Bank Robbers in the Old West

Books, movies, and television have made the west far more wild than it really was. I’d never claim that it wasn’t a hard life! It took courageous people to pack up and move west, knowing they most likely would never see the family and friends they were leaving behind.

However, truth be, there are more bank robberies per year in Ohio than there were in four decades of the old west—which includes 16 states. North and South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and California. 

Yes, some bank robberies did occur during the frontier period, which is defined as the time frame 1859-1900. A few, such as Butch Cassidy robbing the bank in Telluride, Colorado and Jesse James robbing the bank in Northfield, Minnesota, were made famous. Telluride was Butch’s first bank robbery and Northfield was Jesse’s last. Butch and Jesse, as well as other outlaws, robbed far more trains and stagecoaches than banks, not necessarily because they were ‘easier’. The money on trains and stagecoaches was usually gold, or coins, which was easier to spend elsewhere in the nation than bank notes.

There was more of an epidemic of bank robberies during the 1920’s in the middle section of the old west states than ever before. Bonnie and Clyde and other such career criminals struck like lightening, sometimes hitting the same bank more than once. 

In response to the robberies, rewards soared and bank ‘insurance’ was created. The insurance companies required banks to install security measures. A bank in Arizona installed teller-controlled tear-gas guns over teller cages, but had to have them removed after nervous employees had gassed too many legitimate customers. 

One final number—According to the FBI an average of 4,000 bank robberies/burglaries occurred in the US per year. 

My latest book, In the Sheriff’s Protection, has Sheriff Tom Baniff chasing down a train robber.

He will protect her

But can the sheriff resist his forbidden desire?

Oak Grove sheriff Tom Baniff might be hunting Clara Wilson’s criminal husband, but that doesn’t mean he won’t help protect Clara and her young son from the outlaw’s deadly threats. When he invites Clara to his hometown, Tom is determined to keep her safe. But with her so close, can he resist the allure of the only woman he’s ever wanted?

A Few Old West Tidbits

• ·         The Santa Fe Trail came close, but never actually made it to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

• ·         An estimated 350,000 people traveled the Oregon Trail. One in seventeen did not make it to Oregon. The most common cause of death was cholera.

• ·         As partial compensation for his lost territory, in 1905 the United States Government gave Geronimo a Cadillac.

• ·         The first gold rush wasn’t to California in 1849, but to New Mexico in 1832.

• ·         After committing a robbery, Charles E. Bolton would leave a note signed “Black Bart”. He was almost sixty when he started robbing stages. 

• ·         Wyatt Earp was arrested for horse theft in Arkansas, and he and his brother Morgan were arrested for running ‘bordellos’ in Chicago before they made their way west. Though proclaimed to be a Buffalo Hunter, Earp never shot a buffalo, he did drive a wagon on a hunt once.

• ·         Clay Allen pulled out a dentist’s teeth after that dentist had pulled one of Clay’s—the wrong one.

• ·         The Dalton Gang met their fate in Kansas in 1892 when they attempted to rob two banks at the same time.

• ·         Billy the Kid was also known a Billy Bonney, Henry McCarty, and Henry Antrim.

• ·         Jesse James’s nickname to his close friends was Dingus.

• ·         Cole Younger, who rode with Jesse James, after serving over 20 years in prison, got a job selling tombstones when he got out.

• ·         Ben Kilpatrick, one of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch known as the “Tall Texan”, loved riding bikes and only ever ordered ham and beans to eat because he couldn’t read.

• ·         It’s said Mail Order Brides did more in taming the west than any law or lawman.

On that note…My next book is another mail order bride story in the Mail Order Brides of Oak Grove series. Winning the Mail Order Bride will be released in print on August 24^th and ebook on September 1^st. 

She was promised to another… 
When widow Fiona Goldberg and her two adorable sons arrive in Oak Grove, Kansas, proclaimed bachelor Brett Blackwell is instantly captivated. But when he learns she is promised to the mayor, he tries his best to keep his distance…

Out of desperation, Fiona had agreed to become a mail-order bride to the disagreeable, self-important mayor. But something about her neighbor Brett makes her feel safe. She knows she must fight her growing feelings for the forbidden blacksmith, even while longing for him to rescue her and take her as his bride himself!

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!

Pork and Beans

Recognizing the need for the growing population of the United State to have fruits and vegetables in the winter, Gilbert Van Camp, along with two partners, constructed the first commercial cold storage, and within a year was canning foods for sale. His business took off when he secured a contract to provide foods to the Union army.  Van Camp Pork and Beans soon became a staple for the troops. When the war ended, Van Camp’s business soared as veterans wanted to purchase the foods they’d come to know.

The ‘tomato sauce’ based pork and beans which became famous and is still produced today was invented by Gilbert’s son Frank in 1894. Within four years they were selling over six million cans of these beans each year. Van Camp’s Pork and Beans are still the second most popular canned beans, second to Bush’s Baked Beans. Frank also founded Van Camp’s Seafood (the name was later changed to Chicken of the Sea due to the popularity of the canned tuna fish slogan).

Preserving foods in tin cans verses glass jars started in the early 1800’s, however it was very labor intensive and expensive because each can had to be handmade out of tinned wrought iron.  The cans were also very large. Meat and pea soup were the most popular and the main market for canned foods at that time was sailing vessels. During that time, canned foods became a status symbol due to its price and a novelty. Nevertheless, there was soon a demand for canned foods, and by the mid-1800’s several inventions had been created to produce smaller machine made cans. It then became a race to meet the public’s demand for varieties of canned foods. Milk, meat, vegetables, soups, fruits, and other novel foodstuffs. Companies were soon able to manufacture bulk supplies of nonperishable foods, and by the end of the Civil War, the working class were able to afford canned foods, saving them from having to shop every day. Canned foods also became available for those heading west.

Even though the can had been around for some fifty years, the can-opener had not. The suggested way to open a can was with a chisel and hammer.  Ezra Warner invented the first can opener in 1858. Due to the fact it left a very jagged and sharp edge, it wasn’t overly popular. And it was very expensive. It also had several parts that broke rather easily, and were not replaceable. Warner’s can opener did serve the troops during the Civil War, and could be found in some stores, where the clerk would open the can for the customer before they left the store.  The hammer and chisel method, or whatever way people discovered to open their cans, continued to be the primary way to open cans until several other can openers, in a variety of shapes and sizes, were invented and became marketable.  The one we still know today, with the wheel that rolls around the rim of the can, was invented in 1870 by William Lyman.

One last tidbit…In 1974 samples of canned foods that had been recovered from the wreckage of a steamboat that had sunk in 1865 in the Missouri River were opened and the contents tested. The appearance, smell, and nutritional value of the contents had deteriorated, but there was no trace of spoilage or contamination and the 109 year-old-foods were determined safe to eat. 

On a final note, I have a new release. The Cowboy's Orphan Bride. 

Reunited with the cowboy! 
Long ago, orphans Bridgette Banks and Garth McCain made a promise to stay together. But it's been years since they were parted, and Bridgette's almost given up hope! So when Garth's cattle trail passes her town, she won't let him leave her behind again…

Sparks fly as they're reunited—especially when the cowboy catches Bridgette telling everyone she's his bride! Faced with a past he thought he'd lost forever, Garth realizes this impulsive beauty might be the future he never thought he deserved.