FRIDGE, Ike.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

History of the Chisum War or Like of Ike Fridge: Stirring Events of Cowboy Life on the Frontier. First edition of this animated memoir of the Old West. Aged just 14, Fridge (1856-1927) joined John Chisum, the "Cattle King of the Pecos", as a cowpuncher. He graphically recalls the feuds of the New Mexico plains, Billy the Kid's rustling on Chisum's ranch, and service in the Texas Rangers.The book is "as compact as jerked beef and as laconic as conversation in alkali dust" (Dobie). It was "eventually the cause of the author's death. After it was printed for him by Jodie D. Smith at Electra, Texas, the author, an old man, started with two large suitcases full of books to sell his friends down in Seymour, Texas. He had to change trains at Wichita Falls, carrying the two heavy cases from one train to another. Their weight was too much for him - some adhesions from an old bullet wound in his abdomen tore loose while he was carrying the suitcases. He died a few days later" (Adams, Rampaging).

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