Aw heck........he didn't say anything about his bear hunts in LA! -----Original Message----- From: Jeffery G Scism <scismgenie@juno.com> To: BULLOCK-L@rootsweb.com <BULLOCK-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Friday, September 29, 2000 1:40 AM Subject: [Bullock] Seth Bullock- Friend of Theodore Roosevelt, and sheriff of Deadwood >SOURCE: Biography information- http://www.destinationdeadwood.com/ >SOURCE: Autobiography of Theodore Roosevelt http://www.bartleby.com/55/ > >BIOGRAPHY: > >Seth Bullock: the man behind the legend The following was reprinted >with permission from The Bullock Hotel. Seth Bullock was born in 1849 in >the little village of Sandwich, Ontario to retired British Major George >Bullock and his Scottish wife. Little is known of his boyhood, except >that he was frequently at odds with his father’s strict attitudes >concerning discipline. Accepting Greeley’s advice to “go West, young man” >at face value, Seth arrived inHelena, Montana in 1867 to become a >permanent part of the Western scene. He ran for the Territorial >Legislature at the early age of 20, but was defeated. However, he was >successful in being elected as a Republican member of the Territorial >Senate of Montana, serving in the 1871 and 1872 sessions, and during >which he introduced a resolution memorializing the Congress of the United >States to set aside Yellowstone for all time to come as a great national >park. The resolution was adopted by the Legislature and shortly >thereafter a bill was introduced in both houses of Congress. Yellowstone >Park was established by Federal Statute on March 1, 1872. He is >mentioned many times in the Autobiography of Theodore Roosevelt. He and >the President were good friends, and Seth was a member of the President's >"Tennis Cabinet". > > In 1873 Bullock was elected Sheriff of Montana Territory in Lewis and >Clark Territory. In addition to his other activities, he soon made a >mark for himself as an auctioneer and commission merchant in early-day >Helena. He entered into a partnership with Sol Star in the hardware >business as well as serving as Chief Engineer of the Helena Fire >Department. In 1876, Star and Bullock followed the gold rush to >Deadwood, South Dakota to open a soon-successful hardware business in >the hell-roaring camp, after first sending his bride Martha with their >first-born infant daughter back to the security of her Michigan home. >Bullock was elected treasurer of the Board of Health and Street >Commissioners, organized to combat a threatened smallpox epidemic and >which quickly became the first unofficial governmental unit in Deadwood. > The death of Wild Bill Hickok in August of 1876 triggered a growing >demand for law and order in Deadwood, resulting in Bullock’s appointment >as the first Sheriff of Deadwood a few months thereafter. He quickly >appointed several able, fearless deputies and before long order had >settled upon Deadwood Gulch with little fanfare or gun smoke. With the >elimination of the ”roughs” from Deadwood, Bullock devoted his time to >ranching and raising thoroughbred horses on the ranch he and his partner >established at the confluence of the Belle Fourche River and Redwater >Creek, as well as dabbling in mining, politics and promotion while >continuing to serve as Deputy United States Marshal. In the spring of >1881, Bullock planted alfalfa on his ranch, which is generally credited >as being the introduction of this important crop in the State of South >Dakota. Continuing his youthful dedication to conservation, Bullock >successfully secured a Federal fish hatchery for the Black Hills area, >located near modern-day Spearfish. Bullock became the founder of the >town of Belle Fourche (later to become the largest livestock shipping >point in the United States and the county seat of Butte County) by >persuading the railroad to build through the old site of the DeMore >Stage stop on the Bullock-Star Ranch and offering free lots for any >building moved from the town of Minnesela to his “new” town. During the >Spanish-American War, Bullock volunteered for active service in the >Cavalry and was named a Captain of Troop A in Grigsby’s Cowboy Regiment. >The outfit never saw combat, but did sustain quite a few casualties from >typhoid which was rampant in the Louisiana training camp where they >impatiently sat out the short war. During the ‘90s, Bullock continued >to maintain a close contact with Teddy Roosevelt. This close personal >friendship between the Bullock and Roosevelt families had begun years >prior when the two men shared coffee and beans over the tailgate of a >chuckwagon on the rangelands near Belle Fourche. Roosevelt, the >newly-elected Vice President under President McKinley, appointed Bullock >as the first Forest Supervisor of the Black Hills Reservoir. In 1905 >President Teddy Roosevelt appointed Seth Bullock as United States >Marshal for South Dakota. Seth was reappointed in 1909 by President Taft >and continued in office for one year under President Woodrow Wilson. >Roosevelt’s death in January, 1919 was a fearful blow to Captain Bullock >who was in a weak, emaciated condition himself. By mid-February, >however, Bullock was busily engaged in his last act of devotion to his >beloved friend, enlisting the aid of the Society of Black Hills Pioneers >to erect a monument to Roosevelt on Sheep Mountain. The peak was renamed >Mt. Roosevelt and on its crest Bullock and his fellow pioneers erected a >tower constructed of native Black Hills stone. This, the first memorial >to Theodore Roosevelt in the United States, was dedicated July 4, 1919. >Trail’s end came for Captain Seth Bullock two months later in September, >1919 at the age of 70. > >Comments about Seth Bullock by President Theodore Roosevelt: > >It was while with Bill Jones that I first made acquaintance with Seth >Bullock. Seth was at that time sheriff in the Black Hills district, and a >man he had wanted—a horse thief—I finally got, I being at the time deputy >sheriff two or three hundred miles to the north. The man went by a >nickname which I will call "Crazy Steve"; a year or two afterwards I >received a letter asking about him from his uncle, a thoroughly >respectable man in a Western State; and later this uncle and I met at >Washington when I was President and he a United States Senator. It was >some time after "Steve's" capture that I went down to Deadwood on >business, Sylvane Ferris and I on horseback, while Bill Jones drove the >wagon. At a little town, Spearfish, I think, after crossing the last >eighty or ninety miles of gumbo prairie, we met Seth Bullock. We had had >rather a rough trip, and had lain out for a fortnight, so I suppose we >looked somewhat unkempt. Seth received us with rather distant courtesy at >first, but unbent when he found out who we were, remarking, "You see, by >your looks I thought you were some kind of a tin-horn gambling outfit, >and that I might have to keep an eye on you!" He then inquired after the >capture of "Steve"—with a little of the air of one sportsman when another >has shot a quail that either might have claimed—"My bird, I believe?" >Later Seth Bullock became, and has ever since remained, one of my >stanchest and most valued friends. He served as Marshal for South Dakota >under me as President. When, after the close of my term, I went to >Africa, on getting back to Europe I cabled Seth Bullock to bring over >Mrs. Bullock and meet me in London, which he did; by that time I felt >that I just had to meet my own people, who spoke my neighborhood dialect. > >" While in the White House I always tried to get a couple of hours' >exercise in the afternoons—sometimes tennis, more often riding, or else a >rough cross-country walk, perhaps down Rock Creek, which was then as wild >as a stream in the White Mountains, or on the Virginia side along the >Potomac. My companions at tennis or on these rides and walks we gradually >grew to style the Tennis Cabinet; and then we extended the term to take >in many of my old-time Western friends such as Ben Daniels, Seth Bullock, >Luther Kelly, and others who had taken part with me in more serious >outdoor adventures than walking and riding for pleasure."... >..." On March 1, 1909, three days before leaving the Presidency, various >members of the Tennis Cabinet lunched with me at the White House. "Tennis >Cabinet" was an elastic term, and of course many who ought to have been >at the lunch were, for one reason or another, away from Washington; but, >to make up for this, a goodly number of out-of-town honorary members, so >to speak, were present—for instance, Seth Bullock; Luther Kelly, better >known as Yellowstone Kelly in the days when he was an army scout against >the Sioux; and Abernathy, the wolf-hunter. At the end of the lunch Seth >Bullock suddenly reached forward, swept aside a mass of flowers which >made a centerpiece on the table, and revealed a bronze cougar by Proctor, >which was a parting gift to me. The lunch party and the cougar were then >photographed on the lawn." >At one of the regimental reunions a man, who had been an excellent >soldier, in greeting me mentioned how glad he was that the judge had let >him out in time to get to the reunion. I asked what was the matter, and >he replied with some surprise: "Why, Colonel, don't you know I had a >difficulty with a gentleman, and ... er ... well, I killed the gentleman. >But you can see that the judge thought it was all right or he wouldn't >have let me go." Waiving the latter point, I said: "How did it happen? >How did you do it?" Misinterpreting my question as showing an interest >only in the technique of the performance, the ex-puncher replied: "With a >.38 on a .45 frame, Colonel." I chuckled over the answer, and it became >proverbial with my family and some of my friends, including Seth Bullock. >When I was shot at Milwaukee, Seth Bullock wired an inquiry to which I >responded that it was all right, that the weapon was merely "a .38 on a >.45 frame." The telegram in some way became public, and puzzled >outsiders. By the way, both the men of my regiment and the friends I had >made in the old days in the West were themselves a little puzzled at the >interest shown in my making my speech after being shot. This was what >they expected, what they accepted as the right thing for a man to do >under the circumstances, a thing the non-performance of which would have >been discreditable rather than the performance being creditable. They >would not have expected a man to leave a battle, for instance, because of >being wounded in such fashion; and they saw no reason why he should >abandon a less important and less risky duty. > > >Jeff Scism, IBSSG >http://blacksheep.rootsweb.com/ >e-mail postage paid by sender, @SanBernardino,Ca > > >============================== >Search over 64,000,000 records in the Social Security Death Index: >http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/ > >