Dodge City History

Welcome to the Dodge City Middle School Summer School Project page. Students will be posting links to their projects on this page. They will include biographys of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, and others from the famed cow town of Dodge City, KS.

To take full advantage of the interactivity of this site, you will need to download and install Google Earth.

William "Bat" Masterson

By: David Garcia & Adriel Bernadac

I am going to tell you about a famous deputy marshal of Dodge City, KS.  His name was William Masterson but they called him Bat Masterson.  He was born on November 26, 1853, in a town called Henryville, Monteregie in Quebec, Canada.  Bat was the second of five children.  He became famous in Dodge City KS.  He went to Dodge City to visit his brother.  His name was Ed Masterson.  When he was in Dodge City he got a job offer to work as a deputy marshal for Dodge City.  The man who offered him the job was Wyatt Earp.  In 1877, at the age of 22 Bat Masterson was the sheriff of Ford County.  At that time his brother Ed Masterson was marshal of Dodge City.  In 1877, Masterson returned to Dodge City and purchased an interest in the Lone Star Dance Hall.  In 1883, he was in a bloodless conflict that gunfighters latter called the Dodge City war.  By 1889 he was living in Denver Colorado, where he was involved with Soapy Smith. He purchased the Palace Variety Theater and married actress Emma Walters.  He died at the age of 67, on October 25, 1921 in New York City, New York.

Click Here to Visit the Birthplace of William "Bat" Masterson and See His Video Biography.

John Mueller

By: Miranda Donley & Cristina Arrazolo

Do you know the hill called Boot Hill?  Well the guy that made all the boots was named John Mueller. He was born in Bavaria, Germany.  He became famous in Dodge City, KS. Mueller married Karoline Koch in St.Louis early in 1862.  He was the first boot shop owner  in Dodge City.  He later became a cattleman and opened the Old House Saloon.  The cattle brand used by John Mueller was a boot.  He became very successful in 1877 when he and Walter Straeter became partners, merging their two boot and shoe shops. Following the great blizzard of January 1886 John became broke because he didn’t sell all his cattle before the blizzard arrived.  A warranty deed dated March 4, 1890, shows that Karoline sold the “home of the Stone” to Elizabeth Schmidt. John, Karoline, and their son moved back to St.Louis.  John went back into the U.S. Army in 1890 but due to an accident died within two years.

Click Here to Visit the Birthplace of John Mueller and See His Video Biography

"Big Nose" Katie Elder

By: Karina Villar & Richard Cadena

Katie Elder was born November 7, 1850, in Budapest, Hungary.  She became famous in Dodge City being a call girl which is also known as a prostitute in a brothel run.  She was a ballroom dancer.  She later moved to fort griffin, that’s where she started hanging out with Wyatt Earp.  Katie met Doc Holiday at a saloon while he was dealing cards bailey a local gambler was cheating and was looking at the cards Doc Holiday warned bailey twice then Bailey took out his gun and Doc Holiday took out a knife and cut his stomach and blood was pouring on the floor with the guts.  Doc holiday did it in self defense but he was still arrested and imprisoned in the local hotel.  Katie had a plan to free him.  She set a fire on a old shed she walked into the hotel room with two guns in her hand and she unarmed the officer guarding Doc Holiday.  They both escaped together and ran to Dodge City during the night.  After that she promised to stop being a prostitute.  She died when she was 90.

Click Here to Visit the Birthplace of "Big Nose" Katie Elder and See Her Video Biography.

Ham Bell

By: Jose Garcia & Raul Sanchez

In the old west came a fiercely man in the history of Dodge City.  His name was Ham Bell he was born July 31, 1853 on a farm in Washington County, Maryland.  He was the longest living old west sheriff and marshal.  He became famous in Dodge City Kansas.  His parents died when he was a baby.  He grow  up in Washington County, Maryland.  After three years Bell decided to go to Dodge City Kansas to be the new sheriff.  While he was alive he would meet with his friends in the right park to have picnics every few years.  He died in April 4, 1947, almost ninety-four years old of age. 

Click Here to Visit the Birthplace of Ham Bell and See His Video Biography.

Robert M. Wright 

By Miguel Dominguez, Kenia Hernandez & Evelyn Alvarez

Robert M Wright was born in Bladensburg, Maryland, September 2, 1840. He was one of the people that started Dodge City. He was town president and also known as first mayor. He owned a store called Wright Beverly Company.

Robert became famous for many things that he did while he was alive. Mr. Wright came wet when he was sixteen years of age, and until 1859, he lived on a farm near Saint Louis. In 1859 he took an overland trip to Denver, and during the following eight years, as a trader and contractor for hauling grain and cutting hay and wood, he crossed the plains four times by wagon and twice by coach. In 1867 he became a post trader at Fort Dodge, and has since lived at that locality. During that period he has served as postmaster, has represented Dodge County in the Legislature for four terms and has been commissioner of forestry twice, in 1899-1903.

Until his death, Robert M. Wright died on January the 4^th, 1915. He lived for 75 years. 

Click Here to Visit the Birthplace of Robert M. Wright and See His Video Biography.

Luke Short

By: Isaias Aguirre & Yeyson Franco

Our person’s name is Luke Short.  He was born in Mississippi September 8, 1854.  His family moved to Texas when he was two years old.  Luke Short was in Dodge City, Kansas when he became famous.  Luke Short was a gun fighter.  When he became famous he had many jobs he had worked as a farmer, cowboy, whiskey peddler, army scout, dispatch rider, gambler and saloon keeper at various times during his 40 years of his life.

He was also famous for killing Jim Courtright.  Courtright called Short out of the White Elephant saloon.  Courtright reportedly was drinking; some words were passed the two men walked down the street about one block.  Short stated that he was not armed although he was.  Short indicated that Courtright could check himself and while walking toward Courtright he opened his vest.  When he did Courtright loudly said, “Don’t you pull on me”, and Short quickly pulled out a pistol and fired one shot and Crourtrights thumb was shot off his hand.  Courtright tried to put his hand in his left hand but Short shot four shots killing Courtright.

Soon, Luke Short died September 8, 1893 peacefully in his bed in Geuda Springs, Kansas.  The cause of his death was heart failure. 

Click Here to Visit the Birthplace of Luke Short and See His Video Biography.

Charles Rath

By: Ashley Aguilar, Teila Artz & Sonia Bautista Cruz

Charles Rath was born in 1836 near Stuttgart, Wurttemberg, Germany When he was 11 years-old he immigrated with his family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  1872, he moved his family to Dodge city  He soon began hunting, freighting, and marketing the hides and formed the Rath Mercantile Company, whose yard was sometimes filled with as many as 80,000 hides at one time.

Famous for its rich history as a frontier cow town, Dodge City offers up a wide array of legends, lore and history to travelers in western Kansas Once called home or visited by such notables as Wyatt Earp Doc Holliday, Big Nose Kate, and Clay Allison.  This old town had a reputation for being the wicked town in the Old West.

In 1860, Charles Rath took over the trading post of George Peacock on Walnut Creek, near present day Great Bend after Peacock and five others were massacred by Kiowa warriors led by Satank.

Click Here to Visit the Birthplace of Charles Rath and See His Video Biography.

Wyatt Earp

By: Amparo Jorge, Jasmine Guerrero, Luis Cano & Austin Wetzel

Coming into Dodge City down the drag you see a statue of a man reaching for his gun, that man was Wyatt Earp.  Wyatt Earp was born in Monmouth, Illinois, on March 19, 1848.  When Wyatt was 22 years old he married Urilla Sutherland.  Urilla Sutherland died later in August 1870.  No one knows when she died exactly.  After her death Wyatt left to Arkansas where he started drinking.  April 1, 1871, Wyatt Earp was accused of horse theft in Indian Territory.  May of 1871 Wyatt Earp escaped from the jail.  1874 Wyatt Earp went to Wichita there Wyatt joined the law enforcement Wyatt became a deputy marshal. In May 1876 Wyatt was striped of his marshal duties.  Wyatt left and went to Dodge City there he became marshal`.  Wyatt Earp and his brothers cleaned Dodge City, Wyatt started taking guns away from men that brought there guns into Dodge City.  1879 Wyatt and his brothers left to tombstone there they became the law.  A gang that was in tombstone called the cowboys they started testing Wyatt’s authority.  1880 Wyatt and his brothers and Doc holiday walked down to the cowboys to arrest them.  Wyatt and his brothers, Doc holiday took there guns but a shot was fired Wyatt killed the all of the cowboy members curly bill was the only member that was arrested.  The cowboys wanted revenge they started killing Wyatt’s brothers.  Two of Wyatt’s brothers were killed Wyatt started hunting and killing every cowboy gang member only him and Doc holiday with a few others.  Toward the end of  his life Wyatt moved to los Angeles. January 13, 1929, Wyatt died at eighty years old in his cottage in Los Angeles.

Click Here to Visit the Birthplace of Wyatt Earp and See His Video Biography.

James Masterson

By: Moises Suarez, Carlos Garcia & Julio Robles

James Masterson was born in Henryville, Quebec, Canada in September 16, 1855.  After working on the frontier as a buffalo hunter with his brother bat Masterson.  He returned to Kansas.  In June 1878 he became assistant marshal in Dodge City, Kansas. James became a US marshal deputy in 1893.  He made several hundred arrests during the next two years mostly of drunken cowboys.  He was involved in more shootouts than his brother.

James Masterson moved to Trinidad, Colorado, where he joined the police force.  In Trinidad, Masterson arrested John Allen for the shooting death of Frank loving.  It became know as the Trinidad gunfight.  In 1885 he became an under sheriff in New Mexico, in Colfax County, New Mexico, and in 1889 took an active part in the Gray County Kansas County seat war.  He was one of a group who made a raid on the courthouse at Cimarron which resulted in a gunfight which led to a man being killed and several wounded.

He later moved to Guthrie, Oklahoma, and then became a deputy sheriff of Logan County, Oklahoma.  On September 1, 1893, he was involved in the battle of Ingalls as a Special Deputy US Marshal, a gunfight in Ingalls, Oklahoma against the Doolin-Dalton gang, and was responsible for capture of a gang member “Arkansas Tom” Jones.  He died of tuberculosis on march 31^st, 1895

Click Here to Visit the Birthplace of James Masterson and See His Video Biography.

William H. Harris

By: Saydee Tinoco, Karen Gonzalez & Jennifer Rayo-Ojeda

The person I’m going to tell you about is William H. Harris.  We picked him because we thought it would be interesting to learn about him.  William was born in September 18, 1831.  He was famous in Dodge City Peace Commission.  He worked with Charlie E. Bassettm, M. F. McLain, and other people like Luke Shoty.  He died in a shooting in September 1872.

Click Here to Visit the Birthplace of William H. Harris and See His Video Biography.