Cole Younger with Lew Nichols Show at Brady, Texas - 1907

[Texas Jay]

Cole Younger's and Lew Nichols Carnival in Brady, Texas in 1907!

Former Southern Guerrillas and outlaws Cole Younger and Frank James started their own Great Cole Younger and Frank James Historical Wild West show in 1903. They toured many parts of the country. Sometime between Cole Younger's release from a Minnesota prison, for his part in the botched Northfield Bank Robbery, he visited Brown County, Texas and met with William C. "Bloody Bill" Anderson at his Salt Creek farm. Cole Younger came away from that meeting convinced that Brown County's Bill Anderson was the one and only Bill Anderson of Quantrill's Guerrillas that he'd served with during the Civil War. According to several historical accounts, Cole's visit to the Anderson Farm was during a time when he was traveling with a "carnival". My research has shown that he worked with at least two touring shows or carnivals. One was his and Frank's Historical Wild West and the other was the Lew Nichols Carnival Show. Just tonight, I found a photo that documents Cole Younger's and the Lew NIchols Carnival's appearance in Brady, Texas on August 1, 1907 so that was probably about the same time the carnival and Cole Younger came to nearby Brownwood.

Home - William C. "Bloody Bill" Anderson

~Texas Jay

 

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[Treasure_Hunter]

Ditlihi, back off, next time you insult, attack or mock a member you will find you lost the ability to post.

 

[jeff of pa]

The Virginia enterprise. (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.), 13 March 1903.



The St. Louis Republic. (St. Louis, Mo.), 07 May 1903.



https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...s&proxdistance=10&rows=20&searchType=advanced

 

[Ditlihi]

I see no mention of William C. Anderson in any of these reports?

https://www.fannincountyhistory.org/cole-younger.html

 

[etex]

Born and raised in Honey Grove. Honey Grove was named by Davy Crockett after entering Texas and on his way to ending up at the Alamo. In a letter from Crockett to his son he wrote" I expect to settle in Bo Dar (Bois d' Arc Creek). It is in the pass where the buffalo passes North to South and back twice a year and bees and honey plenty."
General Henry McCulloch arrested Quantrill in Bonham but Quantrill escaped with his men back to Indian Territory. McCullouch just wanted him gone out of his jurisdiction, didn't pursue him.

 

[Kace]

Born and raised in Honey Grove. Honey Grove was named by Davy Crockett after entering Texas and on his way to ending up at the Alamo. In a letter from Crockett to his son he wrote" I expect to settle in Bo Dar (Bois d' Arc Creek). It is in the pass where the buffalo passes North to South and back twice a year and bees and honey plenty."
General Henry McCulloch arrested Quantrill in Bonham but Quantrill escaped with his men back to Indian Territory. McCullouch just wanted him gone out of his jurisdiction, didn't pursue him.

Great Info etex! I saw where the show was in Brady, Bronham, Ladonia and Honey Grove. I didn't know Davey Crockett named the town of Honey Grove...that's interesting. Does Honey Grove celebrate or acknowledge the anniversary of when the Younger and Nicholls carnival was there?

I bet they celebrate Davey Crockett!...They used to have Cole Younger Days up here but the new city council didn't think it was right to celebrate an Outlaw... even though they advertise he lived there and is buried with his Mother and brothers in the city Historical Cemetery.

I don't blame McColluch for not pursuing Quantrill! Hardly worth his life!!

The article said that Cole Younger had attended a funeral for Major Hayes in Bonham and stayed at the Richards Hotel in Ladonia, Tx. They had a photo of him sitting with a group of (presumed) Civil War vets on the front steps of the Hotel.

Here it is again...I had posted it on another thread but I don't know if it's still there. Cool Pic Though.



Kace

 

[Ditlihi]

Great Info etex! I saw where the show was in Brady, Bronham, Ladonia and Honey Grove. I didn't know Davey Crockett named the town of Honey Grove...that's interesting. Does Honey Grove celebrate or acknowledge the anniversary of when the Younger and Nicholls carnival was there?

I bet they celebrate Davey Crockett!...They used to have Cole Younger Days up here but the new city council didn't think it was right to celebrate an Outlaw... even though they advertise he lived there and is buried with his Mother and brothers in the city Historical Cemetery.

I don't blame McColluch for not pursuing Quantrill! Hardly worth his life!!

The article said that Cole Younger had attended a funeral for Major Hayes in Bonham and stayed at the Richards Hotel in Ladonia, Tx. They had a photo of him sitting with a group of (presumed) Civil War vets on the front steps of the Hotel.

Here it is again...I had posted it on another thread but I don't know if it's still there. Cool Pic Though.

View attachment 1537712 View attachment 1537712

Kace

Love that pic, check out the body language on those guys, lol.

So where is William C. Anderson?

 

[Kace]

Love that pic, check out the body language on those guys, lol.

So where is William C. Anderson?

If those guys are civil war veterans like the researcher says, from what I can tell on William Columbus Anderson he was in the Texas State Militia for 20 days... he and his two brothers joined them. I also saw where he enlisted in Missouri and Mustered out after 10 days. I can't remember the town right now that he enlisted in... I 'think' it was in Stone County, Missouri though. I haven't been able to find any listing of him on Any of Quantrills, Anderson or Todd's Partisan Ranger Rolls.

The Missouri Civil War sites don't have him at all and when the Confederate Veterans home in Higginsville, MO was checked they didn't recognize him.

So, in answer to your question...I Don't Know. I did find where he was listed with some other men as a 'Fence Cutter' and an article talking about it. That article had a photograph too.

Kace

 

[Ditlihi]

Thanks!

 

[Texas Jay]

Cole Younger's and Frank James's visits to Brownwood, Texas have been documented by several Brownwood citizens and also by Dr. L. E. Skinner (optometrist in Longview, Texas who told of Cole Younger's visit to William C. Anderson at his Salt Creek home), the late Charles Tongate (who called me on the phone and told me about Frank James encountering William C. Anderson on the banks of Salt Creek which runs directly in front of where Bill Anderson's farmhouse once stood), Carl W. Breihan (Old West author), Brownwood historian Dr. T.R. Havins, Brown County historian and author Tevis Clyde Smith in his account from John Walter Tabor which I quote in my Blog below, and probably more that I've forgotten about or haven't discovered yet. I've also spoken with a man who once saw William C. Anderson's guest register and said that it was filled with many names of visitors over Bill's time at Salt Creek in Brown County, Texas including the names of Jameses, Youngers, Daltons, and more famous names of the Old West and Civil War. I shouldn't need to remind naysayers, who claim to know all about William C. Anderson, that he kept his former life as a Guerrilla leader a heavily guarded secret, even from his own children, until he went public with the information in a series of interviews with newspaper writer and author Henry C. Fuller in 1924, years after both Frank James and Cole Younger were dead.

From: Blog - William C. "Bloody Bill" Anderson

***
[h=4]Cole Younger and Frank James in Brownwood, Texas[/h]

Posted by Jay Longley on April 6, 2014 at 5:30 PM

I first posted this passage on this board in 2006. It further documents important visits to Brownwood and Brown County by two "outlaws" who are important to our work. The Brown County Historical Society doesn't currently carry "From the Memories of Men" but I found my First Edition copy in excellent condition on eBay a few years ago. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bloodybillandersonmystery
***
I am posting an excerpt from a book in our Brownwood Public Library's
Locked Case entitled "From the Memories of Men" by T.C. Smith, 1954.
Re-prints of this excellent Brown County history book may be
available from the Brown County Historical Society whose link is in
our Links section. Please pay close attention from John Walter
Tabor's first-hand account of both Cole Younger and another unnamed
guerrilla's visit to Brownwood. Everything in this passage is
directly from the mouth of Tabor who was an early-day resident of
Brown County, Texas. I am not sure the dates involved. This is just
further documentation of at lease one visit, by Cole Younger and
Frank James, to Brownwood.

***

"I saw Cole Younger, in Brownwood, after his release from prison. He
was on Center Avenue, and was talking with some Civil War veterans.
On another occasion, I saw Frank James, after he had given himself
up. It was in Dallas, and he told me that he had spent the night in
Brownwood a short time before. Later, back home, I mentioned this to
a man who ran a blacksmith shop. 'Yes, he was here,' said the
man. 'He spent the night at my house.' At the time he spent the
night here, there was a ten thousand dollar reward on his head, a
fact well known to his Brownwood host.
Another old timer came to Brownwood, after the Civil War, from
Missouri. Missouri had been a hotbed of warfare, much of it
irregular, in which men were forced to choose sides. He was a
Southerner, and rode with Quantrill. I asked him, once, why they
burned Lawrence, Kansas. 'Because,' he said, 'they burned one of our
towns. We did to them as they did to us.'
There were a lot of fine men in those days, and those days were
interesting.
That's just about the story, and, as I mentioned before, That's the
way it was."
***


~Texas Jay

 

[etex]

Great Info etex! I saw where the show was in Brady, Bronham, Ladonia and Honey Grove. I didn't know Davey Crockett named the town of Honey Grove...that's interesting. Does Honey Grove celebrate or acknowledge the anniversary of when the Younger and Nicholls carnival was there?

I bet they celebrate Davey Crockett!...They used to have Cole Younger Days up here but the new city council didn't think it was right to celebrate an Outlaw... even though they advertise he lived there and is buried with his Mother and brothers in the city Historical Cemetery.

I don't blame McColluch for not pursuing Quantrill! Hardly worth his life!!

The article said that Cole Younger had attended a funeral for Major Hayes in Bonham and stayed at the Richards Hotel in Ladonia, Tx. They had a photo of him sitting with a group of (presumed) Civil War vets on the front steps of the Hotel.

Here it is again...I had posted it on another thread but I don't know if it's still there. Cool Pic Though.

View attachment 1537712 View attachment 1537712

Kace

Yes, they have Davey Crockett days and have Dalton Days here in Longview. Bill Dalton and his gang robbed the bank in Longview in 1894, they tracked him down in Oklahoma a few weeks later.

Tom Reed and Edmund Woods are both buried in Ladonia cemetery, both noted as CSA but doesn't list units. JC Wise was a private in Co. F, 9th Texas Cavalry.

 

[Kace]

Yes, they have Davey Crockett days and have Dalton Days here in Longview. Bill Dalton and his gang robbed the bank in Longview in 1894, they tracked him down in Oklahoma a few weeks later.

Tom Reed and Edmund Woods are both buried in Ladonia cemetery, both noted as CSA but doesn't list units. JC Wise was a private in Co. F, 9th Texas Cavalry.

That sounds like a very cool historical town! I'll have to check it out next time I'm down that way!!

Thanks etex!
Kace