Western History 101: SURE AS SHOOTIN'!

SURE AS SHOOTIN' (1949ish)

Sorry gang! I know you don't tune in to a lamebrained blog like this to actually learn stuff, but sometimes this weird mood comes upon me and I can't resist slapping up a factoid or two. I'll have something more frivolous tomorrow, I promise! These mini history lessons appeared in issues of Black Diamond Western circa 1949.

The Real Life story of GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER (1942)

Today we pay homage to "America's Most Colorful Cavalry Leader," also known as Yellow Hair, Fanny, Autie, Iron Butt and Son of the Morning Star. This tale, from the May 1942 issue of Real Life Comics (scanned for comicbookplus.com by "Yoc") is dedicated to Cap'n Bob Napier, illustrious grandson of one of GAC's by-blows. Who drew it? I don't know. Cautionary note: Anyone perusing this post from Stayton, OR is advised to close his eyes. 

Forgotten Books: WYATT EARP'S TOMBSTONE VENDETTA by Glenn G. Boyer

Author Glenn Boyer (who headed for the last round-up in February) devoted about thirty years of his life to Earp scholarship, writing many magazine articles and four books on the subject. Boyer had a big leg up on other Earp scholars because he sought out and cultivated relatives, descendants and even friends of the people involved.

Wyatt Earp's Tombstone Vendetta (1993) was Boyer's last Earp book, and I found it both fascinating and frustrating.  In the foreword, he tells us that because most of his sources have passed on, he is at last free to tell the whole story, sharing the sum of his research, which he was not allowed to do when they were alive. Unfortunately, some of those folks prefered to remain anonymous, either in whole or in part, even after death.

Boyer's solution was to write what he termed a "nonfiction novel," purportedly based on the diary of a man he calls Ted Ten Eyck (admittedly a phony name), who was acquainted with most of the principle players (those being Wyatt and Josephine Earp, Doc Holliday, Johnny Behan, John Clum, Curly Bill Brocious and others) and privy to an astonishing amount of behind-the-scenes information. Then he murkied the waters even further, stating that "in a few instances" he merged what Ten Eyck wrote with what other sources related to Boyer on the same subject.

By the time I finished the book, I was convinced Ten Eyck was a wholly fictional character, a literary device allowing Boyer to present the results of his research in a continuous narrative. In that respect, it's an effective approach. The problem is that very little of Boyer's information can be verified, and has therefore been shunned by most serious historians.

Glenn Boyer in 2009

I can appreciate his dilemma. Boyer had gained the friendship and picked the brains of a great many well-meaning people, gathering a mountain of information. But in most cases those folks were sharing memories of stories they had heard in their youth or had been been passed down through the family. By the time this information reached Boyer, it was double or triple-hearsay. That doesn't mean the stuff wasn't true, but it could hardly be classified as historical record.

I have to give Boyer the benefit of the doubt. I think he was telling what he believed to be the true story of events surrounding Wyatt Earp and the dust-up near the OK Corral. To do that, he chose to process everything he had heard, combine it with his own knowledge and insight, add a few educated guesses, and present it all as fact. Much of the information in the book sounds like it came from family sources, but in a few instances I suspect Boyer was playing detective and offering his own solutions to historical mysteries. The hardest scenes to swallow involve Wyatt Earp telling Ten Eyck who shot first - and at whom - in the Tombstone gunfight, and Doc Holliday revealing the "true" story of the death of Johnny Ringo.

I'd like to believe this is the way it really happened, but - while this approach to history is great fun to read - it does not inspire great confidence.

More Forgotten Books at pattinase.

Book Buys Pt. 3: Pat and Bat

This Bat book by Richard O'Conner has been around forever, or at least since 1958, when this paperback was published. I’ve always been tempted to pick one up, if only for the TV tie-in cover, and there it was waiting for me in Lincoln City, a first printing in almost new condition. Made me realize I know only scattered moments in Bat’s life (Adobe Wells, Dodge City, New York) and nothing in between. Time to fill in the blanks. I know far less about Pat Garrett, and most of that's from movies. Yikes.

I’m sure there are more recent biographies of each, and likely hailed for their superior scholarship. But I’ve found that when dealing with subjects this old, newer is not necessarily better. Many biographers and historians are either too trusting of their predecessors or too lazy to check facts for themselves, and some of the stuff that passes for fact is amazing. What may have been gentle supposition, whimsy, or mere rumor to the original writer can be passed down over the years until it’s carved in stone.

Book Buys Pt. 2: Wild Women, Wild Town

If this companion volume to Great Gunfighters and Great Lawmen were reprinted today, it would undoubtedly be Women of the West Gone Wild. But this paperback, possibly a pb orginal, was published back in 1982. Tamer times. Those women not achieving cover status are Poker Alice, Cattle Annie, Kate King Quantrill, Florence Quick and Della Rose.
I read generous passages from Stanley Vestal's Dodge City, Queen of Cowtowns in Lee A. Silva's massive Wyatt Earp, A Biography of the Legend, Vol. 1: The Cowtown Years, and have been on the lookout ever since. Originally published in 1952, this Bantam Frontier Classic is from 1957.

Book Buys Pt. 1: Gunfighters and Lawmen

Just returned from a trip down the Oregon Coast to Lincoln City. I always look forward to Lincoln City because that, as near as I can tell, is where old western paperbacks go to die. Or maybe it's more like Purgatory, where they either whither to dust or are reborn in the hands of new readers. This time I was hunting mostly non-fiction. Here's Part 1 of what I found.

These two books aren't particularly old. Published in 1977 & 78, they're practically young 'uns as paperbacks go. Never heard of the author, but the notes say he's a former St. Louis County Police Commissioner, Deputy Sheriff and Deputy Marshal. The books were orginally published in '62 and '63. I picked them up because they offer quick introductions to the subjects. If any pique my interest I can dig deeper. Along with those named on the cover, Great Gunfighters features Cullen Baker, Henry Starr, Herny Brown and Frank Leslie. Great Lawmen also includes Burton Mossman, Chris Madsen and Bill Tilghman.

Jeff Smith, Spawn of the Spawn of the Spawn of Soapy.

OK, I’ll admit I’d never heard of Old West badman Soapy Smith. My first reaction was, Wasn’t that an old comic strip character? But no, I was thinking of Snuffy Smith. And there was once a strip called Soapy, drawn by Joe Musial, who sometimes ghosted Snuffy. But Jeff Smith’s Soapy was a real guy, a fascinating character, and Jeff’s great- grandfather to boot. Jeff’s book Alias Soapy Smith, The Life and Death of a Scoundrel is due out this month, and Jeff has done a truly incredible job of promoting it. He has an extensive Soapy website and a cool blog loaded with photos and factoids from Soapy’s life and times. All writers could learn from this. His efforts certainly worked on me. I look forward to the book. Thanks for joining us, Jeff!

Flashback: 1836

Over the last 175 years, some of the Almanack’s old files, including copies of many past issues, have been destroyed due to fire, flood, earthquake, Indian attack and other minor disturbances. We are therefore indebted to Mr. Bill Crider of Brownsville, Texas for photographs such as this, depicting the cover of our second issue, which he purchased as a child from the local trading post.

In case you are unable to decipher the caption beneath the illustration, it reads, “Col. Crockett’s Method of Wading the Mississippi.” When I asked Davy why he seemed to be wearing a skirt, he bristled and insisted this is merely a long-tailed coat. I suppose that’s true, as a good deal of squinting reveals a row of buttons extending down to the hem.

What follows are Davy’s introductory remarks to that second issue and an explanatory note regarding his most recent session in Congress.

“Go Ahead” Reader

My printer tells me how my Almanack has gone ahead like a steamboat and has been introduced into the first semicircles in the United States. I had no idee when I first begun to write for the public that I should have such luck. I begin to think I’ve hit on the right track, and so I keep on. I don’t doubt that I shall not only be able to tree a little change, but also a little fame into the bargain. It isn’t every member of Congress that knows how to authorise as well as to speechify. And it remains to be larnt whether I shall go down to posteriors with the most credit as a Congressman, or a writer.

Although I like moony nights for hunting yet I’ll be shot if I node how to calculate the time of the moon’s rising and setting. So I got a very good Gastronomer to do it for me. I spose my readers want to know how I’ve passed my time the last year when at home. I’ve built a new tan-yard, near my house for the purpose of tanning alligator’s skins, which my wife is making up into under shirts for the young ladies. Reader I must now bid you good-bye, and may God bless you, for I can’t.

The Reasons I Didn’t Speechify in Congress the Last Winter

I spose I owe some apology for not making more stir in Congress last winter, but the fact is that I had treed a confounded cold by sleeping in the same room with a damp traveler, while in Washington. My throat and jaws were so exflunctoficated with the influenza that I even snored hoarse. I was also suffering from a bite that I received from a tame bear which my wife keeps in her dressing room to scratch her back when it itches.

Flashback: 1835

Like any pennywise publication, the Almanack will occasionally feature “encore presentations” (yeah, okay, they’re reprints) from our illustrious history. Think of it as recycling.

Pictured here is the cover of our special Collector’s Item 1st Issue. This particular run of Almanacks is called the Nashville Series because it claimed to be published there. Was it really? Historians don’t know, and neither do I. Davy knows, of course, but he’s not telling.

What follows is the introduction to that first issue, purportedly written by old Davy himself. Did he really write it? Again, he won't say. But by the twinkle in his eye, I can tell he likes it.

“Go Ahead” Reader

Arter the great fuss the public have made about an individual of my humble pretensions, and the mighty deal of attention and good cheer which I have received in all sections of the country, where I have been ahead, my heart has swelled as big as a Bison’s, with pure gratitude. To repay all this, I mean to amuse them with some of my adventures with the wild varments and colts of the West, and with the adventures of the backwoodsmen generally.

Owing to the partiality of my fellow citizens, I have been made a Congressman, and am from home (at Washington) half the year; but should any of my readers find me “at home” on the Big Clover Creek, Tennessee, they shall be treated with a good raccoon pie, and bush eels (i.e. rattlesnakes) fried in butter—which are dishes my wife cooks to parfection. They shall have the softest white-oak log to sit on, and the best bearskin to sleep on, which my house affords. I will take them out on a coon hunt, show ‘em how to tree a catamount, and take a blizzard at a bear. They can take a walk in my crab-apple orchard, and see the alligator pear trees. And as a plain matter of fact, I will convince them that I can run faster, —jump higher, —squat lower, —dive deeper, —stay under longer, —and come out drier, than any man in the whole country.