# How many cowboys died in bar room shootings **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 16, 2019, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-cowboys-died-in-bar-room-shootings/838761 "2019-08-16T19:42:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-cowboys-died-in-bar-room-shootings/838761/41 "2019-08-22T00:04:58Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > John Wesley Hardin killed 40 before he turned 23. Prison ended his spree. > > [Online casino UK - 18 Popular UK casino sites for 2024 - Manchester Evening News](http://www.famoustexans.com/johnwesleyhardin.htm) But he was never known to shoot an honest man, according to Bob Dylan. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-cowboys-died-in-bar-room-shootings/838761/42 "2019-08-22T02:20:32Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > The book’s title is apt - that’s some bad history. A handgun cost anywhere from $5 to $17 new in the 1870’s, for a typical working sidearm like a Colt Single Action Army or a Colt Peacemaker - the most common handgun types around. At the time, working cowboys made around $1 to $2 per day, and workers in a town in a factory or doing specialized work might earn $4 per day. These figures are about right, although one thing worth remembering about cowboys is that it was generally not a year-round job, and some regions of the country, depending on climate and conditions, actually had pretty short seasons. I have some figures for cowboy wages in among the historical sources that I rely on for teaching my history classes. Here’s one example that gives some idea of their income and working conditions. > [@](#): > > The Panhandle strike occurred in the spring of 1883, before the > major mining strikes in the West. Texas and Colorado ranchers > had moved into the Panhandle late in the 1870s and by purchases, > leasing, intimidation, and brute force rapidly established large > territorially distinct ranches. By 1881 a handful of large operators > acting through the Panhandle Stock Association had a firm grip on > the better grazing land and newcomers, especially small stock > raisers, were effectively excluded. Ranch hands were forbidden to > own any cattle of their own and the Association enforced a > twenty-five or thirty-dollar standard wage. This compared favor- > ably with herder’s wages in central and especially southern Texas, > where Mexican and Negro cowboys predominated. But Panhandle > cowboys compared themselves to ranch workers in Wyoming and > Colorado, where wages were higher. This was not just white > supremacy; the harsh Panhandle winters made the working season > shorter than in most of Texas. In addition they felt that other > terms and conditions of their employment were unsatisfactory, > although these do not seem to have been any worse than elsewhere. > > … > > Sources differ on the exact set of grievances put together by the > cowboys; perhaps it was never all that uniform from ranch to > ranch. In the apparently authentic “cowboy ultimatum” that sur- > vives only the wage issue is mentioned. The strikers demanded a > minimum wage of fifty dollars a month for all cowboys regardless > of their skill. A rancher oriented newspaper decried the leveling > egalitarianism of this demand. But the cowboys had no intention > of abolishing status distinctions. Wagon bosses and other sub- > foremen were to receive seventy-five dollars a month, which > preserved the proportion of the previous pay differential. > > … > > Another strike, in midsummer 1886, may well have been inspired > by the spring roundup strike in Wyoming. It occurred during haying > time, was limited to one ranch (the Milbrook), and was a distinct > failure. The hands demanded a partial restoration of their wages, > from thirty to thirty-five dollars, but the owner refused, arguing that > he had no choice since the stock association set wages and violations > brought a fine of five hundred dollars. Twelve of the twenty-nine > summer hands quit and were set walking (to Laramie, a distance of > eighteen miles) “carrying their beds and baggage on their shoul- > ders” (cowboys rarely owned horses). > > David E. Lopez, “Cowboy Strikes and Unions,” _Labor History_, Vol. 18 (Summer 1977), pp. 330-331, 335. One thing that’s always fascinated me about American labor history is the extent to which employers’ (and, often, citizens’) hostility to unions often existed in a labor environment where employers shamelessly colluded to keep keep wages down and prevent the free market from working, as the stock associations did in these cases. Collective action for us, but not for you, has been a pretty significant tenet among business owners in the course of American history. One thing that often kept cowboy wages down, according to this same article, was the fact that the cowboy image attracted more workers than the ranchers needed, making it easier for employers to keep wages low. Wages also fluctuated with the farm economy, and the American economy more generally. The major economic recessions of the 1870s and 1890s saw a drop in wages across many industries. And with cowboy work, as with many other occupations in the west, wages were often significantly higher in the early days of a region’s settlement, and declined over time as more people moved in. Here are a few excerpts from letters written by a cowboy who worked in Nebraska, Montana, and South Dakota in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. > [@](#): > > He will get a thousand head from Oregon in a > couple of weeks, then he will have about two > thousand head. Then we will take them about fiften miles > south to the summer range as quick as we get through > branding Mr Ashley furnishes me with Pony, saddle > and slicker, and give me twenty dollars a month. > There are four of us boys we have a sod shanty by > our selves. > > **Earl J. Martin to his parents > May 7, 1899 (Nebraska)** > [@](#): > > I have a gun and a six shooter and have fresh meat > every day. I have plenty to eat although I eat about half > my meals on horse back. I put a lunch in my pocket > every morning. Frank came out from the ranch yesterday > and brought me a big paper sack full of cookies, > he comes out every two or three days to see how I am > getting along. After two or three days more when the > cattle get situated it will just be a snap here. > > … > > My horse hase turned out to be a dandy I can get > more than I paid for him if I want. > > … > > I will send some money as soon as I can get to town. > > **Earl J. Martin to his parents > May 17, 1900 (Nebraska)** > [@](#): > > The cattlemen are slowly getting out, or going into > sheep them selve’s. There is no irrigation in this part > of the State. And no land worth taking. > > … > > This man I am working for has a small bunch of > cattle and a small bunch of sheep on share’s; He has > his sheep on a small creek about four miles south of > here. I go out about once a week and move the > herder’s camp for him. I am doing all kinds of ranch work > now day’s. I put in a small patch of potatoe’s yesterday > I do not spend all my time in the saddle like I > did in the Sand Hills and South Dacota. I some times > wish I did; But I get better wages than I did then-I > was offered one job of steady riding; but would have > to batch and cook for a batchelor And only 35 dollar’s > a month. So I concluded to stay with this untill after > haying. > > **Earl J. Martin to his sister and brother-in-law > May 9, 1903 (Montana)** > [@](#): > > Every train has been bringing in scores of home steaders, > As soon as they have filed on their land, then they try > to find work in the country neer their claims And they > are willing to work for all most nothing. > > Out in the country neer where I was getting 35 a > month the ranchers are only paying 20 now. And they > say there are two men for every job. And it is the same > way here in town. Board is so high here that unless > one has steady work they cant lay up any thing. If I > cant find steady work I am going to get out of this. > \*\* > Earl Martin to his mother > May 10, 1908 (South Dakota)\*\* All the above from _Montana: The Magazine of Western History_, Vol. 56, No. 3 (Autumn, 2006), pp. 60-65. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-cowboys-died-in-bar-room-shootings/838761.md?page=2)