Clay Allison - Gunslinger
Clay Allison - Gunslinger
He had a clubfoot that did not seem to hamper his ability to perform active duty."Incapable of performing the duties of a soldier because of a blow received many years ago. Emotional or physical excitement produces paroxymals of a mixed character, partly epileptic and partly maniacal." Medical discharge of Clay Allison from the Confederate Army.
Thus Robert Clay Allison was discharged from the Tennessee Light Artillery of the Confederate States of America in 1862. Up until that time Clay had worked on his family's farm near Waynesboro, Tennessee. The War broke out and Clay immediately signed up to fight for the South. Having a clubfoot did not hinder his fighting capabilities. Instead, it was once said, he had threatened to kill his commanders because they would not go after Union troops that were running away from the fight.
While Clay was home after the medical discharge, a corporal with the Third Illinois Cavalry rode up to the family farm boldly telling of his plans to take everything he could get his hands on from the home. Showing the rough side of his nature, Allison strode to a closet where his guns were then calmly killed the soldier
.The War officially over on paper, Allison and his brothers Monroe and John, their sister Mary and her husband Lewis Coleman headed to the Brazos River in Texas. Once more Clay's temper was put to the test. Accusing Zachary Colbert, the ferryman, of overcharging them, Clay became furious, attacking Colbert, leaving him unconscious. The Allisons then rode across the Red River into Texas...free of charge.
In the cattle country of Texas, Clay seemed to settle down a bit, becoming an excellent cowhand, learning the ways of ranching. He met up with Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving in 1866 and rode with them as they began their famous Goodnight-Loving Trail that expanded through Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. In 1870 Allison went to work for M.L. Dalton and Isaac Lacy, two cattle ranchers who were also legends in their own time. All Allison wanted in payment was three hundred head of cattle, enough to start his own ranch in Colfax County, New Mexico Territory, a town called Cimarron.
"I have at all times tried to use my influence toward protecting the property holders and substantial men of the country from thieves, outlaws and murderers, among whom I do not care to be classed." Clay Allison in response to a Missouri newspaper which reported him with fifteen killings under his belt.
On October 7, 1870, Clay Allison showed the citizens of Elizabethtown, New Mexico, how mean and violent his temper was. The panicked wife of Charles Kennedy came to Clay telling him Kennedy had gone on a rampage, first killing some strangers that had arrived at their house then killing their own young daughter. Allison became enraged. Gathering together his drinking companions, the group rode out to the Kennedy place, finding a very drunk owner of the ranch.
Though no dead bodies laid in sight, Allison had so worked up the group of men he was with that they grabbed Kennedy and took him to the Elizabethtown jail. Meanwhile back at the ranch...bones were found, yet they had not been determined to be human. But to Allison who had reached his own verdict, the matter was already settled.
Allison and his companions exploded into the jail, knocked the deputies unconscious and took Kennedy, screaming and kicking, to the local slaughterhouse. Not only lynching the rancher, Allison decapitated the corpse, riding the twenty-nine miles to Cimarron with the head on a pole. Proudly he displayed it in Lambert's saloon. To Clay, justice had been served...his way.
"Because I didn't want to send a man to hell on an empty stomach." Clay Allison after dining with then killing Chunk Colbert.
Riding into Cimarron in 1874, Chunk Colbert came looking for a fight and he knew the man he was looking for. He wanted revenge, revenge for a relative, possibly Chunk's uncle, who had been mistreated by this man, none other than Zachary Colbert, the ferryman at the Brazos River who had wanted to overcharge the Allison family as they made their way into Texas. Chunk had carried the anger with him all those years and now the score needed to be settled.
Chunk Colbert was a bad hombre, credited with at least seven killings. Allison would make number eight...a nice, even number, Colbert told himself. At first Colbert challenged Allison to a horserace, horses lathered, the race ended in a draw.
At the Clifton House, the men decided to dine together. Talk was friendly, both men enjoying the large meal spread out before them. But Allison's eyes were sharp...they had seen Colbert reach for his pistola, but Clay's reaction was quicker than Colbert's actions. Allison's bullet found a home above Chunk's right eye.
Clay's antagonist was buried behind the Clifton House. Charles Cooper, a friend of the late Mr. Colbert, decided to avenge his friend's death. He was last seen riding out to the Allison ranch on January 19, 1874...then never seen again. Though most came to the conclusion Allison had killed the man, no evidence was ever found to prove their suspicions.
The self-proclaimed shootist's actions began to become more bizarre as time went on. It was reported he stripped to nothing but his hat, boots and guns while in Canadian, Texas, looking for a fight with somebody, anybody. No one was willing to take him on. Another time, Allison rode totally naked on his horse up and down the streets of the town, whooping and hollering, declaring drinks were on him at the local saloon. Allison and drinking companion Mason (Mace) Bowman, who wanted Allison dead, instead got drunk with him. Stripped to the longjohns and drunk, the two men began firing at the feet of the other, determining who did the better dance while being shot at.
October 1875 saw Clay Allison once more becoming involved in a lynching. Cruz Vega had been charged with murder in Colfax County. Bodily taken from the jail, screaming his innocence, Vega was hanged from a telegraph pole. So "to put the poor Mex out of his misery," Clay shot the man in the back, the Mexican man's body now still. When the corpse had been cut down, Allison had it tied behind his horse then galloped through the streets of the town into the rough terrain of the New Mexico land. When he had finished, Vega was unrecognizable. Cutting the body from the horse, Allison rode back to town, leaving Vega's body for the buzzards of the desert.
In November 1875, Cruz's employer, Francisco Pancho Griego, rode into Cimarron with Cruz's eighteen year old son and Griego's partner Florencio Donahue. The trio were looking for Allison. The shootist met the men then invited then to the saloon, talk being somewhat friendly. However as Griego removed his sombrero to fan himself, hiding the pistola he carried, Allison's eyes proved quicker. As the lights in the saloon quickly flashed out, gunshots were heard. When the lights were relit, Griego laid on the floor, bullet to the heart. Allison with the small pistol gripped in the palm of his hand had disappeared into the night.
It finally came to the point where the citizens of Colfax County grew weary of the shootist and his antics, having to walk on eggshells around his temper. A petition was begun to get rid of this menace, Allison's own brother-in-law, Lewis Coleman, being one of the many who wanted him out of the county.
One loyal companion was Clay's brother John. In December 1876 the two had just come off the trail from selling cattle and decided to have their fun in Las Animas, Colorado. Spotting a local social going on, the two drunk cowboys crashed the party, dancing with very unwilling partners. Clay's reputation had proceeded him already.
Charles Faber who was the deputy sheriff as well as the town marshal requested the Allison brothers to remove their weapons, however, his request went unheard. Faber deputized two local men then with shotgun in hand, led them back into the social. "Look out!" someone warned as the law officials came through the door. As brother John reached for his gun, Faber shot him. Clay, who was at the bar, quickly spun around, guns aimed at a deadly level. Firing four shots at Faber, one proving to be fatal, the deputy fell to the ground, the deadly bullet in his chest. John had been shot in the chest and arm then again in the leg as Faber's shotgun discharged as the lawmen fell to the floor.
The two deputized men ran from the dance hall, Allison behind them in pursuit. Luckily the men escaped Allison's wrath.
As Clay ran back into the dance hall, calling for a doctor, he slid over to his brother, bringing Faber's body with him. "Look here," Allison told his badly injured brother, "this man is dead, John, not to worry, vengeance is ours! Not to worry!"
John Allison went on to recover from his gunwounds; Clay's proclamation of self-defense standing.
Colfax County had had enough of the likes of Clay Allison. When people refused to do business with him, Clay, moved to Hemphill County, Texas. While there he acquired a wife and a daughter Patsy was born. Another daughter, Clay, was born after her father's death. However Clay still couldn't give up life in New Mexico. Buying a ranch in Lincoln County, he did quite well for himself.
One story that took place shortly after Clay's purchase of the new ranch happened in Cheyenne, Wyoming after a long, hard trail drive. With a toothache, Clay visited the local dentist. Already Allison's reputation had proceeded him, the dentist trembling with the thought of who was in his chair. Unfortunately the dentist worked on the wrong tooth. Allison left, going to another dentist who did the job correctly. But Clay was not about to let the other event vanish into oblivion.
Going back to the first dentist, Clay held the man down in the dental chair and was doing his best to extract every tooth in the man's mouth. The dentist's screams were heard and men came in to pull the angry Allison away from the petrified dentist.
Whether Clay Allison "...was in truth a villain or a gentleman is a question that many never settled to their own satisfaction. Certain it is that many of his stern deeds were for the right as he understood that right to be." a Kansas newspaper editor wrote after Allison had been killed in a bizarre buckboad accident.
Did Clay Allison have a knife fight to the death in a freshly dug grave, he and the other party stripped naked, the grave to belong to the dead participant? Much speculation has been given through the years if the event happened or not. Some historians say yes, some say no, and others say it would have happened if Allison had not been killed in an untimely accident.
July 1, 1878, was a typical hot Texas day. Clay was returning from Pecos, Texas, with a wagon full of supplies. Some say he may have been drinking while others said a sack of grain fell from the load, Allison trying to grab for it, but whichever was true, it cost Clay Allison his life. Allison fell from the wagon and underneath one of its wheels. As the horses reared and lurched forward, Allison's neck was crushed by the heavy buckboard, almost being decapitated. Poetic justice for one who several years earlier decapitated a man himself?
Clay Allison's short life of forty-seven years was an every day adventure, void of boredom. From rustling cattle to lynching to coining the term "shootist," Clay's life was as explosive as his temper but as successful as his life as a rancher.
