John Wesley Hardin - The Life of John Wesley Hardin As Written by Himself
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The Life of John Wesley Hardin As Written by Himself
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In an era and an area notable for badmen and gunslingers, John Wesley Hardin was perhaps the most notorious. Considered by many of his contemporaries to be almost illiterate, he nevertheless left for publication after his death in 1895 this autobiography, which, though biased, is remarkably accurate and readable.Hardin was born in 1853 in Bonham, Texas, the son of a Methodist preacher. His first brush with the law came at the age of fifteen when he killed a Negro during an altercation typical of the strife-torn Reconstruction era. In the ten years between his first killing in 1868 and his final capture and imprisonment, he killed more than a score of men in personal combat and became the most wanted fugitive of his time.
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The Life of John Wesley Hardin : As Written By Himself Western Frontier Library ; V. 16
author
:
Hardin, John Wesley.
publisher
:
University of Oklahoma Press
isbn10 | asin
:
0806110511
print isbn13
:
9780806110516
ebook isbn13
:
9780585293349
language
:
English
subject
Frontier and pioneer life--Texas, Crime--Texas.
publication date
:
1983
lcc
:
F391.H26 1983eb
ddc
:
923.4173
subject
:
Frontier and pioneer life--Texas, Crime--Texas.
Page i
The Western Frontier Library
Page iii
The Life of John Wesley Hardin
Page iv
John Wesley Hardin
Page v
The Life of John Wesley Hardin As Written by Himself
With an Introduction by Robert G. McCubbin
NORMAN AND LONDON UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS
Page vi
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 61-6493
ISBN: 0-8061-1051-1
The Life of John Wesley Hardin as Written by Himself is Vol ume 16 in The Western Frontier Library.
New edition copyright 1961 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman and London, Publishing Division of the Uni versity. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the U.S.A.
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Page vii
Contents
Introduction, by Robert G. McCubbin
xi
Preface
3
The Life of John Wesley Hardin
5
Appendix
135
The Death of Hardin
141
The Killing of Selman
148
Page ix
Illustrations
John Wesley Hardin
frontispiece
Map of Down Town El Paso, 1895
xiii
The Fight with the Mexican Herders
41
Manning Clements
54
Last Break in Abilene
57
The Killing of Jack Helms
83
The Arrest at Pensacola
119
Page xi
Introduction
The original manuscript of John Wesley Hardin's autobiography was discovered among his personal possessions shortly after his death at the hands of John Selman in El Paso, Texas, on August 19, 1895. A year later the book was published by a small country press known as Smith and Moore in the south central Texas town of Seguin, Guadalupe County. It was a paper-back book printed on a low-quality paper which quickly became yellowed and brittle. The original books were sold for fifty cents each, but today a copy would be fairly expensive as rare books go.
John Wesley Hardin has become somewhat of a legend in Texas. He ranks head and shoulders above other notable desperadoes of that state, which certainly had no scarcity of the breed. Ben Thompson, Bill Longley, Sam Bass, and King Fisher are not names to be scoffed at when calling the role of the desperadoes of the West, and they were all Texas products. These notables, along with hundreds of lesser-known "hard cases," kept the famed and efficient Texas Rangers busy for several decades following the Civil War.
Hardin was born on May 26, 1853, in Bonham, Fannin County, Texas, the son of James G. Hardin, a Methodist preacher of the frontier mold. The proud parents chris-
Page xii
tened the baby with the name of the founder of their faith, John Wesley. As he grew up, the boy led the typical life of a frontier lad and received an average education for the time and place.
Texas was filled with bitter strife and hatred in the period during and immediately following the Civil War. It was a bad time to get in trouble with the law, as young Wes Hardin found out. His first serious trouble came when he shot a Negro who tried to bully him. In normal times his father would have made him surrender and stand trial, but the state was then ruled by Union military forces and the hated State Police of Reconstruction Governor Edmund J. Davis, composed almost entirely of freed Negroes. Therefore, at fifteen years of age, Wes Hardin became a fugitive. There followed a number of encounters with the law, and, while still only a lad, Hardin became known throughout the country for his daring and skill with weapons.
This book tells with vivid reality the rise of John Wesley Hardin's fame as the master gunfighter of Texas. It is an amazing story, sometimes almost unbelievable. In the ten years between his first killing in 1868 and his final capture and imprisonment in 1878, the outlaw killed more than a score of men in personal combat.
John Wesley Hardin's own account ends with his decision to study law while in prison at Huntsville. The incidents following his release are summed up briefly in an appendix composed of letters and newspaper clippings. The particulars concerning his death are well covered in the various news stories, and little can be added to these firsthand reports, but since there is not a complete account of Hardin's activities from the time he was released from prison until he was killed, a summaryas accurate as I can make itfollows.
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