This Day…

1864-Congress creates the Territory of Montana from Idaho Territory. Thousands of miners have swarmed into the area during the past year, creating population centers at Bannack, Virginia City, and Helena. The new territory adopts a seal depicting a miner’s pick and shovel and a farmer’s plow against a mountain background.

1844-American expansionism is formally expressed as the Democratic platform of presdential candidate James K Polk. The platform stresses ‘reannexation’ of Texas and ‘reoccupation’ of Oregon. The slogan ‘Fifty-four Forty or Fight’ asserts the US right to the land that will become the State of Washington. That land, north of Oregon, is at present occupied by the British by mutual agreement.

1875-the ever fractious Panch Griego killed three cavalrymen in a dispute over cards in Lambert’s Saloon in Cimarron, New Mexico.
1893-after robbing a train near Cimarron, New Mexico on the 24th the Bill Doolin Gang was ambushed by a posse while crossing the river back into Oklahoma. U.S. Marshal Chris Madsen hit Doolin in the foot but the outlaws escaped.

1885-Led by Geronimo, Nana, and Mangas, more than 100 Apache Indians flee their reservation at San Carlos in Arizona territory and head for Mexico. A wave of panic siezed the area, as newspaper editorials and citizens call for dispatch of thousands of federal troops.

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

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

1878-McSween’s regulators shot up a cow camp and stole some horses killing one man and wounding two others.
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.

1785-Congress passed the Land Ordinance of 1785, which provides that the northwestern territories be surveyed and divided into six-mile-square townships, each divided into 36 lots of 640 acres. This is a great improvements over earlier, more haphazard systems, which allowed for endless border disputes.

1895-The territory of Utah submits a new constitution to the US Congress in its sixth attempt to gain statehood. This one differs in that it oulaws polygamy and prohibits control of the state government by any church. It also includes suffreage for women.

1881-the horse thief, Bob Edwards, was hot in the head and killed while resisting arrest by Lincoln County Deputy Tip McKinney near Rattlesnake Springs, New Mexico.