Being an examination of some of the wold newton family in the wild west, with an examination of the careers of
James west and artemus gordon, the lone ranger and tonto, brisco county, the lazarus man, paladin, the cartwrights, barkleys and sundry others.

by Dennis E. Power

This article was inspired to resolve the discrepancies between the 1966 television series and the 1999 film WILD, WILD WEST. Purists will have no trouble dismissing the film as pure fiction, a hack job with no redeeming qualities. I find that prospect too easy as if that what was intended all along.

Who was James West? Were there really two men who bore that name? The same questions apply for his irreplaceable partner, Artemus Gordon.

My theories concerning these four men may be met with disbelief, I fully expect that but as with many pieces of evidence concerning the Wold Newton universe and the characters that inhabit it, the truth is not always readily apparent and the media in which the characters appear cannot be considered holy writ.

How do we resolve the discrepancies between the two Jim Wests and the two Artemus Gordons? The first way to resolve it is to simply believe, despite how incredulous, that there were in fact, two men named Jim West and two men named Artemus Gordon who worked for the United States Secret Service during the 1870's

This is possible but highly unlikely given the high profile nature of their cases.

The second method of resolving the discrepancy is to believe that they were code names with cover identities for special agents working for a trouble-shooting branch of the Secret Service. I find this scenario to be more likely.

The question arises then, who were these men behind the cover identities, and how did they relate to the Wold Newton Universe and to the Wold Newton Family itself.

The first set of agents, James West and Artemus Gordon had their positions created by the Eridaneans inside the U.S. Government. Their primary assignment was to neutralize any threat to the U.S. Government and regions promulgated by Capellean agents, renegade Eridaneans or their minions or persons who had acquired technologies from them.

The first James West began his career as James West in 1865, the second in 1870, when it was deemed that the threat was even greater than at first anticipated and the fact that two such disparate persons using the same identities would be confusing to the many enemies that West had made over the years.

   Due to a mistranslation of the Secret History of the Wold Newton Universe, ( I really must concentrate on that Eridanean!) I made the statement in the previous version of the Wold Wold West that Daniel Reid was James West. I must now correct that statement. Daniel Reid was not the James West whose exploits were detailed in the Wild Wild West series. However he did use the name for a short time having been manipulated in a plot to discredit and possibly kill the real James West.
    There was an uncanny resemblance between the two men but that is to be expected since they were cousins.

    James West, and the man with the cover identity of Artemus Gordon fought villains armed with anachronistic technologies supplied by Eridanean, Capellean and perhaps other Alien sources for two years when it became apparent that they villains were not only stepping up their attacks but that they had become aware of the investigation duo of West and Gordon. The varied career of James West is too lengthy to go into detail in this essay but a Mark Ellis and Win Eckert have provided a great chronology of his adventures exists here.  I agree with the chronology of the adventures but I respectfully differ from them when it comes to the genealogies of the characters.

    To confuse the enemy they created another investigative team with the Cover identities of West and Gordon. For this team they chose an African-American soldier and an experienced agent, one who was not only a master of disguise but also a gifted inventor.
    The implementation of the second James West identity was also partially political in origin. In order to placate Radical Republicans who desired the swift and immediate integration of the African-American into government service.  However as time wore on the Radicals fell from leadership and from favor. Racism reared its ugly head and segregation and separatism became not only the law of the nation but the norm of society. Therefore, to save itself from embarrassment and to escape from notoriety, the exploits of James Douglas Henry were "whitewashed" and attributed to James West.

Who was this second James West? And is there any relationship between he and the first one?

James West II’s real name was James Douglas Henry, born in Ohio 1840. His father was a legendary railroad worker, his mother Polly Ann Douglas, daughter of James Douglas, slave of the Widow Douglas of St. Petersburg, Missouri.

There was however more to his father's tale than merely being a gigantic, super strong man who beat a machine in a steel driving race, no his Father and consequently James West II was a member of the Wold Newton family.

Mr. Farmer states that in the famed world traveler William Clayton 1799-1902. Traveled through South Africa in 1818. Farmer mentions his adventures here in brief, one incident tells of him almost dying of thirst in the Kalahari desert and being chased by twelve natives for five days in which he slew ten out of the twelve. What Farmer does not mention was that during his travels he was given a slave girl by a chief of one the Ugandan tribes. The girl was from a Northern tribe (at that time) called the Waziri and her name was Bafia. He had barely enough time to learn her part of her language and of course bed her before a rival tribe set upon him intent on his supplies and bearers

Bafia went down with an arrow in her back; Clayton and the others were forced to split up. Twelve of the raiders pursued Clayton.

Bafia was not dead but merely had the wind knocked out her. She was captured and chained. Her captors were slavers. She shipped to the West Indies surviving the horrendous Middle Passage despite finding herself pregnant. Once in the West Indies she was sent on another ship that sailed into Charleston. She either made it to America shortly before the African Slave Trade became illegal or was given false papers. Justin Henry bought her.

In mid 1820 she gave birth to a boy named John by Mr. Henry. In the mid thirties, Henry sold his small holdings and moved to Ohio. John was growing up to be a tall, strong young man, which is no surprise his father having been described as a "young Apollo with the strength of Heracles"

Henry invested in railroads and farmed out John as a railroad laborer. In 1837, he bought John a wife from a Widow Douglas in St. Petersburg, Missouri who was strapped for cash.

In 1858 was the famed contest between the steam driven spike driver and John Henry. John Henry bargained for his freedom and his family's freedom if he won. He did win but at a terrible loss. He suffered a stroke and was in a coma for months. During this time his wife, took the family and travel farther north. John Henry recovered from the stroke but not entirely, he had lost some function in his arms and legs.

James Douglas Henry was not allowed to enlist in the United States Army until after 1863 but he proved his worth prior to this by going behind enemy lines and acting as contraband in order to gather needed information.

The film and the novelization of the book has him as Captain James West of the 9^th Cavalry which fought the Confederates in a battle that turned into a massacre during the civil war. This information is pure disinformation designed to disguise his true identity and activities.

We can tell this by two very pertinent facts; the United States Army did not have any African-American Officers until 1872. The 9^th Cavalry was not organized until 1866 and did not see much action until the mid-1870s. The 10^th organized at the same time duties consisted primarily consisted of providing guards for workers of the Kansas and Pacific Railroad, strung miles of new telegraph lines, and to a large extent built Fort Sill. Throughout this period, they were constantly patrolling the reservations in an attempt to prevent Indian raids into Texas. In 1867 and 68, the 10th participated in Gen. Sherman's winter campaigns against the Cheyenne, Arapahos, and Comanches. Units of the 10th prevented the Cheyenne from fleeing to the northwest, thus allowing Custer and the 7th Cavalry to defeat them at the decisive battle near Fort Cobb, Indian Territory.

    One man, albeit corrupt and manipulative, saw James Douglas Henry's gift for intelligence work and with outside aid trained him to be an operative much like and James West was trained. This man was Lafayette Baker, whom the second James West thought was a great man; until showed evidence that proved that Baker was training him to be a disposable tool.

    We can gather that James Douglas Henry did see volunteer combat probably in one of the volunteer Ohio militias, that he began working as an intelligence operative during this time, that his talents were recognized and encouraged by Lafayette Baker for his own purposes. No doubt as a true member or a stand in member of a Colored Troop he did see action. James West II was present at the Massacre brought about by Arliss Loveless' Juggernaut; a steam powered tank with machine guns and cannon.

    After the War West did indeed join the Tenth Cavalry and did see action against the Indians but his talents for tracking down outlaws gave him a special status and he was often AWOL while performing missions for the Secret Service.

    In 1870, while the first James West and Artemus Gordon were occupied with dozens of special threats, the second team of West and Gordon was created to firstly deal the returned threat of Arliss Lovelace, a crippled Mad genius who had lent his talents and heart to the Confederacy.

    While the first team of West and Gordon worked together for several years, the second team probably did not, for one simple basic reason; they simply did not get along with one another.

    James West II either embarked on a law enforcement career in the West or stayed on as a operative of the Secret Service, possibly both but his further career has yet to be revealed.

    His grandson Will Everett, became a renown athelete who  won medals at the 1936 Olympics in Munich.  However society was closed to many African-Americans so far as opportunities were concerned in the forties and when he took a promising job Everett found himself an unwitting henchman for the master criminal known as the Ultrahumanite. Everett helped defeat the Ultrahumanite and used his athletic skills to fight crime under the sobriquet Amazing Man.

    James Douglas Henry’s siblings and cousins also and their progeny were some interesting characters.

    Aristotle Henry became one of the first professors at Tuskagee University. His daughter married Bernard Collier. Their son, Barney Collier became the gadgeteer of the IM Team. This tradition was continued by Barney's son Grant.

    His cousin, son and name sake of James Douglas was thoroughly embittered by his Father’s befriending of their slave owner’s ward, using the name Jemal David, he became a bounty hunter whose adventures were chronicled in the 1968-1969 TV series, The Outcasts. After tiring of the hard life of a bounty hunter, Jemal David settled down and married another former slave, a female missionary named Topsy St. Claire.

Among Jemal David’s descendants are Alexander Scott (I-Spy), Hump Evans of Ralph Dennis’ Hardman detective series, Virgil Tibbs of John Ball’s Virgil Tibbs series and Touissant Moore of Ed Lacy’s Room To Swing

James Douglas Henry’s sister married an Indian named William Lonefeather and their son, James Lonefeather, served in the 10^th Cavalry from 1878-1886. After which he became a bounty hunter using the alias of Lord Bowler. He eventually became the "faithful companion" and partner of Brisco County Jr. first as bounty hunters tracking down time criminal John Bly and secondly as government agents working directly for President Cleveland

Another one of James Douglas Henry's sisters married a man named Newton, their son’s son was Joshua Newton, who became one of Richard Benson’s the Avenger’s operatives Their daughter married a man named Shaft, their son being the private dick who is a sex machine to all the chicks, John Shaft.

The second Artemus Gordon was also named a Gordon but only on his mother's side of the family. His real name was Barton Swift and he was related to the first Artemus Gordon but was a distant cousin. His first name was probably William. Evidence suggests that the second Artemus Gordon was a member of the Wold Newton family, a descendent of Percy Blakeney and Henry Burlingame.

After the second Artemus Gordon "retired" from "Secret Service" he pursued a solo career of adventure and scientific experimentation, he reassumed his true name of Barton Swift married and had a son, Thomas, b.1890  Later writers would record Barton Swift's adventures with his son Tom Swift.

It is possible that once his son was grown Gordon II embarked on another career, but I have yet to follow that line of research.

    One odd fact about the two James West’s is that their mortal enemies, Migelito and Arliss Lovelass were not only related to each other but related to them. Ada Augusta Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, gives birth to twins in 1837 both are born deformed. One is clubfooted and the other is a dwarf, she is told that they died at birth Lord Lovelace, urged by his mother in law, reluctantly gives them up for adoption. There is some suspicion that they are illegitimate given her Father's promiscuity. However, no evidence supports this supposition. The boys are sent to an orphanage in America but given a generous endowment. Their names are Michael Lovelace and Arliss Lovelace. Never adopted and raised by rather cold foster parents the boys adopt the names Miguelito Quixote Loveless and Arliss Loveless.
    The boys are set up on a hacienda bought from Richard Lovelace's distant cousin, Cesar De La Vega. The Hacienda is run by Dona Maria Concepicion DeVega, a cousin of sorts of Cesar De la Vega. His grandfather's youngest brother had several natural children spread throughout California and Mexico. Dona Maria was one of the few who pressed for any sort of "inheritance." Dona Maria allowed to live on the hacienda for life, so long as she would raise the two boys.
    Dona Maria always told the boys that she was their mother but the genius level children eventually found out she was lying.
    In 1848, when the boys are 11, they are suddenly destitute. The hacienda and its environs was confiscated by the U.S. Government. This engenders in Arliss a severe hatred of the United States and in Migelito a distrust and hatred of government in general. Dona abandons both boys in separate locations in Texas. Arliss eventually ends up in New Orleans where despite his deformity,  his lack of formal education and his poverty, he acquires wealth, education and the polish manners of a gentleman and a vast engineering background. How he acquired all of these is not known, although, given his amoral nature, a background in crime cannot be ruled out.
    Migelito somehow acquired enough wealth to acquire a vast formal education, becoming a world renown chemist and engineer. It is possible although, he would have never admitted it that as a youth he traveled with a Medicine show as an attraction and as a hawker of a patent medicine of his own devising.

Here comes the singular oddest fact about the two James West’s, there was a relationship between them that neither knew about, they were distant cousins, each being descended from Long John Silver.

At the end of Treasure Island, Long John Silver escapes from hanging with a bag of gold. Stevenson says "that he returned to his old Negress, and perhaps still lives in comfort with her and Captain Flint" Yet Mr. Farmer states that Silver had gone to New York married the widow of a young Hudson River patroon and gained a fortune by smuggling during the revolution.

We can only guess that the Crown seized Mr. Silver’s assets when he was sentenced to hang, which included the Anchor Inn in Bristol and possibly his Wife and their children. If they were still slaves, selling them off in West Indies. Or his wife may have fled to an appointed place in the West Indies where she and the children were seized and sold as slaves.

Mrs. Silver and her children were sold off in America. Silver followed their trail as best as he could but found no trace of them. Although I am still researching what happened to most of Long John Silver’s descendants of African descent, I have been able to pinpoint a few, among whom is his grandson James Douglas, slave of Widow Douglas of St. Petersburg, Missouri. Famed as the character "Nigger Jim" of Huckleberry Finn.
    His grandson of course was James Douglas Henry (James West II)
James Douglas’ brother Silas escaped from slavery in 1850 and traveled west to California where he became a prospector. He became friends with Tom Barkley and eventually saved Barkley’s life from some violent claim jumpers. Silas became Tom Barkley’s constant companion and eventually became the House Manager of the Barkley estate.

One of Silver's grandsons carried on his penchant for larceny. Although he had been born free he and a friend named, Quincy Drew made a business out of bilking slave owners. His friend, Drew, a White man would pretend to sell him to a Plantation owner for a fair amount and then would help Jason escape from the Plantation.

Their plans went awry in 1857 when Jason actually spent some time as a slave, until successfully escaping and leading several others to freedom. (Skin Game 1971) In 1858, he joined the Underground Railroad helping several other slaves escape to Mexico. He joined Union Army during the Civil War. Using the nickname Buck, he later lead a group of Blacks homesteaders to the west (Buck and the Preacher)

As for Long John Silver’s other descendants, we know from Mr. Farmer that they included Arizona Jim Silver, a prospector, gambler and lawman in the West whose exploits were chronicled in Max Brand's Silvertip series. His son, Silverhorns Silver a famed Western sheriff (who may have been the inspiration for Sheriff Blaisdell of Oakley Hall’s novel Warlock, the filmed version starring Henry Fonda) and of course Greatheart Silver, Dirigible Captain and trouble magnet.

During his tenure as a smuggler Long John Silver kept up contacts with his former "colleagues" in the West Indies shipping trade so in 1790, a few years before his death, he was astonished to be contacted by a Haitian Sugar factor who claimed to have two of his grandsons. One of Silver’s daughters had been sold to the Haitian Sugar Factor and had become his mistress. She had borne him two sons, Pierre and Jean. The Sugar Factor had the idea of setting up a "trade" area in the Mississippi delta and thought that if Silver would aid him he would manumit the boys and set them up to run the business.

Silver agreed and had the boys stay with him at his house in Westchester New York for a year before while the Sugar Factor set up the base of operations in the Mississippi delta. Pierre and Jean spent the rest of their child hood in the delta.

Silver died in 1800 but dispatched one of his younger sons to take over the New York branch of the family’s business in the delta.

Unbeknownst to Silver and to Pierre, the Sugar Factor was an Eridanean adoptee and had chosen Jean to be his heir. Jean received the longevity serum upon reaching adult hood. The Sugar Factor was given another mission and another identity.

Jean’s mission was to do what he could to increase American trade in the area and to hamper the Spanish influence.

Jean and his brother Pierre bought a blacksmith shop in New Orleans on the Rue de St. Phillippe. They used the surname Laffite.

The smithy was, as it turned out, merely a cover, which served as a depot where the brothers Laffite took orders for goods recently "confiscated" from ships at sea. For men who were supposed to have been new to a city, they quickly learned its unique, stylish habits and customs, too-quickly understood its sometimes curious laws, too-quickly learned the angles, and too-quickly ingratiated themselves with the local merchandise retailers and bankers, as well as the aristocracy

In 1807, their 20 year old Uncle Argus Silver of the New York Silvers arrived in New Orleans to open a trade house. He became the silent partner of his nephews. He had with him his younger, headstrong sister Emma. In 1810 she becomes thoroughly entranced by Estevan De La Cruz, an older gentleman of Spanish origin. Although her brother has serious doubts, Estevan gave him the deed of Spanish Gold Mine in New Mexico as a present for his entrance into the family. Emma Silver, and her considerable dowry married De La Cruz in 1811. Laffite discovered De La Cruz to be a paid agent of the Spanish crown working to undermine French and U.S. interests in the delta.

Estevan and his wife fled to Tejas, taking all of her dowry and a bit more.

In Tejas, Estevan finally settled down to become a gentleman farmer. He and Emma Silver had five children, Angelique, 1811 Estrellita, 1815 Pablo 1816, Diego 1818.and Amelia 1820. In the late 1820's the Anglos began arriving in droves. Never one to escape which way the wind was blowing, Estevan de la Cruz became Steven Cross and he subsequently anglicized his children’s names.

Angelique Cross married Texian patriot Alexander Stewart in 1836. Their son Jefferson Stewart was born in 1836. He became one of the men to wear the mask of Zorro.

On a trip to New Orleans to visit her brother in 1832, Emma took her second eldest daughter, Estrellita along. Estrillita Silver met and fell in love with a young Scottish sailor named Britton Reid whom she latter married.

Pablo de la Cruz, AKA Paul Cross made his way to New Orleans and established strong ties with his cousin John Silver. They made a fortune in War profiteering during the Texas Revolution and Mexican War.
    Paul had a child born out of wedlock with a prostitute Phoebe Regret. The son Paul Regret became a gambler and duelist, and unwilling Texas Ranger. His story was told in the Paul Wellman novel and film Comancheros.

Paul Cross’ son Jeremiah Cross acquired a fortune in Louisiana and Texan oil. Jeremiah’s son, Noah Cross made a huge fortune in oil, tobacco and Californian water rights. He was a thoroughly despicable human being as can be seen in the film Chinatown.

The partnership between John Silver and Paul Cross did much to heal the rift between the Silvers and the Crosses. By 1839, all had been forgiven. Amelia Cross accompanied her brother and John Silver on a trip to New York state. Upon a visit to New York City, Amelia Cross met Jason West a wealthy merchant.  Pleased with the match, Paul Cross arranged for his sister to be married.

Argus Silver married Yvette De Marginey, (sister to one of Laffite’s men) .in 1815 and had issue, John, 1817, Francis, 1820, Louisa 1821, Thomas 1825 Abigail 1825.

John took over the smuggling and illegal operations of the family fortune after Argus was killed in a duel in 1837 He married Isabella DeMarginey, a cousin daughter of Henri DeMarginey in 1838 and had issue one son, Lancelot b, 1839. John's cousin Estrellita and her husband Britton Reid became very good friends of his. John had used his connections to discover the whereabouts of Benjamin Cartwright, who also became his good friend and eventually his Uncle by marriage, his mother’s youngest sister Marie, becoming Ben Cartwright's third wife.

Yvette’s and Marie’s brother Henri De Marginey remained in New Orleans where he established an antiquities shop, specializing in arcane and occult items. His grand son also named Henri fought against the machinations of the Lovecraft’s Elder Gods and even traveled to the dimension known as the Land of Dreams as portrayed in Brian Lumley’s The Burrowers Beneath, the Clock of Dreams andThe Transformation of Titus Crow.

In 1853 when Daniel Reid went east for an education, Lancelot Silver pestered his father to go along. John sent him to stay with his brother’s family. When war was imminent, John sent for his son to return home. Lancelot refused; furthermore he informed his father that if the South should try to secede he would stay on the side of the Union. John Silver told his son that if he ever did that he would disown him. When war broke out and Lancelot Silver joined a volunteer New York regiment, John Silver disowned him.

He regretted his actions when he was informed that Lancelot was killed in action in 1863. His attitude was also tempered by the fact that the Reid brothers had also opted to fight for the Union. In 1865 John Silver was diagnosed as having terminal cancer on the same day that he was informed that the worthless gold mine that Estevan de la Cruz had given to his father had silver in it.

Knowing that the Reid’s ranch had been destroyed and having no desire for his ne’er do well brother Thomas to get a hold of the silver mine, he left it to Daniel and John Reid. The merchant house and shipping lines he transferred to his brother Francis but their ne'er do well brother Thomas got a local judge to transfer control of them to him. By 1869, he had gambled away both businesses.

Thomas Silver 1825-1874, was a drunkard, gambler and it is rumored a procurer. At the age of fifteen he seduced the daughter of a well established Creole family the wealthy and mysterious de la Rougierres, and made her pregnant, After being thoroughly beaten, he married her and then promptly left town for a few years. Their child was born 1840 Yancy de la Rougierre Silver. Under the code name Derringer, Yancy de la Rougierre Silver was a Union Intelligence officer working under the direct orders of Military Governor Butler. His partner Pahoo-Ka-Ta Wah was actually Tonto under a different name. Their adventures were portrayed in the western television series Yancy Derringer. Although the series was set in the late 1870s, the events portrayed actually took place during the United States occupation of New Orleans during the Civil War.

Thomas tried his hand at several occupations but mostly wandered the Southwest aimlessly. He married, (without benefit of divorce from his first wife) by whom he had issue, James Silver. Thomas' wanderlust hit him shortly after the baby was born and he left his second wife and child. This child became the famed prospector, gambler and lawman Arizona Jim Silver, great grandfather to Greatheart Silver.

Francis went to New York to establish himself in the family shipping business; he married __________ and in 1850 found himself in charge of the family shipping business when his Uncle, his two sons and their families died, their excursion ship to the Caribbean  lost at sea.

Lancelot Silver b.1839-d? The son of John Silver and Isabella de Marginey, which makes him the cousin of Daniel Reid, John Reid and Joseph Cartwright. When his friend and cousin went east to be educated he convinced his father to send him as well. His uncle used their family connections get Lancelot a slot at West Point in 1856. He graduated on he eve of the War and became a Cavalry officer in the Union Army, over the strenuous objections of his father, who disowned him.
    At Chancellorsville, his commanding officer fled before the face of the enemy, striking him down when Lancelot attempted to stop him. Lancelot was captured and spent a year in a Confederate prison but escaped by substituting himself with a corpse. However, the Confederates reported him as dead and he was taken captive by Union forces and held prisoner until his identity could be established. It was only a coincidence that another cousin, James West an intelligence operative spotted him and established his bonafides. Although the foul up with his name was still on the books, Lancelot became an operative for Secret Service using the code name Sylvester Knight.
    One assignment in 1865 found him in Cuba preventing a Confederate Filibusters from taking control of the land. Aiding him in this was a man who called himself Juan Largo y Plata. He was a dead ringer for his father’s painting of Jean Laffite but only appeared forty years of age. Aiding in this mission was a young lady of British heritage who was oddly enough an acquaintance of Largo y Plata. Knight and the young lady hit it off tremendously but the mission fled with her and Largo fleeing in one direction and Knight fleeing in the other. The woman was an Eridanean operative whose initials were CB. Her son was given the name Adam Knight he became a wealthy industrialist.  Among Adam Knight's descendants were Wilton Knight and Emma Peel nee' Knight.

    Lancelot returned to the United States in 1866. With the war over he made his way to New Orleans to discover his father dead, their business, home and all its furnishings sold.

    Also he was informed that his cousins, John and Daniel Reid had joined the Texas Rangers and had been killed in ambush. In a seriously disillusioned state of mind, he received a telegram from an acquaintance of his Uncle, Commodore Vanderbilt. He asked Lancelot to work to become an operative of the mysterious Westerfield Club. The Club would set him up in a lavish lifestyle at the prestigious Carlteon Hotel in San Francisco and in return they would on occasion call upon him to carry out delicate missions, to carry out justices that the government and the law either could not or would not do. He was given the code name Paladin, his code phrase Have Gun, Will Travel.
    During his career as Paladin, he adopted a young boy whose parents had been killed by gunslingers. The boy was named Boone Paladin became a successful hotel owner. Boone Paladin's son and name sake branched out into motels creating the Paladin motel chain.  The motel chain figured prominently in the Vengeance Unlimted television series in which a man calling himself Mr. Chapel was a modern day Paladin. The name could also be a code name, related to the Paladin one. For in Arthurian legend, Sir Lancelot entered the Chapel Perilous and left with a sword that cured wounds, a violent weapon to heal injuries.
        Although it cannot be proven there is some evidence that in the late 1890's Paladin retired as a gun for hire and assumed the identity of Hec Ramsey a former Marshal who used modern criminological methods to solve mysterious crimes.

Paladin had two Chinese servants, who were also operatives of the Westerfield Club, as ordinary and obsequious servants they gathered intelligence for Paladin and other operatives of the club. They were a married couple and their son, James Wong, partially trained by Paladin, became a Westerfield operative and private detective operating in San Francisco as detailed in the stories of Hugh Wiley.

Jean Laffite left New Orleans ostensibly because of his troubles with the U.S. Territorial government, in reality he had been ordered to bring about an end to Spanish domination of the Caribbean. He first attempted to establish a base on Santo Domingo but the Spanish government would have none of it, so Laffite established trade colony on Galveston Island, where he traded with the Texan mainland and the Mexican rebels.

Laffite’s fame proved to be too much of a hindrance so he was ordered to establish cover identities in Mexico, California, Texas and the United States. When these were well established he was ordered to abandon the identity of Laffite. He burned his fortress Campeche to the ground and parted ways with his brother Pierre. Pierre stayed in the southwestern area and had a family. His son might have become the good hearted rogue, The Cisco Kid.
    Jean Lafitte gave full support Mexico’s Independence. As Juan Murieta he was a trader and gunrunner for Santa Anna. Based in Los Angeles he married and had three children before being ordered to sever his Mexican ties in 1834 and establish aid in revolutions in South America. Faking his death, he left his wife and children well provided for but Rafael Montero cheated her of her property and wealth. She died in prison after speaking out against Montero, leaving her sons as orphans.

Her sons were Joaquin and Alejandro Murieta. Alejandro Murieta married Elena de la Vega. Their son Joaquin Murieta de la Vega assumed the name Ken Mason and followed in his father and grandfather’s careers as Zorro. Their other son Randolph became an attorney who was not always exactly scrupulous; his cases are recorded by Melville Davisson Post. Randolph’s son however became world renown as the attorney Perry Mason whose exploits were recorded by Erle Stanley Gardner.

Ken Mason had a son named Jake born in 1880. In 1900 Jake Mason has a son, Buck Mason born in Comanche County, New Mexico. Buck is featured in the E.R. Burroughs book Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County

As to Laffite's later career I have not yet been able to discern, according to legend Some say he fought with Bolivar’s rebels against the South American nationalists. Other suppositions place him ahead of a band of pirates in Santo Domingo or dying of a plague at age 47 on the Isle de Las Mujeres near Yucatan. Some claimants even say he married in Charleston, moved west with his wife, bore children and died in Alton, Illinois on May 5,1854

What Reid failed to remember was that he was born in 1835 in Houston, Texas the first born of Britton Reid and Estelle Cross. His Father was a ranchman and part owner of shipping lin. Estelle Cross Reid died in 1850 after giving birth a fourth child and the second daughter.

Reid taught his boys all he could about ranching but kept a promise to his wife and sent Daniel east for his education.

Daniel Reid attended a University in New York and eventually studied law. When war broke out, like a good many Southerners he joined the Union Army, believing that the Union must be preserved.

He discovered a flair for intelligence work and found himself being used for undercover work, eventually as a member of the Secret Service sniffing out traitors, double agents and spies in Washington itself. While in Washington, he met Mary Scott, a young woman from Detroit, Michigan, daughter of one of the clerks working for a Senator from Michigan. They married in 1863. (An older sister of his wife named Victoria, married Tom Barkley and together they made a fortune in Stockton, California. Victoria’s exploits as the widowed matriarch of the Barkley clan were portrayed in Big Valley television series)

During the War Reid worked for the Secret Service dividing his time on missions on the front and at Washington.

According to Robert Vaughn the current biographer of James West, in the volume Night of the Assassin, he places James West at Ford’s theatre at the time of the Assassination. In NIGHT OF THE ASSASSIN. Reid was also there and the resemblance between the two men caused no end of confusion between Reid and West, especially by the various conspirators.

Lazarus Man television series shows glimpses of the main character attempting to stop the Assassination. We can only speculate that Reid somehow got wind of the plot but could not stop it from taking place. There are allusions in the Lazarus Man that he discovered a larger plot and that this is the reason that he was shot and killed. This could be partly true. I imagine that he did investigate the assassination but was only allowed to follow up certain leads. Frustrated and suspicious of the atmosphere in Washington, and worried about his brother and sisters, whom he had not heard from since the beginning of the War, Reid decided to return to Texas in 1866. His wife had just had a child and was to join him as soon as she could travel, stopping to first visit relatives in Detroit.

Reid found his Father’s ranch destroyed, his sisters married off and his brother also returning home from serving with the Union forces based in New Mexico.

Using his connections with the Secret Service Reid secured himself a position with the Texas Rangers, the Federally controlled state government was only too glad to have an Unionist Texan in its ranks. His brother also joined the Rangers.

Butch Cavendish was ordered to kill Daniel Reid. Cavendish was apparently a free agent who worked for hire, working variously for Eridaneans, Capelleans and other secret and criminal organizations. Accompanying Cavendish on the ambush at Bryant’s Gap were one or two men who had known Reid and were part of Baker’s organization.

Reid recognized them as they beat him up before tossing him into the second grave.

Recall the scene if you will, In 1866 Captain Dan Reid of the Texas Rangers leads his men into Bryant’s Gap where they are betrayed by another Ranger. And ambushed by the Butch Cavendish gang. All but Reid and his brother are killed out right. Reid falls and then does his brother.

The traitorous Ranger Collins checks on the bodies and then is shot in the back by Cavendish. The Cavendish gang rode off. An Indian who has been watching from a hiding place checks for survivors.

Finding one severely wounded he binds his wounds and quickly buries the bodies.

He then takes the wounded man to safety. When he returns to the gravesite, we can image that the grave has been disturbed. Since the bodies had been buried in haste predators must have been attracted to it, but Striker was too genteel to mention this, or the Cavendish’s might have doubled back to loot the graves.

Nor would Tonto tell his brother that his brother’s body had been disturbed and mutilated.

Tonto took what supplies remained and returned to nurse back to health Ranger John Reid who became the Lone Ranger.

What happened was this: Daniel Reid took a bullet in the back and a glancing shot to the head. After being buried he clawed his way out of the shallow grave and stumbled off following the tracks of the Cavendish gang. Unfortunately he walked right into their evening camp. Cavendish had his men beat the wounded Ranger and then he shot Reid point blank in the chest. The bullet cracked his sternum but did not penetrate, it traveled under his skin along his ribcage, breaking a couple of ribs and exited out his back.

They then buried him in a shallow grave. Amazingly enough, Daniel Reid was not dead; he once again clawed his way out of the grave and walked aimlessly until finding a farmstead. The farm people took him in and cared for his wounds.

When he regained consciousness. He realized that he was did not know who he was. The physical trauma and mental trauma had given him almost complete amnesia.

He spends the next 18 months unsuccessfully trying to discover his identity, spurred on by the memories of the faces of the men who had beaten him and by the memory of a tragedy he had witnessed, the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

He used the names Lazarus and Shenandoah during this period, and some of his adventures were highly fictionalized in the television series Lazarus Man and A Man Called Shenandoah. His quest eventually took him to Washington D.C. Throughout his travels he had been beset by men thwarting his attempt to regain his memory, he believed that it involved knowledge he had about the Lincoln Assassination. Information had come to light from a high government source that Lazarus's real name was James West and that he was an operative for the United States Secret Service.

TraveIing to Washington, D.C. in 1868 Lazarus, using the name James West, became involved with an incident that involved a stolen national historical document from the Library of Congress. There was also an actor involved named Artemus Gordon. Together they recovered the document. During this period Gordon and West were working seperately but Gordon had become aware of someone with a close resemblance to Jim West using that name. When his paths had crossed with this "James West" during the stolen Emancipation Proclamation Incident he decided to help "West" investigate his past. They checked the archives but found scant records of James West’s true identity. The files had been ordered destroyed by Lafayette Baker, former head of the Secret Service

They could find no one that would talk to them in Washington, so they decided to pay a call on Lafayette Baker, who was staying in Philadelphia. Baker was corrupt as they come, A Treasury Department official wrote of Baker's tenure as head of the Secret Service: "Baker became a law unto himself. He instituted a veritable Reign of Terror. He always lived in the first hotels [and] had an abundance of money."

Gordon and "West" tracked Baker down to a hotel room. He regarded West with fear and shock. Instead of revealing "West"s true identity. Baker gave him teasers of information, telling West that he had indeed worked for the government during the War first as a Scout, then as a Intelligence Agent for the Army and finally as a member of the Secret Service. He had used the name Jim West more often than any other cover but he had used several. He told Lazarus that Grant knew him as West and by the way, some groups objected to the good General running for President and had quite a reception planned for him.

Artemus demanded to know what Baker was talking about, resorting to persuasive tactics to make him talk. Baker launched into a detailed description of an assassination plot against Grant when he suddenly slumped forwards and died.

Examination found a small dart protruding from his neck. Gordon plucked it out with a pair of tweezers and tossed it into the fire.

Gordon and "West" succeeded in foiling the plot against Grant, which involved killing two Secret Service Agents guarding Grant.The guards were agents of the Knights of the Golden Circle.  Gordon and "West" were nearly killled by soldiers also attached to guard Grant.
    Gordon revealed himself to be an agent of the Secret Service on detached duty. He had the unfortunate duty of telling Lazarus that everything that Baker had told him was a lie. While there was a James West that worked for the Secret Service as Baker had detailed, Lazarus was not him. Grant’s requested that Lazarus join Secret Service. If he did he would be trained by and work with Gordon and the real James West in neutralizing special threats to the United States. Grant promised Lazarus that as a special agent of the government he could use its resources to discover his true identity. Despite being tempted by the offer Lazarus declined, not really trusting for the government to divulge the actual truth. As it turns out the conspirators had destroyed all the evidence concerning Reid’s identity as they destroyed all the evidence surrounding the Lincoln assassination that did not support the idea of a impulsive plot by a crank actor and his cronies.

Daniel Reid’s memory never returned and continued to use the alias of Lazarus and Shenandoah. There is also a good possibility as his search for his identity grew ever more frustrating that he became an embittered man, and became known throughout the west as the Man with No Name.

The conspiracy against Reid either stopped with Baker’s death or when it became apparent that Reid had actually and truly lost all his memory, he was no threat.

Just who was Tonto anyway? Everyone knows that he was the faithful broken English speaking companion of the Lone Ranger but beyond that what do we know. According to the Writer’s guide to the Lone Ranger series, Tonto is the son of a chieftain of the Potawatomi tribe of Indians. He is about 26 years of age, speaks English brokenly and is usually serious. He speaks most of the Indian Languages and all of the lore of the woods, fields and streams. He carries a knife, which he can throw with deadly accuracy, he uses bows and arrows and a rifle in a boot holster.

We also know that he met the Lone Ranger when they were children and so by saving the Lone Ranger from death we was repaying a similar debt.

If he were fluent in several Indian languages it is hard to believe that he never achieved fluency in English. In the first radio shows however he speaks English much better than he did later, We can assume that his broken English was a ploy, it made him seem like a typical "tame" Indian. This allowed him to do surveillance work by listening to conversations that people who ignored him as ignorant Indian.

Tonto, according to was some sources was a Potawatomi word meaning Wild One it is also Spanish for Fool, as we will see perhaps both are applicable.

First lets examine Tonto as a Potawatomi. The Potawatomi were often found in opposition to the United States, they were on the Side of the French in the French-Indian War and on the side of the British during the Revolutionary War and War of 1812.They were originally a Northern agricultural group, living in Southern Michigan, in 1834 they were ordered removed to Iowa and then to Kansas. The various bands split up some going to Canada, Wisconsin, and Northern Michigan. Only one band was not made to move and this was the acculturated Catholic Potawatomi of St. Joseph.

In 1870, several Potawatomi from several of the differing bands moved to Oklahoma and became known as the Citizen Potawatomi, Most are descended from the Potawatomi of the Woods. This is probably the band that the early writers of the show had in mind when they wrote the character of Tonto. However at the time of Tonto's birth this group had not been formed and neither had had the Potawatomi bands near Detroit been formed.

Was Tonto the son of Chief of the Potawatomi? Yes, probably but this was not the absolute monarchy that Caucasians often believed it to be. Which band was he from? Most people would assume that he was from the Prairie. I speculate that he was from the Pokagon Potawatomi They were Roman Catholic and acculturated and they did not leave their southwest Michigan homes.

How did the Lone Ranger and Tonto meet as children, if Tonto’s home was in Michigan and the Lone Ranger grew up in Texas with a few short trips to Louisiana? I speculate that oddly enough the Lone Ranger and Tonto met in New York.

At least once, John Silver took his family and the Reid family to New York to visit the Eastern branch of the family. While there, John went exploring in the woods near the Silver estate and quickly became lost. He found another boy about his same age, this boy was dressed much the same as he but was unmistakably an Indian. The Indian boy however had gotten his foot lodged inside a rotten stump that he had tried to use as step to reach a honeycomb. He could not get any leverage or traction to free himself.

John tried pulling the boys leg out and when that failed; he found several sharp rocks to hack, pound and chip the stump until they could pry the Indian’s foot loose.

As he worked, John kept teasing the Indian boy about getting in such a state. They were supposed to be one with nature. The boy explained that his people were as stupid about the woods as any white people were but that he would learn everything he could about the woods if they ever got out.

John Reid helped the limping Indian walk through the woods. He bragged about blazing a trail but could not find his marks. The Indian boy mockingly called him Kemo Sabe, the Trusty Scout. They were lost for a day and a half before finally stumbling across a search party.

Francis Silver knew the Indian boys' family and returned him to his parents, they called him Tonto, The Wild One.

What exactly was Tonto’s ancestry? We know that he was the son of a Potawatomi chief and yet in the first few books and radio shows he was referred to as a half-breed.

Yet his information was quickly dropped, and half-breeds became villains. Was this because the information was incorrect or was it because it was too close to the truth?

Tonto was apparently a quarterbreed; his mother was the grand daughter of the men James Fenimore Cooper called Nathaniel Bumppo and Chingachgook. Now readers of Cooper’s books will state that Bumppo never married and that Chingachgook’s son, the Last of the Mohicans died without issue. However, we must remember that Cooper was using the medium of historical fiction to expound his views on American society, as such He accepted the Cooper concept of a firmly class-structured society. He abhorred the French, the Iroquois and Catholics. He rigidly opposed race mixing and adhered to a belief that God had created each race as it was for a purpose that was not to be contravened by man.

In reality Uncas was not the last of the Mohicans or Mahicans as they are more properly known and he may not have been a Mohican at all. Chingachgook was also known as John Mohegan and he named his son Uncas. The Mohegan are an entirely different group of Indians speaking a different language, they are located in Connecticut where as the Mahicans were located in New York. Uncas was a Sachem of the Mohegan who had befriended the English but had caused a split among his own people. However Uncas worked with in concert with the English to expand their territories, he would conquer smaller tribes and absorb them and the English would claim the land.

The Mohegan were English allies and Scouts. The Mohegan served as English scouts during the King William's War (1688-96), and during the Queen Anne's War (1701-13), they guided two expeditions into the upper Connecticut Valley against the Abenaki. During Grey Lock's War (1723-27)

But disease and constant warfare reduced the Mohegan population and many left Conneticut. I suspect that Chingachgook’s Father was one of these, he joined the Delaware and took a Mahican wife. His son Chingachgook was also named John Mohegan reflecting the Mohegan tradition of also taking an English name. Chingachgook also married into the Mahican tribe and had several sons. Uncas being the eldest.

While Uncas death may have occurred as portrayed in the Last of the Mohicans he was certainly not the last of the Mohicans. In stating that he was Cooper was commenting on the passing of the noble savage, those untainted by the depravity of civilization.

One of Chingachgook’s sons married the daughter of Natty Bumppo.

We are told that Natty Bumppo never married, yet he lived as a member of the Delaware, preferring them to his own people. Now there are many reasons why he may have done this, but since he joined the Delaware at the age of sixteen, one of the more probable reasons was because of a woman. Because of Cooper’s views on race mixing, this important aspect of Bumppo’s life was ignored. Cooper probably did not view Bumppos’s marriage to the Delaware woman as valid and so stated the Bumppo never married.

As stated before, Bumppo’s daughter and Chingachgook’s son married and they had a daughter.

The narrative of the Leatherstocking tales has Bumppo and Chingachgook moving further west as the United States claims their lands. That part of the tale is probably true. Bumppo’s daughter and Chingachgook’s son became very interested in spreading Christianity to Native Americans and to this end, settled down in St. Joseph, Michigan where their daughter grew up to marry the son of one of Potawtomi chiefs.

Tonto’s Christian name was probably also John but his last name has yet to be disclosed.

He more than likely had an extensive formal education but also acquired an extensive training in tracking and woodcraft. He was well versed in several Native American languages. This training would prove to be an invaluable asset for his early and later careers. During the war, Tonto volunteered for the U.S. Army using his connections with the powerful Silver family to become an Intelligence agent, infiltrating Confederate Indian forces and passing along information. His identity was discovered and he barely escaped from the Indian Territory with his life.

He was assigned to work with Yancey de la Rougierre Silver, who used the alias of Yancy Derringer. Yancy Derringer was an operative of the mysterious Westerfield Club, and an operative of US. Intelligence working in New Orleans, Derringer reported directly to General Benjamin Butler, Military Governor of Louisiana. Derringer was also an Eridanean adoptee. Tonto adopted the identity of a Pawnee for this mission.

In 1866, Derringer got news that the Reid brothers were going to be eliminated because of Dan Reid’s possible knowledge of the true nature of President Lincoln’s assassination and possibly other matters. A Capellean by the name of Butch Cavendish had been dispatched to kill them. Knowing of Tonto’s acquaintance ship with the brothers, he dispatched him to warn them and prevent the assassination. Tonto arrived just in time to see them cut down in an ambush. After the Cavendish gang had left, Tonto had rushed in and ascertained that all but one of the Rangers was apparently dead. He buried all four bodies rapidly in a mass grave and then carries the wounded Ranger to safety. When he returned for supplies he thought the grave had been either looted or set upon by predators. He covered it up without noticing one of the bodies was missing.

When the Ranger came to he recognized Tonto as a childhood friend, albeit a brief one. They called you Tonto,

This signaled to Tonto that Daniel Reid had known something of Tonto’s activities because that was also his code name in the Intelligence. He had adopted it because it means Wild One, or someone that does not follow the normal path. It was also a signal to fellow Eridaneans. As was shown in THE OTHER LOG OF PHINEAS FOGG, cards were used as signal devices, these included playing cards and the Tarot. According to the Tarot, the Fool is the Zero card, it signifies that a great change is going to come into your life. The fool represents the beginning of a journey. Significantly three of the reinforcing cards for the fool are the Hanged Man, The Star, and Judgement. The Hanged man sacrifices his life for knowledge, symbolically so does the Lone Ranger pretending to be dead to seek out and identify lawlessness. The Star is self-explanatory given his chosen career, as is Judgement.

Remember these significant facts, It was Tonto who gave the Lone Ranger his name, it was Tonto, who made the mask out of Dan Reid’s vest, (or one of the Ranger’s), it was Tonto who named the Ranger’s horse Silver and it was Tonto that did much of the investigative work that was the backbone of most Lone Ranger adventures.

After John Reid retired, Tonto worked with Dan Reid as Tonto for a few years and then with another person groomed to take over the Lone Ranger mantle but who was unfortunately killed early in his career.

After assuming a few roles for the Club, Tonto took on the persona of Tecumseh Fox, a detective living in Westchester New York.

John Reid, believed to be dead, in 1866 adopted the identity of the Lone Ranger but did not confine himself to Texas but became dedicated to the pursuit of justice no matter where it took him.

His career as the Lone Ranger lasted about ten years before he was seriously wounded. After he retired his nephew Daniel Reid took on the role for a few years before he, at his uncle’s urging went back east for schooling. Oddly enough the transfer of the Lone Ranger’s identity is echoed in both the Radio and Television adventures of the Lone Ranger. On the Lone Ranger radio show, in 1941, the Lone Ranger lay critically wounded as he slowly recovered his voice grew stronger but it was different than before that is because another actor had assumed the role, taking the place of Earl Graser, long time voice of the Lone Ranger who had died in a car accident.

During the Lone Ranger television series, Clayton Moore was mysteriously replaced without adequate reason for one year.

During the course of his adventures, the Lone Ranger adopted many disguises and many pseudonyms. One character that he used quite often was Marshal Brisco County. It was in this character that he met and fell in love with a San Franciscan debutante named Ruth Gage. He eventually told her why he could not marry her as John Reid, so she agreed to become Ruth Gage County.

James West, Reid's fellow lawman and couisn, enabled the Lone Ranger as Brisco County to get a job working for the mysterious Westerfield Club based in San Francisco.

Ruth Gage County died of disease and young Brisco jr. spent time at boarding schools with summers with his father. John Bly, an evil time traveler and his gang killed Brisco County sr. Brisco County Jr. was hired by the Westerfield Club to track down the killers of Brisco County Sr. He befriended and eventually became partners with James Lonefeather, nephew of James Douglas Henry (James West II).

The Westerfield Club, like the Diogenes Club is privately owned and funded by a wealthy elite, yet it also has strong ties to the United States Secret Service and other Intelligence branches. It was created by American based wealthy and powerful Eridaneans to deal not only with mundane threats to the United States but also to deal with Capellean threats and the ever increasing problem of renegades from both factions. James West and his partner, both sets of them, received their funding and instructions from the Westerfield Club. The East Coast counterpart of the Westerfield Club was the Baltimore Gun Club.

Although based in San Francisco, (begun there to deal with the Capellean sponsored vigilante groups that attempted to usurp civil authority in the 1850's), it also stopped attempts by foreign governments to conquer California, these being Mexico and Russia.

Operatives of the Westerfield Club include Brisco County, Brisco County Jr., James Lonefeather, Paladin, James Wong, Jeff Cable and Cash Conover (of the television series The Barbary Coast) Sam Spade, Spencer Holmes T.H.E. Cat and Derek Flint.

Artemus Gordon was a cover identity, for a man whose actual last name was Gordon. Artemus was his code name. But the last name was also a code name but one used for several generations. The Gordons were Eridaneans almost from the beginning. Artemus Gordon’s father had married Francesca Cooke, a descendent of Henry Burlingame and Esther Cooke. Burlingame was as is shown in John Barth The Sotweed Factor, a master of disguise. Francesca Cooke was a distant cousin of the Gordon family.

Artemus Gordon worked with James West off and on until the mid 1890's. While embarking on a career as an actor based in Chicago, he married briefly but his wife was killed by an old enemy, leaving Gordon with a two boys named Walter and Clifford

To keep the children out of danger Artemus gave them over to his brother Clifford to raise and lead the killer to New York. Artemus apparently killed the son of Miguelito Loveless but the body was never found so he did not consider it safe to return to his family. He adopted the identity of Craig Kennedy, a professor of Chemistry at Columbia University. He became known as the American Sherlock Holmes. Due to the Eridanean serum, he of course aged hardly at all.

Artemus Gordon's son Walter married one of the Blythes of Prince Edward Island, and had a son, James W. Gordon  James
 was born on Jan. 5, 1900.  When he was a small child, his father and uncle Clifford made an unsuccessful attempt to start a business together.  They failed miserably and lost everything they had.  Walter found good work in New York and moved his family there.
    Young James Gordon made it into law school, but while there something happened which caused him to decide to pass up a career as an attorney and, upon his graduation in 1924, he became a police officer instead.  He married maverick socialite, Barbara Lane in 1927. Barbara Lane was the daughter of Drury Lane, the greatest Shakespearean actor of his age. He was also an amateur sleuth whose exploits were recorded by Ellery Queen. Although it is not widely known, Drury Lane is the adopted son of Hondo Lane whose early career was recorded by Louis L'Amour.
Hondo's family history can be seen in the excellent essay The Amazing Lanes.
James Gordon's  marriage to Barbar Lane was short-lived due to the disapproval of Barbara's mother but did result in one child, Barbara Gordon. Alas, Barbara Lane did not have a happy life and her choice of friends lead to an early death, after which James Gordon was presented with a ten year old daughter he barely knew.
    James Gordon's rise in the force was meteoric.  It is possible that the character of Joe Cardona from the Shadow books was based in part on James Gordon. In 1934, James W. Gordon became the youngest police commissioner in New York history.  However, he often found his attempts at crimebusting stymied by bureaucratic redtape and, in 1935, inspired by the legendary heroes of times past, such as Zorro and the Lone Ranger, as well as by rumors of newer nemeses of the underworld such as the Shadow, Commissioner Gordon created a masked crime-fighting identity of his own, the Whisperer.
    In 1936, Gordon married his sweetheart of some years, Tiny Traeger.  In 1938, the legendary Batman appeared on the scene.  For some years, Gordon seemed to regard the Batman as a menace, but in 1941 or '42, he apparently decided that the Batman was doing a better job as a masked adventurer than the Whisperer. Gordon retired his alter ego, and began to accept and even work closely with the Batman.
    For more about James Gordon's background and family history please visit another excellent article, The Magnificent Gordons.

Benjamin Cartwright, the patriarch of the Ponderosa Ranch, was descended from Lemuel Gulliver, through Gulliver’s daughter, which makes him a member in good standing of the Wold Newton family Lemuel Gulliver was a great uncle to George Gordon, Lord Byron. Richard Byron before he was second Lord Byron, had an affair with a serving girl that resulted in a pregnancy. She was married off to an older man of means, Samuel Gulliver who raised the child, Richard Gulliver as his own. Richard Gulliver was Lemuel Gulliver’s father. On Sarah’s side he was descended from Will Stutley, one of Robin Hood’s men. Lemuel Gulliver is a shielded immortal who had the ability to travel to parallel dimensions. This ability apparently manifested whenever his life was in danger. After his wife died, he went traveling again and was apparently lost at sea. It is thought that he returned to the land of Hoyhoynims. His daughter married a Donald Swift, a cousin of Jonathan Swift who became Lemuel Gulliver's chronicler.
    Among his descendants are David Innes, First Emperor of Pellucidar, Barton Swift and Gulliver Jones

Benjamin Cartwright was born 1804 New York or Boston. Ran away to become sailor at age of 8.in 1812. On his first voyage Ben was among those American sailors impressed into the British Navy. He spent 3 years in the British Navy, befriending many sailors, including officers and their families. When his ship sailed to America to take part in an attack on New Orleans, Ben jumped ship and deserted. He was fished out the water by none other than Jean Laffitte and became a lifelong friend. After the Battle of New Orleans, Laffitte arranged for Ben to sign on with Captain Abel Morgan Stoddard. He eventually became his First Mate and son in law. After Captain Stoddard was forced into retirement. He embarked on a career as a merchant, opening a store in Boston. His first wife Elizabeth Stoddard died in 1829 giving birth to their son Adam. Captain Stoddard later found a position as Captain of a ship owned by the Collins of Collinsport Maine, one which his son carried on, but Ben had had enough of the sea life.

After his first wife died, Ben Cartwright decided to travel west. In 1834, In St. Louis, he met the Gunnar and Inger Borgstrom. He took a job as a saloon keep and wooed Inger Borgstrom. They married and had a child Eric "Hoss" Cartwright born 1836. With the two boys, they decided to start a ranch out west. On the way west their Wagon Train is attacked by Indians, despite the valiant efforts of the Wagon’s guards, including a youthful Seth Adams (the Wagonmaster on Wagon Train series) there are casualties, including Inger.

Losing all desire for ranching, Ben decides to take his boys to civilization, as personified by New Orleans.

In New Orleans he discovers Marie de Marginey, daughter of one of Jean Laffitte’s Captains. They married in 1840 and a son was born that year, Joseph. Later that year a jealous ex-lover of Marie hired a man to kill Ben. Ben killed the man was forced to flee west to Nevada. Marie and he established a ranch he called the Ponderosa. Five years later, Marie had been killed by the ex-boyfriend and Ben had in turn killed him.

Although the television series Bonanza is based on the life of Ben Cartwright and his sons, it cannot be totally truthful for historical personages and historical events do not always coincide.

Adam Cartwright grew tired of the ranch life and in his early twenties went to sea for a few years, before finally attending the University at Stockton, California. There he met and wooed, Audra Barkley. Adam Cartwright became an architect and in concert with his brother in law, Heath, an engineer, designed many Southern California communities.

Audra and Heath Barkley’s earlier careers were portrayed in the Television series, Big Valley. Audra’s Mother Victoria was the sister-in-law of Daniel Reid. Tom Barkley was raised in the east but came west during the gold rush of 1848. He made an early strike and used it to buy land in Stockton. He created fortune based on mining, ranching and agriculture. He sent for his childhood sweetheart, Victoria Scott. They had three children, Jarrod, Nick and Audra.

Tom Barkley extended his holdings to nearby towns, owning a mine in Strawberry, California. While investigating trouble among the miners at his mine in Strawberry, Tom Barkley was attacked and killed by a mob. He was nursed back to health by Leah Simmons and as he recovered a romantic interlude took place. Tom was happily married and broke off the affair when he regained his total senses. Leah hid from Barkley the fact that she was pregnant with his child, whom she named Heath. Heath later discovered his paternity and went to see his father’s family. After some initial friction, they accepted him as one of their own.

Leah Simmons was descended from Pearl Prynne and John Burlingame. Their son was Henry Burlingame b. 1664 whose adventures were related in John Barth’s The Sot Weed Factor their daughter was Hester Burlingame born 1666. Hester married in 1687 to Francis Blake, a formerly dissolute member of the Blakeney family. Having been disowned by his father for continued gambling and drinking, he found himself in serious debt. He opted for transportation to the New World and served out a bondage of five years. Francis Blake moved to the Boston area and became a fairly wealthy lumberman. They had four children, Alan 1688, Dorothy 1690, Samuel 1693 and Priscilla 1700

Alan Blake went to England for education and remained there. His son assisted his cousin Percival Blakeney in his work. A descendent of Alan Blake was Sexton Blake.

Dorothy married Orion Gordon, a printer and an intelligence operative for the crown. He was also an Eridanean agent. Among their descendants are the two Artemus Gordon’s

Priscilla married Jonathan Wilkes but they did not have children until late in life, Alexander 1738 and Serena 1740. Alexander would travel to Georgia and found the Wilkes plantation. His descendent Ashley was the true love of Scarlett O’Hara.

Another of his less wealthy descendants were the Fletchers. One of them, Thomas Fletcher would become a midshipman on Commodore’ Perry’s fleet to Japan. When his crew was slain, twelve year old Fletcher was adopted by a Japanese Samurai. He was trained in the arts of the samurai, when his Georgian family was slain by roving marauders, he returned to the United States and became known as the Six Gun Samurai, whose adventures were recorded by Patrick Lee.

Serena married Charles Loring, a descendent of Sir Nigel Loring. One of their son George’s descendents became the magician sleuth known as Norgil. Their daughter Ruth was the second wife of the famed silversmith John Tremaine. Whose daughter, Priscilla Tremaine b. 1800 married firstly Jeremiah Hawkins, son of James Hawkins of Treasure Island fame but he was lost at sea, leaving no issue.She married secondly, Thomas Crabbe of Virginia in 1825 and had issue, Caroline b.1832. William b. 1837,
Sue Ann b. 1839 Thomas b. 1840 Margaret b.1841 and John b.1842
    Thomas Crabbe moved the family to Indiana very early in the marriage. He was a minister who in 1852 got the notion to take the family out to Deseret to become Mormons. Elected leader of a wagon train leaving Independence, Missouri Thomas Crabbe managed to get a band of Cheyenne warriors drunk. They slaughtered all the men in the wagon train and raped most of the women. When the Cheyenne sobered up they came to make reparations by giving the survivors horses. Mrs. Crabbe thought that the Cheyenne were purchasing her eldest daughter and youngest son.
    Fearing for reprisals against her other children, she agreed to the "trade". The Cheyenne were surprised that Jack and his sister Caroline followed them back to their camp but did not stop them. Caroline escaped that night and promised to come back after him, she never did. Jack grew up among the Cheyenne until "rescued" later on.
    He had a long and adventurous life, becoming friends with western luminaries such as Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill Cody and Annie Oakley. Jack Crabbed lived at least to the age of 127, perhaps even longer since appears that he faked his own death. His life and loves are chronicled in the classic western tales, Little Big Man and Return of Little Big Man by Thomas Berger.
    One reason for his incredible longevity is because of his heredity. Jack Crabbe resembles Nick Carter no mean

When his wife died in the late 1850's John Carter returned to Virginia. Howard moved to Rhode Island and Simpson stayed in New York.

Simpson Carter, a Detective also had a son who he trained to be the best Detective in the world. Despite being diminutive, Nick Carter had an amazing amount of strength and stamina. He is also a master of disguise, a linguist and well skilled in various detective arts. He also was Immortal and after a long career as a detective under the names Nick Carter and Nick Carter Jr. he adopted the name Nick Carter III and became an espionage agent for the U.S. Government

Howard Carter had a son named Randolph, who although not Immortal did inherit the ability to travel to parallel words, which he did in H.P. Lovecraft’s dream realm.

The Tremaine's youngest daughter Rachel b. 1810 ran off with a young man with dreams of making a fortune in New York City. Unfortunately, he ran afoul of one of the flourishing street gangs and was killed, leaving a pregnant Rachel behind. Rachel gave birth to Leah Tremaine 1830 and worked as seamstress for a time. She became ill and was advised to leave New York. She traveled to the Iowa home of her former "husband's" brother. She died in Iowa. Her daughter Leah stayed with the Simmons and traveled to California with them in 1849. She met Tom Barkley in 1855 and gave birth to Heath Barkley later that year which would have made him in his early twenties when he showed up at the Barkley ranch, I estimate the series to take place in about 1877-1880

Among Heath Barkley’s descendants are Colt Seavers, Stuntman and Bounty Hunter (Fall Guy), Herman Jablonski (Raven) and Colonel Steven Austin -Test Pilot, Astronaut (Six Million Dollar Man)

Eric "Hoss" Cartwright was very unlucky in love, like his father and his younger brother. Most of the women that he was involved with were golddiggers, prostitutes or accident-prone. However, he once accidentally ordered a Chinese bride from the Yipee Trading company, and despite her refusals he succeeding in returning her. Or so he thought, upon a visit to San Francisco, he discovered Tai Lee being forced to work as a prostitute. In his efforts to save her, Hoss killed her pimp and her abusive customer.

Rather than expose his family to the danger of Tong retribution, Hoss fled with her to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). One of their grandchildren married Susan Chan, daughter of Charlie Chan; another grand child was Steve McGarrett of Hawaii Five-O

Joseph Cartwright had even worse luck with woman than his Father; they usually died before they made it to the altar. However he did have quite a number of love affairs with women whose parent objected to him. He married in late 1863 but men who were owed money by her brother killed his wife. Like his Father he fled to New Orleans but found the war time atmosphere less than congenial. When Hoss disappeared, Joe had to shoulder the awesome task of helping his father run the Ponderosa ranch, while on a trip to Sante Fe, Joe met and was taken with Molly Buckhart, a schoolteacher. She was an educated and refined young lady who also happened to be Apache. Her younger brother was Sam Buckhart, later to become an U.S. Marshal, as seen in the series Law of the Plainsmen.

After a two year courtship, they married. About this time, the family cook Hop Sing became quite ill. A person out of Joe’s past showed up to take up the position of cook. Joe had accidentally won a Chinese girl, named Su Ling in a poker game. Although they had had a brief affair, he realized that they could never marry and so had sent her away. As it turns out her name was not Su Ling but Lu Sing. She was the granddaughter of Hop Sing but because she had been sold to various men to pay to pay for her passage to America, Hop Sing had felt disgraced by her and wanted nothing to do with her. With her was a young Chinese boy with curly brown hair.

She would never reveal who the father was but Joe suspected that it was him.

After working for the Cartwrights and taking care of her grandfather, Lu Sing disappears the day after Hop Sing dies. She travels to the Philippines, which has a large Chinese community. Her son later adopts the name Joe Gar, and he becomes a private detective as depicted in the stories of Raoul Whitfield.

Joe and Molly had three daughters, Josephine 1870,  Erica1872  and Samantha 1880. Erica married a man named John Caine, who was the nephew of a half-Chinese Buddhist Monk wandering throughout the West, as depicted in Kung Fu. As eldest daughter she inherited the ranch. Incidentally, John Caine’s great Uncle was Will Caine, sometimes spelled Kane, who was the Sheriff depicted in the film High Noon. Will Caine’s grand son was Martin Kane, a private eye. His great grandson through his daughter was Deputy Marshal Sam McCloud, as whose New York adventures are related in the television series, McCloud.

Josephine went east for education and never returned to Nevada. She met and married Alexander North and gave birth to twins, Hugh and Gerald in I888. Alexander North may have been related to the Claytons but I have not yet researched that area. Alexander North was quite a bit older than Josephine, Colonel North's chronicler claimed that he was a former Attorney General of the United States but the records do not bear this out. However, it is certain that he did have some sort of high government post. His main occupation was in trouble shooting problems for the United States Consulate service, (read Spy) During one mission, he met with accident while investigating the high death rate of workers on the Panama Canal which caused him to become lame in one leg.  Josephine requested that he give up the work. When he refused they divorced, and North powerful man that he was retained custody of his boys.

Hugh North joined the Army and had a distinguished career as a Military Intelligence officer with a an aptitude for deductive reasoning and espionage as demonstrated in Frederick Van Wyck Mason’s series of mysteries and suspense novels, starting with Seeds of Murder (1930). Hugh North was described as having almost Indian like features with black hair and grey eyes. It is interesting to note that Colonel North's adventures were first recorded in 1930 and his last recorded adventure took place in 1968, yet except for a some graying of his hair, he changed but little in 38 years.

Gerald North went to New York for his education and became a book publisher marrying Pamela_________. The couple had the uncanny ability to find themselves involved in murders. Frances and Richard Lockridge chronicled their adventure.

Josephine married secondly a doctor named Curtis Bannion. They moved to California. They had three boys, Miles Cartwright Bannion 1905, Curtis Bannion, 1910 and Roger. 1914,
Miles Bannion, spelling his name Banyon, became a private detective working out of Los Angeles, a television movie and a short lived television series both named Banyon chronicled a portion of his cases in 1930's Los Angeles.

Curtis Bannion, nicknamed Burns also became a private detective after service in the U.S. Navy. However he preferred to stay in Japan. His adventures took place the 1950s and early 60's, chronicled by Earl Norman in such books as Kill Me on the Ginza, Kill me In Shimbasa, and Kill me in Tokyo.

Roger "Race" Bannion also served a stint in the Marines as a guerilla operative. He was trained as an all around handyman, pilot and bodyguard and it was in this capacity that he was employed by Dr. Benton Quest, to guard and sometimes test Dr. Quest's many inventions and to ride herd over Quest’s impetuous and precocious son, Jonny. As seen in the animated television series, Jonny Quest

Samantha married Jerome MacDuff, son of Andrew MacDuff and Wichita Billings, Jerome MacDuff was the main character of two biographies as written by E.R. Burroughs, Apache Devil and War Chief. MacDuff was the adopted son of Geronimo and had been raised an Apache. A tragic fire destroyed much of the Ponderosa ranch circa 1898, killing Jerome MacDuff. Samantha MacDuff sold the ranch to the grandson of Mr. Canaday, the Ponderosa ranch foreman and moved to Arizona. (I am aware that this information does not jibe with the last few years of the television show and the subsequent television movies but I regard most of everything that happened on Bonanza after Hoss disappeared as entirely fiction

Samantha Cartwright MacDuff met and married a man named Rex King, he adopted Samatha’s son, Jeff and they had one of their own Schuyler.

Jeff eventually joined the Army and then worked for the Government as either a FBI agent or some other intelligence agency. He married and had two children Clipper and Penny. When enemy agents killed his wife, he sent his son and daughter to live with his brother.

Jeff’s eventually became involved with an elite crime fighting force known as the Rocketmen, who used jetpacks to fly, based on Howard Hughes copy of the Savage jetpack. How he joined the unit is recounted in King of the Rocketmen, a 1949 Republic serial. The adventures of Jeff King’s brother, Sky and those of his two kids Clipper and Penny. are recounted in the radio and television series, Sky King. Penny King later married David Nelson, the former WWII pilot and ace known as Airboy. Their son David Nelson II carried on the family flying tradition.
    A cousin of Jeff and Sky King was Preston King, a member of the Canadian Royal Mounted Police, whose adventures were recorded in the serials King of the Mounties and King of the Royal Mounties.

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© 2000 Dennis Power