D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
June 2010
Silver City — Another Lost History
Everybody knows that Silver City was originally named "La Cienega de San Vicente," right? "Everybody" is wrong, about that and much more of the town's early days.
Part Two
By Erica and Jim Parson
In part one of this article (May issue), we debunked many of the commonly accepted "facts" about the earliest history of Silver City — in particular, that the town developed from an earlier settlement known as "La Cienega de San Vicente." We also went to the original records to detail the four original settlers of Silver City who filed preemptions on 640 acres of land: John Bullard, James McGhee, Andrew J. Hurlburt and the little-known W.M. Milby.
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The original 1869 mining claim included a swath along what's now the
Big Ditch, where the Warren House would later be built in 1885. |
It's Hulburt who figures in the next part of Silver City's early lore. (For the complete list of these supposed facts, see part one.) Sometime in 1869 or 1870, according to the accepted history, Hurlburt's wife and child were killed when Apaches attacked them in their home at the Cienega while he was working his land there. Hurlburt was unable to save them, but heroically ran the nine miles to Pinos Altos to get help.
Early historians Dan Rose and S.M. Ashenfelter both provide accounts of this incident. Rose's narration tells us that Hurlburt was just one of any number of miners and prospectors from Pinos Altos who came down to "the Cienega," seemingly on an annual basis, to plant crops in the springtime. He writes that Hurlburt, however, "went further than the rest" and "built him a cabin (the first to be erected at the Cienega) and brought with him his wife and child."
Ashenfelter says that the incident occurred late in March 1870, and refers to Hurlburt's "wife and nine-year old daughter."
Despite a thorough reading of the relevant newspapers contemporary to the period, we were unable to find any definitive account of the killing of Mrs. Hurlburt and her daughter. What we did find were the following items in the Santa Fe Daily New Mexican:
- Letter to the editors, dated Grant County, Sept. 7, 1869: "Within the past ten days Indians murdered a woman and child at the San Vicente Cienega" (Sept. 14 edition)
- Letter from Charles E. Drew, Agent for the Southern Apaches, to Major William Clinton, Superintendant of Indian Affairs at Santa Fe, dated Fort McRae, Dec. 12, 1869: "I have no reason to doubt that the depredations cited in the letter of Col. Rynerson, viz: the stealing of ten head of cattle, the stealing of some horses, the bloodless attack on the miners, and the bloody murder of the woman and child some months ago, have actually been committed. I happened to be in Caada Alamosa when the scout commanded by Capt. J.M. Bullard came in. This murder was committed on or about the first of September." (Jan. 4, 1870, edition. Rynerson was Post Trader at Fort Bayard at that time.)
- Letter from "Nimrod" dated Rio Mimbres, March 22, 1870. In this letter "Nimrod" lists all of the Indian depredations of which he was aware and that had occurred during that month. The final item on his list is: "they also claimed a Mr. Fields as their meat, but he gave leg bail and escaped into camp near Pinos Altos." (April 4, 1870, edition)
This is about all we know for certain about a woman and child being murdered at the Cienega; the newspaper reports state neither the age nor the gender of the child, nor do they name them. As for them being Andrew Hurlburt's wife and child, all we can say for definite is that Hurlburt in January 1869 had declared himself to be a single man. Ashenfelter was the first to give an age and gender for the child, and, possibly, the first to refer to the victims as being Hurlburt's wife and daughter. Both Ashenfelter and Rose describe Hurlburt's frantic run to Pinos Altos, with the former even giving a description of the precise route that he took.
Is it perhaps possible that the newspaper items cited above somehow became entwined over time, and that the resulting story is in fact an amalgamation of two separate incidents? That idea is perhaps supported by the fact that Ashenfelter states categorically that the murders took place in late March 1870, and Nimrod's letter was written on March 22, 1870. The fact that Drew's letter, written on Dec. 12, 1869, did not appear in the New Mexican until January of the following year may also have added to the confusion.
It is highly unlikely in the circumstances that the woman and child would have gone unnamed in either the newspaper or in Drew's letter had they been the wife and child of such a well-known figure as Andrew Hurlburt. In such an isolated and sparsely populated area, Rynerson would most definitely have known that the victims were Hurlburt's wife and child, if indeed that is who they were, and would doubtless have passed on their names to Drew.
Before the Silver Strike
To return to the original preemptions by Milby/Bullard and McGhee/Hurlburt: Ashenfelter in her essay has almost all of the details completely wrong. As well as being incorrect about the names of the original claimants, she is also in error as to the description of where the preemptions were situated. She states that, under "an agreement" between the men, "Hurlburt and Milby were accorded all the land of the flat east of a line running north and south about on the present line of Main street, while Bullard and the others took the land to the west of this line." A comparison of this description with those given in the county records reveals marked discrepancies.
After the slaying of "Hurlburt's wife and child," the history as it stands becomes somewhat vague until the first silver strikes were made in May 1870. Ashenfelter writes that after "the horribly mutilated" bodies had been brought to Pinos Altos for burial, "10 days later" Hurlburt was back at work farming at the Cienega; Rose merely waxes lyrical over the determination for vengeance that the incident aroused. In general we are left with the impression that Hurlburt et al continued with their farming enterprise in the valley, with the dogged persistence of Ashenfelter's "men who venture all and fear nothing."
In reality, all of those who had preempted the land remained actively involved in mining transactions and locations, as verified by various entries in Deed Book 18.
Amongst those records which pertain to the preemptors during this pre-silver-strike period there is one of especial interest. On Oct. 2, 1869, Hurlburt disposed of his 160 acres of preempted land — his one-half of the 320 acres preempted with McGhee only nine months before. For the sum of $500 he sold to William W. Searcy all of his right title and interest in and to "the Ranch located by Andrew J. Hurlburt and James McGhee" situated on the Cienega. The deed also states that he sold all of his right title and interest in and to "a certain Ranch located by Wm. Milby" on the Cienega.
Exactly what Hurlburt's interest in Milby's ranch might have been we can only guess at. Bearing in mind that on the 1870 census Hurlburt gives his occupation as carpenter, is it possible that he was responsible for the erection of any structures on the preempted land? Ashenfelter says that Hurlburt erected a "substantial log house" on the ground later occupied by the Legal Tender corral, and that this was at a location about 100 yards south of the site where the Timmer House would be erected. The Timmer House was the name later given to what had originally been the Star Hotel, which Susan Berry in Built to Last says was located at the corner of Spring and Hudson Streets. If these locations are correct, then there is one absolute certainty — "Hurlburt's cabin" was most definitely not on Hurlburt's land as it is described in the preemption deeds. This is an indication perhaps that, although Hurlburt may have erected a cabin at this location, it was not built for his personal use.