Richard "Dick" Bullock alias Deadwood Dick born 20th of August, 1847 died 1921
Crackshot
Cornishman who once sang in a
Methodist choir and later became a legendary figure of
the
Wild West,
Cowboy era. His quick-shooting deeds working on the
Deadwood stage, gained him the
nickname:-
Deadwood Dick.
Born the hamlet Ruthros near
St Columb Major,
Cornwall Soon after the family moved to nearby hamlet
of Retew, where his father Captain John Bullock became the manager of a local
clay-works.
The Bullock boys shared many a common traits - each strong as an ox, ardent Free Methodists and to a man crack sporting shooters. But Richard was, beyond question, the sharpest shot of the lot.
In Cornwall his prowess brought him trophies; in America, where he emigrated in his mid-twenties but it was not until he was 35 that Bullock started to get famous. While then working in the Black Hills of South Dakota, as a miner, on hearing how regularly the stage-coaches took their hard-won gold to the settlements were held up and robbed, that be gave up mining and volunteered himself as a bullion-guard for the Homestake Mine, then owned by Senator George Hearst, who was the father of William Randolph Hearst, the famed newspaper proprietor.
It is claimed that Bullock had a part in the death of Black hills outlaw by the name of Cornelius Donahue alias Lame Johnny, although some sources conflict.
In later years Bullock was a stock broker in Lead. He died at Thorncroft Sanatorium, Glendale, California, in 1921, aged 73.
The Western Morning News. Tuesday February 11th 1997