John P. Wilson - Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid as I Knew Them: Reminiscences of John P. Meadows

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PAT GARRETT

and

BILLY THE KID

as I Knew Them

John P. Meadows as a young man, from Charles A. Siringos The Song Companion of a Lone Star Cowboy; Old Favorite Cow-Camp Songs (Norwood, Pa.: Norwood Editions, 1975 [1919]).

PAT GARRETT

and

BILLY THE KID

as I Knew Them

Reminiscences of John P. Meadows

Edited by John P. Wilson

University of New Mexico Press
Albuquerque

2004 by the University of New Mexico Press

All rights reserved. Published 2004

Printed in the United States of America

10 09 08 07 06 05 04 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

ISBN for this digital edition: 978-0-8263-3327-8

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Meadows, John P., 18541936.

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid as I knew them :

reminiscences of John P. Meadows / edited by John P. Wilson.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-8263-3325-7 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. Billy, the KidFriends and associates.

2. Garrett, Pat F. (Pat Floyd), 18501908Friends and associates.

3. Meadows, John P., 18541936.

4. Frontier and pioneer lifeSouthwest, New.

5. OutlawsSouthwest, NewBiography.

6. SheriffsSouthwest, NewBiography.

7. Southwest, NewHistory1848

I. Wilson, John P. (John Philip), 1935 II. Title.

F786.M493 2004

363.2'092dc22

2004011802

Design and composition by Maya Allen-Gallegos

I am not going to leave the country, and I am not
going to reform, neither am I going to be taken
alive again.

Billy the Kid to John P. Meadows,
on the Peasco, c. May 12, 1881
(quoted in Roswell Daily Record,
February 16, 1931, page 6).

Contents

List of Illustrations

Figures

John P. Meadows as a young man (undated)

.

.

Maps

Map 1. Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas, with place names in John Meadowss reminiscences

Map 2. Southern New Mexico, with places mentioned in John Meadowss reminiscences

Map 1. Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas, with place names in John Meadowss reminiscences. Map courtesy of the author.

Map 2. Southern New Mexico, with places mentioned in John Meadowss reminiscences. Map courtesy of the author.

Place Names

1. Stinking Springs

2. C-Dot/Bar W Ranch

3. Carrizozo

4. Nogal Creek

5. Lincoln

6. Rio Bonito

7. Blackwater Creek

8. VV Ranch

9. Ruidoso (Dowlins)

10. Rio Ruidoso

11. Mescalero

12. Blazers Mill

13. Bent

14. Tularosa Creek

15. Hembrillo Canyon

16. Rodey (Colorado)

17. Cookes Peak

18. Masons Ranch

19. Doa Ana

20. Organ

21. Shedds (Cox) Ranch

22. Gold Camp

23. Chalk Hill

24. Point of Sands

25. La Luz

26. Alamogordo

27. Dog Canyon

28. Hilton (Circle Cross) Ranch

29. Sacramento River

30. Weed

31. Agua Chiquita

32. Bluewater

33. Elk

34. Bryant (Meadows) Ranch

35. Hope

36. Gilbert Ranch

37. Seven Rivers

38. Rocky Arroyo

39. Dark Canyon

40. Black River

41. Wildy Well

42. Hillsboro

Acknowledgments

In 198586 Thomas Caperton and the New Mexico State Monuments division supported the research for my history of Lincoln, New Mexico, published in 1987. While engaged in this I came across John P. Meadowss reminiscences of Billy the Kid As I Knew Him, a typed manuscript in the Philip J. Rasch files at Lincoln State Monument. I soon learned that some of Meadowss stories had appeared in the Alamogordo News in 1935 and 1936.

In 1996 I compiled and partially annotated Meadowss recollections. Apart from what he said in his own stories, his personal history was virtually unknown. He had not attracted attention from historians, and persons who remembered him had known him only casually or when they were children, more than sixty years earlier. The latter half of his life, from c. 1900 to 1936, had to be worked out from primary documents.

Dr. David Townsend of Alamogordo, New Mexico, introduced me to Mr. George Abbott, who as Otero County Treasurer in the 1930s recalled John Meadows as a nice-looking man who dressed well in Western style. Mrs. Norma Cinert and Lucille Marr had known him when they were children in Tularosa, New Mexico. They told me about his purchase of a whole block in downtown Tularosa (the Meadows Block), reportedly with money obtained from his second wife, a woman named Encarnacin Gutirrez, and that he lost this property in the 1930s, probably through a foreclosure. They recalled his serving as mayor of Tularosa, his reputation as a storyteller, and another wife in the 1920s.

My wife, Cheryl, found a letter by Meadows in an 1897 newspaper among New Mexico State University Librarys Special Collections. This letter is included here as told me the names of John Meadowss parents and first wife, and some personal details such as Charlie Siringos dedication of The Song Companion of a Lone Star Cowboy to him. She had the information at hand because another researcher, name unknown or misplaced, had been inquiring about Meadowss family history. Mrs. Anderson regrettably passed away in February 2001.

In 1996 Mr. Abbott showed me how to use the books in the county clerks office at the Otero County Courthouse. I built upon this knowledge during subsequent visits and also was allowed to examine the bound volumes of early Tularosa and Alamogordo newspapers on file there. I very much appreciate the assistance of both Mr. Abbott and the staff in the county clerks office. Later I drove to Tularosa, where Village Clerk Margaret Gonzales allowed me to look through the Minute Book (#2) of the board of trustees, April 6, 1926, to December 2, 1936, and make notes. Meadows served as mayor of Tularosa from May 28, 1926, until May 3, 1928.

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