Joseph Ratliff, son of Joseph and Frances Harrell Ratliff... Grandson of Guilford and Mahala Ratliff. When Joe's mother passed on and his father Joseph Ratliff re-married, this did not set well with Joe. First, I believe that he felt no one could replace his beloved mother and secondly, I do not believe he was over joyed about a new sister that came along with the widow who married his father. Joe left home by the age of 11. He finally made his way to his sister Mary. I have spoken earlier of his sister Louisa Ratliff Anderson Wright, who had owned the Box T. This however was before she and William Wright purchased it. This was a period of time when George and Mary Ratliff Howard either owned it or ran it. I am not sure yet. My Mama said she and George owned it, but..... George was a man of Texas History, and can be looked up if you would like to find him in the books concerning the early times of Texas. Maybe one of you may be able to tell me whether he owned or only ran the ranch. Mary never had children of her own, and she loved her family so was not opposed to taking in her brother Joe. She too had Tom and had gotten him either at the same time, or before. Tom being Thompson Ratliff, Joe's older brother and Mary's younger brother. Mary set Joe to learning the ways of cattle as he would earn his keep and have a profession too. She also sent him back to school and gave him Piano and Violin lessons, that he thought was sissy stuff... but when he was older and would have some liquor and no one was around to see, he would play those instruments and seemed to be enjoying himself at it too. We use to sneak peeks at him playing when he did not know. He played the violin more on the lines of what Ma referred to as "Fiddlin" and could be coerced into playing it now and again for us. The piano he could play some right nice gospel on and one of his favorites was "Amazing Grace". When he would play it he would sing too. It was ashame he thought his music to be too sissified to play in front of anyone, as he wasn't hard on the ears at all. Joe began going on cattle drives when he was just 11 or so. The first time he went to Dodge City, Kansas he was with the hands and their pay.... He wound up in a Saloon. In those days boys could go in and I think Ma said even have a drink if they wanted one. Well Joe was having fun and watching all the commotion with the music and card games and the like going on all around him. Something happened at one of the tables, I suspect there was a cheater discovered or a sore loser expressing himself. But before long they were fighting. Joe kind of stepping his way back away from the area as he was not use to any of this and he was frightened by it. When they pulled their guns out and began to fire at each other Joe was either caught by some one who was watching out for him or he was so scared he did it himself. He found himself behind a game table that had been tipped over and he was using it as a shield for fear of those flying bullets making their way to him. Now I can not say this was the day, but it may have been, as it was in a similar situation that Joe first saw Wyatt Earp. Joe told of Wyatt in a way that the history books do not and for me to relate that interpretation may not be fitting and so I will only say that Joe did not respect the man. Doc Holliday had a dark side too, but maybe Joe only saw part of things and did not fully understand the truth of the situations. Never the less, Dodge City was a wild place for a young boy, or a young man for that matter before the turn of the century. Kelly ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]