The life of Richard J. "Diamond Dick" Tanner (1869-1943) encompassed a noteworthy long-distance horseback ride, circus stardom as a crack shot, a medical career in Norfolk, and finally a reappearance as "the original Diamond Dick," when his claim to the title was challenged. For a complete account, see "The Variegated Life of Norfolk's Diamond Dick," by L. Boyd Finch in the Winter 2003 issue of Nebraska History.

Thayer wrote a series of articles for the Hartford Evening Post describing his round trip journey from Hartford to San Francisco and back. He rode from Hartford to Salt Lake City before taking the train to Lake Tahoe, and then rode the remainder of the way to San Francisco. Thayer carried a bottle of water from the Atlantic, which he poured into the Pacific before returning east, a majority of the way by train.

Until recently little information was available on Gray. It is now known, however, that he was born in the farm hamlet of East Springfield, New York, located about 50 miles west of Albany on the Western Turnpike. Members of the Gray family were prosperous farmers who had been in the Cooperstown region since shortly after the Revolution.