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Chronology of the Life of Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War, Part 3

Aug. 9, 1876---The Democratic Convention is held in Lincoln. L. G. Murphy and William Brady are nominated to represent Lincoln County at the territorial convention in Santa Fe.
Aug. 15, 1876---John Tunstall arrives at Santa Fe, New Mexico. During his stay there, he'll meet and befriend one Robert A. 'Rob' Widenmann, a young man seeking adventure out west. The two end up becoming best friends.
Sept. 2, 1876---Doc Scurlock and friend Mike Harkins are at the carpenter shop of L. G. Murphy & Co. Doc examines a pistol that somehow goes off, killing Harkins. No charges are filed against Doc, since the killing was accidental.
Sept. 9, 1876---Murphy and Juan Patron go to Santa Fe to attend the territorial conventions.
Sept. 11, 1876---Murphy attends the Democratic Convention in Santa Fe.
Sept. 14, 1876---Patron attends the Republican Convention in Santa Fe. Shortly thereafter, Patron and Murphy return to Lincoln.
Sept. 19, 1876---Charles Fritz and Emilie Fritz Scholand, siblings of Emil Fritz, are named as administrators of Emil's estate. Alex McSween continues to serve as counsel for the estate.
Oct. 1876---John Chisum travels to Arizona Territory in order to locate a large herd of cattle. It's possible that at this time, Chisum first meets Henry Antrim in Arizona.
Oct. 19, 1876---Doc Scurlock marries Antonia Miguela Herrera at Lincoln. Around the same time, Charlie Bowdre marries Manuela Herrera, Antonia's half-sister. This makes Doc and Charlie brother-in-laws.
Mid Oct. 1876 (exact date unknown)---Alex McSween prepares to leave for New York in order to solve a problem regarding the Emil Fritz life insurance policy and, if he's able to, to collect the money from the insurance policy. The problem is this: according to the firm of Spiegelberg Bros., L. G. Murphy told them they could have the money from the Fritz insurance policy, since the House is in great debt to them. However, Murphy, not being the administrator of the Fritz estate, has no authority to give the money from the insurance policy to anyone. Due to the fact that both Spiegelberg Bros. and Emil's siblings, Charles and Emilie, are claiming to be the rightful heirs of the insurance money, the life insurance agency refuses to act one way or another. So, this is why McSween is going to New York, to find some kind of solution to this problem. Juan Patron and Saturnino Baca plan to accompany McSween as far as Santa Fe. Around the same time, Frank Coe and Ab Saunders ambush a local badman named Juan Gonzales. Gonzales is shot by the cousins and badly wounded, but miraculously manages to survive.
Late Oct. 1876---McSween, Patron, and Baca arrive in Santa Fe, having left Lincoln a few days prior. Also around this time, Henry 'Kid' Antrim quits working at the Hotel de Luna and hooks up with a rustling gang that steals cattle, mules, horses, and saddles owned by the U. S. Army in the local towns of Globe, Bonita, Clifton, Cedar Springs, and the army forts of Camp Thomas and Fort Grant. The gang is led by a former soldier named John R. Mackie.
Oct. 29, 1876---In the dining room at the Exchange Hotel in Santa Fe, McSween meets John Tunstall. Tunstall tells McSween of his dreams of wanting to become a rancher, and McSween in turn tells him of Lincoln County. McSween recommends that Tunstall invest and start his ranch in Lincoln County. After the meeting, McSween proceeds on towards New York.
Nov. 3, 1876---Tunstall decides to go to Lincoln County to see if he agrees with McSween's suggestion. Friend Widenmann plans to go to Lincoln also in the near future. Tunstall travels in a buggy driven by Juan Patron, whom he also met in Santa Fe. During the trip back to Lincoln, a snowstorm occurs, making travel slow down a bit.
Nov. 6, 1876---Tunstall and Patron arrive in Lincoln. Tunstall stays at the Casa de Patron for the time being. He also meets Susan McSween at this time.
Nov. 7, 1876---William Brady is elected sheriff of Lincoln County, for the second time in his life. He won't take office until the first of the year though. On the same day, Will Dowlin, Juan Patron, and Francisco Romero y Lueras are elected county commissioners and James H. Farmer is elected justice of the peace. Around the same time, Kid Antrim steals a horse from Sgt. Louis Hartman at Camp Thomas. Shortly afterwards, Hartman finds Antrim, but since he has no warrant for his arrest, the Kid is free to go.
Mid Nov. 1876 (exact date unknown)---Near Fort Griffen, Texas, buffalo-hunter Pat Garrett gets into an altercation with a fellow hunter named Joe Briscoe. When Briscoe comes at Garrett with an ax, Garrett draws his pistol and kills Briscoe. The killing is ruled self-defense.
Nov. 18, 1876---Buck Powell, Seven Rivers area rancher and member of the Seven Rivers Warriors, shoot and kills a man known only as Yopp at a cattle camp on the Pecos River.
Nov. 21, 1876---Johnny Riley buys a junior partnership in L. G. Murphy & Co. All three heads of the House, Murphy, Dolan, and Riley, are heavy-drinking, hot-tempered Irishmen. Shortly after buying the partnership, Riley breaks into McSween's office and trashes it, then insults Susan. He goes on by vowing to drive McSween out of the country. Around the same time, the Jessie Evans Gang shifts its domain from Dona Ana County to Lincoln County, planning to carry out their illegal activities in the much larger county now. Jessie and most of his gang members are former Chisum cowboys and know their way around the county and its backtrails. The gang's main targets in Lincoln County are the Chisum ranches and the Mescalero-Apache Reservation Agency. L. G. Murphy & Co. soon begin buying most of the stolen livestock from the gang, just as they do with the Seven Rivers Warriors. Charlie Bowdre becomes associated with the gang soon after their arrival in Lincoln County as well.
Late Nov. 1876---McSween arrives in New York and goes straight to work. He meets with the Spiegelbergs and they end up reaching a deal: the Spiegelbergs will accept $700 cash from McSween and then withdraw their claim that Murphy promised them the money from the Fritz insurance policy. Only one problem: McSween doesn't have $700 in cash with him. He then makes a deal with the Donnell, Lawson, & Co. banking firm, which is holding the money from the insurance policy. The deal is that the bank will give the Spiegelbergs the $700, but at a later date, the bank will need to be repaid the $700, with interest. This money, which will likely be a couple thousand dollars, will have to come out of the Fritz insurance money. McSween then prepares to return to New Mexico, without a cent of the life insurance money with him.
Dec. 12, 1876---McSween arrives back in Lincoln. He writes to Charles Fritz, telling him to trust in him and that he will get the Fritz insurance money soon. Also around this time, McSween and Tunstall begin talking about going into business together in direct competition with L. G. Murphy & Co. Tunstall's dream is to start a ranch and a store of his own in Lincoln. It's decided that McSween will serve as Tunstall's lawyer and give him advice regarding his ranch and/or store. Tunstall and McSween also decide that if they're going to have a store in competition with Murphy, they might as well compete for the government contracts that orders them to supply beef and supplies to Fort Stanton and the Mescalero-Apache Reservation Agency. They'll need a lot of beef though if they get the contracts. They soon meet with John Chisum, since everyone knows he's the 'Cattle King of New Mexico' and has no love for Murphy & Co., since he knows they're buying his stolen cattle from the Seven Rivers Warriors. It's eventually decided that Chisum will go into business with Tunstall and McSween as well as a 'silent partner.' If Tunstall does secure the government beef contracts, it will be Chisum's duty to provide for them. Chisum also agrees to lend his name to another project dreamed up by Tunstall and McSween, namely, a bank in Lincoln. Tunstall and McSween feel that a bank will go along with their store perfectly, since there is no bank in Lincoln as of yet.
Dec. 14, 1876---The Lincoln County Farmers Club is formed. Murphy is the president, Brady and Joe Storms are the vice presidents, Morris J. Bernstein is the secretary, and Charles Fritz is the treasurer. The committee is made up of Saturnino Baca, S. W. Lloyd, and Francisco Romero y Luceras.
Dec. 18, 1876---Frank Freeman, a member of the Jessie Evans Gang, gets into an argument with two black men at the Wortley Hotel in Lincoln. The argument ends with Freeman drawing his pistol and killing one of the men. He then flees town, although he is hotly pursued by Sheriff Saturnino Baca.
Jan. 1, 1877---William Brady takes office as Sheriff of Lincoln County. Shortly after taking office, Brady goes off on the trail of fugitive Frank Freeman. He soon arrests Doc Scurlock and George Coe under suspicion of harboring Freeman, as both Doc and George are known to be good friends of his. Doc and George are kept in Lincoln's jail/pit for a few days and are treated very harshly by Brady (and, allegedly, are even physically tortured). They are both released a few days later, but they hold a hateful grudge against Brady because of their treatment at his hands.
Early Jan. 1877---L. G. Murphy & Co. decide that they need money fast in order to pay off their debts to the Santa Fe bank and the Spiegelberg Bros. It's decided that they'll have to sell Murphy's Fairview ranch at Carrizozo. Dolan approaches McSween and offers him $5,000 if he'll get Tunstall to buy Murphy's ranch. McSween refuses however, and then goes on and tells Tunstall to stay away from the Murphy ranch. McSween instead advises Tunstall to try to get his hands on some of the land in the area of the Rio Feliz. He goes on to inform Tunstall that the majority of this land was once the thriving ranch of Robert Casey, but now, since he is dead, only his widow and children live there on their ranch site. He also points out that the Caseys never bought the land they consider theirs; they just put up stakes there when they arrived in the territory. McSween tells Tunstall that legally, he can file for this land on the Desert Land Act and basically take the land from the Caseys. (The Desert Land Act states that anyone can file on up to 640 acres of desert land for twenty-five cents an acre, and then have three years to improve on the land before a further payment of a dollar an acre would give he or she perpetual title to the land.) Tunstall likes this plan indeed. Needless to say, this doesn't please Dolan, or the Company.
Jan. 7, 1877---John Chisum, along with several of his ranch-hands travel down to the El Paso, Texas area to look for rustlers. In the last several months, his ranch at South Spring has had an upsurge of rustling, first from the Seven Rivers Warriors, and now from the recently arrived Jessie Evans Gang as well.
Jan. 10, 1877---Dick Brewer becomes sick with a mild case of smallpox.
Mid Jan. 1877 (exact date unknown)---John Riley leaves Lincoln to tour Lincoln County's army forts in order to lobby for the government beef contracts.

Jan. 20, 1877---At Palo Duro, Texas, Frank MacNab, George Black, and Frank Tipton, all three cattle detectives working for Hunter & Evans, allegedly rob two brothers named Casner of $5,500 then shoot and kill them both. A $300 reward is offered for the capture of the three men.
Jan. 26, 1877---John Riley makes his first stop at Fort Bayard.
Jan. 30, 1877---Tunstall and McSween leave Lincoln. McSween is leaving to go on his circuit tour for his clients and other legal businesses. Tunstall is accompanying McSween as far as Las Cruces, where he plans to make a provisional filing on the land on the Rio Feliz using the Desert Land Act.
Feb. 4, 1877---Tunstall and McSween arrive in La Mesilla.
Feb. 5, 1877---John Riley, still on his tour, arrives at Santa Fe.
Feb. 8, 1877---Tunstall and McSween arrive in Las Cruces. There, Tunstall makes a provisional filing on approximately 2,400 acres of the Rio Feliz land.
Feb. 9, 1877---McSween buys six acres of land in the town of Lincoln from L. G. Murphy & Co. He buys the land for '$1.00 and other good and sufficient considerations.'
Feb. 12, 1877 (approx.)---Kid Antrim, John Mackie, and fellow gang members steal three army horses from Cottonwood Springs.
Feb. 13, 1877---Riley, along with Capt. Chambers McKibbin and William Rosenthal leave Santa Fe for Fort Stanton.
Feb. 14, 1877---Riley and his companions arrive at Fort Stanton. On the same day, Jose Chavez y Chavez is again elected as constable of San Patricio.
Feb. 16, 1877---Sgt. Hartman and Maj. Compton, both soldiers from Camp Thomas, go before Justice of the Peace Miles Wood and ask him to swear out a warrant for the arrest of Kid Antrim. This Wood does, and, suspecting that the Kid would have headed for the town of Globe, sends the warrant there.
Feb. 17, 1877---The constable at Globe arrests Kid Antrim and takes him to Cedar Springs. There, the Kid manages to escape somehow.
Feb. 27, 1877---Tunstall and McSween arrive in Albuquerque.
Early Mar. 1877 (exact date unknown)---Tunstall and McSween depart from Albuquerque and head for the town of Belen.
Mar. 11, 1877---Tunstall and McSween leave Belen and head back towards Lincoln.
Mar. 14, 1877---L. G. Murphy withdraws from his business in Lincoln, after discovering he has bowel cancer. He leaves the business (and the all the House's debts) to Dolan and Riley now. The business's name is formally changed to Jas. J. Dolan & Co.
Mar. 21, 1877---Tunstall and McSween arrive back at Lincoln. On the same day, Tunstall's friend, Rob Widenmann, arrives in Lincoln from Santa Fe.
Mar. 25, 1877---Kid Antrim and John Mackie arrive at the Hotel de Luna near Fort Grant for breakfast. Miles Wood sees them enter the hotel and decides to capture them. Wood takes a large serving tray to their table, but has a pistol hidden under it. He puts the tray on the table in front of them then raises his pistol, telling them to put their hands in the air. Both outlaws do just that. Wood then walks his two prisoners two-and-a-half miles to Fort Grant. There, both Mackie and the Kid are thrown in the guardhouse. One hour later or so, the Kid asks one of his guards to take him outside for some reason, possibly to use the privy. Once outside, Antrim allegedly turns around and throws a handful of salt into the guard's eyes. He then grabs the guard's pistol out of his holster, but before the Kid can flee, the temporarily blinded guard yells for help. Several other guards come running, disarm the Kid, and throw him back in the guardhouse. Back in the guardhouse, the soldiers have Frank P. 'Windy' Cahill, a local bully of a blacksmith, attach shackles to the Kid's wrists and ankles. That night, while a dance is being held at the fort, the Kid is left unguarded for a few moments. In those few moments, he somehow escapes, with his shackles on and all. After the dance, the guards and soldiers are dumbfounded as to how he escaped, but it's suspected that a soldier or two may have aided him.
Early Apr. 1877---An epidemic of smallpox ravages the local Mescalero-Apache population, killing several chiefs.
Apr. 10, 1877---According to James Dolan, he and a group of Lincoln citizens (probably members of the Jessie Evans Gang and/or the Seven Rivers Warriors) are ambushed by Chisum cowboys. However, no one in the ambush is killed, or even wounded. This is the beginning of what will become known as 'The War on the Pecos,' a conflict waged between John Chisum and the local rustlers at Seven Rivers.
Apr. 19, 1877---Tunstall receives his first draft of money from his father, John Tunstall Senior, in London.
Apr. 20, 1877---John Chisum and around thirty of his cowboys lay siege to the ranch of Hugh Beckwith at Seven Rivers. Beckwith, along with his two sons Bob and John, are prominent members of the Seven Rivers Warriors. Pitzer Chisum had discovered evidence of the Beckwiths' involvement in the rustling of Chisum cattle a short time earlier while at the Beckwith ranch.
Apr. 23, 1877---Chisum and his men leave the Beckwith ranch after it's decided that the battle isn't really going anywhere.
Apr. 24, 1877---Tunstall has a choza (a two-room dugout fort with thick adobe walls) built on his new land on the Rio Feliz. Manning what Tunstall will call his 'ranch' are his two new employees, namely Godfrey Gauss, an elderly man who is hired to serve as camp cook, and Fred Waite, recently arrived from Colorado. Waite had been hired for his skill with livestock, his fearlessness, and his prowess with a gun. On the same day, John Riley has the government beef contracts for Forts Stanton, Bayard, and Craig awarded to him (and, hence, the Company). Also on that day, a post office is established in the House, and Dolan himself is appointed Lincoln postmaster.

Early May 1877 (exact date unknown)---Ellen Casey, widow of rancher Robert Casey, is deep in debt to the firm of the Spiegelberg Bros. Alex McSween, acting for the Spiegelbergs, serves a writ of attachment on her. Sheriff Brady is ordered by the courts to impound 400 head of the Caseys' cattle (worth the amount Ellen owes to the Spiegelberg Bros.), as a type of security. If Ellen Casey doesn't pay off the debt she owes, Brady must sell her cattle at a public auction.
May 2, 1877---H. Harrison, a bounty hunter from Ft. Elliot, is hunting for Frank MacNab, Frank Tipton, and George Black at Dodge City, Kansas. Apparently, MacNab, Tipton, and Black had fled to Dodge City after killing(?) the Casner brothers in Texas.
May 3, 1877---At Lincoln, Dolan gets into an altercation with a House employee named Hiraldo Jaramillo. The conflict ends with Dolan drawing a pistol and shooting Jaramillo dead. According to Dolan, Jaramillo suddenly and without reason attacked him with a knife, leaving him no choice but to gun him down. However, it was well-known that Dolan's good friend, George W. Peppin, was having an affair with Jaramillo's wife. What's more likely is that Jaramillo told Peppin to stay away from his wife, and then Peppin told Dolan. Dolan, then, loyal to his friends, killed Jaramillo in cold-blood. Other Lincoln citizens, however, gossiped that Dolan made 'unnatural advances' towards Jaramillo, and when Jaramillo fought him off, Dolan killed him.
May 7, 1877---Tunstall and McSween make up a plan to get some cattle for Tunstall's new Rio Feliz ranch. The auction for the Casey cattle is scheduled for today and Tunstall has McSween make a deal with the widow Ellen Casey. The deal goes like this: McSween (acting for Tunstall) would buy about half of Casey's cattle, and give the money directly to her. If, later on, she could repay McSween the amount he bought the cattle for, plus interest, she would get her cattle back from him. Ellen Casey agrees to this deal and McSween buys 209 head of cattle at the auction. However, both Tunstall and McSween realize that Casey still must pay off her debt to the Spiegelburg Bros., and will likely never be able to raise enough money to buy back her cattle from them. After buying the cattle, McSween has his friend Dick Brewer drive them to Brewer's ranch in Glencoe, where they will be temporarily kept until they can be driven to Tunstall's Rio Feliz ranch. The same day, Andy Boyle (who is a deputy sheriff) and Buck Powell, both members of the Seven Rivers Warriors, acquire a warrant for the arrest of John Chisum for his attack at the Beckwith ranch on April 20 through the 23. The two men arrive at Chisum's South Spring Ranch, but Chisum is laid up with a case of smallpox and cannot be moved. Boyle and Powell leave the ranch without Chisum, but plan to return to arrest him when he is in better health.
May 8, 1877---Murphy petitions the probate court to ascertain indebtedness of the Fritz estate to himself and vice versa.
May 10, 1877---Andy Boyle, Buck Powell, and thirteen others arrive at the South Spring Ranch upon hearing that Old John has recuperated from his case of smallpox. Chisum and a few of his cowboys are arrested, but are released shortly thereafter.
May 11, 1877---Murphy makes out a will, leaving everything in it to Dolan.
May 28, 1877---Tunstall, Brewer, Fred Waite, and Rob Widenmann begin driving Tunstall's cattle from Brewer's ranch towards the Rio Feliz ranch.
May 30, 1877---The 209 head of Tunstall cattle arrives at Tunstall's Rio Feliz ranch. They will be manned there by Widenmann, Waite, and Godfrey Gauss. Shortly after this, Tunstall hires Dick Brewer to work as foreman at the Rio Feliz ranch when Dick isn't working on his own ranch in Glencoe. Brewer and Tunstall end up becoming very good friends.
Early June 1877 (exact date unknown)---Henry Brown has his wages short changed by his employers, Jas. J. Dolan & Co. Angry over this, Henry quits working for the company. Brown then goes to work for Dolan's competition, John Chisum, as a cowboy at his South Spring Ranch.
June 2, 1877---George Peppin begins building the Tunstall store in Lincoln. Tunstall pays around $100 a day for labor. The store is built with three-feet thick adobe walls and extra thick windows. When the store is complete, it will also house law offices for McSween and the Lincoln County Bank. Believed to be around the same time, Alex and Susan McSween's house begins to be built. When finished, the McSween house will be located about thirty-five yards to the west of the Tunstall store. Both buildings are being built on McSween's property, the land he recently purchased from then-L. G. Murphy & Co.
June 5, 1877---Murphy and Dolan travel to Santa Fe.
Mid June 1877 (exact date unknown)---Tunstall leaves Lincoln to travel to La Mesilla and Las Cruces.
June 16, 1877---Frank MacNab is at Syracuse, Kansas, and denies any involvement in the killings of the Casner brothers in Texas. Apparently, he is believed and all charges against him are dropped. Thereafter, he and Frank Tipton return to Texas, where they are sent by Hunter & Evans to track some cattle that were lost on a recent drive.
June 23, 1877--Tunstall arrives back in Lincoln after his trip to La Mesilla and Las Cruces. On the same day, Jessie Evans is acquitted of the murder of Quirino Fletcher at a La Mesilla trial. The presiding judge was Warren Bristol and the prosecuting attorney was William Rynerson, both key figures in the Santa Fe Ring and good friends of Dolan and Riley. It is highly unlikely that Rynerson ever even tried to get Jessie convicted.
Late June 1877 (exact date unknown)---David Pugh Shield (a lawyer), his wife Elizabeth Hummer Shield (Susan McSween's older sister), and their five children arrive in Lincoln. Around the same time in Texas, Frank MacNab and Frank Tipton find the cattle they were sent to find in the possession of several Mexicans. MacNab and Tipton kill all the Mexicans, then drive the cattle to Colorado, where they are sold. MacNab and Tipton tell their employers at Hunter & Evans that they were unable to locate the cattle.