Nancy Tabb Holds Talk on Sheriff Frank Canton

Nancy Tabb, Local History Librarian at Johnson County Library, gave a talk at the library on Wednesday, April 3, about Frank Canton, sheriff during the Johnson County War. A good crowd attended the talk.

She had several books on display that were available at the library about Canton and the Johnson County War. She said that her favorite on the cattle war is ‘The Banditt of the Plains’ by Asa Mercer because it was written so close to when the events actually happened.

He drifted into Texas as a young man, and he started robbing banks and rustling cattle. There was a shootout in a bar where two black Buffalo Soldiers were killed. But it was not illegal in Texas in the 1870s to kill a black person, so he did not get arrested for murder. But he was arrested for robbing a bank, but escaped, took on a new name, Frank Canton, and left Texas.

Frank Canton, in his autobiography, Frontier Trails: The Autobiography of Frank M. Canton said he was born in Virginia as Joe Horner. Tabb read an excerpt from the books forward so the audience could hear his voice.

He worked as a cowboy and worked in Montana for a while where he worked as a range detective. He came to the Powder River County Wyoming in 1882,

Tabb also talked about Canton’s family. He married Annie Wilkerson from Big Horn and they had two daughters. His daughter, Ruby, took care of him and her mother, Annie, in their later years.

There were around 180 people in Buffalo in 1882 so everyone knew everybody. Frank Canton was not in bed with the big cattlemen. But on December 1, 1891, John Tisdale who had a homestead on Red Fork, was murdered. Tisdale had come to Buffalo to buy a wagon load of supplies and Christmas gifts for his family. Tisdale reportedly felt he was in danger when he left Buffalo, heading back home. In a gulch south of the Cross H Ranch, Tisdale was shot in the back by a hidden killer.

Canton was arrested for the Tisdale murder, but his lawyer got him released. Canton left the state, and the charges were later dropped. Tabb had her own theory about who shot the rancher.

Canton timeline at the time of the Tisdale murder. Tabb said there was one error, when it said that “Tom Horn never shot anyone in the back,” it was supposed to read Canton never shot anyone in the back.

Canton returned to Buffalo, and was with the troops who killed Nate Champion at the KC Ranch in 1892. Later, Canton left Wyoming and went to Oklahoma, where he continued as a lawman, and then went to Alaska during the gold rush. He returned to Oklahoma and served as 1st Adjutant General of Oklahoma. He died in 1927 in Edmund Oklahoma at the age of 78.