Caldwell, Kansas - Wicked Border Queen

Caldwell - The Wicked Border Queen

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By the time Caldwell was just three years old, it needed its ninth marshal. Unfortunately for the City and the new marshal, a 10th would soon follow. Appointed in March, 1882, George S. Brown, 28, lived to enforce the law only until the summer. On June 22, 1882, Marshal Brown was killed by cowboys Steve and Jess Green in the Red Light Saloon as Brown and a deputy answered a disturbance call. With the help of the saloon employees, the Green brothers escaped into Indian Territory, only to be caught in a gunfight with Territory lawmen in October. Steve Green and a deputy sheriff were killed and Jess Green was captured, riddled with 13 gunshot wounds. The Kansas governor gladly paid the Texas posse the $1,000 in Kansas reward money. Jess Green died in the county jail, just prior to his murder trial.

Also hired in 1882 was another Mr. Brown – one Henry Newton Brown, as Assistant Marshal. He was later promoted to City Marshal.

Henry Newton Brown

But, Brown had failed to tell the city council about his interesting past which included cattle rustling, riding with Billy the Kid, and a trivial murder charge during the Lincoln County War in New Mexico.

Brown hired his friend Ben Wheeler, aka: Ben Robertson and the two men “cleaned up” the tough town quickly. When Brown felled two outlaws in the streets of Caldwell in 1883, the Caldwell Post bragged that Brown was "one of the quickest men on the trigger in the Southwest." So taken were the town citizens that they presented him with a new, engraved Winchester rifle.

What the town didn’t know; however, was that Brown had gotten into financial trouble and returned to his outlaw ways. On April 30, 1884, Brown, along with his deputy, Ben Wheeler, and two other former outlaw friends, attempted to rob a bank in Medicine Lodge, Kansas. Though they made off with no money, they shot a killed two bank employees. A posse was immediately after the would-be robbers, catching up with them right out of town.

They were taken to the Medicine Lodge jail and in no time, a mob outside formed, chanting “Hang them! Hang them!” That night, about 9:00 p.m., the mob broke into the jail and the prisoners attempted to dash for freedom. Brown fell quickly, his body riddled with bullets. Wheeler was also wounded but was dragged along with the other two, to a nearby elm tree and hanged.

Later that year, when "Buffalo Bill" Brooks, a former Newton and Dodge City lawman, turned to outlawry, he was captured by a posse with several other horse thieves near Caldwell. Hauled to jail to await trial, a lynch mob stormed the Caldwell on July 29^th and lynched Brooks, along with two other horse thieves by the names of L.B. Hasbrouck and Charlie Smith.

By the next year, the cattle trade had moved farther west and Caldwell settled down to an agricultural community. During its thriving cattle days, more than a million longhorns and their guardian cowboys traveled through Caldwell.

Caldwell saw more wild days in 1893 when Congress opened the Cherokee outlet to the south for settlement. Soon, Caldwell filled with thousands of land hungry pioneers preparing for the last great land rush in America. On September 16, 1893, 15,000 people gathered in Caldwell, awaiting the cavalry soldiers' gunshots to start the mad rush for land.

Afterwards, Caldwell continued to prosper until other towns were established in the new territory to supply the settlers' needs. The town survived as a railroad junction and agricultural community. Today, it supports a population of about 1,300.

In 1893, more than 15,000 people lined up for Oklahoma Land Run in Caldwell, Kansas.

Though Caldwell's days of hustle and bustle are gone, the small city continues to display its rich heritage through a number of historical markers that dot the town, at the Cherokee Strip Visitors Center & Museum at 1 North Main, its boothill cemetery, and a number of celebrations throughout the year.

Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, © September, 2007

A life-sized silhouette of a trail cattle drive sits on a hill

outside Caldwell, Kansas, Kathy Weiser, November, 2005.

This image available for photographic prints and downloads HERE!

Caldwell, Kansas today, Kathy Weiser, November, 2005.

Also See:

Kansas Cowtowns - Lawlessness on the Prairie

Henry Newton Brown - Outlaw Marshal of Kansas

Talbot Cowboys Shootout

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