Today in Old West History
November
November 1
1858- New Mexico Territory- a small battle takes place at Canyon de Chelly between soldiers and Indians.
1866- Texas- Myra Maybelle Shirley, AKA Belle Starr marries James C. Reed in Collins County.
1866- Fort Phil Kearny- Brevet Lieutenant Colonel William J. Fetterman arrives and announces “Give me 80 men and I would ride through the whole Sioux Nation.”
1867- Arizona Territory- Tucson becomes the second capital of the Territory, an honor it will keep for a decade.
1869- Canada- Louis Riel seizes Fort Garry, Winnipeg, during the Red River Rebellion.
1875- Gunman and Cimarron town marshal Francisco Griego AKA Pancho. Poncho sought revenge on Clay Allison for lynching his friend Cruz. Poncho met Clay Allison in Hank Lambert's Saloon but Clay drew first and killed Pancho.
1877 - Texas- Lt John L Bullis and a detachment of Seminole-Negro scouts had a skirmish with Apaches in the area of the Big Bend on the Rio Grande.
1889- Arizona Territory- Former Army scout and outlaw, Apache Kid, and seven other Apaches are sent to Yuma prison for murdering a whiskey peddler, perhaps a trumped-up charge.
1924- Cromwell, Oklahoma- 71 year old Bill Tilghman, Oklahoma Lawman and small time movie producer was shot by drunken Agent Wiley Lynn, a badge toter that Tilghman suspected in being in cahoots with organized crime elements.
1936- The Rodeo Cowboy's Association is founded.
November 2
1861- General John Charles Fremont is removed from the command of the Western Department by President Lincoln.
1869- Kansas- in a vote of 114-89, Wild Bill Hickok fails in his re-election bid for sheriff of Ellis County.
1870- Kansas- Bear River Bart is shot and killed near Abilene.
1875 - Texas- Shafter Expedition of 1875. Lt Andrew Geddes, 25th Infantry, and detachments of Companies G and L, 10th Cavalry, from Lt Col William R. Shafter's column, followed a trail of Apaches that the Seminole-Negro scouts under Lt John L Bullis had found. Geddes attached the Apache camp near the Pecos River. One Indian was killed, and four Indian women and one boy were captured.
1880- New Mexico Territory- promising to apprehend Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett is elected sheriff of Lincoln County.
1882- New Mexico Territory- John Poe is elected Lincoln County sheriff, replacing Pat Garrett.
1889- North Dakota and South Dakota became the 39th and 40th states.
1894- Fort Smith, Arkansas- upon hearing the news from Judge Isaac Parker that he was going to die on the gallows, Lewis Holder let forth a piteous scream and then collapsed to the floor, paralyzed with fear. Holder, who had been convicted of murdering his partner George Bickford in the San Bois Mountains (Okla.) on Dec. 28, 1891, vowed that he would return to Fort Smith in spirit form and would haunt Judge Parker and the jurymen if he were indeed hanged. No one paid much attention to the desperate warnings of a condemned man. Holder was executed as scheduled on Nov. 2, 1894. About one month later, jailer George Lawson was startled by a moaning sound coming from the direction of the jail yard gallows. Upon further examination, a thoroughly inebriated man was found lying prone on the wooden gallows.
1902- Harvey Logan, Wild Bunch member, was given 20 years in prison for his misdeeds. He over powered guards on 27 June 1903 and escaped.
1912- Texas- once among the largest ranches in the world, the XIT Ranch sells its last head of cattle. The corporate managers gradually sold the remainder of their property to farmers and smaller ranchers throughout the first half of the 20th century.
November 3
1859 - Texas. Lt William B. Hazen and a detachment of Company F, 8th Infantry, from Ft Inge with 30 citizen volunteers pursued a party of Comanche who had stolen horses and killed two citizens near Sabinal. Hazen attacked the Indians near the headwaters of the Llano River. Hazen and three citizens were wounded in the action. Seven Indians were killed and 1 wounded. The Army recovered 30 horses and captured eight firearms.
1869- Phoenix, Arizona Territory- the territory's first land office opens.
1874 - Texas. Col Ranald S. Mackenzie and a column of Companies A, D, F, H, I, K, and L, 4th Cavalry, with 32 Indian Scouts on a scout near Las Lagunas Quatras attacked a Comanche camp. Two Indians were killed and 19 women and children taken prisoner. The Army captured 144 horses.
1881- Tombstone, Arizona Territory- Will McLaury arrives in town charging his brothers were killed because they had proof that Doc Holliday had participated in the Tombstone stagecoach robbery.
1883- The U.S. Supreme Court declares American Indians to be "dependent aliens."
1883- California- Black Bart's last stage robbery occurred near Copperopolis. He was sloppy this day and left enough clues which later lead to his arrest. He dropped a hanky with a laundry-mark which was traced to Charles E. Boles by Wells Fargo detective after visiting his 91st laundry in San Francisco. Black Bart spent 4 years in San Quintin.
1887- Grand Junction, Colorado- Butch Cassidy and the McCartys stopped the Denver and Rio Grande express near Grand Junction. The express guard refused to open the safe and Bill McCarty put a pistol to his head. "Should we kill him?" he asked. "Let's vote," Cassidy said. The gang members voted not to kill the guard and the train moved off leaving the bandits empty-handed. Cassidy went back to rustling cattle and occasional trying to make an honest living while working as a cowboy or a miner in Colorado and Utah.
1890- Los Angeles, California- a high temperature of 96 degrees F. is reported, a record that stood until 1966.
1926- Greenville, Ohio- Annie Oakley Moses, AKA Annie Oakley, died. Born August 13, 1860 she went on to become a sharp shooter who eventually toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. She was named “Little Miss Sure Shot” by Chief Sitting Bull.
November 4
1835- Texas- the battle of Lipantitlán was fought on the east bank of the Nueces River three miles above San Patricio in San Patricio County, directly across from Fort Lipantitlán. A Texas force of around seventy men under Adjutant Ira J. Westover engaged a Mexican force of about ninety men under Capt. Nicolás Rodríguez. The battle lasted thirty-two minutes, leaving twenty-eight Mexicans dead, including Lt. Marcellino García, second in command, who was mortally wounded and died two days later at San Patricio. The Texans suffered only one casualty, when a rifle ball cut off three of the fingers on William Bracken's right hand.
1854-Texas- James Gillett, Texas Ranger, deputy marshal and later marshal of El Paso, and rancher was born.
1862- Richard Gattling received a patent for his rapid-fire gun. Uh, I forgot what it was called…
1870- Montana Territory- Jack Davis, a Virginia City deadbeat & gambler participated in the robbery of the Central Pacific train No. 1, gaining $40,000 in gold.
1879- Missouri- Kansas City newspapers erroneously report that Jesse James was killed by a member of his gang.
1879- Indian Territory- Cowboy philosopher and entertainer William Penn Adair Rogers, AKA Will Rogers, was born on a ranch near Oologah, the son of a respected mixed-blood Cherokee couple. In 1898, he left his family ranch to work as a Texas cowboy, and then traveled to Argentina where he spent a few months as a gaucho. But Rogers discovered his real talent when he joined Texas Jack's Wild West show in 1902 as a trick roper and rider under the stage name "The Cherokee Kid." He was placed in the Guiness Book of World Records for throwing three lassos at once. The first went around the horse's neck, the second around the rider, and the last rope went under the horse to loop all four legs together. Despite his skill with ropes and horses, Rogers soon realized that audiences most enjoyed his impromptu jokes and witty remarks. On August 15, 1935, Rogers was on a flight to Asia with the famous pilot Wiley Post when the plane developed engine troubles and crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska. The crash killed both men. Rogers was only 55.
1892- Oklahoma Territory- from the “Fort Smith Elevator” “A FATAL SHOT: Deputy Marshal Rufus Cannon, who arrested the notorious Creek outlaw Captain Wylie, arrived in the city Tuesday. Deputy Cannon reports that on his way back he was overtaken near the Oklahoma line by a gang of drunken outlaws, who charged into his camp. One of the party was captured with three quarts of whisky in his possession, and placed under arrest. As soon as his comrades discovered he was missing they returned and fired into the camp. Mr. Cannon returned fire, and the leader of the attacking party fell dead, shot through the neck. Mr. Cannon shortly afterward surrendered to Deputy Hunter.”
1924- Texas & Wyoming- Nellie Taylor Ross of Wyoming and Miriam Ferguson of Texas are elected first and second women governors.
November 5
1861- Colorado Territory- Central City is chosen as the capital.
1870- Nevada- the Central Pacific's No. 1, only 20 hours after being robbed in Verdi, Nevada, is robbed again about 385 miles from Verdi. The train robbers take $4,000 in gold and silver.
1871- Arizona Territory - the Wickenburg Massacre took place when a party of “Broncho” Apaches waylaid the Wickenburg-La Paz stage on a blind bend a few miles west of Wickenburg, Arizona Territory. The stage driver and five of the seven passengers were killed. Passenger Kruger kept the attackers at bay with his six-gun until the Apaches quit the attack. Kruger and a young woman named Mollie Shepherd were picked up by another stage. Mollie died a few days later when her wounds became infected.
1874 - Texas- (Red River War) While scouting for Col Ranald S. Mackenzie's column of 4th Cavalry, Lt William A. Thompson and nine Indian scouts attacked a Comanche camp near Laguna Tahoka. Two Indians were killed, and 26 horses and mules captured.
1877- Cheyenne, Wyoming- Canada Bill, a three-card monte shark, is reported dead.
1878- Prescott, Arizona Territory- Virgil Earp, who had already started a sawmill, and worked part time as Deputy Sheriff, was elected Constable of the Prescott Precinct.
1905 - Silver screen actor Joel (Albert) McCrea is born. Ride the High Country, The Oklahoman, Four Faces West, Buffalo Bill, Barbary Coast, Wichita Town. McCrea passed away Oct 20, 1990.
1911 - Silver screen actor Leonard Slye is born, AKA Roy Rogers 'King of the Cowboys': actor: 85+ westerns, The Roy Rogers Show, The Roy Rogers & Dale Evans Show; singer: Happy Trails to You; passed away July 6, 1998.
November 6
1858- a constitution for the “Territory of Jefferson” is adopted. This territory eventually becomes the state of Colorado.
1868- The Red Cloud War officially ends.
1869- Evans, Colorado Territory- Jack Carr is dissatisfied with his dinner at Daniel Steele's hotel and after becoming loud and abusive to the Steele family his money is refunded and he is asked to leave. Carr returns with a revolver and kills Daniel Steele. A trial is quickly arranged and he is pronounced guilty and was promptly hung from the nearest tree.
1874- Texas- Near McClellan's Creek a detachment of the 8th Cavalry attack Gray Beard's Cheyenne camp rescuing 6 year old Julia and 4 year old Adelaide Germaine. The Germaine girls had been kidnapped from a wagon train in Kansas the previous spring. 4 Indians and 2 soldiers are killed.
1874 - Texas- (Red River War) Lt Henry J Farnsworth and a detachment of Company H, 8th Cavalry, marching from the Indian Territory under Lt Col John W Davidson, were on a scout to McClellan's Creek when ambushed by Cheyenne under Gray Beard. The detachment conducted a defensive action, losing two soldiers killed and four wounded.
1876- New Mexico Territory- Englishman John Tunstall arrives in Lincoln County.
1877- Kansas- Bat Masterson is elected sheriff of Ford County.
1890- Wyoming- Fort Bridger is officially abandoned as the last troops leave.
1891- Fort Riley, Kansas- Comanche, the only horse of Custer's 7th Cavalry to survive the 1876 Battle of Little Big Horn, dies. You can see him on display at the University of Kansas. They must have fed him well, because he's stuffed!
1895- Oklahoma Territory - Bill Dunn and his four brothers Bee, Dal, Calvin, and George often operated as bounty hunters. But the Dunn brothers were better known as the proprietors of a road ranch outside Ingalls, Okla., where passing travelers were waylaid after being put up for the night. On May 2, 1895, two desperados known as Charley Pierce and Bitter Creek Newcomb arrived at the Dunn ranch to spend the night. As they stabled their horses, Bill and one of his brothers ambushed them outside the barn to collect the $5,000 bounty on Newcomb in Guthrie. Later that year, the people of the county grew angry over Dunn's tactics. On this date Dunn answered his critics by blaming Deputy Sheriff Frank Canton for the brutal way in which Newcomb and Pierce had been killed. In the streets of Pawnee, Canton confronted Dunn. Dunn drew first, but Deputy Canton fired a .45-caliber slug into Dunn's forehead, killing him instantly.
1896- Oklahoma Territory- Frank M. Canton (1849-1927) U.S., lawman-gunman worked for Judge Isaac Parker at this time. Outlaw Bill Dunn, a friend of the Shelley brothers, who was being hunted by Canton, rode into Pawnee, Oklahoma Territory on this date, cornering Canton as the lawman was about to enter the courthouse. "Damn you, Canton," cried Dunn, "I've got it in for you!" He made a motion toward his gun but the lightning-fast Canton flung a six-gun from his waistband and fired a single shot which struck Dunn square in the forehead. The outlaw fell backward, pulling out his gun as he fell but he died before he could fire a shot.
1908, San Vicente, Bolivia- Butch and the Sundance Kid are believed by many to have been killed in a shootout with local authorities.
1910- Lansing, Michigan-Roy Daughterty, AKA Arkansas Tom, of the Doolin-Dalton gang is paroled.
November 7
1859- Jefferson Territory (Colorado)- The General Assembly meets in Denver to set the territory government in operation.
1876- Texas- Johnny Ringo and George Glidden are arrested, ending the “HooDoo War” in Texas. The feud began over a year earlier with cattle rustlings. The HooDoos were night-riding vigilantes who disguised themselves with hoods and boot-black.
1881- Tombstone, Arizona Territory- Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday are jailed to await their hearing in the wake of the O.K. Corral gunfight.
1882- Fort Laramie, Wyoming- residents experience an earthquake.
1885- Canada- the last spike was driven at Craigellachie, British Columbia, completing the Canadian Pacific Railway's transcontinental line.
1893- Colorado becomes the second state to give women the right to vote.
November 8
1861- Colorado Territory- Denver is incorporated.
1870- Colorado Territory - a Denver newspaper reports that an unidentified Kickapoo was killed after he tied one end of a lasso around his waist and threw a loop over the smokestack of a Kansas-Pacific train traveling 40 miles per hour.
1871 - Texas- Col Ranald S. Mackenzie and the 4th Cavalry conclude the second expedition to the Staked Plains begun on Sept 24. The final action occurred on Oct 15.
1873- Canada- the small community of Winnipeg (originally known as Fort Garry) incorporated to become western Canada's first city.
1874 - Texas- (Red River War) From Col Nelson Miles' column, Lt Frank D Baldwin and detachments of Company D, 6th Cavalry, and Company D, 5th Infantry, while escorting wagons to pick up supplies, found Gray Beard's Cheyenne camp on McClellan Creek. Baldwin put his infantry in the empty wagons, attacked the camp, and pursued the Indians for ten miles. The surprised Indians abandoned the village and left most of their property intact. Riding through the deserted camp, Billy Dixon and other army scouts noticed movement in a pile of buffalo hides; they were astonished to find two white captives, Julia and Addie German, both emaciated and near starvation. They and their two older sisters, Catherine and Sophia, had been captured when their family was attacked on September 10, 1874. Catherine and Sophia were subsequently rescued from another band of Cheyennes, and the four German sisters were reunited at Fort Leavenworth. Lt Baldwin earned his second Congressional Medal of Honor for this action.
1876- Tie Siding, Wyoming- Mary Davis becomes the 1st woman in the United States to be elected a justice of the peace.
1878-A brother of the more celebrated Joel Collins, William Collins, began robbing trains after his brother Joel was killed by lawmen in 1877. Following a train robbery in Mesquite, Texas, Collins fled north on horseback, a posse tracking him through Colorado, Wyoming, the Black Hills, and then into Canada. U.S. marshal Bill Anderson alone finally cornered Collins in Pembina, Manitoba, Canada. On this date, both Collins and Anderson faced each other, drawing their six-guns, advancing on each other, and emptying their revolvers at the same time. Both died from their wounds. Anderson's body was shipped back to Texas and his widow was given the $10,000 reward posted for Collins. The outlaw's body was buried in Pembina.
1881- Colorado- vote makes Denver the state captitol.
1882- Montana Territory- Indian scouts report they killed two hostile Indians at Toullock's Fork.
1886- Jetmore, Kansas- Sam Purple murders his wife and two children. He is lynched by a mob.
1887- Glenwood Springs, Colorado- gunman Doc Holliday died of consumption. He was given six months to two years to live at most when he was diagnosed in 1872 with tuberculosis. A truly amazing feat when considering the rough life he lived with the heavy drinking extreme heat in Arizona and cold and damp in Denver and Deadwood. He even suffered for over two years gambling in Leadville, Colorado, where the altitude of over 10,000 made his T.B. much worse.
1887- Tucson, Arizona- returning from a campaign against the Apache's General Nelson Miles receives a hero's welcome.
1889- Montana becomes the 41st state.
1893- Colorado - women were granted the right to vote.
1901- Wyoming - Wild Bunch member Ben Kilpatrick, AKA The Tall Texan, Kilpatrick, with Laura Bullion, alias Della Rose, one of the female camp followers of the gang, traveled east but were captured by detectives in St. Louis. More than $7,000 from the Wagner robbery was found in Kilpatrick's suitcase. He was then using the alias of Benjamin Arnold. Kilpatrick confessed his part in the Wagner robbery but would offer no information about his fellow bandits. On Dec. 12, 1901, he was sentenced to fifteen years in the federal penitentiary at Atlanta. Laura Bullion was given a five-year sentence in a women's prison in Tennessee.
1916- Montana- Republican Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to Congress.
November 9
1865- Fort Owen, Montana Territory- soldiers ship 12,000 pounds of cabbage to mine workers.
1871- Arizona Territory- the White Mountain Reservation is established.
1875- Sioux followers of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse are labeled as "hostile" by Indian inspector Watson who recommends that all Sioux be forced onto reservations by January 31, 1876.
1880- Arizona Territory- Wyatt Earp resigns as deputy sheriff of Pima County.
1881- Helena, Montana- The Helena Independent Friday headline on November 11, 1881 reads "Cow Boys Hung." "SAN FRANCISCO, November 9.--A Tucson dispatch says: Bill Lintenburn (AKA Ressian Bill) and Sandy King, two members of the noted cow boys gang, were recently arrested for dealing in stolen stock and taken to Shakespeare for trial. About two o'clock this morning [November 9, 1881] over a dozen masked men went to the jail where the two men were confined, and seizing the guard, hung the cow boys to a joist until they were dead."
Sandy King was a tall cowboy and a rustler and thief when not working at ranches and often rode with William "Curly Bill" Brocius, raiding herds in New Mexico and Arizona. King was considered the town bully. When Russian Bill, one of King's friends, was caught red-handed stealing a horse, he was brought to Shakespeare and tried by a vigilance committee. Russian Bill admitted stealing the horse and was promptly sentenced to be hanged. Someone on the vigilance committee proposed that Sandy King be hanged at the same time on the charge of being "a damned nuisance." The committee agreed and King, who was in a makeshift courtroom at the time, was seized. It was pointed out that recently he had gotten drunk, entered the local general store and had gotten into an argument with the clerk, shooting the clerk's finger off when he did not move fast enough to suit King. In his own defense, King pointed out to the vigilantes that others had committed worse acts and had not been punished. He cited the recent case of Bean-Belly Smith who had, some weeks earlier, entered the dining room of the hotel and shot a man to death over the last egg in the house. The vigilantes ignored this argument and took King and Russian Bill to the lobby of the hotel and threw ropes about the high rafters. Bill begged for his life but King merely requested a glass of water because "my throat is dry after talking so much to save my life." After King gulped down the water, both men were hanged from the rafters and left dangling for several hours "so the people about town could ride in and see how justice had overtaken two bad characters."
November 10
1871- Arizona Territory- the first Arizona homestead claim is filed by Nathan Bowers at Prescott.
1875- Idaho Territory- three stagecoach robbers near Boise City take the strongbox headed for Silver City.
1875- New Mexico Territory- Manuel Cardinas was killed when masked men stormed the Cimarron jail and shot Cardinas to death. He had been implicated in the murder on September 20th of the Reverend F.J. Tolby when Clay Allison beat a confession from co-conspirator Cruz Vegas on October 30.
1880- The Northern-Pacific's rails cross the Dakota-Montana Territory border.
November 11
1866- Kansas- Fort Fletcher is renamed Fort Hayes in honor of General Alexander Hayes who died in the Battle of the Wilderness.
1873- Arizona Territory- a telegraph line is established between Prescott and Yuma.
1873- Delano, Kansas- Gunman Edward T. Beard, AKA Red Beard, died two weeks after being shot by gunman “Rowdy” Joe Lowe. Beard was at odds with the dreaded gunman Rowdy Joe Lowe, who had built a saloon next to Beard's (winning in a race to see who could build a dance hall first). On October 27, Beard, drinking heavily, accused one of his prostitutes, Jo DeMerritt, of stealing from him. DeMerritt threw a bottle at him and fled next door to Lowe's saloon. The drunken Beard followed her, staggered into Lowe's, and in the smoke-filled place mistook another prostitute, Annie Franklin, for DeMerritt. He fired a shot which struck the woman in the stomach. Lowe then grabbed a shotgun and exchanged shots with Beard. Lowe's shot missed but Beard's bullet grazed Lowe's neck. A stray bullet struck and wounded bystander Bill Anderson who was standing at the bar. Beard fled and Lowe, as drunk as his quarry, went after him. Both men, mounted on horses and racing out of town, had a running gunfight. Lowe caught up with Beard near the river bridge and emptied his shotgun into him, then rode back to town where he turned himself in to the sheriff. Beard was found critically wounded in the arm and thigh, loaded with buckshot. He clung to life for two weeks, but through loss of blood died on this date.
1889- Washington becomes the 42nd state.
November 12
1867- Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory- Conference begins to discuss “Indian problems” and to negotiate peace with the Sioux.
1884- Canada- Calgary became a town.
November 13
1835- Texans officially proclaim independence from Mexico and calls itself the Lone Star Republic, after its flag, until its admission to the Union in 1845.
1863- Texas- Chipita Rodriquez is the first woman to be legally hanged in the state. She was convicted of murdering John Savage.
1878- New Mexico Territory- Governor Lew Wallace offers amnesty to many participants of the Lincoln County War, but not to gunfighter Billy the Kid.
1880- New Mexico Territory- Governor Lew Wallace's novel, Ben Hur, is published.
1882- Tombstone, Arizona Territory- while Buckskin Frank Leslie is tending bar at the oriental Saloon he is forced to toss out a drunken Billy “the Kid” Claiborne who threatens him. The meet again early the next morning, for the last time…
1894- Muskogee, Cherokee Nation- outlaw Nathaniel Reed, AKA Texas Jack, accompanied by Buss Luckey, Tom Root, Bill Smith, and a couple others, held up a Missouri pacific train in Muskogee 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”. He died in Tulsa, Oklahoma January 7, 1950.
1916 - Arizona- Jack Elam was born. Actor: Support Your Local Sheriff, High Noon, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Cannonball Run series, Pocketful of Miracles, Rawhide, Temple Houston, The Texas Wheelers, The Dakotas.
November 14
1857- Texas- Governor Pease calls out the Texas Rangers to end the bloody “Cart War” between Texan and Mexican teamsters.
1863- Horse Prairie, Montana- Harry Plummer and 3 of his gang rob Henry Tilden.
1870 - Texas- Capt Adna R. Chaffee and a detachment of Company I, 6th Cavalry, and two Tonkawa scouts were on a scouting mission from Ft Richardson when they attacked a party of Comanche who were stealing cattle. The army recovered seven horses.
1882- Tombstone, Arizona Territory- Billy “the Kid” Claiborne, a survivor of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, is killed by Buckskin Frank Leslie with a Peacemaker. (Note Billy Claiborne, in the movie Tombstone, was played by ”Wyatt Earp”). Claiborne was convinced that Leslie had murdered Johnny Ringo.
1921- Texas- Cherokee Indians ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review their claim to 1 million acres of land in Texas.
November 15
1861- Kansas- US Commissioner William Ross signs a treaty with the Mission, Prairie, and Woods bands of the Potawatomi tribe at their agency.
1867- Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory- the town welcomes the first train.
1875- Wichita, Kansas- a local paper praises lawman Wyatt Earp who found a drunken stranger asleep under a bridge with $500 in his pocket and as a result kept the man from being robbed.
1877 - Canada- The Northwest Council passed laws to conserve the bison.
1882- Montana- Deer Lodge and Helena are connected by telegraph wire.
1885- Canada- Regina Saskatchewan - Father André, Louis Riel's priest, visits his charge in his jail cell and tells him he is to be hanged the next day; according to the priest, Riel takes the news calmly, and says he has made his peace with God, and is fully prepared.
November 16
1821- Present day New Mexico- Trader William Becknell reaches Santa Fe, on the route that will become known as the Santa Fe Trail.
1839- northwestern Arkansas - Lawman and outlasw John Selman was born. John was credited with 20 killings and was close to 60 years old when he was killed.
1874- an executive order expands the boundaries of the Colorado River Indian Reservation.
1881- Tombstone, Arizona Territory- Wyatt Earp takes the stand and testifies he fired in self-defense at the shootout at the O.K. Corral.
1885- Regina Saskatchewan - Canadian rebel Louis Riel (1844-1885) was hanged in Mounted Police barracks for high treason.
1907- The Indian and Oklahoma territories are unified to make Oklahoma, which becomes the 46th state.
November 17
1856-present day Arizona- U.S. establishes Fort Buchanan as part of the Gadsden Purchase. Named for recently elected President James Buchanan, Fort Buchanan was located on the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona.
The U.S. acquired the bulk of the southwestern corner of the nation from Mexico in 1848 as victors' spoil after the Mexican War. Despite having been badly beaten in war only five years earlier and forced to cede huge tracts of land to the victorious Americans, the Mexican ruler Santa Ana was eager to do business with the U.S. Having only recently regained power, Santa Ana was in danger of losing office unless he could quickly find funds to replenish his nearly bankrupt nation. Gadsden and Santa Ana agreed that the narrow strip of southwestern desert land was worth $10 million. When the treaty was signed on December 30, 1853, it became the last addition of territory (aside from the purchase of Alaska in 1867) to the continental United States. The purchase completed the modern-day boundaries of the American West. The government established Fort Buchanan to protect emigrants traveling through the new territory from the Apache Indians, who were strongly resisting Anglo incursions.
1863- Iowa- Council Bluffs is designated the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad by President Lincoln.
1871- Colorado Territory- Boulder is incorporated.
1874- Arizona Territory- a small earthquake is reported in Yuma.
1877- Lincoln, New Mexico Territory- Outlaws Jesse Evans and his gang escape after jailers “forgot” to lock the cell doors the night before.
1882- Fort Keogh, Montana- Rain in the Face and 500 Sioux surrender.
1883- San Andreas, California- Charles E. Boles, AKA Black Bart, is sentenced to 6 years in prison after confessing to the November 3rd stagecoach robbery.
1890- Mandan, North Dakota- an Indian uprising is reported.
1896- Judge Isaac Parker died from heart trouble and dropsy. A one term Congressman was later appointed federal judge for the Western District of Arkansas with jurisdiction over Indian Territory. He became known as the hanging judge for sentencing more than 160 to death sentences, although only 79 actually swung.
November 18
1861- the last Pony Express ride is completed.
1873- Grasshopper Falls, Kansas- citizens shoot and kill two men, Stitzel and Blair, for alleged horse thieving.
1877- Lincoln, New Mexico Territory- Sheriff Brady accuses John Tunstall of encouraging Jesse Evans to escape from jail the day before.
1880- Walkerville, Montana- the 1st electric lights in Montana are turned on, at the Alice Mine.
1908- Texas- Texas Ranger John Armstrong who used the $4000 reward he earned in 1877 for capturing John Wesley Harden to purchase more than 50,000 acres of cattle land in Willacy County, Texas, (calling it the XIT ranch, one of the largest at that time) was shot out of his saddle (only wounded) resulting from his harsh orders to one of his cowboys. (The cowboy was later sent to prison for attempted murder.) Armstrong survived this attack as he had so many others and died peacefully in his bed on his ranch, May 1, 1913.
November 19
1856 - Texas- Lt Walter H. Jenifer and a detachment of Company B, 2nd Cavalry, were on a scout from Fort Mason, Texas, to the Llano River when they attacked a group of Comanche and captured some of the Indians' equipment.
1861- an attempt to take Indian Territory by Confederate forces fails in a battle at Round Mountain.
1872- Dakota Territory- Fort McKeen is renamed Fort Abraham Lincoln.
1873- Choctaw Nation- James Reed, the first husband of Belle Starr, and two accomplices rob the Watt Grayson family of $30,000 in the Choctaw Nation.
1877- Feliz, New Mexico Territory- Jesse Evans and his gang visit the Tunstall ranch, but steals no cattle.
1881- Tombstone, Arizona Territory- Virgil Earp testifies at the O.K. Corral hearings.
1887- Montana- The Montana Central Railroad between Helena and Great Falls is completed.
1907- Cleveland, Ohio- Shane author Jack Schaefer is born. Schaefer was a successful journalist, but Shane was his first novel. Published in 1949 Shane was simple but powerful tale of a high-plains drifter who comes to the rescue of Wyoming homesteaders and was a popular and critical success, as was the 1953-film adaptation starring Alan Ladd. Like Owen Wister's 1902 novel, The Virginian, Schaefer's Shane helped construct the popular image of the western cowboy as an all-natural nobleman on horseback. In Shane, Schaefer deliberately left the hero's past obscure, only hinting that he had once been a skilled gunman who wished to leave his violent past behind. Loosely based on the true story of the late-nineteenth-century Wyoming range wars between homesteaders and cattle barons, Schaefer set his novel in a high western valley.
November 20
1868- Nebraska- Fort Omaha is established.
1871- Alberta, Canada- John and David McDougall became the province's first farmers.
1880- California- Black Bart robs the Redding, California-Roseburg, Oregon stagecoach a mile from the Oregon line.
1884- Caldwell, Kansas- Cash Hollister a deputy U.S. marshal attempted his final arrest. Bob Cross, the son of a minister, was accused of adultery after he abandoned his wife for the daughter of a local farmer. Hollister and three other lawmen went to the Cross farm in Hunnewell, Kansas. Cross' wife and sister denied he was there, but as the posse searched the house, two shots fatally wounded Hollister.
1901- Yukon- North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) in the Yukon were on the alert after the threat of an American invasion spread throughout the Territory. It was rumored that the Order of the Midnight Sun, a secret organization formed by disaffected American miners, planned to raise an invading force from surrounding communities in Alaska. The attack fizzled out before it started.
1903-Saskatchewan, Canada- the city of Moose Jaw was incorporated.
1903- Wyoming- Tom Horn (1860-1903) was hanged for the killing of 14-year-old Willie Nickell. Tom was a Cavalry scout at age 16, Pinkerton detective, a range detective, and an outlaw. He proved himself to be a great cowboy, entering the rodeo at Globe, Ariz., in 1888 and winning the world's championship in steer roping. Horn joined the Pinkerton Detective Agency in 1890 and used his gun with lethal effectiveness. He worked out of the agency's Denver offices, chasing bank robbers and train thieves throughout Colorado and Wyoming. Horn hired out as a gunman in 1892 to the Wyoming Cattle Growers' Association. When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, Horn left the West and joined the cavalry. Following the war, Horn returned to Wyoming and went to work for wealthy cattle baron, John Coble. He was once again a hunter of rustlers and his tactics had changed little since he began this bloody business a decade earlier. Some believe that Tom was a scapegoat for the cattleman's association & was framed. Horn made the rope that was to hang him while awaiting execution.
November 21
1860- Tom Horn was born in Memphis, Missouri. Tom went on to become a Cavalry scout at age 16, Pinkerton detective, a range detective, and an outlaw. He was hung for murder on 20 November 1903.
1867- Missouri- Carry Amelia Moore's wedding was delayed a few hours when the drunk groom, Dr. Gloyd finally arrived. She would eventually leave him and marry a guy with the last name of Nations (who was a boozer too). You know the rest of the story.
1871- Cimarron, New Mexico Territory- the bodies of outlaws Taylor and Burns are brought to town.
1880- New Mexico Territory- William Bonney, AKA Billy the Kid, and four helpers steal eight horses from the Grzelachowski ranch.
1883- Kansas- Cash Hollister moved to Caldwell, Kansas from his native Cleveland as a thirty-one year old in 1877. Two years later, he was elected mayor after the sudden death of the incumbent In 1880, Hollister chose not to run for reelection, but three years later was appointed a deputy U.S. marshal. On Nov. 21, 1883, Hollister and Ben Wheeler tried to arrest Chet Van Meter, who was accused of beating his family and threatening others. Van Meter fired at the lawmen as they approached, but was killed by five shots in the chest.
1887- Helena, Montana- in a snowstorm the first Montana Central train arrives.
1944 - The Roy Rogers Show was first heard on the Mutual Broadcasting System. Singing along with the King of the Cowboys were the Whippoorwills and The Sons of the Pioneers.
1948- Clay Calhoun died. He had been a Range detective, deputy sheriff, & US Marshall who in the 1880's was the top man of a group of lawmen in Arizona Territory dubbed the “Outlaw Exterminators, Inc.” by the press. Clay was the last surviving member.
November 22
1871- a nephew of famous frontiersman Kit Carson, Thomas Carson was appointed a peace officer in Abilene, Kan., in June 1871. He quickly established a reputation as a man dangerous when provoked. After being reprimanded by his superiors, Carson left Abilene to accept employment in Newton, a boomtown best remembered as the site of the bloody "Newton General Massacre." Later that year, the Abilene city fathers rehired him. Carson was again discharged after shooting bartender John Man in the hip on Nov. 22, 1871, without apparent provocation. In January 1872, Carson fired on Brocky Jack Norton, a former peace officer. The two men quarreled bitterly, and Carson settled matters the way he knew best: with pistols blazing. Norton survived the attack, but Carson was held over for trial. Deciding that freedom was preferable to a likely prison sentence, Tom Carson made his escape before going to trial.
1873- the boundaries of the Colorado River Indian Reservation are expanded.
1888- Florence, Arizona- robbers holdup stagecoach passengers and take the Wells Fargo box.
November 23
1859- Reported birthday of William H. Bonney, AKA Billy the Kid, the son of William and Kathleen (or Catherine) McCarty Bonney, and named William H. Bonney. Another story has it that he was born on Sept. 17, 1859, as Patrick Henry McCarty to Catherine and Patrick McCarty. And still another account has it that he was born in Indiana to Joseph McCarty of Cass County. The first report seems to be the most reliable, especially since the Kid used the name of William H. Bonney, signing his letters as such.
1868- Camp Supply, Indian Territory- Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer and the 7th Cavalry head out for Black Kettle's Cheyenne camp on the Wachita River. This is response to two months of Indian raids throughout Texas and Kansas resulting in 147 settlers being killed, 426 women and children have been taken captive, 24 ranches burned and 11 stagecoaches attack.
1869- The first of Ned Buntline's stories about William F. Cody, “Buffalo Bill, the King of Border Men,” in installments in the New York Weekly.
1880- Coyote Springs, New Mexico Territory- George Neil loses gunfight with William Bonney, AKA Billy the Kid.
1902- Outlaw Augustine Chacon, credited with 30 notches, was hanged at Solomonville after Arizona Ranger Captain Burton C. Mossman crossed into Mexico to retrieve him.
1958 - "Have Gun Will Travel" was broadcast on CBS radio and starred John Dehner as Paladin. Richard Boone played Paladin on TV.
November 24
1853- Famed Buffalo hunter, lawman and gambler, William Barclay "Bat" Masterson (1856-1921). was born in Quebec, Canada.
1864- Colorado Territory- Colonel John Chivington assumes command of an expedition against the Indians living at Sand Creek.
1864- Kit Carson and his 1st Cavalry, New Mexico Volunteers, attack a camp of Kiowa Indians in the First Battle of Adobe Walls.
1869 - Texas- Capt Edward M Heyl and a detachment of Companies L and M, 9th Cavalry, had a skirmish with Apaches while on scout of the headwaters of the Llano River in Texas. Capt Heyl was wounded and one Indian killed. Six horses were captured.
1870- Against Jesse James's wish his sister, Susan James, marries former Quantrill raider Allen Palmer.
1871 - The National Rifle Association (NRA) was incorporated.
1874- Joseph Glidden receives a patent for barbed wire.
1882- California- Black Bart robs the Lakeport-Cloverdale stagecoach six miles outside of Cloverdale.
1924- Cromwell, Oklahoma- Lawman Bill Tilghman, age 71, is killed in the line of duty.
1938- Mexico seizes oil land adjacent to Texas.
November 25
1867- Fort Leavenworth, Kansas- Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer's court-martial ends.
1868- McArthur, Ohio- William Ellsworth Lay (1868-1933), AKA Elzy is born. He would latter run with Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch.
1876- Dull Knife's village in the Bighorn Mountains near the Red Fork of the Powder River is destroyed by Colonel Mackenzie's troops during the Great Sioux War. Over 200 lodges are burned and items from Custer's 7th Cavalry are found in the rubble.
1882- San Francisco, California- Fort Point is renamed Fort Winfield Scott.
1949 - Gene Autry's "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" appeared on the music charts and became THE musical hit of the Christmas season.
November 26
1853- County Rouville, Quebec, Canada- Bat Masterson (William Bartholomew Masterson) was born.
1856 - Texas- Capt William R. Bradfute with Company G, 2nd Cavalry, from Ft Mason, Texas, were on a scout of the Concho River when they attacked a party of Comanche. One soldier was wounded, four Indians were killed, two Indians were wounded, and six horses were captured.
1869- Colorado Territory- the last four-horse Concord stagecoach run between Denver and Cheyenne is completed as the Denver Pacific Railway to Denver is completed.
1870- William F. Cody wanted to name his first son “Elmo Judson” in honor of Ned Buntline but officers and scouts talked him into naming the baby Kit Carson Cody.
1884- Montana's Northern Cheyenne Reservation is created from the Crow Reservation by executive order of President Chester A. Arthur.
1886- Hutchinson, Kansas- 1,000 men are employed as laborers by the Rock Island Railroad.
November 27
1862- George Armstrong Custer meets his future bride, Elizabeth Bacon at a Thanksgiving party.
1868- Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle and his wife were killed by troopers led by George Armstrong Custer despite flying the American flag during the Washita Massacre.
1887- Arkansas- U.S. Deputy Marshall Frank Dalton, brother of the three famous outlaws, is killed in the line of duty near Fort Smith.
1917 - 'Buffalo' Bob Smith was born-TV host: Howdy Doody Show, The Gulf Road Show Starring Bob Smith; died July 30, 1998.
November 28
1869- Texas- Samuel Hassells, (AKA: Bob Hays), went west at an early age and joined several gangs, committing many robberies. While living in Gonzales County he reportedly was captured and drew a five-year prison sentence. He escaped four months before finishing this term in Huntsville, Texas. Hassells was identified as a member of a gang that robbed the post office in Separ, New Mexico Territory, in October 1869. On Nov. 28, 1869, a large posse cornered the gang at the Diamond A ranch, about sixty miles south of Separ. A wild gun battle ensued and Hassells was killed.
1872- Fighting begins between Modoc Indians, refuse to move to Oregon's Klamath Reservation, led by Captain Jack and 38 members of the 1st Cavalry led by Captain Jackson.
1873- Scotia, Nebraska- Future oilman Frank Phillips is born.
1878- Dakota Territory (North Dakota)- Fort Rice is abandoned. During 14 years of service. It was never attacked by Indians.
November 29
1864- Present day Colorado- John Chivington commanded the 3rd Colorado Cavalry as it attacked a peaceful Cheyenne village at Sand Creek.
1872- Founder of the New York Tribune, Horace Greeley died on this day. In May of the same year Horace was nominated for President but lost at the polls by Ulysses S. Grant. “Go west young man”.
1872- Oregon Territory- a Modoc Indian, Captain Jack, was the leader in the Modoc War in Oregon which raged between 1872-73. A contingent of forty soldiers, under the command of T.B. Odeneal, superintendent of the reservation at Klamath, tracked Captain Jack and his Modocs to Lost River and there attempted to disarm them on Nov. 29, 1872. A fight ensued and several troopers and Indians were shot.
1874 -Texas- (Red River War) From Col Nelson Miles' column, Capt Charles A Hartwell and detachments of Companies C, H, K, and I, 8th Infantry, were on a scout of the Canadian River when they attacked a Cheyenne camp on Muster Creek. Two Indians were killed and two wounded.
1877 - Texas- Capt Samuel B M Young and Companies A and K, 8th Cavalry; Company C, 10th Cavalry; and Lt John L Bullis and a detachment of Seminole-Negro scouts, were on a scout into Mexico when they attacked a camp of Mescalero Apaches. Lt Frederick E Phelps was wounded, two Indians were killed, three Indians were taken prisoner, and 30 horses captured.
1879- Arizona Territory- Wyatt Earp arrived in Tombstone.
1881- Tombstone, Arizona Territory- The O.K. Coral hearings end. In another matter a grand jury indicts Billy “the Kid” Claiborne for murder.
1886- Pratt, Kansas- the first Kansas, Pacific and Western train arrives.
1887- Indian Territory- a horse thief, William Towerly killed two lawmen. On this date, Towerly camped on the Arkansas River with Dave Smith, another horse thief, Lee Dixon, and Dixon's wife. Lawmen Frank Dalton and James Cole approached the camp on horseback, carrying warrants for Smith's arrest. Smith shot Dalton in the chest, and as the Dixons' joined the firing at Cole, Towerly ran up to Dalton and shot him through the mouth and then through the head. Cole killed Smith and the Dixons', and Towerly fled to his family's home near Atoka in Indian Territory where he was later killed by lawman Bill Moody.
1892- Orlando, Oklahoma Territory- Lawman Tom Houston accompanied by Chris Madsen and Heck Thomas, tried to apprehend bank robber Ole Yantis. They cornered him at his sister's farm, and after a brief exchange, Houston killed him.
November 30
1838- Mexico declares war on France.
1878- Colorado- the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe's tracks cross Colorado's southern border into New Mexico Territory. These are the first tracks into New Mexico Territory.
1879- New Mexico Territory -William Bonney meets with John Chisum, at Bob Hargrove's saloon to talk about recent rustlings.
1880- New Mexico Territory- Billy the Kid ride into White Oaks with Dave Rudabaugh and Billy Wilson, but departs quickly.
1881- Tombstone, Arizona Territory- Judge Wells Spicer says the Earps were justified in their action. In another matter Johnny Ringo is arrested for having robbed a poker game in August.
1884- New Mexico- 19-year-old Elfego Baca, wearing a mail order badge, arrests a cowboy for disturbing the peace. When riders come to teach Baca a lesson, he kills the foreman with his Colt revolver.
1887- Colorado - when the McCarty boys suggested Butch Cassidy joins them in a train robbery, the apprentice outlaw happily agreed. On this date Cassidy and the McCartys stopped the Denver and Rio Grande express near Grand Junction, Colorado. The stubborn express guard refused to open the safe in the mail car and Bill McCarty put a six-gun to his head. "Should we kill him?" he asked. "Let's vote," Cassidy said. The gang members voted not to kill the guard and the train moved off leaving the bandits with not a dime in loot. Cassidy became disheartened with robbery and went back to rustling and occasional work as a cowboy or a miner in the local Colorado and Utah mines. It was almost a year and a half before Cassidy agreed to once more accompany the McCartys on another raid.
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