A Bullet in His Brow

William Parker Carr worked on a Smoky Hill River ranch with Joseph Reed and E'lon. They tended a stable of stagecoach horses. E'lon, a black American, shod them.

Carr liked this job just fine until two dozen whooping Indians galloped up. He knew they hadn't come to hire stagecoach nags, so leaving the Indians to steal whatever they wished, Carr, Reed, and E'lon hightailed it through the barn's back door. 

Ahead in the prairie lay a big depression. "A buffalo's bathtub," Reed called it. When it held a few inches of water, herds of buffalo rolled in it, throwing dirt and water this way and that, then rising up plastered with mud. In this way, they fought flies. 

The three men dashed to the now-dry buffalo wallow, deep enough for the men to lie down and hide. They didn't remain safe for long. The Indians, intent on mayhem, showed up and put a bullet in E'lon's forehead. Carr and Reed dragged his body in front of them to act as a barrier. 

Sundown rescued them. Carr and Reed crawled out of the wallow. E'lon, more alive than supposed, stirred. Soon he appeared as alert as they did. 

"We thought you were dead," Carr said, "or we never would of used you that way."

But E'lon shrugged it off. "I didn't mind being your cover."

Coming soon in 

THIEVES, RASCALS & SORE LOSERS 

by Marilyn June Coffey

Runaway Slaves

Nebraska Territory had few slaves--13 in 1855. Stephen Nuckolls owned two Virginia women, and Alexander Majors brought six slaves from Kansas City, Missouri. All lived in Nebraska City.

In 1858, Nuckolls's women ran away. He raged, offered $200 reward, and, with a U.S. Marshall's help, searched for them, but Nuckolls never saw them again.

In 1860, all of Majors's slaves disappeared and never returned, even though Major offered $1,000 bounty. 

All eight slaves probably escaped via the Underground Railroad, a path used by runaway slaves on their way to safe Canada. 

Maybe they hid on the Allen Mayhew farm near Nebraska City. There Mayhew built a cabin and, below it, dug a room reachable only through a tunnel. 

Then runaways could cut across the Missouri River and head to Tabor, Iowa, where abolitionists supported another stop on the Underground Railroad.

See a picture of Mayhew's cabin on the back cover of 

THIEVES, RASCALS & SORE LOSERS 

by Marilyn June Coffey

coming soon.

Wukkin' on the RR

The Civil War hindered railroad construction, but in July 1865, workers laid down Union Pacific track in mud flats near Omaha. 

Construction crawled. At the end of 1865, Union Pacific tracks totaled just 40 miles. But by October 1866, the rails reached the 100th meridian, 247 miles west of Omaha.

Union Pacific celebrated. 

Two trains chugged down the track to the 100th meridian. Red, white, and blue streamers billowed alongside the cars, and festive antlers perched on top of locomotives. 

The first train lugged supplies for a party, Western style, including tents, buffalo robes and cases of champagne. The second train brought 140 party goers—the guest list loaded with influential capitalists and Congressional dignitaries. 

They whooped it up for three days, dancing around a huge bonfire, peering at a prairie dog town, applauding Pawnee war dancers, and eating fresh-killed antelope for dinner.

Find out soon in 

THIEVES, RASCALS & SORE LOSERS: 

A Saucy History of a Nebraska County Seat War 

by Marilyn June Coffey

Bullets Cascade

One day in 1864, William Parker Carr drove an Overland Stage along the Little Blue River Trail. With Carr rode three passengers (two men and a woman) plus two guards protecting the U.S. mail. 

Then with no warning, two dozen Indians on swift ponies attacked the stagecoach, firing hard upon it. 

One guard, a fourteen-year-old, leaped on top of the coach and rode there, shooting again and again.

Bullets surged around Carr as he lashed his four horses into a dead run.

One bullet lodged in the seat behind him, and another shattered the lamp beside him. Still another bullet struck the bridle of his horse and brought it to its knees. 

Did Carr and his passengers survive?

Find out soon in 

THIEVES, RASCALS & SORE LOSERS: 

A Saucy History of a Nebraska County Seat War 

by Marilyn June Coffey

Hornet's Nest

Benjamin "Ben" Holladay hired William Parker Carr, the teamster. When they met, Holladay, forty-four, retained a Kentucky accent from his childhood. As a lad, he helped his Pap lead wagon trains through the Cumberland Gap, so it's not surprising that he now owned the largest stagecoach line in the world, the Overland Stage Company. 

But the Stagecoach King, as some called him, didn't hire Carr to drive. Instead, Holladay wanted Carr to shoot deer, elk, and buffalo to feed the stage line that ran from Atchison, Kansas, to San Francisco.

"Locate yourself in the Republican River valley," Holladay said. "It's a world-class place to find game." And so it was.

Carr had excellent timing. He saw the idyllic valley just before it became a hornet's nest of Indian raiders: Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho.

Coming soon in 

THIEVES, RASCALS & SORE LOSERS: 

A Saucy History of a Nebraska County Seat War 

by Marilyn June Coffey

Who's to Know?

President Lincoln asked all Northern governors to provide troops for the Civil War. But Missouri Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson, refused.

 

Instead, he called up the Missouri State Militia and commanded it himself, making him the first sitting governor to lead troops into battle and the first to lead them against his own Union.

July 5 William Parker Carr fought Governor Jackson's men in the Battle of Carthage, the Civil War's first major on-land battle. It pitted 1,100 Union volunteers, armed and well-drilled, against the governor's force of 6,000. Two-thirds bore arms; the rest were raw recruits, hurriedly gathered, barely trained.

The fight featured fluttering battle flags, cannons booming, and a bayonet charge. As Union forces retreated, Carr saw Governor Jackson's 2,000 weaponless recruits, unable to fight, hanging about in the woods, moving like deer among the trees.

Carr heard gunfire, a voice shouted from the woods, "For God's sake, stop! You're shooting your own men!" 

Who's to know? Recruits, who had no Confederate uniforms, wore whatever they could.

Coming soon in 

THIEVES, RASCALS & SORE LOSERS: 

A Saucy History of a Nebraska County Seat War 

by Marilyn June Coffey

"Dixie"

When Fort Sumter kicked off the American Civil War, William Parker Carr joined the Union army. He and his unit traveled from Nebraska to Missouri singing--would you believe this?--"I Wish I Was in Dixie." The bright tune made for good marching, but their enemies, the Confederates, those Southerners, claimed "Dixie" as their anthem. Why was the song so popular? That was Lincoln's doing. He made that song all the rage, in the north as well as the south, the moment he named "Dixie" as his favorite song.

Coming soon in 

Thieves, Rascals & Sore Losers: 

A Saucy History of a Nebraska County Seat War 

by Marilyn June Coffey