By Ken Bridges, Texas History Minute
The violence of the western frontier has alternately fascinated and repelled readers for generations. Gunfights between the law, outlaws, and even in-laws have since become tales retold for decades. Notorious gunman John Wesley Hardin was one of the bloodiest of all. In his short forty-two years, Hardin killed more than two dozen people across Texas.
John Wesley Hardin was the second of ten children born to a Methodist preacher and his wife. Hardin was born in the North Texas community of Bonham in May 1853. His father, Rev. James Hardin, was a circuit-riding preacher, traveling from one church to the next to deliver services on successive Sundays. It was a difficult life for a man of faith, as well as for his family, because of the long distances and frequent absences. Still, the family always had all the necessities.
By 1859, the elder Hardin had settled in Sumter in East Texas to establish a school and finally enjoy a quiet life—something the younger Hardin would make extraordinarily complicated. All of his children eventually attended this school.
However, from a young age, Hardin was always in trouble of some kind. At the age of nine, in 1862, he attempted to run away from home to join the Confederate Army. At fourteen, in 1867, he got into a knife fight at his father’s school, nearly killing a fellow student. His father had no choice but to expel him. The next year, at fifteen, he killed for the first time when he shot and killed a former slave named Maje Holshousen following a fight.
Following Holshousen’s death, Hardin hid out at his older brother’s house some thirty miles to the north, supposedly at his father’s behest. He later claimed to have shot and killed three Union troops on their way to arrest him as they approached the home. However, no military records exist of the incident.
Other records from the time suggest that a murder may have occurred in the area around that time. Because of poor documentation, conflicting accounts, and Hardin’s own tall tales and exaggerations, his exact record is shrouded in mystery. He denied some deaths for which there was considerable evidence but bragged about others for which no evidence existed.
Regardless, Hardin was on the run again, scrambling from place to place and picking up a variety of jobs for money. At one point, he taught school in Navarro County. He also traveled briefly with another wanted man before that man’s capture.
As he grew older, a mixture of alcohol, a quick temper, and a surly disposition landed him in a series of knife fights and gunfights that left a trail of bodies across Texas. He turned to gambling, which only deepened his problems with the law. He allegedly shot out the eye of a man to win a bet at the age of sixteen. In January 1870, he got into another gunfight with a man named Ben Bradley, who had accused him of cheating at cards in a local saloon. He killed Bradley in the streets of Towash in Hill County, and Bradley’s associate—a man known only as Judge Moore—disappeared shortly afterward. Hardin later claimed to have killed Moore. Several other fistfights and gunfights followed.
In January 1871, he was arrested in Harrison County on four charges of murder and one charge of horse theft. One of the charges was allegedly for the murder of Waco Town Marshal L. J. Hoffman. As he was being brought from East Texas to Waco for trial, Hardin escaped, killing a state policeman in the process. He was arrested in Bell County some weeks later and killed three more men, escaping once again. Before he even turned eighteen, Hardin had killed at least eight men—and possibly more.
He found work as a hand on a cattle drive on the Chisholm Trail shortly afterward. While Hardin managed to escape authorities in Texas for the time being, he still found himself in gunfights on the way to Kansas. Hardin’s deadly career was just starting.
Note: This is part 1 of a two-part series. Part 2 will be posted next week.
I’ve been waiting for part 2…