The Cattle Queen
By: J. Young
Susannah Ellen Hummer was born near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to parents Peter Hummer and Barbara Longnecker. Susan was the sixth born sibling of nine sisters and one brother.
Susan eventually turned up in Atchison, Kansas in 1873, where she attended a covenant school, where she learned and became fond of the piano and organ. She was engaged and married to her friend and pen-pal, Alexander McSween, a law school dropout, on August 23, 1873. The McSween’s settled in Eureka where they purchased a home and several lots next to it. Researcher F. Nolan believed that McSween paid for this home and lots using a client’s money. The McSween’s sold the property in 1874 and split for NM territory…according to Susan, they left because McSween had asthma and thought the higher altitude and thinner air would help.
Mrs. McSween came to Lincoln County with her husband Alexander in 1875. The couple didn’t have very much money when they landed, but made their way when Alex was hired by Murphy to be his attorney. Again McSween was able to purchase a home to be built as well as several lots east of his home including the Torreon. His involvement with Murphy ultimately got him killed when he abandoned his employer and began working for his rival, John Tunstall.
Susan recalls,
“I did my best to keep Mcsween from entering the business, but he went against my will.” Tunstall was the cause of him getting into this”.
Alex was caught up in the web of the Lincoln County War. After Alex was killed, the killers seemed to be not satisfied and still on edge… Susan’s life was in danger. She was alone, scared and worried about finances, as well as her husband’s foes.  After a shootout at the Mescalero agency, agent Godfroy was convinced that the Regulators were responsible and wrote to the Indian Affairs office that the attack was instigated by Mrs. McSween who intended to carry out her late husband’s Vendetta against him. The agent stated that she would not leave the county until he was killed. She nailed the door closed to the Tunstall store and sent a letter off to Tunstall’s father in England; “I was aware of your owing Mr. McSween about four or five thousand dollars… Can you pay it to me? I am… Without so much as a change of clothing, and therefore even a small portion of that money would help out so that I may have something to depend on for a while at least?”
Susan received a  sympathetic reply letter From the Tunstalls in London along with a $1,000 check. 
Susan was often in the company of Regulator Jim French after her husbands murder and the folks of Lincoln began gossip that the two were romantic, but Susan, was probably just being looked after. Her home temporarily at Juan Patrons, while he was absent, was sometimes guarded by soldiers thanks to special agent Frank Angel.
Mrs. McSween likely was granted the 10,000 dollar life insurance policy that her husband had on himself and she hired Huston Chapman, a lawyer to help her sort out the mess and get her back on track. She first finalized the settlement of Alex’s estate and on January 6th 1879, she requested the probate court to appoint her instead of Robert Widenmann as the administrator of the Tunstall estate. At first the handler of the estate was Ike Ellis. The court granted Susan’s request and as a part of the arrangement was Richard Brewer’s estate. The property legally became McSween’s when Alex paid Brewers remaining balance for the property to Murphy. To follow up, Susan wrote to Brewer’s parents in Wisconsin demanding payment in full or the widow McSween would keep the deed. Also came the mess of her late husband’s legal actions against him. Dolan, Riley, Charles Fritz and Emily Scholand-Fritz all filed claims against Mcsween before his death and most were dismissed except the McSween embezzlement case, where McSween kept the 10,000 insurance money left from Emil Fritz’ death. What actually happened to the funds remains a mystery. To fight this, Susan countersued the Fritz siblings for 10,000 each for what grounds I’m not sure, but the matter was eventually worked out in trade deals. For the Tunstall estate,  Susan discovered a $6,000 debt mostly in credits that Tunstall promised to small-time farmers in his area to woo them to his side. Susan wrote this off as uncollectible, citing that most of Tunstall’s stock had been stolen and were spread out with altered brands, making them impossible to re-collect. She paid cattle-detective Charles Scase $10 per day to try and get them anyways and retained Chisum and his brothers to store any recaptured animals. Scase discovered that Bob Speaks, a former enemy of The Regulators and currently in the Selman gang, held a large number of Tunstall’s stolen stock and had them stored near Seven Rivers. Lincoln County Sheriff George Kimbrell, a detachment of soldiers and some Texas Rangers descended upon Selmans and his gang, “The Old Law Mob” and recovered 275 animals once belonging to Tunstall and plenty more of Chisums. This put an end to the Tunstall estate as it broke even.
In the end the widow Mcsween was left with 160 acres property near Lincoln that she and her husband filed for jointly previously.
Next the widow went to bat for justice. Susan was going after the man she hated the most; Col. Dudley. She conspired with special agent Frank Angel on the matter.
Angel described Susan as a fiery driven sharp woman and a tiger. Some describe her lawyer, Huston Chapman as an angry pitbull. Chapman was a short tempered, easily frustrated man, who at a young age accidentally shot himself in the arm and had to learn to live without it after it was amputated. He wrote to Governor Lew Wallace who was appointed to New Mexico territory after Governor Axtell was removed,
Chapman’s words,
“I am in possession of facts which make Colonel Dudley criminally responsible for the killing of Mcsween.”
And in late October 1878 Susan, Chapman and Wallace met together. After the meeting Wallace became convinced that Dudley had overstepped his bounds of authority when on July 19 Mcsween’s house was burned and her husband was killed. But it was also a whole nother month before Wallace would do anything, which was only to proclaim amnesty to those involved in the LCW. Susan moved back to Lincoln into the former Baca home. The Baca home was owned by McSween and after the LCW she evicted Baca and his family for aiding the Murphy boys in burning her home and killing her husband. The remaining Regulators reportedly stayed the night there occasionally hence starting more rumors from former Sheriff Peppin, Baca and Dudley that the widow was nothing more than a witty-whore. Mrs. McSween held her head high and ignored the slanders. One day George Peppin needed a military escort to probate court at Lincoln and was led by Dudley’s pal and LT. James French. French became drunk and burst into Susan’s home claiming he had an arrest warrant for Chapman. When asked to produce it, he could not. The next day Susan and Chapman filed a complaint over the matter charging French with felonious entry and assault. Just a hunch that, The Santa Fe Ring, placed a hit out on Chapman, and in February 1879 he was murdered in the street by a man named Bill Cambell who was in the company of James Dolan and Edgar Waltz. Mr. Waltz was then in charge of the old Murphy store that Dolan failed at. It was mortgaged to their employers, The Santa Fe Ring and seized. Huston Chapman was not only murdered but his body was burned also. Mrs. Mcsween believes they set the body on fire intentionally to destroy any evidence the lawyer might have had on them. Other reports suggest that the gun was fired so close that the black powder flinging from the barrel onto Chapmans clothes ignited.
Now Wallace had to act, he made a trip to Lincoln and formed The Lincoln County Rifles to round up the violent offenders that were still dispensing warlike gun clouds. Wallace chose men like Juan Patron and Martin Chavez to head the organization, which only lasted a few months. 
Colonel Dudley would later be court-martialed for his actions but was shockingly never convicted. The overwhelming eyewitnesses brought forth by Mrs. McSween’s testimony was badgered by a threatening demeanor, from Dudley himself as well as by Mr. Waldo who was representing Dudley. The damning testimonies that should have seen Dudley to prison and possibly to hang were no match for his hired powerful attorney’s from the Santa Fe Ring including Tom Catron. Not to mention judge Bristol, who was in with The Ring,this kept Dudley and several others out of jail.
Col. Dudley’s military career was over, he was removed from Fort Stanton. Not the outcome Mrs. Mcsween was hoping for, likely causing her to still sleep with one eye open..
Afterwards Susan settled her lawsuits with Fritz and Scholand by giving them the Tunstall store. Charles Fritz turned the store over to Dolan who married Fritz’ daughter, Caroline on July 13th 1879. Not too far behind the Tunstall store, Mrs. McSween claims to have had a wall built around Tunstall and her husband’s final resting place, but it was later destroyed by the residents who acquired the property later. Today a propane tank and outbuilding rest over the location of that old invisible graveyard. Not only were Tunstall and Mcsween buried there…so were many others, including children.
Susan obtained another 160 acres using the Timber Culture Land act and more using Desert Land Act. Over the next several years Susan went on a frenzy of buying and selling and trading unsettled homestead lands. Thus giving her more than 400 acres. Several of the transactions were made in partnership with her old servant Serbian Bates. Susan’s land transactions can be found in The Lincoln County Courthouse deed book.
To help her get started, a secret admirer, John Chisum, gifted her forty heads of cattle worth about 400 bucks. Reports suggest Chisum might have asked the widow to marry him.  In fact Sallie Chisum said when her Uncle John went to meet her,
“He wore his best handmade boots and Stetson hat and asked Susan if one day in the near future they might merge their herds together, and would she consider becoming Queen of the Jungle Bob?”
Others suggest this isn’t true as Chisum was in love with one of his former servant girls.
Instead Susan married George Barber, a lawyer from Milwaukee on June 20, 1880. Barber had formerly served as her ex-husbands inventory assessor as late as February 1878. Barber was admitted to the NM bar in 1882 after studying law under Ira Leonard for 2 years.
Susan became an expert on raising cattle, she took notes and micromanaged every detail and built a ranch house, barn and bunkhouse for her cowboys on her property near Three Rivers, somewhere between Carrizozo and Tularosa. The name of her Ranch and brand became The Three Rivers Cattle Company.  The Mescalero on the reservation to her east nicknamed her “Jefe Poquita” ‘-(Little Chief) The Mescalero respected and acknowledged that she kept her Cowboys under control and away from their land. Her men named her “The Cattle Queen”. The name stuck. Not only did she have great success in breeding stock, she had a green thumb too. She was recognized as one of the most accomplished and generous fruit growers in Lincoln County as well as outstanding skills as a flower gardener and florist.
The interior of her ranch home were well decorated with artistic hangings, adorned carpets and draperies ordered from St Louis.
Sometime after 1886, Susan, purchased thousands of dollars worth of diamonds, pearls and other precious stones and expensive jewelry. She hired a man to be her forman. A strong African-American man by the name of Pompey. Whenever Susan went somewhere on business, Pompey drove her there. Author Kathleen Chamberlain claims that the cattle Queen demanded her cowhands wear clean clothes, doff their hats when greeting her and remove the hats all together when they stepped inside her home. She did not hesitate to remind them that they were in the presence of a respectable lady. Her reputation for enforcing manners reached well beyond the boundaries of the Three Rivers Ranch.”
Her neighbors to her north were District Attorney Rynerson and John Riley, an old partner to JJ Dolan. The queen kept a close eye on them but never had problems. Another neighbor, Pat Coughlin dubbed “The King of Tularosa,” had ties to Murphy and was always trying to acquire or get some of Susan’s land. He was also under investigation by investigator Charles Sringo for delivering stolen beef to Stanton, he was a real shady character that Susan had to watch closely until Coughlin later sold out to Albert Fall.

George Barber and wife Susan built a home at White Oaks. But with Susan spending most of her nights at the ranch and Staying mostly in White Oaks the marriage had started to deteriorate and they were divorced in March of 1892. Some believe George wanted a child and Susan was unable. George later remarried to a 22 year old woman and had a child.  To put it out of her mind, Susan traveled back east into the States for a visit to her old stomping grounds in Kansas, Pennsylvania and New York.
She returned to NM in 1892 and spent some money fixing up and remodeling her ranch home and barn. On July 15th 1895 Susan sold a large portion of her herd along with her official Three Rivers brand to the Pecos Valley Rancher Captain J.C. Lea. She took the cattle she had left and patented her new brand as “SUE” and continued to run the ranch successfully.
Susan also built a cottage on the south side of White Oaks. After the mines were practically depleted, property value in White Oaks dropped significantly and Susan took advantage, buying sixty lotsAs well as a share in the city load mine.In 1895 she valued her mind and properties on Placer Street and Lincoln Avenue alone at $5,065. And then there is the remaining cattle she owned worth about $17,500.
Susan wallowed in her riches and really didn’t do a whole lot for anyone, unless it benefitted her in some way. Susan draped herself in silk, expensive hats and jewelry, especially expensive diamonds.
In 1917 Susan sold the remaining cattle and her ranch. Albert Fall was interested in purchasing from McSween again, but after shady dealings between Fall and the possible killers of Albert Fountain, she wanted nothing to do with him and sold to a Mr. Harper instead. Harper then turned around and made a profit by selling it to Fall anyway. In May 1905 Susan sold her lots and property on Lincoln Ave in White Oaks and remaining property in Lincoln for $600.00.
Over time and several trips to El Paso it was noticed that each time Susan returned home she had less and less jewelry, indicating that she may have been slowly selling it off. Some reports suggest that she was seeing a doctor for some reason and used the jewelry to pay. If not then it opens up another mystery…what happened to Mrs. Mcsweens diamonds?

Susan joined the Congregational Church in White Oaks and her social life remained an important part of her life as she occasionally hosted a dance, card game and evening music at her home. She later traded in her fancy buggy for a new Ford automobile, which she never learned how to drive, in fact she kept the car at a neighbor’s home, who drove her around when she needed to go places.
In 1927 Susan was visited by John Tunstall’s little sister, Emily. I’m sure these two had quite the conversations. Also in the 1920s a newspaper man, working for the Chicago Tribune visited Susan. His name was Walter Noble Burns. Burns visited and interviewed nearly every living person that survived the Lincoln County War that could be located. After receiving her early copy of the book and reading about halfway through she claimed that it was the most untrue accounts compiled into one article before and asked “is there no way to correct these lies?” On March 24th 1926 she filled out a report of 22 pages of Corrections for his book and sent them to Burns .Mostly she was pissed about his portrayal of her during the 5 day battle when the house burnt. Burns was the birther of the piano story…where she wanted nothing else saved but the piano and that she played The Star Spangled Banner while her husband’s men fought for their lives. But the book brought in a movie deal and Johnny Mack Brown was selected to play Billy the Kid in 1930. Mrs. Mcsween was the guest of honor at the Carrizozo theater. When she saw herself on the big screen, she reportedly became “Irate”. She stood up and shook her fists at the screen yelling “ALL LIES”. She walked as fast as her old stiff legs would carry her. In fact she was at this time using a cane to get around.
A little later that year around Christmas time Susan caught the flu and was very sick. She spent her 86th birthday in bed as things turned worse, her flu turned into pneumonia. Susan Ellen Hummer McSween Barber passed away a few days later on January 3rd 1931. Susan was buried in a $150 coffin built by Kelly’s hardware store in Carrizozo. Reports suggest that she died broke. In fact her nephew, Edgar Shields inherited her possessions and estate.
Reverend Lawson at the funeral called Susan a remarkable pioneer. Later a man named Truman Spencer purchased a headstone for his father-in-law William McDonald who was the first governor of the state of New Mexico from 1912 to 1916 who was buried in the Cedarvale cemetery at White Oaks. He asked the makers of the headstone if they could make a tombstone for Susan McSween Barber and that he would pay for it, but the man didn’t charge him. However Susan McSween’s name was spelled incorrectly on the stone as MacSween. (which was the original spelling of her first husbands last name)
To end this short story I’d like to quote once again Kathleen Chamberlain  for an excellent ending;
“Susan had come to New Mexico in 1875 without a cent to her name, live through the territories most famous event, built and spent a fortune, in the exited in the same and Provost way she arrived. And in the end, she got a free headstone to celebrate her life and passing. The feisty, ever Frugal cattle clean queen of New Mexico, would have appreciated that. After all it meant that she ultimately got the last laugh”