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The Principles of Posse Management: Lessons from the Old West for Today’s Leaders

A light, frigid rain tapped the dirty windows of a small store located along the banks of the San Joaquin River near the town of Millerton, California. A half dozen ferryboat operators were inside soaking up the warmth emanating from a fireplace. Four of them were huddled around a table playing cards; the other two were enjoying a drink at a makeshift bar, while an unkempt clerk arranged a row of canned goods across a warped shelf.

The clerk was entertaining the preoccupied men in the room with a song when the shop door swung open. He was the last to notice the figures standing in the entranceway. He looked up from his work after being conscious of his own loud voice in the sudden silence. He slowly turned to see what everyone else was staring at.

The outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez entered the store with his pistol drawn. Three other desperadoes, all brandishing weapons, followed closely behind. Vasquez, a handsome man of medium height with large, dark eyes, surveyed the terrified faces of the patrons as he smoothed down his black mustache and goatee. “Put up your hands,” he ordered the men. The clerk quickly complied, and the others reluctantly did the same.

Two more of Vasquez’s men burst into the store through the back entrance and leveled their guns on the strangers before them.

“You don’t need a gun here,” the clerk tried to reason with the bandits. Vasquez grinned as he walked over to the man.

“Yes, I do,” he said as he placed his gun against the clerk’s temple. “It helps quiet my nerves.”

Vasquez demanded the men drop to the floor, facedown. After they had complied, their hands and feet were tied behind them. One of the men cursed the desperadoes as he struggled to free himself. “You damned bastard,” he shouted at Vasquez. “If I had my six-shooter I’d show you whether I’d lie down or not.”

The bandits laughed at the outburst and proceeded to rob the store and its occupants of $2,300. The November 10, 1873, holdup was one of more than one hundred such raids perpetrated by the thirty-eight-year-old Mexican and his band of cutthroat thieves and murderers in their violent careers. The desperadoes escaped the scene of the crime, eluding authorities for several months before they were caught.

To learn more about the posse after Tiburcio Vaquez read

The Principles of Possee Management

“Smallpox, tuberculosis, childbirth, diphtheria, gunshots, “Spanish flu,” broken bones, and more. These are just some of the maladies that settlers and others living in the western US faced during the late 1800s and early 1900s. This slim history provides well-researched vignettes of ten women who became doctors and served their communities in that period. Often, their own families didn’t support their ambitions and they had to work teaching or sewing or laundering to afford medical school.

Facing prejudice, blizzards, prairie fires, and personal hardship, they persevered to attain education and recognition. But in the West, towns with no other doctors were willing to take a risk on these tough resilient women, many of whom lived in their nineties. Several of the women also advocated for the right to vote and for temperance, although one notably argued for the sterilization of the “criminally insane,” convinced that such tendencies were hereditary.

This reader was particularly impressed with the physician who reconstructed a man’s face through thirty cosmetic surgeries over six months, in 1887! And the patient lived another two decades. Illustrated with period photographs, this well-researched book also includes medical advice of the era: treatments for flu, the care of infants, and eye health. This is a fascinating read for anyone interested in history, health care, and women’s history.”

Happy to report that

An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood’s Most Notorious Bordellos has won the silver medal in the Independent Publisher Book Award.

Thanks to Deadwood History, Inc. for co-authoring this title.

We’ll be celebrating the win in Deadwood in September.

This week, I’ll be talking Tilghman at the Oklahoma Territorial Museum in Guthrie, the Same Page Book Store and the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore.

Visit the events section of this website for dates and times.

Enter now to win a copy of

Principles of Posse Management: Lessons from the Old West for Today’s Leaders

“Chris Enss’s engaging new book, The Principles of Posse Management, takes you back in time to the Old West, where with incredible detail and fun anecdotes, she reveals many universal leadership tools that were surprisingly effective in keeping order at such a lawless time.  Subsequently, many of these same tools are needed today within our own corporate climate.  Read this fascinating book and reconnect with these powerful principles from the past.” Sean Covey, executive vice president, Global Solutions and Partnerships, Franklin Covey.

“Posses were created very strategically to catch the outlaws that sure had a ‘never give up’ way of life.  I was fascinated by the stories of bravery that built our Western lifestyle.” Lisa Bollin, CEO and director of design, Cowgirl Tuff Company

To learn about the great posse of the Old West and

how their principles can be applied in business today read

Principles of Posse Management:  Lessons from the Old West for Today’s Leaders