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MIike Meagher
C. M. SCOTT.
My hero, C. M. Scott, was covered extensively in Volume II, The Indians, Cowley County History. He was a very remarkable man.
I thought you might like to read the following item I uncovered.
MIKE MEAGHER CONNECTION.
[Scott’s activities as a “Special Scout” are covered in Indian book. I must add that he served only when the need arose. MAW]
[Page 103 of the book entitled “Cherokee Outlet Cowboy” by Laban Samuel Records, edited by Ellen Jayne Maris Wheeler, Printed by University of Oklahoma Press, Norman and London, 1995.]
In late summer 1879 Laban S. Records met Scott & Meagher.
“A few days afterwards government scouts, C. M. Scott and Mike Meagher, stayed all night with us. They had been to Fort Reno and were headed for Kiowa. Riding armed, they brought lunch as they knew there were few cow camps in their path. They crossed the Cimarron to the north side and stopped because the water was better there. They unsaddled and hobbled their horses to graze on the [Brand shown] range. After they ate, it was warm; they lay down but slept longer than they intended. When they awoke, their horses were missing. They had hobbled away in search of better grass. It was near sunset before the two scouts finally found them. They would have had an all-night ride but discovered our outfit lay directly in their course. We had just moved to Red Springs Camp. They told us many of their interesting experiences with Indians.”
Some notes on Mike Meagher....
Michael Meagher was appointed City Marshal in Wichita, Kansas, April 13, 1871.
Meagher served for three years: until April 15, 1874.
Meagher became a United States Deputy Marshal in 1874, serving in the Indian Territory.
The Topeka Commonwealth reported June 14, 1874, that Meagher was first lieutenant in a newly formed militia company then engaged in scouting possible Indian difficulties along the southern Kansas border.
Meagher was elected as City Marshal again in April 1875 of Wichita, Kansas.
On April 21, 1875, Wyatt Earp was appointed policeman on the Wichita force.
Wichita’s police force now consisted of Marshal Mike Meagher, Assistant Marshal John Behrens, and Policemen James Cairns and Earp. The marshal’s salary was $91.66, Behrens earned $75.00, and Cairns and Earp each were paid $60.00 a month.
On November 10, 1875, the Wichita Beacon reported an arrest by Marshal Meagher and Earp.
“Last Friday [November 5, 1875], being hangman’s day and generally regarded by the superstitious as the twenty-four hours in all the week, for all time, which the devil has reserved for himself against the holy Sabbath, appropriated by his enemies, it befell three turbulent twirlers of the long lash, stimulators of the patient ox, to be wooed into ways that are dark and tricks that proved vain, and on the devil’s own day. A bull train, consisting of two large wagons and eight yoke of oxen, had arrived at West Wichita, corralled and went into camp early that morning. There was nothing very remarkable in this fact, being of daily, almost hourly occurrence, but in the sequel, in the reproof of chance lay the proof of crime, with an apology, if it so please you, for spoiling one of Williams best and most quoted. Marshal Meagher, as the wires and mails would so have it, had a description of this identical outfit in his pocket, with the names of the parties to it. The intelligence conveyed to him was that one Bill Potts, assisted by two gentlemen of color, had actually stolen these oxen and wagons, and stranger yet, under the very nose of their owner, and as slow as oxen travel, had most miraculously succeeded in eluding pursuit, evading highways and coming through the long prairie grass, reached Wichita, from Fort Sill, where this wholesale theft was committed. If nothing of reputation is left this little crowd of depredators, one thing will ever remain tenaciously with their names, that they made the best bull time on record and are therefore entitled to the name of being the champion bull whackers of the Sill. We expect to see a dime edition out soon, with some such title and the usual daredevil wood cut, emblazoning in red, yellow, and magenta this identical trio, whipping, goading, and spurring amain the frantic longhorns. . . .
Turned out the Beacon goofed. On November 11, 1875, the Wichita Eagle corrected the foregoing article. It was Deputy Marshal Behrens (not Earp) who was with Marshal Meagher.
Meagher was re-elected City Marshal on April 4, 1876, in spite of the difficulty his policeman, Wyatt Earp, had caused shortly before the election by striking the rival candidate, William Smith.
The Arkansas City Traveler printed a report from a Caldwell Correspondent in its December 26, 1877, issue, sent from Indian Territory December 15th.
“Marshal Mike Meagher arrested two brothers, Ed. and Bill Withers, at Kiowa, Barber County, Kansas, on the 10th inst. Said gents are accused of stealing 15 or 20 ponies from the Cheyennes and Arapahos last June. Meagher was accompanied by a small detachment of troops of the 4th Cavalry. The Withers boys are said to be ‘bad ones’ and are wanted in other parts to answer for violations of the law.
In 1880 Mike Meagher moved to Caldwell. On April 5, 1880, ten weeks before the first steam engine puffed into Caldwell, Mike Meagher was elected Mayor. One of his first official acts was to appoint a police force, quickly confirmed by the city council: William Horseman, marshal; Dan Jones, assistant marshal, and James Johnson, policeman. On June 5, the U. S. Census taker enumerated Caldwell, listing Mike Meagher as being 37 years old, having been born in Ireland.
Meagher did not run for re-election in 1881. He was appointed by Mayor W. N. Hubbell of Caldwell to act as City Marshal for the present on July 28, and served only five days. He was replaced by another man: James Roberts.
Meagher was killed at Caldwell in late December 1881 by a party of cowboys, headed by Ike Sherman—more familiarly known as Jim Talbot—and considered as one of the most desperate cowboys on the border. Talbot was later killed in a saloon row in Texas.
