Published: May 14, 2008 10:45 am            

About Books 05-14-08

Pistol Pete, Frank Eaton, has long been a symbol of Oklahoma State University. I’ll bet he is unique among many varied animals and other creatures in colleges and universities whose students think they have a mascot matched by no other. OSU really does.

A little book called “The True Story of Pistol Pete “ by J.D. Haines describes Frank Eaton’s early years. It is based on Eaton’s autobiography, “Pistol Pete, Veteran of the Old West,” published in 1952.

Haines writes that some historians “have doubted the accuracy of Pete’s recollections,” but Eaton said his friend Eva Gillhouse actually wrote it, and “I’ll back her with both guns.” Pistol Pete ended up in Perkins where he died in 1956. He was 96.

His life story, remarkable to say the very least, started way back in Civil War times in Kansas. The two factions, North and South, had a little battlefield around Lawrence. The bushwackers were the southerners, and the Jayhawkers, or as we call them now, the Jayhawks, were from the north. Their struggles caused the area to become known as “bleeding Kansas.”

It was in this time that Frank had the experience that changed his life. His father, a Jayhawker, was shot by six men.

Frank was just 12 years old but big for his age and had been riding with the vigilantes and his dad. When his father was killed, he quickly became enraged and pledged to track the men down and shoot them, which he did.

In 1877, at age 17, he was made a deputy U.S. marshal.

This is a very unusual book.

        

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