I've written on this blog a couple of times before about Baxter Springs, but because a chapter in my upcoming book, Desperadoes of the Ozarks, deals with the early history of the town, I'm going to briefly mention it again. The chapter in my book concentrates on the town's early cow town days and especially on the killing of two of the town's early marshals.
The first Baxter marshal to lose his life in the line of duty was H. C. Seaman, who was killed by Texas cow poke Thomas Good in the fall of 1870 when he tried to arrest Good's carousing partner, a sporting lady named Nellie Starr, for disturbing the peace.
Seaman's successor, Cassisus M. Taylor, was appointed by Baxter mayor J. R. Boyd, but the two men soon became political enemies. Boyd killed Taylor in the summer of 1872 when the marshal tried to arrest him for assaulting a local lumber dealer over a disputed debt.
1 comment:
That's pretty interesting. I just went through Baxter Springs a couple of days ago.
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