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Myths about Violence in the Wild, Wild West
There are some certain aspects of life during the wild west in America that make most people think twice about wanting to travel back to that time: bank robbing and gun-slinging. It was a dangerous time in U.S. History, we were taught that as students in the U.S., the textbooks state it, movies depict it, and characters like Butch Cassidy and Wild Bill all confirm that life was bloody and downright unsafe.Except none of it is true, not really.Think about a town from the wild west, it [...]
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Brigham Young
Brigham Young was born on 1st June 1801 in Whitingham, Vermont to farmer John Young and his wife Abigail (Howe). He was the ninth child of eleven. When aged three, Brigham moved with his family to New York, from where Brigham left following the death of his mother in 1815, to work as a travelling carpenter and blacksmith, and other handyman trades. Following his conversion to the Methodist faith in 1823, Brigham married in 1824 to Miriam Angeline Works. In 1830, Young read the recently published Book of Mormon by Joseph Young, and officially joined the Church two years later, following the death of his wife, moving to Kirtland, Ohio…
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American Mountainman Hugh Glass
Not much is known about his life before the bear attack. What we do know is that he was born in Pennsylvania, to Scots-Irish parents. A lot of his story has been embellished through the years, so I will begin around the time of the attack. In 1822, Glass signed up for a fur-trading expedition backed by William Henry Ashley . The group departed from St. Louis in March. Several months later they were attacked by Native Americans, and Glass was slightly wounded. In August 1823, near present-day Perkins County, South Dakota, Glass was scouting for game for the expedition. He stumbled upon a grizzly bear with her two cubs.…
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The Outlaw Jesse James
Jesse Woodson James was born on September 5, 1847 he was an American outlaw, gang leader, bank robber, train robber, and murderer from the state of Missouri. He was popular alive but his death would make him a legendary figure of the Wild West. James’ parents were the Reverend Robert James, a Baptist minister and Zerelda Cole James. He also had a brother named Alexander Franklin “Frank”, and a younger sister, Susan Lavenia James. James would marry his first cousin Zerelda “Zee” Mimms, and the couple would have a son and daughter. Jesse and his brother Frank became Confederate guerrillas during the Civil War. The James-Younger gang would be created…
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Wounded Knee
“I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people’s dream died there. It was a beautiful dream…” – Nicholas Black Elk The Wounded Knee Massacre occurred on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the U.S. state of South…
