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Unread 10-02-2011, 01:31 PM   #21
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Steve McCarty
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I have two pictures of Billy the Kid, aka Billy Bonney, aka Henry McCarty, aka William Henry McCarty. They were taken about three years apart and show that his appearance changed during the intervening years, which had been hard ones. The younger of the two Billy's was probably taken in March 1878 at the Chisum ranch. The photographer's name is written along the bottom of the image. It is George W. Morgan. I found many other pictures with his name afixed, but most do not. I suspect he ran out of embossed frames. I eventually drove to his hometown and found hundreds more of his pictures stored in the Historical Society there. Several of them were of Lincoln County War people and several of them are of well know people who Sallie Chisum also collected pictures of. Pretty compelling evidence.

Here's the Kid:


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Unread 10-02-2011, 01:49 PM   #22
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Yep... you can write a book. Very cool story and picture.
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Unread 10-02-2011, 01:51 PM   #23
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Billy, as you can see, is disarmingly youthful and innocent looking. People during his day saw this too. By the time this picture was taken he had already killed a man, Francis "Windy" Cahill in a bar fight. You can decide how old he looks as well as I can. If you match this picture to the famous one that just sold for a jillion $ you can tell that this is the same fellow. Not his lips closed over his buck teeth, which distorts his jaw line a little. His clear, what were blue, eyes, wild wavy hair (the style of the time) full cheeks, long crooked nose and and narrow but full lips. All tintypes (Ferrotypes) are mirrow images, so here you see the kid backwards. The brow over his right eye was bent and over his left arched. Here you see them backwards.

He comes out nearly life sized! The original is very small, about the size of George Washinton's image on an old dollar bill. Tintypes if done well, had no grain, so they can be enlarged with clarity. Trouble is many are out of focus. The lens was huge and the depth of field narrow. Depending on the light/temperature the exposure was about ten seconds, so you seldom see one of these folks smiling. They were told to stare at something...the "birdie"?

Wow! Am I off topic! Sorry, but I was asked a question and I took off with it.

Most of the other pictures are as clear as this one of the kid. Others show the people in the distance or as old men and women. The collection that Sallie Chisum gathered were taken as events were unfolding, and therefore; show the people when they were in fighting trim. Many of them were killed. These pictures breath life into long dead and historically significant people. Giving life to history is the kind of thing that drives historians and fans of old and fine shotguns, wild.

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Unread 10-02-2011, 04:13 PM   #24
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I am out in Dodge, have friends there, quite a bit and have posted many pictures of hunting there. You likely grew up there when the sheriff still dressed in black and walked the streets with a pair of Colts.

Doc Van Blaricum is a PGCA member and whose family comes from Mead.

Cal Humburg is a PGCA member from Ness City.

How about a photo of Clay Allison? I am also out in Cimarron NM a lot. A PGCA member owns Frank Springer's 0 grade lifter. That's the Springer of Springer NM and who legend has it hired Billy as an enforcer. You probably know the Springer/Maxwell ranch is still in the Charles and Frank Springer family as the 100,000 acre CS Ranch.

Here is my friend Don Hornung out on drought land south of Ingalls in August.
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Unread 10-02-2011, 04:52 PM   #25
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It's flat out there isn't it.

I used to walk down Front Street in Dodge before they tore it down to build the parking lot for the Front Street Replica. I knew men who had lived in Dodge in the 1870's. They were very old and I was very young, but my dad and his folks knew these people well when they were still spry. They made tapes that turned to mush in their garage. Too bad. These old guys recalled Ed and Bat Masterson, Luke Short and Chalk Beeson, but none of them remembered Doc Holliday or Wyatt Earp. Holliday was only in Dodge for three months and Earp was just a local cop and not well know among the nice folks of town.

You've been to the old Boot Hill Cemetery and museum? It is empty now, its contents being moved to the FS replica down the hill. The old cement cowboy statue that you see there was made by Dr. Oscar H. Simpson, who was a close friend of my grandfather, who was also a pioneer dentist. Doc Simpson was my grandfather's mentor and helped him to get started in practice. Doc Simpson's elder sister, Inez Simpson Chisum was married to Sallie Chisum's brother, Walter Pitzer Chisum. He knew Billy the Kid. Walter and his brother Willi Chisum were married in Dodge in 1887, but at different times. Inez Chisum moved to Troutdale, Oregon in 1919 after Walter died. Her daughter was close to Sallie Chisum. Before Sallie died she gave her collection to Inez's daughter, Ara. Ara showed them to her kids. They were stored away in her attic, forgotten and sold in a yard sale more than a decade after Ara died.

I came along and found the little tinypes. Pretty amazing coinsidence huh? There's more.

I've seen a new picture of Clay Allison. It has just come to light, but I don't have a copy of it. Google him and you'll likely find it. My collection of pictures are of Billy the Kid, his gang and the Chisum family. I have most of those folks.
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Unread 10-02-2011, 05:08 PM   #26
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There is a self published book about the ranchers in SE New Mexico and the Springers are mentioned there.

Sallie Chisum's first husband was named William Robert. He divorced Sallie, seperating in 1890. He took 3,000 head of Chisum breed short horned cattle to the XI ranch near Plains, Kansas. He eventually bought the spread. He took the two boys, John and Fred. They attended high school in Hutchinson, Kansas and worked with him on the ranch. Dr. Hinton, a Chisum family expert, told me that he "almost worked those two boys to death".

The XI ranch, which was originally the XIII ranch grew into SW Kansas and into NW Oklahoma. Robert also got into the oil business in Colorado. He remarried. His boys had an off again, on again, relationship. John, the eldest, eventually moved to LA and got into the movie business; never had a hit however. Fred the younger, was a Rough Rider, married and had one son, William Lee Robert(s). Fred stayed in ranching, died in Oklahoma.

I have pictures of all of these people. I even have pictures of William Robert's parents!
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Unread 10-02-2011, 11:43 PM   #27
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Hey Steve, we're practically neighbors. I live in Portland, but we occasionally visit beautiful central Oregon. I promise to stay away from your Trojan at the pawn shop!

In my humble collection I have a couple of pistols of a type that I understand Billy was quite fond of, the little Colt double-action "Lightning" and "Thunderer" (.38 and .41 caliber, respectively). They are cute as a button, but a nightmare to keep running.

For shooting on the small side I prefer my little Merwin Hulbert DA in .32. Loading BP shells for this little fellow is an exercise in micro-surgery, but it's a lot of fun and surprisingly accurate.
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Unread 10-03-2011, 10:19 AM   #28
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So Steve.... about reloading old paper shells. You just need the fiber base wads and card fillers. I think BPI might still sell some of that stuff. I wouldn't hesitate for a second to use a Lee Loader on the old paper shells. You'll need to either find old reloading manuals or cut one open to see what's inside. I used to reload a lot paper shells in the early 60's using a vintage reloading setup. It wasn't that many years ago I tossed all the old base wads and filler cards I had. Wish I still had them because I have a LOT of very nice old once fired paper hulls I'd like to reload. If you want an MEC loader you might haunt gun shows. You can often find the older ones that have all steel fixtures for $20, and all the parts to get them going again are still available, or maybe you buy 2-3 old ones and mix/match parts to get one going. My smoothest MEC of the 5 on my bench... BY FAR is the oldest all steel one. It operates like butter and never ever malfunctions. None of the plastic ones come close to it in smoothness.
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Unread 10-04-2011, 04:46 PM   #29
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Richard,
I reload almost exclusively paper hulls. However, they can be a bit hard to find. You mention you have "a lot" laying around. What gauges do you currently have paper hulls for? And would you be willing to part with some of them?

Thanks,
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Unread 10-04-2011, 04:53 PM   #30
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I went straight to RMC brass, figuring 10 gauge paper hulls are simply unobtainable (loading BP). If that's not the case, would sure like to get my hands on some.
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