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Ghost Cowboy is about real tales from the 19th-century American frontier, when the Old West was young. Most of the posts here are actual news items from the 1800s and early 1900s. We'll be adding "new" content every week. Travel with us and sign up for an account, and you'll be able to leave comments and post in our forums. Your trailmasters, Ken in Alabama and Dave in Virginia, don't get to saddle up and vacation out west as often as they'd like, so they started this site. Drop us a note.

frontiersman


A DESPERADO'S DEATH.


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Joe Brannon Riddled by Bullets While Resisting Arrest -- He Fights to the Last.

Reported in The Galveston Daily News / June 4, 1886
Special to The News.

SAN ANTONIO, June 3. -- Joe Brannon, a noted desperado, was killed at 6 o'clock last evening on the Leon, fifteen miles north-west from this city. Brannon was wanted for complicity with Pitts in the robbery of the Double Home post office, in Burnet County. It was by this gang that Hal Gosling was killed. After his acts of lawlessness here Brannon escaped to Missouri, and while resisting arrest for some offense in that State he was riddled with bullets, but recovered and was released on bond.

SHE WANTED TO BE A COWBOY.


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Freak of Sixteen-Year-Old Girl In California.

Published in The Galveston Daily News / October 23, 1883
STOCKTON, Cal., October 23. -- [Special] -- Mary Abbott, 16 years old, was captured at Trowbridge Saturday night after an exciting chase. She is the victim of dime novels and says she wants to be a cowboy. Her father says Mary declared her intention to become a cowboy while en route to California. Two or three times she has arisen at night, saddled a pony, and with provisions, camping outfit and pistols, started for the mountains. She was, however, each time brought back by neighbors.

A Desperado Killed.


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Published in the Reno Evening Gazette / March 30, 1887

SANTA FE, March 30 -- It was reported here last night that Marino Leyba, the notorious outlaw and desperado, and the leader of the gang who have terrorized Central New Mexico for six months, had been killed while resisting arrest near Antelope Springs, 70 miles south of here. The report was confirmed to-day by the arrival of Joaquin Montera and Carlos Jaconie with the body. They were deputized by Sheriff Chauez, of Santa Fe county, to make the arrest.

Deadwood Stage Coach: 1889


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Deadwood  Stage Coach: 1889: Two stagecoaches cross a bridge near Deadwood, South Dakota. Men on the coaches are waving or tipping their hats to the photographer, John C. H. Grabill.Deadwood Stage Coach: 1889: Two stagecoaches cross a bridge near Deadwood, South Dakota. Men on the coaches are waving or tipping their hats to the photographer, John C. H. Grabill. Full size image

 

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