USA > Kansas > Ford County > Dodge City > Dodge City, the cowboy capital, and the great Southwest in the days of the wild Indian, the buffalo, the cowboy, dance halls, gambling halls and bad men > Part 20
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A "Kansas City Times" correspondent, in a letter headed, "Dodge City, Kansas, May 28th, 1877," writes up the subject as follows:
"Abilene, Ellsworth, and Hays City on the Kansas Pacific railroad, then Newton and Wichita, and now Dodge City on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe road, have all, in their turn, enjoyed the 'boil and bubble, toil trouble' of the Texas cattle trade.
"Three hundred and sixty-seven miles west from Kansas City we step off at Dodge, slumbering as yet (8:30 a. m.) in the tranquil stillness of a May morning. In this respect Dodge is peculiar. She awakes from her slumbers about eleven, a. m., takes her sugar and lemon at twelve m., a square meal at one p. m., commences biz
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at two o'clock, gets lively at four, and at ten it is hip-hip- hurrah! till five in the morning.
"Not being a full-fledged Dodgeite, we breakfasted with Deacon Cox, of the Dodge House, at nine o'clock, and meandered around until we found ourselves on top of the new and handsome courthouse. A lovely prairie landscape was here spread out before us. Five miles to the southeast nestled Fort Dodge, coyly hiding, one would think, in the brawny arm of the Arkansas. Then, as far as the eye could reach, for miles up the river and past the city, the bright green velvety carpet was dotted by thou- sands of long-horns which have, in the last few days, arrived, after months of travel, some of them from be- yond the Rio Grande and which may, in a few more months, give the Bashi Bazouks fresh courage for chop- ping up the Christians and carrying out the dictates of their Koran. But we are too far off. We have invaded Turkey with Texas beef, and, though a long-horned sub- ject must be somewhat contracted here.
"Dodge City has now about twelve hundred inhabi- tants-residents we mean, for there is a daily population of twice that many; six or seven large general stores, the largest of which, Rath & Wright, does a quarter of a million retail trade in a year; and the usual complement of drug stores, bakers, butchers, blacksmiths, etc .; and last, but not by any means the least, nineteen saloons- no little ten-by-twelves, but seventy-five to one hundred feet long, glittering with paint and mirrors, and some of them paying one hundred dollars per month rent for the naked room.
"Dodge, we find, is in the track of the San Juanist, numbers of which stop here to outfit, on their way to the silvery hills.
"We had the good luck to interview Judge Beverly of Texas, who is the acknowledged oracle of the cattle trade. He estimates the drive at two hundred and eighty-
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five thousand, probably amounting to three hundred thousand, including calves. Three-quarters of all will probably stop at Dodge and be manipulated over the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, by that prince of railroad agents, J. H. Phillips, Esq. Herbert, as he is familiarly called, is a graduate of Tammany Hall and is understood to wear in his shirt front the identical solitaire once worn by Boss Tweed. It is hinted that Herbert will buy every hoof destined for the Kansas Pacific road, at four times its value, rather than see them go that way. He would long, long ago have been a white-winged angel, playing on the harp of a thousand strings, were it not for the baneful associations of Frazer, Sheedy, Cook, et al. You can hear more about 'cutting out,' 'rounding up,' etc., in Dodge, in fifteen minutes, than you can hear in small towns like Chicago and St. Louis in a lifetime."
In the same year, another newspaper representative, G. C. Noble, who visited Dodge, describes his impressions as follows:
"At Dodge City we found everything and everybody busy as they could comfortably be. This being my first visit to the metropolis of the West, we were very pleas- antly surprised, after the cock and bull stories that lunatic correspondents had given the public. Not a man was swinging from a telegraph pole; not a pistol was fired; no disturbance of any kind was noted. Instead of being called on to disgorge the few ducats in our possession, we were hospitably treated by all. It might be unpleasant for one or two old time correspondents to be seen here, but they deserve all that would be meted out to them. The Texas cattlemen and cowboys, instead of being armed to the teeth, with blood in their eye, conduct themselves with propriety, many of them being thorough gentlemen.
"Dodge City is supported principally by the immense cattle trade that is carried on here. During the season that has just now fairly opened, not less than two hundred
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thousand head will find a market here, and there are nearly a hundred purchasers who make their head- quarters here during the season. Mr. A. H. Johnson, the gentlemanly stock agent of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Company, informs us that the drive to this point, dur- ing the season, will be larger than ever before.
"From our window in the Dodge House, which by the way, is one of the best and most commodious in the west, can be seen five herds, ranging from one thousand to ten thousand each, that are awaiting transportation. The stock yards here are the largest west of St. Louis, and just now are well filled.
"Charles Rath & Company have a yard in which are about fifty thousand green and dried buffalo hides.
"F. C. Zimmerman, an old patron of the ‘Champ- ion,' runs a general outfitting store, and flourishes finan- cially and physically. Many other friends of the leading journal are doing business, and are awaiting patiently the opening up of the country to agricultural purposes.
"In the long run, Dodge is destined to become the metropolis of western Kansas and only awaits the devel- opment of its vast resources.
One more brief extract from a visitor's account of his visit "among the long-horns", and the extent and importance of Dodge City's early cattle trade will have been sufficiently established to permit my proceeding to some of the peculiar phases of that trade and the life of the stockmen and cowboys. This visitor sees the facetious side of the Dodge cattle traffic:
"This is May, 1877, Dodge City boiling over with buyers and drivers. 'Dodge City!' called the brakeman, and, with about thirty other sinners, we strung out to the Dodge House to command the register with our auto- graphs, deposit our grip-sacks with Deacon Cox, and breakfast. But what a crowd is this we have elbowed our reportorial nose into? and bless your soul, what a
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sight! It just looks like all Texas was here. We now learn that everybody not at the Dodge House is at the Alamo. The Alamo is presided over by a reformed Quaker from New York, and it is hinted that the man- ner in which he concocts a toddy (every genuine cattle- man drinks toddy) increases the value of a Texas steer two dollars and seventy-five cents. There is about seven- ty-five thousand head around town. Everybody is buying and selling. Everything you hear is about beeves and steers and cows and toddies and cocktails. The grass is remarkably fine; the water is plenty; two drinks for a quarter, and no grangers. These facts make Dodge City the cattle point."
Notwithstanding the regularity of the great drives into Dodge, their magnitude, and the general popularity of the cattle trade as a business, the life of the cowboys and drovers was, by no means, an easy one. It was beset on every hand by hardship and danger. Exposure and privation continually tried the man who was out with the great herds; accidents, stampedes, and other dangers continually threatened his life; horse and cattle thieves continually harassed him with fears for the safety of his mounts and his charge.
A little item which appeared in the "Dodge City Times", of April 6th, 1878, read like this: "Mr. Jesse Evans and his outfit, consisting of fifty men and five four-mule teams and a number of saddle horses, started for the southwest yesterday. They go to New Mexico to gather from the ranges about twenty thousand cattle that Mr. Evans has purchased and will bring to Dodge City for sale and shipment." This expedition appeared simple and easy enough, from the tone of the item, but it gave no idea at all of the real facts in the case.
The fifty men were picked up in Dodge City. They were all fighters and gun-men, selected because they were such, for, in gathering these twenty thousand head of
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cattle, they did so from under the very noses of the worst set of stock thieves and outlaws ever banded together, who were the Pecos River gang, with the famous "Billy the Kid" as leader. But they took the cattle without much fighting, and delivered them safely at Jesse Evan's ranch just southeast of Dodge.
These men suffered incredible hardships on the drive up. Before they were halfway back, winter overtook them, and their horses necessarily being thin from the terrible work they had done, could not survive the cold storms, but lay down and died. There was scarcely a mount left. The men were all afoot, and barefooted at that, and had to often help draw the mess wagon by hand. They lived for weeks on nothing but fresh beef, often without salt; no sugar, no coffee, no flour, no nothing, but beef, beef, all the time, and they were the most woe begone, ragged, long-haired outfit I ever saw-scarcely any clothing except old blankets tied around them in every fashion; no shoes or hats; indeed, they were almost naked. But I tell you what they did have a plenty; it was "gray-backs". With their long hair and long beards, these little "varmints" were having a feast, and the men bragged about these little pests keeping them alive and warm, for, in scratching so much, it gave good circulation to their blood. But notwithstanding their long hair and naked, dirty, lousy bodies, the men were in splendid health. They wandered into Dodge, one and two at a time, and, in this manner, it was two days and nights before they all straggled in.
Perhaps the most dangerous, most dreaded, and most carefully guarded against phase of cattle driving was the stampede, where all the skill, nerve, and endurance of the drivers were tested to the limit. A common dark lantern was often a feature at such times. The part it played in quelling and controlling a stampede, as well as some
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feature of the stampede itself, is well described, by a writer of cattle driving days, in this wise:
"One of the greatest aids to the cowboys during a stampede, on a dark stormy night, is the bull's-eye lan- tern, and it so simple and handy. We all know when a stampede starts it is generally on a dark, stormy night. The cowboy jumps up, seizes his horse, and starts with a bound to follow the noise of the retreating herd, well knowing, as he does, the great danger before him; often- times encountering a steep bank, ten to twenty and some- times thirty feet high, over which his horse plunges at full speed, to their certain death. For he knows not where the cattle, crazed by fear, will take him, but he does know it is his duty to follow as close as the speed of his horse will take him. This friend of his, the bull's-eye lantern, was discovered by accident. The flash of the lantern, thrown upon the bewildered herd, restores it to its equilibrium, and, in its second affright, produces a reaction, as it were, and, being completely subdued, the stampede is stopped, during the most tempestuous raging of the elements. The old-fashioned way was to ride to the front of the herd and fire their guns in the faces of the cattle. Now, they throw the flash of the lantern across the front of the herd and flash the bull's-eye into their faces, which is much more effective. The courage of the cowboy is demonstrated frequently on the long trail, but few of the cowboys are unequal to the emergencies."
As a result of the widespread stealing of cattle and horses, especially horses, which went on in connection with the great cattle traffic, the papers of the day abound- ed with notices like the following from the "Dodge City Times", of March 30th, 1878.
"Mr. H. Spangler, of Lake City, Comanche County, arrived in the city last Saturday in search of two horses that had been stolen from him last December. He de- scribed the stolen stock to Sheriff Masterson who immedi-
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ately instituted search. On Monday he found one of the horses, a very valuable animal, at Mueller's cattle ranch on the Saw Log, it having been traded to Mr. Wolf. The horse was turned over to the owner. The sheriff has trace of the other horse and will endeavor to recover it."
Many were the stories, of many different sorts, told about stock stealing and stock thieves. Some of these even took a humorous turn. One such, as told in early days, though funny was, nevertheless, true, and some do say that the man only took back what was taken from him, and it was (honestly or dishonestly) his horse. The reader may form his own opinion after perusing the story, as follows:
"Mr. O'Brien arrived in Dodge City last Sunday, August 30th, 1877, with the property, leaving, as we stated, our hero on the open prairie.
"We can picture in our minds this festive horse-thief, as he wandered over this sandy plain, under the burning sun, bereft of the things he holds most dear, to-wit: his horse, his saddle, and his gun. His feet became sore, his lips parched, and he feels, verily, he is not in luck. At last he can hold his pent-up passion no longer. A pale gray look comes into his face, and a steel gray look into his eye, and he swears by the great god of all horse- thieves (Dutch Henry) that he will show his oppressors a trick or two-that he will show them an aggrieved knight of the saddle knows no fear. His resolve is to recapture his horse or die in the attempt. A most noble resolve. The horse is his own by all laws known to horse-thieves in every land. It is his because he stole it. Now, be it known that this particular horse was a good horse, a horse whose speed was fast and whose wind was good, so to speak. This horse he loved because he was a fast horse and no common plug could run with half as much speed. Seated in the saddle on the back of this noble animal, our hero feared not even the lightning in its rapid
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career. As we said before, his determination was fixed and his eye was sot. He would recapture the noble beast or he would die in the attempt. It was a go on foot and alone. He struck out. At the first hunters' camp he stole a gun, a pair of boots, and a sack of flour. He stole these articles because he had to have them, and it was a ground-hog case. On he came toward our beautiful city. His knowledge of the country led him direct to the farm of a rich farmer. As he approached he primed his gun, dropped lightly on hands and knees, and, with the demon glowing in his eye, stole silently through the tall buffalo grass to the house. Just at this time Mr. O'Brien happened to be riding out from town. He was riding directly by the place where our hero was concealed, and his first in- timation of the presence of anyone was the sight of the man he met the Sunday before, with his gun cocked and pointed at him. 'Throw up your hands,' said the horse- thief; you have a small pistol in your belt-throw that down.' Mr. O'Brien obeyed. 'Now march to the stable before me, get my saddle and gun, and curry and saddle my horse which is picketed yonder, and await further orders.'
"Now, it so happened that the wealthy farmer was walking out that evening with his shotgun on his arm. He came to the stable, but, just as he turned the corner, the muzzle of a gun was placed near his head, and the word, 'Halt!' uttered. The rich farmer said, 'What do you want?' 'My horse, saddle, and bridle.' 'What else?' 'Nothing.' The farmer made a move as if he would use his gun. The horse-thief said, 'Do not move or you will be hurt.' Silence for a moment, then, 'Lay down your gun.' The gun was laid down. By this time, Mr. O'Brien came out with the saddle and gun, the gun being strapped in the scabbard. Keeping them both under cover of his rifle, the horse-thief ordered them to walk before him to his horse and ordered Mr. O'Brien to saddle and bridle
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the horse, which he did. Our hero then mounted his brave steed and told his reluctant companions that if they pur- sued him their lives would be worthless, and then he sped off like the wind." Reader, "such is life in the far west."
Besides stock thieves and stealing, the cattle trade of early Dodge was attended by many other desperate char- acters and irregular practices, that were long in being stamped out. No better way of describing these desperate characters and irregular practices is at hand than by introducing a few specimens, for the reader's considera- tion.
Two of the greatest gamblers and faro-bank fiends, as well as two of the most desperate men and sure shots, were Ben and Billy Thompson. Every year, without fail, they came to Dodge to meet the Texas drive. Each brothers had killed several men, and they were both dead shots. They terrorized Ellsworth county and city, the first year of the drive to that place, killed the sheriff of the county, a brave and fearless officer, together with several deputies, defied the sheriff's posse, and made their "get away".
A large reward was offered for them and they were pursued all over the country; but, having many friends among the big, rich cattlemen, they finally gave them- selves up and, through the influence of these men who expended large sums of money in their defense, they were cleared. Ben told the writer that he never carried but one gun. He never missed, and always shot his victim through the head. He said, when he shot a man, he look- ed the crowd over carefully, and if the man had any close friends around or any dangerous witness was around, he would down him to destroy evidence. The last few years of his life, he never went to bed without a full quart bottle of three-star Hennessey brandy, and he always emptied the bottle before daylight. He could not sleep without it.
Ben was a great favorite with the stockmen. They
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needed him in their business for, be it said to their shame, some of them employed killers to protect their stock and ranges and other privileges, and Ben could get any reason- able sum, from one hundred to several thousand dollars, with which to deal or play bank.
Ben Thompson was the boss among the gamblers and killers at Austin, and a man whose name I have forgotten, Bishop, I think, a man of wealth and property, who owned saloons and dance halls and theaters at San An- tonio, was the boss of the killers of that town. Great rival- ry existed between these two men, and they were deter- mined to kill each other. Word was brought to the San Antonio gent that Ben was coming down to kill him, so he had fair warning and made preparations. Ben arrived in town and walked in front of his saloon. He knew Ben was looking for the drop on him and would be sure to come back the same way, so he stationed himself behind his screen in front of his door, with a double-barreled shotgun. Whether Ben was wise to this, I do not know, but when Ben came back, he fired through this screen, and the San Antonio man fell dead with a bullet hole in his head, and both barrels of his gun were discharged into the floor.
Ben was now surely the boss, and numerous friends flocked to his standard, for "nothing succeeds like suc- cess". Some say that this victory made Ben too reckless and fool-hardy, however.
Some time after this, the cattlemen gathered in Austin at a big convention. At this convention, Ben was more dissipated and reckless than ever, and cut a big figure. There was a congressman who resided at Austin, who was Ben's lawyer and friend (I won't mention his name). After the convention adjourned, thirty or forty of the principal stockmen and residents of Texas re- mained to close up business and give a grand banquet (and let me say right here, these men were no cowards).
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That night, Ben learned that they had not invited his congressman, to which slight he took exceptions. The plates were all laid, wine at each plate, and just as they were about to be seated, in marched Ben with a six- shooter in his hand. He began at one end of the long table and smashed the bottles of wine, and chinaware as he came to it, making a clean sweep the entire length of the table. Let me tell you, before he got half through with his smashing process, that banquet hall was deserted. Some rushed through the doors, some took their exit through the windows, and in some instances the sash of the windows went with them and they did not stop to deprive themselves of it until they were out of range.
This exploit sounded Ben's death knell, as I remarked at the time that it would, because I knew these men.
Major Seth Mabrey was asked, the next day, what he thought of Ben's performance. Mabrey had a little twang in his speech and talked a little through his nose. In his slow and deliberate way, he said: "By Ginneys! I always thought, until last night, that Ben Thompson was a brave man, but I have changed my mind. If he had been a brave man, he would have attacked the whole convention when we were together and three thousand strong, but instead, he let nearly all of them get out of town, and cut off a little bunch of only about forty of us, and jumped onto us."
After this, the plans were laid to get away with Ben. He was invited to visit San Antonio and have one of the good old-time jamborees, and they would make it a rich treat for him. He accepted. They gave a big show at the theater for his especial benefit. When the "ball" was at its height, he was invited to the bar to take a drink, and, at a given signal, a dozen guns were turned loose on him. They say that some who were at the bar with him and who enticed him there were killed with him, as they had to shoot through them to reach Ben. At any rate,
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Ben never knew what hit him, he was shot up so badly. They were determined to make a good job of it, for if they did not, they knew the consequences. Major Mabrey was indeed a cool deliberate, and brave man, but he ad- mitted to outrunning the swiftest of them.
Major Mabrey would hire more than a hundred men every spring, for the drive, and it is said of him, that he never hired a man himself and looked him over carefully and had him sign a contract, that in months after he could not call him by name and tell when and where he had hired him.
The Major built the first castle or palatial residence on top of the big bluff overlooking the railroad yards and the Missouri River, in Kansas City, about where Keeley's Institute now stands.
One of the most remarkable characters that ever came up the trail, and one whom I am going to give more than a passing notice, on account of his most remarkable career, is Ben Hodges, the horse-thief and outlaw.
A Mexican, or rather, a half-breed-half negro and half Mexican-came up with the first herds of cattle that made their way to Dodge. He was small of stature, wiry, and so very black that he was christened, "Nigger Ben." His age was non-come-at-able. Sometimes he looked young, not over twenty or twenty-five; then, again, he would appear to be at least sixty, and, at the writing of this narrative, he is just the same, and still resides in Dodge City.
Ben got stranded in Dodge City and was minus friends and money, and here he had to stay. At about the time he anchored in Dodge City, there was great excitement over the report that an old Spanish grant was still in existence, and that the claim was a valid one and embraced a greater part of the "Prairie Cattle Com- pany's" range.
While the stock men were discussing this, sitting on
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a bench in front of my store (Wright, Beverly & Com- pany) Nigger Ben came along. Just as a joke, one of them said: "Ben, you are a descendent of these old Spanish families; why don't you put in a claim as heir to this grant?" Ben cocked up his ears and listened, took the cue at once, and went after it. As a novice, he succeeded in a way beyond all expectations. By degrees, he worked himself into the confidence of newcomers by telling them a pathetic story, and so, by slow degrees, he built upon his story, a little at a time, until it seemed to a stranger that Ben really did have some sort of a claim on this big grant, and, like a snowball, it continually grew. He im- pressed a bright lawyer with the truthfulness of his story, and this lawyer carefully prepared his papers to lay claim to the grant, and it began to look bright. Then Judge Sterry of Emporia, Kan., took the matter up and not only gave it his time but furnished money to prosecute it. Of course, it was a good many years before his claim re- ceived recognition, as it had to be heard in one of our highest courts. But, in course of time, years after he began the action, it came to an end, as all things must, and the court got down to an investigation and consideration of the facts. It did not last but a moment, and was thrown out of court. Not the least shadow of a claim had Ben, but it was surprising how an ignorant darkey could make such a stir out of nothing.
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