The morning of Sunday, Sept. 2, 1877, William Brady arrived on the streets of Dodge City, Kan. Merely described as “a gentleman from Texas,” Mr. Brady was doubtless associated with the cattle trade. The shipping season was bringing cattlemen to town on a daily basis.

On “Gospel Ridge,” the church was filled with parishioners, the strains of familiar hymns drifting over the town. Brady apparently was not among the faithful. He was, after all, visiting “the great cattle mart of the west.” Its reputation for wickedness, even on a Sunday morning, was well-known. Therefore, Brady “did carry strapped to his manly person a navy revolver of a deadly character.”

He would have done well to have read the recent edition of the Dodge City Times, published the day before. A column on page five carried the impressions of Frank Barnard, editor of the Corpus Christi Gazette, who had recently visited Dodge City. According to Barnard, “Dodge has many characteristics which prevent its being classed as a town of strictly moral ideas and principles, notwithstanding it is supplied with a church, a courthouse and a jail.”

Barnard recounted the atmosphere of gambling houses, saloons and the ultimate venture in immorality, the dance house. “Like all frontier towns of this modern day, fast men and fast women are around by the score, seeking whom they may devour ... and yet with all this mixing of strange human nature a remarkable degree of order is preserved.”

That degree of order was buttressed by the intrepid lawmen who patrolled Dodge City’s festive streets. Barnard particularly noted that “Arms are not allowed to be worn, and any noisy whisky demonstrations are promptly checked by incarceration in the lockup.”

Had Brady read the paper he might have been forewarned to leave his pistol in his saddle pack. It did not take long for one of the city policemen to “take him under his wing.” Brady protested that he did not intend to make a killing. The pistol strapped to his waist was only there as an ornament, to complete his look, in keeping with a bold cowboy’s reputation. The officer was not amused and “steered him toward the doghouse.”

By Monday morning Brady had seen enough of the inside of the Dodge City jailhouse. He talked liveryman Jim Anderson into paying his bail until 4 p.m. when he was required to go before the judge.

Anderson was described as “a wholesouled person,” and “one of the most affable men in 10 states.” Brady put up his horse for security against the bail money, placing the animal in Anderson’s Livery and Stable on the south side of the railroad track.

Unfortunately Brady soon fell prey to temptation, making his headquarters in one of the many booze joints. Soon he was feeling “like a giant among small men.” There was in his delirious mind “no court, or no officers, or no town (that) could hold him.” The Sept. 8 Times report did not explain how “he secured his revolver, ” and headed to Anderson’s livery for his horse.

Old Uncle Huggins was alone and no match for an armed wild man demanding his horse. At the point of Brady’s pistol, Huggins was compelled to saddle the horse. Brady was soon in the saddle, riding recklessly out of town.

Assistant Marshal Ed Masterson was the first to give chase, with Marshal Lawrnece Deger following up “on a horse about half as large as himself.” Deger had come to Dodge as a freighter during Custer’s Winter Campaign against the Cheyenne in 1868. He was blond, blue-eyed, bearing a sandy moustache on a 300 pound frame. Blood was in those blue eyes, and a shotgun over his shoulder expressly meant to subdue the fleeing Brady. Anderson was the last to learn of Brady’s break for freedom, but fast horses were his business. “We’ll catch ’em.”

Brady crossed the Arkansas River and was racing east with Masterson hot on his tail. Anderson soon passed Marshal Deger, “whose pony grunted at every jump under its heavy load.” It wasn’t long before Anderson also passed Masterson. Brady had a good horse but he could see that Anderson’s horse would soon overtake him. He pulled up as Anderson rode up beside him.

Back in Dodge City, hundreds of townspeople climbed to the tops of railcars and buildings to watch the action. They were prepared to witness a shootout. Brady placed his hand on his pistol. Anderson made no move.

Masterson arrived within seconds and ordered Brady to “Throw up your hands or be killed.” Brady complied and Anderson took his pistol. It was all over before Marshal Deger arrived “too late to use the shotgun.”

Brady apologized to Anderson saying he would never have acted so had he been sober. He was hauled back to jail. Going before the judge the next day, Brady was fined 10 dollars and costs. Brady had been in Dodge three days and was introduced to two of the city’s pillars of morality, the jail and the courthouse. There was no mention of a visitation to the third pillar, but he may have turned his eyes toward Gospel Ridge, having survived the temptations of Dodge City on the Way West.

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