Mrs. Ella Davidson	Interview

Redfield, Georgia B. Words 1,652 2/18/38

(Billy the Kid Story)

MRS. ELLA BOLTON DAVIDSON, DAUGHTER OF FRONTIER ARMY-MAN, PIONEER WIFE AND 
MOTHER. 

Mrs. Ella Bolton Davidson, is one of the few living pioneer women, who 
experienced all the hardships and dangers of the first years of settlement of 
the new country of Southeast New Mexico. 

Mrs. Davidson, as a child, lived in Fort Stanton, New Mexico, an army post, 
where she was constantly surrounded by danger from Indians, and where she had 
few educational advantages. Later, as a woman she lived the hard life of a 
pioneer's wife and became a typical pioneer mother, when unattended by a 
physician her second child, a little girl, was born. She made a happy home for 
her family, in which she ruled with gentleness and kindness, and graciously 
welcomed the stranger and newcomer as well as her friends. 

Wherever she has lived she quietly became one of the leaders in all cultural 
and educational [movements?] instituted for the improvement and enjoyment of 
the town's people. C18 [??] N. Mex.

In 1871, when six years of age Ella Bolton and her mother Ella (Doyel) Bolton 
and a brother and older sister - who is Mrs. Amelia Bolton Church - came to 
America from their native town and country, Wexford, Ireland. They joined 
their husband 

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and father, John Bolton, at Fort Stanton, New Mexico. Mr. Bolton had preceded 
his family in coming to the United States and was head of the Government 
Commissary Department at Fort Stanton, which was an army post maintained for 
protection of the early New Mexico settlers from the hostile Mescalero and 
Apache Indians. 

After the voyage from Ireland, on landing in New York, the Bolton family 
continued their journey to New Mexico, by rail. They traveled as far as the 
railroad went, in the state of Kansas, where they were met at the end of the 
railroad by a military escort sent from Fort Stanton, for their protection 
from Indians during the remainder of their journey overland through the 
hostile Indian infested country of Kansas, Colorado and part of New Mexico 
through which they were to travel. An army post ambulance was sent in which 
Mrs. Bolton and the children rode. While the soldiers rode in three covered 
wagons. 

They were allowed to make only thirty miles a day and were required to make 
camp at Government Army Posts, stationed along the route. At night the wagons 
and ambulance were place in a circle in which the mules, used for their 
conveyances, were confined where they could be watched and guarded from Indian 
raids. 

There were no Indian attacks, and no Indians were seen on their entire 
journey, though there may have been some hidden in many places who dared not 
attack the well armed soldiers who were constantly on the alert. 

The ambulance was, comparatively speaking, easy riding, but the slow traveling 
had become monotonous and uninteresting long 
 
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before the three weeks time taken far the journey had passed. They saw no 
houses or human beings for hundreds of miles in some districts, except the 
soldiers at the army stations. 

The children becoming restless and adventuresome, on the frequent stops, would 
wander short distances from the wagons. On one occasion while gathering little 
stones found on mounds made by ants which they put in little tobacco sacks, 
discarded by the soldiers, they were suddenly running and screaming from the 
pain of many ant stings. This becoming an experience of the journey, they 
never forgot. Also red chili peppers called "New Mexico fruit" by a Mexican 
who presented some to the children when bitten into by them, became another 
experience of childish importance, as the one of the stinging ants, and 
likewise was never forgotten.

The original Fort Stanton, of flimsy construction, established in 1855 on the 
site now occupied by the Government Marine Hospital was purposely established 
on Indian hunting grounds between the White Mountains and El Capitan, and was 
built in a strategic flat stretch of land from which Indian activities could 
be under observation. Many raids and massacres were headed off and prevented 
by the alert attention of the army officers. 

The fort was named for Captain Henry W. Stanton, First Dragoons, who was 
killed January 19, 1855, sixty-six miles southwest of Roswell, on the Penasco 
River in the Sacramento Mountains near the old home site of J. F. Hinkle, 
former Governor of New Mexico. 

{Begin page no. 4}

As an army post the fort was abandoned in 1861, was again occupied by the army 
in 1863 and subtantial stone and brick buildings and other improvements for 
defense, were constructed in 1868. 

In this reconstructed fort John Bolton, after the arrival of his family in 
1871, built their adobe house and here, in this, her first New Mexico home, 
Ella Bolton with her parents and her sister and brother spent three of her 
early childhood years. 

Fort Stanton was again abandoned as an army post in 1896 and since 1899 it has 
been continuously occupied as a Government sanatarium. 

In 1873 John Bolton moved his family to Lincoln, New Mexico where he was made 
postmaster, and here Ella Bolton, nearly ten years of age, and her sister 
Amelia two years older grew to young girlhood. They entered into the social 
life of the town, and with their youthful grace and charm contributed to the 
pleasure of the social gatherings of the harassed people of bullet scarred Old 
Lincoln during the "Lincoln County War" of 1876-79. "Billy the Kid", famous 
outlaw of that region, (who was one of the leaders of the gang of the 
Alexander A. McSween adherants, against the Major Lawrence G. Murphy 
followers) contributed a large share to the destruction and murdering that 
resulted through the many encounters of that famous cattle war.

Ella Bolton met the young desperado at a dancing party 

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given by a woman hostess who shared the belief of many others, that "the Kid" 
had been led into evil paths, and through kindness and friendliness of 
hospitality might be led back into the "straight and narrow way". Billy the 
Kid thoroughly enjoyed the party and the occasion of his dancing with Ella 
Bolton until in his exuberance of enjoyment of the dance, he lifted her and 
lightly swung her off her feet. Then he who had boasted of conquests and 
murderings of numerous big strong man, was made ashamed when he was left on 
the dance floor, where he stood in confusion, vanquished by a small young 
girl. 

On April 1, 1878 Major William Brady, Sheriff of Lincoln County was fired upon 
and killed by the McSween partisans, among them "Billy the Kid". The gang lay 
in wait, concealed by an adobe wall, until Sheriff Brady should walk by after 
having gone through the motion of dismissing court, that because of threats of 
shooting and murdering had never convened.

On hearing the shots that killed Sheriff Bardy and Deputy Sheriff George 
Hindman who was one of three man who accompanied him (the other two were not 
shot) the Lincoln school master became excited and dismissed the school 
children who walked to their homes in danger of being shot by any of the 
throngs of armed men, who wrought to a high tension of excitement, would have 
shot to kill on any slight excuse. 

The bodies of Brady and Hindman, no one dared remove, still lay in the street 
when the school children passed and Ella Bolton, among them, realized then 
that the slender grey-eyed youth, she knew as William Bonney, was possessed of a 
 
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passion for murdering and destruction. 

The story as an eye witness of parts of the final bloody battle that 
practically ended the Lincoln County War is best given in Mrs. Davidson's own 
words: 

"Lincoln became an armed battle ground after the killing of Ollinger and Bell 
(the Kid's guards) when he made his escape from the Lincoln jail where he had 
been confined since his capture after the slaying of Brady and Hindman. 

"On the Sunday evening before the terrible days that ended the Lincoln County 
War Mother said: 'Ella this is the week that will end all this bloodshed and 
fighting and, I thank God your father is away and won't be mixed up in the 
shooting, but I an afraid to stay here with you children unprotected.' So that 
night after supper she took us to stay with the Ellis family, in their house 
which was built with all the rooms in one long row. About ten o'clock we heard 
someone with spurs on, come clattering down the whole length of the house. The 
door where we sat opened and there was Billy the Kid! He was followed by 
fourteen men who took possession of the house. We went back to our home but 
Mother was afraid to stay there after she thought our water supply would 
perhaps be cut off, so we went to Juan Patron's house and about midnight that 
house was taken over by some of the fighters. We then went to Montonna's store 
where we went to bed and when we got up the next morning about twenty men had 
taken possession there, but we stayed there from Sunday evening, until the 
next Friday morning. Mother got up and after we saw men fired on and one 
killed, she said 'I am going to take you children out of this danger. 

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So she took us two miles out of town [to?] where there were some tall poplar 
trees - they are still there - and about noon we saw heavy smoke. It was the 
McSween store that had been set afire by the Murphy men to burn out the 
McSween men (one of them was the Kid) who were surrounded, so they couldn't 
escape. When the fire was under way Mr. McSween calmly walked to the door as 
if surrendering and was shot down. Then, two others that followered were 
riddled with bullets. George Coe Henry Brown and Charlie Bowdre were among the 
crowd that escaped. Billy the Kid was the last one left in the building. 
During the excitement of the roof crashing in, he rushed out with two pistols 
blazing. Bob Beckwith whose shot had killed McSween was killed by one flying 
bullet and two others were wounded. The Kid, with bullets whizzing all around 
him, made his escape.

"After this battle that took place in July, 1878 everything quieted down, and 
my mother took us home. Mrs. McSween whose home was burned, stayed with us all 
night, and the next morning she asked me to go with her to see the ruins of 
her house. We found only the springs and other wires of her piano that was the 
pride of her life.

"She raked in the ashes where her bureau had stood and found her locket, 

"That was the most destructive battle of the Lincoln County War. We were 
terribly upset with all the fighting and killings. My sister Amelia had more 
than she could stand so my mother sent her to a ranch until things could 
settle down. 

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"We moved to the Block Ranch in 1879 and my father engaged in ranching. 
Indians made a raid one night while the ranch hands were away with all the 
ammunition. My father who was the only man on the place found four gun shells, 
these he fired, thinking to frighten the Indians, who were not to be scared 
off. They drove away eighty horses. I spent all of the time of the raid 
shaking with fright, hidden under the bed. 

"We moved to White Oaks in 1830, where I was married in 1883 to Cyrus Leland 
Davidson. We had two children, a boy named Cyrus for his father who was born 
in 1884 in White Oaks. Millie, our daughter was born in 1886 in Picacho where 
there was no physician to be had for attendence of her birth. We moved to 
Roswell in 1898." 

Mrs. Davidson, who is the only surviving member of her immediate family, makes 
her home with her sister Mrs. Amelia Church in Roswell. She is a member of the 
Chaves County Archaeological and Historical Society and is a member of St. 
Andrews Episcopal Church, of which she was one of the organizers and hard 
workers for the church fund when the church was built in 1899. She also was 
one of the guild workers who gave a turkey dinner to raise the money with 
which three dozen kitchen chairs were bought for seats for the church. 

After having lived in New Mexico, under nerve breaking conditions and rough 
surroundings, for over half an average life time, Mrs. Davidson, at the 
present time shows no ravages of those times of her hard past life. 

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She is small in height and slenderly built, and has calm kind eyes and a 
placid countenance. There are no signs of strain or nervousness (in her quiet 
manner of bearing) that one usually finds in those who have lived under the 
strain of harrowing experiences. 

She receives her friends in a quiet restful atmosphere, where she has all the 
comforts and beauty of surroundings of a modern home, that the pioneer, during 
the days of settlement, never believed one would be able to obtain and enjoy 
in New Mexico. 

Source of Information:  Mrs. Ella Bolton Davidson Roswell, New Mexico 

Credit: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project 
Collection.

Lincoln, Chavez

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