This book, the result of twenty years research during leisure time, may be of some assistance to those of other branches of the Courtright family who are not familiar with its history, but it is by no means complete, nor free from errors. It is more especially designed to preserve a genealogy of Benjamin Cortright, through his sons Cornelius, Henry and John, who came from Minisink district in Northampton County soon after the Revolution and settled in Plains, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in the Wyoming Valley, leaving descendants now widely dispersed. It also includes a partial genealogy of the descendants of Elisha Cortright, a cousin, who came to the Valley at an early date...

Family history of Rheuben Courtright (Cortright) (1790-1875) born in Sussex County, New Jersey, died in Whiteside County, Illinois.

Vol 1 905p Vol 2 961p.

Timothy Isaiah "Longhair Jim" Courtright operated on both sides of the law and became a legend in his lifetime and after his death. One of the most colorful characters from the wild and woolly days of Fort Worth's Hell's Half Acre, Courtright was at various times city marshal, deputy sheriff, deputy U.S. marshal, private detective, hired killer, and racketeer. Today, he is almost forgotten, either as a gunfighter or a lawman, except in Fort Worth. Little is known about Courtright's early life, though he apparently served in the Union army during the Civil War. But when he arrived in the West, Courtright seemed to attract trouble. He was involved in a shootout during the 1886 railroad strikes and was accused of murder in New Mexico. Deputies were sent to Fort Worth to escort him to New Mexico to stand trial. His escape from them, complete with guns hidden under a restaurant table, is one of Fort Worth's most colorful stories. Finally, he was killed in a shootout that he apparently provoked with gambler and gunman Luke Short. To this day nobody is sure what provoked that feud, but Courtright was honored with the longest funeral procession Fort Worth had ever seen. The myth of Courtright as legendary gunfighter was built in two previous biographies--one by a novelist and the other by a Franciscan priest. After exhaustive research into contemporary newspapers and other accounts and close study of the previous two books, historian Robert K. DeArment deconstructs the myth of Longhair Jim and reconstructs the gunfighter as a real human being, complex, flawed, often courageous, usually both honorable and dishonorable. This book is a must for all those interested in the legends of the West, its lawmen, and its outlaws.