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    • April 5, 1873: Ford County Is Organized
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        • The Bull Fight at Dodge
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        • Dodge City Shootout: The Deaths of Levi Richason and Frank Loving
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        • The Hinkle-Heinz House (1881)
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        • The Mexican Village
        • The True Story of Clay Allison and Wyatt Earp
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        • Spearville, Kansas – City of Windmills
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        • Colonel Richard Dodge on Blizzards While at Fort Dodge, Kansas
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  • Books
    • DODGE CITY, the COWBOY CAPITAL
      • Table of Contents
      • Preface
      • Introduction
      • Chapter I. The Country, Time, and Conditions that Brought About Dodge City
      • Chapter II. Travel on Old Trails
      • Chapter III. Ranching in Early Days
      • Chapter IV. The Greatest Game Country on Earth
      • Chapter V. Indian Life of the Plains
      • Chapter VI. Wild Days with the Soldiers
      • Chapter VII. The Beginnings of Dodge City
      • Chapter VIII. Populating Boot Hill
      • Chapter IX. The Administration of Justice on the Frontier
      • Chapter X. The Passing of the Buffalo
      • Chapter XI. Joking with Powder and Ball
      • Chapter XII. When Conviviality Was the Fashion and the Rule
      • Chapter XIII. Resorts Other than Saloons, and Pastimes Other than Drinking
      • Chapter XIV. Where the Swindler Flourished and Grew Fat
      • Chapter XV. The Cattle Business and the Texas Drive
      • Chapter XVI. Distinguished Sojourners at Fort Dodge and Dodge City
      • Chapter XVII. The Great Decline and Subsequent Revival
      • Appendix
    • Early Ford County
      • Table of Contents
      • Acknowledgement
      • Preface
      • Foreword
      • CHAPTER ONE Peketon County Later Ford
      • CHAPTER TWO Along the Santa Fe Trail
      • CHAPTER THREE Dodge City Town Company
      • CHAPTER FOUR Dodge City and Other Towns
      • CHAPTER FIVE Organization of Ford County
      • CHAPTER SIX Buffalo Gold
      • CHAPTER SEVEN Indian Chief’s Narrow Escape
      • CHAPTER EIGHT Adobe Walls Fight
      • CHAPTER NINE Toll Bridge Gateway to the Southwest
      • CHAPTER TEN The Buffalo Trade
      • CHAPTER ELEVEN Cattle Men and Drives
      • CHAPTER TWELVE Men Who Made the West
      • CHAPTER THIRTEEN Dodge City Represented Ford County
      • CHAPTER FOURTEEN Newspapers in Ford County
      • CHAPTER FIFTEEN Business and Professional Men
      • CHAPTER SIXTEEN Early Day Men and a Diary
      • CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Dodge City a Sporting Town
      • CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Court House His Monument
      • CHAPTER NINETEEN A Good Place to Get a Start
      • CHAPTER TWENTY Herder Wagonmaster Lose Lives
      • CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Along the Sawlog
      • CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Tales of Early Day Youth
      • CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Dodge City Today Yesteryear
    • The Rath Trail
      • Table of Contents
      • Preface
      • Chapter 1: Quite a Start in Life
      • Chapter 2: Indian Alliance
      • Chapter 3: Indian Depredations
      • Chapter 4: An Act of Bravery Saves Two Lives
      • Chapter 5: Among the Comanches
      • Chapter 6: Indian Depredation Case
      • Chapter 7: A Brave Man on the Plains
      • Chapter 8: The Railroad Builds Westward
      • Chapter 9: The Men Who Returned
      • Chapter 10: The Buffalo Trade
      • Chapter 11: Cowboy Capital
      • Chapter 12: Indian Chief’s Peril
      • Chapter 13: Adobe Wall Trading Post
      • Chapter 14: Adobe Walls Fight
      • Chapter 15: Indian Depredation Loss
      • Chapter 16: Lone Tree Massacre
      • Chapter 17: Fort Griffin and the Flats
      • Chapter 18: Where the Rath Trail Led
      • Chapter 19: A Time of Change
      • Chapter 20: Rath City Evacuated
      • Chapter 21: Rath’s Freight Trains
      • Chapter 22: The Bull Fight
      • Chapter 23: End of the Trail
      • Illustrations
  • Collections
    • C. Robert Haywood Collection
      • Black Cowboy Influence on Racial Prejudice: Dodge City and Hodgeman Colony
      • Cowtown Courts
      • The Dodge City War
      • The Jones and Plummer Trail
      • Unplighted Troths: Causes for Divorce in a Frontier Town During the Last Quarter of the Nineteenth Century
  • People
    • Hamilton Butler Bell
    • Ida Ellen Cox [Rath]
    • Dr. Samuel Jay Crumbine
    • Wyatt Earp
      • “Calling the Turn”
      • Wyatt Barry Staap Earp’s Activities in Dodge City, KS
      • “Wyatt Earp Back in Town”
      • Wyatt Earp Deposition
      • Wyatt Earp Family History
      • Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal
    • “Big Nose” Kate Elder
    • Ben Hodges
    • John Henry “Doc” Holliday, D.D.S.
    • George Merritt Hoover
    • John Mueller
    • Frederick Carl Zimmermann
  • Projects
    • Coronado Cross
    • Dodge City Trail of Fame
    • Dust Bowl Oral History Project
      • Fort Dodge
      • Betty Cobb Braddock
      • Lois Flanagan Bryson
      • Lola Adams Crum
      • Clayton Hall
      • Leonard Kreutzer
      • Arthur W. Leonard
      • Floyd Russell Olson
      • Louis Sanchez
      • Irene Thompson
      • Juanita Wells
      • Elmer Wetzel
      • James A. “Jim” Williams
      • Project Credits
    • Ford County Legacy Center
    • Fort Dodge
    • Historic Cemetery Tour
    • Home of Stone Museum – Mueller-Schmidt House
      • Mueller-Schmidt House History
    • Landmark Arts Project
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Wyatt Earp Deposition

Concerning H. Gould (AKA, “Skunk Curley”)

From court proceedings, Sept. 20, 1878

State of Kansas

vs

H Gould alias

Skunk Curley

Filed this 27th

Day of Nov 1878

[signature indistinguishable]

Clerk

State of Kansas In Justice Court, before Lloyd Shinn

County of Ford Justice of the Peace, in and for Dodge

Township in the County aforesaid

State of Kansas

vs

H Gould alias

Skunk Cunley

Personally appeared before me Wyatt Earp who being duly sworn deposes and says that on the 20th day of September 1878 one Skunk Curley in and upon the body of one Fred Cogan then and there being did faloniously (sic) make an assault and faloniously did shoot at and wound with intent then and there faloniously, maliciously and on purpose to kill and murder him, the said Fred Cogan, and deponent prays that process may be issued against the said Skunk Curley and that he be dealt with according to law

Wyatt Earp

Sworn to and subscribed before me the 20th day of September A.D. 1878

Lloyd Shinn

Justice of the Peace

Warrant issued this 20th day of September A.D. 1878 directed to W.B. Masterson Sheriff of Ford County and returnable forthwith.

Subpeona [sic] issued on behalf of the State For Wyatt Earp, James Masterson, Josie [indistinguishable] and Fred Cogan.

Warrant returned this 20th day of September A.D. 1878 with the following endorsement thereon to wit: “Received this writ this 20th day of September A.D. 1878 served by arresting the within named Skunk Curley and having his body in court”. Serving warrant $.50 W.B. Masterson Sheriff

By Jas Masterson Deputy

And now, to wit: on this 20th day of September A.D. 1878 this cause being called for hearing, the defendant pleads “not guilty” and says that he waives his preliminary examination until the case can be heard by the District Court whereupon a [indistinguishable] was issued to the keeper of the Jail of Ford County directing him to hold the body of the said H Gould alias Skunk Curley until the said District Court shall convene or until a good and sufficient bond be given in the sum of Two Thousand Dollars for his appearance at the next term of the District Court.

Lloyd Shinn

State of Kansas

Ford County

I Lloyd Shinn, the undersigned Justice of the Peace of Dodge Township in said county, hereby certify that the foregoing is a true, full and complete copy from my Docket of the proceedings had by and before me at my office in said County, in the above action. Witness my hand at Dodge City in said County, On this 20th day of September A. D. 1878

Lloyd Shinn

Justice of the Peace

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June 15, 2025 - 2 - 4 PM

home of stone museum

112 E Vine St - Dodge City, Kansas

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