Old Man Clanton
1830 - 1882
Old Man Clanton, or N. H. Clanton, came out of the French and Indian
War country about 1810 during the flintlock period to arrive in Laredo,
Texas. From there traveled westward mavericking as he came,
selling off the stock in Fort Bowie. He went on to California and
the Gold Rush, where he spent some time before being run out by the
Vigilantes.
Some fool of a woman married him and gave him four sons who had
already learned to snarl and bite: Isaac, Ike, Phin and Bill – all
chewing tobacco and spitting on the floor, cussing like mule-skinners,
disregarding the Ten Commandments, and the like. Their teacher –
Old Man Clanton. He also gave them lessons in gunslinging so that
each one of them was a proficient killer.
Old Man Clanton was said to be able to out-Apache the
Apache. He took up a ranch near Fort Thomas. When he didn't
like somebody on his property, he simply pointed him out, and one of
the boys would provoke an argument and shoot the man down in
"self-defense".
Ed Schieffelin's strike had skyrocketed Tombstone to fame, and Old Man
Clanton moved in. He became so popular stringing into town with
his four sons and others who buzzed around him, that the newspaper, The
Tombstone Nugget, referred to them as "the cowboy party" of
Republicans.
Clanton's rise to political power came through his favors to Sheriff
Johnny Behan, such as certain moneys poured into Behan's lap for giving
the protection necessary to operate without any arrests, especially
when Wells-Fargo was knocked over, or cattle rustling too close to town.
Old Man Clanton had quite an organization. He now had Curly Bill,
John Ringo, Tom and Frank McLaury, Joe Hill, Pony Deal, Jim Hughes,
Frank Stillwell and many other lieutenants who had under them some four
hundred frontier outcasts who carried out the evil pursuits which
dominated human rights all over eastern and southern Arizona.
Headquarters were maintained at various waterholes reaching down as far as New
Mexico, into Sulphur Springs Valley and beyond. There was not a
cowman in the Territory who dared raise his voice against the wrath and
terror of Old Man Clanton, who would deliberately set the running iron
burning right under the owner's nose, or drive off stock within sight
of the ranch house. Being proficient gunmen, all of Clanton's
boys loved to unlimber and show off their special skill.
The Clanton boys collected the taxes, too, and made what
assessments they saw fit to levy. Curly Bill Brocius often rode
along and was known to be a fast and accurate executioner whenever
there was a quarrel with the assessor and it became necessary to cut
the rancher down. Old Man Clanton and Sheriff Behan always
treated the thing as a big joke.
This scandal became so widely publicized that the Congress of the
United States brought it under discussion and open debate in their
chambers, and President Garfield was advised to get rid of Fremont as
Governor of Arizona Territory. Some talk was abroad to make Wyatt
Earp, a lawman of some repute, the U. S. Marshal of the Territory, but
this was never done.
Warnings and rumblings from Washington meant nothing to the Clanton's
and the boys rode out to Skeleton Canyon and ambushed a mule-train
carrying seventy-five thousand dollars in silver bullion and
slaughtered 19 muleteers. Old Man Clanton pocketed most of the
loot, but enough was given to the boys for a hell-go orgy in Galeyville
and Charleston.
The Old Man with six of his boys started his stolen-cattle drive
into Tombstone. While passing through Guadalup Canyon, however,
the Mexican vaqueros ambushed them and relatives of the men were shot
dead out of their saddles, with only Harry Earnshaw escaping.
With the famed OK Corral shoot-out in 1882, the Clanton gang was wiped out,
but Old Man Clanton left the sear of his running iron on the history of the
Old West for all time.
Calamity Jane | Clay Allison | Curly Bill | Dave Mather
Doc Holliday | Jesse James | Jim Courtright | Joaquin Murrietta
John Ringo | John Wesley Hardin | King Fisher | Luke Short
Old Man Clanton | Pat Garrett | Wild Bill Hickok | Wyatt Earp
OK Corral | Artist - Lea Franklin McCarty