Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1897-01-07
Wild BILLS SISTER.
NEAR RELATIVES OF ABILENE'S
MARSHAL LIVE AT HOOKER.
Their Home Is a Dugout But They
Are Rich in Memories Of the
Famous Scout and Bad Man--0ther
Relatives in the East.

near Oberlin, on the wind.swept
plains of northwestern Kansas, lives
Mrs. Lydia M. Barnes, sister of wild
Bill" Hickok, one of most famous and
daring frontiersmen whom the West
ever knew, j. B. Hickok, or "Wild
Bill" was killed by Jack Mccall in a
saloon in Deadwood, S. D., on Aug.
5, 1876, and in his death the western
plains lost one of the most pictures
que characters that ever rode a mus
tang or drank the vile whisky sold in
the saloons of the new country.
"Will Bill" gloried in the fact that he
was the terror of the frontier towns
Of Ellsworth, Hays City and Abilene,
in which places he was for some time
marshal ..
Mrs. Barnes, "Wild Bills" sister,
is the postmistress at Hooker, and
distributes to the farmers of the
neighborhood the mail which the tri-
weekly stage brings to the office. For
the last seventeen years she has lived
where she now resides, having come
to this country from Illinois in the
early spring of 1879. Her husband
took claim on the then outskirts of
the settlement of this section,
Mrs. Barnes is on the sunset side of
life, of medium build, and smiles at
the visitor out of pair of blue-gray
eyes that have steely CLINT to them.
She has dark brown hair, a little gray
at the temples, but it is brushed back
smoothly from a face which tells no
tales as to her exact age. The mouth
is firm a slight droop at the corners.
"They always said that Bill and |
looked alike" said Mrs. Barnes.
"Bill was always a restless sort of
boy and left home in 1858 to come
west. Once he had tasted the wild,
free life of the plains he could not
give it up. We heard from him
quite often and he came home infre-
quently, but he never remained more
than a few days at time. The long
est time he ever remained was three
weeks, and that was when he was
wounded up in Minnesota by an
Indian spear. 1t struck him in the
hip, the point bending when it struck
the bone so that he had to stop and
get off his horse to pull it out. He
paid little attention to the wound and
rode to Fort Leavenworth, where
there was a letter from me to him
telling him that mother was not
well and asking him to come home.
He came, but said nothing of his
wound for several days, though he
had DR.. Thomas Of Mendoza, Ill.,, to
dress it and care for it. We learned
of it only when he asked for some
lint to put fresh bandage on it,
Later, it became necessary to lance
the wound and scrape the bone.
"The doctor came one evening to
perform the operation, but Bill would
not take chloroform. The doctor made
four cuts outward from the wound,
making perfect cross with the lance.
Then he drew the flesh back and be-
gan to scrape the bone. | was hold
ing the lamp and felt myself getting
faint. Here, give it to me, said
Bill. He took the lamp and held it
while the doctor scraped away, never
flinching once during the operation.
"My brother was quite a friend of
Buffalo Bill. He was boarding with
Mrs. Cody when Buffalo Bill was a
consumptive boy of 10 years. My
brother told her to let the boy take
trip out on the plains with him. Mrs.
Cody consented reluctantly. The
trip made different boy Of Buffalo
Bill, and he was friend of my
brother ever after. He kept on rid
ing the plains, became connected
with the pony express, then developed
into scout, and finally got his title
by killing buffalo for the Union Pacific
railroad men who were building the
road.
81 remember the day the paper
came with the news Of Bills murder"
continued Mr.. Barnes, taking up the
subject Of her brother again "Mother
had been suffering from inilamma-
tory rheumatism for two years before
that, and had not taken a step for
eighteen months. Ny sister was