Editing John Wesley Hardin (section)

==Background==

Born May 26, 1853 in Bonham Texas the son of the Rev Joseph "Gip" Hardin and Mary Elizabeth Dixson the second of ten children. His brother Joseph "Gip" Hardin Jr was three years older.

The Hardins were Southerners and politcially promient. His great-grandfather was North Carolina provincial Congressman Colonel Joseph Hardin the father of Congressman Martin D. Hardin of Ky and grandfather of Congressman John J. Hardin; relataives included Congressman Benjamin Hardin and Colonel John Hardin of Virgina
1861 Introduction to violenceEdit

In 1861 according to his own account Hardin's first exposure to violence came when a man named Turner Evans was stabbed by a John Rauff. Evans died of his injuries and Evans spent a few years in jail. Hardin later wrote '..Readers you see what drink and passion will do. If you wish to be successful in life, be temperate and control your passions; if you don't ruin and death is the result." In view of how Hardin's life would end, this was an unintentional irony on his part. In 1862 at the age of nine Hardin tried to run off and join the Rebel army.{Hardin Autobiography .pp.10-11}
1867-1869Edit

In 1867 a schoolmate named Charles Sloter claimed Hardin wrote a bit of doggeral about a local girl on a schoolboard. Hardin denied doing so and Sloter tried to stab Hardin with a knife. Hardin in his turn stabbed Sloter with his own knife and was almost expelled from school.Hardin Autobiography .p.11

This may not have been Hardin's first incident of Violence:

"No.302 Kaufman county, August 1867.- John Love, L.T.Nash, Joe Hardin, and J. Hardin {white} murdered Tom {colored}. These men constitu'ted themselves into a court 'and hanged a negro boy." Index to miscellaneous documents of the House of Representatives for the Second Session of the Fortieth Congress 1867-68 .p.18 {Texas} 1868

In 1868 at Moscow Texas Hardin enguaged in a wrestling match with a ex slave named Mage who had belonged to Judge Holshoven-a brother of Hardin's aunt. Hardin beat Mage and scratched his face. Hardin later claimed that he meet Mage near a creekbed and after the man shook a stick at him and cursed him, Hardin shot and mortally wounded Mage with a pistol.

While this killing can be confirmed {See James Smallwood "The Feud that Wasn't" .pp.105-106} Hardin claimed that when three yankee soldiers tried to arrest him, he ambushed them at crossing at Hickory Creek, Logallis Prairie-now Nogalus Texas {About 25 miles north of Sumpter, Texas} with a shotgun and pistol and killed all three. Locals hid the victiums in the creekbed about 100 yards from the ambush. {Hardin Autobiography .pp.11-14

Although offical records of the Fifth_Military_District {which comprised Texas and Louisiana} do not confirm Hardin's account of these latter deaths, there is some circumstantial evidence that indicates Hardin did commit murders here because about eighty years later human bones were found in the creekbed; however the identity of the victiums are unknown. { http://www.texasescapes.com/EastTexasTowns/Nogalus-Prairie-Texas.htm}

In 1869 Hardin fled to Pisguah, Navarro County Texas and teamed up with an outlaw named Frank Polk. Polk had killed a man named Tom Brady and Union soldiers sent out from Corsicana Texas {Flickr} to arrest both Polk and Hardin. Hardin escaped but Polk was captured; he was later killed September 23, 1878 after killing Wortham Texas City marshal Charles Powers {ODMP memorial}.

In Pisguah Hardin taught school for three months but deceided to learn the cattle trade and playing poker. Once to win a bet of a bottle of whiskey-which he collected years later-he shot a mans eye out with a pistol.Hardin Autobiography .p.16 Hardin also claimed that he and his cousin "Simp" Dixon were in a gunfight with Yankee Soldiers in Richland Bottom in which they each killed a soldier. Hardin Autobiography.p.17 {note reports of Simp Dixon with the "Bob Lee gang" can be found here at {Reference only}

Again Offical records do not confirm Hardin's account but on May 7, 1869 at Livingston Texas Sgt J.F. Leonard age 29 of Company B 6th US cavalry had a gunshot wound of thoracic parities

An 1895 account claims that before he killed Benjamin Bradley in 1870, Hardin killed a negro in Leon County Texas. {Dallas Morning News August 31, 1895}