 Early
Law Enforcement
By Ray Haueter - former UPOA Historian,
UPOA President 1970 - 1971, now deceased
By
popular request, we reprint Ray's stories of Early Law Enforcement for
your pleasure
From reprint in the Utah Peace Officer Vol. 78 Issue `
Marshals and Manhunters
They were hard men...hired because of their toughness and their ability
with a gun. They were men who could live off the land if necessary. Many
were professional gunmen and former outlaws. Some were bounty hunters.
Most were honest, God-fearing men who had roots in the community where
they were hired. These were the marshals in the early western towns of
the late 1800s.
Most could be classified into three types: There were those who
were willing to give a wanted man a chance to surrender...or maybe to leave
town, but if given a reason to, would shoot you. Such men as these were
Bill Tilghman, a Deputy U. S. Marshal, who worked in the Indian Territories
and before that, was a buffalo hunter...Andrew
Burt, a Salt Lake City Policeman, who waited too long, and was shot
and killed by a man on Main Street, Salt Lake City, August 28, 1883..
His killer was lynched by a mob the same day.
Then there were those who never gave a wanted man a second chance.
Once warned, he could expect to be shot if found in town on a second offense.
Men such as Wild Bill Hickock and Porter Rockwell fit into this category.
And, there were those who never gave a wanted man a warning or
a first chance. If it became known that he was in their town, they came
looking for him and shot him where they found him. The largest majority
of frontier lawmen fit into the second and third categories.
Frisco, Utah, in the late 1800s was an example of the rough and
roaring mining towns of the West. After a railroad was built into
this silver mining camp, the town filled up with gamblers, gunmen, prostitutes
and men running from the law. The town fathers, becoming desperate, sent
to Pioche, Nevada, for a marshal who had the reputation of ìTown Tamer.î
When Marshal James Pearson arrived in Frisco, he was given the
job and told he had a free hand in doing what had to be done to bring law
to the town. He wasted no time in making his policy known...
1. Frisco would have no jail.
2. He would make no arrests.
3. There would be no bail or appeal from his order.
4. Outlaws had two choices...get out or get shot.
There were those in Frisco who did not believe Pearson could make
his policy stick. However, after he killed six men his first night on the
job, there were many believers who left town, and Frisco became a better
place to live.
The "Posse Comitatus" law, or "Power of the County" had its beginning
in England in the early 1600s. America quickly adopted it. Our founding
fathers believed that every able-bodied, law-abiding citizen, could be
a potential lawman when a situation required it, especially in the West
during the 1700s, 1800s and early 1900s. Under this statute, the
sheriffs of each county were given the authority to call upon the residents
of said county, to assist in enforcing the law or apprehending those who
had broken the law.
Many were the posses who saddled up and left town, hard on the
heels of the law breaker who had committed an offense in their town. Many
were the types of posses...some good, some bad, some professional, and
some rank amateurs. In Wyoming, a posse chasing Harvey Loan (Kid Curry)
and his brother, had one horse shot and killed, and two posse members wounded...and
the outlaws never fire a shot.
In Utah, two posses chasing Butch Cassidy and his cohorts, after
the Castle Gate payroll robbery, had a brief shoot-out when they came together
near the San Rafael Swell in the dark. One man was shot in the foot. Butch
and his boys were miles away at the time. In their haste to form a posse,
the group from Huntington, Utah, appointed Joe Meeks as the leader of their
posse. Unknown to them, Joe had furnished the big gray horse used by Butch
during the robbery, and later received thirty dollars from Cassidy for
the use of the horse. He was the man who got shot in the foot, after which,
he rode home. This happened in April of 1897.
On June 29, 1900, a Union Pacific train was held up and robbed
near Tipton, Wyoming. It was believed that members of the "Wild Bunch"
were responsible. A short time after this hold-up, the famous Union Pacific's
"Rolling Posse" was organized.
This posse was equipped with the best and latest weapons, horses
specially selected for their speed and stamina, and posse members who were
recognized as some of the best shots in the West. Railroad cars were specially
equipped to carry the horses and men by rail. In this manner, they could
be brought to the scene in the shortest possible time and take up the trail.
Generally speaking, there were two types of posses in the West...One
was the hastily-formed volunteer posse that was usually poorly equipped
and unprepared to face the dangers of hunting an outlaw. In fact, some
were reckless enough to be dangerous to other posse members. They usually
were poorly armed and mounted, and could only sustain themselves for short
chases. This type of posse would stand little chance against a well-organized
plan, such as the Castle Gate robbery, where there were extra horses and
horse holders along the escape route. In fact, tired horses were found
all the way to Robber's Roost and Brown's Hole.
The other type of posse was the well-organized and professional
group...which picked men with good horses and weapons, who were skilled
in the use of both. Men who could recognize evidence and knew how to collect
and preserve it. Also, good trackers were a must for any posse.
Probably one of the best trackers in the West was the United
States Deputy Marshal for Wyoming, Joe LeFors, who was said to be able
to find a track on "solid rock or under four feet of water."
A good, professional posse, was said to consist of about seven
men, each responsible for his own equipment such as: Two horses for each
posse member, good weapons with plenty of ammunition, extra clothes, two
pack horses for the entire posse, and extra men, who were sent out ahead
to cover all the water holes and canyon trails.
Charlie Siringo, a noted man hunter who worked for the Pinkerton
Agency for many years, was described as being an "Almost unshakable bloodhound."
He was known to have trailed wanted men through blizzards and sandstorms.
He was a ìlonerî and, at one time, became a member of the Wild Bunch at
Powder Springs, near Brown's Park. At that time, he used the name Charles
Carter and described himself as a free-lance gunman. Whenever he received
information as to their plans to rob a Union Pacific train, he would get
the information to the railroad officials, who would then change the train
schedule. When Cassidy found out what was happening, he went gunning for
"Carter" who had vanished. When he surfaced in his role as a law enforcement
officer, he spent the next four years of his life tracking Cassidy and
his gang, never giving up the hunt until Butch went to South America. (Note:
Information on Siringo was taken, in part, from TIME-LIFE books.)
The West had many professional man hunters, with many of the
best operating in Utah Territory. Porter Rockwell was well known for his
ability to "bring his man back." Also, William Bill Hickman. Both men,
at one time or another, served as United States Deputy Marshals, as well
as holding other positions in law enforcement. However, not all man hunters
served in law enforcement positions. Many of the best and most dedicated
were "Bounty Hunters" operating throughout the west, running their quarry
to the ground for the reward on his head. Tom Horn, who operated in Brown's
Hole and was hired by the cattlemen to drive the cattle rustlers from the
country...Bob Meldrum, who performed many of the same services as Horn.
Meldrum was said to be an alcoholic, usually drunk while working, while
Horn was said to never touch liquor on the job. It didn't matter much,
however, as the men they shot were just as dead, one way or the other.
Another well-known bounty hunter who lived in Cache Valley, Utah,
was John Brigham Call, probably one of the last of the known bounty hunters.
He frequented the Arizona Strip from about 1890 to 1925, which was one
of the last outlaw hideouts in the West. Somewhere along the line, he picked
up the nickname, "The Bee." He was well known in the western states as
the tracker of both man and animalsóhunting both for the rewards on their
heads. One favorite saying at that time was, "The Bee is on the trail and
will soon be in your bonnet."
Call's bounty hunting was interrupted by World War I, where he
served as a sniper, after which, he returned to his chosen profession.
How many men he brought in is not recorded, but he was considered to be
one of the best at his trade.
By the early 1900s, most of the posses were being replaced as
barbed wire began closing off the open ranges. Telegraphs and telephones
were creating better communications that could reach out faster than the
outlaw could ride. Railroads had professional man hunters with special
cars for their horses, and posse members who could be carried to points
well ahead of the fleeing outlaw in order to intercept him. Better long-range
weapons such as the 30/40 Krag and the 1906 Springfield 30.06, were making
it hot for fleeing bandits. Also, better security on trains and in banks
and stores made it more difficult to plan a successful robbery. The days
of the Old West were coming to and end.
Many of the old-time outlaws changed their names, disappeared
from the West and became citizens where they were unknown. Those who remained
on the outlaw trail were gradually located and either died in a shoot-out,
or spent time in prison. Some died from wounds or sickness alone in some
outlaw hideout, far from friends and family. No gravestone marks their
grave. No one knows their last resting place.
So ended another phase in the settling of the West.
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