The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-01-25
Reproductions of dime novels from the col
lection of Charles Bragin, Brooklyn, N. W

Capt. jack was John Wallace Crawford,
native of Ireland, boy soldier in the Union
army, prospector and miner in the Black Hills,
a scout for the army in the Sioux war of 1876
and until his death in 1917 was widely known as
a chautauqua and lyceum lecturer under the
name of Capt. Jack, the Poet Scout"
ARIZONA Joe" Joseph Bruce, a noted
frontier character, a MINER Indian fighter and
a close friend of Texas Jack" Omohundro
Calamity Jane" the notorious Martha Jane
Canary, native of Missouri, who, dressed in
mems Clothes worked as a teamster with Gen.
George Crooks army in the Sioux of 1876,
was picturesque figure in the Black Hills gold
rush and later drifted to Montana where she
died in 1903. "Fancy Frank" was Dr. Frank
Powell, who started in life as a newspaper re-
porter, studied medicine, had varied career on
the frontier, was associated with Cody in the
Wild West show in which he was known as
"White Beaver" and the medicine man of the
Winnebagoes" and ended his career in his ma
tive Wisconsin where he was mayor of one town
and practicing physician in another.
Both "Buckskin Sam" and Rowing Joe" were
somewhat anomalous characters in that they
were both heroes of dime novels and writer's of
such literature "Buckskin Sam" was Maj. Sam
s. Hall, born on the frontier where he led an
adventurous life before turning his attention to
producing such thrillers as Double Dan, the
bastard; or The Pirates of the Pecos" and "Ker-
whOop, ke-whoo!; or, The Tarantula of Taos"
Later he made his home in the East where he,
"a wiry little man." according to one historian,
occasionally showed his virile Western man
hood by going on shooting rampage at his home
in Wilmington, Delaware" Joseph e. Badger
was also Westerner who wrote the story of
his life on the frontier, calling it "Roving Joe"
and signing it "a. a. Post" Later he became
one of Beadle's star writer's under his own name
of Badger. 4
AS for "Deadwood Dick and Diamond Dick"
the originals" of both have been legion But
the best evidence is that "Deadwood Dick" was
purely fictitious character, created by Edward
l.. Wheeler, a writer for Beadle and Adams and
the first "Deadwood Dick" story appeared in
Beadle's Half-Dime Library in 1878. 1T was not
Wheeler's first novel;" says Edmund Pearson in
his book Dime Novels; or, Following an Old
Trail In Popular Literature little, Brown and
Company "but never again In all his list of
alterations did he chance upon name so
felicitous or character appealing to his read
ers as that of Deadwood Dick"
AS early as 1906 an original" of "Deadwood
Dick" a certain Frank Palmer died in Denver
In 1920 another original died In Los Angeles
this time being Richard Bullock, who had been
guard on the s.agecOaches which brought bull
lion out of the Black Hills. In recent years. and
until his death in $780, certain Richard w.
Clark of South Dakota was widely publicized as
the original Oh DedQWOOu DICK, Says PEARSON
There is far-away resemblance between the
I pictures of the old frontiersman. aged eighty
two Gin 1929 and the drawings of the young
desperate of the eighties in Mr. Wheeler's sto-
ries. fancy that this distant resemblance is all
that obtains between the career of Richard Clark
and Deadwood Dick"
AS for Diamond Dick'-in 1882 Beadle and
Adams published Diamond Dick, the dandy
from Denver A true story of the mines of New
Mexico by Maj. Sam S. Hall ("Buckskn Sam')
/ But the great popularity of the Diamond Dick"
Z stories came in the late eighteen nineties and
early nineteen hundreds when, according to dime
novel experts, this form of literature was begin
S. ming to degenerate" from the virity and red
bloodedness Tor goryness) which characterized
the early ones
But in the minds of many people. DR.. Richard
j. Tanner of Norfolk, Neb, is the Original of
Diamond Dick" A native Of Illinois, he went to
Nebraska at the age of nineteen, became an ex-
pert with both the rifle and pistol and after q
career of 20 years with circus, where he was
billed as Diamond Dick" he decided to study
medicine and retired from the show business
For a quarter of century he concealed his cir
Gus identity and was known only as a country
doctor In Nebraska town Then In 1925 when