Seth Bullock

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Seth Bullock

Seth Bullock
Born July 23, 1849(1849-07-23)
Amherstburg, Canada West, Province of Canada
Died September 23, 1919 (aged 70)
Deadwood, South Dakota, U.S.
Occupation Lawman
Spouse Martha Eccles Bullock
Children Margaret, Florence, and Stanley
Parents George Bullock
Anna Findley Bullock

Seth Bullock (July 23, 1849 – September 23, 1919) was a western sheriff, hardware store owner and U.S. Marshal.

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[edit] Early life

Many of the details of Bullock's early life are lost. He was born in Amherstburg, Canada West (now Ontario.)

His father, a retired British Army officer and hero James Bullock, was known to be active in the politics of Sandwich, Ontario (now known as Windsor, Ontario). Seth's mother was a Scottish woman named Anna Findley Bullock. Apparently not happy at home, 16-year-old Bullock ran away to Montana to live temporarily with his older sister, Jessie Bullock. By age eighteen, he had permanently left home.

[edit] Helena

In 1867, Bullock became a resident of Helena, Montana, where he had an unsuccessful run for the Territorial Legislature and a successful run for the Territorial Senate, serving in 1871 and 1872 and helping create Yellowstone National Park. In 1873, he was elected sheriff of Lewis and Clark County, Montana. During his tenure of service as sheriff, he killed his first man. A man named Clell Watson had stolen a horse. After a gunfight with Watson, in which Bullock was slightly wounded in the shoulder, Watson was taken into custody. When Watson was prepared to be hanged, a lynch mob appeared and scared off the executioner. Bullock climbed the scaffold and pulled the lever, sending Watson to his death. Bullock then held off the mob with a shotgun. (This was recreated on HBO's Deadwood, except Watson was hanged off the step of the sheriff's office and Bullock used a rifle rather than a shotgun.)

Around this time, he and Sol Star opened a hardware store. In August 1876, he and Star decided an untapped market for hardware existed in the gold rush town of Deadwood, South Dakota. The two purchased a lot in Deadwood and set up shop there as the "Office of Star and Bullock, Auctioneers and Commission Merchants", first in a tent and then a building.

[edit] Deadwood

Deadwood was a lawless, rowdy camp. The day after Bullock's arrival, Wild Bill Hickok was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall, who was later found not guilty by an impromptu camp court and released, after which he promptly left town. After the event, a demand for law enforcement began, and Bullock's background made him the logical choice for Deadwood's first sheriff.

Bullock took his job seriously, deputizing several residents and tackling the job of civilizing the camp. Despite (or perhaps because of) a reputation for fearlessness and an uncompromising nature, Bullock managed the task without killing anyone. Bullock met his match, however, in Al Swearengen, proprietor of the notorious Gem Theater, Deadwood's most notable brothel. Swearengen had a knack for making money through vice and shrewdly invested some of his profits in cultivating alliances with the camp's wealthy and powerful.

When appointed sheriff, one of Bullock's first duties was to confront Dodge City Deputy Marshal Wyatt Earp, who was possibly interested in the sheriff's job. Bullock told Earp that his services were not needed and that he should leave. A week later Earp left Deadwood to return to Dodge City.

Seth Bullock and Theodore Roosevelt
Seth Bullock and Theodore Roosevelt

Having attained some stability in Deadwood, Bullock brought his wife Martha Eccles Bullock and daughter to town from her parents' home in Michigan, where they had been living during this period. (Contrary to the story in the TV series, Martha was not Bullock's brother's widow, but in fact had been Bullock's childhood sweetheart; the two had been married in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1874). They had one daughter, Margaret, at the time of Martha's arrival in Deadwood, and they subsequently had another daughter, Florence, and a son, Stanley.

Bullock and Star purchased a ranch where Redwater Creek met the Belle Fourche River and dubbed it the S&B Ranch Company. Bullock is also credited with introducing alfalfa farming to South Dakota in 1881. Later he became a deputy U.S. Marshal, partnered with Star and Harris Franklin in the Deadwood Flouring Mill, and invested in mining, the local growth industry. Bullock and Star eventually expanded their business interests to the towns of Spearfish, Sturgis, and Custer.

Bullock met Theodore Roosevelt, then a deputy sheriff from Medora, North Dakota, in 1884 while bringing a horse thief known as Crazy Steve into custody on the range, near what would become the town of Belle Fourche. The two quickly became lifelong friends, Roosevelt later saying of Bullock, "Seth Bullock is a true Westerner, the finest type of frontiersman."

[edit] Belle Fourche and the Bullock Hotel

Bullock and Star contributed further to the economic development of the region by convincing the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley Railroad to build a track by offering them 40 acres (16 ha) of free right-of-way across their land when a speculator purchased the right of way to Minnesela and demanded a high price from the railroad. The railroad built a station three miles (5 km) northwest of Minnesela in 1890, and Bullock and Star were instrumental in founding the town of Belle Fourche, offering free lots to anyone moving from Minnesela. Belle Fourche became the largest railhead for livestock in the United States and the county seat was changed from Minnesela to Belle Fourche.

Bullock and Star's hardware store in Deadwood burned down in 1894. Rather than rebuild, they built Deadwood's first hotel on the site — a three story, 64-room luxury hotel with steam heat and indoor bathrooms on each floor, at a cost of $40,000. The Bullock Hotel continues to operate to this day, now incorporating a 24-hour casino.

[edit] Later life and death

Bullock's friendship with Roosevelt led to his becoming a Captain of Troop A in Grigsby's Cowboy Regiment of Roosevelt's Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War; although the troop never left training camp in Louisiana before the war ended, Bullock still earned the title of captain. When Roosevelt became vice president under President William McKinley, he appointed Bullock as the first forest supervisor of the Black Hills Reserve. After Roosevelt was elected president, Bullock organized fifty people (including Tom Mix) to ride in the inaugural parade in 1905. Bullock was then appointed U.S. Marshal for South Dakota for the next nine years. Roosevelt then selected Bullock as one of eighteen officers (others included: Frederick Russell Burnham, James R. Garfield, and John M. Parker) to raise a volunteer infantry division, Roosevelt's World War I volunteers, for service in France in 1917. The U.S. Congress gave Roosevelt the authority to raise up to four divisions similar to the Rough Riders; however, as Commander-in-chief, President Woodrow Wilson refused to make use of the volunteers and the unit disbanded.[1] After Roosevelt's death in January 1919, Bullock created a monument to him with the aid of the Black Hill Pioneers, dedicated on July 4, 1919, on Sheep Mountain, which was renamed Mount Roosevelt.

Bullock died of cancer shortly thereafter, on September 23, 1919, in room 211 of the Bullock hotel. He is buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood, along with Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane, with his grave facing Mount Roosevelt. Bullock's grave is more than 750 feet away from the main cemetery grounds.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Roosevelt, Theodore (1917). The Foes of Our Own Household. New York: George H. Doran company, 347. LCCN 17025965. 
  • Seth Bullock Frontier Marshal by Kenneth C. Kellar

[edit] External links

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