Wild Bill Hickok: His Early Years

Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

I'm starting a new series in my tales of Old West, this one is about the
famed gunfighter, lawman, scout and gambler known as Wild Bill
Hickok. I did 2 posts about him last week about his Sheriff jobs in 2
Kansas cow towns, Abilene and Hays City, but then I stopped because
I was having trouble finding verifiable information.

Luckily I had ordered a well researched book from the 1960's which
goes into painstaking details about his life and exploits, all very well
documented. This author spent years in research and worked with
dozens of historical societies and archives from many states as well
as court records and newspaper articles from the 1800's.

He also interviewed two of Wild Bill's nieces and one of his nephews
on many occasions and they gave him documents and many letters
which Wild Bill had written over the years so it was a treasure trove
of information which had never been disclosed before.

check out that mustache..I'm a little bit envious.

source

In fact, one of the reasons I didn't start this series yesterday was
because I got caught up in reading his letters to his mom, brothers
and sister and it was mesmerizing, lol...I lost all track of time because
it was such a rare look into the man's character and heart.

So anyway, wading through tons of facts and figures takes more time
than I counted on so this post is just an introduction to his life and
adventures. But I'll give you a brief rundown on his early life so you
can see where he came from.

He was born James Butler Hickok in Homer, Illinois in 1837 and he
had 3 brothers and 1 sister. His family lived outside town and they
farmed for their livelihood. Life was tough. They were poor. James
learned to handle firearms very early in age and he was a natural
with them and would spend most days out in the woods hunting to
provide food for his family.

His father was not in good health and passed away when James was
15 years old. As exhaustive as the book is regarding details of his life
there is not much known about his father except his lineage,
occupation, and the fact that he ran a stop on the Underground
Railroad for escaping slaves on their way North.

Even though Illinois was an anti-slavery state there were still ugly
people who were out tracking escaped slaves. This is a bit of a side bar
but I think it's an important part of United States history, albeit a
hideous part.

There were basically three groups of people who made the task of
running a station on the Underground Railroad very dangerous. One
was the Provost Marshalls who were legally tasked with taking
escaped slaves back.

Then there were the Kidnappers who would kidnap slaves and resell
them. The third group were the bounty hunters who would recapture
the slaves and return them to their owners for the reward money or
bounty on them.

James stated that many times his father was shot at for his activities
and recalled one time when he and his brother were riding with their
father in a wagon which was full of escaped slaves when they were
approached by a band of bounty hunters who gave chase and began
firing their guns at them.

When the shots began his father had him and his brother get down in
the wagon with the slaves. Jame's father knowing the area well, was
able to turn down a narrow path in the woods while the band rode on
down the main road.

While no records were known and probably weren't kept for security
reasons, Jame's relatives say that his family literally saved hundreds
of escaping slaves by hiding them and giving them safe passage on to
Canada!

This gives you a little insight into how Wild Bill's character was
formed and why. He hated injustice his whole life and always stood
up for the less fortunate. The cruelties and injustice of slavery made
a deep impression on him.

this is the only known photo of young James. He was 21 years old.

source

When his father died the work of the farm was left to the brothers but
James was itching to get out of there, he was bored and destined for
more than plowing fields.

He stayed to support his family but also took jobs on neighbors
farms and took a job at a canal which used horses to pull cargo
barges along the canal.

This is the first instance which showed his character and intolerance
of bullies because his job ended when he threw his employer into the
canal for abusing the horses! lol. James was 17 at the time.

Starting to like this guy now?

Tomorrow we'll continue with James heading for Kansas where his
legend really begins.

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck

ps- ya know...you might just be a redneck if:

Jack Daniels makes you list of most admired people!