The stage crew untied the stockman and blacksmith, and everyone spent the night at Willows Station. Brown writhed in pain from his calf wound. The wounded robber was in even more agony and could not sleep. He said it was the second time he had exchanged lead with Blair, and that Blair and Brown had only escaped death because his partners-in-crime were so inexperienced. In the morning, the stage headed back to Eureka. On the outskirts of town, the wounded outlaw finally disclosed that his name was Jack Davis. Then he died.

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The newspapers praised Blair and Brown. The two messengers “deserve the gratitude of the people of this State,” wrote the Eureka Daily Republican, “for their matchless heroism.” Wells Fargo awarded them $300 each “for gallantry in defense of Treasure,” and a year later the Nevada Legislature also rewarded them.

Blair and Wells Fargo detective John N. Thacker patiently rounded up the other members of the gang. In November a judge sentenced Lauria and Bob Hamilton to 14-year terms, but discharged Bill Hamilton for lack of evidence.

The week before Christmas, on December 19, 1877, the Winnemucca Silver State reported, “The road agent’s terror, Eugene Blair, passed west last evening on his way to California.”

Wells Fargo and Blair apparently had decided that his days riding shotgun should come to an end. He had been singled out by name and targeted at Willows Station, and sooner or later someone would kill him in revenge. Also, the many years of riding atop stages in bad weather had taken a toll, and the famed expressman was suffering from lung trouble. Wells Fargo reportedly awarded Blair a pension; although the company’s pension records are no longer extant, cashbooks show it tracked his whereabouts and paid him.

Blair moved to Bristol, Nev., where he worked first as superintendent of the Hillside Mine and then as a butcher (his listed profession on the 1880 census). On October 5, 1882, he married Nellie Leahigh, the 23-year-old daughter of a local mining family. A nasty wagon accident on February 3, 1883, left Blair near death, but contrary to expectations, he rallied and even managed to father a daughter (born January 16, 1884). But the aftereffects of the accident and worsening consumption took their toll. Blair sought the benign climate of San Diego in the winter of 1883–84, but was again reported near death in late May 1884. Nellie, with toddler Loretta in tow, rushed from Pioche to San Diego by buckboard to be with him. In June he was moved to Auburn in California’s Placer County, where he died on the 27th.

“Mr. Blair was for many years in the service of Wells, Fargo & Co. as ‘shotgun messenger’ on stage routes and was well known throughout Nevada, Utah and Montana,” the Daily Alta California reported. “He was held in the highest esteem by the officers of the express company for his fidelity and bravery, which were often put to severe tests.” The New York Sun observed, “He lived in an atmosphere of danger for years” and “that he was spared to die quietly in bed is the marvel of all who knew him.”

Wells Fargo paid for Blair’s funeral and had a tombstone erected on his grave in the Auburn Cemetery. The inscription read: Eugene Blair, native of Maine. Died June 27th 1884. Aged 37 years 8 mo. An employee of Wells, Fargo & Co. many years. Honest, faithful and brave.

Chris Penn wrote “Eugene Blair: A Terror to Road Agents,” published in the July–September 2006 Quarterly of the National Association for Outlaw and Lawman History. The only book he knows that devotes much space to Blair is the Encyclopedia of Stagecoach Robbery in Nevada (2007), by R. Michael Wilson.

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