John Jones
John Jones was born to Heiskell and Barbara Jones in 1853 in Pennsylvania. The later family moved to Seven Rivers, Lincoln County, New Mexico. Heiskell and Barbara Jones had nine other children besides John, with a total of ten, nine of them being boys. John and some of his oldest brothers joined the Seven Rivers Warriors. When Billy the Kid first arrived in Lincoln County, he showed up on the Jones's doorstep. While he stayed at the Jones ranch, he became good friends with John and Heiskell and Barbara got to thinking of him as another son in a way. However, John and his brothers fought for the Murphy-Dolan-Riley side in the Lincoln County War. John fought in the Five-Day Battle, as did his brothers. John was wounded in this fight as well. He was one of the men that killed Alex McSween. After the war, he became a rustler and killed a few men with his brothers. On August 26, 1879, he and his rustling partner and fellow Seven Rivers Warrior, John Beckwith, got into an argument. They pulled their guns, but John was quicker and Beckwith was dead. On August 29, 1879, John decided to ride up to Lincoln to turn himself in. On the way, he stopped at the ranch of fellow Seven Rivers Warriors Milo Pierce and Louis Paxton. John got off his horse and found Pierce laying on a cot on the porch of the house. He walked over to him and the two shook hands. Suddenly, five more Seven River Warriors, all who preferred John Beckwith to John Jones, appeared behind John. As he tried to get his gun, Pierce held onto his hand. Bob Olinger, a Seven Rivers Warrior and one of the closest friends of the Beckwith family and a possible cousin of the Beckwiths as well, was behind Jones pulled his pistol. He fired four shots, two went into John's back and two went into the back of his head. One of the bullets that went into his back went through him and lodged in Pierce's hip, crippeling him for life. Olinger would later regret killing Jones.
