J. B. “Wild Bill” Hickok probably lived in Warrensburg, Missouri between February of 1870, and early July 1870 as reported. He came to Warrensburg from Hays, Kansas, after a short spell in Topeka. He was on the move in late January and was at Warrensburg, Mo., in mid-February as a guest of his old wartime friend J. W. McLellan. They had served together as Detective Police 1863/64 in the Provost Marshal's Department, Springfield. McLellan was now unemployed, but his Bavarian born wife ran a restaurant at 133 West Pine Street. and Will Bill lived upstairs. McLellan ran the Redford House Hotel at one time and JB ran the gambling house. The McLellan’s had two children, Benjamin, 11, and Maggie about 8.
WILD BILL" HICKOK. Interview in the Kansas City Journal Brings Up Reminiscence of His Residence Here (in Warrensburg, Missouri). Thursday, November 14, 1901 "The race of 'bad men' which formerly gave the West and Southwest an unenviable reputation, is practically extinct," says W. K. Bell of Palo Pinto, Texas, in an interview with a Kansas City Journal reporter at the New Albany hotel in Kansas City Sunday.
"Mr. Bell came to the United States the first time in 1869. His first job was with the Western Union Telegraph company. He worked in Missouri, rebuilding the telegraph lines along the Missouri Pacific railway. He knew the notorious 'Wild Bill' Hickok, both when was running the 'Redford' gambling house at Warrensburg, Missouri and later when he was marshal of Abilene, Kansas.
"I've known a good many bad men," said Mr. Bell, 'but 'Wild Bill' was the bravest of them all. He had the real cold nerve.' "—Kansas City Journal. There are but few of Warrensburg's present inhabitants who were aware that the notorious "Wild Bill" Hickok, whose name for many years was the terror of the gambler and bad man of the west, whose unerring aim with his six shooter caused more than twenty of them to bite the dust, and who was himself finally assassinated in a Deadwood, S. D., gambling dive, was once a resident of this city. "Wild Bill" drifted into this city from the west, where he had already gained a reputation as a bad man. There was a restaurant kept at that time by a man and his wife by the name of McLellan, upstairs over the present location of the Big Key secondhand store on (133 West, Fitter's Restaurant today) Pine Street”. Hickok had known the McLellan’s before either came to this city, and there he boarded. In those days Warrensburg was something of a wide-open town herself, and Bill Gibbons kept a saloon in the basement of the Redford hotel, then situated on the spot now occupied by the Simmons, Tyler, Commercial hotel (later the Martin Hotel). (Warrensburg, Missouri’s City Hall sits on the site today).
Hickok was
a frequenter of Gibbons' resort, and many were the games he sat in, in that
saloon with the sports who congregated in Warrensburg, Missouri from every quarter.
"Wild Bill" is described by those who remember him as a man of medium
stature and weight with dark, flowing hair and mustache. The most striking
feature outside of his long hair was his piercing grey eyes. It is said that
when aroused by anger his eyes would flash with a devilish gleam, and his
small, womanlike hand would clasp the butt of his ever-ready six-shooter with
the lightning movement of a cat. But Hickok was on his good behavior while in
Warrensburg, Missouri.
He gambled,
for that was the way he made his living, but he had no serious trouble with
anyone. Stories are told of game youngsters who thought they would like to try
"Wild Bill,"' but be was good natured to these upstarts and would
wave them away with his hand. If they persisted, one angry flash from those
glittering eyes and a few sharp words from him usually was enough to make the
most bumptious youngster subside. After about a residence in this city Hickok
and Gibbons sold out their saloon and gambling rooms and Hickok went to
Abilene, Kansas, where he became marshal, and his work in making that once
wildest of towns a fit place to live in, is known to everyone who knows the
history of "Wild Bill." He later drifted into Deadwood, S. D, when it
was one of the toughest towns of the world.
He was shot
there while sitting in a poker game by a young man whose brother
"Bill" had killed in an open fight. But the young man gave
"Bill" no such show. He slipped up behind him as he sat at the table
and shot him in the back of the head.
Their two children were Benjamin, 11, and Maggie about 8.
J. W. McLellan (Union veteran). | Missouri Historical Society "John William McLellan"
On July 17, 1870, two drunken 7th Cavalry soldiers from Fort Hays—Jerry Lonergan and John Kile—attacked then Deputy U.S. Marshal James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok in Paddy Welch’s saloon or possibly Thomas Drum’s saloon. Kile, a Medal of Honor recipient and deserter who later reenlisted, possibly had never met Hickok before and it’s possible Lonergan had a dispute with Wild Bill Hickok when he was county sheriff in Ellis County, Hays Ks the in 1869. It’s been said that Lonergan grabbed and held Hickok from behind as Kile pulled a .44 caliber pistol and stuck it in Hickok’s ear—but the pistol misfired. Hickok pulled out his pistol and shot Kile in the wrist and then the body and then shot Lonergan in the knee before leaping through a glass window to escape. Fearing an attack by other soldiers, he armed himself with a Winchester rifle and 100 rounds and hid out in a cemetery. Kile died the following day while Lonergan recovered.
Wild Bill also saved a man’s life by pulling him from a well that was across from the Redford house on South Holden Street in Warrensburg, Missouri. Article below from the Warrensburg, Missouri Newspaper, The Standard Herald.
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