In 1910, every road trip was an adventure, but the Abernathy boys became legends.

In 1910, every road trip was an adventure, but the Abernathy boys became legends:

In an era when many parents are uncomfortable at the thought of their children walking to their elementary school just two blocks away, it might shock you that in 1910, John “Jack” Abernathy let his two boys, Louis, known as Bud, age 9, and Temple, age 6, drive a Brush Runabout automobile from New York City to their hometown of Frederick, Oklahoma.

Jack was the United States marshal in Tillman County, Oklahoma, the youngest ever in the entire country until that point, personally appointed to the position by President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1905, after Roosevelt had heard of Jack’s supposed ability to catch wolves alive with his bare hands, the 26th president visited the Oklahoma Territory, in part to see if the tales told about Abernathy were true. Jack took the commander-in-chief on a hunt where Abernathy indeed caught a wolf alive with his bare hands, impressing the outdoors-loving president so much that he made him a federal lawman.

Growing up in a remote part of what was the Oklahoma Territory until it became a state in 1907 couldn’t have been easy. The boys’ mother died that same year. Still, Jack “Catch-’em alive” Abernathy thought they needed some toughening up, so in 1909 he sent his two sons, by themselves, riding their two horses to Santa Fe, New Mexico and back. Perhaps that got some help from a cadre of little green space aliens as they passed through Roswell, but the boys did complete the 1300-mile round trip.