Was Wyatt Earp A Pimp?

Wyatt Earp in his 20's

So let's see, in 1871, at the age of 23, Wyatt Earp was arrested for being a horse thief. After he was arrested, he escaped from jail.

To my way of thinking, from what I've seen of the lawless type, I'd say that since he was running from the law in the Indian Territory, which is present-day Oklahoma, he must have left there as fast as he could on whatever stolen horse would carry him.

Some say he didn't show up again until he arrived in Wichita, Kansas, in 1873. Some have called 1871 and 1872 "Wyatt's Lost Years." But the fact is, he wasn't lost at all.

According to Wyatt himself, he was supposedly a Buffalo Hunter at that time, among his other adventures. That's right, Wyatt Earp told his biographer, Stuart Lake, that he hunted buffalo during the years 1871 and 1872. That was a lie. 

I'm not being harsh. I'm just saying that that couldn't have been true. Besides, according to Wyatt's own autobiography, he was a Buffalo Hunter, unlike all other Buffalo Hunters. You see, according to him, while others used a Sharps rifle and shot from a distance, which made the shot resemble thunder and didn't stampede the herd, Wyatt Earp claimed to have crept up on the herd and used a shotgun. Imagine that! And yes, he really said that!

Of course, the main reason that he couldn't have been a Buffalo Hunter when he said he was is that he was arrested on multiple occasions as a pimp. It's true. Arrest records prove that he was really a "pimp" in Peoria, Illinois, in 1871 and 1872.

So now, let's find out if he really was just a pimp and opportunist. Let's start taking a look at his character by looking at his stealing school funds. How low do you have to be to steal school funds?

On March 14th, 1871, Barton County, Missouri, filed a suit against Wyatt Earp and his sureties for $200. The lawsuit was based on the fact that Wyatt Earp, while Constable for Lamar from late 1869 to the middle of 1871, had collected fees for licenses for the town and kept it for himself.

The licensing fees were supposed to be used to support the local school fund. But they did not get there, and the county announced that Wyatt had not turned over the money he had collected. The action against Wyatt Earp was eventually vacated because Wyatt Earp fled town and couldn't be found. It was believed that he left the state.

Constable Charles Morgan, in an affidavit filed with the lawsuit, commented, ". . . he has good reason to believe & does believe that Wyatt S. Earp deft. is not a resident of this state, that Wyatt S. Earp has absconded or absented himself from his usual place of abode in this state so that the ordinary process of law cannot be served against him . . . ."

On March 31, 1871, a second lawsuit was filed against Wyatt Earp by James Cromwell. That suit alleged that Wyatt Earp had falsified court documents referring to the amount of money he had collected from Cromwell to satisfy a judgment. A summons was issued for Wyatt Earp to appear before the court on April 5, 1871. It was returned, not served. Wyatt could not be located in the county. Yes, he skipped town.

On April 21, 1871, the case went forward, and the court issued an "Execution For Costs." It ordered the Barton County Sheriff to seize the "Goods, Chattels and Real Estate" of Wyatt S. Earp. It is impossible to now know if the allegations against Wyatt Earp were true or not. Though that was the case, he chose to leave the state rather than face the allegations against him.

Of course, in April 1871, Wyatt Earp was accused of horse theft in the Indian Territory. The Federal Government started legal action against Earp and his alleged accomplices. A Bill of Information was filed on April 1, 1871:

"April 1, 1871, Bill Of Information. U. S. vs. Wyatt S. Earp, Ed Kennedy, John Shown, white men and not Indians or members of any tribe of Indians by birth or marriage or adoption on the 28th day of March A. D. 1871 in the Indian Country in said District did feloniously willfully steal, take away, carry away two horses each of the value of one hundred dollars, the property goods and chattels of one William Keys and prey a writ [signed] J. G. Owens."

On April 6, 1871, Deputy United States Marshal J. G. Owens took Wyatt Earp into custody on a charge of horse theft. Commissioner James Churchill arraigned Earp on April 14, 1871, and the bond was set at $500.

On May 15, 1871, Wyatt Earp was indicted on the charge. He failed to appear in court in May, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. It was returned, not served on November 21, 1871.

So, where did he go after running from the law? Where, you ask? Some believe he most likely went back to Illinois because newspaper reports put him there in 1872. As for his "lost years," none of what Wyatt says in his autobiography matters because we know that Wyatt's whereabouts from May of 1871 to late September of 1872 put him living in Peoria, Illinois, in 1872. Supposedly he ended up in Peoria because Virgil was working as a bartender there. 

So here was the Wyatt Earp that I never heard of as a kid.  Here was Wyatt Earp in his 20's who was already acquiring a reputation. Though of dubious one, it was a reputation. He was on the run from Federal authorities for stealing horses, and I'm sure he was grateful that the law in those days didn't communicate really well. And the fact is, Wyatt stayed on the run for a while before returning out West again.

Wyatt needed money and was not one above walking on the seedier side of life to get it. That's when Wyatt Earp began working as a pimp in Peoria.  And yes, he was actually known as the "Peoria Bummer" because Wyatt was involved in the ownership and operation of a brothel.  

In fact, on February 24, 1872, Wyatt and his brother Morgan were arrested for "Keeping and Being Found In A House Of Ill-Fame." The whorehouse where he worked was run by a gal by the name of Jane Haspel. Four women and three men were arrested that day in an effort to clean up Peoria.

Peoria Mayor Peter Brotherson and Police Chief Samuel L. Gill were said to be on a quest to clean up the city and stop prostitution. Two days after that arrest, a Peoria judge fined Wyatt and Morgan $20 each plus court costs. Wyatt continued to reside in Jane Haspel's brothel, and in fact, Wyatt Earp was listed in the Peoria City Directory as residing there. 

Yes, it is a fact that Root's Peoria City Directory for 1872-1873 lists Wyatt Earp as living at the same address as Jane Haspel on Washington Street near the corner of Hamilton. Since the city directory went to press on March 1, 1872, and putting it together took months, it's extremely probable that Wyatt was residing in the brothel and not merely patronizing it at the time of his arrest.

But Wyatt's troubles in Peoria didn't end with his February arrest. Three months later, Wyatt and Morgan were arrested again on May 9th.  This time they moved to the McClellan brothel to pimp their trade. 

On May 11, 1872, The Daily Transcript reported the following:

"That hotbed of inequity, the McClellan Institute on Main Street near Water was pulled on Thursday night, and quite a number of inmates transient and otherwise were found therein. Wyatt Earp and his brother Morgan Earp were each fined $44.55, and as they had not the money and would not work, they languished in the cold and silent calaboose."

Wyatt decided that he should relocate his business to the Illinois River and started a floating brothel named the Beardstown Gunboat. In August 1872, Wyatt was "detained" again by authorities.  But this time, it was in Henry, Illinois, and he was again fined.

Then a month later, on September 10, 1872, back in Peoria, The Daily Transcript, in a very lengthy account of the police raid on the floating brothel, reported that Wyatt Earp had been arrested in the raid on the Beardstown Gunboat. That raid must have net some big fish because that arrest is said to be the single largest successful raid on a brothel in Peoria during all of 1872.

This is part of the newspaper account that The Peoria Daily National Democrat ran on September 10th: 

"Some of the women are said to be good-looking, but all appear to be terribly depraved. John Walton, the boat's skipper, and Wyatt Earp, the Peoria Bummer, were each fined $43.15. Sarah Earp, alias Sally Heckell, calls herself the wife of Wyatt Earp."

Two days after the seizure of the gunboat, all of the prisoners were lined up before Police Magistrate James Cunningham in Peoria's City Hall. Wyatt's fine was the highest of all of the people arrested.

The newspapers of the time referred to Wyatt Earp as "The Peoria Bummer." A "bummer" during those days was a term used for a "loafer" or a "beggar."  It was an insulting way of calling Wyatt a man who pimps for a prostitute or brothel and lives off her earnings. After paying his fine, Wyatt Earp, "The Peoria Bummer," is said to have left the area. 

So now, one of the interesting things to me, along with naming Wyatt Earp "The Peoria Bummer," is that the newspapers stated that police arrested a woman by the name of "Sarah Earp, alias Sally Heckell," who claimed to be his wife. Could this woman have been another wife of Wyatt Earp?  Is she one wife that most Western Historians neglect to mention?

It is generally assumed that Wyatt Earp was "married" three times, but the only marriage license that exists is when he was married to his first wife, Urilla Sutherland. They were married on January 10th, 1870, in Lamar, Missouri. Then, supposedly because of illness, some say typhoid, Urilla died less than a year later.

No official record has ever been found that proves that Wyatt was married to either of his other so-called "wives," Mattie Blaylock and Josephine Sarah "Sadie" Marcus Earp, though he maintained a life with both of them. It is said that Josie claimed that they did get married, but again there is nothing to prove out that claim. It is taken for granted that these two were "common-law" marriages.

So was Sarah Earp simply a prostitute who had taken the name of her pimp?  Could she really have been his wife?  Very little is known about her. The newspaper article gives her "alias" as Sally Heckell, but while that name may have been assumed in whole or in part, it was very likely that that may have been her real name or maybe something close to it. Of course, there is evidence that points to Sarah Earp, Sally Heckell, Sally Haskell, and Sally Haspel as all being one and the same person.  But really, who knows? 

By early 1874 when Wyatt showed up in the fairly new cattle town of Wichita, Kansas.  Municipal records show that a prostitute using the name Sally Earp operated a brothel with Wyatt Earp's sister-in-law Bessie in Wichita from early 1874 to the middle of 1876. That was a brothel that Wyatt made a living off of while he provided it protection. After all, Wyatt did become a Deputy in Wichita. And honestly, just how much more protection can you get when your pimp is also a police officer?  

As one writer put it, "Some Wyatt worshipers continue to whitewash this damning evidence with the wishful thinking that Wyatt Earp was merely a bouncer on these floating brothel boats." 

Well, friends, we know that Wyatt Earp was arrested for stealing horses, operating, and being involved in prostitution, bunco games, and swindles during his life. So my conclusion is that not only was Wyatt Earp a horse thief and someone who would steal school funds, he was also a pimp!

Tom Correa

Out of the Mouths of Babes - A Great Joke For Sunday

A close friend was telling me about seeing some friends over the weekend. He said that they are hardcore liberals and huge money donors to the Democratic Party.

He said that they pride themselves on raising their children with the same sense of political values that they have.

This sort of confused me a bit because my friend is very Conservative, attends the Tea Party rallies, and always votes Republican. And honestly, I didn't think he had any friends from the other side. So I asked how it went?

Well, this is what he told me.

He said it was nice to see them, but the rule for him is to never talk politics with them.  He said when he saw them he tried to be polite and talk about everything but politics - and of course never mention any displeasure of the patron saint of the Liberal Left Barack Hussein Obama.

He said, he thought it would be safe enough to ask their 15 year old daughter what she wanted to be when she grows up?

She replied without hesitation that she wanted to be the first women President of the United States from the Democratic Party. Both of her parents were standing there, they smiled broadly.

Then he asked her, "If you were President, what would be the first thing you would do?"

She replied without hesitation, "As a caring Liberal and not an selfish Conservative, I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people." Her parents proudly beamed, "What a wonderful goal!"

Then my friend told her, "But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that. Tell you what, if you come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and clean my windows, I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the liquor store where a homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house. How about doing something wonderful like that right now?"

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked him straight in the eye and asked, “Why doesn't the homeless guy go to your house, and do the work, and then you can just pay him the $50?

"Well," my friend said, "I've asked him and he doesn't want a job or to work for his money. He'd rather live on hand outs."

She looked at him, puzzled, then said, "So why should I work hard to give my money to a homeless guy who doesn't want to work and make money for himself? Is that what Democrats believe in? That's crazy!"

"Welcome to the Republican Party!" he said.

And no, her parents still aren't speaking to him.

Story by Tom Correa

U.N. "Small Arms Treaty" Will Disarm Americans

Yes, a proposed U.N. "Small Arms Treaty" is designed to target and disarm Americans by circumventing our Bill of Rights and the specifically our 2nd Amendment rights.

Known informally as the "Small Arms Treaty," it is a proposed agreement which will secretly try to take the legal guns out of the hands of American citizens. 

Last month a U.N. committee met in New York and signed off on several provisions, including the creation of a new U.N. agency to regulate international weapon sales.

This part of the "Small Arms Treaty" will require that all countries that have firearms manufacturers will have to pay into a compensation fund for victims of gun violence worldwide - no matter if their gun was ever a part of the violence. 

And yes, the U.N. is to determine the definition of "gun violence." Right now the U.N. is looking at any use of guns as being "gun violence." 

In other words, if you defend yourself and kill an assailant who is intending to kill you  - then your attacker will be considered a "victim" of "gun violence" and be eligible for compensation from the U.N.

Imagine this for a moment. If you take up arms against a Dictatorship like say the one in Iran, according to the U.N. and its insane sense of reasoning then that Dictator may be eligible for compensation from the United Nations.

And it gets worse, your gun ownership rights will not be covered by the Constitution of United States. Instead, if the Obama administration has its way about things, your gun ownership may be regulated by a U.N. appointed body of individuals from countries like Iran, Syria, China, Venezuela, Cuba and others not friendly to the United States.

The new U.N agency that the treaty would create will be called the “Implementation Support Unit” (ISU). 

And right about now you think, Tom's nuts! Well friends, think again. This is all really happening. And yes, the Obama administration is working hand in hand with the U.N. to achieve this treaty. 

Under the latest draft of the treaty, every country would be required to submit a report to the ISU outlining "all activities undertaken in order to accomplish the implementation of this Treaty, including changes in domestic laws, regulations, and administrative measures."

It also requires countries to set up their own government agencies to track any guns that could be exported.

"Parties shall take all necessary measures to control brokering activities taking place within its territories to prevent the diversion of exported arms into the illicit market or to unintended end users," the draft reads.

And by the way, we are those "unintended end users."

Please don't think I'm kidding about that. The wording in the draft is being kept vague for a reason - its to leave room for interpretation. Imagine that!

In an article on Fox New, a U.N. representative for a major U.S. gun manufacturer who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he believes that the wording is specially being left vague just so it leaves room for the ISU to force the registration of all American-made guns. 

“Does this mean it’s going to impose some international gun registration scheme? That could happen here, under the treaty,” said the gun manufacturer representative.

Daniel Prins, chief of the Conventional Arms Branch for the U.N.’s Office for Disarmament Affairs (ODA) told Fox News that no provisions have been finalized.

But, "All the issues remain on the table," said U.N. ODA chief Prins.

Other gun control supporters who attended the U.N. conference say that American gun owners have "nothing to worry about." Isn't that reassuring!

But wait! If I remember my history correct, that's what Hitler said before he started confiscating arms from the German people in the 1930s. And in fact, wasn't that the same thing Bill Clinton told the American public when he was running for President in 1992 - only to reverse himself and sign a ban on so-called "assault weapons" just a year later with the infamous Brady Bill.

Of course the people behind the Brady Bill are now saying, "People within the U.S. should not be worried about it unless they sell arms internationally. The whole treaty is to prevent countries from selling guns to other countries that have gross violations of human rights. This treaty would not cover weapons that are kept internally. They [the U.N. ISU) are just trying to establish a regulatory board." 

Most American firearms manufacturers don’t buy into that line of propaganda from the anti-gun folks. Most people who have followed the United Nations knows that they are on corrupt organization with an eye on universal control of all nations and peoples.

An especially costly potential regulation discussed at the conference last month would require gun makers to engrave sequential tracings on every one of some 3 billion bullets produced in the U.S. each year. That very thing was suggested for ammunition coming into California just within the last few years, and thankfully it was shot down by California voters.

But that's the worry, we the American voters will not have say at all. This U.N. treaty would put the United Nations and not our own government in control of our people. We would literally be turning a major part of  United States sovereignty over to the control of the United Nations.

And yes, if relinquishing gun rights and control of gun laws to the United Nations isn't bad enough - there's more bad news. The Obama administration is keeping this all very quiet and behind closed doors to not arose the American people, especially since next year is another Presidential election and Obama is running for re-election. 

If it were to becomes some sort of "law" imposed on Americans by the United Nations. Then it is generally believed that Americans would not follow it.

And that leads us to the bottom line concerning this matter, many believe that this is a real threat to our sovereignty. It is not coming from an army wading ashore in some sort of invasion. No it isn't.

What it is though is a real threat coming in the form of men and women diplomats who all believe that they work for an organization that is there to better the world -  at least their liberal idea of bettering the world.  

It reminds me of a con-game because they are simply looking for another way to rack in the dollars and loot their coffers. Their Global Warming scheme didn't work, and God knows they tried to raise money from every country on the planet.

Their scheme was to have everyone "contribute" to their Global Warming Fund. It might have worked if it hadn't become widely publicized that the United Nation falsified the Global Warming figures. And of course once people found out that the United Nations made up data to justify their call for contributions, their scheme was sunk.

What did they say, or yes that's right, funds were needed to fight Global Warming because it was the biggest threat to mankind since the advent of Nuclear Weapons.

It's reminds me of a power grab because of their open desire to legislate how all people live. And friends, that's not why they were created. They were created to mediate problems between nations. Instead, I believe that the United Nations thinks itself as being the supreme power on earth. 

Maybe it thinks itself as God-like? Maybe it believes itself as being the last word on how people should live?
For me, other than maybe UNICEF, I have seen nothing good come out of the United Nations.

I hope we one day take a hard look at the United Nations and cut our support of that organization. We should cut our support to them in the exact same way that we should cut our Foreign Aid to countries that have Anti-American policies.

As for the U.N., well regardless of what treaty they create, or what regulatory organization they put together, or what other countries may or may not agree to, fact is that for any treaty to become law in the U.S. - it still needs to be submitted to Congress and get a two-thirds majority in the Senate.

Because of that two-thirds majority, a treaty of that sort would have a hard time making it through the Senate. Besides, Americans can rest easy knowing that more than 50 Senators have signed on to a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just last month which says that they will not vote for any treaty that restricts civilian arms or harms America's firearms manufacturers.

The NRA is confident that the treaty will not be ratified in the U.S., and as an NRA member I support their efforts to defeat any effort opposing our right to keep and bear arms.

According to NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam, he said, "The U.N. can pass it if they want it. But for it to have domestic effect, it needs to pass the U.S. Senate by a two-thirds vote - and clearly that will not happen in this make up of the U.S. Senate, regardless of what the Obama administration does."

With all of the real problems facing the United States these days, it amazes me how the Obama administration is always attacking the American people in one way or another.  They seem to be under the false premise that the people need to be dictated to.

It seems that no one in the White House has read the Constitution. If they had, then they will find out something very important regarding our law of the land. It was written with the intent of telling the government what it can and cannot do.

The Bill of Rights was specifically written to tell of leaders what rights American have and that they cannot touch.  

The United States Constitution defines the limits of the power that the federal government has. Our Constitution was never ever designed to give limits to the American people. The concern has always been over an abuse of power by our elected officials. Sometimes they forget they work for us.

Like our State governments, the Federal government works for us - and no, it's not the other way around. No matter how the liberal left and the Obama administration spins it, the Federal government is the hired help of the American people. They should be reminded of this fact at every opportunity.   

Story by Tom Correa

American History: The Year 1871



                                                                Emigrant Wagon Train, 1871

I receive a lot of e-mail. One lately really started me thinking. In that email, I was asked if I could give some perspective of what all was taking place during the same year that a 23-year-old Wyatt Earp was arrested for stealing a couple of horses. 

On the 28th of March of 1871, Wyatt Earp and Edward Kennedy got John Shown drunk and talked him into going along with them in stealing two horses from one James Keyes. 

The plan was for John Shown was to take the horses 50 miles north where the others would meet him.  The scheme apparently progressed as planned until the owner of the horses, James Keyes, who did not give up on his horses, caught up with the thieves three days later.  Keyes recovered his stock and subsequently filed charges against Wyat Earp, Ed Kennedy, and John Shown in federal court in Van Buren, Arkansas. Earp escaped from jail and was never brought to justice for what was a hanging offense in those days. 

So what else was happening in 1871 when that was going on?  Well, after some research, I can honestly say that the year 1871 was a big year in American History, especially for the Old West.

Early in 1871, it was reported that Mosquito Gulch, California, later to be renamed Glencoe, had 19 students in their schoolhouse.

During that year, a good example of how some miners will try anything to chase that gold in this area known as the Motherlode took place when a local "Chinaman" decided to dry some of his blasting caps in his stove. Instead of letting them dry one slowly, no, he was in a rush.  Judging from the results, the caps dried out really well. In fact, several pieces of the "Chinaman" have been found in many places. And yes, the paper reported that what was left of the cabin would make good kindling.

Of course, there is the case of a Road Agent by the name of "Alkali Jim" who was arrested for his role in robbing a stage of $2,700.  After being caught, it was said that "Alkali Jim" tried plea bargaining by telling the law where some of the loot was. Only $2000 was recovered before they hauled "Alkali Jim" to the calaboose.  

Model 1860 Army percussion

In Texas, gunman John King Fisher was hired by settlers of the Pendencia River country as a hired gun to protect their livestock and other property. It was during that time that John King Fisher becomes known as a skilled gunfighter.



In 1871, Colt received an Army contract to convert one thousand Model 1860 Army percussion revolvers to use the .44-caliber centerfire cartridge being manufactured at their Frankford Arsenal.

The number of cattle shipped to the Chicago stockyards in 1871 was over 600,000.  Abilene, Kansas, may have been the first cow town, but disease and rowdy cowboys shifted the cow capital first to Wichita, then to Dodge City, Kansas.

In fact, in April of that year, James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok became the Marshal in Abilene, Kansas. He replaced Tom "Bear River" Smith after he'd been killed and decapitated.   

Tom "Bear River" Smith

In 1871, professional gambler Phil Coe and gunfighter Ben Thompson opened the Bull's Head Tavern and Gambling Saloon in Abilene. The establishment becomes widely known for its large painting of a bull whose genitals are much larger than the rest of its body.



The painting becomes known as the "Shame of Abilene" by local townspeople, and Marshal Hickok is asked to intervene. When the owners refuse to take down the painting, Hickok takes it upon himself to repaint parts of the picture.

This results in a personal dispute with Coe, which eventually leads to a shootout in which Hickok shots both Phil Coe and his own deputy. That's right, during the shootout, Hickok mistakenly shoots his own Deputy, a young man by the name of Mike Williams.

Deputy Williams is killed instantly, but Phil Coe would die from his wounds four days later. This would be the last time James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok uses his gun.  In all, James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok was a lawman for less than 2 years of his entire life.

In 1871 in the Bull's Head Tavern, John Wesley Hardin refused to hand over his guns to Wild Bill. It was a confrontation over Hardin's insistence on wearing his gun in public. Now there are all sorts of legends about the encounter, and all have Hickok not disarming Hardin. No one knows why. Frankly, since there were no witnesses to that supposed event ever taking place. I don't believe it ever happened.

The town of Dodge City can trace its origins to 1871 when rancher Henry J. Sitler built a sod house west of Fort Dodge to oversee his cattle operations in the area. Later, Dodge City would become "Queen of the Cow Towns." 

The profits to be made were immense, with a $5 steer in Texas bringing up to $45 in Kansas. In fact, the profitability of the cattle kingdom was one of the factors contributing to the demise of most of those cow towns by 1886. One reason had to do with greedy ranchers who dangerously overstocked the grasslands with cattle by the mid-1880s and created a cattle glut. Then when the price of beef fell, everyone went broke, and the majority of big ranches closed up. Ultimately, the winter of 1886 decimated the cattle industry.

In Nebraska, Lt. Hayes leads 30 soldiers of the 5th Cavalry against a band of Sioux camped on Birdwood Creek.  Six Sioux are killed, and 60 horses are recovered. Army Scout William F. Cody is cited for "conspicuous and gallant conduct."

In 1871, one of the largest gunfights that ever took place in the Old West was fought in Newton, Kansas. It became known as the Hyde Park Gunfight or the Newton Massacre. In all, it was a much bigger gunfight than that at the OK Corral years later. Though it was well-publicized at the time, historical attention to this gunfight is only now starting to take place.  

Of course, in 1871, the James Gang was robbing trains and killing the innocent. All in all, they weren't more than common criminals who robbed and murdered without any sort of feeling of uneasiness or anxiety on their conscience.

They had no regret for doing wrong or causing pain, They felt no remorse. They were highwaymen, bad men, and greed and savagery governed their actions.

Of course, 1871 was the same year that Western Union started handling money transfers, so I'd bet that the James Gang liked that a lot.

The year 1871 also saw the Wickenburg Massacre, where six men traveling by stagecoach were murdered and mutilated by the Yavapai Indians in Arizona Territory. The driver and five male passengers were either killed instantly or died within minutes of the attack.

Kiowa War Chief Satanta

Two wounded passengers, William Kruger and Mollie Sheppard, escaped and were picked up by an eastbound mail wagon approximately five miles west of the ambush. It was an amazing feat considering they were pursued the whole time by nine members of the raiding party.

Mollie Sheppard later died from infected wounds. Of the eight souls involved in the ambush, only William Kruger survived. And yes, folks wonder where stories like this come from - our history is full of them. 

Also, in the Arizona Territory in 1871, Americans saw the establishment of Fort Apache. The U.S. Army post was established as headquarters for the newly formed Apache reservation. The U. S. Cavalry that was garrisoned there was charged with keeping the peace, rounding up hostile Indians, and bringing in the renegade Indian Geronimo and his band.

And again, in the Arizona Territory in 1871, the Bear Springs Fight took place where Lt. Cushing's and 10 of his soldiers were killed when a party of Chiricahua Apaches led by Cochise trapped a detail of the 3rd U.S. Cavalry in the Whetson Mountains of Arizona.

In 1871, Kiowa War Chief Satanta led several attacks on wagon trains in Texas. His undoing came with the Warren Wagon Train Massacre on May 18, 1871. 

Warren Wagon Train Massacre

Interestingly enough, immediately before that attack, the Kiowa Chief had decided to allow an Army Ambulance with a small guard to pass unharmed. In the ambulance happened to be an ill General by the name of William Tecumseh Sherman.



The rest of the wagon train attempted to fight off the Indian war party by shifting themselves into a ring formation. Yes, they circled the wagons!

The mules were all put into the center to try to keep them out of harm's way. Despite their efforts, the Indians captured all of the supplies on the train. They murdered and mutilated seven teamsters, but five managed to escape and get the word out of the massacre.

In California, that was the year of The Chinese Massacre of 1871, where a riot broke out and a mob of over 500 men, both White and Latino, entered Los Angeles' Chinatown and attacked and murdered 18 to 23 Chinese men. 

Negro Alley, Los Angeles, CA

The riot and massacre were triggered in retaliation for a murder of a prominent local cattle rancher named Robert Thompson. Some reports say he was a target and others say he was caught in the cross-fire during a gun battle between two Chinese factions during the infamous Tong Wars that plagued California from the 1850s to the 1920s. 



I've read that after the massacre, dead Chinese were hanging at three places near the heart of the downtown Los Angeles business district.

One report side that they were hanging from the wooden awning over the sidewalk in front of a carriage shop. Another says that they were hanging from the sides of two covered wagons, also known as "prairie schooners," that were supposedly parked on the street around the corner from the carriage shop. Another report said that there were other men hanging from the cross-beam of a wide gate leading into a lumberyard a few blocks away from the other two locations.

One of the victims was hanged without his trousers, was castrated, and had a finger on his left hand and his pigtail "cue" cut off. And yes, it is not known how many were indeed Tong hatchet men or just innocent bystanders. Supposedly, from accounts that have been long buried, almost every building in Chinatown was searched for Tong hatchet men and thugs.  

Of the over 500 men who are known to have participated in the attack on the Chinese, only 8 men were ever convicted - but the verdicts were all thrown out almost immediately for technical oversights by the prosecution.

Some say it was because it was 1871, and the Tong Wars in California had been raging since the Chinese "sojourners" started arriving in the 1850s. Some say it was out of resentment for taking jobs away from others and working for lower wages. It was the worst mass lynching in California history.

Just for the record, it was the worse incident against the Chinese until 1885 when coal miners attacked and massacred Chinese co-workers in Rock Springs, Wyoming, where 28 Chinese men were killed.

In  Utah, Mormon leader Brigham Young, age 70, was arrested for polygamy. He was later convicted, but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction.

In Alaska, a whaling fleet of 32 ships was abandoned off Icy Cape in the Chukchi Sea. Seven other vessels escaped with all the crew members saved. In 1998 an attempt was made to locate the shipwreck site.

In 1871, a black Texas ranch foreman by the name of Brit Johnson, also known as Negro Brit Johnson, was killed by Kiowa raiders. Brit Johnson had been reared on the frontier among the white citizens, and he knew the frontier well -- and was well respected. Brit's life was shattered in 1864 when an Indian raiding party killed his son and captured his wife and two of their other children. He reportedly ransomed back his family in 1865 and then continued searching for other stolen children before he was killed.

Later, author Alan Le May used the story of Brit Johnson as the model for his novel “The Searchers” (1954). Of course, "The Searchers" later became an instant classic Western movie starring none other than John Wayne. 

Meanwhile, Back East...

In 1871, there was a lot more happening than what was going on in the West. Back East in that year, the first Major League Baseball game was played.

The great showman P.T. Barnum (Phineas Taylor Barnum) founded "The Greatest Show On Earth" in Delavan, Wisconsin, in 1871. He introduced the idea of the 3 rings in a circus. He gave us a novelty by the name of General Tom Thumb and a singer by the name of Jenny Lind, who took America by storm. She was called "The Swedish Nightingale." It was entertainment as never seen before.

In 1871, the first all-Negro (black) Lodge of Masons was approved. It was established in New Jersey. 

In Washington D.C. in 1871, the Treaty of Washington was signed and ratified by Great Britain and the United States. It was said to be "the greatest treaty of actual and immediate arbitration the world has ever seen."  It settled all sorts of disputes between our two countries. In particular, it settled what was termed the "Alabama Claims" - claims against Britain for helping to arm the Confederacy during the Civil War.

In 1871, Congress passed the Indian Appropriation Act, which revoked the sovereignty of Indian nations and made Native Americans wards of the American government. The act eliminated the necessity of treaty negotiating and established the policy that tribal affairs could be managed by the U.S. government without tribal consent.

In other words, Congress changed the status of Indian tribes from "independent" to "dependent." I can't help but wonder if, with the success of all of the Indian Casinos these days popping up everywhere across the country these days if Congress still considers Indian tribes "dependent"?

During the Civil War, which ran from 1861 to 1865, Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1861, which included a tax on personal income. It was supposedly meant to help pay for the Civil War expenses of the Union.  This was the first effort to enact an Income Tax. But then, in 1871, the Income Tax was repealed. Imagine that! But not to worry, because as we all know, Income Tax came back.

In 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant sent federal troops to South Carolina to suppress violence instigated by former Confederate soldiers who formed a Ku Klux Klan organization. Later that year, Grant signed the Ku Klux Klan Act. It was also known as the Civil Rights Act of 1871 and also formally entitled "An Act to Enforce the Provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and for Other Purposes."

President U.S. Grant asked for the law, and it was passed all within one month. Yes, imagine that the President requested it from Congress -- and Congress delivered it all in one month. That, my friends, is quick. Of course, President Grant's request was the result of several reports of widespread terrorism in the Deep South. That was particularly true in South Carolina. As former Confederate soldiers, they were skilled in tactics and attacked on multiple fronts.

And while there is the myth that the Klan only attacked freed black slaves, that's not true. Besides freed blacks, they targeted poor whites, those who sided with the Union during the war, abolitionists, Republican administrators in the South, Irish immigrants, Catholics, Jews, and former Union soldiers.

While that is true, we should note that the abuses put upon Southerners during Reconstruction did not lend to uniting the nation after the war. That's especially true when we look at the decisions by the Federal government to deny white Southerners God-given Rights, as well as their Constitutional Rights, and how corruption and cronyism followed the Republican administrators and the vultures known as carpet-baggers into the South. 

Of course, 1871 was the year of the Great Chicago Fire.

Yes, on Oct 8 of 1871, at around 9 p.m. on a Sunday, a fire broke out in the barn belonging to Patrick and Catherine O'Leary in the crowded southwestern section of Chicago. Because of high winds, the fire burned out of control in the tinder-dry wooden city for more than 2 days until it rained on Tuesday morning that finally extinguished the flames.

Three and a half square miles were leveled, wiping out one-third of the city. The business district, the courthouse, and the central water pumping station burned to the ground. Thousands of Chicagoans fled the flames over the Randolph Street Bridge. More than 300 people were killed in the fire, and 98,500 people were left homeless. An amazing 17,450 buildings were destroyed during the fire.

The original Emancipation Proclamation, which happened to be on display in Chicago, was destroyed. Many people believed that Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over a lantern which started the fire. The story and the legend about the cow were made up by a Chicago newspaper reporter simply trying to juice up a story. Later,  the Chicago City Council passed a resolution exonerating the cow and apologizing to the O'Leary family. In fact, it was Pegleg O'Sullivan who kicked over a lantern after breaking into the O'Leary dairy barn to steal milk for a whiskey punch party. The false story became a legend.

Yes, in 1871, Chicago was all but burnt completely to the ground. And by the way, if you've ever wondered why Chicago is called the "Second City," well, the term "Second City" came from the fact that when it was rebuilt - it became the Second City of Chicago.

But a worse loss of life by fire that year happened in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, when over 1,500 people were killed in the nation’s worst forest fire. The fire burned across six counties and into Michigan. Fires also broke out in the Michigan communities of Holland, Manistee, and Port Huron.

In New York City that year, a group of patriotic Americans who were all former Union Army Officers founded an organization called The National Rifle Association. Those former Union Army officers wanted to encourage marksmanship and gun safety. It was started with a few folks who were all concerned that Civil War soldiers were often times poorly trained and barely able to use their weapons properly.

Since after the war, many of those Civil War soldiers returned home with their weapons. The newly formed NRA wanted to help them with gun safety, organized shooting sports, and other marksmanship events. And yes, because of all of those former Civil War soldiers going home with their guns still in their possession, 1871 was the first year that America was considered the most heavily armed nation in the world. Hopefully, nothing has changed.

The year 1871 was a busy year. All in all, in the West, outlaws were still running wild, and Indians still had their day. Because of the cattle drives that started just two years earlier, in 1869, cow towns were sprouting everywhere, and the American people were on the move.

So yes, while that was the year that Wyatt Earp was arrested for being a low-down-no-good-snake of a Horse Thief, Americans were up to a lot of things that year. Obviously a lot more than I can list here.

In fact, during the year 1871, the United States Marine Corps saw action in Korea after American ships are attacked by gun emplacements in Korean forts. After the attack, an Marine Expeditionary Force set out for Korea from China. It included over 1,200 Marines and Sailors and five ships, the USS Colorado, the USS Alaska, the USS Palos, the USS Monocracy, the USS Benicia, and a number of smaller support vessels.

At one point, 650 U.S. Marines go into one battle, then in another U.S. Marine Captain McLane Tilton will lead 110 U.S. Marines in a naval attack on a Korean fort on the Han River in Korea. It was called the Korean Expedition of 1871. It was the first American military action in Korea. Imagine that.

So imagine that for a second, while Jessie James was robbing and killing, while Indians were still raising cane, while the U.S. Army was opening the famous Fort Apache, while the cattle drives were opening up the country with all sorts of new towns like Dodge City, at the same time, Major League Baseball was being born, the National Rifle Association was being established, and we had American Marines halfway around the world in combat - fighting and dying for American interests.

 

Tom Correa