Journal Notes

Giveaway! Enter to win a copy of The Lady Was a Gambler:

True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

“Man is a gaming animal. He must always be trying to get the better in something or other.” Charles Lamb, 1823

The New World gambling parlor in Marysville, California, in 1851 was filled with prospectors and sojourners eager to lay their money down on a game of chance. Patrons could choose from a variety of amusements, including roulette, dice, faro, and poker.

An elaborate bar lined an entire wall and brass mountings accentuated the gleaming countertops of the grand and ornate saloon. Imposing mirrors clung to all sides of the enormous entryway, and paintings of nude women relaxed in prostrate beauty loomed over the patrons from the walls above.

Madame Belle Ryan, a voluptuous creature with dark hair, hazel eyes, and a fair complexion, sauntered down the stairs surveying the guests who had gathered. Men scrambled for a place at the tables, their gold dust and gold nuggets exchanged for the chips they tossed onto the green felt-bets for the lucky cards in their hands.

 To learn more about Madame Belle Ryan and other lady card players read

The Lady Was a Gambler: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

Giveaway! Enter to win a copy of The Lady Was a Gambler:

True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

“Spirits of the good, the fair and the beautiful, guard us through the dreamy hours. Kinder ones, but, perhaps less dutiful, keep the places that once were ours.” Poetic editorial in memory of the slain Kitty LeRoy from the Black Hills Daily Times – 1883

A grim-faced bartender led a pair of sheriff’s deputies up the stairs of Deadwood’s Lone Star Saloon to the two lifeless bodies sprawled on the floor. One of the deceased individuals was a gambler named Kitty LeRoy and the other was her estranged husband, Sam Curley.

The quiet expression on Kitty’s face gave no indication that her death had been a violent one. She was lying on her back with her eyes closed and, if not for the bullet hole in her chest, would simply had looked as though she were sleeping. Sam’s dead form was a mass of blood and broken tissue. He was lying face first on the floor, and pieces of his skull protruded from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. In his right hand he still held the pistol that brought about the tragic scene.

For those townspeople who knew the flamboyant twenty-eight-year-old Kitty LeRoy, her violent demise did not come as a surprise. She was a voluptuous beauty who used her remarkable good looks to take advantage of infatuated men who believed her charm and talent surpassed any they’d ever known.

To learn more about Kitty LeRoy and other lady card players read

The Lady Was a Gambler: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

Giveaway! Enter to win a copy of The Lady Was a Gambler:

True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

“In one corner, a coarse-looking female might preside over a roulette-table, and, perhaps, in the central and crowded part of the room a Spanish or Mexican woman would be sitting at Monte, with a cigarette in her lips, which she replaced every few moments by a fresh one.” Author, lecturer, and feminist Eliza Farnham – 1854

Blood spattered across the front of the dark-eyed, brunette gambler Belle Siddon’s dress as she peered into the open wound of a bandit stretched out in front of her. Biting down hard on a rag, the man winced in pain as she gently probed his abdomen with a wire loop. Pausing a moment, she mopped up a stream of blood inching its way across the crude wooden table where he was lying. Two men on either side of the injured patient struggled to keep his arms and legs still as the stern-faced Belle then plunged the loop back into his entrails. “How do you know about gunshots?” one of the rough looking assistants asked. “My late husband was a doctor and I worked with him,” Belle replied. “Is he going to die?” the other man inquired. “Not if I can help it,” Belle said as she removed the wire loop.

To learn more about Belle Siddons and other lady card players read

The Lady Was a Gambler: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

Giveaway! Enter to win a copy of The Lady Was a Gambler:

True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

“Luck never gives; it only lends.” Anonymous

A tall, hump-shouldered man with gray, bushy hair and a hangdog look on his long, lumpy face pulled a stack of chips from the middle of the poker table toward him. Minnie Smith, the gambler who had dealt the winning hand, scowled at the player as he collected his earnings. “You’re sure packin’ a heavy load of luck, friend,” Minnie said in a low, clipped tone. “Luck had nothing to do with it,” the man replied. “You may be right at that,” Minnie snapped back. She pushed back from the table a bit and eyed the bullwhip curled in her lap. The man gave her a sly grin. “You’re not sore about losing?” he asked. “No,” Minnie responded calmly. “I get mighty sore about cheating though.”

A tense silence filled the air as Minnie and the gambler stared each other down. In the split second it took the man to jump up and reach for his gun. Minnie had snapped her whip and disarmed him. In the process of having the weapon jerked out of his hand, a breastplate holdout that had been tucked inside his jacket sleeve dropped onto the floor.

To learn more about Minnie Smith and other lady card players read

The Lady Was a Gambler: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

Giveaway! Enter to win a copy of The Lady Was a Gambler:

True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

Myra Maybelle Shirley also known as Belle Starr

“Shed not for her the bitter tear, nor give the heart in vain regret. Tis but the casket that lies here, the gem that filled it sparkles yet.” Inscription on Belle Starr’s tombstone, 1889

Belle Starr checked to make sure the pair of six-guns she was carrying was loaded before she proceeded across a dusty road toward a saloon just outside of Fort Dodge, Kansas. When she reached the tavern she peered over the top of the swinging doors of the establishment and carefully studied the room and its seedy inhabitants. Her thin face with his hawk-like nose was illuminated by a kerosene lantern hanging by the entrance.

She stepped inside the long, narrow, dimly lit room and slowly made her way to the gambling tables in the back. A battery of eyes turned to watch her walk by. Four men engrossed in a game of five-card draw barely noticed the woman approaching them. A tall man with an air of foreign gentility sat at the head of the table with his back to Belle, dealing cards. She removed one of the guns from her dress pocket and rested the barrel of the weapon on the gambler’s cheek.

To learn more about Belle Starr and other lady card players read

The Lady Was a Gambler: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

Giveaway!  Enter to win a copy of The Lady Was a Gambler:

True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

Alice Ivers studying a winning hand

“It was the damnest faro game I ever saw.  The game see-sawed back and forth with Alice always picking up the edge; a few times it terminated only long enough for the player to eat a sandwich and wash it down with boiler maker.”  Gambler Marion Speer’s comments on the faro game between Alice Ivers and Jack Hardesty, 1872.

A steady stream of miners, ranchers, and cowhands filtered in and out of the Number 10 Saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota.  An inexperienced musician playing an out-of-tune accordion squeezed out a familiar melody while ushering the pleasure seekers inside.  Burlap curtains were pulled over the dusty windows, and fans that hung down from the ceiling turned lazily.

A distressed mahogany bar stood along one wall of the business, and behind it was a surly looking bartender.  He was splashing amber liquid into glasses as fast as he could.  A row of tables and chairs occupied the area opposite the bar.  Every seat was filled with a card player.  Among the male gamblers was one woman.  Everyone called her Poker Alice.  She was an alarming beauty, fair-skinned and slim.  She had one eye on the cards she was dealing and another on the men seated at a game two tables down.

To learn more about Poker Alice and other lady gamblers of the Old West enter to win a copy of

The Lady Was A Gambler:  True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

Western Writers of America to Meet in Sacramento

California’s Gold Rush Country beckons anyone who writes about the American West and early frontier to attend the annual Western Writers of America Convention in Sacramento, California, June 24-28. During the week the association will pay tribute to the Spur Award winners and recognize the literary contributions of Robert J. Conley.

History presentations will deal with the Pony Express, the California Trail, the Modoc War, and Gold Rush entertainers. Other sessions will take place related to writing biography, fiction and screenplays, about book marketing, and research sources and techniques.

A special feature of this year’s convention is a keynote address by Liping Zhu – “Chinese Inclusion in Telling Western Stories.”

This address will remind writers that since the mid-19^th Century, Chinese immigrants have been a favored topic in American literature from dime novels to movie scripts. Despite such a passion for the subject, most authors and writers often treat Chinese immigrants as an exotic foreign element that occupies a peripheral position in the mainstream American culture.

Giving a sweeping overview of Chinese experiences in the 19^th Century American West, professor Zhu’s talk will highlight a number of important contributions made by Chinese to the “conquest” of the American frontier. Drawn from his personal research and scholarship, much of the information in this presentation will be new to the general public. Not only will these historical facts offer people a fresh picture of the history of Chinese immigrants, but they’ll also help to expel some popular myths about this ethnic group. Meanwhile, Zhu will provide a few inspirational thoughts about how to truly include Chinese into Western stories.

Born in Shanghai, China, Liping Zhu received a doctorate in Western history from the University of New Mexico in 1994. Specializing in the history of Chinese immigrants in 19^th Century American West, professor Zhu teaches history at Eastern Washington University. His works include A Chinaman’s Chance: The Chinese on the Rocky Mountain Mining Frontier (1997), Ethnic Oasis: The Chinese in the Black Hills (2004), and The Road to Chinese Exclusion: the Denver Riot, 1880 Election, and Rise of the West (2013). He is working on a biography of Anson Burlingame.

This year’s convention also has two tour opportunities. The first is an early-bird tour on Tuesday, June 24 to the California State Capitol and to the California State History Museum with its extensive exhibits related to California Indians. This tour is limited to the first 45 people who sign up. The second tour is a visit to Old Sacramento with its many museums and shops. Following lunch at the Delta King, a retired paddleboat, tour participants will spend the afternoon exploring Old Sac.

Approximately 70 authors will take part in a WWA book signing to be held at Barnes & Noble, Citrus Heights, Saturday afternoon, 2-4 p.m., June 28. The Spur Awards will be presented that evening with a special presentation by Jim Beaver and hosting by Clu Gulagher, both known for their Western film roles.

Gulagher played Billy the Kid in the TV series The Tall Man and Emmett Ryker on The Virginian. His film credits include The Killers, The Last Picture Show, and McQ.

Beaver is an actor, playwright and film historian who wrote James Garfield: His Life and Films. Best known as Ellsworth on HBO’s Emmy-winning series Deadwood and as Bobby Singer on Supernatural, he has appeared in nearly 40 motion pictures.

The convention will take place at the Doubletree Hotel, 2001 Point West Way, in Sacramento. Please call the hotel directly to reserve your room, 800-222-TREE, and make sure to mention Western Writers of America for the conference rate of $85. The cutoff date for reservations is June 13, so plan accordingly.

Registration forms and a schedule of events are available at www.westernwriters.org, or email wwa.moulton@gmail.com.

Enter to win a copy of

With Great Hope:  Women of the California Gold Rush

“Good society was what she missed most. She was not unhappy at all in the hardships; she could take those. She rode across Mexico on a mule…” Author Wallace Stegner

Rain dripped steadily from the bare trees outside the dark parlor. The bride stood at the top of the stairs, a red rose sent from her best friend pinned inside her dress. Unveiled, she started down the stairs to the man who waited to marry her.

She had resisted his courtship and insisted that marriage did not fit her plans. The young engineer standing at the foot of the staircase had made his own plans. He arrived out of the wild West with a “now or never” declaration. He had taken off his large hooded overcoat, placed his pipe and pistol on the bureau in the room that had belonged to the bride’s grandmother, and the quiet force of his intent carried the day.

The bride well knew that the Quaker marriage ceremony puts the responsibility for making the vows directly on those who must keep them. She descended the stairs, catching sight of her parents, a handful of other family members, her best friend’s husband, and the man she had finally agreed to marry.

Mary Hallock gripped the arm of Arthur De Wint Foote and stepped up in front of the assembly of Friends, as the Quakers called themselves, to speak those irrevocable vows. She was twenty-nine, with an established career as an illustrator for the best magazines of the day. She had carefully considered what she would give up by taking this step. Arthur was a mining engineer, and his work was in the West. She was an artist, and all her contacts were in Boston and New York. She faced forward with a mixture of anxiety and joy.

To learn what became of Mary after she married Arthur Foote read

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush

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With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush

Pioneer Nancy Kelsey

“We followed the Indian, and he led us along shelves of rock high in the Sierras, which overhang vast precipices. We all went on foot, leading our animals. Once, I remember, when I was struggling along trying to keep my horse from going over, I looked back and saw Missus Ben Kelsey a little way behind me, with her child in her arms, barefooted, I think, and leading a horse…a sight I shall never forget.”  Nicholas Dawson Bidwell-Bartleson Party, 1841

Nancy Kelsey stood on the porch of her rustic home in Jackson County, Missouri, watching her husband load their belongings onto a covered wagon. Soon, the young couple and their one-year-old daughter would be on the way to California. She hated leaving her family behind and she knew the trip west would be difficult, but she believed she could “better endure the hardships of the journey than the anxieties for an absent husband.”

Nancy was born in Barren County, Kentucky, in 1823. She married Benjamin L. Kelsey when she was fifteen. She had fallen in love with his restless, adventurous spirit, and from the day the two exchanged vows she could not imagine her life without him. At the age of seventeen, Nancy agreed to follow Benjamin to a strange new land rumored to be a place where a “poor man could prosper.”

To learn about the Nancy Kelsey’s harrowing trip to the Gold Country read

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush

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With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush

Dr. Nellie Pooler Chapman

My chair is a barrel cut in this wise, with a stick with headrest attached. The lower half of the barrel stuffed firmly with pine needles and covered with a strong potato sack over which I had an elegant cover of striped calico.” J. Foster Flagg Forty-Niner, Dentist.

A groan issued from the adjoining room. Drying her hands on a linen towel, the dentist drew in a deep breath and prepared herself for her patient. Smoothing the apron that covered her diminutive form, Nellie Pooler Chapman walked briskly toward the tray of tools and the lanky miner who waited, hand to jaw in a futile attempt to ease the pain.

With her husband Allen gone to the silver mines in Nevada, Nellie was fully prepared to handle the family dental practice. After all, she’d started learning dentistry immediately after her marriage at the age of fourteen.

Nellie Elizabeth Pooler was born in Norridgewock, Maine, on May 9, 1847. She was married to Dr. Allen Chapman, a bearded dentist of thirty-five, on March 24, 1861. The wedding took place in the home of John and Abigail Williams. This home was called “The Red Castle” because it was made of brick and decorated with white, icicle type wooden trim. Today it is a bed and breakfast inn and is still called the Red Castle.

To learn more about Nellie Pooler Chapman and dental practices

in the mid-1800s, read

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.