And the At one time, the life of soon to be outlaw Sam Bass showed promise. The poor Indiana farm boy braved the childhood hardship of losing

his older brother, then his mother, and then his father. He and his younger siblings survived

difficult and strained living conditions.

During and after the Civil War, Sam read stories of the developing West in the early pioneers.

Frontiersmen like Kit Carson, Daniel Boone, and Davy Crockett.

But Sam was especially drawn to the first generation of cowboys who drove cattle on the trails between Texas and Kansas.

After the loss of their parents, Sam and his siblings had been uprooted and moved to their

uncle's farm.

Dave Sheeks was a hard man, and Sam bristled under his uncle's strict rules and grinding

workload.

More and more Sam dreamed of becoming a Texas cowboy. He wanted freedom and adventure and the stories he found in newspapers and dime novels indicated there were lots of both in Texas.

When Sam Bass and his Uncle Dave finally had it out, Sam decided to leave the farm and strike out on his own.

He headed to St. Louis, Missouri, and then he took a steamboat down the Mississippi

river to Rosedale, Mississippi. He was hungry and broke, but he soon found a

job at a sawmill. He had spent long hours toiling away at Uncle Dave's sawmill, and he had hated it, but now he found

a use for the things he had learned.

In Rosedale, Sam learned how to play a mean game of poker and how to handle a pistol.

After a year or so, he was ready to strike out on his own again.

Having saved up enough money to buy himself a good horse and a good saddle, Sam Bass was Texas Bound.

He settled in Denton, north of Dallas.

A few years later, he partnered with a saloon owner in San Antonio named Joel Collins.

They sold pretty much everything of value, bought a cattle herd, hired some cowboys, and

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