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 James
Butler Hickok was an American frontiersman, marksman, and law
enforcement officer. He was born near Troy Grove, Illinois on May 27,
1837. At the age of 19 he moved west to the Kansas Territory, where he
farmed and joined the Free State Army. He also worked as a scout and
stagecoach driver on the Santa Fe and Oregon trails. During this time,
Hickok is said to have survived a bear attack armed with only a bowie
knife.
He was also involved in a shootout with the infamous McCanles gang in
Rock Creek, Nebraska known as the Rock Creek incident, or "McCanles
Massacre." The Rock Creek Station in Nebraska Territory had been
purchased by Russell, Majors, and Waddell from David C. McCanles to use
on their Pony Express route to California. Their company (generally
known as the Overland Stage Company) was experiencing financial
difficulties at the time and could not pay McCanles the full amount
promised. On July 12, 1861, McCanles, assisted by his cousin James Woods
and James Gordon, tried to reclaim the station, but all three died under
the guns of company employees Hickok, J.W. Brink and Horace Wellman. For
many years it was believed that Hickok killed McCanles, but recent
research suggests one of the others shot him. In Nichols' story for Harper's
Weekly, Hickok was said to have killed 10 men at Rock Creek Station
all by himself.
Hickok later traveled to Missouri, where he served as a Union spy and
scout during the American Civil War (1861-1865). After the Civil War,
Hickok was appointed deputy United States marshal at Fort Riley, Kansas,
a frontier town with a growing cattle industry and a reputation for
lawlessness. As marshal, Hickok participated in many battles with the
Native Americans and served as a scout under various American military
leaders, including Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer. In Springfield,
Missouri, on July 21, 1865, he killed gunman Dave Tutt. Some said the
two men fought over a card game, while others attributed the duel to
competition for the attention of a woman named Susannah Moore.
In 1869, Hickok took his first job in law enforcement as the marshal of
Hays, Kansas. Later in 1869 he was appointed county sheriff. In 1871, he
became the marshal of Abilene, Kansas. As marshal of Abilene he ran into
John Wesley Hardin. Hickok hired a deputy and together they patrolled
Abilene until Hickok accidentally shot his deputy mistaking him for an
outlaw. The incident caused Hickok to give up law enforcement forever.
These Kansas towns, then untamed way stations for cattlemen, were
pacified through Hickok's courage and his skill.
In 1872 and 1873, he toured the eastern United States with Buffalo Bill
in the Wild West Show. In 1874 and 1875, Hickok spent at least some of
his time in Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was there that he encountered Agnes
Lake. On March 5, 1876, Hickok and Agnes married and they honeymooned
for two weeks in Cincinnati, Ohio. He later went west to seek gold and
never saw his wife again.
On August 2, 1876, while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, South
Dakota, Hickok was shot and killed by Jack McCall who was later tried
and hung on March 1, 1877. The hand that Hickok held at the time he was
shot was a pair of eights and a pair of aces. The hand later became
known as the "dead man's hand."
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