DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I wouldn't change a word. Now, picture New Year's Eve in Abilene, Texas. Midnight rolling in, and somewhere in the dark — every single year for thirty-seven years — John J.
Clinton emptied his revolver into the air. Not once. Not twice.
Every last round. That was his way of saying: the old year is done, and I am still here, and this town is still mine to keep. He started that tradition in 1885.
That was the year he laid down the decree — saloons close at midnight, and any trigger-happy cowboy or townsman who thought otherwise was going to have a conversation with the chief of police. That chief being Clinton himself. Now, as the saloon era passed and Abilene grew a little more civilized, that midnight volley didn't stop.
It just changed character. What had been a warning became a commemoration. The sound of the gun that once enforced order became the sound of memory.
John J. Clinton was born in Ireland in 1848. He crossed an ocean and landed in the middle of American history — fought as a Confederate soldier, then turned around and scouted for the U.S.
Army. He took a wound at a fight they called The Fight for the Water Hole. He walked the beat at Dodge City, Kansas — and if you know anything about Dodge City, you know that was not a quiet posting.
Then he came to Abilene, and Abilene is where he stayed, right up until his death in 1922. Men respected him, the marker says — not for the gun, but for the courage and the integrity behind it. Thirty-seven New Year's Eves.
Thirty-seven volleys at midnight. That's not a habit. That's a man leaving his mark on time itself.
What the marker says
(1848-1922) Here each New Year's Eve at midnight for thirty-seven years John J. Clinton, Abilene chief of police, emptied his revolver. He began in 1885, decreeing that saloons close at midnight, and that trigger-happy cowboys and townsmen observe the curfew. After saloon era passed, his practice became a commemoration. Ireland-born Clinton was a Confederate soldier; later scout for U.S. Army, was wounded at "The Fight for the Water Hole." He was policeman at Dodge City, Kansas, then served Abilene until his death. Men respected him for his courage and integrity. (1967)