Before Jack was born, his parents move west to small Mormon village of Manassa in southern Colorado. Hyrum and Cecilia Dempsey were originally from West Virginia (2). Living in a Mormon village, Hyrum and Cecilia became Mormons too. Even though Hyrum left church later on, Jack still grew up religious (2). William Harrison Dempsey became known as Jack after the age of 20.
Dempsey’s parents were so poor; they were both sharecroppers. Dempsey’s father and his two older brothers worked as miners. They moved around Colorado and Utah frequently in pursuit of mining jobs. Even Jack got a job of his own at the age of eight (2). …show more content…
Though, to begin working a full time job. Dempsey developed his fighting style his early years of riding the rails and living in hobo jungles after leaving, at age sixteen. His Manassa, Colorado, home where he was born and worked with his father in various western copper-mining camps (2).
Jacks older brother Bernie earned extra money as a prize fighter. In the saloons of hard scrapple Rocky Mountain towns (2). He was also the one who taught Jack how to box. Bernie instructed him to chew pine tar gum to strengthen his jaw and soak his face in brine to toughen his skin (2). Dempsey’s early prize fights were in mining towns around Salt Lake