Gunfire Kills Lawman
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 37° 01.839 W 097° 36.409
14S E 623913 N 4099179
These cowboys stirred up a hornets nest. Final tole: two dead cowboys, one dead marshal, one Texas deputy sheriff dead.
Waymark Code: WM985M
Location: Kansas, United States
Date Posted: 07/12/2010
Views: 11
Marker Erected by: The Caldwell Historical Society
Marker Sponsors: Donations of Linn, Barbara, Mickey & Scott Shaffer
and the Historical Marker Committee
Date Marker Erected: 1996
County of Marker: Sumner County
Location of Marker: 124 S. Main St., Caldwell
Marker Text:
Though an incorporated city for only 3 years, Caldwell needed their 9th marshal. Unfortunately for the City and the new marshal, a 10th would soon follow. Appointed in March, 1882, George S. Brown, 28, lived to enforce the law only until the hot weather set in.
On June 22, 1882, Marshal Brown was killed by cowboys Steve and Jess Green in the Red Light Saloon as Brown and a deputy answered a disturbance call. With the help of the saloon employees the Green brothers escaped into Indian Territory, only to be caught in a gunfight with Territory lawmen in October. Steve Green and a deputy sheriff were killed and Jess Green was captured, riddled with 13 gunshot wounds. The Kansas governor gladly paid the Texas posse the $1,000 in Kansas reward money.
Following an obviously uncomfortable wagon ride from Wise County, Texas, Jess Green died on November 5th in the county jail in Wellington, just prior to his murder trial. As a sign of respect, Main Street closed during the marshal's funeral, an event unheard of during the cowtown period. The marshal's grave in located in the city cemetery, Section 3, Lot 108.