Langford M. Peel (1829/1831 – July 21, 1867), also known as Farmer Peel was a

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a Conscription, conscripted or volunteer Enlisted rank, enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, a warrant officer, or an Officer (armed forces), officer. Etymology The wo ...

, gunman, and gambler in the

American Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that bega ...

. Convis alleges that Peel's middle name was "Farner" but this contradicts U.S. Army enlistment records which have "Langford M. Peel". According to his grave marker, Langford was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, England. At age 12 he enlisted in the U.S. Army with the approval and help of his mother and stepfather. At the age of 17, he enlisted as a bugler in "B' Company of the 1st US Dragoons under Captain

Edwin Vose Sumner Edwin Vose Sumner (January 30, 1797March 21, 1863) was a career United States Army Commissioned officer, officer who became a Union Army General officer, general and the oldest field commander of any Army Corps on either side during the American ...

; Peel, still under 20 years of age,Lowe (1965) p. 90 when he killed his first three Indians at the Battle of Coon Creek in 1846. In 1850 he killed two more near

Fort Kearney Fort Kearny was a historic outpost of the United States Army founded in 1848 in the Western United States during the middle and late 19th century. The fort was named after Colonel and later General Stephen Watts Kearny. The outpost was located ...

Kansas and a sixth later. Peel "was the best specimen of 160 pounds, five feet, nine inches, naturally bright, clear headed and helpful always." Sgt. Percivel Lowe would go on to say that a "full set of such noncommissioned officers under a good commander would make a troop or companyinvincible against any reasonable odds." At the time of his First Sergeant's (Percival Lowe) honorable discharge from the army in 1854, Langford was married and had a two-year-old son living on the fort, named after his first sergeant: Percival Lowe Peel. He traveled to

Leavenworth, Kansas Leavenworth () is the county seat and largest city of Leavenworth County, Kansas, Leavenworth County, Kansas, United States. Part of the Kansas City metropolitan area, Leavenworth is located on the west bank of the Missouri River, on the site o ...

;

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

;

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

; and eventually to

Helena, Montana Helena (; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat, seat of Lewis and Clark County, Montana, Lewis and Clark County. Helena was founded as a gold camp during the Montana gold ...

. One evening while walking down the sidewalk in Helena, arm in arm, with his girlfriend, a former associate of his,

John Bull John Bull is a national personification of England, especially in political cartoons and similar graphic works. He is usually depicted as a stout, middle-aged, country-dwelling, jolly and matter-of-fact man. He originated in satirical works of ...

, sprang from a black alley and shot Peel once in the upper chest. Peel's girlfriend gripped his gun arm so hard from fear, that Peel had to use extra force to free his shooting arm from her, but it was too late, those precious two seconds brought him another bullet from Bull, and as Peel lay on the ground dying, Bull finished him off. The defendant was acquitted August 24, 1867. Bull was later involved in the stabbing of a railroad baggageman and also in 1874 was indicted in Omaha Nebraska for involvement with others on a robbery charge (one of the defendants escaped and the rest were freed). In 1879, he had a faro game at the Sacramento State Fair; Bull was killed in Denver, Colorado, on January 9, 1882, by a fellow gambler Jim Bush. Alleged by some sources to have been Harvard educated,However he is not listed as having graduated from Harvard Harvard University Catalogue
/ref> Peel was known for always giving any opponent a chance in a gunfight. Mark Twain, in his book ''

Roughing It ''Roughing It'' is a book of semi-autobiographical travel literature by Mark Twain. It was written in 1870–71 and published in 1872, following his first travel book '' The Innocents Abroad'' (1869). ''Roughing It'' is dedicated to Twain's m ...

'', refers (perhaps as an

inside joke An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or a private joke, is a joke with humour that is understandable only to members of an ingroup; that is, people who are ''in'' a particular social group, occupation, or other community of shared interest. I ...

) to Peel as "Farmer Pease".

References

*Lowe, Percival G. (1965). ''Five Years A Dragoon'', ('49 to '54) And Other Adventures on the Great Plains. University of Oklahoma Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Peel, Langford 19th-century births 1867 deaths Military personnel from Liverpool English emigrants to the United States Gunslingers of the American Old West Deaths by firearm in Montana American duellists