It was in Great Bend that he experienced his first buffalo hunt. Bison hunting was in its glory on the Kansas frontier and thousands of hide hunters were taking the animals. Young Bell went out with a group and shot a large bull. When he approached it the bull jumped to its feet and attempted to gore him. He jumped aside and grabbed the animal by the tail to keep from being killed. As the animal whirled to get at him, Ham held on for dear life staying just out of the reach of the bull’s horns. Eventually the bull collapsed from the wound and Ham caught his breath. In his later years he said that he never did hang on to anything as he did that buffalo tail.
In Great Bend he found a position for room and board as a Santa Fe agent until going to work in a livery stable business. During this period he was appointed assistant marshal under James Gainsford, Great Bend’s first marshal. During his duty he developed a reputation for being cool-headed and for having plenty of courage.
He followed the railroad to Dodge City in September 1874, two years after the founding of the city. He hauled ties out of Granada for the Santa Fe in 1875. In Dodge City his first business was a livery stable. He acquired an old sod stable, bought two spring wagons and traded horses. His business and reputation grew and he built a large livery barn, eighty-five feet by one hundred twenty-five feet, the largest building in western Kansas to accommodate his trade. He had the first cab, first surrey and first landau. The building could stable one hundred horses and mules. The front of the building had a painted elephant on the run holding a banner and was known as the Elephant Barn. The corral extended for three city blocks.
The Elephant Barn was a rendezvous for freighters, cowboys and poor travelers. There was a coal-burning stove in the buggy room where people could bring in their blankets, thaw out and sleep. Many slept on the hay and straw in the back of the stalls. Freighters met in the barn by appointment made months before. Bell reported seeing as many as fifty men make their beds in the loft at night. Men would leave valuable guns, saddles and harness with the wagons and turn the horses into the corral. Several days, sometimes a week later they would return, pay their bill, catch the horses, harness up and go. The Elephant Stable was known as a safe place to rest and leave valuables. Texas cowboys learned to use the stable for the same purpose and respected Bell’s property and word. The livery stable was Bell’s most prosperous business. With the coming of the motor age at the turn of the century, he was forced to adjust and find another line of work. The Elephant Barn burned Halloween night, 1931 and was not rebuilt.
Bell also operated an early undertaking parlor in Dodge City in connection with a furniture store in 1888. He brought the first horse drawn hearse to the community as well as the first motor hearse. His other major business enterprise in the early years was the Varieties Saloon. It was the first house of entertainment in Dodge City to present the Can-Can. The Varieties failed to draw crowds and was closed October 1878. A portion of the building was taken to Mulberry Creek where Bell established a trading post.
Bell was a sheriff of Ford County from 1878 until 1892, a democrat in a solidly republican county. He was appointed United States Deputy Marshal for Ford County 1880-83, succeeding W.B. (Bat) Masterson. He dealt with outlaws, claim disputes and even dance hall women. Dodge City imposed fines for gambling, prostitution, licensing of bars and dance halls. The city was heavily in debt for its maintenance of a large police force. It was felt that those businesses causing violence should pay for greater protection expenses.
The Ford County Globe, April 11, 1882 provides an example of one of Bell’s experiences as a police officer.
We are sorry to learn that a controversy has arose between Mr. Teasing and Mr. Shrader with regard to a tree-claim near The Trail. It seems that Mr. Teasing filed on aforesaid claim about four years ago, not complying with the requirements of the law (having skipped the country in advance of Bat Masterson’s six shooter). Mr. Shrader jumped said claim and did plow and sow to wheat 10 acres. Then comes Mr. Teasing, and refusing to compromise, plowed under the 10 acres of wheat and planted the same to trees. The latest reports are that Mr. Teasing skipped the country again…in fear of U.S. Marshall Bell. How this will terminate we do not know. Teasing, what is the matter with you; can’t you behave yourself anymore?
Bell once had a locally famous run-in with a local dance hall woman. Bell was notified that this particular lady was in a dance hall “raising hell.” She was infamous in the community for cleaning out any marshal that tried to arrest her. As Bell entered the dance hall she went after him. He sidestepped her, grabbed her silk skirt, threw it over her head and her on his back. The lady showered him with oaths and profanity. He carried her to the city jail and found her a home for the night. A few years later he met her again while on a trip to Pueblo, Colorado as a U.S. Marshal. She told him again what she thought of him and said it was the only time any officer had managed to arrest her. Unfortunately, her name has been lost in the mists of history so there is no way of verifying the story.
In 1878 Isaac Hayden, a black man, was accused of raping a former Dodge City woman after she arrived in Leavenworth, Kansas on a train. She stated that Hayden pretended to help her and later committed the rape. Several witnesses from western Kansas were called to testify. Hayden was found guilty but sentence was not passed due to affidavits sent by Ham Bell and Pat Sughrue. The affidavits stated that the woman worked in a dance hall in Dodge City as a cook and encouraged her daughter to engage in prostitution to help support the family.
About fifteen miles northeast of Dodge City on Five-Mile Creek was a place called Horse Thief Canyon. At the time it contained one of the largest cottonwood trees in Kansas. In 1884 two horse thieves named John Cole and John Calahan were lynched. A gang of horse thieves had hired the young men as drovers. Neither had anything to do with the theft. Bell had warned Calahan only a few days earlier to quit working for the gang. Calahan said that as soon as they paid him the wages that he had coming he would quit the outfit. Bell told him that “Sometimes it pays to lose money.”
The day the lynching party caught them the drovers had a ten-year-old boy riding with them. The vigilantes were going to hang the boy as well but the other two interceded on his behalf so strongly that he was spared. When he was hanged, Calahan was only seventeen years old. He was the son of a minister in Emporia, Kansas. Bell thought it was an unfortunate and regrettable incident that affected the entire community for years.
Violet Watson an old-time Dodge City resident related her impression of Bell in 1937. “Mr. Bell was a man who wasn’t afraid of the devil. He just went after the man and didn’t think about himself. I saw him arrest a young fellow who was riding up and down the street. He was making a lot of commotion and waving his gun. Sheriff Bell was summoned. When Mr. Bell tried to talk him down, he showed his revolver and told the sheriff to make him. Mr. Bell grabbed him and had him on the ground before he could say Scat.
Ham married Josephine Dugan in 1876. She is described as a quiet, dignified, modest woman who attended to no one’s affairs but her own. Hamilton Butler Bell, Jr., better known as Hammie was born November 13, 1876. Ham’s wife Josephine died in 1900 after a sudden illness. From that time on, Ham Bell was a bachelor.
Hamilton Butler Bell, Jr. served as deputy sheriff of Ford County for seven years, four of which were under his father before leaving for Salt Lake City in 1905. He married in 1911 and passed away in 1915.
Bell went on to become mayor of the city, establish the first ambulance service, and maintained a REO automobile dealership for several years. As time passed and Dodge City’s reputation as an old time trail town grew, Ham Bell became locally famous as the last of the old time lawmen. The Ham Bell Southwest Pioneer Settlers Reunion Picnic was established July 31, 1934 when he was 81 years old and continued until his death. By 1936, 1,500 old time residents of the area were registered to get together and reminiscence of pioneer history. The list increased to 2,000 in 1937 and in 1939 a fountain on Boot Hill was dedicated to Bell during the reunion.
During his final years he ran the first pet shop in the city. He died April 4, 1947 of influenza and pneumonia complicated by heart disease. He left a community behind that appears to have genuinely loved and respected him. He was the subject of at least forty newspaper articles during his final five years of life.
Today, Ham Bell is remembered by only a few. As those who knew him passed on, his legacy was gradually abandoned to cloistered accounts of his life written during the 1930s and 40s. He never was or will be as famous as his contemporaries Earp, Masterson or Garrett. But, he was a more successful lawman than any of them. Perhaps his greatest legacy is as a representative of the hundreds of forgotten lawmen-community builders of the West. These were men who stayed with their towns and helped them grow—solid men who gave far more than they took during their lives—quiet men who served the law without notorious bloodshed—good men who had a dream and made it come true. Such men and women are the real heroes of the True West.
END
Author’s Recommended Reading List
Adams, Alexander B. Sunlight and Storm, The Great American Plains. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1977.
Adams, David. The David Adams Journals. Edited by Charles E. Hanson, Jr., The Museum of Fur Trade, Chadron. 1994.
Anderson, Charles G. In Search of the Buffalo, The Story of J. Wright Mooar. Pioneer Press, Union City, 1996.
Barry, Louise. The Beginning of the West. Kansas State Historical Society, 1972.
Brown, William E. The Santa Fe Trail. Patrice Press, St. Louis, 1988.
Dary, David. The Santa Fe Trail: Its History, Legends, and Lore, Penguin (Non-Classics). Reissue edition, 2002.
Gonzalez, Deena J. Refusing the Favor: The Spanish-Mexican Women of Santa Fe, 1820-1880. Oxford University Press; New Ed edition, 2001.
Guild, Thelma S. & Carter, Harvey L. Kit Carson, A Pattern for Heroes. Bison Press, Lincoln, 1988.
Gregg, Josiah. The Commerce of the Prairies. Bison Books, Lincoln, 1967.
Hill, William E. The Santa Fe Trail, Yesterday and Today. Caxton Press, 1992.
James, Thomas. Three Years Among the Indians and Mexicans. Bison Press, Lincoln, 1984.
Lavender, David. Bent’s Fort. Bison Books, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 1992.
Martin, Gene and Mary. Trail Dust, A Quick Picture History of the Santa Fe Trail. Martin Associates, Manitou Springs, 1972.
Magoffin, Susan Shelby, Drumm, Stella Madeleine. Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico: The Diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin 1846-1847. University of Nebraska Press; Reprint edition, 1982.
Mayer, Frank H. and Roth, Charles B. The Buffalo Harvest. Pioneer Press, Union City, 1995.
Meyer, Marian. Mary Donoho. New First Lady of the Santa Fe Trail. Ancient City Press, 1991.
Morgan, Dale L. & Harris, Eleanor T. (ed.). The Rocky Mountain Journals of William Marshall Anderson. Bison Press, Lincoln, 1967.
Oliva, Leo E. Confrontation of the Santa Fe Trail. Santa Fe Trail Association, The Santa Fe Trail Center, Larned, 1996.
Rath, Ida Ellen. The Rath Trail, McCormick-Armstrong Co. Wichita, 1961.
Russell, Marian Sloan. Land of Enchantment: Memoirs of Marian Russell Along the Santa Fe Trail: As Dictated to Mrs. Hal Russell. University of New Mexico Press, Reprint edition 1985.
Segale, Blandina. At the End of the Santa Fe Trail. University of New Mexico Press, Illustrated edition, 1999.
Simmons, Marc. Following the Santa Fe Trail: A Guide for Modern Travelers. Hal Jackson Ancient City Press; 3rd Rev&Up edition, 2001.
Simmons, Marc. Murder on the Santa Fe Trail, An International Incident, 1843. Texas Western Press, El Paso, 1987.
Simmons, Marc (ed.). On the Santa Fe Trail. University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, 1986.
Smith, Randy D. The Black Powder Plainsman, A Beginner’s Guide to Muzzleloading and Reenactment. Horizon, Bountiful, 1994.
Strate, David K. (ed.). West by Southwest, Letter of Joseph Pratt Allyn, A Traveller Along the Santa Fe Trail, 1863. Kansas Heritage Center, Dodge City, 1984.
University of Colorado. The Santa Fe Trail, New Perspectives. Colorado Historical Society, Niwot, 1992.
Vestal, Stanley. The Old Santa Fe Trail, University of Nebraska Press; Reprint edition (June 1, 1996).
Wadsworth, Ginger. Along the Santa Fe Trail: Marion Russell’s Own Story. Albert Whitman & Company, 1993.
Heroes of the Santa Fe Trail Page 21