1854 in the American Old West

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See also: 1853 in the American Old West, other events of 1854, 1855 in the American Old West and the list of 'years in the American Old West'.

[edit] Events

• February 13 - Mexican troops force would be conqueror William Walker and his mercenary troops to retreat to Sonora.
• February 14 - Texas is linked by telegraph with the rest of the United States, when a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas is completed.
• May 30 - Kansas-Nebraska Act becomes law, rescinding the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and creating Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory. Provision that settlers will vote on slavery in the new territories leads to Bleeding Kansas violence beginning the next year.
• June - The Grand Excursion takes prominent Eastern United States inhabitants from Chicago, Illinois to Rock Island, Illinois by railroad, then up the Mississippi River to St. Paul, Minnesota by steamboat.
• July 6 - First statewide meeting of the Republican Party, formed in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, is held in Jackson, Michigan

[edit] Births

• May 24 - John Riley Banister, law officer, cowboy, and Texas Ranger (d. 1918)
• June 14 - Dave Rudabaugh (Dirty Dave), outlaw (d. 1886)
• Luke Short, gunfighter (d. 1893)

[edit] Deaths

• Chief Conquering Bear, Lakota Sioux