Rough Riders Visit Dodge City

Since my cousins have all seemed to find me now, I am writing these blogs for them and also for whomever finds Dodge City history interesting.

My great grandfather J.M. Kirkpatrick was one of the founders of Dodge. He was an attorney and his brother Edward ran the dry goods furniture and mortuary pictured on many of the famous old west photos. So I have lots of stories that my grand father and father have passed on to me and I am recording those and others here.

My grandfather was born in Dodge in 1888. He didn't marry til he was 40 so we missed a generation there but living to 93, we got to know him well and he was able to tell us much about Dodge in the early days.

His first memory was about Teddy Roosevelts Rough Riders. It seems that the troop trains carrying this storied bunch of guys, came to Dodge and went into town to get beer and whiskey. These guys were western toughs and hard drinking was the norm among them so it seems. After loading up on refreshments for the train ride, they proceeded out of town, tossing the empty bottles out the windows of the train cars as they went.

My grandfather was very little at the time, but says he recalls his brothers taking him along to pick up bottles for cash. What a memory and what a time in history that was.