Thomas James Smith, better known as “Bear River Tom” Smith, is remembered primarily for having preceded the legendary Wild Bill Hickok as marshal of Abilene, Kan. Smith’s stint in office ran just shy of five months, from June 4 to Nov. 2, 1870. He preferred to use his fists rather than guns to keep order in the raucous cow town, right up until that fall day he was mortally wounded and then nearly decapitated with an ax in the line of duty. While his early life is sketchy on specifics, a 1905 letter to former Abilene Mayor Theodore C. Henry from town constable John Conkie detailed the five lively years Smith spent before becoming marshal. Published in the Nov. 29, 1905, edition of the Abilene Weekly Chronicle, the letter corrects lingering misconceptions about Smith.
While the 1870 U.S. Census records Smith’s age as 40, suggesting he was born in 1830, Conkie wrote that Tom was actually born around 1845 in New York City. Smith was not in Abilene when the census was taken, thus the information about him was likely supplied by the Jacob Ludi family, on whose farm he lived. Conkie met Smith in late 1865 when the pair formed a mining partnership near Deer Lodge, Montana Territory. That winter they were snowed in and passed the time swapping life stories.
Smith, wrote Conkie, was of “Irish and Scotch stock,” had a “rather limited” education and loved music, spending countless hours practicing Irish and Scottish tunes on his banjo. When spring arrived, the partners worked the diggings and made a little money before selling their claims and moving to Salt Lake City to overwinter. In the spring of 1867 the pair tried their luck in Idaho Territory, only to return to Salt Lake City that fall after a so-so season
