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 James Wilson Marshall (1810-1885) - Marshall's discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in
California in 1848, started the
California Gold Rush.
Born in 1810,
Marshall followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a skilled
carpenter and wheelwright. At age 24 he headed westward, making several
stops along the way and finally winding up in
California in
1845.
Building a sawmill for John Sutter in 1847, he
was the first to discover gold January 24, 1848. The
California Gold Rush
was on. Ironically, neither Marshall
nor the owner of the land, John Sutter, ever benefited from the gold that
should have made them independently wealthy.
More ...
 Alexander
McSween (1843?-1878) - A lawyer in Lincoln County,
New Mexico,
McSween, along with partner,
John Tunstall, opened
a rival store in Lincoln, vying for the
business that had been controlled by the Murphy & Dolan Mercantile and
Banking.
Alarmed by McSween and
Tunstall's plans,
Murphy and
Dolan attempted to put the pair out of business, harassing them legally,
and when that did not work, Dolan tried to goad
Tunstall into a gunfight.
However,
Tunstall refused to use violence himself, but soon recruited
Billy the Kid, and a half dozen other tough cowboys to protect him and
his investments. In February, 1878,
Tunstall was killed by the rival
faction, igniting the Lincoln County War.
On July 19, 1878, McSween
and his supporters, including
Billy the Kid, were besieged by their
opponents in McSween's house. His home was set on fire and several people
were shot dead as they came out of the house, including an unarmed
Alexander McSween.
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Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872) -
Creator of a single wire telegraph system, co-inventor of the Morse Code,
and painter of portraits and historic scenes.
Lawrence
Murphy (1831 or 1834-1878) - An Irishman who immigrated to the
United States, Murphy was a
Civil War
Veteran, cattleman, and businessman, whose greed ultimately spawned
New Mexico's Lincoln County War.
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John
Perrett, aka: Potato Creek Johnny -
One of
Deadwood's most
colorful characters,
John
Perrett, more often referred to as “Potato
Creek Johnny,” is credited with finding one of the world’s largest
gold nuggets. Though many say the nugget was actually several
nuggets melted together, the tale persists, along with stories of
Perrett's other eccentricities. Hailing from across the pond in Wales,
Perrett immigrated to the United States in 1883 when he was just 17
and before long had made his way to
Deadwood,
South Dakota
to seek his fortune. Though he never made his fortune, he did become
a local attraction, in and of himself, up until the day he died at the age
of 77 in February, 1943.
More
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Frederic Remington (1861-1909)
- An American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized
in depictions of the American West.
William Penn Adair "Will"
Rogers (1879-1935) - Cherokee-American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social
commentator, vaudeville performer, Presidential candidate and actor.
Charles Marion Russell
(1864-1926) - One of the great artists of the American West, Russell
created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Indians, and landscapes set
in the Western United States, as well as bronze sculptures.
Joseph Smith (1805-1844) -
The founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph
Smith was December 23, 1805 in Sharon, Vermont. Though the family moved
ten times during his youth, Smith spent the majority of his childhood near
near Palmyra,
New York, in the heart of what was called the "burned-over district" for
its frequent and fervent Protestant revivals. At the age of 14, he claimed
to have had an
intense spiritual revelation of God and
Jesus Christ. At the age of 20, Smith claimed that an angel called Moroni
had directed him to a collection of engraved golden tablets that had been
buried in a hill near Palmyra. He said that a prophet named Mormon had
produced the tablets over a thousand years ago and he was instructed to
translate the history. In 1930, he completed the work and published the
"Book of
Mormon," which together with the Old and New Testaments and some of
Smith's later revelations became the sacred scripture of Mormonism.
Later that year he founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
in Fayette, New York.
In 1831, they moved
their
headquarters to Kirkland, Ohio, but there,
they found persecution, especially due to spreading rumors of polygamy. In
1837, Smith moved the group to
Missouri. But, they would find no peace in
the
Show me State," as within a year, all out "war" broke out with their fearful
neighbors.
Missouri's
governor soon ordered all Mormons to leave the state, and when the Mormons
refused, their stronghold in Far West,
Missouri
was surrounded, and Smith, fearing an imminent massacre, surrendered.
The Mormons then fled back eastward, founding the
city of Nauvoo near Quincy,
Illinois in 1839, where the community thrived.
In 1844, Smith announced that he was running for the Presidency of the
United States and this, coupled with the practice of polygamy within the
church, prompted his arrest. He was charged with inciting a riot after he
attempted to destroy a newspaper that exposed the Mormon's practice of
polygamy and imprisoned in Carthage,
Illinois. However, before he could be
tried on these charges, a mob broke into his cell and brutally killed both
him and his brother.
Polygamy was avidly endorsed by the both
Smith and his religion, but was practiced in relative secrecy. Smith is
thought to have married more than 30 women, producing numerous children,
the details of which are uncertain due to the secrecy surrounding his
plural marriages. His first, and only "legitimate" wife,
Emma Hale Smith;
however,
bore him nine children.
When Smith was murdered in
1844, the Mormons were temporarily left without a leader, but continued to grow and by the next year, Nauvoo boasted some
10,000 inhabitants and church
membership increased to nearly 35,000.
In
1846, Smith's successor, Brigham Young, moved the community westward,
first to Winter Quarters,
Nebraska, and the next year to
Utah's
Salt Lake Valley, where young hoped the Mormons would at last find the
freedom to worship and live as their faith decreed.
Levi Strauss (1829-1902) - The inventor of Levi's, Strauss first
sold them to
California gold miners.
John Sutter (1803-1880) - The owner of the land where gold was first
discovered in
California, his land was taken over by prospectors. He ended
up experiencing economic setback and went bankrupt.
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