Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-31
"Wild Bill" Was Honored.

"A Few days dIteT ne WAS IuTueTeu
while playing cards in a Deadwood gam
bling house Wild Bill was buried in the
original cemetery in the gulch. His fu-
neral was a public demonstration and
tribute OF honor to his memory. Charles
B. Utter, one of the most prominent gam
blers in the west at that time. familiarly
known as Colorado Charlie put UP
wooden headboard. on which he painted
with his own hands the words:
"wild Bill, ]. B. Hickok.
Foully Murdered by Jack Mccall
July 2, 1876.
We shall meet in the Happy Hunting
Ground. Pard."
When the old cemetery was abandoned
Wild Bits body was one Of the first to
be removed, and an eastern man named
De Lancey, a 'lunger," who came here
looking for a climate and was great
admirer of the character Of Wild Bill. al
though he never knew him, placed an
expensive marble shaft surmounted by a
bust over the grave. But that was al
most entirely Clipped away for souve-
Mrs by tourists, and the present monu-
ment and statue were afterWard erected
by public subscription.
No man had truer friends or more de-
voted admirers. Wild Bill was saint,
but he was honorable in all his dealings
never felt the sense of fear, never did
mean act and had one of the kindest
hearts and most generous dispositions OF
any desperate. He had a very attractive
personality. and at Abilene, Hayes City
and other frontier towns where he lived
and on several occasions served as sher-
iff and marshal he was thoroughly re-
spected by the reputable portion of the
community and feared by the other class:
He secuted for Sheridan and Custer, and
Mrs. Custer in her charming book of
army life, Following the Guidon," tells
more of him than can be found any
where else in print.
First Made Him Famous.
George Ward Nichols of Cincinnati,
who was a member of Sheridans staff
during the Kansas Indian campaign of
1868, discovered Wild Bill and first made
him famous Robert Bonner of the New
York Ledger sent Ned Buntline from
New York to Kansas to write up Buffalo
Bill who was then looming up on the
western horizon, and shortly after the
publication of his hair-lifting achieve
ments Nichols wrote an article for Har
pers Magazine which added Wild Bill to
the menagerie of frontier lions. Wild
Bill was not so good a business man as
Buffalo Bill and lacked the sagacity to
take advantage of the opportunity, and
for that defect ne remained on the from
tier, while his friend and comrade be-
came national character.
When Wild Bill came to Deadwood in
the summer of 1876. this town was in
the control of gang of grafters and
gamblers who were robbing everybody.
Matchmaking the mining companies and
.'skfnning'' every tenderfoot who came
into the district. All great mining camps
and frontier cities have passed through
similar experience and Wild Bill tanned
two or three of them. The gang became
alarmed by rumor that he was to be
appointed city marshal and hired Jack Nc
Call. worthless. drunken desperate. to
shoot him in the back while he was play
ing cards with a party of friends in
saloon called THE Chamber of Death"
because SO many had died there with
their boots on.
Mccall Tool of a Gang.
Mccall was the tool of worse scoun-
drels, but, like the man who killed Jesse
James in Missouri. he thought the MUIR
der would make him hero, and he put
up the defense that he had followed
Hickok from Kansas in order to kill him
in revenge for the murder of his brother.
The reputable portion of the community
We're out In response TO an Indian alarm
at the time of the assassination, and the
gamblers called jury of their own num-
Der. who. having heard McCalls defense,
promptly brought in verdict of not
guilty. furnished him with funds and
provided him a relay of horses to get
away before Hickok's friends returned to
town. but Colorado Charlie '.C-alifor-
MIA joe who was teamsler on the
Custer expedition, and two or three 9TH
ers traied him to Laramie, where they
caused his arrest. He was taken to
Yankton, tried for murder and hung on
the day that Rutherford b. Hayes was
inaugurated President of the United
States. At the trial Mccall put up the
same defense of Justification He testi-
fed that Wild Bill had killed his brother
in cold blood in Abilene. Kan, and that
he had sworn a vendetta. He declared
that his VOW having been fulfilled, he was
willing and ready to die, but this bluff
did not win the jury. and the prosecuting
officer produced witnesses to prove that
he never had a brother.
1t is an interesting historical fact that
Frank Towle. foreman of the coroner's
jury at Deadwood, which originally ac-
quilted Mccall of the murder, was a no.
torious road agent. and a few weeks
later was shot while trying to hold up
the Deadwood stage of Russell Thorpe &
Co.
Grave Of Calamity Jane"
In the lot adjoining that in which Wild
Bill is buried is the grave of an eccentric
woman who used to go about this coun-
try dressed in mems clothing and was re-