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The
men arrived on April 9, 1892 when there were four men at the ranch cabin,
including Champion. Two of the men, trappers who had just been passing by,
were captured by the cattle baron group and a
cowboy
named Rueben "Nick" Ray was shot and killed. Nate was besieged in his
cabin as a hail of bullets came his direction. He was able to hold out for
several hours, killing at least four of the gunmen and wounding several
others. However, when they set his cabin o fire, he was forced to emerge
and was shot down. One of the men who participated in the siege was famous
gunman
Frank M. Canton, who reportedly regretted the incident so much so,
that he left the cattlemens' association shortly thereafter and moved to
Oklahoma
where he became a
U.S. Deputy Marshal.
Jesse Chisholm
(1805?- 1868) - Though Jesse Chisholm
blazed the famous Chisholm Trail, he
never herded cattle. Rather, he used the path to transport goods to and
from his trading posts.
More ...
 John Simpson Chisum (1824-1884) -
John Chisum
was a cattle baron who moved longhorn herds from
Texas
into
New Mexico
in the mid 1800’s, where he founded one of the largest cattle ranches in
the
American
West.
More ...
William "Buffalo Bill" Frederick Cody (1846-1917) -
Buffalo Bill was a freighter, cattle driver,
Pony Express rider, a
Civil War
soldier, a
buffalo hunter and
army scout before he began entertaining great numbers of people in his
Buffalo Bill's
Wild West Show.
More ...
 Charles
J. Goodnight (1836-1929) – Born in
Illinois
and raised in
Texas ,
Charles
Goodnight would grow up to become a
cowboy, a
Texas Ranger,
blaze the Goodnight-Loving Trail, invent the chuckwagon, and become part
owner in one of the largest ranches in the
Texas
panhandle. When the panhandle was overrun by cattle rustlers in the
1880's,
Goodnight formed the Panhandle Stockman's Association, whose first
task was to apply
vigilante justice to the area's
outlaws
and cattle thieves. After living a long and prosperous life,
Goodnight died on December 12, 1929 at the age of 93.
More
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The Hash-Knife Outfit (1884-1900) - The Aztec Land and Cattle
Company of Boston, became the third largest cattle company in North
America in the late 1800's. Headquartered in
Holbrook,
Arizona,
they were referred to as the
Hashknife
Outfit because their brand resembled the old hash knives used by chuck
wagon cooks. The ranch, that stretched for 650 miles from the
New Mexico
border to just south of
Flagstaff,
soon became a hotbed of cattle rustling, both from their own
cowboys
and from the small ranchers who had previously settled there.
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Aztec
cowboys
in 1877.
This image available for photographic prints
and downloads
HERE!
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The
buckaroos
of the outfit also gained the
unsavory reputation of being the “thievinist, fightinest bunch of
cowboys” in the United States. The sudden presence of so many
cowboys also gave rise to rustling, robbery and gunfights. In
desperation, the Aztec Company hired
Bert Mossman, who would later become the first captain of the
Arizona Rangers, to manage the
outfit in January, 1898.
Mossman immediately declared war on the cattle rustlers and by the end
of the year, the Aztec Company was finally beginning to show a profit.
However, it was not soon enough. the next winter a severe blizzard
hit northern Arizona, killing thousands of
Hashknife
cattle and in 1901 the Aztec Cattle Company declared bankruptcy.
More ...
 Ben
Holladay (1819-1887) - Born in Kentucky on October 19, 1819 and
raised in Weston,
Missouri,
Holladay would grown up to become known as the "Stagecoach King." Helping
his father to lead wagon trains through the Cumberland Gap, Holladay
learned the business at an early age. Beginning his career by furnishing
supplies to General Stephen Kearny in the Mexican War, he was involved
with a number of successful business ventures in
Weston,
Missouri
before moving to
California
and starting the Overland Stage Route.
By the spring of 1864 his stage line dominated
the passenger, mail, and freighting business between the
Missouri
River and Salt Lake City, controlling more than 2500 miles of stage lines
and was among the largest individual employers in the United States.
Two year later he sold his routes to
Wells Fargo Express in 1866 for $1.5 million and moved to Oregon. He then formed
a steamboat business called the Northern Pacific Transportation Company
that operated from Alaska to Mexico. He also built the Oregon and
California
Railroad as far south as Roseburg before the Panic of 1873 financial
crisis stopped the effort.
Having also dabbled in gold and silver
mines, distilleries, slaughter houses, and a number of retail operations,
the transportation millionaire, maintained several mansions in New York,
Washington, D.C., and Oregon by the time he was 50. He spent the last
years of his life involved in a number of law suits related to his complex
financial holdings and died in Portland on July 8, 1887 at the age of 68.
Bose Ikard (1847-1929) - A former
slave, Ikard honed his cowboy skills and rode with Charles Goodnight.
Gordon William "Pawnee Bill" Lillie -
(1860-1942) - A performer in
Buffalo Bill
Cody's Wild West Show,
Pawnee Bill later formed his own act,
becoming so popular that he was stiff competition for
Buffalo Bill.
More ...
Nat Love, aka:
Deadwood Dick (1854-1921) - Nat Love,
who was also known as "Deadwood" Dick was said to have been the greatest
black cowboy in all of the Old West.
Oliver Loving (1812-1867)
– A cattle rancher and pioneer of the cattle drive who, along with
Charles
J. Goodnight, developed the Goodnight-Loving Trail. He was killed by
Indians
while on a cattle drive. More ...
Annie Oakley, aka: Phoebe Anne
Oakley Mozee (1860-1926) An excellent markswoman, Oakley made
her living demonstrating her amazing ability to hit her target.
As star of
Buffalo Bill's
Wild West Show, she traveled the
world.
More ...
John Baker "Texas Jack" Omohundro
(1846-1880) - Texas Jack was a frontier scout and cowboy who
joined up with
Buffalo Bill
Cody to perform in his Wild West Show.
Continued Next Page
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