This Day…

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.

1882-In a bloody shootout at Chandler’s milk farm near Gleeson, Arizona a posse led by Billy Breakenridge killed Billy Grounds, and Zwing Hunt was shot up and captured.  One of the possemen was killed, two others were wounded.

1862 – Rebels suffer defeat at the First Battle of Kernstown.

1889-After providing for final Indian claims, Congress authorizes transfer of the Unassigned Lands in Indian Territory to the public domain.

1884-King Fisher and Ben Thompson were drunk and full of fun at the Variety Theatre in San Antonio, Texas when they were both playfully gunned down by friends of a man that Thompson had killed there two years previously.