Dust on the Colt

By George M. Goodwin

From a Civil War orphan in a small town in Alabama he moved west and rode the river boats of the Mississippi as a gambler. Westward again and he found himself the sheriff of a small town. From there he would go on to the Governor's mansion of Texas. Dan McKay lived a life packed with adventure and danger. Loves and heartbreaks. He made good friends and had bad enemies. Even after becoming the governor of Texas though the town of Freeman is where his heart called home and where he would return to live out his life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pale Horse Publications
• Release date: May 31, 2024
• ISBN: 9798227847188

George M. Goodwin

George was born in 1960 in Jefferson County Alabama. The fifth of nine children, eight boys and one girl. The family was raised poor, but not poorly raised. At home, George was taught morals, ethics and respect. Reading, writing and arithmetic at school. Love, honor and obedience to God at church. He grew up on John Wayne movies, country music and the writings of Louis L' Amour, Robert Louis Stevenson, H.G. Wells and Jules Verne.  

Book preview

Changing Times

Today as I sat on the bench outside of the sheriff’s office looking over the town and enjoying the sunshine my thoughts were running in many directions. I thought about all the changes I’d seen in the town of Freeman. The friends I’d made here and those I’d lost as well in the six years since I’d first rode in. A broke gambler fed up with being both. I was looking for a job, any job. Then quite by accident I stumbled into one that although I had no way of knowing at the time I would never be completely away from for the rest of my life. I was simply doing a favor for an old man having trouble with the sun’s reflection off of a bottle. That old man later became the best friend I had ever or would ever have. My shooting skills had impressed him and the rest of the town into believing that I could help them with an outlaw gang that was causing a lot of trouble for them. They hired me as the sheriff of Freeman and with the help of the whole town Musgrove Kent and his men were soon put to an end. A short time later myself, that old man and the stable owner would find out what had brought them here to begin with. A fortune in gold stolen a few years back during the civil war had been buried near the town of Freeman. Which just so happened wasn’t there at the time, making it hard for them to get their bearings on its location.

Their solution to that problem was to kill everyone there and burn the whole town to the ground. We three had shared a portion of the treasure with the people of town and also with the town itself for future growth. By the time it was I had found a home here with these people so I was happy when they kept me on as their sheriff. Later there’d been more trouble when a gang out of Louisiana tried to move their crooked gambling halls and bawdy houses into Freeman. We had a saloon there and the people figured that was enough. That problem too had been we shut down and brought an end to the whole operation both there and in New Orleans as well. A man known as the King of Spades was the ring leader but he was working with a pair of twin brothers who were wanted for other crimes all the way in England. They had killed my best friend Boot soon after moving in. He was to be my best man at my wedding, but was found dead the same day. Later they had killed Harry Beecher who was half owner of the saloon that had been sold when Wick had the became mayor. I had gotten married to Penny and we had our first child in May not two months ago. We named her Penelope Ann after her mother, but Annie was all anybody called her. It was now July 3rd in the year 1876 and everyone in town was excited about it being the centennial year of our country. The town was back to the normal easy going but hard-working lifestyle of its residents.

There was to be a big party held at the Freeman Hotel with food, drinks and dancing early in the evening then later after dark a fireworks show was planned for the whole town. Mayor Wick had arranged this last part on his own and paid for from his own pocket as a gift to the town. If anyone living in Freeman at that time could say that life wasn’t great, they were just too hard to please. My thoughts ran back to a little farm in Alabama and my father and I wished that he had lived to see my little family. Somewhere about that time the sunshine lulled me to sleep right there on that bench and it was nearly dark before I woke up and went home. I tell you, life was easy for the sheriff of Freeman. On the morning of the fourth the whole town was busy preparing for the events of the evening. Penny and I, wearing our best clothes danced that evening for the first time since the day we had married. Around eight we took Annie to watch the fireworks show. The whole affair was enjoyed by all and as usual there had been no trouble. As life has a way of doing though month gave way to month and year to year. In August of 1878 our second child was born, a son we named James Aidan after both Penny’s and my father. Things were peaceful and quiet and life was easy in Freeman. This was the way I liked it as sheriff and especially now as it gave me a considerable amount of time to spend with my family and I did so.

I HAD HIRED A YOUNG man by the name of Percy Wilkerson to run the saloon. I’d bought it after Harry’s brother and partner in it had been killed and renamed it Boot’s Place. Percy was doing a great job with it too. I still missed old Boot a lot and after a while the more time I spent in that saloon the more I missed seeing him sitting there on his favorite stool. Boot had been the first friend I’d made after coming to Freeman and about the best friend I’d made in my whole life. Something about Percy reminded me of him when he’d first came to town. I believe that made my letting go of the place to him a little easier. I made him a full partner in it, but he seldom needed my input. My other old friend Amos had hired himself a helper over at the livery stable too.

Amos was starting to slow down from age although you’d never get him to admit that sixty-two was old. He just said the town had grown so much that the work load had become too much for one man to handle. I had to admit, Freeman had grown by leaps and bounds in these last few years. When I’d first came here there was only about a dozen townspeople and the outer lying ranch owners and their cowboys. Today there were nearly five times as many people living and working right here in town. There was also a constant stream of people passing through on the train and staying at the hotel for a few days and then moving on. Life itself moved ever onward as it does for all of us.

BEFORE I COULD BLINK, we were having a party for my Annie’s sixth birthday. It was at this same party that Wick and the town council had approached me. They wanted to know if I would consider becoming mayor of Freeman when Wick retired at the beginning of next year. This was out of the blue to me as Wick had said nothing about it before now.

Wick, I asked him, are you okay with this?

He nodded his head that he was.

What about the sheriff’s job? I asked them. I know I don’t rightly do that much around here most of the time. Still, I told them the town can’t be without a sheriff.

So, as mayor, you’ll hire a new one. They said.

Dan, it’s a changing world, they told me. It’s not the way it was when you became sheriff here. The west is settling down. Peace officers like yourself have done away with most of the really bad outlaws and some of them have done away with each other as well. Wyatt Earp along with his brother and some other men hunted down the last of those red sash cowboys in Arizona last year and then just last month Jesse James was killed by Bob Ford over in Missouri. Ford was no peace officer, but still James is dead and his brother and the rest of that bunch are in prison. Most of the really bad ones have been brought down. The west is settling down and you had a hand in doing that. That’s why we think you’re the right man to replace Wick.

Wick, I asked, turning to face him, is this what you want as well? I asked him again because if they were forcing him out, then I wanted no part of it.

It is Dan, he told me. I’m no spring chicken anymore and along with the town growing, so has the obligations of being its mayor. I just can’t keep up anymore. It was my idea in fact, that they ask you first. he said.

I asked the council