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Old West Lawmen - Last Name Starts With "C"

More Lists: Explorers | Gunfighters | Lawmen | Native Americans | Others | Outlaws | Outlaw Gangs | Scoundrels | Soldiers | Trail Blazers & Cowboys | Vigilantes | Women

 

 

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California Ranger BadgeCalifornia State Rangers - California's first state-wide law enforcement agency, the Rangers were formed in 1853 when the legislature authorized a body of some 20 men to kill or capture the Mexican bandit Joaquin Murrieta and his gang called the Five Joaquins. Led by former Texas Ranger Captain Harry Love, the men tracked down the gang and allegedly killed Murrieta and his right hand man Manuel Garcia, known as "Three Fingered Jack."  Later, the Rangers were disbanded; however, Captain Love and another ranger stayed on at the State Capitol and helped to form the California State police. Over the years, the organization was reorganized several times and was eventually merged with the California Highway Patrol in 1995.

 

Frank M. Canton, aka: Joe Horner (1849-1927) - Canton was actually born as Joe Horner near Richmond, Virginia. As a child to he moved to Texas with his family and while in his teens became a cowboy, herding cattle from North Texas to the Kansas railheads in the 1860's. In 1871 he dropped from sight and made his living as a bank robber and rustler. He was jailed for robbing a bank in Comanche, Texas but escaped and returned to cattle herding.  After driving a herd to Ogallala, Nebraska, he changed his name to Frank Canton and vowed to uphold law and order. 

Frank Canton

Frank Canton, outlaw turned U.S. Marshal

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He was soon hired as the top enforcer of the Wyoming Stock Grower's Association, a group of powerful cattlemen in Johnson County, Wyoming. He was later elected sheriff of the county. It was here that he made his reputation in the notorious Johnson County War of Wyoming in the 1890's and was involved in the unlawful hanging of James Averell and Cattle Kate.

 

 

Afterwards he fled south, becoming a U.S. Deputy Marshal in Indian Territory under Judge Isaac Parker and made a name for himself as a strong and honest lawman. Canton accepted another appointment as a U.S. Deputy Marshal in Alaska in 1897. Some time later, he returned to Oklahoma and once more became a lawman. In 1907, he became adjutant general of the Oklahoma National guard, a post he held until his death in 1927.

T. Jeff Carr - The first sheriff of Laramie County, Wyoming Territory, in 1869. He made Wild Bill Hickok check his guns in Cheyenne and in 1876, arrested Jack McCall, the man who shot Hickok. Later served as a U.S. Deputy Marshal for Wyoming.

Joe Carson (18??-1880) - Part of the Dodge City Gang of Las Vegas, New Mexico, Carson was the town constable. He was killed by outlaw John Dorsey when he asked him to check his guns on January 22, 1880.

Willard Erastus ChristiansonWillard Erastus Christianson, aka: Matt Warner, Ras Lewis (1864-1938) - Both an outlaw and a lawman, Christianson was born in Ephraim, Utah in 1864 to a Swedish father and a German mother who had come to Utah as converts to the Mormon Church. Though his start was good, he got into a fight when he was 14 years-old, and fearing he had beaten the other boy to death, he ran away. He soon joined up with a band of rustlers to begin his life as an outlaw. It was at this time that he began going by the name of Matt Warner.  Somewhere along the line, he got married to a girl named Rose Morgan and the two ran a cattle ranch in Big Bend, Washington before returning with his wife and a daughter to Utah.

 

He then hooked up with his brother-in-law, outlaw Tom McCarty. In no time, Warner was robbing banks and trains with the likes of Elza Lay and Butch Cassidy.  He then got into a shoot out, that earned him five years in the Utah Sate Prison. Though he received an early release for good behavior, his wife died during his incarceration.

 

After his release, he remarried and settled in Carbon County, Utah. Warner ran for public office under his real name, Willard Erastus Christianson, and lost. He then had his name officially changed to Matt Warner, the name most people knew him by, and was elected justice of the peace and then served as a deputy sheriff. Later he worked as a night guard and detective in Price, Utah. He died a natural death on December 21, 1938 at the age of seventy-four.

 

Emanuel "Mannie" Clements, Jr. - Served under Sheriff Dave Allison as deputy sheriff at Pecos City, Texas. He later worked for Jim Miller during the Miller-Frazer feud and served as constable of EI Paso.

Charles Francis Colcord (1859-1934) - U.S. Deputy Marshal in Oklahoma Territory, Chief of Police in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

 

Scott Cooley - Lawman and OutlawScott 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. However, that all changed in September, 1875, when Deputy Sheriff Worley arrested Cooley's friend and benefactor Tim Williamson 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 ambushers. Cooley then 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 boom of the well. Cooley then cut scalped Worley, proudly displaying his prize to the Germans. Cooley and his men then killed Peter Bader, the second man on his death list, before tracking down murdering another man named Daniel Hoerster, whom they suspected of having been part of the ambush group. The Germans retaliated by hanging two of Cooley's confederates, and the murders continued in both directions for the next year before the Texas Rangers finally restored order. 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.

 

David J. Cook (1842–1907) - Denver, Colorado Marshal, responsible for over 3,000 arrests.

Jim CourtrightTimothy Isaiah "Longhair Jim" Courtright (1848-1887) – Born in Sangamon County, Illinois, little is known of Courtright’s early life.  He served with the Union army during the Civil War then drifted around until he finally settled in Fort Worth, Texas. While there, he served at various times as a jailer, deputy sheriff, hired killer, private detective, and racketeer. He was the first elected marshal of Fort Worth in 1876 -- tasked with keeping the peace in what had become known as Hell's Half Acre, the town’s wild red-light district. In 1883, he was appointed as a deputy U.S. Deputy Marshal, but became a fugitive himself after his posse killed two ranchers. Later, he grew tired of running and turned himself in, though he was acquitted of any wrong doing. By 1887, Courtright was running the T.I.C. Commercial agency in Fort Worth, Texas, which provided "protection" to gambling dens and saloons in return for a portion of their profits. In the meantime, Luke Short, a former friend of Courtright's, had set up the White Elephant Saloon and Jim was trying to get Short to utilize his services. But the Dodge City gunfighter told Courtright to "go to hell," he could do any gunslinging that was necessary to take care of his business. Some time later, the two quarreled, resulting in one of the most famous gunfights in western history. With Bat Masterson at Short's side, Courtright and Luke Short dueled in the street in one of the few face-to-face gunfights in the American West. Shot down by Short, Courtright was killed on February 8, 1887.

Edward Crawford - Served on the Ellsworth, Kansas police force in the early 1870s, until he was discharged for killing suspected murderer Cad Pierce. Crawford was later killed by Pierce's brother.

William R. Cruger (1840-1882) - Born on May 30, 1840 in Albany, Georgia, he moved to Shackelford County, Texas when he was 34. Assisting in the county's organization, he named the city of Albany, which became the county seat, for his birthplace. In April, 1876, John M. Larn was elected as the sheriff of Shackleford County and Cruger became his deputy. Law and order was much needed in the area. as nearby Fort Griffin, some 15 miles north of Albany, had become a hotbed for outlaws, thieves, and other desperate characters. Early in 1877, when the lawmen attempted to restore order in a Fort Griffin saloon, a gunfight broke out and in the end, three men were killed, and Cruger and the Shackleford County attorney were wounded. Afterwards, Sheriff Larn resigned and Cruger was appointed as his successor on April 20, 1877. Ironically, after Larn quit, he turned to cattle rustling and Cruger was given the warrant from he Albany court to arrest his former boss. After arresting Larn on June 22, 1878 and placing him in jail, he had the local blacksmith shackle Larn to the floor of the jail house to prevent a breakout by Larn's supporters. However, the next night, vigilantes stormed the jail intending to hang Larn. When they found they couldn't lynch the shackled man, they shot him in his cell.  Cruger continued to serve as sheriff until he resigned on July 20, 1880. Before long he moved his family to Tennessee where he served as marshal in Princeton. While there, he was killed by a drunken prisoner whom he had failed to search on May 29, 1882. He was buried in Albany, Georgia.

 

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