This Day…

1902-One hundred and fifty armed men stop fifteen herds of sheep that cross a ‘deadline’ in New Fork country in the Green River Valley, Wyoming. The cattlemen shoot a herdsman, kill 2000 sheep, and scatter others.

1877-Carson Graham was on his way to buy supplies for the Higgins Ranch when he was ambushed and killed by the Horrells outside of Lampasas, Texas. Texas Rangers arrested all of the Horrell Brothers and all of their ranch hands for this murder finnaly ending the bitter feud.

1869-Vigilantes ordered a couple of ruffians, Sam Strawhim and Joe Weiss out of Hays City, Kansas. The two toughs later acosted a vigilante leader, A.B. Webster, in the post office and bullied him and threatened him and when Weiss finally pulled a gun on him Webster fired back. Weiss was killed and Strawhim fled town.

1865-In a romantic duel over the affections of Susanna Moore Wild Bill Hickok shot Dave Tutt through the heart at 75 yards in the town square in Springfield, MO. Tutt fired first and missed.

1901-Fourteen-year-old Willie Nickell was ambused and killed at the front gate of his dad’s ranch. Tom Horn was arrested for that killing, convicted of that crime, and finally hanged for it. But he may have been innocent. Certainly he was guilty of similar crimes though.

1884-Tom Nixon took a pot shot a Mysterious Dave Mather inside the Opera House Bar in Dodge City, Kansas. The shot missed and Tom was arrested and released on $800 bail.

July 16, 1855 The Kansas Legislature moves from Pawnee to Shawnee Mission and authorizes a test oath for future elected officials.

1878-Deputy Long John Long had a warrant to serve on Billy the Kid but when Long John found the kid in San Patricio he was with nine other of McSween’s Regulators. The Regulators killed Long John’s horse, but Long John scampered safely away. Long John Long is the guy who set fire to the McSween house at the end of the siege on July 19th.

1900-After his supper the well known cow thief, Matt Rash, stepped out on the porch of his ranch house on Cold Springs Mountain, CO. Stock detective, Tom Horn, was in hiding nearby and shot Rash three times with a rifle. Rash went back inside and died on his bed while trying to write a note in his own blood.

1863-Port Hudson, Mississippi, the only remaining Confederate fortress on the Mississippi River, falls to Union forces. The Union has split the Confederacy in half, thereby realizing one of it main objectives.

1891-Winfield Scott Stratton, a carpenter who has been prospecting gold in his spare time for 20 years, stakes a claim where he has discovered gold in the Cripple Creek field of the Rockies, south of Denver, Colorado. The claim, which Stratton named Independence, turns out to be a rich vein of gold; soon Stratton is staking out other claims that prove equally valuable. Stratton himself will eventually make millions and become one of the legendary Bonanza Kings of Cripple Creek, where since January 1891-when Bob Wamack struck the El Paso lode, many have taken fortunes from the field.