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SOUTH
DAKOTA LEGENDS
Con Stapleton - Deadwood Marshal |
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Though the
HBO series
Deadwood shows
Con Stapleton as a dim-witted card dealer at the
Number 10 Saloon, who gained his short-lived marshal's position by
begging
Al Swearengen
to appoint him,
Stapleton actually was elected as the
Deadwood
Marshal by the miners on September 16, 1876.
Stapleton, who had immigrated from
Ireland to the United States in 1871, was in
Montana
when word of the gold strike in
Deadwood arrived. Along with the
many others that flooded into the booming mining camp,
Stapleton arrived in the spring of 1876.
When
Wild Bill Hickok was shot
down by
Jack McCall
in
Nuttall & Mann's Number 10 Saloon on August 2, 1876,
Stapleton was playing cards with him, along with Charles Rich, Carl
Mann and Captain Willie Massie.
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Deadwood From Mt.
Moriah, 1888, courtesy Library of
Congress. This image available for
photographic prints and downloads
HERE!
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Afterwards,
McCall
was chased down the street and arrested. A couple of days later, a
trial was held charging
McCall
with murder. However, because
McCall
claimed
Hickok
had killed his brother and he had only been taking revenge, he was
found not guilty. Later the trial was found to be illegal and
Jack
McCall
was arrested and hanged.
After the trail, on August 5, 1876, the
men of
Deadwood
decided they needed law and order in the camp and elected Isaac Brown
as
Deadwood's
first marshal on August 5, 1876.
But for
Marshal Isaac Brown, being a lawman would be a short-lived career. When he, along with the Reverend Smith and two other men named Charles
Mason and Charles Holland were traveling between Crook City and
Deadwood,
they were ambushed and killed on August 20th. Leaving an open
position, the miner's court soon met again on September 16th and this
time they elected
Con Stapleton as the new marshal.
Though he would only
serve as the town's marshal for a little over a year, one of the most
widely publicized events during his short tenure was the shooting of
David Lunt. On January 14, 1877,
Stapleton, along with Lunt and several other
men were standing around talking at Al Chapman's saloon when a man
named Tom Smith came barreling into the saloon with his pistol in the
air. Shouting threats and leveling his gun on the saloon's patrons, he
barked, "Anyone who moves gets shot!"
When the
crazed man neared
Stapleton's group, the marshal tried
to disarm him and in the frenzy the pistol discharged, barely missing
Stapleton's head and striking Lunt in
the forehead. As the amazed crowd looked down upon what they thought
was surely a dead man, amazingly David Lunt stood up, brushed himself
and went about his business like nothing happened.
Stapleton then arrested Smith on a
charge shooting an an officer and though Smith was found guilty he was
soon released.
In the
meantime, David Lunt continued on as usual, even though he had a hole
that went entirely through his head. That was, until March 22, 1877,
when he began to complain of a terrible headache. As he took to his
bed at the Centennial Hotel, friends and staff cared for him, but it
was to no avail. That night, some 67 days after he had been shot, he
died. Afterwards, the doctor performed an autopsy and found that
the bullet had carried a bone fragment deep into his brain, causing a
large abscess and filling his brain with fluid. The doctor was
amazed that he lived any time at all, much less for more than two
months.
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After Lunt's
death, a new warrant was issued for Tom Smith for murder and the man was
soon rearrested and taken to Yankton,
Dakota
Territory to stand trial.
In addition to
his marshaling duties, one of
Stapleton's favorite past times was organizing wresting matches, most
often at the
Gem Theater. Sometimes he acted as a referee and at others as a
participant.
In
March, 1877,
Seth Bullock was appointed as the Lawrence County Sheriff, and
gradually assumed many of
Stapleton's duties. On
November 7th of the same year, the position if city marshal was eliminated
altogether.
By the following
year, many of the town's citizens had to become to move on to
Colorado
where another boomtown was forming in
Leadville.
Stapleton followed the rest in February
1878, but as to whether he did any prospecting in
Leadville
is unknown. Eight months later he reportedly died on September 10,
1879 in Denver,
Colorado.
He was just 31 years old.
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Also See:
Black
Hills Historic Characters & Tales
Deadwood -
Rough & Tumble Mining Camp
Deadwood, South Dakota Timeline
HBO's Deadwood - Facts & Fiction

Book Your Lodging in Deadwood
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In the basement of the Wild West Winners Casino is a interpretive display
of the what happened on the day that
Wild Bill Hickok was
killed. Kathy Weiser, July, 2006.
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From the Rocky Mountain General Store
Saloon
Style Advertising Prints - What were on the walls of the
saloons in
the Old
West? Likely, much of the same as those you find today -
advertisements for liquor, beer, and tobacco. Plus the "decadent"
women of the time. In our
Photo Print Shop, you'll find dozens of photographs for decorating
your "real"
saloon or den in a
saloon type
atmosphere.
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