John Abernathy and President Teddy Roosevelt Out Wolf
Hunting
To Retain Positions
Abernathy and Porter Will Continue As
Marshals
President Pleased With Records Of Noted Wolf Catcher And Of
Cowboy
How Former Secured His Job
Guthrie, Ok. - The good records as
wolf catcher and cowboy that first secured for John R. Abernathy and Grosvenor
A. Porter their positions as United States marshals have proved sufficient to
retain for them these positions after statehood. Both men came into these
positions untried, but each have had clean records, and while recently in
Washington they were both assured by President Roosevelt that they would be
reappointed. Abernathy for the western or Oklahoma district for the new states,
and Porter for the eastern or Indian territory district.
It was while on a
lobo wolf hunting trip in the "big pasture" in southwestern Oklahoma that
President Roosevelt first met John Abernathy. The hunting trip had been
engineered by Colonel Cecil Lyon of Texas and at the suggestion of President
Roosevelt that some good man be procured to look after the details of the trip.
Colonel Lyon recommended "a hunter by the name of Abernathy living down in
Oklahoma, who with his hands could catch the lobo alive." This description
pleased the president and instructions were given to secure Abernathy's services
for the occasion. This was done and Mr. Abernathy arranged the details for the
hunt in the "pasture". To the president's delight Mr. Abernathy performed the
feat of catching a lobo wolf alive with his bare hands. The week's hunt in
the "pasture" were very successful, the president was highly pleased and as a
result Mr. Abernathy was later appointed United States marshal for Oklahoma, a
position that pays an annual salary of $5,000.
Following the appointment of
Abernathy as marshal the facts of his exploits as a hunter and trapper were
published widely, not only in the United States, but even in England, France,
and Germany. "Grove" Porter, a youth attending the St. Paul military
school at Garden City, L.I., caught the cowboy fever as a result of the tales of
adventure that drifted back to civilization in connection with the cowboy
experiences of Theodore Roosevelt, at that time in the West. The disease
proved incurable as far as Porter was concerned and he went to Cheyenne, Wyo., a
tenderfoot and at a time, too, when it took nerve for a tenderfoot to remain in
that locality.
Porter was born about 36 years ago in Frederick county,
Maryland, and when ten years old was placed by his parents in the St. Paul
military school, from which he ran away to become a cowboy. "Grove"
Porter, although but a youngster, had the nerve, however, and he stayed in
Wyoming. He secured employment immediately and rode the range for six
years. The climax was reached when Porter was appointed deputy marshal and
served during the hottest period ever known in that state. This, too, was the
first work as a peace officer for Porter although not long afterward he was
commissioned a deputy sheriff in Laramie county, and he had four years more of
strenuous life as an officer.
Source: Ada Evening News, May 16,
1907
BACK