On the third day of August, 1879, just three years after the tragedy,
Charley Utter and Lewis Shœnfield, the particular friends of Bill
during his life, determined to give the remains a better resting place,
where the thorns and briars of the bleak mountains would not hide the
spot where so brave a heart lay buried. Accordingly, early in the
morning of that day they, proceeded to the grave, and, with heads
uncovered, out of respect for their dead friend, they exhumed the body
and took off the coffin-lid to take a last look before transferring
the remains to Mount Moriah cemetery, at Deadwood. It was a sad sight
to the eyes of friends. There was scarcely a perceptible change in
the body, excepting a darker color of the face. The features were all
preserved with remarkable naturalness. There was the shattered wound
in the right cheek, made by the cruel bullet which took his life, but
the countenance bore a tranquil look, as though the wearer was glad to
escape a world in which there was nothing but buffet and anxiety to
him. The lips wore a placid appearance--a smile of peace, the graceful
contour of content.
The extraordinary weight of the body caused the friends to make a more
careful examination, when it was found that the remains were in process
of petrifaction. The hair still bore its silken lustre, but the flesh
was so indurated as to approach the solidity of wood. The weight of
the body at the interment was one hundred and sixty pounds, but at the
exhumation it weighed a fraction less than three hundred pounds.
The carbine that was buried with him was in a perfect state of
preservation. After clipping off a lock of hair, which is now in the
possession of William Learned, musical director of the Gem theater,
at Deadwood, the coffin-lid was again screwed down, and the remains
taken to Moriah cemetery, where they now repose, in a lot purchased by
Charley Utter. An Italian marble tombstone was also purchased by Mr.
Utter, which he had erected at the head of the grave in the latter part
of August. The inscription on the stone is as follows:
WILD BILL, (J. B. HICKOK,)
KILLED BY THE ASSASSIN, JACK McCALL, IN DEADWOOD,
AUGUST 2, 1876.
_Pard, we will meet again in the Happy Hunting Grounds, to part
no more._