A chance meeting at his St. Joseph Street store last week turned into a historical find for Chris Johnson, owner of The Clock Shop.

One morning before the store opened, Johnson saw a man looking in the window. Johnson invited him inside, and the two got to talking.

The man, it turned out, was a Swedish watch collector. He had come to the Black Hills with a 120-year-old pocket watch that had once belonged to Richard Bullock - also known as Deadwood Dick.

"He felt it belonged in the Black Hills," Johnson said. "He came here for the purpose of selling it here."

Johnson drove the man to Deadwood that day, but they were unable to find a buyer for the watch. That's when Johnson, a history buff and expert on timepieces, stepped in. He made the decision to buy the watch for an undisclosed sum.

"We paid a handsome sum for it," Johnson said. "We buy and sell watches all the time, and this was the largest purchase we've ever made. But I hated the thought of this watch going back to Sweden."

With the watch, Johnson also acquired a cache of letters and other documents that help tell the story of the life of Richard Bullock, which goes back to the early days of the Deadwood Gold Rush.

Bullock was born in the 1840s in England and emigrated to the United States in his 20s. He showed up in Deadwood during the gold-rush days. He apparently tried mining but signed on as a bullion guard for Homestake Mining Co. At the time, robbers were plaguing the wagon shipments out of the Black Hills.

It was his exploits in Deadwood that earned him a variety of nicknames such as Deadwood Dick, Shotgun Dick and One-Eye Dick, according to Kevin Kuchenbecker, Deadwood historic-preservation officer.

There is a great deal of dispute about who is the real Deadwood Dick, Kuchenbecker said. As many as five men have been identified as Deadwood Dick, including a black cowboy named Nat Love and a fellow named Richard Clark, who claimed to be the real Deadwood Dick through the 1920s.

In reality, Deadwood Dick was a fictional creation of dime novel writer Edward L. Wheeler. But Wheeler's Deadwood Dick is believed to be based on a real gunslinger of the Gold Camp days. After consulting with historians and writers, Kuchenbecker said the consensus seems to be that Richard Bullock fit the bill.

"If one could have them all line up and ask the real Deadwood Dick to stand up, they'd all stand up," Kuchenbecker said. "Based on what I've been able to learn, … it appears that Deadwood Dick dime novels probably resembled Richard Bullock."

There were unconfirmed reports that Bullock took part in the 1878 death of Cornelius Donahue, known as "Lame Johnny."

This much is known: Richard Bullock worked in the Lead-Deadwood area for several years, possibly until about 1909. He played in a marching band. He belonged to the Lead Odd Fellows lodge in Lead. He moved to California, where he died in 1920 or 1921.

He left a son and a daughter back in England. He wrote to them often. Most of the letters that accompanied the gold watch were written by Richard Bullock to his children. He writes about his days in Deadwood and his life in California.

Johnson's cache includes Bullock's last will and testament. He gave his children 90 shares of Homestake stock, other belongings, cash and an elaborately decorated gold pocket watch. It was valued at $75.

That's how Deadwood Dick's watch ended up in Europe. Johnson has verified that it was sold at a Sotheby's auction in London in 1991. After that, it went through a series of owners before the Swedish collector bought it.

The watch, by the way, keeps perfect time, Johnson said. It is on a chain that is connected to a locket. Inside the locket are locks of human hair, which probably are from the heads of his son and daughter.

Johnson was able to verify that the watch belonged to Richard Bullock because the chain can be seen hanging from his vest in historic portraits.

Johnson said he plans to display the watch and other artifacts at The Journey Museum. "But at some point, it will be for sale," he said. The international market for historic timepieces is strong. "That's especially true of this watch, because Black Hills history is much more popular than people here realize," Johnson said.

However, he hopes the watch can stay in the United States - perhaps even in the Black Hills.

Contact Dan Daly at 394-8421 or dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com