b'10 years, whipping it into shape, and then resigning onWyoming Cattle Barons, and he openly sympathized the verge of World War I. with them, even with the killers of Averill and CattleKate. In his diary entry of October 12, 1889, he wrote:There was, just before he finally retired, one more very"Sat yesterday in smoking car with one of the gentlemen significant episode in the life of this REAL "Virginian"indicted for lynching the man and the woman. He - a notable incident, interestingly omitted from hisseemed a good solid citizen and I hope he\'ll get off." whitewashed memoirs, that shed much light on the(Owen Wister., Out West: His Journals and Letters, edited character of this very complex man. For sometime justby Fanny Kemble Wister, p.91, 1958)before he put away his guns for good, Frank N. Cantondecided to "come clean." And Wister met and knew Frank Canton. In asubsequent visit to the territory in June 1891, less than He went back down to Texas, and in a meeting with thea year before the Johnson County Invasion, Wister Governor of Texas admitted to him that he was indeedwrote: Buffalo (Wyoming) June 25 (1891).We passed the notorious Joe Horner. He begged forgiveness for hisMr. Canton, Deputy U.S. Sheriff. Very quiet, very even crimes and asked for an official pardon which, based onvoice. Does less shooting than any other officer in his all of the years he served in law enforcement, was swiftlyposition, but he is feared by all hands." (Wister, Out granted. The governor of Texas also told him he couldWest, p. 115, 1958)use his real name again, but Canton dissented. Now, remember, Frank Canton was from Virginia. As noted in the Time-Life Old West volume TheAlso remember that he had been described by others Gunfighters ". . .In failing health, Canton returned toas the atypical frontier lawman, strong and silent but Texas to make peace with his past. In an interview withfast on the draw. Remember too, the aforementioned the (Texas) governor, he secretly confessed that he wasdescription of Canton by Wister, who was obviously Joe Horner and won official forgiveness for his youthfulimpressed by Canton as he was by the Cattle Barons.crimes. Close friends then urged him to resume his trueidentity. But he declined, choosing to be remembered asOwen Wister\'s The Virginian, written in 1902 And just one more thing of note. Frank Canton, gunfighter for the Law." (the Editors of Time-Life Books, The Gunfighters,p. 215, 1996) Owen Wister\'s classic, and some argue the very first realFinally, that famous line in Wister\'s classic TheWestern story ever written, The Virginian? Virginian when an enraged Trampas (no smiling and Frank N. Canton aka Joe Horner died with hisfriendly Doug McClure here, folks) cursed the cowboy, boots off just 12 days after his 78th birthday, onFirst of all, Wister, who like his great friend and collegeand a cold-eyed "Virginian" quietly rose, reached for September 27, 1927. classmate Theodore Roosevelt had health issues, traveledhis gun, and in a manner so characteristic of Canton out west to the Wyoming territory just as things startedsaid softly but with cold steel in his voice, "When you So why does this writer assert that this quite complexto heat up with the lynching of Cattle Kate and Jimcall me that, smile!"Lawman Frank N. Canton, who had this very mysteriousAverill. Coming from an established family, Wister spent(and in real life an early troubled) past was the basis forhis time in the Wyoming territory on the ranches of theFrank Canton. I rest my case. ArizonaRealCountry.com April 2019 45'