Frank Eaton

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Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton (October 26, 1860 - April 8, 1958) was an author, cowboy, scout, Indian fighter, and Deputy U. S. Marshall for Judge Isaac C. Parker, the "hanging judge." He homesteaded southwest of Perkins, Oklahoma in 1889 and later lived in the town until his death in 1958.

Frank Boardman Eaton was born in 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut, and at eight years old he moved with his family to Twin Mounds, Kansas to homestead. When Frank was eight years old, his father, a Vigilante, was shot in cold blood by the Campseys and the Ferbers - former Confederates who called themselves "Regulators". In 1868, Mose Beaman, his father's friend, said to Frank, "My boy, may an old man's curse rest upon you, if you do not try to avenge your father." That same year, Mose taught him to handle a gun, but it would take nineteen years for Frank to avenge his father.

At the age of fifteen, before setting off on his mission to avenge his father's death, he decided to visit Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, a cavalry fort, to learn more about handling a gun. Although too young to join the army, he outshot everyone at the fort and competed with the cavalry's best marksmen, beating them each time. After many competitions, the fort's commanding officer, Colonel Copinger, gave Frank a marksmanship badge and a new nickname. From that day forward, Frank would be known as "Pistol Pete."

At seventeen, Eaton served as a deputy U.S. Marshal in Indian Territory under Judge Isaac C. Parker. He began his lawman career by tracking down and killing five of the six men who killed his father (the sixth was killed in a dispute over a card game). At twenty-nine, he joined the land rush to Oklahoma Territory. He settled near Perkins, Oklahoma where he served as sheriff and later became a blacksmith. He lived there until his death on April 8, 1958.

Frank Eaton lived the life of a true cowboy and was said to "pack the fastest guns in the Indian Territory." He usually carried a loaded .45 Colt and often said "I'd rather have a pocket full of rocks than an empty gun." He was also known to throw a coin in the air, draw and shoot it before it hit the ground.

After seeing Eaton ride a horse in the 1923 Armistice Day parade in Stillwater, Oklahoma, a group of Oklahoma A&M College students decided that Eaton's "Pistol Pete" would be a suitable mascot for the school. Previously the college had been known as the "Princeton of the Prairie" with a tiger mascot and colors of orange and black. Many at the school were unhappy with the "Tigers" mascot and felt "Pistol Pete," symbolic of the American Old West and Oklahoma's land run roots, better represented the college. However, it was not until 1958 that "Pistol Pete" was adopted as the school's mascot. The familiar caricature of "Pistol Pete" was officially sanctioned in 1984 by the university as a licensed symbol.

On March 15, 1997, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame posthumously honored Frank Eaton with the prestigious Director's Award. Eaton's youngest daughter, Elizabeth Wise, together with then-Oklahoma State University President James Halligan accepted the award for Eaton.

Frank Eaton wrote two books that exemplify the life of a veteran of the Old West. His first, an autobiography title Veteran of the Old West: Pistol Pete, tells a tale of his life as a Deputy United States Marshall, a cowboy and an all around good guy. His second book, which was published 30 years after his death, is titled Campfire Stories: Remembrances of a Cowboy Legend. Campfire Stories is a collection of yarns and recollections that Frank Eaton would pass along to the many visitors that came to sit a spell on his front porch in Perkins, Oklahoma.