It was uncommon to have a debutant lobbyist in 1866, especially one such as Belle Siddons.
Known for her charm and beauty, she claimed to be the catalyst with members of government for the passing of mysterious bills, scandalous all-night parties and secretive trips to St. Louis.
However, Belle's mastery of Jefferson City's elite society was neither the beginning nor the end of her story.
Belle Siddons was born in Jefferson City around 1842, to a wealthy political family and raised on a plantation near St. Louis. Belle was a well-connected young woman with a bright future.
She attended Seminary School in Lexington, and she made her societal debut in Jefferson City after graduation. Several society columns made mention of her.
At the start of the Civil War, Siddons decided to use her wiles to benefit the rebel cause and became a Confederate spy. She gathered information from numerous love-struck Union soldiers to pass on to the rebels.
She made no secret of her duplicitous behavior. In 1862, a Union general became aware of her activity and issued a warrant for her arrest. Siddons wasted no time in fleeing, however it was not long before the authorities caught up with her. Not only did she have in her possession incriminating maps, she proudly admitted to being a spy when questioned.
Siddons received a sentence of one year in the Gratiot Street Prison in St. Louis. After only four months, they released her under the condition she would serve as a nurse for the remainder of the war.
When the war ended, she spent her time lobbying in the Capital City. This is where she met and married Kansas City surgeon Newt Hallet, and they moved to Texas. Her husband was quite fond of gambling and taught her to play cards. He spent his days patching up patients with Siddons as his nurse. Unfortunately, the seemingly happy marriage was short lived, when Newt died from illness within two years.
Distraught from the loss of her husband and the need to support herself, Siddons left Texas and made her way to the gambling halls of South Dakota. This was also when she began dabbling in drugs and alcohol.
Siddons, now known as "Madame Vestal," had jobs in various gambling halls as she made her way north. Becoming a specialist in dealing cards, she rarely lost. For those who crossed her path, losing to the beautiful Madam Vestal became a badge of honor.
Soon after arriving in Deadwood, South Dakota, Madam Vestal gained the name "Queen of the Black Hills." She would sit silently at the roulette table, in full costume of velvet gowns and ruby jewelry, shuffling cards, pistol on one side and stacks of money on the other.
It was not long before another man entered her life - Archie Cummings, a former guerilla raider. Together, they forged a plan, and she once again became a spy.
Siddons would sweet talk information out of stagecoach drivers, and Archie and his gang would lie in wait to rob the stagecoach of its valuables. Eventually, bounty hunters caught and executed Archie and his gang.
Guilt over the death of Archie engulfed Siddons. She spent the next few years wandering the west, drinking heavily, visiting opium dens and even attempting suicide. Eventually, she stopped in Nevada, where she married Eugene Holman. Eugene had a young daughter, and Siddons decided to settle down with family life.
With the help of her new husband, Siddons opened a musical theatre and took on the stage name "Lurline Monteverde." Things were finally looking up for her. However, it did not last. Her theater burned, and the devastation caused her to begin drinking again.
Eugene tried desperately to pull her out of depression. Unfortunately, when in a drunken state, she hit his daughter across the face with a liquor bottle. Eugene had enough, and Siddons was on her own again.
Newspaper accounts of her early life and census records readily exist. However, this is where truth meets legend in the life of Siddons. The rest of her story comes only from her own claims and Deadwood tales.
In 1881, she summoned a news reporter to the San Francisco jail after her arrest for public intoxication. Claiming she was on her deathbed, she wished to tell her story to the world. Although she usually loved attention, the story cast her in a negative light, focusing on her downfall and alcoholism.
There have been two claims regarding her death. One that she died from a drug overdose, and another that she died in jail. We may never know the true details of her colorful life and death. However, in the last century and a half, her legend has become the subject of many vibrant Wild West stories.
A lifelong Missouri resident, Carrie Mackey Hammond is a history educator at the Missouri State Museum in Jefferson City and a certified trainer for the National Association of Interpreters.