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Chronology of the Life of Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War

This is a chronology on Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War.

• 1821---Green (John Bautista) Wilson, the future Justice of the Peace in Lincoln, is born in Tennessee.
• Mar. 19, 1823---Warren Henry Bristol, the future judge and strong Murphy-Dolan-Riley supporter, is born in Genessee County, New York.
• Aug. 15, 1824---John Simpson Chisum is born in Madison County, Tennessee.
• Aug. 20, 1825---Nathan Augustus Monroe Dudley is born in Lexington, Massachusetts.
• 1825---Gottfried G. 'Godfrey' Gauss is born in Wurttemberg, Germany.
• Apr. 10, 1827---Lewis Wallace, future governor of New Mexico Territory, is born in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
• Feb. 22, 1828---William Logan Rynerson is born in Mercer County, Kentucky.
• Aug. 16, 1829---William Brady is born in County Cavan, Ireland.
• 1831 or 1834---Lawrence Gustave Murphy is born in County Wexford, Ireland.
• 1833---Andrew L. Roberts, in the future to be known as Buckshot Roberts, is born, possibly in Texas.
• Aug. 13, 1838---Milo Lucius Pierce, future member of the Seven Rivers Warriors, is born in Lincoln, Illinois.
• Oct. 23, 1838---Albert Jennings Fountain is born in Staten Island, New York.
• Nov. 22, 1838---Andrew Boyle is born in Dalry, County Ayr, Scotland.
• Oct. 6, 1840---Thomas Benton Catron, future head of the Santa Fe Ring, is born in Lexington, Missouri.
• Oct. 1841---George Warden Peppin is born in Montvale, Vermont or Ohio.
• Jul. 24, 1845---Thomas Benton Powell, later to be known as Buck Powell, is born in Mississippi.
• Dec. 30, 1845---Susanna Ellen Hummer, the future Mrs. Susan McSween, is born in Adams County, Pennsylvania.
• Apr. 28, 1847---Huston Ingraham Chapman is born in Burlington, Michigan.
• May 5, 1847---Jacob Basil 'Billy' Mathews is born in Cannon County, Tennessee.
• 1847 or 1848---John Kinney is born at Hampshire, Massachusetts.
• Apr. 22, 1848---James Joseph Dolan is born at County Galway, Ireland.
• 1848---Charlie Bowdre is born in either Mississippi or Tennessee.
• 1848---Daniel Dedrick is born in Indiana.
• Jan. 11, 1849---Josiah Gordon Scurlock, later to be known as Doc Scurlock, is born at Tallapoosa, Alabama.

• Feb. 1850---Juan Batista Patron is born in Santa Fe County, New Mexico Territory.
• Feb. 19, 1850---Richard M. Brewer is born in St. Albans, Vermont.
• Mar. 12, 1850---John Henry Riley is born at Valentia Island, Ireland.
• June 5, 1850---Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett is born in Chambers County, Alabama.
• Oct. 16, 1850---Robert W. Beckwith is born.
• Apr. 1850 (exact date unknown)---Ameredith Robert B. Olinger, later to be known as Pecos Bob, is born in Delphi, Indiana.
• July 26, 1851---L. G. Murphy enlists in the United States Army at Buffalo, New York.
• Oct. 1, 1851---Benjamin Franklin 'Frank' Coe is born in Moundsville, West Virginia.
• Oct. 14, 1851---James Albert 'Ab' Saunders, a cousin of the Coes, is born at Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
• Aug. 5, 1851---Samuel Robert Corbet is born at Rutherford County, North Carolina.
• 1851---Jose Chavez y Chavez is born at Valencia County, New Mexico Territory.
• Jan. 16, 1852---Robert Adolph Widenmann is born at Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• 1852---Samuel Dedrick is born in Indiana.
• Jan. 14, 1853---John Marmaduke Beckwith is born.
• Mar. 16, 1853---John Henry Tunstall is born in London, England.
• Sept. 23, 1853---Frederick Tecumseh Waite is born at Fort Arbuckle, Indian Territory.
• 1853---Jessie J. Evans is born either in Texas or Missouri.
• 1853---John A. Jones is born in Pennsylvania.
• July 14, 1854---David Rodenbaugh, later to be known as Dirty Dave Rudabaugh, is born at Fulton County, Illinois.
• 1854---John Middleton is born in Tennessee.
• 1855---Martin Chaves is born at Manzano, New Mexico Territory. Possibly this same year, Joseph McCarty is born to Catherine McCarty and an unknown father. Joseph has also been said to be born as late as 1863.
• Feb. 11, 1856---Morris J. Bernstein is born in London, England.
• Mar. 19, 1856---Thomas C. McKinney is born in Birdville, Texas.
• May 21, 1856---L. G. Murphy is discharged from the U. S. Army at Fort McIntosh.

• May 26, 1856---L. G. Murphy re-enlists in the U. S. Army at Fort McIntosh.
• May 27, 1856---Tom Pickett is born in Wise County, Texas.
• Jul. 13, 1856---George Washington Coe, cousin to Frank Coe and Ab Saunders, is born at Brighton, Iowa.
• Sept. 1856---William Scott Morton is born in Richmond, Virginia.
• Fall 1857---Henry Newton Brown is born near Rolla, Missouri.
• 1858---Thomas O. Folliard Jr., later to be the best friend of Billy the Kid is born to Thomas Folliard Senior and Sarah Cook at Uvalde, Texas. Shortly after his birth, he and his parents move to Monclova, Coahuila, Mexico.
• Oct. 30, 1859---William Harrison Wilson (possibly the same Billy Wilson that would later ride with Billy the Kid) is born in Marshall, Searcy County, Arkansas.
• Late 1859 to possibly early 1862---(William?) Henry McCarty, later to be known as Kid Antrim, William H. Bonney, and Billy the Kid, is born, presumably to Catherine McCarty and an unknown father. The setting could be New York City, Indiana, Missouri, Texas, Illinois, Kansas, or even Ireland.
• 1860---Moses Dedrick is born in Kansas.
• Apr. 26, 1861---L. G. Murphy is discharged from the U. S. Army at Fort Fauntleroy.
• Jul. 27, 1861---L. G. Murphy enlists in the First New Mexico Volunteers at Santa Fe.
• Nov. 23, 1861---David L. Anderson (who may have been the Billy Wilson that would later ride with Billy the Kid) is born in Trumbull County, Ohio.
• 1862---Catherine McCarty and her two sons, Henry and Joseph, take up residence in Indianapolis, Indiana.
• Oct. 31, 1862---Fort Sumner is established in San Miguel County, New Mexico Territory.
• Feb. 14, 1863---Yginio Salazar is born at Valencia, New Mexico Territory.
• 1865---Tom Folliard's parents die of smallpox in Mexico. His maternal uncle, John Cook, having left the Civil War, goes to Mexico and takes young Tom back to Uvalde, Texas, where Tom goes to live with his aunt, Margaret Jane Cook.
• Fall 1866---L. G. Murphy and Emil Fritz, who Murphy met in the service, muster out of the army at Fort Stanton, New Mexico Territory. They become partners and form L. G. Murphy & Co. A store and brewery are established at Stanton that they own. Soon, the company is awarded government contracts that order them to supply beef, vegetables, and other supplies to Fort Stanton and the local Mescalero-Apache Reservation Agency. To provide for these contracts, the company puts together quite a monopoly. The monopoly works like this: the company sells land they do not own to aspiring ranchers. The land is sold on credit, however. The rancher then attempts to pay off the debt with the cattle and crops he grows. Those crops and cattle are then used to fulfill the company's government contracts. If the farmer can't pay off the entire debt, the company forecloses on his land, then sells it to another rancher, and the process starts all over again. Due to Murphy and Fritz's close association with the Santa Fe Ring (a clique of crooked politicians, business men, lawyers, and high-ranking military officials), their monopoly schemes goes on without a hitch. Around the same time, Dr. Joseph Hoy Blazer arrives in the Tularosa area of New Mexico. There, he ends up buying a small settlement composed of several small houses, a sawmill, and a gristmill called Big Fork. Blazer ends up changing the name of the settlement to Blazer's Mills.
• Oct. 8, 1866---William Brady musters out of the U. S. Army at Fort Sumner.
• 1867---John and Pitzer Chisum, brothers, arrive in New Mexico Territory. They start a ranch at Bosque Grande, a few miles south of Fort Sumner. John and Pitzer's other brothers, James and Jeff, join them at the ranch a while later with their families, including James's daughter, Sallie.
• Dec. 15, 1867---William L. Rynerson shoots and kills the chief justice of New Mexico, John Slough, at the Exchange Hotel in Santa Fe.
• Early 1868 (exact date unknown)---Josiah Gordon Scurlock studies some medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana. Shortly thereafter, he begins to fear he has contracted tuberculosis and flees to Mexico, hoping it'll cure there. Also while in Mexico, Scurlock acquires a reputation as a gunfighter. While in a cantina one day playing cards, Scurlock and another man get into a shootout. The man shoots Scurlock in the mouth, the bullet knocking out his two front teeth and exiting through the back of his neck. Scurlock in turn fires once and kills the man. Thankfully, the wound Scurlock has suffered is not serious and he quickly recovers.
• Mar. 1868---William Rynerson is acquitted of killing John Slough.
• Jan. 16, 1869---Lincoln County is established. The small town of Placitas is the county seat. Eventually, Placitas's name is changed to Lincoln as well. According to tradition, the county and town were named by resident Saturnino Baca in respect for the recently assassinated president.
• Jan. 25, 1869---Pat Garrett, who had been living in Louisiana with his family, leaves Louisiana to go to Texas, where he works as a cowboy at Lancaster, Texas.
• Mar. 1, 1869---In the first special election in Lincoln County, Richard Ewan is elected probate judge and Jesus Sandoval y Serna is elected sheriff. George W. Peppin ran against Serna, and lost.
• Apr. 3, 1869---James J. Dolan is mustered out of the U. S. Army at Fort Stanton. Shortly thereafter, he gets a job as a clerk working for L. G. Murphy & Co.
• May 12, 1869---Richard Ewan and Jesus Sandoval y Serna resign as probate judge and sheriff. L. G. Murphy is commissioned a district probate judge and Mauricio Sanchez is made sheriff in order to replace Ewan and Serna.