The second William Penn : $b a true account of incidents that happened along the old Sante Fe trail in the sixtiesRyus, W. H. (William Henry)
History
The second William Penn : $b a true account of incidents that happened along the old Sante Fe trail in the sixties
Ryus, W. H. (William Henry)
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- West (U.S.); Santa Fe National Historic Trail
Espinosa living with his beautiful sister in his isolated farm house
among his vast herds of cattle, sheep, goats and other animals lived a
life of luxury. There was a government contractor living in his vicinity
buying beef cattle for the consumption of the soldiers. Espinosa came to
believe that he was losing beef steers and thought that the contractor
was getting them, and when this contractor was shot and killed by an
unknown at Fort Garland it was generally supposed that Espinosa had
murdered him.
I have heard there was a very rich American living at the home of
Espinosa and that he was enamored by the bewitching beauty of the
dark-eyed sister of Espinosa and they were engaged to be married. The
American had told Espinosa that he possessed considerable money, etc.,
and one night after the American had gone to bed he was awakened by a
man feeling under his pillow for the purpose of robbery, and shot at the
intruder, who was no other than the treacherous Espinosa. When Espinosa
found that he was "caught in the act" he killed the American with a
dirk. His sister cursed him for having killed her lover, the only child
of a rich New Englander. This deed is said to have stimulated in
Espanosi a desire to reap in the golden eagles faster and faster, so he
determined to become a bandit, a robber. Several Denver men met death
along near the home of the famous Espinosa and the governor accordingly
offered a reward of $1000 for his body, dead or alive.
After this reward was offered I was passing through Dick Wooten's toll
gate on my way to Santa Fe and one of my passengers had a copy of the
Denver Times in which he read of the reward out for Espinosa in the
presence of Uncle Dick. Uncle Dick fairly groaned with satisfaction and
made this reply, "I will get that man before many suns pass over
his head."
About two weeks later Wooten was hunting and he heard a shot ring out on
the air, and decided he would go in the direction of the shot and see
what was up. He got on his stomach with his rifle fixed so he could
shoot any hostile intruder and stealth-fully crawled up to within a few
yards of where he had discovered a small camp smoke. There he espied
Espinosa in company with a small twelve-year-old boy, ripping the hind
quarter out of a beef steer he had killed. Wooten kept watching and
crawling nearer--Espinosa unsuspicious of the watch of the old trapper,
prepared to cook his supper and had beef already over the fire cooking,
answering the many questions of the hungry lad near him, when Wooten,
getting a sight on him, sent out a shot that ended the life of the
fearless and revengeful Mexican bandit, the terror of the Mexican and
Colorado border, Espinosa.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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