The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1898-10-07
NEVADA'S BAD MEN.
HOW EUGENE BLAIR AND VAN SIC.
KLE HANDLED THEM.

For Courage and COOIness-The Sudden
Taking or of Sam Brown, a Notoriou,
Desperate.
"Wiid Bill was Desperate and dan.
gerous one. although l must say for him
that hu did his killing cliofy among bad
men. But at Phoebe, New. he submitted
to arrest as peacefully ns lamb when Eu.
gene Blair came for him ! forget what
Bill had heen doing, hut the Phoebe people
didn t want him there, and Blair started
in the stage with him Cor Carson City"
Colonel 5. C.. Dixon, a southwestern
mine owner, was telling Of Old Nevada
days at an up town hotel, and his subject
at tho moment was EpScne Blaif guard
and messenger for the Wells Fargo Ex.
press company at an easly time.
"The prisoner was handcuffed, of
course, ard Blair sat beside him in the
coach twas generally T. ought hat Bills
friends would try TO rescue him sOme-
where ON the road, which led Slair to say
Co him:
"'Bill, I've heard that yorr friends are
going to get you away from mo between
here and Carson il they ran. Likely
enough they will, hut is TAR TO tell you
that it'll never do ven Any good for I
shall shoot you dead NJ the first break they
make. 1t g well to have the matter under
stood between us.
"'An right, Blair. said Wild Bill in a
cheerful way, but the officers remark set
lin TO thinking. As they came near Elko
he grow uneasy. Phoebe was not a 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.
1.-the fact is I've got friends at Elko,
and I'm afraid If we go there they'll put
up move to rescue me, he said If they
try it, l know you'll do just as you said
think my chances are better to go back
than 20 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
ed his wonderful courage and readiness.
Davis had been the leader in the great
Birdseye robbery, in which a Central Pa
citic train was stopped between Reno and
Tahoe and big haul made by the bandits.
Davis was captured and tried for this, but
by revealing where $4,000 of the plumber
was hidden he got off with a 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
tho driver, Bill Davis, with a confederate,
appeared at the roadside and drew down
shotgun on the messenger.
Hands up, Blair! 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. He dashed round the rear
of the coach to Davis, wrested the shotgun
from the robber' hands and shot him dead
with his own weapon. The other robber
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-
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 1t 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.
By the way, have heard the story Of
the killing of the desperate, Sam Brown,
from the 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 pastime, and to disembowel a man
IN barroom was part of a pleasant even
lng's entertainment to Long Haired
Brown. There was no law in those days,
and man like he could run his course
long time without punishment. Brown
was one of a gang who operated along the
main trail between Carson City and tho
Utah line robbing emigrants coming over
land to California. Van Sickle's ranch, IS
miles below Carson, was a sort of way sth-
ton or hotel for travellers. Brown thought
the ranchmap had i'll used him in some
transaction and he let his feelings be
known, so when he rode up to Van Sickles
house one afternoon the owner thought it
prudent to hail him from the doorway and
ask what he wanted.
want you'll growled Sam Brown in
tone that made Van Sickle turn back
INTO the house in hurry. Brown sent
shot after him as he went through the
doorway and then dismounted, tied his
morse to post and went into the house to
md tho ranchman. 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
went out to his horse, mounted him and
rodo 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
XII you, said Jake Moore, Van Sickle's
clerk
guess that's So said Van Sickle
ana sent word to his neighbors. In
shert time party was organized and start.
eu IN pursuit of Brown, four or five men
rlulng In wagon and Van Sickle and two
others on horseback. Four miles out they
came in sight of Brown Just as dusk was
falling. lie turned, and Van Sickle fired