This Day…

1881-Bill Leonard and Harry Head were killed by Ike and Jim Haslett in Eureka, New Mexico.  Leonard and Head were in the gang that tried to rob the Kinnear stage near Contention, Arizona on March 15, 1881.

1858-Commissioners from President Buchanan arrive at Camp Scott in Utah and proceed south to Provo.  They bring a full pardon from the president ‘to all who will submit themselves to the just authority of the federal government.’  The pardon has been signed by the President two months earlier, and the commissioners admonished ‘to bring those misguided people to their senses.’  Only after the pardon is signed is the US Army allowed to march through Salt Lake City-still deserted-into an area soutwest of the city, where they will construct Camp Floyd.

1775-In a meeting in Boonesborough between Henderson and the Cherokees, the Indians formally yield their claim to the land the settlers are occuping through land grants from the Transylvania Company.

1875-The ever fractious Panch Griego killed three cavalrymen in a disput over cards in Lambert’s Saloon in Cimarron, New Mexico.

1887-The Swan Land and Cattle Company of Wyoming, only four years old, declares bankruptcy following the devastating winter of 1886-87.  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 year.  Over this period the number of cattle in Wyoming alone will decline from 9 million head in 1886 to only 3 million by 1895.

1881-in Galeyville, Arizona Jim Wallace got tired of Curly Bill Brocious giving him sass all day and shot him in the neck.  The bullet exited through Curly Bill’s cheek and knocked out several teeth.  It was a serious wound, but Curly Bill survived and left the territory after he recovered.

1895-The outlaw Little Bill Raidler, killed a townsman, Joe Seaborn, during a bank robbery by the Doolin Gang in Southwest City, Missousi.  The same shot hit Joe’s brother, Oscar.

1822-William Becknell leaves from Franklin, Missouri, on what will be his second trip to Santa Fe.  This time he takes 21 men and three wagons.  The expeditions peioneers the Cimarron Cutoff, a shorter but much more hazardous route than the better-watered ‘Mountain Route’ of the Santa Fe Trail.

1881-Texas Rangers Jeff Milton, J.M. Sedberry, and L.B. Wells heard shooting in the Nip and Tuck Saloon in Colorado City, TX.  A scuffle ensued with the troublemaker, W.P. Patterson, and gunplay erupted that resulted in the untimely demise of Mr. Patterson.

1883-Marshall Henry Brown had to shoot a fractious Pawnee named Spotted Horse for causing a disturbance in Morris’ grocery store in Caldwell, Kansas Spotted Horse lived two hours after being shot four times, once in the head.