John Tunstall
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John Tunstall | |
---|---|
Rancher and merchant | |
Known for | First man killed in the Lincoln County War |
Political party | Republican Party |
John Henry Tunstall (6 March 1853 – 18 February 1878) was an English-born
Early life and education
Tunstall was born in 1853 in
John Tunstall was always inclined toward agnosticism and, as he entered manhood, "grew increasingly contemptuous of organized religion" and its "ethical restraints."[2]
Emigration and career
Ambitions
In August 1872, Tunstall emigrated to British Columbia, Canada, at age 19, to work as a clerk for Turner, Beeton & Tunstall, a store in which his father owned a partnership.[3]
According to Robert M. Utley, "Three miserable and penurious years of clerking" for his father's partners in Vancouver produced in Tunstall a "firm conviction" that, "the road to riches ... did not lie in the mercantile world."[4]
According to Utley, Tunstall, in his "dreams pictured an empire of sheep or cattle pastured on a great landed estate", where his herds multiplied and his bank account similarly swelled with ever more and more money. In a letter home, Tunstall wrote that although he knew that "a rugged outdoor life" would have its challenges, he predicted, "I shall be far happier than cuffed in white linen & coated in broadcloth, pedalling trifles to women with slim purses & slimmer education & refinement."[5]
With this in mind, Tunstall quit his clerking job in February 1876 and left
For more than a year before his arrival, however, Tunstall had "dedicated himself single-mindedly" to persuading his father "of the certainty of a rich harvest, if only he would provide the seeds."[4]
His father, John Partridge Tunstall, was "a shrewd sceptic", who had done very well for his family in the mercantile world and, although he had plenty of capital to invest "did not share his son's explosive enthusiasm for every opportunity that came along."[4]
Santa Fe
Tunstall arrived in the territorial capital of Santa Fe on August 15, 1876, following a weeklong and exhausting journey from San Francisco, first by railroad and then from a painful post atop a horse-drawn "jerky", which kicked dust in his face all the way down the last 220 miles of the Santa Fe Trail. In a letter to his father, Tunstall griped, "I can assure you that one soon discovers why it is called a jerky."[6]
The jerky finally pulled up before Santa Fe's best lodgings, the Exchange Hotel on Santa Fe Plaza, directly opposite from the Palace of the Governors. Prompted, however, by "a dwindling reserve of cash", Tunstall walked to the west on San Francisco Street and instead took lodgings at Herlow's, "a very second class hotel", for a third less the cost. The food at Herlow's, however, fell so far short of Tunstall's expectations that he usually chose to dine at the Exchange.[7]
In Santa Fe, Tunstall met
The young Englishman bought a ranch on the Rio Feliz, some 30 miles (48 km) nearly due south of the town of Lincoln, and went into business as a cattleman. In the town he also set up a mercantile store and bank down the road from the
Murphy and Dolan ran the town and surrounding county of Lincoln as though the area were their fiefdom. Any business transaction of consequence in the county passed through them. They controlled the courts. The Sheriff of Lincoln County, William J. Brady, was an Irish immigrant from County Cavan and was allied to the House.
Tunstall was eager to make money in Lincoln County. Offering decent prices and reasonable dealings at his store, he attracted locals eager to find a competitor to Murphy and Dolan. In his letters to his family in London, Tunstall said that he intended to not only unseat Murphy and Dolan, but to become so powerful that half of every dollar made by anyone in Lincoln County would end up in his pocket. He also wrote about how he would soon raise the Tunstalls from the middle class to the highest levels of British polite society.
Death
Tunstall's mercantile business put him into conflict with the powerful political, economic, and judicial structure that ruled
When too many of the residents of Lincoln switched their business to Tunstall's store, Murphy-Dolan began a slide into bankruptcy, and Catron's bottom line was affected. Murphy and Dolan tried to put Tunstall out of business, first harassing him legally, then trying to goad him into a gunfight. They also hired gunmen, most of whom were members of the Jesse Evans Gang, also known as "The Boys."
Tunstall recruited gunfighters of his own, half a dozen local ranchers and cowboys who disliked Brady, Murphy, and Dolan. These men worked Tunstall's ranch and did his bidding during his conflict with Murphy/Dolan. One of Tunstall's employees was the 18-year-old William Bonney (née Henry McCarty, aka William Henry Antrim, aka El Chivato), who was later dubbed "Billy the Kid" when leading a gang of his own.
In the Spring of 1877, Sheriff Brady was beaten up by two bravados, who were believed to be acting on John Tunstall's orders, in the middle of the main street of Lincoln.[8]
On February 18, 1878, Tunstall, Richard M. Brewer, John Middleton, Henry Newton Brown, Robert Widenmann, Fred Waite, and William Bonney were driving nine horses from Tunstall's ranch on the Rio Feliz to Lincoln. A posse deputized by Lincoln Sheriff Brady went to Tunstall's ranch on the Feliz to attach his cattle on a warrant that had been issued against his business partner, McSween. It was a testament to how completely entangled the business affairs of Tunstall and MacSween had become that the posse came to attach Tunstall's cattle as collateral for MacSween's debts.
Finding Tunstall, his hands, and the horses gone, a sub-posse broke from the main posse and went in pursuit. However, these horses were not covered by any legal action.
Deputies Jesse Evans, Henry Hill, Morton (and probably Frank Baker) rode ahead after Tunstall. Evans, Morton, and Hill caught up with Tunstall and his men in an area covered with scrub timber a few miles from Lincoln. Tunstall, the nine horses, and his hired guns were spread out along the narrow trail. Bonney, who was riding drag, alerted the others. The deputies began firing without warning. Tunstall's hands galloped off through the brush to a hilltop overlooking the trail. Tunstall first stayed with his horses, then rode away but was pursued by the three deputies.
Only the three deputies survived the following confrontation. The historian
Aftermath
Tunstall's murder ignited the Lincoln County War.
In response, William Bonney,
The Regulators tracked down and arrested Deputies Morton and Baker on March 6. In what may or may not have been a calculated
On April 1, 1878, the Regulators ambushed and fatally shot Lincoln County Sheriff
The period of July 15 through July 19, 1878,
After their loss to the Dolan forces in the Five-Day Battle, the Regulators and their supporters quickly left town. Bonney remained in New Mexico, moving to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, 160 miles west of the Texas Panhandle on the Pecos River. Bonney operated as a bandit in the area with his own gang and survived until July 14, 1881, when he was shot and killed at Fort Sumner by Sheriff Pat Garrett of Lincoln County. Garrett had been given a mandate[by whom?] to get rid of Billy the Kid and his gang.
Legacy
John Tunstall had lived in Lincoln for about 18 months before being killed by Deputies Morton, Hill, and Evans. During this period, he regularly corresponded with his family in London. Frederick Nolan collected these letters and published them as The Life and Death of John Henry Tunstall, a basic work in the historiography of the Lincoln County War. Tunstall's letters reflect his ambition, biases, and youthful arrogance and high-spiritedness. They also reflect the economic, cultural, social, and political realities of the time and place. Tunstall's gun is held by the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, UK.
References
Citations
- ^ "John Henry Tunstall". Find a Grave.
- ^ a b Utley 1989, p. 17.
- ^ Nolan 2009, p. 21.
- ^ a b c Utley 1989, p. 15.
- ^ Utley 1989, p. 16.
- ^ Utley 1989, p. 13.
- ^ Utley 1989, p. 14.
- ^ Larry D. Ball (1992), Desert Lawmen: the high sheriffs of New Mexico and Arizona, 1846–1912. Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press, Page 200.
- ^ Utley 1989, p. 12.
Sources
- Dickson, Brandon (October 2023). "The Posse That Killed John Tunstall: The story of what happened to them". ISSN 1940-221X.
- Fulton, Maurice Garland. History of the Lincoln County War. Edited by Robert Mullin. Phoenix: University of Arizona Press, 1968. [ISBN missing]
- Jacobsen, Joel (1994). Such Men As Billy The Kid. The Lincoln County War Reconsidered. Lincoln, NE and London: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 9780803225763.
- Garrett, Pat F. The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954. [ISBN missing]
- Hunt, Frazier. The Tragic Days of Billy The Kid. New York: Hastings House, 1956. [ISBN missing]
- Nolan, Frederick. The Life and Death of John Henry Tunstall. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1965. [ISBN missing]
- Nolan, Frederick W. (2009). The Lincoln County War: A Documentary History. Sunstone Press. ISBN 978-0-86534-721-2.
- Nolan, Frederick. The West of Billy The Kid. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998. [ISBN missing]
- Utley, Robert M. (1989). High Noon in Lincoln: Violence on the Western Frontier. UNM Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-2546-4.
- Wilson, John P. Merchants, Guns and Money: The Story of Lincoln County and Its Wars. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1987. [ISBN missing]