This Day…

1892-After back shooting Jesse James in 1882, Bob Ford became a saloon keeper in Creede, Colorado. Ford was shotgunned by Ed Kelly in a dispute over a missing diamond ring. The shotgun blast drove a collar button through Ford’s throat.

1873-In retaliation for Red Beard’s heavy handed behavior towards them on the 3rd, the soldiers returned in force to the dancehall with their own guns blazing. A sportsman named Charles Leshart and his female companion were both wounded, and Emma was shot again before the soldiers burned the building to the ground and filed away in orderly military fashion.

1873 – Several Cavalrymen had a quarrel with a prostitute name of Emma Stanley at Red Beard’s Dancehall in Delano, Kansas. One of the troopers shot her in the thigh. Red Beard charged into the troopers with guns blazing and wounded two of them.

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.