Program

Great American Rail-Trail

Subject

People, Site

Location

88087 448th Ave, Bassett, NE 68714, USA

Lat/Long

42.593024627776, -99.519395545866

Grant Recipient

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

Albert “Kid” Wade was a young Western outlaw and a notorious horse thief in the late 19^th century. He had learned the tricks of the trade from his mentor, the infamous horse bandit, Doc Middleton. Kid was the leader of the Niobrara gang of horse and cow thieves in Nebraska and was said to be “the most daring and successful horse thief in the gang” (“In The Toils,” 1884).

By 1884, when Kid was in his early twenties, he had served one term in a state prison in Sioux City, and was indicted in Nebraska, Dakota, Iowa, Wyoming, and Montana. One day that year, Kid was captured by vigilantes. These men, Captain C. C. Dodge, Charles Messenger, Michael Coleman, and Peter Hanson, were members of the Niobrara Valley Vigilance Committee and had set out to break up horse robbing gangs and restore order to the area. The vigilantes received word that Kid was hiding in the Broken Kettle region of Iowa. Messenger instructed the other men to stay in Le Mars while he set off to find Wade. Messenger bought a horse from Kid and tricked him into accompanying him to Le Mars to get the remaining balance. After they arrived in Le Mars, Messenger led Kid to a stable, where he was then ambushed and held at gunpoint by the other three vigilantes. Kid surrendered with the promise of a fair trial and was taken prisoner. The young man was so stunned and impressed that he reportedly gave Charles Messenger his saddle as a present for his successful capture. It was said that the vigilantes tried to get Kid to give the rest of the gang away by offering to spare his life, but he refused.

The sheriff eventually took custody of Wade, but a masked party of vigilantes, supposedly from Brown County, recaptured him on the night of February 6^th, 1884. Kid was found hung on a whistling post at a station on the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad a half mile east of Bassett, Nebraska the following morning. The rest of Kid’s gang was broken up as some members were imprisoned and others hung by vigilantes.

Sources:

In the Toils: The Capture of Albert Wade. (1884, January 18). The Daily Sentinel.