July 26, 1846, John Baker Texas Jack Omohundro, was born near Palmyra, Virginia. He left home at an early age to become a cowboy in Texas. In 1864, he enlisted in the Confedrate Army as a courier in J.E.B. Stuarts cavalry command. He returned to Texas after the war and began herding cattle from Texas, first to Tennessee, and then to the changing railheads in Kansas as the end of iron moved westward. In Cottonwoods Springs, Nebraska, near Fort McPherson, he met Buffalo Bill Cody and became a scout and hunter. He would guide many high-toned hunters form back east with Buffalo Bill, including Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quinn, the fourth Earl of Dunraven, with whom he struck up a strong friendship, and Grand Duke Alexis when he came west for buffalo during his famous hunting expedition organized by General Philip Sheridan. Later, it was Texas Jack who persuaded Buffalo Bill Cody that Ned Buntlines promise of riches awaiting Cody if he would act himself on stage might be a safer way to fame and riches than hunting angry Lakota and Cheyenne for the Army. In Chicago to perform Scouts of the Prairie with Cody and Ned Buntline, Texas Jack met Mlle. Guiseppina Morlacchi, the beautiful dancer and actress. The pair fell in love and married, leaving Codys employ to start their own acting troupe, which failed, leaving the couple in Leadville, Colorado, where Texas Jack would die of Pneumonia in 1880.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 20:29:14 +0000
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