Frank Boardman "Pistol Pete" Eaton (October 26, 1860 – April 8, 1958) was a scout, sheriff, and cowboy.
Early life
Eaton was born in 1860 in
Hartford, Connecticut, and at the age of eight, he moved with his family to
Twin Mound, Kansas.
When Eaton was eight years old, his father, an abolitionist, was shot in cold blood by six former
Confederates, who during the war had served with the
Quantrill Raiders. The six men, from the Campsey and the Ferber clans, rode with the Southerners who after the war called themselves "
Regulators".
In 1868, Mose Beaman, his father's friend, said to Frank, "My boy, may an old man's curse rest upon you, if you do not try to avenge your father".
That same year, Mose taught him to handle a gun.
Adult life
At the age of fifteen, before setting off to avenge his father's death, Eaton said he visited
Fort Gibson
Fort Gibson is a historic military site next to the modern city of Fort Gibson, in Muskogee County Oklahoma. It guarded the American frontier in Indian Territory from 1824 to 1888. When it was constructed, the fort was farther west than any ot ...
,
Oklahoma, a cavalry fort, to learn more about how to handle a gun. Although too young to join the army, he outshot everyone at the fort and competed with the cavalry's best marksmen, beating them every time. Eaton claimed that after many competitions, the fort's commanding officer, Colonel
John Joseph Coppinger, gave Frank a marksmanship badge and a new nickname, "Pistol Pete". Like many of his tales, this may not be completely factual.
During his teen years, Eaton wrote that he was faster on the draw than
Buffalo Bill. From his first days as a lawman, he was said to "pack the fastest guns in the
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...
". By the end of his career, Eaton would allegedly have eleven notches on his gun.
Eaton was said to have been given a cross by a girlfriend, which he wore around his neck and which saved his life when it deflected a bullet during a gunfight. He would write later that, "I’d rather have the prayers of a good woman in a fight than half a dozen hot guns: she’s talking to
Headquarters".
Eaton claimed to serve as a U.S. Deputy Marshall under “hanging judge” Isaac Parker until late in life, but no documentation of this could be found by the Curator of the US Marshals Museum in
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Fort Smith is the third-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 89,142. It is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Are ...
. At twenty-nine, he joined the
land rush
A land run or land rush was an event in which previously restricted land of the United States was opened to homestead on a first-arrival basis. Lands were opened and sold first-come or by bid, or won by lottery, or by means other than a run. The ...
to
Oklahoma Territory. He settled southwest of
Perkins, Oklahoma
Perkins ( iow, Pékinⁿ Chína^i) is a city in southern Payne County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,831 at the 2010 census, an increase of 24.6 percent from the figure of 2,272 in 2000. The name is derived from Walden Perkins, ...
where he served as
sheriff and later became a
blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...
. He was married twice, had nine children, 31 grandchildren, and lived to see three great-great-grandchildren. He died on April 8, 1958 at the age of 97.
Eaton usually carried a loaded
.45 Colt
The .45 Colt (11.43×33mmR), is a rimmed, straight-walled, handgun cartridge dating to 1872. It was originally a black-powder revolver round developed for the Colt Single Action Army revolver. This cartridge was adopted by the U.S. Army in 1 ...
and often said "I'd rather have a pocket full of rocks than an empty gun." He was also known to throw a coin in the air, draw and shoot it before it hit the ground. The common saying in the mid-western United States, "hotter than Pete's pistol", traces back to Eaton's shooting skills, along with his legendary pursuit of his father's killers.
Author
Frank Eaton wrote two books that exemplify the life of a veteran of the Old West. His first, was an autobiography titled ''Veteran of the Old West: Pistol Pete'', which tells a tale of his life as a Deputy United States Marshal and cowboy. Much of the story of his deputization appears to be fictional, however, as there are no corroborating sources for his claims and there is no record of the Deputy US Marshal and US Judge mentioned. His second book, which was published thirty years after his death, is entitled ''Campfire Stories: Remembrances of a Cowboy Legend''. ''Campfire Stories'' is a collection of yarns and recollections that Frank Eaton would tell to the many visitors that came to sit on his front porch in Perkins, Oklahoma.
He is buried in the Perkins Cemetery in
Perkins, Oklahoma
Perkins ( iow, Pékinⁿ Chína^i) is a city in southern Payne County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,831 at the 2010 census, an increase of 24.6 percent from the figure of 2,272 in 2000. The name is derived from Walden Perkins, ...
.
Francis Boardman "Pistol Pete" Eaton
at Find A Grave
From Cowboy to mascot
After seeing Eaton ride a horse in the 1923 Armistice Day
Armistice Day, later known as Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth and Veterans Day in the United States, is commemorated every year on 11 November to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, Fran ...
parade in Stillwater, Oklahoma
Stillwater ( iow, Ñápinⁿje, ''meaning: "Water quiet"'') is a city in, and the county seat of, Payne County, Oklahoma, United States. It is located in north-central Oklahoma at the intersection of U.S. Route 177 and State Highway 51. As of t ...
with Cowgirl "SPO" Phillips and Cowpoke "Real Deal" Rieger, a group of Oklahoma A&M College
Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...
(now Oklahoma State University) students decided that Eaton's "Pistol Pete" would be a suitable mascot for the school.
Previously the college had been known as the "Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...
of the Prairie" with a tiger mascot and colors of orange and black. Many at the school were unhappy with the "Tigers" mascot and felt "Pistol Pete", symbolic of the American Old West and Oklahoma's land run roots, better represented the college. Soon afterward, The Oklahoma Times
''The Oklahoma Times'' was a newspaper published in Oklahoma City.
History
On May 9 1889, Angelo C. Scott and his brother Winfield W. Scott published the first issue of ''The Oklahoma Times''. The paper was soon forced to change its name to ''The ...
began calling A&M's teams the "Cowboys" rather than the Aggies. "Cowboys" and "Aggies" were used interchangeably until the school became Oklahoma State in 1957, and "Cowboys" became the sole nickname.
However, it was not until 1958 that "Pistol Pete" was adopted as the school's mascot. The familiar caricature of "Pistol Pete" was officially sanctioned in 1984 by the university as a licensed symbol.
In more recent years, the University of Wyoming
The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...
and New Mexico State University
New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public land-grant research university based primarily in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest public institution of higher education in New Mexico and one of the state's ...
began using variations of OSU's artwork as logos for their schools. To this day, his likeness is a visible reminder of the Old West to literally millions of people yearly as a symbol of colleges whose mascots pay homage to the cowboy. NMSU recently updated their logo design which is distinct from the OSU logo of Pistol Pete.
Director's Award
On March 15, 1997, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, with more than 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of Ame ...
posthumously honored Frank Eaton with the Director's Award. Eaton's youngest daughter Elizabeth Wise, together with Oklahoma State University
Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...
President James Halligan, accepted the award for Eaton.
On April 9, 2022, Frank Eaton was posthumously inducted by the National Cowboy Western Heritage Center and Museum in Oklahoma City into the Hall of Great Westerners. The award was accepted by three of Eaton's grandchildren, (Elizabeth Wise's children), William Wise, Dinah Wagner and Harvey Wise. Sharing the stage with them were 27 former Oklahoma State University Pistol Pete mascots.
See also
* Pistol Pete (mascot)
References
Sources and external links
Frank Eaton Collection
OSU Library Special Collections and University Archives
Oklahoma Territorial Plaza Trust
Pistol Pete Interview Series
Oklahoma Oral History Research Program
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eaton, Frank
1860 births
1958 deaths
19th-century American writers
20th-century American writers
Writers from Hartford, Connecticut
People from Douglas County, Kansas
People from Perkins, Oklahoma
American folklore
Cowboys
Oklahoma sheriffs
American town marshals
Writers from Oklahoma
Lawmen of the American Old West
American cattlemen
American blacksmiths