Charley Parkhurst
Charley Parkhurst was a stagecoach driver. So, needless
to say, Charley spent long days traveling through thunderstorms and other miserable
weather and battled bandits determined to rob the passengers while hauling
upwards of 18 people packed into the wobbly old wooden box.
Charley handled the reins with expertise despite missing
one eye. Allegedly, Charley managed to cross a raging river just before the
bridge collapsed, was able to halt a runaway coach while being dragged through
the brush, and once shot an outlaw who tried to hold up the stage. Eventually,
the rough life Charley led caused a bad case of rheumatism to set in and forced
Charley to give up driving and take up a life of ranching and lumbering.
Pankhurst’s last days were spent alone in a cabin before dying of cancer in
1879. Saddened, friends came to prepare the body for the funeral, and then
Charley’s ordinary existence took on a strange turn.
As the doctor started to undress Charley’s body, he
discovered that one of the best stagecoach drivers in California had an unusual
secret—Charley was a woman. Documents show that Charley registered for the 1868
election. So, One-Eyed Charley might have been the first woman to vote in
California.
Tom
Smith
People may imagine the Old West was an anything goes
place when it came to guns, but towns like Abilene, Kansas actually had very
strict rules when it came to firearms. One of the man who enforced these laws
was Marshal Tom Smith. Legend has it Tom was involved in the accidental death
of a teen and turned in his badge and headed west. During his travels, Smith
cleaned up towns like Kit Carson, Colorado and Bear River City, Wyoming, but it
was when he showed up in Abilene that he really came to fame.
The town was full of disorderly Texas cowboys who enjoyed
games like “Harass the Citizen” and “Burn Down the Jail.” Fed up with these
unruly cattle-punching criminals, Abilene’s officials hired Smith and turned
him loose on the cowpokes.
Riding out on his horse Silverheels, Smith enforced the
town’s most unpopular law: No guns inside city limits. As one might imagine,
many of the cowboys grew irritated with this regulation, and on two separate
occasions, the obnoxious cowboys challenged Marshal Smith to take their
pistols. Smith happily obliged them. When pistol-packing thugs got tough, Smith
just knocked them out cold.
Despite his extraordinary fighting skills, Smith couldn’t
manuver his way out of every situation. On November 2, 1870, he armed himself
and went after the wanted murderer Andrew McConnell. When he showed up at
McConnell’s house, the suspect shot the marshal in the chest. As Smith fired
back, another outlaw named Moses Miles rushed Smith and almost completely
decapitated him with an axe.
The killers were caught and sent to prison. Smith was
buried in the local cemetery, leaving the town without a lawman—until a man
named Wild Bill Hickok rode into town.
Orrin
Porter Rockwell
Orrin Porter earned the name of the “Destroying Angel”
because, it was said, he murdered 100 men. The body count was probably lower,
but still, Orrin certainly knew how to fill a few graves. Born in
Massachusetts, Rockwell traveled to Missouri where he became one of the first
Mormon converts and founder Joseph Smith’s personal bodyguard. Rockwell was
what you might call a “prayer warrior,” and when Gov. Lilburn Boggs ordered all
Mormons out of Missouri, Rockwell allegedly tried to show him the light—the one
at the end of the tunnel. Now I just want to say this reminds me of “the Swede”
in the TV series “Hell On Wheels.” Just sayin’…
Anyway, Rockwell was jailed for his attempted “conversion”
of Governor Boggs, but was released after a year behind bars. As soon as his
boots hit the ground on the outside of that jail, he quickly made his way to
Nauvoo, Illinois, where things took a Biblical turn. Like a scene taken from
the Old Testament, Joseph Smith happy to see Rockwell again, gave him a special
blessing. Smith declared no one could harm the gunman so long as he never cut
his hair. Just like Samson, this Latter-day Saint disobeyed his boss—just once,
supposedly to fashion his long hair into a wig for a woman who’d lost her hair.
Even though Rockwell may have had a soft side, but he
wasn’t afraid to kill in the name of the Lord. After Smith’s arrest and assassination
in 1844, Rockwell took revenge on Frank Worrell, the militiaman who was
supposed to guard the prophet. Later, when Brigham Young moved the church to
Salt Lake City, Rockwell was appointed the town’s marshal.
In 1857, President James Buchannan tried to forcibly
replace Young as Utah’s governor with a non-Mormon. Infuriated, American Moses
ordered Rockwell to torment incoming troops. Rockwell, obedient to the orders
given, killed two men who were trying to supply them. It took 20 years before
the gunman Rockwell was charged, but by then, it was of no consequence. The
Destroying Angel had died an old man in his bed.
Sarah
J. McNeal is a multi-published author of several
genres including time travel, paranormal, western and historical fiction. She
is a retired ER and Critical Care nurse who lives in North Carolina with her
four-legged children, Lily, the Golden Retriever and Liberty, the cat. Besides
her devotion to writing, she also has a great love of music and plays several
instruments including violin, bagpipes, guitar and harmonica. Her books and
short stories may be found at Prairie Rose Publications and its imprints Painted
Pony Books, and Fire Star Press. Some of her fantasy and paranormal books may
also be found at Publishing by Rebecca Vickery and Victory Tales
Press. She welcomes you to her website and social media:
