Colt Single Action Army Revolver, .44-.40 Caliber, Manufactured 1882, 7.5" Barrel

This old Colt was made in 1882 and shipped on September 14, 1882 to Hartley & Graham in New York City as part of a 50 gun order. It belonged to George "Tex" Rickard who ultimately led boxing into the era of million-dollar gates, huge crowds, and fights at Madison Square Garden. Rickard gained notoriety as the manager/promoter of Jack Dempsey. Born in Kansas in 1870, Rickard left school at age eleven and, while still a youngster, worked cattle drives from Texas to Montana. At 24 (1894), he became a peace officer in Henrietta, Texas which would have placed him in direct contact with Harrison Schwend who was a night watchman at that time. Rickard won a plurality of votes in the election for city marshal in 1894, and he was said to have been a fair and popular official. That same year he and Leona Bittick, the daughter of a pioneer physician, were married. The deaths of Leona and their baby son the following spring (1895) were mourned by the entire community. Oddly enough, Harrison's bride of one year and young daughter also died a few years before in 1892. The two men had much in common. By the end of 1895, Rickard resigned his job as marshal and headed for Alaska. Family papers state that the gun "was given Rickard by Jim Curtis of Cambridge, Henrietta's old rival for county seat honors. Later it was owned by Lon Burson, deputy under Clay County's noted Sheriff, G. Cooper Wright". Burson then gave the gun to Harrison Schwend for his collection.