Lyle Cranston
"On a chilly New Years day in the year 1858 Lyle was born into chains, the third child of Whitney and Zina Cranston, an enslaved couple living on a large Georgian plantation. He spent the next thirteen years of his life laboring under the lash and being treated like property instead of a human being, only truly freed in 1871 after the Battle of Washington finally crushed the Confederate war machine to dust. Lyle doesn't like to talk about what went on during his childhood, though the scars on his back serve as a constant grim reminder of what did. The one blessing Lyle counts about that horrific time was that, unlike so many unfortunate souls, despite their master refusing to acknowledge their marriage, none of his family was ever sold and separated from the rest.
Which is why when the freedom they had been wrongfully denied was finally won it was the entire Cranston family that packed up what meager possession they had and got the Hell out of Georgia, free men and women heading west. They worked hard too. Damn hard. But it wasn't easy making something from nothing. As a teenager Lyle's life was characterized by his family roaming all across the Midwest and the young man taking any job that was available. He worked on several farms and ranches, tried his hand as a store stockboy and a bartender, briefly worked for the U.S Post, was a blacksmith's assistant, and even once did a a run as a stagecoach shotgun rider. In short he gradually became a frontier jack of all trades, though a master of none, out of necessity. Though, if you asked Lyle considering how well he took to most things, he'd say he was a bona fide prodigy.
Still, eventually in '77 they did plant roots all the way up in Wyoming, starting a small farm. This one was more successful, though comfortable was a bit of a stretch. Still, that was where the Cranstons finally hung their hats. Two years later in '79 however, his father Whitney met his end because of some bizarre stomach parasites. Needless to say, the family mourned. Still, while his mother was now widowed, both of his elder brothers were now married and between spouses and brothers-in-law, a 19-year-old Lyle began to feel less like he was necessity labor for their farm and more another mouth to feed. Plus, well, there was a new man of the house,in the form of his brother Louis, with a child of his own and a second on the way, and it's a bit hard to ask any younger sibling to take orders from their older brother for a long period of time.
Thinking of the ghost rock-laden gem lying in the heart of the Sioux Nations just over the mountains, one night in '80 Lyle hit upon the fact that he'd actually never tried his hand at one of the most potentially lucrative forms of labor in the wild west. Mining. With the somewhat reluctant blessing of his kin, the youngest Whitney brother went into the Black Hills... Just in time for the chaos and violence that came with Custer's occupation, the conflict with Sitting Bull, and the last dying breaths of the Rail Wars.
Lyle personally thinks all of that was the reason why over the next three years he mostly just scraped by. Became a damn good miner in the process too though! That and the simple fact that Deadwood had started all the way back in '75! All the good land had been taken already, and the Sioux wouldn't let anybody take any good of that! Which is why news of a new ghost rock, a big one, down in New Mexico was enough for Lyle to pull up stakes. This time he wasn't going to miss out! Lyle Whitney was born with nothing, but in Brimstone he's gonna have everything! Money! Respect! Fame! ... And maybe some fine whiskey and a pretty girl or two! "