Page 29 - Mark Boardman News Today

True West Magazine Their Courage Shaped a Nation “Resting here until day breaks and shadows fall and darkness disappears is Quanah Parker, the last chief of the Comanches” – Epitaph on Quanah Parker’s gravestone   On March 4, 1905, Comanche Chief Quanah Parker paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue in President Theodore Roosevelt’s inaugural parade. With him in the parade of 35,000 were five other Indian leaders: Geronimo, Little Plume, American Horse, Hollow Horn Bear and Buckskin Charlie...

True West Magazine The exploits of Old West notables usually obscure the stories of their loved ones. Case in point: John Wesley Hardin. When he started a 25-year prison term in 1878, left behind his wife Jane and three young children. They were left destitute, so they had to live with a family friend. In return for her room and board Jane worked by cooking, cleaning and sewing for the host family. The children also helped with chores. Jane’s health faded in the 1890s and she died of TB in 18...

True West Magazine Bat Masterson and Otto Floto had much in common. They were sportswriters in Denver. Each promoted boxing matches. Each had a pretty good opinion of his own talents and efforts. They were partners for a time, but in the late 1890s, a business deal went bad. In July 1900, they confronted one another on a Denver street. Things got heated until Masterson started using his cane on Floto, who ran away. Masterson followed, swinging his cane until Floto put distance between the two. ...

True West Magazine Clint Reno is often referred to as “Honest Clint”—primarily because he didn’t participate in the larger or more violent crimes led by his brothers with the Reno Gang.  But he wasn’t spotless. Clint was arrested on several occasions in the 1870s, most liquor or gambling related. In later life, he moved his family to Kansas—where he lost his mind, burning down his own house and threatening his wife. Clint Reno died in an insane asylum in 1921, reportedly begging fo...

True West Magazine For the Reno Gang of Indiana, their last big holdup was the last straw. They robbed a train near Marshfield, Indiana of some $97,000 (around $2-million today) on May 22, 1868. That was bad enough. But several days later, one of the railroad crewmen—shot during the hold-up—died of his wounds. At that point, citizens in southern Indiana began organizing a vigilante group to put an end to the gang. There is an irony: later, it was revealed that the late crew member may have ...

True West Magazine The vigilantes were determined when they entered the New Albany, Indiana jail on December 12, 1868.  The targets: four members of the Reno Gang, guilty of a variety of offenses including robbery, arson, counterfeiting, extortion and murder.  Except for one man. William Reno was the youngest member of the family.  The 20-year-old had no record of criminal activity.  In fact, other members of the gang repeatedly claimed that Will was innocent and should be spared.  The vig...

True West Magazine The Great Apache Scout Alchesay’s service to the U.S. earned him the nation’s highest honor. Alchesay Alchesay was a chief of the White Mountain Apaches—but he worked closely with the U.S. government.  In the 1870s and 1880s, he served as a scout for General George Crook.  In fact, he was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1873 for “Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches. After Geronimo finally surrendered in 1885, Alchesay went back to private lif...

True West Magazine Chief Naiche Geronimo is usually portrayed as the leader of the Chiricahua Apaches, the band that continually left the reservation and headed into Mexico in the 1880s. But the actual chief was Naiche, the son of Cochise. He recognized that, at some point, the Indians would have to adapt to white ways—and he worked toward that end, especially when they settled at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He also was a noted Native artisan, creating colorful paintings on deer skin and carving int...

True West Magazine Kicking Bird (Tene-angpote), a Kiowa chief and grandson of a Crow captive Kicking Bird was one of the greatest leaders of the Kiowa nation in the 1860s and 1870s. He was an outstanding warrior and a master tactician. But mostly, Kicking Bird was a peacemaker, trying to settle differences between the Kiowa and the whites. He understood that the tribes could not win a military conflict. That position wasn’t popular with all of the Indians and it probably led to his death. On ...

True West Magazine Leadville, Colorado by Boston & Ziegler c1880 For Doc Holliday, 1884-1885 was a booming period.  In August 1884, he and Billy Allen got sideways over a $5 debt that Doc failed to repay. Doc took a couple of shots at Allen in a Leadville, Colorado saloon.  One missed; the other hit Allen in the arm. Doc was charged with assault with intent to kill. Strangely, considering the charges, in November he served as a member of the mounted brigade of special police formed to guarant...