Thursday, May 31, 2012

GRINGO AND GREASER


Back in years 1937-1939, as part of the New Mexico Federal Writers' Project, Edith Crawford, the representative in Lincoln County, collected a number of interviews of Lincoln County pioneers.  These were never published and were lost until the collection was brought to the attention of the Lincoln County historical Society.  This vignette is based on that work and taken from the actual words spoken by the subject.

Albert Ziegler came to America from Coblenz, Germany in September of 1884.  After thirteen days at sea, Ziegler landed in New York City and left at once by immigrant train for Albuquerque, New Mexico, where his brother Jake was clerking in the Jaffa Brothers' store.

In 1885, Albert clerked for Price Brothers in Socorro, NM and visited his brother Jake, who was by then living in Manzano, New Mexico.

"He and a man named Herman Goodman ran a small store there, selling dry goods, groceries and liquor," Albert Ziegler explained.  "The town of Manzano was a Spanish-American town."

"My brother, Mister Goodman and a fellow by the name  of Kountz were the only white men living there at the time.  This fellow Kountz ran a newspaper which was called the 'Gringo and Greaser'."

It seems that this rather politically incorrect pejorative for those of Hispano descent goes back further than you may have thought.

"He (Kountz) did not like the Spanish-Americans and was always making dirty remarks about them in his paper.  One night while he was eating supper someone shot through a window and killed him instantly.  That ended the 'Gringo and Greaser' newspaper!"





Thursday, May 24, 2012

RIDING WITH BILLY THE KID


Back in years 1937-1939, as part of the New Mexico Federal Writers’ Project, Edith Crawford, the representative in Lincoln County, collected a number of interviews of Lincoln County pioneers.  These were never published and lost until the collection was brought to the attention of the Lincoln County Historical Society.  This vignette is based on that work and taken from the actual words spoken by the subject.

Francisco Gomez was born in the Manzano Mountains on September 17, 1854 and moved with his family to the New Mexico Territory village of Las Placitas in 1863 at age 9.  Las Placitas would become the town of Lincoln.

Francisco Gomez related that while Captain Saturnino Baca was sheriff of Lincoln County, he rode with Billy the Kid.  Baca was elected sheriff in 1875 and served for three years.  Gomez would have been 21through 24 years of age during that time.  History tells us that William Henry McCarty Antrim, later William H. Bonney, known as Billy the Kid, was born in 1859 and arrived in Lincoln around the fall of 1877.  The following probably happened during the winter of 1877-78 or spring of 1878 but surely before July, 1878 when the Lincoln County War broke out. 

“I never went out with Billy but once,” Gomez related.  “Captain Baca was sheriff then and once some tough outlaws came to Lincoln and rode up and down the streets and shot our window lights in the houses and terrorized people.”

That kind of activity sounds like the Horrell Brothers but they did their dirty deeds in Lincoln in December of 1873 which was before Billy the Kid arrived, before Baca was the sheriff, and when Gomez was a teenager.

“Captain Baca told Billy the Kid to take some men and go after these men,” Francisco Gomez remembered.  “Billy took me and Florencio and Jose Chaves and Santano Maes with him.  The outlaws went to the upper Ruidoso and we followed them.  We caught up with them and shot it out with them.  One of the outlaws was killed and the other ran away.  None of us were hurt.”

Francisco Gomez was acquainted with Billy because he also worked for McSween.  Gomez stated that he quit working for McSween and returned home to live with his father a quarter mile east of Lincoln when the Lincoln County War broke out and that was in July of 1878, two months before his 24th birthday.  Gomez was 84 years of age when he related this story in 1938.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

A FIRST-HAND DESCRIPTION OF BILLY THE KID


Back in years 1937-1939, as part of the New Mexico Federal Writers’ Project, Edith Crawford, the representative in Lincoln County, collected a number of interviews of Lincoln County pioneers.  These were never published and lost until the collection was brought to the attention of the Lincoln County Historical Society.  This vignette is based on that work and taken from the actual words spoken by the subject.

Francisco Gomez was born in the Manzano Mountains on September 17, 1854 and moved with his family to the New Mexico Territory village of Las Placitas in 1863 at age 9.  Las Placitas would become the town of Lincoln.  Francisco remembers that when he was about 18 years of age, circa 1872, he went to work for the McSweens and stayed in their employ for about two years.  Following the historical timeline, this would have really been in 1876 when Gomez was 22 years of age.

Francisco Gomez related that one winter Billy the Kid boarded with the McSweens for about seven months.  Now history tells us that William Henry McCarty Antrim, later William H. Bonney, known as Billy the Kid, was born in 1859 and arrived in Lincoln around the fall of 1877.  Billy lived at the Coe ranch that winter.  Gomez related his memories in 1939 and his mind’s calendar might have been off a bit.

“He was an awfully nice fellow” Francisco Gomez recalled, “with light brown hair, blue eyes and rather big front teeth.  He always dressed very neatly.”

Gomez went on to describe Billy’s gun play.  “He used to practice target shooting a lot.  He would throw up a can and would twirl his six gun on his finger and he could hit the can six times before it hit the ground.”

Billy the Kid rode a big roan horse about ten or twelve hands high, according to Gomez.  “All that winter when this horse was out in the pasture Billy would go to the gate and whistle and the horse would come up to the gate to him.  That horse would follow Billy and mind him like a dog.  He was a very fast horse and could outrun most of the other horses around there.”

Francisco Gomez stated that he quit working for the McSweens when the Lincoln County War broke out and that was in July of 1878, two months before his 24th birthday.  Gomez was 84 years of age when he related this story in 1938.


Thursday, May 10, 2012

EYEWITNESS TO THE ESCAPE OF BILLY THE KID


Back in years 1937-1939, as part of the New Mexico Federal Writers’ Project, Edith Crawford, the FWP representative in Lincoln County, collected a number of interviews of Lincoln County pioneers.  These were never published and lost until the collection was brought to the attention of the Lincoln County Historical Society.  This vignette is based on that work and taken from the actual words spoken by the subject.

Daniel Carabajal stated in an interview that he was born in Lincoln County on December 12, 1878.  On April 28, 1881, Billy the Kid shot his way out and escaped from custody at the Lincoln County Courthouse.  And little Daniel, at age 2 years and 4 months, remembers seeing Billy the Kid leave town!  At least that’s how he remembered it when he related the story to Edith Crawford 58 years later!  A photo taken of Daniel in 1941 is inscribed "70 years of age" which would have put his birth in 1871, making him 10 years of age at the time of Billy the Kid’s escape.

Convicted in a Mesilla court, Billy was sentenced to hang on May 13th and had been taken from Mesilla to the Lincoln County Courthouse by seven guards.  Sheriff Pat Garrett knowing that Billy was a sly prisoner whose life depended upon escape, kept the Kid shackled hand and foot and guarded around the clock in the room behind his own courthouse office.

Sheriff Garrett was away collecting taxes in White Oaks and had assigned deputies Bob Ollinger and James W. Bell to guard Billy. Ollinger had the reputation of being mean and it was said that he constantly harassed the Kid.  The other guard, Bell, apparently treated the prisoner well.  Ollinger took the five other prisoners across the street to Sam Wortley’s hotel around 6pm for dinner.  Billy was left shackled in the room with Bell keeping watch.

Most folks agree that the Kid asked Bell to escort him to the outhouse out back of the courthouse and Bell did just that.  Billy was still in his leg irons, chains and handcuffs.  Once back in the building, Billy made his move.

An anonymous writer, published in the Santa Fe New Mexican, stated, “Quick as lightning he jumped and struck Bell with his handcuffs, fracturing his skull.  He immediately snatched Bell’s revolver and shot him.”

Ollinger, still having dinner at the hotel, heard the shot and came out with the five prisoners.  As Ollinger entered the courthouse yard without the prisoners, he heard his name called from above.  When he looked up, Ollinger saw his own double-barreled shotgun pointing down at him from an upstairs window.  Somehow Billy had been able to get the shotgun out of Garrett’s office.

“I stuck the gun through the window and said, ‘Look up, old boy, and see what you get,” recalled Billy.  “Bob looked up and I let him have both barrels right in the face and breast.”  Ollinger died instantly.

"We lived just below the old Torreon at the time" Daniel remembered.  "I was up-town playing with some boys just across the street when Billy killed the guards.  We hid behind a picket fence.  We were too scared to go and see the two men he had killed; as we were afraid he would come back and shoot us."

Now lots of stories tell about how Billy left town that evening, taking his time and even shaking hands with passers-by.  But Daniel Carabajel tells a different story about how the people of Lincoln reacted on that fateful day.

"All the people of Lincoln were afraid to come out for a long time after Billy rode away towards Fort Stanton.  I wanted to go and see the men he had killed but I was afraid to go."