A Schuylkill County Ghost Story

The Mahanoy Plane Ghost
Found this story in the Miners Journal, July 28, 1891. I wonder who this is, sort of sounds like a summertime Ghost of Marley? Weird though!
Or it could be emenating from the old Bear Ridge Colliery!

A Schuylkill County Ghost Story


A house occupied by a railroader named Reichelderfer at Mahanoy Plane is haunted, and has driven its tenant from the building. The sights the members of the family claim to have seen during their residence in the house are calculated to make the flesh crawl. They say the nightly revels commence at about the hour when the church yards yawn and graves give up their dead, at which hour there emanates from the cellar a series of unearthly groans and wails, after which there is silence followed by the sounds of ghostly footfalls slowly climbing the cellar stairs and passing along the hallway. Then they proceed upstairs to the attic, accompanied all the way by a clanking as of rusty chains dragged across the floor in the attic.
The soul harrowing groans are renewed with an occasional interlude of demoniac laughter that would freeze the blood of the bravest man. This is followed by a sound of muffled sobs and wails and then the foot falls are heard again coming down, and passing from room to room, finally reaching the cellar, where the performance ends with a series of hair curling sounds too horrible for description.

Pottsville Miners Journal July 28, 1891.

SPARKS AROUND THE CAMPFIRE

iF YOU ARE IN THE AREA SEPTEMBER, 3, 4, 5, AND 6 CHECK OUT THIS EVENT IT WILL BE FUN.

Sparks Around the Campfire
The Story of Schuylkill County in the Civil War

Patriotic Rally
Wednesday, September 3, 2008—7:00 p.m.—Sovereign Majestic Theater
Admission—5 cents. Call 628-2833
Join us at the Sovereign Majestic Theater and relive the sights and sounds of a Patriotic Rally during the Civil War Era. Speeches, music, lectures and more.

Civil War Show and Tell
Thursday, September 4, 2008—5:30 p.m.—Historical Society of Schuylkill County
Admission—Donation Accepted. Call 622-7540
Bring your Civil War artifacts for appraisal or to discuss with other Civil War aficionados. The Civil War Exhibit in the Historical Society will be open for tours.
Marty Hupka will be in attendance with several Civil War Era photographs…he is offering a reward of $50.00 for the positive identification of specific people in the photos.

Meet General Meade, Victor of the Battle of Gettysburg
Anthony Waskie, Philadelphia - Professor of Languages & Member of the Civil War & Emancipation Studies Forum, Temple University
Thursday, September 4, 2008—7:00 p.m.—Historical Society of Schuylkill County
Admission—Donation Accepted. Call 622-7540
Using Meade's own words and extensive background research, Anthony Waskie, speaking as General Meade, will recount the General's career and services to the nation. From his work as an engineer and lighthouse builder, to combat in the Seminole and Mexican Wars, to his assuming command of the Union Army on the eve of the Battle of Gettysburg (where he handed Lee his first defeat), Meade was integral to the survival of the Union. Not only successful in war, Meade also designed Philadelphia's Fairmount Park, founded two schools for orphans of Civil War veterans and helped integrate surviving veterans back into peacetime pursuits.
Participants are encouraged to ask “General Meade” questions about his life and work.

Torchlight Vignettes
Friday, September 5, 2008—Schuylkill County Council for the Arts
6:00 - 7:30 p.m. – Mingle and Dine
8:00 p.m. – Till? – Torchlight Vignettes
Admission—$8.00. Call 622-2788
Enjoy a Civil War Era evening featuring strolling musicians, choral groups, living historians, food vendors followed by Torchlight Vignettes where various Civil War scenes are brought to life by living historians.

Grave Tours
Saturday, September 6, 2008—10:00 a.m.-12:00 noon.—Meet at Presbyterian Cemetery (Howard Avenue and 12th Street)
Admission—Free to all
Tour Presbyterian Cemetery led by John Hoptak, Author and US Park Ranger and Tom Shay, Local Historian, to see the final resting place and hear the stories of the lives of Civil War Notables, including Brigadier General James Nagle, Colonel Daniel Nagle, Medal of Honor Winner Colonel Jacob Frick.

Lectures
Saturday, September 6, 2008—12:00p.m.-1:00p.m.
Admission – Free, Donations Accepted
Barry Berkey - Historian, Weapons Expert - “Weapons of the Civil War”—Historical Society of Schuylkill County
Jim Corrigan - Author, Historian—”Schuylkill County Coal Miners and the Battle of the Crater”—Sovereign Majestic Theater
Danielle Richards - Historian, Educator - “Arrest the Women at Once and Dispose of Them” - The War & Schuylkill County Irish Women—Historical Society of Schuylkill County.

Saturday, September 6, 2008—2:00p.m.-3:00p.m.
Admission – Free, Donations Accepted
Stu Richards - Author, Historian. - “From the Prison Pen, Schuylkill County Soldiers and Civilians in Rebel Prisons.”— Historical Society of Schuylkill County
Mark Major – Historian, Author - “Schuylkill County in the Civil War: A Collection of Highlights, Unique Stories and Random Insights—Sovereign Majestic Theater.

Saturday, September 6, 2008—3:00p.m.-4:00p.m.
Admission – Free, Donations Accepted
John Hoptak - Author, Historian, Park Ranger Antietam battlefield. “Schuylkill County's Veteran War Horse: The Life and Forgotten Service of Brigadier General Nagle.”—Historical Society of Schuylkill County
Tom Shay - Historian, Antietam Battlefield guide. - “The men and the Units from Schuylkill County and the battles they fought in”—Sovereign Majestic Theater.

Book Signing
Saturday, September 6, 2008—12:00p.m.-4:00p.m.—Historical Society of Schuylkill County
Admission – Free, Donations Accepted. Call 622-7540
The Research Room of the Historical Society will be open for meet and greet and book signings by authors John Hoptak, Jim Corrigan, and Stu Richards.

Premiere of Movie “The Color Bearers”
Saturday, September 6, 2008—7:00 p.m.—Sovereign Majestic Theater
Admission—$5.00. Call 628-2833
The Color Bearers is an enlightening, entertaining look at American Patriotism’s evolution as embodied by its iconic symbol the American Flag.
While the film explores the familiar themes in that great American Story – Francis Scott Key and the flag planted atop Iwo Jima – it also explores lesser known but no less deserving subjects such as Mary Pickersgill, maker of the Star Spangled Banner that flew over Ft McHenry and inspired the Star Spangled Banner – Sgt William H Carney, the first African American to be awarded the Medal of Honor for his gallant bravery and defense of the flag with the 54th Massachusetts at Fort Wagner, and who later inspired the film “Glory”. Alongside these heroes of America’s past, the program features modern day patriots – common Americans doing uncommon things to honor their flag and their country – such as NY Artist Scott LoBaido who traveled the United States painting one large American Flag mural on one rooftop in each of the fifty states. This he did with no corporate sponsorship, and as he put it –”I’ll get back to New York with about a hundred bucks left to my life.”
We meet a descendent of Sgt William Carney – and also the descendents of two other Civil War Flag-bearing heroes – and hear how the bravery of their gallant ancestors has affected and helped shape their lives today.

THE MINERS DINNER CAN AND BOTTLE

A Miners Can and Bottle from my collection.

Found this little article in an 1896 Pottsville Journal newspaper. It is about the famous Miners “CAN”

The Dinner Pail

The dinner pail of song and story is known throughout the anthracite coal regions as the “Can”. Foolish workmen in the giddy metropolises may shape the style of their lords and corporations masters an call it the “Dinner Pail” or “Dinner kettle” but until the last Italian, and the Hunkey have driven out the last Irishman, Welshman, or Englishman. It will continue to be called the “Can”,
The meaning of the phrase “pick up your can and go home” is much clearer to a breaker boy who has broken three panes of glass with a piece of “boney” coal than the more exact one of “you are this day discharged.”
The can and bottle are not to be messed with anywhere but in the Anthracite mining region and even there new fangled notions are slowly changing their shapes. The new can was made something like this:
All cans were invariably the same size. Few men felt safe from the laughter of the fellows if they carried a “butter kettle” to the mines. They were looked upon as either dudes or gluttons and the man around the mines is sensitive in the extreme, fearing to break a fashion.
The “Butter Kettle” was made like this, the lid being a compartment which held the drinkables.
Brakemen were excusable for carrying butter kettles, but since the plain unfrilled “can” came out 25 years ago, it has held popular favor. Fifteen years ago a can sold for 5o cents, now you can get it for 15 cents. Men like McKinley make such things possible.
The miner’s bottle came into life about 1843. It was born of necessity, the parent of so many things, and is a modification of the water bottle of the Arab in the desert. It is made like this cut. The “stopper” is made of wood or cork or paper. Many men on their way to work have been unjustly accused of “bouncing snipe” (I.e. cigar stumps) when in fact they were just stooping in the gutter in front of a saloon to pick up a cork. The quart bottle of 1872 cost 50 cents. Now you can get for 12 cents, which is all on account of McKinley.
The woeful want that often prevailed in the coal regions made the can play its part of deceit. The bottle has been filled with water instead of coffee. Lard masqueraded as butter, an often is the can taken into the mines empty, and filled on the return from the shift at the local watering hole.

Pottsville Journal 1896





A later model "CAN"

Shenandoah Coal Miner Sent To State Convention

HOWARD ADAMS..... SHENANDOAH.... COAL MINER

Note the boots, the soft cap with an electric lamp, and the Kohler safety lamp.


Just found this great picture and story in the May 23, 1930 issue of the Pottsville Journal. It deals with the sending of a coal miner to the Pennsylvania Retail Coal Merchants Association convention in Wilmington, Delaware.

REPRESENTATIVE MINER AT COAL CONVENTION

Howard Adams, of 302 South Jarden St., Shenandoah, chosen by the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company as an outstanding and representative coal miner of Reading Anthracite, left today for Wilmington, Del. Where he will attend the convention during the remainder of the week. Mr. Adams will wear his mining clothes and will explain to the coal merchants and the general public attending the exhibit the highly skilled profession in which he is engaged and the many careful preparations, cleanings and washings which are given to anthracite before it reaches the market.
Mr. Adams was born in Llewellyn, Schuylkill County, on March 31, 1899, the son of Mr. And Mrs. Levi Adams. He attended the public schools in Llewellyn and began work in the collieries in 1916, starting as a breaker boy in the P&R Phoenix Park operation. He was promoted steadily to better positions, serving successively as outside and inside laborer, miner, assistant Foreman and traveling foreman in the Mahanoy Division. He is now the inside foreman at the Shenandoah City Mine. Mr. Adams is a graduate of the night mining school Shenandoah.

Note: the night mining school was a P& R program to give the miners who wanted it an education.

Salem Hill Photo, St Clair Colliery Photo

Sometimes I am very fortunate. While performing with the Breaker Boys and trying to keep our anthracite heritage alive through music and stories. People will give me wonderful photographs from our mining history here in Schuylkill County.
In today’s blog I want to share these two photo’s given to me by Edward and Ethel Schappell, Pottsville. Edwards father, George Schappell pictured, was killed in Salem Hill May 21, 1935 at the age of 27, he left a wife, Veronica, age 25 and two children, Evelyn, age 9 and Edward, age 7.


Tag on photo to enlarge

The First Photo is the entrance to the Salem Hill Mine, which is located between Pottsville and Port Carbon along Rt 209, the photo was taken in the 1930’s.
Kneeling on the left is John Sabol, from 5th St. Schoentown, Port Carbon, PA.
Standing behind him the 3rd from the left is Peter Steranko from Park Avenue Schoentown, Port Carbon.
Standing 2nd from the right is George Shappell from Mill Creek Avenue, Norwegian Township, Pottsville.
Standing 3rd from the right is Bob Garland from Pottsville St. Mechanicsville, Pottsville PA.
Standing 4th From the right is Charles Frantz from Mauch Chunk and Anderson Sts. Pottsville, Pa.
The others are unknown.

John Sabol, Peter Steranko and George Schappell were brothers in law, George Schappell and Bob Garland were close friends.




John Sabol didn’t go back in the mines when George Schappell was killed, as they were close friends and neighbors growing up together on 3rd St. in Schoetown, Pt. Carbon, Pa. And they were also brothers in law.

This info was provided by Edward Schappell, the son of George Schappell.

This is a picture of the same entrance to Salem Hill taken by myself a few weeks ago, as you can see it is quite flooded with water coming out and running into the Schuylkill River across the road.






Another view of the same entrance.


Here is another fabulous photo. I love to look at the photo’s of these men, men who knew hardship toil and danger that we will never know. Men who worked in the dark and the damp of the anthracite mines. Men who spent years breathing in coal dust and if they survived the years of working in continues danger under ground they usually died suffering from black lung. This is A fabulous study of how they looked, soft caps, carbide lamps, drills, picks, dirty faces and some great moustaches. And check out the poses, these are some of the greatest pictures around. Sorry if I ramble on but these men are my heroes.



Tag on Photo to enlarge.

This photo was given to me by Ethell Schappell, Pottsville who's father, John Lutza was severly injured in this mine and could not work any longer.

The mine is the St. Clair Coal Company Mine, which was located on the North End of St. Clair, along Route 61, in the 1930's.
Sitting 2nd from the left holding the brace drill is George Timko, 402 W. Carroll St. Shaft Hill, St. Clair Pa.
Standing on the left is John Lutza 404 W. Carroll St. Shaft Hill, St. Clair. Pa.
The others are unknown.
George Timko was killed in this mine on May 25, 1931, he left a wife, Justine and three children, Andrew, Helen, and John.

Thank you Ethel and Edward for this look back to our anthracite mining history.

Deadly Locomotive Explosion Mahanoy City 1878

The total destruction of a train boiler


This is one of the most terrible accidents I have ever read about. It happened at the railroad depot in Mahanoy City, on November 16, 1878.
I was fortunate that a friend gave me the original copies of two Philadelphia news papers.
I hope that some one who has researched the Reading Railroad would be able to supply me with a photograph or drawing of what these little company engines looked like, and I can then post them on the blog.



EXPLOSION OF THE PHILADELPHIA AND READING RAILROAD ENGINE “GEM”

November 16, 1878

Mahanoy City, The Most serious accident that ever happened on the P&R Railroad occurred yesterday afternoon, when the Engine Gem exploded, killing five persons and injuring from to fifteen others. The Gem was one of five dummy engines used by the officers of the road for their official business. It was about half as long as a passenger car, was placed on low wheels, and was fitted up with an engine room in one end and a parlor compartment, with chairs for four, in the other. It was rebuilt in 1864, weighed eleven tons, and was the special engine of J.H. Olhousen, Superintendent of the lateral roads from Shamokin to Tamaqua and Pottsville. He was riding in it yesterday, and had just arrived at Mahanoy Plane, remained there a few minutes and boarded his engine again, when he decided to send a dispatch on some business of the road, and went into the telegraph office for that purpose. Tat act saved his life. He had not written, more than a half a dozen words when the engine blew up with a tremendous report, and he was knocked down by the shock. He escaped, covered with dirt from the shattered walls and ceiling, but without a scratch. Others however, were not so fortunate. The engineer, Frank Brosius, of Mahanoy Plane, was blown into the air and shot over the roof of the depot against a bank beyond. He was instantly killed and the clothing stripped from his body. Jacob Trout, of Tamaqua, conductor of a coal train, was in the act of stepping out of the door of the telegraph office. He was struck on the upper part of the chest by a missile and pieces of him were blown away, with the contents of his body scattered on the platform. Singularly enough what caused his death saved the lives of one, if not two persons. The explosion started by the steam escaping out of a staybolt, and steam rushing out of the grate and made a hissing, made for a second or two before the noise of the explosion came. Trout heard the noise and started for the door to see what it was. Michael O’Connor, the telegraph operator was attracted by it and glancing out of his window he saw that something was wrong. He instantly dropped on the floor, and escaped uninjured, though his office was wrecked. The same noise attracted the attention of the fireman of the Gem., John Finley, and he jumped to the ground; but had not time to run more than a step or two when the explosion came, hurling him forward some fifteen or twenty feet against a truck. His only injury was a slight bruise on the head, but when a the bystanders rushed up to ask if he was hurt he seemed utterly dazed and realized that something knocked his hat off and he was looking for it.. Around the engine were several boys looking and admiring it, and it burst right in amongst them. Calvin Lutz was instantly killed. George Hagenbush and Willie Wenrick were so severely hurt that they died in a few hours and Charles Conrad, Harry Hagenbush and several others whose names have not been ascertained, were wounded moiré or less severely. A young man named Mader, of Patterson, near Middleport was on the depot platform, with a friend, waiting for a train. He was struck over the eye by a missile of some kind and badly scalded by escaping steam, while his friend who stood beside him was uninjured. Madder was cared for by friends in Mahanoy City, and is today reported to be dangerously hurt. The explosion did a great deal of damage to the depot. Buildings. The roofs of the depot proper and on the telegraph office, which stood about 10 feet away. All the windows were blown in and the wires were twisted and wrapped around each other. On the platform stood a couple of barrels of coal and whale oil, and these were burst open, their contents flowing over the victims, and covering the platform with a horrible mixture of oil, blood and brains. The scene was, and is yet, sickening in the extreme; although the dead and wounded were removed as quickly as possible, and at this writing the disabled engine has been taken away, and the damage repaired as far as practicable. The cause of the explosion has not been ascertained and perhaps never will be. There was so little steam in the boiler when the engine reached Mahanoy City, that the engineer had trouble keeping ups its speed. By the time it reached the station, however, it was making steam rapidly and had accumulated a heavy pressure for the ten minutes it stood there. The fireman says the boiler was full of water, and his theory is that the safety valve became dislodged in some way and held in the steam until it reached the bursting point. He thinks the engine was trying to get it loose when the explosion occurred. The explosion made a horrible gap between the boiler and the fire box on the engineer’s side, destroyed the upper works of the Gem, but did not injure the running gear, nor even tear up the floor of the passenger compartment which was situated over the boiler. All the clocks at the depot stopped at 3:13 p.m., the precise moment of the accident.

From the Newspaper ,The Press, Philadelphia, Monday, November 18, 1878. 3 cents.


FROM POTTSVILLE
SATURDAYS FRIGHTFUL ACCIDENT- THE BOILER OF A LOCOMOTIVE EXPLODES KILLING SIX PERSONS.

Special dispatch to the Evening Bulletin.
Pottsville, Nov, 18- The explosion of the P&R engine “Gem” at Mahanoy City, on Saturday afternoon, was the subject of conversation through the region yesterday. The Gem was the special engine of J.H. Olhousen, Division Superintendent. People living along the line of the reading railroads are familiar with the sight of the graceful little machines, half palace car, half Locomotive, prettily painted without, comfortably furnished within, in which officers of the road go flying from point to point without the delay of waiting for regular trains or the expense of ordering extras. The company has, or had five of these convenient little engines in use. One of these engines is President Gowens private car. But it is so often placed at the disposal of the company’s guests that its recorded mileage is twice that of any of the others. The “Transit” is stationed in Pottstown; The “Stag” at some other point; The “Witch” at Pottsville, in the service of the Coal and Iron Company, and the “Gem” was stationed at Mr. Olhousens headquarters, at Mahanoy Plane. They are all of the same type-are short, compact, set very low, weigh from eleven to thirty tons, and run very fast; but though very convenient, they are neither very smooth nor very safe to ride in. Their low wheels report faithfully every uneven point in the rails, and their light weight causes them to develop a skittish tendency to jump the track when running at full speed. The Gem had a long list of escapades scored to her account but never anything as serious as the disaster at Mahanoy City.
A TERRIBLE CATASTROPHE
Three clocks in and about the depot, which stopped at the moment of the explosion marked the precise time at 3:13 p.m. when there came from the Gem, standing quietly on the track in front of the depot, the sharp crack of breaking iron, then a rush of steam, and a tremendous deafening roar, as the after sheet of the boiler blew out, the fire box was torn off, and fragment s of wood, iron , glass and men were sent flying through the air. An eyewitness declares that he saw the body of Frank Broscious, the engineer, thrown entirely over the depot and dashed against the mountain side behind it. It was picked up at the foot of the hill, entirely naked and pounded to jelly. The fireman, Robert Finley, was fortunate; he started to run at the first warning.
THE FORCE OF THE EXPLOSION
Threw him quite a distance, but he only received a slight wound in the head. Superintendent Olhousen had at that moment left the engine and stepped into the telegraph office to write a dispatch. He escaped uninjured, as did the telegraph operator, who dropped to the floor at the first warning. The only other person in the office was Jacob trout, a coal train conductor, living in Tamaqua. He stepped to the door just as the engine exploded, and was struck by a heavy missile which mutilated him horribly and killed him instantly. He leaves a wife and nine children. Brosious leaves a wife. All the others killed were boys living in Mahanoy City. George and Horace Hagenbush, sons of an employee at the depot, had been engaged to distribute a quantity of handbills, and were followed by a crowd of boys. They were gathered about the engine, admiring it, as boys will, and were thrown in an indiscriminate heap by the explosion. Willie Wenrich, aged seven was instantly killed. George Hagenbusch, aged 8 died in a few minutes. Calvin Luts was picked up in a dying condition by his own father, but was so covered with blood and dirt that he was not recognized until his face was washed. Horace Hagenbush lingered until yesterday afternoon, when he to died, closing, it is hoped the list of victims. Several others were more or less severely injured, but none seriously, except William Maeder, a young man, who was standing on the platform and who was scalded by steam bawdily and cut on the head. The engine and part of the depot were badly wrecked, and the telegraph office was shattered.
THE CAUSE OF THE EXPLOSION
Has not been discovered, and experts who have examined the wreck can only give a guess. The Coroner’s inquest will be held this afternoon and may succeed in throwing some light on the subject. This is the most serious accident that has ever happened on the reading railroad or its branches.

TAKEN FROM

THE PHILADELPHIA EVENING BULLETIN
November 18, 1878.

BILLY POTTS A MEMBER OF THE SAM BASS GANG AND HE DIED WITH HIS BOOTS ON

A Great Piece of History
This copy of a drawing that was made into a tin Type of the Collins Heffridge shooting by
"Charlie Lafferty, a Pennsylvania photographer, the photo was taken of an unknown drawing before 1884.
Norma Strother owns the original tintype.
The tintype went with Charlie her grandfather
from Pennsylvania to the Idaho Gold Rush in 1884. It has been passed
down to her along with other 1800s photographs.

Tag photo to enlarge for better detail.

Thank You Norma!



The Sam Bass Gang... Billy Potts is in there somewhere

HE DIED WITH HIS BOOTS ON!

A former Pottsville man turns up his toes in the west with a bullet through him as a reward for his fondness for other people’s money

So the article read in the Pottsville Evening Chronicle on October 9, 1877.
Being a fan of the old west this story caught my attention. After reading the article I was completely engrossed in trying to find anything I could on this one particular fellow. His name is William Potts, and he did come from Pottsville.
Anyway the story reads like this:
The Omaha Bee of recent date contained the following: The right name of Bass was not ascertained until the bodies of the two robbers were brought for burial to Ellis, a small place not more than 200 inhabitants. Of course the arrival there of the dead bandits created the most intense excitement, and everybody viewed the faces of the deceased as they “Lay in State” in their coffins. Among the number who paid their respects to the thieves was a Mrs. Jacobs, who upon seeing the face of Bass exclaimed, “He was my late husband,” and stated that his right name was William Potts, and that he had a tattoo on the right hand, between the thumb and first finger, and a figure of a dancing girl on the right arm. The lid of the coffin was raised and his hand and arm were examined, and sure enough the marks were found, according to Mrs. Jacobs’ statement.
Mrs. Jacobs was formerly the wife of a man named Jacobs, who was for a time recorder of Deeds at Wichita, Kansas, and who died a drunkard. His widow afterward married Potts, but when she learned that he had a wife in Pennsylvania she left him. She had not seen him for eighteen months, and neither knew the whereabouts of the other.
William Potts came originally from Pottsville, Pa. During his career in the west he made his headquarters principally in Wichita, but he had no fixed home. He travelled through Texas and the Indian Territory frequently, and he was generally supposed to be engaged in crooked transactions chiefly horse and cattle stealing. He was in the Black Hills with Collins, with whom he was a favorite, and to whom he was the right-hand man in the Union Pacific Robbery.
It is interesting to note that in this story they refer to Potts as “Bass”. Bass was the notorious train robber Sam Bass. And at the time Potts was thought to be Sam Bass. More as the story continues.

Sam Bass (21 July 1851-21 July 1878) was a nineteenth-century American train robber
After failing in a series of legimitate enterprises, Bass turned to crime, and robbed the Union Pacific gold train from San Francisco on September 18, 1877, looting $60,000, to this day the largest single robbery of the Union Pacific. After a string of robberies in 1877 and 1878, including the first train robbery in Texas history, in Allen, Texas, Bass was betrayed to the authorities by a member of his gang. After being mortally wounded, Bass was eventually taken into custody, and he died from his wounds on July 21,1878,his 27th birthday.
Despite his short career, Sam Bass was colorful and saw extreme financial success in his robberies from 1877 until his death in 1878. The well publicized and unsuccessful law enforcement pursuit of Bass and his gang following their $60,000 take on the Union Pacific train robbery was the event that brought him to the attention of the public and what captured their imagination. That single event, and his evading capture afterwards, led to Bass reaching the status of legend.
Sam had formed a partnership with Joel Collins and Jack Davis. After driving a herd of cattle to Dodge City, then on to Ogallaha in the South Platte Valley, they decided to venture on to the Black Hills. They tried unsuccessfully to establish a freighting outfit. Sam had pointed out that "It's pretty hard to quit our old trade and go into a business that don't pay any better than this." With this Sam and Collins began to form their gang; Tom Nixon, Bill Heffridge also known Billy Heffery (Bill Heffridge and Bill Heffery were alias names used by William Potts,) he also went by the name Bill Potts, and Jim Berry.

Authors Note: My research shows that some accounts of Sam Bass’s activities mentions him as Potts, and others as Heffridge .

Their first target was the Deadwood Stage, they held it up four times, from Jul To Aug 1877. With only seven peaches and less than $50 as their total loot, they agreed to try one more time when Collins had learned of a shipment of $150,000 in gold dust.
The holdup was a failure, which drove them to the Union Pacific where it would be more profitable. The gang's first train robbery was their most successful. At Big Springs, Nebraska, the loot was $60,000 dollars in shiny new twenty dollar gold coins from the San Francisco mint. The passengers of the train turned over an additional $400 cash and gold watches.
Being angry that they were not making much money on their prior ventures at robbery a friend of Collins and Bass a California bandit named Jack Davis suggested that the Bass gang attack a Union Pacific train, saying these trains carried huge gold shipments from the west, consigned to Wells Fargo and then sent on to eastern banks.




Union Pacific Wanted Poster...William Potts Alias Billy Hefferige
Note the tatto of dancing girl listed.
Click on to enlarge.
Collins made up the plan to rob the train at Ogallala, Neb. The gang included Bass, Collins Nixon, Davis, Potts, and Berry. There were to many people in the town of Ogallal so the gang decided to attack the train at Big Springs, Nebraska. Here on Sept 19, they boarded the train at 10 p.m. at a water station, The Union Pacific Train was held up just west of Ogallala, Nebraska, and just happened to be carrying $60,000 in gold pieces. The gang of six outlaws split up in pairs. Collins and Potts rode south along one of the branches of the Western Cattle trail. at a little Kansas Pacific railroad station called Buffalo station 60 miles from Hays City. On September 26, 1877 Collins and Potts were recognized by Ellis County Sheriff George Bardsley who rode out onto the prairie to talk to the them. They were already saddled up and getting ready to head to Texas. Sherieff Bardsley was accompanied by 10 cavalry troopers out of Fort Hays. Bardsley convinced the boys to return to the station for questioning. Collins and Potts seemed calm and innocent as they turned toward Buffalo, but suddenly according to witnesses Collins pulled his pistol while shouting, By God! Lets die game! Both outlaws were shot from the saddle before they fired a shot. About $25,000 dollars in twenty dollar gold pieces was found in Collins saddlebags. And so ended the career of Pottsville’s most famous wild west outlaw.

The story ends with Collins and Heffridge (Potts) being taken to Ellis, Kansas, to be identified and there they were buried. the two robbers lie buried in unmarked graves in a small cemetery there.