Scott
Cooley (1845-1876?) - Born in 1845, Cooley was an honorable man for the first
30 years of his life and served as a
Texas Ranger
but that would later change when he got involved in the Mason
County War and befriended notorious outlaw, Johnny Ringo.
Born in Texas in 1845, Cooley was
unofficially adopted and raised by a rancher named Tim
Williamson, who, along with his wife, nursed him through
Typhoid as a child. Cooley grew up to have tremendous respect
for the couple, which would later come into play at the
eruption of the Mason County War.
As a young man, he joined the
Texas Rangers, serving in Captain Cicero R. Perry's Company D,
and earned recognition for his relentless pursuit of outlaws.
However, by 1875, he had resigned his position and was farming
and ranching near Manardville, Texas. During this time,
he and his benefactor, Tim Williamson, made two cattle drives
to Kansas.
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Scott Cooley (1845-1876?)
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Cooley's life changed on May 13, 1875 when his friend, Tim Williamson
was arrested by Deputy Sheriff John Worley
on the suspicion of
cattle rustling. While Worley escorted Williamson to jail, an angry
mob of German cattlemen abducted the prisoner and shot him to death. This incident marked the beginning of the Mason County War in
Texas, that pitted the German
cattlemen against the native-born Texans.
Scott Cooley blamed Worley for Williamson's death, believing him to have
been in collusion with the German ambushers. However, he waited for the ambushers to be arrested,
but when no indictments were made against them, he took matters into his own hands.
 He soon recruited several men to help him, including John and Mose Beard, George Gladden, and
Johnny
Ringo and began to avenge the death of Tim Williamson.
Cooley and his "posse" first went to Worley's home
where he found the deputy working on his well with an assistant, who had
been lowered over the side. Cooley shot Worley dead, and the well
worker, clinging to the rope, tumbled to the bottom of the well. Cooley
then cut scalped Worley, proudly displaying his prize to the Germans.
They then killed
Peter Bader, who was believed to have been Williamson's
killer, before
tracking down murdering another man named Daniel Hoerster, whom they suspected
of having been part of the ambush group. The Germans retaliated when a posse led
by Sheriff John Clark, ambushed
Moses Baird and George Gladden, killing Baird
and seriously wounding Gladden. The posse included Charles Bader, brother to
Cooley's second victim, Peter Bader.
Cooley and his allies then began
to kill a number of the ambushers, which was retaliated by the
hanging of
two of Cooley's confederates. The killing
continued in
both directions for the next several months and the Texas
Rangers did little, as many of them were friends of Cooley's.
Finally in
December, 1875, Scott Cooley and
Johnny Ringo were arrested by
Sheriff A. J. Strickland, but they later escaped from the Lampasas County, Texas jail,
with the help of friends.
Cooley escaped from a posse at the Llanno River
and was thought to have fled into Blanco County where he was sheltered by
friends and died a short time later,
supposedly of brain fever.
Only a few minor gunmen were ever charged, one of which was
Johnny
Ringo, but he was
acquitted. He would later turn up later in
Tombstone ,
Arizona to tangle with the likes of
Wyatt Earp.
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