Earp Historical Timeline Page 9

Dodge City Peace Commission

• 1883, February - Luke Short, gambler and Earp associate, buys out the gambling concession on the Long Branch Saloon in Dodge City, where he has been managing since 1881.
• 1883, Spring - Alonzo B. Webster, Dodge City Mayor, owns and operates the Alamo Saloon next door to the Long Branch. He's not keen on the competition from popular Luke Short.
• 1883, April - Deger wins the election 214 to 143 after a bitter campaign. The new mayor immediately, with the city council, puts in new laws against vagrancy and prostitution.
• 1883, April 28 - The marshal, Jack Bridges, and a special police officer, city clerk Lou Hartman, enter the Long Branch saloon and arrest three 'singers' on charges of prostitution. Gambling was already illegal in Dodge City but it carried on, nevertheless, with fines being considered a sort of necessary 'tax'. Short was not unduly upset by the arrests until he discovered that he was the ONLY target in the sweep for the new laws. The Alamo Saloon still had it's 'singers' in operation on the floor.
• 1883, Later - Now Luke Short is pissed off and he heads to the calaboose, heeled. The city clerk and sometime cop Hartman sees Luke coming and draws and fires on him. He misses and so does Luke in the return fire, but Hartman trips and falls while fleeing and Short thinks he hit the officer. He returns to the Long Branch to barricade himself against the arrest that is sure to follow. Through the night Short refused to allow himself to be arrested until he was assured that he had not killed Hartman and that he was only facing a small fine. As soon as he put down his shotgun and exited the saloon he was arrested by two officers on charges of assault and locked up in jail. He was released on bond, but the next day a number of saloonmen and gamblers were arrested as undesirables. Seemed like Webster was eliminating the competition.
• 1883, May - Luke Short starts the legal wheels turning while in Kansas City, having been railroaded out of town, and writes to his old friend Bat Masterson for help. He's not going to give in without a fight. The Governor George Glick is petitioned and sides with Short. Bat joins Short in Kansas City.
• 1883, May 15 - The Kansas City Journal reports that Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and other bad men, were on their way to a 'tea party' in Dodge City. Naturally Doc was still in Colorado and not going anywhere. The rumors sent Sheriff Hinkle of Dodge City into a small panic.
• 1883, Late May - The actual group that is mustering to arrive in Dodge included former Kansas lawmen like Charlie Bassett, Neal Brown, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Frank McLain.
• 1883, May 31 - Wyatt Earp steps off the train in Dodge City with Dan Tipton, Johnny Green, Johnny Millsap, and Texas Jack Vermillion. Sheriff Hinkle wires Governor Glick to send troops. Glick sends the prosaicly named Adjutant General Thomas Moonlight.
• 1883, Early June - Wyatt meets with Deger and Webster and is assured that Short can return to Dodge if he lives within the law. Wyatt assures the town council there will be no violence if the terms are complied with.
• 1883, June 4 - Masterson and Luke arrive separately in Dodge City.
• 1883, June 9 - By the 9th, a compromise has been reached and the Dodge City War has come to a peaceable conclusion with not one shot fired. A letter by Masterson appears in the Kansas State Journal describing the reception he received when he arrived in Dodge City. Moonlight arrive sometime previous and established Glick's Guards to help keep the peace.
• 1883, 2nd week in June - Members of the pro-Short party visit a photographer and pose for what will become one of the most famous pictures in Western history. Earp's strong arm men declined to be photographed as it might be hazardous to their career. It was published six weeks later in the National Police Gazette under the label the "Dodge City Peace Commission".
• 1883, November 19 - Luke Short sells the Long Branch Saloon and quits Dodge City. He moved to Fort Worth and bought a saloon there.

  
  Dodge City Peace Commission - from left to right, standing: W.H. Harris, Luke Short, Bat Masterson, W.F. Petillon. Seated: Charlie Bassett, Wyatt Earp, Frank McLain, and Neal Brown

  Colorado and Idaho ...

  Back in time ...

  Historians : Found an error? Please feel free to email me at wyatt@panhistoria.com with corrections.

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  Sources:
  The Illustrated Life and Times of Wyatt Earp by Bob Boze Bell, Boze Books, 1993
  Wyatt Earp and the Coeur d'Alene Gold!: Stampede to Idaho Territory, by Jerry Dolph and Arthur Randall, Eagle City Publishing, 1999
  Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend, by Casey Tefertiller, John Wiley & Sons, 1999
  Wyatt Earp: The Missing Years, San Diego in the 1880's, by Kenneth R. Cilch and Kenneth R. Cilch, Jr., Gaslamp Books, 1998
  The Earp Papers : In a Brother's Image by Don Chaput
  The Truth About Wyatt Earp by Richard E. Erwin