Book Review

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Book Review | The Journal of American History, 86.1 | The History Cooperative

Lawman: The Life and Times of Harry Morse, 1835-1912. By John Boessenecker. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998. xviii, 366 pp. $29.95, isbn 0-8061-3011-3.)

Elected sheriff of California's Alameda County (on the east side of San Francisco Bay) in 1864, young Harry Morse had political qualifications but no experience in law enforcement. According to attorney John Boessenecker, within a few years Morse gained fame by capturing or killing some of the most dangerous outlaws west of the Sierra Nevada, showing bravery and hardihood as well as growing skills in criminal detection. Friendly newspaper editors praised Morse, while his own accounts of encounters with desperate criminals polished his reputation. After fourteen years as county sheriff Morse left public office, founded a highly successful detective agency, and added to his celebrity with exploits such as the capture of Black Bart (Charles E. Boles), the gentlemanly poet-stage robber of the California gold country. 1

Morse lived comfortably in his later years and died peacefully in bed in January of 1912. Along with a respectable estate, he left a record as a gunfighter, man hunter, and sleuth, which Boessenecker claims "is without parallel in the history of the American frontier." Moreover, unlike such contemporaries as James B. "Wild Bill" Hickok, Wyatt Earp, and Bat Masterson, Boessenecker emphasizes, Morse was a public-spirited, solid citizen, and "a sober family man of moral as well as physical courage." . . .

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