PIONEER STORY OF Daniel Carabajal, EARLY DAYS IN LINCOLN COUNTY

by Edith L. Crawford, January 20, 1939

I was born at Lincoln , New Mexico, December 12, 1872, and have lived in Lincoln County continuously since that time.

My father joined the army about 1862 and served part of his time at Fort Stanton, New Mexico. While a soldier at Fort Stanton father moved our family from Belen, New Mexico, to Lincoln County in 1870. We lived at the Torres Ranch, which is about three miles southeast of Fort Stanton, New Mexico.

I remember seeing Billy the Kid leave town the day he killed Bob Ollinger and J. W. Bell, his guards at the old courthouse in Lincoln. We lived just below the old Torreon in Lincoln at the time. I was up town playing with some boys just across the street when he killed the guards. We hid behind a picket fence and watched Billy ride out of town. We were too scared to go and see the two men that he had killed, we were afraid that he would come back and shoot us. All the people in Lincoln were afraid to come out for a long time after Billy the Kid rode away towards Fort Stanton. I wanted to go and see the men he had killed but I was afraid to go.