This Day…

1888-A posse led by Heck Thomas trailed a gang of train robbers to an illegal still on Snake Creek in the Indian Territory. Moonshiner, Aaron Purdy, opened fire and hit Thomas twice before being gunned down by the other deputies. The train robbers surrendered.

1894-Eugene Debs, who had established his American Railway Union on 20 June 1893, calls for a general strike by all railway workers to show sympathy with the striking Pullman workers.

1892-New Mexico, still a territory, openes its university; Congerss will later grant over 300,000 acres to support the school.

1880-Feared ex-Marshal George Flatt was on a Saturday night toot in Caldwell, Kansas and got into a bit of trouble with new Marshal Frank Hunt. Flatt was later ambushed and killed on his way to eat supper and witnesses identifited hunt fleeing the scene.

1881-Bill Leonard and Harry Head were killed by Ike and Jim Haslett in Eureka, New Mexico. Leonard and Head were in the gang that tried to robe the Kennear Stage near Contention, Arizona on March 15, 1881.

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.