Joseph Alfred Slade

Joseph Alfred "Jack" Slade [Also known as “Alf,”, “Joe,” “Jim,” “Cap”] , born January 22 1831, died 1864, was a Stagecoach and Pony Express superintendent, instrumental in the opening of the American West and the archetype of the Western gunslinger.

Born Carlyle, Ill., he was the son of Charles W. Slade and Mary Dark (Kain) Slade. He married Maria Virginia around 1857. In the 1850s he was a freighting teamster and wagonmaster along the Overland Trail, and then became a stagecoach driver in Texas, c. 1857-58. He subsequently became a stagecoach division superintendent along the Central Overland route for Hockaday & Co., 1858-59, and its successors Jones, Russell & Co. (1859) and Central Overland, California & Pike’s Peak Express Co. (1859-62). With the latter concern, he also helped launch and operate the Pony Express in 1860-61. All were critical to the communication between the East and California. As superintendent, he enforced order and assured reliable cross-continental mail service, maintaining contact between Washington and California on the eve of Civil War. While division superintendent he shot and killed one of his subordinates who was hindering the progress of a freight train. At the time (1858) shooting deaths of this kind in the West were rare and the reputation of Jack Slade as a "gunfighter" spread rapidly across the country.

His exploits spawned numerous legends, many of them false. His image (especially via Mark Twain in "Roughing It") as the vicious killer of up to 26 victims was greatly exaggerated; only one killing by Slade is indisputable (that of an employee of the Hockaday & Co.). But his ferocious reputation, combined with a drinking problem, caused his downfall: During a drunken spree in Virginia City, Montana, he was lynched by local vigilantes on the 10th of March 1864, for disturbing the peace. He was buried in Salt Lake City, Utah on July 20th, 1864.

ources

*L.L. Callaway, "Two True Tales of the Wild West"
*Dan Rottenberg, "The Forgotten Gunfighter,” "Civilization" magazine, Mar.-Apr. 1996;
*Dan Rottenberg, Death of a Gunfighter: The Quest for Jack Slade, the West's Most Elusive Legend. Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2008.
*Roy O’Dell and Kenneth Jessen, "An Ear in His Pocket".
* [http://historytogo.utah.gov/salt_lake_tribune/in_another_time/061994.html History to Go, Here Lies Joseph Slade]

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