Colorado raised two regiments of volunteers, which moved on Sibley and
drove him south, where Canby met him. Of the four thousand Confederate
troops that had entered New Mexico, only about fifteen hundred
reached Texas. El Paso was reoccupied, and my brother made collector
of customs. Another brother, Allen, eighteen years old, anxious to
participate in the allurements of the Western country, asked me to
send him to my brother, W. W., who had promised to make him deputy
collector, which I did by a supply train from Kansas City for Santa Fe.
Meanwhile, my brother Emmett, hearing of W. W.'s arrest and proposed
trial as a spy, endeavored to escape to California by taking passage
on the Overland Mail, where he met his death.
On February 8, 1869, while in Austin as a member of the constitutional
convention for reconstruction from El Paso, W. W. married Mary,
daughter of Governor A. J. Hamilton. In his El Paso home she shared as
loyally as any wife ever did in all his misfortunes and successes, his
joys and sorrows.
In 1897 W. W. was appointed United States Consul at Chihuahua,
Mexico, where we often visited. He worked there ten years, relieving
unfortunate Americans who, by reason of ignorance of conditions in
Mexico, got themselves into difficulties. The City of Chihuahua was
unfortunately the rendezvous and refuge for felonious, law-breaking
Americans, who could no longer live in their native land, and sought
Mexico, believing they could defy the laws of that country. Popular
report stamped Mexicans as lawless, with a government not stable
enough to punish them. Such conditions made my brother's position a
difficult one, as the following will show:
Three New Yorkers, including a physician and an insurance agent,
entered into a conspiracy to establish themselves in Chihuahua to
insure unsuspecting Americans for $20,000 each, murder them and
collect the money. The plan, which was practically carried out, was
this: The insurance agent approached eligible Americans residing in
Chihuahua, solicited insurance, offering very low terms, and stating
that the proposed victim, living in a lawless country where he was
likely to be killed and where whatever he had would be absorbed by
Mexican officials, should insure for the benefit of those dependent
upon him. Having written the insurance, he would tell his victim, "Now
my company is interested in your life. They direct me to admonish
you not to patronize Mexican physicians, as they are unskilled.
They authorized me to recommend to you Dr.----." The doctor then
recommended the victim to appoint an American administrator to see
that his estate would be kept out of the hands of Mexican officials.
He would recommend the third member of the gang.