This Day…

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.

1885-During an attempted arrest bootlegger Ned Christie killed U.S. Marshal Dan Maples near the Tahlequah, OK. Later in the same month Ned shot, at different times, two other deputies who tried to arrest him for killing Maples. Ned built himself a strong fortress and survived many bloody encounters with lawmen over the next eight years.

1895-After the Doolin Gang broke up Charlie Pierce and Bitter Creek George Newcombe stopped by the Dunn Ranch near Cimarron, New Mexico to collect a debt of $900 owed Newcombe by his brother-in-law, Bill Dunn. Instead Dunn shotgunned them both for the reward money. There was $5000 out on Newcombe alone. Newcombe was married to Dunn’s sister, Rosa. She was dubbed “Rose of Cimarron” by the Doolin Gang.

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

1895-The outlaws Black Jack Will Christian and his brother Bob killed Deputy Sheriff Will Turner during an arrest attempt. They were soon arrested by other lawmen but shot their way out of jaul in Oklahoma City on June 30.

General William T Sherman had 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 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.

1874-Jesse James married Zee Mimms and the two started a family 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.