Who Am I?
Old West Lawmen
These
are all well known Old West Lawmen. I will give you some
information and you pick the correct lawmen.
"Check Your Answers" at the end of the page.
1.
I was born in Cairo, Illinois September 3, 1862. The family to Texas in
1876, settling near Round Rock, Texas. In 1878, while still a boy, I
witnessed the death of outlaw Sam Bass. In March 1883, I joined the Texas
Rangers, becoming a member of "Company D" serving under Captain
L. P. Seiker. In July, 1887, I was accompanied by future Ranger Hall of
Fame member John Hughes in the pursuit of murderer Judd Roberts, with
Hughes and I killing Roberts in a gunfight.
I also became well known
during the Jaybird-Woodpecker War, resulting in prominent citizens
approaching me to run for the position of Fort Bend County, Texas Sheriff,
in which I was elected. By 1904 I had moved with his family to Imperial
Valley (California), and in 1923 I served as a member of the Imperial
Valley District board, which helped push through legislation for the
construction of Boulder Dam and the All-American Canal.
In 1953 at my
daughter's home in Burlingame, Ca. of pneumonia, at the age of 90(less
than a month short of his 91st birthday). I am is buried in the Evergreen
Cemetery in El Centro, California.
Who Am I?
- Ira Aten
- Ira Hayes
- Mark Reynolds
2. On February 10, 1865, I was born in Socorro, New
Mexico just before the end of the American Civil War. Upon my mother's
death in 1880, Baca returned with my father to Belen, New Mexico where my
father became a marshal. In 1884, at age 19, I stole some guns, bought a
mail-order sheriff�s badge, and more or less appointed myself deputy
sheriff in Socorro County, New Mexico.
In October, 1884, in the town of
Lower San Francisco Plaza (now Reserve), I arrested a carousing cowboy who
was drunk. Following threats from the cowboys, I took refuge in the house
of Geronimo Armijo. A standoff with the cowboys ensued and some 80 cowboys
gathered to attack the house. During the siege, I shot and killed four of
my attackers and wounded eight others. After about 33 hours, and roughly
1,000 rounds of open fire, the battle ended when a friend convinced me to surrender.
When they had left, I walked out of the house unharmed.
In May 1885, I was
charged with murder for the death of the one of the cowboys killed in the
attack on the cabin. I was jailed to await his trial. In August 1885, I
was acquitted after the door of Armijo's house was entered as evidence.
It had more than 400 bullet holes in it. The incident became known as the
Frisco Shootout.
Who Am I?
- Octaviano Larrazolo
- Elfego Baca
- Howard Bryan
3. I was a lawman and saloon keeper associated with
the early days of Dodge City in the American Old West. I was born in New
Bedford, Massachusetts and fought for the North during the Civil War.
After the war ended, I headed west, and eventually became the county
Sheriff in Ford County, Kansas, serving with Bat Masterson, who was my
under-sheriff. When Ed Masterson, brother to Bat, was killed in a shooting
in Dodge City, Kansas in April 1878, I became the new Dodge City Marshal.
Both Wyatt Earp and Wyatt's older brother James worked as deputies for me.
In 1883, after a dispute with a local politician, gunfighter and saloon
owner, Luke Short, I left Dodge City, only to return shortly thereafter
with several notable gunfighter friends: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Doc
Holliday, M. F. McClain, Neil Brown, and W. F. Petillion. This became
known as the Dodge City War. I worked in and owned several saloons in his
later years, until my death by natural causes in Hot Springs, Kansas in
1896.
Who Am I
- Charles Bassett
- Charles Lourie
- Edward C. Jones
4. I was born in what is now Kansas City, Missouri
on October 23, 1844. I came to the Arizona Territory from San Francisco in
1863, arriving first in Prescott, the territorial seat. I was involved in
Arizona politics (serving a term in the Arizona Territorial Legislature)
and law enforcement, serving as sheriff of Yavapai County. In 1869 I
married Victoria Zaff and had two children (a son and daughter).
We
divorced in 1875 and I never remarried. I moved to Tombstone in September
1880, perhaps with knowledge that the area was about to be split off from
Pima County as Cochise County, with Tombstone as the county seat. When the
southern area of Pima County containing Tombstone was split off into the
new Cochise County in early 1881, I was appointed first Sheriff of Cochise
County by Governor Fremont, and confirmed by the upper house of the
Territorial Legislature, on February 10, 1881.
I died on June 7, 1912 of
Bright's disease (immune-related renal failure) in Tucson, and (as a Roman
Catholic) was buried in a now-lost site in Tucson's Holy Hope Cemetery.
Who Am I
- Wyatt Earp
- Johnny Behan
- Johnny Ringo
5. I was a frontiersman, rancher, cowboy and lawman
of the Old West, best known for building my Ranch, considered a
historical location of Wyoming today. I also helped to settle Laramie,
Wyoming. I ventured into Wyoming Territory around 1865 towards the end of
the American Civil War. I would be the first Sheriff of Albany County,
Wyoming, where Laramie is located.
I was an original member of the
local "Vigilence Committee", organized to help bring order to
the lawless area. I lead a lynch mob that hung "Big" Steve Long,
and his half brothers Ace and Con Moyer on October 28, 1868. My ranch had
become one of the largest and most productive in the territory. I served
in the United States House of Representatives representing Wyoming. I died
in 1904.
Who Am I
- David Ketchum
- Nelson Stewart
- N. K. Boswell
6. I was born in Ohio around 1832 where I later
became a buffalo hunter in the late-1840s or early-1850s whose success
equaled fellow buffalo hunter William F. Cody earning the same nickname of
"Buffalo Bill". During the late 1860s, I had killed
several men in various gunfights, and was briefly hired as a stage driver
for the Southwestern Stage Co., before becoming the marshal of Newton,
Kansas in 1872.
According to legend I went to Butte, Montana where I
attempted to become the city marshal but, in part because of my
reputation, was instead passed over in favor of Morgan Earp. Confronting
Earp over my defeat, I was shot in the stomach and Morgan was shot in the
shoulder. It was charged that I had apparently attempted to weaken the
rival company and win back the mail contract the Southwestern Stage Co.
however I was lynched while awaiting trial on July 29, 1874.
Who Am I
- William L. Brooks
- Melvin Brooks
- Morgan Brooks
7. I was a 19th century gunman who played the roles
of both lawman and outlaw during his brief life. An orphan, I was raised
in Rolla, Missouri, by relatives until the age of seventeen, when I left
home and headed west. I drifted through various cowboy jobs in Colorado
and Texas, supposedly killing a man in a gunfight in the Texas Panhandle.
On April 1, 1878, Billy the Kid, Jim French, Frank McNab, John Middleton,
Fred Waite and I ambushed and murdered Lincoln sheriff William Brady, a
partisan for the opposition (the Murphy-Dolan faction, or "The
House") who was indirectly responsible for the death of the our
employer, John Tunstall.
I rode to Medicine Lodge, Kansas, and attempted
to rob the Medicine Valley Bank, where I murdered the bank's president.
During the night I managed to escape my handcuffs, and when the lynch mob
came at 9 pm and opened his cell, I raced past my jailors, right through
the startled lynch mob to an alley alongside the jail. A quick-thinking
farmer shot me as he ran past, with both barrels of his shotgun at almost
point blank range, killing me, nearly tearing me in half. Disgusted that I
had cheated them out of a hanging, various members of the lynch mob
contented themselves with pumping bullets into my mangled corpse.
Who Am I?
- Henry Newton Brown
- William J. Kidd
- Edgar Highland
8. I was born on July 23, 1849 in Amherstburg,
Canada West (Ontario), Canada. In 1867, I became a resident of Helena,
Montana, where I unsuccessfully ran for the Territorial Legislature and
was elected to the Territorial Senate, serving in 1871 and 1872 and helped
create Yellowstone National Park. In 1873, I was elected sheriff of Lewis
and Clark County, Montana. During my tenure as sheriff, I killed my first
man, Clell Watson. Watson had stolen a horse and after a gunfight with me,
in which I was slightly wounded in the shoulder, Watson was taken into
custody. When Watson was prepared to be hanged, a lynch mob appeared and
scared off the executioner.
I climbed the scaffold and pulled the lever,
sending Watson to his death. I then held off the mob with a shotgun. My
friendship with Teddy Roosevelt led to me becoming a Captain of Troop A in
Grigsby's Cowboy Regiment of Roosevelt's Rough Riders during the
Spanish-American War; although the troop never left training camp in
Louisiana before the war ended, I still earned the title of captain. I
died of cancer shortly thereafter, on September 23, 1919, in room 211 of
the Bullock hotel. I was buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood,
along with Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane, with my grave facing Mount
Roosevelt.
Who Am I
- William Breakenridge
- Neal Brown
- Seth Bullock
9. I was born on September 15, 1849, in Virginia. I
drifted into Texas working as a cowboy. In 1871, I started robbing banks
and rustling cattle, which at the time was a capital offense. In 1877, I
was arrested for robbing a bank in Comanche, Texas. I escaped from Texas
Ranger custody and moved to Ogallala, Nebraska and took up a herd of
cattle. While in Nebraska, I officially changed my name and vowed to give
up his outlaw ways.
I traveled to Oklahoma, and became a respected U.S.
Marshal under Judge Isaac Parker, based out of Fort Smith, Arkansas. I
worked with other famous lawmen such as Heck Thomas, Chris Madsen, and
Bill Tilghman during that time. I arranged a meeting with the Governor of
Texas. I confessed that I was secretly Joe Horner, and the governor took
my law enforcement service into consideration and granted me a pardon. I
chose to be known by my alias for the remainder of my lifetime. I
died in 1927.
Who Am I?
- Frank M. Canton
- Joseph Horner
- Malcolm Ryan
10. I was a successful rancher, U.S. Marshal, Chief
of Police, businessman, and pioneer of the Old West. I was born in
Kentucky in 1859, and for much of my young childhood my father was away
fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War. On April 22, 1889 I made
the run that day and traded my team, wagon and gear for a shack and lot.
By the end of the excitement, a noisy tent city had sprung up, and I was
its leading citizen, with his lot becoming Lot Number 1, Block Number 1,
Oklahoma City.
As Oklahoma boomed I served as Chief of Police, then
Oklahoma City's first Sheriff (essentially the army left what was a
territory, declared it a state, and gave me the stockade and a gun.) I
later became a US Marshal (appointed by President Grover Cleveland),
serving with Bill Tilghman. I worked hard to control a lawless, wild area,
fighting Bill Doolin, Bill "Tulsa Jack" Blake, the Dalton Gang,
Richard "Little Dick" West, and others. I personally rounded up
five members of the Dalton Gang and supervised their hanging. I died on
December 10, 1934.
Who Am I?
- Charles Urschel
- Charles Francis Colcord
- Paul Coury

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