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James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok

© Elizabeth Gibson

James Butler Hickock was born in Troy Grove, Illinois. His father Alonzo established the first general store there, then turned to farming. His mother Polly continued to lived there after Alonzo was killed in 1852. He had three brothers named Oliver, Lorenzo, and Horace, all older than him. He had two younger sisters, Celinda and Lydia.

To help the family survive after his father's death, Wild Bill took on small jobs. He hunted wolves for the bounty. He drove wagons. In 1855, he got a job as a muleskinner, building the Illinois and Michigan canal. He got into an argument with another driver and pushed him into the canal. Thinking the man dead, Wild Bill took off as fast as he could and didn't stop until he reached St. Louis, Missouri. There he worked as a bodyguard for a prominent abolitionist. He stayed until 1858, when he started driving wagons on the Santa Fe Trail, working for Russell, Waddell, and Majors, of Pony Express fame. Sometime during his time on the trail, his friends started calling him Bill. At the end of the year 1860, he met up with a grizzly bear at Raton Pass in New Mexico and succeeded in stabbing it to death. He was gravely injured, however, and his employers sent him to Kansas City to recover.

When he was ready to go back to work, his employers sent him to Rock Creek Station, Nebraska, where he had light duties as a stock tender. The station was an important stage and Pony Express stop, owned by David McCanles. That summer the station was almost bankrupt and could not pay McCanles. Wild Bill had just arrived when an altercation took place. It happened on July 12, 1861.

McCanles, his cousin James Wood, and James Gordon came to the station to collect money owed him. After a short argument, Wild Bill shot and killed McCanles. He also wounded Woods and Gordon. Wellman finished Woods off by beating him with a hoe. They both ran after Gordon and killed him with a shotgun blast. A trial was held but it was a farce. Twelve-year-old Monroe McCanles, who witnessed the shootings, was not allowed to testify, nor was he allowed in the court room. Wild Bill and Wellman were acquitted when the shootings were considered self defense.

Four years later, Colonel George Ward Nichols wrote about the event, and he didn't care if he got the details right. This was the start of his gunfighter legend. Nichols wrote that there was a "McCanles gang." He wrote that Wild Bill held off and killed ten men, in a one-sided fight. He also said Wild Bill was gravely wounded and had eleven bullets removed. None of it was true, but it made Wild Bill's reputation.