One of my ancestors bested Frank James-with Jesse James as referee-in a bareknuckled brawl to keep his prized horse, near Lenox, Iowa, during the aftermath of the infamous Northfield Raid.Īnother possible ancestor was the notorious Dan 'Dynamite Dick' Clifton, who won his nickname by blowing himself out the side of a moving train while trying to crack a safe. They were sodbusters, carpenters, mechanics, horsebrokers, outlaws, lawmen, some of the first corn-growers in Iowa, wheat-growers in Montana, and 'Okies' driven out of the Depression-era dustbowl. There are not many Old West roles that some of them didn't play.
My ancestors lived, worked, settled, unsettled, and died on the Old West frontier, on both sides of my family and both sides of the law.
