Military History Monday: Jennison’s Jayhawkers
This Civil War regiment, the 7th Kansas Cavalry, was organized by Charles Rainsford Jennison and became known as “Jennison’s Jawhawkers.” By the time the regiment was mustered in on October 28, 1861, the terms “jayhawk,” “jawhawker,” and “jayhawking” were already part of the national lexicon long before the Civil War broke out in April of 1861.
The term “jayhawk” and it’s various iterations seems to have originated as early as the late 1840’s along the Kansas-Missouri border. There are several theories as to how the term came into usage, but as far as a Kansan is concerned it is deeply rooted in the state’s history – it’s also Kansas University’s mascot. The name combines two birds, since there is no such thing as a “jayhawk” in nature – so mythically speaking it’s sort of a cross between a quarrelsome, nest-robbing blue jay and a sparrow hawk, a stealthy hunter.
After the Kansas-Nebraska of 1854 was enacted, there was “Bloody Kansas” or as I like to call it, the “Civil War before THE Civil War”. Missouri counties which bordered Kansas were pro-slavery while Kansas was being flooded with anti-slavery advocates. In Missouri the “Border Ruffians” not only made incursions into Kansas Territory to harass, pillage and kill, they also sent illegal voters to Kansas to elect a pro-slavery legislature.
Sparring with the “Border Ruffians” along the border were the Kansas “Jayhawkers.” As time went on and hostilities escalated, it would become harder to distinguish between the two after the Jayhawkers began using the same tactics – no wonder they called it “Bloody Kansas.” One of the more unscrupulous Jayhawkers was Charles Jennison.
Jennison was born on June 6, 1834 in upstate New York in an area known as the “Burned-Over District”, so named for its evangelical fervor. He migrated with his family to Albany, Wisconsin in 1846 where he continued his education, studied medicine and practiced for a time. In 1857 he made the trek westward to Kansas Territory, settling first in Osawatomie. By that time, John Brown had already made his anti-slavery views well-known, not to mention the attack that Brown and others carried out on Lawrence in 1856.
Jennison, like Brown, was stridently anti-slavery. He appears to have proclaimed himself “the law” in at least one case. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required that fugitive slaves be returned to their masters. Russell Hinds crossed over the Missouri state line into Kansas to visit his mother, only to be accused of transporting a fugitive slave back to Missouri (there were rewards for doing so). Jennison and nine other men held a mock trial and found Hinds guilty and hanged him. This dangerous type of “frontier justice,” coupled with his penchant for plundering in order to enrich himself, gave him his well-earned reputation as a ruthless and unscrupulous character.
By 1861 he had migrated to Mound City, Kansas and was still carrying on his anti-slavery campaign. On February 19, 1861 he was commissioned as a captain of the Mound City militia. Less than six months later, on September 4, he received a promotion to colonel from Kansas Governor Charles L. Robinson. He set about to organize the 7th Kansas Cavalry which would later become known as “Jennison’s Jayhawkers.” After mustering in on October 28, the regiment went to work patrolling the western Missouri border.
Just because he was now a commissioned military officer didn’t prevent Jennison from continuing his unscrupulous and ruthless behavior. His regiment would come to be known as the most extreme in terms of tactics, plundering and carrying out a “scorched earth” strategy. He took materials and supplies he needed and burned what he couldn’t use. His second-in-command was Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Read Anthony, brother of Susan B. Anthony.
Colonel Jennison was giving the Union a bad name. Major General Henry Halleck complained to General George McClellan about the marauding jayhawkers of Jennison’s regiment:
The conduct of the forces under Lane and Jennison has done more for the enemy in this State than could have been accomplished by 20,000 of his own army. I receive almost daily complaints of outrages committed by these men in the name of the United States, and the evidence is so conclusive as to leave no doubt of their correctness.
Apparently Jennison’s ruthlessness was escalating when he was accused of attacking both sides indiscriminately:
J. W. Smith, clerk in the Department of the Interior, in Washington, is just in from the neighborhood of Rose Hill, and reports that Jennison’s men, under Major Anthony, are there committing depredations upon Union men and secessionists indiscriminately. They have burned forty-two houses in that vicinity and robbed others of valuables and driven off stock.
Mr. Smith says they took his wife’s silverware, furs, & c. He estimates the value of property taken from loyal citizens at $7,000; and, to cap the climax, they shot to death Mr. Richards, a good Union man, without cause or provocation.
Major General David Hunter issued orders on February 5, 1862, declaring martial law throughout the state of Kansas, in an effort to stop the practice of jayhawking. The law would be “enforced with vigor”:
. . . the crime of jaykawking shall be put down with a strong hand and by summary process; and for this purpose the trial of all prisoners charged with armed depredations against property or assaults upon life will be conducted before the military commissions . . .
Astonishingly, given Jennison’s reputation, he had been granted a promotion by Hunter to acting Brigadier General just days before on January 31. His command would expand to include not only the 7th Kansas Cavalry, but also the 8th Iowa Infantry and part of the 7th Missouri Voluntary Infantry, also known as the “Irish Seventh.” Then he was to be dispatched to New Mexico to fight Apaches, an obvious ploy I’m sure to send Jennison away to another post and hopefully put an end to jayhawking complaints. This enraged Jennison and he resigned on May 1, 1862. He didn’t go quietly, however.
He assembled the regiment and gave an impassioned farewell speech, citing the reasons for his resignation and excoriating Union commanders as being pro-slavery. He encouraged his regiment to continue to follow him in defending Kansas. An order was issued for his arrest for what was speculated to be “insubordination and exciting mutiny,” as reported by the Daily State Sentinel (Indianapolis). The Cedar Falls Gazette described his speech as “rather bitter on the powers that be.” In their estimation, “Jennison is a full-blooded Abolitionist.”
Although arrested and taken to St. Louis he never stood trial and was later released, returning to Kansas an anti-slavery hero. For a time he operated a freight hauling company, but after William Quantrill executed a devastating attack on Lawrence on August 21, 1863, Jennison was commissioned by Kansas Governor Thomas Carney to organize another cavalry regiment, later known as the Fifteenth. The Oskaloosa Independent (Kansas) was in wholehearted agreement: “Col. Jennison is going into Missouri at the head of the 15th regiment. Let him go.” All of Kansas seemed to be cheering him on:
He pursued Sterling Price in Missouri and led in battles at Lexington, Little Blue River, Westport and Newtonia. Apparently, though, he had returned to his marauding ways. In December of 1864 he was arrested, court-martialed, convicted and dishonorably discharged. He returned to Leavenworth, Kansas and was later elected to the Kansas Legislature and Senate. He died on June 21, 1884.
After Jennison resigned in 1862, the 7th Regiment’s New Mexico orders were rescinded and they instead were dispatched to Mississippi. Hopefully, the 7th Kansas Cavalry went on to fight more nobly.
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Surname Saturday: Pillsbury
The Pillsbury surname is believed to have been emanated from an area in either Oxfordshire or Derbyshire, England. It is possibly a derivation of the Old English word “Pilsburg.” Broken down into its component parts: “pile” or “peel”, followed by “burgh” or “borough”. “Pile” or “peel” referred to a fortified farmhouse and “burgh” which often meant a place of security. One source indicates that the surname was possibly derived from the locational name Spelsbury, a village in Oxfordshire. The Old English word “speol” meant “watchful” and the Old English word “burh” meant “town” or “fortress.”
The 1086 Domesday Book lists a tenant by the name of “Pilesberie”. In the thirteenth century, mention was made of “Richard Pillsbury” in Derbyshire and in 1379 “Edward Pilsbury” is listed on the Yorkshire Poll Tax records. Besides “Pillsbury” and “Pilsbury”, other spelling variations of this surname include “Peelsbury”, “Pillsberry”, “Spelsbury” and “Spilsbury”, among others.
We are, of course, aware that the Pillsbury family made a name for themselves, for today the name is found in the baking section and dairy cases of practically every grocery store. One of the first Pillsbury immigrants, William, arrived in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1640 or 1641. William is considered the common ancestor of all Pillsburys in America. His story follows, as well as that of Charles Alfred Pillsbury who co-founded the Pillsbury Company with his uncle John Sargent Pillsbury, and Parker Pillsbury, a minister and staunch defender of both abolition and women’s rights.
William Pillsbury
It is believed that William Pillsbury was born around 1605 in Staffordshire, England. While William Pillsbury immigrated to New England along with hundreds of other immigrants who were fleeing the tyranny of Charles I (1629-1640), it isn’t clear exactly what compelled him to make his voyage across the Atlantic. As the family history book, The Pillsbury family: being a history of William and Dorothy Pillsbury, records it:
He did not come with his Bible under his arm and his mouth full of phrases as to liberty of conscience, although he showed the true democratic spirit in after years, but he came “as the flying come, in silence and in fear.” The substance of the accounts is to the same effect, namely, that the young man felt obliged to flee is native land to escape the consequences of a misdemeanor, and on his arrival in Boston let himself as a servant to pay the expense of his passage.
Not long after his arrival it appears he began courting Dorothy Crosbey and that he and Dorothy were sanctioned for some unseemly behavior on June 1, 1641 (click to enlarge):
It may or may not have been anything more than a trivial offense. As the Pillsbury family historian noted, “we must remember that this was about the time when it was said a Connecticut mother was punished for kissing her child on Sunday.” Sometime between the reprimand and July 29, 1641, when they were both censured to “bee whiped”, William Pillsbury and Dorothy Crosbey were married.
They likely remained in Dorchester for at least ten years since three (possibly four) of their children were born there. William and Dorothy had ten children who all lived to adulthood except their last child, Joshua, who died on his third birthday in 1674:
Deborah – 16 Apr 1642
Job – 16 Oct 1643
Moses – 1645
Abel – ?
Caleb – 28 Jan 1653
William – 27 Jul 1656
Experience – 10 Apr 1658
Increase – 10 Oct 1660
Thankful – 22 Apr 1662
Joshua – 20 Jun 1671 (died 20 Jun 1674)
Their son Increase died in 1690 along with three others who were on an expedition to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
Sometime in 1651 the Pillsbury family removed to Newbury, Massachusetts, where William purchased forty acres (including a house) for one hundred pounds. In the original deed, William Peelsbury, a yeoman of Dorchester, paid a down payment of fifteen pounds and the remainder in securities, probably from his holdings in Dorchester.
The remainder of their children were born in Newbury and the family attended the First Church in Newbury. On April 29, 1668, William Pillsbury was made a freeman. William is presumed to have been a man of wealth who increased his landholdings over the years, and also possessed at least one slave. On April 29, 1686, William “being sensible of my own morality & being of disposing mind & willing to set my House in order,” composed and signed his will in the presence of Tristram Coffin, less than two months before his death on June 19, 1686.
Parker Pillsbury
Parker Pillsbury was born in Hamilton, Essex County, Massachusetts on September 22, 1809 to parents Deacon Oliver and Anna (Smith) Pillsbury. He was their eldest child of eleven and Parker was named after his grandfather. Parker was a family name which likely appeared when William Pillsbury’s great-grandson Moses Pillsbury III married Mary Parker, parents of Parker Pillsbury the first.
Oliver Pillsbury, a deacon in his church, was an advocate of both temperance and abolition of slavery. The fervor he possessed was no doubt passed down to his son Parker, described in Men of Progress: Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Leaders in Business and Professional Life in and of the State of New Hampshire as:
. . . one of the heroes of New England’s famous “Abolition Trinity” (Garrison, Phillips, Pillsbury) and its last survivor, who for nearly half a century, in perils and hardships, devoted himself heart and soul to pleading the cause of the oppressed, denouncing iniquitous, superstitious, bigoted laws and practices, and demanding the removal of the yoke that held the colored race in cruel bondage . . .
Parker was educated in the local schools of Henniker, Massachusetts where his family had a farm, and, as would be the case in that day, he not only attended school but was expected to work on the family farm. Around the age of twenty he drove an express wagon from Lynn to Boston, but eventually returned to Henniker to farm. After becoming devoutly religious he was urged to pursue an education to prepare for ministry. He took the advice and pursued studies at the Andover Theological Seminary. In less than four years he was licensed to preach and took a pastorate in Loudon, New Hampshire. This, despite the fact that members of the seminary faculty had threatened to prevent him from leading a parish because of his anti-slavery beliefs.
He soon found, however, that his strong anti-slavery beliefs would not mesh well with the Christian Church, which at that time was known as “the bulwark of American slavery.” When he preached he denounced the practice in scathing terms – he called it the “sum of all villainies.” Since abolitionists weren’t popular he was forced to abandon his pulpit ministry in 1840. Instead he would become a “working apostle,” as Men of Progress described him.
He began lecturing and also took over the editorship of “Herald of Freedom” for a period of time. He later remarked that he entered “the lecture field with the full resolve to see the overthrow of the Southern slave system or perish in the conflict.” (Men of Progress, p. 220). On January 1, 1840 he had married Sarah H. Sargent, who not only supported his anti-slavery work but worked alongside him in his endeavors. The two were ostracized as evidenced by his decision to abandon pulpit ministry. They had only one child, Helen Buffum, born on June 14, 1843.
Parker and Sarah made their home in Concord, New Hampshire and worked tirelessly to abolish slavery. Although the Civil War was a tragic time, they must have been gratified by the outcome, and while they obtained heroic status among former slaves, they didn’t rest on their laurels. Following the Civil War, they both became involved in the Woman’s Suffrage movement, working alongside Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Still, their work in the anti-slavery movement is most remembered to this day. Parker chronicled the anti-slavery movement in his 1883 book, Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles. On July 7, 1898, “this reformer, hero, and honest man, left this world, which is the better for his having lived in it.” (Men of Progress, p. 222)
Charles Alfred Pillsbury
Charles Alfred Pillsbury was born on December 3, 1842 in Warner, New Hampshire, the oldest child of George Alfred and Margaret Sprague Carleton Pillsbury. A sister died in infancy and his brother Frederick Carelton was born in 1852. His father George had been modestly educated and was determined to be a successful businessman. His business interests steadily increased and he became well-respected for his integrity and business acumen, so much so he became one of the leading men of New Hampshire whose advice would be sought regarding important matters, according to Encyclopedia of Biography of Minnesota.
Charles was raised in a modest home and attended public school. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1863 and moved to Montreal to clerk for Buck, Robinson and Co., a produce commission company. During this time, he met Mary Ann Stinson, marrying her on September 12, 1866. Their first two children, George Alfred (1871-1872) and Margaret Carleton (1876-1881) died at young ages. On December 8, 1878 twin sons, Charles Stinson and John Sargent II, were born.
After three years Charles bought into the company and remained there until 1869 when he sold out to join his uncle, John Sargent Pillsbury, in a Minneapolis business venture. The two men pooled their money and purchased a struggling flour mill. The purchase was generally viewed as a mistake since flour milling was not a particularly lucrative business at that time, and neither of the Pillsburys knew anything about the flour milling business.
Nevertheless, Charles skillfully guided the company and three years later it began to show a profit, prompting a name change: Charles A. Pillsbury and Co. With Charles at the helm, the company flourished. He had an eye for technology and brought in the latest equipment available at the time. For instance, mill operations were powered by water from the nearby Falls of St. Anthony, producing two hundred barrels of flour a day. Purifiers were installed to produce fine white flour and his mill was the first in America to use steam rollers rather than burr stones to crush the grain.
By 1872 his father George and brother Frederick had joined him. In 1876 Uncle John became the governor of Minnesota. The family business continued to grow after acquiring four more mills. In 1881 they built the largest flour mill in the world. Innovation was always on Charles’ mind. His travels throughout Europe had brought the steam roller and purifier technology to his mills.
Disaster struck in 1881, however, when three of their mills were destroyed by fire. They rebuilt the mills and by 1889 the mills were producing over ten thousand barrels of flour every day. Charles paid his workers well and shared the company’s profits at year’s end with his employees.
During the 1880’s wheat and flour prices were depressed and competition increased. In a decision influenced by their desire to expand into the British market, and ultimately worldwide, the Pillsburys allowed a British consortium to purchase a controlling interest in the company. The new company name would be Pillsbury-Washburn Company, Ltd., the largest flour milling company in the world. The Pillsbury family still retained significant stock in the company and Charles was the managing director. With a means to market his products internationally, he was instrumental in making “Pillsbury’s Best” a recognizable, worldwide trade name. The rest, as they say, is history.
Charles Alfred Pillsbury died on September 17, 1899 at the age of fifty-six. The Pillsbury family re-acquired the company in 1923, selling it again in 1989. The brand is now owned by General Mills.
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Feudin’ and Fightin’ Friday: Battle at the Sandbar
This “battle” only lasted about ten minutes, and perhaps only receiving historical mention because from it emerged the legend of James “Jim” Bowie, expert knife-fighter, who less than a decade later famously perished at the Battle of the Alamo.
James Bowie was born in Kentucky in 1796, the son of Rezin and Elve Ap-Catesby (Jones) Bowie. By 1801 his family had migrated to Rapides, Louisiana and sworn allegiance to the Spanish government. During his teen years, James hauled lumber down the river to market. Fond of fishing and hunting, it is said that he also rode wild horses and alligators (maybe more legend than fact). James and his brother Rezin decided to join Andrew Jackson’s forces during the War of 1812, but soon after their decision to join the war had officially ended.
After the war James and his brother were involved in the slave trade. Bowie would purchase slaves from the pirate Jean Lafitte and then sell them in St. Landry Parish. When they had accumulated a fortune of $65,000, they exited the slave trade business and turned to land speculation, making friends with local wealthy plantation owners.
When James applied for a loan from the local bank, he was turned down. Major Norris Wright was a bank director and neighbor of the Bowies, and said to have been responsible for blocking the loan. Their relationship was contentious at times – the Bowies had once opposed him in a sheriff’s election, supporting Wright’s opponent. When the two men met unexpectedly in Alexandria, Wright shot Bowie point-blank — although the bullet was deflected, some say by a silver dollar in his pocket. Bowie’s gun misfired (or perhaps he was unarmed) so he wasn’t able to defend himself. Legend has it that Rezin then gave James a large butcher-type knife to carry for his protection so he would never be without a means to defend himself. Later the knife would be called a “Bowie Knife,” especially after the incident that happened the following year.
Two men, Samuel Levi Wells III and Dr. Thomas Maddox, had challenged each other to a duel. The face-off was to be held on a sandbar just north of Natchez, Mississippi on September 19, 1827. Samuel Wells later gave his own account:
I was invited by Dr. Maddox, not long since, to an interview without the limits of the state, I met him at Natchez, on the 18th inst. and on the 18th I was challenged by him. I appointed the 19th for the day, and the first sand beach above Natchez, on the Mississippi side, for the place of meeting. We met, exchanged two shots without effect, and made friends.
Wells and his friend Major George McWhorter and Wells’ surgeon, Dr. Cuney (everyone needs to have their surgeon present at a duel!) were invited by Dr. Maddox and his friend Colonel Crain and surgeon Dr. Cuney to the woods where other friends, excluded from the dueling field, had stationed themselves. As they were walking over to the area where they would partake of “after-dueling refreshments,” they were met by General Cuney, James Bowie and Thomas Jefferson Wells, Samuel’s brother.
General Cuney inquired as to how the affair had been settled and Wells told him that he and Dr. Maddox had “exchanged two shots and made friends.” Wells continued his version of the events:
He [General Cuney] turned to Colonel Crane [sic] who was near me, and observed to him that there was a difference between them, and that they had better return to the ground & settle it as Dr. Maddox and myself had done. Dr. Cuney and myself interposed and stated to the General that that was not the time nor the place for the adjustment of their difference; the General immediately acquiesced; and his brother had turned to leave him, when Crane [sic], without replying to General Cuney, or saying one word fired a pistol at him, which he carried in his hand, but without effect. I then stepped back one or two paces, when Crane [sic] drew from his belt another pistol, fired at and wounded Gen. Cuney in the thigh; he expired in about fifteen minutes.
Apparently Colonel Crain had pre-meditatively planned the confrontation with Cuney. Crain had been overheard earlier telling friends in Natchez that if the General made an appearance at the duel he intended to kill him, and as Wells puts it, “and well has he kept his promise.” A man referred to only as “Dr. Hunt” had tried to warn Cuney the night before but was unable to locate him.
After Crain killed Cuney, he drew his gun, fired and wounded Bowie in the hip. Bowie drew his knife and rushed Crain. However, Crain struck Bowie’s head with his empty pistol, bringing Bowie to his knees, breaking the pistol. Virgil E. Baugh, author of Rendevous at the Alamo: Highlights in the Lives of Bowie, Crockett, and Travis, provides the rest of the story, taken from the recollections of a Bowie family historian and a Southern newspaper article:
Before [Crain] could recover he was seized by Dr. Maddox who held him down for some moments, but, collecting his strength, he hurled Maddox off just as Major Wright approached and fired at the wounded Bowie, who, steadying himself against a log, half buried in the sand, fired at Wright, the ball passing through the latter’s body. Wright then drew a sword-cane, and rushing upon Bowie, exclaimed, “Damn you, you have killed me.” Bowie met the attack, and seizing his assailant, plunged his “bowie-knife” into his body, killing him instantly. At the same moment Edward Blanchard shot Bowie in the body, but had his arm shattered by a ball from [Thomas] Jefferson Wells.
The aftermath of the “fight at the duel”: Major Wright and General Cuney killed; Bowie, Crain and Blanchard badly wounded. According to the family historian, Colonel Crain brought water for Bowie. Bowie “politely thanked him, but remarked that he did not think Crain had acted properly in firing upon him when he was exchanging shots with Maddox. In later years Bowie and Crain became reconciled, and, each having great respect for the other, remained friends until death.”
Bowie was taken away and presumed to have been mortally wounded – but Bowie recovered. What would also become legendary was Bowie’s ability to survive. The earliest news articles (even though published weeks after the actual incident) were reporting that Bowie was not expected to survive. But survive he did to fight another day.
Witnesses began to spread the word of Bowie’s knife skills – they all remembered Bowie’s “big butcher knife.” Thus began the legend of Jim Bowie and his formidable knife-fighting skills. Thereafter, newspaper articles written about fights and disputes would often make mention of a “Bowie Knife.” A blacksmith by the name of James Black made the first official Bowie Knife for Bowie in 1830. After Jim Bowie’s death at the Alamo in 1836, Black did a brisk business selling the knives to pioneers headed to Texas.
The “Battle of the Sandbar” wasn’t the last duel/fight that Jim Bowie would be involved in. In 1829 he tangled with John “Bloody” Sturdivant in Natchez. He had traveled to Natchez to help the son of a family friend, Dr. William Lattimore. The son had been duped by Sturdivant in a crooked faro game and Bowie was there to help even the score. Bowie, although not an expert card player, was able to win back the son’s losses.
Sturdivant was bragging that had he been at the Sandbar duel he would have made sure Bowie had died that day. When Bowie returned to respond to Sturdivant’s threats, he was challenged to a knife fight with these rules: the two men would have their left hands tied together across a table. Bowie accepted the terms and swiftly knifed his opponent’s right arm. Although not mortally wounded, Bowie had made his point with Sturdivant. According to Rendevous at the Alamo, Sturdivant hired three assassins to hunt down and kill Bowie. Although no official accounts remain, it is said that Bowie killed all three men “in his first fight using Black’s knife.”
Bowie knives are still made today and sold ubiquitously, even at Walmart, where they are advertised as: “This Winchester Large Bowie Knife is a gargantuan, multi-purpose tool that will come in handy in nearly any situation. Its beefy 8.75″ fixed blade is made from stainless steel, so it is durable and dependable.”
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Wild Weather Wednesday: The Great Natchez Tornado of 1840
On May 7, 1840 a massive tornado tore through Natchez, Mississippi. Just the night before the area on both sides of the river, Concordia Parish in Louisiana and Adams County in Mississippi, were drenched with over three inches of rain. With all the rain in the area, farmers wouldn’t be planting that day. Nevertheless, the area around Natchez and Vidalia (across the river on the Louisiana side) hummed with activity.
Historically, southwestern Mississippi had been inhabited by Natchez Indians, perhaps as early as A.D. 700 until the 1730’s. Fort Rosalie was established by the French in 1716. With a fort to provide protection from the Indians, permanent settlements began to spring up around the area. There were, of course, conflicts with the Indians, primarily over land use and resources.
On November 29, 1729 the Natchez tribe, joined by the Chickasaw and Yazoo tribes, attacked Fort Rosalie in what came to be known as the “Natchez Massacre.” Over two hundred French colonists were killed that day and the Natchez seized Fort Rosalie. The French retaliated by massacring an entire village of Chaouacha – a group who had nothing to do with the attack on Fort Rosalie. The French, along with Choctaw allies, began a campaign to conquer the Natchez who were then sold into slavery. By the mid-to-late 1730’s the Natchez had been driven away and forced to live with other tribes.
The Spanish and British had a presence in the area, and after the Revolutionary War British claims were ceded to the United States under the terms of the 1793 Treaty of Paris. The Spanish still maintained at least some control until the 1795 Treaty of San Lorenzo, although it took over two years for the Spanish forces around Natchez to receive word. Their surrender came on March 30, 1798 and a week later Natchez was designated as the first capital of Mississippi Territory.
Although the capital was eventually moved to Jackson, Natchez continued to grow and develop into a hub of economic activity, especially the exportation of cotton. The town’s strategic location on the Mississippi River allowed local plantation owners to have their cotton loaded on steamboats at Natchez-Under-The-Hill for transport either downriver to New Orleans or upriver to St. Louis and beyond. Natchez had a burgeoning slave trade market which also contributed to the area’s economy.
On May 7, 1840 there were scores of boats assembled under-the-hill – steamboats, flat boats, skiffs – not just for cotton export but to trade produce and other goods. Just after noon that day a severe thunderstorm moved through the area, accompanied by another round of drenching rain. Simultaneously, about twenty miles southwest of Natchez, a tornado was forming and headed northeast toward the Natchez-Vidalia area.
The tornado roared along the Mississippi, stripping forests and vegetation on both shores. When the tornado reached Natchez Landing, flat boats were tossed into the river, drowning both crew and passengers. Other boats were tossed onto land and those unfortunate enough to be working along the landing area were also killed. Accuweather.com notes that this was the only tornado in United States history where more people were killed than injured – at least 317 were killed and 109 injured.
Some historians believe the death toll was underestimated since during that period of history slaves were possibly not counted. The Natchez Free Trader headlined the tragic event as “Dreadful Visitation of Providence”. The story was picked up by other newspapers, but in many cases news did not reach the rest of the country for days, even weeks afterwards. The Pittsburgh Gazette finally mentioned the devastating storm on May 20 – almost two weeks after the event, and long before the era of “yellow journalism” when headlines would have “screamed” in massive ALL CAPS sensationalism. Oh what a difference one hundred and seventy-four years makes!
The Free Reader dramatically described the tornado and its aftermath:
About 1 o’clock on Thursday, the 7th inst, the attention of the citizens of Natchez were attracted by an [un]usual and continuous roar of thunder to the southward, at which point hung masses of black clouds, some of them stationary, and others whirling along with under currents, but all driving a little east of north. As there was evidently much lightning, the continual roar of growling thunder, although noticed and spoken of by many, created no particular alarm.
The dinner bells in the large hotels had rung, a little before 2 o’clock, and most of our citizens were sitting at their tables, when, suddenly, the atmosphere was darkened, so as to require the lighting of candles, and in a few moments afterwards, the rain was precipitated in tremendous cataracts rather than drops. In another moment the tornado, in all its wrath, was upon us. The strongest buildings shook as if tossed by an earthquake; the air was black with whirling eddies of house walls, roofs, chimnies [sic], huge timbers torn from distant ruins, all shot through the air as if thrown by some mighty catapult. . . The greater part of the ruin was effected in the short space of 3 to 5 minutes, although the heavy sweeping tornado lasted nearly half an hour. For about five minutes it was more like the explosive force of gunpowder than any thing else it could have been compared to. Hundreds of rooms were burst open as sudden as if barrels of gunpowder had been ignited in each.
Lloyd’s Steamboat Directory, published in 1856, chronicled “Disasters on the Western Waters” and included a story about the Natchez tornado. Although there were always several boats docked in Natchez at any one time, the Steamboat Directory especially noted that: “A tax had recently been laid on flat-boats at Vicksburg, on which account many of them had dropped down to Natchez, so that there was an unusually large number of these boats collected at the last-named city at the time of the tornado.”
The steamboat Hinds was blown into the river and sunk, and all crew members and passengers, except four men, were lost. The Hinds was swept all the way down to Baton Rouge, where it was later found with fifty-one dead bodies – forty-eight males and three females, one of them being a three-year old girl. The steamboat Prairie had just pulled in from St. Louis carrying a shipment of lead. Everything above the deck was swept off and all crew and passengers presumed to have perished. One other steamboat, the H. Lawrence, was sheltered somewhat and although severely damaged was not sunk. One boat, the Mississippian, used as a floating hotel and grocery store, was sunk. Of the one hundred and twenty flat boats at the landing that day, all but four were lost and most of the men who operated them were killed, possibly as many as two hundred.
The Steamboat Directory provided this historical account:
For its violence and destructive effects, this tornado was without precedent in the recollection of the oldest inhabitant of that region. The water in the river was agitated to that degree that the best swimmers could not sustain themselves on the surface. The waves rose to the height of ten or fifteen feet. Many houses in the vicinity of Natchez were blown down, and many buildings in the city were unroofed; the roofs, in some instances, being carried half-way across the river. People found it impossible to stand on the shore. One man was blown from the top of the hill (sixty feet high) and well into the river forty yards from the bank. Heavy beams of timber and other ponderous objects were blown about like straws. Great was the consternation of the inhabitants of Natchez and its neighborhood, and owing to this cause, perhaps, many persons were drowned for want of prompt assistance.
The storm was thought to have been approximately two miles in width since devastation was also seen across the river in Vidalia. While the devastation was immense down at Natchez-Under-the-Hill, the upper part of the city also suffered great damage – hardly a house escaped damage or complete ruin. Homes, hotels and churches were missing roofs or leveled altogether. The Vidalia Court House was “utterly torn down.” While there were many injuries in Vidalia, there was only one fatality. Parish Judge G.W. Keeton was instantly killed while dining with a fellow attorney.
Some citizens were able to make their way to the river and rescue some who were still alive and before their bodies would have been swept down the river. Sorting through the bodies and burying the dead would take some time. In its article, the Free Trader begged the indulgence of their readers while they restored order to their offices. The building was heavily damaged, confusion reigned and residents throughout the city were in shock. The Free Trader summed up the aftermath: “Our beautiful city is shattered as if it had been stormed by all the cannon of Austerlitz. Our delightful China trees are all torn up. We are peeled and desolate.”
The monetary damages were adding up – just days after the storm the Free Trader was estimating at least $1,260,000, close to $30 million in today’s dollars. At that time there was no way to measure a tornado’s strength, but to this day the Natchez storm remains on record as the second deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
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Tombstone Tuesday: Zadoc Bliss
Zadoc Bliss was born on February 11, 1837 in Deersville, Harrison County, Ohio to parents Ralph L. and Sarah Sherrow Bliss. Ralph and Sarah married in Guernsey County, Ohio on April 21, 1836 and Zadoc was their first child, named after his grandfather Zadoc Bliss. Grandfather Zadoc and Grandmother Keziah Bliss were born in Connecticut and traveled as pioneers first to Columbiana County, Ohio and then on to Harrison County in 1824. Zadoc was a direct descendant of Thomas Bliss who migrated to New England in 1635, featured in this Surname Saturday article.
Zadoc and Keziah both received land grants in Harrison County, settling in a wilderness area which they would have to clear and cultivate. At that time, Ohio was considered “far west.” Zadoc was a Whig and a staunch abolitionist. He and Keziah were active members of the Christian (Disciples) Church. One family historian noted that they must have been lovers of music since some of their children conducted “singing schools” and sang in their church – something that would be passed down to their grandson.
Ralph Bliss was the first child and son of Zadoc and Keziah, born in Connecticut. In 1835 he purchased land which had originally been deeded to his father, one year before he married Sarah. Ralph died in Pike County, Illinois in 1863 and Sarah died possibly around 1845.
The first census record where Zadoc’s name appeared was in 1850 at the age of thirteen. Ralph, a farmer, had remarried Mary (surname unknown) and they had one child together, Phebe, Zadoc’s half-sister, along with siblings Eunice, James and Keziah.
Ten years later Zadoc was enumerated in the household of Johnson Hitchcock of Harrison County. I believe he might have been working there that day as a carpenter because his personal estate is listed separately. It’s possible he was related to Johnson Hitchcock since historical records indicate the Bliss and Hitchcock family had intermarried even back to eighteenth century Massachusetts.
In May 16, 1861, Zadoc married Virginia Conn Holmes in Harrison County. Zadoc was a carpenter and the family continued to live near Franklin in Harrison County. In 1864, both sides were having problems conscripting enough able-bodied men to serve in the Civil War. Ohio’s governor, John Brough, offered up to 30,000 Ohio state militia to serve for one hundred days, also known as “Hundred Days Men” or “hundred-dazers.”
On May 2, 1864, Zadoc was mustered into service in Bellaire, Ohio as a private in Company B of the 170th Regiment Ohio Voluntary Infantry, under the command of Colonel Miles J. Saunders. Their first deployment was to Washington, D.C. where they were assigned to garrison duties at forts in the D.C. area. On July 4 they were tasked to Sandy Hook, Maryland to defend Maryland Heights until July 15.
Some companies served in operations in the Shenandoah Valley from July 15 until August 24, while some were sent to Snicker’s Gap on July 17-18 and Rocky Ford on July 18. Parts of the regiment were engaged at the Battle of Kernstown on July 24 and some were tasked with guarding supply trains at Harper’s Ferry until August 24. The 170th was mustered out on September 10, 1864. A total of twenty-four deaths were reported: five mortally wounded and nineteen from disease.
After returning from service, Zadoc and Virginia began their family. Their first child, Sarah Louise (“Lulu”) was born in 1865. Four other children followed:
Mary Alice – 20 Nov 1867
George Thompson – 06 Apr 1872
Lucretia – 13 Jul 1883
Margaret Josephine – 25 Mar 1885
Between 1870 and 1880, the family migrated to Tuscarawas County (Harrison County had been carved from parts of Tuscarawas County). They settled in the town of Ulrichsville, which had been founded in 1804 and officially incorporated in 1866. They were charter members of the Ulrichsville Christian Church. According to one family historian, Zadoc was a “singing Bliss” who loved to sing and possessed a clear tenor voice. There is a clear history of Bliss family musical talents. Philip Paul Bliss, a cousin of Zadoc’s, was a well-known hymn writer and bass-baritone singer, featured in this Hymspiration article.
Nearby was Dennison which was incorporated in 1873, a railroad town halfway between Columbus, Ohio and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Railroad’s offices and railroad shops were located in Dennison and Zadoc was employed there until he retired in 1906.
Virginia died on April 1, 1900 and at aged 63 Zadoc was enumerated as a widower in June of that year. Lucretia (16) and Margaret (15) were still living with their father. His daughters married and remained in Ohio. George was living in Oklahoma Territory in 1898 when he, much like his father years before, was called up for short-term service in the Spanish American War as part of the 1st Territorial Voluntary Infantry. The 1st consisted of volunteers from the territories of Arizona, Oklahoma (Indian Territory) and New Mexico. Less than a month after they mustered in the war ended with an armistice on August 13, 1898, although the unit continued to serve until December 10.
After his retirement, Zadoc lived with Mary Alice (married to Charles T. Johnson) in Dennison, until his death at the age of eighty-seven, on December 4, 1923 (some records indicate he died on December 24, 1924, but official Ohio death records reflect the 1923 date). He was buried in Union Cemetery in Ulrichsville.
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Military History Monday: Hundred Days Men
By 1864 it was becoming increasingly more difficult to conscript enough able-bodied men to fight for either the North or South. Before the war began in early April of 1861, the United States Army had around 16,400 officers and men. On April 9, 1861 a call was made for the District of Columbia to muster ten companies of militia. There was some resistance as evidenced by one company of 100 men: two officers, one sergeant, one corporal, one musician and ten privates refused to muster.
Less than a week later, President Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen to serve three months. By May he was calling for 500,000 to serve three years. In 1862 there were calls for 300,000 to serve three years and later that year another 300,000 to serve for nine months. As the war continued unabated, calls for more enlistments were issued. Some would re-enlist after their term of service had expired. Even with a large numbers of troop already assembled, Lincoln made a special plea in 1863 and 1864, first to Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.
This article is no longer available for free at this site. It was re-written and enhanced, complete with footnotes and sources and has been published in the April 2018 issue of Digging History Magazine. Should you prefer to purchase the article only, contact me for more information.
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Surname Saturday: Bliss
Bliss
The Bliss surname is believed to have been brought to England during the migration following the Norman Conquest of 1066, possibly a reference to Blois in the Loir-et-Cher region of France. Another place which might be connected to this surname was “Bleis,” located in a region of northwest France, and recorded in 1077.
Families with this surname settled primarily in Leicestershire and Worcestershire, England. Some sources believe the village of Stoke Bliss in Worcestershire was named after the Norman family “de Blez,” notably William de Blez. One home owned by William de Blez in the twelfth century was known as “Stok in Herfordshire,” which then became “Stoke de Blez” and later “Stoke Bliss.” Similiarly, a manor in Staunton on Wye was first named after its landlords “de Bleez” or “de Blees”.
Another source, P.H. Reaney, author of Dictionary of British Surnames, believes the name was either derived from the de Blez family of Normandy or the Middle English noun “blisse,” which of course means joy or gladness. Recorded spelling variations include “Bliss”, “Bleys”, “Blois”, “Bloys”, “Bloiss”, “Blisse”, “Blysse” to name a few.
Thomas Bliss
Thomas, son of Thomas Bliss, Sr., was born in 1583. Like so many who came to New England in the early seventeenth century, Thomas Bliss, Sr. and his family were persecuted for their staunch Puritan faith. After King Charles I re-assembled both Houses of Parliament in early 1628, his sons Jonathan and Thomas, Jr. traveled to London to view the proceedings and to confront Archbishop Laud, one of their persecutors. According to family historian John Homer Bliss, they “remained sometime in the city, long enough at least for Charles’ officers and spies to learn their names and condition, and whence they came; and from that time forth they, with others who had come to London on the same errand, were marked for destruction.”
For their non-conformity they were fined a thousand pounds and imprisoned for several weeks. The elder Thomas was dragged through the streets, and officers of the High Commission also seized their livestock. The three sons of Thomas, Sr., along with twelve other men, were paraded through the marketplace with ropes around their necks, and Jonathan and Thomas, Sr. were thrown in prison.
After enduring intense and relentless persecution, Thomas, Jr. and his other brother George, decided to immigrate to New England. Jonathan aspired to go but his physical health had been significantly weakened due to long imprisonments and damp, unhealthy prison cells; he died without ever seeing America. Jonathan’s son Thomas immigrated in 1636 and joined his uncle who had settled on the south side of Boston Bay. Thomas and his family soon made their way to the Hartford settlement. They were farmers and some of the first original land owners of Hartford. Thomas had several children by his two wives: Thomas, Ann, Sarah, Nathaniel, Mary, Lawrence, Hannah, John, Samuel and twins Hester and Elizabeth, all born in England except the last three.
His daughter Mary married Joseph Parsons, who later became one of the wealthiest men in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1646. Mary Bliss Parsons, however, had anything but a blissful life – she was accused of witchcraft … repeatedly!
Mary Bliss Parsons
Joseph and Mary Parsons lived for a time in Springfield after their marriage but in 1654 moved to Northampton. Even before the couple married, Joseph had set himself on the path to prosperity and wealth, perhaps due to trading with the Indians. Not yet thirty years old he had already served in various local offices and attained a stature not usually accorded someone of his age.
After arriving in Northampton Joseph continued to prosper as a merchant. He worked with the Pynchon family (perhaps kin of his) who were the principle fur traders in that area, a chartered monopoly actually. He eventually opened a store in Northampton, along with other enterprises such as a grist and saw mill and was licensed to sell liquor. With wealth and success, however, came legal entanglements and Joseph was often in court, suing or being sued.
Some cases involved debt settlement or enforcement of covenants and contracts, but some were of a more serious nature. From Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of New England by John Putnam Demos:
In 1664, for example, he was presented and “admonished” in court for his “lascivious carriage to some women of Northampton.” A few months later he was fined £5 for his “high contempt of authority” in resisting a constable’s efforts to attach some of his property in another case. (Witnesses reported some “scuffling in the business, whereby blood was drawn between them.” Joseph publicly acknowledged his offence, and the court abated part of his fine.) A year later Joseph was fined again “for contemptuous behavior toward the Northampton commissioners and toward the selectmen, and for disorderly carriage when the company were about the choice of military officers.” These cases suggest something of his character and personal style. Defined by his own achievements as a man of authority, Joseph did not easily brook the authority of others. Energetic, shrewd, resourceful as he evidently was, he displayed a rough edge in dealings with others. He was, on all these grounds, a figure to be reckoned with.
Mary, of course, shared in the fruits of her husband’s business acumen and success. Tradition holds that she was remembered in her town as being “possessed of great beauty and talents, but . . . not very amiable . . . exclusive in the choice of her associates, and . . . of haughty manners.” The attributes of “not very amiable” and “of haughty manners” could have been assigned to her as a result of dealings in her own lawsuits and trials for the crime of witchcraft.
Mary had twelve pregnancies (two sets of twins), fourteen delivered and named, and nine children raised to adulthood. Perhaps with her husband’s wealth and success and her own success at bearing and raising children, she was envied by some in her community. At least one source speculates that the community began to circulate rumors of witchcraft, assuming that her husband’s success came as a result of such activity.
One of Mary’s primary accusers, Sarah Bridgeman, was sued by Joseph for slander in 1656. Some believe that Sarah was envious of the Parsons’ success. Sarah’s testimony included her assertion that any time a disagreement or argument had ensued with Mary Parsons or her family, the Bridgeman family would experience some unfortunate and unexpected event such as livestock contracting a fatal disease and dying. In Sarah’s mind, it was Mary’s way of exacting revenge apparently. Sarah also blamed Mary for an injury one of her children sustained, and even the loss of her infant son. This is what Sarah imagined and testified to in court:
I [Sarah] being brought to bed, about three days after as I was sitting up, having the child in my lap, there was something that gave a great blow on the door. And that very instant, as I apprehended, my child changed. And I thought with myself and told my girl that I was afraid my child would die…Presently… I looking towards the door, through a hole…I saw…two women pass by the door, with white clothes on their heads; then I concluded my child would die indeed. And I sent my girl out to see who they were, but she could see nobody, and this made me think there is wickedness in the place.
That must have seemed a bit far-fetched and the court agreed. Sarah’s husband James was ordered to pay a fine of £10 and court costs. Sarah was required to make a public apology. After so convincing a verdict, one would think the matter was settled. However, rumors and accusations persisted for several years. In 1674 Mary was again accused, but this time she was the defendant, and as you might guess, the aggrieved party was the Bridgeman family.
The Bridgeman’s daughter, Mary Bartlett, had died suddenly in August of 1674. She left behind her husband Samuel and an infant son. Samuel Bartlett and James Bridgeman were convinced, and testified to same, that “she came to her end by some unlawful and unnatural means … by means of some evil instrument.” Who else to blame but Mary Parsons?
The trial began on September 29 and Mary no doubt defended herself vigorously. According to Annals of Witchcraft in New England:
The Substance of her Speech was, that “she did assert her own Innocency, often mentioning how clear she was of such a Crime, and that the righteous God knew her Innocency, and she left her Cause in his Hand.”
The court wasn’t convinced yet of her innocence and they “appointed a Jury of soberdized, chaste Women to make diligent Search upon the Body of Mary Parsons, whether any Marks of Witchcraft appear, who gave in their Account to the Court on Oath, of what they found.” Whether or not any evidence was found is not known, but the court deferred action twice until on January 5, 1675 the case was reconvened. Further testimony was held, and curiously, Mary’s son John was accused of witchcraft as well, but dismissed without cause.
Mary was bound over for another appearance in March, secured by a bond of £50 which was paid by Joseph. At the March court appearance, Mary was indicted by the grand jury and ordered to prison until the official trial in May. On May 13, 1675 the official indictment was again read:
. . . in that she had, not having the Fear of God before her Eyes, entered into Familiarity with the Devil, and committed sundry Acts of Witchcraft on the Person or Persons of one or more.
Mary pleaded not guilty and was cleared by the jury. It’s not likely that Mary Bliss Parsons ever escaped the accusations hurled against her for years. Some believe that perhaps she was once again accused in 1679 although there don’t appear to be any records to corroborate that theory. In 1679 or 1680 the Parson family moved back to Springfield, where Joseph died in 1683. He left behind an impressive estate of £2,088. Mary passed away in January of 1712.
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Feisty Females: Martha Jane Canary, a.k.a. “Calamity Jane”
Many stories have been written about today’s “feisty female”, but if based on her short autobiography, it’s debatable whether they are true or not. Generally speaking, she was known for her “wild side” and it was legendary, based on the numerous stories in newspapers across the country beginning in the mid-1870s. Legends of America describes her like this:
she … [grew] up to look and act like a man, shoot like a cowboy, drink like a fish, and exaggerate the tales of her life to any and all who would listen.
The Encyclopedia Britannica backs up that observation: “The facts of her life are confused by her own inventions and by the successive stories and legends that accumulated in later years.”
Martha Jane Canary, a.k.a. “Calamity Jane” was born near Princeton, Missouri on May 1, 1852 to parents Robert and Charlotte. Martha was the oldest of six children. Her father, a farmer, moved the family to Virginia City, Montana in 1865.
In her short autobiographical sketch (written for publicity purposes in 1896), Martha wrote (or dictated – she may have been illiterate) that she spent the majority of the five-month trip with the men of the party – she boasted that hunting, scouting and fording streams provided more excitement and adventure. A sampling of her exploits:
Many times in crossing the mountains the conditions of the trail were so bad that we frequently had to lower the wagons over ledges by hand with ropes for they were so rough and rugged that horses were of no use. We also had many exciting times fording streams for many of the streams in our way were noted for quicksands and boggy places, where, unless we were very careful, we would have lost horses and all. Then we had many dangers to encounter in the way of streams swelling on account of heavy rains. On occasions of that kind the men would usually select the best places to cross the streams, myself on more than on occasion have mounted my pony and swam across the stream several times merely to amuse myself and have had many narrow escapes from having both myself and pony washed away to certain death, but as the pioneers of those days had plenty of courage we overcame all obstacles and reached Virginia City in safety.
Her mother died at Black Foot, Montana in 1866, before the family reached its destination, and was buried there. Martha and her remaining family departed sometime during the spring of that year and headed to Utah where she remained until her father died in 1867. She doesn’t mention it in her “memoir” but it’s possible she was in charge of her siblings, being the oldest child. Her life is so sketchy and often misrepresented (primarily by her own account) it’s difficult to determine. In the July-August 2003 edition of the American Cowboy magazine, the article speculates that her siblings were adopted by Mormon families while she began her career as a wild-west drifter.
By that time she was an attractive fifteen-year old young woman, who chose to dress in men’s clothes, pulling her hair up under a big hat and further taking on the appearance of a man or older boy. If her own self-proclaimed exploits are to be believed, she worked for the Union Pacific Railroad, an ox cart driver for the Army, wagon train packer and mule skinner. It’s likely she worked whatever job she could find including dishwasher, cook, nurse, and some say prostitute.
After departing Utah, with or without siblings, she headed to Fort Bridger, Wyoming. In 1870 she claimed to have joined up with General Custer’s outfit as a scout. She remarked, “[W]hen I joined Custer I donned the uniform of a soldier. It was a bit awkward at first but I soon got to be perfectly at home in men’s clothes.”
After wintering in Arizona in 1871, she returned to Wyoming to serve during the Army’s engagement with the Nez Perce – or “Nursey Pursey” as she called them in her memoir. During that campaign she earned her sobriquet, “Calamity Jane”. Her version of the event:
It was during this campaign that I was christened Calamity Jane. It was on Goose Creek, Wyoming, where the town of Sheridan is now located. Capt. Egan was in command of the Post. We were ordered out to quell an uprising of the Indians, and were out for several days, had numerous skirmishes during which six of the soldiers were killed and several severely wounded. When on returning to the Post we were ambushed about a mile and a half from our destination. When fired upon Capt. Egan was shot. I was riding in advance and on hearing the firing turned in my saddle and saw the Captain reeling in his saddle as though about to fall. I turned my horse and galloped back with all haste to his side and got there in time to catch him as he was falling. I lifted him onto my horse in front of me and succeeded in getting him safely to the Fort. Capt. Egan on recovering, laughingly said: “I name you Calamity Jane, the heroine of the plains.”
American Cowboy indicated that the Captain said, “Jane, you’re a wonderful little woman to have around in a time of calamity.” One other version speculates she was given the name by the editor of the Laramie Boomerang – for her presence at various calamities in the form of shootouts and street brawls.
After a brief illness in 1876 while serving with General Crook (who was on his way to join Custer at the Little Bighorn), she headed instead to Fort Laramie where she became acquainted with James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok. The two of them then traveled together to Deadwood, South Dakota.
Some historians surmise that Jane and Hickok had a romantic relationship. If you go to her entry on the Find-A-Grave web site, someone has created that illusion, linking to his entry as her spouse, as well as them having a child together. However, another friend of Wild Bill’s, “Colorado Charley” Utter, declared that “Wild Bill would have died rather than share a bed with Jane.” She was also rumored to have been a friend of the mysterious and exotic Eleanore Dumont, a.k.a. “Madame Moustache.”
After arriving in Deadwood, she worked as a Pony Express rider between Deadwood and Custer. On August 2, 1876, Hickok was gambling at a saloon when he was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall. McCall would later claim that he was avenging the killing of his brother in Abilene, Kansas at the hand of Wild Bill. The jury found McCall innocent of the charge of murder. McCall left for Wyoming but just a short time later it was determined that the Deadwood trial had no legal basis since it was located in Indian Territory. He was re-arrested in Laramie on August 29, charged with murder and transported to Yankton, South Dakota to be re-tried. This time he was found guilty and hanged.
Calamity Jane’s version is “somewhat” different:
On the 2nd of August, while setting at a gambling table in the Bell Union saloon, in Deadwood, he was shot in the back of the head by the notorious Jack McCall, a desperado. I was in Deadwood at the time and on hearing of the killing made my way at once to the scene of the shooting and found that my friend had been killed by McCall. I at once started to look for the assassin and found him at Shurdy’s butcher shop and grabbed a meat cleaver and made him throw up his hands; through the excitement on hearing of Bill’s death, having left my weapons on the post of my bed. He was then taken to a log cabin and locked up, well secured as every one thought, but he got away and was afterwards caught at Fagan’s ranch on Horse Creek, on the old Cheyenne road and was then taken to Yankton, Dakota, where he was tried, sentenced and hung.
She remained in Deadwood working the mining camps surrounding the area. When a smallpox plague broke out she helped to nurse people back to health, so she had a tender side. She, however, was still rough around the edges and a brawler who hung out with gunslingers and other disreputable characters.
Another one of her legendary exploits occurred in 1877 while she was riding to Crook City. She came upon a stagecoach that was being pursued by Indians. As she pulled alongside the stagecoach she noticed that the driver was “lying face downwards in the boot of the stage,” having been mortally wounded by the Indians. After the coach pulled up to a station, she took over the reigns of the coach and continued onto Deadwood with the six passengers and the dead driver.
By the mid-to-late 1870’s, Calamity Jane was beginning to make a name for herself, or at least by the legend of her exploits. Her name began to appear in newspapers beginning as early as 1875. Here, though, it’s still difficult to separate fact from fiction. One of the first newspaper accounts I found was in the Chicago Daily Tribune on June 19, 1875, declaring that hers was the same old, old story:
Calamity was a few years ago the respectable proprietress of a millinery store in Omaha. Calamity was good looking, and yielding to drink she soon became a homeless outcast, and as a natural result found herself out on the frontier repenting for a few months, and hiring out to do housework, then being found out, returning to her vicious life, until the next periodical fit of repentance came on.
Nevertheless, she seemed to be, at least in the minds of newspaper readers, whatever the newspaper chose to report, true or not. She apparently roamed all over the West for several years. In 1882 she took up ranching near the Yellowstone River and ran a “way side inn”. She vacated the ranch the following year and went to California, later traveling back to Utah and then back to San Francisco in 1884. In the summer of 1884 she headed to Texas, arriving in El Paso sometime in the fall. There she met Clinton Burke, a native Texan, and the two were married in August 1885. She gave birth to a baby girl on October 28, 1887.
She and her family left Texas in 1889 and moved to Boulder, Colorado where they ran a hotel. In 1893 the Burkes were again on the move, traveling throughout the West: Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and South Dakota. Her notoriety, and her exploits breathlessly reported across the country, must have gained her respect and awe through the years. I found one short obituary in the Council Grove Republican (Kansas) for a young child:
Died in Cowley county – the place of her birth – Calamity Jane, only child of Adversity Greenback and Calamity Howler. The child was only two years old, and died of that dreadful, dire, depressing disease, wind colic.
After meeting an agent of the Kohl & Middleton Dime Museum, she came under their management, promoted as the “Greatest of Attractions: Pioneer New Woman”. At some point, I believe she and her husband must have parted ways. American Cowboy reported that the two divorced and her child was raised in a convent. Here too, it is debatable as to what really happened – some accounts claim she was married as many as a dozen times!
At some point, perhaps as early as 1893, she worked for William “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West Show as a storyteller and sharpshooter. She was still drinking and carousing freely, however, and was later fired. She found a place to sober up only to return to the bottle and brawling. In early 1901, newspapers were reporting her plight when she was admitted to the Gallatin County (Montana) Poorhouse:
Apparently she found a benefactress, however, who was willing to help. Mrs. Josephine Windfield Brake of Buffalo, New York came to her rescue after finding Jane in “the hut of a negress at Horr, near Livingstone” (Montana). Mrs. Brake, an author and correspondent for a New York newspaper, had heard of Calamity’s plight. Headlines proclaimed that Jane liked the change and would spend the remainder of her days in comfort – except that isn’t how it played out.
She made her way back West after her job at the Pan American Exposition (World’s Fair) in Buffalo didn’t work out. She had been working a rather sedate job selling books and receiving a commission. When she became suspicious of her share of the profits, she decided to join the Midway instead. One night she went on a drunken spree and tried to shoot up the whole Midway, which landed her in jail.
By the summer of 1903 she had arrived back in South Dakota. In January of that year she had gone on a rampage, as the Waterloo Press headline proclaimed: “Takes a Freak and ‘Shoots Up’ Town of Sheridan, Wyo.” After arriving in Sheridan she had begun to “load up with liquid enthusiasm.” Next on her agenda was “shooting up the town.” When her ammunition supply was spent, the town marshal put her on a train and sent her on her way. The newspaper noted that although she had been taken in by a Buffalo woman, “the life of an eastern city was too tame for a woman who had fought Indians and ‘plains’ whisky for years.”
After arriving back in South Dakota, she was taken in by Madam Dora DuFran, proprietor of a brothel in Belle Fourche. There Jane worked as a laundress and cook. In early August she was living in a small room in Terry, near Deadwood, and on August 2, 1903, Calamity Jane died. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that her last dying request, despite having had twelve husbands, was “that she be allowed to sleep by the side of the man she first loved” – Wild Bill Hickok.
The Enquirer also reported that she had “sent her daughter away for her own good.” Her friends begged her, during her last days, to reveal her daughter’s name but she refused – “Let her be,” she said. The newspaper speculated that the cause of Calamity’s decline and eventual demise was that during her fifty-one years, the “real Wild West was born and died. Its passing left her forlorn.”
She may have been a rough-and-tumble character, but the Enquirer reported that through those years she retained two “womanly traits”:
While she might be drunk one day and chasing Indians over the prairie another, she never missed an opportunity to put on skirts and diamonds at a dance. The next morning she would be ready for a trip with the Government mail, or perhaps would be cracking the bottles in a saloon with well aimed bullets. But she would stop abruptly even the incomparable pleasure of “shooting-up” a saloonful of miners bristling with guns, if some one should report a case of sickness. She never refused to go even great distances to nurse the sick back to health.
If one can manage to separate fact from fiction, such was the legend of Martha Jane Canary, a.k.a. “Calamity Jane.”
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Wild Weather Wednesday: The Great Flood of 1913 (Part Two)
By the morning of March 24, headlines reported news of the first devastating wave of weather that had first impacted Omaha, Nebraska (see last week’s article). A tornado later roared through Terra Haute with at least two dozen killed. Even though the articles reported at least ninety dead in Omaha and twenty-four in Terra Haute, the headlines proclaimed HUNDREDS KILLED:
Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Oklahoma had already been affected by the storm. By the time newspapers hit the streets on the 25th the death toll was being reported to have risen to 225 with over 750 injured. Damage estimates for Omaha were thought to be at least twelve million dollars.
The first story of flooding appeared on the 25th as well. After the tornado, Terra Haute was inundated with rain and flooding which caught both rural and city dwellers by surprise. Residents were already fleeing their homes as the flood waters surged. Thousands of acres of land were underwater with rivers and creeks out of their banks and levees breached. To prevent looting, the State Militia began boat patrols in devastated areas.
This article is no longer available on this web site. It will be re-written and enhanced with footnotes and sources in a future issue of Digging History Magazine. I invite you to check out Digging History Magazine. Since January 2018 new articles are published in a digital magazine (PDF) available by individual issue purchase or subscription (with three options). Most issues run between 70-85 pages, filled with articles of interest to history-lovers and genealogists — it’s all history, right? 🙂 No ads — just carefully-researched, well-written stories, complete with footnotes and sources.
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Tombstone Tuesday: Henry Collis and Zipporah Chandler Rice – Sodom Laurel, NC
Henry Collis and Zipporah (Chandler) Rice were both born and raised, lived and died, in Madison County, North Carolina in the heart of Appalachia. They are both buried in Rice Cove, a family cemetery. Their ancestors came from England, perhaps some from Scotland. Folklorist Bascom Lamar Lundsford called Madison County “the last stand of the natural people.” In 1917, ethnomusicologist Cecil Sharp described life in Madison County in his book English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians:
The region is from its inaccessibility a very secluded one. There are but few roads – most of them little better than mountain tracks – and practically no railroads. Indeed, so remote and shut off from outside influence were, until quite recently, these sequestered mountain valleys that the inhabitants have for a hundred years or more been completely isolated and cut off from all traffic with the rest of the world.
This article has been snipped and no longer available here. It was enhanced and included in the January-February 2021 issue of Digging History Magazine.
Check out Digging History Magazine. Since January 2018 new articles are published in a digital magazine (PDF) available by individual issue purchase or subscription (with three options). Most issues run between 70-85 pages, filled with articles of interest to history-lovers and genealogists — it’s all history, right? 🙂 No ads — just carefully-researched, well-written stories, complete with footnotes and sources.
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