R. I. P. By Cheri Kay Clifton

We western authors have researched stories of legendary frontiersmen, outlaws, gunslingers, lawmen, and Native Americans.  For this post, I’ve written how and where a few of their stories ended and where they now “rest in peace.”

For many notorious outlaws, the Old West cliché is true, they died with their boots on! Not surprising that a number of cemeteries in the West are named Boot Hill.  The most famous one of all is Boot Hill in Tombstone, Arizona.  And its most famous inhabitants are Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury, all killed at the gunfight at O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881.

Certainly another outlaw at the top of the numerous list of those lying 6 feet under is Henry McCarty, aka, William Henry Bonney, aka, Billy the Kid.  On July 14, 1881, Pat Garret, the Lincoln County, New Mexico Sheriff was questioning a friend of Billy’s at his home in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Sitting in a darkened bedroom, Garrett was asking Billy’s whereabouts when Billy unexpectedly entered the room.  Billy didn’t recognize Garrett in the dim light and asked, “Quien es?” – “Who is it?”  These were the last words Billy uttered.  Garrett shot Billy twice in the heart.  Billy the Kid was buried the next day at Fort Sumner cemetery.  He was just 22.  The old Fort Sumner Post Cemetery is near present-day Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

As for lawman, Pat Garrett, (proper name, Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett), he endured a sullied reputation from folks accusing him of killing Billy the Kid without warning.  After finishing his term as Lincoln County Sheriff, Garrett wrote (with the help of a ghostwriter), his experiences with the Kid.  He died his own strange death, shot on the road while talking to a rancher who he’d leased grazing rights to in order to pay debts.  Originally buried in Odd Fellow Cemetery in 1908, Las Cruces, New Mexico, Garrett was reinterred in the Masonic Cemetery in 1957.

Outlaw Jesse Woodson James held the well know distinction of gang leader, bank robber, stagecoach robber, train robber, and murderer from the state of Missouri and the famous member of the James-Younger Gang. In 1882, he was killed by a member of his own gang who hoped to collect a reward.  Originally buried at his homestead in Kearney, Missouri, his grave was moved to Mount Olivet Cemetery in 1902.  Jesse was 34 years old.

Known as Texas’ most deadly gunman, John Wesley “Wes” Hardin killed over thirty people.  Captured by a Texas Ranger, he was released in 1894 after serving eighteen years in prison.  One year later, Hardin was shot and killed by John Selman, an outlaw-turned-lawman in El Paso’s Acme Saloon.  Selman was gunned down just a year later.  Hardin is buried at the Concordia Cemetery in El Paso, Texas at the age of 42.  Ironically, Hardin’s killer, John Selman is buried just a few feet away.

John Henry “Doc” Holliday was a gambler, gunfighter, dentist and good friend of lawman Wyatt Earp.  He’s best known for his role as a deputy marshal in the events leading up to and following the gunfight at O.K. Corral.  The man suffered nearly his entire life with tuberculosis.  In 1886 he moved to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, hoping that the hot springs vapors would improve his health.  However, a year later after spending two months in bed, he looked down at his bare feet and said, “That’s funny,” and died.  He’d always figured he would have died with his boots on.  He was 36 years old.

The Glenwood Springs cemetery sits high on a steep hill.  At the time of Doc Holliday’s death, the steep road was too icy so he was buried at the bottom of the hill with the intention of his body being moved when the ice thawed.  But, he never was and many years later, a housing development was built at the base of the hill and though a marker sits in the cemetery, his actual remains are probably buried in someone’s back yard!

Don’t want to discriminate, for there was also the female legendary “outlaw queen,” Belle Starr who was a horse thief, outlaw and part-time prostitute, and the first woman to be tried for the serious crime of horse thievery by the famous Judge Isaac Parker. In 1889, she was shot in the back and killed by an unknown assailant. Forty years old, she was buried at her cabin southwest of Porum, Oklahoma. Her daughter, Pearl had the following inscription engraved on her tombstone:

“Shed not for her the bitter tear,

Nor give the heart to vain regret,

‘Tis but the casket that lies here,

The gem that fills it sparkles yet.”

Can’t leave out James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok, a legend in his time and one of the most famous frontiersmen in the West. On August 2, 1876, he was playing poker at the Nuttall & Mann’s #10 Saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota when he was shot from behind by Jack McCall.  At age 39, lying dead on the floor, Wild Bill was holding a pair of black aces and a pair of eights, which has since been known as the “Dead Man’s Hand.” When in Deadwood, I visited his grave at the cemetery. Calamity Jane, who had long been infatuated with Wild Bill during his lifetime, asked to be buried next to him. Her last request was granted when she died on August 2, 1903.

Another famous lawman and gunfighter, Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp, who was marshal of Ellsworth, Kansas in 1873, marshal in Wichita in 1874, and marshal in Dodge City in 1876, spent his final years working mining claims in the Mojave Desert during the winters and summered in nearby Los Angeles, California.  In 1929 at age 80, he died peacefully with his wife, Josie at his bedside.  Earp is buried at Hills of Eternity Memorial Park in Colma, California.

Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s death became one of the most famous American legends known as “Custer’s Last Stand.” Custer finished at the bottom of his West Point class in 1861, yet led courageous service during the Civil War, only to lead his 7^th Cavalry troops to their demise at the Little Bighorn Battlefield in 1876. He was 36 years old and is buried at West Point, New York.

 In a previous blog, I had reported on Buffalo Bill Cody, the greatest showman the Old West ever knew and his extensive museum in Cody, Wyoming.  After his death in 1917, he was buried on Lookout Mountain in Golden, Colorado.  He was 70 years old.

Speaking of Buffalo Bill, I’d also like to add Phoebe Ann Moses, a sharpshooter who rose to fame in a way most men could only dream of doing and became a legend in her own time!  She was known as Annie Oakley.  Buffalo Bill cast her as “Little Sure Shot” and she did trick shooting with his Wild West show for 16 seasons.  Even at age 60, she was still performing and winning shooting contests.

 Her health declined in 1925 and she died of pernicious anemia in Greenville, Ohio at the age of 66 on November 3, 1926. Her body was cremated in Cincinnati two days later and the ashes buried at Brock Cemetery near Greenville, Ohio. Assuming their marriage had been in 1876, Oakley and he expert marksman husband, Frank Butler had been married just over 50 years.

Butler died 18 days later in Michigan. His body was buried next to Oakley's ashes, or, according to rumor, Oakley's ashes, placed in one of her prized trophies, were laid next to Butler's body in his coffin prior to burial. Both body and ashes were interred in the cemetery on Thanksgiving Day (November 25, 1926).

Hope you visit my website at www.cherikayclifton.com

Happy Trails To You!

The First Boot Hill

Often the name Boot Hill is associated with a cemetery in Dodge City, Kansas due to the town’s recognizable history made more notable by the Gunsmoke radio and TV series. However, there are/were many cemeteries named Boot Hill throughout the old west, with the most notable located in Tombstone, Arizona due to famous gunfight. That particular Boot Hill Cemetery was closed five years after the gunfight at the O.K. (Old Kindersley Livery) Corral and became known simply as the old city cemetery which was grossly neglected for years. (The gun fight actually took place in an empty lot six buildings away from the livery, but a 1950 movie set it at the corral so despite accuracy, the corral became marked as the location.)  

These graveyards were spelled either Boothill or Boot Hill, but ultimately had the same meaning—most of the ‘occupants’ had died with their boots and usually violently whether in gun fights, hangings, or some other rough and unnatural death. 

 Deadwood, South Dakota also has a rather famous Boothill Graveyard, so does Tilden, Texas, as does Skagway, Alaska.  Other states that also have/had cemeteries named Boothill include (but not limited to) New Mexico, Iowa, Montana, California, Idaho, Oklahoma, Arizona, Oregon, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Nevada, Michigan, and Utah. 

So who had the first Boot Hill? That was Hays, Kansas.  Fort Hays was established in 1867, the same year the Kansas Pacific Railroad planned to lay tracks through central Kansas. William F. Cody, (Buffalo Bill Cody) was a buffalo hunter for the railroad. An enterprising man, Cody partnered with another man named William Rose and founded the settlement of Rome, which quickly grew because of the railroad depot that was promised to arrive soon. A third man wanted in on the deal of creating the settlement, but Cody and Rose refused Webb’s involvement. Unknown to them, Webb had authority from the railroad to established towns for them. 

Webb set the roots of his town, Hays City, a mile east of Rome and on the other side of Big Creek. Trying to hold onto their town, Cody and Rose gave away lots in Rome, but even that failed. Within a year, there was nothing left of Rome and Hays was a bustling city. If they’d built a building in Rome, people moved the entire structure to Hays, including a hotel and general store. By the time the railroad arrived in Hays rather than Rome, over a thousand people lived in Hays. Until five years later, when the railroad built a line to Dodge City, Hays was the point for people from the west and southwest to obtain supplies.  

Hays never became a major cattle market landmark, but did have its heyday. Being an outfitting station for wagon trains following the Smoky Hill Trail, and a railhead, brought people to town in groves, including notorious characters. Structures appeared overnight, and by the dozens. At the first County Commissioners meeting, thirty-seven licenses to sell liquor were granted.

 

Despite the trials of some to make Hays a reputable community, it soon became one of the deadliest places in the West. Saloons and brothels flourished and the sheer number of desperadoes who placed very little value on human lives marred Hays City’s early days with bloodshed. 

Wild Bill Hickock was hired as a ‘Special Marshal’. The law-abiding town’s people thought Hickock’s reputation of getting the ‘drop’ on his opponents and his deadly aim would protect them from the outlaws overtaking their community. However, Hickock walked his own line, which could be on whatever side of the law he chose at that moment. After he’d killed two soldiers, two civilians, and wounded several others, Hickock, evading military authorities, fled town.    

Many other unsavory characters spent time in Hays, creating mayhem and stepping over dead bodies as they sauntered onward without remorse. The cemetery on the edge of town grew as quickly as the town. Bodies were often buried without ceremony, and considering 45 men were buried with their boots on within the town’s early days, the graveyard was named Boot Hill.  

Many of the enterprising entrepreneurs who’d set up shop in Hays moved on when the railroad expanded. Dodge City inherited many of them along with the cattle drives. Several fires that destroyed entire city blocks calmed some of the rough and wild days of Hays, and the arrival of German settlers also contributed to the change in the city. The Germans were from Russia and brought along winter wheat that flourished in the area. Grain elevators and churches were erected and soon outnumbered the saloons and brothels, making Hays a welcoming community for farmers and families. 

A new cemetery was created, and Boot Hill became nothing more than on overgrown piece of property that wasn’t renowned until Old Fort Hays was turned into a museum in the 1950’s.

My June release takes place in Kansas, in a small fictional town of Oak Grove located along the Smoky Hill River. The Mail Order Brides of Oak Grove is a duet that includes two separate stories of twin sisters Mary and Margaret McCary. It’s also the first in a series of Mail Order Brides who find their happily ever after in Oak Grove. 

Twin sisters say "I do" in the Wild West! 

SURPRISE BRIDE FOR THE COWBOY by Lauri Robinson
Mary McCary never wanted to be a mail-order bride, but falling off the Oak Grove train into Steve Putnam's lap changes everything… Could he be the cowboy to tempt her down the aisle?

TAMING THE RUNAWAY BRIDE by Kathryn Albright
Running from trouble, Maggie McCary signs up to be a mail-order bride. She doesn't intend to actually marry…until she shares one sensational kiss with Jackson Miller!

FRONTIER LEGENDS: May they "rest in peace" by Cheri Kay Clifton

We western authors have researched stories of legendary frontiersmen, outlaws, gunslingers, lawmen and Native Americans.  For this post, I’ve written how a few of their stories ended and where they now "rest in peace."

For many notorious outlaws, the Old West cliché is true, they died with their boots on! Not surprising that a number of cemeteries in the West are named Boot Hill.  The most famous one of all is Boot Hill in Tombstone, Arizona.  And its most famous inhabitants are Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury, all killed at the gunfight at O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881.

Certainly another outlaw at the top of the numerous list of those lying 6 feet under is Henry McCarty, aka, William Henry Bonney, aka, Billy the Kid.  On July 14, 1881, Pat Garret, the Lincoln County, New Mexico Sheriff was questioning a friend of Billy’s at his home in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Sitting in a darkened bedroom, Garrett was asking Billy’s whereabouts when Billy unexpectedly entered the room.  Billy didn’t recognize Garrett in the dim light and asked, “Quien es?” – “Who is it?”  These were the last words Billy uttered.  Garrett shot Billy twice in the heart.  Billy the Kid was buried the next day at Fort Sumner cemetery.  He was just 22.  The old Fort Sumner Post Cemetery is near present day Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

As for lawman, Pat Garrett, (proper name, Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett), he endured a sullied reputation from folks accusing him of killing Billy the Kid without warning.  After finishing his term as Lincoln County Sheriff, Garrett wrote (with the help of a ghostwriter), his experiences with the Kid.  He died his own strange death, shot on the road, while talking to a rancher who he’d leased grazing rights to in order to pay debts.  Originally buried in Odd Fellow Cemetery in 1908, Las Cruces, New Mexico, Garrett was reinterred in the Masonic Cemetery in 1957.

Outlaw Jesse Woodson James held the well know distinction of gang leader, bank robber, stagecoach robber, train robber, and murderer from the state of Missouri and the famous member of the James-Younger Gang. In 1882, he was killed by a member of his own gang who hoped to collect a reward.  Originally buried at his homestead in Kearney, Missouri, his grave was moved to Mount Olivet Cemetery in 1902.  Jesse was 34 years old.

Known as Texas’ most deadly gunman, John Wesley “Wes” Hardin killed over thirty people.  Captured by a Texas Ranger, he was released in 1894 after serving eighteen years in prison.  One year later, Hardin was shot and killed by John Selman, an outlaw-turned-lawman in El Paso’s Acme Saloon.  Selman was gunned down just a year later.  Hardin is buried at the Concordia Cemetery in El Paso, Texas at the age of 42.  Ironically, Hardin’s killer, John Selman is buried just a few feet away. 

John Henry “Doc” Holliday was a gambler, gunfighter, dentist and good friend of lawman Wyatt Earp.  He’s best known for his role as deputy marshal in the events leading up to and following the gunfight at O.K. Corral.  The man suffered nearly his entire life with tuberculosis.  In 1886 he moved to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, hoping that the hot springs vapors would improve his health.  However, a year later after spending two months in bed, he looked down at his bare feet and said, “That’s funny,” and died.  He’d always figured he would have died with his boots on.  He was 36 years old.

The Glenwood Springs cemetery sits high on a steep hill.  At the time of Doc Holliday’s death, the steep road was too icy so he was buried at the bottom of the hill with the intention of his body being moved when the ice thawed.  But, he never was and many years later, a housing development was built at the base of the hill and though a marker sits in the cemetery, his actual remains are probably buried in someone’s back yard!

Don’t want to discriminate, for there was also the female legendary “outlaw queen,” Belle Starr who was a horse thief, outlaw and part-time prostitute, and first woman to be tried for the serious crime of horse thievery by the famous Judge Isaac Parker. In 1889, she was shot in the back and killed by an unknown assailant.  Forty years old, she was buried at her cabin southwest of Porum, Oklahoma. Her daughter, Pearl had the following inscription engraved on her tombstone:

“Shed not for her the bitter tear,

Nor give the heart to vain regret,

‘Tis but the casket that lies here,

The gem that fills it sparkles yet.”

Can’t leave out James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok, a legend in his time and one of the most famous frontiersman in the West. On August 2, 1876, he was playing poker at the Nuttall & Mann’s #10 Saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota when he was shot from behind by Jack McCall.  At age 39, lying dead on the floor, Wild Bill was holding a pair of black aces and a pair of eights, which has since been known as the “Dead Man’s Hand.” When in Deadwood, I visited his grave at the cemetery. Calamity Jane, who had long been infatuated with Wild Bill during his lifetime, asked to be buried next to him. Her last request was granted when she died on August 2, 1903.

Another famous lawman and gunfighter, Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp, who was marshal of Ellsworth, Kansas in 1873, marshal in Wichita in 1874, and marshal in Dodge City in 1876, spent his final years working mining claims in the Mojave Desert during the winters and summered in nearby Los Angeles, California.  In 1929 at age 80, he died peacefully with his wife, Josie at his bedside.  Earp is buried at Hills of Eternity Memorial Park in Colma, California.

Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s death became one of the most famous American legends known as “Custer’s Last Stand.” Custer finished at the bottom of his West Point class in 1861, yet led courageous service during the Civil War, only to lead his 7^th Cavalry troops to their demise at the Little Bighorn Battlefield in 1876. He was 36 years old when he died and is buried at West Point, New York.

In a previous blog, I had reported on Buffalo Bill Cody, the greatest showman the Old West ever knew and his extensive museum in Cody, Wyoming.  After his death in 1917, he was buried on Lookout Mountain in Golden, Colorado.  He was 70 years old.

Speaking of Buffalo Bill, I’d also like to add Phoebe Ann Moses, a sharp shooter who rose to fame in a way most men could only dream of doing and became a legend in her own time!  She was known as Annie Oakley.  Buffalo Bill cast her as “Little Sure Shot” and she did trick shooting with his Wild West show for 16 seasons.  Even at age 60, she was still performing and winning shooting contests.

Her health declined in 1925 and she died of pernicious anemia in Greenville, Ohio at the age of 66 on November 3, 1926. Her body was cremated in Cincinnati two days later and the ashes buried at Brock Cemetery near Greenville, Ohio. Assuming their marriage had been in 1876, Oakley and her expert marksman husband, Frank Butler had been married just over 50 years.

Butler died 18 days later in Michigan. His body was buried next to Oakley's ashes, or, according to rumor, Oakley's ashes, placed in one of her prized trophies, were laid next to Butler's body in his coffin prior to burial. Both body and ashes were interred in the cemetery on Thanksgiving Day (November 25, 1926).

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention at least four Native American leaders who changed the course of history:

Hunkpapa Lakota Sitting Bull, holy man and tribal chief, led several attacks on U.S. forts in the West and played a role in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Years later, he was offered a pardon.  By 1885, Buffalo Bill had him in his Wild West Show and Sitting Bull gained significant popularity.  He befriended, Annie Oakley and often made public appearances. However, in 1890, after returning to the Agency reservation and during the Ghost Dance Movement, he was accused of encouraging Indian rebellion and his arrest was ordered.  Sitting Bull refused to cooperate and a scuffle ensued.  A nearby Lakota, Catch-the-Bear, shot the arresting officer, who fired back, killing Sitting Bull. Sixteen people were killed in the skirmish, including eight police officers, Sitting Bull, and seven other Sioux. Two weeks later the massacre at Wounded Knee would take place.  Age 59, Sitting Bull was initially buried at Fort Yates, ND, the remains were supposedly dug up in 1953 and moved to Mobridge, SD off U.S. 12.

Crazy Horse, literally "His-Horse-Is-Crazy" was a leader of the Oglala Lakota. He took up arms against the United States Federal government to fight against encroachments on the territories and way of life of the Lakota people, including leading a war party to victory at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.  Four months after surrendering to U.S. troops under General Cook, in May 1877, Crazy Horse was fatally wounded by a bayonet-wielding military guard, while allegedly resisting imprisonment at Camp Robinson in present-day Nebraska.  His remains were given to his elderly parents who secretly buried the 35 year-old Sioux leader somewhere in the wilds near Nebraska’s Red Cloud Agency.  No marker exists showing his final resting place.  He ranks among the most notable and iconic of Native American tribal members and was honored by the U.S. Postal Service in 1982 with a 13¢ Great Americans series postage stamp.

Red Cloud was another highly respected leader of the Oglala Lakota. He led from 1868 to 1909 and was one of the most capable Native American opponents the United States Army faced.  After finally signing the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), Red Cloud led his people in the important transition of reservation life. He continued fighting for his people, even after being forced onto the reservation.  He outlived all the other major Lakota leaders of the Indian Wars. He died in 1909 at age 88 on the Pine Ridge Reservation, where he was buried. He is quoted as saying in his old age, “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.”

Last but not least is one of the most recognizable names in the world, Geronimo. After years on the warpath, Chiricahua Apache warrior, Geronimo achieved fame when he turned himself in for the final time in 1886. He traveled with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show and made appearances at fairs and gatherings before dying in the prisoner of war camp in 1909, never achieving the freedom he had been promised. He died quietly of pneumonia in the post hospital at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1909 a few months before his 80th birthday. He was buried in the fort’s Apache cemetery, but tribal legend says his remains were secretly removed to the Arizona Mountains of his youth.

There are so many stories of where the famous legends lie.  As you’ve read, some of the stories of how they died, though sad, were almost as interesting as how they lived. I could go on & on, but have to end somewhere!  I am going to save three special stories to post on my blog next month.

Happy Trails To You,
Cheri

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Mourning Customs in the Victorian Era (The Nineteenth Century)

In my current WIP, set in 1890's Ireland, the heroine's mother dies and she's faced with the strict mourning customs of Victorian society in the United Kingdom. Not familiar with all the nuances, I researched the subject and accumulated a wealth of knowledge. Interestingly, very little of the data will be used in my novel, but perhaps I can use it down the line.

We think of people in the Victorian Era as prudish and repressed, but they had an almost fanatical obsession with death. Queen Victoria's mourning practices are a prime example of that obsession. She mourned for forty years—dressed in black everyday, kept their home as it was the day he died, and the servants continued Prince Albert's routine—from hot water for shaving to scouring his chamber pot. And a bust of the prince or painting appeared in almost every photographic portrait of the royal family.

This picture of the Albert's five daughters was taken by William Bambridge, the Royal Collection RC IN 2900549.

Today, most deaths occur in the hospital, not in the home, so we are removed from the dying process. Mourners would gather around the dying person's bed hoping to hear a last word. These words and their presence would signify the persons transition from this world to the next.

"Because of high mortality rates in Victorian England, she said, death and mourning became a way of life for survivors...'Mourning,' said Christ, 'created a powerful sense of being bound to the loyalty of the past.'"

Berkeleyan Home Search Archive, D. Lyn Hunter, Public Affairs. 4/5/1000.

During the mourning period, women wore heavy, black, concealing clothing and black veils of crepe—called "widows weeds". The only jewelry a widow might wear would be mourning jewelry made of black jet, cameos, or a locket designed to hold a lock of hair. Clothing for each stage of mourning was dictated—"full mourning", "half mourning". In the later stage, clothing in gray or lavender could be introduced.

Photo: Detief Thomas - de.Wikipedia.

Men wore mourning suits of black frock coats with matching trousers and waistcoats. Only men in uniform could wear black armbands. Also, it was appropriate for servants to wear them.

Widows were required to remain in mourning for one full year up to four years and could not enter society for twelve months. Changing her costume earlier would be considered disrespectful and if the woman were young and attractive, she'd be considered promiscuous.

Men were in mourning for one to two and a half years, for a sibling, it was six months, and for a child, as long as the parent felt the need. In the 19th century, mourning could be very expensive. Mourners needed an entire set of new clothes and it wasn't proper to keep mourning clothes in the closet. It was common for those who couldn't afford new clothes to take clothing to be dyed black or dyed it themselves.

en.wipipedia.org/wiki/Mourning.

The American Civil War coincided with the death of Prince Albert.

"Here are some interesting facts about dead and mourning.

*The deceased was usually dressed and laid out in the home where they lived. Sometimes embalming took place in the home in the days before funeral homes became the norm.

*All mirrors in the house had to be covered. Should a mirror fall on its own and break, that meant someone in the family would soon die.

*If there was a clock in the room where a person diet, it must be stopped or someone in the family would die.

*The body had to be carried out of the house feet first or it could look into the home, inviting others to follow it in death.

*Mourning clothes were among the first made available on a mass market scale.

*Queen Victoria mourned her husband from the time of his death in 1861 until her own death in 1901.

*The custom of sitting with the dead (commonly called a wake) was likely started to keep rodents away from the body. The body of the deceased must not be left unattended from the time of death until burial."

en.wipipedia.org/wiki/Mourning
Museum of Mourning Customs

en.wipipedia.org/wiki/Mourning

"...In this time, a veil was considered a necessity as it protected her, as well as those who saw her in public. It was believed the spirit of the dead would hover close to those it had loved in life. Should someone look directly int the face of a mourning woman, the spirit could attach itself to that person. It also disguised the tear stained face of the bereaved.

The material was also to have a sheen to it. It was believed this sheen, along with the black color, would make it difficult for the spirit of the dead to see the mourner..."

When a widows period of mourning was over, she'd send out invitations to her neighbors.

During the Civil War, it wasn't uncommon for a young war widow to remarry. With farms to run and having children, many remarried within a few months.

Widowers weren't as strictly ruled by society, especially if they had young children to care for.

At this time, behavior was carefully watched. The widow was expected to scream and cry. If the sister-in-law or neighbor did the same, rumors flew regarding their behavior.

examiner.com
Life/Religion & Spirituality/General Religion, April 15, 2012.

Times during the wild west, many died in duels, cowboys and Indians fighting for control of territory, and bar fights led to the need for many funerals.

During these days, coffins were handmade, usually by a furniture store owner, many of who served as funeral directors. Friends and family gathered around to exchange gossip and tell stories about the deceased. The coffin usually rested on top of a couple of saw horses. The minister gave the funeral service, and then the pallbearers loaded the coffin on a farm wagon. Mourners followed the wagon a short distance to the cemetery where the preacher gave his final prayers. Mourners would "take on"loudly and if the family didn't their love for the deceased was questioned.

Boot Hill cemeteries were called so because many people were killed wearing their boots, such as in a gun battle.

The Clanton Gang aka The Cowboys
A large sign read
MURDERED IN THE STREETS OF TOMBSTONE
Google Images

Google Images

A common custom upon the death of a Calvary officer, a riderless horse, with boots placed backward in the stirrups, would take place in the funeral procession. This tradition still takes place today in professions and, areas where riding a horse is a way of life.

Riderless Horse Memorial Service
Fort Worth, Texas
Google Images

This information is a mere summary of the customs and practices surrounding death and mourning in the nineteenth century.

Oh, about my work in progress, the title is A Touch of Irish. It's a western historical that begins in Ireland and is set in the arid area of 1890s Fort Stockton, Texas. I've run into several obstacles, but the words are finally clicking along.

Thank you for stopping by Sweethearts of the West today and Happy Reading and Writing!

Linda
http://www.lindalaroqueauthor.blogspot.com
www.lindalaroque.com