Private Eye Cowboy?

A Texan’s First Generation Colt sold with a badge tied to a nationwide detective agency.

- Meghan Saar

Born on November 3, 1877, in Hillsboro, Texas, Laney Thomas Cathey was four when the railroad arrived. His relatives believe he worked for the Katy— the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway—both in Hillsboro and in Denison, where he moved in 1914 and died in 1957.

Of the firearms linked to their Old West pioneer owners, Cathey’s First Generation Colt Frontier Single Action Army .44-40 revolver took the highest bid, $6,000, at Rock Island Auction on February 15-18.