Exaggerated Mayhem

When a cowboy came into Abilene, Dodge City or Wichita after months on the trail, he wanted booze, music, merriment and women.  The townspeople were eager to cater to them within reason, but unwilling to turn the entire town over to these cowboys.  The merchants, in their zeal to keep order, were known to hire the wrong people to uphold the law.

Case in point - during the panic of 1873 when thousands of unsold cattle and restless cowboys flooded the town of Ellsworth, the town hired an illiterate, loud-mouthed guy with a trigger-finger always ready for action named "Happy Jack" Morco.  Morco alienated the Texans so much that the cattlemen threatened to burn down the town and take their business elsewhere.  At that, the local merchants dismissed Morco,  who refused to disarm and was shot dead by one of his own policemen.

Transition from law enforcement to law breaking was not uncommon.  Marshal Henry Brown of Caldwell, a former gunfighter, held up a bank in the nearby town of Medicine Lodge, after two years on the police force.  He killed two people.  The town's outraged citizens promptly shot the marshal and lynched his three henchmen proving that vigilante justice has it own justice.

Generally, though law enforcement was pretty lenient and effective.  From 1870-1885 the homicide rate for the five major cattle towns was just 45.  Some of the incidents, such as the shooting of a woman by her drunken husband had no connection to the cattle industry.  Few were the famous gunfights of novels and movies.

Cowboy were required by law to check their guns at the sheriff's office while in town.  As Granville Stuart writes in 1925:  "The first place cowboys went for in a town was the livery stable where they saw to it that their horses were properly cared for, then the barber shop.  The noisy fellow in exaggerated costume that rode up and down the street whooping and shooting in the air was never a cowpuncher from any outfit.  He was usually a would-be bad man from the East decked out in paraphernalia from Montgomery Ward's in Chicago." 

Cattle towns were indeed raw and colorful, but such goes our legends of the shoot-em-up Wild West...just a legend made up to sell novels, newspaper and the movies.

Next time...The Expanding Range
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Today in Pioneer History: "On July 16, 1779, American Brigadier General Anthony Wayne launches a coup de main against British fortifications at Stony Point, New York, on the orders of General George Washington. He earns the moniker “Mad” Anthony Wayne for the ensuing maneuver.  Wayne was victorious at the Battle of Fallen Timbers near what is now Toledo, Ohio, and gained much of what would become Ohio and Indiana for the U.S. in the Treaty of Greenville.

Those Wicked Cattle Towns

Names like Wichita, Abilene, Hays City, Dodge City, Ogallala, Caldwell - born shabby and scruffy with dusty streets, sleazy saloons, gambling dens, bordellos and false front stores - those were the early cattle towns.  Popular dime novels of the day and newspaper exaggerations pictured the violence and bloody brawls that took place on a daily basis.  Supposedly.

The coming of the cattle seemed to settle these Wild West towns down some.  Local governments were formed.  Cattle sales meant hard money, not only for gamblers, bartenders,and ladies of the evening, but also for grocers, bootmakers, financiers, and merchants.

Andy Adams, veteran of the cattle days, wrote from the cowboy point of view in Log of a Cowboy: "Dodge is one town where the average bad man finds himself badly handicapped.  The buffalo hunters and range men have protested against the iron rule of Dodge's peace officers, and nearly every protest has cost human life.  Don't ever get the impression that you can ride your horses into a saloon, or shoot out the lights.  Most cowboys think it's an infringement on their rights to give up shooting in town, and if it is, it stands, for your six-shooters are no match for Winchesters or buckshot, and Dodge's officers are as tough a set of men as ever faced danger."  His picture was accurate.

To keep order and attract businesses, cattle town officials had to walk a fine line.  Quickly passed laws established lucrative systems of fines for gambling and prostitution - even carrying a concealed weapon. The income allowed the town to offer tax advantages to businesses and paid for the police.

Contrary to legend, a Kansas town marshal's job was not a glorious job, nor was it lonely.  Businessmen and politicians did not risk their safety or their city's reputation by hiring gun-happy cowboys.  Arrests were usually bloodless, and fines paid.  "Wild Bill" Hickok of Abilene and Wyatt Earp of Wichita did their job along with five other policemen on duty during the cattle season.  It wasn't a job for a lone gunslinger marshal, but it wasn't the job depicted in movies or books either.

Next time...When Mayhem Happens
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Today in Pioneer History: "On July 12, 1861, Wild Bill Hickok fought his first gunfight, outside the police station in Nebraska, establishing his reputation as a gunslinger.