The Wrong Brother

If not for the persistent rain and cold, the time at Coloma and Placerville this weekend would have been perfect.  When you’re already feeling low in spirit, the constant rain seems to add to the blues.  So I’ll turn my attention to the west and the men and women who helped shape the frontier and lose myself in their daring.  At sunrise on this day in 1886, John Slaughter, the Sheriff of Cochise County, and posse jumped some Mexican bandits at a wood lot in the Whetstone Mountains.  Two of them, Manuel Robles and Nieves Deron, were survivors of Jack Taylor’s vicious gang of train robbers.  Guadalupe Robles, and innocent woodcutter, was Manuel’s brother.  When the smoke cleared Guadalupe lay dead and Nieves died of his wounds shortly thereafter.  Manuel was hit twice but escaped on foot.  Slaughter got part of his ear shot off.  Before becoming a sheriff, Slaughter had an interesting past.  He enlisted in the Confederate Army at the start of the Civil War as a private in Company E, 36th Woods Cavalry, Texas before moving on to another unit. He was mustered out May 15, 1865. Serving in the 3rd Frontier Division, Texas State Troops, he earned the reputation of a fearless fighter, skilled with firearms. After the war, he formed the San Antonio Ranch Company with his brothers and in the 1870s, bought a ranch in Charleston, Arizona. In 1886, he was elected Sheriff of Cochise County, served two terms and then helped the US Cavalry track Geronimo’s Apaches. He also was the inspiration for Walt Disney’s TV series, “Texas John Slaughter” in the 1950s. Can you imagine being so tough entertainment executives just have to do a series about your life?  Long live western legends.