In spite of the fact that the origin of its name is biblical, Abilene, Kansas was about as unbiblical as any hell-raising and gun-shooting town on the plains could be. Abilene was a cow town and each season its wild reputation expanded as hundreds of cowboys arrived. These hard-working fellows, when they reached this town, had just ended several hundred miles of looking at the south end of a longhorn cow headed north, usually along the Chisholm Trail during the late 1800s. The Chisholm Trail, named after Jesse Chisholm, extended through the Kansas towns of Caldwell, Wichita, Newton and Abilene.
When these dusty drovers hit town they weren't exactly looking for quiet poetry-reading solitude and teatime. They had a couple of other activities in mind, like something to wet their whistle with that was a might stronger than grit-flavored trail coffee and a fellow steer-herder just as dusty and smelly as they were snoring in the next bedroll. Those men wanted entertainment when they hit Abilene with their pay in their pockets.
Of course there were saloons a plenty in Abilene where the cowboys could tip a few, or more. And there they could get in on a game of cards if that was their desire, but there was one other little ole form of entertainment they also required. It came in the shapely female form and I don't mean the ones draped in calico from neck to toe. To put it plainly, prostitutes were the desired item.
Late in 1867, which was Abilene's real first cattle season, a few girls of the 'soiled dove' type "came up the line" from the east. The following spring, according to Joe McCoy's assistant, the girls arrived in Abilene in droves. For the next two decades the 'doves' were a permanent fixture in town. In 1869, as per stated by the editor of a rival town and Abilene's worst enemy, Abilene had three brothels and twenty-one whores.
Just to give you an idea of the population increase that greeted Abilene when the cattle drives arrived, between 1867 and 1885 nearly 14,000,000 head of Texas longhorns passed through that town. And that is a lot of steak on the hoof. Abilene was the railhead and from there the cows were shipped east.
One visitor to the town, in the late 1860s, described Abilene as a place where everybody was free to get drunk anywhere. You could gamble in public, and if the situation came up you could shoot to kill.
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