Luke Smith
Luke Smith was born in 1853, in Chicago, Ill. The only child of a blacksmith, he learned the trade at a young age. His mother died in 1860 and after that his father decided to follow the western migration, but only as far as Lincoln, Nebraska. There, Luke grew to be a powerful, slow moving young man. The war between the states didn't effect Luke much. His father was generally in favor of the Union, and that influenced Luke when he was growing up. Luke's father died lthree years ago, and Luke has no other family that he knows of. After his fathers death, Luke spent two years with the US Cavalry as a farrier. He learned how to shoot a bit, and a lot more about fighting during his time there. There were people who fought on both sides of the Civil War in his outfit, and Luke got along fine with both groups.
Luke only stands about 5’10” tall, but he weighs in at 215 lbs of solid muscle. When he grabs something – it moves! He has black hair and brown eyes, and is not the most handsome guy in the world. Luke’s heavy features and slow, almost ponderous, way of moving give some people the impression that he is slow, both mentally and physically. However, he is quicker and smarter than he looks.
Although he enjoys working around a forge, he enjoys a good fight even more. This is something he shared with his father, and his father passed on some of the fighting tricks and skills he had learned over the years. One tip his father passed along is, the first punch wins many fights. Even though Luke isn't the quickest guy in the world, he has worked hard to improve in this area. Luke is an easygoing man, and rarely holds a grudge after a fight, win or lose. With his strength and skill, he usually wins more than he loses. After one particular bar room brawl, however, Luke ran into some trouble.
Mark Mowat, son of a prominent local rancher, had been drinking a bit. One thing led to another, a fight ensued, and Luke ended up knocking Mowat out cold. Thinking nothing of it, after all it was hardly the first fight either of them had been in, Luke went on his way. However, Mowat had been practicing and fancied himself a boxer. He sought Luke out for a rematch, after being embarrassed as he was. Luke was more than happy to fight him again, however Mowat decided to start the re-match with a club to the back of Luke’s head. Enraged by the cowardly attack from behind, Luke lost his temper and proceeded to pound Mowat without pulling his punches, as he usually does in a fight. Although it was not his intention, he pummeled Mowat so thoroughly that he died of his injuries. Sadly for Luke, no one saw Mowat start the fight with a club. Even worse, Mowat’s father and three brothers had Luke arrested for murder.
Luke decided that he didn’t want to be hung for killing a coward like Mowat. The bars in the jail wall were a bit loose, and over the course of a week while he was awaiting trial Luke managed to loosen them more. The night before the trial, he finally broke the bars loose and made his escape.
After breaking jail, Luke made his way down into Kansas. He made his living working as a blacksmith, and also picked up some money fighting some of the local toughs. In Abilene, they had a regular boxing tournament that he did well in. Luke didn’t win, however he made it far enough that his prize money, along with what he won betting on himself, enabled him to buy a horse, weapons and outfit. The boxing tournament also brought enough publicity that one of Mowat’s brothers, John, managed to track him down. John Mowat was something of a gunman. He called Luke out, drew quickly, and shot straight. Luke was hit hard, but being a tough young man he took the lead and returned fire with his new buffalo rifle. Alas for John Mowat, he was not as tough as a buffalo and the one shot was enough to take him down.
Luke has traveled to Colorado, hoping he’s put the Mowat family behind him. With two more brothers back in Nebraska, plus a fairly rich father, Luke figures that distance is the best idea. He really doesn’t want to kill any more Mowats. However, he has no intention of letting them kill him.
(Luke is a mountain man. I went away from the gunfighter, as we seem to have that covered pretty well already. Stats to follow later tonight.)
(edit: added the part about military service to explain his background, and that he has worked on his quickness - just had to take
some fast draw
)
