Blog Archives - Page 4 of 17

Today In Western History: The Potowatamie Massacre

Posted on May 24, 2016May 21, 2016 by larry

May 24, 1856

John Brown gains his nickname, Potowatamie Brown, when he leads his followers in the massacre of five pro-slavers at Potowatamie Creek, Kansas, in retaliation for the killing of an abolitionist in Lawrence, Kansas.

John Brown, Abolitionist, first American 'terrorist', author of the Harper's Ferry Insurrection, and spark stat started the Civil War — John Brown, Abolitionist, first American ‘terrorist’, author of the Harper’s Ferry Insurrection, and spark stat started the Civil War

The Pottawatomie massacre occurred during the night of May 24 and the morning of May 25, 1856. In reaction to the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas by pro-slavery forces, John Brown and a small band of abolitionist settlers—some of them members of the Pottawatomie Rifles—killed five settlers north of Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County, Kansas. This was one of the many bloody episodes in Kansas preceding the American Civil War, which came to be known collectively as Bleeding Kansas. Bleeding Kansas was largely brought about by the Missouri Compromise and Kansas–Nebraska Act.

A Free State company under the command of John Brown, Jr., set out, and the Osawatomie company joined them. On the morning of May 22, 1856, they heard of the sack of Lawrence and the arrest of Deitzler, Brown, and Jenkins. However, they continued their march toward Lawrence, not knowing whether their assistance might still be needed, and encamped that night near the Ottawa Creek. They remained in the vicinity until the afternoon of May 23, at which time they decided to return home.

On May 23, John Brown Sr. selected a small party consisting of John Brown Sr., his sons Frederick, Owen, Salmon, and Oliver, and Thomas Weiner and James Townsley, to go with him on a private ex-pedition. Late in the next evening, they called at the house of James P. Doyle and ordered him and his two adult sons, William and Drury (all former slave catchers) to go with them as prisoners. The three men were escorted by their captors into the night, at which time Owen Brown and one of his brothers killed them with broadswords. John Brown, Sr. fired a shot into the head of the fallen James Doyle to make certain he was dead. Brown and his band then went to the house of Allen Wilkinson and ordered him out, where he was slashed and stabbed to death by Henry Thompson and Theodore Winer, possibly with help from Brown’s sons. Following this murder they crossed the Pottawatomie, and after midnight, they forced their way into the cabin of James Harris. Harris had three house guests: John S. Wightman, Jerome Glanville, and William Sherman, the brother of Henry Sherman (“Dutch Henry”), a militant pro-slavery activist. After questioning all four men, William Sherman was led to the edge of the creek and hacked to death with the swords by Winer and Thompson.

In the two years before Brown’s raid, there had been 8 killings in Kansas Territory attributable to slavery politics, and none of those were in the vicinity of the massacre. Brown murdered five in a single night, and this was the flash point to the powder keg that exploded into violence. Over the next three months, 29 people died in a series of retaliatory raids and battles.

John Brown wasn’t done and he wouldn’t be done until October 18, 1859, when he would lead an un-successful slave revolt at a little town called Harper’s Ferry in Virginia. This future raid would make his name a household word and he would forever be viewed as either a hero or a terrorist, depending upon where you stood on the issue of the day, which was, of course, slavery.

To purchase a signed copy of Larry Auerbach’s novel “The Spirit Of Redd Mountain”, Click Here

Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com

Today In Western History: Kit Carson Goes Under

Posted on May 23, 2016May 21, 2016 by larry

May 23, 1868

Christopher Carson, legendary mountain man, trapper, explorer and soldier

Kit Carson dies of old age, at 58, in Fort Lyon, Colorado.

Christopher Houston “Kit” Carson was an American legend. He lived in a time of change, when the West was opening up to exploration and development. For most of his life he lived off the land, holding few actual paying jobs. During his lifetime he had been a trapper, a mountain man, a wild-erness guide, Indian agent, and even an American Army officer. As with many of the famous names of that period, their reputations were greatly enhanced by repeated embellishments of their exploits, sometimes by themselves or just normal story-telling by others to build up their own reputations, and sometimes by their biographers or people just looking to make a dollar by selling complete fiction. Ned Buntline did this for Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok and Wyatt Earp.

William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Frontiersman, creator of the Rodeo — William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, Frontiersman, creator of the Rodeo

Christopher left home at the age of 16 to become a mountain man and trapper in the vast and un-explored Western territories. In the 1830s, he accompanied Ewing Young on an expedition to what was then Mexican California and later joined fur trapping expeditions into the Rocky Mountains. To improve his chances of survival and acceptance by the carious tribes, Carson lived among and even married into the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes. In the 1840s, based on his growing reputation as the one who knew the mountains, he was hired as a guide by John C. Fremont, the man who would become known as the Pathfinder. Carson achieved national fame through Fremont’s accounts of his

John C. Fremont, The Great Pathfinder" — John C. Fremont, The Great Pathfinder”

expeditions.While serving with Fremont, Carson took an active part in the uprising in California at the beginning of what became known at the Mexican-American War. Later in the war, Carson served as a courier and a scout, and became celebrated for his rescue mission after the Battle of San Pasqual and for his coast-to-coast journey from California to Washington, DC., to deliver news of the conflict in California to the U.S. government. In the 1850s, he was appointed as the Indian agent to the Ute Indians and the Jicarilla Apaches.

During the American Civil War, Carson led a regiment of mostly New Mexico volunteers of Hispanic heritage supporting the Union at the Battle of Valverde in 1862. When the Confederate threat to New Mexico was eliminated, Carson turned on the native Americans he had lived with and led forces to suppress the Navajo, Mescalero Apache, Kiowa and Comanche Indians. For this service, Carson was breveted (a type of military commission conferred especially for outstanding service by which an officer was promoted to a higher rank without the correspond- ing pay) a Brigadier General, and given command of Fort Garland, Colorado, but after only a short time his declining health forced him to retire from military life. Carson was married three times and had ten children. Carson died at Fort Lyon, Colorado, of an aortic aneurysm on May 23, 1868. He is buried in Taos, New Mexico, next to his third wife Josefa Jaramillo.

To purchase a signed copy of Larry Auerbach’s novel “The Spirit Of Redd Mountain”, Click Here

Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com

Today In Western History: Captain William Becknell Heads For Santa Fe

Posted on May 22, 2016May 15, 2016 by larry

May 22, 1822

Captain William Becknell (1787-1856) takes a wagon train out of Arrow Rock, Missouri, headed across the plains and desert to Santa Fe, in the New Mexico Territory in 1821. This is his third trip west, as he has been there twice before, as a trader. His plan was to take three wagons loaded with merchandise, twenty-four slow-moving oxen, and twenty-one men across the plains. Because crossing the plains on fast horses was dangerous and uncertain enough, when the people learned of his plan, they considered it fairly certain suicide and death and joked he was insane and referred to Becknell’s wagon train as the ‘Caravan of Death’.

The spring of 1822 was exceedingly rainy, and the heavy wagons, weighing more than seven thousand pounds each, sank into the mud almost to the hubs. Along the way, they often had to deal with Osage Indians and Comanches, who were trying to steal their horses or goods. The Pawnees, Kiowas, Cheyennes and the Sioux, who were later to take such a toll on the immigrants as they traveled along the Trail, were not a problem at this early point in their interaction with the whites traveling through their lands.

The most treacherous part of journey was when the caravan reached the desert and the home of the Comanche, then things became much more desperate. The wagon train went into the desert with only their canteens filled with water and a compass to guide it over the glittering sand. Behind and around them was always the fear of a sudden attack by the Comanches. The men’s nerves were at breaking point, waiting for the dreaded attack to come.

At the end of two days they ran out of water and the water holes disappeared. As the day wore on, the heat increased and the lack of water affected everyone, men and animals alike began suffer-ing to the point of madness. They began having hallucinations (seeing mirages), delusions and sev-eral went mad from thirst. Ultimately, however, it was a possible mirage that saved their lives. Captain Becknell had been seeing mirages for a long time now and thought he was seeing another one when he looked up and saw a herd of buffalo just twenty yards away from him. In desperation, he fired his gun at it and killed one with one shot. Captain Becknell knew buffalo never ventured into the desert without a stomach full of water and after dragging himself over to it, and cutting into it with his knife, he found the stomach, filled with gallons of water. This told him there was water somewhere nearby, and after sharing the contents of the buffalo’s stomach with the other men, he gathered all the canteens and went looking for the water. He found it, filled all the canteens and took them back to the men, saving everyone’s life. Thirty days later, the wagon train reached their goal, Sante Fe. They had traveled over eight hundred long and dangerous miles, and opened up a new road to the southwest – The famed Sante Fe Trail.

Becknell made a third trip to New Mexico in the fall of 1824 and received a license to trap in the Green Mountains, a pursuit that occupied him for the next several months. The following summer he participated with a group authorized by Congress to mark the Santa Fe Trail via the Cimarron Cutoff as the central route to the Southwest. Certainly this, in addition to his previous exploits, helped earn Becknell the sobriquet of “Father of the Santa Fe Trail.”

Becknell subsequently retired from the trade, serving two terms in the Missouri Legislature and several years as a justice of the peace. Then in 1835 he sold his property and relocated with his family and several slaves to Red River County in northeastern Texas, where he became a prominent farmer and stockman. He took an active role in the Texas War for Independence, and served briefly in the first Texas Congress. William Becknell died on April 25, 1856, and was buried west of Clarksville, Texas. The Texas Legislature marked the grave with a large granite stone in 1957.

Today In Western History: The Lawrence Raid

Posted on May 21, 2016May 17, 2016 by larry

May 21, 1856

Things are heating up as pro-slavers raid Lawrence, Kansas, killing one man. This initial raid on Lawrence occurred on May 21, 1856, even before the Civil War started, when pro-slavery activists attacked and ransacked the town of Lawrence, Kansas, which had been founded by anti-slavery settlers to help ensure that Kansas would become a “free state”. The incident only made worse the guerrilla war in Kansas Territory that became known as Bleeding Kansas.

The trouble began on April 23, 1856, when Douglas County Sheriff Samuel J. Jones was shot while trying to arrest free-state settlers in

Pro-slavery Douglas County Sheriff Samuel J. Jones, instigator of the Lawrence raid

Lawrence. Jones belonged to the pro-slavery faction and was using the law to try and drive out the free-state settlers to control the voting that was to determine whether Kansas would become a slave state or a free state. After wounding Sheriff Jones, the residents drove him out of town. Three weeks later, on May 11, Federal Marshal J. B. Donaldson made the decision their act had interfered with the execution of a legal judicial process against the extra-legal Free-State legislature, which had been set up in opposition to the official pro-slavery territorial government. Based on this proclamation, as well the finding by a grand jury that Lawrence’s Free State Hotel was actually built to use as a fort, Sheriff Jones assembled a posse of about 800 southern settlers to enter Lawrence, disarm the citizens, destroy the anti-slavery presses, and dismantle the Free State Hotel.

This raid is often confused with the Lawrence Massacre, led by William Clarke Quantrill, but that massacre took place seven years later on August 21, 1863.

William Clarke Quantrill, Confederate guerrilla, responsible for the Lawrence, Kansas massacre

To purchase a signed copy of Larry Auerbach’s novel “The Spirit Of Redd Mountain”, Click Here

Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com

Today In Western History: Bad Things Come In Threes.

Posted on May 20, 2016May 17, 2016 by larry

May 20, 1916-1918

In what is a remarkable, if not strange, twist of fate, a tornado tears up the small town of Codell, Kansas on the same day, three years in a row.

A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as twisters or cyclones, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology, in a wider sense, to name any closed low pressure circulation. Tornadoes come in many shapes and sizes, but they are typically in the form of a visible condensation funnel, whose narrow end touches the earth and is often encircled by a cloud of debris and dust. Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than 110 miles per hour (180 km/h), are about 250 feet (80 m) across, and travel a few miles (several kilometers) before dissipating.

The most extreme tornadoes can attain wind speeds of more than 300 miles per hour (480 km/h), stretch more than two miles (3 km) across, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles (more than 100 km). Tornado speeds are measured by the Fujita Scale, where an F-0 tornado is capable of reaching wind speeds of up to 78 miles an hour in a 3 second gust, and an F-5 tornado is capable of reaching wind speeds of up to 317 miles an hour in a 3 second gust.

These first two photos are of an F-0 tornado. Impressive, but little damage caused.

F-0 tornadoes, impressive to look at, but little real damage caused.

These next two images are of F-1 tornadoes. Also impressive, but costly.

Now we are getting a little more serious. These next two images are of two different F-2 tornadoes, date and location unknown.

It’s getting more serious now, these next two images are of reported F-3 tornadoes. Head for cover!

Now we move on toe the real killers! Here are two F-4 killer tornadoes. You DON’T want to be around them!!

And finally, the baddest of the bad tornadoes, the dreaded F-5. As in the movie. “Twist”, the ‘finger of God. You DON’T want to have one of these come for a visit!

Category F5 tornado (upgraded from initial estimate of F4) viewed from the southeast as it approached Elie, Manitoba on Friday, June 22nd, 2007.

F-5 Tornado, date and location unknown

Today In Western History: Cynthia Ann Parker Is Kidnapped

Posted on May 19, 2016May 15, 2016 by larry

May 19, 1836

Cynthia Ann Parker is kidnapped, at the age of about ten (possibly as young as 8 or already over 11 (her age was never verified), by Caddo,

Cynthia Ann Parker, kidnapped, at a young age, she lived among the Comanche and is the mother of Quanah Parker, the last Comanche Chief

Comanche and Kiowa Indians on a raid in Parker’s Fort, a community situated just 40 miles east of present day Waco, Texas. In the custom of the Indian culture the period, She was adopted by the Comanche and lived with them for 24 years, She was given the Comanche name of Na’ura (also variously spelled “Nadua” and “Nauta”), which means ‘the found one’.

In time she married a Comanche chieftain, Peta Nocona, and had three children with him. Cynthia was finally recaptured by the Texas Rangers when she was about 34, but having been acculturated to her new life, she was unable to adapt to living among the white culture any longer. She spent the re-maining ten years of her life refusing to adjust to life in white society. At least once, she escaped and tried to return to her Comanche family and children, but was again brought back to Texas. The Texans of that day could not comprehend that she preferred to be among the ‘savages’, and they kept bringing her back. Cynthia never fully understood her iconic meaning to the nation, which saw her as having been rescued from the Comanches, while she saw her place as being among them. .Heartbroken over the loss of her family, she stopped eating and died of influenza in 1871.

Two of Cynthia’s three children disappeared from history, as they were just part of the tribe, but one them made quite a name for himself

Quanah Parker, the son of Cynthia Ann Parker, who was kidnapped by the Comanche as a young girl. He was the last great Chief of the Comanche Indians.

later in life. His name was Quanah, and became one of the last Comanche chiefs. The U.S. appointed Quanah principal chief of the entire nation once the people had gathered on the reservation and later introduced general elections. He had a long and accomplished career, always watching out for his people.

To purchase a signed copy of Larry Auerbach’s novel “The Spirit Of Redd Mountain”, Click Here

Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com

Today In Western History: The Salt Creek Massacre

Posted on May 18, 2016May 15, 2016 by larry

May 18, 1871

Kiowa war chief Satanta leads an attack on a wagon train at Salt Creek, Texas, killing seven of the party.

Also known as White Bear, he was the last last, of the Kiowa War Chiefs and was well known for both his prowess as a warrior, and his soaring oratorical powers — Also known as White Bear, he was the last last, of the Kiowa War Chiefs and well known for both his prowess as a warrior, and soaring oratorical powers.

In October 1867, federal officials had held a summit with Kiowa and Comanche leaders in Barber County, Kansas, resulting in the Medicine Lodge Treaty. For a number of reasons, the treaty was a failure, as were most of the treaties between the whites and the Native Americans. As usual, many Indian bands did not recognize it as valid. Similarly, the federal government was lax about enforcing the treaty once it was signed, allowing white outlaws to prey upon reservation Indians.

The primary reason most of the treaties failed is that neither side fully understood the other’s form of governmental structure, and both expected the other to operate as they did. In the Native American culture, the chief was an elected position, but no one was obligated to do what he said if they disagreed. He did not represent the entire tribe. For the white culture, they expected the chief to represent the whole tribe or the entire collection of tribes. The Native Americans didn’t understand the concept of ownership of the land, so they couldn’t understand the settlers cutting it up to farm. This mutual misunderstanding could only lead to disaster for both sides, but mostly for the Native Americans, as the different tribes seldom fought together, the major exceptions being a little dustup in June of 1876 out in western Montana.

The late 1860s was a time of danger and conflict for everyone, Texan or Indian, as the frontier remained unsafe and unpredictable. The forts were undermanned, making it very difficult to police the serious violations being committed by both sides on the other. For both groups, the situation appeared no different to any significant degree from the way things were long before the war. Unfortunately, for the Indians, things were changing and not in a good way for the Indians. General William T. Sherman, commander of the U.S. Army, and the commander

US General, William Tecumseh Sherman, scourge of Georgia

of U.S. troops in Texas, General Philip H. Sheridan, who were both hardened veterans of some of the worst fighting of the Civil War. Sherman and Sheridan had learned

US General Philip Sheridan, originator of the line, "Thew only good Indian is a dead Indian." — US General Philip Sheridan, originator of the line, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.”

not only to wage war on the battlefield but to break the enemy’s will to resist. To this end, they began a policy of encouraging the slaughter of the southern buffalo herd.

In January, 1869, General Sheridan held a conference with 50 Indian chiefs at Fort Cobb in the so-called Indian Territory (later part of Oklahoma). At that time, Sheridan, who had gained recognition as a Union officer in the Civil War, was in charge of the Dept. of the Missouri. One of his duties was to oversee the Indian Territory, making sure the Indians remained on their reservations and did not har-ass the white settlers. When Comanche chief Toch-a-way was introduced to Sheridan at the conference, the Indian said, “Me Toch-a-way, me good Indian.” Sheridan reportedly smirked and replied, “The only good Indians I ever saw were dead.” Later on, the remark became “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.” This attitude, along with Sherman’s concept of total war, did not bode well for the Indians.

In early May, 1871, a party of more than one hundred Kiowas, Comanches, and others left Fort Sill and crossed into Texas. Led by Satank, Satanta, and Big Tree, they took up positions on the Salt Creek Prairie. A group of heavily armed white soldiers was allowed to pass unmolested; unknown to the Indians, the military escort was for General Sherman, who was conducting an inspection tour of Texas. The next group of whites to pass was a wagon train belonging to a freighting company. The Indians swept down upon the wagons and attacked. They killed the wagon master and seven teamsters and looted the wagons, then returned immediately to the reservation.

When General Sherman heard the news from a teamster who escaped the slaughter, he ordered ruthless reprisals and reversed an earlier prohibition soldiers from Indians on to the reservations. Sherman quickly traveled to Fort Sill, where he personally arrested Satank, Satanta, and Big Tree and ordered them transported back to Texas to be tried for murder. Satank was killed during an escape attempt, but Satanta and Big Tree were put on trial. By early July both had been sentenced to hang.

As a result, hundreds of Indians began leaving the reservation to join their relatives on the Staked Plains. In an effort to avoid mass reprisals and carnage, Governor Edmund J. Davis commuted the sentences to life in prison. The Indians were eventually paroled, but it would be Satanta’s fate to commit suicide in 1878 while serving another prison term at Huntsville prison. The character of Blue Duck in Larry McMurtry’s classic novel Lonesome Dove was partially based on his life. Big Tree was more fortunate. When the Indian Wars came to a close, he counseled his people to accept peace. Big Tree converted to the Baptist faith and lived to age eighty.

The Salt Creek Massacre, also known as the Warren Wagon Train Raid, would have far-reaching consequences for Texas Indians. Because of the raid, General Sherman developed a policy of all-out offensive against the Plains Indians. The next few years would be bloody indeed.

To purchase a signed copy of Larry Auerbach’s novel “The Spirit Of Redd Mountain”, Click Here

Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com

Today In Western History: Custer Leaves Ft. Lincoln For The Last Time

Posted on May 17, 2016May 14, 2016 by larry

May 17, 1876

It is the beginning of an epic failure, as Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and 12 companies of the 7^th Cavalry ride out of Ft. Abraham Lincoln. Traveling with him is his brother Tom Custer, winner of two Medals Of Honor during the War, and his brother-in-law, LT. James ‘Jimmi’ Calhoun. Also tagging along for the fun was Custer’s nephew Boston Custer, serving as a teamster.

Gen. George Armstrong Custer, hero in the Civil War and failure in the Indian Wars

under the command of Gen. Alfred Terry, with the intent of dealing with Indian resistance in western Montana along the Yellowstone Territory.

Major General Alfred H. Terry. He gave Custer the widest latitude in following his orders.

This story needs little explanation to true students of the West. It is a well documented tale of glory hunting, egotistical over-confidence, failure to take due caution and supreme under-estimation of one’s enemy.

Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer was a hero during the Civil War, and the favorite of General Sheridan. He could always be counted on for taking charge of a situation, and he was always at the front of that charge.

US General Phiip "LIttle Phil' Sheridan. He was Custer's biggest supporter. — US General Phiip “LIttle Phil’ Sheridan. He was Custer’s biggest supporter.

Custer was the head of the cavalry group that fought at Yellow Tavern, and brought down Confederate Cavalry General and hero James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart.

James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart, CSA General — James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart, CSA General

Custer didn’t lack for courage, although some called it foolhardiness, and some called it “Custer Luck” that he always came out ahead.

He had been a shining star for the Union during the Civil War, but fighting Indians out on the Plains was a different matter. They didn’t fight like he was used to, they would run off in different directions and wouldn’t fight unless the odds were in their favor. They didn’t wear uniforms and they didn’t fight out in the open. Custer was a bear for discipline, unless it applied to him. He was used to the men under his command following him without serious complaint, but he forgot – or didn’t recognize – that in the war, they were mostly volunteers fighting for a common cause. Out of the plains, they were not volunteers and they did not see the need for such rigorous discipline. And many of them would run off to go gold mining whenever the opportunity arose. This was a much different war, and different soldier, than the one he had just served in and with.

Despite all these problems, and he had several – a much debated fight on the Washita River, leaving a small party of troopers led by Major Joel Elliott behind to be killed by the Sioux,

Major Joel Elliot, 7th Cavalry. He was left behind by Custer.

abandoning his post to ride one hundred miles to be with his wife, Libby – among others, and even a suspension of his rank and duties, but he always seemed to land on his feet. At least, he did until this campaign.

Elizabeth Bacon Custer, she loved him and made his name a legend, then protected it for the rest of her life.

To purchase a signed copy of Larry Auerbach’s novel “The Spirit Of Redd Mountain”, Click Here

Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com

Today In Western History: Francis Parkman Heads West

Posted on May 16, 2016May 14, 2016 by larry

May 16, 1846

Francis Parkman starts on the Oregon Trail and heads west. The Oregon Trail is a legendary large-wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail that ran 2,170 miles from the Missouri River across the country to the green valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail crossed the future state of Kansas, and nearly all of what is now the states of Nebraska and Wyoming. The western half of the trail spanned most of what is now the states of Idaho and Oregon.

The Oregon Trail was a route that was created by the fur trappers and traders who traveled from about 1811 to 1840, and as such it was only passable on foot or by horseback. By 1836 however, when the first migrant wagon train left from Independence, Missouri, a wagon trail had been cleared to Fort Hall, Idaho. Additional wagon trails were added as explorers and westward moving pioneers mad e their way west, and eventually the ended in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. The main route that was used came to be known as the Oregon Trail was complete. The trip gradually made faster and safer as various bridges, cutoffs, ferries, and roads were constructed. Every state along the Mississippi had their own starting points, but they all joined together into one route along the lower Platte River Valley near Fort Kearny, Nebraska Territory and led to rich farmlands west of the Rocky Mountains.

During the years 1830 to 1869, about 400,000 settlers, farmers, miners, ranchers, and businessmen and their families walked and rode the Oregon Trail on their way west to Oregon in search of a better life. As the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, the walking trail became less necessary and fell into disuse. Today, Interstate 80 and Interstate 84 follow parts of the same course westward and pass through towns originally established to serve those using the Oregon Trail. Wagon ruts can still be seen as a reminder of their history.

Francis Parkman Jr., author and agriculturist, he promoted the Oregon Trail

As an American historian, Parkman is best known as author of The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life and monumental seven-volume France and England in North America. These works are still valued as historical sources and as literature. He was also a lead-ing horticulturist, briefly a professor of Horticulture at Harvard University and author of several books on the topic.

In 1846, Parkman traveled west on a hunting expedition, where he spent a number of weeks living with the Sioux tribe during their intro-duction to the perils of contact with the ‘white eyes’. Which included such dangers as epidemic disease and alcoholism – often intentionally inflicted. This exposure to their struggles influenced Parkman to view Native Americans with a much more critical eye which was reflected in his writing about them. Parkman believed that progress required the conquest and displacement of American Indians, what he called a triumph of “civilization” over “savagery”, He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1855.

To purchase a signed copy of Larry Auerbach’s novel “The Spirit Of Redd Mountain”, Click Here

Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com

Today In Western History: Extradition Fails

Posted on May 15, 2016May 11, 2016 by larry

May 15, 1882

Arizona authorities try to extradite a man named John Henry from Denver to question him about a shooting he took part in just eight months ago. The shooting happened just before the end of October, and it was the culmination of a long standing feud between the town marshal, Walter, and his two brothers, Stapp and Seth, both serving as special policemen. The man Arizona authorities wanted to question was the fourth member of this group. On the other side of the feud was Johnny Behan, the sheriff of Chochise County, who was a good

Johnny Behan, Sheriff of Cochise County, the outlaw's best friend — Johnny Behan, Sheriff of Cochise County, the outlaw’s best friend

friend to, and in the pocket of shady ranchers (and local outlaws) Ike Clanton and Billy Clanton, Billy Claiborne, Frank and Tom McLaury, and all of these men had a long history of criminal activities ranging from rustling, robbery and murder.

Isaac "Ike" Clanton, outlaw, "Cowboy" and alcoholic, braggart and coward — Isaac “Ike” Clanton, outlaw, “Cowboy” and alcoholic, braggart and coward

There were some who thought John had even instigated the fight by his arrogance and challenging words before the fight. John did have a long standing history of alcoholism, gambling and violence. He was known to be a very difficult man to get along with when he was sober, and even harder to get along with when he was drinking, which was most of the time.

Because John’s friend didn’t want him getting into any more trouble, John’s friend Stapp called on his friend, William, who was currently serving as chief of police in Trinidad, Colorado, for help. William quickly filed bunco charges against John, which put a hold on Arizona’s efforts to take him back. With an extradition hearing set for May 30, William reached out for help in getting an appoint-ment with Colorado Governor Frederick Walker Pitkin. He contacted E.D. Cowen, capital reporter for the Denver Tribune, who held consider- able political power in Trinidad. Cowen was to write some time later, “He submitted proof of the criminal design upon John’s life. Late as the hour was, I called on Pitkin.” His legal reasoning was that the extradition papers contained faulty legal language, and that there was already a Colorado warrant out for him, including the bunco charge that William had creatively manufactured on demand. Pitkin was persuaded by the evidence presented by William and refused to honor Arizona’s extradition request.

William took John to Pueblo, where he was subsequently released on bond two weeks after his arrest. John and Stapp met briefly during June 1882 for what would be the last time, in Gunnison shortly after John’s release.

Never heard of Walter, Stapp, Seth, John, or William? Sure you have. Virgil WALTER Earp, Wyatt Berry STAPP Earp, Morgan SETH Earp, JOHN Henry “Doc” Holliday, WILLIAM Bartholmew “Bat” Masterson.

John Henry Holliday, dentist, gambler, alcoholic and gunfighter.

To purchase a signed copy of Larry Auerbach’s novel “The Spirit Of Redd Mountain”, Click Here

Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com