On This Day in the Old West: November 8

 In this election week, it’s appropriate to look at the election of two US presidents: Abraham Lincoln and Grover Cleveland. November 8, 1864 marked Lincoln’s re-election for a second term, while November 8, 1892 saw Cleveland elected.

The 1864 US Presidential Election was the twentieth quadrennial presidential election and noteworthy for even occurring during the midst of the Civil War. Incumbent president Abraham Lincoln of the National Union Party easily defeated Democratic nominee George B. McClellan by a wide margin of 212 to 21 in the electoral college, with 55% of the popular vote. War Democrat Andrew Johnson of Tennessee was selected as Lincoln’s running mate.

The Democratic party was divided between the Copperheads, who favored immediate peace with the Confederacy, and the War Democrats who supported the war. McClellan, a War Democrat, was nominated by the party, along with running mate George H. Pendleton. The Democrats adopted a platform advocating peace with the Confederacy (which McClellan rejected, although Pendleton had actually written the platform). While the Confederacy seemed it would survive in the summer of 1864, it was visibly collapsing by election day.

Despite his early fears, Lincoln won strong majorities in the popular and electoral vote, “partly as a result of the recent Union victory at the Battle of Atlanta.” Lincoln’s re-election ensured he would preside over a successful conclusion of the Civil War. It also made him the first president since Andrew Jackson in 1832 to win re-election, as well as the first Northern president to ever win re-election.

The 1892 US Presidential Election was the 27^th quadrennial presidential election. In the fourth rematch in American history, former president Grover Cleveland defeated the Republican incumbent President Benjamin Harrison. Cleveland’s victory made him the first president in American history to be elected to a non-consecutive second term. This was also the first of two occasions where an incumbent was defeated in consecutive elections. To date, it is the only election in which both major party nominees had served as president (discounting Roosevelt’s Progressive candidacy in 1912).

This election also marked the first time a Republican candidate lost re-election, and Harrison’s loss was the second time an elected president lost the popular vote (the first was John Quincy Adams in the 1820s). Cleveland also defeated David B. Hill and Horace Boies on the first presidential ballot of the Democratic National Convention of 1892, making him both the first presidential candidate and the first Democrat to win his party’s presidential nomination in three elections.

A new party, the Populist Party, elected James B. Weaver of Iowa as their candidate. Cleveland swept the Solid South, and won several key swing states, “taking a majority of the electoral vote and a plurality of the electoral vote.” Weaver won 8.6% of the popular vote and managed to win over several Western states, while Harrison swept the Northern states. After this, the Democrats did not win another presidential election until 1912.

Depending on when your characters were alive, they’d have followed either of these elections with some interest, as each marked important milestones in the American election process. These elections would give an author many interesting background facts to include in a novel, assuming the dates matched up with the story.

 

J.E.S. Hays
www.jeshays.com
www.facebook.com/JESHaysBooks

Sgt. J. W. Peterson - 2nd Colorado Cavalry

Post (C) Doris McCraw

aka Angela Raines

GAR Section of Evergreen Cemetery, 
Colorado Springs, CO. 
Image (C) Doris McCraw

John W. Peterson enlisted in Denver, Colorado, Colorado Territory, as a private on September 1, 1863. He mustered out of Company E of the 3rd Infantry to transfer to Company M of the Colorado Cavalry as a Seargent on October 1, 1863, when that unit was organized. 

Various companies of the 2nd Cavalry served in Missouri, the District of the Frontier, and New Mexico. They were the first to leave the territory to serve on the Union side of the conflict. The history is varied and a bit hard to follow. For those who would like to know more you can find the information U. S., Amerian Civil War Regiments, 1861-1865.

His personal life is a bit of a mystery, for there was also another John Peterson in Colorado Springs at the same time. Trying to decipher who is who has been more time-consuming than expected. So far, any records that match show he never married. Hopefully, time will bring more of Sgt. Peterson's life to the forefront. So far the John Peterson, born around 1835 in Illinois shows the most promise.

We do know he died on April 9, 1904, and is buried in the GAR section of Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs.

For more on the Civil War Veterans and Veteran's Wives in this series:

Martha Douglass - Prairie Rose Publications

William T. Douglass - Western Fictioneers

Private John H. Long - Western Fictioneers

Isabella Long - Prairie Rose Publications 

Until Next Time: Stay safe, Stay happy, and Stay healthy. 

Doris

On This Day in the Old West October 11

 On October 11, 1811, engineer and inventor Colonel John Stevens, began operating the first steam-powered ferry, taking passengers between New York City and Hoboken. The boat was named after Stevens’ daughter and was christened the Juliana. 

Colonel Stevens earned his military rank as New Jersey’s treasurer during the American Revolution, collecting funds for colonial forces. His wealthy family already had their own barge for Hudson River crossings to their Manhattan church, but Stevens grew weary and frustrated at its lack of speed. In 1788, while out riding, he saw John Fitch’s experimental steamboat on the Delaware River, followed the boat to its dock, and thoroughly investigated the new technology.

Stevens conducted his own steamboat experiments. He corresponded with Fitch and with James Rumsey, both of whom had been experimenting with steam power for boats. In 1789, Stevens applied (unsuccessfully) for exclusive rights to operate steamboats in the state of New York. In 1790, he persuaded Congress to pass the first American patent law and on August 26, 1791, he received one of the first patents for an application of steam power.

Colonel John’s obsession with steam was reportedly a trial for friends and family—including his wife, who legend has it awakened one night to find her husband tracing a mechanical design between her shoulder blades when he could not locate any paper in the bedroom. But his experimental boats pioneered steam navigation in the United States, and they attracted significant attention. 

In 1798, Stevens presented the Polacca, a steamboat that ran from Belleville, New Jersey, to New York City. Speed estimates ranged between 3 and 5.5 miles per hour. The experimental craft was driven by a wheel in the stern. Though the Polacca demonstrated the possibility of steam propulsion, its piping and seams were broken open from the vibration of the engine and it was not yet a practical means of transportation.

In 1804, Colonel Stevens’ sons Richard (then 17) and John assisted their father in creating the first boat propelled by twin screw propellers. The Little Juliana, a 32-foot boat with a boiler designed by Stevens, successfully navigated the Hudson River and amazed onlookers. However, screw propulsion would require high pressure steam to be efficient, and engineering methods of the day were not advanced enough to successfully craft high pressure boilers.

In 1805 Colonel John received a British patent for a new kind of boiler for steam engines. Unlike earlier models that contained one large tube for heating water, John’s design heated water in multiple smaller tubes. It was more expensive to produce than earlier models but was significantly more efficient.

The Stevenses built two more experimental steamboats in 1806 and 1807. The first, the Phoenix, would enter history as the first steam-powered vessel to complete an ocean voyage, and the first commercially successful steamboat built entirely in America. It would also launch a dispute with Robert Fulton and the Livingston family.

Robert R. Livingston, Colonel John’s brother-in-law, had worked with Stevens on his early steamboat experiments but had left for France on government business in 1801. There he met Robert Fulton, who was also interested in steamboats. Livingston gave financial and technical aid to Fulton, but more importantly he had legal knowledge and influence in New York politics. In 1798 Livingston had obtained a monopoly of the right to navigate steamboats in New York after his own experiments, a monopoly that he would soon exercise in partnership with Fulton.

Meanwhile the Stevens family continued their engineering work, and the Phoenix was launched in the spring of 1808. Propelled by paddlewheels on its sides, the Phoenix averaged over five miles per hour. Its 100-foot hull was designed by Robert Stevens, then twenty years old. The Phoenix was the first successful steamship to be entirely American in origin. 

“In the first decade of the 1800s, large-scale transportation infrastructure, including major roads, was typically built by private partnerships who would then operate under grants of monopoly from state governments. Steamboat service to New York, despite the Stevens’ protests, would operate on the same principle.” And the monopoly went to Fulton and Livingston. Colonel Stevens tried his best to either ignore or outmaneuver this monopoly, including using the Phoenix to set up a passenger route from New York to New Jersey.. On September 11, 1811, a pier lease from the City of New York allowed the Stevens family to launch their steam-ferry service from Hoboken to Manhattan. This was shut down by pressure from Livingston in 1813, but the Juliana had made history.

(The Fulton-Livingston monopoly finally ended when it was declared unconstitutional in the landmark 1824 Supreme Court decision Gibbons v. Ogden. After this, states could no longer grant monopolies to steamship companies and the ports became free for competition.)

Your characters may have ridden in a steamship, especially later in the 1800s. They may even have recognized the name of Fulton in that sense. They probabably woud not have known Colonel John Stevens and his steam-ferry, but isn’t his story a stereotypical American one?

J.E.S. Hays

www.jeshays.com

www.facebook.com/JESHaysBooks 

Western Movie Taglines Blog Series – October Movie Taglines #movietaglines #westernmovies

 

My 2024 blogging series, Western Movie Taglines, began in January when I explained what a tagline is and gave examples of good non-western movie taglines followed by several disappointing taglines from western movies.

 In February, I shared 15 western movie taglines that were clever or witty, real groaners, or just plain silly. March through September, I will share 10 movie taglines each month. October through December will be the Top 40 Countdown of Best Western Movie Taglines.

January Movie Taglines

February Movie Taglines

March Movie Taglines

April Movie Taglines

May Movie Taglines

June Movie Taglines

July Movie Taglines

August Movie Taglines

September Movie Taglines

 

The Top 40 Western Movie Taglines begins:

 40 – Last of the Dogmen (1995)

 Two people. One mystery…hidden for a hundred years.

 ****

 A people lost in time. An adventure they will never forget.

39 – The Beguiled (1971)

 his love…or his life…

38 – Hidalgo (2004)

It will take you on the ride of your life.

37 – The Jack Bull (1999)

All men want justice. Few are willing to pay the price.

36 – The Man from Laramie (1955)

He came a thousand miles – to kill a man he’s never seen!

35 – Maverick (1994)

In their hands, a deck of cards was the only thing more dangerous than a gun.

34 – Pale Rider (1985)

…and hell followed him

33 – The Wild Bunch (1969)

Out of step, out of place, and desperately out of time.

 ****

Unchanged men in a changing land.

32 – Tombstone (1993)

Justice is coming

31 –Young Guns 1 (1988)

Six reasons why the west was wild.

30 – A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)

Bring protection.

29 – 7 Men from Now (1956)

Seven bullets from here his woman would be waiting…
Seven men from now…her shame would be wiped out.

28 – Appaloosa (2008)

Feelings get you killed.

27 – Alamo (2004)

Remember…

26 – Chato’s Land (1972)

What Chato’s land doesn’t kill, he will.

 

Apologies for not responding to comments from last month. Blogger, once again, has not been playing nicely with others, and I am unable to comment.

See you in November with 25 through 11 in the Top 40 Western Movie Taglines Countdown.

Kaye Spencer
www.kayespencer.com

Illinois 114th Volunteer - Civil War - William T. Douglass

Post (C) Doris McCraw

aka Angela Raines

Image (C) Doris McCraw

So which William T Douglass is the one I'm looking for? A William T. Douglass with the Ohio Cavalry was a prisoner of war in Kentucky. He had been born in Ohio in  1841. A William T. Douglass was with the Illinois 114th Volunteer, also born in Ohio in 1841. Hence the joy of history and research.

So, how do you find the one you're looking for? It came down to his wife and an obituary for his father. According to the father's obituary, James R. Douglass had left Ohio and moved to Indiana where he met his wife then moved to Illinois, then Kansas. What makes the story interesting is they don't mention James returning to Ohio, but William's census records show his birth in Ohio. However, the obituary mentions William living in Colorado Springs in 1898 when the obituary was published.

Following the above information this William Douglass was with the 114th Illinois volunteers from Menard County, Illinois.

Photograph of Camp Butler 1862
from Illinois History

In the 1860 census, he is listed as the eldest of seven children living in Illinois. William was working on his father's farm. In 1862, on August 4, he enlisted as a private and his muster date is the same. His regiment, like many others, trained in Camp Butler, Illinois.

From May 1863 through 1864 the 114th saw action in the south, primarily in Jackson, Vicksburg, and Tupelo, Mississippi. In December of 1864, they saw action in Nashville, Tennessee.

William T. Douglass mustered out as a corporal on August 3, 1865, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He returned to Illinois and married Martha J. Hurd, from the same county he enlisted from.

By 1879 the couple were living in Colorado Springs where William, according to the city directory of that year, was the sexton at the city cemetery. In the 1885 census, he was listed as a laborer. By 1900 he was listed as a landlord. William died in 1909 and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs, CO. 

For more on this series of Civil War Veterans and their wives:

Private John H. Long - Western Fictioneers

Isabella Long - Prairie Rose Publications 

Until Next Time: Stay safe, Stay happy, and Stay healthy. 

Doris

On This Day in the Old West: September 13

 On this Friday the 13^th, let’s consider a little-known historical figure: a Black man who helped create the light bulb we’re all familiar with today. Lewis Howard Latimer was born September 4, 1848 to fugitive slaves in Chelsea, Massachusetts. After an “impoverished and turbulent” childhood, Latimer, at fifteen, lied about his age and enlisted in the Union Navy. He served on the USS Massasoit until the end of the Civil War and remained an active patriot for the rest of his life.

In 1865, Latimer was hired in Boston as an office boy for Crosby, Halstead, and Gould, Solicitors of American and Foreign Patents. He became intrigued with mechanical drawing and taught himself the skills he would for this career. His diary from the time reports that he “looked over the draftsman’s shoulder, to see how he used his instruments.” He also studied instruction books and purchased his own drafting instruments. Latimer’s tenacity paid off and soon he was assisting with drawings until, at the age of 18, he became the company’s principal draftsman, a position he would hold for the next ten years. His “office boy” job paid $3 a week. By the time he was promoted to head draftsman in 1872, he was making $20. In today’s money, that’s the equivalent of moving from around $55 a week to around $485.

Keep in mind that slavery was still legal at this time. Latimer’s employers considered him worthy of such pay, and they continued to offer constant raises and promotions throughout his employment. In 1874, Latimer patented (with Charles Brown) an updated passenger train toilet system and he drew the blueprints for Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone in 1876.

Three years later, Latimer was hired at US Electric Lighting Company, owned by Hiram Maxim, a major competitor of Thomas Edison. It was while working there that, on September 13, 1881, that Latimer created a way to make the carbon filament in a light bulb more durable by encasing it in cardboard. He went on to patent the process for efficiently manufacturing the carbon filament in 1882. “His invention made incandescent lighting practical and affordable and was also longer lasting than earlier filaments.”

In 1883 Thomas Edison invited Latimer to join his company, where he “soon became their lead patent investigator and part of Edison’s inner circle.”  In 1918 Latimer became the only Black founding member of the Edison Pioneers, a group of former Edison employees who had worked closely with the great inventor in his early years. They were “a select mix of talented engineers, chemists, inventors, draftsman, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and industrialists—some of the greatest minds in early electrical technology, all in one room, all working together for one man.”

Your characters would probably never have heard of Lewis Latimer, but they would have seen the fruits of his labor: an efficient, longer-lasting incandescent bulb that made electrical lighting practical and inexpensive.

J.E.S. Hays
www.jeshays.com
www.facebook.com/JESHaysBooks

Western Movie Taglines Blog Series – September Movie Taglines #movietaglines #westernmovies

My 2024 blogging series, Western Movie Taglines, began in January when I explained what a tagline is, and I gave examples of good non-western movie taglines followed by several disappointing taglines from western movies.

In February, I shared 15 western movie taglines that were clever or witty, real groaners, or just plain silly. March through September, I will share 10 movie taglines each month. October through December will be the Top 40 Countdown of Best Western Movie Taglines.

I compiled a list of 250 westerns and their taglines. From that 250, I plucked out the best 125 to share between February and December. These 125 taglines range from good to outstanding as far as doing justice to their corresponding movies.

The Top 40 taglines are the ones that capture and sum up the heart of the movie in such a fabulous way that we're amazed at how a handful of words can be that powerful or theme-descriptive. Also in December, I will 1) share taglines I've written for two western movies and one early-settling of the American frontier movie that deserved better taglines and, 2) offer a downloadable document of the 250 movies and taglines that I compiled.

January Movie Taglines

February Movie Taglines

March Movie Taglines

April Movie Taglines

May Movie Taglines

June Movie Taglines

July Movie Taglines

August Movie Taglines

Onward to the September Western Movie Taglines—

 

A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
In his own way, he is, perhaps, the most dangerous man who ever lived.

Barbarosa (1982)
The Outlaw… The Outcast… And the Legend that was bigger than both of them.

Cahill U.S. Marshal (1973)
Five killers robbed a bank. The lucky ones got caught. The rest got Cahill.
****
Break the law and he’s the last man you want to see. And the last you ever will.

The Gunfighter (1950)
His only friend was his gun… His only refuge – a woman’s heart.

The Hateful Eight (2015)
No one comes up here without a damn good reason.

Hondo (1953)
First she was afraid he’d stay. Then she was afraid he wouldn’t.

***
Hot blooded with the heat of the plains that bred him, silent as gunsmoke, a stranger to all but the surly dog at his side...

The Naked Spur (1953)
Strong men are weak when a woman is bait.

News of the World (2020)
Find where you belong.

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
There were three men in her life. One to take her…one to love her—and one to kill her.

Zandy’s Bride (1974)
They would be married first…and they would fall in love last.

See you in October when the Top 40 Western Movie Countdown begins.

Kaye Spencer
www.kayespencer.com

The post scheduled for Aug 27 will be posted soon.

On This Day in the Old West: August 9

 If you’ve ever ridden in an elevator, chances are you’ve noticed the name Otis on the machine somewhere. You may even know that Otis was the inventor’s last name. This is the story of the other elevator Otis, not the one on the plaque.

On August 9, 1859, Otis Tufts patented the first passenger elevator. Until then, elevators were used to carry freight from floor to floor, like the dumbwaiters in homes, carrying food from the kitchen up to the dining room. Yes, Elisha Otis patented the safety elevator, which kept the cars from plummeting to the ground if a rope broke, but his invention was intended for the freight elevator’s workers. Tufts describes his invention as "an elevator for the conveyance of persons from the different stories of hotels, public buildings and even private residences." 

Tufts’ system involved a capsule, enclosed rather than open as the freight elevators were, with doors that could close or open automatically, protecting the passengers from the elevator machinery in the hoistway, which could catch clothing or body parts as the elevator passed up and down. Tufts included bench seats for his passengers to sit on, further proof that his device was designed to move people, not freight. Lee Gray, an architectural historian at UNC Charlotte, put it this way: “He gave us the concept of the modern elevator.”

In his patent description, Otis Tufts calls his machine a “vertical railway elevator,” which immediately clued people in on the fact that he was using the steam engine, the main power source in the mid-19^th Century, and simply applying it in a new direction. While Elisha Otis made an important contribution to elevator safety, Otis Tufts had conceived of the elevator in an entirely new way. “As a people-mover, the elevator could become a transformative technology.” Otis Tufts “got it,” as Gray said. Elisha Otis didn’t. So why is the name on the modern elevator that of Elisha Otis rather than Otis Tufts?

Like Elisha, Tufts was concerned with safety. In his patent, he explains his “unconquerable dread and distrust of the principle of suspension." Instead of fragile ropes, Tufts utilized the concept of a nut and bolt. The elevator car was the nut mounted on guide rails. A gigantic screw extending the entire length of the hoistway was the bolt, threaded through the car. As it slowly turned, the car moved up or down the shaft. Tufts’ system was installed in New York’s Fifth Avenue Hotel in 1859. For fifteen years, it serviced the seven-story building without accident. However, in Gray’s assessment, it was “far too complex, far too expensive.” 

Elisha’s simpler safety system won out. Neither Tufts nor Elisha could possibly anticipate the way elevators would allow buildings to become taller and taller by eliminating the need for people to climb all those stairs. If Tuft’s screw design was marginal for a seven-story hotel, imagine the size of the screw needed for a modern skyscraper! Steel cables, not screws, were eventually the better solution. Eventually, Elisha Otis’ sons, Charles and Norton, took over their father’s company. Most elevator companies made other things as well, but the Otis brothers focused exclusively on elevator production. Through “tireless promotion,” they dominated the elevator industry.

Your character may never have heard of Otis Tufts, so this is more an exercise in trivial information, but if they were in New York City at the right time, they may have ridden in Tufts’ people-moving machine. And later, they would certainly have ridden in an Otis elevator.

 J.E.S. Hays

www.jeshays.com

www.facebook.com/JESHaysBooks

Western Movie Taglines Blog Series – August Movie Taglines #movietaglines #westernmovies

My 2024 blogging series, Western Movie Taglines, began in January when I explained what a tagline is and gave examples of good non-western movie taglines followed by several disappointing taglines from western movies.

In February, I shared 15 western movie taglines that were clever or witty, real groaners, or just plain silly. March through September, I will share 10 movie taglines each month. October through December will be the Top 40 Countdown of Best Western Movie Taglines.

I compiled a list of 250 westerns and their taglines. From that 250, I plucked out the best 125 to share between February and December. These 125 taglines range from good to outstanding as far as doing justice to their corresponding movies.

The Top 40 taglines are the ones that capture and sum up the heart of the movie in such a fabulous way that we're amazed at how a handful of words can be that powerful or theme-descriptive. Also in December, I will 1) share taglines I've written for two western movies and one early-settling of the American frontier movie that deserved better taglines and, 2) offer a downloadable document of the 250 movies and taglines that I compiled.

January Movie Taglines

February Movie Taglines

March Movie Taglines

April Movie Taglines

May Movie Taglines

June Movie Taglines

July Movie Taglines

Onward to the August Western Movie Taglines—

All the Pretty Horses (2000)
Some passions can never be tamed.

Chisum (1970)
The biggest man around when the biggest man was needed.

The Comancheros (1961)
Three with a past…destined to cross and clash…in a kingdom of killers!

Django Unchained (2012)
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Vengeance

 ****

They took his freedom. He’s taking everything.

Goin’ South (1978)
For Henry Moon, life was just beginning.

Open Range (2003)
No place to run. No reason to hide.

Seraphim Falls (2006)
Never turn your back on the past.

Soldier Blue (1970)
As long as people talk about love and courage, they will talk about Cresta and her Soldier Blue.

True Grit (2010)
Punishment comes one way or another.

Westward the Women (1951)
He led 200 women on an adventure most men feared to face!

See you in September with the next ten western movie taglines.

 Kaye Spencer
www.kayespencer.com

Private John H. Long of the 73rd Illinois Infantry - Civil War

Post (C) Doris McCraw

aka Angela Raines

Photo (C) Doris McCraw

March 10, 1844, John H. Long entered this world in Fairfield County, Ohio. On July 23, 1862, the 5' 6.5" brown hair, gray-eyed, eighteen-year-old joined the Union Army in Delevan, Illinois. This recruitment was for the 73rd Illinois Infantry. This unit comprised men from Adams, Champaign, Christian, Hancock, Jackson, Logan, Platt, Pike, Sangamon, Tazewell, and Vermillion counties. If you look at a map of Illinois you will notice that these counties run East to West through the central part of Illinois, primarily farming. Chances are like Long,, a number of the men in this unit would have been farmers.

The 73rd was mustered in at Camp Butler on August 21, 1862. It numbered 900 soldiers under the command of Colonel Jaquess. They were soon sent to Kentucky, eventually joining the 34th and 100 Illinois infantry, and the 79th and 88th Indiana. Soon, however, the 73rd was moved to a brigade with the 44th Illinois in the 2nd and 15th Missouri. This brigade was assigned to Sheridan's division and saw the following action: on October 1, 1862, the brigade started in pursuit of Bragg on October 8, the unit was engaged in the battle of Perryville. The 73rd engaged in battle, delivering and receiving heavy fire for approximately an hour, from 3 to 4 PM. On November 7 the unit reached Nashville Tennessee. It was during this move that several men were lost due to disability or diseases.

Long would have taken part in the above military activities. He was discharged on August 7, 1863, on a disability. 

Long married Isabella Joyce in Illinois in 1864. By 1880 the couple were living in Kansas and had five children. John was still engaged in farming. However looking at the 1880 census records, the oldest child was born in Illinois, the second in Iowa, the third in Illinois, the fourth in Missouri, and the fifth in Kansas. By 1882 the family was living in Colorado Springs and two more children had been added. His occupation in this census is listed as a stone mason. In 1890, John added house raising and moving to his stone mason work. By 1910, at the age of 66, his occupation is house mover. John passed away in August 1920.

 His headstone, to honor his service in the Civil War, was not ordered until 1936.

Accessed from Ancestry.

For links to past writing on Civil War Veterans and Civil War Wives:

Isabella Long - Prairie Rose Publications 

James W. Bell - Western Fictioneers

Martha Lynn Bell - Prairie Rose Publications

Captain Richmon Finch- Western Fictioneers

Sarah Jane Durkee Anderson - Prairie Rose Publications

Esther Walker, Part 2 - Western Fictioneers

Esther Walker - Prairie Rose Publications

Alpheus R. Eastman - Western Fictioneers Blog

Helen Rood Dillon - Prairie Rose Publications Blog

Virginia Strickler - Prairie Rose Publications Blog

Henry C. Davis - Western Fictioneers Blog

Chester H. Dillon - Western Fictioneers Blog

Until Next Time: Stay safe, Stay happy, and Stay healthy. 

Doris

FAVORITE WESTERN MOVIES PART 2 by Cheryl Pierson

Hi everyone! I'm back to talk about MORE western movies--faves, and not-so-faves. This is Part 2 of this blog series, so if you missed Part 1 last month, I hope you'll look it up and see what we were talking about in June!

Last month, we talked about The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Purgatory, The Magnificent Seven, and El Dorado--all favorites! And...the not-so-favorite, which was The Searchers.But gosh, there’s a lot more ground to cover! I know a lot of you mentioned Tombstone, with Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Michael Biehn, and Sam Elliot. What’s not to love, in this re-telling of one of the most famous gunfights that ever happened—the OK Corral. Kurt Russell is just simply wonderful as Wyatt Earp, and he and Val Kilmer have spectacular chemistry together in this movie. I don’t think there’s ever been a better Doc Holliday than Val Kilmer’s portrayal. The casting was wonderful in this movie, and though it’s a story we are already familiar with, the actors involved bring it to life in a fresh, exciting way that has stood the test of time. One of my favorites, and when I’m scrolling on TV, I cannot ever pass it up. Another favorite, though much different than most westerns, is Cowboys and Aliens. Now, some may disagree with this one, and at first, I wasn’t so sure about it, but by the end of the movie, I was loving it. Even my husband, a die-hard western fan, enjoyed this one and recorded it to watch it again. (Color me SHOCKED!) Cowboys and Aliens boasts and all-star cast including Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Adam Beach, and Olivia Wilde.

Because they do it so much better than I do, here’s the Google synopsis of the film:

Bearing a mysterious metal shackle on his wrist, an amnesiac gunslinger (Daniel Craig) wanders into a frontier town called Absolution. He quickly finds that strangers are unwelcome, and no one does anything without the approval of tyrannical Col. Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). But when Absolution faces a threat from beyond Earth, the stranger finds that he is its only hope of salvation. He unites townspeople, outlaws and Apache warriors against the alien forces in an epic battle for survival.

There is so much more to this movie, though—the development of the interpersonal relationships is one theme that, of course, can’t be allowed enough space in the synopsis to go into, but this is really worthy of watching, and in our house, watching more than once.

One of my favorites for many years is the original True Grit with John Wayne, Kim Darby, Dennis Hopper, and Glen Campbell. The original movie stays very true to the book by Charles Portis—and in my opinion, that book was a real masterpiece. I will say the same for the movie, even though Glen Campbell was not the best actor that ever graced the screen. But the other characters, and the scenery, as well as the close detail to the actual book, overcame Campbell’s (at times) wooden acting abilities.

True Grit is the story of Mattie Ross, a young teenage girl, who shoulders the responsibility of going after her father’s killer and seeing him brought in to face what he’s done. She is definitely no-nonsense and determined to see justice done.

After hired hand Tom Chaney (Jeff Corey) murders the father of 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Kim Darby), she seeks vengeance and hires U.S. Marshal "Rooster" Cogburn (John Wayne), a man of "true grit," to track Chaney into Indian Territory. As the two begin their pursuit, a Texas Ranger, La Boeuf (Glen Campbell), joins the manhunt in hopes of capturing Chaney for the murder of a Texas senator and collecting a substantial reward. The three clash on their quest of bringing to justice the same man.

My not-so-favorite candidate this week is Once Upon a Time in the West. I know, I know. It was very artsy and very well-received and highly acclaimed. But…it just went on and on and on forever. I honestly tried to watch this about three times and never could make it completely through in one sitting. It bored me to tears, and just seemed to go on forever. Stars include Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards and Claudia Cardinale.

What’s your favorite “outside the box” western? I mentioned Cowboys & Aliens this week, and last week I talked about Purgatory. I love these kinds of stories. Anyone else got one to talk about? If not—just talk about one of your favorite westerns. And remember it doesn’t have to be famous, just one YOU liked.