"TAME END OF A FAMOUS INDIAN SCOUT"
THE death of Fred M. Hans, who as "Lone Star" was known as one of the foremost Indian scouts of the West, is a commentary upon changed conditions in a section of America which not so long ago gloried in being wild and woolly.
His passing on is another reminder that the type of warrior he exemplified, soon will live only in memory and in the pages of literature dealing with the trans-Mississippi lands in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Hans had always expressed the desire to die "with his boots on," that is, to fall in battle. Such a spectacular fate was not in store for him, for tho he did literally die with his boots on, the end came in a commonplace manner. He was fatally crushed in an elevator which he was operating in the "Omaha World Herald Building" in the newspaper plant. A dispatch to the New York World, in recounting the deeds of this veteran scout, says that "in the early days, out in the lone stretches of the prairie and mountain country," he was "fearless and rugged. a two-gun man quicker on the draw than the flash of an eyelid." The story goes on:
Lone Star--"Chach-Pe-Wan-Ge-La" the Indians called him--was one of the fast-dying few of the famous "cross-arm" two-gun men who never used the triggers but "fanned" the hammers of their guns.
Hans started to roam the plains when he was sixteen years old. Perhaps no Indian scout who ever lived was more familiar with the habits and methods of the Indians than was Lone Star. He derived his sobriquet from the Indians, for the reason that for most part he preferred to work alone.
That an adversary had the drop on him mattered not to Lone Star. He always took a chance and got away with it.
In Cherry County, Nebraska, April 12, 1877, he shot and killed two stage-robbers who had the drop on him. Hans suddenly slumped, cross-drew and fired from his hips, fanning the hammer of his gun.
Not long before the old scout died-he was sixty-three years old- he demonstrated that neither of his hand nor eyes had lost their cunning. In a trial against a crack shot using a modern automatic, Hans, fanning the hammers of his old six-shouter, scoured six bull's-eyes before his opponent could sight for a second shot. Hans could empty a six-shooter in a second, with each shot a hit.
Lone Star scouted for General Phil Sheridan, who sent a letter to the War Department in Washington commending the old scout for gallantry. Hans fought with "Sheridan" from 1876-1881.
In 1876 in the "Hole in the Wall Country." Powder River, Wyoming, three stage-robbers were killed by Hans. The band was led by "Shacknasty Jim, one of the toughest outlaws the West ever knew. Hans was alone when he came upon the outlaw band. He ducked behind a tree as the bandits opened fired. Hans's first shot got Shacknasty. Two of his followers dropt dead beside him a second later. The others dropt their guns and surrendered to "Lone Star," who took them to the local lockup.
On another occasion a bandit leveled a gun at Hans's head. With his right arm Hans knocked the gun aside, and before the bandit could recover Hans killed him with a bullet between the eyes from a gun he drew and fanned with his left hand.
At Valentine, Nebraska, in 1883, two gunmen stuck him up. He knocked both unconscious with the butts of their own guns and turned them over to the count sheriff.
Shortly before the elevator accident which resulted in his death Hans came to the realization that his fighting days were over. A "scalp lock" which he had "worn for years," in accordance with frontier custom, as a challenge to any enemy, was missed one morning by a friend, and in reply to a query about its absence.the veteran scout laughingly said:
"I just let the barber have it. I reckon I have no more use for it these times, My Indian scouting days are over, and ever should I now get into a row, I doubt if any one living would fancy that lock of hair"
(O how I wish I had your lock you wore today great grandpa)
The Indians feared Hans, in the belief that he led a charmed life. Certainly the risks he ran and the narrow escapes he experienced furnished some grounds for that superstition. We read that-
On one occasion, however, Lone Star thought his time had come. The Cheyenne's were on a rustling expedition, heading north. Hans was surprised, while asleep, by four Indians who roped him. The redmen planned to bring him to the tribal quarters and there torture him to death. His upper body securely bound, he was compelled to jog behind the Indians' ponies, a lariat about his neck. To fall meant to be strangled.
At night he was bound to a tree. On the last night of the trail, with hope almost gone, it rained. Hans managed to work his sombrero to a position where it would catch the rain dripping from the tree. In this he managed to get his wrists, bound by rawhide. The water softened the hide enough for Hans to wriggle his hands free. The Indians were asleep. The redmen had taken Hans' guns. Stealing to the tepee Hans slipt a bowie knife from an Indian's belt and drove it through the redman's heart before he was able to utter a sound.
He got his guns and made his escape on one of the ponies. It was not until the following morning that the three living Indians realized their quarry had gone.
In the last real battle between the Army Regulars and Indians, at Wounded Knee in 1892. Hans killed eleven Indians, at hand-to-hand range, "with twelve shots from his two six-shooters, getting out of the melee without a scratch" After he quit the trail he wrote a book, "The Great Sioux Nations," describing his adventures. Buffalo Bill (the late Colonel William F. Cody) was "among his close friend"
My god bless you forever and ever more.
Credit to my Father for saving this valuable material, information and photos of Fred M. Hans "Lone Star"
Daddy's grandpa and my great grandpa.
In great respect please do not change any information of this story.
Thank you everyone, enjoy!
Transcribed by Charlene Sallee great grandaughter
Dec 1, 2014
Noted: Article from The Literary Digest for May 26, 1923.
#1-Published in the Blair Tribune April 26, 1923
Our friend, "Lone Star" Hans, is dead. Died, not as he would have wished no doubt, by an accident in the World-Herald building. Perhaps two years before he tried to be a farmer in DeSoto, someone told him that I was collecting Indian relics with E. E. Blackman and Dr. R. F. Gilder, and he came from Omaha to bring me a copy of the large bound volume of his Indian history and later as our friendship increased, he gave me ten copies to give my friends. He was not cut out for a farmer and strange tales were told of him but the worst we knew of him was his tendency to boast of past deeds, something we too, often do, as it is not always considered a serious crime. From him we learned why so many flint arrowheads and stone equipment's were scattered over our hills, and why when they destroyed everything they could at the old fort and failed to carry things away that would have been of good use to them. It seemed that any implement that failed them in an emergency became bad medicine and discarded, and things belonging to white men that hey had not got in a legitimate way was white man's bad medicine, and the quicker it was disposed of the better. We found him congenial, always ready to answer our questions and a good companion and we were sorry to learn of his untimely death.
#2-Published in the Fort Calhoun Chronicle November 27, 1930
Fred M. "Lone Star" Hans Sr.
Death Date: April 17, 1923
Otto Frahm showed the Chronicle the November issue of Harding's Magazine, a nationals sportsmans' publication, containing a thrilling story of Fred M. Hans, who a few years ago lived around Fort Calhoun, and well-remembered here by older residents for a style of living peculiar to himself.
According to this story written by Harry Van Demark, on "Lone Star," as he was called by the Sioux Indians, was delegated by General Crook to capture a desperado known and "Shacknasty Jim", whose headquarters were in the famous Hole in the Wall County in Wyoming. Disdaining the General's proffer of men to help the capture "Lone Star" set out alone from Fort Mead and in three days reached the "Hole," a gateway barely large enough to admit a horseman, but which led to a large valley surrounded on all sides by inaccessible cliffs.
"Lone Star" passed through the gateway unchallenged, but was soon spotted by Shacknasty himself and another man. In answer to their query as to who he was, "Lone Star" began shooting at them and in the exchange of shots both desperadoes were wounded. He handcuffed the two to a tree outside the entrance, and then returned for the rest of the gang. A few miles inside the valley he was approached by three men, and in the pistol battle which followed "Lone Star" killed one Jack Hawkins, and the other two surrendered. Handcuffed the two outlaws, "Lone Star" marched them out to join the pair outside. Shacknasty had died of his wounds, so "Lone Star" handcuffed the three survivors togethers and as their horses had been killed in the battle he made them walk the 150 miles to Fort Meade.
The article quotes General Phil Sheridan as saying that "for daring, faithfulness, endurance, and good judgement, Fred Hans is the superior of any scout and guide I have ever known." Hans died in Omaha a year of so ago.
From Find a Grave : Hans had always expressed the desire to die "with his boots on," that is, to fall in battle. Such a spectacular fate was not in store for him, for tho he did literally die with his boots on, the end came in a commonplace manner. He was fatally crushed in an elevator which he was operating in the "Omaha World Herald Building" in the newspaper plant. A dispatch to the New York World, in recounting the deeds of this veteran scout, says that "in the early days, out in the lone stretches of the prairie and mountain country," he was "fearless and rugged. a two-gun man quicker on the draw than the flash of an eyelid."
#3 Printed in the Jun 6, 2023 Pilot-Tribune
(photo)
Fred Hans, 1861-1923, originally of Waverly, Iowa, moved to Washington County and settled close to the village of Fontanelle. At age 15, Hans became a scout for the U.S. Army as he searched for his missing 2-year-old brother, who was kidnapped by a neighbor.
Editor's note: Information on Fred M. Hans was provided by the Washington County Museum and Dick Kruse.
Fred M. Hans was born in 1861 in Waverly, Iowa, before he and his family relocated to Fontanelle in Washington County.
Much of Hans' story begins when he was 15, when at the time, his 2-year-old brother was kidnapped by a neighbor, Miles Randall, as an act of revenge against Hans' father, who testified against Randall's son, Willard, in a murder trial.
Hans, who suspected his brother had been given to a local Native American tribe, set off on a search to find his brother, after much convincing from his parents.
During that time, after searching through local tribes, Hans became close with a Sioux village out west, eventually becoming a scout for the U.S. Army at 15 due to his skills with his Colt revolver. He would remain in the scout position until November 1879.
During his scouting career, he would take on assignments from the government and various Native American tribes, searching for deserters from reservations.
Hans was given the nickname "Lone Star" because he preferred working solo.
Hans married Blair native Nancy Elvira Davis in 1884, later building a three-bedroom house near Fort Robinson.
Hans continued to scout, and also worked with the Crawford sheriff, served as a U.S. Marshal deputy and worked as a special agent for Fremont, Elkhorn, Missouri Valley, Sioux City and Pacific railroad.
It would be 17 years before he would reunite with his brother in Rapid City, S.D., while he was working on the railroad. At a hotel, he spotted a young man reading a paper, and said, "You're my brother!" He proved the 19-year-old kid, who was named Johnnie Hart, that he was his brother by asking if he had a scar on his jaw, which Hart did.
Hart was taken to a family in Cheyenne, Wy., a friend of a friend of his kidnapper's. Johnnie would not reconnect with his family, however.
Hans published his book, "The Great Sioux Nation," in 1907.
Hans worked as a railroad detective for many years before retiring and settling in Omaha. He died at age 63 following an elevator accident while serving as a watchman at the Omaha World-Herald.
~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. News paper clippings on file at the Blair Public Library.~~~
THE death of Fred M. Hans, who as "Lone Star" was known as one of the foremost Indian scouts of the West, is a commentary upon changed conditions in a section of America which not so long ago gloried in being wild and woolly.
His passing on is another reminder that the type of warrior he exemplified, soon will live only in memory and in the pages of literature dealing with the trans-Mississippi lands in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Hans had always expressed the desire to die "with his boots on," that is, to fall in battle. Such a spectacular fate was not in store for him, for tho he did literally die with his boots on, the end came in a commonplace manner. He was fatally crushed in an elevator which he was operating in the "Omaha World Herald Building" in the newspaper plant. A dispatch to the New York World, in recounting the deeds of this veteran scout, says that "in the early days, out in the lone stretches of the prairie and mountain country," he was "fearless and rugged. a two-gun man quicker on the draw than the flash of an eyelid." The story goes on:
Lone Star--"Chach-Pe-Wan-Ge-La" the Indians called him--was one of the fast-dying few of the famous "cross-arm" two-gun men who never used the triggers but "fanned" the hammers of their guns.
Hans started to roam the plains when he was sixteen years old. Perhaps no Indian scout who ever lived was more familiar with the habits and methods of the Indians than was Lone Star. He derived his sobriquet from the Indians, for the reason that for most part he preferred to work alone.
That an adversary had the drop on him mattered not to Lone Star. He always took a chance and got away with it.
In Cherry County, Nebraska, April 12, 1877, he shot and killed two stage-robbers who had the drop on him. Hans suddenly slumped, cross-drew and fired from his hips, fanning the hammer of his gun.
Not long before the old scout died-he was sixty-three years old- he demonstrated that neither of his hand nor eyes had lost their cunning. In a trial against a crack shot using a modern automatic, Hans, fanning the hammers of his old six-shouter, scoured six bull's-eyes before his opponent could sight for a second shot. Hans could empty a six-shooter in a second, with each shot a hit.
Lone Star scouted for General Phil Sheridan, who sent a letter to the War Department in Washington commending the old scout for gallantry. Hans fought with "Sheridan" from 1876-1881.
In 1876 in the "Hole in the Wall Country." Powder River, Wyoming, three stage-robbers were killed by Hans. The band was led by "Shacknasty Jim, one of the toughest outlaws the West ever knew. Hans was alone when he came upon the outlaw band. He ducked behind a tree as the bandits opened fired. Hans's first shot got Shacknasty. Two of his followers dropt dead beside him a second later. The others dropt their guns and surrendered to "Lone Star," who took them to the local lockup.
On another occasion a bandit leveled a gun at Hans's head. With his right arm Hans knocked the gun aside, and before the bandit could recover Hans killed him with a bullet between the eyes from a gun he drew and fanned with his left hand.
At Valentine, Nebraska, in 1883, two gunmen stuck him up. He knocked both unconscious with the butts of their own guns and turned them over to the count sheriff.
Shortly before the elevator accident which resulted in his death Hans came to the realization that his fighting days were over. A "scalp lock" which he had "worn for years," in accordance with frontier custom, as a challenge to any enemy, was missed one morning by a friend, and in reply to a query about its absence.the veteran scout laughingly said:
"I just let the barber have it. I reckon I have no more use for it these times, My Indian scouting days are over, and ever should I now get into a row, I doubt if any one living would fancy that lock of hair"
(O how I wish I had your lock you wore today great grandpa)
The Indians feared Hans, in the belief that he led a charmed life. Certainly the risks he ran and the narrow escapes he experienced furnished some grounds for that superstition. We read that-
On one occasion, however, Lone Star thought his time had come. The Cheyenne's were on a rustling expedition, heading north. Hans was surprised, while asleep, by four Indians who roped him. The redmen planned to bring him to the tribal quarters and there torture him to death. His upper body securely bound, he was compelled to jog behind the Indians' ponies, a lariat about his neck. To fall meant to be strangled.
At night he was bound to a tree. On the last night of the trail, with hope almost gone, it rained. Hans managed to work his sombrero to a position where it would catch the rain dripping from the tree. In this he managed to get his wrists, bound by rawhide. The water softened the hide enough for Hans to wriggle his hands free. The Indians were asleep. The redmen had taken Hans' guns. Stealing to the tepee Hans slipt a bowie knife from an Indian's belt and drove it through the redman's heart before he was able to utter a sound.
He got his guns and made his escape on one of the ponies. It was not until the following morning that the three living Indians realized their quarry had gone.
In the last real battle between the Army Regulars and Indians, at Wounded Knee in 1892. Hans killed eleven Indians, at hand-to-hand range, "with twelve shots from his two six-shooters, getting out of the melee without a scratch" After he quit the trail he wrote a book, "The Great Sioux Nations," describing his adventures. Buffalo Bill (the late Colonel William F. Cody) was "among his close friend"
My god bless you forever and ever more.
Credit to my Father for saving this valuable material, information and photos of Fred M. Hans "Lone Star"
Daddy's grandpa and my great grandpa.
In great respect please do not change any information of this story.
Thank you everyone, enjoy!
Transcribed by Charlene Sallee great grandaughter
Dec 1, 2014
Noted: Article from The Literary Digest for May 26, 1923.
#1-Published in the Blair Tribune April 26, 1923
Our friend, "Lone Star" Hans, is dead. Died, not as he would have wished no doubt, by an accident in the World-Herald building. Perhaps two years before he tried to be a farmer in DeSoto, someone told him that I was collecting Indian relics with E. E. Blackman and Dr. R. F. Gilder, and he came from Omaha to bring me a copy of the large bound volume of his Indian history and later as our friendship increased, he gave me ten copies to give my friends. He was not cut out for a farmer and strange tales were told of him but the worst we knew of him was his tendency to boast of past deeds, something we too, often do, as it is not always considered a serious crime. From him we learned why so many flint arrowheads and stone equipment's were scattered over our hills, and why when they destroyed everything they could at the old fort and failed to carry things away that would have been of good use to them. It seemed that any implement that failed them in an emergency became bad medicine and discarded, and things belonging to white men that hey had not got in a legitimate way was white man's bad medicine, and the quicker it was disposed of the better. We found him congenial, always ready to answer our questions and a good companion and we were sorry to learn of his untimely death.
#2-Published in the Fort Calhoun Chronicle November 27, 1930
Fred M. "Lone Star" Hans Sr.
Death Date: April 17, 1923
Otto Frahm showed the Chronicle the November issue of Harding's Magazine, a nationals sportsmans' publication, containing a thrilling story of Fred M. Hans, who a few years ago lived around Fort Calhoun, and well-remembered here by older residents for a style of living peculiar to himself.
According to this story written by Harry Van Demark, on "Lone Star," as he was called by the Sioux Indians, was delegated by General Crook to capture a desperado known and "Shacknasty Jim", whose headquarters were in the famous Hole in the Wall County in Wyoming. Disdaining the General's proffer of men to help the capture "Lone Star" set out alone from Fort Mead and in three days reached the "Hole," a gateway barely large enough to admit a horseman, but which led to a large valley surrounded on all sides by inaccessible cliffs.
"Lone Star" passed through the gateway unchallenged, but was soon spotted by Shacknasty himself and another man. In answer to their query as to who he was, "Lone Star" began shooting at them and in the exchange of shots both desperadoes were wounded. He handcuffed the two to a tree outside the entrance, and then returned for the rest of the gang. A few miles inside the valley he was approached by three men, and in the pistol battle which followed "Lone Star" killed one Jack Hawkins, and the other two surrendered. Handcuffed the two outlaws, "Lone Star" marched them out to join the pair outside. Shacknasty had died of his wounds, so "Lone Star" handcuffed the three survivors togethers and as their horses had been killed in the battle he made them walk the 150 miles to Fort Meade.
The article quotes General Phil Sheridan as saying that "for daring, faithfulness, endurance, and good judgement, Fred Hans is the superior of any scout and guide I have ever known." Hans died in Omaha a year of so ago.
From Find a Grave : Hans had always expressed the desire to die "with his boots on," that is, to fall in battle. Such a spectacular fate was not in store for him, for tho he did literally die with his boots on, the end came in a commonplace manner. He was fatally crushed in an elevator which he was operating in the "Omaha World Herald Building" in the newspaper plant. A dispatch to the New York World, in recounting the deeds of this veteran scout, says that "in the early days, out in the lone stretches of the prairie and mountain country," he was "fearless and rugged. a two-gun man quicker on the draw than the flash of an eyelid."
#3 Printed in the Jun 6, 2023 Pilot-Tribune
(photo)
Fred Hans, 1861-1923, originally of Waverly, Iowa, moved to Washington County and settled close to the village of Fontanelle. At age 15, Hans became a scout for the U.S. Army as he searched for his missing 2-year-old brother, who was kidnapped by a neighbor.
Editor's note: Information on Fred M. Hans was provided by the Washington County Museum and Dick Kruse.
Fred M. Hans was born in 1861 in Waverly, Iowa, before he and his family relocated to Fontanelle in Washington County.
Much of Hans' story begins when he was 15, when at the time, his 2-year-old brother was kidnapped by a neighbor, Miles Randall, as an act of revenge against Hans' father, who testified against Randall's son, Willard, in a murder trial.
Hans, who suspected his brother had been given to a local Native American tribe, set off on a search to find his brother, after much convincing from his parents.
During that time, after searching through local tribes, Hans became close with a Sioux village out west, eventually becoming a scout for the U.S. Army at 15 due to his skills with his Colt revolver. He would remain in the scout position until November 1879.
During his scouting career, he would take on assignments from the government and various Native American tribes, searching for deserters from reservations.
Hans was given the nickname "Lone Star" because he preferred working solo.
Hans married Blair native Nancy Elvira Davis in 1884, later building a three-bedroom house near Fort Robinson.
Hans continued to scout, and also worked with the Crawford sheriff, served as a U.S. Marshal deputy and worked as a special agent for Fremont, Elkhorn, Missouri Valley, Sioux City and Pacific railroad.
It would be 17 years before he would reunite with his brother in Rapid City, S.D., while he was working on the railroad. At a hotel, he spotted a young man reading a paper, and said, "You're my brother!" He proved the 19-year-old kid, who was named Johnnie Hart, that he was his brother by asking if he had a scar on his jaw, which Hart did.
Hart was taken to a family in Cheyenne, Wy., a friend of a friend of his kidnapper's. Johnnie would not reconnect with his family, however.
Hans published his book, "The Great Sioux Nation," in 1907.
Hans worked as a railroad detective for many years before retiring and settling in Omaha. He died at age 63 following an elevator accident while serving as a watchman at the Omaha World-Herald.
~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. News paper clippings on file at the Blair Public Library.~~~
"TAME END OF A FAMOUS INDIAN SCOUT"
THE death of Fred M. Hans, who as "Lone Star" was known as one of the foremost Indian scouts of the West, is a commentary upon changed conditions in a section of America which not so long ago gloried in being wild and woolly.
His passing on is another reminder that the type of warrior he exemplified, soon will live only in memory and in the pages of literature dealing with the trans-Mississippi lands in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Hans had always expressed the desire to die "with his boots on," that is, to fall in battle. Such a spectacular fate was not in store for him, for tho he did literally die with his boots on, the end came in a commonplace manner. He was fatally crushed in an elevator which he was operating in the "Omaha World Herald Building" in the newspaper plant. A dispatch to the New York World, in recounting the deeds of this veteran scout, says that "in the early days, out in the lone stretches of the prairie and mountain country," he was "fearless and rugged. a two-gun man quicker on the draw than the flash of an eyelid." The story goes on:
Lone Star--"Chach-Pe-Wan-Ge-La" the Indians called him--was one of the fast-dying few of the famous "cross-arm" two-gun men who never used the triggers but "fanned" the hammers of their guns.
Hans started to roam the plains when he was sixteen years old. Perhaps no Indian scout who ever lived was more familiar with the habits and methods of the Indians than was Lone Star. He derived his sobriquet from the Indians, for the reason that for most part he preferred to work alone.
That an adversary had the drop on him mattered not to Lone Star. He always took a chance and got away with it.
In Cherry County, Nebraska, April 12, 1877, he shot and killed two stage-robbers who had the drop on him. Hans suddenly slumped, cross-drew and fired from his hips, fanning the hammer of his gun.
Not long before the old scout died-he was sixty-three years old- he demonstrated that neither of his hand nor eyes had lost their cunning. In a trial against a crack shot using a modern automatic, Hans, fanning the hammers of his old six-shouter, scoured six bull's-eyes before his opponent could sight for a second shot. Hans could empty a six-shooter in a second, with each shot a hit.
Lone Star scouted for General Phil Sheridan, who sent a letter to the War Department in Washington commending the old scout for gallantry. Hans fought with "Sheridan" from 1876-1881.
In 1876 in the "Hole in the Wall Country." Powder River, Wyoming, three stage-robbers were killed by Hans. The band was led by "Shacknasty Jim, one of the toughest outlaws the West ever knew. Hans was alone when he came upon the outlaw band. He ducked behind a tree as the bandits opened fired. Hans's first shot got Shacknasty. Two of his followers dropt dead beside him a second later. The others dropt their guns and surrendered to "Lone Star," who took them to the local lockup.
On another occasion a bandit leveled a gun at Hans's head. With his right arm Hans knocked the gun aside, and before the bandit could recover Hans killed him with a bullet between the eyes from a gun he drew and fanned with his left hand.
At Valentine, Nebraska, in 1883, two gunmen stuck him up. He knocked both unconscious with the butts of their own guns and turned them over to the count sheriff.
Shortly before the elevator accident which resulted in his death Hans came to the realization that his fighting days were over. A "scalp lock" which he had "worn for years," in accordance with frontier custom, as a challenge to any enemy, was missed one morning by a friend, and in reply to a query about its absence.the veteran scout laughingly said:
"I just let the barber have it. I reckon I have no more use for it these times, My Indian scouting days are over, and ever should I now get into a row, I doubt if any one living would fancy that lock of hair"
(O how I wish I had your lock you wore today great grandpa)
The Indians feared Hans, in the belief that he led a charmed life. Certainly the risks he ran and the narrow escapes he experienced furnished some grounds for that superstition. We read that-
On one occasion, however, Lone Star thought his time had come. The Cheyenne's were on a rustling expedition, heading north. Hans was surprised, while asleep, by four Indians who roped him. The redmen planned to bring him to the tribal quarters and there torture him to death. His upper body securely bound, he was compelled to jog behind the Indians' ponies, a lariat about his neck. To fall meant to be strangled.
At night he was bound to a tree. On the last night of the trail, with hope almost gone, it rained. Hans managed to work his sombrero to a position where it would catch the rain dripping from the tree. In this he managed to get his wrists, bound by rawhide. The water softened the hide enough for Hans to wriggle his hands free. The Indians were asleep. The redmen had taken Hans' guns. Stealing to the tepee Hans slipt a bowie knife from an Indian's belt and drove it through the redman's heart before he was able to utter a sound.
He got his guns and made his escape on one of the ponies. It was not until the following morning that the three living Indians realized their quarry had gone.
In the last real battle between the Army Regulars and Indians, at Wounded Knee in 1892. Hans killed eleven Indians, at hand-to-hand range, "with twelve shots from his two six-shooters, getting out of the melee without a scratch" After he quit the trail he wrote a book, "The Great Sioux Nations," describing his adventures. Buffalo Bill (the late Colonel William F. Cody) was "among his close friend"
My god bless you forever and ever more.
Credit to my Father for saving this valuable material, information and photos of Fred M. Hans "Lone Star"
Daddy's grandpa and my great grandpa.
In great respect please do not change any information of this story.
Thank you everyone, enjoy!
Transcribed by Charlene Sallee great grandaughter
Dec 1, 2014
Noted: Article from The Literary Digest for May 26, 1923.
#1-Published in the Blair Tribune April 26, 1923
Our friend, "Lone Star" Hans, is dead. Died, not as he would have wished no doubt, by an accident in the World-Herald building. Perhaps two years before he tried to be a farmer in DeSoto, someone told him that I was collecting Indian relics with E. E. Blackman and Dr. R. F. Gilder, and he came from Omaha to bring me a copy of the large bound volume of his Indian history and later as our friendship increased, he gave me ten copies to give my friends. He was not cut out for a farmer and strange tales were told of him but the worst we knew of him was his tendency to boast of past deeds, something we too, often do, as it is not always considered a serious crime. From him we learned why so many flint arrowheads and stone equipment's were scattered over our hills, and why when they destroyed everything they could at the old fort and failed to carry things away that would have been of good use to them. It seemed that any implement that failed them in an emergency became bad medicine and discarded, and things belonging to white men that hey had not got in a legitimate way was white man's bad medicine, and the quicker it was disposed of the better. We found him congenial, always ready to answer our questions and a good companion and we were sorry to learn of his untimely death.
#2-Published in the Fort Calhoun Chronicle November 27, 1930
Fred M. "Lone Star" Hans Sr.
Death Date: April 17, 1923
Otto Frahm showed the Chronicle the November issue of Harding's Magazine, a nationals sportsmans' publication, containing a thrilling story of Fred M. Hans, who a few years ago lived around Fort Calhoun, and well-remembered here by older residents for a style of living peculiar to himself.
According to this story written by Harry Van Demark, on "Lone Star," as he was called by the Sioux Indians, was delegated by General Crook to capture a desperado known and "Shacknasty Jim", whose headquarters were in the famous Hole in the Wall County in Wyoming. Disdaining the General's proffer of men to help the capture "Lone Star" set out alone from Fort Mead and in three days reached the "Hole," a gateway barely large enough to admit a horseman, but which led to a large valley surrounded on all sides by inaccessible cliffs.
"Lone Star" passed through the gateway unchallenged, but was soon spotted by Shacknasty himself and another man. In answer to their query as to who he was, "Lone Star" began shooting at them and in the exchange of shots both desperadoes were wounded. He handcuffed the two to a tree outside the entrance, and then returned for the rest of the gang. A few miles inside the valley he was approached by three men, and in the pistol battle which followed "Lone Star" killed one Jack Hawkins, and the other two surrendered. Handcuffed the two outlaws, "Lone Star" marched them out to join the pair outside. Shacknasty had died of his wounds, so "Lone Star" handcuffed the three survivors togethers and as their horses had been killed in the battle he made them walk the 150 miles to Fort Meade.
The article quotes General Phil Sheridan as saying that "for daring, faithfulness, endurance, and good judgement, Fred Hans is the superior of any scout and guide I have ever known." Hans died in Omaha a year of so ago.
From Find a Grave : Hans had always expressed the desire to die "with his boots on," that is, to fall in battle. Such a spectacular fate was not in store for him, for tho he did literally die with his boots on, the end came in a commonplace manner. He was fatally crushed in an elevator which he was operating in the "Omaha World Herald Building" in the newspaper plant. A dispatch to the New York World, in recounting the deeds of this veteran scout, says that "in the early days, out in the lone stretches of the prairie and mountain country," he was "fearless and rugged. a two-gun man quicker on the draw than the flash of an eyelid."
#3 Printed in the Jun 6, 2023 Pilot-Tribune
(photo)
Fred Hans, 1861-1923, originally of Waverly, Iowa, moved to Washington County and settled close to the village of Fontanelle. At age 15, Hans became a scout for the U.S. Army as he searched for his missing 2-year-old brother, who was kidnapped by a neighbor.
Editor's note: Information on Fred M. Hans was provided by the Washington County Museum and Dick Kruse.
Fred M. Hans was born in 1861 in Waverly, Iowa, before he and his family relocated to Fontanelle in Washington County.
Much of Hans' story begins when he was 15, when at the time, his 2-year-old brother was kidnapped by a neighbor, Miles Randall, as an act of revenge against Hans' father, who testified against Randall's son, Willard, in a murder trial.
Hans, who suspected his brother had been given to a local Native American tribe, set off on a search to find his brother, after much convincing from his parents.
During that time, after searching through local tribes, Hans became close with a Sioux village out west, eventually becoming a scout for the U.S. Army at 15 due to his skills with his Colt revolver. He would remain in the scout position until November 1879.
During his scouting career, he would take on assignments from the government and various Native American tribes, searching for deserters from reservations.
Hans was given the nickname "Lone Star" because he preferred working solo.
Hans married Blair native Nancy Elvira Davis in 1884, later building a three-bedroom house near Fort Robinson.
Hans continued to scout, and also worked with the Crawford sheriff, served as a U.S. Marshal deputy and worked as a special agent for Fremont, Elkhorn, Missouri Valley, Sioux City and Pacific railroad.
It would be 17 years before he would reunite with his brother in Rapid City, S.D., while he was working on the railroad. At a hotel, he spotted a young man reading a paper, and said, "You're my brother!" He proved the 19-year-old kid, who was named Johnnie Hart, that he was his brother by asking if he had a scar on his jaw, which Hart did.
Hart was taken to a family in Cheyenne, Wy., a friend of a friend of his kidnapper's. Johnnie would not reconnect with his family, however.
Hans published his book, "The Great Sioux Nation," in 1907.
Hans worked as a railroad detective for many years before retiring and settling in Omaha. He died at age 63 following an elevator accident while serving as a watchman at the Omaha World-Herald.
~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. News paper clippings on file at the Blair Public Library.~~~
THE death of Fred M. Hans, who as "Lone Star" was known as one of the foremost Indian scouts of the West, is a commentary upon changed conditions in a section of America which not so long ago gloried in being wild and woolly.
His passing on is another reminder that the type of warrior he exemplified, soon will live only in memory and in the pages of literature dealing with the trans-Mississippi lands in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Hans had always expressed the desire to die "with his boots on," that is, to fall in battle. Such a spectacular fate was not in store for him, for tho he did literally die with his boots on, the end came in a commonplace manner. He was fatally crushed in an elevator which he was operating in the "Omaha World Herald Building" in the newspaper plant. A dispatch to the New York World, in recounting the deeds of this veteran scout, says that "in the early days, out in the lone stretches of the prairie and mountain country," he was "fearless and rugged. a two-gun man quicker on the draw than the flash of an eyelid." The story goes on:
Lone Star--"Chach-Pe-Wan-Ge-La" the Indians called him--was one of the fast-dying few of the famous "cross-arm" two-gun men who never used the triggers but "fanned" the hammers of their guns.
Hans started to roam the plains when he was sixteen years old. Perhaps no Indian scout who ever lived was more familiar with the habits and methods of the Indians than was Lone Star. He derived his sobriquet from the Indians, for the reason that for most part he preferred to work alone.
That an adversary had the drop on him mattered not to Lone Star. He always took a chance and got away with it.
In Cherry County, Nebraska, April 12, 1877, he shot and killed two stage-robbers who had the drop on him. Hans suddenly slumped, cross-drew and fired from his hips, fanning the hammer of his gun.
Not long before the old scout died-he was sixty-three years old- he demonstrated that neither of his hand nor eyes had lost their cunning. In a trial against a crack shot using a modern automatic, Hans, fanning the hammers of his old six-shouter, scoured six bull's-eyes before his opponent could sight for a second shot. Hans could empty a six-shooter in a second, with each shot a hit.
Lone Star scouted for General Phil Sheridan, who sent a letter to the War Department in Washington commending the old scout for gallantry. Hans fought with "Sheridan" from 1876-1881.
In 1876 in the "Hole in the Wall Country." Powder River, Wyoming, three stage-robbers were killed by Hans. The band was led by "Shacknasty Jim, one of the toughest outlaws the West ever knew. Hans was alone when he came upon the outlaw band. He ducked behind a tree as the bandits opened fired. Hans's first shot got Shacknasty. Two of his followers dropt dead beside him a second later. The others dropt their guns and surrendered to "Lone Star," who took them to the local lockup.
On another occasion a bandit leveled a gun at Hans's head. With his right arm Hans knocked the gun aside, and before the bandit could recover Hans killed him with a bullet between the eyes from a gun he drew and fanned with his left hand.
At Valentine, Nebraska, in 1883, two gunmen stuck him up. He knocked both unconscious with the butts of their own guns and turned them over to the count sheriff.
Shortly before the elevator accident which resulted in his death Hans came to the realization that his fighting days were over. A "scalp lock" which he had "worn for years," in accordance with frontier custom, as a challenge to any enemy, was missed one morning by a friend, and in reply to a query about its absence.the veteran scout laughingly said:
"I just let the barber have it. I reckon I have no more use for it these times, My Indian scouting days are over, and ever should I now get into a row, I doubt if any one living would fancy that lock of hair"
(O how I wish I had your lock you wore today great grandpa)
The Indians feared Hans, in the belief that he led a charmed life. Certainly the risks he ran and the narrow escapes he experienced furnished some grounds for that superstition. We read that-
On one occasion, however, Lone Star thought his time had come. The Cheyenne's were on a rustling expedition, heading north. Hans was surprised, while asleep, by four Indians who roped him. The redmen planned to bring him to the tribal quarters and there torture him to death. His upper body securely bound, he was compelled to jog behind the Indians' ponies, a lariat about his neck. To fall meant to be strangled.
At night he was bound to a tree. On the last night of the trail, with hope almost gone, it rained. Hans managed to work his sombrero to a position where it would catch the rain dripping from the tree. In this he managed to get his wrists, bound by rawhide. The water softened the hide enough for Hans to wriggle his hands free. The Indians were asleep. The redmen had taken Hans' guns. Stealing to the tepee Hans slipt a bowie knife from an Indian's belt and drove it through the redman's heart before he was able to utter a sound.
He got his guns and made his escape on one of the ponies. It was not until the following morning that the three living Indians realized their quarry had gone.
In the last real battle between the Army Regulars and Indians, at Wounded Knee in 1892. Hans killed eleven Indians, at hand-to-hand range, "with twelve shots from his two six-shooters, getting out of the melee without a scratch" After he quit the trail he wrote a book, "The Great Sioux Nations," describing his adventures. Buffalo Bill (the late Colonel William F. Cody) was "among his close friend"
My god bless you forever and ever more.
Credit to my Father for saving this valuable material, information and photos of Fred M. Hans "Lone Star"
Daddy's grandpa and my great grandpa.
In great respect please do not change any information of this story.
Thank you everyone, enjoy!
Transcribed by Charlene Sallee great grandaughter
Dec 1, 2014
Noted: Article from The Literary Digest for May 26, 1923.
#1-Published in the Blair Tribune April 26, 1923
Our friend, "Lone Star" Hans, is dead. Died, not as he would have wished no doubt, by an accident in the World-Herald building. Perhaps two years before he tried to be a farmer in DeSoto, someone told him that I was collecting Indian relics with E. E. Blackman and Dr. R. F. Gilder, and he came from Omaha to bring me a copy of the large bound volume of his Indian history and later as our friendship increased, he gave me ten copies to give my friends. He was not cut out for a farmer and strange tales were told of him but the worst we knew of him was his tendency to boast of past deeds, something we too, often do, as it is not always considered a serious crime. From him we learned why so many flint arrowheads and stone equipment's were scattered over our hills, and why when they destroyed everything they could at the old fort and failed to carry things away that would have been of good use to them. It seemed that any implement that failed them in an emergency became bad medicine and discarded, and things belonging to white men that hey had not got in a legitimate way was white man's bad medicine, and the quicker it was disposed of the better. We found him congenial, always ready to answer our questions and a good companion and we were sorry to learn of his untimely death.
#2-Published in the Fort Calhoun Chronicle November 27, 1930
Fred M. "Lone Star" Hans Sr.
Death Date: April 17, 1923
Otto Frahm showed the Chronicle the November issue of Harding's Magazine, a nationals sportsmans' publication, containing a thrilling story of Fred M. Hans, who a few years ago lived around Fort Calhoun, and well-remembered here by older residents for a style of living peculiar to himself.
According to this story written by Harry Van Demark, on "Lone Star," as he was called by the Sioux Indians, was delegated by General Crook to capture a desperado known and "Shacknasty Jim", whose headquarters were in the famous Hole in the Wall County in Wyoming. Disdaining the General's proffer of men to help the capture "Lone Star" set out alone from Fort Mead and in three days reached the "Hole," a gateway barely large enough to admit a horseman, but which led to a large valley surrounded on all sides by inaccessible cliffs.
"Lone Star" passed through the gateway unchallenged, but was soon spotted by Shacknasty himself and another man. In answer to their query as to who he was, "Lone Star" began shooting at them and in the exchange of shots both desperadoes were wounded. He handcuffed the two to a tree outside the entrance, and then returned for the rest of the gang. A few miles inside the valley he was approached by three men, and in the pistol battle which followed "Lone Star" killed one Jack Hawkins, and the other two surrendered. Handcuffed the two outlaws, "Lone Star" marched them out to join the pair outside. Shacknasty had died of his wounds, so "Lone Star" handcuffed the three survivors togethers and as their horses had been killed in the battle he made them walk the 150 miles to Fort Meade.
The article quotes General Phil Sheridan as saying that "for daring, faithfulness, endurance, and good judgement, Fred Hans is the superior of any scout and guide I have ever known." Hans died in Omaha a year of so ago.
From Find a Grave : Hans had always expressed the desire to die "with his boots on," that is, to fall in battle. Such a spectacular fate was not in store for him, for tho he did literally die with his boots on, the end came in a commonplace manner. He was fatally crushed in an elevator which he was operating in the "Omaha World Herald Building" in the newspaper plant. A dispatch to the New York World, in recounting the deeds of this veteran scout, says that "in the early days, out in the lone stretches of the prairie and mountain country," he was "fearless and rugged. a two-gun man quicker on the draw than the flash of an eyelid."
#3 Printed in the Jun 6, 2023 Pilot-Tribune
(photo)
Fred Hans, 1861-1923, originally of Waverly, Iowa, moved to Washington County and settled close to the village of Fontanelle. At age 15, Hans became a scout for the U.S. Army as he searched for his missing 2-year-old brother, who was kidnapped by a neighbor.
Editor's note: Information on Fred M. Hans was provided by the Washington County Museum and Dick Kruse.
Fred M. Hans was born in 1861 in Waverly, Iowa, before he and his family relocated to Fontanelle in Washington County.
Much of Hans' story begins when he was 15, when at the time, his 2-year-old brother was kidnapped by a neighbor, Miles Randall, as an act of revenge against Hans' father, who testified against Randall's son, Willard, in a murder trial.
Hans, who suspected his brother had been given to a local Native American tribe, set off on a search to find his brother, after much convincing from his parents.
During that time, after searching through local tribes, Hans became close with a Sioux village out west, eventually becoming a scout for the U.S. Army at 15 due to his skills with his Colt revolver. He would remain in the scout position until November 1879.
During his scouting career, he would take on assignments from the government and various Native American tribes, searching for deserters from reservations.
Hans was given the nickname "Lone Star" because he preferred working solo.
Hans married Blair native Nancy Elvira Davis in 1884, later building a three-bedroom house near Fort Robinson.
Hans continued to scout, and also worked with the Crawford sheriff, served as a U.S. Marshal deputy and worked as a special agent for Fremont, Elkhorn, Missouri Valley, Sioux City and Pacific railroad.
It would be 17 years before he would reunite with his brother in Rapid City, S.D., while he was working on the railroad. At a hotel, he spotted a young man reading a paper, and said, "You're my brother!" He proved the 19-year-old kid, who was named Johnnie Hart, that he was his brother by asking if he had a scar on his jaw, which Hart did.
Hart was taken to a family in Cheyenne, Wy., a friend of a friend of his kidnapper's. Johnnie would not reconnect with his family, however.
Hans published his book, "The Great Sioux Nation," in 1907.
Hans worked as a railroad detective for many years before retiring and settling in Omaha. He died at age 63 following an elevator accident while serving as a watchman at the Omaha World-Herald.
~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. News paper clippings on file at the Blair Public Library.~~~
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