Mollie Johnson (not to be consfused with Molly Johnson)
- from Wikipedia
Mollie Johnson was a 19th-century madam in Deadwood, South
Dakota. Johnson was born in Alabama, and migrated west due to the demand
for working prostitutes. Indications are that she began working that trade
in her early teens, around the age of 15 or 16 by some reports. However,
definite information on her early life is unconfirmed.
She was known in Deadwood, South Dakota, as the "Queen
of the Blondes". Her nickname came from the fact that she had three blonde
protégés who worked for her: Ida Clark, Ida Cheplan and Jennie
Duchesneau. The twenty-ish foursome, Mollie Johnson and her girls, were
often embroiled in personal and physical altercations with each other.
She first appeared in Deadwood shortly after the gold
rush, and was first mentioned in public writing in February, 1878, when
she married Lew Spencer, an African American comedian who was performing
at the time in the Bella Union Theater. Although married, Johnson continued
to work in her chosen profession, both as prostitute and madam. Spencer
eventually left Deadwood and was later arrested in Denver, Colorado for
shooting his other wife. Evidently Spencer had been married to both a woman
in Denver, and Johnson. There are no indications that Johnson and Spencer
ever saw one another afterwards.
Reportedly a widow before her arrival in Deadwood, and
in her early to mid-20s, Johnson was described as being a pretty woman,
and a very good businesswoman. She was also a known supporter of Irish
Famine Relief. The competition for brothel owners in Deadwood was light,
as there were very few girls to choose from, but plenty of men. Her main
competition during most of her time in Deadwood was Madam Dora DuFran,
but there is no indication that the two madams did not get along.
The brothel houses were described in the papers as being
a resort for naughty men. Mollie Johnson was also noted to be of a kind
heart, caring for the dead body of one of her girls, before trying to save
her possessions in the "Big Deadwood Fire" of September 26, 1879. After
the destruction of the brothel, which stood on the corner of Sherman and
Lee Streets, she immediately opened another brothel, and suffered two more
fires over the course of the years. She reportedly left Deadwood, as business
dropped off, in January, 1883. Where she went or what happened to her following
her departure of Deadwood is unknown.
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Red Cloud - from Wikidedia
Red Cloud (Lakota: Ma?píya Lúta) (1822
– December 10, 1909) was one of the most important leaders of the Oglala
Lakota from 1868 to 1909. He was one of the most capable American Indian
opponents that the United States Army faced in its mission to settle the
western territories, leading a successful campaign in 1866–68 known as
Red Cloud's War over control of the Powder River Country in northeastern
Wyoming and southern Montana. The largest action of the war was the Fetterman
Fight, with 81 Army soldiers killed, and was the worst military defeat
suffered by the Army on the Great Plains until the Battle of the Little
Bighorn ten years later.
After signing the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), Red Cloud
led his people in the important transition to reservation life. Some of
his opponents mistakenly thought of him as overall leader of the Sioux
groups (Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota), but the large tribe had several major
divisions and was highly decentralized. Bands among the Oglala and other
divisions operated independently, even though some individual leaders were
renowned as warriors and highly respected as leaders, such as Red Cloud.
Early life
Red Cloud was born close to the forks of the Platte River,
near the modern-day city of North Platte, Nebraska. His mother, Walks As
She Thinks, was an Oglala Lakota and his father, Lone Man, was a Brulé
Lakota leader. They came from two of the seven major Lakota divisions.
As was traditional among the matrilineal Lakota, in which
the children belonged to the mother's clan and people, Red Cloud was mentored
as a boy by his maternal uncle, Old Chief Smoke (1774–1864). Old Chief
Smoke played a major role in the boy's childhood. He brought Red Cloud
into the Smoke household when the boy's parents died around 1825. At a
young age, Red Cloud fought against neighboring Pawnee and Crow bands,
gaining much war experience.
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Red Cloud in 1880
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Red Cloud's War
Red Cloud's War was the name the U.S. Army gave to a series
of conflicts fought with Native American Plains tribes in the Wyoming and
Montana territories. The battles were waged between the Northern Cheyenne,
allied with Lakota and Arapaho bands, against the United States Army between
1866 and 1868. In December 1866, the Native American allies attacked and
defeated a United States unit in what the whites would call the Fetterman
Massacre (or the Battle of the Hundred Slain), which resulted in the most
U.S. casualties of any Plains battle up to that point.
Captain William J. Fetterman was sent from Fort Phil Kearny
with two civilians and 79 cavalry and infantrymen to chase away a small
Native American war party that had attacked a wood-gathering party days
before. Captain Frederick Brown accompanied Fetterman; the two were confident
in their troops and anxious to go to battle with the Native Americans.
They disobeyed orders to stay behind the Lodge Trail Ridge and pursued
a small decoy band of warriors, led by a Native American on an apparently
injured horse. The decoy was the prominent warrior Crazy Horse. Fetterman
and his troops followed the decoy into an ambush by more than 2,000 Sioux,
Cheyenne, and Arapaho. Combined Native American forces suffered only 14
casualties, while they killed the entire 81-man U.S. detachment.
Following this battle, a U.S. peace commission toured
the Plains in 1867 to gather information to help bring about peace among
the tribes and with the US. Finding that the Native Americans had been
provoked by white encroachment and competition for resources, the commission
recommended assigning definite territories to the Plains tribes. The Lakota,
Northern Cheyenne, Arapaho, and other bands settled for peace with the
U.S. under the Treaty of Fort Laramie. The U.S. agreed to abandon its forts
and withdraw completely from Lakota territory.
Treaty of 1868
The treaty established the Great Sioux Reservation, covering
the territory of West River, west of the Missouri River in present-day
Nebraska (which had been admitted as a state in 1867), and including parts
of South Dakota. Uneasy relations between the expanding United States and
the natives continued. In 1870, Red Cloud visited Washington D.C., and
met with Commissioner of Indian Affairs Ely S. Parker (a Seneca and U.S.
Army General), and President Ulysses S. Grant.
In 1871, the government established the Red Cloud Agency
on the Platte River, downstream from Fort Laramie. As outlined in the 1868
Treaty, the agency staff were responsible for issuing weekly rations to
the Oglala, as well as providing the annually distributed supply of cash
and annuity goods. The agent and Washington officials would determine how
much of the annuity was to be paid in cash or goods, and sometimes the
supplies were late, in poor condition, inadequate in amount, or never arrived
at all. Red Cloud took his band to the agency (a predecessor of the Native
American reservation) and tried to help them in the transition to a different
way of life. In the fall of 1873, the agency was removed to the upper White
River in northwestern Nebraska.
According to Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa) Red Cloud was
the last to sign "..having refused to do so until all of the forts within
their territory should be vacated. All of his demands were acceded to,
the new road abandoned, the garrisons withdrawn, and in the new treaty
it was distinctly stated that the Black Hills and the Big Horn were Indian
country, set apart for their perpetual occupancy, and that no white man
should enter that region without the consent of the Sioux. ... Scarcely
was this treaty signed, however, when gold was discovered in the Black
Hills, and the popular cry was: "Remove the Indians!"... The government,
at first, entered some small protest, just enough to "save its face"...
but there was no serious attempt to prevent the wholesale violation of
the treaty."
Great Sioux War of 1876–1877
Red Cloud settled at the agency with his band by the fall
of 1873. He soon became embroiled in a controversy with the new Indian
agent, Dr. John J. Saville.
In 1874, Lieutenant Colonel George Custer led a reconnaissance
mission into Sioux territory that reported gold in the Black Hills, an
area held sacred by the local Native Americans. Previously the Army had
unsuccessfully tried to keep miners out of the region, and the threat of
violence grew. In May 1875, Lakota delegations headed by Red Cloud, Spotted
Tail, and Lone Horn traveled to Washington in an attempt to persuade President
Grant to honor existing treaties and stem the flow of miners into their
lands. The Native Americans met on various occasion with Grant, Secretary
of the Interior Delano, and Commissioner of Indian Affairs Smith. He told
them on May 27 that Congress was ready to resolve the matter by paying
the tribes $25,000 for their land and resettling them into Indian Territory.
The delegates refused to sign such a treaty, with Spotted Tail saying about
the proposal:
When I was here before, the President
gave me my country, and I put my stake down in a good place, and there
I want to stay. ... You
speak of another country, but it is
not my country; it does not concern me, and I want nothing to do with it.
I was not born there. ... If it is
such a good country, you ought to
send the white men now in our country there and let us alone.
Although Red Cloud was unsuccessful in finding a peaceful
solution, he did not take part in the Lakota war of 1876-1877, which was
led by T?ašú?ke Witkó (Crazy Horse) and T?at?á?ka
Íyotake (Sitting Bull).
In the fall of 1877, the Red Cloud Agency was removed
to the upper Missouri River. The following year it was removed to the forks
of the White River, in present-day South Dakota, where it was renamed the
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
His last days
Red Cloud became an important leader of the Lakota as
they transitioned from the freedom of the plains to the confinement of
the reservation system. His trip to Washington, DC had convinced him of
the number and power of European Americans, and he believed the Oglala
had to seek peace.
In 1884, he and his family, along with five other leaders,
converted and were baptized as Catholics by Father Joseph Bushman.
Red Cloud continued fighting for his people, even after
being forced onto the reservation. In 1887 Red Cloud opposed the Dawes
Act, which broke up communal tribal holdings, and allocated 160-acre plots
of land to heads of families on tribal rolls for subsistence farming. The
U.S. declared additional communal tribal lands as excess, and sold it to
immigrant settlers. In 1889 Red Cloud opposed a treaty to sell more of
the Lakota land. Due to his steadfastness and that of Sitting Bull, government
agents obtained the necessary signatures for approval through subterfuge,
such as using the signatures of children. He negotiated strongly with Indian
Agents such as Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy.
Outliving all the other major Lakota leaders of the Indian
Wars, Red Cloud died on Pine Ridge Reservation in 1909 at the age of 87,
and was buried there in the cemetery now bearing his name. In old age,
he is quoted as having said, "They made us many promises, more than I can
remember. But they kept but one -- They promised to take our land ... and
they took it."
Legacy and honors
Announcements of Red Cloud's death and recognition of
his achievements were printed in major newspapers across the country. As
had been typical of the U.S. perception during Red Cloud's prominence in
war, The New York Times' article on his death mistakenly described him
as leader of all the Sioux bands and tribes, but noted his abilities as
a leader and diplomat. While he was a prominent leader, the Lakota were
highly decentralized and never had one overall leader, especially of the
major divisions, such as Oglala and Brulé.
Red Cloud was the most photographed American Indian of
the nineteenth century. He was first photographed in 1872 in Washington
D.C. by Mathew Brady, just before meeting with President Grant. He was
among the Indians photographed by Edward S. Curtis. In 2000, he was posthumously
selected for induction into the Nebraska Hall of Fame. There are 128 known
photographs picturing Red Cloud. He has been honored by the United States
Postal Service with a 10¢ Great Americans series postage stamp.
In 1871, the town of Red Cloud, Nebraska was named in
his honor.
Theodore Sorensen wrote in Kennedy that President John
F. Kennedy considered naming one of the 41 for Freedom ballistic missile
submarines after Red Cloud, but apparently bowed to Pentagon concerns that
the name could be misinterpreted as being pro-Communist.
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Joseph Lowe - from Wikipedia
Joseph Lowe (1845-1899), aka "Rowdy Joe" Lowe, was a gambler
and saloon keeper/owner of the Old West. Although sometimes described as
a gunfighter, he did not historically fit into that category.
Originally from Illinois, Lowe and his wife Katherine,
aka "Rowdy Kate", moved to Kansas following the Civil War. In 1871, the
couple moved to Newton, Kansas where they set up a saloon and brothel.
In 1872, Kate snuck off with a gunman to visit a competing brothel. Joe
found out and shot the man. The controversy forced the pair to relocate
to the Wichita area where they bought another saloon in Delano, Kansas.
This business venture that at first was extremely profitable. On October
27, 1873, Lowe shot and killed fellow saloon owner Edward "Red" Beard after
Beard stormed into his saloon shooting at one of Lowe's "girls". Beard
hit another girl with one shot, and a patron with another before Lowe shot
him.
However, after numerous complaints of cheating and under-handed
card deals, Lowe's business began to suffer. The couple moved to Texas,
where they rode, on occasion, with the Sam Bass gang. The couple began
drifting, gambling and occasionally working in saloons in numerous towns
of the Old West. On February 11, 1899, Lowe was drunk in the Walrus Saloon
in Denver, Colorado. He began insulting a man named E.A. Kimmel due to
his disapproval of Kimmel being a policeman. Kimmel, knowing Lowe had a
reputation as a gunman, drew his pistol shooting and killing Lowe, who
turned out to be unarmed.
The Wichita City Eagle tells the story of Rowdy Joe Lowes
death being in October 1874. The newspaper reported that Rowdy Joe was
attacked by Indians en route to the Black Hills. He was shot by three bullets
and instantly died.
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Oliver Loving - from Wikipedia
Oliver Loving (December 4, 1812 – September 25, 1867)
was a rancher and cattle driver. Together with Charles Goodnight, he developed
the Goodnight-Loving Trail. He was mortally wounded by Native Americans
while on a cattle drive.
Loving County, Texas, the second least-populous county
in the United States in population, is named in his honor.
Early life
Oliver Loving was born on December 4, 1812 in Hopkins
County, Kentucky. His father was Joseph Loving and his mother, Susannah
Mary Bourland.
Career
In 1833, he became a farmer in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.
Ten years later, with his brother and his brother-in-law, he moved to the
Republic of Texas with their families. In Texas, Loving received 640 acres
(2.6 km²) of land in three patents spread through three counties Collin,
Dallas, and Parker. He farmed and, to feed his growing family, hauled freight
in his early years as a Texan.
By 1855, he moved with his family to the future Palo Pinto
County, Texas, where he ran a country store and ranched on Keechi Creek.
By 1857, he owned a thousand acres (4 km²) of land. To market his
large herd, Loving drove them out of Texas and in that same year he entrusted
his nineteen-year-old son, Joseph, to drive his and his neighbors' cattle
to Illinois up the Shawnee Trail. The drive made a profit of $36 head and
encouraged Loving to repeat the trek successfully the next year with John
Durkee.
On August 29, 1860, together with John Dawson, he started
a herd of 1,500 toward Denver, Colorado to feed miners in the area. They
crossed the Red River, traveled to the Arkansas River, and followed it
to Pueblo, Colorado, where the cattle wintered. In the spring, Loving sold
his cattle for gold and tried to leave for Texas. However, the American
Civil War had broken out and the Union authorities prevented him from returning
to the South until Kit Carson and others interceded for him. During the
war, he was commissioned to provide beef to the Confederate States Army
and drive cattle along the Mississippi River. When the war ended, the Confederate
government reportedly owed him between $100,000 and $250,000. To make matters
worse, the usual cattle markets were inadequate for the available supply.
In 1866, having heard about the probable need for cattle
at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, where some eight thousand Native American Indians
had been settled on a reservation, he gathered a herd, combined it with
that of Charles Goodnight, and began a long drive to the fort. Their route
later became known as the Goodnight-Loving Trail. The two cattlemen sold
beef to the army for $12,000 in gold, and then Loving drove the stock cattle
on to Colorado and sold them near Denver, while Goodnight returned to Weatherford,
the seat of Parker County, Texas, with the gold and also for a second herd.
The two men were reunited in southern New Mexico, where they went into
partnership with John Chisum at his ranch in the Bosque Grande, about forty
miles south of Fort Sumner. (Chisum's sister Nancy was married to Loving's
cousin, B.F. Bourland and had known Chisum for many years) They spent the
winter of 1866-67 there and supplied cattle from the ranch to Fort Sumner
and Santa Fe.
Personal life
He married Susan Doggett Morgan in 1833. They had nine
children.
Death
In the spring of 1867, Loving and Goodnight returned to
Texas, ready to start a new drive. This third drive was slowed by heavy
rains and Native American threats. Loving went ahead of the herd for contract
bidding, taking only Bill Wilson, a trusted scout, with him. Although he
told Goodnight that he should travel at night through Native American Indian
country, he pushed ahead during the day. In a Comanche attack, he was seriously
wounded at Loving Bend on the Pecos River. The weakened Loving sent Wilson
back to the herd, eluded the Indians, and, with the aid of Mexican traders,
reached Fort Sumner, only to die there of gangrene. Before he died on September
25, 1867, Goodnight assured him that his wish to be buried in Texas would
be carried out. After a temporary burial at Fort Sumner, while Goodnight
drove the herd on to Colorado, Goodnight had Loving's body exhumed and
returned to Texas. Stories differ as to who accompanied the body back to
Weatherford, but he was reburied there in Greenwood Cemetery on March 4,
1868. As a member of Phoenix Lodge No. 275 at Weatherford, Loving was buried
with Masonic honors.
Legacy
Loving County, Texas is named in his honor, as is the
town of Loving, New Mexico. Additionally, Loving Bend on the Pecos River
is also named for him. He has been inducted into the National Cowboy Hall
of Fame in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Also, his death was borrowed by novelist
Larry McMurtry for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove. In the
book, Augustus "Gus" McCrae is injured by Indian arrows and sends his companion
Pea Eye Parker to retrieve Woodrow F. Call. McCrae makes it to Miles City,
but dies of blood poisoning, despite having one of his legs amputated.
Call, like Goodnight, brings him back to Texas to bury him.
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Kitty Leroy - from Wikipedia
Kitty Leroy (1850 – December 6, 1877) was a dancer, gambler,
saloon owner, prostitute, madam, and trick shooter of the American Old
West.
Leroy was born in Michigan and by the age of 10 she was
dancing professionally. By the time she was fourteen she was performing
in dance halls and saloons. She also had developed shooting skills that
few could match, including the ability to shoot apples off people's heads.
She married for the first time by 15, but the marriage was short-lived.
She ventured west seeking her fortune, settling for a time in Dallas, Texas.
By the age of 20, she had married a second time and was one of the most
popular dancing attractions in town. She soon gave up dancing to work as
a faro dealer and became known for dressing in men's clothing, and at times
like a Romani. By this time, Leroy had developed into a skilled gambler.
She and her second husband headed to California, where
they hoped to open their own saloon. Somewhere along the line, she left
him for another man, marrying for a third time. However, this marriage
was extremely short-lived. According to an unconfirmed legend, the two
became involved in an argument, during which she challenged him to a gunfight.
When he refused to fight her because she was a woman, she changed into
men's clothing and challenged him again. When she drew her gun, he did
not, and she shot him. As he did not die right away, she called for a preacher
and the two were married. He died within a few days.
Leroy made her way to Deadwood, Dakota Territory, in 1876,
traveling in the same wagon train as Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok.
There, she worked as a prostitute in the brothel managed by Mollie Johnson.
She opened the Mint Gambling Saloon and married for a fourth time to a
Prussian prospector. However, when his money ran out, they began to argue
often. She hit him over the head with a bottle one night and threw him
out, ending the relationship.
Her saloon was successful. In addition to the gambling
income, Leroy occasionally worked as a prostitute but mostly managed her
own women. On June 11, 1877, Leroy married for the fifth and final time,
this time to prospector and gambler Samuel R. Curley. This marriage, as
her others, was volatile. Curley was alleged to have been extremely jealous
and Leroy continued to have affairs, one of which was with her latest ex-husband,
and another, according to rumor, with Wild Bill Hickok. On the night of
December 6, 1877, Curley shot and killed Leroy in the Lone Star Saloon,
then turned the gun on himself and committed suicide. The pair were laid
in state in front of the saloon the next day, then buried together. The
January 7, 1878 issue of the Black Hills Daily Times of Deadwood, under
"City and Vicinity", reported:
The estate of Kitty Curley upon appraisment,
amounted to $650. More than one-half of which is c[l]aimed by and allowed
to
Kitty Donally, and the ezpenses have
doubtless consumed the balance. P.H. Earley has been appointed trustee
or guardian for the
child.
She is mentioned in the HBO series Deadwood, portrayed
as a beautiful murder victim.
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