This Day…

1878-McSween Regulators Frank McNab, Ab Sanders, and Frank Coe were ambushed by a Seven Rivers posse outside of Lincoln, New Mexico.  McNab was killed, Sanders was left to die, and Coe was taken into custody.

1922-The last Broadway stage appearance of the Great Lillian Russell.

1874-Jesse James married Zee Mimms and they had a passel of kids down in Tennessee.  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.

1915-President Wilson announced the selcetion of a route for the projected Alaska Railroad.  Government funds will pay for the railroad from Seward to Fairbanks via the Kenai Peninsula.  Construction is begun in 1915, using the well-worn equipment and rolling stock that has recently built the Panama Canal.  In the summer of 1923, President Harding will tour the completed railroad.

1856-The first bridge across the Mississippi is completed.  It extends from Davenport, Iowa to Rock Island, Illinois, and is open for railroad traffic.

1753-The Governor of French Canada, Marquis Duquesne de Menneville, orders the erection of a series of forts to strengthen the French position in the Ohio territory.  Fort Preque Isle (at present-day Erie), Fort Le Bouef (by portage point on French Creek) and Fort Venango (at the confluence of French Creek and the Allegheny) are built at once.

1808-John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company: he is the only stockholder.

1894-The bitter rivalry between Bud Frazer and his former deputy, Killin’ Jim Miller, boiled over in Pecos, Texas.  Miller got off a shot that wounded a spectactor and Frazer emptied his six shooter into Killin’ Jim’s Chest and walked away from the fight, but Miller survived that shooting by wearing a heavy steel plate under his coat.  Hey, I think I saw this movie!

1882-Nate Champion and Nick Ray were murdered by a hundred or so minions of the Wyoming Stockmens Association at the Kaycee Ranch in Johnson County, Wyoming.  Ray was gunned down at daybreak outside the cabin and heroically pulled to safety by Champion.  Ray soon expired and champion was put under siege inside the cabin.  When the cabin was set afire Champion made a break for it and was shot 28 times.  He left a detailed diary of events up to the fire.

1867-General William T Sherman has devised a plan to drive all of 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.  General Winfield Scott Hancock leads a large cavalry and infantry force across western Kansas.  At Pawnee Fork, his troops capture and burn a Cheyenne village of 250 lodges.  The Indians, fearing another massacre like the one at Sand Creek in 1864, flee before the advancing troops.  In retaliation the Indians halt almost all travel across western Kansas.  Surveying parties for the Kansas Pacific Railroad come under attack, and progress on that line is halted for over a month.