Shull said that Hickok killed McCanles in "self-defense". ), 18721886. "[3] In 1861, after growing a mustache following the McCanles incident, he began calling himself Wild Bill. The old woman had tears in her eyes, recalling the incident, even after all the passing years. After taking a trip to St. Louis, James ended up in Leavenworth Kansas. [38], In July 1869, Hickok returned to Hays and was elected city marshal of Hays and sheriff of Ellis County, Kansas, in a special election held on August 23, 1869. Eventually, some of the more aggressive followers formed into groups. BORN NEW MONTHLY No. In 1867, his fame increased from an interview by Henry Morton Stanley. There were also women in the house, conceivably armed with shotguns. Hickok's encounter in Abilene with outlaw John Wesley Hardin resulted in the latter fleeing the town after Hickok managed to disarm him. James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837 - August 2, 1876), better known as " Wild Bill " Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West known for his life on the frontier as a soldier, scout, lawman, cattle rustler, gunslinger, gambler, showman, and actor, and for his involvement in many famous gunfights. According to Joseph G. Rosa, a Hickok biographer, the shot that felled the elder McCanles came from inside the house. [59], The next day, Hickok was playing poker again. Of all the weapons listed, Hickok's clear favorite was indeed the Colt Navy. According to their account, the shootout took place not inside the Wellmans cabin but inside the Rock Creek station itself, and Hickoks defense was far from single-handed. t" it Springfield is nor Which i" it by 20t.T Illustration of James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok, Harpers New Monthly Magazine February 1867 This is the first known time he was referred to as "William". "Wild Bill and the Timber Thieves. As the scene unfolded, McCanles entered the station, and, from behind the curtain that divided it in two, either Hickok or Wellman shot McCanles. [74] He wore his revolvers butt-forward in a belt or sash (when wearing city clothes or buckskins, respectively), and seldom used holsters; he drew the pistols using a "reverse", "twist", or cavalry draw, as would a cavalryman. [52], In 1876, Hickok was diagnosed by a doctor in Kansas City, Missouri, with glaucoma and ophthalmia. [9], Shortly before his death, Hickock wrote a letter to his new wife, which read in part, "Agnes Darling, if such should be we never meet again, while firing my last shot, I will gently breathe the name of my wifeAgnesand with wishes even for my enemies I will make the plunge and try to swim to the other shore. FOX Business 'Legends & Lies' recounts the life of American old west James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok, an unruly lawman and gunslinger.#FoxBusiness #FoxSubscr. "Doc" Howard, who had known Hickok, stated that Hickok had left Buffalo Bill's Wild West Exhibition "because the lights affected his eyes, so he had to give it up". The Hickok genealogy : descendants of William Hickocks of Farmington, Connecticut, with ancestry of Charles Nelson Hickok by Hickok, Charles Nelson, 1879-1945 Publication date 1938 Topics Hickcox family Publisher Rutland, Vt. : The Tuttle publishing company, inc. Collection ", This page was last edited on 14 April 2023, at 10:52. It is a loose adaptation of Hickok's life, ending with his famous aces-and-eights card hand. He joined a Quaker group that was involved in the business of assisting escaped slaves. His work included identifying and counting the number of troops in uniform who were drinking while on duty, verifying hotel liquor licenses, and tracking down individuals who owed money to the cash-strapped Union Army. A man named Samuel Strawhun, a well known Hays city ruffian, decided to "clean out" one of the local saloons. After a tour of the East with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show(1872 to 1873), he went to Deadwood, South Dakota where he was murdered by Jack McCall while playing cards at the #10 Saloon. Calamity Jane is reputed to have led a mob that threatened McCall with lynching, but at the time of Hickok's death, Jane was actually being held by military authorities. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. The new trial was held in Yankton, the capital of the Dakota Territory. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Also, Hickok had only recently married, and by all accounts he was completely taken by his wife. [9][41], The second killed by Hickok was Samuel Strawhun, a cowboy, who was causing a disturbance in a saloon at 1:00 am on September 27, when Hickok and Lanihan went to the scene. This gave all the advantage to the buffalo. A month or so later, he left their honeymoon in Cincinnati for the goldfields of the Black Hills in the Dakota Territory, where he hoped to make enough money to send for her. Hickok's brother, Lorenzo Butler, traveled from Illinois to attend the retrial. The incident was precipitated by a dispute over a gambling debt incurred at a local saloon. Agnes Thatcher Lake was a truly remarkable woman. Hickok refused, as he had an "a memorandum" proving it to be for $25. [47] Potato Creek Johnny, a local Deadwood celebrity from the late 1800s and early 1900s, is also buried next to Wild Bill. Hickok was reported to be an inveterate hater of Indians, but it is difficult to separate fact from fiction. A second son, named Lorenzo Butler Hickok, was born in October of 1831 but died soon thereafter. Hickok came to the West as a stagecoach driver, then became a lawman in the frontier territories of Kansas and Nebraska. On Sept. 6, 1941 the U.S. Dept. A vile a character as I ever met for some cause Wild Bill incurred Coes hatred and he vowed to secure the death of the Marshall. He claimed he was avenging Hickok's earlier slaying of his brother, which may have been true; a man named Lew McCall had indeed been killed by an unknown lawman in Abilene, Kansas, but whether or not the two McCall men were related is unknown. [50] The two entrepreneurs had painted a picture of a bull with a large erect penis on the side of their establishment as an advertisement. McCall alleged that John Varnes, a Deadwood gambler, had paid him to murder Wild Bill. In 1641 he married Elizabeth Cole who was born abt. [i][68], Jack McCall was hanged on March 1, 1877, and buried in a Roman Catholic cemetery. Marjorie "Betty Crocker" Child, "Wild Bill" Hickok, John Bartlett, Johnny Carson, George Mortimer . Tall, he was over six feet, splendidly built, and his face as handsome as his form, with strong clear-cut features and keen dark blue eyes, long drooping mustache and hair curling upon his shoulders". The incident helped contribute to the overall failure of the show. McCall was acquitted of the murder, resulting in the Black Hills Pioneer editorializing: "Should it ever be our misfortune to kill a man we would simply ask that our trial may take place in some of the mining camps of these hills." The bully frightened his friend and James, always a defender of the weak, promptly picked the bully up and then threw him into the water. The 10th Regiment arrived at Fort Lyon in Colorado in October and remained there for the rest of 1868. Hickok interrupted him and then proceeded to tell the entire mob what he thought of them, and it wasn't complimentary. "Dead man's hand"Owing to the number of poker players who died during disputes, Dead man's hand was already established poker idiom for a number of a different hands long before Hickok died. They quickly and quietly left town. Despite his reputation,[70] Hickok was buried in the Ingelside Cemetery, Deadwood's original graveyard. Hickok then tried acting in Wild West shows, which were growing in popularity. Their quick-draw duel was recorded as the first of its kind. Most famous for being the. [citation needed], From 1871 until his death in 1876, Hickok had vision problems. After the war he became deputy United States Marshal at Fort Riley (1866), Marshal of Hays, Kansas (1869), and Marshal of Abilene (1871). Marshal Smith was struck with an ax and almost decapitated while attempting to enforce the law at a local rancher's home. [64], Hickok was playing five-card stud or five-card draw when he was shot. City councilmen instructed Hickok to close down the various houses of "ill repute", and some of the gambling houses. Jane had died on the 1st of August 1903, but they changed it to August 2nd 1903 to correspond to the anniversary of Hickok's death. When the Civil War began, Hickok joined the Union forces and served in the west, mostly in Kansas and Missouri. The gun once . Tutt then demanded another $35 owed from a previous card game. Corrections? Hickok encouraged McCall to quit the game until he could cover his losses and offered to give him money for breakfast. Still, there . Hickok had been called a "terror to evildoers" by a reporter of the Junction City Union newspaper. Politics Astrological Sign:. It is likely that Hickok was already acting sheriff when elected as a newspaper reported him arresting offenders on 18 August and the commander of Fort Hays praised Hickok for his work in apprehending deserters in a letter he wrote to the Assistant Adjutant General on 21 August. [32] There is another account of the Coe shootout. Barnum, and a man called Colonel Sidney Barnett of the Niagara Falls area of New York state. It is well known that Hickok got on very well with children. Fiction later typified this kind of gunfight, but Hickok's is in fact the first one on record that fits the portrayal. Finally, her "friends" decided to also change the date of her death. Writing in 1911, he detailed his admiration of Hickok and included a paragraph on the shooting that differs considerably from the accepted account. A collection of fifty-six letters from the family of James Butler ("Wild Bill") Hickok. First, Hickok was an experienced gunfighter and the trick was old and well known at the time. . As the rider approached, she recognized the lone rider. This story is considered to be apocryphal or at the very least an exaggeration, as Hardin claimed this at a time when Hickok couldn't defend himself. After the war, he served as marshall in several rough frontier towns, and as a cavalryman in the "Indian Wars." Bill Lake was shot to death in 1869, but Agnes continued with the traveling show. After Hickok was cleared of wrong doing the incident passed into history, but not out of controversy. [40]:196, In September 1869, his first month as sheriff, Hickok killed two men. The letters describe the adventures of the Hickok children (including Wild Bill) in California, Kansas, Missouri and elsewhere, and their parents and family in Troy Grove, Illinois. Furk Mus2017. Tilghman would later become a famous western Marshal himself. This, in turn, was destroyed by souvenir hunters and replaced in 1902 by a life-sized sandstone sculpture of Hickok. (#13189) She seems to have had a passion for male clothing, and frequently dressed as a man. Jack McCall walked to within a few feet of Wild Bill and then suddenly drew a pistol and shouted, Take that! before firing. Wild Bill Hickok's Smith & Wesson Model No. According to the story, Hickok placed himself between the crowd and their intended victim. After the fact, there was much speculation as to whether romantic rivalry had had a role in the incident: Hickok was apparently involved with a woman who had also been involved with the married McCanles. Legend has it that Hickok had lost his stake and had just borrowed $50 from the house to continue playing. [15] He grew a moustache following the McCanles incident, and in 1861 began calling himself "Wild Bill".[16][17]. No unfair advantage taken by either party. In 1864 Hickok and the other detectives had not been paid for some time, and Hickok either resigned or was reassigned as he was hired as a scout by General John B. Sanborn at five dollars a day plus a horse and equipment. [10], Hickok 1869. Apparently, a local bartender had bested a group of local toughs in a fight. 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