The Wild West: The Good, The Bad, and the Unexpected–Penny Zeller

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Howdy, y’all! I’m so thrilled to be a guest on Petticoats & Pistols. Love’s Promise, Book #4, in my Wyoming Sunrise Christian historical romance series, releases this month. I cannot wait for you to meet Silas and Amaya.

We open the story with Amaya aboard a stagecoach with three other passengers. Following an accident, outlaws bent on preying on helpless individuals decide to commit a crime. Will dashing hero, Silas McFadden, come to the rescue?

Speaking of Silas, he’s a rugged and muscular rancher who sometimes rides with the Poplar Springs posse, which includes his best friend from Dreams of the Heart, Deputy John Mark Eliason.

Silas once spent time on the wrong side of the law. But God has a way of changing hearts—Silas’s included. Christian historical romance is my favorite genre to write. Of course, I couldn’t add in a bit of “western” flavor without including law enforcement. So, while writing both Love’s Promise and Dreams of the Heart, I researched Wild West lawmen.

This topic intrigues me, likely because since I was a young girl, my grandpa told us stories about his time on the San Diego police force.

Below are some interesting tidbits about the Wild West—the good, the bad, and the unexpected.

  • Some of the duties of Old West sheriffs included keeping the peace, collecting taxes, issuing liquor licenses, keeping the streets clear of dead animals, and cleaning up manure.
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  • A Wyoming Territorial sheriff named Christopher Castle, along with his deputies, noted the amount of money an outlaw had in his pocket when arrested. Later, when a fine was assessed, it was that exact amount. Apparently, he didn’t have any concerns about leaving criminals penniless.

 

In Love’s Promise, a stagecoach carrying the main female character, Amaya Alvardo, is targeted by a gang of highwaymen looking for the strongbox. While researching stagecoach robberies, I discovered some interesting information about the cost of this lucrative crime.

According to my research, these robbers cost Wells Fargo & Co. an incredible amount of money. J.B. Hume, a detective for Wells Fargo compiled records over fourteen years (1870-1884), including how much the company lost due to those bent on stealing from trains and stagecoaches. He included in his report a variety of “expenses”—money taken in the heists, salaries of guards and agents, attorney fees, reward money, and miscellaneous expenses.

  • In total for all of the categories listed above, $927,726.55 was taken from Wells Fargo & Co. during this time period according to Hume’s 1885 report, which was published in a Nevada newspaper.
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  • Further, J.B. Hume also reported the number of guards and passengers killed and injured, the number of robbers killed while resisting the guards, and the number hanged by citizens. In all, 33 lives were lost during these 14 years, including four stagecoach drivers, four passengers, 16 highwaymen, and two guards. Seven highwaymen were hanged by citizens for their crimes. Of note, Arizona and New Mexico led the other states (which aren’t specified) in the number of hangings.

While Silas has his share of “Wild West adventures” in Love’s Promise, I daresay he is content being a rancher and not dealing with outlaws and keeping streets manure-free as is the case for John Mark in Dreams of the Heart.

Thank you for joining me today. As a special gift, be sure to snag An Unexpected Arrival, a Wyoming Sunrise novelette, for free by going here.

Pretend for a moment you live in the Wild West in the 1800s. What is your occupation? Leave me a comment for a chance to win a copy of Love’s Promise (U.S. residents only, please).

Snag your copy of Love’s Promise at the following (soon to be available wherever books are sold).

Amazon 

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68 thoughts on “The Wild West: The Good, The Bad, and the Unexpected–Penny Zeller”

  1. Hmmm… Based on my current interests/skills, I’d probably be a cook or a seamstress in the 1800’s. Thanks for running this giveaway, Penny!

    And thank you for the mini tutorial on sheriff’s and stage coach travel in the “wild” West.

  2. I’d own a small bookstore and stationery shop and write for the local newspaper (although I might have to use an alias male-looking name.

    • Hi Janice! Oh, yes, a bookstore and stationery shop and writing for the local newspaper would be something I would have loved to have done as well if I lived back in the 1800s. Yes, you’d definitely need an alias male-looking name. 🙂

  5. I love the series Laramie and sometimes Slim and Jess get to be part time deputies and the shotgun rider on stagecoaches (Slim has a stage station on his ranch). So it’s interesting to see the holdups and the times they go out with posses. But I would probably be a seamstress or a baker. I know how to sew from my mom and bake from her also but I don’t like to cook so I wouldn’t run anything that required preparing meals.

  6. So fun to have you join us today, Penny. I imagine I’d be a schoolmarm in the old West if I wasn’t married. Since most women worked at home, though, after marrying, I’d probably fill the typical role of wife, mother, laundress, cook, housekeeper, gardener, etc. 🙂

    • I am honored to be here, Karen. Thank you so much for having me! As Old West wives, I think we’d be super busy (and I’d definitely miss my washing machine while doing the laundress work, lol!) 🙂

  11. I love watching the series Laramie. If I lived in the 1800’s, I would be a mom and have a bakery.

  12. With very little modification I could do back then what I’ve done in real life.
    Growing up, we had a veggie garden, an herb garden, and raised chickens for meat and eggs. I’ve been a city-girl since marrying so no room for those.
    I’ve been a wife and mom. I homeschooled my kids, worked as a nurse, and had a side job of sewing and mending.

  13. Welcome today. Thanks for: An Unexpected Arrival. Hmm if I lived then, I would like to be a ranchers wife. If not that I would love to be a teacher/seamstress. I would be active in so many ways in town. quilting dash lady at comcast dot net

  15. I’m going to say I’d probably own a bookstore and/or stationery shop. I might have a bakery, though, as I do like cakes and cookies!

  19. Hi Penny, Welcome to P&P. Your Grandpa sounded like a very hard working man with lots of stories. I, think I would be a stable owner. I love animals & taking care of them & the hard work is relaxing. Yours books sound like a Awesome read. Will add them to my TBR list. Thanks, for the chance to win a copy.

    • Hi Lois! Thank you for the warm welcome. It is wonderful to be here. Ooh, a stable owner. That would be the perfect job for someone who loves animals. Thank you for adding my books to your TBR. Have a fantastic weekend!

  20. Good morning, I think I would either be a store owner and work in it or I would live in a farm grow some veggies and flowers and have a fruit stand.

    • Hi Alicia! It’s great to see you here. Ooh, I love the idea of having a farm with veggies and flowers and a fruit stand. (Totally reminds me of summer…could be because there’s snow in the forecast in my neck of the woods!)

  21. Howdy Penny! Interesting info you passed on. I could probably be a store clerk or a baker.
    Lately I’ve been watching re-runs of a show, Tales of the Wells Fargo, that supposedly are true stories from back in the day. Can’t think of the details at the moment, but I’ll check into it. The lead actor is rather handsome too which doesn’t hurt ;o)

  22. Hi Penny, welcome to P&P. We’re so happy to have you visit. Congratulations on your new release! Love’s Promise looks interesting. Love the stagecoach robbery you built this story around. I always thought it would be fun to travel by stagecoach. Ha! Now I know it would be very uncomfortable. If I lived in the 1800s I would probably run a boarding house or work in a hotel. Enjoy your visit.

    • Hi Linda! Thank you so much for having me. This is a fantastic blog, and I’m so honored to be here. Your comment about the stagecoach gave me a chuckle. 🙂

  24. Ok so more info on the tv show Tales of Wells Fargo….it ran from 1957 – 1962 and the star was handsome Dale Robertson who used his own horse, Jubilee, throughout the series. It still runs on tv, but not sure if ya’ll can check it out or not.

    • Hi again, Lynn! Well, you made me curious so I had to do a Google search on the movie and the handsome Dale Robertson. 🙂 While I was watching a short trailer of the show, it brought back fond memories of my grandpa. He love westerns on TV, especially Gunsmoke. Matt Dillon was his hero since he was a lawman like my grandpa was. Thank you for giving me a wonderful memory!

  30. I would be a teacher until I met my handsome hero at which point I would become the exhausted mother of a dozen children. (That is the number my husband swears I said I wanted when we met. It was only 10!) ?

  32. I would say a teacher or work in the store that my husband owned. Thank you so much for sharing. It is good to be with you today. God bless you.

  34. I would very likely be a school teacher. Another option would be running an orphanage. Thank you for the interesting post and for An Unexpected Arrival.

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