Hiram Joseph STERLING

1885 - 1961  (76 years)

• Name	Hiram Joseph STERLING  [1, 2]
  Born	30 Aug 1885	Mexia, Limestone, Texas, USA   [3, 4, 5, 6]
  Gender	Male
  Census	16 Apr 1910	Mexia, Limestone, Texas, USA
  ED 42, pg 4A
  Commerce Street Lidia J Stirling Head F 49 Texas m. 32 yrs. 7/6 children Hirum J Stirling Son M 24 Texas m. 0 yrs. Nina Stirling D-in-l F 22 Texas 2/1 children Charles C Stirling Son M 15 Texas Walter E Stirling Son M 12 Texas Will Danner Boarder M 18 Texas Eugene P Moore Boarder M 34 Texas Leona Moore Boarder F 33 Texas Maurine E Moore Boarder F 10 Texas Lydia has her own income and Hiram's employment says "Float Line", I think. I don't know where Charles is. It looks like the pages may be out of order and she is at the top of the page.
  Military	11 Sep 1918	Groesbeck, Limestone, Texas, USA
  	draft
  	Hiriam Joseph Sterling, age 32, born 30 Aug 1885, is a self-employed rider. His nearest relative is his mother, Lidia Sterling of Mexia. He is of medium height and build with blue eyes and light hair.
  Census	10 Feb 1920	, Park, Wyoming, USA
  ED 105, pg 1A
  District 4 Richard P Sedgwick Head M 34 England Cynthia M Sedgwick Wife F 31 Iowa Dorthy M Sedgwick Dau F 8 Colorado Marjorie G Sedgwick Dau F 2 Colorado Hiram J Sterling Hired M 31 Texas Hiram is a stock man.
  Name	Harry Smith
  Name	Harry Sterling
  Name	Harry Walters  [7]
  Occupation	rodeo trick-rider
  Military	1942	San Ysidro, San Diego, California, USA
  	draft
  	Hiram Joseph Sterling, age 56, born 30 Aug 1885 in Fairfield, Texas, lives at 226 Mesa Ave in San Ysidro and works for Rohr Aircraft Co in San Diego. His contact person is Leo Haskell, also of San Ysidro.
  Died	20 Sep 1961	Chula Vista, San Diego, California, USA   [8, 9]
  Buried	22 Sep 1961	Chula Vista, San Diego, California, USA
  	Address: Ocean View Cemetery San Diego County San Diego County, California
  	Harry was reburied at Chula Vista.
  Person ID	I6095	An Armstrong & A Heffernan
  Last Modified	7 May 2024

  
  

  Father	Charles Joseph STERLING,   b. 3 Jun 1857, , Franklin, Missouri, USA ,   d. 21 Oct 1932, Mexia, Limestone, Texas, USA  (Age 75 years)
  Mother	Lydia Jane GIBBONS,   b. 17 Jun 1860, Grapevine, Tarrant, Texas, USA ,   d. 11 Aug 1957, Chula Vista, San Diego, California, USA  (Age 97 years)
  Married	1 Jan 1878	Fairfield, Freestone, Texas, USA   [10, 11]
  Family ID	F2632	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Nina STEPHENS,   b. 16 Apr 1887, , , Texas, USA ,   d. 19 Dec 1956, Houston, Harris, Texas, USA  (Age 69 years)
  Married	Abt 1908	, , Texas, USA   [12]
  Children	1. Foye STERLING,   b. 27 Oct 1910, Teague, Freestone, Texas, USA ,   d. 6 May 2010, , Tarrant, Texas, USA  (Age 99 years)
  Last Modified	3 Oct 2017
  Family ID	F6194	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 2	Goldie GRIFFITH,   b. 30 Sep 1893, , , Illinois, USA ,   d. 6 Jan 1976, , , California, USA  (Age 82 years)
  Married	Abt 1912	New York, New York, New York, USA
  	Madison Square Garden
  Children	1. Russell Sylvia STERLING,   b. 27 Sep 1919, Denver, Denver, Colorado, USA ,   d. 22 Oct 1999, Weed, Siskiyou, California, USA  (Age 80 years)
  Last Modified	3 Oct 2017
  Family ID	F2637	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  I'm not actually related to Hiram but his story fascinates me. He's a distant first cousin to my children. He had two (known) children and it doesn't look like he raised either of them but I don't hold it against him. Either he or Mr Hinkle was a great story-teller. Hiram had no sister named Edith who married a movie star unless it was very late in life. Killed a man from Teague in 1910 over a dog fight in which the other man's dog was killed. [Mr Whitt was actually killed in 1907 (from his g-grandchild).] From an article on the Internet, MILT HINKLE by Kerry Ross Boren With Milt in South America was one of his best friends, a superb cowboy named Harry Smith. His real name was Harum Sterling, and he had good-cause to change his name, for he had killed a man in 1911. He took the name Harry Smith because he had his initials, H.S., tattooed on his left arm. Harry walked into a livery stable at Mexia, Texas, followed by his dog, Old Pal. The livery owner didn't like Harry's dog, half-bulldog, half-leopard spotted cow-dog, and he opened a box stall and released his own pit-fighting bulldog which had killed six other pit bulls in matches. Old Pal began to get the best of the pit bull, and the owner picked up a pitchfork with which to stab the dog. Harry took the pitchfork away from him, and the man ran into his office and retrieved a six-gun. Harry was faster and shot the man in the heart. Old Pal killed the bulldog, too, and two witnesses saw it all. Harry left Texas and joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and while with the show married Goldie Griffith, the Champion Cowgirl Bucking Horse Rider of the World, on horseback at the old Madison Square Garden. (Ironically, at about the same time, Harry's sister, Edythe Sterling, was marrying silent film cowboy actor and rodeo cowboy Art Acord on horseback in the arena of the Pioneer Days Rodeo in Salt Lake City.) Harry joined the Miller Brothers 101 Wild West Show in 1913. On October 13, 1913, a rainy day in Houston, Texas, Milt Hinkle stepped down from his gray horse to find the guns of two big detectives. Because he was wearing white Angora chaps, such as Harry Smith wore, they mistook him for Harry. A lady pointed out that they had the wrong man, and, pointing at Harry, said, "That's the one!" Harry tried to duck under the sidewall of a tent and one of the policemen aimed at him with his gun. "For some reason," wrote Milt, "I bumped into the cop as he Pulled the trigger. The bullet hit Harry in the left leg high up, but it didn't stop him. He made his way to the stock cars. "When we loaded the horses, Chester Byers and Amos Clayton saw him and got him to lay low, and when the train was loaded, Chester and Clayton put him in an empty boxcar that was marked dead-head to Chicago. They gave Harry two bottles of milk and some bread, and he arrived four days later in Chicago where his wife lived with her mother. Goldie cut the bullet out of his hip." After Harry healed, he decided to join Milt and the 101 Show in South America to let things cool down in the States. We came the last Sunday night performance of the show in Buenos Aires, Milt was getting ready to leave for the Casey ranch. E Bowman and Harry Smith were going with him, and they started to drive Milt's stock out of the horse tent when Ed Arlingtoy appeared and demanded $100 for a feed bill. Milt lost his temper and cursed the man whom had used the horses for free and now demanded a feed bill be paid for them. Milt directed Ed Bowman and Harry Smith to proceed with the horses. At this point, Tantlinger and Bob Anderson-the latter of whom had been feuding with Milt-and several others stepped in and tried to stop Harry Smith. Ed Arlington yelled out, loud enough for all to hear "Harry, you know you're wanted in the United States for murder, so you'd better watch what you do." Harry yelled back, just as loud, "And I'll be wanted for murder in this country, too if you don't get out of my way!" "I saw that Harry was so mad he had tears in his eyes, and I knew this to be a danger point, so I told him to keep moving. Harry had made several friends while with the show, but one in particular that he went around with. They had been to parties together and got to be pretty good pals, and just about the time our departure caused such a ruckus, up stepped this friend of Harry's, and he proceeded to take command. First, he told the gaucho to get off his horse, and then he mounted and rode over to me. He took my 30-30, and I saw that he also had a pistol. His instructions then were, 'Let's ride!' "By this time the police had arrived, but so had Mr. Casey, and when he spoke to the police, they stepped back, so we rode out of the Park with no more trouble. "I think I should explain here that the man who gave the command, 'Let's ride,' had been one of the lieutenants of the well known Butch Cassidy Gang, and he had heard this same command given many times by Butch when he headed his notorious band of desperadoes who robbed banks and trains, and stole cattle. His hideout was in the Jackson Hole country of Wyoming, and since he was one of Cassidy's head men, he had come to Argentina with much wealth. Here he had lived as a ranchman for several years.... "We made the trip cross-country to the Casey ranch without any trouble, taking two and one-half days. I did not know who Harry's friend was who helped us the night we left the Park, until Harry told me.... "When my good friends, Harry Smith and Ed Bowman, left me, after helping me bring my stock to the Casey ranch, I gave each one of them a good saddle horse. They went with the friend of Butch Cassidy to his spread near Bahia Blanca, where they were to break horses and skin wild cattle for their hides. It was some time before I saw them again." Privately, Milt revealed to me the identity of Cassidy's lieutenant: he was none other than Harvey Logan, a.k.a. Kid Curry. Later this was confirmed for me by Logan's grandson, Duane Moran, who verified that Kid Curry-known in south America as Andrew Duffy-married an Argentinean girl and fathered eight children before dying of natural causes at the age of seventy-nine on his estancia near Bahia Blanca. Milt trailed a herd for Reginald Casey across the Pampas from Las Heras, across the Rio Choco north to the town of Las Plumas, to the Rio Chubut (where Butch and Sundance had established their ranch in 1902), eventually arriving at the Casey ranch at Santa Rosa in February 1914. Mr. Casey talked Milt into staying in Argentina for a while and trying his hand at ranching. They had been having dinner at a lavish nightclub when Casey made the offer. "Mr. Casey... told me that he had just received word that Tex Rickard had sailed for the States, having sold his interest to the company he worked for. While in South America, Tex had made his headquarters in Buenos Aires, and he and Mr. Casey were pretty good friends.... Now that Tex had sailed for the States, Mr. Casey said that Tex had left plenty of cheap land that could be bought, also that it was all good cattle country, and that the price of that land would be high just as soon as the railroad, which Tex had gotten started before he left, was finished." Tex Richard owned, in addition to the property in Argentina, a huge estancia in Paraguay. His Argentine holdings had been acquired for him by none other than Butch Cassidy, who also held a percentage interest in the ranch operations. But Cassidy and Rickard had decided to go into partnership in a mining venture at Goldfield, Nevada, and so sold out in South America. Rickard is best known as a promoter, having promoted such championship boxing matches as the Jeffries-Johnson fight at Reno, Nevada, on July 4, 1910. Rickard numbered among his friends, in addition to Butch Cassidy, Wyatt Earp, and Bat Masterson. He was once rumored to have married lady outlaw Etta Place, but though he knew her, no such marriage occurred. Milt Hinkle returned to the United States with a new title, by which he would be known ever after-The South American Kid. There was an aftermath to this story that bears repeating. In the mid 1920s, Milt returned to Buenos Aires with Art Acord's wild west Show. Art Acord, a Utah cowboy who became a western movie star rival of Tom Mix, had first married the sister of Harum Sterling, alias Harry Smith, and later Louise Lorraine, who played the first "Jane" in the Tarzan movies opposite Elmo Lincoln. There was quite a gathering at the Sportivia that year as some members of the Wild Bunch assembled to participate in Art's show. The livestock was provided by Kid Curry from his estancia at Bahia Blanca, and Butch Cassidy was also present as a spectator. When the show closed, the "boys" had a wild party, and there was some inebriated reminiscing, during which Art Acord's wife's nephew---of whom he had charged questioned whether Butch and his friends had ever held up a bank. The youth's doubt soon grew into a challenge. Under the leadership of Butch Cassidy-now approaching sixty years of age-the men organized a "gang," sort of a "Wild Bunch IL" and rode to an outlying town in Argentina. The "gang" consisted of Butch Cassidy; Kid Curry; Art Acord; Art's nephew, Harry Smith; Clay McGonigal; and-Milt Hinkle. The result of the escapade was a daring daylight bank robbery. "It was the damnedest and most foolish stunt I ever pulled," Milt said. "I had never done anything like that before, and I sure as hell never did anything like that again!" The story of Milt Hinkle cannot be told in one installment. His life was an incredible series of events and adventures. He was a bronc rider, bulldogger, steer-roper, rodeo clown, movie actor, range cowboy, boxer, wrestler, stage performer, rancher, stunt rider, promoter, and much, much more. The stories are legion. There was the time he bull dogged a steer from an airplane in Mexico for the benefit of Pancho Villa, and drove his hip bone out of the socket (In later years, he had to walk with the aid of a crutch.), and was nursed to health by Etta Place. Then there was the time that he worked in films with Charlie Chaplin. Mae West once invited him to "come on up and see me sometime," and there was the time he boxed with the champ, Max Baer, and. well, you get the idea. There was a great day in my life, too ---the day I met Milt Hinkle. I have no doubt that my great old friend is somewhere up there in that Big Range in the Sky, riding point for the Boss of the outfit. Sources: 1. Personal communication with Milton D. Hinkle and Din Moran 2. Articles by Milt Hinkle: "A Texm Hits the Aimpas," Old West, Fall 1965 "The Kit Carson Wild West Show," Fronner Times, April-May 1964 "Ways of a Roving Cowboy," The West "Swashbuckler Tom Mix," Tme West, July-August 1967 "101 Ranch Stam* Wild West," Frontier Times "Me Way a Wild West Show Operated," Frontier Tunes "Spaldley of the 101," True West, September-October 1964 "Dodging a Necktie Party," Old West, Fall 1968 "Cowbviing Sure Used to Be NW'True West, January-February 1971 "Bulldoggers!" True West, November-December 1967 "Back WW'True West, January-February 1963 "Rough String Rider," Frontier Times "I Knew Them All," True West, January-February 1964 "Winning or Losing," Frontier Times "Life of a Rodeo Gown," Frontier Times "The Dusky Denm" The West, July-August 1961 "Buckaroo and Bobwire," True West, March April 1972 "Rodeo Personalities," The West, May-June 1970

  
  

• Sources

  [S88] 1900 Limestone, TX, ED 59, pg 23B. Hiram J Sterling [S1213] Draft Registration II, (FamilySearch.org), Sterling, Hiram Joseph. [S175] California State Death Records, (RootsWeb.com), Sterling, Harry J. 30 Aug 1885, Texas [S528] SSDI, (FamilySearch.org). I found this by looking up his parents' names in the old index at RootsWeb. Unfortunately, you can no longer do that and I only recorded the number and the date information. [S88] 1900 Limestone, TX, ED 59, pg 23B. age 14, Sep 1886, Texas [S175] California State Death Records, (RootsWeb.com), Walters, Harry J. 30 Aug 1885, Texas [S175] California State Death Records, (RootsWeb.com), Walters, Harry J. [S175] California State Death Records, (RootsWeb.com), Sterling, Harry J. 20 Sep 1961, San Diego County [S175] California State Death Records, (RootsWeb.com), Walters, Harry J. 20 Sep 1961, San Diego County [S393] Londo, Ida, Charles Sterling to Lydia Gibbons. 1 Jan 1878, Fairfield, Texas, by WT Watson, JP. [S88] 1900 Limestone, TX, ED 59, pg 23B. married 23 years [S99] 1910 Limestone, TX, ED 42, pg 4A. married 0 years