Cowan's Auctions & Cowan's Historic Americana

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1194. HAM BELL'S PERSONAL PHOTOGRAPH OF THE DODGE CITY "PEACE COMMISSION,"

a ca 1910 silver gelatin copy of the original albumen photograph, taken in June 1883. Image size 6 x 8", mounted on grey 8.7 x 10.6" card stock, with inked names on the blank lower margin of the mount, and imprint of S. A. Burrell of Dodge City, Kansas. Margins of image have printers crop marks in pencil. Verso with pencil inscription Return To H.B. Bell Dodge City Kansas.

From back left this image includes Will Harris, Luke Short, W.B. "Bat" Masterson; front row Charles Bassett, Wyatt Earp, Frank McLain and Neal Brown. This version with Lincoln County Clerk W.F. Petillon painted out on back right, but his shoulder still visible above Neal Brown's hat.

The history of this photograph -- called by some one of the most famous photographs in frontier history -- is well known. In 1882, just a few months after Earp's "gunfight at the O.K. corral" in Tombstone, Arizona, he was called back to Dodge City, Kansas by his old friend Luke Short. The two had become close during Earp's earlier tenure as a lawman in that wild cattle town between 1876-1879. Short, by now running the Long Branch saloon that featured both gambling and "ladies of the evening" had run afoul of the poltiical machinery of Mayor and former marshall Larry Deger. Deger and the city council, attempting to force Short out of business, instituted a number of ordinances -- including an anti-prostitution law, and proceeded to issue citations to Short's female "employees." Short soon discovered that the ordinances were being arbitrarily enforced, with only the Long Branch being levied fines. Short protested, was denied legal council and taken to the train station and run out of town. From Kansas City, Short called on his old friends Earp, Masterson, and others to help address the situation. Arriving in Dodge City on May 16, 1882, they quickly forced Deger to back down, thus avoiding what would certainly have become an all-out war. Before Short's friends left town, seven of them posed with him for a formal picture that soon became known as the "Dodge City Peace Commission." Three days after Bat Masterson arrived in Dodge, he and Wyatt Earp left town, headed for New Mexico Territory.

Hamilton B. Bell was born July 31, 1853 on a farm in Washington county, Maryland. In 1872 he started west, working his way by repairing and cleaning clocks. He reached Lawrence, Kansas in June and from there went to Abilene and then to Ellsworth, eventually winding up in Dodge City in 1874 as a teamster. This occupied his attention for several months, but in 1875 he opened a livery business and conducted it for twenty-four years. During his residence at Great Bend he had served as a deputy sheriff and as a policeman. Shortly after his removal to Dodge City his bravery and fearlessness caused him to be made deputy sheriff, in which capacity he served three years. Afterward he was made sheriff and served in that office in the "cowboy" days, when that section was a wild frontier and tried men's souls to live in it. For twelve years he was a deputy United States marshal and for many years was sheriff of Ford County, having been elected to the latter office for twelve years in succession prior to January 1911. During his service as sheriff of Ford County he made a great many important captures and arrests of desperate frontier characters.

One of the great western lawmen rarities. We could find no evidence of a sale of this photograph in the last 15 years. Made especially desirable by it's remarkable provenance..

Image just a touch light, VG. Mount trimmed slightly to allow for insertion into a frame.

(EST $15000-$20000)

Price Realized: $19,550.00

Price includes buyer's premium.