Rock Creek Station in Nebraska Territory had been purchased by Russell, Majors and Waddell from David C. McCanles to use on their Pony Express route to California. Their company (generally known as the Overland Stage Company) was experiencing financial difficulties at the time, however, and could not pay McCanles the full amount promised. On July 12, 1861, McCanles, assisted by his cousin James Woods and James Gordon, tried to reclaim the station, but all three died under the guns of company employees Hickok, J.W. Brink and Horace Wellman. For many years it was believed that Hickok killed McCanles, but recent research suggests one of the others shot him. In Nichols’ story for Harper’s Weekly, Hickok was said to have killed 10 men at Rock Creek Station all by himself.

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Hickok worked for the Union during the Civil War. At various times he acted as a scout, a spy, a detective, a special policeman and a sharpshooter. He served the Union well, especially at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Ark., March 6-8, 1862, when his accurate sharpshooting from a post high above Cross Timber Hollow snuffed out several Confederates.

James Butler Hickok was called ‘Bill’ as early as the mid-1850s, and he may have picked up the nickname ‘Wild Bill’ during the Civil War period for his carefree, daring ways of living and fighting. Some people attribute the sobriquet to an early 1862 incident in Independence, Mo. He and his brother Lorenzo apparently helped stop a lynch mob, and a woman called one or both of them ‘Wild.’ Or it might have been just J.B. Hickok stopping an angry mob outside an Independence saloon and a woman subsequently saying, ‘Good for you, Wild Bill.’ In any case, the nickname stuck, thanks in no small part to writer Nichols. Why did Hickok help Nichols embellish his accomplishments? Again, the answer is complex. First, Hickok tended to be rather boastful. He also found telling tales quite amusing, and may have even sensed that a big reputation might serve him well.

But some of the things Nichols wrote apparently did not please Hickok, as Joseph G. Rosa points out in the introduction to the second edition of his They Called Him Wild Bill. While the Harper’s story did establish Hickok’s reputation, this sometimes proved to be a curse. Reporters hounded him for the rest of his life, and he had to repeat the same stories over and over. It soon became impossible to tell where truth ended and fiction began. Furthermore, the publicity set him up as a target for every gunslinger who wanted to establish his own reputation by killing the great Wild Bill Hickok.

Hickok’s early life certainly prepared him for the pressures of fame and facing death every day. He was born in Troy Grove, Ill., on May 27, 1837, and baptized James Butler Hickok by his father Alonzo, a deacon in the Presbyterian Church. The Hickoks were descendants of the Hiccocks family of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, neighbors of William Shakespeare. A branch of the family moved to America in 1635.

Alonzo Hickok was born in Vermont in 1801 and married Polly Butler in 1827. The couple had five children besides James Butler, three boys and two girls. Alonzo and Polly Hickok moved to Illinois in 1833, finally settling in Troy Grove (known as Homer at the time), LaSalle County, along the banks of the Little Vermillion Creek. They opened a general store in Troy Grove, the Green Mountain House, which did well at first but failed during the financial panic of 1837. The family then turned to farming.

For many years Alonzo Hickok operated a station on the Underground Railroad, helping escaped slaves to freedom. His sons often assisted with this work, and it was during these times that young James began to develop the courage, cunning and resourcefulness that marked his later years. James liked to be alone, and he liked guns. So, while the rest of the family worked the farm, he prowled the woods, honing his shooting skills by hunting wolves for bounty and providing a variety of fresh meat for the family.

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