Abilene - the First Cow Town

All of a sudden in Abilene the open coaches of the early railroads began arriving daily crowded with gamblers, saloon owners, prostitutes, liquor salesman and all the material and supplies to turn Abilene into a wild town: frame dwelling, roulette wheels, crystal chandeliers, mahogany bars, revolvers and ammo for the factories in Bridgeport and Hartford.  Abilene was beginning to look and act like the early mining towns.

At the most famous saloon in Abilene, two dozen bartenders and three orchestras operated around the clock to keep the waddies happy with fiddles and trumpets providing the spirited entertainment.  Abilene was no longer that small cow town on the railroad.

Cowpokes were paid at the end of their cattle drives in minted gold which soon found its way into the hands of madams, girls, gamblers, and saloon keepers.  Even Wyatt Earp was called in to maintain law and order.  Texas Street was alive with gunfire and whiskey 24 hours a day...

Not so happy for those neighbors in Kansas...next time