John W. Poe, with wife, Sophia
When exactly this photo was taken is unknown, but it was likely in 1883, shortly after their marriage.
John William Poe was born in Mason County, Kentucky on Oct. 17, 1851. In 1868, he left home to be a buffalo hunter in Texas. In the 1870s, Poe became town marshal of Fort Griffin, a well-known stop for buffalo hunters. When his term ended, he made a deputy U. S. marshal. He traveled to the Tascosa area in about 1879 and got work on the ranches in the area. In late 1880 or early 1881, he replaced Frank Stewart as the cattle detective for the Canadian River Cattleman's Association. His first assignment was to go to New Mexico and investigate the dealings of Pat Coghlan, the self-styled "Cattle King of the Tularosa," who frequently dealt with cattle stolen from the CRCA. Poe made his headquarters in White Oaks, in the summer of 1881, was approached by Sheriff Pat Garrett, who deputized him. Poe later claimed that he acquired information that Billy the Kid was living in Fort Sumner from a drunken friend of his and relayed this info to Garrett. The two of them, accompanied by fellow deputy Thomas McKinney, rode to Sumner in mid-July, where Garrett allegedly killed the Kid in a darkened bedroom. While Garrett became a celebrity, Poe decided to remain in New Mexico rather than return to Texas. He married Sophia Alberding on May 5, 1883 in Roswell. Afterwards, he succeeded Garrett as the next sheriff of Lincoln County. In early 1884, Poe led a posse after an escaped killer and rustler named Nicholas Aragon. The posse caught up with Aragon and a gunfight ensued, in which posse member Johnny Hurley was killed. Poe eventually resigned from his sheriff position in 1885 and turned to banking, helping to found the Bank of Roswell in 1890. Although he became the bank's president in 1893, he resigned in 1899, after it became the First National Bank of Roswell. He then founded and became president of the Citizen's Bank. In 1919, Poe wrote a manuscript entitled "The Death of Billy the Kid," which was published in Wide World Magazine. He later traveled to Michigan, where he died, allegedly a suicide, on July 17, 1923. His manuscript was later published in book format in 1933.
John W. Poe
This photo was taken later in Poe's life, probably around the turn of the century.
