COWBOY TRIVIA

Bell Starr - Myra Belle Shirley

Billy The Kid, William Bonny, Patrick Henry McCarty

 Calamity Jane - Martha Jane Canary
Born: 1848 in Carthage Mo. Born: 1859 in NY City Born:1848-1903 in Princeton, Missouri
Died: 1889 near Eufaula, OK (shot to death) Died: 1881 in Fort Summer, New Mexico Calamity was thrown to the world age the young age of 10 to make her own way.
She excelled in school in all areas as well as learning to play the piano. His most famous handle was "Billy the Kid"  She was a hard drinking woman who wore men's clothing, used their bawdy language, chewed tobacco & was handy with a gun.
She was the descended from the Harfield's of the infamous Harfield & McCoy family feuds. He was an orphan drifter. He was a ranch hand & sheep herder until his involvement in the Lincoln County War of 1877. She traveld from Az. through the Dakota territories.  She gained local reputation for daring horsemanship & skill as a rifle shot.
From her association with Jesse James & Youngers she reached a level of fantastic notoriety as an outlaw & lawbreaker.  She met Cole Younger while serving in the Civil War.  She reported positions of Union troops to the Confederacy. In 1866 she married James C. Reed.  They had a daughter "Pearl" who later was believed to be Cole Youngers.  She was arrested many times for robbery & horse stelling. In 1889, 39 yrs old, she was shot in the back. After he was attributed to his employers death, John Tunstall, he was for ever known as a gunslinger & outlaw.  He was killed by Pat Garrett sheriff of Lincoln County after he escaped jail while awaiting his hanging. She became a scout for General Cook under  Buffalo Bill at the age of 20. She had unlimited nerve & entered into the work with enthusiasm. She would go into places where old frontiersmen were unwilling to go. Her courage & good-fellowship made her popular with every man in the command. She received her name from Captain Egan who Calamity saved his life during a battle with the Indians.  After the battle he named her "Calamity Jane" & the name stuck.

Wild Bill Cody - William Frederick Cody Dr John Henry "Doc" Holliday" Greenville Mullen Dodge
Born: 1846 in Scottia, Iowa Born: 1853 in Griffin Georgia Born: 1831 in Massachusetts
Died: 1917 in Denver Colorado Died: 1887 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado Died: 1916
Better known as Buffalo Bill Cody, he was a legend in his own time.  For a short time frame he was a Pony Express rider.  Then he was an Army scout & buffalo hunter.  "He was the most skillful gambler, & the nerviest, fastest deadliest man with a six-gun I ever saw" by Marshal Wyatt Earp He was a military man in the Civil War. He did western plains, surveying & was  an expert chief engineer.  He will always be remembered as the driving force in the building of the Union Pacific Railroad & portion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
Then Buffalo Bill Cody found his meaning in life when he became a showman in his "Wild West Shows".  They traveled throughout America & Europe. He would perform his rendition of the American West to the world! Doc was a college educated influential southern dentist.  After being diagnosed with tuberculosis he decided to change climates & took a new out look on life. He moved to the west to live life to the fullest. He became a gambler extraordinary. Displaying loyalty to his friends, which were few in his life, Doc became a good gunfighter. The single most notable deed which built his fame was his contribution in the OK Corral gunfight in Tombstone AZ.

Wyatt Earp - Born: 1848 in Monmouth, Illinois Wild Bill Hickok - James Butler Hickok Ben Holladay - Born: 1819 in Kentucky
Died: 1929 in LA California Born: 1837 in Troy Grove, Illinois- Died: 1876 Died: 1887 in Portland, Oregon
He was Marshall of Dodge City, Kansas. Between gambling & law enforcement this kept him busy. At one point in his life he rode shotgun for the stage coach lines & was a buffalo hunter, Indian fighter & 'what he is know for' Marshall & gambler.

He was involved in the famous gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone AZ.

Mule skinner earned him fine wages & sound reputation. He worked as a freighter on the Oregon Trail & Santa Fe Trail.  Gambling became his second skilled profession. Quite good at making money at the card tables. He followed a gamblers code that served him well.

 He was an enterprising man who became known as the Stagecoach King. In 1862 he was the sole owner of the Overland Mail & Express Co. He is also given credits for introducint the Concord Stagecoach out west.
The code ' Wild Bill' believed in came in two parts:

(part 1)You can sheer a sheep several times gently a little at a time.

(part2)You can only skin a sheep once.

 

 In 1866 he acquisitioned the Butterfield Overland Dispatch. It became known as the Holladay Oveland Mail & Express Co. Within that same year he sold his stagecoach to "Wells Fargo"

He also created transportation empire with ventures into steamboats & railroads in Oregon.  He lost his Stagecoard King fortune in the stock market crash in September of 1873.
He became a professional gunman. He may be better known as an Army scout & Marshal to some folks. He toured with Buffolo Bill Cody in the Wild West Shows. Jack McCall murdered Wild Bill in 1876 in Deadwood, South Dakota.

Jesse James - Born: 1847 in Clay County Missouri Frank James - Alexander Franklin James Theodore Judah -
Died: 1882 in St Joseph Missouri Born: 1843 in Clay County Missouri Born: 1826 Bridgeport , Connecticut
He was a notorious outlaw & was the leader of the James Gang. The James Gang formed around 1866. Died: 1915 in Kearney Missouri Died: 1863 in NY
They were very proficient in their bank, train & stagecoach robberies.  The Gang hit places throughout Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Texas, Kentucky & Minnesota. They wore long prairie duster coats, they would slowly drift into towns one by one. Frank was an outlaw & oldest brother to Jesse James. He was a Confederate soldier during the Civil War. He was a member of Quantrill's Guerillas. He was a civil engineer in Niagara Gorge railroad & surveyor.  In 1854 he was asked by Charles Wilson, president of the Sacramento Valley railroad to engineer a survey from Sacramento to Folsom. 
He lived under alias names to elude the law.  (J.D. or Thomas Howard in Nashville Tennesee) He enjoyed a notorious reputation for bank, train & stagecoadh robberies from 1866-1881. He was able to get passed the Railroad Act signed in 1862 & he started working with the 'Big Four'.
Jesse was murdered by a sneak named Bob Ford just for Publicity. His last thirty years of his life he was a farmer, shoe salesman, race track starter & circus man. In 1863 he left California by boat and contracted yellow fever and died later in NY.  He never got to see his dream of the transcontinental railroad completed.

Bat Masterson - William Barcaly Materson

Pearl Hartt - Born: 1871 in Canadian province of Ontario Sundance Kid - Harry Longbaugh & Etta Place
Born:1855 in Illinois - Died: 1921 in NY Died: age 90 in the early 1960's as the story goes! Born: 1866 in Plainfield, NJ  Died: unknown
His professions were buffalo hunter, army scout, gunfighter, layman, deputy marshal & marshal.  He was known as 'Bat'. His whole demeanor showed his love for adventure & excitement.

In 1905 Teddy Roosevelt appointed him as the US marshal of the southern district of NY State.

In 1907 he resigned as marshal & took a job with the Morning Telegraph as sport's editor.  He died at work writing his sport's column.

 Although she was not the most famous of the lady outlaws who made a name for themselves on the western frontier, Pearl Hart was perhaps the most prolific in her adventures as an authentic lady outlaw.

She wound up in Arizona where she lived a life of dubious virtue.  She camited her first crimes by luring men to their room on the pretense of romance. Instead of good lovin' they would get a cracked skull & all their money taken.  This wasn't profitable enough so she turned to robbing stagecoaches with Joe Boot.  She was known as the first known female stage robber in Az Territory.

 Aliases: Sundance Kid, Harry Alonzo, Fronk Jones, Frank Boyd.  He was in and out of jail before the age of 21. He was a thief, cattle rustler, highwayman, train robber & bank robber.

He was known to be the fast draw of the 'Wild Bunch'. He used the outlaw hideout's at the 'Hole In The Wall', Robber's Roost & Brown's Hole.

His death linked with Butch Cassidy's in Bolivia in 1909. But it was never provin.  Etta Place was his sharp shooting, bank robbing mistress.

 
She was caught & sent to Yuma Prison where she earned the distinction for being the only  woman to be sent to prison while pregnant. This bought her an early release. She was pardoned & told to get out of Az. After that she turned to turning tricks & pick-pocketing.
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