Captain Luther North, Pawnee Scout, Letters, Incl. One from Diamond Dick

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Property of N. Flayderman & Co., Plus Selecte...

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Feb 21, 2017 - Feb 22, 2017

Set Reminder 2017-02-21 10:00:00 2017-02-22 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Property of N. Flayderman & Co., Plus Selected Additions https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/cowans/property-of-n-flayderman-co-plus-selected-additions-2104
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• Lot Description

  Lot of 7 items. ALS, 1p, 8.25 x 11 in. Norfolk, NE, August 18, 1933. With cover, also in Tanner's hand. From Dr. Richard Tanner, "Diamond Dick," to Captain Luther North.
  
  Richard Tanner writes to Luther North – one old man to another: About ten days ago Dr. Loerke a Specialist made a very thorough examination and informed me that I have one of the worst cases of internal piles he has ever seen, and that most of my prostate trouble is caused by the piles, says he can cure me in six weeks by an injection method,, one treatment a week…. I take my first treatment on the 22^nd, so if some blue smoke floats over Columbus on the 22^nd you will know that it hurts me and I am saying a few things that would not look good in print. This is a case where I get shot from behind…. He goes on to say that it is kind of him to talk to “the boys,” and he wishes he could get there. We presume this was an Indian Wars Veterans’ reunion of some kind.

  Richard Tanner (1869-1943) was a Wild West performer, sharpshooter and medicine man. Little is known of his early career, but he achieved notoriety when he made a long-distance ride from Lincoln, NE to New York City and back in 1893. Profiting from his popularity, he began appearing in Wild West shows as Denver Dick, sharpshooter. He changed his name to Diamond Dick two years later and formed his own traveling show. In 1905, he entered college, eventually earning his MD. He set up a successful practice in Norfolk, but by the 1920s he seems to have been restless and longed to return to show business. His claim to the name “Diamond Dick” was challenged by another gentleman (George B. McClellan) who claimed to have used that moniker from the 1880s to 1911. 

  The publicity and popularity of the Diamond Dick dime novels helped Tanner return to “the business.” In 1927 he even had “Doc” Carver and Luther North appear with him in a Norfolk parade, adding validity to Tanner’s “Diamond Dick” claim. His claims became more “flashy,” citing associations with Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Sitting Bull and more – and, apparently, more fictitious. But he added to the romance and adventure of the by-now disappearing Old West.

  Also in this lot is a group of four letters from Robert Bruce. All are typed and signed. Dated October 14, 1928, November 12, 1928, May 23, 1931, and April 23, 1932 (2 pp); last two with covers. Robert Bruce was a writer. He claims to have written a booklet on Custer (November 12 letter)(we have not been able to locate this) and says that he has been approached to write a biography of Wild Bill Hickok. He later wrote “The Fighting Norths and Pawnee Scouts,” New York: self-published, 1932. Most of the letters have questions about events about which Bruce would like clarification. In the last letter, he tells North that he received copies of all documents concerning he and his brother, Frank, held by the “Museum at Yale.” He asks for elaboration on a number of points in those letters.  One point he makes: I see that your letters to Marsh are signed LUTE North; I have seen it so, of course in Frank’s diary, but never before so far as I know, as your own signature. We mention this because the next letter is signed just that way, well, Uncle Lute.

  Last letter is 4 pp, ALS, Columbus, NE, March 28, 1930. To Guy & Betty Forshey. The letter begins with North mentioning that he has been ill, and inquiring whether they sent a picture or not. Dr. Tanner wrote me something about Pawnee Bills celebration but I don’t know what it is. I have no doubt you could get a good story out of it.

  The heart of the letter questions, I wonder if you might have seen the April number of Outdoor Life a magazine published in Denver. Raymond Thorpe (a magazine writer) is publishing a series of letters left him by Doc Carver and the first installment is in the April number. [I]t made me so mad that I wrote Outdoor Life and now I’m sorry I did.

  Doc tells in his letter how he beat Buffalo Bill and Texas jack out of their Buckskin Suits in a Shooting match; then he shot a match with Belden the white chief and won all his horses and sent him off on foot. [T]his all happened at Fort McPherson.

  Now Belden came to McPherson in 1869. [H]e was a Lieutenant in the Regular army and was stationed there until he was courtmarshalled [sic] and dismissed in the fall of 69 – or the winter of 1870, when he left there and never went back there afterward. Doc Carver never was at McPherson until 1872 so of course never saw Belden there and I have good reason to believe he never saw him in his life. [T]he whole article is fill of just such wild statements as that and I wrote the magazine the truth.

  I wish you was here to keep your uncle from doing these darn fool things. [I]t won’t of course do any good. [W]hen Doc was here just a short time before his death I told him about having been ordered by General Emery to arrest Belden and bring him to McPherson. I said I followed Belden to the Republican [River] and couldn’t find him. Doc said oh yes, Belden was in my camp. We knew you was after him and kept track of you all the time. I asked him when it was and he said 1872. I then told him it was 1870 and that there was no Pawnee scouts between 1870 and 1876. [H]e didn’t know what to say and I told him he couldn’t publish that stuff as there was people still living on the medicine that knew when he come there and all about him….”

  Most of the rest personal. Signed Uncle Lute Aunt Vira.

  Also included with the lot is a bound volume of the 1930 Outdoor Life, mentioned in North’s letter. Bound in maroon cloth, gilt spine lettering, 12 numbers, January – December. In an article published in the August number, E.L. Stevenson (“These Carver Yarns”) investigated some aspects of the stories. “For some time past in this and other magazines we have seen a great deal about the marvelous shooting done by Doc Carver, Wild Bill Hickok, and several others. The writer finally became enough interested to begin checking up on some of these stories, and came to the conclusion that the authors of some of these wild tales know very little of what was humanly possible. No matter how wild or impossible the story they heard, if it was credited to their heroes it was swallowed whole.” (Aug. 1930: 22) Most of the investigation seems to be about shooting events.

  Luther Hedden North (1846-1935) was born in Ohio, but the family moved to Nebraska in 1856. After his father froze to death surveying on Big Papillion Creek, the family moved to Columbus (NE). Luther began carrying mail in 1860 (aged 13 years), about the same time as his older brother Frank went to the Pawnee Agency to work as an interpreter and clerk. Luther worked other odd jobs, such as hauling logs to the sawmill and cattle herding, and in 1862 enlisted in the 2^nd Nebraska Cavalry to fight the Sioux. Manpower for Indian fighting was scarce, since farther East there was a war going on for the unity of the nation. They mustered out the following December, and Luther returned to the family farm, supplemented by freighting and other jobs, until 1866. 

  The Pawnee Scouts had been organized to fight with the Americans against their traditional enemies, the Sioux. When the Scouts were reorganized the following year, Luther was commissioned a captain, a title he would use the rest of his life. He was in and out of the unit, as circumstances demanded (the Plains natives – Sioux, Cheyenne or Pawnee - did not fight winter campaigns). 

  After General Crook’s 1876 campaign, Luther and his brother, Frank, were mustered out for good. In those few years, there was no part of Indian fighting or scouting that the Norths had not encountered. They knew the “wild West” in its “heyday.” They went into business with William Cody at Dismal River Ranch until 1882.

  Luther had numerous other positions after this, including Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue, County Commissioner (Howard Co.), and more. He married Mrs. Elvira S. Coolidge in 1898 and they returned to Columbus in 1917, where he lived, engaging in public speaking and writing and other part-time pursuits, until his death in 1935.  

  
  
  Provenance: Property of Another Owner

  Condition

  Variable, as expected. Overall very good. Minor shelfwear only on "Outdoor Life."  
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