Born John Wilson Vermillion, “Texas Jack” rode with Wyatt Earp on the legendary lawman’s Vendetta Ride of 1882 — and became one of the most fearsome gunfighters of the Old West.
Wikimedia CommonsJohn “ Texas Jack ” Vermillion was present at some of the most famous effect which shaped the legend of the Wild West .
No one recognise for sure how John Wilson Vermillion became “ Texas Jack , ” a famed gunfighter who gained lasting celebrity for his skill with a pistol and his association with the legendary Wyatt Earp . With a career that mirrored the pandemonium of American expanding upon and the growth of the xanthous press , Texas Jack Vermillion became a larger - than - lifetime case in dime novel and sensational paper story before gradually fading into the margins of popular culture .
For his time , though , Vermillion was no footnote but rather a cardinal player in a story which would inform and reign the American persuasion of the Wild West for over a century after his most famous feat . Texas Jack would be a viewer to , and participant in , some of the most iconic moments of Wild West fable .
Wikimedia CommonsJohn “Texas Jack” Vermillion was present at some of the most famous events which shaped the legend of the Wild West.
John Vermillion’s Hard Early Life
As a member of the Confederacy ’s 2nd Tennessee Cavalry , Vermillion was likely involve in the Battle of Fort Pillow , infamous for the butchery of African - American troops which followed .
John Vermillion was deport in 1842 in Russell County , Virginia , deep in the western niche of the state that juts into the Appalachian Mountains . small is recognise of his early life apart from his parents ’ name , William and Nancy Owens Vermillion , and his position as the second of 12 nipper .
After fighting in the American Civil Warin the Confederate Army ’s 2nd Tennessee Cavalry Regiment , Vermillion , like so many thousands of former soldiers , stray westward . He married Margaret Horton in Indiana just a few months after the war ’s end .
As a member of the Confederacy’s 2nd Tennessee Cavalry, Vermillion was likely involved in the Battle of Fort Pillow, infamous for the massacre of African-American troops which followed.
fortune seemed to be on Vermillion ’s side . He and Margaret moved to Missouri , where he convey a job as a United States Marshal , overseeing law enforcement in the state ’s eastern half . They had a daughter , Mary , and an infant Logos , whose name was never recorded . Jack ’s portion modify when he was away travel , as was frequently ask of marshals at that sentence . During one of his turn of duty , a diphtheria epidemic expose out in his phratry ’s town , exact the animation of his wife and youngster and leaving him lay waste to .
Jack Vermillion Moves Westward
Wikimedia CommonsVermillion spent a gravid deal of time in Dodge City , where Texas kine trails ended and cowboys oft got into violent trouble .
Vermillion ’s heartache behave him further westward , depositing him in the booming and lawless cattle townsfolk of Dodge City , Kansas , by the 1870s . There , he drank to a great extent , chance ofttimes , and found a reputation as a heady and violent gunfighter among the cowboys who travel there to spend their reward . He was wide known in the town ’s famously decadent public house , gambling room , and brothel .
It may have been during this time that he break up up the byname “ Texas Jack . ” When later asked about the inspiration behind the byname , he sardonically replied , “ Because I ’m from Virginia . ” The accuracy might have been that it acknowledge his penchant for mount powerful Texan quarter horse cavalry , or it may simply have been an off - hand appellative that happened to cohere .
Wikimedia CommonsVermillion spent a great deal of time in Dodge City, where Texas cattle trails ended and cowboys frequently got into violent trouble.
It was also during his stay in Dodge City that Texas Jack , for the first time , come into contact with four men who would change the course of his lifespan : the gambler Doc Holliday and Dodge City police officer Wyatt Earp , along with Earp ’s brother Virgil and Morgan .
Texas Jack Goes To Tombstone
Vermillion relocate to Tombstone with the Earps deep in the 1870s after , as Wyatt Earp put it , “ Dodge City was commence to lose much of its snap which had given it a magic spell to workforce of unsatisfied bloodline . ”
The Earp brothers bolt to Tombstone , Arizona in 1879 , and Texas Jack was n’t far behind . Vermillion had evidently earned the brother ’ trustingness , because when a blast sting down 60 Tombstone line , Virgil Earpdeputized Jack to corral looters and protect scorch plots of terra firma from squatters .
As presently as the Earps settled in Tombstone , they had begun grow tension with the Cochise County Cowboys , a loose chemical group of crook rancher , and an comrade namedJohnny Ringo . On October 26 , 1881 , after several hebdomad of death threat from the Cowboys , Wyatt Earp lead his pal and Doc Holliday to present the crook .
Vermillion relocated to Tombstone with the Earps late in the 1870s after, as Wyatt Earp put it, “Dodge City was beginning to lose much of its snap which had given it a charm to men of restless blood.”
The lawmen notice the criminal at the entrance to the O. K. Corral , where a short , bloody gunfight ensued , leaving three Cowboys idle in 30 seconds . One of the survivors would file execution charge against the Earps and Holliday , but the jurist decide that the evidence against the mankind was insufficient .
Despite the killings , the feud was far from over . On March 18 , 1882 , someone fired through the windowpane of a saloon where Morgan and Wyatt Earp were playing billiards . One bullet strike the wall behind Wyatt ’s head , and another blasted clear through Morgan ’s spine . After Morgan become flat the next sidereal day , Wyatt decided that it was time to take the law of nature into his own hands . He sent his wife , Mattie Blaylock , aside and piece a posse so he could get revenge .
The Earp Vendetta Ride
Wikimedia CommonsThe graves of the three Cochise County Cowboys killed at the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral , the first in a train of flaming incidents between the Cowboys and the Earps .
The two remaining Earps quickly rallied a posse of proven paladin , admit Holliday and Texas Jack , to scour Cochise County for the men believed responsible for Morgan ’s demise . Texas Jack was present at almost every major hitch or killing the group carried out over the next calendar month .
The most celebrated of these was the fight at Iron Springs . On their way to meet an comrade , the posse comitatus was surprised to discover a mathematical group of Cowboys go by outlaw “ Curly Bill ” Brocius . Though outnumber by outlaws , the vengeance riders surrounded the group and open fire . Vermillion ’s horse was inject from under him , forcing Doc Holliday to pull him liberal so he couldescape on Wyatt ’s Equus caballus . When the gage cleared , Curly Bill was bushed , and two of his companions were wounded .
Wikimedia CommonsThe graves of the three Cochise County Cowboys killed at the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the first in a string of bloody incidents between the Cowboys and the Earps.
Territorial confidence , run down of the bloodshed , issued collar warrants for the Earp posse , who hightail it over the moulding into Arizona . Wyatt Earp presently act on to other pursuits , but not before partnering with “ Texas Jack ” Vermillion one more time in Dodge City , where constable Dave Marrow deputized several famous gunmen to protect the Long Branch Saloon from law of closure during the bloodless conflict known as the Dodge City War .
Although the Dodge City War itself was n’t bloody , Jack ’s life remained so . While in Dodge , he vote out a posting beguiler and , accord to some histories , changed his soubriquet to “ blast - Your - Eye - Out - Jack ” after “ Texas Jack Vermillion ” appeared on a wanted poster .
The End Of Texas Jack
Wikimedia CommonsA comparison between the young Texas Jack and a supposed image of him as an old man . He is believed to have remarried and settled down peacefully in his aboriginal Virginia .
Texas Jack seemed concisely ready to sink down once more when he married Nancy “ Nannie ” Fleenor in Big Stone Gap , Virginia , but before long , he was back out west , having joined notorious conman “ Soapy ” Smith in Pocatello , Idaho . After one or two faint reports of gunfights in which he was require , Vermillion seems to have returned to Virginia to rejoin his married woman and two youngster , Opie and Minnie Bell .
Texas Jack was hard to pin down even in sure-enough years , with a persistent rumor go around that he ’d drown in Lake Michigan near Chicago around 1900 . The reality was likely much more routine : some trust that he returned to Virginia , took up a career as a Methodist preacher , anddied peacefully in his sleepin 1911 at the age of 69 .
Wikimedia CommonsA comparison between the young Texas Jack and a supposed image of him as an old man. He is believed to have remarried and settled down peacefully in his native Virginia.
After reading about the wild spirit of Texas Jack Vermillion , find out more about his friendDoc Holliday , perhaps the most famous dentist ever to have fired a heavy weapon . Then , plunk into the accuracy ofwhat really happened at the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral .
