Frenchy the Bottle Fiend

Below is a photo from Deadwood Dakota Territory, date unclear.  It shows a hillside covered in empty bottles.  I first ran across it back in the early 1980's when I lived in South Dakota and knew various people interested in Territorial history, old bottles and old photographs.

The theories on this varied.  Often said to be "empties" cascading out the back of a raucous saloon, there was a counter theory that somebody had intentionally collected the bottles.  On a whim I did a bit of sleuthing, and the second theory is the correct one.

Lets talk about Frenchy the Bottle Fiend.

Start with the photo.  It was taken by a pioneer photographer of the West named Stanley J. Morrow.  He is known to have visited and photographed Deadwood on a number of occasions starting in 1876 when the mining boom town was established.  This photo is somewhere in the 1876-1878 time frame.  I found one frustratingly vague reference to its appearing in a "period publication" with the caption "Bottle Fiend's Ranch in Deadwood".  I suspect this was from later in the 19th century when somebody was putting together a retrospective of the town's colorful early days.  In any event, somebody remembered......

The first mention of The Fiend in contemporary newspapers comes from The Black Hills Weekly Times, March 23rd 1878.

His real name is variously given as Justin Cachlin or as Justa Cacheline.  He clearly came to Deadwood early on, but of his previous life there is little information.  Or rather, a bunch of dubious info.  The Deadwood paper speaks quite disparagingly of an account of The Bottle Fiend that appeared in a rival paper down the gulch in Lead.  It implausibly claimed that Cacheline had been a Lieutenant in the US Army that he was independently wealthy, and that he had amassed a half million bottles.  

Rather he seems to have been something of a harmless eccentric.  He wandered the streets of Deadwood in bizarre attire sometimes borrowed from household clotheslines.  He carried a sack which he filled with empty bottles, taking them back to his shanty.  Various accounts claim he intended to sell them back to the breweries and distilleries that sent them off to this thirsty boom town, but the logistics made this difficult.  There were at this time no trains into the gold mining region of the Black Hills.  Everything came in and went out on "bull trains" long lines of carts pulled by oxen.  A cargo of whiskey or even beer could pay off.  Hauling empty, smelly, clanking bottles back to civilization was less of a viable business.

Frenchy was a valued member of the community but seems to have been the butt of many jokes, practical, journalistic and otherwise.  Little boys would sometimes throw rocks at his collection of bottles.  He was hauled before the magistrate a few times on the plausible charge of public nuisance.  This April 1878 article suggests he was quite talkative but mostly in a nonsensical fashion.

The Bottle Fiend did not live an easy life.  In December of 1880 it was reported that he was very ill, "....all alone in his cabin, with only the ground for a bed and a lot of old rags for bedding."  Soon thereafter his obituary was published.  It appeared in papers across Dakota Territory.

His "strange and mysterious life" came to an end.  There was some attempt to carry on the task of clearing bottles from the saloons and gutters - one of the street commissioners took this on as a part time job and was proclaimed the new "bottle fiend".  But oddly, the legend of the Bottle Fiend carried on.

"Deadwood" was a fairly popular show for a while.  It was based on a book of the same name by South Dakota author Pete Dexter.  In the book, but not the show, The Bottle Fiend is a  supporting character.  Mr. Dexter seems to have done his research well, so his account of the Fiend working at the public baths and having attempted suicide repeatedly could have some basis in fact, even in a work of fiction.

The indispensable Find a Grave website lists yet another variation on his name "Justine Cochelin" date of birth unknown, place of birth "France".  He rests not on Boot Hill but at Mount Moriah Cemetery.