John Ringo, King of the Cowboys: His Life and Times from the Hoo Doo War to Tombstone, Second Edition

Chapter 6. "The people he fell in with were fighters"

44 6 C H A P T E R “The people he fell in with were fighters” HOW LONG RINGO REMAINED in Missouri is unknown. One early myth, not confirmed by school records, has him attending William Jewell College.1 Yet primary sources indicate Ringo had a better than average education. Logically he must have found a means to study, albeit informally .One who may have assisted was Elizabeth Wirt Ringo.The inventory of her husband’s estate listed numerous books, including the Life of Henry Clay, Xenophon’s Anabasis, Dickens’ Pickwick Papers, Doniphan’s Expedition, three volumes of Oliver Cromwell’s letters and speeches, and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress among others.2 It was a remarkable collection that could provide any intelligent and interested reader with the makings of a good education. People raised on the frontier, as most of John’s later associates were, likely assumed his education came from college. In Missouri Ringo probably tried his hand in business although this has not been confirmed. It cannot have lasted long. In California Martin Ringo contracted tuberculosis and died on August 29, 1873.The Liberty Advance Tribune reported his death “of consumption” on September 19, 1873. When John learned of Martin’s death is uncertain, but it could not have been a total surprise. The symptoms would have manifested by 1872. He knew of his brother’s condition through family letters. Courtesy Pete Rose. 46 JOHN RINGO, KING OF THE COWBOYS Financially secure in 1871, the family’s situation would have been changed by Martin’s disease. In 1874 the San Jose City Directory no longer listed Mary as the proprietress of a boarding house, noting simply “Ringo, Mrs. Mary, (widow) dwl 524 Santa Clara.”3 With the knowledge of his brother’s death came worse news for John: Mary had contracted tuberculosis. Mary was unable to maintain the boarding house, and John had no alternative except to help his family. Ringo researcher Allen Erwin confirms this: “His life purpose was in getting ahead, and returning to his own immediate family which he was attached to.”4 Choices were limited. If he was going to provide his family with anything more than a hand-to-mouth existence, he needed to find work offering better wages than a farm hand or clerk. The only trade he truly knew he had learned from Coleman Younger, that of a stockman . The growing cattle trade attracted him, and in the 1870s cattle were synonymous with two things: money and Texas. It appears that he left Missouri during 1872 or 1873. Ringo first stopped in Hopkins County, Texas, where Peter Ringo’s family lived. According to Era Fay Huff: “John P. Ringo visited these relatives when Samantha V. Ringo was a young girl. She did not remember much about the visit. I have always maintained that he spent a longer time in Texas than is thought by writers; most of it was probably spent in Burnet County.”5 Samantha V. Ringo was a granddaughter of Peter Ringo by his son Robert William and Mary Jane Walker. The oldest of six children, Samantha was born June 9, 1857. In 1872 or 1873 she would have been fifteen or sixteen. Here Ringo made contacts with the Jones family through Edy (or Ede) Jones Ringo, the wife of Peter. Edy was related to Andrew Jones who had arrived in Missouri with his brothers from Hardeman County, Tennessee, around 1831.6 The Jones boys were “coarse, rough mannered , illiterate men given to horse racing and gambling.” Andy was the worst of the lot. A rumored horse thief, Andy Jones was a veteran of the Slicker War waged in Polk and Benton counties in Missouri.7 The Slicker War was started by Hiram Kerr Turk’s family. The Turks were “The people he fell in with were fighters” 47 violent, hot tempered, and overbearing neighbors. Hiram Turk was shot in July 1841, and died from his wound on August 10. The Turks believed that Andy Jones was one of the killers. In retaliation, Hiram’s son Thomas organized a vigilante committee, the Slickers, named after their first raid where they whipped or “slicked” several men.8 In the ensuing violence Jones fled to Texas. In 1844 Andy Jones and two of his anti-Slicker cronies, Loudrich “Loud” Ray and Harvey White, were captured in Fannin County. The men had robbed and murdered...