Newspaper Articles
Colfax County, New Mexico
 

CHUNK'S FATAL JEALOUSY

End of the Cowboy Who Kept Order on the Raton Range

The reminiscent cowboy rolled and lighted a cigarette. He was about 45, tall, spare, yet by no means thin. In his great shock of raven hair struggling from underneath his sombrero, there was a touch of gray here and there. His legs were slightly bowed, a result of years spent in the saddle. He was a fair type of the Western Cowboy that is now disappearing from the ranges, as the buffalo has disappeared from the plains.
     "Bout twenty years ago I struck the Raton Range," he said, "and them days was surely sizzlers in Northern New Mexico. Colfax County has always been one of the toughest spots on the map, and it was worse than at any time just then. You see, it's the first county over the Colorado line as you come down the mountains from the Raton Pass, and was then a sort o' dumping ground for all the tough ones not allowed in Colorado.
     "There drifted down from the pass one day a pretty tough customer. He was a fine-looking bay, with just the mildest sort o' blue eyes and the finest brown hair for a man that had ever passed over the range, but he had a way of his own in twirling a six-shotter that made the citizens respect him. He made a reputation the second night after he struck Otero - which was then the first town you came to over the line - by plumping the lights out o' two fellows that had been shooting the lights out in the town. This made a mighty fine impression on the good citizens, for no one had been able to keep a lamp lit in the public places for a week. So the good citizens of Otero offered to make him marshal, but he said no, he guessed he could keep order without being marshal.
     Nobody knew his name. They never did know. They called him "Chunk," which came of a remark someone had made that he always had so many cartridges about him he was like a chunk o' lead.
     "Chunk killed another fellow the next week who was trying to steal a horse, and the next week he got onto the trail o' two fellows that had stole horses, and when he came back to town he told the good citizens where their bodies might be found, so they went out and brought the dead horse thieves in and buried them over in the foothills' along side o' the other three that Chunk had killed, and the place was known as "Chunk's graveyard."
     "Chunk was a good sort o' fellow at heart, but sometimes when he had too much liquor it was dangerous to be too close to his gun, so that with these who went to death by such accidents and those who were sent to death because they deserved it, Chunk's graveyard grew in about a year to twelve.
      "Now, at this same time there was a cowboy in Colfax - Clay Ellison - famous from one county line to the other because of his good six-shooter. Clay was a terror to rustlers. There's no telling how many of them had bit the dust at the crack of his gun. He most likely didn't know himself. Clay came to Otero one day and the people made a regular hero of him, and what does Chunk do but get jealous and commence to sulk and say ugly things about Clay, so that every one in town held his breath almost, fearing the meeting of these two.
     "And they did meet, too. Clay never notched his six-shooter, but Chunk kept count that way of every man he'd killed.
     "You're a good shot," says Chunk to Clay. I've thirteen notches on my gun; twelve of them are dead; the thirteenth is for you."
     "You're a brave man," says Clay. "My gun has never been drawn agin such as you."
     "There's only room for one of us in Colfax," says Chunk. "Leave the country and I'll cross your notch."
     "Ef it has come to that," says Clay, "The notch can stand, or I will cross it out myself."
     "Chunk's idea was that both should go together to a room at the tavern, order a supper placed upon the table, lock the door and just them two sit down to eat, without another person in the room. They would sit down together, but only one was to rise. Clay agreed to all that Chunk said, and the Clifton House was chosen - a tavern where many a one's blood had been spilled before, and many a one's blood's been spilled there since - a lonesome sort o' place a mile out of o' town, on the Santa Fe trail. You can see the deserted old house to this day - a lurking place for ghosts, they say.
     "Well, they called for the best supper that the tavern could turn out, and every one thought that Clay and Chunk had joined hands and were going to cement the friendship over the supper. When the door was locked, they put their pistols on the table the first thing they did.
     "That's a pretty good-looking weapon, Clay," says Chunk, eying his sharply, as they both sat down; and Clay nodded his head, but didn't say anything.
     "They put their pistols on their laps by agreement, and began to eat.
     "You don't seem to be very hungry, Clay," says Chunk, after a bit - for Clay was not eating much and Chunk was in fine spirits.
     "I never eat much just before going to bed," says Clay. "It don't set right on my stomach."
     Chunk smiled, for he could get humor out o' most anything; but Clay was as stern as a preacher in the middle of a sermon, and he never smiled much any way. Things went on for about a quarter of an hour, and neither had made the least move for his gun, and both began to feel that it was time something should happen, for it was mighty trying to just sit there and see the glitter in each other's eyes.
     "Try some of this Clay," says Chunk, and as Clay reaches for the dish, quicker than the flash o' steel Chunk brings his pistol up; but he was too quick - too quick to calculate. He had plenty o' time and all the advantage; but it seems he was rattled, and for the first time in his life. His six-shooter struck the table, and the bullet shot wild o' Clay's head, and, quick as he was to recover, he was just an eternity too late, for Clay brought his weapon up so soon that you could hardly tell one pistol's report from the other, and Chunk just laid back in his chair and died so easy you'd a thought he was taking a quiet nap.
     "They buried him over in the foot hills, in the graveyard he had himself made, and you may read on the only tombstone in the place these words:
 
CHUNK
Aged about 23

We don't know where he came from,
And we don't know where he went.

C. B. Brisena, a Cuban, was shot in the leg at Gardiner while giving a street exhibition.

E. M. Cosner & Co., have sold out their grocery business at Raton to Shaw & Co.

Rev. and Mrs. J. D. Wells, of Des Monies Ia., have removed to Raton.

The mayor of Raton has issued a proclamation declaring June 24 a public holiday.

Johnson's Mesa elected the following school directors: James Wallace, Edward Dale and E. W. Burch.

J. P. Dale sold to John Belisle his farm at Johnson's Mesa for $4,700. In turn, J. P. Dale took Belisle's farm for $3,200.

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Bourne, D. W. Stevens, S. C. Allison, Aubyn Allison and Peter Smith left Raton to visit Excelsior Springs, Mo.

J. J. Murphy, of Raton, has moved to Aspen, Colo., to engage in business.

Charles M. Payne and C. J. Gavin, of Raton, have returned home from the Transmississippi congress, which met at Wichita.

Mrs. J. B. Fewell, daughter and son of Raton, have removed to Santa Fe, where they will reside.

Rev. F. Maes, who represented New Mexico at the general assembly of the Presbyterian church, held at Minneapolis, has returned home to Raton after making a pleasure trip to Lake Superior.

A party of Santa Fe surveyors is running a line west from Springer.

Walter Hamilton, of Springer, caught a big mess of bass last week, the largest weighing 5 pounds.

Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Kremis, of Springer, have gone on a visit to their childhood home in Pennsylvania.

Albert Morton, of Springer, was given a birthday party in honor of his fifth birthday anniversary.

Springer has organized a dramatic club, and it will give "Dot, the Miner's Daughter," at the Porter opera house this month.

No more rain is needed around Springer for the present. The grass is in splendid condition, and there is plenty of moisture in the ground.

F. B. Strong and family and mother and Mr. Webster, wife and baby, have returned to Springer from a month's outing in Santa Fe and Taos counties.

Springer is short on dwelling houses, owing to the fact that people are moving into the town so that their children may have a chance to attend the excellent public schools of that town.

The first sheep sale of the season at Springer was made by C. E. Hartley, who sold to D. A. Cloutheir 5,000 head of lambs, Mr. Clouthier turning them over to Rocky Ford parties. The lambs brought $1.50 a head.

H. Sheppard, formerly of Raton, but who had returned to Missouri, has sold his stock and farm machinery in that state and is now again a resident of Colfax county.

Gus Dawson and family have moved from the Vermejo to Raton on account of the superior school facilities of the Pass City.

Charles Carson, of Phoenix, Ariz., and Harry Le Roy, of Deadwood, S. D., ran a foot race at Raton on Saturday for a $50 purse.

Miss Jeannette Ritchie has returned to Raton after a visit of several months to her relatives at Guthrie Center, Ia.

J. C. Gavin and John Hixenbaugh, of Raton, attended the farmers' national convention at Colorado Springs.

Judson Bunn, of Raton, has gone to Coshocton, O., where he will stay several months.

Mrs. A. G. Dawson will remove from Maxwell City to Raton.
 

An Uncle Tom's Cabin show paid Raton a visit this week.

Miss Mirtis Moore, of Raton, has gone to San Francisco, Cal., on an extended visit.

Miss Maggie Tyana, for a year a resident of Raton, has returned to her home at Larned, Kan.

Last Friday evening the oil house of the Santa Fe railroad in the Raton yards was burned to the ground.

Mrs. T. D. A. Cockrell, in charge of the Raton public schools, has resigned and gone to her home at Las Cruces.

I. I. Hixenbaugh's saloon building, known as the Half Way House, near Raton, was destroyed by fire. Insurance, $300.

J. K. Pare, a soldier of long residence at Raton, has gone to Leavenworth, Kan., to enter the soldier's home there.

Robert Graham and family have returned to Raton after a residence of two years in Oklahoma. New Mexico is good enough for them.

Three car loads of vegetables, consisting of cabbage, squash and celery, from the Baldwin ranch, were shipped this week to Nevada, Mo.

A. J. Hodges, Charles Kirby and William Bradbury shot 150 ducks at the ponds near Raton in a few hours and say they could have shot thousands.