The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-08-13
90 10000
SHOT GUN MESSENGERS
OF THE EARLY DAYS


married and went TO Richmond, Va.
to i've. Years afterward the judge re-
marked to an old Nevada friend that
his wife was still in happy ignorance OF
the manner of her sons death.
On Feb. q, 1877, the stage was held
up about ten miles out from Ward, in
White county, New, two men firing
from ambush at the horses and coach
without warning. Eugene Blair, who
was always fixed for company, in
s.antly fired at the man on the left.
shattering the robbers right arm at
the shoulder and sending buckshot into
his right side. Blair jumped from the
coach, the robber on the right whirlins
and taking two shots at him. Blair
returned the fire. The robber ran,
Blair following and continued to shoot
until the robber was out Of sight Re-
turning to the stage, he heard the first
man groaning and calling that he was
wounded and dying, and would sur
render He assisted the fellow into the
coach and took him to Ward.
The next day the robbers arm was
amputated and he died. As soon as
the inquest was over, Blair started
alone in pursuit of the other robber.
He took to the trail, followed it for ten
days on foot, captured his man in
safely to White Pine, where he was
sentenced to ten years in the states
prison.
On Sept. 4, 1877, there was large
shipment of money from Eureka, New,
to Typo, to pay off the miners there.
Eugene Blair and Shotgun Jimmy
Brown were assigned as guards for the
treasure. 1t was generally believed
that this money went up by stage
about the first of every month. Four
desperate characters, all ex-convicts,
had organized to capture this particu-
lar shipment. Big Jack Davis"
Thomas LAURA, Bob Hamilton and his
brother composed the robber gang. The
stages left Eureka late in the evening.
LAURA waited until he saw them de-
part; then he slipped out of town and
rode desperately to a neighboring
mountain peak and built two signal
fires, lighted them and hurried back
into town.
The three other robbers, hidden near
Willows station, where the stage was
due at 9 o'clock, stealthily crept UP on
the place, and, at the muzzle of their
guns. captured the two men in charge,
and bound and gar~ed them. AS it
grew darker they SAL the two distant
beacons and learned from them that
there were two shotgun messengers
accompanying the treasure.
The stage coach rumbled up the road
and swung into place before the open
stable doors, ready for the change of
horses.
Eugene Blair, surrender" came a
voice from the darkness. Blair thought
1t was a joke by the stableman. Get
down off of there and surrender" COM
manded the same voice with a fierce
ness that meant business. Blair jumped
down with his shotgun, saw no one, but
rushed in the direction whence the
voice had come. Two shots were fired
at him almost simultaneously, one from
the side and one from the front. big
Jack Davis" then lodged past Blair
and turned and thrust the muzzle of
his shotgun against the messenger
breast Blair seized the barrel with his
left hand, forced it up with the quick
ness of lightninge and clinched with
the big robber-
They were III a death grip. each
clutching his gun. Blair swung the
man to throw him, and as he. did so the
light from the stage lamp struck the
fellows back and displayed a target
that Shotgun Jimmy Brown, from
the dickey seat on top of the stage, was
eagerly waiting for in the darkness
He fired in that fraction of a second.
the robber in the small of the back.
I'm shot / surrender" he yelled,
and fell to the ground from Blair's
arms Brown then started to Chamber
from the stage top. One of the robbers
shot him in the leg, shattering the bone.
Bob Hamilton and his brother fled in
the darkness. Blair pursued them on
the run, firing as rapidly as he could
The wounded robber died next day, the
others being subsequently captured.
Once Eugene Blair went to Phoebe,
New, to arrest a notorious fellow
known as Wild Bill" Men were
stepped right up to him, clinked on the
handouts and, when the time came,
started with his prisoner in the stage
for Carson.
Bill" said Blair, I've heard that
your friends are going to try TO get
you away from me between here and
Carson Likely they'll do ii all right,
but it's fair to tell you that it'll never
do you any good, for 1 will shoot you
dead at the first break they make
'All right, Blair replied Wild Bill
cheerfully. But as the stage neared
Elko he became very nervous and
finally blurred out: 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, and 1 know if they try
you'll do what you said" And he
pleaded to be taken back to Phoebe,
where he preferred to face possible
| Iynching But somehow his friends
thought better of their plan to attack
Eugene Blair, and the prisoner went
| through 10 Carson.
Several years after that Bill Davis
was released from state prison because
| = II !, Of Of he
plumber he and his confederateS had
| taken from the Central Pacific train
| they had robbed between Reno and
| Tahoe He took to the road and laid
| in wait for Blair. One night as the
stage was running between Phoebe and
/ ElkO, Davis, who had another rObbeI
with him, suddenly yelled from the
| roadside. Hands up, Blair, I've got
youi" Blair had not an instant tC
lose. He tumbled sideways off the
seat, darted around back of the stage
sprang upon the man, grappled with
him, wrestied his gun away and with
the robbers own weapon shot him dead
! right there but few seconds after the
! man had spoken. The indomitabl,
! Blair then turned and ran after tn,
| other highwayman. He pursued hin
for four hours through the brush il
the darkness and finally overhauleC
and captured him
Shotgun Jimmy" Brown, one of tn
invincibles, CIed at Helena, Mont. sew
eral years ago, after long Hines
caused by wounds he had received il
fights with road agents. II was sal
of him that.he could shoot more time
and in more directions in a given tim
than any other man who ever glIarde
a stage coach. Before he was s
badly SCARED by bullets and bucksho
Shotgun Jimmy was considered quit
a handsome young fellow.
In the early los he was shotgun mes
senger on the stage run between Hele
ma, Mont, and Virginia, New. A prett