A Desperate Looking Man: John Middleton and the Lincoln County War.
Few men of the Lincoln County War are as difficult to track as John Middleton. What can be gathered places his birth in Texas in the early 1850s. He was a heavyset man with black hair, black eyes, and a big thick black handlebar mustache…known as both a pugilist and a marksman.
Middleton fled Texas after killing a man at Jim Weaver’s place around the headwaters of the Nueces River. A $1,200 bounty followed the killing. He traveled north. Some sources indicate he went to work for the Hunter and Evans Cattle Company, based in Missouri. Later, coming out of Kansas into New Mexico, he landed in Lincoln County around 1872.
There he made the acquaintance of John Jones at Seven Rivers. Jones later said to Billy the Kid after target shooting, “You’re pretty good, You’re almost as good as John Middleton, and he’s the best shot I’ve ever seen!”
It has been mentioned that Middleton also had been in a fight with Charlie Crawford. Charlie backed down before any guns were drawn.
From here Middleton may have gone to work for L.G. Murphy & Company, possibly while working with Richard Brewer on his farm. Around this time both men met John Tunstall and went to work for him. Brewer became his foreman. Middleton was a founding member of Tunstall’s party; Tunstall regarded him as trustworthy and put him in charge of certain aspects of the operation. Mr. Tunstall remembered Middleton in a letter he wrote to his parents:
“Middleton is just about the most desperate looking character I’ve ever set eyes on. I could fancy him doing almost anything ruffianly that I have ever heard of, but that is from his appearance, he is as mild and composed as any man can be, and his arms are never out of his reach.”
Things in Lincoln County were heating up. Tunstall’s business affairs placed him in competition with a rival dry goods and beef concern for government contracts at the Mescalero Agency. Tunstall and lawyer McSween gave a loan to a widow, Mrs. Casey, for her cattle, knowing she would default and Tunstall would then get the cattle. Afterwards, on October 25th, 1877, Mrs. Casey and her sons left the county and had taken about 200 of Tunstall’s cows. Brewer gathered Middleton and a few others. After catching up to them with guns drawn, they arrested the men, cut out 209 cattle, and took them back to Tunstall’s.Business rivalry stood on a knife edge. The Murphy/Dolan company was on the verge of bankruptcy, yet it used mob like tactics and wholly owned the local law enforcement as reinforcement. It went after Tunstall illegally in order to benefit itself and keep its schemes running. Mr. Dolan decided Tunstall had to die in order for his business to survive.
On February 18th, 1878, Brewer, Widenmann, Tunstall, Middleton, and Billy were driving some horses, with Middleton and Billy about 500 yards to the rear. As Brewer, Widenmann, and Tunstall approached the top of a hill that led down to the Ruidoso River, they saw a flock of turkeys rise to the left of the trail. Widenmann recalls:
“I offered Tunstall my rifle, but he declined the use of it saying I was a better shot than he. Brewer and I started after the turkeys and left Tunstall with the horses. While hunting we heard yelling and saw a large crowd of men coming over the hill firing off rounds as they were riding.”
Middleton and Billy charged up to Tunstall. As Middleton was getting close, he yelled out to Tunstall to follow him and hurry. Tunstall appeared confused. Middleton called out,
”For god sakes follow me!”
Tunstall replied to Middleton and said his last words: “What John?… What John?”
A volley of shots burst and Tunstall fell to the ground. Middleton, Brewer, Billy, and Widenmann climbed a hill to prepare for battle, but the killing party fled.The next day Tunstall’s body was brought to Lincoln and buried. The Tunstall employees formed an assassination squad and called themselves “The Regulators.” It consisted of Mr. Middleton, Brown, French, McNabb, Scurlock, Waite, Chavez, Billy the Kid, O’Folliard, the Coes, and many others, led by Regulator captain Richard Brewer. With legal arrest warrants in hand they set out, yet they considered their arresting powers useless while Sheriff Brady still served Lincoln.The men captured Morton and Baker and assassinated them, along with one of their own men accused of being a spy, a Mr. McCloskey.
Afterwards they rode into Lincoln on April Fools’ Day, 1878, and shot down Sheriff Brady and Deputy Hindman. Billy Mathews and Deputy Peppin barely escaped.For their next move they went over to the trail leading from Mesilla up to Fort Stanton near the Mescalero Indian Reservation, in hopes of possibly ambushing travelers Judge Bristol and D.A. Rynerson, who were the legal backing to Dolan’s mafia. Near the spot where the men were waiting was Blazer’s Mill, known for good food. The Regulators went over there for lunch, where they bumped into a man they had a warrant for.
Brewer suggested that two men stand guard while the others eat. George Coe volunteers and John Middleton calls out,
“I’ll be the other one.”
Middleton and George Coe waited on the porch with their guns cocked and laying in their laps as the rest of the boys were inside filling their bellies. As they sat, a heavily armed man rode up the hill and right up to George and Middleton. The man was Andrew “Buckshot” Roberts. The Regulators had a warrant for him, as he was identified as one of the posse that killed Tunstall.George Coe remembers:
“He offered no words or greeting and crawled off his mule, armed with two six-shooters, a rifle and a 12 inch belt full of cartridges.”
After Frank Coe tried to talk Roberts into surrendering, Brewer became impatient. Charlie Bowdre had his gun already fixed on Roberts and commanded him to throw up his hands. Roberts refused and they both fired concurrently.Bowdre’s bullet went right into Roberts’s mid torso; probably the ball sealed his fate. Roberts’s bullet ricocheted off Bowdre’s gun belt and into the right hand of George Coe, knocking his gun to the ground. Panicking, George ran right through the front of the fight. Roberts continued to fire his weapon. A bullet grazed through the front of George’s vest and shirt at an angle, tearing a hole through them. Another struck John Middleton in the chest, just missing his heart. Another may have hit Doc Scurlock’s holstered pistol, and another might have grazed Billy’s arm. Richard Brewer was shot and killed. The Regulators recognized that Roberts was dying and pulled out.
Frank Coe remembers helping Middleton after:
“I took Middleton down to the Big Spring that furnished the water for the mill after he was wounded, he got down and drank until I had to turn him over to keep him from falling into the water. We got an ambulance down there and brought him and George back to the Ruidoso in it.”
Several hours later they luckily ran into Lieutenant Doctor Daniel Appell, who was on his way to Blazer’s Mill in response to a telegraph about a wounded man needing medical attention. The doctor did what he could to help Middleton and Coe and then continued on to Blazer’s, where he discovered there was nothing he could do for Mr. Roberts before he died.
The boys hightailed it over to San Patricio to hide out, where their friend Chavez y Chavez was town constable. Dr. Ealy amputated the remainder of George Coe’s trigger finger, forcing him to learn how to shoot with his left hand. For Middleton, his wound was not as bad as first thought, but was serious enough to put him out of fighting for a while. He laid healing for some time at Patricio and probably Fort Sumner for the next couple of months. While laid up, an indictment was issued for his and several others’ arrests for killing Brady.
The Regulators had been pushed out from their homes and had to stay in numbers at all times. It was becoming tiring, and they decided to roll call the men and settle the battle outright. George Coe recalls their frustration:
“we could see no hope for a peaceful settlement and decided there was but one thing for us to do. That was to organize our forces and go to Lincoln and fight it out to the finish.”
On the eve of July 15th, 1878, under the cover of darkness, the men rode into Lincoln and spread out throughout town. John Middleton was stationed at the Ellis house with several others. For the first several days the Regulators had the Murphy/Dolan crowd licked, until they got through to Fort Stanton and received military aid under the pretense of protection for women and children. However, the military stationed themselves in front of the Ellis house, rendering the men inside useless, as Colonel Dudley stated he would blow the house down if any shots were fired over his men. Middleton and the rest of the men at the Ellis house had no choice but to try to reposition. As they moved along the south banks of the Bonito River on the north side of Lincoln, the Army’s Gatling gun and cannon were trained on them and followed them in direction until they had left the scene.
In their absence the McSween men became outnumbered at the McSween house. In collusion with the military, the Dolanites set McSween’s home on fire and McSween was killed.Some of the Regulators later in July descended upon the Mescalero Indian Apache reservation. In the large group were Anglos and Mexicans. The Anglos split off and went to get a drink at a water hole as the Mexicans continued on the trail, when they suddenly became engaged in a gunfight with some of the Mescalero. Mr. Bernstein, an Indian agent, heard the commotion and jumped on his horse and rode to the scene, only to be shot dead.The Regulators rode east through Fort Sumner, probably reuniting with Middleton, and then north, ending up at Anton Chico. After taking up residence throughout the town in several different homes, the Regulators had what Frank Coe called a “war pow wow,” where they discussed their intentions. Frank and George Coe informed the rest of the boys that they were heading to Colorado and wanted out. Billy stated he was going to stay around and steal himself a living. They split up. The Coes left to the north, and heading south on the Pecos with Billy was John Middleton, O’Folliard, Scurlock, Brown, and Waite.
They went south to Bosque Grande, where Middleton replied to a letter he had received from Widenmann.
In the letter to Robert Widenmann from John Middleton on August 8th, 1878, it states,
“Dear Rob, yours came to hand this morning. I was glad to hear from you. There is nothing that can be done by coming out here. The Seven Rivers outfit has stolen your cattle. They are at Black River now. We will start from here the day after tomorrow, we’ll do the best we can. Old man Beckwith killed his son-in-law, so much for him. If we don’t get Tunstall’s cattle we will get more in their place. Ten Buffalo men have joined us. We are about 36 and number. There was something flying around about your killing Brady but George Washington says it is not so. He helped us in the plaza at Lincoln in the last fight. I don’t think he said it while he was a prisoner, Peppin was taking him to Fort Stanton where Angel interviewed him. Everything is running pretty well, you stay where you are and take care of yourself. I don’t want you to go out like Tunstall and Mcsween have gone. We can manage what is here as well without you as with you. Old John Chisum has gone back on us and Ellis and son, the same. We don’t ask no favors God damn them. Jesse Evans is doing all they can for us. Say nothing about this whatever you do. The reason I don’t want you to come here is this, everything is stolen out of the country by Peppin’s posses and we intend to play the same game at this we will back ourselves. Old Peps has resigned and gone they are basted in completely. Jim Dolan is on the road to Seven Rivers with the cattle camp at Elk Springs three nights ago and aims to join the rest of the outfit at Black River we will get him. Take care of yourself. I want to see you again before we die, your friend -John Middleton.”
In the meantime, Regulators Middleton, Tom, Billy, Henry Brown, Sam Smith, and George Bowers raided Charles Fritz’s ranch and rode off with 15 horses and 150 head of cattle. They drove the animals back north up the Pecos to the Canadian River and continued east to Tascosa, where they unloaded them.
Henry Hoyt recalls seeing John Middleton drinking heavily at the Howard and McMasters store in Tascosa. “Middleton began to get ugly and then the kid came in. In a mild voice that contained however a curious note of a challenge as well as command he said John Middleton you damned idiot! Light out for camp and stay there till I come. Wheeling toward him, Middleton, with his eyes flashing, replied Billy, you’d never talk that way to me if we were alone. You think you are showing off?”
Billy responded,
“If that’s the way you think, just come out with me, out behind the store and we will be alone”. As he backed towards the door, hand on his gun. Middleton’s face turned an Ashen color, his lower lip dropped and with a sickly grin he stuttered out, “Billy come off of it, can you take a joke?”
“You bet I can,” said Billy, “but this is no joke. You heard me. Get to camp and get there quickly.”
“John shuffled out the door like a whipped dog.”
In October 1878 the remaining Regulators split up. Waite returned to Oklahoma at Indian Territory. Brown and Scurlock remained in Texas. Billy and Tom headed for Fort Sumner.
Middleton left for Kansas to Sun City, where he used some of the money he earned from rustling and bought a grocery store. Some reports suggest he had a chain of stores in the towns of Sun City, Millcreek, Spring Ranch, Painted Post, Rancho Grande, and Evansville. It did not last long due to mismanaging, and he went bankrupt. During this time it is said that he was writing letters to and from Mr. Sam Corbett, the old store manager for Tunstall, as well as to John Tunstall’s father, who sent Middleton $25 for a wedding gift when he got married on December 18th, 1879, to Maria “Birdie” Colcord, age 15. Interestingly, when they were married, it was indicated that Middleton was using an alias and his real name was Jesse Dancer. Middleton was the first of her six husbands and gave her first child, William Francis Middleton. It looks like both son and father have no graves.
It is suspected by some that Middleton died of smallpox at San Lorenzo, New Mexico, on November 18th, 1882. No documentation backs this up.