JOSEPH LESHER AND THE 'LESHER DOLLAR'

 

Post by Doris McCraw aka Angela Raines

Victor Colorado
photo (c) and property of the Author

Some may have heard of Joseph Lesher, especially if you are into numismatics. Many may have not.

Lesher was born in Ohio in July of 1838 according to records. When the Civil War broke out he joined the Union Army. 

After the war, like many others, Lesher headed West. He mined in various areas of  Colorado, including Georgetown, and Leadville along with sites in the San Juan mountains. He may have owned a silver mine near Central City but would have lost much of his wealth during the 1873 demonetization of silver. 

When gold was found in the Cripple Creek/Victor area Lesher headed up that way and settled in Victor. Some stories say he found work, first as a miner, then eventually as a shift boss, and later getting involved in politics. Other stories have him amassing his wealth by investing in real estate.  

Regardless, Lesher believed in silver and in 1900 he launched the production of his own silver coinage. He called his dollar-sized coins of varying value the 'referendum souvenir' medals. They were eight-sided to help distinguish them from the U. S. currency. He had minted about 100 of these coins when the federal government said they were counterfeit and confiscated his dies. This is despite the businesses that accepted them as money.

Lesher then consulted the U.S. Attorney's office to make sure his new coinage would not add further legal trouble. This time he stamped the name of a grocer in Victor who agreed to accept them for merchandise. 

For the remainder of 1900 and part of 1901, Lesher produced five types of  'dollars' using the names of various businesses not only in Cripple Creek and Victor bug Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Salida, Denver, and Grand Junction.

In 1901 Lesher discontinued his production, but now over a century later his coins are worth more to coin collectors than you would believe as only around 1,800 of the coins have been found. 

Joseph Lesher died around 1918 in his home in Victor, Colorado but what an unusual legacy he left. For those who would like to know more you may like the following book: "Forgotten Colorado Silver: Joseph Lesher's Defiant Coins" by Robert D. Leonard Jr., Ken Hallenbeck, Adna G. Wilde Jr.

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

Doris

CREEDE, NICHOLAS C - A Mystery?

 Post by Doris McCraw

writing as Angela Raines

Creede, Colorado, that rip-roaring town where the likes of Bat Masterson, Jefferson Randolph 'Soapy' Smith, and Robert Ford lived for a brief time. Founded officially in 1892, the town was known for its silver mines and was booming until the silver panic of 1893. It was in Creede, on June 8, 1892, that Ed O'Kelley walked into Ford's tent saloon and shot and killed Ford.

Jim Town Cliffs above Creede, c. 1893
Wikipedia

But where did Creede get its name? Nicholas C. Creede, who founded the Holy Moses mine, has that honor. Although silver had been found in the area as early as 1869, the extraction of the ore was too expensive. By 1889 all that changed. 

So who was Nicholas C. Creede and is there a mystery? Creede was born on April 4, 1842, in Ft. Wayne Indiana. Records show the family moved to Iowa in the late 1840s early 1850s. From there, according to the "Encyclopedia of  American Biography', Creede, "In 1862 went to Colorado in search of adventure and found it in seven years as a United States scout, holding the rank of first lieutenant."

Nicholas C Creede
Wikipedia

According to the Los Angeles, California voter registration, in 1896, Creede is listed as being 5'9" with light skin, blue eyes, and brown hair. 

Between 1862 and 1896 Creede traveled. He was involved in a mine and town along Monarch Pass in Colorado. Founded his mines in what became Creede. He lived in Pueblo, Colorado in 1893. Then that same year he married Nancy Louise White in Las Vegas, New Mexico. 

By 1897 Nicholas C. Creede was dead. According to the newspapers, he committed suicide by taking an overdose of morphine. (The official coroner report lists it as an Accidental Morphine Poisoning.)

The reason? I quote from the Ann Arbor, Michigan, newspaper, the Ann Arbor Argus of July 16, 1897:

Suicide of Creede.

Millionaire mine owner kills himself at Los Angeles.

Wanted to be rid of a wife.

He resorted to desperate means because Mrs. Creede insist upon renewing old relations — both had agreed to separate

Los Angeles, Cal., July 13 — Nicholas C. Creede, the millionaire mine owner, after whom the town of Creede, Colo., is named, committed suicide with morphine Monday evening, at his home in this city, because his wife, from whom he had separated, insisted upon renewing their marriage relations. On Jan. 4 last Creede and his wife separated and agreed to dissolve at once as fair as possible without legal process their marital bonds. Mrs. Creede accepted $20,000 cash and surrendered all further claims upon her husband, at the same time voluntarily withdrawing from his premises. It was understood, after the necessary time had elapsed, Creede6 would institute legal proceedings and begin suit for absolute divorce.

Went to Alabama.

At that time it appeared that both husband and wife were well satisfied that they were not required to maintain relations, and while Mrs. Creede considered that the amount of cash settled upon her was insignificant as compared with her husband's wealth, she left him and took up her home in Alabama. About three weeks to go Mrs. Creede returned to Los Angeles and proposed to her husband a reconciliation. This was much to Creede's distaste, and he endeavored to avoid his wife, but being unsuccessful, he determined to end his life. Monday evening he took a large dose of morphine and went into the garden to die. He was discovered by a servant and medical aid was summoned, but he died two hours later. Mrs. creed was notified of her husband's death, but declined to discuss the tragedy.

So what might be the mystery? Creede's wife, Nancy was married four times prior to her death in 1922. Additionally, it does seem odd that a man who had done all that Creede had done would take his own life. Of course, when you are not there and haven't spoken with the person, you never know. But, to this retired correction worker, it does raise a red flag. At the very least it has all the makings of a good fiction story.

Still, history is full of stories of men and women who carved out lives, wealth and so much more in the expansion of this country. What I've done is find some of the information and shared it. There is an 1894 biography of Creede on the way, it just didn't make it in time for this post. 

Until next time. 

Doris Gardner-McCraw -

Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History

Angela Raines - author: Telling Stories Where Love & History Meet

Books: Angela Raines Books

Website: Angela Raines - author

Angela Raines FaceBook: Click Here

IT'S MINING TIME #history #ColoradoHistory

post by Doris McCraw
writing as Angela Raines

Pikes Peak - photo property of author

The 'Pike's Peak or Bust' gold rush began one hundred sixty years ago, when gold was found near Cherry Creek, in the now Denver Metro area. (Actually the gold was found in 1858, but the rush began in 1859). Now for those unfamiliar with Colorado's topography, Pikes Peak is actually around seventy miles south of the area where the gold was found.

So why "Pikes Peak or Bust'? Well, the peak sits the eastern most in the mountain chain that runs through Colorado. Additionally, it is a stand alone fourteener peak. The nearest at its elevation or higher is over seventy miles away. In other words, its the landmark you see first as you're heading west.

Mines on Battle Mountain in the Cripple Creek Mining District
USGS photograph

And by 1900 Colorado was providing more gold than any other area, including Alaska, most of it coming from the Cripple Creek/Victor mining district. (They're still pulling gold out of that mountain) But there was/is more than just gold in those mountains and the plains. Colorado, thanks to the area around Leadville, also produced large amounts of silver. The state also has provided the world with marble, zinc, lead, molybdenum, uranium, nahcolite (which produces baking soda and soda ash) in addition to gemstones.

If anyone had watched the weather channel show "Prospectors" you would know about the gemstone mining in the state. Here's a brief look: Prospectors Episode

Colorado also has diamonds, which have been mined up near the Wyoming boarder. Add to this coal mining which has occurred almost since Colorado was settled and you have a wealth of mining and mining history. Colorado Springs in the 1800s had fifty active coal mines in the area. Of course, Fremont county had numerous coal mines as did the southern part of the state where the Ludlow Massacre occurred.

The pulling of  'treasure' from the ground created stories of wealth, life, death, strikes and massacres. These stories are mined by myself and others for the books, papers, and novellas we write. One novella "Never Had a Chance" came from a piece I read in the Sandra Dallas book.

If you wish to discover more, here are some books that have great pieces of information:

Colorado Ghost Towns and Mining Camps - Sandra Dallas
The Portland: Colorado's Richest Gold Mine - Joe Vanderwalker
The Great Pike's Peak Gold Rush - Robert L. Brown
Killing for Coal: America's Deadliest Labor War - Thomas G Andrews
Hardrock Man: Whispers from the Cripple Creek Underground - Sylece Andromeda
The Trail of Gold and Silver: Mining in Colorado 1859-2009 - Duane A Smith

So do you want to do some mining?

Doris Gardner-McCraw -

Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History

Angela Raines - author: Where Love & History Meet

For a list of Angela Raines Books: Here 

Angela Raines FaceBook: Click Here

THE TALE OF CRIPPLE CREEK #WesternFictioneers #MiningHistory

Deserted Building between Cripple Creek & Victor, CO
(Photo property of  Doris McCraw)

I was asked to share some history of Cripple Creek, a mining town in the Colorado Rockies. Of course you can't share Cripple Creek's history without including the whole mining district, which sits in an extinct volcano caldera. So here we go.

It was during a time of volcanic eruptions some thirty-five million years ago, that lava flowed through what became the Cripple Creek Mining District. However for some unknown reason the flow did not bring gold to the surface. Richard M. Pearl, PhD, a geology professor at Colorado College, believed that when convulsions in the earth’s crust caused cracks in the underground granite to appear the gold salts were deposited into the cracks and seams of that granite. Those ores that were created by the various eruptions of the volcanic activity in the region were almost exclusively gold ores. There was some small amount of silver associated with the gold, but usually in negligible quantities.

Between 1842 and 1844 Capt. John C. Fremont explored the region and his travels around Pikes Peak took him into the Cripple Creek area. During the Hayden survey of 1870’s there was some gold specimens found by H.T. Wood, a member of that survey. In 1874, Wood returned to the Cripple Creek district with other prospectors set about trying to find the source of the gold he's intially found. Wood organized the district under the name of Mt. Pisgah. The hope was they could find the source of the gold 'float'. Despite their efforts, no one was successful in finding the source.

In 1871 the Welty family moved into the region. Welty and his sons built a cabin and corral near to the stream that flows through the Cripple Creek area. They were followed by the Womack family who purchased the Welty squatter rights for $500 and claimed a second homestead two miles south of the Cripple Creek stream with Robert (Bob) building a cabin at the bottom of a ravine the Hayden Survey had named Poverty Gulch.

High Mountain Ranching
 (photo property of Doris McCraw)

Other families moved into the region but by the mid 1880's most of the settlers had left and/or returned to places they had on the plains east of Colorado Springs, which had become active in the cattle and sheep industry. The homesteads were purchased by the Pikes Peak Land and Cattle Company, a partnership composed of three local residents and Phillip Elsworth, an eastern glove manufacturer. When Elsworth visited the area in 1885 he felt his partners had misrepresented the companies holdings. He forced them to quit claim their shares and he put the land up for sale. It was purchased by the Denver real estate firm of Horace W. Bennett & Julius A. Myers for $5,000 down and $20,000 if and when it could be paid.

That same year, 1885, Myers & Bennett created the Houseman Cattle and Land Company and renamed the area the Broken Box Ranch. George Carr was hired as foreman and within two years a profitable ranching operation was in place. Bob Womack, however remained on the piece of the Womack homestead in Poverty Gulch.

Of all the towns affected by the Cripple Creek volcano perhaps the most impacted were Cripple Creek and Victor. Although at the height of the mining boom, around 1900, there were approximately 10 additional towns. Cripple Creek became the financial center and Victor the mining area.

The land that Bennett and Myers platted out, from their Broken Box Ranch site, after gold was found again, was originally planned to sell for $25 and $50 for corner lots. By 1891 when the boom hit, those $25 lots were selling for $250. Buildings were put up very quickly, using wood, with wood pulp or newsprint for insulation. Some of the poorer buildings had rugs or tent canvas for insulation. This set the stage for the devastation that was to come. As Dr. Lester Williams said in his book Cripple Creek Conflagrations “Neither time nor money had been wasted on a mere town, or living accommodations, there wasn't much emphasis on safety from fire, and the end result was that Cripple Creek was ripe to burn...”

And burn it did. By April of 1896 when the first fire hit, the area was so crowded that to get a room meant you had to hustle to find a place to stay. The streets were crowed with all manner of people from all walks of life. The hotels were unable to accommodate the influx, so travelers were having to resort to lodging houses, which were being built at an average of a dozen or so a week. The first fire started on April 25, 1896 and by nightfall approximately fifteen acres had burned. On April 29, 1896 the second fire broke out and burned all but a small portion of the western part of the town. The damage from both fires was approximately $2,000,000 in 1896 dollars.

Despite the set-back of the fires caused, Cripple Creek rebuilt, this time with brick. The 'new and imporoved' Cripple Creek remained the commercial center of the district. Of the rebuilding, the city now had buildings that were valued at “three-quarters of a million,” and were considered to be a “glorious monument to the energy and enterprise” of the residents. The city was proud of the fact that it was a 'law-abiding' camp. The camp had schools, churches plus the 'tenderloin' district. If one saw 'six-shooters' it was more as a precaution as opposed to necessity.

After 1900 Cripple Creek began a slow decline and by 1960 the population had dropped considerably. 

Today Cripple Creek has seen a small boon with the coming of limited stakes gambling. Traveling into the area, one will see the casino's but there is also the history of the region and the remembrance of “The World's Greatest Gold Camp”.

A brief note on Victor, Coloradom the second important town in the district.

View from Victor,CO.
(photo property of Doris McCraw)

According to one publication “The town [of Victor] is beautifully located, and in the summer of 1893, when the natural scenery was yet undisturbed and the sweet perfumery of wild flowers was the only outgoing freight, one would have seemed much at fault in judgment had he predicted that $5,000,000 in gold would have been transported thence in 1895.”

Victor from the beginning has been known as the ‘city of mines’. In fact it had a gold mine right in the middle of town. The Woods brothers, who founded the town, were in the process of building a “first class hotel” when gold was found as they were digging the foundation. Instead of a hotel, the Gold Coin mine came into existence. As a mine in the middle of town, the building was built of brick and even had a stained glass window at the entrance. As much as possible the mine looked as if it belonged in the city.

Remnants of the Gold Coin Mine entrance
(Photo property of Doris McCraw)

Most of the major producing mines were located near Victor and during the town’s heyday of activity Victor Avenue was one of the best known streets in the world. By 1896 just three years after being founded the city was the second largest in the region and had light, water, telegraph and telephone service the same as Cripple Creek.

Due to the vicinity of the mines, a large portion of the population Victor and nearby towns, was composed of miners. The nearby town of Goldfield was considered the 'family' town, but Victor was a mining and milling center. In the early days men were known to pay one dollar to sleep on a pool table and stand in line to eat. The growth was explosive. By 1896, three years after its founding, Victor’s population had grown to approximately 8,000 people. Like Cripple Creek, the growth had been so fast the structures were mostly of wood. In 1899 Victor was hit with its own destructive fire. The devastation covered twelve blocks of the business district, composed of some 200 buildings including the original Gold Coin Mine building. It was estimated that 3,000 were left homeless. The fire burned for approximately three and a half hours. Total estimated cost of the fire in 1899 funds was $2,000,000. After the fire, in fact beginning the very next day, Victor set about to rebuild. The debris was cleared and tents and makeshift temporary buildings were erected. Saloons and restaurants were almost immediately back in business. By noon the post office was up and running

Victor had become so well known that after the fire the “Colorado Road” arranged an excursion train to view the 'effect of the great fire' for $4.50. The trip would begin in Denver and travel to Cripple Creek and Victor on August 26 and return on August 27.

So there you have it, a very brief history of Cripple Creek and Victor. Also of note, there is still an active gold mine in the region, although it is an open pit mine.

Battle Mountiain Mines, Victor, CO (USGS photo)

I shall leave you with the following quotes about mining and prospectors:

“Geologically Cripple Creek is a freak. It is erratic, eccentric, and full of whims and caprices. That is, it is so to the man of science and the miner of experience.”

“...geology, so far as the location of ore deposits was concerned, was an unknown quantity. The prospector was the sole mine seeker....He was the lone wolf of mining for he usually went on his own. He wanted no prying eyes to behold the long elusive pot of gold at the end of his rainbow...”

Bibliography: 

Geochronology of the central Colorado Volcanic field, Wm. C. McIntosh, Charles E Chapin, New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources, Bulletin 160, 2004
Gazette Telegraph May 20, 1973
Cripple Creek and Colorado Springs...Illustrated, Henry L Warren & Robert Stride, authors and publishers, 1896 
Cripple Creek Mining District, Robert Guilford Taylor, Filter Press, Palmer Lake, CO 1973 
Cripple Creek, A Quick History, Leland Feitz, Little London Press, Colo.Spgs. CO 1967 Cripple Creek Conflagrations, Lester L. Williams MD, Filter Press, Palmer Lake, Co 1994 
Cripple Creek Guide, April 25, 1896 
History of Cripple Creek, America's Most Famous Gold Camp, The Quarterly Sentinel Vol I, Denver, Co, Feb 1896, WC Calhoun, Publisher 
A Quick History of Victor, Leland Feitz, 1969 Little London Press, Colo.Spgs, CO
The Denver Evening Post, August 25, 1899 
The Daily Mining Record, February 23, 1894

(c) Doris McCraw

Doris Gardner-McCraw -

Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History

Member of National League of American Pen Women,

Women Writing the West,

Pikes Peak Posse of the Westerners

Western Fictioneers

Angela Raines - author: Where Love & History Meet

For a list of Angela Raines Books: Here 

Photo and Poem: Click Here 

Angela Raines FaceBook: Click Here

CELEBRITY in the OLD WEST -- Meg Mims

CELEBRITY NEWS FLASH! 

Even in the Old West, people craved knowing all about those considered celebrities. Here's one of the "stars" who made the rounds in the California mining camps before "making it big" on the New York stage.

Charlotte "Lotta" Mignon Crabtree was born on November 7, 1847, in New York City. Her English father John Ashworth Crabtree was a bookseller who left his English wife and daughter in 1851 to "see the elephant" in California - in other words, seek his fortune in  the California gold fields. Lotta and her mother, Mary Ann (née Livesey) Crabtree, traveled west in 1853 and joined John in Grass Valley and then Rabbit Creek where they ran a boarding house.

Lola Montez was their neighbor, and she "discovered" that Lotta had talent and enthusiasm for performing. Lola even wanted to take the red-haired vivacious child on tour to Australia, but Mary Ann refused. She was shrewd enough to enroll Lotta in dancing lessons, and soon the little girl became a touring favorite in California and Nevada, dancing, singing, and playing the banjo at mining camps. Workers would shower her with coins and gold nuggets. Mary Ann would sweep the stage in case she'd missed any speck of gold. They soon moved to San Francisco, and Lotta became a favorite there. Her mother kept their earnings in a leather bag until it was too heavy, and then used a a steamer trunk. Mary Ann also bought real estate.

When Lotta was sixteen, she gave a farewell performance in San Francisco. The Crabtrees left California for New York. Lotta acted in Uncle Tom's Cabin, and became very popular in the play Little Nell and the Marchioness, adapted from Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop. Being petite and youthful, Lotta portrayed children well into her adult life. Famous by the age of 20, she began smoking thin cigars - which became her trademark, despite the habit keeping her out of fashionable social circles.

Lotta began touring as a member of her own theatrical company by 1875, bypassing the local stock company route. She was called "the eternal child" and "the Nation's darling" as well as "the Belle of Broadway during the 1880s. Lotta was also the highest paid actress! She could pull in $5,000 per week, which was astonishing for the era. She even traveled back to California, where she performed as Little Nell, and San Francisco loved her. And her mother Mary Ann still acted as her manager - for bookings, organizing the troupe, supporting charities, and investing. Lotta learned to speak French while abroad, enjoyed painting as a hobby, but never married. She had very little social time.

But all good things must come to an end, and Lotta suffered a bad fall in 1889. Due to her injuries, she had an extensive recovery - and a comeback in 1891 wasn't much of a success. Lotta retired from the stage in 1892 at the age of 45. She and Mary Ann retired to a summer "cottage" her mother had built on the shore of Lake Hopatcong in New Jersey, designed by the architect Frank Furness. "Attol Tryst" - Lotta spelled backwards, of course - had eighteen rooms, gorgeous fireplaces, verandas, a billiard room, a music room and a library. More of a mansion than a cottage!

And of course, Hollywood grabbed onto the Crabtree legend with their 1951 film, Golden Girl, with Mitzi Gaynor playing the title role. Mitzi is certainly young-looking, although the film is quite inaccurate -- they show Lotta beginning her career at 16, when she actually began at age six. Most of the film is set during the Civil War, while the song "Oh Dem Golden Slippers" wasn't written until 1879. While Lotta did wear quite short skirts, she NEVER would have appeared as Mitzi does in the above poster! Good grief! And Lotta did not have a romantic interest, or share the stage with a man. 

Hoo boy. Hollywood. Still, I suppose it might be an entertaining film. Lotta's life sure was!

Sources: Women's History Blog, Wikipedia, IMDB

Mystery author Meg Mims earned a Spur Award from WWA and also a Laramie award for her western historical mystery series, Double Crossing and Double or Nothing. Meg is also one-half of the writing team of D.E. Ireland for St. Martin's Minotaur mystery series featuring Eliza Doolittle & Henry Higgins -- lives in Southeastern Michigan with her husband and a sweet Malti-poo. She loves writing novels, novellas and short stories, both contemporary and historical. 

Follow her on Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest!

Billiards, Butter, and the Anti-Dude Club by @JacquieRogers #western

April in the 

Old West

by Jacquie Rogers

April brought spring flowers as well as a thirst for color of a different sort in the boom towns of the West, and Owyhee County, Idaho Territory was no different.  Unless otherwise stated, all articles are taken from The Owyhee Avalanche, which was established in Ruby City, Idaho Territory, in 1865 and moved to Silver City a year later.  This weekly newspaper is still in business, now in Homedale, Idaho — the longest running newspaper in the state, and rightfully proud of its history.

Some things never change.  Take email, for instance.  It’s both handy and a distraction, and we put up with nuisance messages because overall, email’s got us spoiled for instant communication.  We also receive a lot of unwanted solicitations in our snail mail.   News flash: Junk mail is nothing new!  Here’s a grumbling piece in the April 20, 1867 edition:

AGREEABLE.  To sit up till twelve o’clock at night waiting for the mail; then go to bed; get into a bully sleep; then have a mail carrier rushing and waking you up with the cry of “letters.”  After sifting over a pack of correspondence, he throws you a single envelope containing the highly important information in bold type — “How to get a sewing machine free of cost!”  To have that done oftener than once a week would cause some swearing in these parts.  We don’t want a machine at any price.

I don’t know why the reporter headlined that with “Agreeable” when he clearly found it disagreeable.

Lots of skirmishes with the Paiute, Shoshone, and Bannock tribes took place at this time, and there were three temporary forts or cavalry camps in Owyhee County.  In the April 20, 1867, issue of The Owyhee Avalanche, the reporter is rallying the citizens to make a little money from the government.

ARMY SUPPLIES are wanted at Camp Lyon and C. F. Smith.  Fine opportunities are offered for large or small contracts.  Laboring men can do well by taking contracts for providing a portion of these supplies — and can rest assured of prompt payment upon fulfillment of their contracts.

Nearly every issue of the newspaper contained at least one substantial article about suffrage.  Idaho voted in favor of women’s suffrage in 1896, the fourth state to do so.  Wyoming was first, in 1869, followed by Colorado and Utah.  Even though there was considerable support for bestowing the right to vote on the fairer sex, reporters still poked fun at the whole situation.  Here’s a snippet from an article that The Owyhee Avalanche republished April 10, 1869.

MRS. E. CADY STANTON’S DREAM.  (Republished from the Chicago Tribune)  “... I think some of your fellow-citizens are unnecessarily disturbed at the prospect of “woman suffrage.”  They seem to imagine that with enfranchisement, marriage would be speedily abrogated, cradles annihilated, and the stockings, like Governor Marcy’s pantaloons, mended by the State.  Pray suggest to these sorrowing gentlemen that maternal love and conjugal devotion do not depend on statue laws of the State Constitutions.  As the affections existed before governments, they will no doubt continue, even should all Eve’s daughters go to the polls once a year to choose wise rulers.”  Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

People traveled a lot more than we think.  When I studied the families of Owyhee County, I found that as soon as the transcontinental railroad was in place, many visited their families back East.  Actually, there was quite a bit of travel back East even before the Golden Spike was driven May 10, 1869.  Mr. Leonard traveled a month earlier.  This item was in the April 24, 1869, issue:

MR. R. H. LEONARD returned a few days ago from a short visit to the home of his boyhood in the forests of Maine, looking as fat and jolly as ever.  We learn, that on his way coming back, he narrowly escaped with his life.  The train of the Union Pacific, in which he was traveling, broke through a bridge, precipitating the entire string of cars into the depths below.  One man was killed, and several others wounded.  Mr. Leonard sustained a slight contusion.

Railroad travel had a few little safety issues to work out.  Can you imagine the media frenzy should something like this happen today?  We’d have finger-pointing and studies for the next forty years.

People headed east too — from China.  Most were looking for that mountain of gold, especially after the transcontinental railroad was completed.  They swarmed to gold strikes just like everyone else did.  In the same Avalanche issue, the reporter wrote:

THE DALLES MOUNTAINEER says that there is a steady stream of Chinamen pouring through that valley, on their way to the mines.  They come like locusts, and should the deluge continue long they are quite sure to overstock the labor market and drive white workingmen out of the country.

Even in a wide open country, people were worried about their piece of the pie.  Politics and border issues don’t change much.  And speaking of butter, this was in the April 1, 1871, issue:

A KEG OF BUTTER.  One evening this week as Dave Dorsey was on his way to Fairview with a load of freight, he was compelled to lighten his load by leaving two kegs of butter about halfway up the Oro Fino gulch.  Next morning he returned and found one keg missing.  Two nights afterwards, as Ben. Cook and Ike Culp, who reside on the Mountain, were going home late, they met two Chinamen carrying what appeared to be quite a heavy load.  Up-on making enquiries of the celestials, they were told it was a barrel of salmon.  Proceeding on their way, Ben and Ike talked the matter over and began to suspect that the Chinamen, whom they had just met, were making away with Dorsey’s butter.  Their suspicions were strengthened by observing some hoops near where something apparently had just been dug out of the snow.  They turned and began a pursuit of the thieves who, being on the look out, dropped their burden, and, favored by the darkness, made good their escape.  It is scarcely necessary to state that the barrel of salmon proved to be the missing keg of butter.

The Avalanche editor and the “News” (I think from Boise City) editor had quite a good time trading jabs.  Billiards was becoming more and more popular in Idaho, and of course each town wanted bragging rights.  This was in the April 22, 1871, issue:

NEWSPAPER PLEASANTRIES.
Friend M’Gonigle became pregnant with facetix the other day and, while in that happy condition, gave birth to the following pleasant paragraphs, which we find in the News of last Tuesday:

Judging from the playing at the late billiard tournament in Boise City, we assume the responsibility of saying that there are at least three Silver City billiardists who could easily get away with the Boise Championship.  Frank Hunt, Gus Simondi, or French at Sommercamp’s could walk off with the champion cue, &c., without much trouble.  (Avalanche)

We infer from the above wild statement, that the Avalanche is not aware, that the rules governing the tournament alluded to, barred push and crotch shots.  We opine that if the Silver City champions were placed under similar restrictions, their average would be sort of slender, too.

Many Idaho Territory residents were from Texas, but whether from Texas or not, all Idahoans were fiercely independent.  This is from the April 13, 1872, issue:

BORDER TROUBLES.  There is going to be trouble on the Texan border.  It is not in human nature for the people resident there to tamely submit to the constant inroads and robberies of the Mexicans.  The telegraph informs us that the Texan Rangers are organizing for defense.  They are a class of persons who know how to maintain their rights, and if the government does not interpose for the security of life and property in that region, the first thing we will hear is that they have overrun one or two Mexican States and “annexed” them to the United States.

Local Happenings:

• Alex. Frazer and Pat. McCabe made a novel bet of $5 on “hair,” the other night.  Wonder what those mountain boys will be up to next?  “Not a spear.” [Note: I don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.  Do you?]
• Mr. Farneman, of Jordan Valley, informs us that he is now plowing 18 acres per day on his farm.  Mr. F. is a very enterprising gentleman and the most extensive farmer in that part of the country.
• A shooting match took place at the Shoenbar Mill yesterday at three P.M.  Stakes, $25 cash and one basket of champagne.  Distance, 100 yards.  Shots, off-hand, with muzzle loading rifle, and decision by string measure.  The result of the match was unreported at the hour of going to press.
• Thanks to Sam. Heidelberger for Mark Twain’s burlesque Autobiography and First Romance.

April Events

• April 5, 1859: The state of Jefferson (now Colorado) was formed from the western part of Kansas Territory. 
• April 3, 1860: The first Pony Express rider left St. Joseph, Missouri, for Sacramento, California. It took twelve days (or eleven, depending on which account you read) to get there.  
• April 17, 1865: Bread riots in Virginia City, Montana, were caused by the exorbitant price of flour.
• April 2, 1868: A Topeka, Kansas newspaper reported, “W. F. Cody, government detective, and Wm. Haycock, Deputy U. S. Marshal, brought eleven prisoners and lodged them in our calaboose.” 
• April 5, 1867: Benjamin Bickerstaff and his gang rode into Alvarado, Texas, guns blazing and ready to party.  The residents were waiting for them and killed nearly all of them, including Bickerstaff, who took a shotgun blast to the face. 
• April 21, 1871: John Boyer was the first man to be legally hanged in Wyoming Territory.
• April 1, 1877: Ed Schieffelin strikes silver in Arizona Territory.  He names his mine “Tombstone.” 
• April 9, 1878: Jack Wagner killed Dodge City Marshal Edward Masterson at the Lady Gay Dance Hall.  Ed’s brother, Bat, shot both Jack and his friend Alf Walker. 
• April 5, 1879: One of the few gunfights later portrayed by Hollywood actually took place in Dodge City, Kansas, between Frank Loving and Levi Richardson.  Richardson shot five times and missed.  Loving shot three times and didn’t miss.  
• April 3, 1882: Robert Ford shot Jesse James. 
• April 10, 1883: Teddy Blue (E.C. Abbot) and the FUF Ranch outfit set out on a cattle drive from Texas to the Yellowstone River in Montana. 
• April 16: 1884: Annie Oakley receives her first billing as a markswoman at Columbus, Ohio, for the Sells Brothers Circus. 
• April 6, 1886: An “anti-dude” club is formed in Newton, Kansas, and set these fines: $5 for carrying a cane, $10 for wearing kid gloves and a plug hat, and $20 for parting one's hair down the middle. 
• April 3, 1898: 88 men died in an avalanche on the Chilkoot Pass in the Yukon Territory. 

May your saddle never slip.

Jacquie Rogers 
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Romancing The West
Hearts of Owyhee series
#1: Much Ado About Marshals
#2: Much Ado About Madams
#3: Much Ado About Mavericks