Author Description

William Barclay Masterson was born Bertholomiew {later Bartholomew} Masterson in Henryville, Quebec, Canada on 26 November 1853. He died, after a life of adventure, in New York City on 25 October 1921. Belying the dangers of his career as a buffalo hunter, scout, gambler, sheriff of several cowtowns in Kansas, and Deputy U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of New York, appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905, he ended his days as a newspaperman, writing a sports column for the Morning Telegraph and dying at his desk. Bat Masterson was friends with, enemies with, or knew by reputation nearly all the major figures of the Old West. From his early hunts with Bill Tilghman and Billy Dixon through his scouting days with General Miles, to his friendship with Teddy Roosevelt and the Earps, he saw or heard of the exploits commemorated in hundreds of books, stage plays, television shows, and movies, including the ever-famous gunfight at the OK Corral.