Ben Thompson (lawman)
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Ben Thompson (lawman)
Ben Thompson (November 2, 1843 – March 11, 1884) was a gunman, gambler, and sometimes lawman of the Old West. He was a contemporary of "Buffalo" Bill Cody, Bat Masterson, John Wesley Hardin, and "Wild Bill" Hickok, some of whom considered him a friend, others an enemy. Thompson fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, and later for Emperor Maximilian in Mexico. When hired in 1881 as marshal in Austin, Texas, the crime rate reportedly dropped sharply. Thompson was murdered at the age of 40 in San Antonio, Texas, in the " Vaudeville Theater Ambush." Early life Thompson was born in Knottingley, West Yorkshire, England to William and Mary Ann ee BakerThompson, in November 1843. The family settled in Austin in late 1852. Ben was 8 years old, William 6, and Mary Jane 4 years old at the time. Thompson worked for the ''Austin Rambler'' as a news printer's assistant while in his teens. Once he discovered gambling, however, Thompson began traveling and earning a livin ...
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Knottingley
Knottingley is a market town in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England on the River Aire and the old A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road before it was bypassed as the A1(M). Historic counties of England, Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it has a population of 13,503, increasing to 13,710 for the City of Wakefield ward at the 2011 Census. It makes up the majority of the Knottingley (electoral ward), Knottingley ward represented on Wakefield Council. Until 1699, it was an important inland river port but, in that year, the Aire was made navigability, navigable as far as Leeds, which soon surpassed it. Knottingley continued as a centre for boat building into the 20th century. In the late 19th century, it started glass manufacturing. The town is served by Knottingley railway station. After 1870, the town became known for glass manufacturing. In 1887 Bagley's Glassworks purchased the rights to the first bottle-making machine, invented by a Ferrybridge postmast ...
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Marshal
Marshal is a term used in several official titles in various branches of society. As marshals became trusted members of the courts of Medieval Europe, the title grew in reputation. During the last few centuries, it has been used for elevated offices, such as in military rank and civilian law enforcement. In most countries, the rank of Marshal is the highest Army rank (equivalent to a five-star General of the Army in the United States). Etymology "Marshal" is an ancient loanword from Norman French (cf. modern French ''maréchal''), which in turn is borrowed from Old Frankish *' (="stable boy, keeper, servant"), being still evident in Middle Dutch ''maerscalc'', ''marscal'', and in modern Dutch ''maarschalk'' (="military chief commander"; the meaning influenced by the French use). It is cognate with Old High German ' "id.", modern German ''(Feld-)Marschall'' (="military chief commander"; the meaning again influenced by the French use). It originally and literally meant ...
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Bulls Head Saloon
Bulls may refer to: *The plural of bull, an adult male bovine *Bulls, New Zealand, a small town in the Rangitikei District Sports *Bucking bull, used in the sport of bull riding *Bulls (rugby union), a South African rugby union franchise operated by the Blue Bulls * Bulls (X-League), an American football team in Asaka, Saitama, Japan *Belfast Bulls, an American football team in Northern Ireland *Belleville Bulls, a junior ice hockey team in Ontario, Canada *Birmingham Bulls (American football), an American football team in the UK *Birmingham Bulls (ECHL), a defunct American ice hockey team from the East Coast Hockey League *Birmingham Bulls (WHA), a defunct American ice hockey team from the World Hockey Association and Central Hockey League *Birmingham Bulldogs or Birmingham Bulls, a British rugby league team *Bradford Bulls, a rugby league club in Bradford, England *Buffalo Bulls, the sports teams of the University at Buffalo *Buffalo Bulls football, college football team from Buff ...
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Boomtown
A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although the term can also be applied to communities growing very rapidly for different reasons, such as a proximity to a major metropolitan area, huge construction project, or attractive climate. First boomtowns Early boomtowns, such as Leeds, Liverpool, and Manchester, experienced a dramatic surge in population and economic activity during the Industrial Revolution at the turn of the 19th century. In pre-industrial England these towns had been relative backwaters, compared to the more important market towns of Bristol, Norwich, and York, but they soon became major urban and industrial centres. Although these boomtowns did not directly owe their sudden growth to the discovery of a local natural resource, the factories were set up there to take a ...
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Abilene, Kansas
Abilene (pronounced ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Dickinson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 6,460. It is home of The Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum and the Greyhound Hall of Fame. History 19th century In 1803, most of modern Kansas was secured by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. In 1854, the Kansas Territory was organized, then in 1861 Kansas became the 34th U.S. state. In 1857, Dickinson County was founded and Abilene began as a stage coach stop, established by Timothy Hersey and named Mud Creek. It wasn't until 1860 that it was named Abilene, from a passage in the Bible (Luke 3:1), meaning "grassy plains". In 1867, the Kansas Pacific Railway (Union Pacific) pushed westward through Abilene. In the same year, Joseph G. McCoy purchased 250 acres of land north and east of Abilene, on which he built a hotel, the Drover's Cottage, stockyards equipped for 2,000 heads o ...
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Huntsville Unit
Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville or Huntsville Unit (HV), nicknamed "Walls Unit", is a Texas state prison located in Huntsville, Texas, United States. The approximately facility, near downtown Huntsville, is operated by the Correctional Institutions Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The facility, the oldest Texas state prison, opened in 1849. The unit houses the execution chamber of the State of Texas. It is the most active execution chamber in the United States, with 578 (as of November 16, 2022) executions since 1982, when the death penalty was reinstated in Texas (see Lists of people executed in Texas). History The prison's first inmates arrived on October 2, 1849.Hollister, Stacy.Texas Tidbits" ''Texas Monthly''. July 2002. Retrieved on July 3, 2010. The unit was named after the County of Huntsville. Robert Perkinson, the author of '' Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire'', wrote that the unit was, within Texas, "the first public work ...
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Rio Grande
The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio Grande is . It originates in south-central Colorado, in the United States, and flows to the Gulf of Mexico. The Rio Grande drainage basin (watershed) has an area of ; however, the endorheic basins that are adjacent to and within the greater drainage basin of the Rio Grande increase the total drainage-basin area to . The Rio Grande with Rio Grande Valley (landform), its fertile valley, along with its tributaries, is a vital watersource for seven US and Mexican states, and flows primarily through arid and semi-arid lands. After traversing the length of New Mexico, the Rio Grande becomes the Mexico–United States border, between the U.S. state of Texas and the northern Mexican states of Chihuahua (state), Chihuahua and Coahuila, Nuevo León a ...
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Thibodaux, Louisiana
Thibodaux ( ) is a city in, and the parish seat of, Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, United States, along the banks of Bayou Lafourche in the northwestern part of the parish. The population was 15,948 at the 2020 census. Thibodaux is a principal city of the Houma– Bayou Cane–Thibodaux metropolitan statistical area. Thibodaux is nicknamed the "Queen City of Lafourche." History The first documented Native American inhabitants of the Thibodaux area were the Chawasha, a small tribe related to the Chitimacha of the upper Bayou Lafourche. The first settlers of European descent in this area arrived in the 18th century, when Louisiana was the Spanish province of Luisiana. They consisted of French nationals and Louisiana-born French and German creoles, followed shortly by Spanish and French Acadian immigrants. The colonists gradually began to import Africans in bondage as slaves to work on and develop rice and sugar cane plantations. The United States acquired Louisiana fro ...
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Battle Of LaFourche Crossing
The Battle of LaFourche Crossing (also spelled Lafourche Crossing) was a battle in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, United States and fought on June 20–21, 1863, during the American Civil War as part of a campaign known as Taylor's Operations in West Louisiana. Background Confederate Major General Richard Taylor sent an expedition under Colonel James P. Major to break Union supply lines, disrupt military activities and force an enemy withdrawal from Brashear City and Port Hudson. Major set out from Washington, Louisiana, on Bayou Teche, heading south and east. While marching, his men conducted raids on Union forces, boats and plantations and in the process recaptured liberated slaves and captured animals and supplies. Battle Brigadier General William H. Emory, commanding the Union defenses of New Orleans, assigned Lieutenant Colonel Albert Stickney to command in Brashear City and to stem the Confederate raid if possible. Emory informed Stickney of Major's descent on LaFourche ...
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Vinton, Louisiana
Vinton is a town in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 3,400 in 2020. It is part of the Lake Charles metropolitan statistical area. History The Old Spanish Trail, which was neither old nor Spanish, wandered north and south of what is now U.S. Highway 90, in large part because of the unstable roadbed. The chief means of outside travel in the parish relied on riverboats plying the Sabine and Calcasieu rivers. Much of the marsh and bayous remained impassable. River travel made Lake Charles possible, just as mining for sulfur led to the founding of Sulphur. Settlers had long been in the Vinton area. Jean Baptise Granger settled acreage between what is now Vinton and Big Woods about 1827, one of the first pioneers of the area. Even so, the area remained sparsely populated. The area had few settlers because France, New Spain, and Mexico disputed the western boundary of Louisiana for many years. When the United States made the Louisiana Purchase, the dispu ...
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USRC Harriet Lane (1857)
''Harriet Lane'' was a revenue cutter of the United States Revenue Cutter Service and, on the outbreak of the American Civil War, a ship of the United States Navy and later Confederate States Navy. The craft was named after the niece of senator and later United States President, James Buchanan; during his presidency, she acted as First Lady. The cutter was christened and entered the water for the Revenue Service in 1859 out of New York City, and saw action during the Civil War at Fort Sumter, New Orleans, Galveston, Texas, and Virginia Point. The Confederates captured her in 1863, whereupon she was converted to mercantile service. Union forces recaptured her at the end of war. The U.S. Navy declared her unfit for service and sold her. New owners out of Philadelphia renamed her ''Elliot Ritchie''. Her crew abandoned her at sea in 1881. Layout of the ship ''Harriet Lane'' measured 177.5 feet long, 30.5 feet wide and 12 feet from the bottom of the hull to the main deck. Her pr ...
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Battle Of Galveston
The Battle of Galveston was a naval and land battle of the American Civil War, when Confederate forces under Major Gen. John B. Magruder expelled occupying Union troops from the city of Galveston, Texas on January 1, 1863. After the loss of the cutter , the Union Fleet Commander William B. Renshaw blew up the stranded vessel to save it from falling into enemy hands. Union troops on shore thought the fleet was surrendering, and laid down their arms. The battle is sometimes called the Second Battle of Galveston, as the Battle of Galveston Harbor (October 1862) is sometimes called the First Battle of Galveston. Battle Two Confederate cottonclads, and the commanded by Leon Smith, sailed from Houston to Galveston in an effort to engage the Union Fleet in Galveston Harbor, which consisted of , , , , and . Outnumbered six to two by the Northern ships, ''Neptune'' was severely damaged by the Union Fleet and eventually sank. While ''Neptune'' was quickly disabled, ''Bayou City' ...
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