Journal Notes

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Five riders moved swiftly across the open country through Granite Pass in southwest New Mexico.  An electrical storm lit up the sky around them, and a deluge of hail broke free from the clouds, pelting the men in their saddles and their horses.  Sounding like a troop of demons advancing, the wind howled and screamed as it pushed over the massive walls of rock the riders passed.

Former peace officer Jefferson Davis Milton rode in front of the others.  He was a tall man with sloping shoulders, his granite like visage partly hidden by a dark mustache that curled around to meet his thick sideburns.  George W. Scarborough, a blue-eyed, gruff-looking, one time law man from El Paso, Texas, took a position on Jeff’s left.  Eugene Thacker, a youthful son of a railroad detective, rode on Jeff’s right side.  Directly behind the three were Bill Martin and Thomas Bennett, Diamond A ranch cowboys turned bounty hunters.  The men pulled their slickers around their necks and urged their mounts on through the tempest.  Claps of thunder ushered in another downpour of hail.

The determined riders, members of a posse pursuing a gang of train robbing outlaws, were soaked to the bone once they reached Fort Apache, a military post near Coolidge Lake.  No one said a word as they made camp outside the garrison’s gates.  Discussing the obstacles on the way to achieving that goal wasn’t necessary.  Their focus was on capturing Bronco Bill Walters and his boys.

William E. Walters, also known as Bronco Bill Walters, was from Fort Sill, Oklahoma.  What he did before being hired at the Diamond A ranch in 1899 is anyone’s guess.  It’s what he did after getting a job as a cowhand that warranted attention.  The Diamond A was a five hundred square mile spread nestled in the boot heel of New Mexico.  The magnificent acres of grass there made it the perfect spot for raising cattle.  The ranch was always in need of workers.  Cowpunchers that dropped by looking for employment were generally hired on the spot.  It was considered a rude violation of the proprieties of a cow camp to inquire into a man’s connections or character.  Just wanting to work was enough.  Bronco Bill Walters wanted to work, and that’s all that mattered and all the foreman at the Diamond A would have cared about if Bronco Bill hadn’t have desired more than the job had to offer.

During long, dull evenings around the campfire, Bronco Bill contemplated a life that was exciting and profitable.  He thought about robbing a stage or a train.  He imagined how he would tackle such a daring feat and rehearsed a getaway.  After a while, it wasn’t enough only to imagine such actions.  Bronco Bill left the Diamond A ranch in the fall of 1890 in search of excitement and money.

To learn more about Bronco Bill and the posse after him read

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Dora Hand was in a deep sleep. Her bare legs were draped across the thick blankets covering her delicate form, and a mass of long, auburn hair stretched over the pillow under her head and dangled off the top of a flimsy mattress. Her breathing was slow and effortless. A framed, graphite-charcoal portrait of an elderly couple hung above the bed on faded, satin-ribbon wallpaper and kept company with her slumber.

The air outside the window was still and cold. The distant sound of voices, backslapping laughter, profanity, and a piano’s tinny, repetitious melody wafted down Dodge City’s main thoroughfare and snuck into the small room where Dora was sleeping.

Dodge was an all-night town. Walkers and loungers kept the streets and saloons busy. Residents learned to sleep through the giggling, growling, and gunplay of the cowboy consumers and their paramours for hire. Dora was accustomed to the nightly frivolity and clatter. Her dreams were seldom disturbed by the commotion.

All at once the hard thud of a pair of bullets charging through the door and wall of the tiny room cut through the routine noises of the cattle town with uneven, gusty violence. The first bullet was halted by the dense plaster partition leading into the bed chambers. The second struck Dora on the right side under her arm.  There was no time for her to object to the injury, no moment for her to cry out or recoil in pain. The slug killed her instantly.

In the near distance, a horse squealed, and its galloping hooves echoed off the dusty street and faded away.

A pool of blood poured out of Dora’s fatal wound, turning the white sheets she rested on to crimson. A clock sitting on a nightstand next to the lifeless body ticked on steadily and mercilessly. It was 4:15 in the morning on October 4, 1878, and for the moment nothing but the persistent moonlight filtering into the scene through a closed window marked the thirty-four-year-old woman’s passing.

Twenty-four hours prior to Dora’s being gunned down in her sleep, she had been on stage at the Alhambra Saloon and Gambling House. She was a stunning woman whose wholesome voice and exquisite features had charmed audiences from Abilene to Austin. She regaled love-starved wranglers and rough riders at stage and railroad stops with her heartfelt rendition of the popular ballads “Blessed Be the Ties That Bind” and “Because I Love You So.”

Adoring fans referred to her as the “nightingale of the frontier,” and admirers continually competed for her attention. More times than not, pistols were used to settle arguments about who would be escorting Dora back to her place at the end of the evening. Local newspapers claimed her talent and beauty “caused more gunfights than any other woman in all the West.”

Dora arrived in Dodge City in June of 1878.  Several of the city’s residents who knew the songstress was on her way were eagerly anticipating her arrival.  Among them was the mayor of Dodge City, James Kelley.  Mayor Kelley had made Dora’s acquaintance at Camp Supply.  He was smitten with her, and the pair became romantically involved shortly after she stepped off the stage in Dodge.

James “Spike” Kenedy, the handsome, overly indulged son of Texas cattle baron Mifflin Kenedy, was annoyed that Dora was spending time with the mayor.  He hoped to make her his own.  James was a tall man with a strong build and he was accustomed to getting his own way.  He wore tailor-made clothes and carried himself with confidence derived mostly from his family’s sizeable bank account and land holdings.  In September 1878, James strutted into the Alhambra Saloon and Gambling House with the intention of proposing to Dora.  He hoped they’d marry quickly, and then he would escort her back to the family ranch.  It didn’t enter his mind that Dora would reject his offer of marriage in favor of a relationship with the mayor.  He was furious when she told him, and his hatred of Mayor Kelley and Dora grew from that day forward.

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Divide and Conquer

Posse leaders after the first outlaw gang to rob a train determined early on that the best way to capture the bandits was to employ an age-old plan of attack.  Deputy U. S. Marshal Hixon decided to gain an advantage over the desperados by divided the posse in two.  The lawmen were able to overtake several of the bandits in Ingalls, Oklahoma.

Inspire Trust

The first job of a leader is to inspire trust.  Deputy U. S. Marshal Bill Tilghman inspired trust in politicians and law enforcement agents throughout the Oklahoma territory.  Lawman Bat Masterson called him the “best of us all.”  It was only natural Tilghman would be called on to help capture the Doolin-Dalton gang.  Tilghman knew trust was the single most essential element to the ability to deliver extraordinary results in an enduring way.  To assist him in tracking the notorious train robbers, Tilghman called on two men he trusted with his life, Heck Thomas and Chris Madsen.  These men became legendary in their pursuit for outlaws.

Be steadfast and relentless.

Marshal Tilghman and his posse were driven to succeed.  The Doolin-Dalton gang eluded them for a while, but the lawmen were single-minded in their pursuit.  Action combined with commitment results in success.  In the case of the Doolin-Dalton gang it resulted in criminals’ deaths.

Know when to ignore public perception

The Doolin-Dalton gang’s reputation for being able to evade the law was well documented and many doubted the outlaws would ever be apprehended.  If the posse after the gang had believed what the newspapers reported as a “futile endeavor” the lawmen would never have begun the search for them.  The posse never entertained the idea that tracking the lawbreakers was folly because in their minds there was no other option beyond getting the bad guys.  If they path the posse followed wasn’t successful it didn’t mean it was time to give up.  It just meant it was time to shift tactics.

Be willing to accept advice.

Bill Doolin had been hiding out in New Mexico for weeks and the posse after the outlaw was unable to locate him.  One of the posse members reminded Officer Heck Thomas that Doolin was hopelessly in love with his wife and child and would eventually come out of hiding to try and get to his family.  It was suggested that the posse travel to Oklahoma where Doolin’s wife lived and wait for the desperado to appear.  The advice paid off.  Doolin did return home and the posse was waiting for him.

To learn more about the posse after the Doolin-Dalton Gang read

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One of the grizzliest battles between outlaws and lawmen took place on September 3, 1893, twelve miles east of Stillwater, Oklahoma, at the town of Ingalls.  More than ten people who were situated on the eastern edge of Payne County only a few miles from the rocky retreats and nearly inaccessible wooded areas of Creek County were killed.   For some time it had been the spot where a gang of bandits, murderers, train robbers, and horse thieves known as the Doolin-Dalton Gang had made their headquarters.

The two-hundred-fifty people that resided in Ingalls had decided it was better business and safer to accept the outlaws who had overtaken the town than to fight them.  In return for not robbing local merchants, outlaws could get drunk in an Ingalls’ saloon without having to shoot their way out, and they could rent a bed in Mary Pierce’s hotel (with or without a girl in it) and not have to worry about waking up with a sheriff’s gun in their chests.

The Doolin-Dalton Gang was the last great bandits of the old West.  Bill Doolin and William Dalton worked to together at the HX-Bar Ranch in Oklahoma Territory.  In 1891, they decided life as ranch hands was too sedate and traded in their legitimate jobs to rob trains and banks.  Federal marshals began pursuing the gang in October 1892, after the daring outlaws attempted a double band holdup in Coffeyville, Kansas.  The gang was comprised of more than eight men.  In addition to the Dalton boys and Bill Doolin, there were also George Newcomb, alias Bitter Creek, Tom Jones, also known as Roy Daugherty, William “Texas Jack” Blake, and Dan Clifton, alias Dynamite Dick.

It wasn’t until after the Doolin-Dalton Gang held up two trains in the Cherokee Outlet at Wharton in Oklahoma that law enforcement learned the outlaws were hiding in caves outside Ingalls, Oklahoma, and as an extension, Ingalls itself.  Deputy U. S. Marshal John Hixon rode toward Ingalls on Thursday, August 31, 1892.  Among the fourteen members of the posse with him were marshals L. J. Shadley, T. J. Houston, Dick Speed, and Jim Masterson.  They had received information that the gang was rendezvousing at the hotel at nine in the morning.  The posse decided to separate and make their way into Ingalls from different directions.  They would surround the town and move in to capture the outlaws on Friday, September 1, 1892.

The Pierce Hotel was a two-story structure that possessed an almost unobstructed view of the entire town.  A woman named Anderson, commonly reported to be George Newcomb’s girlfriend, was at the hotel when the posse began approaching Ingalls from the north, northwest, and northeast.  While on the balcony surveying the sights, Newcomb’s paramour saw something suspicious moving in the middle distance.  Other gang sympathizers noticed the activity, too, and reported to Bill Doolin.  An alarm warning the outlaws that the law was closing in sounded throughout the burg.

Four of the five bandits hurried across the street to Ransom’s Saloon where a fifth bandit was waiting, prepared to open fire on the posse fast approaching.  Tom Jones stayed behind at the hotel in an upstairs room ready to cover his colleagues when and if they retreated.  Tom had no sooner loaded his gun and aimed out the window than the lawmen opened fire on the outlaws in the saloon.  The desperadoes returned fire.  Bullets pierced buildings and shattered glass.

To learn more about the Doolin-Dalton Gang read

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 Surround yourself with 10s. 

Deputy Sheriff Bob Paul of Calaveras County recruited the finest six-gun and rifle shots and trackers in the region to be a part of the posse that tracked down Tom Bell.  He found experts in areas needed to get the job done and didn’t feel threatened by them.

Walk in someone else’s shoes.

Various members of the posse disguised themselves as outlaws and saloon patrons in order to collect information needed to apprehend criminals.  Instead of figuratively walking in someone else’s shoes, the posse made it experiential.  By doing this they were in a better position to propose solutions to potential problems and learned how to best achieve their objective.

Learn to give up trying to control everything. 

The leaders of the three posses after Tom Bell were comfortable with letting the men riding with them take on extra responsibility.  They recognized that being good at their job meant listening to those around them.  Officer George Walker listened to posse members Detectives Robert Harrison and Daniel Gay after they captured one of Bell’s gang members.  They wanted to persuade the desperado to act as a mole to help guide the other outlaws into a trap.

Read everything you can about your business.

Captain William King poured over newspapers to find out what the press was reporting about the posses progress.  While reading one of the area newspapers he happened onto a note written to him from the outlaw.  The fugitive’s rant against the lawman paved the way for the posse to ferret the bandit out of hiding.

Wait.  Patience increases your capacity for success.

A hard-earned discipline for every man with the posse after Tom Bell was patience.  Officer Robert Price exercised patience while scanning the banks of the San Joaquin River and the result was spotting the outlaw as he was trying to find a spot to cross the water.  If the lawman had allowed himself to be pressured into generating results he would have missed seeing the bandit out right.

To learn more about the business management skills used by the most successful Old West posses read Principles of Posse Management

 “Come Down Ma Evenin’ Star”–Lillian Russell (1912)

Added to the National Registry: 2019

Essay for the Library of Congress by Chris Enss 

When actors and Broadway producers Joe Weber and Lew Fields debuted their burlesque show “Twirly Whirly” in the fall of 1902, New York critics unanimously panned the production. An article in the September 12, 1902, edition of the “St. Louis Post” noted that “in the opinion of the theatrical reviewers at large, the piece itself showed how little real wit it takes to amuse the public.”

The only bright spot in the program was a ragtime song sung by the celebrated actress and singer Lillian Russell. According to the December 19, 1902, edition of the “Kansas City Daily Gazette,” “L. Russell’s stunning beauty and glorious delivery of a brilliant piece entitled ‘Come Down Ma Evenin’ Star’ was the one and only highlight in ‘Twirly Whirly.’” Written by composer and conductor John Stromberg, the sentimental ballad would become stage queen Lillian Russell’s signature tune.

Stromberg was a well-respected songwriter who had created several popular works for Weber and Fields’ productions. Born in Canada in 1853, Stromberg often collaborated on his songs with lyricist Edgar Smith. Although Stromberg penned “Come Down Ma Evenin’ Star” specifically for Lillian, he resisted handing the song over to her because he didn’t believe it was good enough. He had promised to write Lillian the “prettiest song she ever sang” and was consumed with doubt over the finished product.

In early July 1902, John Stromberg was found dead at his home in Freeport, New York. The official cause of death was ruled as paralysis of the heart, following a long attack of rheumatism. Friends and colleagues knew the exceptional agony Stromberg suffered as a result of his rheumatism and were saddened to learn the real reason he had died was because he’d taken a fatal dose of insecticide to stop the pain once and for all.

When Stromberg’s body was discovered, the sheet music for “Come Down Ma Evenin’ Star” was found in the pocket of the suit he was wearing.

Lillian Russell was the theater’s leading musical comedy prima donna in the 1890s. She had played in many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and had received tremendous acclaim both abroad and in America. Her beauty and voice had drawn innumerable admirers who showered her with jewels. Although she thought Stromberg was an exceptional talent, she worried her fans would not be pleased with her singing a ballad. The song “Come Down Ma Evenin’ Star” would be a significant change in her style.

When the curtain rose on “Twirly Whirly” and Lillian took her place center stage, the audience erupted with applause before she even uttered a note. When the excitement died down, she sang “Come Down Ma Evenin’ Star” with the feeling of an opera aria, displaying deep and personal emotion to the public before her. At the conclusion of the song, the audience cheered and clapped approvingly. Lillian’s anxieties were at last relieved. A review of her performance in the mid-September edition of the “Daily Mirror” reported that “Miss Russell made a decided hit with ‘Come Down Ma Evenin’ Star.’”

Lillian would sing Stromberg’s final song often in her future years. She noted in her memoirs that each time she sang the song she would see John in his last, painful hours finishing the manuscript just for her. “I always thought of Honey Stromberg whenever I sang that song,” she wrote. “And, strange to say, no one ever sang it in public but me.”

In a final tribute to Stromberg, Weber and Fields, led by Lillian, staged a benefit for Stromberg’s widow. It netted more than $6,000.

In 1912, Lillian recorded her rendition of “Come Down Ma Evenin’ Star.” It was the only recording she ever made.

Visit https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/descriptions-and-essays to hear Lillian Russell sing Come Down Ma Evenin’ Star.

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A pair of tired, dust-covered detectives escorted outlaw Tom Bell to a noose dangling off a limb of a sycamore tree.  No one spoke a word as the rope was slipped around his thick neck.  More than fifteen lawmen from Sacramento, Marysville, and Nevada City, California, made up the posse that apprehended Bell at his hideout at Firebaugh’s Ferry near the San Joaquin River.  The ruthless highwayman and his gang had eluded the law for more than a year.  Bell’s reign of terror would end here – a mere four hours after he was captured on Saturday, October 4, 1856.

Bell held in his hand a pair of letters his executioners allowed him to write before they administered justice.  Outside of the firm grip he had on his correspondence he didn’t show the least bit of fear.  Judge Joseph Belt, the self-appointed hangman and head of the posse, sauntered over to Bell and looked him in the eye.  “Do you have anything to say for yourself?” he asked.

“I have no revelations to make,” Bell replied.  “I would be grateful, however,” he added, “to drink to the health of this party present and hope that no personal prejudice has induced them to execute me.”  Judge Belt nodded to one of his men who stepped forward with a bottle of whiskey and offered it to Bell.

Bell lifted the bottle to the men and thanked them for their thoughtfulness.  “I have no bitterness toward anyone of you,” he said.  He took a drink and handed the bottle back to the lawman.  “If you let me now…before I go.  I’d like to read aloud the letter I wrote to my mother.”  Judge Belt scanned the faces of his men; no one seemed to have any objections.  “Go on,” Belt told the bandit.  Tom unfolded one of the letters in his hand and began reading.

“Dear Mother, I am about to make my exit to another country.  I take this opportunity to write you a few lines.  Probably you may never hear from me again.  If not, I hope we may meet where parting is no prodigal career in the country.  I have always recollected your fond admonitions, and if I had lived up to them I would not have been in my present position; but dear mother, though my fate has been a cruel one, yet I have no one to blame but myself.

“Give my respects to all old and youthful friends.  Tell them to beware of bad associations, and never to enter into any gambling saloons, for that has been my ruin.  If my old grandmother is living, remember me to her.  With these remarks, I bid you farewell forever.  Your only boy, Tom.”

Bell refolded his letter and bowed his head in prayer.  Two lawmen stepped forward, took the letters from him, and tied his hands behind his back.  Tom lifted his head and nodded to Judge Belt.  His horse was whipped from under him, and he swung into space.  Judge Belt’s posse was one of three notable posses assembled between March 1856 and October 1856 to track down Tom Bell and his gang of highwaymen terrorizing settlers in the Gold Country.

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Lessons from the Old West for Today’s Leaders.

Identify your objective and carefully consider how you want to hit your target.

Allan Pinkerton was able to track the bandits responsible for robbing the Adams Express Company only after he was given a full description of the Reno gang members.  That basic information led the posse to the outlaw’s hiding place where they could put together a plan to apprehend the bad guys and retrieve the stolen money.

Go the extra mile. 

When the Pinkerton posse kidnapped the leader of the Reno gang they were employing extreme measures to ensure the desperados faced justice.  That daring action proved to be positive for the detective agency because businesses could see the Pinkertons offered exceptional service.  Allan Pinkerton and his men were hired to solve several other robberies after brining in the Reno gang.

Never under estimate the powers of observation. 

If the posse wasn’t paying close attention to the coming and goings of various townspeople in Council Bluffs, Iowa, they would have missed the strange behavior of a citizen who eventually led them to the spot where the Reno gang was hiding.

Embrace the benefits of cross training.

Posse members took on a variety jobs in an effort to achieve their objective.  Some worked as bartenders, others as railroad employees.  They gained valuable knowledge about the offenders they were after that helped define the best way to apprehend the Renos.

Follow a job to the end.

You haven’t failed until you quit trying.  The Pinkerton posse never abandoned their quest to arrest the Reno gang even when the outlaws fled to Canada.  The bandits thought they were safe in another country, but Pinkerton acquired the necessary legal documents to have them extradited.

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Newspaper readers from Hartford, Connecticut, to Portland, Oregon, were shocked to read about the bold and daring robbery of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad on October 6, 1866.  It was the first robbery of its kind.  Banks and stage lines had been robbed before, but no one had perpetrated such a crime on a railroad.  According to the October 20, 1866, edition of the Altoona Tribune, three masked bandits entered the car stopped at a station near Seymour, Indiana, with the idea of taking money from the Adams Express safe.  They entered the car from the front platform, leveled their revolvers at the head of the guard on duty, and demanded he hand over the keys to the safe.  He did so with no argument.

While one of the bandits stood guard, the others opened and removed the contents of one of the three safes which included more than $20,000 in cash.  When the job was done, the desperadoes moved one of the safes to the door of the car, opened it, and tossed the box out.  The heavy safe hit the ground hard, rolled, and came to a stop.  One of the masked men pulled on the bell cord, and, as the engineer replied with the signal to apply the brakes, the robbers jumped out the train and made their escape.

The engineer saw the bandits leap off the train and speculated they were headed in the direction of Seymour.  The train slowed to a stop and one of the agents for the Adams Express Company who was on the train hopped off and ran back to the station with the news of the robbery.  He commandeered a handcar and recruited a few men to help him collect any evidence left behind by the thieves.  On the agent’s way back to the train, he found the safe tossed from the car.  The $15,000 inside had not been touched.

The Adams Express Company offered a $5,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the robbers.  A witness aboard the train the evening it was robbed told authorities he recognized the desperadoes who stole the money as the Reno brothers, John and Simeon, and one of their friends, Frank Sparks.  Citizens and detectives alike began a vigorous search, but the brothers proved impossible to locate.

Unbeknownst to the Reno boys and the gang of outlaws with whom they associated, the Pinkerton Detective Agency had been hired to protect all Adams and Express Company shipments.  Armed with the descriptions provided by the witness, Allan Pinkerton, head of the investigation firm, set out to find the culprits.  Pinkerton traced the Renos to Seymour, a lawless community where rustlers, bandits, and cutthroats from all over the area gathered.

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Three dozen fresh-faced young men jockeyed for position behind a row of windows on a train leaving Poughkeepsie, New York, bound for Camp Mills on Long Island.  The new Army recruits waved goodbye to those on the railroad platform; they wore happy expressions and cheered as the car lurched forward.  The men were excited and blissfully naïve about the journey ahead of them.  Family and friends on the platform offered last-minute farewells as the train slowly began to move ahead.  Some people cried as the vehicle left the station, and they blew kisses to the courageous souls who had answered the call to serve their country when America announced it would join Britain, France, and Russia to fight in World War I.

The United States entered the war on April 6, 1917, and by the end of that same month thousands of men had eagerly flooded recruited stations, enlisted in the Army and Navy, and promised to defend the nation in time of peril.

On July 6, 1917, newspapers and unofficial dispatches from Canadian army headquarters in Europe documented when America went into battle for the first time during the World War.  A young Texan who had traveled to Ontario to enlist had the honor of being the first to carry the American flag in the European war.  He was carrying the official Stars and Stripes on his bayonet when he was wounded and subsequently transported to a medical unit.

According to the July 20, 1917, edition of the Democrat and Chronicle News the Texan’s brave action prompted even more patriotic men to join a branch of the service.  Men did not have a moratorium on devotion to country.  Women also wanted to do their part.  Annie Oakley was among them.  From the time the Spanish-America War began in 1898, Annie had desired to recruit and train women to be expert shots and fight for the United States.  She offered her unique services to President William McKinley in a letter dated April 5, 1898.

Dear Sir,

I for one feel confident that your good judgement will carry America safely through without war.  But in case of such an event I am ready to place a company of fifty lady sharp shooters at your disposal.  Every one of them will be an American and as they will furnish their own arms and ammunition there will be little if any expense to the government.

Very Truly,

Annie Oakley

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