Michael David Geddes (1858-) was an American ranch owner and businessman who owned Pronghorn Ranch in Rio Blanco County, Colorado during the 1900s.
Biography[]
Michael David Geddes (who went by "David" throughout his life) was born in Texas in 1858, a distant cousin of Ansel Atherton. Geddes settled in Blackwater, Galveston County before purchasing land in rural Colorado and founding Pronghorn Ranch in the early 1900s. Geddes, his wife Jill Geddes, and their children Angus and Duncan Geddes settled in the farmhouse, while they employed several unmarried ranch hands and appointed Tom Dickens as their overseer. Geddes bought supplies from Strawberry, and, because of his strained marriage, he often rode to Strawberry himself in order to seek female company; his wife likewise sought male company from among the ranch hands, taking "social calls" in the farmhouse.
In 1907, Geddes hired the former outlaw John Marston (going by "Jim Milton") as a ranch hand after Marston - working a gig as a delivery driver - proved himself an able and loyal farm hand to Dickens. At the same time, the rival ranch owner Abel Atherton (of unknown relation to Ansel) attempted to force Geddes to sell his ranch to him, sending hired thugs from thte Laramie Gang to harass Geddes and his ranch hands. Marston repeatedly helped to fight them off, and he also earned Geddes' admiration for helping to put up several fences, recovering an escapped bull, and teaching Duncan how to ride a horse. When the Laramie Gang launched a night raid on the ranch and burned several of its buildings, Geddes handed out guns to Dickens, Abe Foster, and Marston and told them to take the fight to the Laramie Gang at Hanging Dog Ranch; when Marston hesitated, Geddes revealed to Marston that he shared Dickens' suspicions about Marston's true past, but said that Marston was living in the "land of second chances", and that he didn't care about Marston's past. Reassured, Marston helped the others kill all of the Laramie Gang members at the ranch, their leader Steven Boggs among them.
A few days later, after his wife Abigail and son Jack left him because of his return to gunslinging, Marston requested to speak with Geddes about starting his own ranch. Geddes met with Marston after walking out of an argument with his wife in the farmhouse, and, while Geddes was shocked by Marston's intent to open his own ranch, and initially (jokingly) suggested that he abandon his family and flee to Brazil, he ultimately agreed to help Marston, pointing him to Ansel Atherton's bank in Blackwater and agreeing to vouch for him so that Marston could obtain a bank loan. Marston thanked Geddes, and, with Geddes' endorsement, he was able to obtain a bank loan, purchase Beecher's Hope in Texas, and start a new life for himself.