakota Territory- it is learned that Sitting Bull is now allied with the Miniconjoux and Blackfeet.
1873- President Ulysses S. Grant ordered a truce with the Indians and a peace settlement to be arranged. To that end, General Edward R.S. Canby, Methodist preacher Eleasar Thomas, and Albert B. Meacham, one-time superintendent of the Modoc Reservation at Klamath, met with Captain Jack. As Canby approached the Modoc leader under a flag of truce, Captain Jack raised his rifle and shot Canby to death. Other Modocs opened fire on Meacham and Thomas, killing Thomas. Meacham managed to run back to his horse and escape. The cold-blooded murder of General Canby, a Civil War hero and the only general ever killed by Indians, caused the U.S. Army to launch full-scale attacks against the Modocs, soundly defeating the Indians at Dry Lake a short time later.
1881- Fort Buford, Dakota Territory- 135 Sioux surrender.
1883-Hunnewell, Kansas- Cash Hollister moved to Caldwell, Kansas, from Cleveland in 1877. Two years later, he was elected mayor after the sudden death of the incumbent. He exhibited a tempestuous temperament, frequently got involved in fights. In 1880, Hollister chose not to run for reelection, but three years later was appointed a deputy U.S. marshal. On Apr. 11, 1883, he became embroiled in a shootout in Hunnewell, while trying to arrest a family of horse thieves. One brother was killed and another wounded before the remaining Ross family members surrendered.
1892- Nathan Champion, homesteader accused of being a rustler, was killed by 28 bullets in attack by Pinkerton agents working for corporate landowners. They claimed he was the leader of the Red Sash Gang.
1898- President McKinley asked Congress for a declaration of war on Spain.
1899- the treaty ending the Spanish-American War was declared in effect.
April 12
1867- Fort Larned Kansas- General Hancock tells Cheyenne Indians to abide by the treaty of 1865 and stay on their lands south of the Arkansas River, or risk war.
1872- Columbia, Kentucky- Jesse James gang robs bank (1 dead/$1,500).
1883- California- Black Bart robs the Lakeport-Cloverdale stage again, this time about 5 miles from Cloverdale.
1888- Oklahoma Territory- John Billee and Thomas Willis robbed and murdered W.P. Williams and buried his body in a ravine in the Kiamichi Mountains on this date. John Billee and Thomas Willis were later apprehended by three deputies, Will Ayers, James Wilkerson, and Perry DuVall. While en route back to Fort Smith for trial, the three lawmen and the two prisoners bedded down in a deserted cabin near Muskogee, Oklahoma. During the night, Billee managed to free one hand from the handcuffs which bound him to one of the deputies and reached for the deputy's gun. He shot Ayers, DuVall, and Wilkerson, wounding them, but Wilkerson managed to wound the outlaw before Billee made good his escape. All three wounded deputies, embarrassed at being jumped, were publicly denounced when they delivered their prisoners to Fort Smith. Billee and Willis were convicted of murder and sentenced to death. After several legal delays, they were both hanged at Fort Smith on Jan. 16, 1890.
1889- New York, New York- Buffalo Bill's Wild West leaves for a tour of France.
April 13
1860 - Sacramento, California- the first Pony Express rider, Tom Hamilton, arrives after leaving St. Joseph, Missouri. The riders covered 1,966 miles in 11 days.
1866- Beaver, Utah- Robert LeRoy Parker (1866-c.1908), AKA: Butch Cassidy, George Cassidy; William T. Phillips; Ingerfield; Lowe Maxwell, was born. Cassidy was one of ten children and had no formal education. Cassidy became a cowboy while still in his teens when he met outlaw Mike Cassidy, adopting Cassidy's name after he joined him in rustling cattle in Utah and Colorado. Cassidy taught Butch how to shoot so that he was able to hit a playing card dead center at fifty paces and his draw was much faster than historians later described. Mike Cassidy led a small band of robbers and rustlers but, after having shot a Wyoming rancher, he disappeared. Butch Cassidy took over the gang. He later became the leader of the famed Wild Bunch. Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch members were the last of the old time western bank and train robbers, a motley group of outlaws with distinctive personalities and a flair for the flamboyant. Cassidy was no mean-minded desperado but a fun-loving, easy-going bandit who preferred to use his brains rather than his six-gun. He was backed up in most of his gunplay by the lightning fast-draw artist, the Sundance Kid. His gang members included Will Carver, addicted to reading press notices about the gang; Ben Kilpatrick, the towering bandit known as the Tall Texan; and the most deadly of the group, Harvey Logan, who was also known as Kid Curry, a dead-eyed killer who vowed he would never be taken alive by the law and kept his word.
April 14
1860- San Francisco, California- the first Pony Express rider arrives with mail originating in St. Joseph, Missouri.
1873- Kansas, Nebraska and southern Dakota Territory- the “Easter Blizzard” a three-day storm kills many settlers.
1874- Colorado Territory- Alferd Packer, the lone survivor of the Alferd Packer party makes it to the Los Pinos Indian Agency, near Sagauche, sixty-six days after leaving Chief Ouray's camp in search of gold. Packer told a story of men quarreling and killing each other and of eating human flesh to survive.
1884- El Paso, Texas- Bob Cahill killed outlaw Buck Linn. Linn was intent on killing Cahill because he had been misinformed that Cahill had just killed his pard, Bill Raynard a few minutes previously. Cahill, who was not a gunman, quickly received word that Linn was on his way to avenge his partner and was given a .45 Colt by friend Dan Tipton. Wyatt Earp, who was there also, instructed the nervous Cahill to take his time and aim for the belly. The advice was good. Linn came crashing into the gambling hall firing four poorly aimed shots. Cahill's first shot went through Linns stomach and shattered his spinal column and the second lodged in Linn's heart.
April 15
1859- New Mexico Territory (present day Arizona)- on the Colorado River work begins on Camp Colorado, which is to assist emigrants en route to California. The name changes in a week to Fort Mojave.
1862- New Mexico Territory (present day Arizona)- the westernmost battle of the Civil War takes place, the Battle of Peralta. At Picacho Pass an advance unit of the California Column from Yuma defeats a Confederate detachment of Texans. Upon learning of the battle, Confederate troops retreat from Tucson.
1869- the Supreme Court, in Texas v. White, rules that secession from the Union is unconstitutional.
1871- Abilene, Kansas- James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok replaced Tom Smith as Marshal. His salary was $150 a month.
1877- Arizona Territory- Captain William Hancock files the first claim under the Desert Land Act.
1879- New Mexico Territory- John Chisum recommends Pat Garrett to Governor Lew Wallace to take care of the bunch running east of Fort Sumner.
1881- El Paso, Texas- the Battle of Keating's Saloon- the Manning Brothers had stolen a huge herd of cattle in Mexico and had driven the cattle into Texas to sell. Texas Ranger Ed Fitch and two Mexican officers named Sanchez and Juarique investigated the cattle raid. The two Mexicans, searching for the stolen herd, were shot and killed from ambush near the Manning ranch. This provoked a huge Mexican posse of more than seventy -five men to cross into Texas seeking revenge.
The Mexicans demanded an inquest for the deaths of Sanchez and Juarique. The inquest was held on Apr. 15, 1881, with constable Gus Krempkau acting as interpreter. Krempkau, at noon that day, left the courtroom in El Paso and went to Keating's Saloon, where he obtained a rifle, even though no firearms were allowed in court. As Krempkau went through the swinging doors of the saloon he was accosted by cowboy George Campbell, a friend of the Manning's.
Dallas Stoudenmire, one of the most feared lawmen of the era, a fast-drawing peace officer who took no insults from anyone, was at that moment eating a bowl of stew in the Globe Restaurant. Meanwhile, Krempkau ignored Campbell's remarks. He walked to his horse and slipped the rifle into a holster. Campbell continued berating him, shouting: "Any American who befriends Mexicans should be hanged!"
John Hale, a drunken bully and friend of Campbell's, rushed to Krempkau and jammed a six-gun into Krempkau's chest then shot the lawmen in the lungs. Hale ran behind a post in front of the saloon just as Marshal Stoudenmire appeared with two six-guns in his hands
Stoudenmire saw Hale trying to hide behind the post. He fired two shots on the run. The first wounded a man emerging from the saloon, the second struck Hale in the center of his forehead, killing him instantly. Krempkau with his last ounce of strength pulled his six-gun and fired all six shots from a prone position, striking Campbell in the wrist and toe. Krempkau then fell against the steps of the saloon, dead. Campbell, whose six-gun had been shot out of his hand, picked up the weapon with his uninjured hand and sent a slug into the already dead Krempkau. Stoudenmire then pumped three bullets into Campbell.
1885- Fort Pitt Saskatchewan - Northwest Mount Police Inspector Francis Jeffrey Dickens (1844-1886) abandons Fort Pitt and withdraws to Battleford after white settlers decide to surrender to Big Bear during the North West Rebellion; he is the third son of novelist Charles Dickens.
1889- Oklahoma Territory- a marshal's posse kills and captures a group of Sooners, settlers who stole onto the Public Domain territory in Oklahoma in hopes of claiming it legally, just nine days before the official start of the land rush.
April 16
1856- Victoria BC - James Douglas (1803-1877) declares all gold found in BC to be the property of the Crown.
1864- Montana Territory- Tom Harris begins planting near Fort Owen and becomes Montana first fulltime farmer.
1871- Abilene, Kansas- the Union Pacific Railroad prepared to load and ship four trainloads of cattle a day as some 90,000 head of cattle are being driven from Texas.
1874- Ottawa Ontario - Louis Riel (1844-1885) was expelled from the House of Commons as a fugitive, since there was a warrant for his arrest in Ontario for the shooting of Thomas Scott in Red River.
1881- Dodge City, Kansas- the “Battle of the Plaza” takes place as Bat Masterson returns from Tombstone to help his brother Jim in business dealings. As Bat steps off the train he sees two men who are believed to be causing problems for Jim and begins to fire. Al Updegraffe is killed. After paying an $8 fine Bat and Jim leave for Colorado.
1882- Trinidad, Colorado- John Allen shoots it out with Cockeyed Frank Loving. The fight starts at the Imperial watering hole and ends at Hammond's Hardware Store. Allen killed Cockeyed Frank.
1884- Columbus, Ohio- touring with the Sells Brothers Circus, Annie Oakley is billed as a markswoman for the first time.
April 17
1862- Utah- the Holladay Overland Mail wagon train near Split Rock station is attacked by 30 Indians. Six of Nine people in the train are wounded in a four-hour battle. The Indians partially destroy two wagons and make off with nine mules.
1865- Virginia City, Montana Territory- “bread riots” occur due to flour shortages.
1878- New Mexico Territory- J.P. Tunstall offers a $5,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of his son's murderer.
1878- Texas-in Indian raids near Fort Quitman, San Ygnacio, Steele's ranch, and Brown's ranch, four civilians are reported killed.
1884- Huntsville, Alabama- Frank James was brought to Huntsville to stand trial for the Muscle Shoals paymaster robbery of March 11, 1881. Represented by four of the South's best attorneys -- Pope Walker, Richard Walker, R.S. Sloan, and James Newman -- Frank was found not guilty, although seven of the twenty witnesses had positively identified him as being one of the three robbers.
1900- Thompson, Utah- George Curry, George, AKA Flat Nose; Big Nose, (1871-1900). At the age of fifteen, Curry moved west and became a stock thief. After a horse kicked him in the nose he became known as "Flat Nose." Curry rode with the Wild Bunch for several years during the late 1890s. In October 1897, Curry, the Sundance Kid, and Harvey Logan rode into southern Montana where they planned to hold up a train. Their plan was thwarted by "Six -Shooter" Bill Smith and an ambitious bounty hunter. Curry and the Kid were arrested and taken to the Deadwood jail, but managed to escape. They returned to Nevada and spent the next few months breaking horses for local ranchers. In 1899 Curry held up a train at Wilcox Siding. A posse led by sheriffs Jesse Tyler and William Preece trailed Curry all the way to Castle Gate, Utah, where, on Apr. 17, 1900, they trapped him on a ranch. Curry ran for six miles, before he was hit in the head with a bullet from a long-range rifle. Before Curry's body was dumped into a common grave at Thompson, Utah, souvenir hunters ripped away portions of his skin.
April 18
1847- U.S. forces defeat Mexicans at Cerro Gordo in one of the bloodiest battle of the war.
1859- Fort Leavenworth- a stage for the Leavenworth and Pikes Peak Express Company makes a trial run to the goldfields in the westernmost part of Kansas Territory (Colorado).
1860- Camp Cady, present day Arizona- three soldiers are wounded and two Indians are killed in a fight between soldiers and Paiutes on the Mojave River.
1861- Fort Defiance, New Mexico Territory (present day Arizona)- the fort is abandoned.
1872- Leavenworth, Kansas- a crowd of 30,000 celebrates the completion of a bridge across the Missouri River.
1875- Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory- Rain in the Face escapes the guardhouse with the help of a jailer. He said, “The old soldier taught me some of the white people have hearts”. Some believed that George Custer arranged the escape to avoid a trial for which he had little evidence.
1878- New Mexico Territory- a Lincoln County grand jury exonerates A.A. McSween for the death of John Tunstall, but hands down indictments against Jesse Evans, J.J. Dolan, and Billy Matthews for murdering Tunstall; and against William Bonney, Fred Waite, Henry Brown, and John Middleton for the deaths of Sheriff Brady and George Hindman. Charlie Bowdrie is indicted for the killing of Buckshot Roberts.
1881- Fort Keogh, Montana- 156 Sioux surrender
April 19
1859- New Mexico Territory (present day Arizona)- barely a week old, Camp Colorado becomes Fort Mojave.
1867- Fort Dodge, Kansas- the 7th Cavalry reports six Indians killed in a fight near the fort.
1875- Montana Territory- the territorial capital moves from Virginia City to Helena.
1876- Wichita, Kansas- the city council votes 2 to 6 against reinstating Wyatt Earp to the police force.
1878- Texas- Indians continue raids, killing two settlers at Quijotes Gordes and Charco Escondido.
1881- Dave Rudabaugh was sentenced to death for killing jailer Valdez. He later escaped from jail December 3rd by tunneling out.
1889- Fort Smith, Arkansas- gunman Malachi Allen was hung on this date. Allen shot and killed Shadrach Peters and Cy Love in the Chickasaw Nation on July 15, 1888 after quarreling over the ownership of a saddle. Allen engaged in a vicious gunfight with Deputy Marshal McAlester and the posse which had been organized to bring the desperado back to Fort Smith (Ark.). In the heat of the battle, Allen sustained a serious wound in his shooting arm. He was taken back to Fort Smith where the arm was amputated shortly before the hangman affixed the noose to his neck on this date.
1909- Ada, Oklahoma- Joseph Allen, Jesse West, Jim Miller, and Berry Burrell were broken out of jail and lynched in a livery stable for the murder of cattle baron A.A. Bobbitt. Miller, considered the most dangerous killer in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico Territory and claimed to have killed 51 men, asked to be hung with his hat on.
April 20
1885- Calgary Alberta - Thomas Bland Strange (1831-1925) leads 600-man Alberta Field Force from Calgary towards Fort Edmonton.
April 21
1836- Battle of San Jacinto- crack Mexican troops under General Santa Anna were defeated by rag tag army of Texans led by General Sam Houston. 7 Texans died while over 600 Mexican soldiers died. Texas wins independence from Mexico.
1856 - The first rail train to pass over the mighty Mississippi River between Davenport, Iowa and Rock Island, IL made its journey across a newly completed bridge between the two rail centers.
1871- Laramie, Wyoming Territory- John Boyer, a double murderer, is executed and becomes the first legal hanging in the territory.
1875- Wichita, Kansas- Wyatt Earp hired on with to the Wichita Police Force at $60-a-month.
1876- Fort Smith, Arkansas- William Leach, along with four other men, was hung. Leach was hired by John Wadkins, a traveling minstrel, to guide him through the Cherokee Nation. The minstrel show performer never arrived at his destination. A month later, a hunter found the charred bones of Wadkins in an abandoned campsite on the frontier. Deputy marshals identified several fragments of clothing and a knife and screwdriver that had belonged to the dead man. When Leach tried to sell Wadkins' boots in town, he was arrested and brought to Fort Smith on murder charges. William Leach was found Guilty of the crime and was sentenced to death by Judge Isaac Parker.
1877- New Mexico Territory- U.S. Troops and forty San Carlos Apache scouts led by John Clum cross from Arizona Territory to the Hot Springs Reservation, where they raid a Chiricahua Indian camp that is believed responsible for recent trouble. About 427 warriors and 17 leaders are marched back to the San Carlos reservation.
1878- Point of Rocks, Texas- three settlers are killed in Indian raids.
1883- Denver, Colorado- electric lights are introduced.
1884- Arizona Territory- the Black Canyon stage is robbed near Soap Springs.
1897- Castle Grande, Utah- Butch Cassidy, with Elzy Lay and Joe Walker, rode to a large mining camp where Butch had once worked as a miner. He knew when payrolls were received and paid and he and his fellow bandits arrived just in time to scoop up $8,000. Before the outlaws fled, Cassidy had Walker cut the telegraph wire so that the local lawmen could not be warned. Cassidy then rode to a New Mexico Territory ranch with Lay where the two of them took jobs as cowboys. This was part of Butch's plans. He no longer drew attention to himself by freely spending the money he had robbed. He would put up a good "front" by pretending to work while posses were searching for shiftless thieves.
1898- The Spanish-American War begins
1906- Washington DC - Britain and US sign convention fixing the Canada-Alaska boundary at the 141st meridian.
April 22
1868- Fort McPherson, Nebraska- cowboys and a herd of cattle near the fort are attacked by Indians. Six cowboys are killed.
1885- Battleford, Saskatchewan - Northwest Mounted Police Inspector Francis Jeffrey Dickens (1844-1886) reached Battleford after abandoning Fort Pitt when white settlers decide to surrender to Big Bear during the North West Rebellion; he is the third son of novelist Charles Dickens.
1877- New Mexico Territory- Following the Civil War, Confederate Captain William Johnson moved west to New Mexico Territory and married the daughter of prominent rancher and fellow southerner Henry Beckwith, and became co-owner of a cattle ranch. In 1876 he was drawn into the Lincoln County War, he and his partner Wallace Olinger joining the Murphy-Dolan faction. During the feud he was made a deputy to Sheriff William Brady. On Apr. 22, 1877, at Seven Rivers, Johnson defended his father-in-law's ranch from a raid led by John Chisum, who was convinced that Beckwith was stealing his herd. Johnson returned to ranching, but his relationship with his father-in-law became uncomfortable. On Aug. 16, 1878, after arguing with his father-in-law, Beckwith, the old man fatally shot Johnson in the neck and chest with a double-barreled shotgun. Johnson's partner, Olinger, returned the fire, hitting Beckwith in the face, but the old man survived.
1880- New Mexico Territory- railroad tracks reach Albuquerque.
1889- Oklahoma Territory- the first Oklahoma Land Run takes place. With the shot of a pistol at high noon the Oklahoma Land Rush began as 10,000 prospective land-grabbers rushed forward to get their 160-acre claim for a $15 filing fee. The U.S. Federal government had purchased almost two million acres of land in Central Oklahoma from the Crete and Seminole Indians. Some folks snuck in earlier and are known as “Sooners”, those that followed the rules were known as “Boomers”. (In case you ever wondered where the tern “Boomer Sooner” in college football came from.)
April 23
1856- Westport, Kansas -Free Stater J.N. Mace shoots pro-slavery sheriff Samuel Jones in the back.
1865- Kansas- a day of fasting and prayer for President Lincoln, assassinated on the 14th takes place on this date by order of the governor.
1872- Coffeyville, Kansas- a major tornado hits the town.
1874- Kansas City- after being engaged for nine years, Jesse James & Miss Zee Mimms were married at the house of a friend.
1875- Kansas- in northwestern Kansas Little Bull and his seventy-five Cheyennes, on their way back to home in the Black Hills, are nearly wiped out by buffalo hunters and a cavalry company out of Fort Wallace.
1885- Denver, Colorado- the town receives its greatest snowfall to date, 23 inches in 24 hours. Just to the west, Idaho Springs received 32 inches.
1907- Littleton, Colorado- Alferd Packer, the cannibal of the ill-fated 1874 mining expedition died.
April 24
1851- Marian County, Iowa - Morgan Earp was born.
1878- Texas- Henry Underwood, a member of Sam Bass's gang, leaves the state and is never heard from again.
1885 -Fish Creek Saskatchewan - Frederick Dobson Middleton (1825-1898) engages the Metis troops of Gabriel Dumont (1838-1906) at Fish Creek; the battle is a stalemate; Middleton is badly mauled and his advance to Batoche slowed; loses 11 killed and 48 wounded.
1898- Spain declared war on the United States after rejecting America's ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.
April 25
1889- Ventura, California- Jim McCarthy robbed the Collins and Sons Bank. Jim leaves the bank with the money, only to discover that his horse, tied to a wagon wheel, has taken some steps and wedged its reins under the wheel. McCarthy is unable to free the reins as Sheriff John Snodgrass approached him. With a sign McCarthy said, “I give up”.
1890- Blackfoot Crossing Alberta - Indian leader Crowfoot dies on the Blackfoot reserve; head Chief during signing of Treaty Seven.
1898- Ben Kilpatrick AKA The Tall Texan stood six feet, two inches was slow to use his gun and had an amiable nature. Kilpatrick was one of Cassidy's top lieutenants and was present during almost all of the major train and bank robberies committed by Cassidy and his Wild Bunch gang, proving himself to be nerveless and dependable. Kilpatrick was reportedly with Cassidy, Harvey "Kid Curry" Logan, William Ellsworth "Elza" Lay, and George "Flat Nose" Curry when the gang stopped and robbed the Union Pacific's Overland flyer on this date. The gang blew up the express car with dynamite and made off with more than $30,000.
1901- Clayton, New Mexico- Thomas Ketchum (1866-1901), AKA Black Jack, was hung. Black Jack became a notorious outlaw in the late 1890s, after putting together a band of outlaws from the Hole-in-the-Wall area in Wyoming. His brother Sam was also called Black Jack at times. Although Ketchum was a feared gunman, he was an unimaginative robber who was easily tracked by lawmen when they realized that Ketchum would rob the same train or stagecoach over and over again and in the same location.
In 1899, Ketchum, his brother Sam, Lay, and Franks stopped three Santa Fe Railroad trains at the Twin Mountain curve near Folsom, New Mexico, Black Jack Ketchum was identified and several posses began searching for him as the Ketchum gang split up.
Black Jack Ketchum stopped a Colorado & Southern train near Folsom, Arizona Territory, on August 16, 1899. After taking a few hundred dollars in cash from the baggage car safe he then leaped from the car and began to run toward his horse when conductor Frank Harrington jumped down from a passenger car, firing at him with a shotgun. Ketchum turned and faced Harrington and both men advanced upon each other, blazing away. Ketchum shot Harrington as the conductor unloaded a blast of buckshot into Ketchum who escaped under the cover of darkness.
He was found the next day propped against a tree, picking the buckshot out of his chest. Taken to Santa Fe, Ketchum was tried and convicted of train robbery and was sentenced to death as train robbery was a capitol offense in western states.
On the day of his execution, April 25, 1901, Ketchum said to the witnesses standing at the foot of the gallows: "I'll be in hell before you start breakfast, boys!" The noose was affixed around Ketchum's neck and a black hood was placed over his head and face. Ketchum's last words were "Let her rip!" The executioner pulled the lever and Ketchum dropped to his death. His last words were prophetic. The hangman had improperly fixed the rope around the outlaw's neck and the weights on his legs so that the outlaw went through the trap at terrific speed and was decapitated. The gore from the headless torso soaked the front ranks of the visitors at the foot of the scaffold.
April 26
1860- present day Colorado- Abe Lee discovers gold in the Arkansas River at a site that was named California Gulch. It eventually became the site for Leadville.
1871- Winnipeg Manitoba - Eight Ontario land agents reach Fort Garry; beginning of influx of speculators and settlers that leads to the Red River Insurrection.
1872- Nebraska- South Fork of the Loup River Company B of the 5th Cavalry fight Indians. William F. Cody claims he killed six Indians, while official reports indicate he killed three.
1878- Fort Stanton, New Mexico Territory- J.J. Dolan, John Riley, and Lawrence Murphy seek shelter here from the Lincoln County grand jury, as well as their other enemies.
1882- Arizona Territory- President Arthur orders federal troops in to deal with “cowboy” terrorists.
1901- Clayton, New Mexico- Thomas Ketchum, AKA Black Jack, a noted outlaw leader and train robber had his head snapped off when he was legally hung. His gang was credited with killing at least 12 people.
April 27
1865 - The worst steamship disaster in the history of the United States occurred on this date. The Sultana, carrying approximately 2,300 passengers, the majority being freed Union POWs, exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee. while en route to Cairo, IL. Neither the cause of the explosion nor the final count of the dead (estimated at between 1,450 and 2,000) was ever determined. Today, the Sultana disaster remains the worst of its kind.
1870- Helena, Montana Territory- J.L. Compton and Joseph Wilson, found guilty of robbery and murder, were the last to be hanged on the “Hangman's Tree”.
1872- Columbia, Kentucky- James-Younger Gang rob the Deposit Bank.
1887- Arizona Territory- the Southern Pacific's westbound No. 20 train is robbed of $5,000. The messenger, Charles Smith manages to stash another $5,000 in the potbellied stove of the Wells Fargo car.
April 28
1868- Fort Laramie, Wyoming- Negotiations begin to end the war with Red Cloud. Red Cloud said he would talk peace with the departure of troops from the Powder River region. General Sherman arrives at the conference with orders to abandon the posts that had been established in the region, in return for cessation of Indian raids. Sherman receives signatures from only the minor chiefs.
1876- Deadwood, Dakota Territory- Deadwood is founded.
1878- New Mexico Territory- as a continuation of the Lincoln County War, Marion Turner and John Jones organized the Seven Rivers gang to fight John Chisum. On a ride into Lincoln they shoot Frank McNab and Ab Sanders, and capture Frank Coe.
1880- Cooney, New Mexico Territory- the town is raided by Apache chief Victorio. Apache raids in the territory have claimed the lives of twelve settlers since April 20.
1881- New Mexico Territory- deputized to guard Billy the Kid, Robert Ollinger and James Bell were shot dead by the Kid during a successful jailbreak. Billy asked Bell to help him to the latrine which was down the stairs and in back of the courthouse. As he was hobbling in leg chains toward the stairs en route to the outhouse, the Kid knocked Bell down with his shoulder and hopped quickly into Garrett's gunroom which was only a few feet away, grabbing a pistol. Bell came running into the room and saw the gun in the Kid's hands, pleading with him to put it down. "Sorry, Bell," said the Kid and shot the deputy dead. He then hobbled over to the outside second-story balcony with a loaded shotgun and waited for Bob Olinger whom he knew would come running at the sound of the shot that killed Bell. Olinger, who had been drinking in a nearby saloon, soon appeared, running toward the court house. "Hello, Bob," a friendly voice called out, and Olinger looked up to see Billy on the balcony, a shotgun aimed straight at his head. Billy let loose both barrels at the hated Olinger and the lawman was blown twenty feet into the ruts of the road.
April 29
1859- San Francisco, California- the army's Division of the Pacific establishes its headquarters.
1866- Fort Benton, Montana Territory- a wagon from Confederate Gulch arrives with 2.5 tons of gold dust.
1867- Salinas, Kansas- the first train arrives.
1872- Columbia, Kentucky- James Younger gang take $600 from local bank. Teller R.A. Martin is killed.
1878- Texas- Sam Bass and his gang are found hiding at the home of Jim Murphy near Cove Hollow and a four-day running gunfight ensures.
1903- Alberta Canada- Early in the morning residents of the town of Frank, in the Crow's-nest Pass in Alberta, were awakened from their sleep when millions of tons of rock from the face of Turtle Mountain crashed down the slopes, burying people in their homes and trapping miners. More than 70 people died in the slide, but 17 miners and 23 town residents survived. Surveys and studies later showed the mountain was naturally unstable and critically weakened by natural forces, such as erosion and earthquakes. It was also weakened by the workings of the coalmines which were the major employer in the region
April 30
1860- Fort Defiance, New Mexico Territory- Navajos attack, killing one and wounding two.
1861- President Lincoln orders Union troops to leave Indian Territory.
1869- Utah- Union Pacific tracks reach Promitory Point.
1871- Camp Grant, Arizona Territory- Apaches are massacred.
1878- Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory- Robert Beckwith operated a cattle ranch with his older brother John was deputized in the Lincoln County War, as a member of the Murphy -Dolan faction. Robert accompanied six others of the "Seven Rivers Crowd" on this date, when, near Lincoln, N.M., they encountered Regulator chief Frank McNab and two of his men, Ab Sanders and Frank Coe, who were watering their horses in a stream. McNab and Sanders had already dismounted and they were shot down immediately by Beckwith and the other men, but Coe, still mounted, spurred his horse on while firing at his pursuers. The horse was killed and Coe was arrested. When the Beckwith faction returned to the stream they saw that McNab was still alive, trying to crawl to safety. They shot him to pieces. Sanders, who was left for dead, later recovered.
1883- Dodge City, Kansas- Luke Short, a co-owner of the Long Branch Saloon, is angered when three female entertainers are arrested. Luke fires at L.C. Hartman who falls to the ground unhurt. Luke believing he has killed Hartman leaves the scene.
1884- at Medicine Lodge, Kansas- Henry Newton Brown died while attempting to rob the bank (he was Marshal of Caldwell KS at the time). The robbery was a failure and many citizens died. He and others were captured and that night as they were being drug out of their cells he died from a shotgun blast while trying to escape (the others were hanged). He was a cowboy, buffalo hunter and involved in the Lincoln County War.
1889- Cache Bottom, Choctaw Nation- outlaw George Tobler and Irvin Richmond were competing for the attentions of the same woman at a dance held. As the evening wore on, Tobler became increasingly distressed over his prospects with this woman. He stood sullenly by as Richmond waltzed across the floor with the woman. In a jealous rage, Tobler produced a pistol and shot Richmond dead. He was arrested immediately, remanded to Fort Smith (Ark.) and hanged on Jan. 30, 1890.
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