Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1898-03-19
NEVADA'S BAD MEN.
HOW EUGENE BLAIR AND VAN SIC
kLE HANDLED THEM.

klS HANDLED THEM.
An Express Guard Who Izade Record
For Courage aud Goodness The sudden
Taking on of Sam Brown. Notorious
Desperate.
Wild Bill was desperate and dan
rorous one, although must say for him
that no did his killing chiefly among bad
men. But at Phoebe, New, he submitted
to arrest as peacefully as lamb when Eu-
gene lair cane for him. l forget what
Bill ha,i hcen doing, but the Phoebe people
didn't want him there and Blair started
ia the stage with him for Carson City
Colonel 5. G. Dixon, southwestern
mine ownur, was telling of old Nevada
days at an up town hotel, and his subject
at the moment was Eugene Blair, guard
and messenger for the Wells-Fargo Eek
press company at an early time
THE prisoner was handcuffed, of
course, and Blair sat beside him in the
coach. 1twas generally thought that Bills
friends would try to rescue him some-
where on the road, which led Blair to say
TO him:
going to get you away from me between
here and Carson if they can. Likely
enough they will, but it's fair to tell you
that it'll never do you any good for /
shall shoot You dead at the first break they
make It's well to have the matter under
stood between us.
All right, Blair said Wild Bill in a
cheerful way, but the officers remark set
him to thinking. AS they came near Elko
no grew uneasy. Phoebe was not com
Portable or safe town for Bill to be in at
that time, but before they got to the sta
ton he asked Blair to take him back
there.
The fact is I've got friends at Elke;
and Pm afraid If we go there they'll put
up move to rescue me, be said. If they
try it, know you'll do just as you said. l
think my chances arc better to so back
than go ahead
"But word got to the friends somehow
of what would happen if they interfered,
and Blair took his prisoner to Carson with
no trouble
Eugene Blair was from the state Of
Maine and came TO Nevada among the
pioneers. He was very tall, long limbed
and muscular, quick of motion, ready and
perfectly brave His killing of Bill Davis,
the stage robber, was an exploit that show
cd his wonderful courage and readiness.
Davis had been the leader i'll the great
Birdseye robbery, in which a Central Pa
cific train was stopped between Reno and
Tahoe and a big haul made by the bandits.
Davis was captured and tried for this but
by revealing where $50, coo Of the plumber
was hidden no got of with year or two
in the penitentiary. He took to the road
again after his release and one night, as
the stage ratified along between Phoebe and
Elko, with Blair sitting on the box beside
the driver, Bill Davis, with confederate,
appeared at the roadside and drew down
shotgun on the messenger.
Hands up, Blairl he called. I've got
your
There was no time for Blair to use
weapon but he rolled off the coach to the
ground on the farther side before the rob
Der could fire. IIe dashed round tho rear
of the coach to Davis, wrested the shotgun
from the Tobber hands and shot him dead
with his own weapon. The other robbor
ran, and Blair chased him four hours
through the sagebrush, capturing him at
last. You can judge by this what kind of
man Blair was, and his killing of Davis
was only one of many deadly shooting af-
u fairs he had In discharge of his duty. He
killed so many men on the Wells Fargo
lines and upset so many schemes of rob-
berry that it seemed certain, sooner or
later, that he would be killed in revenge
To save his life the express company re-
tired him with pension, and he settled in
Phoebe. After his long career of danger
on the road he lived quietly at Phoebe to
die at last from injuries received through
his being run over by load of wood.
"Dy the way, have heard the story of
tho killing Of the desperate, Sam Brown,
from tho lips of Van Sickle, the ranchman
who shot him. You know perhaps what
terror Brown was in the early history Of
Nevada. He was naturally bad. Murder
was a pastime, and to disembowel man
in barroom was part of pleasant even
ing's entertainment to Long Haired
Brown. There was no law in those days,
and man like he could run his course a
long time without punishment. Brown
was one Of gang who operated along the
main trail between Carson City and the
Utah line robbing emigrants coming over
land to California. Van Sickles ranch, 10
miles below Carson, was a sort of way sta
ton CT hotel for travellers Brown thought
the ranchman had i'll used him in some
transaction and he let his feelings be
known, so " hen he rode upto Van Sickle's
house one afternoon the owner thought it
prudent to hail him from the doorway and
ask what be wanted.
" Il want your growled Sam Brown in
tone that lDado Van Sickle turn back
into the house in n hurry. Brown sent a
shot after him as he went through the
doorway and then dismounted, tied his
horse to post and went into the house to
find tho rapchman. He got as far as the
dining room, and, not finding Van Sickle
came back, stopped for drink at little
side room that served as bar and then
won't out to his horse, mounted him and
rode On in the direction of Lutte Odds
ranch, eight miles away. After he was
gone Van Sickle appeared with his rife.
"'You must kill Brown today, or he'll
kill you,' said Jake Moore, Van Sickle's
clerk
"'I guess that's So c7;I Van Sickle
and sent word to his noighbors In a
short time party was organized and start
cd in pursuit of Brown, four or five men
riding in wagon and Van Sickle and two
others on horseback. Four miles out they
came in sight of Brown just as dusk was
falling. He turned, and Van Sickle fired
rode on, and they lost sight of him in the
darkness. Lutte Odds ranch was a mile off
the trail. Van Sickle felt sure that Brown
would go there, and, with the other two
mounted mer> took a cross cut to the
ranch, hoping to get there before he did
He was not there, and Lutte Old said he
had not seen him. AS they stood talking
in the shadow of the barn some one came
riding up in the darkness, and Lutte said i:
" That's Brown; l know by the Jingle
of his spurs
"He walked over to the fonce to let
down the bars, and as Brown rode into the
yard Van Sickle with his rife shot the
desperate dead from his horse. When Van
Sickle told the story, he showed me "a six
shooter.
"'This was Sam Browns, he said. 1T
was the only thing of his l took after I
killed him. let the others that were with
Inc take tho rest. New York Sun.