Willie Kennard: Colorado's First Black Lawman

On this episode of Our American Stories, Richard Muniz tells the story of Willie Kennard...Colorado's first black lawman.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
And we returned to our American stories. And up next
a story about the first black lorman in Colorado, Willie Kenner.
You're to tell the story is our regular contributor, Richard Munez.
Take it away, rich.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
The man on horseback paused about a mile from the town.
Like so many old West communities, the town was made
of logs, rufly so on boards, and they al together
with dreams. He studied the community for a moment for
urging the horse towards it. He didn't look like much
you just a rangy, middle aged cow hand, like so
many cow hands across the West. But if you studied him,

(00:50):
you know those things about him. To wear his guns low.
This was the sign of a man accustomed to fighting
for his life. People look at him with shock as
he came into the town. Now this was an love.
Someone wondered what he was doing here, after all, there
was a review of his kind around. Maybe he was lost,
But the miners in the town of Yankee Hill, Colorado,
was certainly one thing. This man was trouble. Why else

(01:12):
would a black man be right into their town here.
It was eighteen seventy four. The mining town was called
Yankee Hill, Colorado was high in the mountains, and it
happened to be the personal playground of a man named
Bartie Casewitz. Now Barney had bullied and terrorized the town

(01:32):
for over two years. He'd killed men, killed a marshal
or two, scared off a few more, and raped a
fifteen year old girl named Bertie Campbell. When Bertie's father
confronted him, Caswerck gunned him down, left him dead in
the street. The town marshall, a man named Craig, tried
to arrest him. Casewood lid him out right next to
Bertie's father being read from nearby. Ruby Hill replaced Craig.

(01:55):
He didn't do any better. The next Marshall left town
after seeing case would kill two saddle trams. Like the
giant Goliath in the Bible, men feared that no one
could match him. No one challenged him. This was his
and no one and nothing would take it away from him.
What this particular Gliath hadn't counted on was that David's
having an annoying tendency to just show up in his case.

(02:16):
David had just ridden into town. Matt Borden owned the
Square Deal General Store. He was also the mayor of
Yankee Hill. And here a couple of the city counselmen
discussing the town business in fant Sarah Palmer's cafe over coffee.
When the black cowboy walked in. He went straight over

(02:40):
to them and said, my name is Willy Kennedy. I
read your towns looking for a Marshall. I'd like to
apply for the job. Bordon would say years later, he
wasn't impressed. One of the counselmen looked up at Kennard
and asked, you can read, boy. But if the comment
irritated Willie, he didn't show it. Gordon decided had some

(03:00):
fun with the applicant. He said, the hiring process is
pretty steep. We have to make sure you can handle
the job. Oh and what is that? There's a man
in the bar across the street. He'd already killed several men,
to include two former marshals. Arrest him in The job
is yours. They handed in the Marshall badge, fairly sure

(03:22):
they'd be getting it back soon. With a nod, the
newly minted Marshalls started walking across the street. Now, if
he's been expected William to run or just to die,
that grossly underestimated him. Willie was a battle hardened warrior.
He fought a corporal with the seventh Illinois Rifle Company.
He had also served as a ninth Cavalry, an entirely blackhunent.
It was at Fort Bliss, Texas. I later moved out
to Fort Davis, Arizona. There he fought against the Apaches.

(03:46):
Being a corporal made him a leader of men. His
time in the units soon convinced others. He knew his
way around a firearm and became an instructor at the
Montrooth's training camp. But when the war was over, and
like so many others, Willie looked around and found very
few opportunities for a man of his talents. So he
drifted to Denver, and one day he reads about this
town that he's a marshall. Now with minutes behind the badge,

(04:07):
he walked into the saloon. He sees Case With. It's
been a minute studying him, knowing how he also wore
his pistols low, and he studied the man's two associates.
Soon he approached the table and informs case With that
he's under arrest. Well, Case With his friends thought that
was probably the funniest thing they'd ever heard, I'm supposed

(04:28):
to just come with you. Casewood asked, where are we going?
It's your choice, will he answered, you can go to
jail or you can go to hell. Well, now, Case
what was in a pickle and he had exactly two choices,
surrender or add to his list of killings. Option one
didn't appeal to him. Option two was easy. He stood,

(04:51):
intended to add to his list and striverage for his pistols.
What happened next is debated. Some say before you even
touched the guns, Willie had drawn him fired twice. They
said the bullet struck the pistols, nearly ripping him from
the gun belt, and rendered both weapons useless. Others say
that Willie drew and club case wood hard across the
side of the head with the drawn pistol. Unlike the

(05:12):
glocks and weapons favored today, the old West pistol was
American heavy metal at its very best. While the stories
is pure, what happened to case what? No one disputes
what happened? There's the case? What's buddies both tried to
draw on the new Marshal, and before they even got
half way out, he had taken them both out with
a bullet between the eyes. Case went and went to jail.

(05:36):
Justice was very swift back then. Case who was tried
for the rape of the Campbell girl, the murders of
the marshals and the townspeople, and he was taken the
edge of town to a pine tree and hung. Storys
have it that he wrapped his legs on the tree
and effort keep from dying. But all I did was
prolonged his agonies. It was a fitting in for the
brutal man, and the town at the Yankee Hill had

(05:56):
a new marshal. Willie was paid undred dollars a month,
which a little bit shy of twenty three hundred dollars
in today's money. Now he did get tested again. There
was a robber named Billy McGeorge us, an escapee from
the Colorado Territorial Prison. He formed a gang around himself
and they paid on the freight wagons and the stages
around the Gold Trail. The town council asked Marshall Kenner

(06:21):
to track him down. Well, Kennard realized this wasn't such
a great idea. Colorado is huge, Colorado is rugged, and
he could chase these guys all over the territory until
doomsday and still never catch them. I'm going to make
them come to me, he said. Soon wanted posters started

(06:41):
showing up on trees and posts. The marshall had put
a bout in mcgeorge's head of a measly fifty dollars.
Now this tick McGeorge off quite a bit. Every other
marshal around was asking at least three hundred of fifty bucks.
That almost wasn't worth walking across the street. So what

(07:01):
he decided to do was going to Yankee Hill, him
and his gang and they were going to explain the
facts of life to this black man who had insulted
him so well. They got to the Yankee Hill and
Marshall Kenned was waiting for them. He was armed with
a double barrel shotgun. You man, can just drop your weapons,
kennad to order, loving the shotgun at them. One of them,
an outlaw named cash down He tried to pull on
Willie Willi blew him off the horse with a blast

(07:23):
from the shotgun. The blast also killed the outlaw right
next to Downing and blew the window out of the
general store. With one barrel still loaded, and named dried
at him McGeorge filled his men a surrender. As kenned
took them to jail, they breathed out threats of vengeance.
They never got the chance. They soon found themselves dangan
from the same tree that case would have died on
a few months before. By eighteen seventy seven, Yankee Hill

(07:50):
was a quiet town, but it was also a die
in town. The gold in the area had ran out
and people were just moving on. Willy looked around, realized
it was going to be a ghost town soon. You
handed in his badge and said, I'm going out east.
I'm gonna find myself a wife. Then will he vanishes
from history forever where he went when he died and
where he's buried Dunnownes for the time being. And like

(08:13):
so many Old West heroes, Willie Kennell rode into history.
Even Alassin Legacy is cared OL's first black lawman.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
And a special thanks to Monty for doing the production
on that piece and to Richard Munez for his terrific storytelling.
And by the way, this was a real life bad
guy terrorizing a town and needed a real life tough
good guy to save them, and he did. And we're
talking about the story of Willie Kennard, the first black

(08:45):
lawman in Colorado. And by the way, if you have
stories like this about heroic figures in your town, and
my goodness, the stories of towns. We've told a few
and we'll be telling a lot more. Send them to
Allamericans Stories dot com into one hundreds affiliates all over
this great country, and we love hearing your story. Send
them heroes in your town, whether it's cops, first responders,

(09:10):
or well, heroic stories going way back to the early
days in your town. Send those stories to our American
Stories dot com. Willie Kinnard, Colorado's first black lawman, here
on our American Story