Frank Boardman "Pistol Pete" Eaton (October 26, 1860–April 8, 1958) was an American author, cowboy, scout, Indian fighter, and Deputy U. S. Marshal for Judge Isaac C. Parker. Early life Eaton was born in 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut, and at age eight moved with his family to Twin Mounds, Kansas in Osage County to homestead. When Eaton was eight years old, his father, a Vigilante, was shot in cold blood by six former Confederates, who during the war had served with the Quantrill Raiders. The six men, from the Campsey and the Ferber clans, rode with the southerners who after the war called themselves "Regulators." In 1868, Mose Beaman, his father's friend, said to Frank, "My boy, may an old man's curse rest upon you, if you do not try to avenge your father." That same year, Mose taught him to handle a gun, but it would take nineteen years for Frank to avenge his father. Adult life At the age of fifteen, before setting off on his mission to avenge his father's death, he decided to visit Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, a cavalry fort, to learn more about handling a gun. Although too young to join the army, he outshot everyone at the fort and competed with the cavalry's best marksmen, beating them each time. After many competitions, the fort's commanding officer, Colonel Copinger, gave Frank a marksmanship badge and a new nickname. From that day forward, Frank would be known as "Pistol Pete." During his teen years, Eaton was reputed to be faster on the draw than Buffalo Bill. From his first days as a lawman, he was said to "pack the fastest guns in the Indian Territory." By the end of his career, Eaton would allegedly have eleven notches on his gun.

Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton Born  Frank Boardman Eaton October 26, 1860 Hartford, Connecticut Died  April 8, 1958 (aged 97) Perkins, Oklahoma

He began serving in Indian Territory as a deputy U.S. Marshal at the age of seventeen, under Judge Isaac C. Parker, who was known as the "hanging judge." Eaton's territory extended from southern Kansas to northern Texas. He would later say that from the start of his career as a lawman he began tracking down his father's killers, claiming that by 1887 he had killed five, and that the sixth only escaped his sixgun by being shot by someone else in a dispute over a card game.

Eaton was said to have been given a cross by a girlfriend, which he wore around his neck and which saved his life when it deflected a bullet during a gunfight. He would write later that, "I’d rather have the prayers of a good woman in a fight than half a dozen hot guns: she's talking to Headquarters."

Eaton would serve as either a marshal, a sheriff or a deputy sheriff until late in life. At twenty-nine, he joined the land rush to Oklahoma Territory. He settled southwest of Perkins, Oklahoma where he served as sheriff and later became a blacksmith. He was married twice, had nine children, 31 grandchildren, and lived to see three great-great-grandchildren. He died on April 8, 1958 at the age of 97.

Frank Eaton lived the life of a true cowboy. He usually carried a loaded .45 Colt and often said "I'd rather have a pocket full of rocks than an empty gun." He was also known to throw a coin in the air, draw and shoot it before it hit the ground. The common saying in the mid-western United States, "hotter than Pete's pistol," traces back to Eaton's shooting skills, along with his legendary pursuit of his father's killers.

Author

Frank Eaton wrote two books that exemplify the life of a veteran of the Old West. His first, an autobiography titled Veteran of the Old West: Pistol Pete, tells a tale of his life as a Deputy United States Marshal and cowboy. His second book, which was published thirty years after his death, is entitled Campfire Stories: Remembrances of a Cowboy Legend. Campfire Stories is a collection of yarns and recollections that Frank Eaton would pass along to the many visitors that came to sit a spell on his front porch in Perkins, Oklahoma.

From Cowboy to mascot

After seeing Eaton ride a horse in the 1923 Armistice Day parade in Stillwater, Oklahoma with Cowgirl "SPO" Phillips and Cowpoke "Real Deal" Rieger, a group of Oklahoma A&M College (now Oklahoma State University) students decided that Eaton's "Pistol Pete" would be a suitable mascot for the school.

Previously the college had been known as the "Princeton of the Prairie" with a tiger mascot and colors of orange and black. Many at the school were unhappy with the "Tigers" mascot and felt "Pistol Pete," symbolic of the American Old West and Oklahoma's land run roots, better represented the college.

However, it was not until 1958 that "Pistol Pete" was adopted as the school's mascot. The familiar caricature of "Pistol Pete" was officially sanctioned in 1984 by the university as a licensed symbol.

Director's Award

On March 15, 1997, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame posthumously honored Frank Eaton with the prestigious Director's Award. Eaton's youngest daughter Elizabeth Wise, together with Oklahoma State University President James Halligan, accepted the award for Eaton.
 

Jeff Milton (November 7, 1861 – May 7, 1947), born Jeff Davis Milton, was an Old West lawman, and the son of Confederate Florida governor John Milton.

Early life

His father committed suicide toward the end of the Civil War, when it became evident the south would lose. After the Confederacy lost the Civil War, Jeff Milton was raised on a once proud family estate called "Sylvania", near Marianna, Florida. At age 15, he moved to Texas where he worked as a cowboy, then lied about his age and joined the Texas Rangers in 1878.

Lawman career

After serving with the Rangers for four years, he moved through west Texas and into New Mexico, where he became a Deputy US Marshal in 1884. For a time in the 1880s he worked under Sheriff John Slaughter in Cochise County, Arizona, during which time the two were involved in several manhunts and shootouts with outlaws.

One of their most well known accomplishments was their pursuit of the Jack Taylor Gang in late 1886 to the middle of 1887. Milton and Slaughter trailed the gang to the home of Flora Cardenas in Mexico. The bandits, however, had been tipped off that the American lawmen were after them and they left before Slaughter and Milton could reach the Cardenas' home.

Returning to Arizona, the two lawmen traveled to Willcox on the outlaws trail, then to Contention City, where they found gang member Manuel Robles and one of the others asleep. When Slaughter shouted at them to get up with their hands up, a gun battle ensued. Guadalupe Robles, Manuel's brother, joined the gun battle, but he was killed quickly. Manuel Robles and Nieves Deron tried to run away and while still firing back, one of their bullets hit Slaughter's ear. Slaughter's next bullet killed Deron, but Manuel Robles escaped. Soon, Jack Taylor was arrested in Sonora, and Robles, along with Geronimo Miranda, were killed by the Mexican police in the Sierra Madre mountain area.

On June 21, 1895, while working alongside lawman George Scarborough, whom Milton often partnered with, Scarborough shot and killed Martin McRose, a Texas rustler. McRose is buried near John Wesley Hardin, and Texas Ranger Ernest St. Leon. Milton was, at that time, Chief of Police in El Paso, Texas, and Scarborough was a Deputy U.S. Marshal. McRose had been captured, and was killed while being brought back from Mexico by the two lawmen on an outstanding warrant. Outlaw and gunman John Wesley Hardin claimed that he had paid Scarborough and Milton to kill Martin McRose. Milton and Scarborough were arrested, but Hardin later withdrew his comments and the two men were released.

In July, 1898, working again with Scarborough, the pair tracked down, shot and captured "Bronco Bill" Walters near Solomonville, Arizona, and scattered Walters gang from their hideout, killing another gang member in the process. On February 15, 1900, in Fairbank, Arizona, Milton shot outlaw John "Three Fingered Jack" Dunlop, when the Burt Alvord gang attempted to rob a train in which Milton was working as a guard. Dunlop was badly wounded, and died only days later. Milton also shot and wounded gang member Bravo Juan Yoas during that same shootout, before Milton himself received a wound that shattered his left arm. Milton eventually recovered from his wound but never completely regained the use of his arm, and retired to Tombstone, Arizona in 1932, where he lived the remainder of his life.

He also met Louis L'Amour, according to L'Amor's book, "Education of a Wandering Man," and gave him breakfast and a ride to Tucson, Arizona.