history

Hell On Wheels:
The Blonger Tour.

All born in Vermont, the Belonger children grew up in Shullsburg, Wisconsin, a few miles from Galena, Illinois, where father Simon Peter, a Frenchman, built rock walls — a surprisingly practical job in a place where communities are often situated in deep river channels with soft, steep dirt slopes prone to collapse. The Shullsburg area of southern Wisconsin is mining country — zinc, lead, and galena, of course.

In 1859 Irish mother Judith died while giving birth to her thirteenth child. Shortly thereafter, the family separates, and the children scatter to a variety of places in Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois.

In Dec of 1866, Sam married Ella Livingston in Illinois. By this time, Sam had already had unknown adventures as a young teamster and scout in Colorado, then California and Nevada.

We are told he was a soldier in the war, though this seems unlikely, but we do know that in 1865 he obtained a tract of land in California from Lyman Woods, a Mormon patriarch.

By this time young Lou is a veteran too, though he saw no action. He returned home with circulation problems in his leg that plague him the rest of his life.

Joe was shot in the chest at the siege of Atlanta, and Michael developed a heart condition after the hardships of the battle of Winchester, the second battle of Bull Run, Cedar Mountain, and finally the cornfield at Antietam.

They were probably living here with the Livingstons, and planning their big move West. Now twenty, Lou attended the local school.

Ella's father William, her brother William — Lou's army buddy — and other family members as well would accompany the Blongers all the way to Denver. Though they managed to avoid the limelight, the Livingstons were never far from the Blongers for many years.

Census data tells us they were working in a hotel and billiard hall in this frontier town, not far from Council Bluffs. Sam later claimed to have run a hotel in Red Oak for four years (68-71?).

Here they ran a variety of businesses: a beer saloon, and gambling house, canned oysters — and if Lou's obit is to be believed, they built (or were somehow involved with) the first steamboat to ply the great salt lake.

Blonger & Bro. filed suit against Mace Campbell for $29.75 in unpaid bills for liquor and cigars.

Joe will soon disappear for years, popping up again in Cerrillos, New Mexico in 1879. How long has he been with his brothers? Will he then go on to Deadwood as he later claimed?

Obituaries briefly mention unspecified work on the Denver & Rio Grande railroad, which was expanding quickly throughout the Colorado at the time. Lou, however, makes no mention of the railroad in his pension affadavit.

More likely, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe was expanding in New Mexico and Arizona in the early Eighties, when the boys were in Albuquerque. This would be a likely place from which to oversee the business of contracting this type of work. Or maybe they were doing "official work" for the railroad.

Then again, perhaps they joined the infamous Royal Gorge war in 1879. They were in Leadville at the time. That's railroad work, right?

It might also lead to a job as marshal — but weren't they just in Denver being busted by the cops? Maybe they needed a change a scenery.

Sam was appointed City Marshal of New Albuquerque in February of 1882, and dismissed five months later.

While Marshal, he appoints Lou deputy when called for. Later, Joe is brought to town by a deputy who happened to meet him in Cerrillos. There is on occasion gunplay and horse thieves and various Western-style felonious conduct — but no killings.

In April of '82, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday arrive in Albuquerque after their infamous Vendetta ride. Sam is in charge for a few days, then Lou takes over as marshal in Sam's absence.

During this period Lou is arrested for beating his drinking buddy — the first man to fly in New Mexico, bartender and balloonist "Professor" Park Van Tassel — nearly to death. Apparently he said something unseemly to the madame of the house, who happens to be Lou's woman. We'd like to find out she was the infamous Kitty Blonger. (See 1888)

Newspaper ads indicate Blonger & Co. briefly ran Stroud's Theater, and perhaps Stroud's saloon as well, in 1883. It's unclear if this refers to Sam, Lou, or both.

Lou says he is in Kingston when he submits a military pension request in 1887, supposedly socializing with noted gamblers Frank Thurmond and his wife Lottie Deno.

On the other hand, the voter rolls say Lou was running a saloon in San Bernardino in 1884, and he's coming from that town in 1888 when he goes to Kingman for Kitty's trial.

For the first time in years, Sam and Lou are on separate paths. Sam may have still been in "official work" at this time, though he also runs ponies in Denver, spends time with Simon and Marvin in Leadville, and who knows what?

Newspaper listings of local hotel guests tell us Lou came to Arizona for the trial of Kitty Blonger in 1888. In one entry, his home town is listed as San Bernardino. Did he travel to California after writing his pension affadavit in New Mexico, but before showing up on the Denver scene? This is our only indication that Lou spent time in California — though Virgina City, where he spent some time in 1875, is just a stone's throw from Sacramento (but a fur piece from San Bernardino).

A mysterious "L. Blonger" arrives from California two days after Kitty shot Charles Hill in the head.

Lou has to arrive about this time. They have a saloon on Larimer, and after a few years he and Sam build a second saloon, the Elite, one of Denver's toniest nightspots.

Sucker's Progress states that by the time Soapy Smith returns to Denver in 1895, after two years laying low in Texas and the Southwest, Lou and Sam have taken control of the city's thriving underworld.