The Belle Starr Saga: Chaos At Home
Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!
We're continuing with the story of Belle Starr who was branded "The Bandit Queen" after her many successful robberies in the Old West.
In the last post we left off with Belle grabbing a young Cherokee man named July, asking him to move in with her(or, knowing her she might have ordered him to) so they could be considered man and wife and she could legally stay in her cabin on the reservation! whew!
You know why this is such an unusual photo of Belle? It's the only one I've seen of her without her six shooters:
Belle was a fixer. She got things done and fixed. You may not like the WAY she got things done but she wasn't one to let circumstances rule her life, she ruled her OWN life.
Her kids
Her daughter Pearl was staying with relatives in Arkansas with her new baby which Belle insisted that she give up for adoption so she could find a man of "means" and start life out in the way she thought it should be done.
Her son Eddie had moved in with Belle but he was an angry, bitter young man who missed Sam(who got killed 2 posts ago) and resented the dickens out of Belle's new "husband" who was only 7 years older than himself! lol.
Eddie constantly disobeyed Belle so that didn't go down well. The kid was 17 and as stubborn as she was and with a rebellious streak to boot. Just like his mom! It didn't help that he got into trouble one night while a friend and him were out drinking and stole a horse from an old black man.
The Deputy recovered the horse and charged Eddie with horse theft. Of course Belle's new man was in trouble and had a court date because he ALSO was charged with horse theft! So both of the men in her life were horse thieves.
There IS good news
After Sam's death(for those not up to date Sam was gunned down by a Lawman) Belle put the word out that she would not longer accept "fugitives of justice" at her homestead. Yay! She was finally coming to the realization that crime doesn't pay.
She was leading a quiet life as far as criminal behavior. The locals in the area quit complaining about horses and cattle disappearing.
The Federal Indian agent was impressed and had an open letter to her published in the Indian Territory newspapers:
Mrs. Belle Starr
Oklahoma, I. T.
Madam: The complaint against you for harboring bad characters has not, in my opinion, been established and is now dismissed.
I hope sincerely that you will faithfully carry out your promise to this office not to let such parties make your place a rendevous.
Yours Respectfully
Robert L. Owen
United States Indian Agent
See there, it's official. Belle has been declared a bonafide good citizen and she was very proud of that letter. It's like a new lease on life for her.
Belle's violent temper
Trouble boiled with Eddie though. One night he took her prized horse without her permission and didn't come back till shortly before dawn. I'm sure he woke her up when he came in because she got up and went to the stable and discovered that her favorite horse had been badly mistreated and uncared for.
Being furious, she grabbed her riding quirt(small whip), marched into his bedroom and whipped him severely. After this happened he moved out and stayed with another family a few miles away. He did talk about killing her.
Not a bad looking kid. Mustache is a little small. I wonder how he's gonna turn out?
Belle's story continues on the next post.
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck
ps- ya know....you might just be a redneck if:
You feel a bit lonely when winter comes and the last fly dies!
Lol. God bless you all!
Great pictures.
The letter that the Indian Agent sent to Belle is neat as ever. To have it on record from so long ago speaks of her notoriety.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Really enjoy your work.
thank you sir bigsweed, very few people actually read and think about content so it's greatly appreciated. Let me ask you something...would you rather read about a famous lawman like Wyatt Earp or famous outlaws like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? Or maybe you have no preference. I'm just trying to get an idea what people would prefer so I'm asking a few of my readers.
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STOPShe would never have won an award for parent of the year, would she?
haha! No she wrote that letter so her daughter's boyfriend broke up with her and she beats her son ...and she is trying to get her grand daughter adopted out!
She may have had a much happier life if she would have just gone off robbing banks with Cole way back in the beginning!
Well yes that's true Melinda and that's what she wanted to do, she wanted to go with him but he didn't want her to. It sounds strange to say that she would have a happier life robbing banks! lol.
Well she wasn't exactly cut out to be Suzy Homemaker, was she? Have you discovered how to look at the leaderboard in Surfer? It appears to have been reset and is working. It doesn't always work, and I know they have been trying to get that fixed.
hey Melinda..no how do you access that? What about the 2.0 version or whatever they call it, they say it's much faster? do you think it still has bugs? Because this takes me so much longer than using the steemit comments section.
I downloaded version 2 .0 last night just to see how it looks and I love it! I say give it a try.
I can see the leaderboard on my phone but I'm uncertain how you access that from Surfer.
ok Melinda, I guess I can google it and see if it comes up. Hey what is this, what are these numbers?
All her kids didn't turn out well. Must be the family's genes. :-)
yes sir Vincent! I guess when you marry criminals it's in the genes, plus talk about some dysfunctional home life! wow. I would have become a horse thief too ! well maybe. and yourself? lol.
Eh... I'd say he needs a soul patch or maybe longer side burns. Long side burns were "cool" once, right?
oh man fotosdenada, in the 60s and 70's especially they were the rage. Very cool. But yeah that would help, or a huge mustache. lol.
Hey janton, were moustaches meant to be a certain size in those Western days?
howdy tonight again angiemitchell! Well for you it's probably morning but to answer your question..no not really, I was just joking around because most of the guys back then had large mustaches. But they were much more prevalent than today and many were huge and bushy, I had no idea how they ate without getting it full of food!
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Oh my goodness! She had a very hard life. I sat down and read the past six days of posts and am just stunned. There is history of her all over Oklahoma and Arkansas. My family homesteaded the land Devil's Den State Park is on and there have been a few family stories about seeing her in the Fort Smith area and such. Not sure if any of it is true, you know how family stories go.
Thanks for such a good series.
Ren
howdy again Ren! oh that is so interesting. Well the rest of the country has forgotten about her and that's why I wanted to do the series because no one knows about her and plus there weren't that many colorful female bandits. But I think I saw some things about her in a state park, maybe a replica of her cabin or some of the caves? Robbers Cave perhaps?
Yeah they say there are tons of wild stories about her that are total myths! lol. Thanks so much for reading and commenting!
I know there is a cabin in Tushmingo, OK, that is supposed to be one she lived in. I haven't seen it, but a friend sent me this photo of it. Like i said, supposed. I haven't seen it, but it is something we think would be a great county story.
Howdy today xcountytravelers! how interesting and it probably was one that she lived in at some point. Is Tishomingo close to you guys? It would be a great county trip no matter if it's true or not for sure!
It is on lake Texoma and really close to Fort Washita.
oh I see, thank you xcountytravelers...this has nothing to do with it but I heard that the country artist Blake Shelton has a home on Lake Texhoma. My little trivia contribution.
Yeah, he has a restaurant there. The Red Dog i think it's called.
oh really? ha! Have you guys been there? That sounds great, I bet it's good food.Doesn't he have a ranch or farm or something in Oklahoma?
She's too much! and yes, his mustache is too tiny, that's why she was angry! ahahah
haha! howdy blacklux! I knew you'd agree with me hahaha. Nothing good ever seems to come to these men with tiny mustaches!
Yikes!! Eddie should have known better than to take her horse!
yes sir simms50, it was a mistake on both their parts. Belle has a flash temper but she plans things and Eddie should learn to plan better! And make better plans. But at this point he's just a rebellious teenager so I give him some slack.