by Thadd Turner

 Western history buffs pay tribute to a gallant western frontier scout when the Texas Jack Association holds its biennial roundup in Deadwood the last week of June, headquartering at the historic Franklin Hotel. The organization is named for John B. “Texas Jack” Omohundro whose adventurous life is related by Thadd Turner, author of Wild Bill Hickok: Deadwood City – End of Trail. The Texas Jack Association can be contacted via e-mail at info@texas-jack.org. or by calling president John T. Omohundro at 315-265-8365.

        He was a good friend of Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody, and in 1876 was as well known in America as either of them. He married a popular female stage actress and dancer of the era, was the hero of dozens of dime novel stories and was a trusted white friend of the Pawnee Indians.

This same frontier plainsman was also a correspondent for major newspapers and magazines, a Confederate Civil War veteran, an original Texas cowboy, reliable frontier scout and hunting guide for the royalty of Europe.

Because of his untimely death at the age of 33, Texas Jack is the only one of the three famous scouts who never obtained the lasting immortality he may have deserved.

 John Baker "Texas Jack" Omohundro was born July 26, 1846, at Palmyra, Fluvanna County, Virginia, the fourth child of John Burwell Omohundro and Catherine S. Baker. Most books list his middle name as Burwell, but Baker is the middle name recorded by his mother in the family Bible and on the death certificate signed by his wife.

In February 1864, 17-year-old John Omohundro enlisted in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, serving under Colonel J.E.B. Stuart's 5th Cavalry Corps. His older brother Orville was a 2nd Lieutenant of Company G. Jack was engaged in many scouting operations during the bloody and desperate 1864 Wilderness Campaign in Virginia. He  may have delivered the last dispatch to Stuart late in the afternoon of May 11 during an active engagement at Yellow Tavern. A Federal bullet mortally wounded the beloved commander as he rode off to take action on the message handed him by the young Confederate scout.

 Mustered out of the disbanded Confederate Army at the end of the war in April 1865, the restless 18-year-old veteran, disillusioned with the war-torn condition of his home state, headed west.

Prior to the Great Conflict between the States, Omohundro had spent two years working longhorn cattle in Texas, where he developed exceptional horsemanship and rifle skills. Omohundro left Virginia and returned to Texas where he found employment helping round up stray longhorn cattle that had roamed the open range during the four years Texans had been away at war.

It was on a trail drive to Tennessee that Omohundro won his sobriquet of "Texas Jack." As drovers moved much-needed beef supplies through a small town, one of the grateful townspeople asked the young acting trail boss, "Where are you from?"  "Texas," responded Jack.  "And what is your name, son?" was next question. "Jack," he replied, and they promptly cheered, "Hurrah for Texas Jack!"  The name stuck for the remainder of Jack's life.

Texas Jack spent the next three years driving longhorns north up the Chisholm Trail. In the late summer of 1869, Omohundro was at Fort Hays, Kansas, where he met the famous cavalry scout, Moses "California Joe" Milner, chief of scouts for Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry.

California Joe introduced the young cowboy to a good friend, Wild Bill Hickok, newly appointed acting sheriff of Ellis County. Wild Bill had served as a scout for the Federal Army during the Civil War and attained considerable fame as a noted scout for the 7th and 10th U.S. Cavalry. Hickok liked the sincere and honest man from Virginia, who shared similar physical traits and true instincts of survival on the open range.

At Fort McPherson, Nebraska, Texas Jack first met Buffalo Bill Cody, who had become a friend of Hickok before the Civil War when they worked for the Pony Express. The three scouts became close friends.

Texas Jack quit running cows and relocated to Cotton Springs, Nebraska, the local town at Fort McPherson. The Oregon Trail, Pony Express Route, Overland Trail, and Union Pacific Railroad all followed the mighty Platte River through this location, on their way up river to the growing community of North Platte.

Cody, who was scouting for the 5th US Cavalry at the fort, was instrumental in getting Jack hired on as a trail agent and scout. At home on the open plains, Omohundro become a favorite scout of cavalry commanders because of his outstanding tracking and guiding abilities under harsh conditions and his deadly marksmanship with rifle and pistol. Texas Jack was fast becoming known as a competent trail scout, Indian fighter and hunting guide.

In April 1872, marauding Indians raided nearby McPherson Station, killing a few men and taking a considerable number of horses. Captain Charles Meinhold was dispatched with Company B to locate the stolen stock, with Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill serving as scouts. Between April 25th and 27th, the force covered more than 100 miles, found the Indians and stolen horses, fought a brief engagement and recovered two of the stolen mounts before returning to the fort. This brief skirmish, considered by the experienced scouts as normal business on the plains, impressed Capt. Meinhold. His report of this incident eventually led to Cody receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor. Texas Jack probably was the chief scout on the return trip, since Cody reportedly received a scalp wound during this engagement.

Working closely with Major Frank North, Jack spent many hours among the  Pawnee Indians, learning their language and signs. In the summer of 1872, the Pawnee requested permission from General Phil Sheridan to hold a large buffalo hunt to supply needed food reserves for the winter. General Sheridan wanted an honest and dependable cavalry scout to assist the Pawnee and selected Texas Jack for the assignment. The hunt was very successful and Jack became one of the few white men the Pawnee could trust.  They named him "Whirling Rope" in recognition of his expertise with the lasso.

In 1872 the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia came to the western plains to hunt buffalo. The U.S. Army wanted the best scouts and hunting guides for this international bison hunt and selected Buffalo Bill as lead guide. Cody requested Texas Jack as his assistant. In addition to the hunts on the open plains, European royalty also wanted to view the natural wonders of Yellowstone National Park. An Englishman, the Earl of Dunraven, impressed with Jack's abilities as a guide, eventually wrote three books about his adventures on America's frontier, adding to Texas Jack’s reputation as a frontier legend.

In December of 1872 Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill, made famous in dozens of dime novel stories, put together the first stage show featuring the western scouts as live actors.  Popular dime novel writer Ned Buntline wrote the first production, Scouts of the Prairie, in about four hours. The show opened December 16 in Chicago, just four days after the plainsmen had arrived by train directly from frontier country. Local extras were hired as Native Americans. Buntline managed to hire the popular ballerina dancer and actress, Mlle. Guiseppina (Josephine) Morlacchi, to play the female Indian lead for the opening show.

When the curtain went up opening night, Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill couldn’t remember a single line from the script. Cody recognized a local businessman and politician in the audience as a member of a hunting party he had guided and the scouts began talking about guiding hunting trips. In an effort to salvage the show, Buntline ordered the "Indians" on stage in a surprise mock attack upon the scouts, who immediately dispatched every single "redskin" with pistol fire. The audience roared with applause. Buntline had the two scouts "kill off" the fake Indians again in the second and third acts, to the delight of the crowd.

That first season the show played to packed houses across the nation. Unhappy with their share of show receipts, the scouts broke away from Buntline to form their own group, Cody's Combination.  

By 1873 Wild Bill Hickok had joined the new show, The Scouts of the Plains. The production grew to include real Native American actors, more female characters and two additional real life western cowboys. Josephine Morlacchi played the female lead, "Pale Dove."

Born in Milan, Italy, Josephine was the same age as Jack. Schooled at the finest ballet academies in Europe, she had toured European capital cities, performing before royalty, before she came to the United States in 1867. She helped introduce the rowdy and boisterous "Can-Can" dance to the American public, was an instant success on the American stage and soon became one of the most popular performers of the time.

Texas Jack, the rough and bold plainsman, and Josephine, the petite and graceful ballerina, were married in August 1873. 

By 1876, Sioux and Cheyenne Indian tribes were at open warfare with the United States Army. Shortly after Custer's defeat at the Little Big Horn in late June, Jack was back on the frontier, as a scout and war correspondent for The New York Herald and the Spirit of The Times, writing lengthy dispatches of military activities in the west. He was saddened to hear his good friend Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed in Deadwood City, Dakota Territory, on August 2.

During the latter part of the 1870s, Texas Jack became even better known to Americans. He and Josephine made their home in the East on a country estate bought by their hard work on the American stage. Jack had become a popular writer, covering current events, and producing exciting stories about his experiences as a cowboy, a scout on the plains and guide for the last great buffalo hunts. He wrote a genuine account of working the wild longhorn cattle from horseback, describing the many dangers associated with being a 'cow-boy' – a story reprinted and used for several years in official brochures of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. 

Just one month short of his 34th birthday, Texas Jack contracted pneumonia and died on June 28, 1880, in Leadville, Colorado. The Omohundros had been in Leadville looking for mining investments and Texas Jack had joined mining millionaire H.A.W. Tabor's Light Cavalry Unit, a special volunteer law enforcement detachment assigned to patrolling the congested streets of the active mining town. 

Josephine, devastated by the loss of her beloved Texas Jack, never recovered from the shock and grief of his sudden death and quit the American stage forever. The beautiful actress and "premier danseuse" died in July 1886 at the young age of 39.