Caldwell, Kan., was founded in 1871, directly on the Chisholm Trail just inside the Kansas border with Indian Territory. The location was good for business, but without a railroad, Caldwell was just another place to resupply before reaching the more successful shipping towns of Abilene, Ellsworth, Newton and Wichita.

Business began to boom when the railroad finally came to Caldwell in 1880. But with the boom, political factions lined up in opposition to one another. George Flatt was Caldwell’s first marshal. He was a twogun man who had effectively kept the peace since his appointment Aug. 21, 1879, but new elections on April 5, 1880, brought a new mayor. Mayor Mike Meagher appointed a new marshal and new deputies. None of these men liked Flatt.

The brew began to boil when Flatt and Deputy Frank Hunt exchanged heated words in the Red Light Saloon and Dance Hall the evening of June 19, 1880. Flatt apparently thought he had gotten the best of the deputy in the confrontation. Later that night, Flatt confidently walked out of the IXL Saloon in the company of Sam Rogers and Charlie Spear. The former lawman was feeling pretty good. Just as the rooster was seen as the ruler of the farmyard, Flatt told his friends he was the “cock of the walk of Caldwell.”

Within seconds of his bold pronouncement, a flash of light and a roar of gunfire split the night! Rogers and Spear dove for cover, but George Flatt fell hard to the ground. Bullets ricocheted over Flatt’s motionless body until Rogers finally cried out, “Let up, the man is dead or killed!”

Caldwell City Mayor Mike Meagher and his lawmen arrived on the scene immediately after the shooting. Friends of George Flatt were suspicious, especially since leading city officials had charged out of the darkness from the same direction as the deadly hail of bullets. Curiously, none of the officials claimed to have seen anything of the assassins.

Six days after Flatt’s death, Sumner County lawmen arrested the mayor and his entire police force, charging them with complicity in George Flatt’s death. However, no one stepped forward with specific evidence against the lawmen and they were soon reinstated.

The Caldwell Post reported, “old police force resume their former places — everything is quiet.” But everything was not quite as quiet as the Post implied.

It was thought that at least one of the men, Deputy Frank Hunt, was responsible for the killing. Marshal Horseman and Deputy Hunt were certainly no shrinking violets. They were tough men in a tough town. Within the week, the two were once again arrested by Sumner County Sheriff Joe Thralls under a charge of assault and battery on a hotel man by the name of Abraham Rhodes. Rhodes, coincidentally, was a political opponent of Mayor Meagher, but Rhodes declined to press the issue and the two lawmen were released from the Sumner County jail.

Enraged by Horseman’s actions against a solid city leader, the Caldwell City Council discharged Marshal Horseman but kept Hunt in service as a deputy. Deputy James Johnson was selected as City Marshal and Newt Miller, a former Wichita officer, filled the empty position.

In September, Deputy Hunt took part in a particularly classic cowtown confrontation. A wild young cowboy had consumed a considerable amount of liquor before he saddled up to “hurrah” the town. The cowboy passed through the street shouting and shooting when Hunt confronted him with shotgun in hand. The officer ordered the well-oiled cowboy carouser to halt, but that would never do for a range rider on “the hunt.”

The cowboy flourished his pistol a bit too slow as Hunt touched the trigger of his shotgun.

The blast shattered the cowboy’s knee as the rider and horse collapsed into a heap in the street.

The horse was killed.

“A great deal of sympathy was expressed for the horse.”

The cowboy was fined and allowed to leave town with what the paper called quite a severe wound.

Later in the year, the city fired Hunt to save money. He was just another citizen sitting in an open window on a pleasant fall evening at the Red Light Saloon.

Hunt had no reason to suspect danger. Seductive music filled the air. The dance continued and life was good. Suddenly, there was a shot. Hunt slumped to the floor,.

“I am killed! He did it out there!”

Just as with George Flatt, no one was convicted for killing Frank Hunt, but “out there,” in the darkness, “Vengeance” found a way to even the score 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.