In 1856, the year in which the occurrence is said to have taken place,
Independence was but a post village, and was fairly upon the border.
Many teamsters stopped there, _en route_ to Kansas City with produce
for shipment. There were two saloons in the place, and, naturally,
much drunkenness and lawlessness. On the occasion referred to, a dozen
teamsters had put up in town, and shortly afterwards visited one of
the saloons, where they soon became quite demonstrative under the
influence of the liquor they had drank. A fight was the consequence,
in which the saloon-keeper, who had almost brained one of the party,
had to flee for his life and take refuge in another house. The crowd
had drawn their pistols and sworn vengeance, and finally surrounded
the house in which the saloon-keeper had secreted himself, and
determined to kill him. Hickok, although not present during the fight,
heard the disturbance and was soon on the scene. Learning that the
saloon-keeper--who chanced to be a friend--was in imminent danger,
with the display of the most astonishing recklessness he dashed into
the crowd with his two pistols drawn, and offered to fight the entire
party, or represent the object of their revenge. This bold proposition
served to stop the noise of their wild threats, but meeting with no
response, Hickok commanded the crowd to disperse and forthwith leave
the place, finishing the command with the following characteristic
remark, “Or there will be more dead men around here than the town can
bury.” In thirty minutes every one of the blood-craving teamsters had
left the place.
This event popularized him greatly in the immediate section, and it was
here he received the name which stuck to him throughout his life and
by which his memory will always be best recalled--“Wild Bill”--though
why the name “Bill” was given instead of “Jim,” his real name, it is
difficult to understand. In our subsequent allusions to him we shall
use this familiar title.
Bill remained in Independence one month, but finding the place too near
civilization, and meeting daily with crowds on the road to the gold
discoveries of California, he concluded to strike for the coast. In the
latter part of the same year he attached himself to a train as driver,
and made the overland trip to California. He did not remain long in
the golden state, however, for being most agreeably impressed with the
wild scenery and picturesque solitude of the plains, skirted with bold
mountains, and enlivened with abundant game, he retraced his journey
and brought up in the valley near the then small village of Denver,
and, in company with two others, he followed trapping and hunting for
three years, occasionally going as far north as Hudson’s Bay.
In 1860, Bill was placed in charge of the teams of the Overland Stage
Company,--which ran between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Denver, over the
old Platte route,--at Rock Creek, about fifty miles west of Topeka,
Kansas.