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N0KFQ > TODAY 22.12.16 16:20l 58 Lines 2768 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 16666_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Dec 22
Path: IW8PGT<IR2UBX<SR1BSZ<LU4ECL<N0KFQ
Sent: 161222/1413Z 16666@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ6.0.13
1884
John Chisum dies in Arkansas
A central player in the violent Lincoln County War of 1878-81,
the cattleman John Chisum dies at Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
Born in Tennessee in 1824, Chisum moved with his family to Paris,
Texas, when he was eleven years old. For several years he worked
as construction contractor, but in 1854, he decided to go into
the cattle ranching business. By 1875, Chisum was running over
80,000 head of cattle near the Pecos River in Lincoln County, New
Mexico. Inevitably, such a large herd ranging over a vast and
isolated area attracted the interests of rustlers, and Chisum
claimed to have lost nearly 10,000 head to thieves. Fed-up,
Chisum joined forces with two other New Mexico cattle kings to do
battle with the small cattlemen and merchants they believed were
behind the thefts. In particular, the big ranchers targeted two
Irishmen who owned a large general store, called the House, in
the town of Lincoln. Besides giving aid to the rustlers and small
ranchers that Chisum despised, the House also managed to gain
control over most of the government contracts for supplying beef
to Army posts and Indian Reservations, undercutting the ability
of the big ranchers to sell their cattle directly to these buyers
at high profits.
When a deputy sheriff under the control of the House murdered one
of Chisum's allies in 1878, the Lincoln County War erupted. The
battle was about more than that murder, though_it was a struggle
for economic and political control of the region. Chisum and the
big ranchers turned their cowboys into gunslingers_including a
friendly young man named William Bonney, better know as Billy the
Kid.
Billy the Kid became one of the ranchers' most loyal and fierce
allies, playing a role in the murder of many of the supporters of
the House. When the House eventually emerged from the war
victorious, Bonney turned to Chisum for help, demanding $500 in
wages for his murderous work. When Chisum refused, Billy turned
against the rancher and took payment by stealing Chisum's cattle
and horses. Suddenly abandoned by Chisum and the other powerful
interests that protected him from the reach of the law, Billy the
Kid's days were numbered. His one-time friend, Pat Garrett,
murdered him in 1881.
Devastated by the Lincoln County War and the continuing losses of
his cattle to rustlers and Indians, Chisum lost much of his
wealth and power. Nonetheless, when he died at Eureka Springs,
Arkansas, three years after the Lincoln County War ended in 1881,
he left an estate that was still worth half a million dollars, a
striking indication of the massive wealth he had accumulated.
73 - K.O., n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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