Dave Morrow was born in Ohio. When the Civil War broke out, Dave was living in California. He joined Company G of the First Regiment of California in May 1863. For the next three years, Dave spent time riding the wilderness trails in California, Arizona, and New Mexico pursuing Confederate Soldiers, renegade Navajos, and hostile Apaches. Morrow mustered out of the Military in May 1866. He drifted into Hays City, Kansas, where he lived for several years. David Morrow might be considered typical of many Easterners who came to the Kansas buffalo range about 1870. Dave quickly gained a reputation as an excellent shot and first-class hunter.
As Morrow began hunting buffalo in 1872, he heard other buffalo hunters talking about a white buffalo supposedly seen on the planes southwest of Hays City toward Dodge City. Most people, including many old buffalo hunters, had some doubts that such an animal existed, but reports persisted. Prairie Dog Dave decided to hunt the white buffalo. He bought a gallon of formaldehyde, took his gun, some ammunition, and supplies, and set out in his wagon to search for the animal. Just how long he was out on the planes or where he went, no one is sure. But around January 1, 1873, Dave Morrow drove his wagon into Dodge City, pulling up in front of Robert Wright's general store, and tied his team to the hitching post. |
He was smiling. In the back of the wagon was the carcass of the white buffalo. Wright paid Prairie Dog Dave $1,000 cash on the spot for the animal's remains and had the white-robed in head-mounted and shipped to Kansas City, where it was put on display. Later it was shown in Topeka at the statehouse. It finally ended up in the Hubbell Museum at New York City, where it was destroyed by fire a few years later.
Dave Morrow was known as "Prairie Dog Dave" in Dodge City. He had many roles in western law enforcement and served with Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp. During this time he had a run-in with a local preacher. Some say the story about the preacher accrued when Mysterious Dave Mathers was present, therefore giving credit to Mathers rather than Morrow. But it was widely known about town that Morrow didn't like preachers. One night an evangelist had taken over Rowdy Kate's Dance Hall. Back in those days, frontier preachers often used saloons and Dance Halls for venues. The evangelist had turned the dance hall into a sanctuary by placing boards across beer kegs for seating. He sent some men to summon Morrow to his gospel message on being ready to die.
Morrow listened as long as he could take it, then stood up and asked the evangelist if he was, "so good you're ready to cash in any old time?" The preacher said he was.
Morrow yelled, "then you better die right now when you're settin' purty." He pulled his brace of six-shooters and started shooting into the floor at the preacher's feet. The preacher screamed and dived for cover behind beer kegs.
Morrow then announced, "He's no more ready to die than I am."
Dave served in several capacities as a Lawman during his Dodge City days. In 1875 he served as Constable for Ford County. In 1877 he was on the Dodge City Police force, and in 1878 he became a Deputy Sheriff under Bat Masterson. In June 1883, Morrow was approached by Wyatt Earp for help with the Luke Short affair. Dave was eager to help and agreed to Deputize Wyatt and his boys. That group of men became known as the Dodge City Peace Commission. Dave also served as a deputy under Ham Bell and later retired to farming in Ingalls, Kansas.
Morrow listened as long as he could take it, then stood up and asked the evangelist if he was, "so good you're ready to cash in any old time?" The preacher said he was.
Morrow yelled, "then you better die right now when you're settin' purty." He pulled his brace of six-shooters and started shooting into the floor at the preacher's feet. The preacher screamed and dived for cover behind beer kegs.
Morrow then announced, "He's no more ready to die than I am."
Dave served in several capacities as a Lawman during his Dodge City days. In 1875 he served as Constable for Ford County. In 1877 he was on the Dodge City Police force, and in 1878 he became a Deputy Sheriff under Bat Masterson. In June 1883, Morrow was approached by Wyatt Earp for help with the Luke Short affair. Dave was eager to help and agreed to Deputize Wyatt and his boys. That group of men became known as the Dodge City Peace Commission. Dave also served as a deputy under Ham Bell and later retired to farming in Ingalls, Kansas.
KANSAS 100 YEARS AGO
Kansas State Historical Society
"PRAIRIE DOG" Dave Morrow Described
A correspondent of the Topeka Daily Commonwealth, reporting from present Hamilton county, commented on the West in general and on Dave Morrow in particular, January 21, 1874. Morrow, later a Dodge City peace officer «and a contemporary of Bat Masterson, was over-romanticized by the reporter:
These great plains, to cross which in the early days was as perilous as a voyage to the polar seas, have furnished examples of heroism and fortitude that would cast a shadow over the most brilliant achievements of the greatest warrior ... The traveler who reached his destination with a whole scalp was esteemed fortunate.
These heroes of the plains are not creations of an idle fancy, like the mythical ones of the blood-and-thunder dime novels which cause tears to flow from the eyes of soft-pated young men and softhearted maidens, but real, living persons, who move and nave their being in our midst.
'David Morrow, or, as he is properly known on the plains, Prairie Dog Dave, is an old-timer and a hunter by profession and instinct. 'Forsaking the parental roof at an early age, he, like hundreds of other adventurous spirits, followed the star of empire in its westward course. How he came to inherit this peculiar sobriquet deponent sayeth not, and surely we fail to trace in him any marks of similarity to the diminutive canine that lives on the prairie and burrows in the ground.
"In his personal makeup the 'dog' is fashioned very much like a man, walks upright, is solidly and equally constructed, with a pair of black eyes that will go right through a ten foot stone wall, and measuring six feet six inches in his moccasins. In conversation he is fluent, and relates his hair-breadth escapes with that subdued self-gratulation characteristic of old plainsmen. During his fifteen years residence in the wilds of the West, he has gathered moss agates from the highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains, delved down into the gold beds of California, Arizona and Colorado, broiled venison steaks on the coals of Captain Jack's lava furnaces, and killed enough deer, elk and buffalo to keep the Great Eastern employed half a century......transporting meat to the hungry denizens of the old world.
"He is an excellent shot, and when he levels his piece on a deer or buffalo jt is sure to come down. It is not known that he ever amused himself by shooting the earrings from his sister's ears. ... In all his wild and checkered career, where 80 many have made moral shipwrecks of themselves, Dave has preserved his manhood untarnished, and still carries about him the tokens of a former civilization. He has come to wise conclusion that a rolling stone will gather no greenbacks, and having taken 160 acres of Uncle Sam's land now whiles away his leisure moments in reading the latest works on agriculture and matrimony, (Prepared by the Kansas State Historical Society)