The Regulator’s Sheriff
by J.Young 

Sheriff John Copeland was born in 1841 somewhere in Kentucky. His parents were William and Sally Copeland. John was one of 5 siblings; James, Jacob, Milly, Richard and Reuben. That is all I really have on Copelands youth so we’ll just skip ahead to about 20 years later and around 900 miles to the West…
Here in Dallas, Texas Copeland married Sarah A. Massey on February 2nd of 1860. The couple adopted two kids; John Copland jr.?and Isabella Sanchez. The family moved West and by 1870, had settled in Lincoln County, New Mexico. They first settled on a ranch just south of Fort Stanton, possibly paying Murphy for it. His neighbor was John Riley. Copeland landed a job at the Mescalero reservation as a butcher in 1874.

Copeland eventually had two Mexicans working for him, doing chores around his farm/ranch. Their names are unknown. One morning Copeland came out to find one of the Mexicans gone. He also noticed he was missing two horses, a rifle, a blanket and some spoons. Copeland consulted with his neighbor and discovered that Riley was also missing a brand new saddle. Copeland quickly jumped on the trail, picked up the direction of where the thief might be heading and took a shortcut and caught up to him. The thief pulled up his rifle that he stole from Copeland but it was not quick enough and Copeland ordered him off of his horse. The man climbed down and went for his pistol. Copeland Shot and killed the man. When he returned home he discovered his other employee was still there. Copeland went to Riley’s Ranch for a brief conversation on what was taking place. Riley joined Copeland and decided to apprehend Copeland’s other worker and run him up to Fort Stanton where he could be questioned and possibly convicted for aiding and abetting a criminal act. They began marching the man on foot but when they approached a thick layer of shrub the man darted into it and Riley and Copeland killed him. The next day Copeland and Riley reported to the Probate Judge, Saturnino Baca who called for an investigation. The Clerk of Court Juan Patron wanted Copeland and Riley arrested immediately But was unable to do so without due process. Patron went as far as visiting several houses to gather a posse for a good old fashioned lynching, but Copeland and Riley had rode out of town just in time. But shortly after a Mob did show up at Copeland’s home, but he was absent. Unfortunately for John Riley he was there as well as an army doctor from Fort Stanton by the name Henry G. Tiedemann. The mob ordered Riley back to his home and they followed him. Possibly to relieve Copeland’s wife and children of the drama. When they arrived at Rileys, they found Copeland. This allowed the Army doctor to ride up to Fort Stanton for help since he was left alone. In the meantime, the mob ordered Copeland and Riley to escort them to the dead body which they did without hesitation. When they arrived at the corpse a man in the mob named Lucas Gallegos put his pistol to Riley’s head and asked him if he shot this man. Some of the others had already dismounted and began to bury the deceased. Just in time a detachment of soldiers were at a fast Gallop towards Copeland’s place when they spotted the mob and rode in that direction. Patron and the mob quickly dispersed, abandoning their prisoners, possibly saving their lives.

Things were getting tense in Lincoln as Chisum was slowly bankrupting Murphy, Jimmy Dolan took over and John Riley bought his way into the business. Riley and Copelands relationship seemed to deteriorate at about this time. Dolan  and the Santa Fe Ring orchestrated the killing of Chisum’s partner John Tunstall who had opened a business store in rivalry with Dolan’s at Lincoln.Tunstall’s cowhands became a retaliation force, they were deputized and called themselves The Regulators. They went after Dolan’s muscle, Sheriff Brady and killed him and his Deputy Hindman in the streets of Lincoln on April Fool’s Day.
By the end of that first week of April 1878 Lincoln County needed a new sheriff and Governor Axtell thought he had found his man when he picked the favored John Copeland for the job. But Axtell quickly found out that Copeland, unlike the former Sheriff, could not be bought and had a good conscience. Copeland was also a personal friend of Mcsweens and perhaps the late John Tunstalls as well. Around this time Copeland moved into a home in town at Lincoln.

On Thursday April 18th 1878 a jury completed its deliberations and delivered indictments that were returned against Jesse Evans, George Davis, Manuel Segovia and John Long for the murder of Tunstall and named Dolan and Matthews as accessories. For the murder of Brady and Hindman,  the jury put the blame on John Middleton, Fred Waite, Henry Brown and William H Bonney Alias Billy the Kid. For the murder of Buckshot Roberts on April 4th 1878 at Blazer’s Mill, the jury indicted Charlie Bowdre, Doc Scurlock, “Dirty” Steve Stephens, John Scroggins and George Coe. The indictments were made into warrants and placed in the hands of Sheriff John Copeland for service.
Knowing Copeland was fond of Mcsween, the Dolan faction was eager to force Copeland onto their side. The men gathered at Seven Rivers in a number of about 30 led by former Lincoln deputy, William Johnson. They had formed a posse to force Copeland to act on the warrants specifically against The Regulators. The group headed up the Pecos and then west toward the sheriff’s office in Lincoln. The Posse was either stopped at or nearby the Fritz ranch east of Lincoln when they ran into Frank McNabb the acting captain of The Regulators and ambushed and killed him. After Killing McNabb, the posse waited until dark and with Ab Saunders and Frank Coe as prisoners, the mob headed to Lincoln. They thought they would catch more Regulators off-guard when they arrived, however a mail carrier came by the Fritz ranch and witnessed some things and hurried to Lincoln and spread the word that Frank McNabb was killed.

The Regulators posted up in a few spots with George Coe and Henry Brown at the Ellis store. When they heard the news. They decided to get on top of the house and old man Ellis said, “Whatever you boys do don’t fire any guns, these fellows will come here and I will be in the middle of it.”
Waiting on the rooftop. Brown had his Winchester and Co had his Sharps rifle, in the distance about four hundred yards down the river they saw a Dolon-man sitting on top of a cow skull.George Coe recalls each of us got a porthole and I gave the word. We both shot concurrently. One shot fell about 200 yards short and I know it was Henry’s because he had a little carbine.  My bullet cut through the flesh of both of the man’s legs; they were crossed in front of him and cut a gash nearly 6 inches long through his hip. These two shots started up a shootout between the Seven Rivers men and Mcsweens Regulators they exchanged shots all day. Robert Widenmann recalls the situation, “We poured the lead into them rapidly and in less than an hour we had them rerouted and had them cut off from their horses. The fighting continued throughout the day and the murderers were trying to regain their horses; we beat them back at every attempt”.
Just before 5 p.m. a unit of soldiers commanded by Lieutenant George Smith rode into town from Fort Stanton. He placed a detachment of soldiers in between the two parties to diffuse the situation. The Seven Rivers men surrendered however they were not relieved of their firearms. At that moment Frank Coe simply walked out of the Dolan store where he was being incarcerated and rejoined his pals. Ab Sauders who was wounded in the ambush was taken to the Forts hospital.
Alex Mcsween quickly appeared before the justice of the peace Jose Trujillo at San Patricio. McSween swore Out affidavits against the members of The Seven Rivers Posse for killing McNabb. The warrants were granted.
Mcsween gave the warrants to Sheriff Copeland who took the warrants to Fort Stanton and declared the Seven Rivers gang under arrest. Copeland asked for Colonel Dudley’s help to escort them to SanPatricio for a hearing. But Dudley, being in favor of Dolan, denied the request and instead ordered his lieutenants to “escort” Sheriff Copeland back to San Patricio to arrest Mcsween, Widenmann and anyone else involved in the day-long skirmish in Lincoln, for rioting. When they arrived at San Patricio they arrested Doc Scurlock, Widenmann, Ike Ellis, his son and Sam Corbett.

Alex Mcsween and The Regulators were locked into the guardhouse. Meanwhile the Seven Rivers gang were allowed to roam the fort freely.
Colonel Dudley at that moment perhaps realized he was overstepping his bounds and gave control of all the prisoners back to sheriff Copeland who had no other choice but to set them free as there would be no way he could control them all.

As the Seven Rivers gang departed Fort Stanton heading south they stole 8 of The Regulator’s horses.
Sheriff Copeland removed the shackles from Doc Scurlock and took him to Lincoln where he swore him in as deputy. Doc also took command of The Regulators becoming the captain. Their first order of business was to get revenge for McNabb and did so.

Meanwhile James Dolan and the Santa Fe ring were able to successfully remove Sheriff Copeland from office.  using the excuse that he was not collecting County taxes, as it was part of his job. On May 28th 1878 Governor Axtell removed Copeland and replaced him with George Peppin. Peppin was a Dolan supporter. So due to the fact that James Dolan was back in power at Lincoln they burned the Mcsween house to the ground and killed him. This basically ended the Lincoln County War.
However many characters of the Lincoln County War Still lurked about and in November of 1878 a scared George Peppin was due at probate court at Lincoln. When Peppin learned Billy the Kid was in town he got nervous and asked for a military escort. That night Lieutenant James French, who was tasked to babysit George Peppin got drunk and burst into multiple homes, harassing the Mcsween supporting citizens by bullying them. When he burst into John Copeland’s home he found a young boy carrying a pistol and “detained” him.

That same night John Copeland got into an argument with a local youth named Juan Mes. The argument turned into a shooting and the 19 year old Mes, (aka Jonny Mace) fell Dead with a bullet in his chest and stomach. Copeland turned himself into deputy sheriff James Tomlinson. And with George Peppin, a Dolan man, still as Sheriff,… Copeland requested protection from the military.
Copeland was represented in court by David Shield, an old friend of the late Mcsween, and was acquitted.
For the next couple years Copeland and his wife gave another attempt at farming, but failed.
Copeland listed his occupation in 1880 as a sawyer.(Logger) He and his wife got a divorce later that year 1880. For a brief time Copeland owned the Wortley Hotel, which he sold to Pat Garrett in 1881, for $275.00.

Copeland remarried on July 31st 1887 to May Mcfarland. The couple acquired a Ranch on the northside of the Capitan mountains at a place known today as Copeland’s Canyon. The property may have been the Mcfarlands.
Copeland was possibly mining the northern side of the mountains for gold or other minerals and gave another shot at farming while logging and sawing wood.

In 1901 A heinous murder occurred on Copeland’s ranch. Two guests that were staying at the Ranch in Copelands absence were brutally murdered and robbed.
The ranch house was burned to the ground.
Copeland died on June 26th 1903 he had aged between 62 and 63. The place of death is listed as Richardson, NM which is a town that is not on the map today.  It would have been approximately 15 miles east of Copelands Canyon.