Last week, as many people sat around the dinner table for their Thanksgiving feast, a few thoughts might have been spent on the Pilgrims and the Mayflower.

In grade school, children learn about the traditional “first Thanksgiving” in the English colonies around 1621. However, sometimes history gets a little muddled and romanticized as it passes through the generations — and the Hollywood machine.

But when it comes to the Wild West, Tooele County really did have its experiences with outlaws and shoot-outs.

Sometime before the spring of 1870, a stranger by the name of Albert Haws rode into Grantsville. He made friends with the people, married a Mormon girl and joined the Mormon church.

But early in the spring of 1870, rumors circulated around the town that Haws was a desperado, had killed a man in Nevada the previous fall, and escaped the hands of justice.

A warrant for Haws’ arrest fell into the hands of United States Marshall William R. Storey and Joseph T. Carrigan, a deputy sheriff from Nevada.

On a Sunday evening, Storey and Carrigan rode to Haws’s residence and found him in the corral. Storey began to read the warrant, while Carrigan drew a revolver, cocked it and pointed it at Haws.

While Storey began handcuffing Haws, Haws asked to get some personal items before being taken to prison, shaking off the irons at the same time before they had snapped shut. This distracted the attention of Carrigan, allowing Haws to lunge for Carrigan’s gun.

Carrigan fired the revolver, grazing Haws’s abdomen, but Haws was still able to wrench the gun from Carrigan and shoot Storey, killing him instantly.

Haws then made his escape, taking his own pistols as well as the guns belonging to Storey and Carrigan.

After taking care of Storey’s body, Carrigan quickly rallied a posse and set out after Haws.

The posse had some trouble tracking down Haws because the outlaw had doubled his own tracks and came back to South Willow Creek, only a few miles from Grantsville, where he stopped at the house of his wife’s relative.

Haws told the man of the house, who was there alone with his wife and children, that he had killed a man and expected the posse would be after him. He also added that he would rather be shot than hung.

After sending a young herder with a message to his wife, Haws tucked in for the night.

As the messenger delivered the message, word traveled concerning the whereabouts of Haws, and the posse set out to find the outlaw.

As Haws saw the group coming towards the house he jumped on a horse and started riding up the creek. He was so closely pursued that he left his horse and ran into the willows.

The men followed Haws into the brush and found him waiting for an attack. Festus Sprague, a member of the posse, found Haws first. Both fired at the same time, hitting the mark, neither was killed instantly, but Sprague would die later that evening. While Haws was about to shoot the second time, Oren Barrus shot him and broke his neck.

Another man ran up to where Haws was lying and saw the muzzle of a pistol sticking out of his pocket. As he took hold of the pistol to draw it from his pocket, it went off.

Haws had determined to sell his life as dearly as possible and had cocked the pistol, tying a piece of string to the trigger and the other end of the string to his belt, so that when he drew the gun from him it would fire.

The bullet went through the man’s hand and into the body of another man, who died from the wound. The man killed wasn’t a resident of Grantsville, but was there at the time buying cattle and decided to help out.

This made four total men dead at the hands of Haws — including the murder in Nevada.

Natalie Tripp: ntripp@tooeletranscript.com