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Introducing the family
My great-grandather, Judge Charles Hardy, first Justice of the Peace of Cave Creek, Arizona Territory. He was also a gunman name Nat Hickman, who fled the law after shooting a guy in Colorado, and took Charles W. Hardy as his alias. He 'fessed up when he applied for a Civil War pension many years later. I've always wondered if he left a clue in this photo. His left hand looks like it has a glove with the fingertips cut away. Elmer Keith wrote that the old gunmen always did that, to make sure they have a feel for the trigger. I suspect it amused him to leave clues. For example, his cattle brand was N/H -- his real initials, plus a slash, and in the civil pension application he mentions as a distinguishing mark a knife slash on his cheek.
I know he was a gunman because a turn of the century doctor wrote of his experience in the Arizona Territory, and of knowing a "rancher Hardy" in Cave Creek, who was incredibly fast with a gun and terrified him with tales of how outlaws were just killed out of hand.
At his side is Sarah, an Indian who was widow of the first JP of Phoenix (who got relieved after he shot a man in a street fight and fled the law). The taller boy is Jesse Hardy, whose headstone I posted earlier, and the shorter my grandfather Mark Hardy.
· Personal
You have quite the interesting family history. For my family, as best we can tell, they came over during the potato famine. But they pretty much all stayed in Philadelphia, up until the end of WWII. And even then we only ventured into the suburbs.
There are no real gunman in my family, at least of the wild west variety. Though, My grandfather had an 8mm Mauser bullet travel down part of his left arm, enter his chest, exit his chest, and deposit itself somewhere in Belgium. Think of what your left arm would be doing if you were aiming your M1 Garand at a sniper, but the sniper decided to take a shot before you did. Fortunately for me, the sniper didn't land an effective head shot, but that was the end of my grandfather's military career. Having his arm shredded was a ticket home.