Now THAT’S a Knife!

Most of you have probably seen the movie, Crocodile Dundee, which first hit movie screens in 1986.  Paul Hogan starred as Mick “Crocodile” Dundee, an Australian bush dweller.  After surviving a crocodile attack with the help of his trusty knife, he is enticed to visit the U.S. by writer Sue Charlton (Linda Kozlowski).

In the movie, after a night on the town, Mick and Sue are walking through New York City and are accosted by thugs who are intent on mugging them.  One of the bad guys threatens the couple with a switchblade knife, whereupon Dundee says, “That’s not a knife.”  He pulls his own, much larger knife, flashes it at the attacker, and explains, “THAT’s a knife,” before using it to shred the attacker’s leather jacket.

I don’t know where Dundee got his knife, but it reminds me of one invented by some men from Arkansas

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James Black was born in Hackensack, New Jersey in 1800.  He ran away from home at eight and made his way westward to Louisiana by 18.  He eventually found his permanent home in and around what would become the town of Washington, Arkansas.  Black was hired by blacksmith William Shaw and eventually became partners with him.

James learned a lot during the partnership and gradually specialized in making quality knives.   He developed quite a reputation as a knife maker, and the business prospered.  James found himself falling in love with Shaw’s daughter, Anne and asked her to marry him.  She agreed, but Shaw refused to allow the pair to marry. 

The partnership was dissolved and Black, Anne, and Anne’s brother (yes, Shaw’s son) left to open a blacksmith shop in competition with the elder Shaw.

Sometime around 1830, it is said that another man named James (we’ll call him J.B. here) heard about Black’s knife-making skills and sought him out. 

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Now, J.B. was a young man well known for his irascible nature as well as his unwillingness to back down from a fight…any fight. 

Around that time, J.B.’s brother, Resin made a gift to his sibling of a large fighting knife.  Although the blade wasn’t a lot different from many of the other knives in use in the early 1800s, Resin had modified the design some to better suit his own desires for a weapon suited to personal protection.  Blacksmith Jesse Clift had made it according to Resin’s design.

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J.B.’s reputation as a fighter really gained steam in the fall of 1827 due to a particular incident.  Although the brothers had lived in Arkansas not long before, they were dwelling in Louisiana when it happened.  J.B. was living in Rapides Parish, Louisiana and was friends with a well-to-do family named Wells.

In those days of single-shot flintlock pistols, feuds were not uncommon, whether between families or between other groups.  The Wells family was in competition with, and frequent opposition to, the Maddox family, and the antagonism grew more heated until it blazed into a feud.

One day, J.B. was attacked by a man named Norris Wright.  Wright was known to be one of the best pistol shots in Rapides Parish and had been involved in several duels, killing his opponent in at least two of them.

Why Wright attacked J.B. is not clear, but Wright put a bullet into the young man.  J.B. was able to take the gun away from his opponent and nearly beat the shooter to death before being pulled off.

Norris Wright was closely associated with the Maddox family which helped cement J.B.’s determination to help the Wells faction when the two families’ feud came to a head on September 19, 1827.

Although, as I said, feuds were common, they were also illegal.  Dr. Thomas H. Maddox and Samuel L. Wells agreed to meet on the Vidalia Sandbar in the Mississippi River opposite Natchez, Mississippi in order to avoid problems with the authorities.  J.B. and several others went to back-up Wells, while Norris Wright and at least four other men went to support Maddox.

Wells and Maddox loaded their dueling pistols, took their places, and fired.  Both missed.  They reloaded and fired again…and missed again.

I guess two close-calls were enough for Samuel Wells, as he apologized to Dr. Maddox and the two shook hands to bind the agreement to end the gunfight.

It would seem that all would be over at that point but one of Wells’s men, who was accompanied by J.B., challenged one of Maddox’s friends.  The Maddox friend fired a shot that hit J.B. in the hip.

Despite his bullet wound J.B. pulled out the knife Resin had given him and advanced on the shooter, only to be hit hard in the head when the man swung his empty pistol.  It was a tooth-rattling blow and the stock of the weapon shattered from the impact.  The man then ran off before the dazed J.B. could gather his wits.

At this point, Norris Wright came on the scene and must have seen a chance to get some revenge for the beating J.B. had given him in their earlier fight.  Wright unsheathed his sword cane and tried to end J.B.’s fighting career by driving it through his chest. 

J.B. attempted to parry the blade but only succeeded in deflecting it a little. In a stroke of luck the blade imbedded in one of J.B.’s ribs and broke off (one account says it bent and could not be pulled back out immediately).  This attempt brought Wright within reach of his enemy and J.B. grabbed him, pulled him closer, and drove the knife into the man’s chest.  Norris Wright died within moments.

By this time one man on each side of the feud was dead and two friends of Maddox were wounded.  Of course Wells’s man, J.B., had the sword blade sticking out of his chest.

Ouch.

J.B. was transported to Natchez where he recovered.  Neither Dr. Maddox nor Mr. Wells, the two principals in the duel, were injured.  

The fight became known in history as the Sandbar Duel or the Sandbar Fight.

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J.B. had some thoughts on how to improve the design of the knife Resin had given him.  He had heard of the quality blades James Black made.  He approached the blacksmith about making a knife incorporating the new ideas.

Black would later say that he made some changes of his own and forged one knife the way J.B. had requested and one of his own design.  Black claimed that J.B. chose the blacksmith’s model over his own.

According to legend, J.B. was carrying the newly redesigned knife when he engaged in a duel with a gambler named Jack Sturdivant.  The gambler was crippled in the fight but survived.  Sturdivant then hired three men to get vengeance on his enemy.  J.B. is said to have killed all three of the hired killers with the knife, which quickly became at least as well known as the man himself.

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The now-famous knife fighter had been experiencing financial problems, having gone into real estate-speculation with his brother, Resin.  The Mexican territory, which would become known as Texas, was open to immigrants and J.B. saw the opportunity to make up his losses by speculating in Texas land.  He took his blade with him when he moved there.  There he married Ursula Veramendi, a well-born Mexican woman.  The couple had two daughters and J.B. renounced his U.S. citizenship.

Ever the adventurers, J.B. and Rezin soon went off in search of the lost San Saba silver mine.  During the treasure hunt, their party got into a pitched battle with a mixed group of Indians.  In the 13 hour battle, the Texians (as they were called in those days) killed 40 of the natives while sustaining only one loss themselves.

J.B.’s fame grew.

Although he had survived many attempts on his life by this time, those nearest to him did not share his luck.  During a cholera epidemic, his wife and daughters all died.  J.B. sought relief from his pain in a bottle…deep in a bottle.  Already a heavy drinker, he now became an alcoholic.

 Perhaps trying to straighten himself out, J.B. joined the Texian Militia, then the Texian Army, as part of the staff of Stephen Austin, who would be called the father of Texas independence.  J.B. distinguished himself and, although he joined as a private, was quickly promoted to the rank of colonel. 

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You’ve probably already guessed that J.B. is the man history knows as James “Jim” Bowie.  During the battle for Texas independence, he found himself at the Alamo, along with Colonel William Barrett Travis, Colonel David “Davey” Crockett, and somewhat less than 200 volunteers. 

While Bowie and Travis butted heads on occasion, he and Crockett are said to have become good friends.  When Jim showed Davey the famous Jim Bowie knife, Davey is reported to have said, “You might tickle a man’s ribs a long time with that before you’d make him laugh.”

When Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana and his force of 4,500 battle-hardened Mexican regulars laid siege to the Alamo on February 23, 1836, the Texans refused to surrender.  They instead chose to hold out as long as they could to give Stephen Austin more time to assemble an army.

The small group of Texans fought valiantly, holding out for 13 days, when Santa Ana’s army overran the former Spanish mission.

Jim Bowie’s good luck ran completely out at the Alamo.  He had contracted pneumonia and was bed-ridden at the time of the battle.  Despite that, he is said to have killed nine Mexican soldados while fighting with pistol and knife from his cot. 

Santa Ana commanded the slaughter of all surviving Alamo defenders.

Bowie’s famous knife, along with his body and that of Travis, Crockett, and many of the other freedom fighters, disappeared that day, and have never been found.  It is said that they were burned by order of Santa Ana.

Stories of Bowie’s death at the age of 40, and his knife’s involvement in it, only increased the fame of both.  Before long, one variation or another of the Bowie knife was to be seen hanging from the belt of practically every man in the west, and many in the east as well.

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Although the exact design of the original Bowie’s knife has become unclear over the years, Arkansas culturalist and researcher Russell T. Johnson describes the knife James Black made for Jim Bowie this way: “It must be long enough to use as a sword, sharp enough to use as a razor, wide enough to use as a paddle, and heavy enough to use as a hatchet.”

I think even Crocodile Dundee would say, “THAT’s a knife.”

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Addendum: You may have noticed that there is justification for claiming Jim or Resin Bowie, or even James Black, as the designer of the famous Bowie knife.  Resin survived his brother by several years, and is partially responsible for giving credit to Jim. 

I’m OK with that.

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