Colonel Emil Fritz and the beginning of the Lincoln County War

Colonel Emil Fritz was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1832.  He joined the Gold Rush to California and, when the Civil War began in the East, Fritz became captain of Company B of the 1st California Volunteer Calvary when the California Column was being formed to defend the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona against Confederate invasion.  Fritz and the men of Company B arrived too late to defend the territory against Rebel invaders, so they were sent to Fort Sumner to help control the Navajo Indians  who had taken the Long Walk to Bosque Redondo

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Emil Fritz’s Company B troopers and participated in the campaign that Kit Carson organized against the Indians, the Kiowas and Comanches, and he was breveted for heroism fighting against Quanah Parker’s Comanches at the Battle of Adobe Walls.  After that the company  was sent to Fort Stanton and eventually Fritz, as colonel, became the commanding officer at Fort Stanton.

Colonel Fritz was mustered out of the army in 1866 and he became a business partner with Lawrence Murphy. The firm was L. G. Murphy and Company and they started as post traders at Fort Stanton.  Murphy and Company opened a store and a brewery on Fort Stanton but, thanks mostly to Murphy, they were ejected from the fort and subsequently opened in a two story building in the town of Lincoln.  It was the only building with a pitched roof and so the locals called it the “House.”

  

At the same time, Emil established the Fritz Ranch just a few miles below Lincoln.  Times were good for him and he made a little money.  Well, okay, Fritz made a fortune.  But Emil hadn’t been home to the family house in Germany since he left for California looking for gold.  So, Emil Fritz went back to Germany to visit the family home in Stuttgart.  He had taken out a life insurance policy with the American Insurance Company for ten thousand dollars before he sailed for Europe.  There, in Stuttgart, Emil Fritz died of tuberculosis and kidney disease in 1874.

 

Fritz had previously been represented legally by Alexander McSween, who wanted the Fritz family to get Emil’s estate but Lawrence Murphy wanted to get his hands on that insurance  money, too.  The settlement of the Emil Fritz estate in New Mexico marked the start of the troubles that, when exacerbated by the murder of John Tunstall, became the Lincoln County War.