Henry Newton Brown was a famous gunslinger, outlaw, and lawman of the Wild West.
Brown was born in Missouri and raised by his Uncle Jasper and Aunt Aldamira until the age of seventeen. At the age of seventeen, he headed west to find a better life for himself.
He drifted awhile and tried his hand at being a cowboy but eventually turned to a life of crime and eventually a lawman.
Lincoln County War
In 1877, Brown landed in the New Mexico Territory and became involved in the Lincoln County War. The citizens of Lincoln County were thrown into a cattle war when John Tunstall was murdered. A group called the Regulators was formed and deputized.
Brown joined Billy the Kid, Doc Scurlock, Charlie Bowdre, and the other Regulators.
On April 1, 1878, Brown participated in the ambush and murder of Sheriff William Brady. Brady was indirectly responsible for the murder of John Tunstall since he supported Murphy's gang.
A few days after the death of Sheriff Brady, Brown participated in the Gunfight at Blazer's Mill. This gunfight took place between some of the regulators and Buckshot Roberts. After a violent back and forth between the regulators and Roberts, Richard Brewer was dead, and Buckshot Roberts received a fatal wound from Charlie Bowdre.
The Lincoln County Regulators, fugitives now for the Brady killing, spent the next several months in hiding. Then, on July 15, 1878, they became trapped, along with one of Tunstall's partners, Alexander McSween, in McSween's home in Lincoln by members of "The House" and some of Brady's men.
Henry Brown was one of three Regulators not actually in McSween's house at the time but instead was sniping at Brady's men from a grain warehouse behind the Tunstall store.
He escaped with Billy the Kid and the others when Murphy's men set fire to the house. McSween was shot down while fleeing the blaze, and his death essentially marked the end of the Lincoln County Cattle War.
Outlaw to Lawman
In the fall of that year, Brown, Billy the Kid, and a few of the remaining Regulators trailed a herd of rustled horses to the little town of Tascosa in the Texas Panhandle.
After the horses were sold, the Regulators returned to their old haunts, but Brown, named in two murder warrants in the state of New Mexico, wisely remained in Texas, where he eventually became a lawman.
It has not been established whether he was a deputy sheriff of Oldham County, Texas, Marshal of Tascosa, or a constable.
He had a quick temper and was quickly dismissed because he "was always wanting to fight and get his mane up."
Brown thereafter drifted through the (Oklahoma) Indian Territory and into Kansas, working on ranches. In July 1882, when about 25 years old, he settled in Caldwell, Kansas, a rough cattle town comparable to Dodge City and Abilene, where he was first appointed Assistant Marshal of the city, then promoted to marshal about five months later.
The Chisholm Trail met the Santa Fe tracks in Caldwell, and as the terminus of the trail, it had a long history of violence.
Brown, an outlaw turned lawman, and Ben Wheeler, who had been a former Texas lawman turned outlaw, joined forces (with Wheeler as Assistant Marshal) and effectively cleaned up the town.
Brown was described by contemporaries as a "very much undersized" man who didn't smoke, drink, chew, or gamble and was noted to be in regular attendance at the Methodist Church.
Said to be "exceedingly modest and, in fact, bashful," he displayed an introvert presence but "gained the entire confidence of the people... and... conducted himself in such a manner that the doors of society were always open to him."
But, "he had a square-set jaw, not unlike that of a bulldog," and "his face indicated firmness and a lack of physical fear." "His words were few and parted with reluctantly," and when duty called, Brown's demeanor changed immediately.
He was easily angered: his temper flared instantly, and his outwardly meek manner transformed into one of deadly grave purpose.
One contemporary commented that "he was a two-gun man. He could take a six-shooter in each hand and make one think a battle was on."
From the grateful community, in appreciation for his service, he was given an extensively engraved, gold and silver mounted Winchester rifle.
A silver medallion was affixed to the stock inscribed: "Presented to City Marshal H. N. Brown For valuable services rendered On behalf of the Citizens of Caldwell Kas A. N. Colson Mayor Dec 1882"
Brown killed a gambler, Newt Boyce, with the rifle (in the line of duty) on December 16, 1883. Another killing attributed to Brown in Caldwell was that of Spotted Horse, a renegade Indian.
Henry Brown gained status in the higher realms of Caldwell society when he married Alice Maude Levagood, the daughter of a well-to-do Caldwell brickmaker.
Alice had a college degree rare for females of that era.
Marshal Brown and his assistant kept the town clean, and by the time they were appointed to their third term, they were lauded by the citizens as the best and most effective team of lawmen the town had ever had.
Medicine Valley Bank Robbery and Death
In April 1884, Brown and Wheeler created a story convincing the mayor to give them leave to travel into the Indian Territory to hunt a murderer. With two Cherokee Outlet cowboys, William Smith and John Wesley, they rode to Medicine Lodge, Kansas, and attempted to rob the Medicine Valley Bank.
Almost immediately, their attempt fell apart in disaster when gunfire erupted, and two of the bank officers were shot. Most conventional accounts name Brown as bank president Wylie Payne's murderer.
Wheeler shot George Geppert, the bank's chief cashier who, just before he died, sealed the vault, preventing the robbers from escaping with any money.
Brown and the outlaws fled under fire, pursued by a posse composed of 12 cowboys that happened to be in a stable directly across the street from the bank. The four fugitives, closely pursued by the posse, unwittingly rode into a box canyon several miles south of the town and were eventually forced to surrender. They died a month longer.
Later, incarcerated in the town's small jail, they anticipated a lynch mob and were offered the opportunity to write letters to their loved ones. Brown did write a poignant letter to his wife.
It read in part:
Darling Wife: I am in jail here. Four of us tried to rob the bank here, and one man shot one of the men in the bank. I want you to come and see me as soon as you can. I will send you all of my things, and you can sell them. But keep the Winchester. It is hard for me to write this letter, but it was all for you, my sweet wife, and for the love I have for you.
Do not go back on me. If you do, it will kill me. Be true to me as long as you live, and come to see me if you think enough of me. My love is just the same as it always was. Oh, how I did hate to leave you last Sunday evening. But I did not think this would happen.
I thought we could take in the money and not have any trouble with it, but a man's fondest hopes are sometimes broken with trouble. We would not have been arrested, but one of our horses gave out, and we could not leave him [the rider] alone.
I do not know what to write. Do the best you can with everything. I want you to send me some clothes. Sell all the things you don't need. Have your picture taken and send it to me. Now, my dear wife, go and see Mr. Witzleben and Mr. Nyce and get the money.
If a mob does not kill us, we will come out all right after a while. Maude, I did not shoot anyone and didn't want the others to kill anyone. But they did, and that is all there is about it. Now, my darling wife, goodbye. H. N. Brown.
Henry Newton Brown was shot point-blank range with a shotgun while trying to escape the lynch mob. As great as his reputation was as a lawman, it was lost when he turned outlaw again and tried to rob a bank.
He was only 27 years old.