John Wesley Hardin was also a school teacher in the Pisga Ridge area of Navarro Co, Texas immediately after the Civil War. He was involved in the Polk-Bowman fued that was taking place in the southwestern part of the county from Pisga Ridge to the Spring Hill area close to Dawson. Many Pisga Ridge settlers, including many of my Gleghorn family, migrated on to Gonzales, Texas about this time. Jim ------------------------------------ > The 1870 - 1880 cattle drives on the Western and Texas Trails were full of > gunfighters and lawlessness was common. The earlier cattle drives to the > east were before the Civil War and did not have the gunfighters that came > from the from the aftermath of the Civil War. According to his biography, > the notorious gunfighter John Wesley Hardin joined a cattle drive in > Gonzales, Texas and went to Dodge City Kansas along the Western Trail. The > Indians in Oklahoma would charge a "cattle-toll" to the cattlemen in order > to let them cross their lands. John Wesley Hardin killed his share of > "Injuns" that were trying to charge a "unauthorized" cattle toll. He later > backed down Wild Bill Hickok in Dodge City when Wild Bill told him to turn > in his guns. I do not agree with some historians that called Hardin a > pathological killer. John Wesley Hardin was a merely product of the times > after the Civil War. Lawlessness and feuds were rampant in Texas after the > conflict. Amazingly, I can still detect some animosity to this day when I > talk to people in the areas involved in the feuds. > > Hardin and his brother were involved in illegal cattle operations in Brown > and Comanche Counties after John Wesley's trip to Kansas. Hardin's family > and some of his cousins moved to Comanche, Texas in 1873. His brother and > his cousins are buried there. Deputy Sheriff Charley Webb was killed by > J.W. Hardin in a gunbattle in Comanche in 1874 and is buried in Green Leaf > Cemetery in Brownwood Texas. Hardin eventually served 15 years of a 25 year > sentence in the Texas State Prison in Huntsville for the killing of Webb. > The gunfight between Webb and Hardin was to really to settle a old score > arising from the Sutton-Taylor Feud in Gonzales, Texas. Deputy Sheriff Webb > was from Brown County and had no authority in Comanche County. > > Jerry Coffee