Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    George and Maggie and the Red Light Saloon: Depravation, Debauchery, Violence, and Sundry Cussedness in a Kansas Cowtown
    George and Maggie and the Red Light Saloon: Depravation, Debauchery, Violence, and Sundry Cussedness in a Kansas Cowtown
    George and Maggie and the Red Light Saloon: Depravation, Debauchery, Violence, and Sundry Cussedness in a Kansas Cowtown
    Ebook100 pages1 hour

    George and Maggie and the Red Light Saloon: Depravation, Debauchery, Violence, and Sundry Cussedness in a Kansas Cowtown

    By Rod Cook

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    This is the true story of George and Maggie Wood, a young couple who in 1880, in a fledgling cowtown that sprang up from the dust of the old Chisholm Trail, built the "largest dance house in Kansas". [read that-cat house.]
    In a formidable two-month trek through the dusty plains of Texas and the "Indian Nations," brash young cowboys drove the longhorns to the railhead at the Kansas state line. There they emerged at Caldwell, Kansas; primed for celebration in that wide-open cowtown fondly known to them as "The Queen of the Border." Wild, wooly and dangerous, in its futile effort to hold a lid on the cowboys' rampant and often times violent revelry, the town ran through 15 marshals in the six year period of the cattle drives between 1879 and 1885. Continuously besieged by murder and depravation, the town was locked in a love-hate alliance with the many dens that catered to the roughshod instincts of the hell-raising cowboys.
    Festering at the heart of this perpetual bedlam was the number-one attraction of the Border Queen; George and Maggie's Red Light Saloon, the wellspring of murder and violence; and the epitome of debauchery and just plain nasty wickedness.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateOct 14, 2003
    ISBN9781462088812
    George and Maggie and the Red Light Saloon: Depravation, Debauchery, Violence, and Sundry Cussedness in a Kansas Cowtown
    Author

    Rod Cook

    A native of the old cowtown, Caldwell, Kansas, amateur historian and researcher Rod Cook has long been fascinated by the wild and wooly history of his hometown, in particular the uproarious years of the cattle drives of the 1870?s and 1880?s. Until now, his writing has been limited to historical essays and newspaper articles of local and regional interest. A design engineer by profession, his recent intensified interest has led him to the unanticipated role of novice writer. George and Maggie and the Red Light Saloon is his first attempt at bringing his unique insight to a universal audience.

    Related to George and Maggie and the Red Light Saloon

    Related ebooks

    United States History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Must See, Must Read

      Nov 27, 2018

      (1992, by Frederick Nolan): No book surpasses Nolan’s as a comprehensive narrative of the complex history of Lincoln County in territorial New Mexico. Thorough in coverage, balanced in interpretation, well written and overflowing with appealing photo

      9 min read

    • Article

      Hoofprints Through History Part 2: Orphans Preferred

      Nov 20, 2018

      In my last column, I talked about the role in history of the Mongolian horse, which enabled Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes to subjugate most of Central Asia. Several hundred years later, and several thousand miles to the west of the Mongol Empire

      9 min read

    • Article

      On Vacation with BC History

      Jun 4, 2019

      Books on British Columbia’s history are summer sidekicks for many of us. Packed into suitcases and taken on vacation, tucked into a bag and carted off to the beach, or read at home without switching on a lamp in the sunny evening hours. I usually sta

      10 min read

    • Article

      MIND THE GAP A Gassy Jack Story

      Jun 4, 2021

      It’s difficult being in the middle of two things—like the proverbial rock and the hard place. My life is lived in that cleft, and I have found a way to be in this place. I’m constantly redefining what it means to live here. My family are born of tw

      6 min read

    • Article

      Cowboy Archaeologist

      Nov 8, 2022

      Cowboy Archaeologist
      3 min read

    • Article

      Hunting for History Books

      Sep 3, 2019

      Hunting for History Books
      11 min read

    • Article

      Refracting History | Stories In Digital And Print

      Mar 15, 2024

      In her debut book Unbroken, Angela Sterritt, award-winning journalist and member of the Gitxsan Nation, gives a voice—a frustrated and ready-for-change voice—to the many victims, survivors, and family members who have been impacted by the disproporti

      7 min read

    • Article

      Outsiders, Outcasts, Hustlers: A Year Reporting on the Modern-Day Frontier

      Nov 29, 2018

      The drive north into the oilfield at night showed the faint slopes of buttes ringed in sepia and burnt orange, then a drapery of glittering lights, civilization rising. Semi-trucks blared past the traffic cones and half-built apartments and hotels. I

      10 min read

    • Article

      Indianola, Onward

      May 14, 2019

      Indianola, Onward
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Unexpected Cowboy

      May 1, 2022

      The Unexpected Cowboy
      7 min read

    • Article

      Lights, Camera, Corsicana

      Nov 26, 2020

      Lights, Camera, Corsicana
      10 min read

    • Article

      Must See, Must Read

      May 23, 2023

      Must See, Must Read
      9 min read

    • Article

      This New Religion

      Jun 2, 2020

      He introduced himself as Captain Jack Lash Lannigan, and he said that he was an Irish pirate. “You don’t sound very Irish,” I told him, and he laughed. We—Maia, Gustav and I—had met Captain Jack outside the Nocturnem Draft Haus, a bar on Main Street

      5 min read

    • Article

      Must See, Must Read

      Mar 1, 2022

      Must See, Must Read
      14 min read

    • Article

      Secret Society

      Mar 30, 2023

      Secret Society
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Evolution Of The Texas Cowgirl

      Aug 26, 2021

      The Evolution Of The Texas Cowgirl
      11 min read

    • Article

      State Of The State 200

      Jul 27, 2021

      State Of The State 200
      21 min read

    • Article

      Rock Springs Riot Revisited

      Sep 1, 2023

      Rock Springs Riot Revisited
      4 min read

    • Article

      Paddling Through History

      Jun 15, 2023

      Paddling to DeCourcy Island is at the top of my summer activities wish list. The Southern Gulf Island region is steeped in thousands of years of culture and history for the Snuneymuxw, Stz’uminus, Lyackson, Halalt, and Penelakut First Nations. DeCour

      9 min read

    • Article

      The best bad things

      Sep 29, 2020

      The best bad things
      12 min read

    • Article

      Pride Of Place

      Nov 7, 2020

      Pride Of Place
      4 min read

    • Article

      Heartland Heroine

      Jun 18, 2019

      Heartland Heroine
      5 min read

    • Article

      Refracting History | Stories In Digital And Print

      Mar 4, 2021

      British Columbia’s history is told through multiple lenses. We must seek out diverse perspectives, continually reframe the ways in which we understand the past, and carefully choose formats for sharing stories. Should a particular story be told in pr

      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for George and Maggie and the Red Light Saloon

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      George and Maggie and the Red Light Saloon - Rod Cook

      All Rights Reserved © 2003 by Rod Cook

      No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

      iUniverse, Inc.

      For information address:

      iUniverse, Inc.

      2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100

      Lincoln, NE 68512

      www.iuniverse.com

      ISBN: 0-595-29407-3

      ISBN: 978-1-4620-8881-2 (eBook)

      For

      Norma White

      and

      The People of

      The Border Queen

      Contents

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      A NOTE TO THE READER

      INTRODUCTION

        1

        2

        3

        4

        5

        6

        7

        8

        9

      10

      11

      12

      AFTERTHOUGHTS

      DEEDS

      BIBLIOGRAPHY

      ENDNOTES

      Image272.JPG

      Chisholm Trail and Texas feeder trails

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      Among those whose help and encouragement was instrumental in the completion of this work were authors Troy Boucher and Bill O’Neal whose editorial reviews, insights, and advice have proven invaluable; and Computer graphics wizard Rod Michael of Cheney, Kansas who fabricated the cover graphic from a number of ideas composed in my head. The materials he used were provided by several special people: Gloria White of Caldwell, Kansas, loaned several photographs from her extensive archives—among them, the street scene of old Caldwell utilized in the cover art. Maggie’s garter was meticulously created by Lois Croft of Clearwater, Kansas. Special thanks to Len Gratteri of Hillsboro, Oregon, by whose kind gesture the actual famous sixgun belonging to Caldwell Deputy Marshal Ben Wheeler appears in the cover graphic.

      I am indebted to Marilyn Houlden of Caldwell who proofread the manuscript. Also to historian/writer/researcher Edward Herring of Mt. Hope, Arkansas who graciously shared research and sources on Maggie’s early background before 1875. He, along with historian Fred Strickland of South Haven, Kansas, provided particulars drawn from their extensive knowledge of the history of Hunnewell, Kansas.

      I also wish to thank researcher Hershul King of Fort Worth, Texas, for his help in my search for Maggie in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and historian June Westphal of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, for her search there.

      I would also like to acknowledge my new email friend, John Gillon of Lewisville, North Carolina, who, at the time of this writing, is still searching for Maggie among his ancestors.

      A NOTE TO THE READER

      Located just two miles from the Oklahoma Indian Territory, Caldwell, Kansas, known as The Border Queen in her early rowdy days, was the last Kansas cowtown on the Chisholm Trail. While not as well known as Abilene, Ellsworth, Dodge City and some of the other cowtowns that gained notoriety through books and movies, Caldwell too, had her tough characters and tumultuous times. Indeed, the Border Queen was a rough place to be—wild, riotous, unruly, and violent. But somehow her noteworthy characters were circumvented in the early dime novels and subsequent movies that popularized those places and made the names Earp, Hickok, Masterson and Holliday recognizable to successive generations.

      The aim of this book is to introduce to those interested in true western history a slice of the little known past of Caldwell, now a quiet little city whose true stature in the ranks of the cowtowns has not yet been recognized.

      This book started out to be a short research project—I wanted to know a little more about a couple of Caldwell’s early notorious characters—just a little digging that I do every now and then only to satisfy my own curiosity. But as more information was uncovered, it grew beyond my expectations. By the time I had exhausted all of my leads to any further insight, it had become what you now hold before you. Hopefully, it will be of interest to you and perhaps to a future historian or two. I have composed the information in chronological order and as much as possible, have let the extracts and articles set the pace and tell the story. In several places where voids exist in the extant record I have offered some speculative suggestions as possible explanations. Where I stray from pure nonfiction in those few places, I have done so in a manner that I hope the reader can readily distinguish from the factual information.

      Mrs. Norma White, President of the Caldwell Historical Society at the time of this writing, shared my curiosity and it is because of her great interest that I was motivated to seriously pursue the information that composes this book. It is to her that I respectfully offer this work.

      It was not my intent to sensationalize this story although the material here could very well be shaped into an exceptional historical novel. I invite others with skills greater than my own to investigate that possibility. Many amazing true stories are to be found in the rich history of the Border Queen—any one of which is worthy of a romanticized novel or movie script. One of these is the story of George and Maggie and The Red Light Saloon.

      Rod Cook

      May, 2003

      INTRODUCTION

      During the Civil War, Texas cattle could not be sold at the established markets in the northern states. As a result, the herds proliferated to such an extent that by the end of the war, Texas beef could be had for less than a dollar a head. Herds were left to run wild on the vast Texas range, unbranded, untended and unclaimed. After the war, men could simply lay claim to as many head as they were capable of rounding up. The state had over 3,000,000 head of cattle—but no market.

      A farsighted young man named Joseph McCoy recognized the great opportunity and grasped it. After scouting the newly laid Union Pacific rail line west of Kansas City he chose a tiny hamlet called Abilene to be his terminus. There, in 1867, at McCoy’s urging, the railroad built a siding. McCoy purchased 250 acres of land, built a hotel and cattle pens and then spread the word. Soon, strong willed Texas men, utilizing an obscure trail blazed by a man named Jesse Chisholm, also seized the opportunity and began driving their herds, nearly worthless in Texas, to Abilene, the portal of a fantastic eastern market.

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1