EP. 135: Texans You Should Know– Lottie Deno

Wise About Texas

Ken Wise

Texan, Places & Travel, Education, Texas, Cowboy, History, Society & Culture, Culture, Jacinto, Texans, San

5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 June 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What's an upper-crust lady from Kentucky society doing in one of the worst and most dangerous areas of Texas? Dealing cards, of course. Not only that, she was one of the most successful professional gamblers in the 19th century. She was pretty, fashionable, and not afraid to pull a gun. She also interacted with legendary characters such as Doc Holliday. Hear the story of Lottie Deno in the latest episode of Wise About Texas.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Howdy and welcome to Wise About Texas, the Texas history podcast.
0:11.7	This is your host, Ken Wise.
0:12.9	Thank you very much for tuning in today for a little bit of Texas history.
0:17.4	Today we're going to talk about a woman of the Old West who was not born in Texas and she didn't die in Texas, but she made quite the name for herself in Texas.
0:30.6	And the story revolves around professional gambling. So if you've got the little ones with you this may not be the
0:39.7	episode for them but this was a very interesting lady and we're gonna go back to
0:47.1	the middle 19th century and get wise about Texas.
1:02.0	The subject of our episode today had a nickname.
1:03.6	Her nickname was Lottie Denno.
1:08.3	She was born Charlotte Tompkins in Warsaw, Kentucky.
1:16.9	April 21st, San Jacenna Day, 1844. Her father, Kentucky, April 21st, San Jacinto Day, 1844. Her father, Thomas Tompkins, Thomas B. Tompkins,
1:25.1	was a very successful planner. He was also a member of the Kentucky Association, which was formed in 1826. It included the elite of Kentucky, including Henry Clay,
1:33.4	and the Kentucky Association opened a racetrack. Now, the racetrack eventually shut down in the 30s,
1:40.0	but it was one of the first big thoroughbred racetracks in Kentucky.
1:46.4	And supposedly, it was opened on a portion of Henry Clay's estate, which was called Ashland.
1:53.6	There is still an Ashland steaks run in Kentucky every year.
1:58.4	Some of the other big Kentucky races, including the Bluegrass Stakes,
2:02.1	originated at the Kentucky Association track.
2:05.1	In any event, Mr. Tompkins was a member.
2:07.5	He was said to have owned a fantastic string
2:10.9	of thoroughbred racehorses.
2:13.1	He was also said to be an expert card player. So that's the environment where his daughter Charlotte,
	...

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