He was born in 18 54
the only son of a miner,
his father had come to stake his claim
in the rush of the 49ers

Well he'd struck it big and sold his claim
and bought himself a spread,
fifteen hundred acres
and near four thousand head.

So now you see the picture
of when young Ralph was born,
an unfenced sea of meadows
and a herd of wild longhorn.

Well he'd learnt to wrangle horses
by the time that he was eight,
and could rope and brand the cattle
as well as any man in the state.

But his love was for the army
and at the age of just eighteen,
he went to join his hero's
in the 7th cavelry,

He rose to the ranks to captain
then got married and resigned,
and went back to herding cattle
on his home ranch for a time.

Then craving some excitement
at thirty years of age,
he started riding shotgun
on the Wells and Fargo stage,


Where he met with Allan Pinkerton
and joined his agency,
infiltrating outlaw bands
in his locality,

And bringing them to justice,
two years he had that role,
sending more than one bad man
to the gallows or to goal,

But when his father died of cancer,
he went back to the ranch,
until a passing gambler taught him
how to win at games of chance.

Then again excitment called him,
this time to New Orleans,
where he made a living gambling,
and a good living too, it seems,

Until another gambler called him cheat
and challenged him to draw,
and Ralph had little choice,
but reach down for his forty four.

Two shots had left his chamber
before the others hand could rise,
and Ralph's fast draw reputation
began before he realized.

Where-ever fast guns gathered
his name was whispered low,
and compared to men like Hardin,
who'd been killed some time ago.

But a fast draw reputation
was not what Ralph desired.
although as Marshall of Hayes City
that's what probably got him hired.

After Hayes he took to trapping,
became a mountain man, they say
up in the Blue Ridge mountains
around Virginia way.

But winters on the Blue Ridge
can drive a man insane,
and it wasn't many years before
Ralph went back home again.

To the ranch his father left him,
this time to settle down.
He became a cattle baron,
his name held in high renown.

He'd frequent the finest resturants,
attend the grandest balls,
was welcome at the county seat,
and there throughout it all,

Was the woman that he'd married,
whilst still on a captains pay,
the woman he would idolize
until his dying day,

She'd gone with him to the Blue Ridge
and New Orleans too,
worried for his safety
in Hayes City, as they do,

She'd backed all his decisions
no matter where they lead,
"I'd have been a bum in Tombstone,
without her", he often said.

Then at the age of ninety seven years,
late in nineteen fifty one,
he quietly passed away at home,
his life and times were done.

This man had been a legend
nearly all his life,
but he swore, he'd have been nothing,
had it not been for his wife.


By S.E.Ralph

5-10-2015