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Special
Thanks to Thomas C Bicknell
Thompson,
Benjamin
(1843-1884): Few Texans can claimed to have experienced
more excitement and drama than Thompson: duelist, Indian
fighter, Confederate cavalryman, mercenary, professional
gambler, hired gun and lawman. His remarkable ability
with a pistol prompted W. B. “Bat” Masterson to
write, “It is doubtful if in his time there was
another man living who equaled him with a pistol in a
life-and-death struggle.”
Born
November 2, 1843, in Knottingley, England, Ben with
parents William Thompson and Mary Ann (Baker) Thompson
and siblings Billy and Mary Ann immigrated to Austin. As
an adolescent Thompson pursued the printing trade. In
1860 he accepted a job offer from a New Orleans
bookbinder. Thompson reputedly intervened when a woman
was being accosted and killed the offender in a
subsequent knife duel. Returning to Texas he joined
Captain Edward Burleson Jr.’s ranger battalion
protecting the frontier against the Comanche.
At
the start of the Civil War Thompson enlisted in Colonel
John “Rip” Ford’s Second Texas Confederate
Cavalry. He
was wounded at the Battle of Galveston and also fought
in Louisiana, at La Fourche Crossings.
On November 26, 1863 he married Catherine Moore
of Austin. At
the close of the war he killed a man who threatened him
with a shotgun. The Union military arrested Thompson but
he escaped and fled to Mexico. There he enlisted in the
army of the Emperor Maximilian and fought until the end
of the empire in June 1867.
On
October 20, 1868 the Federal military sentenced Thompson
to four years. He had earlier wounded his brother-in-law
Jim Moore after Moore struck his pregnant wife Catherine
with a gun. While Thompson was incarcerated, Catherine
gave birth to a son whom they named Benjamin. After
serving two years in Huntsville prison Thompson’s
conviction by a military court was ruled illegal and
President U.S. Grant pardoned him.
In
1871 his wife gave birth to a daughter, Katherine
Florence. It was now that Thompson began following the
Texas cattle drives, gambling in all of the major Kansas
railheads; Abilene, Ellsworth, Wichita and Dodge City.
In early 1879 he traveled to Colorado and sharing
the leadership with Bat Masterson, he led a group of
Kansas gunmen hired to protect the property of the Santa
Fe Railroad during a right-of-way dispute with the
Denver & Rio Grande. Reportedly, Thompson was well
paid for his services and with the proceeds he opened a
gambling hall above the Iron Front Saloon on Austin’s
Congress Avenue.
Over
the years Texas newspapers noted Thompson’s faults, he
was a hard drinker and quarrelsome, but they also
chronicled his many virtues: loyalty, honesty,
generosity and honor. He was noted for never having
taken unfair advantage of an adversary.
Thompson was very popular in Austin and he was
elected city marshal in December 1880. Recognized as an
excellent officer, he easily won re-election in November
the following year. In the summer of 1882 his career as
a lawman abruptly ended. On July 11th in the
culmination of a long standing argument over a game of
cards Thompson fatally shot Jack Harris, a prominent San
Antonio saloon owner. At the end of a sensational trial
Thompson was acquitted and he returned to Austin, his
family, and his life as a professional gambler.
Finally,
on March 11, 1884 accompanied by notorious Uvalde County
Deputy Sheriff John King Fisher, Thompson returned to
San Antonio and the site where he killed Harris: the
Vaudeville Theatre. Word of their arrival raced ahead of
them and Jack Harris’ friends had their revenge.
Within minutes of entering the Vaudeville, Thompson and
Fisher were shot dead. A subsequent autopsy proved
Thompson had been shot from behind. No one was ever
charged with the murders.
Austin
gave Thompson a monumental farewell; a
sixty-two-carriage cortège followed his casket to
Oakwood Cemetery. His wife Catherine remarried, Benjamin
Jr. died in 1893, and his sister, Mary Ann Gill of
Bastrop, raised his daughter to adulthood.
Thomas
C. Bicknell.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
William M. Walton, The Life and Adventures of Ben
Thompson, The Famous Texan (Edwards and Church,
Austin, 1884; facsimile, Frontier Press of Texas,
Houston, 1954). Floyd B. Streeter, The Complete and
Authentic Life of Ben Thompson, Man with a Gun
(Frederick Fall, Inc. New York, 1958).
W. B. (Bat) Masterson, The 75th Anniversary
Edition of Famous Gunfighters of the Western Frontier,
Annotated and illustrated by Jack DeMattos (Weatherford
press, Monroe, Washington, 1982). Mr. C.P. Dearden,
Knottingley historian and life-long resident, provided
information on the Thompson family life in England by
researching the records of the Pontefract Saint Giles
Parish Church and the Custom House at Goole. Courtroom
documents on file at the Texas State Archives, Austin
and contemporary newspaper articles provided from the
files of the Austin History Center, the Center of
American History, Austin and the San Antonio
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