Early Days in Texas: A Trip to Hell and Heaven

Gentleman, reprobate, killer, lawman—Jim McIntire was all of these, and more. Born in Ohio in 1854, McIntire went west and grew up with the country. By the 1870s he was a regular fixture in the life of such wide-open Texas towns as Fort Griffin, Jacksboro, Fort Belknap, and Mobeetie. The handsome young man soon built a quick-gun reputation that in the 1880s led him into city law enforcement in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and later branded him an outlaw. In his own plain, unvarnished style McIntire writes of a life packed with action and excitement. He tells of violent times and brutal people in a calm, matter-of-fact way that unashamedly relates his own involvement in sometimes gory, sometimes comical, but always fascinating events. A host of notable frontier figures parades through the narrative: early Texas rancher James C. Loving; military men Henry O. Flipper and Albert J. Fountain; legendary lawmen Pat Garrett, John W. Poe, and Wyatt Earp; and an assortment of outlaws and gunfighters including Sam Bass, Dave Rudabaugh, Billy the Kid, Jim Courtright, and "Mysterious Dave" Mather. A near-death experience in 1901 prompted a nevertheless unrepentant McIntire to pen his life story. Rich with detail, his narrative chronicles the attitudes of late-nineteenth-century frontier folk toward bigotry, cruelty to humans and animals, law, and law enforcement. As he recounts his experiences, McIntire also illuminates the little-known personal side of buffalo hunting, cowpunching, and operating boomtown saloons and gambling houses of the day. Robert K. DeArment's careful editing and extensive annotations enhance McIntire's account of his adventures on both sides of the law. Through his vigorousscholarship, DeArment corrects the author's errors of fact, chronology, and omission. Now made available for the first time since its original publication in 1902, Early Days in Texas takes its place among the important firsthand accounts of life on the rough edge of the Texas and New M