#i9.*--.:tir;":t+;iir'i.#..i.F*,*' 1 F r +-: ti. .. ,=. -.:;4t @ !!i*- , ,- a ,l# s F,,b T IE ?t l:.lr':E@ E ,;i *=!6*Fi+*E^ E u=. ..$r.' 'ir fi!, .t,.rti, rt ti'l rri r.t:,"tr :"1f e;'l.i+: ..: '* ;;. :, . .1'.:g :#. i* lt /. /-a!,ti._,.., .'! '].. : a /2-t.\ *s*-*-}c& -. 1 u@* g -. ,:' @## \\\gF '' li-:.- bo.F cf ' *1ir' -.' .*!'::'tx. a- Es ' 'r,\ '',.i>>*'-o E" i.., ,J-. ''7 {:i;:: '-, . '?' #u " ,.ffi :t,t:ri!:.ii4;r I :_r::r:!,3r:?1.:,' J0l{}i \!'. HARL}i}i ll-crl AlY{.t?tNU9 dT !,A1! ilr''*'!4.t}]:: :{1014 lit P*:r PliA{l'tlaFr tN 1V*lle Flrto Eldc AI,L Cii]F1g The 0fficial Publication 0f the (olt (ollefion Almciation Above: Colt Model 7877 revolver serial number 73,728, factory engraved. Purchased by John Wesley Hardin from El paso mer- chant Arthur Kline. Shipped to Ketelson and Degetau, El paso, Texas on December 30, 1889. Kurt House Collection. paul Goodwin Photograph. Right: John Wesley Hardin rom about lB73 to 1895 he was the baddest man in Texas, and that is saying a lot. During those turbulent years of first Civil \Var Reconsrrucrion and later cattle drives, desperadoes were plentiful, but he became the worst of the worst. Of course it depends on descendant of the Knob Creek, Tennessee Hardins. (That who you talk to, or which books you read, or how you is why I drink Knob Creek brand whiskey which is still form your judgment. However, a good verse to keep in made by the Hardin descendants.) However, almost all of mind before you do is "Judge not lest ye be judged." his forbearers were respectable settlers; one signed the (Matthew 7:1) I confess I have now read 14 books on him Texas Declaration of Independence, and another fought at and I still am trying to understand the man. Maybe that San Jacinto, and a counry in east Texas was even named is why psychologist Dr. Richard Marohn became so inter- after them, Hardin Counry norrheasr of Houston and ested in him that he wrore perhaps the best book available Beaumont. on the subject The Last Gunfighter: John Wesley Hardin.r Though he did nor become a minister as his father had John \Tesley Hardin may be the mosr popular enigma hoped, the 16-year-old killer did first become a school spawned by the Old \fest and because of his stature in teacher near Corsicana, Texas. history, many legends have circulated. Most popular is the But there was violence in his family. Martha Hardin, belief that he used his gun so whimsically that he "once Wes's aunt, married Emanuel Clements from the Gonzales, shot a man for snoring." Born in 1853 (the same year as Texas area, and their son Emanuel "Mannen' Clements my great grandfather) his Methodist minister father, James was killed in the Alamo Saloon in Ballinger, Texas. Gibson Hardin, moved around quite a bit and named his Mannent son, "Manny''was killed in 1908 in the Coney second son of three after the famous Methodist founder. Island Saloon, El Paso, Texas by an unknown assailant.l Too bad the name didnt take. John Wesley Hardin was a Manny's daughter Sally first married "Killing Jirn' Miller The Rampant (olt Q u.,ww.cohcollectors.com Ztftr,,7) tzl-.t 2"./ t,r,7r.-. /,1. who ranks as the top- The next d^y, most gunfighter in Hardin on horse- Bill O'Neal's list of back encountered gunfighters2 with a Mage in the woods, 15 men. Maybe he and, in Hardin's topped Hardin? own words, here is what happened next: Throughout Hardin's 6l{9*o.E*".'" 7 :',,: life, the Clements (|r<\€rl,;t'rqr{:,1 a-.2,4 raexrco (Mage) "began- . were among his g,*". to c*a.g il, I ,ft/1t, favorite relatives and curse and abuse me remained supportive saying that I was a of him to the end. coward for not tVhen "KillingJim'was indicted for killing Pecos County shooting it out last night ... He answered by saying that Sheriff Bud Frazer, he sent for his relative \7es Hardin if he could but get hold of me he would hill me and who had by that time passed the bar and become a lawyer. tbrow me in the creeb ... be came at me uith his big (More on that later.) Other reasons for Hardin's popular- stick. He snuck me, and as he did it I pulled out a Coh's iry are the facts he left his autobiography, a rare feat for a .44 six shooter and told him to get back. By this time be gunfighter, more weapons are known from him than had my horse by the bridle bat I shot him hose. He kept almost any other gunfighter3 and he engaged in many coming back, and euery time he would start I would a documented colorful gunfi ghts. shoot again and again until I shot hirn down." Hardin was notorious for many reasons. He committed his first murder when he was only 15, so it is obvious why Since this was in November, 1868, the Colt must have biographer Marohn considered him a juvenile delinquent been the percussion Model i860 Army, although most of worthy of study. At the tender age of 1 1 Hardin stabbed the guns now known to have been Hardint are cartridge a school mate in the chest and back during a knife fight, models. On the adviqe of his uncle, Hardin left the vicin- although the boy lived through it. Just four years later ity to live with his mothert sister at Richland Crossing in Hardin entered a wrestling match with a former slave, Navarro Counry and this set a pattern that he followed Mage Holshausen, who was about his same age, and the for the rest of his life after each killing. match ended with Mage swearing vengeance on Hardin. How many killings were there? According to various l0 The Rampant(olt utuu. co hco lle ctors. com 12-gauge muzzle loading W.& G. Scott shotgun, used by lohn Wesley Hardin in the killing of Texas State Police Captain lack Helm in July, 1873. Photos courtesy of The Buckhorn Saloon and Texas Ranger Museum. requiring intervention by the Texas Rangers under Lee Police Captain Jack Helm was welcomed by almost every- "Red" Hall who had been sent by the governor. Since one in the area, perhaps giving rise to Hardin's defense of Hardin was related to the Thylor side he found himself his many crimes, that he "never killed a man that didnt aligned with that side during the coming war. To make need killin." a matters worse, Hardins old enemy Jack Helm was the However, the crime that finally sent Hardin to prison leader of the Sutton faction and things came to a head in was his encounter with Brown Counry Deputy Sheriff a blacksmith shop in Albuquerque, Texas, (now a ghost Charles \febb. On a cattle drive to Kansas, Hardin and were drinking town) in July of lB7 3. Accounts differ on what happened, his two relatives Jim Thylor and Bill Dixon but the short version is that Hardin and his relative Jim heavily and betting on horse racing, eventually retiring to Taylor were having a horse shod when Jack Helm entered \Trightt Saloon where Deputy\febb approached Hardin. the shop. Hardin immediately shot Helm in the chest Hardin asked \7ebb if he were looking for him, since with a 1.2 gauge muzzle loading \7. & C. Scott shotgun technically it was out of his jurisdiction (they were in and tylor pumped several pistol rounds into the fallen Comanche County), to which \[ebb replied, "I dont man to make sure. The only way we know the make of know you." According to Hardins autobiography, he this gun is that it has survived in the collection of the then said, "My name is John \Tesley Hardin." \febb then Buckhorn Saloon (established 1881) in San Antonio, stated, "Now I know you, but I have no papers for your Texas, having been donated indirectly Gonzales County arrest." Since that statement seemed to settle the question had differences, the Sheriff J.C. Jones in 1937.The demise of the hated State and demonstrated that the two no '12 The Rampant (olt wwu.,.cohcollectors.com Hardin bunch then invited \7ebb to have a drink, where- Florida to escape heat from the law Going by the name upon Hardin turned his back to \febb. Just then, Bud of J. H. Swain, he sent for his wife, Jane Hardin, and Dixon hollered "Look out, Jack" and as Hardin turned he daughter Mollie. He and Jane Bowen had married in saw'Webb drawing his pistol, so he jumped aside, drew Gonzales in 1872 and were destined to add son John his Smith and \Tesson Model 3 and fired at \febb, hitting \7esley, Jr. and another daughter, Jenny. (To this authort him in the face. By this tlme amazement, research revealed 'W'esley Vebb had also fired, the bullet that John Hardin, Jr. cutting Hardin the length of his married Lillie House, a distant left side and "inflicting an ugly relative of this writer!) and painful wound."a From 1874 to 1875, Hardin Remarkably, Hardin's pistol, thrived in Florida, engaging in (serial number 25274, nickel various businesses, including plated with ivory grips) has also saloon-keeping, horse trading, survived because after the shoot- and gambling. How he was ing Hardin surrendered the gun eventually captured by Texas to the bartender.