Hello readers and welcome back to Pale Horse Revelations. where we explore significant people, places, and events in Old West history. While I make no promises, don't be surprised if some of these places, people, or events find their way into future Pale Rider adventures.
Today I want to introduce you to a fascinating character who spent significant time on both sides of the law. I stumbled upon the story of Henry Newton Brown while researching for this post and was immediately enthralled. Here is a man who rode with Billy the Kid during the Lincoln County War, later reinvented himself as a respected Kansas lawman, only to die a disgraced bank robber. And yet, so few, myself included have ever heard of him. It's time to shed some well-deserved light on this complex Old West character. I hope you find his story as interesting as I did.
Henry Newton Brown was born in 1857. He was orphaned at an early age and raised by his aunt and uncle in Cold Springs Township in Phelps County, Missouri. At the age of seventeen Brown left home and headed west. For a time, he drifted from place to place working as a cowboy on various ranches. He eventually ended up in Texas. According to unconfirmed reports, Brown killed another cowhand in a gunfight in the Texas Panhandle and fled to Lincoln County, New Mexico.
There he found work on the Rio Feliz Ranch owned by John Tunstall. Brown became one of Tunstall's "Regulators" alongside the soon to be famous Billy the Kid. The feud between Tunstall and the Murphy Dolan faction erupted into all-out war with the murder of John Tunstall.
Brown was one of several men who, along with Billy the Kid, ambushed and murdered Lincoln County Sheriff William Brady on April 1, 1878. Brady was a stout supporter of the Murphy Dolan faction and at least partially responsible for Tunstall's murder. Just a few days later, Brown was with the regulators when they engaged in a protracted gunfight with Buckshot Roberts, another man believed responsible for Tunstall's death, at Blazer's Mill. Roberts was fatally wounded by Charlie Bowdre but took refuge in the proprietor's office where he was able to prolong the gunfight despite his wound. Roberts managed to kill the Regulator's leader, Richard Brewer, before finally succumbing to his wound and dying the following day.
Brown and his fellow Regulators had been branded fugitives after the slaying of Brady and spent the next several months in hiding. But the Lincoln County War came to an abrupt and dramatic end in July 1878. On the 15th the majority of the Regulators found themselves trapped in the home of Tunstall's business partner Alexander McSween in McSween's home in Lincoln. Surrounding them were the members of the Murphy Dolan gang and some of Brady's men.
Brown was actually one of three Regulators not in the McSween home. He had taken up a position in a grain warehouse located behind the Tunstall store. From there, he was able to snipe at the Murphy Dolan men surrounding his friends. The standoff came to a dramatic end when the siegers set fire to the house. Billy the Kid and his fellow Regulators made a daring attempt to flee the burning home. Brown was able to escape with Billy. Alex McSween was not so fortunate. He was gunned down while attempting to flee, effectively ending the Lincoln County War.
After the war, Brown continued to ride with Billy and the remaining Regulators for a while, rustling cattle and horses. He was with them in 1878 when they traveled into the Texas panhandle to sell off stolen horses. When Billy and the others returned to New Mexico, Brown decided to stay in Texas, probably because he was named in two murder warrants in New Mexico.
It was in Texas that Brown got his first taste of life on the right side of the law. According to some accounts he served as deputy sheriff of Oldham County. Other accounts name him Marshal of Tascosa, while still others indicate that he was a constable. The one thing that all accounts agree on is that whatever his title was, his time in the role was brief. He was soon dismissed for his tendency of picking fights with drunks.
After this Brown drifted through Indian Territory and into Kansas working on ranches. He eventually ended up in Caldwell, Kansas. Caldwell was, at the time, a rough and tumble cow town comparable to Dodge City and Abilene. It had a long history of violence. Brown was soon appointed Assistant Marshall of the city. Five short months later he was promoted to Marshall. Brown's Assistant Marshall was a man named Ben Wheeler. He had been lawman in Texas before turning outlaw. Now he turned back to lawman and teamed up with fellow former outlaw, Brown, to clean up Caldwell.
Brown was a complex man. Described by contemporaries as an introvert that did not smoke, drink, chew, gamble, or partake of any other of the many vices available at the time. He was noted as attending church regularly.
But beneath this calm exterior lurked danger. He was a man with a quick temper and a lack of fear. And when duty called his demeanor changed transforming his outwardly meek manner to one of deadly purpose.
The community of Caldwell, grateful for Brown's efforts in cleaning up the town, presented him with an extensively engraved, gold and silver mounted Winchester rifle. Brown would use the rifle to kill a gambler, Newt Boyce, in the line of duty on December 16, 1883. Brown also allegedly killed a renegade Indian named Spotted Horse during this time.
In 1884 Brown married into Caldwell's higher society when he wed Alice Maude Levagood, the daughter of a well-to-do brick maker. Brown soon bought a home and furnishings, seemingly ready to settle down into domestic life. What few knew, even those closest to him, is that Brown was living above his means and his debt was mounting.
Under this great pressure the lawman once again turned outlaw. He and Assistant Marshall concocted a plan to rob the bank in Medicine Lodge, Kansas. They recruited two former outlaw associates, William Smith and John Wesley, to join them in their endeavor. The outlaws seemingly thought of everything, even manufacturing a reason for the two lawmen to be out of town. They convinced the Caldwell mayor to permit them to travel into Indian Territory to hunt down a murderer.
Instead, they rode into Medicine Lodge and attempted to rob the Medicine Valley Bank. There, the well-planned robbery quickly turned into a disaster. The four outlaws entered the bank on April 30, 1884, just after it opened and demanded the cash. Loathe to comply, the bank manager, Wylie Payne, reached for his gun instead and was shot dead for his trouble. Most accounts name Brown as the one responsible for the shooting, but author, and friend of Payne, T.A. McNeal claimed that Payne named Wesley as his killer from his deathbed. The bank's chief cashier, George Geppert, was also shot despite having his hands raised in surrender. Witnesses placed the blame for that shooting on Wheeler. Geppert, in a final act of defiance, was able to close the vault before dying, thwarting the outlaws' efforts to get the money.
The four outlaws fled the town under fire and pursued by a posse of twelve cowboys. Their luck turned from bad to worse when the four unwittingly rode into a box canyon south of town, effectively trapping themselves. The posse soon arrived and eventually forced the outlaws to surrender.
Brown and his accomplices were taken back to town and locked in jail. Outside the jail and angry mob formed, chanting "Hang them!" over and over. Realizing that a lynching was imminent, Wesley removed his boot and with it the shackle of the leg-iron with which he had been shackled to Brown. Brown tied the loose end of the leg-iron to his leg with a bandana so that he could run unencumbered. Smith was handcuffed to Wheeler but had unusually small hands and was able to slip the handcuff off. As a result, all four men were free when the mob came for them around 9 p.m. that night.
To his credit, the sheriff refused the angry mob's demand that the prisoners be turned over to them. But he was soon overwhelmed by the mob and the four outlaws found themselves at the mercy of frontier justice. Brown attempted to flee by running straight at and through the mob toward an ally that ran alongside the jail. But as he ran past someone in the mob unleashed both barrels of a shotgun at point blank range. Brown was killed instantly, the blast nearly tearing him in half. Wheeler attempted to run as well but made it only a hundred yards before being horribly wounded by a barrage of gunfire. Unlike Brown, Wheeler did not die instantly. The mob drug him along with Wesley and Smith to a nearby elm tree, where all three were hanged until dead.
Thus ends the fascinating story of the outlaw turned lawman turned outlaw, Henry Newton Brown. And that brings us to the end of another edition of Pale Horse Revelations. I hope you found it to be both interesting and entertaining. As usual, I have tried to provide some interesting historical information while trying not to bog the casual reader down with too much detail. I encourage anyone interested in learning more to dig in and do a little research of their own.
As a reminder, I would love to hear your suggestions for topics to focus on in future editions of Pale Horse Revelations. If there's a particular location, person, or event that you would like to know more about, please let me know. Just fill out the Contact form found on the "Contact the Author" page of this website and indicate your desired topic in the message box at the bottom of the form. I look forward to hearing from you all.
Please be sure to check back next week for the next installment of Pale Horse Revelations and thank you for your continued interest and support.
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