Dan Dedrick

Dan Dedrick: From Fugitive to Guardian of Billy the Kid’s Only Surviving Portrait
Dan Dedrick was born on January 25, 1831, as Daniel Charles Dietrich in Liberty Corners, Indiana (though some reports suggest Ohio). He was the 6th born of 13 siblings. While still young, his family relocated to Kansas, where he was raised near Plymouth. In late 1877 he arrived in Lincoln County, New Mexico, having adopted the altered spelling “Dedrick.” According to local resident Barney Mason, Dedrick had escaped from the Fort Smith, Arkansas, jail and was on the run for horse theft.
He was eventually reunited with his younger brothers, Sam and Moses, when they too reached New Mexico. Sam had lost an arm in a cane crushing accident at the age of five. Dedrick settled near White Oaks and took it upon himself to handle the mail for local residents around Rabenton, an old ghost town located approximately 6 miles northeast of White Oaks.During the Lincoln County War, Dedrick developed a friendship with Billy the Kid and displayed clear empathy toward the Regulators and their role in the conflict. After the war concluded in the summer of 1878, he made use of an unoccupied ranch owned by John Chisum along the Rio Hondo. The site served as a secure refuge for Billy and his associates.
In 1880 Dedrick purchased property in White Oaks and collaborated with his brothers Sam and Moses. Together they established a livery stable and partnered with Harvey West. It has been suggested that West may have introduced the Dedricks to counterfeit money, although reports indicate they had already been dabbling in the production of fake currency before 1880.
The Secret Service discovered that the Dedrick brothers, West, and Billy Wilson were involved in counterfeiting and passing fake bills. Agent Azariah Wild was assigned to investigate and found that the counterfeit money was being used to purchase stolen cattle and horses. The Dedrick brothers and Harvey West became suspects and fled. Billy Wilson was apprehended at Stinking Springs, later convicted of both counterfeiting and stagecoach robbery, and eventually escaped.
In 1909 Moses Detrich and Sam Detrick were both tragically killed in separate incidents; one outside Phoenix, Arizona, and the other near Deming, New Mexico. The circumstances surrounding their shooting deaths remain unknown to this day. The sole survivor, Dan Dedrick, started anew and established a successful chloride mine in the Trinity Mountains of northern California. He later expanded his business and built a home in the area with his wife.
As a notable collector and keeper of a rare piece of history, Dedrick possessed the only surviving photograph of Billy the Kid holding his Winchester rifle. It is believed he received one of four identical copies of the iconic ferrotype, with another included in Pat Garrett’s published book.
Dan Dedrick passed away on April 25, 1931, at Big Bar, California, and was laid to rest at Weaverville Cemetery in Weaverville, California. Prior to his death he had given a ferrotype of himself, together with one of Billy the Kid and several other photographs, to his nephew Frank Upham. In 1947 Frank Upham passed these images to Elizabeth, his sister in law, who kept the portrait of the Kid in a wooden box for almost four decades, unaware of its significance. The photograph was later loaned to the Lincoln County Heritage Trust in the 1980s and subsequently returned to the family some years later. Both photographs, one of Billy the Kid and one of Dan Dedrick, were eventually sold at Brian Lebel’s auction in 2011 for $2.3 million.