Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - April - 2005 Issue
A Lynching and More in the Wild West from Gene W. Baade
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The Maxwells were later found in Grand Island, Nebraska. Posing as hunters, local lawmen would gain access to their home. Ed would be over powered, but Lon managed to escape. He was never heard from again, although a skeleton found years later in the area may be his. Meanwhile, Ed was carried back to Durand, where he pleaded not guilty to the shootings before a judge in the Pepin County courthouse. It was the last thing he did. A crowd dragged him from the courthouse, threw a noose around his neck, and hung him from a tree. It is believed to be the last lynching in Wisconsin, and for years it left Durand with an unsavory reputation. The Maxwell/Williams would become "heroes" of various dime novels of the era, much as did the James Brothers. You can read all about them in Twice Outlawed A Personal History of Ed and Lon Maxwell Alias the Williams Brothers... by Adrian Percy. The edition is not stated but is believed to be circa 1890. Item 120. Priced at $50.
Here's a newspaper clipping of Custer's death, but it is probably not the Custer you are thinking of. This does not announce George's passing, it notes Elizabeth's. And, the year is not 1876. It is 1933. Elizabeth, or Mrs. George Armstrong Custer, outlived her husband by 57 years. He died when the west was wild, people traveled through the area on horseback, and Indians still defended their territory from invading white men (as George found out the hard way). By the time Mrs. Custer passed away, the land was crisscrossed with highways, people traveled in automobiles, the last Indian battle was over 40 years into the past, and the battlefield where her husband died was well along its way to becoming a monument and stopping point for tourists (she was pushing Congress for a museum on the site when she died at age 90). She not only lived to see the West "won," but beaten into submission. Item 39 is a clipping from an unknown newspaper, but dated April 5, 1933. And if she died with her boots on, they were probably boots from some Italian fashion designer. Libbie Custer died in her Park Avenue apartment in New York City. She had spent the final 57 years of her life defending the honor and reputation of her husband. Item 39 carries the headline, Custer's Widow Dies with Memories of 1876 Massacre. $10.
The roster of Civil War leaders runs off the tongue of practically every American with a smattering of knowledge of their history: Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, William Sherman, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee... You know what's missing from this list? Women. There aren't many women's names one associates with the Civil War. Frank Moore attempted to fill this missing piece with his book Women of the War; Their Heroism and Self-Sacrifice. This book was published shortly after the War, and includes essays on 57 women who played a role in the conflict. There are also more general essays, such as "Women as soldiers," "Loyal Southern Women," and "What We Did at Gettysburg." It offers a perspective on this war rarely seen today. Item 1074. $125.
