U.S. Marshal Snake Johnson

Barry Cardwell
November, 25th 2011
Waterton, New Mexico

   I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving yesterday. We here at the Cardwell house did. We usually have a large group over for an even larger meal. I think we numbered 23 adults and 13 children this year. Sara, my wife, out did herself on the bird. Potatoes, cranberry, yams, gravy, beans, bread, corn, pies, and several bottles of wine were attacked with the usual gusto. After dinner I shared some of the contents of Priscella's chest with a couple of my cousins who I thought would be interested. I was not disappointed. Their reactions has bolstered my resolve to share this story.

   It is at this point in the tale that another character appears in the town of Red Creek. U.S. Marshal Snake Johnson arrived in town close to a week after the death of Sheriff Barker. It has been alluded to thus far that the Marshal had a personal history with both Priscella (details of which will come to light shortly) and the outlaw Kid Holmes. (If you remember Holmes killed the Marshal's brother in Wichita two and a half years before the murder of Lloyd Barker.)

   To understand who Johnson was and how he was tied to Priscella's story, I have spent some time gathering all the information I could find on the man. Cornelius Johnson (apparently his parents were fond of Roman names)  was born in 1841 in Chattanooga Tennessee.  Oldest of two sons, his parents migrated to Texas in 1850. It was somewhere around this time that young Cornelius earned the nickname that would stick with him the rest of his life. It seems to have come from the fact he kept a pet rattlesnake for a while. A friend of Johnson's at the time, a slightly older boy who would grow into one of the most important men of the age, began to simply call him "Snake". That boy was Charlie Goodnight. If that name is not familiar, you may be in the wrong blog! Haha! Google it.

                                                              Charles Goodnight 1860

    Snake joined his friend Goodnight as a Texas Ranger just before the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1861 both of the young rangers were inducted into the Confederate Army and served most of the war in a frontier regiment protecting outpost from Indian raids. Johnson seems to have been known for both a fast hand and a hot temper during his military career. After the War Goodnight went onto a very successful cattle business. Snake though was not ready to settle down. With his younger brother Tobius in tow, he set out north to Kansas. The Johnson brothers became bounty hunters for a brief time, then lawmen. Snake's first badge was as a deputy in the town of Abilene. In 1868 the brothers moved to Wichita. Tobius became a deputy there while Snake was hired on as a U.S. Marshal. As Marshal Snake roamed the land far and wide, but his home remained in Wichita.

     There is an interesting document that I was able to find through an online research site that sends some light on the relationship between Snake and Prissy in Wichita. It is from the Marshal Historical Record Department. It appears to be some sort of overview, or performance review of the Kansas based Marshals in the year 1873. Here is the entire passage that mentions our boy.

       "Snake Johnson has continued to show resolve and spunk in his young career. He has proven resourceful, honest, brave, and intelligent. The only knock against this young Marshal is perhaps a lacking in personal morality. He continues to live with a young whore from one of the Wichita brothels. He has been warned that this is not the image we want from our young officers, but when said warning was given Johnson grew upset and wrathful. "If it comes between this badge and Prissy, you can shove the tin up your asses! Don't nobody tell me how to live my life" is the accounted response."

  So there it is. The upstanding, admired, married with a child, school marm of Red Creek, was a 17 year old prostitute in Wichita! My Great-great-great-Grandmother was a whore! Haha! I love it!!!!!

   Anyways apparently after the murder of his brother Tobius by Kid Holmes, Snake was a driven man. He set off on the trail of Holmes for the next few years. His relationship with Prissy seems to have suffered and eventually she left Wichita with Johnny Cardwell and showed up in Red Creek married and pregnant. And once Kid Holmes was accused in the Red Creek Tribune of the slaying of Sheriff Lloyd Barker, it was just a matter of time until Snake rode into town.

    You can't make this crap up!!!!
 
    I wonder if there is any pie left. Until next time.

  Barry Cardwell