Today in Old West History
January
January 1
1857- Montana Territory- Fort Owen has temperature of minus 30 degrees and 15 inches of snow on the ground.

1863- Nebraska- 1st homestead under the Homestead Act claimed, near Beatrice by Daniel Freeman.

1863- Galveston, Texas- Confederates under John Bankhead Magruder retakes the city and holds it until the end of the Civil War.

1863- Florence, Washington Territory- angered over events at a New Year's Eve dance, Henry Talbotte, AKA Cherokee Bob, and William Willoughby go gunning for the dance-committee members, Jacob Williams and Orlando Roberts. Willoughby is killed and Cherokee Bob is wounded and dies on the 5th.

1864- Minneapolis, Minnesota- the high is minus 25 degrees as gale-force winds are reported across the Midwest.

1868- Work begins on the Colorado Central and Pacific Railroad.

1875- Dallas, Texas- the earliest verifiable gunfight involving Doc Holliday. He was gambling in a saloon owned by a man named Austin when an argument over a card hand caused them to fire single bullets at each other. Neither was injured and both parties decided to settle their differences without further gunplay.

1877- Montana Territory- Colonel Nelson Miles and troops begin an 8-day running battle with Sioux and Cheyenne Indians.

1881- Arizona Territory- Tombstone, Tucson, and Yuma are connected by telegraph with the rest of the world.

1881- Sante Fe, New Mexico Territory- William Bonney, AKA Billy the Kid, writes a letter from jail to Governor Lew Wallace asking to see him.

1881- Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory- Pat Garrett is sworn in a county sheriff.

1883- Caldwell, Kansas- the mayor presents Marshal Henry Brown with an engraved Winchester.

1887- Apache County, Arizona Territory- Commodore Perry Owen becomes county sheriff.

1889- Nevada- the Ghost Dance religion begins with an eclipse.

January 2
1862- Arizona Territory- Floodwaters from the Colorado and Gila Rivers destroy Colorado City and submerge portions of the territory between Fort Yuma and Pilot Knob.

1867- Arizona Territory- 14 Arizona Rangers lead by Tom Hodges surprise attack Apaches at Rock Springs, killing 21 Apaches.

1871- Colorado Territory- Golden is incorporated.

1875- Dallas, Texas- the Dallas Herald reports, “Dr. Holliday and Mr. Austin, a saloon-keeper…took a couple of shots at each other day.” Neither were hurt and this may have been Doc's first gunfight.

1889- Kansas- the towns of Cimarron and Ingalls fight over which will be the seat of Gray County. Ingalls hires Dodge City gunfighters, including Jim Masterson and Bill Tilghman to raid the Cimarron courthouse for the county records. Residents of Cimarron open fire and some of Ingalls's hired gunfighters escape, but 4, including Jim Masterson are left stranded on the second floor of the courthouse. Bat Masterson sends a telegram asking Cimarron to free his brother or else he will “hire a train and come in with enough men to blow Cimarron off the face of Kansas.” The four are freed, and later tried and acquitted for the death of J.W. English.

January 3
1847 - California- the town of Yerba Buena renamed San Francisco

1868- Golden City, Colorado Territory- the Colorado Central and the Pacific Railroad hosts groundbreaking ceremony.

1876- Helena, Montana Territory- the first territorial legislature meets.

1879- Fort Robinson, Nebraska- the War Department orders Captain Wessells to return Dull Knife and his Cheyenne's to Fort Reno in Indian Territory. Dull Knife and his Indians refuse to leave and are kept in barracks with no food or wood.

1889 - Washington Territory, admissions convention meets in Ellensburg to ask for statehood

1959 - Alaska-When Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, many called it "Seward's Folly." The Klondike Gold Rush changed all that, and prospectors mined some fifty million dollars worth of gold between 1897 and 1900. On this date Alaska became the 49th state. Capital: Juneau; Nickname: The Last Frontier.

January 4
1864- Montana Territory- two members of the Innocents gang, Erastus "Red" Yager and G. Brown, are hanged by vigilantes from a cottonwood in Stinkingwater Valley near Laurin. Yager divulges the names of 25 of Henry Plummer's associates and reveals the gang's code word, "Innocents".

1866- Texas- Fort Richardson is established.

1874- Arizona Territory- Eskiminzin leads several Apaches off the San Carlo Agency and attacks a wagon train, killing two.

1878- New Mexico Territory- A.A. McSween is escorted by two deputies from the Las Vegas jail to Mesilla.

1881- Tombstone, Arizona Territory- John Clum is elected mayor and Virgil Earp is defeated by Ben Sippy for city marshal.

1883- Arizona Territory- the Hualapai Indian Reservation is established.

1884- The Dodge City Cowboy Band accepts an invitation to perform at the inauguration ceremony for the governor of Colorado.

1896- Utah admitted as 45th state.

1929- Texas- Bose Ikard, born a slave in July 1843 in, Mississippi later becoming one of the most famous black frontiersmen and trail drivers in Texas, died on this date. The young slave moved to Texas and grew to adulthood with his owner's family, learning to farm, ranch, and fight Indians as the Civil War drew near. The war left Bose a free man, and in 1866 he went to work for Oliver Loving as a trail driver. After Loving was killed by Comanche Indians in New Mexico Territory, Ikard continued in the service of Loving's partner, Charles Goodnight, for four years. The two men became lifelong friends. Goodnight later commented that he trusted Bose Ikard "farther than any living man. He was my detective, banker, and everything else in Colorado, New Mexico Territory, and the other wild country I was in." In 1869 Ikard wanted to settle in Colorado, but Goodnight persuaded him to buy a farm in Parker County, Texas, because there were so few blacks in Colorado. Ikard settled in Weatherford and began his family at a time when Indian attacks were still common in North Texas. In 1869 he participated in a running battle with Quanah Parker's Comanche band, riding alongside his former master, Milton Ikard. After Ikard's death, Goodnight bought a granite marker and wrote an epitaph for his old friend: "Bose Ikard served with me four years on the Goodnight-Loving Trail, never shirked a duty or disobeyed an order, rode with me in many stampedes, participated in three engagements with Comanches, splendid behavior."

January 5
1836- Texas- Davy Crockett arrives in Texas, just in time for the siege at the Alamo.

1838- US President Martin Van Buren issues Neutrality Proclamation forbidding US citizens from taking sides in Canadian rebellions.

1863- Florence, Washington Territory- Henry Talbotte, AKA Cherokee Bob, dies in the back room of his saloon after instigating and losing a gun fight on New Year's Day.

1865- Colorado Territory- near Juesburg a Holliday Overland Mail and Express stage is attacked by Indians who steal $1,802 being shipped by Denver merchants.

1874- Winnipeg Manitoba - Winnipeg holds first civic election. Only 304 voters were registered, but 331 ballots are cast.

1878- Texas- Indians reportedly killed 6 settlers in a raid 63 miles northwest of Presidio del Norte.

January 6
1864- Arizona Territory- Colonel Kit Carson leads 300 men from Fort Canby to carry out punitive raids on Navajos in Canyon de Chelly.

1867- Oregon Territory- a party of Indian scouts kills 26 Indians and captures 8 on the Crooked River.

1869- Texas outlaw Cullen Baker was killed by a schoolteacher named Orr who had married Bakers ex-wife. Baker had once hung Orr but cut him down too soon in order to save his rope. Orr, with three others, followed Baker and an accomplice to a hideout in southeastern Arkansas, coming upon the two men just as they were squatting next to a fire, having lunch. Orr and the others did not call out to the outlaws to surrender, knowing what their answer would be. The teacher and his companions rode down on Baker and his henchman with their six-guns blazing, shooting both men dead on the spot. Orr found that his old adversary was a walking arsenal. Strapped to his side was a double-barreled shotgun. Baker was also wearing four six -guns, three derringers, and six knives. Also found on Baker's corpse was a carefully kept packet of newspaper clippings that described him as "the Arkansas brigand," and the most feared gunman in the Lone Star State who had spread "a reign of terror in Texas."

1873- Arizona Territory- Arizona City changes its name to Yuma.

1877 Manitoba Canada- McLean's open the first flourmill in Manitoba; wheat is quickly replacing fur as Manitoba's main product.

1878- Missouri- Robert Frank James, the only child of outlaw Frank James, is born.

1880- Driftwood, Pennsylvania- Tom Mix was born. He went on to become America's greatest silent-film cowboy star. Before that he was a Texas Ranger and rodeo star. In 1909 Tom Mix rode on to the set of Ranch Life in the Great Southwest being filmed in Oklahoma. The next thing he knew, he was roping a steer on camera. By 1923, Mix was in the top 10 of highest paid film stars, with Mix and his horse, Tony, earning $4,000 a week. Sixteen years after his first walk-on, Tom Mix became the highest paid movie star to that time when Fox resigned him at $20,000 a week. The silent-film great was killed in an accident with a horseless carriage ending the era of the silent-film cowboy. Mix was a Pall Bearer in Wyatt Earps funeral.

1882- Arizona Territory- Pony Deal and Curly Bill Brocius robbed the Tombstone-Bisbee stage.

1891- South Dakota- the last recorded Sioux attack on a wagon train occurs not far from the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre.

1893- Great Northern Railway connects Seattle with east coast

1912- New Mexico became the 47th state. Santa Fe, the oldest city in New Mexico, is the state capital and has been the capital of the area since 1610. 1919- Theodore Roosevelt the 26th president of the United States died at Oyster Bay, New York. January 16, 2001, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions as commander of the Rough Riders in Cuba. Teddy was born October 27, 1858 at New York, New York.

January 7
1859- Colorado Territory- George Jackson discovers gold near Idaho Springs.

1865- Julesburg, Colorado Territory- Over 1,000 Cheyenne and Sioux warriors attack in retaliation for the Sand Creek Massacre.

1874-- Colfax County, New Mexico Territory- Gunmen Clay Allison and Chunk Colbert went to Clifton House, an inn, to eat after failing to resolve their differences in a horse race. The quarter-mile trot between the two men ended in a dead heat. After finishing his meal, Allison relaxed over a cup of coffee. Colbert, meanwhile, resolved to kill his adversary. But as Colbert fingered his holstered gun nervously, the astute Allison pulled out his own revolver and blasted him through the forehead. Colbert was buried behind the inn.

1882- Arizona Territory- Curly Bill Brocius robbed the Tombstone-Benson stage, one day after robbing the Tombstone-Bisbee stage.

1889- Arizona Territory- Cowboys kill 3 Mexican sheepherders in a gunfight near Solomonville.

1899- Texas Ranger William Wallace, AKA Big Foot Wallace, died at the age of 82. He was born on April 3, 1817. 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.

1940 - The singing Cowboy, Gene Autry, debuted his Gene Autry's Melody Ranch radio show and would be on CBS radio for the next 16 years.

1950- Tulsa, Oklahoma- outlaw Nathaniel Reed, AKA Texas Jack, died. In 1894 accompanied by Buss Luckey, Tom Root, Bill Smith, and a couple others, held up a Missouri pacific train near Muskogee in the Cherokee nation having been told that $60,000 was in the express car. The gang was driven off when Deputy U.S. Marshall “Bud” Ledbetter and three deputies opened fire from within the express car. A shot up Texas Jack slithered back into Arkansas where he was later arrested. Texas Jack was paroled in 1897 having seen the light preaching a warning for folks not to follow his example. He later appeared in a show called “Texas Jack, Train Robber”, and sold seventy thousand copies of “The Life of Texas Jack”.

January 8
1856- Tuscan Springs, California- Borax discovered by Dr. John Veatch. It became a multi-use product that was popularized during the era of TV's Death Valley Days. Remember, 20 Mule Team Borax?

1863- Sacramento, California- the Central Pacific Railroad has its groundbreaking ceremony.

1865- Dove Creek, Texas- 1,400 Kickapoo's defeat 370 members of the Texas militia who attacked them near San Angelo.

1869- Oklahoma- Camp Wichita is established on Medicine Bluff Creek by General Sheridan.

1870- Carson City, Nevada- US mint at begins issuing coins.

1877- Montana Territory- Crazy Horse and nearly 800 Sioux and Northern Cheyenne launch a surprise attack on Colonel Nelson Miles and 7 companies of infantrymen in the Wolf Mountains above the Tongue River.

1891- Canada- Ernest Cochrane of the Cochrane Ranche west of Calgary reported severe losses of yearling cattle to a pack of wild wolves.

1895- John Wesley Hardin marries Callie Lewis, a marriage that lasts only a few hours.

January 9
1864- Montana Territory- Henry Plummer, Buck Stinson, and Ned Ray, members of an outlaw gang called the “innocents”, were hanged by the Vigilantes of Montana.

1870- the transcontinental railroad officially opens.

1875- Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory- Temperature falls to minus 38 degrees.

1876-Wichita, Kansas- the Customs House Saloon is cleared when Wyatt Earp's pistol slips out of its holster and discharges when hitting the floor. The bullet passes through the fabric of his coat before going through the ceiling.

1879- Cheyenne prisoners led by Dull Knife revolt at Ft Robinson.

1886- Fargo, Dakota Territory- the temperature at noon is a minus 27 degrees while at Bismarck it is a minus 35 degrees.

1887- Temperatures in the Midwest drop to minus 46 and for 16 hours snow falls at the rate of 1 inch per hour.

1899- Manitoba, Canada sets record cold minus 52.8 C (minus 61.6 F).

1915- Pancho Villa signs a treaty with the United States, halting border conflicts, at least temporally.

1944- Guthrie, Oklahoma- Chris Madsen died from the effects of a fall. He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1851 and served in the Danish Army and French Foreign Legion before arriving in the U.S. in 1876. The first thing he did in the U.S. was ask where the nearest recruiting station was. Chris served in the 5th Calvary and later witnessed Buffalo Bill kill Chief yellow Hand at War Bonnet Creek. He later became a deputy U.S. Marshal and served with Heck Thomas and Bill Tilghman in Oklahoma Territory. In 1898 he enlisted in Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders.

1959- TV show Rawhide, starring Eric Fleming as Gil Favor and Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates, premiered on CBS.

January 10
1844- Alexander Franklin James (1843/4-1915) (known as “Frank”, older brother of Jesse James was born. He served as a Confederate soldier and later rode with Quantrill before becoming a famous outlaw.

1847- California- General Stephen Kearny and Commodore Robert Stockton retake Los Angeles in the last California battle of the Mexican War.

1862- Samuel Colt, age 47, worth an estimated $15 million, died in his mansion.

1864- Bannack, Montana Territory- Outlaw Henry Plummer was hung. Henry started off in the late 1850s as a respected lawman. Henry is reputed to have killed 15 men and his gang of “Innocents” is credited with 102 murders.

1876- Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory- Jesse Evans arrives and becomes a prominent figure in the Lincoln County War.

1880- Fort Sumner, New Mexico Territory- William Bonney, AKA Billy the Kid, kills Joe Grant in a saloon.

1901 Beaumont, Texas- Oil discovered at the Spindletop claim.

1917-Denver, Colorado William F. Cody, AKA Buffalo Bill, died was buried on Lookout Mountain. . Born near Davenport, Iowa, William Cody began his working career at age eleven following his father's death, employed as a mounted messenger for a railroad company. In 1860, after trapping beaver, Cody joined the gold rush to Pike's Peak, Colorado. In the same year, he briefly rode for the Pony Express, during which time, according to his own accounts, he set several riding endurance records. During the Civil War, he served in a guerilla group loyal to the Union and then in the Seventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. In 1868, he was appointed chief of scouts for the Fifth U.S. Cavalry, and in the next year, his Western frontier exploits became nationally famous when author Ned Buntline wrote his first dime novel with Buffalo Bill as the hero. In 1872, Cody won the Medal of Honor, led the hunting party of Grand Duke Alexis of Russia along with George Armstrong Custer, and was persuaded by Ned Buntline to act in his play, The Scouts of the Plains, which started Cody on his entertainment career. Over the next decade, he alternately took to the frontier or the stage, and in 1883 formed the "Wild West Show," an open-air extravaganza featuring horses and riders in a variety of displays that included reenactments of legendary frontier events. For the next three decades, the show toured across the United States and Europe.

1960 - Marty Robbins' hit tune, El Paso, held the record for the longest #1 song to that time. The song ran 5 minutes and 19 seconds, giving many radio station Program Directors fits; because the average record length at that time was around 2 minutes, and formats didn't allow for records much longer than that, (e.g., 2-minute record, 3 minutes for commercials, 60 seconds for promo, 2-minute record, etc.). DJs got used to the longer length quickly, however, realizing it gave them time, before the record ended, to actually think of something to say next...

January 11
1864- Montana Territory- an estimated 24 “Innocents” have been hanged since December 21, 1863, by Montana vigilantes.

1865- Yellowstone City, Montana Territory- a plug of tobacco costs $5 a pound.

1867 Benito Juarez returned to the Mexican presidency, following the withdrawal of French troops and the execution of Emperor Maximilian.

1868- Leavenworth, Kansas- The Leavenworth Daily Conservative reports that Bill Cody and his horse Brigham started on a hunt Saturday afternoon and came in Tuesday. Cody brought in 19 buffalo with 4,000 pounds of meat that sold at .07 a pound, netting him $100 a day for his effort.

1872- St. Louis, Missouri- Russia's Grand Duke Alexis departs for a western buffalo hunt.

1876- $800 reward for George Little, AKA Dick Fellows, AKA Richard Perkins by Wells Fargo.

1886- Kansas- The Dodge City Globe report: “The water holes are frozen over, the grass is snowed under and the weather is cold, with every prospect of more snow…A gentleman from a ranch south of here reports seeing cattle … that were still standing on their feet, frozen to death.

1887- Fort Smith, Arkansas- hangman George Maledon dispatches four more victims in a multiple hanging.

January 12
1872- Omaha, Nebraska- Russian Grand Duke Alexis begins a gala buffalo hunting expedition with Gen. Phil Sheridan and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer.

1883- Cheyenne, Wyoming- the town gets electric lights.

1915- The U.S. Congress establishes Rocky Mountain National Park.

January 13
1846- President James Polk dispatches General Zachary Taylor and 4,000 troops to the Texas Border as war with Mexico looms.

1864- Montana Territory- George Lane was a member of Henry Plummer's gang of “Innocents” in the Alder Gulch region. He was hanged after the executive committee of the vigilante movement suspected George of participating in a stagecoach robbery and other crimes and voted that he be arrested and hanged, despite not being given an opportunity to plead his case.

1872- North Platte, Nebraska- Russian Grand Duke Alexis and to party are joined by one of their guides, William. F. Cody and Buffalo Bill's pal Texas Jack Omohundro.

1872- Colorado Territory- Buffalo are reported to be present “as far as the eye can see” from Kit Carson, Colorado to Kiowa, Colorado.

1884- Arizona Territory- the Black Canyon stage is robbed near Gillette.

1888- Fort Keogh, Montana- temperature drops to a minus 65 degrees.

1904- Edward Kelly, who spent only 2 years of a 20-year sentence for killing Robert Ford (who murdered Jesse James) in prison, was killed by an Oklahoma City lawman.

1929- California- lawman Wyatt Earp died at the age of eighty, in the arms of his wife, Josie.

January 14
1864- Virginia City, Montana Territory- Vigilantes lynch five “Innocents” on the corner of Wallace and Van Buren Streets. One of those hung was Jack Gallagher, one of Sheriff Henry Plummer's deputies. His last words were “I hope forked lightening will strike every strangling…of you”.

Another of the five that was hanged on this date was Hayes Lyons. As a young cowboy, Lyons traveled from California to Montana and joined Sheriff Henry Plummer's gang. Lyons engaged in numerous robberies, and at Plummer's request, tried to kill Plummer's deputy, Bill Dillingham. Lyons and his accomplices failed and were caught. Lyons was convicted by a miners' court and sentenced to death. Just as he was to be hanged, someone read aloud a letter Lyons had written to his mother. The sentimental poem apparently softened the miners' hearts toward Lyons, and they released him with an admonition to go home to his mother. Instead Lyons returned to Plummer's gang, and on this date he was taken prisoner by vigilantes and hanged.

1872- Nebraska- Russian Grand Duke Alexis celebrates his 21st birthday and the killing of his first buffalo. The duke missed with his first six shots before Buffalo Bill hands him his .50 caliber rifle. Alexis gets within 10 feet of his prey and nails him.

1878- Colorado Territory- Slabtown changes its name to Leadville.

1881- Charleston, Arizona Territory- Gambler Johnny O'Rourke, AKA Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce, shoots and kills a mining engineer following an argument. He rides to Tombstone were he is protected from a lynch mob by Virgil Earp, Marshal Ben Sippy, and Sheriff John Behan.

1886- Wichita, Kansas- Indians appear on doorsteps of many homes, begging to be let in from the cold.

1887- Fort Smith, Arkansas - Outlaws James Lamb and Albert O'Dell were hung for the 1886 murder in the Chickasaw Indian Nation of a farmer who had hired them to do some work.

1891- General Nelson Miles reports that the Sioux are returning to their Dakota reservations.

January 15
1844- Jackson County, Missouri- Outlaw Cole Younger was born.

1859- Boulder County, Colorado Territory- Gold is discovered at Gold Run.

1864- Big Hole, Wyoming Territory- Stephen Marshland, a member of Henry Plummer's “Innocents” gang, is lynched.

1872- Nebraska- Russian Grand Duke Alexis is sent scurrying up a telegraph pole to escape a wounded bison.

1874- Arkansas- James-Younger Gang robs the Concord Stagecoach near Hot Springs, taking $3,000.

January 16
1847- California-. John C. Fremont, the famed "Pathfinder" of Western exploration, is appointed governor.

1869- New Mexico Territory- Lincoln County is established with Carrizo as the county seat.

1878- Texas- 2 civilians are killed in an Indian raid in Limpia Canyon. Two more are killed in Mason County.

1878- the silver dollar becomes legal tender.

1883- Tishomingo, Chickasaw Nation - outlaw Harris Austin, after accusing Thomas Elliott of stealing his whiskey, Austin fired two bullets at close range into the man's body. Austin discharged a third shot into Elliott's temple, which left a powder burn on the victim's face. Austin escaped into the surrounding hills, and remained at large until Deputy Marshal Carr and a posse tracked him down in April 1889. He was taken to Fort Smith, Arkansas where he was hanged on Jan. 16, 1890.

January 17
1836- Texas- Sam Houston, the commander of the revolutionary troops, sent Colonel Jim Bowie and 25 men to San Antonio with orders to destroy the Alamo fortifications and retire eastward with the artillery. But Bowie and Neil agreed that it would be impossible to remove the 24 captured cannons without oxen, mules or horses. And they deemed it foolhardy to abandon that much firepower--by far the most concentrated at any location during the Texas Revolution. Bowie also had a keen eye for logistics, terrain, and avenues of assault. Knowing that General Houston needed time to raise a sizable army to repel Santa Anna, Bowie set about reinforcing the Alamo after Neil was forced to leave because of sickness in his family.

1864- Bannack, Montana Territory-Temperature drops to minus 40 degrees.

1867- Council Bluffs, Iowa- the Northwestern Railroad becomes the first to reach the town from the east.

1872- Denver, Colorado Territory- Russian Grand Duke Alexis arrives in town.

1873- Fifty Modocs under Captain Jack repelled more than 300 soldiers in the Lost River Oregon area. President Ulysses S. Grant ordered a truce with the Indians and a peace settlement to be arranged.

1874- Armed Democrats seize Texas govt. ending Radical Reconstruction.

1877- Idaho Territory- Nez Perces battle the 1st Cavalry at White Bird Canyon. Lt. Theller and 33 enlisted are killed.

1887-Oklahoma Territory- outlaw Seaborn Kalijah was taken into custody for selling whiskey to Creek Indians in defiance of local laws. Deputy Marshal Phillips turned the prisoner over to three of his possemen, Henry Smith, Mark Kuykendall, and William Kelly, to take the prisoner to Fort Smith for trial while he attended to another matter in Eufaula. During the night Kalijah broke free from his shackles and grabbed an ax and chopped up Smith and Kuykendall as they slept by the fire. The third man, Kelly, was shot to death and his body mutilated. When Phillips returned the next day he found the bloody remains at the campsite. He followed Kalijah's trail back to the family home where he was promptly arrested. Seaborn Kalijah was taken to Fort Smith where he was hanged for murder on October 7, 1887.

1885- New Haven, Connecticut- William F. Cody's business partner, Dr. W.F. Carver, begins a six-day exhibition where he will shoot 60,016 out of 64,881 wooden blocks tossed in the air.

January 18
1836- Texas- Jim Bowie arrives at the Alamo to assist the defenders.

1862- Confederate Territories of Arizona and New Mexico are admitted into the Confederacy by the Confederate Congress.

1864 -Lewiston, Idaho Territory - the trial of Christopher Lower, David Renton (AKA "Doc Howard"), James Romain, and Billy Page began for the murder of Lloyd Magruder. The first three were thought to be members of the "Innocents" Road Agent gang who had double-crossed their bosses and escaped to San Francisco with their plunder. They were brought back for trial by Magruder's close friend, Hill Beachy.

1872- Denver, Colorado Territory- the Grand Ducal Ball is held in honor of Russian Grand Duke Alexis.

January 19
1685- Matagorda Bay, Texas - Rene-Robert Cavalier de La Salle (1643-1687) misses Mississippi, lands in Texas.

1807- Stratford, Virginia- Robert E. Lee was born. Lee served in the west prior to the Civil War and later as commander in chief of the Confederate armies, was born in Stratford, VA.

1847- New Mexico Territory- Governor Charles Bent is slain by Pueblo Indians in Taos.

1864- Deer Lodge, Montana Territory- Bill Barton is hanged by vigilantes.

1871- Arizona Territory- General George Stoneman begins campaign against the Apaches.

1887- Flagstaff, Arizona Territory- an angry mob storms the jail and kills two murderers.

1896- Wyoming- Butch Cassidy was released from prison and immediately headed for a place called Hole-in-the-Wall, the last great hideout of the western outlaws. He had learned of this place behind the walls of the penitentiary and he resolved to put together the last super-bandit gang. Hole-in-the-Wall was located in Colorado, more of a fortress than Cassidy's old Utah haven, Robber's Roost. At Hole-in-the-Wall, Cassidy was welcomed by the notorious Logan brothers, Harvey and Lonnie. Harvey Logan was the worst killer of the Wild Bunch, a brooding, small-bodied man with piercing black eyes, who had taken the name of Kid Curry, after another Hole-in-the-Wall bandit, Big Nose George Curry.

January 20
1884- Arizona Territory- the Wickenburg stage is robbed near Prescott.

1890- California- Train robbers hold up passenger train No. 19 on the Southern Pacific line in Goshen (about 40 miles south of Fresno) taking $20,000. The bandits are believed to be John Sontag and Chris Evans.

1929 "In Old Arizona" staring Warner Baxter as the “The Cisco Kid” was released. The movie was the first full-length talkie to be filmed outdoors. Mainly, the great outdoors of the states of Utah and California.

January 21
1872- Kit Carson, Colorado Territory- Russian Grand Duke Alexis kisses George Custer in the excitement of his first kill of the day.

1874- Colorado Territory- a group of prospectors from Utah led by Alfred Packer reached the valley of the Uncompahgre River and were out of food. Ute Indians found them and took them to Chief Ouray, who replenished their supplies and suggested they stay at his lodge until spring. Some agree but Packer and others continue on.

1890- Helena, Montana- John Xavier Beidler died. He was a zealous vigilante; His funeral would draw 1,200 to the Ming Opera House. (21st or 22nd?)

January 22
1864 - Lewiston, Idaho Territory - Christopher Lower, David Renton (AKA "Doc Howard"), James Romain are found guilty in the murder of Lloyd Magruder. Billy Page, who was not involved in the murder plot but did help the murderers flee, turned state's evidence and was acquitted and released.

1872- Topeka, Kansas- Russian Grand Duke Alexis arrives.

1872- Denver, Colorado Territory- The Society of Colorado Pioneers Association is founded.

1876- Indian Territory- 125 miles east of Camp Supply the 5th Cavalry kill 3 Indians and wound 4 on the Cimarron River.

1877- Lampasas Texas- in the Matador Saloon, Merritt Horrell was shot to death by John Higgins after being accused of tampering with a herd as part of the Horrell-Higgins Feud. Earlier the six Horrell brothers, Ben, John, Mart, Merritt, Sam, and Tom, returned from the Civil War to rustle cattle and cause mayhem in Texas and New Mexico Territory in the 1870s.

1882- Caldwell, Kansas- Marshal George Brown is murdered. He is replaced with Ben “Bat” Carr and his assistant Henry Brown.

1884- Montana Territory- the Northern Pacific Railroad completes the Bozeman Pass tunnel.

1890- Helena, Montana- Montana pioneer and vigilante John “X” Beidler, 58, died. His funeral drew 1,200 to the Ming Opera House.

January 23
1870- Montana Territory- Baker Massacre- 173 Blackfoot including Chief Heavy Runner (140 women & children) are killed by US Army. Colonel Eugene Baker, out of Fort Ellis, Baker had been on the trail of Blackfeet Piegans who had killed a fur trader when he came upon this encampment of smallpox victims.

1878-Texas- 2 civilians are killed in an Indian raid near Fort Duncan.

1888 - Kingsville Ontario - Natural gas discovered in Kingsville by well drillers.

1907 -Kansas- Charles Curtis, part Kaw Indian, takes office as a Republican senator from Kansas. Born near Topeka, Kansas, in 1860, Curtis spent three years on a Kaw Indian reservation during his youth, before moving back to Topeka. Claiming to be one-eighth Indian, Curtis was the first congressman of Native-American ancestry. In Congress, he championed Native-American rights and introduced the Curtis Act of 1898 in defense of self-government on Indian reservations. In 1915, after a two-year break, he returned to the Senate where he held his seat until 1929, at which point he resigned to become vice president of the United States. The year before, Curtis had made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination and resolved instead to become Herbert Hoover's running mate.

January 24
1847- 1,500 New Mexican Indians & Mexicans were defeated by US Col. Price.

1848- Sutter's Mill, California- James W. Marshall discovered gold at his partner Johann August's sawmill on the South Fork of the American River, near Coloma, California, a discovery that led to the gold rush of '49.

1864 - Hell Gate, Montana Territory - Cyrus Skinner and Alex Carter were hung by the Vigilantes. Skinner, a saloonkeeper is credited with devising the scheme to murder and rob he Magruder party.

1876- Mobeetie, Texas- Bat Masterson was dancing with a saloon girl, when a local army sergeant, named King, took offense to the amount of time she spent with him. He left the saloon, only to return and open fire on the two, hitting both. As Bat was falling to the floor, he pulled his pistol and returned fire. Bat's aim was good and King fell to the floor with two bullets in him, dying a minute later. Bat had a bullet lodged in his hip, which caused him to limp thereafter. Another saloon girl, Molly Brennan, was killed by a stray bullet.

1878- Texas- the Sam Bass gang robs the Houston and Texas Central train at Allen station.

January 25
1856- Washington Territory- Battle of Seattle; skirmish between settlers & Indians.

1885- De Smet, Dakota Territory- Laura Ingalls, 18, author of Little House on the Prairie series, married Almanzo Wilder.

January 26
1864- Fort Owen, Montana Territory- “Whiskey” Bill Graves is hanged by vigilantes.

1864- Lewiston, Idaho Territory - District Judge Samuel C. Parks sentenced road agents Lower, Renton, and Romain to be hanged by the neck until dead for the murder and robbery of the Magruder party.

1875- Missouri- Pinkerton agents stationed men near the Samuel's farmhouse and then shouted for Jesse and Frank, who were not there, to come outside. A light in the window went out and then a bomb of some sort was thrown through the window by one of the Pinkerton men. The bomb blew off Mrs. Samuel's arm and killed Archie Peyton Samuel, the 8-year-old half-brother of Jesse and Frank James.

1876- Fort Pease, Montana Territory- Sitting Bull attacks the civilian post, located near the mouth of the Big Horn River.

1882- California- Black Bart robs the Ukiah-Cloverdale stage six miles out of Cloverdale.

January 27
1866- Helena, Montana Territory- Hundreds of prospectors return after rumors of gold being discovered on the Sun River proves to be false.

1870- A thousand mile journey on the Kansas Pacific costs $45.

January 28
1858- Texas- Texas Ranger John S Ford was named supreme commander of all state forces by Governor Hardin R. Runnels. There were Indian uprisings from the Red River to the Rio Grande, and the governor was anxious to quell the threat by appointing a man of stature and forthright character. "I impress upon you the necessity of action and energy," the governor wrote. "Follow any and all trails of hostile or suspected hostile Indians you may discover, and if possible, overtake and chastise them if unfriendly."

1870- Arizona Territory- Cookhouse's Apache camp in the Dragoon Mountains is destroyed by the 1st Cavalry.

1878- Kansas- Dave Rudabaugh and his gang were arrested by posse led by Sheriff Bat Masterson of Ford County, for robbing a pay train near Kinsley the day before, netting $10,000. Rudabaugh and his gang had been trying to stay one jump ahead of Wyatt Earp who had been hired by the railroad to track him down for robbing a pay train in November of 1877.

1887- Arizona Territory- the territory's first train robbery is executed by 2 masked robbers 17 miles east of Tucson as the men take $20,000 from a Southern Pacific passenger train.

1917- Mexico- under pressure from the Mexican government, U.S. forces are recalled from Mexico after nearly eleven months of fruitless searching for Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, accused of leading a bloody raid against Columbus, New Mexico. On March 15, 1916 U.S. Brigadier General John J. Pershing launched a punitive expedition into Mexico to capture Villa dead or alive.

January 29
1850 Henry Clay introduced in the Senate a compromise bill on slavery that included admitting California to the Union as a free state.

1861-Kansas was admitted into the Union as the 34th state. Topeka became the state Capitol.

1863- Utah-the Bear River Campaign ends in a battle near Salt Lake City. General Patrick Connor force-marched 700 volunteers of the 3rd California Infantry through Idaho Territory in order to attack the Shoshone encampment of Bear Hunter located across the Bear River in Cache Valley. Between 224 and 350 Shoshones, including Bear Hunter, are killed. 164 women and children are taken prisoner. The army had 21 dead and 46 wounded. This ended the Indian attacks along the California Trail as well as Indian control of southern Idaho and northern Utah.

1879- Montana Territory- Custer Battlefield National Monument is established.

1881-Sierra Diablo, Texas- In the last armed confrontation between whites and Indians in Texas, 15 Texas Rangers surprise 12 Apache warriors and 8 women and children, killing them all.

1881- Montana Territory- Major Guido Ilges accepts the surrender of Iron Dog and 63 of his people at Poplar River.

January 30
1876- La Paz, Arizona Territory- Steamers on the Colorado River are forced to avoid the settlement due to an outbreak of smallpox.

1890- in 1889 Outlaw George Tobler and Irvin Richmond were competing for the attentions of the same woman at a dance held at Cache Bottom, in the Choctaw Nation on the evening of Apr. 30, 1889. 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 this date.

1897- Washington, DC - UK-US convention establishes BC-Yukon boundary.

1933- the radio western, The Lone Ranger, was heard for the first time on this day. The program ran for 2,956 episodes and came to an end in late 1954. George Seaton (Stenius) was the first voice of the Lone Ranger. Jack Deeds and Earle Graser followed in the role. However, it was Brace Beemer who is best remembered as former Texas Ranger, John Reid. He played the part of the black-masked ranger, fighting for frontier justice for thirteen consecutive years.

January 31
1860- New Mexico Territory- Arizona County is established as well as most of the western portion of the Gadsden Purchase.

1866- Montana Territory- the Marks and Brands Act is signed into law in an attempt to establish rules in the wide-open cattle trade.

1874- Gads Hill, Missouri- the James-Younger Gang robs Iron Mountain Railroad, Missouri taking $12,000.

1875- Zanesville, Ohio- Famed western author Zane Grey is born.

1876- the deadline for all Native American Indians to move onto reservations.

1884- Tucson, Arizona Territory- the Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society is established.

1890- Arizona Territory- not willing to pay high freight charges the owners of the Empire Ranch start a cattle drive to California with 1,000 head.

1896- Special Prosecutor for Lincoln County New Mexico Territory Albert Fountain & his 8-year-old son left Lincoln by buggy to return to their home at Las Cruces but were murdered along the way. Sheriff Pat Garrett arrested 3 men who were later acquitted. In 1881 Fountain had unsuccessfully defended Billy the Kid on murder charges.

1931- Tucson, Arizona- Milton “Billy” Breckenridge died. At 16 he served in the 3rd Colorado Cavalry and later became Deputy Sheriff (primarily as tax collector) under John Behan at Tombstone. He was later a special agent for the Southern Pacific Railway.

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