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Harris, Linda

Prospector's wife living in Boston, Massachusetts[1] in 1875. (January 17, 1852 – who-knows-when)[2]

Wife to Sam Harris and mother to Timmy Harris.[1]

In 1871,[2] Linda's husband Sam left her and Timmy in Boston to go prospecting for gold in the West. As the months went by, she began to feel that his gold fever had led him to abandoned them, and began to feel coldness towards him for leaving their son without a father.[1]

In July of 1875,[2] Harris sent Linda a letter and a map to a mine he had discovered in the Black Hills. In it, he asked her to meet him at the Packsaddle Station[1] near the Nebraska-Dakota Territory border. Linda arranged to have relatives look after Timmy while she traveled by train[2] to Dodge City[1] where she visited with her brother for a few days[2] before taking the Tomah Stage for the Packsaddle Station to meet her husband. On her journey by stage, she met Angus McLean and Dave and Ella Taylor, all traveling to Twin Bluffs, Nebraska.[1]

Upon arriving at Packsaddle, she was approached by Mart Fallon, posing as Matson, her husband's mining partner, telling her he was to escort her to meet her husband at the Harris Mine, guided by the map he sent her. Bret Maverick introduced himself to Linda, and broke the news to her that he had found Harris dying of a bullet wound four days earlier in the Black Hills, and buried him two days later. Linda was shocked, and realized that Fallon had been lying, trying to learn the location of the Harris Mine. She began to trust Bret over Fallon.[1]

That day, Linda survived being held as the Fallons' hostage while they bargained with Bret over the location of the mine, as well as an attack by a band of Sioux who had tracked Bret out of the Black Hills to Packsaddle to kill him for stealing gold from their land.[2]

Bret convinced Mart Fallon to buy his hand-drawn map to the Harris Mine for $15,000. Suddenly, Linda no longer trusted Bret, believing he, too, was just after the mine. But once Sheriff Tibbs of Twin Bluffs arrived at Packsaddle to arrest the Fallons, Bret gave the money to her and explained it was his plan all along, to honor Sam Harris' dying request to see that the wealth from his gold strike be given to her for their son, Timmy. Overwhelmed with gratitude, Linda kissed Bret goodbye as she boarded the stage back to Dodge City.[2]

Linda returned to Boston[1] in Early August of 1875.[2]

See: Stage West