John Middleton (cowboy)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

John Middleton was friend of Billy the Kid and a key member of the Regulators, who fought on behalf of John Tunstall during the Lincoln County War.

Born around 1854, Middleton came to Lincoln County, New Mexico from Texas in the mid-1870's and went to work for John Tunstall. Described as a heavyset, swarthy man with black hair and eyes and a large handlebar mustache, Middleton was known as a first-rate cowboy as well an excellent fistfighter and pistol marksman.

Middleton was close enough to John Tunstall to hear his last words just before he was shot down by Dolan gunmen William Morton, Jesse Evans, and Tom Hill on February 18, 1878. After this, Middleton participated in most major Regulator operations of the Lincoln County War, including the murder of Sheriff William Brady on April 1, 1878. Three days later, Middleton would be dangerously wounded in the chest during the gunfight with Buckshot Roberts at Blazer's Mills. Amazingly, he survived his wound and resumed his place with the Regulators once he recovered. By the fall of 1878, the war was over and Middleton and the last of the Regulators split up.

John Middleton's ultimate fate is unclear; some say he remained in the area, dying of smallpox on November 18, 1882 in San Lorenzo, New Mexico. Others accounts say he moved to Kansas, where he married and worked as a cowboy, dying in 1885, either by drowning in a stream or from the effects of his chest wound sustained years earlier at Blazer's Mills.

  • Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life, by Robert M. Utley, University of Nebraska Press, 1989.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Middleton_%28cowboy%29"
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.