Wild West Con Men of the Early 20th Century, Part 2: Ora Woodman

Fraud and confidence schemes are common to all eras. But researching the life of Brushy Bill, and the various fraudulent characters he is connected to, has given me a fondness for the folks that popped up in the early to mid-1900s, claiming to be some hero or other from the Wild West, charming and disarming unsuspecting folks across the nation.

This small series of blogs will examine a few of the characters I’ve investigated.

Part Two: Ora Woodman, alias “Two Braids,” alias Thomas Stringfield, alias William Kit Carson.

It’s hard to piece together all the varied claims that Ora Woodman made through his life. But the best attempt at doing so would include the following: As Ora “Two Braids” Woodman, he was raised for forty years by the Comanche. As Tommy Stringfield, his family was massacred in Texas in 1875 or so, and he lived among the Apache for forty years, and married Geronimo’s niece. He was then given the name “Ora Woodman” by soldiers at Fort Scott, Kansas, and he discovered his true identity as Tommy Stringfield later in life. As “Uncle” Kit Carson, he was the nephew of the famed scout Kit Carson, and was born in 1858, was the first fighter wounded in the Lincoln County War, and fought in the Spanish American War, spending time in Cuba and the Philippines. He charged San Juan Hill with Teddy Roosevelt. He was a city marshal and fought it out with infamous Cook gang. He was a miner in New Mexico and Colorado. He took a Wild West Show all the way to Pennsylvania.

On July 2, 1891, a “pale and emaciated” young man named Ora Woodman stepped off of the M.K.& T. passenger train in Fort Scott, Kansas. He was wearing “an extremely broad-brimmed” straw hat, trimmed in silver threads. He no doubt took in his surroundings with a sense of disappointment. He had left Fort Scott and traveled to Texas years before to become a cowboy, but his feeble health and chronic weakness had forced him to return to Kansas.

A young Ora Woodman.

Even though his short-lived dreams of becoming a cowboy were over, life in Kansas in the 1890s had enough excitement of its own. In April of 1893, Ora Woodman joined up with a posse under the leadership of Deputy Marshal Lillie and headed after timber thieves in the Cheyenne and Arapahoe country. The posse returned with sixteen prisoners.

Woodman moved to Chandler, Oklahoma, and for some years life took a rather routine and normal route for the aspiring cowboy. There he married Maud Garner in February of 1896, and by September, he was driving the Shawnee stage. On January 15, 1897, the Woodman’s had their first child, a baby girl, named Pansy Viola Woodman.

In April of 1899 Woodman was a candidate in Chandler for town marshal, but does not appear to have won enough votes to secure the position, and by 1900 he had settled in Lawton, Oklahoma.

Ora remained in Lawton, Oklahoma as late as 1905, and was known by townsfolk as a prosperous farmer and an active Republican in town politics. Around this time, he and wife were also acquainted with Quanah Parker, government-appointed Comanche chief who lived near Cache, Oklahoma.

As early as 1906, possibly through connections facilitated by Quanah Parker, he had joined the Kemp Sisters’ Wild West show, and in May of that year he was touring with the show as far east as Pennsylvania under the name “Two Braids,” claiming to have been stolen as a child by Comanche Indians. His backstory at this time was that he was captured by a Comanche warrior named Toey during a raid. Toey gave him the name “Two Braids,” and while with the Comanche in the reservation at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, the soldiers gave him an anglicized name, dubbing him “Ora Woodman.”

Ora Woodman as "Two Braids"

Woodman eventually recruited his young daughter Pansy into the traveling life of wild west shows. She was billed as “Nucki Two Braids,” his Native American daughter, and was said to be a fine horse rider like her father.

Ora Woodman began to make slight alterations to his narrative, in order to cement his history as “Two Braids.” His wife, Maud, holding down the homeplace in Oklahoma, became in his tales a Native American wife, niece of the famous Geronimo. His son, Lawton Woodman, became “Startlight,” and, of course, his daughter Pansy was still on the road with him as “Nucki Two Braids.” He even began to claim that he visited President Taft in Washington, DC, seeking a pardon for some unarticulated offense.

Ora Woodman's daughter, Pansy, as "Nucki Two Braids."

In 1909, while in San Antonio, Texas, Ora Woodman heard the tale of the Stringfield family. In September of 1875 or so, Thomas Stringfield, a La Salle county rancher, and his wife and three children, were coming back from a visit at their neighbor’s farm, when they were attacked by Indians. The parents were killed, and one daughter, Ida, was left for dead, while two sons were carried away captive. The two Stringfield boys were never seen or heard from again.

Upon hearing this story from J.L. Burris, a cousin of the Stringfield family, who suspected that this "Two Braids" may be Thomas Stringfield, one of the long lost boys, Ora Woodman seized the opportunity for notoriety and perhaps an inheritance of the Stringfield estate.

After talking with Ora Woodman for some time, J.L. Burris became absolutely convinced that Woodman was his long-lost cousin. They determined that Woodman should meet Tommy Stringfield's alleged sister, Ida Stringfield, who, surviving the Stringfield massacre, was now married. Woodman and Burris went to the train station to meet Ida Stringfield (now Hatfield), and Woodman, claiming to recognize Ida Hatfield immediately, roughly embraced her, taking her by surprise. Ida was not convinced, but after some persuasion, and after looking at him for some time, finally acquiesced that Woodman may be her brother.

“It was hard at first for us to get the facts straightened out,” another cousin, Wesley Irvin, told The Houston Post.

Just a couple months after identifying himself as Tommy Stringfield and winning the confidence of the family, Ora Woodman was arrested. The sensational story of a boy kidnapped by the Indians and finally returning to his family after 40 years reached authorities in Lawton, Oklahoma, where Ora Woodman was wanted for taking a team of horses which he still owed money on out of state.

Sheriff S.A. Elrod of Lawton, Oklahoma, challenged Ora Woodman’s outlandish stories, informing Texans that Woodman was not a Native American at all, and that he was just a wood-hauler from Lawton, Oklahoma, whose wife was just as white as Woodman. Sheriff Elrod also obtained written testimony from a congressman that Woodman had never visited President Taft for a pardon.

Leaving young Nucki Two Braids behind with some of the Stringfield relatives, Sheriff Elrod brought a crestfallen Woodman back to Lawton to face charges in August of 1909. But the Stringfield cousins, Jesse Burris and Wesley Irvin, came to the rescue. They were so convinced by Woodman’s claims to be Tommy Stringfield that they paid Woodman’s debts to the bank, and Woodman was cleared by the courts. He then went back to Texas to live with his “relatives.”

Ora Woodman told people that the last name of Woodman was the name of the family that adopted him, after a missionary retrieved him from Indians and gave him as a baby to the Woodman family (although how this could be true alongside his claim of living 40 years among the Comanche, nobody seemed to question).

Ora Woodman visited the graves of the Stringfields, his alleged parents, near the bank of the Nueces. He then advised everyone that he would begin raising funds for a monument to his parents there, soon collecting several hundred dollars.

Not content to just deceive and exploit just one family, Ora Woodman preyed on the misfortunes and hopes of another man, August H. Weynand, saying that his brother Herbert, who was decades before taken by Indians in Medina county, Texas, was now living in Cache, Oklahoma. August Weynand wrote to the Cache postmaster from Castroville, Texas in April of 1909, asking for information that would assist him in locating his brother. Doubtlessly, his brother was never located.

"Tommy Stringfield"

By September of 1909, Ora Woodman was appealing to the government for a legal change of name from Ora Woodman to Thomas Stringfield. He was now claiming to have grown up among the Apache Indians, rather than the Comanches, and said that he found out he was really white, and not an Indian, from the Apache warrior named Death Face, who, on his deathbed when they were both at the Fort Sill, Oklahoma reservation, told Woodman the truth about his origins. According to his new story, he married Geronimo’s niece, Bright Moon, and together they had a daughter, Nucki Two Braids and a son, Starlight.

Ora Woodman’s deceit of the Stringfield family didn’t last long. Although the specifics are thus far lost to history, his fraud was found out, and Woodman was once more on the move, spinning new yarns. The monument whose erection Ora Woodman initiated, upon its completion, ended up including the fact that “Two Braids” was proved an imposter by Ida Alice Stringfield Hatfield.

"Proved an imposter."

As he was passing through El Paso in September of 1910, Ora Woodman was still claiming to be Two Braids, raised by Indians, albeit with a few minor alterations in his story: he was now telling folks that he was born in Wilson county in 1866, and in 1870, Geronimo’s Apaches murdered everyone in his house but him. He went three days tied up on horseback with no food as a captive of the Apaches. He was raised with the Apaches, and just before Geronimo died, the Apache chief informed Woodman that his people were about 100 miles west of Corpus Christi, Texas.

Woodman was still part of the Wild West exhibition circuit in September of 1912. Sheriff O.H. Brown, of Texas, wrote to the Sheriff of Guthrie, Oklahoma, looking for “Tommy Stringfield,” in possession of eight horses, traveling with a wife and two children. Woodman dropped the Stringfield name, and began working for the Kit Carson Buffalo Ranch Circus, which was out of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He was billed Kit Carson, Jr., son of the famed scout. He also performed for both the Great Coleman Circus and the John Robinson Circus, often times parading himself as the real Kit Carson, rather than a son.

"Kit Carson, Jr."

Ora Woodman’s daughter married Charles Bertram in Comanche, Oklahoma, in 1914, no doubt throwing a wrench in Woodman’s schemes to use her to further buttress his wild claims and deceive audiences. Woodman began telling folks that his daughter Nucki Two Braids died at the age of 14.

By 1920, Woodman’s wife, Maude, had relocated to San John, New Mexico. On the 1920 census, she lists her marital status as “widowed.”

In June of of 1930, as “Uncle Kit Carson,” Woodman appeared outside of Nashville, Indiana, in an “Indian Pow-Wow” along with Chief Eagle Feather, Chief Deerfoot, Morning Star, Tuckhorse, Red Horn, and Clearwater.

Woodman moved to Roswell, New Mexico by 1931, telling folks that he was William Kit Carson, the famous Kit Carson’s nephew. At this point, his story had expanded to include time spent as an Army scout, a cowboy for Chisum’s Jinglebob ranch, a friend to Billy the Kid, as well as a serving a stint of military service with Theodore Roosevelt.

In Pawnee, Oklahoma, in June of 1934, there was a settlers’ and frontiersmen reunion. In addition to Ora Woodman (“Uncle Kit Carson”), other attendees included Gordon W. Lillie (“Pawnee Bill”) and “Diamond Dick.” The next month, in Shreveport, Louisiana, Woodman and Pawnee Bill and others were looking to put together a new national rodeo association, called the Ark-La-Tex Pioneers’ Association.

In September of 1944, in Rowell, New Mexico, using the name Kit Carson, Ora Woodman married Frances Stout, of Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was able to secure a birth certificate under the name Kit Carson, witnessed and notarized by Arline Gibbany in Chaves county, stating he was the son of William Carson and Maria Carson, born on August 7, 1858 in Old Fort Union, New Mexico. The evidence for this claim was an affidavit of Reverend George De Vico, Tupello county, New Mexico.

“Uncle Kit,” as a pioneer Indian scout, was elected “Mr. Treasure Hunter of ‘55” in January of 1955 the Treasure Trove Club of New York. The previous Mr. Treasure Hunter of 1954 was an Arctic explorer and researcher from Dartmouth College. New York’s Treasure Trove Club unwittingly set the bar low for their 1955 year by choosing the fraudulent Ora Woodman as their title recipient.

In 1956, “Uncle Kit Carson” made his intentions known to participate in the Chisholm Trail celebration, claiming to have ridden the trail in 1878 (Woodman would have been about 7 years old at the time).

The members of the Roswell Golden Age Club celebrated Ora Woodman’s 100th birthday (he was, in reality, about 85 years old at the time) in August of 1957.

A couple months later, on the night of October 24, 1957, Woodman collapsed on the floor of his coal shed. In the morning, a woman named Mary Haskins arrived to clean Woodman’s house and found him unconscious, with his dog curled up next to him. He had been unconscious on the shed floor throughout the night, in 39-degree Fahrenheit temperature. He died a day later, his death attributed to pneumonia and exposure.

In his last will and testament, Woodman stated that he was not married, and that he had no children or heirs. Although Woodman long claimed that his daughter Nucki died at the age of 14, Pansy Viola Woodman would outlive her father, dying in 1968 at the age of 71, and his son Lawton Woodman lived until 1977.

After Woodman’s death, a letter was found among his possessions, written to him by O.L. Roberts on April 1, 1949. Roberts would, within the year, become nationally known when he would claim to be William H. Bonney, alias Billy the Kid.

In the letter, Roberts writes:

“We heard from Billie the Kid. He is doing fine and we are looking for him to come visit us in Hico, Texas. He will stay with us two weeks, then he will go and stay for three years, Dad. I will do my best to get Billie the Kid to come by and see you. We sure are lonesome and sure are blue about our boys. Sure wish they was at home… Love and best wishes to you from your son, O.L. Roberts.”

Much speculation has been made on what Roberts meant by his references to Billy the Kid visiting Woodman and spending time with Roberts, but here Roberts is simply referring to Billy The Kid Roberts, born on July 13, 1931 in Littlefield, Texas, to Addie Lee and Eva Roberts.

Billy The Kid Roberts (his legal name) was in the military, and was going to visit O.L. Roberts, who was possibly Billy The Kid Roberts’ uncle or cousin or other distant relation, when he returned from overseas. Billy The Kid Roberts told newspapers during his service in the Armed Forces that he was named Billy The Kid to please his great-uncle, Kit Carson.

Billy The Kid Roberts

Given that young Billy The Kid Roberts calls Woodman his great-uncle, that he is named “Billy The Kid” out of Woodman’s influence on the Roberts family, and that O.L. Roberts, who eventually becomes the famed Brushy Bill claiming to be Billy the Kid, calls Woodman “dad,” it is undeniable that Ora Woodman yielded a strong guiding influence on O.L. Roberts and perhaps a larger Roberts family.

It's unknown what kind of relationship Ora Woodman had in his later years with his children and grandchildren, but it is sad to think that the most he ever mentioned to the press and audiences was that his children were dead, and more sad still that his heirs were not even acknowledged in his last will and testament.

While occupying a position as interesting characters of the fading American West, these liars and frauds reveal a deeper, more unsettling example of sadness and poor mental health that permeated the end of one era and the birth of another.

What drove these failed cowboys, traveling salesmen, and Wild West carnies to fabricate fantastic tales out of whole cloth to sell to the masses? Were their motivations solely founded on greed? Was there a subconscious longing to so be a part of those Old West days that, by lying about being a part of it, they actually could convince themselves that they were? Did they hate their normal, humdrum lives, and long to be remembered for something more?

It's probably a combination of numerous amorphous issues that we'll never acutely diagnose.

Regardless of our inability to articulate their roots and motivations, frauds and carnival con-men like Ora Woodman are certainly fascinating and their exploits, both authentic and fraudulent, could no doubt fill volumes.

Sources:

- US Federal Census. Year: 1880; Census Place: Scott, Bourbon, Kansas; Roll: 374; Page: 336B; Enumeration District: 034.

- US Federal Census. Year: 1920; Census Place: Reno, Washoe, Nevada; Roll: T625_1005; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 53.

- The Fort Scott Weekly Tribune, July 2, 1891, p.8.

- The Wichita Eagle, April 1, 1893, p.4.

- The Chandler News, February 21, 1896, p.3.

- The Chandler News, September 4, 1896, p.3.

- The Chandler News, January 15, 1897, p.3.

- The Chandler Publicist, May 20, 1898, p.4.

- The Chandler News, April 21, 1899, p.6.

- Oklahoma Farm News and Mineral Kingdom, Lawton, Oklahoma. December 14, 1905, p.7.

- The Semi-Weekly Star, Lawton, Oklahoma. February 16, 1907, p.3.

- “Wild West Show Opens At Kennywood Park,” Pittsburgh Daily Post, May 26, 1907, p.12.

- “Everything in Readiness,” Cache Clarion, July 3, 1908, p.1.

- “With a Big Blaze of Glory,” Cache Clarion, July 10, 1908, p.1.

- The Lawton Constitution, April 8, 1909, p.3.

- “Tragic Story of Thomas Stringfield,” The Galveston Daily News, Galveston, Texas. May 30, 1909, p.11.

- “Two Braids Taken North,” The Houston Post, Houston, Texas. July 15, 1909, p.1.

- Cache Clarion and Indiahoma News, Cache, Oklahoma. July 30, 1909, p.8.

- “Two Braids Story,” The Houston Post, August 1, 1909, p.24.

- “Claims to Be Long Lost Tom Stringfield,” Weekly Oklahoma State Capital, Guthrie, Oklahoma. August 7, 1909, p.5.

- “Romance of Plains,” Nebraska State Democrat, Lincoln, Nebraska. August 28, 1909, p.1.

- The Houston Post, Houston, Texas. July 14, 1909, p.1.

- “Two Braids Story A Myth,” The Houston Post, Houston, Texas. July 14, 1909, p.7.

- “The Story of An Indian Captive,” The Weekly Advocate, Victoria, Texas. March 26, 1910, p.1.

- “Indians Captured Him When A Boy,” El Paso Times, El Paso, Texas. September 25, 1910, p.4.

- “Two Braids Here,” Georgetown Williamson County Sun, Georgetown, Texas. May 11, 1911, p.4.

- The Butte Daily Post, Butte, Montana. June 1, 1912, p.6.

- “Circus is Good,” The News-Review, Roseburg, Oregon. August 10, 1912, p.1.

- The Searchlight, Cushing, Oklahoma. September 11, 1912, p.1.

- “Tobacco Fund For Boys In France Is Growing,” Needles Desert Star, Needles, California. March 15, 1918, p.1.

- “Colonel Kit Carson, Famous Scout and Indian Fighter, Visiting Rubber City,” Akron Evening Times, Akron, Ohio. March 13, 1920, p.1.

- “Large Crowd at Indians’ Pow-wow,” Brown County Democrat, Nashville, Indiana. June 12, 1930, p.1.

- The Pawnee Courier-Dispatch, Pawnee, Oklahoma. June 7, 1934, p.1.

- “Elaborate Plans For Rodeo Made By Local Group,” The Shreveport Journal, Shreveport, Louisiana. July 23, 1934, p.13.

- “To Hold Contest Prior To Rodeo,” The Shreveport Journal, Shreveport, Louisiana. August 6, 1934, p.14.

- “Pioneer Days Parade Big Feature of Fair At Roswell Yesterday,” Clovis Evening News Journal, Clovis, New Mexico. October 9, 1937, p.5.

- “Uncle Kit Carson of Roswell, 90 Years Old, Has Lived Life in the West,” Ruidoso News, Ruidoso, New Mexico. May 13, 1949, p.27.

- “Uncle Kit Carson Elected Mr. Treasure Hunter of ’55,” El Paso Times, El Paso, Texas. January 9, 1955, p.18.

- “Billy the Kid, Jesse James Meet Quietly,” Whitewright Sun, Whitewright, Texas. March 10, 1955, p.1.

- “Kit Pays Visit,” Roswell Daily Record, Roswell, New Mexico. August 22, 1956, p.11.

- “Uncle Kit Carson Gets Started for 100th Year,” Roswell Daily Record, Roswell, New Mexico. August 9, 1957, pp.1,8.

- “Uncle Kit Carson Collapses at Home,” Roswell Daily Record, Roswell, New Mexico. October 24, 1957, p.24.

- “Uncle Kit Carson Dies in Hospital,” Roswell Daily Record, Roswell, New Mexico. October 25, 1957, p.1.

- “The Actual Identity of Roswell’s Uncle Kit,” The Roswell Daily Record, Roswell, New Mexico. January 22, 2017, p.41.

- “Uncle Kit Carson? Two Braids? Tommy Springfield? Who was he – really?” Roswell Daily Record, Roswell, New Mexico. May 27, 2018, p.41.