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Hardin goes on a cattle drive along the Old Chusim Trail to Abilene, Kansas. In Abilene he meets Wild Bill Hickok and kills a man.
In 1871, Hardin did a stint of cattle driving with his cousins Joe, Jim, Gyp, and Manning Clements. These four were "hard men of guns and cattle," not unlike many others who traveled the long and various cattle trails, mostly watching the south end of a longhorn moving north. When they invited Hardin to trail along with them they advised him that they'd be moving through some pretty tough mesquite as they readied themselves and the bevies for a big cattle drive to Abilene, Kansas. As well as helping drive the cows, they figured John Wesley would be a welcomed addition when it came time to fight off Mexican bandits and Indians along the Chisum Trail. By the middle of spring they had made it to Abilene , and what a wild place it was. It was a mess of bawling cattle, slapped-together clapboard buildings, all mixed and stirred up by a roaring mass of fun-seekers hell-bent on raising cane. Most of the trail riders were up from Texas and it was about all that the fancy dressed marshal, Wild Bill Hickok , could control. With their job done and their pay in their pockets, at least for a short while, Hardin and his cousins set out to give the town a look-over. While they were looking at the town, trouble was surely looking at them. This time trouble came in the form of another famed killer, Ben Thompson, who was all fancied up in a high plug hat. Thompson proceeded to tell Hardin to kill Hickok as he, Thompson, didn't especially care for any lawman. Hardin, using his better judgement, for once, told Thompson to go do his own killing. Not long after Hardin's brief conversation with Ben Thompson, John Wesley did meet Hickok and it is said that the two men got on just fine, except that Wild Bill just couldn't figure out this 18-year-old, seemingly son-of-Satan who, at his young age, had already acquired a notorious reputation. Perhaps the only time Hardin may have been entirely in the right, by western standards, in killing a man happed there in Abilene later that night. When John Wesley returned to his hotel late in the evening he caught a stranger in his room going through his things. John Wesley, in good old Hardin style, shot and killed the man. John Wesley Hardin continued.
The copyright of the article John Wesley Hardin 3 in American History is owned by Mary Trotter Kion. Permission to republish John Wesley Hardin 3 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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