User:Intothatdarkness/Old West Law Enforcement

Old West Law Enforcement Law enforcement in the "Old West" (1840-1900) was a mix of community-based efforts and more formal organizations at the Territory, State, and Federal level, ranging from the first Miners' Councils to Deputy U.S. Marshals and Texas Rangers. This is a draft space for an article covering the various law enforcement agencies and strategies that existed during the period of United States history commonly titled "The Old West" (roughly 1840 through 1900, although there may be some overlap in the early period). Old West law enforcement is often portrayed in popular culture as being either more effective or more corrupt than it was in reality.

The Early Days

Law enforcement on the Frontier (the semi-organized territories west of the Mississippi River) was a very localized affair in the first days of settlement. In a generalized sense, the first "settlers" were often trappers (also known as mountain men) or miners. Both groups have come down through history as being focused on the rights of the individual, although they eventually found reason to develop mechanisms to resolve disputes. While trappers tended to only come together in large numbers for an annual rendezvous, miners often formed more settled and semi-permanent communities. This, combined with the need for a framework to manage mineral claims, led to the development of one of the first Anglo Frontier law enforcement mechanisms: the Miners' Council.

Mining Camps and Miners' Councils

With the start of the California Gold Rush in 1848, the question of law enforcement in unorganized territory gained new importance. While the Mexican territory of Alta California had an existing governmental and law enforcement framework, the massive influx of new settlers quickly overwhelmed the old systems. Since the miners tended to follow the gold (or rumors of new gold "strikes"), they also moved outside of existing settled areas. This created a need for some sort of law enforcement and governance.

Many of the larger groups of miners (especially those traveling from the East) arrived as organized mining companies, often with charters and formal partnership agreements. While these arrangements often did not last more than a short time in the gold fields, the need to organize seems to have remained. As prospectors expanded across California, they organized mining districts to administer claims and land issues (often borrowing their procedures from other established mining areas in the southern United States and Europe). Larger mining camps often organized "Miners' Councils," consisting in theory of every male in the community. These Councils could be called upon to resolve disputes large and small, typically by a simple majority vote. While they could technically impose penalties up to and including death, banishment was often chosen for serious crimes (murder and claim-jumping). In a Frontier region, banishment from an organized settlement was seen as a sort of death penalty and proved an effective substitute.

Town Lawmen

One prominent feature of most fictional depictions of the Old West is the steely-eyed cow town lawman facing down an armed mob of drunken cowboys on his own. The reality of cattle town law enforcement is less colorful, but presented challenges that were unique to the towns themselves. Although cattle towns existed in most Western states, the cattle town experience in Kansas is perhaps the best-studied, although it is in many ways unique due to the presence of a large transient population based on long-distance cattle drives.

Based on the Kansas experience, a cattle town started hiring lawmen soon after it incorporated in an existing county. The first person hired was a town marshal or constable (both terms were used, although marshal was the most common), and this man in turn hired a number of assistant constables or deputies. The number varied depending on the time of year and the town's available financial resources. Typically a cattle town had more working lawmen during the summer trail drive months and fewer during the off-season.

Lawmen in the Kansas towns faced an additional challenge not always found in other locations. Most of the cowboys hired for the drives from Texas were Texans themselves, and they often resented having to do business with "Yankees." Likewise, there was a growing segment of the Kansas population that disliked the rowdy nature of the trail hands and wanted to see their county economies switch to a more farming-based model. Thus the Kansas cattle town marshal often found himself standing between two hostile groups. It was a difficult job, and one that attracted a number of unsavory characters (for example Henry Brown who served as a town marshal in Caldwell, Kansas) who were hired in part based on their reputations as gunmen.

Not all cattle town lawmen were colorful characters. Many were hired on a seasonal basis, and filled their time with more mundane duties such as shooting stray dogs and posting notices. The town marshal in Abilene, Kansas, in 1870 was to "supervise the city jail, maintain a 'police record' of all persons arrested and confined...and 'have charge of and control the entire police force of the town.'" His subordinates (ranked as assistant marshal and policemen) were to make arrests and generally keep the peace. In later years the town marshal found himself acting as street commissioner, sanitary inspector, and other more mundane jobs.

Outside of Kansas the situation was somewhat similar. Mining towns in California and Nevada were among the first to incorporate, but their example was followed by communities in Colorado and elsewhere later in the period. In Virginia City, Nevada, for example, the police force in 1866 was "a sizable and well-paid force," perhaps similar to the 22-man force in place at Leadville, Colorado in 1880. Not all mining towns possessed such a strong law enforcement framework. Virginia City, Montana is but one example of the experience of the more temporary mining communities on the Frontier.

County and Territorial Lawmen

Modern Texas Ranger badge - similar to what the Frontier Rangers used

As areas became more settled, law enforcement structures became more formal and extended beyond towns and mining camps. In most cases this resulted in the creation of a county sheriff.

In some cases county law enforcement was supplemented by state or territorial organizations. The most famous example are the Texas Rangers, but there were other, similar organizations created toward the end of the Frontier period (see Arizona Rangers for one example). These groups tended to have wide jurisdiction, and often filled a void that existed due to large counties (common in the early Frontier period) or wide swaths of unsettled territory (also common).

Federal Lawmen

In addition to a variety of local agencies, the Federal Government during this time contributed one additional piece to Frontier law enforcement: the United States Marshal. Their contributions varied depending on the time and place, and have been enhanced in fiction.

The U.S. Marshal existed from the earliest days of the United States, and was a Presidential appointee confirmed by the United States Senate. One Marshal was appointed for each judicial district, and they were often more administrators than actual lawmen. That role was reserved for the Deputy U.S. Marshal. Deputies could be hired by a marshal and typically served as his field agents. Although many of the roles filled by the marshal and his deputies were mundane (serving warrants, supervising census data collection, protecting witnesses at trials, and so on), they provided a vital Federal presence in the new territories.

The U.S. Marshals were perhaps most active in Indian Territory, serving the Western District of Arkansas and Judge Isaac Parker. This had much to do with the unique status of Indian Territory. Lacking most of the traditional Frontier law enforcement mechanisms, the Territory was forced to rely on both Federal officers and the military to provide security.

Popular Culture

The role of the lawman in the Old West was shaped by popular culture even as the historical events were taking place. Lawmen like James Butler Hickok and Patrick Garrett were the subjects of popular fiction while they were still alive (most often in the dime novels popular at the time). In most cases they were cast in the lone gunman role, with no mention of deputies or other lawmen. After the Frontier period, this portrait of lawmen continued in popular culture. From early radio dramas like Gunsmoke and The Lone Ranger (both later became television series, with Gunsmoke enjoying long success) to more recent motion pictures like Tombstone and Wyatt Earp, the lone lawman upholding the cause of justice continues to be the image most often associated with Frontier lawmen.

External links

• example.com