This Day…

1897-Respected lawman Les Dow was reading a letter in front of the post office in Carlsbad, NM when Dave Kemp stepped up and shot him in the face.  He died the next morning.

This Day…

1802 – Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, proposes that an allotment be made from the sales of public lands for the construction of roads from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ohio River.

This Day…

1886 – The California orange groves send the first trainload of fruit to Eastern markets – the beginning of Western ‘agri-business.’

This Day…

1888 – The famous Western painter and illustrator, Frederic Remington, first gains public recognition with publication of his drawings in a book by Theodore Roosevelt, Ranch Life and Hunting Trails.

This Day…

1901 – In Utah, Joseph Fielding Smith is elected president of the Mormons.  The Wyoming state legislature passes an anti-gambling law that will become effective in 1902.

This Day…

1850-The Illinois Central Railroad is chartered with a grant of 2.7 million acres of land from Cairo to Galena, by Governor August C. French.

This Day…

Thousands of Oklahomans illegally occupy sections of the so-called Cherokee Strip, land set aside for Indians, after a rumor circulates that the area is open for settlement.

This Day…

1890-Heck Thomas tried to arrest Jim July, a robber and bail skipper.  July resisted arrest and was killed in the ensuing gunplay.