Outlaws And Lawmen In The 1800's

There were many stories told about outlaws and lawmen during the 1800s in America, and many of them originated from the “Wild West.” There have been stories and legends about people who robbed banks, committed homicide, or threw wanted criminals in jail. Often, people would stretch the truth of what westerners actually did, to make their tale more compelling. The same goes for a popular stagecoach driver of the mid 1800s, a man named Charley Parkhurst, who is best known for being a woman disguised as a man.
It is believed that Charlotte “Charley” Parkhurst was born in New Hampshire around 1812. There are stories that say she was put in a Massachusetts orphanage at an early age and hated living there, so when she turned fifteen she dressed up as a boy and escaped from her old home to find labor, for girls

, Realizing that he had potential, Parkhurst’s manager started to teach him to drive stagecoaches, starting with one horse. Charley was soon able to drive six horses at a time. It is unclear where Parkhurst lived at this time, but his fame began when he moved to California in the early 1850s and drove stagecoaches. Charley was best known for being a valiant and skilled stagecoach driver all across the Sierras, for there were the factors of stormy weather and “runaway teams,” or bandits, who would steal from stagecoaches. ,
Parkhurst was known for his traits of being tough, skillful, and brave. There was one story where Charley was robbed by the same bandit twice. The second time, he was prepared and shot the wanted criminal, Sugarfoot, dead. Nobody messed with Charley Parkhurst’s stagecoach again. There was another story where he was kicked in the face by a horse when he was trying to shoe it. He was then called “One-Eyed Charley” because he had to wear an eye patch over the injured