Journal Notes

From the Midwest Book Review

The American History Shelf

Lone Star Books/TwoDot/Globe Pequot
www.globepequot.com

Two fine history books are recommended picks for history collections. Howard Kazanjian and Chris Enss’ The Trials of Annie Oakley (9781493017461, $24.95) provides a biographical coverage that focuses on the feisty independent woman who advanced the image of women in American history both through her performances in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show and in her advocacy efforts. The latter – which included advocating for the US military and fighting for orphans – may be lesser-known episodes in her life, but here they are brought to the forefront in an account that reads with the lively immediacy of fiction but gathers a range of facts about Oakley’s performances and life. Bill Groneman’s Eyewitness to the Alamo (9781493028429, $18.95) gathers over a hundred descriptions of the Battle of the Alamo by those who were eyewitnesses, and traces the legends, realities and events of one of the most famous battles in American history. Discussions comment on reviews of the Alamo’s struggles and add the social and political background necessary to place these events in proper historical perspective. Both are recommended picks for any American history holding.

TwoDot/Globe Pequot
www.globepequot.com

Sherry Monahan with Jane Perkins’ The Golden Elixir of the West: Whiskey and the Shaping of America (9781493028498, $24.95) could have been featured in our Food and Wine section, but is reviewed here for its larger and central theme on the shaping of the West and how liquor – whiskey, in particular – played a big role in that history. From the evolution of the saloon business in the booming West to how California merchants became big whiskey shippers and how opulence developed in places whiskey was consumed, this provides a lively and thought-provoking story of the history of booze in the west. Sherry Monahan’s Tinsel, Tumbleweeds, and Star-Spangled Celebrations: Holidays on the Western Frontier from New Year’s to Christmas (9781493018024, $24.95) provides a lively history of holidays on the Western frontier and covers everything from traditions surrounding gifts and events to songs, poems, decorations and food and drink recipes. These come from firsthand stories of parties and events culled from journals, memorabilia, and newspaper reports, and covers the six major yearly holidays from New Year’s and Easter to Christmas and home-cooked to restaurant fare. Few books provide such an inviting approach as this; especially given the wealth of vintage illustrations throughout. Charlie Seemann’s Way Out West: Photographs from the Farm Security Administration 1936-1943 (9781493027279, $24.95) provides a lively history of the American ranch in the West, and is a ‘must’ for any Western Americana collection. While vintage black and white images are the backbone of this discussion, equally powerful and hard-hitting are surveys of dude ranches, individuals in the Farm Security Administration, bunkhouses and automobiles, and more. These are all top recommendations for any holding strong in Western Americana and American history.

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The Principles of Posse Management:

Lessons from the Old West for Today’s Leaders.

Sheriff Harry Morse removed a Model 1866 Winchester, carbine rifle from the leather holster on his saddle and cocked it to make sure he had a bullet in the chamber. He surveyed the sprawling canyon deep in the depth of the Panoche Mountain, more than fifty miles outside of Gilroy, California. In the distance below were three, small, adobe houses, and Morse had every reason to suspect members of outlaw Juan Soto’s gang were inside one of the buildings.

High above the sheriff and his eight member posse was a seemingly inexhaustible mat of black, rainless clouds moving steadily across the world. Morse watched the sun disappear behind the billows and exchanged a determined look with Captain Theodore Winchell on horseback next to him. Winchell, an undersheriff from Alameda County, had been riding with Sheriff Morse for several months in search of the fugitive. San Jose sheriff Nick Harris and six other deputies made up the rest of the posse. All the lawmen had years of experience tracking lawbreakers through the northern California terrain. Each was an exceptional shot and could hold his own in hand to hand combat.

Harry Morse had been sheriff of Alameda County for more than nine years. From 1864, when he took the job, to April 1871, when he peered down on the possible hiding place of Juan Soto’s men, Morse had traversed the hills and plains of eastern and northern Alameda County in search of horse thieves, highwaymen, and cutthroats. Until Morse took the job at twenty-eight years of age, most lawmen were afraid to venture too far to catch outlaws. Worried they would be outnumbered the criminals went about their business unconcerned they would ever be apprehended. Sheriff Morse, along with Nick Harris and Theodore Winchell, changed all that.

The officers and their deputies familiarized themselves with the haunts of the outlaws and the topography of the country where the bad guys were known to roam. They learned the locations of ranches, springs, and mountain trails as well as acquainted themselves with the inhabitants and their occupations. They knew where to hide and wait along trails for lawbreakers to pass, and, armed with that knowledge, they knew what to do to avoid an ambush.

Juan Soto, the man Sheriff Morse and his posse were tracking, was a thief and a murderer. He had a reputation as a brutal man who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. Soto mainly operated in the central part of California but, like the other bandits before him, went wherever the possibility of loot beckoned him. For more than four years, the 6’2, two-hundred twenty pound, half-Indian, half-Mexican man had terrorized the area from the Livermore Valley to San Luis Obispo. Soto and his gang of desperadoes robbed stages, stage stops, lone emigrants, and prospectors. Their victims were often beaten or killed. Soto’s dark features and general express of animal ferocity earned him the name “the human wildcat.” He had black, slightly crossed eyes, a mane of black hair, and a bushy beard and mustache. The April 10, 1871, edition of the San Francisco Chronicle described his appearance as the “physical manifestation of as cruel a spirit as ever animated a human being.”

To learn more about the great posses of the frontier read

The Principles of Posse Management:

Lessons from Old West for Today’s Leaders.

Enter to win a copy of

The Principles of Posse Management:

Lessons from the Old West for Today’s Leaders.

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.

To learn more about the great posses of the frontier read

The Principles of Posse Management:

Lessons from Old West for Today’s Leaders.

Enter now to win a copy of

The Principles of Posse Management:

Lessons from the Old West for Today’s Leaders.

“Chris Enss’s engaging new book, The Principles of Posse Management, takes you back in time to the Old West, where with incredible detail and fun anecdotes, she reveals many universal leadership tools that were surprisingly effective in keeping order at such a lawless time.  Subsequently, many of these same tools are needed today within our own corporate climate.  Read this fascinating books and reconnect with these powerful principles from the past.”

Sean Covey, executive vice president, Global Solutions and Partnerships, Franklin Covey.

“Posses were created very strategically to catch the outlaws that sure had a ‘never give up’ way of life.  I was fascinated by the stories of bravery that built our Western lifestyle.”

Lisa Bollin, CEO and director of design, Cowgirl Tuff Company

So many of us are quick to anger and quick to speak, or these days, quick to email and text. Our hair-trigger society has a fuse shorter than the attention span of Bo Radley. People are furious and instead of getting to the heart of what they’re most angry about they lash out in areas that have nothing to do with the reason for their fury. I’m guilty of that myself. For years the Federal Bureau of Prisons stood by and watched as my brother was beaten and raped and suffered with Parkinson’s disease. The more I tried to stop the madness the worse his treatment grew. I wanted to give back to the prison officials all they did to my brother, but it wasn’t possible or logical. Instead, on one particular occasion, I took my frustrations out on the woman paying in pennies at, of all places, Penneys. My response was over the top and I still feel horrible about making the comments I did. Quick to anger, quick with the snide one-liners. Years of dealing with hecklers in the audience while doing standup comedy helped sharpen the tongue.

Anger and intolerance leads people to do strange things: go to war, burn books, riot at soccer games, and eschew lactose, and there’s never any logical reason for any of these actions. Most arguments made by intolerant or angry people who can’t rightly channel their rage have all the consistency of space-shuttle Thanksgiving gravy. Why can’t anyone just shut up and listen anymore? Whatever happened to the genteel art of sitting back and letting someone go on and on thinking he’s right while you while you bask in the knowledge that he is completely full of crap?

Tolerance doesn’t mean you agree with everything other people say, or that you subordinate your best instincts to the tyranny of mass opinion. It simply means you pretend not to know that everyone on the planet but you is a total moron. The most unforgivable thing about intolerance is that, by its inherent assumption that one group, belief, profession, or lifestyle is superior to another, it fails to take into account the ultimate truth that binds us all. The fact that, at the end of the day, we are all equal pains in the behind in the eyes of the Lord.

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The Principles of Posse Management:

Lessons from the Old West for Today’s Leaders.

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.

To learn more about the great posses of the frontier read

The Principles of Posse Management:

Lessons from Old West for Today’s Leaders.

Enter to win a copy of

The Principles of Posse Management:

Lessons from the Old West for Today’s Leaders.

In nearly every Western film prior to 1950, you’ll find a sheriff hastily assembling a group of men to track down an outlaw or two. Area ranchers, or whoever was in the saloon after a shooting in the middle of the street, were quickly deputized. The posse would then mount their horses and take off in search of the bad guys. No one asked if the posse members could shoot straight—if they had their own guns and ammunition, or if they’d had experience hunting fugitives. How long they could stay in the saddle. How long they could be away from their homes, farms, or businesses. It would appear all that was needed was a collection of outraged citizens. Exactly what went into forming an effective posse was much more refined than motion pictures presented.

The original term for posse was posse comitatus, taken from the Latin, meaning the “force of the country.” Any law officer could order anyone to help him “keep the peace” or to chase and arrest a felon. People who wouldn’t help do that were fined. The history of sheriffs forming posses began in Anglo-Saxon England. The word sheriff is a combination of the Anglo-Saxon words for “shire” (what today we call a “county”) and “reeve” (meaning “guardian”). Those who guarded English counties were responsible for organizing communal defense.

According to David Kopel, a law professor from Denver University, the office of sheriff in England was declining by the time the American colonies were being settled. The office had resurgence in popularity once the colonies were solidified. It was decided then that the law enforcement agent would be elected to the position by popular vote. “The Americans also strongly reaffirmed the traditional common law understanding of the sheriff ’s powers and authorities, especially the sheriff ’s autonomy and independence,” Professor Kopel noted in a Washington Post article from May 15, 2014. “During the latter nineteenth century, elections and other common law principles were often formally constitutional zed in the new states. Legally speaking, the Office of Sheriff in most states has changed little since the nineteenth century.”

To learn more about the great posses of the frontier read

The Principles of Posse Management:

Lessons from Old West for Today’s Leaders.

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The Principles of Posse Management:

Lessons from the Wild West

Pat Garrett and Wyatt Earp, management experts? Solid management skills were necessary to quickly organize a group of law enforcement officers in order to keep the peace and pursue and arrest felons.

The actual work of transforming the frontier into farms and cities was carried on by the stream of settlers, but working with, or sometimes ahead of them, were the business people who directed the conquest of the wilderness and law enforcement officials like Garret and Earp who helped protect their interests.

While businessmen laid out town sites and planned cities, started industries, and developed mines, often times their efforts were thwarted by criminal elements who kept the materials and funds from their appointed destination. Posses were formed, and, directed by lawmen made sure fleeing desperados were brought to justice. In the process, civility was brought to the lawless territory as well.

Using the examples set by those who helped bring order to the chaotic western frontier, The Principles of Posse Management offers pointers on how any to start up a focused team and run it smoothly and efficiently to completion of a task.

The Principles of Posse Management: Lessons from the Wild West