Show merican mei adventurers by elmo scott watson the worst bad man tone THE HE life ot of alexander harvey mone of the worst bad men ot of the fur trading days of more than a century ago was just one murder aft after er another that the kind ol of career to glorify but there is no denying that it if you can get away with it there is adventure in it his first murder was in 1840 at fort mckenzie when he shot a mild mannered employee after first making him kneel down before him he reported that a blackfoot indian did the killing and no one had the courage to contradict him later that year while traveling to fort union he quarreled with his companion and shot him through the head while at the fort he was bitterly i er y hated especially by a spaniard pan isodoro in the presence of a group of people including the commander of the fort he killed isodoro do 0 and then challenged those present to do something about it none would dare back at fort mckenzie a short while later the commander was ordered away and a friend of harveys was left in charge the two of them admitted a group of indians to the tort fort and then discharged a cannon into the crowd as they were coming in the gate three indians indians were killed and three wounded including a chief harvey killed the wounded chief with his knife kni and scalped albed c him although harvey was responsible tor for many other murders all of them brutal and although he was thoroughly 0 hated he was never punished for a single one of them but there were so many plotting his death that he had to spend his last years skulking in the missouri river bottoms colorados mystery man I 1 IN N THE early sixties an intellects al gentleman with strong bearded features arrived at georgetown colo and immediately became a celebrity of the local mountain c country he called himself commodore stephen decatur and since there had been two previous stephen decature Deca in american history both of whom were commodores his identity was looked upon with suspicion georgetown residents soon found that the commodore seemed to get a great deal of fun out of living he got along well with everyone especially the ladies he was the towns greatest booster an advocate of good roads and the development of mines he became associate editor of the georgetown miner local paper in 1869 and thenceforth increased his popularity he was a flowery writer and a first rate drinker at odd moments also he would rattle off indian language that of the sioux omaha ponca or pottawatomie because of his ability to speak with them he was delegated the task of settling all disputes with the indians in 1876 he was appointed colorados commissioner to the phil philadelphia exposition and he was cock of the walk there too he was so entertaining that he was followed by crowds wherever he went but he was recognized at the exposition as stephen decatur bross brother of the lieutenant governor of illinois he had disappeared from illinois and deserted his wife and children the publicity of his discovery in philadelphia ruined his popularity in colorado and he had to retire to obscurity 0 western newspaper union |