Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [43], On April 15, 1871, Hickok became marshal of Abilene, Kansas. A legend during his life and considered one of the American west's premier gunfighters James Butler (Wild Bill) Hickok was born May 27, 1837, in Troy . James Butler Hickok, better known as " Wild Bill ," was a wagon master, soldier, scout, lawman, gunfighter, gambler, showman, and actor well-known in the American West. At the time, shooting stray dogs within city limits was legal, and a 50-cent bounty was paid by the city for each one shot. Military records after 1865 list him as Hickok, but note that he was also known as Haycock. Hardin left Kansas before Hickok could arrest him. Nick McGlashan had two children, Lennyn Annette Richardson of Unalaska (7) and Kane Wilder Hammond of Port Townsend, WA (1). Hickok's brother, Lorenzo Butler, traveled from Illinois to attend the retrial. Classmate Mary Connolly remembered Jessie, saying, we all played hopscotch and jumped rope on the playground. But mother and daughter eventually left town again. After the war Hickok continued his adventurous ways, at times just skirting the right side of the law. In the early 1990s ABC television series Young Riders, a fictional account of Pony Express riders, Hickok is portrayed by Josh Brolin.[80]. They arrived in Topeka on April 2. Calamity Jane (1852-1903) was a well-known American frontierswoman and entertainment who was well-known for her marksmanship and acquaintance with Wild Bill Hickok. Hickok was bedridden for months before he went to southern Nebraska in the summer of 1861 to work at the Pony Express station at Rock Creek. On August 2, 1876, during a poker game in a saloon that found him with his back uncharacteristically to the door, Hickok was shot in the back of his head by Jack McCall, who may have been hired to kill him. "The Custer-Hickok Shootout in Hays City. On August 2, 1876, Wild Bill Hickok died a sudden, violent death while gambling in a saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota. Six months later Jane visited friends in Deadwood, stating Jessie had married and was living in North Dakota with two children. Hickok is known to have fatally shot six men and is suspected of having killed a seventh (McCanles). "Gunfighters of the Real West: Wild Bill Hickok. [12] The article was controversial wherever Hickok was known, and several frontier newspapers wrote rebuttals. Circa 1890. When a seat opened up at the table, a drunk man named Jack McCall sat down to play. Doc Holliday did have a bad cough, as suggested in this episode, from his tuberculosis. [3] [4] James was the fourth of six children. Later that year he became a teamster with the great freighting enterprise Russell, Majors and Waddell, creators of the Pony Express, for which he was too tall and heavy to be a rider. The incident helped contribute to the overall failure of the show. Take that!" (Not Really) Roughing It on the Mark Twain Trail, A Song of Praise for a Forgotten Folklore Collector, John Waynes Silver Screen Shootin Irons. [31], Several weeks later, an interview Hickok gave to Colonel George Ward Nichols, a journalist who subsequently became known as the creator of the Hickok legend,[32] was published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine. In reality, Janes first verified child was born in November 1882 when she was living with rancher Frank King near Miles City, Montana. In an 1871 account that changed his life, Hickok was reportedly involved in a shootout with saloon owner Phil Coe. If the deceased and defendant engaged in a fight or conflict willingly on the part of each, and the defendant killed the deceased, he is guilty of the offense charged, although the deceased may have fired the first shot. More concrete evidence of Jessie came from Charles Zimmerman, who remembered Jane and her daughters frequent visits to his familys ranch near Billings, Montana in 1893. setTimeout(function(){var t=document.createElement("script");t.setAttribute("src","https://sample.dragonforms.com/getEmbeddedClientScript.do?embeddedsite=TW_dispatch_nl"),t.setAttribute("type","text/javascript"),document.body.appendChild(t)},5); Become a subscriber today and youll recieve a new issue every month plus unlimited access to our full archive of backlogged issues. [3][4] James was the fourth of six children. [25] The 1883 History of Greene County, Missouri described him as "by nature a ruffian a drunken, swaggering fellow, who delighted when 'on a spree' to frighten nervous men and timid women. It was here that he supposedly became romantically linked to Martha Jane Canary, also known as "Calamity Jane," but most historians discount any such amorous relationship between the two. Following his Civil War service, Wild Bill Hickok moved to Kansas where he was appointed sheriff in Hays City and marshal of Abilene. He was found not guilty by a miners court after telling judges that Hickok killed his brother, though later accounts showed McCall had no brothers. By the age of 17, he was an excellent marksman. As the scene unfolded, McCanles entered the station, and, from behind the curtain that divided it in two, either Hickok or Wellman shot McCanles. Jessie later said that the Deadwood Chief of Police wrote her about Janes death in 1903. She was Maude Weir, born in 1881. "[citation needed]. When Jane arrived in Deadwood, South Dakota in 1895, she told others that she needed money to enrol Jessie in a convent school at Sturgis. [73], Hickok's favorite guns were a pair of Colt 1851 Navy Model (.36 caliber) cap-and-ball revolvers. [12], While in Nebraska, Hickok was derisively referred to by one man as "Duck Bill" for his long nose and protruding lips. Wild Bill had learned of the scheme and cornered Coe, had his two pistols drawn on Coe. Pard, we will meet again in the happy hunting ground to part no more. by Marshall Trimble | Nov 1, 2007 | Inside History. [45], Hickok later said he did not know that "Wesley Clemmons" was Hardin's alias, and that he was a wanted outlaw. [h], McCall's motive for killing Hickok is the subject of speculation, largely concerning McCall's anger at Hickok's having given him money for breakfast the day before, after McCall had lost heavily. The movie The Plainsman (1936), starring Gary Cooper as Hickok, features the alleged romance between Calamity Jane and him as its main plot line. Red objects generally appear black in early photographs, as the photographic processes were insensitive to red light. He was bedridden for four months before being sent to Rock Creek Station in the Nebraska Territory to work as a stable hand while he recovered. His own show, The Daring Buffalo Chase of the Plains, did not fare well, but in 1873 he joined Buffalo Bill Codys The Scouts of the Prairie, which was based in Rochester, New York. She was born in Missouri and spent most of her life on the country's western border. He then joined General James Henry Lane's Kansas Brigade, and while serving with the brigade, saw his friend Buffalo Bill Cody, who was serving as a scout. He earned a great deal of notoriety in his own time, much of it bolstered by the many outlandish and often fabricated tales he told about himself. Joseph J. He was involved in several notable shootouts during the course of his life. [29][30], Two days later, Hickok was arrested for murder. He was sentenced to death on January 3, 1877 and on March 1, 1877 he was executed by hanging. In an instant, he pulled the triggers again sending two bullets into Coe's abdomen (Coe lived a day or two) and whirling with his two guns drawn on the drunken crowd of cowboys, "and now do any of you fellows want the rest of these bullets?" A semifictionalized version of Hickok's time as marshal of Abilene Kansas, titled Hickok (2017), stars Luke Hemsworth as Hickok, Trace Adkins as the Bull's Head Saloon keeper Phil Coe, Kris Kristofferson as Abilene mayor George Knox, and Kaiwi Lyman-Mersereau as John Wesley Hardin. Did Nick McGlashan have a family? Both parents were reputed to be unsavory, involved in petty crimes and often financially destitute. [72] As of 2020, the flag is no longer flown. He was born James Butler Hickok on 27 May 1837 in Troy Grove, Illinois. [40]:192, On July 17, 1870, Hickok was attacked by two troopers from the 7th U.S. Cavalry, Jeremiah Lonergan and John Kyle (sometimes spelled Kile),[42] in a saloon. [c] However, if they felt the threat of danger was real and imminent, he instructed they could apply the unwritten law of the "fair fight" and acquit. Although McCall accepted the money, he was apparently insulted. This was claimed after he was killed during a poker game on Aug. 2, 1876. Neither claim was true. [57] The two possibly met for the first time after Jane was released from the guardhouse in Fort Laramie and joined the wagon train in which Hickok was traveling. In July, Hickok told a newspaper reporter that he had led several soldiers in pursuit of Indians who had killed four men near the fort on July 2. ", This page was last edited on 27 February 2023, at 18:12. Hickok was of English ancestry. On September 4, Hickok was wounded in the foot while rescuing several cattlemen in the Bijou Creek basin who had been surrounded by Indians. The bullet emerged through his right cheek and struck another player, riverboat Captain William Massie, in the left wrist. Brink, were tried for killing McCanles, but were found to have acted in self-defense. As a very young boy, Bill was born to father William Alonzo Hickok and mother Polly Butler. To date, four children have been credited to the lady, although some of the claims have come from the children themselves. For the next several years, various witnesses saw Jane, who towed Jessie around with her as she drank her way across the west. Hickok ordered him to be arrested for firing a pistol within the city limits. Before and during Hickok's lifetime (1837-1876), the most readily available firearms were cap-and-ball, or percussion. Wild Bill Hickok, byname of James Butler Hickok, (born May 27, 1837, Homer [now Troy Grove], Illinois, U.S.died August 2, 1876, Deadwood, Dakota Territory [now in South Dakota, U.S.]), American frontiersman, army scout, and lawman who helped bring order to the frontier West. Hickok had a large impact on American history because of his life and death. McCanles may have been the first man Hickok killed. Wild Bill Hickok was an American folk hero. His reputation as a gunfighter gave rise to legends and tales about his life. Since he was actually shot in the back of the head, that plot element is a complete artifice of the episode writers. In 1859, he joined the Russell, Majors and Waddell freight company, the parent company of the Pony Express. [34]:34 The show featured six buffalo, a bear, and a monkey, and one show ended in disaster when a buffalo refused to act, prompting Hickok to fire a bullet into the sky. Duck Bill and Shanghai Bill Perhaps most famously, Harper's New Monthly Magazine printed an account of the story in 1867, claiming Hickok had killed 10 men. The two men faced each other sideways for a duel. He drove freight wagons and coaches. Hardin was a well-known gunfighter, and is known to have killed more than 27 men. Lancaster, California. A legend during his life and considered one of the American west's premier gunfighters, James Butler ("Wild Bill") Hickok was born May 27, 1837, in Troy Grove, Illinois. Three years after Jack McCall shot Hickok in the back as he was playing cards in Deadwood, South Dakota, an 1879 story in the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Daily Leader noted that the pistols were made expressly . To be entitled to acquittal on the ground of self-defense, he must have been anxious to avoid a conflict, and must have used all reasonable means to avoid it. Calamity Jane. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. I will be. Between her birth in the 1850s and her death in 1903, Jane left a dizzying trail as she blazed around the west. Wild Bill Hickok, byname of James Butler Hickok, (born May 27, 1837, Homer [now Troy Grove], Illinois, U.S.died August 2, 1876, Deadwood, Dakota Territory [now in South Dakota, U.S.]), American frontiersman, army scout, and lawman who helped bring order to the frontier West. This, in turn, was destroyed by souvenir hunters and replaced in 1902 by a life-sized sandstone sculpture of Hickok. Did Wild Bill Hickok have children? [i][68], Jack McCall was hanged on March 1, 1877, and buried in a Roman Catholic cemetery. Just weeks later, on her deathbed in Terry, South Dakota, Jane confessed that she and Jessie were now estranged and declined to say where her daughter was living. "[55], On March 5, 1876, Hickok married Agnes Thatcher Lake, a 50-year-old circus proprietor in Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory. Calamity Jane was reported to have been buried next to Hickok according to her dying wish. John McCall ( / mkl / ); (1852/1853 - March 1, 1877), also known as " Crooked Nose " or " Broken Nose Jack ", was the murderer of Old West legend Wild Bill Hickok. Tutt reached for his pistol but Hickok was the first to draw his weapon, and shot Tutt instantly, from approximately 75 yards. And though it is difficult to picture her in the domestic arena, Jane was also a mother. Wild Bill Hickok was born on May 27, 1837 in Troy Grove, Illinois. This was during the Indian Wars, in which Hickok sometimes served as a scout for General George A. Custer's 7th Cavalry. When did cowboys begin wearing these shirts? McCall lost heavily. In 1941, Jean Hickok McCormick appeared in Billings, Montana. Hickok's retort is one of the West's most famous sayings (though possibly apocryphal): "Did the crow have a pistol? It is a loose adaptation of Hickok's life, ending with his famous aces-and-eights card hand. 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