RR Auction Unearths Dodge City History

While RR Auction has become known for auctioning items rich with national history, the Boston-based auction house also does its part in spotlighting authentic documents and artifacts that illuminate local histories in cities across the United States. These verified items are valuable to any who wish to collect pieces of their home’s history. 

One such place is Dodge City, Kansas. The Dodge Globe reported that RR Auction is featuring a rare item from the city’s Wild West past this July in their online auction “Fine Autographs and Artifacts,” open for bids until July 13^th. A pocket watch once belonging to the famous local lawman W.B. “Bat” Masterson is expected to be sold at auction for $15,000.

As a young man, Bat Masterson was a buffalo hunter, Indian scout, saloonkeeper, gunfighter and civilian scout for the U.S. Army in Dodge City. Later in life, he became a good friend of President Theodore Roosevelt and a member of the “White House Gunfighters,” as well as a writer and columnist. 

Masterson’s Elgin pocket watch sports a graving inside, reading, "To W. B. Bat Masterson, from the Citizens of Ford Co,” and is accompanied with a winding key. In 1885, he was voted the most popular man in Dodge City on an event held on July 4^th. The Dodge Globe states that at this event he received a gold watch chain and gold-headed cane, followed later by the customized pocket watch that is currently up for auction. 

The watch had been owned by Charlie E. Stup in those intervening years and was discovered again in 1985 after sifting through the findings of his estate sale. 

Executive Vice President at RR Auction Robert Livingston told the Dodge Globe, "This is clearly a great honor from the people of Ford County… a stunning personal piece from the famed lawman."

This auction also features two other Dodge City-related items: A Dodge City railroad seal stamp, and three documents from an 1879 lawsuit against Masterson while he was sheriff, accusing him of allowing a jail escape to occur. The documents include a manuscript fair copy of the arrest order issued to Masterson, a handwritten summons for the lawman and a true copy of the petition describing the complaint against the sheriff, reading, “contrary to Law and through gross neglect willfully permitted him to escape… to the damage of said Plaintiff in the sum of $23.75.” 

To preview and bid on all artifacts up for auction this July, please visit RR Auction’s website and follow their Twitter at https://twitter.com/rrauction and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/rrauction/ for continuous updates on valuable and authentic documents and artifacts for auction.