Curly Marshall has found his way into The Way West more than once with his infamous approach to life. He had a habit of hanging out with the most notorious characters on the southern Kansas plains, some going as far as to say that he rode at the head of a gang of horse thieves. The Dec. 5, 1872, Ellsworth Reporter recalled that he had killed at least one man in Ellsworth’s wild end-oftrack days of 1867-1868.

He moved to the southern border of Kansas to establish the First Chance/Last Chance saloon along the Chisholm Trail. The Last Chance consisted of a double log house where whiskies, provisions and feed for horses were sold. The place was popular with Texans and countless notorious characters passing to and from Indian Territory.

Marshall hired a manager to operate the Last Chance, splitting his time between the isolated saloon and Wichita, at the time a budding frontier town.

At Wichita’s Buckhorn Tavern and Hotel, boarders included cattlemen, merchants, gamblers and Curly Marshall’s friends. At dinner, the boys especially enjoyed throwing dishes in the air and shooting at them with blazing six-shooters, all without leaving their place at the table.

In spite of his nefarious ways, Curly Marshall was appointed Wichita City Marshal in July 1870. One of Marshall’s ignoble friends was a known horse thief by the name of Jack Ledford. Like Curly Marshall, Ledford had an Ellsworth history. He and Jake Black had once waylaid Deputy U.S. Marshal Jack Bridges and left him for dead in a dark Ellsworth alley. That was in 1869. Two years later, Jack Ledford was a respectable Wichita businessman presiding over the Harris House Hotel with the former Alice Harris, his newlywed spouse.

Meanwhile, Jake Black, Ledford’s Ellsworth accomplice in beating Marshal Bridges, was arrested near Fort Wallace in the company of a man identified only as “Williams.” They had been seen with John “Pony” Donovan, a horse thief with a widelyknown reputation, but Donovan had escaped capture. Deputy U. S. Marshal Jack Bridges took charge of Black and Williams and through them, learned of the presence of Ledford in Wichita.

When Marshal Bridges entered Wichita on Feb. 28, 1871, supported by 25 soldiers from Fort Harker, Wichita City Marshal Curly Marshall was not inclined to help capture Ledford. Instead, Curly had two horses saddled in hopes of getting Ledford out of town. He was too late. Bridges and his posse discovered Ledford hiding in an outhouse and shot him down as he charged from his hiding place with guns blazing.

At Topeka, Jake Black was fined $300 and costs for his part in the theft of the mules in western Kansas. He was supposed to be transported by officers to Arkansas to stand trial for the theft of 137 government mules, but jumped bail and eluded that consequence. Black next appeared at Newton, Kan., where in Oct. 1871, he reportedly set fire to a man’s house, stole several horses and fled for parts unknown.

Enter Curly Marshall, who appeared at Newton with the report that Jake Black had been killed in a wild saloon shoot-out. “A woman was the cause of the difficulty.”

The report was carried in several papers across the state. By Dec. 1871, the Atchison Daily Champion reported that Black had been shot, “... the shot entering the mouth and coming out the back of the head.” He was not immediately killed, but it was thought that he could not recover.

Perhaps, not surprisingly, the report of Black’s death was apparently another attempt by Curly Marshall to protect a friend. Black was certainly not suffering a mortal wound in the back room of an out-of-the-way saloon. By July 1872, Black was back riding the owl hoot trail with his old compadre, Pony Donovan, at the head of a large gang of thieves. Thirty miles from Dodge City, they raided a work camp building the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.

Donovan had led a charmed life up until then, having escaped all attempts to rein him in. That sense of invincibility ultimately led to his undoing. Boldly appearing on the streets of Hays City, Donovan was captured. With no official jail in the frontier town, Donovan was placed in the cellar of the Ellis County Court House. There he was chained to a supporting post with William B. McClelland, a suspected murderer. That night the vigilantes shot through a window to kill McClelland. Hot lead filled the air, but when the smoke cleared, McClelland stood unharmed over Donovan’s dead body.

Whether Jake Black was ever apprehended is uncertain. No mention of him was found after the raid on the railroad camp. Perhaps the thought of dying in an isolated frontier town caused him to change his ways.

Jake Black seemingly disappeared, never again to ride deadly trails on The Way West.

“The Cowboy” Jim Gray can be reached at 220 21st Rd., Geneseo, KS 67444, (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.