If you still have the saddle, there's a book with a chapter about John Harding and his wife Tilla -- it's a genealogy "Family of the Phoenix: Echoes from the Past" by Robert Keith (available on Amazon). As a child and young adult, John worked with his father in Ohio as a wool manufacturer -- when the Civil War broke out, they made a small fortune providing wool uniforms to the Union Army. After the war, John headed west with a wagon train to Diamond City, Montana where he opened a dry goods store. When the gold production slowed, he and his wife Tilla and their children headed to a new gold rush town of Deadwood in the Dakota territory. He arrived in Deadwood the same day Wild Bill Hickok had been shot in the back of the head and killed. John opened another dry goods store in Deadwood, and Calamity Jane is said to have become friends with John's wife Tilla. He later became Postmaster and then served briefly as Speaker of the House for the Dakota territory (Harding county, SD is named for him). When he died, he was buried in the Mount Moriah Cemetery -- "Boot Hill" -- Deadwood, SD (the same cemetery where Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are buried). His wife and daughters are also buried there.
If you still have the saddle, there's a book with a chapter about John Harding and his wife Tilla -- it's a genealogy "Family of the Phoenix: Echoes from the Past" by Robert Keith (available on Amazon). As a child and young adult, John worked with his father in Ohio as a wool manufacturer -- when the Civil War broke out, they made a small fortune providing wool uniforms to the Union Army. After the war, John headed west with a wagon train to Diamond City, Montana where he opened a dry goods store. When the gold production slowed, he and his wife Tilla and their children headed to a new gold rush town of Deadwood in the Dakota territory. He arrived in Deadwood the same day Wild Bill Hickok had been shot in the back of the head and killed. John opened another dry goods store in Deadwood, and Calamity Jane is said to have become friends with John's wife Tilla. He later became Postmaster and then served briefly as Speaker of the House for the Dakota territory (Harding county, SD is named for him). When he died, he was buried in the Mount Moriah Cemetery -- "Boot Hill" -- Deadwood, SD (the same cemetery where Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are buried). His wife and daughters are also buried there.