Tales Behind the Tombstones

by Enss, Chris

  Jeffords’s funeral was attended by local government officials and hundreds of Apache Indians. The headboard over his grave reads FRIEND AND BLOOD-BROTHER OF COCHISE. PEACE-MAKER WITH HOSTILE APACHES. Descendants of Cochise who still reside in the area continue to honor the memory of the individual history records as “the only white man the leader ever trusted” by placing a wreath of white flowers on Jeffords’s grave once a month.

  Jeffords’s part in helping to bring about peace between the ever encroaching white settlers and the warring Apache Indians was so significant that noted historian Dee Brown immortalized Jeffords’s role in the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

  Buffalo Bill Cody d. 1917

  “Wanted—young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18. Must be expert riders willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred.”

  — NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENT CODY RESPONDED

  TO IN ORDER TO BECOME A COURIER FOR

  THE PONY EXPRESS, 1860

  Buffalo Bill Cody is credited with bringing the adventures of taming America’s Wild West to the world. Using a talented cast of cowboys, cowgirls, Indians, and trick ropers and riders, the ambitious entertainer created a show that re-created life on the frontier. Among the long list of Western legends who performed in Cody’s program were Wild Bill Hickok, Chief Sitting Bull, and Annie Oakley.

  William Frederick Cody was born in Iowa on February 26, 1846. His parents moved to Kansas when he was eight years old. His father passed away when Cody was eleven, and the youngster helped support the family by working as an ox-team driver and a messenger for a company that would later create the Pony Express. He never cared much for school and dropped out in 1859, choosing instead to venture west

  Cody held a variety of jobs on his way to becoming famous on several continents. He was an army scout, soldier, gold prospector, teamster, trapper, and hunter. He earned his moniker, Buffalo Bill, hunting buffalo to feed the Transcontinental Railroad construction crews. He met Louisa Frederic in St. Louis in 1864, and the two married shortly thereafter.

  When the Unites States government wanted to expand the country’s borders in late 1860, they recruited seasoned plainsmen like Cody to help them in their quest. Buffalo Bill proved to be an invaluable asset in dealing with Natives who were hostile about the invasion of their land. In 1872 he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his efforts fighting the Indians along the Platte River. Newspaper accounts of his acts of bravery helped make his name a household word.

  Cody’s idea for a Wild West show was conceived with the help of writer Ned Buntline. Buntline had transformed the highlights of Cody’s frontier experience into several best-selling books. The pair decided to parlay that success into a stage show, and in December 1872 they presented their first program, entitled “Scouts of the Plains.” The show was an instant hit with audiences from Boston to Topeka.

  After working with Buntline for several years, Cody decided to form his own company. Together with friends and fellow scout Texas Jack Omohundro and his press agent and manager, John M. Burke, the Wild West Circus tour was born.

  From 1883 to 1886 the Wild West show grew into a grand spectacle. It featured musicians, animal acts, rifle marksmen, and reenactments of such momentous events as the Battle of Little Bighorn and the holdup of the Deadwood Stage.

  Buffalo Bill took his show abroad in 1887, performing for the queen of England, the Prince of Wales, and the czar of Russia. The action-packed performances attracted fans by the thousands. Audiences were not only entertained but also educated about the customs of the American Indian and the life of Western settlers. Cody’s show ran for thirty years and made millions in the process. Due to more than a few unwise business investments, he lost millions as well.

  Buffalo Bill died on January 10, 1917, at age seventy-four, after suffering for two months with kidney failure. Although his will, drafted by Cody several years before his death, specified he was to be buried in Cody, Wyoming, his family laid him to rest atop Lookout Mountain in Colorado. According to his children their father had asked them to bury him at that location before he passed away.

  The road to the site was snow–covered, and it was six months before Cody’s grave could be dug. His embalmed remains were transported to the area on June 2, 1917, and his funeral was held the next day. More than twenty-thousand mourners attended the “open casket” service. Letters of condolence from Cody’s friends, President Woodrow Wilson, and Chief Jack Red Cloud were sent to his grieving family.

  Weeks after the funeral rumors began circulating that some of Cody’s relatives, upset about where he was buried, were threatening to move his body to Wyoming. The troubling and persistent gossip prompted the Colorado National Guard to place a World War I tank on Lookout Mountain to protect Cody’s remains from being disturbed. When Buffalo Bill’s wife died in 1921, two tons of cement were poured over the site to secure their resting place.

  Lookout Mountain is located west of Denver between Denver and Golden, Colorado. Millions have visited the massive tombstone that stands over the Old West celebrity’s grave.

  Bat Masterson d. 1921

  “There are many in this old world of ours who hold that things break about even for all of us. I have observed, for example, that we all get the same amount of ice. The rich get it in the summertime and the poor get it in the winter.”

  —BAT MASTERSON, 1906

  Legendary lawmen William Barclay Masterson had a reputation for being a tough talker, an excellent shot, and a dandy dresser. He wore tailor-made suits and a derby hat and carried a gold-headed cane. He was a handsome, well-liked character with black hair and blue eyes who was extremely fast on the draw.

  Born in Illinois on November 22, 1855, Bat (as he was more commonly known) was the second of five brothers. His parents were homesteaders who moved their family to a prairie farm in Wichita, Kansas, in 1871. At the age of nineteen, Bat persuaded two of his brothers to abandon farm life for a job hunting buffalo. The Masterson boys stuck together for a while, but the trio split up when his siblings decided to return home and Bat decided to continue on with the difficult work.

  For more than a year, Bat roamed from Topeka to the Texas Panhandle. He changed employment often: He was a section hand for the Santa Fe Railroad, a ranch hand, and an Indian scout for the army. After his first gunfight in January 1876, in which Bat killed a man who fired on him and the woman he was with, he headed for Dodge City. There he invested in the Lone Star Dance Hall on the main street of town, and the establishment proved to be profitable.

  Not long after Bat’s arrival in the rough-and-tumble town, he helped a prisoner escape from jail. He’d had too much to drink and involved himself in an arrest that had nothing to do with him. The town marshal gave Bat a beating that turned him around so much so Masterson decided he would never go against the law again. In fact, the incident opened his eyes to the possibility of a future as an officer of the law.

  Bat followed his brothers—one a marshal, the other a deputy—into the field of law enforcement. Bat campaigned hard for the position of Ford County sheriff deputy and was subsequently awarded the job. He was an effective lawman who tried to talk perpetrators into surrendering rather than resorting to gunplay. Using his fists and finesse, he persuaded many wrongdoers to “leave town peacefully” or “be carried out with a bullet hole in their chest.”

  Bat had an impressive and famous array of friends that included Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Outlaws who knew of their association refused to tangle with Masterson for fear the Earp brothers and Holliday would come after them.

  Before Bat’s siblings were killed in the line of duty, the men participated in numerous posses that successfully tracked down and apprehended outlaws in the area. As such, the plains around Ford County during Masterson’s time in office were relatively peaceful.

  A controversial act drove Bat out of law enforcement in April 1881. Bat was in Tombstone, Arizona, when he got the news that one of his brother’s lives was being threatened by a ru
thless businessman. He quickly made his way back to Dodge City and arrived just in time to face the bad guys on the street. Once the smoke cleared from the gun battle, Bat alone was left standing.

  He resigned from his position as an officer and left Kansas to see the West. He traveled through New Mexico, Utah, and Texas, earning his keep at each location by gambling. His natural gift for storytelling led to a job writing newspaper articles in Crede, Colorado, where his work was noticed by a correspondent for the New York Sun who helped him secure a position as a sportswriter for the New York Morning Telegraph in 1901.

  Bat returned to law enforcement in 1905 when President Theodore Roosevelt appointed the fifty-year-old man as a special United States marshal to the Oklahoma Territory. He did not hold the post long due to the prior commitment he had with the Morning Telegraph.

  Just before noon on October 25, 1921, Bat headed up 8th Avenue from his New York apartment to the newspaper office and wrote his column for the next day. He died of a heart attack fifteen minutes after he finished writing the article. He was found slumped over his desk with his pen in one hand and his column in the other. He was laid to rest at the Woodlawn Cemetery in New York. The tombstone over his grave carries his name, date of birth, and the words LOVED BY EVERYONE.

  Lillian Russell d. 1922

  “If a woman gets the reputation of being a professional beauty, it is hard work to live up to it.”

  LILLIAN RUSSELL, THE THEATRE MAGAZINE, 1905

  Old West entertainer Lillian Russell had the kind of beauty that stopped traffic from her earliest years. And she had a magnificent voice her mother paid to have trained when the young woman was in her teens. Born on December 4, 1861, in Clinton, Iowa, Lillian Russell (her birth name was Helen Louise Leonard) was educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Chicago and attended finishing school at Park Institute. She took singing lessons and sang in the church choir at the Episcopal Church.

  Lillian honed her singing and acting skills performing in a series of light operatic productions. Her mother felt the work was beneath her daughter’s ability: She was convinced her child would never achieve worldwide success in such common shows as HMS. Pinafore. Lillian disagreed and set out to prove her mother wrong.

  Before the svelte performer rose to the ranks of the “Frontier’s Most Popular Attractions,” Lillian decided to marry, settle into domestic life, and take on the role of mother and wife. It was a role her close friends said she was born to play.

  In early 1880 she gave birth to a son. Although she was content to stay home with her children, theater owners persuaded her to return to the stage. A nurse was hired to care for the baby during performances and rehearsals—a decision Lillian regretted for the rest of her life. She returned from rehearsal one day to find her baby desperately ill. Despite all attempts to cure the infant, he died in convulsions. Apparently the inexperienced nurse had accidentally pierced his abdomen with a diaper pin. Her husband accused Lillian of neglect.

  Grieving over the death of her son and feeling betrayed by her husband’s accusations, Lillian concentrated on her career. Tony Pastor, legendary producer of musical comedy, heard her sing at the home of a friend and consequently offered her a job. At age nineteen, with a statuesque figure, golden curls, skin like “roses and cream,” and a soprano voice that could do everything with ease, she had found her first mentor in Pastor.

  The first thing Pastor did was to change his ingénue’s name from Helen Louise Leonard to Lillian Russell. In 1880 he introduced her to East Coast audiences as “Lillian Russell, the English Ballad Singer.” He was a brilliant manager, securing parts for her that showed off her talent.

  She was a rousing success, so much so that Pastor feared she would be spoiled by the adulation. Instead of continuing to build her reputation in New York, he sent her west with Willie Edouin’s touring company. As she traveled by rail toward the Pacific Ocean, she learned to play poker and pinochle.

  In San Francisco Lillian Russell became the toast of the town. The City by the Bay was bubbling over with brash enterprise, fueled by newly made fortunes dug from the golden hills. The troupe earned recognition in the newspapers, and reporters took note of the fresh young singer who made several appearances. But despite the glowing reviews for Lillian, the acting troupe lost money and had to disband. Lillian returned to New York in the fall of 1881 and accepted an offer to play at the New York Bijou Opera House. From the Bijou she was summoned to England to perform at London’s Gaiety Theatre. Her debut there set her star ablaze.

  Shortly after she arrived in London, she met and fell in love with a musician and composer by the name of Edward Solomon. She and her first husband had divorced after the death of their baby, and even though she was surrounded by adoring fans, she was lonely. Solomon and Russell married in May 1884.

  For a brief time Mr. and Mrs. Solomon were happy. By February 1885, the two had become parents of a little girl they named Dorothy. Then a woman who claimed to also be married to Edward filed suit against the composer for bigamy. Lillian’s husband was arrested, and she quickly had their marriage annulled.

  In 1886 Lillian returned to New York. After a brief stay she decided to make another tour across country, and this one turned out to be much more successful. She signed with the J. C. Duff Company and embarked on a long tour of cities along the Pacific Coast. At the end of the two seasons on the road, Lillian was a bigger star than ever. And, as she entered her thirties, she, herself, was bigger than ever. The hourglass figure that had contributed to her fame now required the tight cinching of a strong corset. Lillian, who reportedly could eat a dozen ears of corn as an appetizer, fully enjoyed the offerings of the best restaurants. Knowing her beauty was a huge part of her success, she began to exercise religiously. She became a fanatical bicyclist, and her friend, millionaire railroad salesman Diamond Jim Brady, presented her with a gold-plated bicycle.

  As Lillian made her way across the West in her Pullman car, she met numerous admirers, such as tenor John Chatterton. The pair married in 1894, but the relationship didn’t last. After her third failed marriage, she once again threw herself into her career and took over as manager of her own theater troupe.

  The year 1912 was a year of change for Lillian Russell. After a great deal of thought and consideration, she retired from the stage and decided to pursue a career in writing and lecturing. She penned a national newspaper column advocating women’s rights and traveled around the country sharing her philosophy of self-help with eager female audiences. Lillian also married for a fourth time. Her new husband, Alexander Penn Moore, was the self-assured publisher of the Pittsburgh Leader newspaper, and he was not intimidated by Lillian’s success.

  Moore encouraged his wife’s own interest in politics, and Russell ultimately devoted much of her time to opening the Progressive Party headquarters in Pittsburgh. Taking that support, (Theodore Roosevelt, who was friends with the famed actress and her husband, founded the Progressive Party.) Lillian used her fame and influence to help sell Liberty Bonds during World War I and campaigned for the 1920 presidential candidate Warren Harding. After he was elected, he used the multitalented actress for special intelligence-gathering assignments in Europe.

  On June 6, 1922, Lillian Russell passed away at the age of sixty-one. She had just completed a fact-finding mission for President Harding. The cause of death was listed as “cardiac exhaustion.” The famous thespian was laid to rest in a solid silver casket. In honor of her passing and in commemoration for her contribution to the arts, theaters across the United States observed a moment of silence on the day of her funeral. Lillian was buried with full military honors at the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

  The Allegheny Cemetery is the sixth-oldest rural graveyard in the United States. Visitors to the historic grounds stop by Lillian Russell’s mausoleum regularly. In 1923 actress Mae West was one of the faithful followers who visited Lillian’s burial site.

  Lotta Crabtree d. 1924

  “Our backy
ard cornered on one facing street where the immortal Lotta lived. I was only 13, but for her I felt it a duty to gather the prettiest rose in the neighborhood every day. I’d wrap it up carefully and throw it into her backyard after dark. I would see the Fairy Star the following morning, fondling the flower in recognition, and all this time we talked only with our eyes.”

  —J. H. P. GEDGE, 1860

  A little redheaded girl dressed as a leprechaun marched past a group of muddy miners into the center of their rustic camp. Her mother helped her onto a stump while a banjo player strummed a tune for the child, who soon began dancing an Irish jig. The delighted forty-niners clapped and cheered the girl on, and she laughed at their enthusiasm. After she finished entertaining the men, they tossed gold nuggets and coins at her feet. She beamed with pride at the applause, and her mother collected her earnings and tucked them inside a leather grip. One of the youngest entertainers to travel through the Sierra Mountains in the 1800s, Lotta Crabtree had diverse talents and an infectious laugh that made her a star in the Gold Country, as well as the primary breadwinner for her family.

  Lotta was born in New York in 1847 and given the name Charlotte Mignon Crabtree. Her father, John, moved his daughter and wife, Mary Ann, west in 1852. He was an unsuccessful business owner turned prospector who never found any gold. Lotta’s mother was a strong woman who quickly assumed responsibility for her only child’s well-being. Mary Ann worked odd jobs to support Lotta and paid for the child’s training in theater and dance. She recognized the talent her daughter had and saw the opportunity to develop it at their temporary home in San Francisco.