Jinglebob King
by J.Young
John Simpson Chisum, born on August 16th 1824, belonged to the Chisum family, descendants of England who changed the spelling of their name from Chisholm in 1815. John was the second son of Lucinda Armstrong-Chisum, who at 16 married a cousin twice her age, Claiborne Chisum. John had four brothers and a sister, and his family held a mix of Scottish, English, and Welsh ancestry.
The Chisum family played a significant role in the early history of Texas. In 1837, Claiborne Chisum and his family relocated from Tennessee to what is currently known as Paris, Texas. With the assistance of his sons, Claiborne erected the family’s primary residence, which became one of the earliest structures in the developing region. In addition, Claiborne’s sons constructed the first courthouse in the town. The Chisum family was among the earliest Anglo pioneers to settle in the area, and their impact on the region’s early development is still recognized to this day.
John Chisum, at the age of 13, developed a deep passion for animals. He dedicated himself to studying cattle, from their raising and feeding to the intricate process of butchering. His commitment was so intense that he was soon referred to as Cow-John, spending every available moment in the corrals, eager to learn the trade.
During 1846-48, it is believed that the family stayed in Paris, Texas for the duration of The Mexican War. It is speculated that John may have contributed to the war effort by driving mules to the army at San Antonio. As a result of The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the United States acquired all the land west of Texas to the Pacific Ocean and south to the Rio Grande.
During his youth, John gained valuable experience serving as a clerk and store keeper. Additionally, he briefly held a position as a road/trail overseer in Hopkins County, and even acquired significant land holdings. John also successfully operated several small grocery stores, and was honored to be a member of the I.O.O.F. Lodge. From 1852 to 1854, John also held the esteemed office of Lamar County Clerk. These experiences have undoubtedly contributed to his impressive skill set and exemplify his dedication to hard work and community involvement.
By age thirty John had dark brown hair, a heavy mustache, blue-gray squinty eyes and stood about 5 ft 8 inches tall.  His face appeared weather worn with burns and wrinkles, accompanied by pits from contracting smallpox. Chisum was always reportedly in a pleasant mood and was a very approachable person. He became a Royal Arch Mason and filled many different positions within the brotherhood.
John’s hobbies were playing the fiddle and cobbling boots. He also preferred to ride a mule rather than a horse, indicating that he was probably a patient and a well prepared man (The mule is a hybrid animal that results from the crossbreeding of a female horse and a male donkey. Despite sharing some characteristics from both parents, such as long ears and a horse-like body, mules are infertile and cannot reproduce. This is due to the genetic incompatibility between the two species, which causes the mule’s sex cells to be incomplete and unable to form a viable offspring. The mule is widely used as a working animal due to its strength, endurance, and intelligence, and is often preferred to its parents for certain tasks such as packing and hauling).
John Chisum appreciated those types of finer made things in life.
In the early 1850s, John Chisum exchanged four black slaves from Francis S. Towery for 100 head of cattle worth about 800.00. If the debt with interest wasn’t paid back on specified time, the deal would be sealed as it was. Chisum developed a fondness for the young lady named Jane (Jensie) and later had two daughters named Harriet and Almeandy (Mendy). He provided them a secured living in Bonham, Texas where they lived safely away from any dangers. Additionally, Chisum and his company established themselves in Trickum, Texas, conveniently located just south of Bonham.
John Chisum and his business partner, Stephan K. Fowler, successfully established their cattle business, expanding their stock and clientele in a short period of time. By 1860, they had acquired land and owned 5,000 head of cattle, leading to significant profitability. In 1862, amidst the Civil War, Chisum and his team strategically positioned themselves near Fort Concho, efficiently supplying the Democrat’s Army of confederate soldiers, and slaves stationed near Vicksburg, Mississippi, with the necessary provisions.
In 1867, John decided to discontinue his partnership with Fowler and instead entered into a government contract with Oliver Goodnight and Charles Loving. This contract involved the supply of 10,000 head of cattle to the Mescalero Apache and Navajo at the Bosque Redondo Reservation located at Fort Sumner. During this period, John utilized The Missouri Plaza, a small settlement located roughly 7 miles south of Roswell, as a staging and resting area.
In the same year, Chisum and his company drove 18,000 head of cattle into New Mexico territory. He purchased two buildings and a coral from James Patterson and Robert Wylie to establish his headquarters at Bosque Grande, which was located approximately 40 miles north of Roswell and south of Sumner.
Charles Goodnight is widely regarded as the inventor or creator of The Chuckwagon – an important innovation in the history of cattle drives. He, along with Charles Loving and John Chisum, pioneered the trails that spanned Sumner to Roswell and beyond, blazing the way for other cattle drive routes that connected New Mexico through Colorado and into Wyoming. This network of trails became famously known as The Loving-Goodnight Trail. Similarly, The Chisum Western Trail was another important route named after John Chisum. Their contributions to the development of these trails were critical in shaping the history of cattle drives, and their legacy lives on to this day.
In the early days, the Comanche Indian tribe residing just east of the ranch posed a threat to Chisum’s herds at Bosque Grande, frequently raiding them. This tribe had also clashed with the Apache at Sumner. However, Chisum and his cowboys were compelled to take action when they made away with horses and over 250 head of cattle. After a prolonged battle that resulted in the deaths of nearly 200 braves, the attacks subsided significantly. It was important to note that this was not the only threat they faced, as the territory was beyond the purview of the state and was essentially uncivilized.
Mr. John Chisum prioritized creating a stress-free and relaxed environment for his cows. The Bosque Grande Ranch and its grazing lands covered a distance of approximately 150 miles, ranging from the southern region of Fort Sumner to the Seven Rivers area, all situated along the Pecos River. This vast and fertile area provided Mr. Chisum’s herd with ample fresh grass and water for sustenance.
Chisum had successfully established an enterprise and employed nearly 100 individuals to oversee the protection and regulation of his vast property. Any concerns or adversities regarding trespassers or unwarranted disturbances were promptly addressed by skilled cowboy enforcers. Chisum often told his men they can carry the guns and he’d carry the brains.
But eventually the cowboys were tired of defending themselves from Indian attacks and risking their lives while working in the hostile eastern plains and demanded a raise from Chisum. When Chisum would not pay, the outfit went on strike. One man who defended Chisum and refused to protest with them was camp cook, Beaver Smith. The cowboys in retaliation branded the side of Smith’s torso and sliced his ear like the jinglebob trademark. A hideous display that ol’ Beaver lived with the rest of his life. John had no choice but to straighten out his men and give a little more. 
With buffalo becoming extremely scarce, the cows became the popular meat choice and were included in the Army’s contracts to feed the Indians who were basically bribed to stay on reservations. Chisum built his empire off of these contracts. In particular, the army and Indian residents at Fort Sumner. Sumner was at first home to the Mescalero Apache who were later outnumbered and forced to live alongside the Navajo at the Fort. This they did briefly before leaving. But the big number in the thousands of Navajo at Sumner kept Chisum and his men very busy. Any excess cattle were taken to Colorado by Mr  Loving and sold near Denver. On one particular drive, in the spring of 1867 to Colorado, Loving rode far ahead of the rest of the men and was ambushed by the Comanche tribe and shot with an arrow. Loving died at Fort Sumner 22 days later from his wound.
In 1868 The Fort at Sumner closed and The Navajo retreated back to Arizona. Chisum also had a contract with the nearby Fort Bascom, just north of Sumner on the Canadian River. Eventually the wonderful partnership between Chisum and Goodnight came to an end and Chisum looked west for more opportunities.
Near Lincoln at Fort Stanton an Indian Agency was stationed inside The Sutler’s store and a new reservation was lined up alongside the fort for The Mescalero Apache. Chisum met with agent Samuel Bushnell, Captain Randlett and John Riley to discuss beef contracts. Agent Bushnell was onto an ongoing scheme of LG Murphy and company, who had control over the first contracts at Stanton and were suspected of extortion. Bushnell wanted more legitimate suppliers. Chisum snagged 2 contracts. One was for The San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona and for the end of 1874 into 1875-to supply beef to the Mescalero reservation at Stanton. The Stanton contract called for 1 million pounds of beef on the hoof. But there was a little bit of “trouble” filling this contract after “someone(s)” (possibly Murphy men) raided Chisum’s horse herd, leaving hundreds of cowboys without horses. When he finally rounded up enough horses to utilize for a cattle drive to Stanton, it was September and late, but Chisum drove them anyway. Upon arrival the agent at the time William D. Crothers refused the delivery after having purchased beef from one of Murphy’s suppliers and had no need for the access. Chisum was then ordered not to bring anymore cows until signaled…which never happened. The mishap caused Chisum’s contract to expire and caused a big loss to his contract and a significant amount of profits. His herds were also being plundered in the night. But was this the work of Murphy? It could have been. Murphy knew how to please the Mescalero men by supplying them with booze. He once was quoted telling another officer at Stanton that he could turn the Mescalero loose on the army at any time he pleased. Murphy very well could have sabotaged Chisum’s contract to insure he and his cronies captured every dime of profit.
An investigation began into the Mescaleros uprising on Chisum’s herds and a congressman from Illinois, John Mcnultra, was sent in by the department of the interior. But when Agent Crothers testified that Murphy was behind all the corruption, The Mescalero were exonerated.
By 1875 John Chisum decided to cash in. Perhaps it was from the loss he just endured in The Mescalero contract. In November that year, Chisum sold his Bosque Grande Ranch and thirty thousand head of cattle to Colonel Robert D. Hunter and his company;  Hunter Evans & Company, out of Saint Louis for $319,913. That’s eight million, six hundred and twelve dollars, and some change in today’s money.
Chisum hired Lincoln’s only lawyer, Alex McSween, to oversee the deal. Chisum’s bookkeeper Abneth McCabe remembers the shady lawyer who came to stay at Chisums for at least a week,  “Mcsween killed a buffalo and now he thinks he is a second Kit Carson.” 
Over that next year Chisum also unloaded an additional twenty thousand head of cattle to Ewing and Curtis of Tucson and moved his ranch headquarters to South Spring River, about 5 miles Southeast of Roswell. He also reduced his labor bust. Chisum loved this spot and secured around 7,000 acres where he and his men planted miles of cottonwood trees, 5 acres of apples, and sowed hundreds of acres of alfalfa. Chisum and his workers dug ditches and canals and even ran a fresh water spring underneath a hallway/bridge inside the luxuriant fort style home for fresh drinks. The hundred and fifty footlong adobe had two large hallways and 8 bedrooms. Although Chisum sold a majority of his business, he tucked away plenty of cash and began to collect and breed mules and the finest cattle he could get. The Shorthorn cows he preferred were often bigger in size and produced more meat. At this point Chisum seemed to be living his best life, retired and doing things for hobby or pleasure, but his mind naturally ran on business. The man was happy. Even when Robert Wiley brought up 9,000 head of cattle from Texas and lost them in a blizzard and told Chisum that his cattle got lost and ended up mixed in with his stock and that it was worth about $65,000. Supposedly Chisum laughed it off and paid him the money just to end the headache.

During the year 1875 a local gang led by The Mes brothers often stole from the herds. But after that most of the trouble stemmed from the Seven Rivers Gang, who were made up of criminals and disgruntled small-time local ranchers. Some were ex-workers of Chisums like Jessie Evans who became the leader of his gang known as The Boys who numbered close to thirty-men all loosely connected to The Warriors of Seven Rivers. The Warriors stole from Chisum and supplied Dolan and his tool of an Indian Agent, agent Godfroy who replaced Crothers with the stolen goods to feed The Mescalero at Fort Stanton. Of course there were others also who lived nearby who could hardly keep their own cattle from mixing in with Chisum’s mass amounts. A war cloud formed over the Pecos when Chisum’s leading men; James M. Highsaw and Charles Rankin, were fired upon by thieves. On March 28, 1877 Highsaw shot and killed a local rancher named Richard Smith, after finding him with a couple buckets of cut off cow ears, no doubt cut off to try and hide the sliced ear jinglebob trademark. A large group from Seven Rivers followed but when they reached Chisum’s place they were heavily outnumbered and turned back.
James Dolan, for convenience moved the old Murphy Cow Camp from the Carrizozo area to a new location just along the south end of Chisum’s ranch. Old cow-John had begun to re-think his retirement plan, as he was reassured that from then on he would be robbed by his lovely new neighbors of all his best cows. Susan Mcsween referred to The Murphy-Dolan herd as “The Miracle Herd” because the herd was always magically full!
On one occasion Chisum and his cowboys rode to the Dolan camp and forcefully cut about three dozen of their cows out of the herd sporting the Chisum jinglebob trademark. There was no way to hide this type of brand unless the thief was to perhaps cut off the entire ear like Richard Smith did and alter the long rail brand. But that would just be silly, driving a herd of cattle, all of them missing an ear… Dolan’s forman, Billy Morton, bluntly told Chisum he thought he could get away with it. The heckling continued over the next few months and when a Mr. Yopp, one of Chisum’s foreman, was shot and killed, Chisum became stressed. Another incident occurred later in April when Dolan himself came down to the camp and he and his buddies fired on Chisum’s cowboys along the way. Chisum saddled up and rode to Fort Stanton where he told his story to Captain Purington who denied military protection. Next Chisum went to Brady who told Chisum he couldn’t be legally involved since that portion of Lincoln County was being turned over to become Dona Ana County. Frustrated, Chisum left for home with his helpless thoughts. With no law protecting him, Chisum had no choices except to pack up and leave or it was to be…WAR.
On April 20, 1877  John Chisum, his brothers; William and Pitzer, and about 30-40 Chisum cowboys surrounded Hugh Beckwith’s Ranch (a few miles North of today’s settlement of Lakewood) After driving all their horses and stock off and preventing them from leaving for water, surrounded and filled the house with lead all night. When they realized there were women and children in the home, Chisum wrote a note for them to leave, but they refused.
Because of this Chisum and Company eventually left after no success getting them out or their stock back. Chisum knew his cattle were being taken to The Mescalero Reservation and sold to Dolan’s outfit to supply that contract. These events would later be known as Chisum’s War or Pecos War.
Local writer and store clerk Ash Upson was not helping Chisum’s problems when he began writing articles for The Mesilla Independent. One of the weekly  July issues ran an Upson article…
“Everything has been quiet in this vicinity— disgustingly aggravating… It is probable that Chisum will drive over ten thousand head of cattle this year, and mark and brand nearly 20,000 head of calves. His principal Colonel R.D. Hunter has already sent for and received about three thousand head of Select beef cattle which are on the way to Kansas. The remainder will go to Arizona.”
Advertisements like that were juicy opportunities to thieves across southern NM, like “The Boys” or The Rio Grande Gang made up of John Kinney who also was butcher and middle man for fencing stolen cattle. The Boys boasted that if it took a hundred men to accomplish the job, that the next cattle drive Chisum drove through southern New Mexico to Arizona would be stolen. Some reports suggest that they even went as far as to sell cattle for ten bucks a head in advance.
Buck Powell and Charlie Woltz went crying to their bosses and using the Santa Fe Rings judicial system connections, obtained warrants for Chisum, his brother  William and Jim Highsaw. A small posse found Chisum laid up with smallpox and served him a promise to appear. Chisum paid the bonds of his brother and foreman as well and went back to his rest. In June that year indictments were passed down on both sides of Chisum’s war including; Chisum, his brother and Highsaw. Some of the other sides were also indicted on various charges; there was Beckwith, Buck Powell and George Hindman. For whatever reason, no one was ever prosecuted and although there was still animosity in the air, things cooled down, other than a letter sent to Andy Boyle, written by one of the Chisum cowboys:
“Dear Sir, you red-headed son of a bitch, if you do not bring them horses back you stole you shall hear the gentle report of my needle gun that is the kind of hairpin I am, this thing of being on a Sheriff’s posse for a band of horse thieves may do in some places but it has got too thin for me,
-yours on the first dark stormy night.”
Chisum had been convinced by the actions of his enemies and the “good intentions” and promises from McSween that if they all joined forces it would provide a better future for Lincoln and a prosperous one for themselves, so Chisum decided to contribute to ending the Murphy/Dolan regime and install the framework for their own monopoly at Lincoln. A takeover of power, if you will. Mcsween’s home and the Tunstall store were finished and completed by George Peppin who took notes on Susan McSween’s unfaithfulness when he found she was sleeping with one of his employees; Franciso Gomez.
Instead of pushing cattle into Lincoln, Chisum was a rather silent partner of Tunstall and McSween. He knew it would take a lot of pen work and cunning maneuvers to remove Dolan’s crew. But when Chisum was discovered listed as bank president, things heated up.
On August 4, 1877 The Las Vegas Gazette ran a story about the new bank in Lincoln, called The Lincoln Bank. The bank was situated inside of Tunstall’s store along with The McSween/Shield’s law office. The article names John Chisum and R.D. Hunter as the financial backers of the organization and also named Chisum as bank president, Alexander Mcsween as vice president and Tunstall as cashier.  The financial power of the bank was a direct threat to James Dolan who was freshly taking over Murphy’s business, while on a mortgage to Thomas Catron. Murphy had fallen ill and left for Santa Fe where he slowly died in October 1878. The new bank was to be used on a credit system for locals, much like what Murphy and Dolan had already in place. This was to be a direct take over of power and they had the livestock and money to back it up and with Murphy out sick and the company being investigated by the federal government, Mcsween must have felt confident enough to convince Tunstall and Chisum the takeover and the end of Dolan would be easy. Alexander Mcsween wanted more than anything to be the next Murphy and to have and to hold all of the power that came along with it. The possible loss of money and power raised the eyebrows of Catron and The Santa Fe Ring who had bought out their minion company to keep their free ride going and put Dolan in charge. Dolan, of course, was a little man, with a lot to prove, but he had the money to pay thieves and killers as well as the backing of the judicial system and corrupted law enforcement. Dolan was determined to get rid of his competitors by any means possible.
At first Dolan went after McSween who collected a life insurance policy on behalf of The Murphy Company and delayed payment to the heirs and possibly used the money to purchase himself a few lots. The lots included his own, the old Murphy store which became the Tunstall store, the Torreon and the Bacas home. I’m assuming that Mcsween had this deal with Murphy about the time when Murphy fell ill. McSween saw his chance and planned to cast out Dolan, and become the new face of Lincoln. Dolan was not much of a brain for business but to violence he was accustomed and the two factions divided the town quickly. Workers and citizens who were invested in or had something to gain from Murphy’s business sided with Dolan. The oppressed and those hopeful of  a better way, sided with Tunstall, there were also those who didn’t understand what was happening and remained neutral to both factions.
The bank was mentioned again in September 1877 in The Mesilla Independent acknowledging its existence. “We received a check drawn on the Lincoln County Bank. We had heard something of the kind was contemplated but this is the first information we have received that the bank was really in existence. We are informed that J. S. Chisum and AA Mcsween are the principal managers.”

James Dolan (Murphy’s successor) convinced Emilie Fritz who may or may not have been the rightful heir that Mcsween stole the money and had her fill out an official complaint in which Dolan turned it into District attorney William Rynerson (a Santa Fe Ring minion). On December 18, 1877 Mcsween and his wife accompanied  Chisum by wagon to Saint Louis as his legal representative. Along their way they stayed at The Las Vegas Hotel and were arrested. Mcsween for embezzlement and Chisum on a bogus charge of “fleeing the jurisdiction.” After 48 hours and no warrants the prisoners were allowed to be freed. The two men hired a man to drive them the rest of the way by wagon. As the wagon made it only about a mile out they were stopped by a large posse of around 30 men. Chisum was ripped out of the wagon landing in the dirt face first. The posse picked him up and held him by the throat as they did the same to McSween. They were brought back to Las Vegas and tossed back into jail. McSween was ordered to be transferred to Mesilla, to be brought in front of Judge Bristol while Chisum stayed put. It seemed The Santa Fe Ring was pulling the strings here as Chisum would then be charged with several packing house violations…not sure what they are but as reported in The LAs Vegas Gazette Chicum stayed put in jail for almost 2 months.
Eventually this grasp for control of Lincoln and The Mescalero government contracts turned into a full fledged war. Ranch hands were made into cowboy soldiers. The bonito valley was under siege. Men were being ambushed and killed from both factions. Dolan’s soldiers mostly stemmed from those depending on Chisum’s herds to prey upon for a stable, yet dishonest income. Dolan also had the power of the local law enforcement and a couple commanding officers at Stanton. When John Tunstall was killed Chisum left the war zone and headed to St. Louis as he was surely marked for death. By his account he was only there for treatment of a leg injury. Some of Chisum’s men became Regulators in the war such as cattle detective Frank Mcnabb. Many were killed and after the war’s end, the men who had stayed, fought and lost everything, felt betrayed by Chisum, although he was only their financial backer. Over the next few years some of the surviving and remaining Regulators began to pick off Chisum’s herds to survive. One night, old John had a run in with Billy the Kid, a young Regulator with a wild heart.
Sources report that Joe “Texas Red” Grant was actually in Fort Sumner on January 10, 1880 to kill Billy the Kid for a payment offered by John Chisum. This failed when Billy shot him dead during the attempted assassination

A witness to this story says that less than two weeks later, Billy and his pals, Charlie Bowdre the two Toms,Billy Wilson,and Dave Rudabaugh were at Hargroves loafing around and playing cards, when unexpectedly John Chisum came wandering in out of the cold. John walked up to the bar and then invited all the boys inside to have a drink. and that’s when he saw Billy.

Chisum said,
“oh, hello Billy, I didn’t see you!”

Billy replied
“I don’t think you want to see me.”
John continued to coax Billy to have a drink.

Just at that moment John put his hand into his coat maybe to get his money out and Billy quickly pulled his pistol up and put it into John’s mouth: 
“Don’t move your hands, son of a bitch! Now bite this pistol and follow me, son of a bitch!”

As they moved around the room in a circle the sound from John’s teeth scraping on the gun barrel can be heard in the silence of the room. Billy led John to a pile of wood near the stove and took the gun out of his mouth and pointed it at his belly and ordered him to get on top of the wood pile. Billy then instructed him to flap his arms like wings and cluck like a chicken. .

Billy asked his compadres, “have you ever seen how owls fall out of the cottonwoods when you shoot them?”

Billy moved the trigger of his double action pistol, back and forth, so that the hammer would rise and look like it was about fire before going slowly back down.

Billy yelled,
“write me a check right now or I’ll blow your head off!”
John replied,
“Billy, I swear I don’t have my checkbook, but I promise as soon as I get home I’ll send you a check!”
Billy explodes,
“You are lying you son of a bitch! How many times have you told us lies? Because of that we are here exposed to the danger of being sent to the penitentiary for doing your bidding! You old son of a bitch! You are the cause of the death of many men much better than you! Many of us stood up on the front lines for you and Mcsween! You made promises to pay us… and what have you paid us?”
A couple minutes went by and Billy let up,
“Get down… as soon as you get home, send me that money that you owe us! I’ll give you 10 days, if in that time you haven’t done it, I’ll go to your house and kill you!”
At this moment Chisum realized he needed to do something about this threat. It was just around this time when a mail carrier working with Captain Lea out of Rosewell was held up for the mail. The thieves rifled the bags looking for any evidence against them in a case brought in by the secret service. They were looking for the counterfeiters who at least one of them was riding in Billy the Kid’s gang; The Rustlers.
John Chisum, Captain Lea, James Dolan, some small-time eastern NM ranchers as well as an organization out of the Texas Panhandle calling themselves The Cattlemen’s Association, joined up to discuss their mutual problem..
As it was close to election time for a new Sheriff of Lincoln, the men confided together and chose an outsider, someone unbiased pertaining to the Lincoln County War. That man was Pat Garrett. A tracker and buffalo hunter, who was familiar with the gang’s routines and hideouts, mostly through his informant, Barney Mason.  Now to get him elected over George Kimbrell took a lot of leg work. Mob boss Thomas Catron rallied those in debt to him to vote for Garrett as well as his own supporters. Pat Garrett won that election on November 2, 1880. It was 320 votes to Kimbrell’s 179. Garrett was deputized until he could officially take office and was also appointed a Deputy US Marshal. With the secret service looking for the counterfeiters, Chisum and Lea used this to their advantage and turned the efforts of arrest on Billy’s gang, who had Billy Wilson as a member, who was wanted for counterfeiting. Sheriff Garrett deputized marshal Robert Olinger along with and met Frank Stewart, and the angry Texans and combined forces. After several raids and cold trails, the boys were arrested, tried and convicted. But all of them escaped one-by-one. After Billy’s escape at least one newspaper ran an article claiming Billy was on the warpath and had shot and killed two Chisum cowboys. I still have not found proof of this and consider it fake news in order to gain support and pump fear into the public. After Billy was killed at Fort Sumner on July 14, 1881, John Chisum was at ease for a while, but still had his problems.

On December 23, 1881 it was reported that due to theft, Chisum’s cowboys, tracked thieves to Rim Rock at the head of dark canyon where they found their stolen property and fought and killed the thieves which were reported as 150 indians. Seems greatly exaggerated, but who knows…
In 1883 a growth appeared on Chisum’s neck, other than the smallpox that had him laid up for a week he was hardly sick, and at first, thought nothing of it. But on July 7, 1884 a doctor in Kansas City tried to remove the growth after it became enlarged, with little success. Afterwards Chisum’s health got worse and he traveled under doctors orders to The Eureka Springs, with hope that the warm mineral bath Springs would heal him, but did not and John Simpson Chisum died at the spa in Eureka Springs, Arkansas on December 22, 1884. His corpse was taken by his brother James to Paris, Texas on West Washington Street, where he was buried in the Chisum family cemetery section next to his parents. Reports suggest that he was buried on Christmas, however the distance from Eureka Springs to Paris is about 275 miles and would have taken at least ten days to travel by wagon. I’d say John Chisum was buried sometime during the first week of January.
While John’s estate was being sorted out, James started a sheep herd for a few years before switching to goats.
Later in Chisum’s valley, a new owner JJ Hagermann planted and grew close to 66,000 apple trees on 5,000 acres of land.
In 1902 James Chisum gave testimony in court to recover costs from 800 head of cattle driven off by Indians that resulted in the big slaughter at dark canyon. Not only would this justify the killings, it gave the Chisum family a reimbursement from the loss.
The Commercial Club of Roswell honored John Chisum and Captain Lea as the pioneers of the Pecos Valley and hung up 2 large pictures in frames to honor them at their headquarters in 1906. The paintings are currently “lost”.
John’s niece and nephew; Sallie and Walter had last control over The Chisum Estate.