born 1825?, Mason county, Ky., U.S.
died March 16, 1903, Langtry, Texas
U.S. justice of the peace and saloonkeeper.
He left Kentucky in 1847 and moved from town to town, killing at least two men in duels, before settling in Texas. During the American Civil War he first served with Confederate regulars and then was a blockade runner in Texas, becoming so prosperous that he was able to live at ease in San Antonio for some 16 years. In 1882 he moved to a site on the lower Pecos River that he named for Lillie Langtry , opened a saloon, and dispensed hard, commonsensical, and prankish rulings as an unofficial magistrate, styling himself the "law west of the Pecos."