Mrs. Mary E. Burleson

Edith L. Crawford 

[Carrizozo, N. Mex.?] 

[1106-words.?] PIONEER STORY. 

By - Mrs. Mary E. Burleson. 

My husband Pete Burleson, came to Cimarron, New Mexico in Colfax County in the 
year of 1876, from the Big Bend country in Texas, which is located in the 
Davis Mountains, he arrived in Colfax county with about (1500) hundred head of 
cattle, he settled on a place on the Red River, built a two room log cabin and 
settled down to raising cattle. 

In 1877, my father O. K. [Chittenden?] and Clay Allison brought Mr. Burleson, 
down to our house to try and persuade him to run for sheriff of Colfax County, 
is how I first met him. 

He first said he would not consider making the race at all as he had his 
cattle and place to look after, and how much better off he would of been if he 
had only staid with his first decision as he realized very little out of his 
[ranche?] and cattle. 

They kept after him until he made the race and was elected by a large 
majority, this was in November, 1877, he took office January 1, 1878, one of 
the first things he did after taking office, was to run down a negro man by 
the name of Jack (is the only name I ever heard him called,) he had killed Mr. 
Maxwell and his twelve year old boy, they had just come to Colfax county from 
Iowa, and had bought a Ranche and were living in a tent they had this negro 
Jack hired to cut post for fencing the place, he killed Mr. Maxwell in the 
tent, took one of his saddle horses 

{Begin page no. 2}

and rode down the road and met the boy coming in with a load of posts, he 
spoke to the boy and rode on by the [wagon?] turned and shot the boy in the 
back watched him until he saw him fall from the wagon. 

The horses with the wagon went on down the road until they came to the gate 
entering the Maxwell ranche, on passing through the gate one of the front 
wheels caught on the gate post, and held the wagon fast, the team stood there 
two days without food or water, one of the neighboring ranchers was passing by 
and saw the team standing at the gate, he stopped by to see what was the 
matter as the horses seemed to be so restless, he went on up to the tent where 
he found Mr. Maxwell, dead shot through the head. 

He went back to the horses unhitched them fed and watered them, and then 
started out for help, he had only gone a short distance from the gate when he 
found the boy face down in the middle of the road. 

He summoned help and started looking for the negro but he was no where around 
the ranche, so they knew this negro would know something about the killing, so 
the hunt for the negro started and they found him at his home in Trinidad, 
Colorado, where his wife lived. 

Mr. [Burleson?], brought him back to Cimarron, New Mexico, to wait trial, but 
the feeling was so bitter against the negro he was taken to [Taco?], New 
Mexico, for trial and was sentenced 

{Begin page no. 3}

to be hanged at Cimarron, New Mexico, Colfax County citizens still wanted to 
take the negro out and hang him, but Mr. Burleson, appealed to those men as 
citizens of Colfax County to let the law take its course and hang the negro, 
and this was the first hanging by law in the Territory of New Mexico. It was 
in the month of May, 1878. My aunt and I went to see the negro hang but upon 
seeing him on the gallows and hearing his confession that he did not know why 
he killed Mr. Maxwell and his son" we did not stay to see him hung, but lots 
of people did as it was a public hanging and the first one in that part of the 
country.

Mr. Burleson and I were married in Trinidad, Colorado, July 21, 1878, I was 
going with Mr. Burleson when he ran for sheriff the first time, and did not 
want to marry him until his term expired, he begged and promised me if I would 
marry him that year he would not run for the second term, but there was so 
much pressure brought to bear that he did run the second time and was elected 
by the largest majority that any sheriff had ever been elected by, at that 
time, he ran against a man by the name of Joe Hollbrook. 

It was either the 29, or thirtieth, of November 1879, that the Santa Fe 
Railroad crossed the line into New Mexico. [W. R. Morley?] one of the 
engineers who helped survey the right of way drove the first spike and Mr. 
Burleson, then sheriff of Colfax County drove the second spike, in the first 
Railroad to enter New Mexico. 

{Begin page no. 4}

I went to Trinidad, Colorado, on the last stage coach that run for the next 
day the mail came in on the train. 

In July, 1881, Governor [Lew?] Wallace, asked Mr. Burleson to organize a 
posse, and go to Lincoln County and help catch Billy the kid, about the time 
they were ready to leave for Lincoln County, Pat Garrett, killed the Kid at 
Fort Sumner, New Mexico. When Mr. Burleson's time expired December 31, 1881, 
we moved to Springer, New Mexico, and went into the cattle business again but 
did not do so well, so Mr. Burleson went to work for wages and we moved to 
Magadelena, New Mexico, we did not stay there very long as the VV Cattle 
Company sent for him to come to Lincoln County and take charge of their cattle 
we staid there a couple of years and then moved to Lincoln, New Mexico, where 
he was deputy sheriff under Dan W. Roberts for two terms, and deputy sheriff 
under [Emil?] Fritz, for two years. 

While Mr. Burleson was sheriff and also deputy sheriff he never went after a 
man but what he got him. 

There was five children born to this union, our oldest a boy was born in 1879, 
at Cimarron, New Mexico, the second a girl at Springer, New Mexico, and the 
next a girl in [Socorro?] County and the last two boys in Lincoln, New Mexico. 

Narrator: Mrs. Mary E. Burleson, Age 78, Carrizozo, New Mexico. 

Mrs. Mary Burleson

Interview

Edith L. Crawford 

Carrizozo, N. Mex. 

545-words.	[2/5/38] 	PIONEER STORY. 

Narrator Mrs. Mary Burleson, Carrizozo, New Mexico, Age 78. 

Our family left West Port Mo., which is Kansas City, Mo., now, in April 1865, 
and arrived in Mora, New Mexico, in September 1865, we came over the Santa Fe, 
trail in a prairie schooner drawn by six oxen and our milk cow for this was 
the only way we had of bringing our milk cow with us, we were in a Government 
Train guarded by soldiers, as the Indians were on the war-path at that time 
and were always on the look out for settlers that were moving out to the west.  

Mr. Boggs, the Foreman of the Government train told us that there was a band 
of Indians just ahead of us and that they had attacked a wagon train, killed 
all the people, stole the horses and food and burned the wagons. The 
Government train that we were with was hauling supplies to Fort Union and Fort 
Craig. In those days the Indians used to hold up the stage coaches kill the 
drivers and all the people and take the horses. Sometimes they would burn the 
coaches and mail and then again they would leave everything and just take the 
horses. 

We came by way of the Raton Pass and left the Government train there. Mr. 
Tipton and some friends met us there and escorted us to Mora, New Mexico, for 
the Indians were bad in New Mexico in those days. We saw many large herds of 
buffalo on our trip. It rained a lot that summer and we had no hardships as to 
feed and water. It took us from April to September. I remember the great 

{Begin page no. 2}

event in our home was the arrival of the St. Louis Globe Democrat and when it 
came all the neighbors would come to our house and my father would read the 
paper to them by candle-light. We made all our own candles in those days. 
Sometimes it happened that we would not get the paper on time and then we 
would hear that the Indians had held up a stage coach and burned the mail. How 
we would miss the paper. My father took this same paper for 50 years. There 
were no schools much in those days. Sometimes a teacher was hired by private 
subscription and all the children in a neighborhood would go to school and 
often the children would know as much as the teacher. [?/5/41 ??]

I was married to Mr. Pete Burleson July 21, 1878. My husband was sheriff in 
Colfax County for four years. He hanged the first man by law in New Mexico in 
the year of 1878, at Cimarron Colfax Co., N.Mex. He had the chaplain come from 
Fort Union and offer a prayer for the prisoner.. He was a negro and was 
sentenced to be hung for killing a white man and his son 12 years old. 

We came to Lincoln County in 1890. We lived at the V Ranche where Mr. Burleson 
was foreman for several years. Then we moved to Lincoln, New Mexico, where my 
husband was deputy sheriff for years. He drove the second spike on the Santa 
Fe Railroad when it crossed the line from Colorado into New Mexico. 

Mrs. Mary E. Burleson

Edith L. Crawford Carrizozo, N. Mex. 1090-words. PIONEER STORY. 

By Mrs. Mary E. Burleson. 

The Government train we came to New Mexico in had about one hundred prairie 
schooners in it. Of this number four belonged to my family. My grandfather and 
grandmother Searcy, with six girls and one boy and my father, O. K. 
Chittenden, with my mother brother Tom and myself. I was five years old and my 
brother was about one year old. My grandfather and my father sold their farms 
in West Fort, Missouri. We brought all our supplies along with us. We had our 
flour in barrels, our own meat, lard and sugar. We were not allowed to stop 
and hunt buffalo on the way out here on account of the Indians. The women made 
the bread out of sour dough and used Soda. There was no such thing as baking 
powder in those days. The men baked the bread in dutch ovens over the camp 
fires. When we stopped at night the schooners with families were put into a 
circle and the Government schooners would form a circle around the family 
wagons. In between the two circles they put the oxen and horses, to keep the 
Indians from getting them. Every night the men took turns standing guard. All 
the soldiers rode horses. Every few days the train would stop and everybody 
would get rested. The feet of the oxen would get so sore that they could not 
go without resting them every few days. When the train stopped it was nearly 
always at water and the women would do their washing. The train used cow and 
buffalo chips and anything they could find to burn. The men did all this as 
the women and children were never allowed far from

{Begin page no. 2}

the schooners on account of Indians. We did not milk our cow as she had to be 
worked along with the oxen. Our schooners had cow hides fastened underneath 
and our cooking utensils were packed in them. Our drinking water was carried 
in barrels tied to the sides of the schooners. [? ?/5/41???]

We had no trouble of any kind on our trip but we were always in fear of the 
Indians as other trains had been attacked by them. Mr. Tom Boggs, the foreman 
of the Government train, told us that there was a band of Indians just ahead 
of our train. The Indians had attacked a train not long before we came along 
and had killed the people, stolen the horses and cattle and burned the wagons. 
We saw what was left of the wagons as we passed by. 

We left the wagon train on Raton Pass. Enoch Tipton who was a relative of my 
grandmother, and who had persuaded my grandfather and father to come out to 
this country, met us on Raton Pass. We stopped at his place at Tiptonville, 
New Mexico. Enoch Tipton had come out here sometime before from West Port, 
Missouri. I do not remember just when he came or how he happened to settle 
here. Tiptonville is the same place as Mora, New Mexico is now. My father and 
grandfather farmed a year at Tiptonville. When we found our new home hard dirt 
floors and a dirt roof my mother was so very homesick to go back to Missouri 
where we had a nice farm home. My mother had brought her spinning wheel with 
her. She spun all the yarn for our clothes and knitted all our socks and 
stockings. My father and grandfather made a loom for her and [she?] made us 
two carpets for our floors to keep the baby from getting so 

{Begin page no. 3} 

awful dirty on the floor. We had brought some seed cane with us and my father 
and grandfather made a homemade syrup mill and made syrup, the first ever made 
in that country. The mill was a crude affair made of logs and drawn by a 
horse. The juice was pressed out with the logs and put in a vat and cooked 
into syrup. People came from miles around to see this mill. 

We always saved all our beef and mutton tallow to make our candles. We brought 
our moulds from Missouri with us. We made our wicks out of cotton strings. We 
tied a large knot in the end of the wick, slipped the mould over the wick and 
poured the hot tallow into the mould. When the tallow got cold we cut the knot 
off and slipped the candle out of the mould. Our candle moulds were the first 
ones brought into that part of the country, and all the neighbors borrowed 
them to mould their candles. 

My father moved to Ute Creek, New Mexico, in 1867, when they struck placer 
gold there, and he put in a country store to supply the needs of the miners 
and the people who were rushing to the gold strike. 

A man by the name of Stevens, I can't remember any other name as everyone 
called him "Steve", wheeled a wheelbarrow all the way from the State of Maine 
to Colorado. In this wheelbarrow he had his bed, his clothes and his 
provisions. He did not stay long in Colorado. He came on to Tiptonville and 
put in a toll road to Ute Creek and my father took care of the toll gate for 
him. They charged $1.00 for a wagon, .50 for a horse and rider 

{Begin page no. 4}

and 25 for a person on foot. Mr. Stevens made a lot of money as there were 
lots of miners rushing to Ute Creek looking for gold. 

When my brother and I were old enough to go to school we had to walk three 
miles. My mother was always so afraid of wild animals and Indians. We had a 
big bull dog who used to go with us to school. When he got tired waiting for 
us he would go home and when it was time for us to get home he would come to 
meet us. We lived down in a valley and had to go over a big hill and he would 
wait for us on top of this hill. We went to school at Ute Creek. The Indians 
were not so hostile as when we first came to New Mexico. It was the Apache and 
Ute Indians who gave so much trouble and sometimes the Kiowas and Cheyennes 
would slip in and make raids on the settlers. 

My father was from Connecticutt originally and came to West Port, Mo., and 
married my mother there. She was Elizabeth Searcy. I am the last one left of 
the Searcy and Chittenden families. My brother Jap who was born after we came 
to New Mexico died in Gallup, New Mexico, in 1926. 

Narrator: Mrs. Mary E Burleson, Aged 78 years. 

Carrizozo, New Mexico. 

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

Colfax, Socorro, Lincoln

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