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66 “I have seen many fast towns, but I think Abilene beat them all. The town was filled with sporting men and women, gamblers, cowboys, desperadoes, and the like. It was well supplied with bar rooms, hotels, barber shops, and gambling houses, and everything was open.” John Wesley Hardin wenty miles south of Wichita was a crossing over Cowskin Creek, although Hardin mistakenly remembered it as Cow House. There a group of men met the Texans. They were not to cause trouble for the drovers but wanted the herd to be driven west of Wichita, opening a trail to their community to build up “a new town on the north bank of the Arkansas River.” They furnished a guide, and the group followed a plow furrow. On the north bank of the Arkansas was the new town with the imposing name of Park City, some fourteen miles northwest of Wichita. Then, it was not yet much of a town; today it is part of ever-expanding Wichita. Once there, having the river behind them, “a delegation from the new town came out to meet us and invited all those that could leave the cattle to enjoy the hospitality of the new town.”1 Who were these entrepreneurs who met the drovers just in from Indian Territory, eager to convince them to change their course northward, hoping to provide a sense of permanence to fledging Park City? No roster is extant but based on the plats, perhaps the group meeting Hardin and the others included C. A. Nichols, J. A. McIlvain, F. C. Hawkins, D. A. Bright, and D. M. V. Stewart. Stewart had intended Park City to become the county seat of Sedgwick County. He was a gambler like all Chapter 4—Shedding Blood in Kansas 67 the others, but all was lost when the railroad tracked at Wichita fourteen miles southeast. Then Wichita, with the railroad, became the county seat and the people of Park City simply moved there, leaving the nascent Park City to become part of the prairie.2 Hardin of course paid no mind as to who composed this delegation, but he did remember that about sixty cowboys went to the new town and, “it is needless to say filled up on wine, whiskey, etc., some getting rather full.” Of course Hardin did not claim to be one of those who got “rather full,” but certainly he did. After frolicking they all returned to the herds, although one wonders how many cowboys remained with the cattle while sixty went off to frolic. Wes now—at least in his memoir—claimed to be the trail boss, stating , “We were now on the Newton prairie, and my herd was right in front of a herd driven by Mexicans.” He explained the resulting trouble originated when the Mexican herders crowded the Hardin herd. The boss, whom Hardin identified as “Hosea” (but Hardin, with his prejudice against Mexicans, considered every Hispanic male was named Hosea, or his version of José), expressed his anger at Hardin for not moving his herd faster. To Hardin the solution was simple: he should simply move his herd around Hardin’s if he wanted to proceed at a faster rate; he did not have to stay behind. El jefe Hosea then considered the time to talk was over and went to get a rifle. Without Hosea present, his cattle began to merge with Hardin’s herd, causing him unnecessary work to keep the cattle separated. Thus while Wes was engaged with separating cattle, Hosea arrived armed with a rifle. Unbelievably, if we believe Hardin’s account, he “rode up to within about 100 yards of me, got down off his horse, took deliberate aim at me, and fired.” But his aim was poor and the bullet simply knocked Hardin’s hat off. Then his rifle jammed. With the rifle useless he then jerked his pistol and began to advance on Hardin, who was armed with “an old cap and ball,” worn to the extent that he had to hold the cylinder with one hand and squeeze the trigger with the other. What followed seems almost like a scene from a western 68 Chapter 4—Shedding Blood in Kansas comedy, with the Mexican covering the hundred yards, firing his pistol, while Hardin, forced to hold the pistol together with both hands while shooting, and both men missing their mark. At this point Jim Clements rode up, told Hardin to turn his horse loose and hold the...

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