On his thirtieth birthday, Samuel Brown, described by Henry Van Sickle as a lawless desperado whose name inspired terror, came to Van Sickle’s station boasting that he had killed eleven men and intended to make Van Sickle his twelfth victim. When Brown refused an offer to stable his horse and declared that he had come to kill him, drawing his gun at once, the unarmed Van Sickle fled into the saloon and through the dining hall to retrieve his shotgun. Brown pursued with his six-shooter cocked, but the station was full of men, creating chaos and confusion, and Brown fled southbound. Believing Brown would kill him the next time he had the chance, Van Sickle followed in pursuit, and gunfire with near misses continued along a ten-mile stretch between Van’s and Lute Old’s station, including a shot that blew off Brown’s hat and burned his face. Brown first sought refuge at Mott’s Station and then headed toward Lute Old’s station, but Van Sickle reached it ahead of Brown and his injured horse. As Brown stepped out, Van Sickle answered Brown’s earlier threat with one of his own and shot him with seven buckshots through the center of his body, killing him instantly as he fell from his horse. After insisting on vindication, Van Sickle faced an investigation and trial, and on July 9, 1861, a coroner’s jury fully exonerated him, officially ruling Brown’s death a just dispensation of an all-wise providence. At his own expense, Van Sickle paid to have Samuel Brown well buried.