Friday, January 21, 2000

Sunday, January 21, 1900. Frontier types and technology.

Frontier personality and later Montana lawman, John "Liver-Eating" Johnson, died at age 75.

Born with the last name Garrison, in Pattenburg, New Jersey, he was a sailor in the Mexican War before deserting after striking an officer.  He became a frontiersman following that.  In 1847 his wife, a Salish Native American, was killed by a young Crow man and his fellow hunters causing Johnson to launch on on a years long campaign of revenge which featured eating the livers of killed Crow warriors.  He served for a time with the 2nd Colorado Cavalry during the Civil War and was a lawman in Montana for a time thereafter.  He died in a veterans home in California, and was buried in a Los Angeles veteran's cemetery, before being reinterred in Cody, Wyoming in 1974, following the popularity of the film Jeremiah Johnson, which was based on his life.

Anne Ellsworth Smith, the original operator on the Baltimore–Washington telegraph line, who had sent the first telegraph message on May 24, 1844, at age 17 of "What hath God wrought?" died at age 73.

Former Wild Bunch member Willard Erastus Christianson, born Erastus Christiansen, and also known as Matt Warner, was released from prison in Utah after being pardoned.  He went on to later being elected as a justice of the peace and serving as a deputy sheriff in Carbon County, Utah.

In spite of having a violent temper and having lived a life of crime, he had a reputation for being extremely honest.

Last edition:

Saturday, January 20, 1900. A fire in Honolulu's Chinatown and "Die Erwerbung werthvoller Küstenstadte der Neuenglandstaaten wäre das wirksamste mittel, den frieden zu erzwingen"

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