Just thinking about that trip boggles my mind. WMF was a planner, a guy who was always thinking several steps ahead, and a guy who concentrated on the details. I think he was a man who had to be in control of every situation, a micromanager, yet he gets on a train in the middle of winter and sets out for Frisco. Everything on that trip was totally beyond his control, full of risk. WMF was touring for the money, but only if the odds were in his favor. This winter trip is very much out of character. The Indians were not all pacified, living on reservations with good paying jobs at the casino. The buffalo may have been hunkered down for the winter, but they had not all been turned into robes and leather belting to drive machines in America’s factories. Did the precursors to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid work in the winter? I grew up in a RR town on the prairie. As a kid, I saw old steam engines that had been converted to snow blowers. Dad’s home movies show rail traffic stopped by drifting snow until the snow blowers showed up. Did they have snow blowers in 1878? I imagine Farrow dressed warmly, wrapped in a buffalo robes, and dreading the next trip to the unheated rolling restroom. Did the trains run 24/7 or did they stop at night, the passengers staying in RR-operated hotels? How long was the trip? My guess is 8 to 10 days, changing trains several times. In April, 1878, in Alameda, California, WMF won first place in a San Francisco Turnverein Schuetzen Match; 60 shots offhand at 200 yards, German ring target. Score was 1268 out of 1500 points. He reportedly won enough in side bets in the San Francisco Bay area winter and spring matches to support his family in reasonable style for two years. How much was that? After the Alameda match, he went east, probably giving demonstrations, selling Ballards, and entering matches. In June, 1878, he won a 600-shot offhand match at the Union Hill range in Morris, New Jersey. 600 shots offhand? The matches lasted all day, but how many of us could do that? WMF wasn’t a big strong guy. He is described as standing 5 foot. 9 inches and weighing about 140 lbs. I’ve seen some articles saying the family lived in New York City in 1879 because WMF worked for Shoverling & Daly. I’ve not yet found any first hand evidence. Early in 1880, WMF and Abbie decided they had been apart far too much. They bought a house at 3 Howard Place in Jersey City, NJ, so that WMF could commute to S & D.
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