John Horton Slaughter (October 2, 1841 – February 16, 1922), also known as Texas John Slaughter, was an American lawman, cowboy, poker player and rancher in the Southwestern United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After serving in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, Slaughter earned a reputation fighting hostile Indians and Mexican and American outlaws in the Arizona and New Mexico territories. In the latter half of his life, he lived at the San Bernardino Ranch, which is today a well-preserved National Historic Landmark in Cochise County in far southeastern Arizona. In 1964, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Biography Early life Slaughter was born in 1841 on a horse Southern plantation in Sabine Parish near Many in western Louisiana. His parents were Benjamin Slaughter and the former Minerva Mabry. He was educated in schools in Texas in Sabine County and Caldwell County. From Mexican vaqueros, he learned how to herd cattle and how to speak Spanish. In the early 1860s, Slaughter defended American settlers against hostile Comanche as a Texas Ranger. During the Civil War, he served in the Confederate States Army. He fought Union forces in Burnet County, west of the capital city of Austin, Texas. Career In 1874, he, along with his brother, became a cattle driver in Atascosa County, south of San Antonio. The two formed a cattle-transporting company, the San Antonio Ranch Company, which drove cattle to Kansas via the Chisholm Trail. One (if not the only) of his cattle drive bosses was his first cousin Lewis Warren Neatherlin. Neatherlin's brother, James Franklin Neatherlin, also the Slaughter brothers' first cousin, assisted on the drive. In the late 1870s, Slaughter left Texas for New Mexico, where he traded cattle and planned to start a ranch. However, he eventually decided to establish the ranch in the Arizona Territory. Initially settling in Charleston, Arizona, he later purchased the San Bernardino Ranch, on the U.S.–Mexico border near Douglas, in 1884. In 1886, Slaughter was elected sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona, five years after the infamous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. He was later re-elected to a second term. As sheriff, he helped track Geronimo, the Apache chief who was caught on the San Bernardino Ranch. Slaughter fought for law and order with his six-shooter, a repeating shotgun, and a Henry rifle.