Charles A. Siringo
Charles A. Siringo was a notable figure in the American West, known for his diverse roles as a cowboy, author, and detective. Born to Italian and Irish immigrant parents in the mid-19th century, Siringo faced early hardships, including the death of his father. By the age of eleven, he was already working full-time, eventually making his way to Texas where he became a cowboy, working on various ranches and leading cattle drives along the Chisholm Trail.
Siringo is particularly recognized for his contributions to cowboy literature, with his first book, *A Texas Cowboy: Or, Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony*, published in 1885, establishing him as a pioneer in cowboy autobiographies. His career took a turn when he joined the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in 1886, where he gained fame as a "cowboy detective," tracking down outlaws across North America for two decades.
Throughout his life, Siringo experienced personal challenges, including the loss of his first wife and multiple marriages. Later in life, he settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he continued to write, producing his second book, *A Cowboy Detective*, before facing financial difficulties. Ultimately, he moved to Los Angeles, where he engaged with the film industry as an advisor and actor. Siringo's life reflects the complexities of the American frontier, blending adventure, hardship, and literary legacy.
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Subject Terms
Charles A. Siringo
Fiction and Nonfiction Writer
- Born: February 7, 1855
- Birthplace: Matagorda, Texas
- Died: October 18, 1928
Biography
Charles A. Siringo and his older sister were the children of Italian immigrant Antonio Siringo and Irishwoman Bridgit (White) Siringo. Antonio Siringo died just one year after his son’s birth and Bridgit Siringo cared for the two children at least until sometime in the 1860’s, when Charles was adopted by a Myers family. At just eleven years old, Siringo was working full time, first rounding up cattle in 1866 and then working a range of jobs in St. Louis, Missouri, and New Orleans, Louisiana, between 1866 and 1870. He landed in Texas in 1870 and became a cowboy first at several coastal plains ranches and then at Able H. “Shanghai” Pierce’s Rancho Grande for almost two years between 1871 and 1872.
As a trail rider, Siringo led twenty-five hundred longhorns from Austin, Texas, through the Chisholm Trail to Kansas in 1876, making a similar trip with another herd in 1877. Siringo then joined David T. Beals and W. H. “Deacon” Bates to create the LX Ranch in the Panhandle. During his affiliation with the ranch, Siringo met Billy the Kid, whom he would later pursue through New Mexico and write about in his books.
Around 1884, the cowboy married Mamie Lloyd and left the LX Ranch to run a store in Caldwell, Oklahoma. He began writing his first book during this time, and his experiences as a cowboy, whether entirely factual or embellished, provided the fodder for this book as well as for his other writings and his reputation. A Texas Cowboy: Or, Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony appeared in 1885, made its author famous, and established Siringo as the pioneer cowboy autobiographer.
Siringo next transitioned into a detective career, moving to Chicago, Illinois, in 1886 and joining Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency, for which he would be a successful cowboy detective for the next twenty years; he chased after and found outlaws in locales as far apart as Alaska and Mexico. When Siringo’s wife died in 1890, the widower was left to care for the couple’s five-year-old daughter. He married Lillie Thomas in 1893, though that marriage did not last; they divorced just after the birth of their son in 1896.
A 1907 marriage to a woman named Grace also failed. In the year of that marriage, Siringo left the detective agency and retired to his Santa Fe ranch to write his second book. This one was about his more recent experiences. A Cowboy Detective was ready for publication in 1910, but was postponed roughly two years because of a dispute over the original title of Pinkerton’s Cowboy Detective.
In 1913, Siringo married Ellen Partain, and three years later, he became a ranger for the Cattle Sanitary Board in New Mexico and continued to put out books. Ill and facing financial difficulties, Siringo left his Santa Fe ranch in 1922 and moved to Los Angeles, California, to be near his three children. While in Los Angeles, he served as an advisor on Western films and played a few parts as an extra in movies.