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GUN FIGHTS OF THE EARLY WEST
My Dad and I have always been a fan of John Slaughter, he was a real life gun fighter (friend of the Earp’s and neighbor to the Clanton’s. My father was really interested in the gun fights of this period and did allot of research on several of these characters (interested in numbers of these guys that got shot, numbers of those involved and the big one - number of rounds fired). We all know about the fight at the OK Corral, but what is interesting was how many were wounded and how many rounds were fired.
(I'll tell you later why the big interest in the Earp's.)
Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday
The Gunfight at the OK Corral was one of the most famous gun battles that only lasted just 30 seconds with approximately 30 shots being fired.
[My father researched the cartridges found at the fight, the brand and who had that make in their guns and cartridge belts. A half dozen follow researchers had these figures down pat.]
This event has been the subject of numerous books and movies, some of them becoming Western classics like the movie “Tombstone”. What is often overlooked is that the Earp’s had been in Tombstone for almost two years when the gunfight occurred. During this time, Tombstone grew from a tent city of a few hundred people to the largest city in the territory with over 7,000 residents. The mines of Tombstone were rich, and satellite towns were developed to provide ore processing centers for the mines, and as supply and transportation hubs.
Prior to the discovery of silver, the outlaws in the area held power over their territory, and for the most part conducted their criminal activities with impunity. The influx of thousands of miners and related capital interests resulted in the arrival of federal lawmen to the area.
• However, most movies about the gunfight fail to capture the true scope of this event, both in the length of the feud between the Earp’s and the Cowboys, and the dramatic events happening in and around the silver boom town of Tombstone, events which ultimately fueled the conflict.
Note: The Gunfight at the OK Corral did not actually take place at the OK Corral, but rather at a spot nearby Tombstone. The location of the gun battle was incorrectly identified as the OK Corral in early books and films, and the shootout became known by that name. The gunfight occurs on October 26, 1881, killing Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton. Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp, and Doc Holliday are wounded. Wyatt Earp is not injured in the shootout.
There is more information about this event than most are willing to read in one setting, my father was an expert on this event and our connection to Wyatt Earp.
His Interest in Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp,
Earp was (born March 19, 1848, Monmouth, Illinois, U.S.—died January 13, 1929, Los Angeles, California).
The reason I showed this is my Great Uncle George "Buck" Conner (Connor) was one of Wyatt Earp's casket bearers, being a friend of the Earp family. (explained later)
Horton Slaughter
Horton Slaughter typified the 19th century rawhide-tough breed who settled and tamed the wild Southwest border country. He was born in 1841 in Sabine Parish, Louisiana and brought as an infant to Texas. His father, Ben, was a cattleman engaged in rounding up wild longhorn cattle in the brush country of south Texas. When John was fourteen the family moved to Pleasanton, in the San Antonio area. During the Civil War he joined the Confederate Army but was mustered out in 1862 because of tuberculosis. He immediately enlisted in the Texas Rangers and spent the next few years fighting Indians.
In 1871 John and his two brothers, Charlie and Billy gathered some wild cattle and started the San Antonio Ranch but soon he went out on his own. It was said that on cattle drives he’d start out with 500 head and by the time he reached the market he’d have some 3,000 head wearing his brand. Old timers would later say Slaughter’s cows were a biological phenomenon because each cow had eight or more calves a year.
He stood only 5’6” and had dark penetrating eyes. He always believed he was protected by a guardian angel and couldn’t be killed. The many times he stared death in the eye seemed to bear that out. I’ll die in bed,” he declared, and he did, eventually.
Slaughter liked to smoke cigars, play poker and he had a hot temper. He was a product of frontier life, a lawless and violent post Civil War era. He had no problem killing a man if he believed the man needed killing. He packed a pearl-handled .44 and a shotgun. Some said he was a good man and some said he was not such a good man but there was no doubt, John Slaughter was all man.
Slaughter might have killed twenty men or more but he never said. One of his deputies described him as “a man of few words and he used them damn seldom.”
After he became sheriff of Cochise County in 1887 he issued a warning to the rustler gangs, “get out or get shot.” Most took his advice and left the country. Those who didn’t usually wound up fertilizer for spring flowers. In running outlaws to the ground he frequently acted as judge, jury and executioner. Nobody asked questions but law-abiding citizens were glad the undesirables were gone and wouldn’t return, “His name is Slaughter, alright,” said one Tombstone observer, “but he wasn’t in any way the sort of a man we used to call a ‘killer.’ He didn’t like to shoot people. He did it simply because it was in the days work, was his duty, and it was for a good purpose.”
When dealing with the lawless element John Slaughter was ruthless, but he had another side too. He met Eliza Adeline Harris, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy Texas rancher. John was 30 and ready to settle down but her mother opposed the marriage. However, love won out and the two were married in 1871 in San Antonio. Two of their four children died in infancy.
While traveling across Arizona in 1877 John decided Texas was too crowded and he began planning a move to Arizona. Eliza and the children would join him there. Sadly, she contracted smallpox during her trip and died soon after she arrived in Phoenix. The two surviving children were stricken and quarantined by the dreaded disease, but John tenderly nursed them back to health.
It was soon after this tragic event that one of John Slaughter’s most famous gunfights occurred. His adversary was a New Mexico cattle rustler named Barney Gallagher, “the Man from Bitter Creek,” in 1876. After warning Gallagher to stay away from his here during a drive the rustler returned and charged Slaughter with a shotgun and two blazing .45’s. After Slaughter shot his horse out from under him, Gallagher got up and charged again. Slaughter coolly dropped him in his tracks.
Gallagher’s last words were “I needed killin’ twenty years ago anyway.”
However, New Mexico governor, Lew Wallace, saw it differently and declared Slaughter number one on his wanted list. Also, among those was number fourteen, William Bonney.
In 1879, he had Slaughter arrested for murder, but the cowman was soon released for lack of evidence. Slaughter decided it was time to leave New Mexico.
After the death of Eliza, John Slaughter believed he’d never marry again but while driving cattle near the Pecos River, south of Roswell, cupid struck again, this time it was eighteen-year-old Cora Viola Howell, the beautiful daughter of cattleman Amazon Howell and his wife, Mary Ann. Her father was overjoyed at the prospect, but his future mother-in-law went into hysterics. John was twice her daughter’s age and he had two small children that she’d have to raise. But Mary Ann soon gave in and eventually became one of his biggest fans. Their marriage lasted more than forty years.
The newlyweds settled first in the Sulphur Springs Valley but soon moved over the San Pedro River near Tombstone, then to Charleston where he opened a meat market.
Charleston AZ.
At time, the Earp-Cowboy feud was going strong but Slaughter didn’t take sides. He had no love, however, for his neighbors, the Clanton’s. He’d been missing cattle and one day caught Ike on his range. He warned Ike that he would kill him and his kin if it happened again. It didn’t, and the rustling stopped.
Our Famous Clan Member
George Washington "Buck" Conner son of William L Conner and Leah Bowen, born in Streator, LaSalle County, Illinois. Mr. Conner was born on November 22, 1880, he wasted little time in living a full life that even the most imaginative writers wouldn't believe.
George was my grandfather Leroy N. Conner Sr.’s first cousin. He was a bantam rooster of a man who served in the Spanish-American War, had ridden in the Buffalo Bill Show and had been a Texas Ranger.
• George Washington “Buck” Conner (several different spellings used in movies)
• Date of birth not clear, death 1947 * Wife – unknown, family – unknown.
• Both were buried at Yuma, AZ.
Amidst a jumble of old machinery across the road opposite the Quartzsite Yacht Club is a fourteen-foot-square fenced plot of ground which is the grave site of George Washington "Buck" Conner. The grave site can be viewed by driving into the West end of the parking lot at Ted's Truck Stop.
Note on his headstone his name is spelled Conner - Served in both the Army and Navy during the Spanish American War of 1898, and while in the Navy, he was recommended for the “Congressional Medal Of Honor” for saving the lives of three shipmates during a shipboard fire. He did not receive the medal because his heroic actions did not take place during actual combat, one of the basic requirements for qualifying for the “Medal Of Honor”.
Buck - G. W. Conner’s journal stated that “ants and snakes when cleaned and roasted were eaten with flour cakes for evening meals while in the employment of the US Army as a reporter ....” and “was probably one of the better meals available at the time”. He recorded what was going on with the border wars in weekly articles in the evening news across the country. When the Mexican Army put out an order to kill all America reporters he sent his typewriter and camera back to the US Army. He was shown according to Service Records he joined the fight in Mexico taking on the crossed bandoliers and riding with Poncho Francisco Villa in those wars fought below the border.
Mexican tri-color ribbon.
During the Revolution he was commissioned to go to Mexico and take movies of the battles. His final assignment was to cover the War in Mexico at the end of the century.
In the center is “Gringo” Buck Conner talking to other members of the small band of adventurers during the height of the Mexican Revolution. Seen here with his sugarloaf sombrero and wearing the crossed bandoliers of ammo over his shoulders.
For the fun of it watch the movie “Gringo” (Hollywood's take off of this man's life).
This young lady was reported as Conner’s mistress which he disputed years later when married.
These pictures were the sole property of the one that took them, later that changed becoming the property of the US Army.
These fine gentlemen were the kind that Conner rode with and remarked how much he liked all of the mercenary types. “Good Men Every One of Them”.
Buck had straddled quite a few cow ponies during his growing up years. After the Spanish American War Buck joined the famous Buffalo Bill Wild West Show as a performer. Buck Stayed with the show for several years and became the Manager for all the Indians who performed in the show. He became a close friend of Buffalo Bill, so much so that Cody would write to him affectionately as "one of the old guard" even years after Buck left the show.
When the opportunity was offer him, Conner was commissioned as a private with the Texas Rangers and served as a Ranger for over two years. After he left the Texas Rangers, he was assigned by one of the first motion picture companies from St. Louis, MO. to go south of the border and take movies of the fighting during the Mexican Revolution in the early 1910's though Buck was physically small in stature, he was cut from the same cloth as the earlier cowboys of the old west. Buck ended up fighting in the revolution instead of merely taking motion pictures of it.
After his service in the Mexican Revolution, Conner joined the Pawn Bill Wild West Show and performed in it for a number of years.
With the "cowboy" exposure and through the contacts he had made while taking motion pictures in Mexico, it was inevitable that Conner was offered jobs in some of the first silent movies, all of them Westerns of course. From 1916 on, he starred in many leading roles in the old one and two reelers of the silent film era, and he became a member of that elite handful of real cowboys who went on to become reel cowboys as well. As one of the earliest of movie cowboys he counted amongst his closest friends was trail pards like Will Rogers and cowboy artist Charles Russell. Conner was one of the last persons that Rogers correspond with, receiving a telegram from Rogers on the same day that Rogers and Wile Post were killed in Alaska.
In later years, Conner shifted from starring roles to playing classic western characters of every type, usually appearing as a miner, preacher, or saloon bum. Unlike many silent movie cowboys who's voices betrayed them when talkies came along, Conner shifted into the era of sound as easily as he sat a horse. Amongst other movies that he made, he was much in evidence in one of Gary Cooper's first movies, "The Plainsman", but Conner was most often seen in Saturday matinee as Buck Jones or Bob Steele's sidekick.
NOTE He uses his last name spelled different for the movies roles.(Connor, O’Connor, Connors).
When asked about the name differences he replied “If the film was liked I took credit, if not liked I told them it wasn’t me someone else with a like name” then smiled.
He was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild and the Chuck Wagon Trailer's Association, the latter of which was an early cowboy actors union, and, as an ordained minister, he was also chaplain of that organization.
Buck found time to become technical advisor and ghost writer for some of Marguerite Bowers' early novels, the most famous of which was.
In the 1920's, many members of the Hollywood movie colony discovered the beautiful winter air of Quartzsite and built winter homes here. Among them was Conner, who ended up owning the entire 160-acre section of what is now the west side of Quartzsite.
Conner's ranch house is still standing, windmill and all, just south of Interstate 10 between the highway and Desert Gardens Estates. He also built a church and a museum, which was located almost directly across the old highway from the Hi Jolly tomb and Quartzsite cemetery. Ironically, after standing for almost half a century, the church and museum building was directly in the path of the tornado that swept through Quartzsite years ago, and the building was almost totally demolished.
Buck was a skilled horseman during his growing years. After the Spanish American War he joined the famous Buffalo Bill Wild West Show as a performer. Staying with the show for several years and becoming the Manager for all the Indians who performed in the show. He became a close friend of Buffalo Bill, so much so that Cody would write to him affectionately as "one of the old guard" even years after Buck left the show.
Buck is fourth from the left.
Buck is third from the right.
Conner was commissioned as a private in the Texas Rangers and served as a Ranger for several years. After leaving the Texas Rangers, he was assigned by one of the first motion picture companies in St. Louis, MO. to go south of the border and take movies of the fighting during the Mexican Revolution in the early 1900's, he was physically small in stature, he was cut from the same cloth as the earlier cowboys of the old west. Buck ended up fighting in the revolution instead of merely taking motion pictures of it.
Buck was involved with the capture of Tom Powers when working as a deputy for Joseph P. Dillon, the US Marshall in charge of the Tucson/Phoenix AZ Offices.
Conner also became interested in flying and was one of the earliest licensed pilots in California and Arizona. He built the airstrip which is just south of his old ranch house and just north of Desert Gardens. During World War II, he was assigned to train Army pilots in low level flying while they were based at his air strip, which, at that time was dubbed Conner Field.
Buck was still active in the movies and was even carrying a Yuma County Deputy Sheriff's I.D. card and badge and his favorite little ’49 Colt Pocket Revolver five-shooter that he had carried throughout his various careers when he died of a heart attack while visiting Yuma on February 4, 1947. His story doesn't end there, for, besides leading an action-packed life, he left behind him a mysterious legacy that will probably never be solved.
The members of these photos were close friends & associates whether in Show Business, Law Enforcement or the other side of the Law.
DEATH OF AN OLD FRIEND
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929) was an American Hero and a personal friend of Conner’s knowing each other from the films to law enforcement. When Earp died in 1929, he was known as a Western lawman, gunfighter, and boxing referee.
Earp had a notorious reputation for both his handling of the Fitzsimmons-Sharkey fight and his role in the O.K. Corral gun fight. This only began to change after his death when an extremely flattering biography was published in 1931.
Earp’s funeral was held at the Congregational Church on Wilshire Boulevard. Earp's pallbearers were William Hunsaker, (Earp's attorney in Tombstone and noted LA attorney); Jim Mitchell (Los Angeles Examiner reporter and Hollywood screenwriter), George W. Parsons (founding member of Tombstone's "Committee of Vigilance"), Wilson Mizner (a friend of Wyatt's during the Klondike Gold Rush), John Clum (a good friend from Tombstone, former Tombstone mayor, and editor of The Tombstone Epitaph), Willaim S. Hart (good friend and western actor and silent film star), Tom Mix and George B. Conner (friends and western film stars). Mitchell wrote Wyatt's local obituary. The newspapers reported that Tom Mix and Buck Conner both cried during their friend's service.
During his lifetime, Mr. Conner had accumulated many souvenirs from his activities, most of which were displayed in the museum at his church. Charles Russell, for one, had given him over a dozen of his oil painting, including a life size oil portrait of Buffalo Bill that Russell had painted especially for Conner on the smooth side of a buffalo hide. There were also a couple of filling cabinet drawers full of letters from Russell, most of which had hand painted water-color logos done by Russell as a letterhead, which was Russell's custom in writing to his close friends.
Like their famous relation the rest of the family has the same disease of accumulating souvenirs from past ventures. The Conner’s souvenirs were many with one item of which is this 1849 Colt Pocket Revolver conversion carried by George Buck Conner until his death. A family member gave this revolver to my father after his passing.
This well used revolver has seen many adventures from the Villa period through George’s years in the movies and law enforcement. He told my grandfather if it still worked, he carried it, this was his old friend, he considered a backup piece. My father always said this was his all-time favorite relative and called me Buck most of the time, unless I did something or didn’t listen to his advice then the names became more colorful.
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GUN FIGHTS OF THE EARLY WEST
My Dad and I have always been a fan of John Slaughter, he was a real life gun fighter (friend of the Earp’s and neighbor to the Clanton’s. My father was really interested in the gun fights of this period and did allot of research on several of these characters (interested in numbers of these guys that got shot, numbers of those involved and the big one - number of rounds fired). We all know about the fight at the OK Corral, but what is interesting was how many were wounded and how many rounds were fired.
(I'll tell you later why the big interest in the Earp's.)
Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday
The Gunfight at the OK Corral was one of the most famous gun battles that only lasted just 30 seconds with approximately 30 shots being fired.
[My father researched the cartridges found at the fight, the brand and who had that make in their guns and cartridge belts. A half dozen follow researchers had these figures down pat.]
This event has been the subject of numerous books and movies, some of them becoming Western classics like the movie “Tombstone”. What is often overlooked is that the Earp’s had been in Tombstone for almost two years when the gunfight occurred. During this time, Tombstone grew from a tent city of a few hundred people to the largest city in the territory with over 7,000 residents. The mines of Tombstone were rich, and satellite towns were developed to provide ore processing centers for the mines, and as supply and transportation hubs.
Prior to the discovery of silver, the outlaws in the area held power over their territory, and for the most part conducted their criminal activities with impunity. The influx of thousands of miners and related capital interests resulted in the arrival of federal lawmen to the area.
• However, most movies about the gunfight fail to capture the true scope of this event, both in the length of the feud between the Earp’s and the Cowboys, and the dramatic events happening in and around the silver boom town of Tombstone, events which ultimately fueled the conflict.
Note: The Gunfight at the OK Corral did not actually take place at the OK Corral, but rather at a spot nearby Tombstone. The location of the gun battle was incorrectly identified as the OK Corral in early books and films, and the shootout became known by that name. The gunfight occurs on October 26, 1881, killing Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton. Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp, and Doc Holliday are wounded. Wyatt Earp is not injured in the shootout.
There is more information about this event than most are willing to read in one setting, my father was an expert on this event and our connection to Wyatt Earp.
___________________________________
His Interest in Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp,
Earp was (born March 19, 1848, Monmouth, Illinois, U.S.—died January 13, 1929, Los Angeles, California).
The reason I showed this is my Great Uncle George "Buck" Conner (Connor) was one of Wyatt Earp's casket bearers, being a friend of the Earp family. (explained later)
Horton Slaughter
Horton Slaughter typified the 19th century rawhide-tough breed who settled and tamed the wild Southwest border country. He was born in 1841 in Sabine Parish, Louisiana and brought as an infant to Texas. His father, Ben, was a cattleman engaged in rounding up wild longhorn cattle in the brush country of south Texas. When John was fourteen the family moved to Pleasanton, in the San Antonio area. During the Civil War he joined the Confederate Army but was mustered out in 1862 because of tuberculosis. He immediately enlisted in the Texas Rangers and spent the next few years fighting Indians.
In 1871 John and his two brothers, Charlie and Billy gathered some wild cattle and started the San Antonio Ranch but soon he went out on his own. It was said that on cattle drives he’d start out with 500 head and by the time he reached the market he’d have some 3,000 head wearing his brand. Old timers would later say Slaughter’s cows were a biological phenomenon because each cow had eight or more calves a year.
He stood only 5’6” and had dark penetrating eyes. He always believed he was protected by a guardian angel and couldn’t be killed. The many times he stared death in the eye seemed to bear that out. I’ll die in bed,” he declared, and he did, eventually.
Slaughter liked to smoke cigars, play poker and he had a hot temper. He was a product of frontier life, a lawless and violent post Civil War era. He had no problem killing a man if he believed the man needed killing. He packed a pearl-handled .44 and a shotgun. Some said he was a good man and some said he was not such a good man but there was no doubt, John Slaughter was all man.
Slaughter might have killed twenty men or more but he never said. One of his deputies described him as “a man of few words and he used them damn seldom.”
After he became sheriff of Cochise County in 1887 he issued a warning to the rustler gangs, “get out or get shot.” Most took his advice and left the country. Those who didn’t usually wound up fertilizer for spring flowers. In running outlaws to the ground he frequently acted as judge, jury and executioner. Nobody asked questions but law-abiding citizens were glad the undesirables were gone and wouldn’t return, “His name is Slaughter, alright,” said one Tombstone observer, “but he wasn’t in any way the sort of a man we used to call a ‘killer.’ He didn’t like to shoot people. He did it simply because it was in the days work, was his duty, and it was for a good purpose.”
When dealing with the lawless element John Slaughter was ruthless, but he had another side too. He met Eliza Adeline Harris, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy Texas rancher. John was 30 and ready to settle down but her mother opposed the marriage. However, love won out and the two were married in 1871 in San Antonio. Two of their four children died in infancy.
While traveling across Arizona in 1877 John decided Texas was too crowded and he began planning a move to Arizona. Eliza and the children would join him there. Sadly, she contracted smallpox during her trip and died soon after she arrived in Phoenix. The two surviving children were stricken and quarantined by the dreaded disease, but John tenderly nursed them back to health.
It was soon after this tragic event that one of John Slaughter’s most famous gunfights occurred. His adversary was a New Mexico cattle rustler named Barney Gallagher, “the Man from Bitter Creek,” in 1876. After warning Gallagher to stay away from his here during a drive the rustler returned and charged Slaughter with a shotgun and two blazing .45’s. After Slaughter shot his horse out from under him, Gallagher got up and charged again. Slaughter coolly dropped him in his tracks.
Gallagher’s last words were “I needed killin’ twenty years ago anyway.”
However, New Mexico governor, Lew Wallace, saw it differently and declared Slaughter number one on his wanted list. Also, among those was number fourteen, William Bonney.
In 1879, he had Slaughter arrested for murder, but the cowman was soon released for lack of evidence. Slaughter decided it was time to leave New Mexico.
After the death of Eliza, John Slaughter believed he’d never marry again but while driving cattle near the Pecos River, south of Roswell, cupid struck again, this time it was eighteen-year-old Cora Viola Howell, the beautiful daughter of cattleman Amazon Howell and his wife, Mary Ann. Her father was overjoyed at the prospect, but his future mother-in-law went into hysterics. John was twice her daughter’s age and he had two small children that she’d have to raise. But Mary Ann soon gave in and eventually became one of his biggest fans. Their marriage lasted more than forty years.
The newlyweds settled first in the Sulphur Springs Valley but soon moved over the San Pedro River near Tombstone, then to Charleston where he opened a meat market.
Charleston AZ.
At time, the Earp-Cowboy feud was going strong but Slaughter didn’t take sides. He had no love, however, for his neighbors, the Clanton’s. He’d been missing cattle and one day caught Ike on his range. He warned Ike that he would kill him and his kin if it happened again. It didn’t, and the rustling stopped.
___________________________________
Our Famous Clan Member
George Washington "Buck" Conner son of William L Conner and Leah Bowen, born in Streator, LaSalle County, Illinois. Mr. Conner was born on November 22, 1880, he wasted little time in living a full life that even the most imaginative writers wouldn't believe.
George was my grandfather Leroy N. Conner Sr.’s first cousin. He was a bantam rooster of a man who served in the Spanish-American War, had ridden in the Buffalo Bill Show and had been a Texas Ranger.
• George Washington “Buck” Conner (several different spellings used in movies)
• Date of birth not clear, death 1947 * Wife – unknown, family – unknown.
• Both were buried at Yuma, AZ.
Amidst a jumble of old machinery across the road opposite the Quartzsite Yacht Club is a fourteen-foot-square fenced plot of ground which is the grave site of George Washington "Buck" Conner. The grave site can be viewed by driving into the West end of the parking lot at Ted's Truck Stop.
Note on his headstone his name is spelled Conner - Served in both the Army and Navy during the Spanish American War of 1898, and while in the Navy, he was recommended for the “Congressional Medal Of Honor” for saving the lives of three shipmates during a shipboard fire. He did not receive the medal because his heroic actions did not take place during actual combat, one of the basic requirements for qualifying for the “Medal Of Honor”.
Buck - G. W. Conner’s journal stated that “ants and snakes when cleaned and roasted were eaten with flour cakes for evening meals while in the employment of the US Army as a reporter ....” and “was probably one of the better meals available at the time”. He recorded what was going on with the border wars in weekly articles in the evening news across the country. When the Mexican Army put out an order to kill all America reporters he sent his typewriter and camera back to the US Army. He was shown according to Service Records he joined the fight in Mexico taking on the crossed bandoliers and riding with Poncho Francisco Villa in those wars fought below the border.
Mexican tri-color ribbon.
During the Revolution he was commissioned to go to Mexico and take movies of the battles. His final assignment was to cover the War in Mexico at the end of the century.
In the center is “Gringo” Buck Conner talking to other members of the small band of adventurers during the height of the Mexican Revolution. Seen here with his sugarloaf sombrero and wearing the crossed bandoliers of ammo over his shoulders.
For the fun of it watch the movie “Gringo” (Hollywood's take off of this man's life).
This young lady was reported as Conner’s mistress which he disputed years later when married.
These pictures were the sole property of the one that took them, later that changed becoming the property of the US Army.
These fine gentlemen were the kind that Conner rode with and remarked how much he liked all of the mercenary types. “Good Men Every One of Them”.
Buck had straddled quite a few cow ponies during his growing up years. After the Spanish American War Buck joined the famous Buffalo Bill Wild West Show as a performer. Buck Stayed with the show for several years and became the Manager for all the Indians who performed in the show. He became a close friend of Buffalo Bill, so much so that Cody would write to him affectionately as "one of the old guard" even years after Buck left the show.
When the opportunity was offer him, Conner was commissioned as a private with the Texas Rangers and served as a Ranger for over two years. After he left the Texas Rangers, he was assigned by one of the first motion picture companies from St. Louis, MO. to go south of the border and take movies of the fighting during the Mexican Revolution in the early 1910's though Buck was physically small in stature, he was cut from the same cloth as the earlier cowboys of the old west. Buck ended up fighting in the revolution instead of merely taking motion pictures of it.
After his service in the Mexican Revolution, Conner joined the Pawn Bill Wild West Show and performed in it for a number of years.
With the "cowboy" exposure and through the contacts he had made while taking motion pictures in Mexico, it was inevitable that Conner was offered jobs in some of the first silent movies, all of them Westerns of course. From 1916 on, he starred in many leading roles in the old one and two reelers of the silent film era, and he became a member of that elite handful of real cowboys who went on to become reel cowboys as well. As one of the earliest of movie cowboys he counted amongst his closest friends was trail pards like Will Rogers and cowboy artist Charles Russell. Conner was one of the last persons that Rogers correspond with, receiving a telegram from Rogers on the same day that Rogers and Wile Post were killed in Alaska.
In later years, Conner shifted from starring roles to playing classic western characters of every type, usually appearing as a miner, preacher, or saloon bum. Unlike many silent movie cowboys who's voices betrayed them when talkies came along, Conner shifted into the era of sound as easily as he sat a horse. Amongst other movies that he made, he was much in evidence in one of Gary Cooper's first movies, "The Plainsman", but Conner was most often seen in Saturday matinee as Buck Jones or Bob Steele's sidekick.
- 1941 Underground Rustlers Old-Timer (uncredited)
1941 The Medico of Painted Springs Old Codger (uncredited)
1940 The Westerner Abraham Wilson (uncredited)
1939 Henry Goes Arizona Rancher (uncredited)
1939 Taming of the West Townsman (uncredited)
1939 Outpost of the Mounties Trapper (uncredited)
1939 Riders of Black River Winters (uncredited)
1938 West of the Santa Fe Hardpan (as Buck Connor)
1938 The Colorado Trail Cattleman (uncredited)
1938 South of Arizona Doctor (uncredited)
1938 The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok The Parson (uncredited)
1937 Prairie Thunder Jed (uncredited)
1937 Wild West Days Jack (Ch. 11) (uncredited)
1937 Rootin' Tootin' Rhythm Rancher at Meeting (uncredited)
1936 Ay Tank Ay Go (Short) Granpappy (uncredited)
1936 The Plainsman Old-Timer at Poker Table (uncredited)
1936 My American Wife Old Timer (uncredited)
1936 White Fang Stubby (uncredited)
1936 The Law Rides Whitey (as Buck Conners)
1936 Valley of the Lawless Settler (uncredited)
1935 Gallant Defender Doctor (uncredited)
1935 Alias John Law Bootch Collum (as Buck Conners)
1935 Moonlight on the Prairie Bearded Man (uncredited)
1935 No Man's Range Fuzz (as Buck Conners)
1935 Rustlers of Red Dog Wagon Driver (uncredited)
1934 Fighting to Live Juror (uncredited)
1934 The Last Round-Up Old Man Tracy (as 'Buck' Connor)
1933 Jaws of Justice Man at Dance (uncredited)
1933 Gordon of Ghost City Jed Wilson (Ch. 9) (uncredited)
1933 The Fighting Parson Townsman (uncredited)
1933 The Thundering Herd Buffalo Hunter
1932 Between Fighting Men Dad Winters (uncredited)
1931 Battling with Buffalo Bill Townsman (uncredited)
1931 Headin' for Trouble John Courtney
1931 The Hard Hombre Cowhand (uncredited)
1931 Desert Vengeance The Parson (uncredited)
1930 The Dawn Trail Jim Anderson (uncredited)
1930 The Indians Are Coming Narrator (uncredited)
1930 Trails of Danger John Martin
1930 The Lone Rider Townsman (uncredited)
1929 Hell's Heroes Parson Jones (as 'Buck' Conners)
1929 Go Get 'Em Kid (Short)
1929 Perilous Paths (Short)
1929 The Thrill Hunter (Short)
1929 Red Romance (Short)
1929 Grit Wins Ted Pickens
1928 The Crimson Canyon 'Dad' Packard
1928 The Phantom Flyer James Crandall
1928 The Fearless Rider Jeff Lane
1927 The Slingshot Kid Clem Windloss
1927 Open Range Sheriff Daley (as George Connors)
1927 On Special Duty (Short)
1927 The Mojave Kid Silent
1927 Jaws of Steel Alkali Joe (as George Connors)
1927 The Fighting Three Marshall Skinner
1927 Hands Off 'Stills' Manners (as George Connors)
1927 The Broncho Buster Sourdough Jones (as George Connors)
1927 Straight Shootin' John Hale
1926 The Yellow Back John Pendleton
1926 The Saddle Tramp (Short)
1926 The Ridin' Rascal Yeager (as George Connors)
1926 The Radio Detective
1925 Hidden Loot Buck
1925 The Red Rider Tom Fleming (as George Connors)
1925 Ridin' Thunder Bill Croft (as George Connors)
1924 Biff Bang Buddy Dad Norton
1924 Fighting Fury Shorty (as George Connors)
1924 The Back Trail Shorty
1923 The Social Buccaneer Phillip Dupre (as George Connors)
1922 Giants of the Open (Short)
1922 In the Days of Buffalo Bill Hank Tabor (as Buck Connor)
1922 Tracked to Earth Shorty Fuller
1921 The Duke of Chimney Butte Taters
1921 Action Pat Casey
1921 Outlawed Bud Knowles
1920 Bitter Fruit (as George Connor)
1920 The $1,000,000 Reward (as George Connors)
1919 The Canyon Mystery (Short)
1919 The Black Horse Bandit (Short)
1918 The Fast Mail (Short)
1918 The Pay Roll Express (Short) Bucks
1918 Quick Triggers (Short)
1918 The Phantom Riders 'Pebble' Grant (as Buck Connor)
1916 Beatrice Fairfax Episode 5: Mimosa San (as George Connor)
1916 Beatrice Fairfax Episode 6: The Forbidden Room
1916 The Code of the Mounted (Short) Private Kelly
1916 Beatrice Fairfax
1916 The Melody of Love (Short) 'Hardpin' Henry
1916 Son o' the Stars (Short) John Brent
1915 A Life at Stake (Short)
1915 Hearts and Clubs (Short) One of Screen's Friends
1915 Skipper Simpson's Daughter (Short) Jed
1915 Fares, Please! (Short) The Bandit (as Buck Connor)
1915 The Oaklawn Handicap (Short) Jeff Ellis - Blacksmith
1914 Soul Mates (Short) The Groom
1914 Reuben's Busy Day (Short) Reuben
1914 The Price of Crime Sheriff Connors
1913 When Spirits Walk (Short)
1913 The Line Rider's Sister (Short) The Line Rider
1913 The Burning Lariat (Short) Buck
NOTE He uses his last name spelled different for the movies roles.(Connor, O’Connor, Connors).
When asked about the name differences he replied “If the film was liked I took credit, if not liked I told them it wasn’t me someone else with a like name” then smiled.
He was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild and the Chuck Wagon Trailer's Association, the latter of which was an early cowboy actors union, and, as an ordained minister, he was also chaplain of that organization.
Buck found time to become technical advisor and ghost writer for some of Marguerite Bowers' early novels, the most famous of which was.
In the 1920's, many members of the Hollywood movie colony discovered the beautiful winter air of Quartzsite and built winter homes here. Among them was Conner, who ended up owning the entire 160-acre section of what is now the west side of Quartzsite.
Conner's ranch house is still standing, windmill and all, just south of Interstate 10 between the highway and Desert Gardens Estates. He also built a church and a museum, which was located almost directly across the old highway from the Hi Jolly tomb and Quartzsite cemetery. Ironically, after standing for almost half a century, the church and museum building was directly in the path of the tornado that swept through Quartzsite years ago, and the building was almost totally demolished.
Buck was a skilled horseman during his growing years. After the Spanish American War he joined the famous Buffalo Bill Wild West Show as a performer. Staying with the show for several years and becoming the Manager for all the Indians who performed in the show. He became a close friend of Buffalo Bill, so much so that Cody would write to him affectionately as "one of the old guard" even years after Buck left the show.
Buck is fourth from the left.
Buck is third from the right.
Conner was commissioned as a private in the Texas Rangers and served as a Ranger for several years. After leaving the Texas Rangers, he was assigned by one of the first motion picture companies in St. Louis, MO. to go south of the border and take movies of the fighting during the Mexican Revolution in the early 1900's, he was physically small in stature, he was cut from the same cloth as the earlier cowboys of the old west. Buck ended up fighting in the revolution instead of merely taking motion pictures of it.
Buck was involved with the capture of Tom Powers when working as a deputy for Joseph P. Dillon, the US Marshall in charge of the Tucson/Phoenix AZ Offices.
Conner also became interested in flying and was one of the earliest licensed pilots in California and Arizona. He built the airstrip which is just south of his old ranch house and just north of Desert Gardens. During World War II, he was assigned to train Army pilots in low level flying while they were based at his air strip, which, at that time was dubbed Conner Field.
Buck was still active in the movies and was even carrying a Yuma County Deputy Sheriff's I.D. card and badge and his favorite little ’49 Colt Pocket Revolver five-shooter that he had carried throughout his various careers when he died of a heart attack while visiting Yuma on February 4, 1947. His story doesn't end there, for, besides leading an action-packed life, he left behind him a mysterious legacy that will probably never be solved.
The members of these photos were close friends & associates whether in Show Business, Law Enforcement or the other side of the Law.
DEATH OF AN OLD FRIEND
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929) was an American Hero and a personal friend of Conner’s knowing each other from the films to law enforcement. When Earp died in 1929, he was known as a Western lawman, gunfighter, and boxing referee.
Earp had a notorious reputation for both his handling of the Fitzsimmons-Sharkey fight and his role in the O.K. Corral gun fight. This only began to change after his death when an extremely flattering biography was published in 1931.
Earp’s funeral was held at the Congregational Church on Wilshire Boulevard. Earp's pallbearers were William Hunsaker, (Earp's attorney in Tombstone and noted LA attorney); Jim Mitchell (Los Angeles Examiner reporter and Hollywood screenwriter), George W. Parsons (founding member of Tombstone's "Committee of Vigilance"), Wilson Mizner (a friend of Wyatt's during the Klondike Gold Rush), John Clum (a good friend from Tombstone, former Tombstone mayor, and editor of The Tombstone Epitaph), Willaim S. Hart (good friend and western actor and silent film star), Tom Mix and George B. Conner (friends and western film stars). Mitchell wrote Wyatt's local obituary. The newspapers reported that Tom Mix and Buck Conner both cried during their friend's service.
During his lifetime, Mr. Conner had accumulated many souvenirs from his activities, most of which were displayed in the museum at his church. Charles Russell, for one, had given him over a dozen of his oil painting, including a life size oil portrait of Buffalo Bill that Russell had painted especially for Conner on the smooth side of a buffalo hide. There were also a couple of filling cabinet drawers full of letters from Russell, most of which had hand painted water-color logos done by Russell as a letterhead, which was Russell's custom in writing to his close friends.
Like their famous relation the rest of the family has the same disease of accumulating souvenirs from past ventures. The Conner’s souvenirs were many with one item of which is this 1849 Colt Pocket Revolver conversion carried by George Buck Conner until his death. A family member gave this revolver to my father after his passing.
This well used revolver has seen many adventures from the Villa period through George’s years in the movies and law enforcement. He told my grandfather if it still worked, he carried it, this was his old friend, he considered a backup piece. My father always said this was his all-time favorite relative and called me Buck most of the time, unless I did something or didn’t listen to his advice then the names became more colorful.
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