Person:James Hume (3)

Notes for JAMES BUNYON HUME: James and his brother John went west with their own gold mining company in 1850. They settled in Placerville, El Dorado County, CA. James mined and carried on various kinds of business in parts of the state until he became a deputy in the tax collector's office in El Dorado, Mar. 4, 1860. Two years later, he became city marshal and chief of police, the under-sheriff, and finally sheriff, in 1870. In 1872, he was asked to take the job of deputy warden in the State Prison at Carson City, Nevada, after a major prison break. He succeeded in restoring order to the prison, and returned to Placerville after eleven months. In 1873, Wells Fargo offered him the position of special officer. He accepted, and pursued this work until his death in 1904, achieving a national reputation as a detective. His most famous case was the pursuit of Black Bart, the stagecoach robber. During his service, he handled many intricate and complex cases in all sections of the United States and Mexico. He was known as "invariably just, dispassionate and generous" with men under arrest.

According to his biography, James took the middle name Bunyan to avoid confusion with his brother. (Both were known by the same initials.) Bunyan was said to be the name of a branch of the Hume family.

James mentioned a cousin, John Kedzie, in his autobiography. This man must have been the son of Margaret Hume (Robert Jr.'s sister) and James Kedzie) The Kedzie's (perhaps a variant of McKenzie) came on the same ship with the Humes in 1795.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article James B. Hume.