The Santa Fe Reporter from Santa Fe, New Mexico • Page 36

TRAIL Simmons War in San Juan County 1 was up at Farmington recently in the Four Corners and had a chance to visit the city's historical museum. Some of the nice exhibits focused upon the early days of lawlessness in San Juan County. The worst period of violence occurred during 1879 and 1880. Outlaw gangs rode the countryside unchecked and lynchings were said to be as common as fleas on a dog. Unlike the much-publicized conflicts in Colfax and Lincoln counties, this "war" has received little attention.

The reason probably is that very little of it makes any sense. Newspapers of the day report a long string of bloody incidents, but it is seldom clear who was upholding the law and who was breaking it. Desperados sometimes wore badges and vigilantes occasionally engaged in criminal acts. At the center of the conflict were the Stocktons and the Goes. While their roles are not always clear, at least their personal histories offer us a visible thread to follow.

Hot-Tempered Boys Ike and Port Stockton were raised on a ranch near Cleburne, Texas, south of Dallas. Both were hot-tempered. Port is said to have killed the first of a dozen men when he was only 12 years old. In their late teens the brothers went to Colfax County, New Mexico and became involved in- the land grant war. When Port murdered a man in Cimarron, Ike broke him out of jail and they fled.

After a couple of more killings, Port went to Animas City in the southwestern corner of Colorado. Fast-talking got him the job of town marshal. But one day while he was getting a shave, the nervous barber nicked him with the razor. Port whipped out his pistol and shot the barber. Arrested, he escaped and crossed the line into San Juan County.

Meanwhile, brother Ike had gone to Lincoln and opened a saloon. He became friends with the Coe family, particularly the cousins Frank and George, who were allied with the McSween faction in the local war. After the Coe ranch house was burned to the ground, several of the family decided it would be healthier elsewhere. They moved to the Farmington area. Ike Stockton went, too, and stopped briefly at Port's new ranch in San Juan County.

Then he moved across the border to Durango. Soon Port was using his ranch as a base for cattle rustling. Other rustlers also were operating in the district. As a result, ranchers formed a Stockmen's Protective Association. As policy, they hanged all suspicious characters who fell into their hands.

Some accounts claim that Ike had his own gang of rustlers, but this is not certain. He paid frequent visits to Farmington to visit his brother and Frank and George Coe. One day a posse from the Stockmen's Association followed a trail of stolen cattle that led to Port Stockton's ranch. He came to the door with a rifle and was riddled with bullets. Mrs.

Stockton grabbed a gun and went after her husband's assailants. In the shootout, she was wounded but later recovered. Seeking Vengeance It is said that the death of Port touched off the San Juan County War. Enraged, Ike Stockton vowed to track down and kill the members of the Association posse who had slain his brother. One of those was Frank Coe.

Ike, with a band of outlaws he collected, did manage to gun down several of the men on his list. His reign of terror brought out armed citizens to patrol the dusty streets of Farmington. Governor Lew Wallace in Santa Fe posted a reward of $2,250 for the capture of Ike Stockton and his gang. He also appointed the San Juan Guards, a local militia unit, to serve as a police force. But the violence continued until one frosty day in late October, 1881.

Ike brazenly rode into Durango for supplies and was quickly confronted by the sheriff and his deputy. In an exchange of shots, a bullet shattered the outlaw's knee. He was carried to a doctor's office, where his left leg had to be amputated. Within a few hours Ike Stockton died, from loss of blood and the shock of the operation. So ended an unsavory career.

With the passing of their leader, members of the Stockton gang, numbering more than 100, broke into small bands and went their separate ways. One group staged some holdups in northern New Mexico, then tied to the Black Range west of the Rio Grande. Later they appeared in Socorro where they were recognized and arrested. That same might a parly of vigilantes seized the outlaws and hanged them from a tree on a side street. Afterward, the street was known as "Death's Alley." In" the early '80s, the Goes returned to Lincoln County, where things had quieted down.

In 1931 George Coe wrote his autobiography, published by the University of New Mexico Press under the title Frontier Fighter. In it he related his many scrapes in the Lincoln and San Juan county wars. George Coe died in Roswell in 1941. PUZZLE SOLUTION BOOK SIGNING EXHIBITION imtikt'i fef How Buiiness Con Survive And Thriveni The Coming Herd Times October 15 A. DAVID SILVER author of When The Bottom Drops Out Entrepreneur-Expert on helping troubled companies succeed PM 1 HELEN RUMPEL Will exhibit selected stitcheries paintings which will be exhibited in the fine art gallery at Spaso House the American Embassy in Moscow during December 1988.

11 am to 3 pm Helen Rum pel with creative siilchery OMAR'S PALACE- BAKHCHISERA1 Catherine I he Great's Summer Palace in the Crimea completed 1988. Los Llanos Bookstore at Sanbusco 500 Montezuma, Santa Fe (505) 982-9542 rizJ reJ rzEJ October 12-18, 1988 SANTA FE REPORTER 19.