Charlie Siringo
A Texas Cow Boy
language
( July 9, 1886)
"One of the chief molders of the cowboy image was Charles A. Siringo, a small thin but fearless Texan." -Charlie Siringo's West (2005)
"Siringo proved to be a masterful bloodhound with an incredible record of getting his man." - Man-Hunters of the Old West (2017)
Charlie Siringo was born in Matagorda County, Texas to an Irish immigrant mother and an Italian immigrant father from Piedmont. He attended public school until reaching the age of 15, when he started working on local ranches as a cowboy.
In March, April and May 1877, Siringo was in Dodge City, Kansas during an alleged confrontation between Clay Allison and Wyatt Earp, Earp was a Deputy Marshal at the time. Earp later claimed, after Allison's death in 1887, that he and Bat Masterson had forced Allison to back down from an impending confrontation. Siringo, however, later gave a written account of that incident which contradicted Earp's claim, stating that Earp never came into contact with Allison, and that two businessmen, cattleman Dick McNulty and the owner of the Long Branch Saloon, Chalkley Beeson, in Dodge City actually defused the situation.
After taking part in several cattle drives, Siringo stopped herding to settle down, get married (1884), and opened a merchant business in Caldwell, Kansas. He began writing a book, entitled A Texas Cowboy; Or Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony. A year later, it was published, to wide acclaim, and became one of the first true looks into life as a cowboy written by someone who had actually lived the life.
"Siringo proved to be a masterful bloodhound with an incredible record of getting his man." - Man-Hunters of the Old West (2017)
Charlie Siringo was born in Matagorda County, Texas to an Irish immigrant mother and an Italian immigrant father from Piedmont. He attended public school until reaching the age of 15, when he started working on local ranches as a cowboy.
In March, April and May 1877, Siringo was in Dodge City, Kansas during an alleged confrontation between Clay Allison and Wyatt Earp, Earp was a Deputy Marshal at the time. Earp later claimed, after Allison's death in 1887, that he and Bat Masterson had forced Allison to back down from an impending confrontation. Siringo, however, later gave a written account of that incident which contradicted Earp's claim, stating that Earp never came into contact with Allison, and that two businessmen, cattleman Dick McNulty and the owner of the Long Branch Saloon, Chalkley Beeson, in Dodge City actually defused the situation.
After taking part in several cattle drives, Siringo stopped herding to settle down, get married (1884), and opened a merchant business in Caldwell, Kansas. He began writing a book, entitled A Texas Cowboy; Or Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony. A year later, it was published, to wide acclaim, and became one of the first true looks into life as a cowboy written by someone who had actually lived the life.