GOING ONCE, GOING TWICE . . .
Who are you? Imagine that you were raised in a foreign land. One that was very old, and had developed language, traditions and culture based on a religion very different from the U.S. Wouldn’t that be a big part of your identity; and influence how you made decisions?
If you were raised in the U.S., the individualism, determination, language, and traditions of this country are part of your identity. American history is some of the most fascinating in the world, in part because this country was developing as technology was making great advancements.
Many here disregard U.S. History, and I wonder, if ever there was a major change to the union, would anybody cherish or claim U.S. History? If it could be put on the auction block, who would bid on it?
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The following is a brief selection from an incident in U.S. History. My sources are Time Life Books “The Gunfighters” and a Wikipedia article on “The Johnson County War”. I prefer to use Infogalactic when I can, but there was no article on this subject there.
The big landowners and cattle barons accused the small ranchers of being cattle thieves, A.K.A. Rustlers. Tensions increased into outright killing. The barons hired 23 gunslingers from Texas to exterminate the small ranchers.
A local sheriff was informed of what was happening, and formed a posse of 200 men. They surrounded the barons’ men, about 50 total, in a barn at the TA ranch; where a shootout began. One of them managed to escape, and contact Governor Barber. On April 12th 1892 he sent a late night telegraph to President Benjamin Harrison. The president acted upon it, and the cavalry left Fort McKinny at 2 am on April 13th. They reached the TA ranch at 6:45 am and intervened.
Think about how fast the telegraph made that operation, and how long it would have taken on horseback. There’s a lot more information at the Wikipedia article, certainly worth reading.
