Nevada Genealogy Trails Elko County J. F. Triplett Biography

J. F. TRIPLETT, a citizen of the town of Elko, is one of the oldest living pioneers of Nevada. His career has been eventful enough to furnish material for a book, and few men have seen more or been more closely identified with the kaleidoscopic life of the west during the last half century.

From boyhood he has been acquainted with the scenes of the Pacific slope, and has traveled pretty much over all that part of the world. He has had experience as a miner in California and in Nevada, has tried the rough life of the cowboy and freighting and teaming among the mountains and plains of Nevada, was in the livery and stock-raising business for some time, and in the public service of his state as an officer ot the law and an Indian fighter won many laurels for his courage and rendered more secure both the lives and property of the citizens. It was while in pursuit of horse and cattle thieves that he made his first acquaintance with what is now Nevada, in 1855, and only two years later became a permanent settler near where the town of Genoa now stands, being among the very first to locate there.

Mr. Triplett is of a southern family. His grandfather was a native of Culpeper county, Virginia, was one of the pioneers to the state of Kentucky, and afterward fought in the war of 1812. George W. Triplett, the father of J. F. Triplett, was born in Kentucky in 1809, and his wife, Pamelia Head, was a native of Scott county, that state, and the daughter of John Head also a Kentucky pioneer. George Triplett was a surveyor and surveyed all the Green river country of Kentucky. He passed all his life in Kentucky, and lived to be over seventy-five years old, while his wife was eighty-one at her death. They were members of the Baptist church. They were the parents of ten children, and five are living at the present time.

J. F. Triplett, the only representative of the family in Nevada, was born in Kentucky, in 1835. He received some educational advantages up to the time he was fourteen years old, but then began making his own way in the world. When seventeen, in 1852, he went to California by way of the Nicaraugua route, and made a living for a time by mining in Eldorado county. He then worked for Dorsey and Pierce, cattlemen of Placerville, and for several years was a cowboy in both California and Nevada. In 1857 he secured a claim to land near Genoa, Nevada, and began raising stock there. He cut the hay for his own use, and the cattle pastured on the bills. He and Sam Buckland built the first house on the big bend of the Carson river, in which he lived for several years. After this he freighted, with ox teams from Folsom and Placerville, California, to Carson City and Virginia City. Nevada, and as this was a paying enterprise at the time he continued it until 1863. In that year the mining excitement at Austin brought him to that place, and he mined and prospected, and was also in the livery business there for seven years. At that time he was under-sheriff of Lander county, under Sheriff Spires. Lander county then covered a great part of the state, including Eureka, and he was kept busy chasing criminals and outlaws of all kinds, especially stock thieves, and his successful efforts in this direction helped much to render industry profitable and living safe. Following this period of his life he moved to Lamoille valley, Elko county, and located lands, and had several ranches during the next ten years and was a successful grain and stock raiser. He had three or four hundred head of stock at a time, and prosperity smiled on his efforts so that he retired from the business in i88i and came to Elko for the purpose of educating his children. He still has four hundred and eighty acres of land in the valley and two good residences.

After coming to Elko to reside Mr. Triplett was appointed deputy sheriff under Ben Fitch, and was also employed by the Nevada Live Stock Association to pursue and arrest cattle thieves. He had charge of Mr. Fitch's office until the latter's term expired. During this time he had one of the most thrilling experiences of his life, and one that shows how courageous and determined Mr. Triplett has always been in the performance of duty. In the course of a long career among desperadoes he was continually in personal danger and almost daily running risks to make an ordinary man shudder, hut this particular occasion is deserving of mention in this biography.

Three cattle thieves had been arrested and jailed at Baker City, Oregon, but had broken jail and escaped into Nevada. Mr. Triplett was put on their trail. He started with five men, but after nine days fruitless pursuit they all gave up the chase, and he was left to follow alone. The trail was often lost on the stony ground, but he went on with dogged resolve to find his men. After fifteen days he got a man to accompany him, and on the twenty-ninth day he caught up with the gang. They were all large men, over six feet, and the leader was six feet four, and was armed with a long rifle. Mr. Triplett disguised himself as a farmer—which he certainly resembled, with his many days' growth of beard and rough looks—and entered their camp inquiring for a lost cow. He went on with them for some distance, all the time looking for a chance to get the man with the rifle by himself, and after capturing him the rest he thought would be easy. Finally, when the dinner hour arrived, they separated to get food, the leader going into one house and the other two further on to another. Mr. Triplett kept with the big: man, and, getting the drop on him, had him handcuffed and a prisoner before he could make a show of resistance. He bundled his captive into the wagon, and drove on to the house where the others were awaiting. Mr. Triplett, leaving his man in the wagon, with the admonition that he had better make no move to escape, rushed into the house, caught and handcuffed one of the thieves, but the other started to run out the back door. Mr. Triplett followed him, and, after a brief struggle, succeeded in putting the irons on him also. He had done all this with only slight assistance, and he then ordered the precious trio to sit down to the table, with one hand free, and eat their dinner before their long journey back to Oregon. There was great excitement in Baker City when Mr. Triplett arrived with his three prisoners, and there was strong talk of lynching them before they could reach the jail. On coming to the outskirts of the crowd which packed all approaches to the jail, Mr. Triplett placed a revolver in the hand of each of the prisoners, and told them to defend themselves if an assault was made. He then ordered the crowd to stand back, and clearing a path brought the men without harm through to the prison, delivering them to the sheriff and receiving a receipt for them in due form. So grateful were all the citizens of the town that they gave him the best they had without a cent of remuneration, and he was also given a ticket back to Elko, besides other rewards. The names of the thieves were Steel and two Prcscotts. and they were convicted and sent to the Salem penitentiary for ten years.

In i860, during the Piute Indian outbreak, Mr. Triplett joined a company of cowboys under Captain Sam Wallace. There were forty-seven of them, armed with rifles, but when they came upon the Indians, the latter were so strong that they were obliged to fall back and wait for more men. Being reinforced to one hundred and twenty-nine men. they went against nine hundred Indians, and in a fight lasting all day and until night they killed forty-six of the redskins and lost but two of their own men, and compelled the Indians to retreat. It was a desperate conflict, and every white man earned the title of hero. A short time before the Indians had annihilated Major Ormsby's company, and by this success were emboldened to further violence, which was effectually checked, however, by the brave cowboys.

Mr. Triplett was married in 1867 to Miss Emma T. Sheldon, who was born in Chicago and reared in the state of Illinois, and was the daughter of Philo Sheldon, who brought his family to California when Mrs. Triplett was ten years old. Three children have been born of this marriage, all in Nevada. Phil is editor of the Wells (Nevada) Herald; Dora is the wife of George W. Bruce, of Elko; and Emma is at home with her parents.

Mr. Triplett has been a life-long Democrat. He received his Master Mason's degree in 1867, in Austin Lodge No. 10. F. & A. M.. and for four years was its secretary, and has also served as secretary of Elko Lodge No. 15. for ten years, and has held the office of junior warden. Mr. Triplett has not entirely given up his old love for mining life, and about once a year goes out on a prospecting trip. He located two claims on Bald mountain for which he was paid one thousand dollars without having done any development work on them. Mr. Triplett is a splendidly preserved specimen of the Nevada pioneer, and his worth as a citizen, a public official and business man marks him as a man of influence and power in his county ami state.