Jed

Dead Jed Barton. That's what they call him. And for good reason.

Jedidiah Franklin Barton was born in Ohio to Jedidiah and Alice Barton, the youngest of five children. They were by no means a wealthy family. His Pa was carpenter and his ma stayed at home to raise the children. When he was but knee-high his Pa heard about the gold rush and decided to move the family out westward-way to make their fortune.

The family sold all their belongings and made their way to Independence Missouri, where they bought a wagon and three yolk of oxen and joined a wagon train of six other families who were also heading out West. It started off as as easy travel, but the further out West they got the more grueling it became. Jed's pa proved quite useful to the wagon party, as he was a carpenter and could help fix broken wagon axels and tongues and wheels for anyone in the train.

Jed made friends with another boy about his age named Owen, and the two would use sticks to play, pretending they were guns and they were fighting off injuns, which remarkably they had yet to see on their travels. But Owen ended up catching dysentery and passed away on the border of Nebraska and Wyoming. It seemed their troubles were just starting after that. Jed's eldest sister got bit by a rattler and died shortly after that near Devil's Tower. And then just after they were set upon by bandits.

The bandits killed everyone in the party, all except Jed... whom the leader scooped up onto his horse and took him along with. The man's name was Clayton Jones, and he was one of the most wanted men in the territory. At first Jed cried and cried, wanting his family, but as Jed grew up he became a man shaped by a boyhood tragedy that he carried with him like a sin turned to scar. Jed saw the darkness, the sadness, the bleakness, but he couldn't let it get him down, so he kind of laughed at it or with it or through it to get to a place that was just livable.

Jed grew up in the bandit party, learning to ride horse and shoot with the best of em. But he also learned more intimately than a coyote the unforgiving nature of land they roamed. Clayton liked how quick and smart Jed was and even taught him to read using the bible, though he perverted the scripture for his own malevolence. Jed was, in a sense, Clayton's adopted son, and so was treated better than any of the other bandits they rode with.

When Jed was somewhere in his early twenties(he wasn't quite sure when his birthday was) Clayton was fatally shot as they were riding out after a train robbery. This left the bandit party to cunning, charismatic and brutal Jed. He was ruthless, killing anyone in his party who questioned him after he took command. He now rode with 30 hard men in a fury that could empty a town by sunset. And terrorize towns they certainly did.

For years Jed led the bandit party, without so much as losing a single man. But his luck would run out when he hit the bank in the town of Prosperity. The sheriff and his deputy were joined by US Marshals, who chased them out of town to Devil's Gulch, where Jed was shot and killed. There, they buried him and several of his party in shallow graves. Only, little did they know, there was some kind of vile magic in Devil's Gulch. Days later, Jed clawed his way up from the ground, as did the rest of his killed party. They met up with the rest of the bandits, who were shocked to see them alive. Only they weren't... not technically.

Jed continues to lead the bandit party, seeking revenge upon the town of Prosperity for what they did to him.

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