I remember picking up a Cowboy novel back in the 60’s, and blushing at the constant foul language. I’m not sure it’s because people really talked that way, way back then, or the novelist wanted readers to think they did.
A highly popular writer of one hundred years ago was Zane Gray. His western novels were well researched and mostly without curses. His work falls a little oddly on modern ears, though, as he would write things like, “”Get off the horse,” he ejaculated.”
Some things may be worse than curse words to some folks, as in Gray’s first and major novel, “Riders of the Purple Sage,” in which...
“The two unite to fight the evil Elder Tull and Bishop Dyer. Morality is ambiguous in this novel, as outlaws are depicted as kind and churchmen revealed to be unbending and cruel.”
Read more at http://biography.yourdictionary.com/zane-grey#m12vkDEz5U4GXLjM.99