Henry Newton Brown

Hired as assistant marshal in 1882 and later promoted to marshal, Henry Brown did not tell the city council about his past, which included cattle rustling, riding with Billy the Kid, and a trivial murder charge during the Lincoln County Wars. His law enforcement abilities became legendary in Caldwell, where he twice beat rowdys to the draw on Main Street and killed them, first Spotted Horse in May 1883 near this site and then Newt Boyce in December 1883 farther down the street. The citizens of Caldwell were so impressed that they gave him a new engraved Winchester rifle. On May 1, 1884, while on vacation from his Caldwell marshal duties, Brown and a few friends used that new rifle to rob the bank at Medicine Lodge, Kansas, and shot two bank employees. Brown was killed by a mob while attempting to escape, and his rifle is now on display in the Kansas Historical Museum in Topeka.

Caldwell, Kansas · United States