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 William
Barclay Masterson was an American frontier law enforcement officer and
journalist, born in Iroquois County, Illinois on November 24, 1853. As a
youth Masterson was a buffalo hunter, railroad worker, army scout, and
gold prospector.
In 1876, Masterson was dancing with a saloon girl, Mollie Brennan, when a
local army sergeant, Corporal Melvin King, took offense to the amount of
time she spent with Masterson. King left the saloon, only to return and
open fire on Masterson and the saloon girl, hitting both. As Masterson was
falling to the floor he pulled his pistol and returned fire. King fell to
the floor and died minutes later. The gunshot wound caused Masteron to
limp from that day on.
In 1877, he was elected sheriff of Ford County, Kansas, with Dodge City as
his headquarters, and he assisted (1880-81) Federal Marshal Wyatt Earp in
bringing law and order to Tombstone, Arizona. For the next 20 years he
lived in various cities and towns of the American West, supporting himself
as a gambler.
In 1883, Masterson returned to Dodge City to assist longtime friend Luke
Short. Masterson, along with Wyatt Earp, and other friends of Short formed
the "Dodge City Peace Commission" to protect Short from the
lawmen of Dodge City.
In
1902, he moved to New York City. Within a year he became a sportswriter on
the daily Morning Telegraph, a position that he held until his
death. While in New York he also became an authority on the sport of
boxing.
In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt offered Masterson the position of
U.S. Marshall for the Oklahoma Territory. Masterson declined, stating that
his reputation would see him become a target for youngsters trying to
prove themselves.
On October 25, 1921, he died at his desk of a heart attack. Masterson
holds an important place among the legendary figures of the American
frontier and has been the topic of many novels, television programs, and
motion pictures.
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