Violence In The Wild West

ASU HST 200 (Historical Themes) Westward Expansion, 1840-1900 Violence In The Wild West: Myth And Reality Books, television, and movies have all contributed to the conventional perception of the Wild West as a violent and chaotic place. Although the violence was exaggerated and even celebrated in the dime store books of the day, a large portion of the West was truly made up of rugged men living brutal lives due to the allure of quick riches through mining or herding cattle. While stories about the adventures of Doc Holiday, Wyatt Earp, and others were entertaining, the truth was that violence in the West was more widespread than these tales would have us believe. Conflicts like this frequently arose as individuals fought over the few resources that might make or break their opportunity to become wealthy or poor, or as they adjusted to the unexpected wealth or poverty that prospecting brought. When occasional violence did break out, it was usually in the form of range battles between major and small cattle ranchers, or in mining communities. Sure enough, some mining communities lived up to the reputation. Alcohol, money, men, and disappointment combined to make for a violent situation. Frontier justice prevailed, fatalities were numerous, and fights were regular. Only one person was ever found guilty of a crime in the infamous mining town of Bodie, California, which had twenty-nine murders between 1877 and 1883—a murder rate greater than any other city at the time. John Wesley Hardin was the most prolific gunman of the day. He is said to have murdered over twenty individuals in various gunfights across Texas, including a victim he killed for noisily snoring at a motel. Ranching has its own set of risks and violence. Large ranch owners in Texas claimed the best grazing areas and few notable drinking spots for their herds by using their riches and the recent development of barbed wire. The frustration of not being able to locate even a single blade of grass for their sparse herds of cattle rose among those who were only trying to get their few heads of cattle to market. Eventually, the dissatisfaction escalated into violence when a number of ranchers broke through the barbed wire fences to give their cattle access to grass and water. Because these cowboys were not beyond bringing some of the rancher's bulls into their own herds as they departed, such damage soon resulted in cattle rustling. The notoriety of the Fence Cutting War in Clay County, Texas, between 1883 and 1884, is one instance of the violence that broke out. There, ranchers who had no permission to enclose public areas with fences started to be destroyed by cowboys. Three people died as a consequence of conflicts between the cowboys and the ranchers' armed guards; this was hardly a "war," but it was significant enough to draw the governor's attention. In the end, the issue was resolved by a special session of the Texas legislature, which passed legislation making it unlawful to destroy fences on public grounds and requiring ranchers to install gates allowing passage where public areas bordered private property. Large ranchers and small farmers in Johnson County, Wyoming, engaged in an even bloodier conflict in 1891–1892, when cattle ranchers staged a "lynching bee" to execute cattle rustlers. The two rustlers who were most recognized for uniting the owners of the smaller Wyoming farms were chased down and slain by the ranch owners and their foremen after they hired twentytwo "invaders" from Texas to act as hired shooters. A larger slaughter was only averted by the federal forces' involvement, who first detained the invaders before releasing them and allowed them to return to Texas. Relatively few women experienced this life, despite the fact that tough males who lived it are often discussed, both historically and mythically. Homesteaders were often families, whereas cowboys and gold speculators were mostly lone males seeking wealth. Even the small number of ladies that visited these untamed frontiers were mostly prostitutes. For example, in 1860, a community of twenty-five hundred men was said to have just thirty women overall in the Comstock Lode region of Nevada. Even after becoming brothel owners and successful businesswomen, some of the "painted ladies" who started out as prostitutes found that life was still difficult for these young women as western colonization developed. Fewer than six hundred women defied the weather and a society dominated by males to pursue careers as teachers in a few of the West's more affluent cities. Fewer people came to these mining communities to work as storekeepers or to support their husbands. Wealthy men started moving their families west, gradually altering the anarchic environment. One example of a lawless town transformed by the arrival of middle-class women and their cattle baron husbands in the 1880s is Abilene, Kansas, which was once rife with prostitution, gambling, and other vices. In an effort to uphold family values, these women started to set up civic groups, churches, schools, and other communal initiatives. They battled to eliminate possibilities for prostitution and any other vices that they believed to be a threat to their core beliefs. Eventually, Protestant missionaries joined the ladies in their efforts; they did not achieve much success, but they did raise awareness of the issues. In reaction, the U.S. The Comstock Law, named for its principal proponent, anti-obscenity activist Anthony Comstock, was passed by Congress in 1873 to outlaw the mailing of "lewd and lascivious literature." The Page Act of 1875 followed, outlawing the bringing of women into the country to work as prostitutes. Nevertheless, in spite of reformers' best efforts, "houses of ill repute" persisted and gained popularity throughout the West.