The Search for James D. Cannon and Joseph Cramer by Carol Turner

the wrong Helen Cannon

James Dean Cannon was a Lieutenant in the First New Mexico Infantry when he was assigned to Fort Lyon in Colorado in 1864. He was present at the Sand Creek massacre and afterward testified against Chivington.

Cannon was also a friend of Silas Soule. After Soule was murdered, Cannon was the man who brought the assassin, Charles Squires, into Denver to face court martial. A couple days after his arrival in Denver with Squires, in July of 1865, Cannon was found dead in his room at the Tremont Hotel in Denver. Of course, rumors abounded that he had been murdered.

While I was researching Cannon for my book (Forgotten Heroes and Villains of Sand Creek), I found a lot of information about his role in the massacre and subsequent investigations, along with the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death. However, finding biographical information about him was another matter. He turned out to be the most elusive of all my subjects.

In the 1860 census, I did find a James D. Cannon born in 1836 in Kentucky to a large family. Kentucky was a neutral state during the Civil War so it’s conceivable that James Cannon might have left home, headed west and ended up in a Union infantry in New Mexico. However, I have no real proof that the fellow I found is the right Cannon.

There is a single card in his Civil War pension file that mentions the name of a wife, Helen, but I got no hits for a James and Helen Cannon of that period in the ancestry records.

After Cannon was found dead at the Hotel Tremont, he was buried in Denver. Like Silas Soule, he was probably interred at Mount Prospect, which later became City Cemetery.

I was hoping that he might have been moved to Riverside, as Soule was, so I drove out to Riverside on a crisp winter afternoon and took a little walking tour through the Civil War section. I saw a lot of names that I recognized from reading through all the Sand Creek investigations and other sources, but no James Cannon. I headed into the office. Garry O’Hara was there and we searched through the books for James D. Cannon. No hit. My guess is that James Cannon is probably one of the four thousand or so folks who are still buried beneath Cheesman Park.

Garry suggested we have a look in the Riverside books for Helen Cannon. This time we had a hit. I noted the location and walked out to have a look. I found this repaired tombstone but was sorry to see she was noted as the wife of O.R. cannon, and not James. Like James, Helen Cannon remains a mystery. I hope someday that I can find out more about them.

When I attended the Sand Creek healing run ceremony at Riverside a couple years ago, I assumed that Joseph Cramer was buried there as well. The Cheyenne and Arapaho honor Cramer along with Soule — Cramer also wrote a letter about the massacre that is comparable to Soule’s in its details and condemnation of the attack. He also gave a scathing testimony against Chivington and Anthony.

As I later discovered, there is no Joseph Cramer at Riverside. Through sheer luck, I hooked up with another researcher — Vicki Casteel, an archivist at the Indiana State Archives. She had information that Cramer was buried at Prairie Mound Cemetery in Solomon, Kansas. Cramer was a sheriff there when he died at a young age — reportedly of injuries suffered from a riding accident while he was stationed at Fort Lyon.

I mentioned this to Byrom Strom, Silas Soule’s descendant who lives in Iowa. By coincidence, he was soon visiting his father in Kansas. During that visit, he and his father, E. Malcom Strom, drove out to Prairie Mound one day but were unable to find Cramer’s grave. Since the place is a little far away from me, I had resigned myself to not having any really pertinent images for my Joseph Cramer chapter.

Then, Vicki got me in touch with a woman named Sharon Crowder who lived near Prairie Mound. Sharon graciously went out and took a picture of his grave for me. Unfortunately, her photograph did not match the specs required by my publisher so I couldn’t use it.

Luckily for me, E. Malcom Strom decided he just couldn’t stay away from the place and took another trip out there. This time, he found Cramer’s grave and got a nice shot that I was able to use in the book.

I do hope that the folks who live in Solomon, Kansas area recognize that they’ve got a true hero buried in their cemetery.