Wild West History Association Roundup set for July 15–19

 

Billy the Kid shot by Pat Garrett. I love the dogs in this.

(ABQJ) ...At this year’s Wild West History Association Roundup, from Wednesday, July 15, through Sunday, July 19, in Albuquerque, attendees will be able to listen to historians like Gardner discuss topics ranging from Wyatt Earp to how the West has shaped the United States’ identity. Continued

David Thomas: Zeroing in on Southern New Mexico History

(Wild West) ... After launching a software company and writing computer programming manuals, he went on to author well-received books about New Mexico history, including several about the notorious outlaw Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War. Thomas, 75, recently spoke with Wild West about his writing and some of the more interesting figures from the Mesilla Valley. Continued

James Bell

James Bell, the good cop, forever shackled in legend to Bob Olinger's bad, 
both shot and killed by Billy the Kid in 1881. Cedarvale Cemetery, White Oaks, New Mexico.

John Tunstall

(Wikipedia) John Henry Tunstall (6 March 1853 – 18 February 1878), born in London, England, became a rancher and merchant in Lincoln County, New Mexico, where he competed with ethnic Irish merchants and politicians who ran the town of Lincoln and the county.
He was the first man killed in what developed as the Lincoln County War, an economic and political conflict that resulted in armed warfare, perhaps compounded by ethnic rivalries between an Irish group and others of English descent. Continued

Latest Anaya offering defies genre

Grzelachowski's Store in Puerto de Luna, an old Billy the Kid haunt.

(Quay County Sun) If I had to assign a genre to Rudolfo Anaya’s latest book, “Chupacabra Meets Billy The Kid,” I’d say it’s of the Western / science fiction / fantasy / Chicano literature / historical fiction genre, as if there’s such a thing.
Maybe “unique” is a better description, because that’s certainly the way this outside-the-box tale reads.
And to the contrary, I’d describe its Guadalupe and Lincoln county settings as realistically descriptive … well, except for the wormhole along the Pecos. Continued

Billy the Kid's Big Escape

 

(Library of Congress) Billy the Kid escaped from the Lincoln County, New Mexico jail house on April 28, 1881, killing two deputies on guard. He avoided capture until July 14, when he was ambushed and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett at the ranch home of Pete Maxwell. Billy the Kid is buried in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
Although he has become synonymous with the legendary Wild West, Billy the Kid was probably born on New York City’s East Side, in 1859 or 1860. By the time he was a young teenager, he had moved with his family to New Mexico, by way of Kansas and Colorado. Continued

Jesse Evans

(Wikipedia) Jesse Evans (1853 – ????) was an outlaw and gunman of the Old West, and leader of the Jesse Evans Gang. He has received some attention due to his disappearance in 1882, after which he was never seen or heard from again.
... Evans began working as a cowboy, employed by several ranches, to include that of John Chisum. After he ended his employment with Chisum, Evans ventured to both Las Cruces and La Mesilla, New Mexico, where he became associated with John Kinney. At the time, Kinney was leading one of the more well known gangs of the New Mexico Territory, called the John Kinney Gang. Evans joined the gang, and over time he and Kinney became close. Continued

John Tunstall

(Wikipedia) John Henry Tunstall (6 March 1853 – 18 February 1878), born in London, England, became a rancher and merchant in Lincoln County, New Mexico, where he competed with ethnic Irish merchants and politicians who ran the town of Lincoln and the county.
He was the first man killed in what developed as the Lincoln County War, an economic and political conflict that resulted in armed warfare, perhaps compounded by ethnic rivalries between an Irish group and others of English descent. Continued

Tom Pickett

(Wikipedia) Tom Pickett (1858 – May 14, 1934) was a 19th-century American cowboy, professional gambler and, as both a lawman and outlaw at various points in his life, was an associate of Dave Rudabaugh and later Billy the Kid.
Born in Camp Throckmorton, Wise County, Texas, Pickett began rustling cattle as a teenager growing up in Decatur and was eventually arrested for stealing cattle at age 17. His father, then a member of the state legislature and ex-Confederate officer, was forced to mortgage the family home in order to pay his son's fine.
While in Kansas City, he would meet outlaw Dave Rudabaugh and traveled with him to the New Mexico Territory after being indicted in Cooke County for cattle rustling in 1879. He served as a peace officer for the Dodge City Gang in Las Vegas until the two were run out of town after Rudabaugh killed a deputy sheriff.
He later had a brief stint as town marshal of Golden, New Mexico. However, he was later run out of town by a lynch mob in 1882. Continued

George Coe

(Wikipedia) George Washington Coe (1856–1941) was an Old West cowboy and for a time gunman alongside Billy the Kid during the Lincoln County War.
Coe was born in Missouri, and ventured to New Mexico Territory in his youth, around 1871, alongside his cousin, Frank, to work on a ranch near Fort Stanton belonging to a cousin, and for a time during this period they lived near Raton, New Mexico.
... George Coe found himself dragged into the Lincoln County War by way of his own unjust arrest by county Sheriff William J. Brady. Coe and his cousin would join the Lincoln County Regulators, riding with Billy the Kid, and facing off against the "Murphy-Dolan Faction" and their supporters, to include members of the Jesse Evans Gang and the John Kinney Gang. Coe figured prominently into the events of the final Battle of Lincoln between the two factions, and was eventually arrested for the murder of Buckshot Roberts, a shootout which became known as the Gunfight of Blazer's Mills, and in which he lost a finger. Continued

A Glimpse of Grzelachowski's Store

Puerto de Luna, New Mexico

(National Register of Historic Places) … Billy the Kid frequented the Grzelachowski store. A.J. Padilla, who was married to Grzelachowski's daughter, was the source of many stories told to him by his mother-in-law. Billy, she said, was fascinated by Grzelachowski's learning and by his tales. He would listen intently and beg Grzelachowski to speak Latin, Polish, or Greek.
Billy would stand in front of the store and shoot at tin cans, shifting his gun from hand to hand and shooting as well with either. Grzelachowski instructed his clerks not to argue with Billy and to give him anything he wanted. Once when Grzelachowski was away, the clerks saw Billy riding into town with a few of his companions and immediately ran out the back door. Finding the store deserted, Billy and his friends took what they needed and rode on.
Several days later when he returned through town, the Kid asked Grzelachowski what he owed. Grzelachowski replied that he didn't think that the Kid owed anything. Another time a clerk noticed the Kid taking ammunition and accused him of trying to steal from a friend. Whereupon Billy put the boxes back. Continued

Old House 139

Puerto de Luna, New Mexico

Puerto de Luna and Santa Rosa mark the western edge of New Mexico's eastern plains. Both towns are decades older than most of their sister cities to the east.
Founded by Hispanic settlers in the 1860's, it was about as far east as a New Mexican could get without annoying the mighty Comanche, who would rule the Llano Estacado until 1874.
Billy the Kid spent his last Christmas in Puerto de Luna in 1880.

Jose Chavez y Chavez

(DesertUSA) In the days of the Old West, New Mexico was home, at one time or another, to many of the more colorful desperadoes. The Clantons, William Bonney, Jesse Evans, William "Curley Bill" Brocius, Clay Allison, Doroteo "El Tigre" Sains, Tom "Black Jack" Ketchum, John "King of the Rustlers" Kinney, Jim Miller, and Johnny Ringo are a relatively small sample.
Because of its remoteness and proximity to the Mexican border, Southern New Mexico attracted a large number of outlaws; violent men who lived from the labor of others, who were quick to kill, and for whom the conventions of settled society meant little.
man who fit the mold of New Mexican outlaw, and has been largely ignored by historians and folklorists, was José Chavez y Chavez. Continued

Fred Waite

(Wikipedia) Fred Waite, born Frederick Tecumseh Waite (occasionally spelled Fred Wayte) (September 23, 1853 – September 24, 1895), was a Chickasaw cowboy who joined Billy the Kid's gang. He left the gang to return to his people.
With the Chickasaw Nation, Waite served as a leading politician before his death at the age 42. Continued

Henry McCarty

(Wikipedia) ... Henry McCarty was born in New York City on September 17, 1859 to Catherine (née Devine) McCarty, and was baptized eleven days later in the Church of St. Peter. … Following the death of her husband, Catherine McCarty and her sons moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where she met a man named William Henry Harrison Antrim. The McCarty family, along with Antrim, moved to Wichita, Kansas in 1870. After moving again a few years later, Catherine married Antrim on March 1, 1873 at the First Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe, New Mexico; both McCarty and his brother Joseph were witnesses. Shortly after, the family moved from Santa Fe to Silver City, New Mexico. Continued

John Chisum

(Wikipedia) John Simpson Chisum (August 15, 1824 – December 23, 1884) was a wealthy cattle baron in the American West in the mid-to-late 19th century.
... In 1854, Chisum became engaged in the cattle business and became one of the first to send his herds to New Mexico Territory. He obtained land along the Pecos River by right of occupancy and eventually became the owner of a large ranch in the Bosque Grande, about forty miles south of Fort Sumner, with over 100,000 head of cattle.
In 1866-67, Chisum formed a partnership with cattlemen Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving to assemble and drive herds of cattle for sale to the United States Army in Fort Sumner and Santa Fe, New Mexico, to provide cattle to miners in Colorado as well as provide cattle to the Bell Ranch. Continued

Battle of Lincoln

Alexander McSween

(Wikipedia) The Battle of Lincoln, New Mexico, was a five-day-long firefight between civilians that took place from July 15–19, 1878 in Lincoln, New Mexico.
It was the largest armed battle of the Lincoln County War and the climax of that civilian conflict in the New Mexico Territory.
The firefight was interrupted and suppressed by United States Cavalry led by Lt. Col. Nathan Dudley from Fort Stanton. Continued

Auction of Billy the Kid-related items rides into Santa Fe

 

(Santa Fe New Mexican) Billy the Kid, an outlaw, a legend and a New Mexico cottage industry, rides the range still.

Items relating to the Kid will be displayed and auctioned this weekend at the 29th annual Cody Old West Auction and Cody Old West Show at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.

This is the first time the events have been held in Santa Fe, said event founder and Santa Fe resident Brian Lebel. Estimates for the coming sale total more than $1.4 million. Continued

Pat Garrett

(Wikipedia) Patrick Floyd Jarvis "Pat" Garrett (June 5, 1850 – February 29, 1908) was an American Old West lawman, bartender and customs agent who became renowned for killing Billy the Kid.
He was the sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico as well as Doña Ana County, New Mexico.
He co-authored a book about Billy the Kid which, for a generation after the Kid's death, was deemed authoritative; however, historians have since found many embellishments and inconsistencies with other accounts of the outlaw's life.
Garrett was murdered under unclear circumstances. Continued

Billy the Kid's Big Escape

 

(Library of Congress) Billy the Kid escaped from the Lincoln County, New Mexico jail house on April 28, 1881, killing two deputies on guard. He avoided capture until July 14, when he was ambushed and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett at the ranch home of Pete Maxwell. Billy the Kid is buried in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
Although he has become synonymous with the legendary Wild West, Billy the Kid was probably born on New York City’s East Side, in 1859 or 1860. By the time he was a young teenager, he had moved with his family to New Mexico, by way of Kansas and Colorado. Continued