Under Cover for Wells Fargo

Under Cover for Wells Fargo PDF Author: Fred Dodge
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 9780806131061
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
These are the remarkable memoirs of Fred Dodge (1854-1938), Wells Fargo secret agent for fifty years, friend of Wyatt Earp, and fast man with a gun. Here are dozens of his cases--stage robberies, train holdups, long pursuits through the badlands, even suits against Wells Fargo for "delay to a corpse" and the bite of a vicious horse. In Under Cover for Wells Fargo his "unvarnished recollections" are preserved and carefully edited by Carolyn Lake, who discovered Dodge’s journals among Stuart N. Lake’s papers, awaiting a biography that was never written. Fred Dodge was a dead ringer for Morgan Earp, and this led to his early acquaintance with the famous brothers. In those days Dodge was posing as a gambler, and even Wyatt did not know that he was a Wells Fargo agent. Dodge sheds much light on the Earps in Tombstone and on how he teamed up with Heck Thomas to hunt down outlaws in Kansas and Oklahoma, including Bill Doolin’s gang and the Dalton brothers.

Under Cover for Wells Fargo

Under Cover for Wells Fargo PDF Author: Fred Dodge
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 9780806131061
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 334

Get Book Here

Book Description
These are the remarkable memoirs of Fred Dodge (1854-1938), Wells Fargo secret agent for fifty years, friend of Wyatt Earp, and fast man with a gun. Here are dozens of his cases--stage robberies, train holdups, long pursuits through the badlands, even suits against Wells Fargo for "delay to a corpse" and the bite of a vicious horse. In Under Cover for Wells Fargo his "unvarnished recollections" are preserved and carefully edited by Carolyn Lake, who discovered Dodge’s journals among Stuart N. Lake’s papers, awaiting a biography that was never written. Fred Dodge was a dead ringer for Morgan Earp, and this led to his early acquaintance with the famous brothers. In those days Dodge was posing as a gambler, and even Wyatt did not know that he was a Wells Fargo agent. Dodge sheds much light on the Earps in Tombstone and on how he teamed up with Heck Thomas to hunt down outlaws in Kansas and Oklahoma, including Bill Doolin’s gang and the Dalton brothers.

Wells, Fargo Detective

Wells, Fargo Detective PDF Author: Richard H. Dillon
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781618090669
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
In the tradition of his award-winning biographies, Meriwether Lewis and Fool's Gold, acclaimed historian Richard Dillon recreates the life of one of frontier America's most gifted lawmen, James B. Hume. Dillon paints a vivid picture of Hume, the greatest of Wells, Fargo and company's detectives, who ranged all over the West in search of robbers of the firm's express shipments. Formerly a sheriff in California's Mother Lode gold mining country, Hume did not operate in the usual manner of most western lawmen. Instead of using his gun in apprehending badmen, this courageous lawman preferred to rely on his brains. In collaboration with famed San Francisco policeman Isaiah Lees, Hume pioneered scientific detection in law enforcement in the American West-a science later known as criminology. In one of history's most fascinating arrests, Hume used a laundry mark to track down Black Bart, the poetry writing stagecoach robber. "Dillon...has written a colorful biography of an Indiana farm-boy, James Hume, who heeded the 'Go West' cry of his time...Dillon's portrait of the man is remarkably human and rounded." -Publishers Weekly "In a fast-paced story, historian Dillon gives life to this remarkable Wells, Fargo detective. While all the excitement of the chase is here, Dillon also gives a sensitive view of the whole man." -American West "Richard Dillon always writes with an adroit selection of words and phrases. In Wells, Fargo Detective he adds sardonic humor by reprinting extracts from the amazingly cold and stormy love letters Hume wrote his 'intended.'" -Arizona and the West "This biography by Richard Dillon reads as smoothly as a novel. He used James Hume's own letters and diaries...He not only relates the fascinating events of Hume's public life but mines his personality as well and finds a heroic and likable figure." -Carmon Friedrich

Stagecoach

Stagecoach PDF Author: Philip L. Fradkin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 074322762X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Sweeping in scope, as revealing of an era as it is of a company, Stagecoach is the epic story of Wells Fargo and the American West, by award-winning writer Philip L. Fradkin. The trail of Wells Fargo runs through nearly every imaginable landscape and icon of frontier folklore: the California Gold Rush, the Pony Express, the transcontinental railroad, the Civil and Indian Wars. From the Great Plains to the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean, the company's operations embraced almost all social, cultural, and economic activities west of the Mississippi, following one of the greatest migrations in American history. Fortune seekers arriving in California after the discovery of gold in 1849 couldn't bring the necessities of home with them. So Wells Fargo express offices began providing basic services such as the exchange of gold dust for coin, short-term deposits and loans, and reliable delivery and receipt of letters, money, and goods to and from distant places. As its reputation for speed and dependability grew, the sight of a red-and-yellow Wells Fargo stagecoach racing across the prairie came to symbolize not only safe passage but faith in a nation's progress. In fact, for a time Wells Fargo was the most powerful and widespread institution in the American West, even surpassing the presence of the federal government. Stagecoach is a fascinating and rare combination of Western and business history. Along with its colorful association with the frontier -- Wyatt Earp, Black Bart, Buffalo Bill -- readers will discover that swiftness, security, and connectivity have been constants in Wells Fargo's history, and that these themes remain just as important today, 150 years later.

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo PDF Author: Ralph Moody
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803283039
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Presents the story of how Henry Wells and William Fargo went into express mail business in California and stopped the Post Office monopoly during the nineteenth century.

The Wells Fargo Book of the Gold Rush

The Wells Fargo Book of the Gold Rush PDF Author: Margaret Rau
Publisher: Atheneum Books
ISBN:
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
Chronicling the California gold rush, from its beginning in 1848, through its peak, to the 1849 recession that brought about its end, this book presents a fascinating account of "The Gold Rush" with black-and-white photographs from the Wells Fargo Archives.

John Ringo, King of the Cowboys

John Ringo, King of the Cowboys PDF Author: David D. Johnson
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
ISBN: 1574412434
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
Few names in the lore of western gunmen are as recognizable. Few lives of the most notorious are as little known. Romanticized and made legendary, John Ringo fought and killed for what he believed was right. As a teenager, Ringo was rushed into sudden adulthood when his father was killed tragically in the midst of the family's overland trek to California. As a young man he became embroiled in the blood feud turbulence of post-Reconstruction Texas. The Mason County “Hoo Doo” War in Texas began as a war over range rights, but it swiftly deteriorated into blood vengeance and spiraled out of control as the body count rose. In this charnel house Ringo gained a reputation as a dangerous gunfighter and man killer. He was proclaimed throughout the state as a daring leader, a desperate man, and a champion of the feud. Following incarceration for his role in the feud, Ringo was elected as a lawman in Mason County, the epicenter of the feud’s origin. The reputation he earned in Texas, further inflated by his willingness to shoot it out with Victorio’s raiders during a deadly confrontation in New Mexico, preceded him to Tombstone in territorial Arizona. Ringo became immersed in the area’s partisan politics and factionalized violence. A champion of the largely Democratic ranchers, Ringo would become known as a leader of one of these elements, the Cowboys. He ran at bloody, tragic odds with the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday, finally being part of the posse that hounded these fugitives from Arizona. In the end, Ringo died mysteriously in the Arizona desert, his death welcomed by some, mourned by others, wrongly claimed by a few. Initially published in 1996, John Ringo has been updated to a second edition with much new information researched and uncovered by David Johnson and other Ringo researchers.

Shotguns and Stagecoaches

Shotguns and Stagecoaches PDF Author: John Boessenecker
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1250184908
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
The true stories of the Wild West heroes who guarded the iconic Wells Fargo stagecoaches and trains, battling colorful thieves, vicious highwaymen, and robbers armed with explosives. The phrase "riding shotgun" was no teenage game to the men who guarded stagecoaches and trains the Western frontier. Armed with sawed-off, double-barreled shotguns and an occasional revolver, these express messengers guarded valuable cargo through lawless terrain. They were tough, fighting men who risked their lives every time they climbed into the front boot of a Concord coach. Boessenecker introduces soon-to-be iconic personalities like "Chips" Hodgkins, an express rider known for his white mule and his ability to outrace his competitors, and Henry Johnson, the first Wells Fargo detective. Their lives weren't just one shootout after another—their encounters with desperadoes were won just as often with quick wits and memorized-by-heart knowledge of the land. The highway robbers also get their due. It wouldn't be a book about the Wild West without Black Bart, the most infamous stagecoach robber of all time, and Butch Cassidy's gang, America's most legendary train robbers. Through the Gold Rush and the early days of delivery with horses and saddlebags, to the heyday of stagecoaches and huge shipments of gold, and finally the rise of the railroad and the robbers who concocted unheard-of schemes to loot trains, Wells Fargo always had courageous men to protect its treasure. Their unforgettable bravery and ingenuity make this book a thrilling read.

Wells, Fargo & Co. Stagecoach and Train Robberies, 1870-1884

Wells, Fargo & Co. Stagecoach and Train Robberies, 1870-1884 PDF Author: James B. Hume
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786456248
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
In January 1, 1885, Wells, Fargo & Company's chief detective James B. Hume and special agent John N. Thacker published a report summarizing the company's losses during the previous 14 years. It listed 313 stagecoach robberies, 23 burglaries, and four train robberies but included little or no details of the events themselves, focusing instead on physical descriptions of the robbers. Widely circulated, the report was intended to assist law enforcement in identifying and apprehending the criminals believed still to present a danger to the company. The present volume revisits each crime, updating Hume and Thacker's original report with rich new details culled from local newspapers, personal diary entries, and court records.

When Law Was in the Holster

When Law Was in the Holster PDF Author: John Boessenecker
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806187727
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description
One of the great lawmen of the Old West, Bob Paul (1830–1901) cast a giant shadow across the frontiers of California and Arizona Territory for nearly fifty years. Today he is remembered mainly for his friendship with Wyatt Earp and his involvement in the stirring events surrounding the famous 1881 gunfight near the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. This long-overdue biography fills crucial gaps in Paul’s story and recounts a life of almost constant adventure. As told by veteran western historian John Boessenecker, this story is more than just a western shoot-’em-up, and it reveals Paul to be far more than a blood-and-thunder gunfighter. Beginning with Paul’s boyhood adventures as a whaler in the South Pacific, the author traces his journey to Gold Rush California, where he served respectively as constable, deputy sheriff, and sheriff in Calaveras County, and as Wells Fargo shotgun messenger and detective. Then, in the turbulent 1880s, Paul became sheriff of Pima County, Arizona, and a railroad detective for the Southern Pacific. In 1890 President Benjamin Harrison appointed him U.S. marshal of Arizona Territory. Transcending local history, Paul’s story provides an inside look into the rough-and-tumble world of frontier politics, electoral corruption, Mexican-U.S. relations, border security, vigilantism, and western justice. Moreover, issues that were important in Paul’s career—illegal immigration, smuggling on the Mexican border, youth gangs, racial discrimination, ethnic violence, and police-minority relations—are as relevant today as they were during his lifetime.

Company Property of Wells, Fargo & Co's Express, 1852-1918

Company Property of Wells, Fargo & Co's Express, 1852-1918 PDF Author: James Lynn Bartz
Publisher: Graphic Pub
ISBN: 9781882824069
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 155

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Book Description