ORIGINAL DIAMOND DICK PHOTO GEORGE FRENCH PHOTOGRAPHER WESTERN BLOOMFIELD NJ For Sale
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ORIGINAL DIAMOND DICK PHOTO GEORGE FRENCH PHOTOGRAPHER WESTERN BLOOMFIELD NJ:
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DIAMOND DICK VINTAGE ORIGINAL PHOTO BY GEORGE FRENCH PHOTOGRAPHER 4 3/8 X 6 3/8 INCHESGeorge Washington French (1882-1970) was born in Kezar Falls, Maine. His interest in photography developed as a child. As an adult, French and his family moved to Bloomfield, N.J., for a job, and where he started his own art and commercial photography business.French eventually returned to Maine as the photographer for the Maine Development Commission. He worked for the Development Commission for nearly 20 years, from 1936 to 1955. His photographs were responsible for promoting Maine\'s tourism industry.French worked with a variety of photographic methods during the 20th century. He produced tintypes, glass negatives, color reversal film and more. He evolved as the technology did.Outside of work, French was an enthusiast of genre photographs, or pictures that tell stories. Rather than capturing the most exciting scenes, French preferred to take pictures of everyday life; capturing the true spirit of Maine.George W. French published Photography for the Amateur in 1922.George Washington French (1882-1970) was born in Kezar Falls, Maine. His interest in photography developed as a child. As an adult, French and his family moved to Bloomfield, N.J., for a job, and where he started his own art and commercial photography business.French eventually returned to Maine as the photographer for the Maine Development Commission. He worked for the Development Commission for nearly 20 years, from 1936 to 1955. His photographs were responsible for promoting Maine\'s tourism industry.French worked with a variety of photographic methods during the 20th century. He produced tintypes, glass negatives, color reversal film and more. He evolved as the technology did.Outside of work, French was an enthusiast of genre photographs, or pictures that tell stories. Rather than capturing the most exciting scenes, French preferred to take pictures of everyday life; capturing the true spirit of Maine.George W. French published Photography for the Amateur in 1922.Diamond Dick is a fictional character created by William B. Schwartz.[1] He first appeared in \"Dashing Diamond Dick; or, The Sarpint of Siskiyou County\", serialized novel in Street and Smith\'s story paper New York Weekly in 1878, and began as a regular series in Nugget Library,[1] with No. 16, December 12, 1889. According to J. Randolph Cox, \"the character was undoubtedly inspired by the life and career of herbal-medicine promoter and showman George B. McClellan (ca. 1858-1911), who went by the nickname Diamond Dick and who was the hero of a dime novel by Buckskin Sam Hall\" (1882).[1]
The character\'s real name was Richard Wade. His son, Bertie Wade, was known as Diamond Dick, Jr. The series was known for occurring in real time. The characters aged and the world changed (i.e. new technologies such as cars were introduced).[1] Dick was famous for wearing diamond-studded clothes. He was described as handsome, and had dark hair and moustache.
The original serials were signed Delta Claveras, and the later weekly stories by the house name W. B. Lawson. Research suggests Theodore Dreiser may have written some stories and served as editor.[1] George C. Jenks also wrote under this name, as did St George Henry Rathbone.
AppearancesNew York Weekly 1878, 1880Diamond Dick Library Nos. 158-205, 1895-1896Diamond Dick Weekly Nos. 1-373, 1896-1903Diamond Dick, Jr. Weekly Nos. 374-762, 1903-1911Diamond Dick Quarterly Nos. 1-5, 1897-1899Nugget Library regular series beginning with No. 16, 1889Aldine Tip Top Tales (British reprints, beginning late 1890s)Great Western Library 1927
Leavenworth’s Flamboyant Medicine Manansas was the stage on which a remarkableVictorian-era character strutted for nearly athird of a century. George B. McClellan wasequally at ease in small midwestern cities andtowns, and in the salons of St. Louis and Denver. He knew the inside of a jail as well as the plush accommodations of a private railroad car. One newspaperwriter labeled him “a long-haired quack,” another praisedhim for “such wonderful cures in this city and surrounding country.” He was an itinerant peddler of questionablemedical cures, one of hundreds of pitchmen (and a fewwomen) who crisscrossed America, usually living on thefringes of society, going wherever they could find customers. Most hawked nostrums with unique names: Indian Sagwa, Seminole Cough Balm, Hindoo Patalka, KaTon-Ka, Modoc Indian Oil. George B. McClellan soldhimself. He became “Dr. Diamond Dick.”1Evidence of his expertise in self-promotion is found inWisconsin, Iowa, and Nebraska, as well as in Kansas. McClellan enjoyed particular success in Leavenworth in1887–1888. His promotional methods there were memorable; in reporting his accidental death many years later, theLeavenworth Times did not mention McClellan’s medicinesor his healing techniques; instead, it was his methods of attracting patients that were recounted.2On December 14, 1911, the Kansas City Journal fairlyshouted: “DIAMOND DICK IS DEAD/Picturesque KansasCharacter Succumbs to Ry. Accident.” The paper reported:George B. McClellan, who advertised himself as “Doctor Diamond Dick” and who was known in everyKansas hamlet by his costume, which was copiedfrom that worn by the hero of the old-time “dimenovel,” died yesterday at the Bell Memorial hospitalin Rosedale [Kansas City, Kansas]. He was injured in arailway accident at LaCygne, Kas., December 5 [sic],the injuries causing his death. The body . . . will besent to Ogdensburg, N. Y., tonight for burial. The doctor was 54 years old. His picturesque figure attracted L. Boyd Finch has degrees from the University of Arizona (journalism)and Stanford University (political science) but is an avocational \"grassroots historian.\" He is the author of two books and numerous magazine and journal articles, most of them on southwestern history. His grandmother’s encounter withDr. Diamond Dick diverted him into Kansas history.1. Wayne (Neb.) Herald, October 18, 1888; Leavenworth Times, November 8, 1887.2. Gene Fowler, ed., Mystic Healers and Medicine Shows: Blazing Trailsto Wellness in the Old West and Beyond (Santa Fe: Ancient City Press, 1977),5–6; Leavenworth Times, December 15, 1911; N. T. “Nevada Ned” Oliver,“Med Show,” Saturday Evening Post 202 (September 14, 1929): 12–13, 173.Dr. Oliver actually was E. O. Tilburn, and his is the most detailed accountof the American medicine show by a participant.DOCTORDIAMOND DICKby L. Boyd FinchKKansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 26 (Spring 2003): 2–13.4 KANSAS HISTORYattention in all the towns, which he visited at statedintervals.3The era from 1880 to 1910 included the peak years ofthree then-ubiquitous elements of American popular culture—medicine shows, dime novels, and Wild Westshows. McClellan is noteworthy because he was a part ofall three. In his prime role as a medicine show principal, heshared the name of the hero of several hundred dime novelWesterns and was himself the star of the first dime novelthat featured a hero named Diamond Dick. A friend ofWilliam F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, McClellan polished his ownWild West image by exhibitions of his firearms skill, and hefrequently copied Cody’s appearance: wavy hair flowingto his shoulders, a slender mustache, and the broadbrimmed hat, boots, and buckskins of the frontier scout.oday it is difficult to imagine how pervasivemedicine shows, Wild West shows, and dimenovels were at the time. In their bonanza years,medicine shows “numbered in the hundreds.”Since then, as historian Arrell M. Gibson hasnoted, they have become “an elusive subject.” The WildWest show remains well documented, thanks to the showmanship of Buffalo Bill who gave form to what popularculture student Joseph Schwartz calls “the profound mythof the West”—profound and persistent. Wallace Stegnerobserved that much of what passes for western history“isn’t history at all, but myth, the Diamond Dick kind ofstuff.” In a publication of Fort Worth’s Amon Carter Museum, Ronnie C. Tyler drew attention to “the close association of dime novels with the Wild West show business.”In the words of veteran pitchman Dr. N. T. “Nevada Ned”Oliver, “America’s contributions to the med show weretwo—the show and the Indian.” A Yale University Schoolof Medicine exhibition linked the European and earlyAmerican traveling purveyors of medicinal products withthe late-nineteenth-century flowering of the medicineshow that provided “free concerts, vaudeville and WildWest shows as an inducement to buy . . . Kickapoo IndianSagwa and a host of other curealls.” It is fascinating to discover George McClellan’s significance as a player at the intersection of the three elements of a simpler American pastand to gain insight into the character of the man throughhis promotional methods as recorded in old newspapers,especially the Leavenworth Times and the LeavenworthStandard.4In 1882 a dime novel, Diamond Dick, the Dandy fromDenver; A True Story of the Mines of New Mexico, introduceda handsome young hero named Diamond Dick. The author, Major Samuel Stone “Buckskin Sam” Hall, stated in afootnote that his hero’s real name was George McClellan,“a living character of to-day.” The novel was in the formatcommon to dime novels: approximately forty-thousandwords in small type on twenty-four pages of cheap paper.The cover illustration showed the dapper Diamond Dickstanding over the barroom bully he had just floored formolesting an Indian.5Although no record of McClellan attending medicalschool has been found, Hall’s novel provides a clue aboutMcClellan’s knowledge of natural medications. In a briefflashback near the beginning of his novel, Hall demonstrates that he knew the real McClellan, imagining a scenein Ogdensburg with George’s mother and grandmotherdiscussing young George who was absent, hunting andfishing in Maine. “I fear he will never again be contented athome,” his fictional mother says. “On all these long expe3. Kansas City Journal, December 14, 1911.4. Albert Johannsen, The House of Beadle and Adams and Its Dime andNickel Novels, vol. 1 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1950),124–27; Oliver, “Med Show,” 12; Arrell M. Gibson, “Medicine Show,”American West 4 (February 1967): 15, 35, 79; William P. Burt, “Back Stagewith a Medicine Show Fifty Years Ago,” Colorado Magazine 19 (July 1942):127; Joseph Schwartz, “The Wild West Show: ‘Everything Genuine,’” Journal of Popular Culture 3 (Spring 1970): 656–57, 664; James R. Hepworth,Stealing Glances: Three Interviews with Wallace Stegner (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998), 39; Ronnie C. Tyler, ed., The Wild Westor, a History of the Wild West Shows . . . Which Created an Unrealistic Image ofthe American West (Fort Worth: Amon Carter Museum of Western Art,1970), 100; [William Helfand], The American Medicine Show (New Haven:Yale University School of Medicine, 1954); J. C. Dykes, “Buckskin Sam,Ranger and Writer; or, The Life and Sub-Literary Labors of Samuel StoneHall,” American Book Collector 10 (n.d.): 15; J. Edward Leithead, “The Derring-Do of the Diamond Dicks,” Dime Novel Round-up 16 (April 1948):25–30. In addition to the aforementioned citations, basic sources on thethree subjects include: N. T. “Nevada Ned” Oliver, “Alagazam: The Storyof Pitchmen High and Low,” Saturday Evening Post 202 (October 19, 1929):26–27, 76, 79–80; Fowler, Mystic Healers and Medicine Shows; Gerald Carson, One for a Man, Two for a Horse: A Pictorial History, Grave and Comic, ofPatent Medicine (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1961); Ann Anderson, SnakeOil, Hustlers and Hambones: The American Medicine Show (Jefferson, N.C.:McFarland and Co., 2000); James B. Trefethen, “They Were All Sure Shots,”American Heritage 13 (April 1962); James Monaghan, “The Stage Career ofBuffalo Bill,” Journal of the Illinois Historical Society 31 (December 1938):411–23; J. Randolph Cox, Dime Novel Companion: A Source Book (Westport,Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000); Dime Novel Round-up, published intermittently for collectors since the late 1920s. Two unrelated tales with a Diamond Dick character appeared in 1875 in the New York Weekly, a “storypaper.”5. Sam S. “Buckskin Sam” Hall, Diamond Dick, the Dandy from Denver;A True Story of the Mines of New Mexico (N.Y.: New York Dime Library, August 26, 1882), 2.TDOCTOR DIAMOND DICK 56. Ioffer., 2–3.7. Ioffer.; Howard R. Lamar, “dime novels,” New Encyclopedia of theAmerican West (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998): 305–6; Dykes,“Buckskin Sam, Ranger and Writer,” 15–18; LaCrosse (Wisc.) MorningChronicle, May 19, 1885; Leithead, “The Derring-Do of the DiamondDicks,” 25–27.8. “In Kansas City Forty Years Ago,” Kansas City Star, January 21,1930, quotation from the Kansas City Times, January 21, 1890.ditions . . . he has kept up his favorite study of botany, andI’m sure has gathered a great deal of information in regardto the medicinal uses of herbs.” No further mention ofherbal medicine appears in the novel; it was not essentialto the plot. The tale, set in the immediate past, told of thehero’s harrowing but ultimately satisfying chase for twovillains who had murdered his fictional sister and her children in Ogdensburg. The novel probably contained a germof truth about McClellan’s education in natural medicinesand, moreover, Hall provided a promotional plug for thereal McClellan’s herbal medicine practice.6Hall’s fictional McClellan received the name DiamondDick when, newly arrived from Denver, he entered a NewMexico saloon wearing a large diamond on his neckerchief, a huge silver belt buckle, buckskin suit, high-topboots, and gold-mounted six-shooters. Jim Jams, the localbarfly, at once christened the ostentatious newcomer Diamond Dick. When McClellan adopted the name, and withwhat inspiration has not been discovered. He, like othersof his trade, adorned himself in diamonds, real and paste.Before Hall wrote the novel, he probably knew that McClellan was calling himself Diamond Dick.Although Hall produced more than fifty dime novels,Diamond Dick, the Dandy from Denver was his only Diamond Dick story. During the following three decades,however, other authors wrote several hundred DiamondDick novels. Their hero thwarted villains and rescueddamsels after overcoming many hazards; his fictionalname was Richard Wade, not McClellan. In later issues, hisson Bertie Wade was featured as “Diamond Dick Jr.” As faras can be ascertained from the titles, none of the authorsfollowed Hall’s lead in suggesting that Diamond Dick hada special knowledge of medicine. The stories occasionallyplaced their central character in circuses, stage plays, andWild West shows, but not in a traveling medicine show.7The continuing output of the novels kept McClellan’s“Diamond Dick” persona in the public eye. It is not knownwhether hack writer E. Z. C. Judson (Ned Buntline) wroteany Diamond Dick tales, but he became so closely identified with the dime novel genre that in the 1890s the KansasCity Times observed: “Diamond Dick is a remarkable character. He has the remedy that may save you if troubledwith some chronic ill. Ned Buntline, the dime novel historian, will vouch for him.” For McClellan it was anotherwelcome bit of free advertising.8Both Hall and McClellan performed in the westernstage plays that Buffalo Bill and Buntline premiered inChicago in the 1870s, the decade before Cody launched hisWild West arena show with its exhibitions of marksmanship and horsemanship, Indians attacking the DeadwoodStage, and buffaloes and longhorns. McClellan’s hometown newspaper said he left Ogdensburg at age sixteen,about 1873, and joined Buffalo Bill in Chicago. McClellansharpened his firearms marksmanship and, after five yearswith Cody he formed a medicine show, hired some Indians, and toured New England before heading west. Hewas in the mainstream of medicine show culture when hecapitalized on the widespread belief that American Indians knew the secrets of the healing arts. McClellan anMajor Samuel S. “Buckskin Sam” Hall (right) introduced a handsome young hero named Diamond Dick in his 1882 dime novel, Diamond Dick, the Dandy from Denver. Major Hall stated that hishero’s real name was George McClellan, “a living character to-day.”6 KANSAS HISTORYnounced variously that he learned from living with a Comanche medicine chief, or that he studied with a part-Mexican, part-native-Peruvian doctor in Boston and then addedremedies based on his own observations.9cClellan did not always travel with atroupe of entertainers; he could attract attention by himself, as he demonstrated inApril 1884 when he set up shop in the parlors of the International Hotel in LaCrosse,Wisconsin. His mode of operation was known in the tradeas “office consultation.” In his newspaper advertising, McClellan announced that he “treats his patients by IndianMethods alone!” Along with testimonials from patientselsewhere in Wisconsin, he proclaimed: “The children of theprairie and of the forest instinctively know what herbs androots of medicinal qualities to use in their cases of sickness,and the Doctor, long a resident of the villages of the RedMen . . . learned the ART OF HEALING, and the correct useof over Two Hundred Indian Medicines.” To further makeknown his presence in LaCrosse, McClellan proceeded to ashooting gallery where he shot ninety-eight birds out of onehundred and announced that he would shoot one hundredbirds in succession on the coming Saturday.10LaCrosse, however, was the home of Dr. David Franklin“White Beaver” Powell, a medical-school-educated halfSeneca Indian who claimed to be the “Medicine Chief of theWinnebago Indians.” He and his physician brothers,George “Night Hawk” and Will “Bronco Billie,” operated aclinic in LaCrosse. White Beaver Powell was a veteran ofBuffalo Bill’s theatrical productions, too, and a Cody buddyand business partner for years. McClellan must haveknown this, and it is curious that he chose to take his “Indian methods alone!” to compete with the Powells on theirhome ground. In his advertising, McClellan’s head-andshoulders sketch resembled that of White Beaver in hisads—broad-brimmed hat, flowing hair, mustache— although McClellan’s thin nose and more delicate featuresgave him the refined appearance of a ladies’ man.119. James Monaghan, “The Stage Career of Buffalo Bill,” Journal of theIllinois Historical Society 31 (December 1938): 411–16; St. Lawrence Republican (Ogdensburg, N.Y.), December 20, 1911; Robert A. Carter, Buffalo BillCody, The Man Behind the Legend (New York City: John Wiley and Sons,2000), 221; LaCrosse Morning Chronicle, April 10, 1884; Standard (Leavenworth), December 10, 1887.10. LaCrosse Morning Chronicle, April 10, 1884.11. Eric V. Sorg, “Buffalo Bill’s Crony, Dr. Frank ‘White Beaver’ Powell, Brought the Art of Self-Promotion to New Heights,” Wild West 8 (OcWithin a week after arriving in LaCrosse, McClellanwas charged with “assuming the title of Doctor (and) prefixing . . . Dr. to his name.” His ads ceased the day that thedistrict attorney dismissed the case. Three days later policeagain arrested McClellan, this time in the hotel diningroom, for “disorderly and boisterous conduct.” He resistedand faced still more charges. After a night in jail, he admitted in court that he had been drunk. His fine was minimal,but he was ordered to post two hundred dollars’ bond tokeep the peace. The newspaper reported Drs. George andWill Powell put up the bond; the next day McClellan denied that the Powells had done so. After that, McClellandropped out of sight in LaCrosse.12In April 1885 he turned up in St. Louis claiming to haveamassed a fortune practicing medicine in Dakota Territoryand Montana. The LaCrosse paper reprinted an item froman unidentified St. Louis newspaper that described McClellanin a velvet shooting suit worn alternatively with afaultless suit of cadet gray with a long Prince Albertcoat. A cluster of diamonds as big as a hen’s eggsparkled from his shirt front . . . he presented all thebreeziness of a border scout . . . with all the refinementof manner and grace of a parlor knight. . . . Dr. McClellan caused quite a flutter among the Ladies whomhe chose to encounter in his wanderings.The St. Louis Globe-Democrat said the doctor was in the cityto arrange a match with the world champion rifle marksman, W. F. “Doc” Carver, but the challenge was “unnoticed.” However, “The Doctor made many pleasant acquaintances while in the city, and has been royallyentertained.”13A significant part of his public relations success wasbased on his clothing, whether western buckskins andboots or somewhat more cosmopolitan. He impressed reporters, as was proven again when he entered a hotel inDenver:tober 1994): 88–94; Mary Hardgrove Hebbard, “Notes on Dr. DavidFranklin Powell, known as ‘White Beaver,’” Wisconsin Magazine of History 15 (Summer 1952): 306–9. White Beaver Powell was elected mayor ofLaCrosse in 1885.12. State of Wisconsin v George B. McClellan, alias Diamond Dick, Criminal Docket, 1862–, 1883–1895, Police Justice Court, LaCross, 73–4;LaCrosse Morning Chronicle, April 16–18, 1884.13. LaCrosse Morning Chronicle, May 19, 1885, quoting an unnamedSt. Louis newspaper; St. Louis Globe-Democrat, May 14, 1885.MDOCTOR DIAMOND DICK 7panels in the reception area displayed the herbs fromwhich his remedies were extracted, with the Indian nameof the plant at the top and the Latin below. He told the interviewer that he had traveled “nearly all the railroad territory of the United States” with five attendants, first andsecond chefs, and a press agent. Perhaps the band members did double duty.16A Sioux City, Iowa, reporter remembered him favorably as “the physician who traveled through this countryseveral years ago in a palace car.” A journalist in Davenport, Iowa, recalled him in a different light: “a travelingquack doctor who came here on his tour in his most elegant private car which afterward proved to be someoneelse’s car, and who traveled this and other states in highfeather till misfortune and the Iowa medical law quietedhim for a time.” Because he was “tiring of the road andwith other arrangements in prospect,” the doctor disposedof the car in May 1887.17The next month an item in the New York Clipper, a national weekly paper of theatrical and sports news, report16. Collections of the Library of Congress, Z62 / Z19657 / 105808;Standard, December 10, 1887.17. Sioux City (Iowa) Journal, October 4, 1888; Davenport (Iowa) EveningDemocrat Gazette, February 4, 1888; Leavenworth Times, June 29, 1887.Dr. G. B. McClellan, or “Diamond Dick,” as he is familiarly known in the towns along the Missouri river,arrived in the city yesterday and wrote his nameacross the page of the Windsor register. The visitorcreated a sensation as he walked gracefully across therotunda . . . attired in a faultlessly fitting light yellowsuit and overcoat with black satin front, his long wavylocks being topped off with a broad brimmed whitehat. Colonel Cody and Jack Crawford, the “PoetScout,” are not to be named in the same breath withthe latest windfall from the Prohibition town of Leavenworth, Kas. “Diamond Dick” is credited withbreaking more susceptible female hearts and going“busted” oftener than any other man west of the Mississippi.14The doctor had flush times and lean times, possibly because he could not escape his reckless nature. Johnny Baker,Buffalo Bill Cody’s “foster son,” was present when McClellan entered Guy Laing’s saloon, a Cody hangout in NorthPlatte, Nebraska. McClellan was wearing thirty thousanddollars worth of diamonds on his clothes. He insisted onplaying pool for big stakes, and someone took him on. Oneby one the doctor tore the diamonds from his clothes untilhis opponent won them all. The angered doctor smashedhis billiard cue in two. Baker was standing nearby and McClellan handed him the pieces.15When he was prosperous, McClellan acquired an orchestra and a railway palace car. A photo, “Dr. DiamondDick’s Orchestra 1886,” now in the Library of Congress, depicts seven white men wearing gold-braid-decorated military-style tunics and pillbox hats (like that of a hotel bellboy). In a newspaper interview, McClellan claimed that therailroad car had been built to his order with laboratory, consultation parlors, and reception rooms. Frontier scenesadorned the portals and, inside, the patient found luxurious ormulu and plush decoration. According to McClellan,14. Rocky Mountain News (Denver), December 7, 1891.15. Clarence Reckmeyer, letter to the editor, recounting a 1929 conversation with Johnny Baker, ioffer., July 11, 1943,According to his hometown newspaper, McClellan left home at agesixteen to join Buffalo Bill Cody in Chicago. After five years withCody, he formed his own medicine show but continued to claim aclose friendship with the Wild West showman. His plan to againjoin Cody’s show in London a decade later did not materialize.8 KANSAS HISTORYed that “the handsome Diamond Dick (Dr. G. B. McClellan)” had been a guest of the Pain-King Company whichwas playing in a tent at Atchison, Kansas, and that on July10 he would sail for Europe to join “Buffalo Bill’s Wild WestShow in London, where he has the medicine privilege.” McClellan probably was the source of that report. Soon after, hetold the Leavenworth Times that he would “join Buffalo Billwith whom he is upon terms of the most intimate friendship.” But McClellan did not join Cody, and he did not explain the change of plans. Perhaps he had not realized atfirst that White Beaver Powell was in England with Cody.18nstead, in that summer of 1887 McClellan brought amedicine show to Leavenworth. On a lot betweenthe high school and the courthouse, not the usualshow ground, he pitched tents, presenting a freeshow: his fancy shooting demonstrations, several Indians, a troupe of trapeze artists, and a band. Leavenworth’s initial reaction was mixed. A letter to the Leavenworth Standard complained that “sixteen bawdy housescould not create as much disturbance” as the “hoodlums”whose “howlings” were “an insult to the genteel, quiet andorderly citizens” of the neighborhood. The show was “infront of the residences of two ex-governors, one ex-secretary of state, a county attorney, and a retired merchant.”19The fuss, of course, played into McClellan’s plans; hetold a reporter “the novelty of the plans I adopt to secure at18. New York Clipper, June 18, 1887; Leavenworth Times, June 29, 1887.19. Leavenworth Times, June 24, 28–29, 1887; Standard, June 21, 24–25,27–28, 1887.tention may, in some cases, prejudice people against me.” Leavenworth knew he hadarrived in town.20Both local newspapers carried McClellan’s ads. Although the critical letters appeared in the Standard, the paper announced, “The free show is not botheringthe Standard any.” Later, as McClellan prepared to moveon, the Times commented:it was a pleasure these quiet summer evenings to listen to the music of his band and see his slow procession, with himself seated in the elegant six-horsebarouche. . . . The people enjoyed the novel scene, themusic and the quiet manners of Diamond Dick. Theybelieved in the virtues of his medicines, they were astonished at his wonderful shots with the deadly rifle,and they learned to listen to his voice. . . . [He is] awonderful character, a genial gentleman, and a genius in his way . . . [who provided] one of the mostentertaining entertainments perhaps ever given inLeavenworth. . . . He did more. He cured hundreds ofpersons of diseases.21The doctor was thirty years old. Marriage is not mentioned in any of the information uncovered about him.Once, however, he was joined by a well-endowed showwoman: “Mrs. Dr. Lighthall,” as the Standard called her. Shewas the widow of Dr. Jim Lighthall, “The Diamond King,”another young and flamboyant herb, root, and bark doctorwho died of smallpox in 1886. She inherited his caravan,“tents that rival the alleged luxurious cavaransaries [sic] ofthe Arabs,” and jewels, including “a sapphire the size of apigeon’s egg.” The press reported that McClellan wouldtravel with her and sell his medicines while she extractedteeth. They were said to be heading for Chicago. Again,plans changed. McClellan returned two months later; there20. Leavenworth Times, August 25, 1887.21. Ioffer., July 12, 1887; Standard, June 28, 1887.A reckless spender, McClellan indulged himself inexpensive gems, fine clothes, an opulent private railcar, and his own Dr. Diamond Dick orchestra thattraveled with him in 1886–1887.IDOCTOR DIAMOND DICK 9was no further mention of her, and he announced thatLeavenworth and Kansas City would be his headquartersfor the winter, evidently without his tent show.22A full-page ad in the Times featured a two-column bustsketch of Dr. McClellan, bordered by testimonials, somefrom Leavenworth residents with names and addressesand others from Des Moines and Ottumwa, Iowa. Much ofthe page contained “Hygienic Rules” and “Dietetic Rules,”most of which would not seem out of place in a health magazine today. With the rules, the doctor slipped in a disclaimer: “These rules must be complied with, otherwise Iwill not hold myself responsible for any failure of my medication.” He continually kept his name before newspaperreaders with items—some as short as three lines—in thecolumns of local happenings; most items probably werepaid for but not identified as advertising. He offered freevaccinations and made certain that his gifts of five dollarsto each resident of the Soldiers’ Home were noted in print.Interviews were granted readily; in one he explained thatas “a progressive herbal physician,” he used no mineralsbecause “the art of healing consists merely in proper selection and applying of proper portions of plants, herbs, roots,flowers, seeds, etc., by skillful chemistry.”23At Christmas, patients sent him presents until his hotelrooms “were a sight to see. . . . The doctor is in a quandery[sic] as to what to do with all these articles.” After a bigsnow that winter, “the merry jingle of bells” sounded as“bobsleds, rockaways, cutters [and] gigs” created “a jollystream that glided up and down Delaware street. . . . Diamond Dick’s long hair waved on the breeze as he spedalong behind a pair of fine dapple grays.”24McClellan announced that he was leasing the secondfloor of the Shoyer building at Fifth and Delaware Streetsfor a dispensary and laboratory where, with six assistants,he would produce his “kidney and liver and lung remedies.” He said his large collection of Indian relics would beon display. At an open house on January 25, 1888, a reporterwas impressed by the suite:fitted up magnificently, with no limit as to expense. . . .With the dividing doors thrown open[,] the apartmentshave more the appearance of a grand salon than theconsultation room of a physician, and were it not forthe laboratory . . . a stranger might be justified in believing he had strolled into a palace unawares. The ceilings of the rooms are frescoed and a famous paintingby an Italian master graces the ladies’ consultationroom. . . . Resting over the top of [an] arch, amid rollingclouds of vapor, is the northern hemisphere. The mistsrolling downward on the left hand side of the arch disclose and frame an Indian summer scene. . . . On theother side . . . a winter scene is depicted.Nor was that all. In the reception room, “a beautiful Chickering upright [piano] reposes in a corner . . . and the curtaindraperies are expensive and elegant.”25The reporter chatted with the doctor who revealed that“since his sixteenth birthday he has amassed several fortunes which he has crystalized in diamonds, his one absorbing penchant,” and he showed the reporter “a wealth ofbeautiful gems.” Early in the article McClellan mentioned 22. Standard, July 23, 1887; Oliver, “Med Show,” 169, 174; Fowler,Mystic Healers and Medicine Shows, 61–62; Leavenworth Times, September30, December 15, 1887.23. Leavenworth Times, November 13, 1887.24. Standard, December 27, 1887, January 14, 1888. 25. Ioffer., December 10, 1887, January 25, 1888.During his stay in Leavenworth, McClellan advertised in bothof the town’s newspapers, touting his healing successes withproper use of plants, herbs, and roots by “skillful chemistry.”This ad appeared in the July 5, 1888, Leavenworth Times.Clellan found Leavenworth a fertile field, and the town remembered him for years. At his death in 1911, the Timesreminisced:Every afternoon a victoria, drawn by four of the finesthorses in the city and driven by a colored coachman,would dash up to the entrance to the stairway [of thesuite he acquired in 1888]. Dick would take his placein the back seat of the open carriage. His hair waslong and curly, he wore a white felt hat with a verybroad brim and he was dressed in a black silk velvetsuit. Probably no more striking figure was ever seenin Leavenworth. . . . As soon as Dick had taken hisseat the equipage would go dashing through the principal streets, followed by a crowd of boys. At intervalsDick would fling a handful of coins out to the boyswhich, of course, made a great scrambling . . . and created the impression that he was a man who mademoney easy and a lot of it.29eginning in mid-summer 1888 McClellan hit themedicine show trail with a new attraction: KateBaker’s Ladies’ Silver Cornet Band. (The author’s grandmother and great-aunt were members of the band.) After dates in Topeka, KansasCity, and elsewhere on the way north, McClellan and thenine-woman band arrived in Sioux City, Iowa, for the CornPalace Festival. “The band is in the city,” the Sioux CityJournal reported, “in the interest of the famous Dr. Diamond Dick, who takes this way of advertising his infirmaryat Leavenworth, Kansas. The doctor is stopping at theBooge [Hotel] with his band, and will be remembered bymany in this section . . . and he says he wants to see his oldfriends.” After an impromptu performance in front of thehotel, the musicians marched to the Corn Palace where, thenewspaper said, the band would play twice a day duringthe festival week. [That would be time enough for the “oldfriends” to call at the hotel and buy more medicines.] According to the paper, the musicians were “the only femaleband in America with a lady drum major [and] the ladiesare fine musicians, all young and quite attractive. . . . Hegives the Corn Palace free use of his elegant band.”30Two weeks later the editor of the Wayne (Nebraska) Herald was less favorably impressed: “Diamond Dick and his10 KANSAS HISTORY26. Ioffer., January 25, 1888; Leavenworth Times, June 29, 1887.27. Evening Standard (Leavenworth), April 5, 1888.28. Ioffer., April 3, 5, 20, 28, May 15, 23, June 1, 14, 1888; LeavenworthTimes, July 4, 1888.29. Leavenworth Times, July 12, November 8, 1887, December 15, 1911.30. Aledo (Ill.) Democrat, July 6, 1888; Lenore Boyd to Charles Finch,October 11, 1888, collection of L. Boyd Finch, Tucson; Sioux City Journal,October 4, 1888.“his sixteen years of his professional career;” later on hetold the reporter he had “just turned his 28th birthday.”Perhaps he considered that his “professional career” beganwith collecting medicinal plants as a youth, thus supporting the essence of the tale in Buckskin Sam Hall’s dimenovel. When Dr. McClellan was seeing patients in his parlors, the paper learned, his long hair was tied in a knot onthe back of his head. In one morning, he said, he prescribedfor over fifty persons “and was somewhat exhausted fromhis labors.”26When spring arrived, McClellan advertised:The singing of the birds, the budding of the trees,the opening of the flowers, the shooting of the grassproclaim that spring has arrived and the season isupon us when all nature renovates, purifies, arousesand cleanses herself from the elements of death anddecay. So the human system requires cleansing,strengthening and invigorating to endure the comingoppressive summer weather. The public of Leavenworth hail with delight that the talented doctor willagain appear in public before his numerous friendsand admirers . . . next Saturday evening and dispenseto the afflicted his . . . Indian remedies.27For once, McClellan publicized some of his productsby name, although not revealing their contents. He advised that his “Indian Sure Kidney Cures,” “CelebratedCough Elixer,” and “Spring Blood Purifier” were for sale athis infirmary. A few weeks later the doctor advertised thathis remedies “May Now Be Had at All Druggists.” His“Cough Elixer” sold for fifty cents and the other nostrumscost one dollar. From Leavenworth he traveled afield, seeing patients in McLouth and Onaga; a testimonial appeared from a patient in Easton. Dates when the doctorwould be at his infirmary were published: “Call early toavoid rush of patients in the afternoon,” he advised.28The press noted that “as the hero of many wild western novels. . . under the name of ‘Diamond Dick’ he is already familiar to the thousands of readers of that class offiction.” Moreover, the real McClellan was becoming alocal celebrity: “He certainly is a wonder in his way. Herides gracefully, shoots a gun with astonishing skill, andtalks as well as any platform le