Charles Smith (cowboy)

Arizona Territory figure (1844–1907)

Charles "Charlie" Smith

Born|

Origen Charles Smith

(1844-05-04)4 May 1844

Litchfield, Connecticut

Died| 28 November 1907(1907-11-28) (aged 63)

Maricopa, Arizona

Other names|

* "Hairlip/Harelip [Charlie]"
* "Charley"
* O.C. Smith

Spouse| Margaret Winders (1890–93)

Origen Charles "Hairlip Charlie" Smith (4 May 1844 – 28 November 1907)[1][2] was a lawman, miner and cowboy in Arizona Territory who rode in the Earp Vendetta Ride.

## Early life

[edit]

Origen Charles Smith was born, according to his eulogy and other biographies, in Litchfield, Connecticut, to Charles and Susan Smith, and had a younger brother, Walter Edwin. Walter's birth may have resulted in health complications, and then the death one month later, of Susan. Origen Charles was born with a cleft palate, which gave him his nickname, "Hairlip Charlie" in later life.[1][3] He was named "Origen" after an early Catholic priest.[4] There is confusion over his birth date and place, though, as in various census reports he claims other dates throughout the 1840s, and a birthplace of Illinois.[2] He is sometimes reported as being born in 1849 or 1850.[5] As a boy, he had been a good runner, and used this talent later to outrun muggers in Tombstone.[2]

## Cowboy life

[edit]

Smith became a frontiersman and at some point moved to Texas, where he was a lawman, but also a gambler, and became injured. Working in saloons in Texas, and at one point co-owner of the Cattle Exchange Saloon,[6] he learned Spanish and was fluent in it before leaving the state.[7] He also frequently got in fights, but is reported to have bad aim and not killed anyone.[5] It was from here that he moved into Arizona Territory in a two-month journey that started on 12 March 1879, a few months before the Earps, whom he had befriended in Fort Worth, followed.[2] His move, like theirs, was due to the reform movement growing in Texas.[5] When he moved to Tombstone, Smith lived with Bob Winders.[8] When Wyatt Earp arrived, he sponsored many of Smith's mining claims.[5] Equally, on many occasions between 1879 and 1881 Smith supported, both physically and financially, the Earps and their mutual acquaintances, to the point of being targeted by outlaws himself.[2] Smith, with Fred J. Dodge, joined the Earps chasing some stagecoach thieves in January 1882. He was deputised to protect the Earp family, and joined them in the Vendetta Ride.[8] The Epitaph reported that he was the seventh member to ride out of Tombstone, but eyewitnesses suggest he rode ahead of the posse, as he had done before and would later, to set up a camp and carry supplies, this one eight miles north.[9] He had also been amongst the deputies to accompany Morgan Earp's body when it was returned to family in California.[10] After this, he initially sought exile with them in Colorado, but quickly returned to Arizona and began ferrying the Earps money from their holdings in the state. He was ambushed and arrested on occasion doing this. Though at odds with the Tombstone Sheriff he was deputised under, Smith retained his badge, as he did under the next several sheriffs, as well.[2]

Smith was the only Vendetta rider to return to Tombstone,[11] and the only original rider to join Wyatt Earp on the later ride that saw Johnny Ringo killed.[3] He again hunted outlaws with Dodge for many years, and in December 1883 was with him looking for the perpetrators of the Bisbee Massacre when he fell ill, due to an old chest wound acquired when shot back in Texas,[2] and couldn't finish the criminal round-up. Also in the 1880s he single-handedly arrested a man for murder. He was also a "key member" of Dodge's crew solving cases of train robbery in Pantano, Arizona in 1887.[8] Smith is reported to have ridden with Dodge, a lawman and undercover operative seeking thieves in Western Arizona, "always [...] when urgent". When Dodge could no longer ride due to arthritis, he named Smith his successor as the nightwatchman and special officer.[2]

Smith had a sometimes friend called Charley Cunningham, the two fought a lot. On November 25, 1885 Smith stepped in to stop a bar fight at the Bank Exchange Saloon.[5] Cunningham, playing faro at the bar,[2] was unhappy and called him a "damned harelip son of a bitch", resulting in Smith shooting Cunningham in the leg.[5] Smith is reported to have not had a gun on him when intervening at the bar, instead taking one from US Marshal Dick Gage to apparently defend himself from an enraged Cunningham; this defense was used, as well as doctor's testimony that Cunningham was not permanently injured, in front of the Cochise Grand Jury in February 1886, with the charges dismissed.[2] Still, on September 22, 1888 Cunningham tried for revenge after the pair were jeered at by a mutual friend called Lazard, with Cunningham chasing Smith for a fight.[2][5] After a physical fight in the French Wine House, Cunningham took Lazard's pistol and confronted Smith in the street, where he shot Smith in the leg, shattering it near the hip. He became crippled and was believed by Dodge to have died from the effects of this wound, but did not.[2][5][8]

When Tombstone fell into decline in the late 1880s, and with his companions moving across the South, Smith moved into other mining prospects in Ramsey Canyon in the nearby Huachuca Mountains. Here he became a Republican councilman for the Ramsey and Miller canyons. When he moved to Tempe a few years later, he continued his work in law enforcement as a deputy, and in politics as Justice of the Peace. He was a Pinal County deputy in Maricopa when he died.[2]

## Personal life

[edit]

Smith lived with friend Bob Winders in Tombstone, started mining ventures with him, and married Winders' widow, Margaret, in 1890, with court records showing him to be the stepfather of Thomas Winders. He presumably became the stepfather to the Winders' other son, and in 1892 had a daughter with Margaret named Oneida. The marriage ended and Smith moved to Tempe, leaving the family in Tombstone, where Margaret (and eventually Oneida) took back the Winders name.[2] One Earp-era history suggests that Smith had married a daughter of Winders when they worked together in Texas,[6] though Winders had only two children, both sons.[12]

He was described as "a man of sterling quality, steadfast in his friendships and zealous in his duty".[3]

## Lack of pop culture presence

[edit]

Charles Smith, despite being a close associate of the Earp family, does not often play a part in adaptations of stories of their lives and pursuits. It has been suggested that this is because of his plain name and unappealing sobriquet making him not fit the archetype of a Wild West cowboy.[1] It's also been suggested that he is left out of many stories because there are no known photos of him.[11] He is also amongst the Vendetta riders who were ignored or forgotten until interest was sparked in the real cowboys, with Smith being "rediscovered" in 1997.[13]

## Smith letters

[edit]

1899 article that published the letters

In 2000, a man called Clifton V. Brewer claimed to have found a collection of documents belonging to Smith in a trunk from his great-great-grandfather, supposedly a friend of Smith's. The find was "dubious" but still widely publicised until an intricate investigation proved it to be false. Some letters were the main documents, and the proof of fakery then cast doubt on related documents, like a newspaper article said to be from Sulphur Headlight which detailed Smith's eyewitness accounts of the last days of Doc Holliday in Glenwood Springs.[1] The letters appeared to say that Smith was compiling memoirs in Tombstone in 1887, which were passed to a friend for help, who then had the Holliday pages published in Sulphur, Oklahoma, on February 14, 1899. The only records were in the possession of this supposed friend and then his descendants. The letters gave a "standard account" of Holliday's illness and death, with more imaginative details of surrounding circumstances and other peoples' emotions.[14]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d Brand, Peter. "Origen Charles Smith". Tombstone Vendetta. Archived from the original on 10 May 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Palmquist, Robert F. (Summer 1997). "MINING, KENO, AND THE LAW: The Tombstone Careers of Bob Winders, Charley Smith, and Fred Dodge, 1879–1888". The Journal of Arizona History. 38 (2): 135–154. JSTOR 41696340.
3. ^ a b c Hornung, Chuck (2016). Wyatt Earp's Cow-boy Campaign : the Bloody Restoration of Law and Order Along the Mexican Border, 1882. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. p. 24\. ISBN 9781476663449. OCLC 917343492.
4. ^ Hornung, Chuck (2016). Wyatt Earp's Cow-boy Campaign : the Bloody Restoration of Law and Order Along the Mexican Border, 1882. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. p. 23\. ISBN 9781476663449. OCLC 917343492.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h McLachlan, Sean (2013). Tombstone : Wyatt Earp, the OK Corral and the Vendetta Ride 1881–82. Oxford. p. 32\. ISBN 9781780961927. OCLC 858656543.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
6. ^ a b Hornung, Chuck (2016). Wyatt Earp's Cow-boy Campaign : the Bloody Restoration of Law and Order Along the Mexican Border, 1882. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. p. 12\. ISBN 9781476663449. OCLC 917343492.
7. ^ Brand, Peter. "Wyatt Earp's Vendetta Posse". Retrieved 26 December 2018.
8. ^ a b c d Thrapp, Dan L. (1991). Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography: P–Z. U. of Nebraska Press. p. 1334\. ISBN 9780803294202.
9. ^ Mitchell Marks, Paula (1996). And die in the west : the story of O.K. Corral gunfight. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 351\. ISBN 9780806128887. OCLC 34576884.
10. ^ Lowe, Sam (2012). Speaking ill of the dead : jerks in Arizona history. Guilford, Conn.: Globe Pequot Press. p. 31\. ISBN 9780762783755. OCLC 853622101.
11. ^ a b Boardman, Mark. "The Forgotten Vendetta Rider". True West. Archived from the original on 27 December 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
12. ^ "Winder Wonderland DNA Project Robert Jackaway WINDERS [22977]". sites.rootsweb.com. Retrieved 2019-01-09.
13. ^ Linder, Shirley Ayn (2014). Doc Holliday in film and literature. Hutton, Paul A. Jefferson, North Carolina. p. 144\. ISBN 9780786473359. OCLC 864676656.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
14. ^ Holliday Tanner, Karen; Brewer, Clifton. "Doc Holliday's Last Days The Origen Charles Smith Memoir". True West. Archived from the original on 22 August 2017. Retrieved 10 January 2019.

* v
* t
* e

Cochise County in the Old West

Rural outlaw cowboys and allies vs. business owners, townspeople, and the law

Supporting
rural interests|

| Lawmen|

* Johnny Behan
* Billy Breakenridge
* Phin Clanton
* Johnny Ringo
* Frank Stilwell
* David Neagle

|

Cowboys,
smugglers,
ranchers|

* Frederick Bode
* William "Curly Bill" Brocius
* Billy Claiborne
* Billy Clanton
* Ike Clanton
* Newman "Old Man" Clanton
* Phin Clanton
* Jim Crane
* "Indian Charlie" Cruz
* Pony Diehl
* Harry "The Kid" Head
* Bill Hicks
* Milt Hicks
* Bill Johnson
* Luther King
* Bill Leonard
* Ed Lyle
* Johnny Lyle
* Frank McLaury
* Tom McLaury
* Frank Patterson
* Johnny Ringo
* Pete Spence
* Frank Stilwell

Supporting
town interests|

| Lawmen|

* John Clum
* Crawley Dake
* Wyatt Earp
* Warren Earp
* Morgan Earp
* Virgil Earp
* George McKelvey
* Bob Paul
* Charles A. Shibell
* Ben Sippy
* John Slaughter
* Fred White

|

Gamblers,
businessmen,
cowboys,
ranchers,
politicians|

* Fred Dodge
* James Earp
* Tom Fitch
* Jack Johnson
* Doc Holliday
* Henry Hooker
* Buckskin Frank Leslie
* Sherman McMaster
* George W. Parsons
* Charles Smith
* John Vermillion
* Daniel Tipton
* Marshall Williams
* C. S. Fly

Conflicts and events|

* Skeleton Canyon Massacres
* Guadalupe Canyon Massacre
* Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
* O.K. Corral hearing and aftermath
* Earp Vendetta Ride

Locations|

* Cochise County
* Benson
* Bisbee
* Charleston
* Contention
* Fairbank
* Fort Huachuca
* Tombstone
* Tucson
* Contention City

* v
* t
* e

American frontier

1776 to 1912

Native Nations|

* Apache
* Arapaho
* Arikara
* Assiniboine (Nakota)
* Blackfoot
* Cahuilla
* Cayuse
* Cheyenne
* Chinook
* Chippewa (Ojibwe)
* Caddo
* Cocopah
* Comanche
* Crow
* Dakota
* Five Civilized Tribes
* Hidatsa
* Hopi
* Hualapai
* Kickapoo
* Kiowa
* Kumeyaay
* Kutenai
* Lakota
* Lenape (Delaware)
* Mandan
* Maricopa
* Modoc
* Mohave
* Muscogee
* Navajo
* Nez Perce
* Northern Paiute
* Nootka (Nuu-chah-nulth)
* Pawnee
* Pend d'Oreilles
* Pequots
* Pima
* Pueblo
* Seminoles
* Shoshone
* Sioux
* Southern Paiute
* Tohono Oʼodham
* Tonkawa
* Umpqua
* Ute
* Washoe
* Yakama
* Yaqui
* Yavapai
* Yuma (Quechan)

Notable people|

| Native Americans|

* Black Hawk
* Black Kettle
* Bloody Knife
* Chief Joseph
* Cochise
* Degataga
* Crazy Bear
* Crazy Horse
* Crazy Snake
* Dasoda-hae
* Geronimo
* Ganundalegi
* Irataba
* Kiliahote
* Manuelito
* Massai
* Plenty Coups
* Quanah Parker
* Red Cloud
* Sacagawea
* Seattle
* Sitting Bull
* Smallwood
* Snapping Turtle
* Standing Bear
* Ten Bears
* Touch the Clouds
* Tuvi
* Victorio
* Washakie

|

Explorers
and pioneers|

* Daniel Boone
* John Bozeman
* Jim Bridger
* Tomás Vélez Cachupín
* William Clark
* Davy Crockett
* Donner Party
* John C. Frémont
* Liver-Eating Johnson
* Meriwether Lewis
* Joe Mayer
* William John Murphy
* John Wesley Powell
* Juan Rivera
* Levi Ruggles
* Jedediah Smith
* Jack Swilling
* Trinidad Swilling
* Ora Rush Weed
* Richens Lacey Wootton
* Henry Wickenburg
* "Old Bill" Williams
* Brigham Young

Lawmen|

* Elfego Baca
* Charlie Bassett
* Roy Bean
* Morgan Earp
* Virgil Earp
* Wyatt Earp
* Henry Garfias
* Pat Garrett
* Jack Helm
* "Wild Bill" Hickok
* Bat Masterson
* "Mysterious Dave" Mather
* Bass Reeves
* George Scarborough
* John Selman
* John Horton Slaughter
* William "Bill" Tilghman
* James Timberlake
* Harry C. Wheeler

Outlaws|

* Billy the Kid
* Black Bart
* "Curly Bill" Brocius
* Butch Cassidy
* Billy Clanton
* Ike Clanton
* Dalton Brothers (Grat, Bill, Bob, Emmett)
* Bill Doolin
* Bill Downing
* John Wesley Hardin
* Johnny Ringo
* Jesse James
* Frank James
* Tom Ketchum
* Frank McLaury
* Tom McLaury
* Joaquin Murrieta
* Belle Starr
* Soapy Smith
* Sundance Kid
* Younger Brothers (Cole, Bob, Jim, John)

Soldiers
and scouts|

* Frederick Russell Burnham
* Kit Carson
* "Buffalo Bill" Cody
* Texas Jack Omohundro
* James C. Cooney
* George Crook
* George Armstrong Custer
* Alexis Godey
* Samuel P. Heintzelman
* Tom Horn
* Calamity Jane
* Luther Kelly
* Ranald S. Mackenzie
* Charley Reynolds
* Philip Sheridan
* Al Sieber

Others|

* John Jacob Astor
* William H. Boring
* Jonathan R. Davis
* George Flavel
* C. S. Fly
* John Joel Glanton
* George E. Goodfellow
* Doc Holliday
* Andrew Jackson
* Zephaniah Kingsley
* Seth Kinman
* Octaviano Larrazolo
* Nat Love
* Sylvester Mowry
* Emperor Norton
* Annie Oakley
* Sedona Schnebly
* Thomas William Sweeny
* Peter Lebeck

Frontier culture|

* American bison
* Barbed wire
* Boot Hill
* Cattle drive
* Cowboy poetry
* Cattle rustling
* Cow town
* Fast draw
* Ghost town
* Gunfights
* Homesteading
* Land rush
* Manifest destiny
* Moonshine
* One-room schoolhouse
* Rocky Mountain Rendezvous
* Rodeo
* Stagecoach
* Train robbery
* Vigilante justice
* Western saloon
* Tack piano
* Westward expansion
* Wild West shows

Transport
and trails|

* Barlow Road
* Bozeman Trail
* Butterfield Trail
* California Trail
* Chisholm Trail
* Great Platte River Road
* Great Western Cattle Trail
* Lolo Pass
* Meek Cutoff
* Mormon Trail
* Oregon Trail
* Pony Express
* Santa Fe Trail
* Southern Emigrant Trail
* Tanner Trail
* First transcontinental railroad

Folklore|

* Dead man's hand
* Dime novel
* John Henry
* Johnny Kaw
* Long Tom's treasure
* Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine
* Lost Ship of the Desert
* Montezuma's treasure
* Paul Bunyan
* Pecos Bill
* Seven Cities of Gold

Gold rushes|

* Black Hills Gold Rush
* California Gold Rush
* Confederate Gulch and Diamond City
* Klondike Gold Rush
* Pike's Peak Gold Rush

Gunfights|

* Battle of Coffeyville
* Battle of Lincoln
* Frisco shootout
* Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
* Long Branch Saloon gunfight
* Variety Hall shootout

Military conflicts|

* Battle of the Alamo
* Battle of Glorieta Pass
* Battle of the Little Bighorn
* Battle of San Jacinto
* Battle of Washita River
* Bear Flag Revolt
* Chimayó Rebellion
* First Battle of Adobe Walls
* Indian Wars
* Mexican War
* Sand Creek massacre
* Seminole Wars
* Texas Revolution
* Wounded Knee Massacre

Range wars
and feuds|

* Earp-Clanton feud
* Johnson County War
* Lincoln County War
* Mason County War
* Pleasant Valley War
* Sheep Wars
* Sutton–Taylor feud

Lists|

* Arizona Rangers
* Bibliography of the American frontier
* Cowboys and cowgirls
* Gangs
* Ghost towns
* Gunfights
* Lawmen
* Mountain men
* Outlaws
* Timeline of the American Old West

Influence|

* Cuisine of the Western United States
* Chuckwagon
* Californian
* Native American
* New Mexican
* New Mexico chile
* Pacific Northwestern
* Rocky Mountain oysters
* Tex-Mex
* Gothic Western
* Weird West
* Western genre
* Western lifestyle
* Western music
* New Mexico
* Red Dirt
* Tejano
* Texas country
* Western wear
* Cowboy boots
* Cowboy hat
* Jeans
* Snap fastener

| Places|

| Alaska|

* Anchorage
* Iditarod
* Nome
* Seward
* Skagway

|

Arizona Territory|

* Canyon Diablo
* Fort Grant
* Prescott
* Phoenix
* Tombstone
* Tucson
* Window Rock
* Yuma

California|

* Bakersfield
* Fresno
* Jamestown
* Los Angeles
* Sacramento
* San Diego
* San Francisco

Colorado|

* Creede
* Denver
* Telluride
* Trinidad

Dakota Territory|

* Bismarck
* Deadwood
* Fargo
* Fort Yates
* Pine Ridge
* Rapid City
* Standing Rock
* Yankton

Florida Territory|

* Angola
* Negro Fort
* Pensacola
* Prospect Bluff
* St. Augustine
* St. Marks
* Tallahassee

Idaho Territory|

* Fort Boise
* Fort Hall

Illinois|

* Fort Dearborn

Kansas|

* Abilene
* Dodge City
* Ellsworth
* Hays
* Leavenworth
* Wichita

Missouri|

* Independence
* Kansas City
* St. Louis

Montana Territory|

* Billings
* Bozeman
* Deer Lodge
* Fort Benton
* Fort Peck
* Helena
* Livingston
* Missoula
* Virginia City

Nebraska|

* Chadron
* Fort Atkinson
* Fort Robinson
* Nebraska City
* Ogallala
* Omaha
* Valentine
* Whiteclay

Nevada|

* Carson City
* Virginia City
* Reno

New Mexico Territory|

* Alamogordo
* Albuquerque
* Cimarron
* Fort Sumner
* Gallup
* Las Vegas
* Lincoln
* Mesilla
* Mogollon
* Roswell
* Santa Fe
* Tucumcari

Oklahoma Territory
and Indian Territory|

* Broken Arrow
* Fort Gibson
* Fort Sill
* Oklahoma City
* Okmulgee
* Pawhuska
* Tahlequah
* Tishomingo
* Tuskahoma
* Wewoka

Oregon Territory|

* Astoria
* The Dalles
* La Grande
* McMinnville
* Oregon City
* Portland
* Salem
* Vale

Texas|

* Austin
* Abilene
* El Paso
* Fort Worth
* Gonzales
* Lubbock
* San Antonio

Utah Territory|

* Salt Lake City

Washington Territory|

* Everett
* Port Townsend
* Seattle
* Vancouver

Wyoming Territory|

* Fort Bridger
* Fort Laramie

* Category

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