Texas Jack Omohundro July 26, 1846 - June 28, 1880)

Texas Jack was a frontier scout, actor, and cowboy. He was born John B. Omohundro in Palmyra, Virginia, in 1846. In his early teens, he left home, made his way alone to Texas, and became a cowboy. Unable to join the Confederate Army in 1861 because of his youth, he entered Confederate service as a courier and scout. In 1864, he enlisted in Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's command as a courier and scout. Shortly after the Civil War Omohundro adopted a five year old boy whose parents had been killed by Native Americans. He cared for him and called him Texas Jack Jr., since his real last name was unknown. In 1869, he moved to Cottonwood Springs, Nebraska, near Fort McPherson and became a scout and buffalo hunter. There he met William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody. Together, they participated in Indian skirmishes and buffalo hunts, acted as guides for notables such as the Earl of Dunraven, and led the highly publicized royal hunt of 1872 with Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia and a group of prominent American military figures. Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill traveled to Chicago in December 1872 to debut in "The Scouts of the Prairie", one of the original Wild West shows produced by Ned Buntline. Critics described Omohundro as physically impressive and magnetic in personality. He was the first performer to introduce roping acts to the American stage. During the 1873-74 season, Omohundro and Cody invited their friend Wild Bill Hickok to join them in a new play called "Scouts of the Plains." During the 1870s, Texas Jack divided his time between the Eastern stage circuit and the hunting ranges of the Great Plains. He guided hunting parties that included European nobility. On August 31, 1873, Omohundro married Giuseppina Morlacchi, a dancer and actress from Milan, Italy, who starred with him in the "Scouts of the Prairie" and other shows. He headed his own acting troupe in St. Louis in 1877. He also wrote articles about his hunting and scouting experiences, published in eastern newspapers and popular magazines. The Texas Jack legend grew in many dime novels, particularly those written by Col. Prentiss Ingraham. In 1900, Joel Chandler Harris featured Texas Jack in a series of fictional accounts of the Confederacy for the Saturday Evening Post. Texas Jack died of pneumonia in 1880 in Leadville, Colorado, and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery there. Texas Jack, Jr. carried on in the wild west show business around the world, especially in South Africa.


Left to right: Ned Buntline, Bufalo Bill Cody, Giuseppina Morlacchi, Texas Jack Omohundro