This Day…

1885 – During an attempted arrest bootlegger Ned Christie killed U.S. Marshal, Dan Maples near Tahlequah, Oklahoma.  Later in the same month Ned Shot, at different times, two other deputies who tried to arrest him for killing Maples.  Ned built himself a strong fortress and survived many bloody encounters with lawmen over the next eight years.

1874 – Jesse James married Zee Mimms and they had a passel of kids down in Tennesse.  Jesse became a devout Christian, but he was still a thief and a ruthless killer and had no intention of ever supporting his family in an honest fashion.

1887 – The Swan Land and Cattle Company of Wyoming, only four years old, declares bankruptcy following the devastating winter of 1886-1887.  The demise of the huge livestock corporation is symbolic of the Depression that will grip the cattle industry on the Great Plains during the next 10 years.  Over this period the number of cattle in Wyoming alone will decline from 9 million head in 1886 to only 3 million by 1895.

1867 – General William T. Sherman devised a plan to drive all the Plains Indians either north of the Platte or south of the Arkansas River, leaving a broad belt of territory for the transcontinental railroad and the Kansas Pacific Railroad.

1839 – Thirteen men, led by Thomas J. Farnham, leave Peoria, Illinois, and make their way to the Willamette Valley in Oregon with a train of pack horses.

1878-The Sam Bass Gang got itself shot up by citizens in an attempted train robbery in Mesquite, Texas.  The wounded train robbers were driven out of town empty handed.

1892-Nate Champion and Nick Ray were murdered by a hundred or so minions of the Wyoming Stockmen’s Association at the Kaycee Ranch in Johnson County.

1760 – Fort Loudoun on the Little Tennessee River surrenders to Indian attackers after a bitter siege.  Many survivors are cut down by Indians as they flee from Loudoun to Fort Prince Georgia.

1882-Bob Ford, that dirty little coward, killed Jesse James with a gunshot to the back of the head.  Right afterwards he scampered down to the telegraph office to claim the reward offered by Governor Crittenden.

1867 – In the Alaska Purchase Treaty, concluded by American Secretary of State William H. Seward and Russian Minister to the United States Edouord de Stoeckl, Russia transfers Alaska to the United States for $7,200,000.  However, some unhappy Congressmen with references to ‘Seward’s Folly,’ voice opposition to the treaty and its ratification is delayed.  The House of Representatives must approve the appropriation to conclude the treaty.