Category Archives: Justice
Captain Sam Walker
Samuel Hamilton Walker was the son of Nathan and Elizabeth Walker, the fifth of seven children. He was born on 24 February 1817 at Toaping Castle, Maryland. What we know about him is mostly third hand, but this doesn’t detract … Continue reading
Deadwood Dick
I enjoy researching and writing about the Old West because there is no history quite as colorful or as interesting as that of America’s westward expansion. Unhappily, very few of our present-day colleges or universities offer courses in American history … Continue reading
Clay Allison, gunfighter
Robert Clay Allison was the fourth of nine children born to Jeremiah Scotland Allison and Mariah Brown Allison. Jeremiah was a Presbyterian minister and a subsistence farmer. Clay may have had a hyperactive disorder, as it appears that he was … Continue reading
When Saints Became Sinners
Massacre in the Meadow After the original frontiersmen came the pioneers, men, women, and children who set out for the western frontier in family groups. In some cases, these family groups included “extended” relations. Generally, the pioneers agreed to meet … Continue reading
The Guardsmen
There was a time in America when lawmen made people nervous —not because they had anything to hide (maybe they did), but because, for the most part, old west lawmen were no one to trifle with. The fact was that … Continue reading
El Pistolero
The date was 12 June 1901. Karnes County, Texas Sheriff W. T. Morris (whom everyone called Brack) and a deputy were investigating the theft of a horse. The sheriff’s inquiry led him to the Thulemeyer Ranch outside Kenedy, Texas. Arriving … Continue reading
Three-Legged Willie
Robert McAlpin Williamson (1804/1805–1859) was the son of Peter B. and Ann (McAlpin) Williamson, who was born in Clark County Georgia. While a teenager, he encountered an illness that confined him to his home for two years and left him … Continue reading
Cap Arrington
George Washington Arrington was born in 1844 in Greensboro, Alabama as John Cromwell Orrick, Jr., the son of John Cromwell and Mariah Arrington Orrick. After John Sr., died in 1848, Mariah married William Larkin Williams, who lost his life in … Continue reading
The Texas Fence-Cutting Wars
Old West Texas was a land of vast grasslands uninterrupted by natural barriers. The landscape was devoid of rock and timber from which landowners might have erected fencing to mark land boundaries or control grazing livestock. In 1883, a clash … Continue reading
One Riot, One Texas Ranger
In 1821, Mexico’s War of Independence from Spain included the territory of present-day Texas, which became part of Mexico, incorporated as part of the state of Coahuila y Tejas. At this time, there were very few Europeans living in this … Continue reading
