Abilene, Kansas, part 4

John Wesley Hardin has been attributed to saying that he had seen many fast towns, which he undoubtedly had, but that he thought Abilene beat them all. Abilene being a rough town wasn't just the opinion of the local gun fighters. A writer for the New York Tribune thought that in Abilene was gathered together the greatest collection of Texas cowboys, rascals, desperados, and adventuresses to be found anywhere in the United States. He noted that there was no law and no restraint in such a "seething cauldron of vice and depravity."

It seems that the town settled down some in 1870. That year the marshal was Bear River Tom Smith who was an ex-policeman from New York. Smith had sort of a unique method of settling trouble. First off, he insisted that cowboys check their weapons with bartenders while they were visiting the town. If that didn't keep the ruckus down, Marshal Smith would just bash the troublemakers' heads in. That, all by its self, was bound to quiet things down in a hurry.

Marshal Smith only lasted four months in enforcing law in Abilene but while he was at it he would ride up and down the saloon district, mounted on his horse, a silver-gray called Silverheels. He didn't use his guns too often but did carry two pistols tucked into his belt.

Evidently someone didn't take to kindly to Smith's success in dealing out law and order because in November he was killed while serving a warrant to a pair of ranchers out on Chapman's Creek. Hickok succeeded Smith as town marshal.

Abilene, Kansas, part 5: KEEPIN' THE PEACE--HICKOK STYLE, coming September 29, 2005, at: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/1379...

Link here to the index of towns in this series, listed under their present-day state name. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/1379...

Also by Mary Trotter Kion at Suite 101:

Escape the Sunrise http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/19602 Minnie, a slave of Negro, Irish and Indian blood, lives on a Virginia plantation called Sunrise, in the early 1800s. Minnie and her mistress, both pregnant, run away. Minnie eventually heads to the Far West, Susan to the theatrical district of New York.

Rails Across a Nation: A Suite 101 e-Book by Mary Trotter Kion. http://www.north46.com/rails.html This is the adventure of the Transcendental Railroad that was built across the vast United States.

The Once Vast Indian Territory http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/kans...

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