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Texas Jack Omohundro

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Tribute to "Texas Jack Omohundro"

Who Is Texas Jack?

Texas Jack is John Baker Omohundro soldier, Texas cowboy, frontier scout for the Army, actor, and star.

Born in Virginia in 1846, he served as a headquarters courier during the Civil War before joining JEB Stuart's cavalry as a scout. After the war he became a cowboy, riding the Chisolm and Goodnight-Loving trails out of Texas to Kansas, California, Nebraska, and across Indian territory. On a cattle drive to meat-hungry & drought-stricken Tennessee, a man referred to the handsome cowboy as "Texas Jack," and the name stuck.

Between 1868 and 1869, Jack met first James B. "Wild Bill" Hickok in Hays City, Kansas, and then William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody at Fort McPherson, near North Platte, Nebraska. Omohundro and Cody became first hunting partners and later scouting partners. In 1872 they joined dime novelist Ned Buntline in Chicago for what scholars consider one of the very first western plays. Their costar was Italian ballerina Giuseppina Morlacchi, a La Scala trained dancer and one of the biggest stage stars in the world.

The following tribute was paid to Texas Jack at his gravesite by his old friend Buffalo Bill Cody, as reported in the HERALD DEMOCRAT, Leadville, Colorado, Sunday, September 6, 1908 (28 years after Jack's death):

"My friends, perhaps many of you do not know this man whom we have gathered to honor. No doubt you would like to know something of him, who was one of my dearest and most intimate friends: John B. Omohundro, better known as "Texas Jack" was a Virginian by birth. The blood of the Powhatan Indians flowed in his veins. He was of proud and noble birth.

During the Civil War he was a member of the cavalry commanded by Col. Jeb Stuart of the Confederate Army. He was one of his most trusted and faithful scouts, and performed almost invaluable service for him.

After the war he drifted westward and located in Texas, where he took up the hazardous work of a cowboy. He was one of the original Texas cowboys, when life on the plains was a hardship and a trying duty.

When they began to drive the cattle to the northern country, he engaged in that occupation, following the herds northward, and returning after each trip for another herd. Finally, he located at North Platte, Nebraska. It was there that I first met him. He was an expert trailer and scout. I soon recognized this and...secured his appointment in the United States service...

In this capacity I learned to know him and to respect his bravery and ability. He was a whole-souled, brave, generous, good-hearted man.

Later he and I went East to go into the show business. He was the first to do a lasso act upon the stage.

...During this tour of the large cities he met and married Mlle Morlacchi, a famous dancer, who traveled with him.

After I left him, he and she continued to travel. They came to Leadville, where she was engaged as a performer. Becoming attached to the place, my friend and his wife remained for a while.

It was while here that he was stricken with pneumonia, which was then prevalent. He succumbed, and was buried here under this mound by his many friends.

Jack was an old friend of mine and a good one. Instead of this board which now marks his grave, we will soon have erected a more substantial monument, one more worthy of a brave and good man.

May he rest in peace."

William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody, dissatisfied with the modest grave marker at the gravesite of Texas Jack, arranged to have erected a "suitable monument" in this Leadville cemetery.
 

For more information on this famous person please visit the Texas Jack Tribute website at https://www.texasjack.org/

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