Winston Werry

From The Great Outdoor Fight

Winston Werry (September 13th 1845 - September 12th 1945) was the Champion of the 1870 Great Outdoor Fight, and is known as the first colored man to win the fight. While the first colored man to enter the fight came in 1859 as the slave Marcus Brown fighting in the stead of a wealthy Arkansan slave owner named Robert Talbot, he did not leave much of a lasting legacy as he was a prime target and was eliminated in the first day.

[edit] Background

Little is known of Werry's childhood except what was on his slave records, that being his date of birth and name. He was born on a plantation in Georgia to a Mr. Jed Jefferson, and worked there in the cotton fields until General Sherman came pushing through his state. Freed with the end of the Civil War at the age of 21, he did not have much of a family left, and they split up.

Following his freeing, Werry went west with the Exodusters following the war. He worked as a cattle rustler on the plains for years, and was known as a quiet and gentle person, speaking softly and never too much, but also as a fierce defender of his herd. He had been known to fiercely and soundly beat anyone who brought up his ire, but by all accounts doing so was difficult. Well liked by the white men he worked with, he rarely found himself to be the target of much overt racism in public due to his reputation and intimidating size.

[edit] Lt. Reynolds

Winston Werry's ability to win rested largely on the help of Lt. Phinneas Reynolds, a former Union Army soldier who worked with Werry on the cattle ranges. Reynolds had heard of the fight years before, but never had the guts to enter until he teamed up with Werry. Werry was brought to the fight by Reynolds, who used his position as a former Union Army Lieutenant to drum up a Fight army of former soldiers. The Union troops were rallied behind Reynolds when he gave a speech to a group of them before the fight where he told them that they had fought "long and hard to free the negros, and we ought to show them damn Confederates what that means." While Werry was propped up to be the leader of the army, Reynolds was the real brains behind the operation, while Werry was mostly just the power and visibility.

[edit] The Fight

Disgruntled former Confederate soldiers and Ku Klux Klan members were determined not to have a negro win the Fight, and so he was set upon early. However, that year happened to have a large amount of former Union soliders fighting in it, and even those not in Werry's army fought bitterly against the Southerners. Werry held his own, but never left the side of his friend Reynolds. Werry even deferred his second day feast to Reynolds, acknowledging privately that he was the true leader.

When it came down to the last 10 men, Werry had defeated over 150 men in hand-to-hand combat, setting a brutal example for his army. Of the last 10, 4 were allies of Werry and Reynolds. With the power of Werry and cunning of Reynolds, the duo was able to fight through their own army and whittle it down until it came to just them two. Reynolds, underestimating his long-proven friend, thought that he would be able to take Werry down easily or talk him into laying down for him, but this was not the case. Finding himself with just his friend Reynolds on the field, witnesses say Werry apologized softly to his friend and unleashed a brutal beating, shattering Reynolds' jaw and giving him several severe concussions. The fight celebration was marred by racist murmurings, and the accolades usually given to champions were hushed and muted.

[edit] The Aftermath

After the beating from Werry, Reynolds was never the same, and was never able to return to the fight. People speculate this was why Werry was never again able to achieve a high rank in the Fight, as the brains of his operation had been knocked out. Reynolds moved to california to set up a saloon, but died 5 years later from cholera.

After his two more subsequent Fight losses, Werry returned to be a cattle rancher, and went about his days as he had before. He lived to be 99 years old, when he finally died a day before his birthday in a nursing home in Omaha, Nebraska. While diagnosed as technically healthy for a man his age, the nurse in the room with him reported that he turned off the radio in his room, said softly "All right, I'm done" and fell into a sleep from which he never awoke.

[edit] Record

• 1870 - Champion, Last Man Standing
• 1871 - eliminated day 2, 1820th left standing
• 1872 - eliminated day 1, 2025th left standing