this is part of a set of articles which I recently found and hope you will find as fascinating as I do. Several more to be added in the next week.
Waterloo Evening Courier
9 January 1929
He Was My Pal Said many men In Varied Walks
Tex Rickard Born Jan “, 1870, Early Encountered Stirring Success
Following is the first chapter of "The Life of Tex Rickard," written by George Kirksey of the United Press sports staff, who was with the late promoter at Miami Beach up to the time of his death. Additional chapters, probably 10 in number, will follow daily. The story is based upon facts obtained by Kirksey up to the time or Rickard's illness, and on information gathered from many parts of the country from men and women who knew Rickard from boyhood, including his 81- year-old mother in Seattle, who contributed
largely to the first chapter.
By GEORGE KIRKSEY,
United Press Start Correspondent.
"He was my pal." It was said of Tex Rickard by many men in varied walks of life; by cowboys and millionaires, prize fighters and society men. But it remained for his 81-year-old mother, when she learned of his death, to plumb the depth of the sincerity of his extraordinary character by saying: "George was my pal." The man who rode a trail to fortune from the ranches of the far west to the heights of showmanship and unparalleled success as a promoter .was christened George Lewis Rickard. His nickname of Tex, by which the world came to know him, was given him during his early manhood. His mother never liked it. "He was always George Lewis to me," she said.
Parents Were Illinois Pioneers.
Rickard's parents were pioneers in Illinois. His father was a millwright and the family migrated to Kansas, where Tex's father built the first fully equipped mill in the state. Rickard often talked of this. It was characteristic of the man that he took the same straightforward pride in simple things of typically American life that he did in his most spectacular achievements as a showman.
George Lewis Rickard, then, was born Jan. 2, 1870. The date of his birth has been variously misrepresented, . due usually to a prevailing tendency to lop a few years from the toll taken by time from prominent characters.
Rickard himself was uncertain in later years as to the exact place of his birth. He always gave it as Kansas City, but once explained: "Well, it was outside Kansas City in a place called White Church, Kan. But I always just claimed Kansas City."
Memory of James Brothers.
Boyhood for Tex was far from dull. Jesse James' mother lived near the Rickards, and one day, shortly after Tex was born, a posse invaded the neighborhood, hunting for the bandit and his brother, Frank. There was a "right smart lot of shooting," as Rickard put it, claiming he was born to the sound of firearms.
Until death stilled his naive, indomitable spirit, there always was a "right smart lot of excitement," where Rickard was around.
When Tex was four years old the Rickard family settled in Sherman, Tex., but moved frequently from place to place as the father followed his trade of installing mills.
It was at the age of six, according to his mother, that Tex had his first experience with fighting. He came home from Sunday school one day, his best clothes torn and dusty, his face beaten and bruised.
First Taste of Fighting.
“George had been told never to fight, and hadn't defended himself when an older boy attacked him," explained the, late promoter's aged mother in recalling the incident. "When his father heard that, he reversed his instructions, but gave George a whipping anyway, telling him he should have another every time he didn't defend himself. "After that, George never got any more spankings."
While the Rickards were living at Cambridge, Tex., the promoter's father died, leaving Tex with quite a job on his hands for a boy of 11, that of contributing materially, to the support of a widowed mother, two brothers and three sisters. Mrs Rickard subsequently moved to Henrietta, whereTex received a little schooling when not riding cows and doing odd jobs around the ranch.
Experience As A Cowboy
In 1886, before he was out of his teens, tex took the long trip up the north trail with many head of cattle for Montana. He rode with an outfit which wintered 16,000 head in three herds in that state. Less than 1,000 head survived the blizzards. At another time, 11 cowboys started north from the panhandle to Omaha with 3,500 steers, Tex being the youngster of the group. On the morning after the first day's travel, an exhausted calf was found with the herd, sunk on its haunches. Rickard adopted- the calf, named it "Sitting Bull" and saw it safely to Omaha.
That calf gave Tex. a lot of trouble on its wanderings, but he would always get it safely back to the herd. One of Rickard's favorite yarns of his youth was about the calf. "I used to ask the other boys so often if they had seen 'Sitting Bull myself for a long time afterwards," Tex recounted.
Invited to Become Bandit.
The afternoon the herd stirred up the dust of Omaha's main street, Tex met three slight acquaintances. They had a plan on foot to rob a mail coach and proposed that Rickard join them. "I said I'd go, but I didn't," Tex told long afterwards. "A posse killed two of those fellows and the third was hanged later on."
Rickard continued to "punch cows" until he was 22, and must have made a reputation for himself far removed from that of lawlessness for
two years later in 1894 he was elected city marshal of Henrietta, Tex.
Part 2
Rickard Went To Alaska In 1895
First Big Stake
Opened Saloon and Gambling House
Aquires Name of
“Square Shooter”
Tex Rickard made a reputation for himself as city'' marshal of Henrietta Tex., for his ability to handle men without gun play. Old timers cannot recall a single instance during his more than a year in office when he was forced to use his gun on a bad man.
Cattle rustlers, skylarking cowboys and drunkards were Rickard's principal "customers." He received no stipulated salary for the job, but made his money in fees.
It was while serving as city marshal that Rickard married his first wife, Leona . They had one child, a boy. The child died early and is buried beside his mother in the Henrietta cemetery.
Was Married Three Times.
Time almost obscured all trace of Rickard's first marriage , and it was not generally known that he was married three, times. Rickard never talked about his, private life.
Life as city marshal grew dull for Tex. One winter night Rickard was sitting around the stove in a Henrietta saloon : when a cowboy came in with a letter from Jim Roberts, a former Texas cow hand who wrote glowingly of life in the Klondike. Roberts told about flour selling for $1 a pound.
Rickard started north early in 1895 with Willie Slack, a young man with the wanderlust. It was on the trip north from Seattle that Rickard got his nickname of "Tex" from a sailor who asked him where he was from.
The pair landed at Juneau broke and with only a few scanty possessions early in the spring of 1895. From Juneau they drifted from place to place. Partner In Two Claims.
In July 1896 when the first Klondike strike was made, Rickard was a bartender at Circle City, 300 miles below on the Yukon. Rickard finally got his outfit together and hit the trail to Dawson. He had no dogs and had to pull his own sled. The weather was 50 below zero and the snow waist deep in the drifts.
There were only one or two houses and a dozen or so tents when Rickard arrived in Dawson. It grew overnight into a tawdry frontier town and Rickard rode the crest of the boom into his first big money.
He staked out two claims – No 3 with Jack Dodson and No. 4 with Al Mayo on Bonanza creek. Both claims were "strikes" but along with his good fortune came his first bit, mistake. He sold his interest in No. 3 for $17,000, but in so doing lost a fortune. His successors reaped $300.000 out of No. 3. He sold his interest in No. 4 for $40,000. Little more than a year after he reached Alaska, Rickard, only 26, had amassed his first fortune. With a stake of almost $10,000 he opened his first gambling venture, the famous Northern saloon and gambling palace in Dawson City.
Stripped by Rival Gamblers.
Rickard's policy of playing "square" even with gamblers led to his downfall. The other gambling houses in Dawson closed earlier than the Northern, and the faro dealers and card sharps from those places would come to Rickard’s place to play their winnings. Rickard played them 50-50 and they broke him in less than a year.