52 Ancestors Week 11

LUCKY

 

     Finding Joel Collins last week was pure luck. I had been researching my paternal great great grandfather John Foster Collins and his family. I was looking up all of his brothers and sisters...13 of them...on Find a Grave to figure out when the family arrived in Collin County, Texas.  

     When I came to his younger brother, Joel W. Collins, I was in for a big surprise. There was an intriguing photo of Joel with a group of cowboys.

     The basic information said Joel was born 4 December 1848 in Dallas, Dallas County, Texas, and died 26 September 1877 at age 28 in Gove, Gove County, Kansas. Burial details unknown. Specifically: Buried in an unmarked grave in Ellis, Kansas.

      It also said that "Joel Collins, co-leader of the Bass-Collins gang, was shot dead by Sheriff George Bardsley's posse and soldiers at Buffalo Station (now Gove), Kansas, a week after the Big Spring train robbery."  (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/152679484/joel-w-collins)

     Well, THAT called for more research! I soon found a site called Legends of America with a full page on Joel Collins - Cowboy Outlaw of the Black Hills.  (https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-joelcollins/ ) There was even a book advertised for sale. Of course I ordered it and I'm waiting impatiently for it to arrive.

     What I've learned so far from the Legends of America website is Joel had made four cattle drives from Texas to Kansas. In 1876 he bought several hundred cattle to drive north and signed several promissory notes to pay after the cattle were sold. Joel, Sam Bass and Jack Davis drove the cattle to Ogallala, Nebraska and sold them for $8,000. They then headed north to Deadwood, South Dakota, to look for gold. Arriving in the fall they found mining impossible in the snow and freezing rain. Jack Davis built a brothel and Collins and Bass started a freighting outfit. They spent most of their time playing poker and drinking and soon lost all the money they had  made selling the cattle. Three more men joined them and they started robbing stagecoaches. They became known as the Black Hills Bandits. On September 18, 1877 they robbed the Union Paciifc Railroad at Big Springs, Nebraska, of $60,000 in $20 gold pieces.

     The men divided up  the money and split into three pairs, each heading in a different direction. Joel Collins and Bill Heffridge rode south to Buffalo Station, Kansas. There they were recognized and Sheriff George Bardsley and ten troopers from Fort Hays appproached them for questioning. On the way back to town, Collins pulled his pistol and shouted, "By God! Let's die game!" But their luck had run out and they were killed before they could get off a shot. Their bodies were taken to Ellis, Kansas, where they were identified and buried at the local cemetery.

     Was there another bandit involved? Author and former North Dakota State Trooper Jim Benjaminson wrote about a shootout in Pembina involving William Collins, Joel's brother, who he says participated in the Big Springs robbery.