Abilene, Kansas : Marshall "Bear River" Smith
BEAR RIVER SMITH – Abilene, Kansas
“I’m your Huckleberry”
Thomas “Bear River” Smith
On my way to Fort Riley one evening, I decided to jump off of Interstate 70 at Abilene, Kansas. I had read much about Abilene in the days of the Old West when over 400,000 head of cattle shipped east to Kansas City and Chicago from the end of the Chisholm Trail. The Railroad, giant stockyards, and hundreds, possibly thousands of cowboys who just got paid more money than they had seen in a year, made for an explosive situation. This is where the word “Cow Town” came from. Many people who study the old west and the lawmen who tamed it, certainly associate Abilene with “Wild Bill” Hickok and I am no exception. In fact, the story of that legendary lawman is what prompted me to get off the highway and look around. Because it was evening everything was closed and on my short walk around so called down town, I was disappointed because I didn’t find much in the way of historical markers. I needed some gas so I pulled into a station on the corner and while watching a veritable parade of high school kids in their souped up cars running up and down the main drag……practically taking over the town……I looked up some local attractions on my smart phone. I realized that 150 years later, things haven’t changed much in Abilene because a rowdy group still takes over the town on Friday nights. Nothing super interesting was coming up until I came across the story of a lawman, not Hickock but rather Marshal Thomas J. “Bear River” Smith. I did some quick research and learned some interesting facts. Thomas Smith was likely born in 1840 in New York City. As a young Irishman, he learned boxing and was one of the best middle weight boxers anywhere but had to flee town after an accidental death. He made his way out west working on the track gang for the Union Pacific Railroad, in the mines of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming and then he wound up in Bear River City, Wyoming Territory at the end of the track working for the railroad. Railroad towns were rough back in that time and many communities established vigilance committees as way of controlling the rough element. After a particularly raucous night, the authorities of Bear River City arrested and imprisoned several of the railroad graders for drunkenness. Rumor swirled through the town that the vigilance committee was planning to lynch 3 of the prisoners so on 11 November 1868, rioters stormed the jail and freed two of the hostages, but one was killed during the jailbreak. The mob went crazy and burned the jail and then the newspaper which they blamed for spreading negative stories about the track layers. Things got so bad that troops were dispatched out of Fort Bridger to restore order and when the smoke settled, 28 men had been killed in the riot. Smith was gravely wounded in the melee and was identified as “A most desperate character who led the riots. The military authorities arrested Smith and sent him to the Sugar House Penitentiary in Salt Lake City. He was released two weeks later as no charges were brought. He had now gained the nickname of “Bear River Tom” after leading the uprising against the vigilantes. After Bear River, Smith tried his hand at mining again in Montana but meeting with little success, he decided to winter over in Salt Lake City. In the spring he headed east and by this time, he had gained a good reputation as a fighter so Constable Pat Desmond of Kit Carson, CO hired him as an officer. During his first stint as a lawman, Smith applied for the position of town Marshall in.
Abilene, Kansas. His application was turned down as the leaders of that town chose to hire professionals from St. Louis to clean up the place. That experiment failed miserably and so Mayor Theodore Henry wrote to Smith and asked him to re-apply. Mayor Henry described his own town as the “most famed and godless city on the continent” as Texas cowboys had full reign during the cattle drive season. Cal Bascom, of Union Pacific Railroad stated that Abilene was “Wild and woolly and hard to curry, filled with cowmen, gamblers, disorderly woman and all-around toughs.” On one drunken blitz, a mob of cowboys tore down the stone walls of the nearly completed jail and then when it was finally finished, they raided the jail again pulling the bars from a cell to release one of their own. Smith, un daunted by the challenge of brining order to this chaos, finally got the job of Abilene town Marshal. His fighting reputation and moniker “Bear River Tom” prepared him well for the challenges he would face. One of his first official acts as marshal of Abilene was to ban all weapons in town without a permit and he made an immediate impression by thrashing “Big Hank” and buffaloing “Wyoming Frank.” Unbelievably, within 48 hours all weapons were turned in but Smith, leaning on his boxing heritage, had to knock heads a few times to get the job done. After a short while he became known as the “No Gun Marshall” because he would subdue ruffians with his fists rather than a gun. As you can imagine, Smith’s no gun policy was un popular and unsavory characters made several assassination attempts. Mayor Henry described Smith as a broad shouldered, gentle mannered man standing 5 feet 11 inches and weighing 170 pounds. He had auburn hair, a light mustache, and gray eyes of a bluish tint. Smith was also devout Catholic and he rode a large beautiful horse called “Silver Heels.” It was said that He loved music and spent a lot of time practicing Irish and Scottish tunes on his banjo. Smith was usually mild mannered but Mr. Stewart P. Verkler wrote a book called “Cow Town Abilene” and stated that “The Texan was likely to find himself held by the scruff of his collar with his feet dangling as Smith relieved him of his side arms” as he bare knuckled ornery cowboys into seeing the error of their ways. Sheriff Daniel R. Wagstaff of Saline County in 1870 recalled an event he witnessed while working with Smith. Smith and Sheriff Wagstaff had walked into a saloon when Smith was accosted by a “Big Husky Cowboy” The cowboy asked whether the Marshall was the Great Tom Smith who claims to be such a fighter to which Smith replied “I’m your huckleberry” The cowboy then stated that Smith was nothing but a blowhard. During the exchange, Smith noticed a pistol on the cowboy’s hip and informed him it was against the law to carry a firearm in Abilene. The Cowboy replied “Oh Ill carry a gun if I want to” at which time Smith grabbed him by the shoulders and throat, laid him out on his back, put his foot on the cowboy’s throat, took his gun, slapped his face and gave him 10 min. to leave town” In September of 1870, Smith was paid $335.95 for assisting in the capture of Charles R. “Buckskin Bill” Phillips who was a horse thief. He then cleaned out a den of prostitutes in a shanty town on the outskirts of Abilene. The local newspaper exclaimed that the citizens were grateful to the Chief of Police, Smith, because there was now not a house of ill fame in Abilene or vicinity. As a young boy, future US President Dwight D. Eisenhower idolized Smith stating that “While he almost never carried a pistol, he subdued the lawless by the force of his personality and his tremendous capability as an athlete. One blow of his fist was apparently enough to knock out the ordinary tough cowboy.” On November 2nd, 1870 Smith and his deputy went rode 10 miles out of town to arrest Andrew McConnell who was charged with murdering a local farmer named John Shea. When Smith announced his intent to arrest, McConnell shot him in the chest. Smith, shot through the lung, returned fire and hit McConnell. The two men started to struggle but McConnell’s partner Moses Miles struck Smith with his gun and then picked up an axe and nearly decapitated him. Smith’s deputy ran back to town with the grisly story of the Marshall’s assassination. The town of Abilene was shocked and devasted by the loss of their Marshal. Johnny Boggs stated in an article in True West Magazine that On Friday, November 4, Silver Heels, rider less, followed the hearse with a pair of revolvers, a gift from the city, in holsters hanging from the pommel. The local paper stated “He came to this place last spring, when lawlessness was controlling the town and soon brought order and quiet to the place of wild shouts and pistol shots of ruffians who for two years had kept ordinary citizens in dread for their lives. Abilene owes a debt of gratitude to the memory of Thomas James Smith, which can never be repaid.” After Smith’s tragic death, Abilene devolved into lawlessness again for a time until a man named Wild Bill Hickok was appointed Marshal in 1871. Sitting in the gas station parking lot I learned from find a grave .com that “Bear River” Smith was buried in the Abilene Cemetery so I just had to go check it out. It was dark and raining. Perfect weather for visiting an old, unfamiliar graveyard. I couldn’t quite make out the instructions inside the little shack of the cemetery of where the headstone was and as a result, I knew I was in for a daunting task as this was a pretty darn good size cemetery and it was pitch dark. I had seen pictures of what the head stone looked like and it was quite unique so I thought I could find it. I wandered up and down the dark two track, gravel cemetery lanes through the pines for a bit and as I was about to give up on account of it was super creepy and I wasn’t supposed to be there at this hour and then…….there it was….an old, reddish, oddly shaped rock with a metal plaque on it that simply read:
THOMAS J. SMITH
MARSHAL OF ABILENE 1870.
DIED A MARTYR OF JUSTICE NOV 2nd 1870
A FEARLESS HERO OF FRONTIER DAYS,
WHO IN COWBOY CHAOS
ESTABLISHED SUPREMACY OF LAW
Marshall Bear River Smith Grave - Abilene City Cemetery, Abilene, Kansas - JDJ Photo
Marshall Bear River Smith Grave - Abilene City Cemetery, Abilene, Kansas - JDJ Photo
It was
an amazing experience to stand there above the stone where a giant of history –
Marshal Bear River Smith, was laid to rest. This is the kind of stuff that
American Tales and Trails is all about. The kind of stuff our children won’t be
taught, but should be taught in the classroom. These are the stories of how our
Country, the old west in particular, was conquered, tamed, and settled – one rowdy
town at a time. I had never heard of Marshal Smith before I decided to get off
Interstate 70 that dark, rainy night, but it sounds as though before he was
murdered, Bear River Smith had a lot to do with bringing law and order to the
old west.
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