True Stories from the Wild West

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A few posts back I shared that my great, great Grandfather was a county sheriff in the old west. @silversaver888 asked if I could share some of his stories. Fortunately he kept a journal which has been kept by family members over the years and I'm fortunate enough to have a copy. These are real events that happened in the 1880's. I am a little limited on some of the stories I can share as some are in a working script for movie production (which I'm attached to), but I can share items not already worked into the project. I do have to change names and locations to keep the producer happy. Also to prevent someone else trying to use the ideas to make a competing movie like happened in the early 90's with Tombstone with Kurt Russell and Wyatt Earp with Kevin Costner. It likely won't actually go into production for a couple years but it should be a lot of fun when it all comes together!

This 1887 Morgan silver dollar which I shared a few posts back is really got me thinking about sharing some of his stories. Just imagine living in the southwestern parts of America at that time and you might have even carried a coin just like this one in your pocket! That was way back when one dollar was actually fairly valuable unlike today when it can barely buy a pack of gum.

I will try to share a story about once a week as long as everyone enjoys it. I will be referring to my great great Grandfather as Sheriff George Johnson and he was the sheriff of a county in southern Colorado in the mid 1880's. As I mentioned the names and locations have been altered.

Sheriff Johnson had ben sheriff for about three months. He was responsible for a rather large county which had many small town and one small city which was the county seat. For the most part he preferred to do all of the criminal law himself and let his deputies handle all the civil law cases. One day a gentleman named Smith from town came in complaining that another local by the name of Chester Freckleton had stolen one of his horses. He thought this was odd since as far as he knew they were business partners. After further discussion it turned out that they had a falling out and Chester felt cheated and took the horse because he was owed money. The Sheriff then convinced Mr. Smith not to pursue charges if he could get Chester to return the horse and resolve their differences before the judge.

Chester was well known to have a bad temper especially when he was drunk which most of the time. He lived on a large plot of land in the foothills about ten miles out of town. So the sheriff rode out to Chester's home to try and talk some sense into him. As soon as the house came into view he heard a gunshot and the bullet hit some trees about thirty feet away. He quickly dismounted his horse and led it behind some rocky cover. Every now and again a shot would be fired in his general direction. He called out to Chester saying he was just there to talk. This was met with a few more wild shots. The sheriff soon realized that Chester was either very drunk or intentionally missing because he was known to be a good shot.

He decided to change his strategy by removing his gun belt and coming just into view and yelling to Chester that he was unarmed and just wanted to talk. Another wild shot hitting about twenty feet away. He decided to take a gamble and started to slowly approach the house. As he did so a few more shots fired again very far off the mark. At this point he felt confident that he was missing on purpose. He called out again "Chester I'm unarmed and I'm just here to talk." He finally got a response from Chester, "bout what?" He explained why he was there and Chester then decided to invite him inside. After talking to Chester for an hour or so he agreed to return the horse peacefully.

The matter was later resolved in court and Chester got the money he was owed. The sheriff then said in his journal that he was grateful that he had handled the situation because he knew that if one of deputies had approached the house it could have turned very bloody very fast because they would have shot back. He stated that keeping a level head and following your gut was always the best way to approach a potentially dangerous confrontation.

This is just one of many stories I plan to share in the next few weeks. I hope you enjoyed it and if you have any questions or comments feel free!

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