Charles Smith (cowboy)

Origen Charles "Hairlip Charlie" Smith (4 May 1844 – 28 November 1907)[1][2] was a lawman, miner and cowboy in Arizona Territory who rode in the Earp Vendetta Ride.

[5] It was from here that he moved into Arizona Territory in a two-month journey that started on 12 March 1879, a few months before the Earps, whom he had befriended in Fort Worth, followed.

[5] Equally, on many occasions between 1879 and 1881 Smith supported, both physically and financially, the Earps and their mutual acquaintances, to the point of being targeted by outlaws himself.

[8] The Epitaph reported that he was the seventh member to ride out of Tombstone, but eyewitnesses suggest he rode ahead of the posse, as he had done before and would later, to set up a camp and carry supplies, this one eight miles north.

[10] After this, he initially sought exile with them in Colorado, but quickly returned to Arizona and began ferrying the Earps money from their holdings in the state.

[3] He again hunted outlaws with Dodge for many years, and in December 1883 was with him looking for the perpetrators of the Bisbee Massacre when he fell ill, due to an old chest wound acquired when shot back in Texas,[2] and couldn't finish the criminal round-up.

[8] Smith is reported to have ridden with Dodge, a lawman and undercover operative seeking thieves in Western Arizona, "always [...] when urgent".

The marriage ended and Smith moved to Tempe, leaving the family in Tombstone, where Margaret (and eventually Oneida) took back the Winders name.

[3] Charles Smith, despite being a close associate of the Earp family, does not often play a part in adaptations of stories of their lives and pursuits.

[1] The letters appeared to say that Smith was compiling memoirs in Tombstone in 1887, which were passed to a friend for help, who then had the Holliday pages published in Sulphur, Oklahoma, on February 14, 1899.

The letters gave a "standard account" of Holliday's illness and death, with more imaginative details of surrounding circumstances and other peoples' emotions.