Search the Encyclopedia Mavericana:   ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

stagecoach driver

Stagecoach driver[1] for the Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage Line[2] in 1877[1] and resident of Junction Flats, Wyoming Territory. (January 10, 1821 – November 27, 1905)[2]

During the Black Hills Gold Rush, the stagecoach driver had become a veteran of many stage robberies along his route.[1]

On February 24,[2] 1877 in the Wyoming Territory, the stagecoach driver was driving his coach[1] along the Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage route, bound for Cheyenne.[2] Late in the morning,[1] some miles south of Fort Laramie,[2] Bret Maverick and Lefty Dolan stood in the middle of the road and hailed the stage. Believing they intended to rob his stage, he announced he was driving an empty coach and carrying nothing worth taking. But when Bret told him he and Dolan just wanted to by passage on the stage, the driver brightened and welcomed them aboard. Several miles further down the road, two other men stopped the stage, this time to rob it. Bret got out of the coach to talk to one of the stage robbers, while Dolan remained inside, hiding beneath the windows. The man Bret was talking to told his partner to check inside the coach, and Dolan and the man exchanged fire. Dolan killed him, but received a fatal wound himself. The gunfire distracted the stage robber long enough for Bret to strike him, knocking him out. The stagecoach driver tied him up while Bret attended to Dolan. As Dolan died, he confessed to Bret of his involvement in a bank robbery in Dry Springs, Arizona Territory in May of 1872. Bret called for the driver to be a second witness to the confession, but Dolan died before the driver was able to get to the coach.[1] Bret and the driver rode into Cheyenne with the subdued road agent and turned him in to the authorities.[2]

In March of 1877, the stagecoach driver petitioned to run for Mayor[1] of Junction Flats. His involvement in catching the stage robber led to his winning the election, and served for two years as mayor.[1]

See: The Long Hunt