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Texas History: Popular gambler tangles with Wild Bill
By Bartee Haile
Always willing to do fellow Texans a favor, Phil Coe agreed on Oct. 4, 1871 to give four dozen cowboys the grand tour of Abilene when they arrived the next day in the Kansas cowtown.
As adept at making friends as filling an inside straight, Philip Haddox Coe was so popular that a company of Confederates elected him their lieutenant. However, as soon as the six-foot-four civilian learned a uniform went with the rank, he skedaddled to Mexico.
Coe returned to Texas after the southern s...