Early day gunfights, and what we DON'T know about them.

 Aultman Collection El Paso Public Library

This month we see the anniversary of one or two of the early day encounters here in El Paso. One of the first took place in 1858.  It involved Dr Frank Giddings, and a gambler by the name of Tom Smith.   It was a brief encounter, and we only really have one primary account of the story, that being Nancy Hamilton's in her biography of Ben Dowell.  We have it from W.W. Mills that he attempted to prevent two men from killing each other with pistols, when he was informed that it was considered bad manners to interfere thata way.  There is the story told of a gentleman taking pot shots at a politician, and missing.  Either in outrage at the poor marksmanship, or that folks actually liked the politician, the guilty gentleman was chased behind the Central Hotel, where he was gunned down.  We also have the story of three men sentenced to death in 1879.  Instead of hanging, they were sentenced to death by firing squad.  Acting as Marshal, Ben Dowell commanded the squad that carried out the executions, right there on El Paso street.  Again, We have very little to  work on with these stories, even fewer details.  With the arrival of the railroads in 1881, three newspapers began operations.  Through them we have a fairly reasonable idea of the events during and after various encounters here in El Paso, plus the surrounding area.  It would be an very nice addition to El Paso's Old West history iffn some up start "want to be" began researching the archives and records, putting a better picture togather concerning those early day gunfights.  Just an idea.


El Paso Inc, interviewed Bernie Sargent this week in his capacity as Chairman of the El Paso County Historical Commission.  Darn good piece.  I do disagree with some of the over all concepts the Mayor's Lyceum, and the Down Town Revitalization crew have put forth, but they are at least looking the the right general direction.