The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of forests, plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers, he belongs just as the buffalo belonged....
Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations.
You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round..... The Sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls.
NOTORIOUS OUTLAW JOHN WESLEY HARDIN, KILLER OF MORE THAN 40 MEN, WAS GUNNED DOWN IN EL PASO 120 YEARS AGO TODAY!
Old West outlaw and gunslinger John Wesley Hardin
was born May 26, 1853 in Bonham, Texas. Rumored to be so mean he once
shot a man for snoring, Hardin was shot to death in El Paso on August
19, 1895 by a man he had hired to kill someone else.
John's father, James G. Hardin, was a Methodist preacher, lawyer,
schoolteacher and circuit rider. His mother was Elizabeth Hardin. At age
fourteen, John stabbed a schoolmate. At age fifteen, he shot a man to
death in Polk County. While fleeing from the law following that murder,
he killed at least one, and possibly four Union soldiers who were
attempting to apprehend him.
As a cowboy on the Chisolm Trail in
1871, Hardin killed seven people. He killed three more upon arriving in
Abilene, Kansas. Back in Texas, following a run-in with the State Police
back in Gonzales County, Hardin got married, settled down and had three
children. But he soon resumed his murder spree, killing 4 more times
before surrendering to the Cherokee County sheriff in September 1872. He
broke out of jail after a couple of weeks, however.
Hardin next
killed Jack Helm, a former State Police captain, who led the fight
against the anti-Reconstructionist forces of Jim Taylor in the
Sutton-Taylor Feud. Hardin had become a supporter of Taylor's from 1873
to 1874.
In May 1874, Hardin killed a deputy sheriff in Brown
County while visiting the town of Comanche. Fleeing to Florida with his
family, Hardin was captured by Texas Rangers in Pensacola on July 23,
1877. During that flight, he killed at least one, and perhaps as many as
five more victims.
On September 28, 1878 Hardin was sentenced to
twenty-five years for the Brown County deputy's murder. He was pardoned
on March 16, 1894. Having studied law while in prison, Hardin was
admitted to the Texas bar soon after his release.
In 1895, Hardin
went to El Paso to testify for the defense in a murder trial. Following
the trial, he stayed and established a law practice. Just when he
seemed to finally be going straight, Hardin began an affair with one of
his married female clients. Her husband found out about the affair and
Hardin hired some law officials to kill him. One of the hired gunmen,
however, Constable John Selman, shot Hardin instead.
Legend has
it that his last words were, "Four sixes to beat, Henry." When killed,
Hardin was shooting dice with local furniture dealer Henry Brown at the
Acme saloon in El Paso. Thus ended the life and career of one of
deadliest gunslingers in Texas. Despite his killing of over forty
people, Hardin had a reputation as a gentleman among those who knew him,
and he always claimed he never killed anyone who didn't need killing.
,
citing bibliography: Wendy Brabner, ed., Texas Monthly Texas Characters
Datebook 1985 (Austin, Texas: Texas Monthly Press, 1984). Ron Tyler,
ed., The New Handbook of Texas, Vol. 3 (Austin, Texas: Texas State
Historical Association, 1996) pp. 454-55. See NPR interview with Bernie
Sargent: http://www.npr.org/…/the-ghostly-grandeur-of-a-desert-grave…. Hat tip to Barbara Given-Behne.
