On this day in 1863, a detachment of California Volunteers engage the Shoshone at Bear River, Washington Territory, killing hundreds of men women and children. The site is located near the present-day city of Preston in Franklin County, Idaho. The death toll was large, but some Shoshone survived. Chief Sagwitch gathered survivors to keep his community alive. Sagwitch was shot twice in the hand and tried to escape on horseback, only to have the horse shot out from under him. He went to the ravine and escaped into the Bear River near a hot spring, where he floated under some brush until nightfall.
Sagwitch’s son, Beshup Timbimboo, was shot seven times but survived and was rescued by family members. Other members of the band hid in the willow brush of the Bear River, or tried to act as if they were dead. After the officers concluded the battle was over, they returned with the soldiers to their temporary encampment near Franklin. Sagwitch and other survivors retrieved the wounded and built a fire to warm the survivors.
Franklin residents opened their homes to wounded soldiers that night. They brought blankets and hay to the church meetinghouse to protect the other soldiers from the cold.
The California Volunteers suffered 14 soldiers killed and 49 wounded, 7 mortally.
In 1918, Sagwitch’s son Be-shup, Frank Timbimboo Warner, said, “[H]alf of those present got away,” and 156 were killed. He went on to say that two of his brothers and a sister-in-law “lived”, as well as many who later lived at the Washakie, Utah, settlement, the Fort Hall reservation, in the Wind River country, and elsewhere.
This conflict marked the final significant influence of the Shoshone nation upon Cache Valley and its immediate surroundings. In addition to opening the northern part of Cache Valley to Mormon settlement, Cache Valley also offered a staging area for additional settlements in southeastern Idaho.
Chief Sagwitch and many members of his band allied with the Mormons. Many were baptized and joined LDS Church.
#RIP #OTD in 1888 artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet (The Book of Nonsense, The Owl and the Pussycat) Edward Lear died of heart failure at his Villa Tennyson, Sanremo, Italy aged 75. Cemetery Foce in Sanremo
#RIP #OTD in 1933 lyric poet (Love Songs, ‘I Shall Not Care’) Sara Teasdale died from overdosing on sleeping pills in New York City, aged 48. Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.
H. L. Mencken. (Henry L. Mencken.) Baltimore Sun Staff File Photo by Robert F. Kniesche. 9/20/50 MANDATORY CREDIT: Baltimore Examiner and Washington Examiner OUT ORG XMIT: BAL0909101149453148
On this day in 1956, journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture, and a student of American English, the “Sage of Baltimore”, H. L. Mencken, died in Baltimore, Maryland at the age of 75. Born Henry Louis Mencken on 12 September 1880 in Baltimore. In my opinion, he is one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the 20th century. Mencken notably attacked ignorance, intolerance, frauds, fundamentalist Christianity, marriage, osteopathy and chiropractic. He once called marriage “the end of hope” although he ultimatley married Sara Powell Haardt (1930 – 1935 her death). 
The Final Footprint – Mencken is interred with his wife in the Mencken Family Estate in Loudon Park Cemetery in Baltimore. He wrote a joking epitaph for himself: If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl. This epitaph was not used.
On this day in 1963 poet Robert Frost died in Boston from prostrate cancer surgery complications at the age of 88. Born Robert Lee Frost on 26 March 1874 in San Francisco. His work was initially published in England before it was published in America. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. In my opinion, he is one of the most popular and critically respected American poets of the twentieth century. Frost was honored frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1960 for his poetical works. My favorite Frost poems include; “The Witch of Coös,” “Home Burial,” “A Servant to Servants,” “Directive,” “Neither Out Too Far Nor In Too Deep,” “Provide, Provide,” “Acquainted with the Night,” “After Apple Picking,” “Mending Wall,” “The Most of It,” “An Old Man’s Winter Night,” “To Earthward,” “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening,” “Spring Pools,” “The Lovely Shall Be Choosers,” “Design,” and “Desert Places.” 
The Final Footprint – He was buried at the Old Bennington Cemetery in Bennington, Vermont. His epitaph quotes the last line from his poem, “The Lesson for Today (1942): “I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.”
#RIP #OTD in 1964 actor (This Gun for Hire, The Glass Key, The Blue Dahlia, Whispering Smith, Shane) Alan Ladd died at his home in Palm Springs from an accidental overdose of alcohol, a barbiturate, tranquilizers, aged 50. Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glenwood California
On this day in 1977, stand-up comedian and actor Freddie Prinze died from a gunshot wound to his head at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 22. Born Frederick Karl Pruetzel on June 22, 1954 in New York City. Prinze was the star of NBC-TV sitcom Chico and the Man from 1974 until his death in 1977.
On October 13, 1975, Prinze married Katherine (Kathy) Elaine (Barber) Cochran, with whom he had one child, son Freddie Prinze Jr.
The Final Footprint
Prinze is entombed at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, near his father, Edward Karl Pruetzel. Other notable final footprints at Hollywood Hills include; Gene Autry, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, David Carradine, Scatman Crothers, Bette Davis, Sandra Dee, Ronnie James Dio, Michael Clarke Duncan, Carrie Fisher, Bobby Fuller, Andy Gibb, Michael Hutchence, Jill Ireland, Al Jarreau, Buster Keaton, Lemmy Kilmister, Jack LaLanne, Nicolette Larson, Liberace, Strother Martin, Jayne Meadows, Brittany Murphy, Ricky Nelson, Bill Paxton, Brock Peters, Lou Rawls, Debbie Reynolds, Telly Savalas, Lee Van Cleef, and Paul Walker.
Willie Dixon at Monterey Jazz Festival, 1981.
© Brian McMillen
On this day in 1992, blues musician, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer Willie Dixon died of heart failure in Burbank, California at the age of 76. Born William James Dixon on July 1, 1915 in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he is perhaps best known as one of the most prolific songwriters of his time.
Dixon’s songs have been recorded by countless musicians in many genres as well as by various ensembles in which he participated. A short list of his most famous compositions includes “Hoochie Coochie Man”, “I Just Want to Make Love to You”, “Little Red Rooster”, “My Babe”, “Spoonful”, and “You Can’t Judge a Book by the Cover”. These songs were written during the peak years of Chess Records, from 1950 to 1965, and were performed by Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, and Bo Diddley. Dixon was an important link between the blues and rock and roll. Jeff Beck, Cream, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and Steppenwolf all featured at least one of his songs on their debut albums. He received a Grammy Award and was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
The Final Footprint
Dixon was buried in Burr Oak Cemetery, in Alsip, Illinois. The actor and comedian Cedric the Entertainer portrayed Dixon in Cadillac Records, a 2008 film based on the early history of Chess Records. Other notable final footprints at Burr Oak Cemetery include Emmett Till and Dinah Washington.
#RIP #OTD in 1999 burlesque dancer, stripper, pin-up model, actress (The Naked and the Dead) Lili St. Cyr (Marie Frances Van Schaack), died in Los Angeles, aged 80. Cremation
#RIP #OTD in 2015 poet, singer-songwriter (English lyrics; “If You Go Away”, “Seasons In the Sun”), composer, Rod McKuen died of respiratory arrest, a result of pneumonia, at a hospital in Beverly Hills aged 81. Westwood Memorial Park, Westwood, California
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