James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok Letter

Before he became the "Wild Bill" of legend, James Butler Hickok was one of hundreds of immigrants who streamed into Territorial Kansas hoping to acquire a piece of the Indian reservation lands that were coming onto the market. After the Kansas/Nebraska Act passed in 1854, Northeast Kansas was no longer Indian Territory and it turned into a battleground between the pro-slavery and free-state settlers. James grew up in Troy Grove, Illinois, where his father, William Alonzo Hickok, was an abolitionist who helped slaves escape to the North. James was 19 when he journeyed to Johnson County, Kansas, in June 1856. Records show James tried to pre-empt a claim for 160 acres of Shawnee land in February 1858. It turned out, that land had already been claimed for Wyandotte Float Land. After that, James tried to acquire some Delaware Reservation land, but was again unsuccessful. The violence along the Missouri/Kansas border was at its peak when Hickok arrived and he mentions his involvement in the Battle of Hickory Point in this letter that he wrote to his brother Horace from Kansas on November 24 and 27th, 1856.