| content |
Contents |
Early life
Participation in California Gold Rush
It is believed that Black Bart was born in Norfolk, England. When he was two years old, his parents emigrated to Jefferson County, New York, where his father purchased a farm. In late 1849 Bolles and a cousin took part in the California Gold Rush. They began mining in the North Fork of the American River in California. His brother Robert joined them in 1852, but died in San Francisco. Bolles then returned east and married Mary Elizabeth Johnson in 1854. By 1860, the couple had made their home in Decatur, Illinois. In 1862, however, Bolles decided to go to war.
Civil War veteran
The Civil War was then in progress, and Bolles enlisted at Decatur as a private in Company B, 116th Illinois Regiment on August 13, 1862. He proved to be a good soldier, rising to the rank of first sergeant within a year. He took part in numerous battles and campaigns, including Vicksburg (where he was seriously wounded) and Sherman's March to the Sea. On June 7, 1865 he was discharged at Washington, D.C., and returned home to Illinois. He had received brevet (honorary) commissions as both 2nd Lieutenant and 1st Lieutenant.
Criminal career
The Wells Fargo Incident in Montana
After the long years of war, a quiet life of farming held little appeal to Bolles, and he yearned for adventure. By 1867, he was prospecting again in Idaho and Montana. Little is known of him during this time, but in an August 1871 letter to his wife he mentioned an unpleasant incident with some Wells, Fargo & Company employees and vowed to pay them back. He then stopped writing, and after a time his wife assumed he was dead.
First stagecoach robbery
Whatever it was that happened in Montana, it clearly changed Bolles' outlook on life. He re-emerged in official documents in July 1875, when he robbed his first stagecoach in Calaveras County. What made the crime unusual was the politeness and good manners of the outlaw. He spoke with a deep and resonant tone, and told the stage driver, "Please throw down the box." Bolles was always courteous and used no foul language. He covered his body in sacks and linen to hide his clothing and appearance. These distinguishing features became his trademarks.
The "Black Bart" fictional character
Bolles, like many of his contemporaries, read "dime novel"–style serial adventure stories which appeared in local newspapers. In the early 1870s, the Sacramento Union ran such a serial called The Case of Summerfield, by Caxton (a pseudonym of William Henry Rhodes). In the story, the villain dressed in black, had long unruly black hair, a large black beard and wild grey eyes. The villain would rob Wells Fargo stagecoaches and brought great fear into those who were unlucky enough to cross him. The character's name was Black Bart, and Bolles decided to adopt this individual's identity.
A notorious bandit
Bolles, as Black Bart, robbed numerous Wells Fargo stagecoaches across northern California between 1875 and 1883, including a number of robberies along the historic Siskiyou Trail between California and Oregon. He eventually began to leave poems at the sites of his crimes as his signature. Black Bart was very successful and made off with thousands of dollars a year. During his last robbery in 1883, Black Bart was shot and forced to flee the scene. He left behind several personal items, including a pair of eyeglasses, food, and a handkerchief with a laundry mark.
The last stagecoach robbery
The last holdup took place at the site, fittingly enough, of his first holdup, on Funk Hill, just southeast of the present town of Copperopolis. The stage had crossed the Reynolds Ferry on the old stage road from Sonora to Milton. The stage driver was Reason McConnell. At the ferry crossing, the driver picked up Jimmy Rolleri, the 19-year-old son of the ferry owner.
The stage had to travel up a steep road on the east side of Funk Hill. Jimmy Rolleri had brought his rifle and got off at the bottom of the hill. He intended to hunt along the creek at the southern base of the hill and then meet the stage at the bottom of the western grade. However, on arriving at the western side of the hill he found that the stage was not there. He began walking up the stage road. On nearing the summit, he encountered the stage driver and his team of horses.
Rolleri learned that as the stage had approached the summit, Black Bart had stepped out from behind a rock with his shotgun. He made McConnell unhitch the team and return with them over the crest again to the west side of the hill, where Rolleri encountered him. Bart then tried to remove the strongbox from the stage. Wells Fargo had bolted the strongbox to the floor inside the stage (which had no passengers that day). It took Bart some time to remove the box.
McConnell informed Rolleri that a holdup was in progress, and Rolleri came up to where McConnel and the horses were standing. He saw Bolles backing out of the stage with the box. McConnell took Rolleri's rifle and fired at Bolles but missed. Rolleri then took his rifle and fired one or two shots. Bolles stumbled, dropped the items he had taken from the box, and fled. If he was actually wounded, it must have been very minor.
The robbery investigation
The handkerchief
Wells Fargo Detective James B. Hume (who allegedly looked enough like Bolles to be a twin brother, moustache included) found several personal items at the scene, including one of Bart's handkerchiefs bearing the laundry mark F.X.O.7.
The "mining engineer" T. Z. Spalding
Wells Fargo detectives James Hume and Henry Nicholson Morse contacted every laundry in San Francisco, seeking the one that used the mark. After visiting nearly 90 laundry operators, they finally traced the mark to Ferguson & Bigg's California Laundry on Bush Street. They were able to identify the handkerchief as belonging to Bolles, who lived in a modest boarding house. Bolles described himself as a "mining engineer" and made frequent "business trips" that happened to coincide with the Wells Fargo robberies. After initially denying he was Black Bart, Bolles eventually admitted that he had robbed several Wells Fargo stages but confessed only to the crimes committed before 1879. It is widely believed that Bolles mistakenly believed that the statute of limitations had expired on these robberies. When booked, he gave his name as T. Z. Spalding. When the police examined his possessions they found a Bible, a gift from his wife, inscribed with his real name.
The police report following his arrest stated that Black Bart was "a person of great endurance. Exhibited genuine wit under most trying circumstances, and was extremely proper and polite in behavior. Eschews profanity."
Charged, tried, convicted, and sentenced
Wells Fargo pressed charges only on the final robbery. Bolles was convicted and sentenced to six years in San Quentin Prison, but his stay was shortened to four years for good behavior. When he was released in January 1888, his health had clearly deteriorated due to his time in prison. He had visibly aged, his eyesight was failing, and he had gone deaf in one ear. Reporters swarmed around him when he was released. They asked if he was going to rob any more stagecoaches. "No, gentlemen," he smilingly replied; "I'm through with crime." Another reporter asked if he would write more poetry. He laughed, "Now, didn't you hear me say that I am through with crime?"
Disappearance
Vacated room
Black Bart's end is more in keeping with the way the romantics of his day would have had it. He disappeared without a trace shortly after his release from prison. His San Francisco boarding-house room was found vacated in February 1888, and the outlaw was never seen again.
Copycat robber
On November 14, 1888, another Wells Fargo stage was robbed by a masked highwayman. The lone bandit left a verse that read:
So here I've stood while wind and rain
Have set the trees a-sobbin,'
And risked my life for that damned box,
That wasn't worth the robbin'
Detective Hume was called to examine the note. After comparing it with the handwriting of genuine Black Bart poetry from the past, he declared the new holdup was the work of a copycat criminal.
Rumors and theories
Rumors began to spread that Wells Fargo had paid off the aging bandit and sent him away to keep him from robbing their stages. However, Wells Fargo denied this.
Some believe that he had moved to New York City and lived quietly for the rest of his life, dying there in 1917, though this was never confirmed. Others prefer to believe the unlikely tale that the former poet bandit with failing eyesight had gone to the wilds of Montana or perhaps Nevada for another try at making a fortune.
Reportedly, in the summer of 1888 an unidentified stagecoach robber was killed near Virginia City, Nevada. If this had been Black Bart, it seems likely his body would have been recognized.
Verses
Charles Bolles left only two authenticated verses. The first verse was left at the scene of the August 3, 1877, holdup on a stage traveling from Point Arena to Duncan's Mills:
"I've labored long and hard for bread,
For honor, and for riches,
But on my corns too long you've tred,
You fine-haired sons of bitches."
- Black Bart, 1877
The second verse was left at the site of his July 25, 1878, holdup of a stage traveling from Quincy to Oroville. It read:
"Here I lay me down to sleep
To wait the coming morrow,
Perhaps success, perhaps defeat,
And everlasting sorrow.
Let come what will, I'll try it on,
My condition can't be worse;
And if there's money in that box
'Tis munny in my purse."
Black Bart
PO8
List of crimes
1870s
- July 26, 1875: In Calaveras County, the Sonora to Milton stage was robbed by a man wearing a flour sack over his head with two holes cut out for the eyes.
- December 28, 1875: In Yuba County, the stage from North San Juan to Marysville is robbed. A newspaper says it was held up by four men. This too has a description of the lone robber and his "trademarks". The "three other men" were in the hills around the stage. The driver saw their "rifles". When the investigators arrive at the scene they find the "rifles" used in the heist were nothing more than sticks wedged in the brush.
- August 3, 1877: In Sonoma County, the stage from Point Arena to Duncan's Mills.
- October 2, 1878: In Mendocino County, near Ukiah. Bart is seen picnicking along the roadside before the robbery.
- October 3, 1878: In Mendocino County, the stage from Covelo to Ukiah. Bart walks to the McCreary farm and pays for dinner. Fourteen-year-old Donna McCreary provides first detailed description of Bart: Graying brown hair, missing two of his front teeth, deep-set piercing blue eyes under heavy eyebrows. Slender hands & intellectual in conversation, well-flavored with polite jokes.
- June 21, 1879: In Butte County, the stage from La Porte to Oroville. Bart says to driver, "Sure hope you have a lot of gold in that strongbox, I'm nearly out of money."
- October 25, 1879: In Shasta County, the stage from Roseburg, Oregon to Redding. Robs U.S. mail pouches on this Saturday night.
- October 27, 1879: In Shasta County, the stage from Alturas to Redding. Jim Hume is sure that Bart is the one-eyed ex-Ohioan Frank Fox.
1880s
- July 22, 1880: In Sonoma County, the stage from Point Arena to Duncan's Mills. (Same location as on Aug. 3, 1877. Wells Fargo adds it to the list when he is captured.)
- September 1, 1880: In Shasta County, the stage from Weaverville to Redding. Near French Gulch, Bart says, "Hurry up the hounds; it gets lonesome in the mountains."
- September 16, 1880: In Jackson County, Oregon, the stage from Roseburg to Yreka, California. Farthest north Bart is known to have robbed.
- September 23, 1880: In Jackson County, Oregon, the stage from Yreka to Roseburg,. (Three days later President Rutherford B. Hayes & Gen. William T. Sherman are on this stage.) On October 1 a person (Frank Fox?) who closely matches the description of Bart is arrested at Elk Creek Station and later released.
- November 20, 1880: In Siskiyou County, the stage from Redding to Roseburg. This robbery fails because of the noise of an approaching stage or because of a hatchet in driver's hand.
- August 31, 1881: In Siskiyou County, the stage from Roseburg to Yreka. Mail sacks are cut like a "T" shape, another Bart trademark.
- October 8, 1881: In Shasta County, the stage from Yreka to Redding. Stage driver Horace Williams asked Bart, "How much did you make?" Bart answers, "Not very much for the chances I take."
- October 11, 1881: In Shasta County, the stage from Lakeview to Redding. Hume keeps losing Bart's trail.
- December 15, 1881: In Yuba County, near Marysville. Takes mail bags and evades capture due to his swiftness afoot.
- December 27, 1881: In Nevada County, the stage from North San Juan to Smartsville. Nothing much taken, but Bart is wrongly blamed for another stage robbery in Smartsville.
- January 26, 1882: In Mendocino County, the stage from Ukiah to Cloverdale. Again the posse is on his tracks within the hour and again they lose him after Kelseyville.
- June 14, 1882: In Mendocino County, the stage from Little Lake to Ukiah. Hiram Willits, Postmaster of Willitsville (Willits today) is on the stage.
- July 13, 1882: In Plumas County, the stage from La Porte to Oroville,This stage is loaded with gold and George Hackett is armed with. Bart loses his derby as he flees the scene. The same stage is again held-up in Forbestown and Hackett blasts the would-be robber into the bushes. This is mistakenly blamed on Bart.
- September 17, 1882: In Shasta County, the stage from Yreka to Redding. A repeat of October 8, 1881 (same stage, place and driver), but Bart gets only a few dollars.
- November 24, 1882: In Sonoma County, the stage from Lakeport to Cloverdale. "The longest 30 miles in the World."
- April 12, 1883: In Sonoma County, the stage from Lakeport to Cloverdale. Another repeat of the last robbery.
- June 23, 1883: In Amador County,, the stage from Jackson to Ione.
- November 3, 1883 In Calaveras County, the stage from Sonora to Milton.
See also
References
- Black Bart: California's Infamous Stage Robber
- Black Bart by Beth Gibson
- OdieWare Homepage: Black Bart
- American Hall of Villainy - Villains of American Folklore
- Muster roll of Company B, 116th Illinois Infantry
External links
- From Full Books "The Case of Summerfield" by William Henry Rhodes
- From Project Gutenberg "The Case of Summerfield" by William Henry Rhodes
- Lake County Courthouse Museum Exhibit.
- Museum of the Siskiyou Trail
