By John Boessenecker.
Published by Thorndike Press, 10 Water St., Dept TGM, Suite 310, Waterville, ME 04901. Price: $29.99
Available at most bookstores, or Amazon.
With a sub-title of The Brave Men Who Rode For WELLS FARGO in the Wild West this 622-page large print volume is divided into three parts, with a total of twenty chzpters.
Each part deals with a different era in the Wells Fargo history. There is also a lengthy Introduction, an Epilogue, acknowledgments, and sixty-three pages of chapter endnotes.
Part One: The Gold Rush Era, contains four chapters, with the first being: Wells Fargo’s Pioneer Messenger: Pillsbury “Chips” Hodgkins. The final chapter in this part is: Twelve-Gauge Justice: Daniel C. Gay. Gay and his partner both carried side/side shotguns loaded with buckshot, along with revolvers, when on coach duty, but usually rode inside the coach and not up with the driver. Although those shotguns were lethal at close range, the guard’s skill with revolvers was not equal, as exchanges of twenty-thirty shots, without effect, seemed fairly common.
Part Two: The Stage Robbery Era, features ten chapters, with the first being From Pony Express to Wells Fargo: “Shotgun Jimmy” Brown, possibly one of the best guards hired by Wells Fargo. (Whether it was job stress, or something else many WF guards drank rather heavily and had broken or unhappy marriages.)
Part Two contains the story of one of the most stagecoach robbers of that era, Black Bart, who signed his famous poem, Black Bart Po-8. Chapter 11, The Man Who Captured Black Bart: Harry N. Morse should come as a surprise to many readers. Bart, when finally apprehended turned out to be one Charles E. Boles, born in England around 1829. After participating in the California Gold Rush, he returned east , married, settling in Decatur, Illinois, and fought for the Union in the Civil War. Wounded in 1864, and mustered out at the war’s end, Boles headed west again, leaving behind his wife, three daughters and an infant son; they never saw him again.
After serving a short sentence in San Quentin, Boles was released for good behavior, and disappeared, never to be seen again. Following his release, there were three stagecoach robberies for which Boles was the prime suspect, but never apprehended.
Part Three: The Train Robbery Era, contains six chapters, with Chapter 18, Shotguns and Dynamite: Charles F. Charles, being a real thriller. Imagine surviving the blasts from four sticks of dynamite with you in a railroad exprees car, in addition to larger blasts which blew off a side-door, and hole in the floor. Later, you are crushed to death by a heavy water tank in the express car, when the car is thrown from the track by a broken rail.
Illustrations in this interesting volume consist of black and white photographs, or sketches. The majority of the illustrations are of various WF detectives or the various criminals, dead or alive, they were pursuing. Others include three WF-issued revolvers, a presentation-grade Henry rifle awarded by WF to Steve Venard in 1866 for valor, Venard’s converted to cartridge-firing Colt 1862 revolver, a Burgess Folding Shotgun belonging to WF detective John Thacker, and three WF issued side/side shotguns—an 1879 Parker, an 1893 Remington, and a 1917 Ithaca—all of which appear to have regular length barrels. There is also a photo of a reported $650 gold watch and chain presented to WF shotgun messenger Aaron Y. Ross, whose story “I Ain’t Afraid of Any Man” appears as Chapter 15. (Another WF gold presentation watch and fob are shown in Chapter 20, Fighting Words: David Trousdale.)
Ross was born on March 22, 1829. In Old town, Maine, and grew to become a 230 pound, six foot three young man. He died April 3, 1922, at the age of ninety-three. Ten years earlier he had guarded a 500,000 silver bullion shipment from San Francisco to New York City, a good indication of the trust Wells Fargo had in him.
For western history buffs this is a great book to read and use for reference. The stories are not so long that one cannot be read in an evening’s time, and the subject is one few people know much about, other than the Wells Fargo name, which is seen today on some banks.—Larry Sterett.
IT’S A WILD LIFE
By William Wasserman. Published by Penn’s Woods Publications, 38 Ganibrille Ct. Simpsonville, SC29681. Price: $12.95, plus shipping.
Available at some bookstores, or Amazon.
Sub-titled Essays From A State Game Warden this 192-page softbound volume is a collection of 26 short stories based on the experience of the author as a Pennsylvania Game Warden for thirty years.
Some of the stories are short—three pages in length—while others range up to ten or more pages. There is an Introduction, but no Table of Contents, nor any index, and only a few illustrations consisting of pen sketches, or black and white photos.
This small volume can easily be read at leisure, enjoying a story or two at a time. Keep a bookmark, or two, handy in case you decide to skip around, as the stories are not printed in the order in which they were originally published; Tiger was originally in 1996, while the Passing saw print in1994, and the Unprepared in 1999. Regardless, the events are enjoyable to read about.
