CALDWELL — One morning in 1885, Wichita Eagle subscribers may have choked on their coffee when they read news of a nearby cowtown: “As we go to press, hell is again in session in Caldwell.”
The statement was deadly accurate. Between 1879 and 1885, the small town of Caldwell had the highest murder rate in Kansas. In just those six years, violence claimed the lives of 18 Caldwell lawmen. Drunken brawls were a nightly occurrence and the sound of gunfire on Main Street was commonplace. The trouble all started when the railroad came to town.
Caldwell had been a quiet little farming community. But when the Santa Fe Railroad extended its line to Caldwell, the town became the final destination for the cattle herds coming up the Chisholm Trail from San Antonio. After eating trail dust for weeks, Texas cowboys finally had money in their pockets and were looking for places to spend it. They didn’t have to look far.
Caldwell city Marshall Henry Newton, wearing white kerchief in photo above, is shown with fellow outlaws after their capture for robbing the bank in Medicine Lodge. Above right, one of 22 historical markers that line the streets of Caldwell. This one tells the story of The Last Chance Saloon.
Saloons, brothels and gambling dens in Caldwell far outnumbered general stores. Because the town was just a cow-chip throw from the Kansas state line, cowboys began calling it “The Border Queen.” But the only ladies living like royalty in Caldwell were the ones marketing their wares to the men on the Chisholm Trail. Topsey Bradley, Birdie Miller and “Mrs. Bright #2, the sick one” were among the 120 prostitutes listed in the Caldwell police dockets between 1880 and 1885. Sporting ladies and soiled doves accounted for nearly 10 percent of the town’s population.
“People think that Dodge City and Abilene were the towns where the Wild West was wildest and wickedest,” Michelle Schiltz says. “But neither of them could hold a candle to Caldwell.”
Most infamous of all
Michelle and her two sisters are docents at the Border Queen Museum in Caldwell. Their father, Dave Williams, was a local historian who did extensive research on Henry Newton Brown, the most infamous of all the Caldwell city marshals.
Brown rode into Caldwell in July, 1882, when he was about 25. He didn’t smoke, drink, chew or gamble, and regularly attended church. But Brown was no shrinking violet. “He had a square set jaw, not unlike that of a bull dog,” a contemporary wrote. “His face indicated firmness and a lack of physical fear.” He also wore two six guns and knew how to use them. So Brown was quickly appointed Assistant Marshal of Caldwell, then promoted to Marshal five months later.
Brown wasted no time in cleaning up the town. When he killed two outlaws in the streets, the Caldwell Post gushed that Brown was “one of the quickest men on the trigger in the Southwest.” The town was so grateful that they presented him with an engraved Winchester rifle. For a brief time, Brown was the most eligible bachelor in Caldwell. Then he got married.
The bills began piling up when his new bride began furnishing their new house. The debt quickly became more than Brown could handle on a marshal’s salary. But fortunately, he had previous experience in another profession. Before coming to Caldwell, Brown had ridden with Billy the Kid. So, he recruited his assistant marshal and two cowboys, then rode off to rob the bank in Medicine Lodge, a town far enough away that nobody would recognize them. He took along his new Winchester.
The robbery was a disaster. Brown and his gang couldn’t get into the vault, and two bankers were killed. The gang was captured and jailed. As a lynch mob formed outside, Brown wrote a letter: “Darling Wife: I am in jail here. Four of us tried to rob the bank… I will send you all of my things and you can sell them. But keep the Winchester.”
Killed escaping lynch mob
The lynch mob stormed the jail and Brown was killed trying to escape. But the Winchester made it back to his wife, and she didn’t sell it. It’s now in the Kansas Historical Museum in Topeka. Caldwell would love to bring it back home to the Border Queen Museum.
There’s a lot to see in Caldwell. The museum displays everything from outlaw Belle Starr’s saddle to a creepy antique floral wreath made of human hair. And out on the street, there are historical markers that tell the stories of The Talbot Gang Shootout, The Last Chance Saloon, Murder of Marshall George Flatt, The Red Light Saloon, Shooting Up Main Street and more. Henry Newton Brown gets an entire plaque all to himself.
Bill O’Neal, author of “Henry Brown, the Outlaw Marshal”, described downtown Caldwell like this: “In just the right light, it is not difficult to imagine the sounds of a frontier saloon, of cattle hooves and gunfire.”
Chishom Trail Festival
That imaginative light will be perfect May 1-2, when history will be recreated on the streets of Caldwell during the Chisholm Trail Festival. Realistic gunfights will be staged on Main Street as saloon girls dance the can-can, food trucks cook up delicious vittles and live bands get all the cowboy boots shuffling. There will even be a cattle drive through the downtown streets.
Just 60 miles south of Wichita, Caldwell makes a great day trip. You’ll spend only an hour in the car. But you’ll be transported back 140 years in time, back to the days when Caldwell was the wildest and wickedest town in Kansas.
Joe Norris can be reached at joe.norris47@gmail.com.
