One hundred fifty years ago in January, 1871, Charles H. Stone, G. W. Smith, and an unnamed companion left Wichita with plans to survey a brand-new town on the southern border of Kansas.

Their route was the well-used Chisholm Trail. The famous trail had already seen hundreds of thousands of cattle pass along its route as well as wagons carrying supplies for the reservations and military posts in Indian Territory. Soldiers, Indians, cattlemen, and traders traveled back and forth regularly.

Former army scout John E. “Curley” Marshal had already built a double log cabin between the trail crossings for Bluff Creek and Fall Creek. He named the place “First Chance-Last Chance.”

Thirsty drovers could get their first drink of liquor when coming from the Territory where liquor was prohibited by U.S. law. Conversely, it was the last chance to buy a drink before crossing into the territory.

Stone was well aware of Curly Marshall’s venture. But Stone envisioned the much larger prospect of a thriving city. The townsite was laid out on an elevation about a mile north of the First Chance-Last Chance.

Chisholm Street was named to honor the famous trail that had given birth to the town. Stone’s survey party returned to Wichita and began to promote Caldwell, named after newly elected U. S. Sen. Alexander Caldwell, who incidentally was influential with railroad interests.

A log cabin was constructed in May to serve as a supply house for passing drovers. With wholesale liquor dealer James Dagner as Stone’s partner the business was described as “a grocery store, with liquid groceries predominating.”

Stone’s first sale turned out to be to the Sixth Cavalry on their way to Fort Riley. They camped near Caldwell and purchased over $700 in provisions.

Of course, the drovers were not far behind. Four hundred seventyfive thousand head of cattle passed through Caldwell by November. 1871 saw a total of 600,000 head arrive at the northern railheads.

Each year the town grew, and with its growth wild times made wearing a badge in Caldwell a dangerous profession.

From 1879 to 1885, 16 men occupied the marshal’s office. Five of them died violently, often after they had served as marshal. Three more who had served as deputies found a bullet waiting to end their lives.

The most famous of Caldwell marshals whose life was cut short at an early age was Henry Newton Brown.

Brown was originally hired as a deputy under Marshal B. P. “Bat” Carr. Carr, a Texan, took the job on July 27, 1882, after Marshal George Brown was murdered by a Texas cowboy. Henry Brown was hired on Carr’s recommendation, having known Brown as a deputy Sheriff of Oldham County, Texas.

Early resident George Freeman recalled that Henry Brown, “... was similar in character to Carr, with the exception that he seldom smiled, was sober, candid, and determined in expression and mind ... He dressed neatly, was gentlemanly, and won friends immediately upon his arrival in Caldwell.”

Marshal Carr and Deputy Brown were constantly on the alert for trouble and soon gained a reputation for efficiently keeping the peace.

Carr was only on the job for six months when he left in November to marry his Texas sweetheart. Henry Brown was elevated to city marshal and another Texan, Ben Wheeler, was appointed assistant marshal.

Brown performed so effectively at keeping the peace that the city of Caldwell presented him with a new rifle on New Year’s Day, Jan. 1, 1883.

“On the stock of the gun is a handsome silver plate bearing the inscriptions ‘Presented to City Marshal H. N. Brown for valuable services rendered the citizens of Caldwell, Kansas.”

Henry settled in with an air of permanency. Nearly 17 months after taking office on March 25, 1884, he married pretty Maude Levagood, a refined, young Caldwell school teacher.

No one in Caldwell could have imagined what would happen next. The news hit the cattle town like a bombshell! Everyone thought that Brown and Wheeler had left town on April 27 to apprehend a murderer in Indian Territory.

Unbelievably, the town learned on May 1, 1884, the shocking news that Marshal Brown, Wheeler, and two cowboys, Billy Smith and John Wesley, had robbed the Medicine Valley Bank at Medicine Lodge. Bank clerk George Geppert was killed, and the bank president, Wylie Payne, was dying. Brown was shot trying to escape, and the other men hung by an armed mob.

There was more. Not until after his death did Caldwell’s citizens learn that their honored Marshal Brown was the outlaw Henry Brown, who had ridden beside Billy the Kid in New Mexico! Brown’s young wife claimed his body. She supposedly buried her husband at Caldwell, but to add mystery to the story there is no record of the burial. And so ended one of the most puzzling chapters in Caldwell’s turbulent past.

Note to Readers: The Border Queen will live again as Caldwell celebrates 150 years of wild times. Join us in Caldwell May 7 and 8, for two days on The Way West.

“The Cowboy,” Jim Gray is author of the book Desperate Seed: Ellsworth Kansas on the Violent Frontier, Ellsworth, KS. Contact Kansas Cowboy, 220 21st Road, Geneseo, Kan. Phone (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.