Volume 47- No. 33
August 24, 2017
by lyle e davis
“I’d rather have pockets full of rocks than an empty gun.” Most of us know the names of Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill, Kit Carson, but few of us know the name Frank B. Eaton.
Those readers from Oklahoma may know of him. His nick name of “Pistol Pete” Eaton is not only well known but it is so well known, almost revered, that “Pistol Pete” has become the mascott for the Oklahoma State Football team. Frank B. Eaton was an Oklahoma lawman. His is one of the more remarkable stories from the Wild, Wild West.
Eaton was born on October 26, 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut. When he was eight years old, he moved with his family to a homestead in Twin Mounds, Kansas. That very year, his father, a Union Army veteran, became involved in a dispute with several Confederate men who had ridden with Quantrill’s Raiders during the Civil War. A short time later, six of these men appeared at their home and Frank’s father was shot in cold blood, in front of Frank, by the Campseys and the Ferbers - former Confederates who called themselves Regulators. 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 was in 1868. The same year Mose taught him to handle a gun, but it was nineteen years before Frank finished his job.
When Frank was fifteen, he decided he needed to know more about shooting to be sure he could avenge his father's death when the time came. He went down to Fort Gibson, a cavalry fort in the northeast part of the Indian Territory (known today as Oklahoma) to see what the Cavalry soldiers could teach him. Although he was still too young to join the Army (if he had wanted to), he outshot everyone at the Fort. 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." It was a remarkable feat, as Eaton had been born with a crossed left eye. However, he had overcome this "dis-
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ability” by figuring out how to aim the gun without sighting down the barrel. He was so good that a friend said the he could "Shoot the head off a snake with either hand."
same men. After talking about the men, Frank was offered, and accepted a commission.
Frank then began to search for the men who had killed his father years before.
He had tracked down and killed four of the six men who had been involved in the murder in 1868.
During his teen years, Eaton was reputed to be faster on the draw than Buffalo Bill.
First was Shannon Campsey. Frank killed him on his own front porch. Doc Ferber was next. He was shot off of his horse with "two forty-five slugs through his breast". John Ferber would have been next, but the day before Frank caught up with him, he was shot for cheating at cards. Frank went to his funeral just to make sure he was dead. At John Ferber's funeral, Frank met a Deputy United States Marshal who was on the trail of the Obituaryies Memorials Area Services Page 12
Frank then caught up with Jim and Jonce Campsey together. They were both shot as they drew on Frank. Only one man was left to hunt and find.
At the age of just 17, he was one of the youngest U.S. Deputy Marshals to have ever been commissioned in the Western District at Fort Smith, Arkansas. Serving under "hanging judge,” Isaac Parker, his territory extended from southern Kansas to northern Texas. Eventually, Frank tracked down the last murderer in Albuquerque, New
Pistol Pete
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Mexico.
In his own words:
I had stopped in one saloon and was coming out of the second one when I noticed a tall man with a heavy mustache standing by the door. As I started down the street he started right behind me. I turned around and met him. "Stranger," I said, "you seem to be following me. Is there any information I can give you?"
"Well, yes, there is," said the man, with a Western drawl. "When a young fellow comes into town riding as good an outfit as you have, with a Winchester under his leg and two guns on, when he goes into every dance hall and saloon in town and doesn't take a drink or have anything to do with the girls, he naturally excites a lot of curiosity." I grinned. "Well," I said, "my name is