Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-04-26
"pEApWooD DICK" Is DEAD.
Famous Character Of the Dime Novels
Made Remarkable Frontier Career.

| Ine famous DeauWOOu LICK IL
dead.
The hero Of millions of young Amer
leans Of generation ago died in q
hospital jail few days ago.
His death put the period on an
amazing career. He was such a man
as the dime novelist loved. His adven-
lures were the basis of q thousand
fearsome tales of wild Indians and
frontier adventure. He was the
original Of the fictitious character,
'Deadwood Dick"
His name was Robert Dickey, but
he was known all over the west as
"Deadwood Dick" The name struck
the fancy Of an author Of blood-and
thunder yarns, and he and his adven-
lures were woven into hundreds upon
hundreds Of tales that used to thrill
young Americans.
Dickey died in the Denver Jail hos
pital. Nearly a year ago he was ar
rested for vagrancy and sentenced to
term Of imprisonment. He grew
weaker and weaker. He was an
old man, and his years of soldering,
scouting and Indian fighting had worn
him down. His last photograph was
made as he lay in hospital bed.
Time was wheh every lad In the
United States knew the adventures of
"Deadwoo6 Dick" by heart, The
original v. the character autlived the
craze for these man-eating tales Of
the old west, where the white scout
killed a dozen warriors single-ha
ed,
The doings Of the imaginary Dead
wood Dick" fiourished at the time
when Nick Carter, "Old Sleuth" and q
dozen other fictitious daredevlls were
stirring the hearts of American boy
hood.
Dickey was a scout under General
Crook in the days when the bad In
dians Of the plains were making their
last stand against the white man and
his soldiers. He served under General
Terry during a part of that command
der's campaigns in the foothills Of the
Rockies.
Later he became an Indian agent and
looked after the tribes he had fought
He issued agency beef and red calico
to the warriors Of the prairies and
tried to keep the white men from
taking their lands away from them,
Still later he was one of the United
States marshals that helped to keep
the laws in the territarial times,
Dickey served through the civil war
in a regiment of Pennsylvania caval-
ry. When the Federal troops were
mustered out after Appomattox he
went west Thousands Of other SOL
diers out of a job did likewise, for
there were Indians to watch and for
tunes to be made In the wild coun-
try.
He took to the frontier life as
naturally as though he had worn a
hunting shirt all his days. II ever a
man looked the part Of a blood-and-
thunder hero Dickev was that man.
He stood over six feet in his deerskin
moccasins, and his tawny hair fell
about his shoulders He wore his hair
long through all his career in the west.
In the Denver Jail he protested so
vigorously against being shorn that
the jaier yielded and allowed him to
wear it as long as he lived.
He fought Indians for a good many
years, and his hair, breadth escapes
and his we'll known courage made him
dear to the writer's, who loved to de-
scribe the hero dashing madly across
the prairie through a flight of arrows
and a hail of bullets and eluded his
pursuers,
He was one of that dying and dead
galaxy of heroes of the old west that
included Kit Carson, Buffalo Bill, Bat
Masterson and others Of the noted In
dian and gun fighters who passed with
the red men, the cow camps and the
buffalo. In picturesqueness he was
not equaled even by the skln-shirted
wide hated Cody. II the dime novel
writer could have created an Ideal
character In the flesh 'Deadwood
Dick" would have been that charac-
ter.
After the old west had begun to
change Dlckey started in the fur busi-
ness and accumulated fortune. For
ha 40 ltytn
bones of the great buffalo herds that
he and others like him had killed In
the halcyon days Of big game hunt
ing in the west. From this he went
in the fur business, made much mon
ey and lost it in the boom towns OF
30 years ago. Since that time he had
been a drifter, one Of the men that
the west made and then broke.
He took his losses like a true SOL
dier of fortune and lived as hest he
could. His old comrades in the In
dian wars and his friends In the fur
business had lost sight Of him for
many years before he finally turned
up in Denver.
He was arrested there for vagrancy
in May, 1911, and made some effort to
communicate with wealthy relatives
living in Pennsylvania. After his death
his body was shipped to his old home
in that state.
Wild as some Of the adventures
read that were attributed to him, his
escapes and battles Of real life some
times equaled them The Sioux, the
Utes and the Pawnees greatly desired
to add his tawny locks to their scalp
collections that dangled on the tepee
poles of their smoky wigwams. Every
young Ute and Sioux longed to dis
tinguish himself for life by running
the scalping knife around the crown
of the daring scout who harried their
war parties and harassed their VII
lagos.
Many a youngster hid in the barn
loft all of hot summer afternoon
and lost himself in the doings OF
"Deadwood Dick" The sun may have