DAVE SMITH’S WAY

One time they called Sheriff Dave Smith when a man named Champion was raising .... in a saloon over on the north side, or Rat Row. He walked in the saloon, maybe not armed, and approached the man. Champion told Smith if he bothered him he would shoot him. Smith walked up to him and told him he didn’t have nerve enough to shoot anybody. He was that way, not afraid.

(Dave Smith lived where the old J. T. James home is located on Rice Avenue, near the square. But thought he told me Smith built the original two story plank house, but not sure. Smith was the father of Old Man Trav Smith, whom I knew always, and who as a cowboy helped my father trail drive his herd to Mitchell County in an early day. He told me my father suffered with chills and fever nearly all the way. People seemed more addicted to such in those days here).

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