Any number of frontier heroes would work in this scenerio …Davy Crockett was the first to spring to mind, Hell, that man wrestled a bar.
Daniel Boone, and Jim Bowie work as well.
I always found Abe Lincoln to be other worldly and a bit spooky. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit to find out he was an alien or some sort of empath.
Thomas Edison…an actual wizard from Menlo Park?
Great thread!!
I’ve done that a few times myself… but always end up loosing 
I guess “bar” would have made me look a little less silly. I just remember the Disney show they pronounced bear “bar”
Way ahead of you. I should explain that the reason i wanted to have some historical superpowers knocking about is that already exist in my backstory A key plot element plot involves The Jack Protocols. A secret prison that Her Majestys Goverment maintains to hold people and entities to dangereous to be released but to useful to destroy who my players will end up interacting with.
Spring-Heeled Jack is designated JACK 4 a human transformed by something into a gangly monster with claws, a demonic face that can spit a venom that burst into flame in contact with the air.
For comparison JACK 6 is Union Jack A descendant of Dr Jekyll and a psychotic criminal who was committed to Broadmoor (Uk Asylum for the criminally insane) before his powers of superhuman strength and toughness manifested. Finally subdued after killing a dozen men in his 1972 breakout, he has been telepathically reprogrammed into a fantasy world where he is **Union Jack **WW2 British super-soldier, seeing those he is sent against as stereotype Nazi soldiers. Definitely not going to break his programming at the worst possible moment. 
JACK 5 is (i couldn’t resist) Jack The Ripper captured in 1888 by goverment agents. Not wanting to waste there time in the law courts they summarily executed him. 3 times. It didn’t take. Recruited into the protocols he now serves as an assassin.A mousy man, 5 foot tall and rake-thin, likes to read the Bible (strictly old testament). He has the strength of a beserker, a body that heals all wounds and a skill with knives that will uh *take your breath away *If your a very bad man they’ll send the SAS after you. If your a very, very bad man then they’ll send out Jack.
JACK 3 is known unofficially as Jack O’Lantern a Fire Blackened Skeleton wearing a tattered chain hauberk. His skull is a mass of burning flame. An almost uncontrollable, unstoppable creature of flame and Pyrokinetic fury. Held in check only by mysterious rituals and blessed objects. Captured by HMG in 1666 and the actual cause of the Great Fire Of London. James the second and his men weren’t blowing up streets to serve as a firebreak. They were desperately trying to subdue this creature. Last date of release? Dropped from a specialy adapted bomber onto Dresden in 1945 (the other aircraft carrying duds) to show the highest echelons of both America and the advancing Russians that the British Empire was not yet without resources in the post-war struggle for power.
Still thinking on Jack 1 and 2 , suggestions welcome.
Why?
The Scientist/Superhero theme is well-established.
Perhaps a Lightning Blaster, or a crude version of the Iron Man armor?
John Henry… if you figure he may be “real” enough to qualify, he already comes close to being superpowered with hardly any more embellishment.
One Name:
Houdini!
You know even if the names your suggesting wern’t useful, which i hasten to add they are. I’d be glad i started this thread anyway. Ther’s some people with real interesting stories coming up who i’d not previously know about.
Mysterious Dave Mather. Hell, he’s mysterious!
I was thinking more wizard than scientist. Not sure if magic plays any role what-so-ever in this game. But I thought it would be a neat play on his nickname. Brilliant discoveries come much easier when you can, say, harness electricity.
Yep, both Magic and Psychic powers exist. My main villianess has both. Psionic powers existence were confirmed in the 30’s and we’ll have a theory explaining them any day now. It’ll probably involve ‘Quantum’
However, officially of course they’re no actual magic :D. No, No, their are of course as yet not fully scientifically explained phemonenom. So-called ‘wielders of magic’ are obviously subconcious Psychics who use telekinesis and other well established abilities. The rituals and incantations are just a psychological crutch that allows them to focus their will or justify their powers to themselves.
A few more suggestions:
Nikola Tesla, Eastern-european born scientist/wizard, “father of modern electronics”
Wernher von Braun, ex-nazi rocket scientist, inventer of the Ballistic Missile, built America’s first satellite and head of the Apollo program, dreamed of piloting a spacecraft to the moon when he was a child in during the first world war. Possibly an alien?
George Washington. Six foot four, imperious and aloof, wanted to retire but was drawn into politics by a grateful nation electing him President.
William Tecumseh Sherman. “the first modern general”, often drunk, bipolar, perpetually-scowling, motherfucker looked like a cross between Eastwood’s man with no name and Wolverine. Practiced “scorched earth” warfare.
Maybe some 19-th century strongmen would fit the bill?
Eugen Sandow - Wikipedia Eugen Sandow, “first modern body builder”, strongman and entertainer, could lift a horse.
Louis Cyr lifted horses before Sandow.
But please, call it “research”…
Being inspired by other people’s ideas is a long-standing tradition. Steal away, and don’t regret it. You might write Leonardo da Vinci in as being “unstuck in time”, Billy Pilgrim style.
The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, escaped from an occupied Tibet, then a war zone, by disguising himself and walking out. I’ve read somewhere that this was under cover of storm, but I can’t find a cite for that. Between the popular image of Buddhist monks as possessing superhuman control and this escape, you might manage something.
Nah, that was Dr Dee.
William the Conquerer; power of telescopic sight.
“Aim over there!”
Asoka of India; power to calm.
Napoleon Bonaparte; mind control.
Admiral Yi Sun-sin; Telekinesis.
Cabeza de Vaca; Healing and omnilingualism.
The last one’s a particularly interesting case.
Robin Hood, minor telekinesis ( that’s how he made his shots )
Figures like Nostradamus or the Oracle of Delphi could be genuine precognitives; explain their inaccuracies and obscure phrasing by saying that precognition drives you insane,and when they were wrong they were predicting possible outcomes, or true ones in alternate universes. Which would make precognition pretty low on the useful super power totem pole I admit. Or take the opposite and say that they were so good that they were confusing and obscure on purpose because that manipulated people into doing what the prophecy intended, without realizing it until far too late.
If you want to go mythological, Cassandra could have been a psychic with defective, involuntary mind control; she made people disbelieve her, without meaning to. It could be a diagnosed superpower disorder in the modern era, “Cassandra Syndrome”.
How about Harriet Tubman or some of the other underground rail road members credited with leading out hundreds of slaves. Tubman had several close calls that she got away with and this could be attributed to some kind of ability of misdirection.
How about some “super” athletes:
Jesse Owens–not quite The Flash, but pretty fast.
Jerry Rice–super-sticky palms
Ted Williams–super eyesight, hand-eye coordination
Archie Manning–super-something. How that guy survived playing for the Saints so long is pretty amazing.
Lou Thesz–superior strength, endurance, and grappling skill.
Mohammed Ali–super-speed, super-mouth, super-charisma.
Dr. J–woulda picked Jordan, but 1978 is a little early for him. Erving would have super agility, and limited ability to defy gravity.
For a contemporary to your players, you might include Richard Feynman. In addition to his obvious work in physics, he was also an accomplished drummer, painter, safecracker (he could open any lock in Los Alamos in a few hours, and most of them in seconds), and bloodhound (he could tell by smell if a human had handled an object, and if so, who).
I’d also be tempted to throw in Albert Einstein, but he doesn’t fit your established timeline: His “Miracle Year” was in 1905, before your first official manifestation, but he was also around afterwards, and would have cooperated with an investigation to find out if he was in fact super.
And Jerry Garcia had resistance to acid.