Following Jack Slade's Stagecoach Trail
From Julesburg, Colorado, to Virginia City, Montana.
Categories: Renegade Roads
By: Candy Moulton 08/01/2008
“A high and efficient servant of the Overland, an outlaw among outlaws and yet their relentless scourge, Slade was at once the most bloody, the most dangerous and the most valuable citizen that inhabited the savage fastnesses of the mountains.
—Roughing It, Mark Twain
Jack Slade started driving teams for William Russell, Alexander Majors and William Waddell in 1849 and would spend the next 15 years freighting, managing stagecoach lines and fighting across Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. While he drove teams in Kansas and Nebraska for a time, Slade began making his reputation during the 1857 “Utah Mormon War,” hauling supplies for the army commanded by Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, which was on a mission to install a new governor to replace Brigham Young. Slade already had a reputation as a hard-case who could fight with his fists or with his guns, and who would protect his employer’s stock and be extremely efficient—or unpredictably violent.
Slade proved his worth, and his employers named him stationmaster at Kearney, Nebraska. He held that position only briefly before being named district supervisor, and just another three months later became superintendent for the company’s stagecoach operation extending from Julesburg, Colorado, to Fort Bridger, Wyoming. He hired teamsters and cooks, purchased livestock and hay and generally kept the operation on the road during a period that became increasingly unsettled, as Indians, realizing the encroachments on their territory, began taking steps to halt travel along the roads established by the emigrants and the freighting firms.
Slade’s Ear Rattle
To follow Jack Slade’s trail, we’ll start in Julesburg. This town, in extreme northeastern Colorado, is best known as a rowdy, end-of-tracks town associated with the westward movement of the Union Pacific Railroad, but Jack Slade’s time here predated the laying of the rails by Jack Casement’s crews.
Slade set his reputation in Julesburg due to an incident he had with James Williams. Multiple accounts have circulated throughout the years about the dispute and eventual fight between the two of them, including one penned by Mark Twain in Roughing It.
Slade and Williams both worked for the freighting company. The stories about their conflict quickly spread but almost certainly became stretched with every telling, making it difficult to know what really happened. But surely they pulled guns on each other and engaged in a knock-down, drag-out fight. More than once, Williams seemed to get the better of Slade only to have the tide turn when Slade brazened—in one case may even have joked—his way out of the difficulty. Their enmity grew as they took freight up the Central Overland Stage Route, which formed after 1861, from Julesburg to Virginia City, Montana. In spite of the threats and violent attacks on each other, both survived to reach Montana, where Williams quit the company to become a rancher.
Slade returned to Julesburg and continued working for the company. He would later become involved in another violent incident that truly established his reputation as someone to avoid, particularly if he had been drinking.
Jules Beni, for whom Julesburg was named, operated the station at Julesburg and became a mortal enemy of Slade. When Beni came under suspicion for some company robberies, General Superintendent Benjamin Ficklin sent Slade to the station to deal with the situation. After just three days on site, Slade and Beni had a violent encounter when the latter took a shotgun and attempted to kill Slade. Shot several times at near point-blank range, Slade amazingly did not die, but instead developed a deep hatred for Beni, telling him some day he would wear Beni’s ear on a watch fob. Ficklin’s unexpected arrival in Julesburg probably kept Beni from being lynched by a mob that had gathered in response to Slade’s shooting.
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