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John Horton Slaughter (October 2, 1841 – February 16, 1922), also known as Texas John Slaughter, was an American lawman,
cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...
,
poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...
player and
ranch A ranch (from /Mexican Spanish) is an area of landscape, land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of farm. These terms are most often ap ...
er in the
Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...
during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After serving in the
Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the Military forces of the Confederate States, military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) duri ...
during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
, Slaughter earned a reputation fighting hostile Indians and Mexican and American
outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them. ...
s in the
Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
and
New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
territories. In the latter half of his life, he lived at the San Bernardino Ranch, which is today a well-preserved
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...
in Cochise County in far southeastern
Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
. In 1964, he was inducted into the
Hall of Great Westerners The Hall of Great Westerners was established by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in 1958. Located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., the Hall was created to celebrate the contributions of more than 200 men and women of the American W ...
of the
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, with more than 28,000 Western and Native American art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of Amer ...
.


Biography


Early life

Slaughter was born in 1841 on a horse Southern
plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...
in Sabine Parish near Many in western
Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...
.Amanda Oren
"Slaughter, John Horton (1841–1922)"
Handbook of Texas Online. Published by the
Texas State Historical Association The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is an American nonprofit educational and research organization dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, United States, on March 2, 1897. In November 2008, the ...
.
Clifford R. Caldwell, ''John Simpson Chisum: Cattle King of the Pecos Revisited'', Santa Fe, New Mexico: Sunstone Press, 2010, pp. 77–7

/ref> His parents were Benjamin Slaughter and the former Minerva Mabry. He was educated in schools in Texas in Sabine County, Texas, Sabine County and Caldwell County. From Mexican
vaquero The ''vaquero'' (; , ) is a horse-mounted livestock herder of a tradition that has its roots in the Iberian Peninsula and extensively developed in what what is today Mexico (then New Spain) and Spanish Florida from a method brought to the Americ ...
s, he learned how to herd cattle and how to speak
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
. In the early 1860s, Slaughter defended American settlers against hostile
Comanche The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...
as a Texas Ranger. During the Civil War, he served in the
Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the Military forces of the Confederate States, military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) duri ...
. He fought Union forces in Burnet County, west of the capital city of
Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
.


Career

In 1874, he, along with his brother, became a cattle driver in Atascosa County, south of
San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
. The two formed a cattle-transporting company, the San Antonio Ranch Company, which drove cattle to
Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
via the
Chisholm Trail The Chisholm Trail ( ) was a stock trail and wagon route used in the post-Civil War era to drive cattle overland from ranches in southern Texas, across the Red River into Indian Territory, and northward to rail stops in Kansas. The trail cons ...
. One (if not the only) of his cattle drive bosses was his first cousin Lewis Warren Neatherlin. Neatherlin's brother, James Franklin Neatherlin, also the Slaughter brothers' first cousin, assisted on the drive. In the late 1870s, Slaughter left Texas for New Mexico, where he traded cattle and planned to start a ranch. However, he eventually decided to establish the ranch in the
Arizona Territory The Territory of Arizona, commonly known as the Arizona Territory, was a territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863, until February 14, 1912, when the remaining extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the ...
. Initially settling in Charleston, Arizona, he later purchased the San Bernardino Ranch, on the U.S.–Mexico border near Douglas, in 1884. In 1886, Slaughter was elected sheriff of
Cochise County, Arizona Cochise County ( ) is a county in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is named after Cochise, a Chiricahua Apache who was a key war leader during the Apache Wars. The population was 125,447 at the 2020 census. The count ...
, five years after the infamous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.Alton Pryor, ''The Lawmen'', Roseville, California: Stagecoach Publishing, 2006, pp. 95–9

/ref> He was later re-elected to a second term. As sheriff, he helped track
Geronimo Gerónimo (, ; June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a military leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo joined with members of three other Central Apache bands the Tchihen ...
, the
Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...
chief who was caught on the San Bernardino Ranch. Slaughter fought for law and order with his six-shooter, a shotgun, and a repeating
Henry rifle The Henry repeating rifle is a lever-action tubular magazine rifle. It is famous for having been used at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and having been the basis for the iconic Winchester rifle of the American Wild West. Designed and introd ...
. He arrested desperados like the
Jack Taylor Gang The Jack Taylor Gang (c. 1884 to 1888) was an outlaw gang of the Old West which operated mostly in Arizona Territory and Mexico. The gang was first organized by Jack Taylor, a notorious outlaw with expert skills in train robbery. This brought th ...
and brought them to justice. He also became a prominent
poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...
player, often playing all night long. He was reportedly good at bluffing. He often played with the cattle baron John Chisum. Once, in
San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...
, he was cheated by cattle rustler Bryan Gallagher. Slaughter claimed the pot but Bryan fled. Slaughter tracked down Gallagher all the way to New Mexico at Chisum's ranch and shot him down.


Personal life

Slaughter married Eliza Adeline Harris on August 4, 1871. Of their four children, only two, Addie and Willie, survived until adulthood. Eliza died in 1877 of
smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...
in
Tucson Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...
. On April 16, 1879, Slaughter, at the age of thirty-seven, married eighteen-year-old Cora Viola Howell at Tularosa,
New Mexico Territory The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912. It was created from the U.S. provisional government of New Mexico, as a result of '' Nuevo México'' becomi ...
. The Slaughters had no children of their own, but they adopted several children, including Apache May, whom Slaughter encountered in 1896 while chasing the Apache Kid in Mexico. Years later, when he became ill, the Slaughters moved to an apartment on Twelfth Street in Douglas, Arizona. Previously believed to be Slaughter's former slave, John Swain (Slaughter), an experienced cowboy, settled in
Tombstone A gravestone or tombstone is a marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. A marker set at the head of the grave may be called a headstone. An especially old or elaborate stone slab may be called a funeral stele, stela, or slab. The us ...
and became one of its oldest and longstanding residents, dying at the age of nearly 100 in 1945. However, John Slaughter hired Swain on as an employee in Texas in 1879 prior to moving to Arizona. Swain was employed by Slaughter for a brief period before leaving the San Bernardino ranch and moving to Tombstone where he remained until his death. The Cochise Quarterly, Volume 15, No. 4, 1985 John Horton Slaughter never owned a slave.


Death

Slaughter was found on the morning of February 16, 1922, in his Douglas apartment, having died sometime during the previous night. He was buried at the Calvary Cemetery in Douglas.


References


General

* Baird, Clayton. "I Knew John Slaughter." ''Real West'', September 1972. * DeMattos, Jack. "Gunfighters of the Real West: John Slaughter." ''Real West'', March 1982. * Erwin, Allen A. ''The Southwest of John Horton Slaughter 1841–1922, Pioneer Cattleman and Trail-driver of Texas, the Pecos, and Arizona and Sheriff of Tombstone''. Glendale, CA: The Arthur H. Clarke Company, 1965. * Farfan, G.B. "Patchy Slaughter." ''Frontier Times'', September 1963. {{DEFAULTSORT:Slaughter, John Horton 1841 births 1922 deaths Cowboys People from Sabine Parish, Louisiana People from Sabine County, Texas People from Caldwell County, Texas People from Douglas, Arizona Members of the Texas Ranger Division Confederate States Army soldiers History of Arizona Arizona folklore Arizona pioneers Lawmen of the American Old West American poker players American cattlemen Ranchers from Arizona