Most Billy buffs will recall that Tom was Billy the Kid's steadfast friend. Not much is really known about Tom's past, but this much we do know:
Tom was born in 1858, in Uvalde, Texas, the son of Tom O'Folliard Sr., an Irish immigrant, and Sarah Cook. Still in his mother's arms, the family moved to Monclova, Coahuila, Mexico. His parents died of smallpox there. Sarah's brother John Cook, upon his return from the Civil War, went to Mexico and brought the orphan Tom back to Uvalde. Until 1873 Tom lived with his aunt, Margaret Jane Cook. That year she married Pat Dolan. Tom then went to live with his uncle, John Cook, until he married a Miss McKinney in 1875. Then Tom, age 17, was passed along yet again, this time to his grandmother, Mrs. James Cook.
Tom and a friend, James Woodland, in the spring of 1878, hit the trail for New Mexico, probably arriving in Lincoln County in late May or early June. (Remember that Billy's employer, John Tunstall, was killed in February of the same year, and all hell had broken loose.) Don't know what happened to James Woodland, but Tom joined the supporters of Alexander McSween, now the leader of the faction opposed to the Murphy-Dolan gang's heavy-handed rule of Lincoln County. And that's where Tom met up with William Bonney. There is an account of Tom being involved in stealing cattle from Emil Fritz, a member of the Murphy-Dolan faction, thus putting him against the House.
Tom, recalled Mrs. Susan McSween a long time later, was a "good-natured, rollicking boy, always singing and full of fun." Pat Garrett, after he was elected Sheriff of Lincoln County on November 7, 1880, described him as "something of a gun expert, in his own belief at least. He was a man of medium height and dark complexion, and of no very great amount of mental capacity. He was one of those who wanted a reputation as a bad man." Newspapers in 1880-81, upon Tom's death at the hands of Sheriff Garrett, said he was 5' 8" tall and weighed about 175 pounds.
Tom O'Folliard was there along with Billy The Kid and twelve other men in the midst of the big five day battle, when McSween's house was set afire by the Dolan crowd between 3 and 4 p.m., July 19, 1878. With the house almost consumed by flames, Billy took charge as McSween had broken down and didn't know what to do. At dark Billy and 4 others: Tom, Jose Chaves y Chaves, Jim French, and Harvey Morris, made a break for the gate in the east fence to draw attention away from McSween and the others, who were to escape out the north gate. All of Billy's bunch got away, except for Harvey Morris, who was killed. It was said later that Tom halted and knelt beside Morris in the hail of bullets to help his friend, but Harvey was dead. By stopping Tom exposed himself to gunfire. Tom, it has been said, caught a bullet in the right shoulder and dropped his gun, darted through the gate, stumbled down the river embankment and collapsed in the underbrush. McSween, Francisco Zamora, Vincente Romero, and Yginio Salazar were not so fortunate. They were riddled with bullets from a line of riflemen crouched behind a low adobe wall and most died instantly. Yginio, although severely wounded, played dead and later after the Dolan crowd left, crawled off and lived to be an old man. After the Lincoln County War, anarchy reigned. Billy and his "Pals" decided it was best that they head for a more agreeable clime, and henceforth made for Ft. Sumner and the vicinity. There they commenced making their living rustling John Chisum's cows. Billy figured somebody owed his "Pals" compensation for fighting in the war, and with Tunstall and McSween both dead, Chisum was the richest Tunstall ally left above ground. As Billy saw it, Chisum owed him for back wages. When Chisum refused to pay up, Billy figured each cow he took from Jinglebob John was worth $5 toward the debt.
All others deserted Billy, except Tom O'Folliard and Charlie Bowdre (Bowdre was in the act of quiting too, but ran out of time). Of course Billy had Billy Wilson, Tom Pickett and Dave Rudabaugh (and Bowdre) with him when Garrett and Barney Mason and a posse of Texas cowboys tracked them to Stinking Springs, but what had happened to Tom?
Two nights before, on Dec. 19, 1880, Billy and his "pals" rode into Fort Sumner, thinking they were safe to come in and get supplies. One of Garrett's spies (Jose Roibal) had spoiled all that, and the lawman and his posse were playing cards and waiting for them in the old hospital building where Bowdre's wife Manuela was making her home. (Along the trail Tom and Billy rode side by side out front, but Billy confessed a hankering for some chewing tobacco Billy Wilson had in his saddlebags, and fell back to get some. Tom Pickett rode up and took Billy's place, and it was Pickett and O'Folliard who rode up first to the old hospital building.) Suddenly Garrett yelled out: "Halt! Throw up your hands!" Taken by surprise, Billy and his "Pals" fled into the snowy night. All but Tom. As he wheeled his horse about and jerked out his pistol, either Garrett or Lon Chambers shot Tom in his left side, wedging a slug just below his heart. (Tom rode after his pals for a hundred yards, but the pain of riding the frightened, bucking horse was too much, and he resigned to walking it back to Garrett and his men) Apparently he dropped his pistol when hit. (Some say that Tom had his pistol in his hand and cocked, but had not the will left to fire it, so when Garrett and his men took Tom off his horse, they just took his pistol from his hand.) Garrett trained his gun on Tom and called for him to drop his firearms. Tom is reported to have said "Don't shoot anymore, I'm dying." Tom asked that he be taken from his horse and made to die as easily as possible. They helped Tom off his horse and took him into the building and laid him on the floor. It was said that in great pain, he first begged to be put out of his misery as Barney Mason taunted him by saying "Take your medicine!" (Tom is reported to have repiled weakly; "It's the best medicine I ever took.") Tom asked Mason to have Thomas C. "Kip" McKinney (who was one of Garrett's deputies at the time of the killing of the Kid, and who was a cousin of Tom's), to write his grandmother in Texas, informing her of his death" (Another relative, Uncle Thalis Cook, reported to have been a Texas ranger, also once tried to get Tom to give up his lawlessness, but to no avail.)
None of the witnesses agree on what Tom's last words were (though some report Garrett as having told him; "Tom, your time is short." To which he replied; "The sooner the better. Then I'll be out of pain."). Tired of waiting for him to die, most of the posse resumed the poker game that had been interrupted by the Kid's "pals". Jim East, one of the Texas cowboys in the posse, gave Tom a cup of water which he drank a little of, shuddered, and was dead. (It took poor Tom three-quarters of an hour to give up his ghost, and he was in great pain most of the time.)
He, Charlie and Billy are the "Pals" engraved on the big headstone over their graves in the lonely military cemetery at Old Fort Sumner.
Don McAlavy, president of the Billy the Kid Outlaw Gang, had help from Ed Erdelac in writing the above article on Tom O'Folliard. Erdelac says: "Reason I had asked for anything about Tom (in an email to BTKOG) is I had written a short four page ballad about Tom's death called The Ballad of Tom O'Folliard, and was thinking of turning it into a short story for one of my writing courses in school. Your article has sure helped me out. I really appreciate it." - Ed Erdelac at atticus@mcs.com
FRIENDS:
Jesse Evans (Billy and Jesse were friends before the Lincoln County War), Charlie Bowdre, Billy Wilson, George and Frank Coe, Dick Brewer, Godfrey Gauss, Alexander McSween, Susan McSween, John Tunstall, Ma'am Jones and her boys, Pat Garrett (before Garrett became sheriff, but his granddaughter says that Billy was more of a friend to her grandmother (Apolonaria) than to her grandfather), Gus Gildea, Fred Waite, John Middleton, Jose Chaves y Chaves, Francisco Zomora, Beaver Smith, Jim French, Tom Pickett, Vincente Romero, Yginio Salazar (a special friend), Paulita (Pablita) Maxwel (most historians now think she was Billy's real amor), Celsa Gutierrez, Doc Scurlock, Henry Brown, John Chisum (during the Lincoln County War), Sally Chisum, Manuela Bowdre, Nasaria Yerby, Joe McCarty (his brother), Sam Smith, Martin Chaves, Fernando Herrera, Steve Stevens, Isaac Ellis, Juan Patron, William Harrison Antrim(?), James Bell (yes, Billy did like his jailer and Bell did not dislike Billy), Sam Corbett, Dan Dedrick, and probably Moses and Sam Dedrick too, Jim Greathouse, Ira E. Leonard, Jesus Silva, Vicente Otero, Paco Anaya, Pete Maxwell, but it was probably Pete that got word to Garrett of Billy's whereabouts, trying to protect his sister), Deluvina Maxwell, Miguel Otero, Frank McNab, David Rudabaugh (Dirty Dave was a real badman and joined Billy as Rudabaugh needed the protection of a "gang". He was really no real friend of Billy, yet he is usually listed as one.), "Sombrero Jack" George Schaefer was a boyhood pal, but he was responsible for being the one to first get Billy into trouble, so it can be said he was really no real friend.), Sheriff Harvey Whitehill (who tried to teach Billy a lesson by putting him into jail at Silver City after being caught with Sombrero Jack's stolen goods), Green Wilson, the Truesdell family, the Knight family, Louis Abraham, Ed Moulton, Mary P. Richards, a childhood teacher, etc., etc., etc. . . .
(Received an email from Margie Trujillo, a g-g-granddaughter of Jose and Josefita Montano and she says "I believe that another friend of Billy's was old Jose Montano, who owned and operated the Montano store in Lincoln at the height of the Lincoln County War." She says Billy had a special affection for Ms. Montano (Josefita) and often said that she was the kindest person he'd ever met. Billy was said to have stayed with the Montano's many times.)
 Doc Scurlock,
Age ? |
Josiah
Gordon "Doc" Scurlock was born at Tallapoosa,
Alabama, on January 11, 1849 (he was about 10 years older
than Billy). His nickname was come by honestly: he is
believed to have studied medicine in New Orleans. He was
a most unusual gunfighter: a doctor, farmer, poet,
teacher, later a linguist and reader of the classics. At the age of twenty he went to Mexico, fearing tuberculosis, he returned to the states in 1871 and worked for John Chisum in Texas. By May 1875 he was working for Chisum in New Mexico. When his line-riding partner, Newt Higgins, was scalped by Indians "in the fall of 1875 or the spring of 1876," Scurlock rode sixty miles to South Springs (Chisum's headquarters on Pecos River near present day Roswell) and told Chisum he wanted to quit; Chisum refused to let him go or pay him |
off, whereupon Scurlock stole some of Chisum's horses, two saddles, and a gun and left for Arizona. Chisum sent a couple of fighting men after him, when they caught him Scurlock told them that he'd taken the animals as Chisum hadn't paid him, and they told him "he had done the right thing."
He was described as being "five feet eight or ten inches tall, light hair, light complexion, front teeth out, quick spoken." The missing teeth were the result of a shootout over a card game: the bullet took out Doc's teeth and came out the back of his nect without serious damage. The man who fired the shot was not so lucky.
Scurlock family tradition has it that he and Charles Bowdre operated a cheese factory on the Gila River (in New Mexico), and that one of their employees was Henry "Kid" Andtim. With financial assistance from L. G. Murphy & Co., Bowdre and Scurlock went into partnership on a Ruidoso ranch, and on October 19, 1876, just a few weeks after accidentally killing his good friend Mike Harkins, Scurlock was married to sixteen- year-old Antonia Miguela Herrera. Altogether they had ten children. Scurlock was active in posses pursuing, - and in some cases lynching - the horse thieves infesting the Lincoln area in 1875-76. (Yes, Scurlock was a member of the Regulators!)
After the Lincoln troubles he left New Mexico for Texas, lived awhile in the LX ranch headquarters in Potter County, Texas (near "Amarillo) drifted on to teach school in Vernon, Texas, moved on again to Cleburne, near Fort Worth, then to Granbury, then Mabank, near Dallas. Throughout the rest of his life Scurlock adamantly dissociated himself from his past; his reluctance to discuss his early life suggests he might have had something to ;hide. In 1919 the Scurlocks moved to Eastland, Texas (a few miles east of Abilene). There he died July 25, 1929. (Photo courtesy of Mike and Harold Stewart, grandsons of Doc Scurlock. Mike: Mstew2266@hotmail.com, Harold: harolds99@msn.com) (From Lincoln County War - A Documentary History, by Frederick Nolan, p. 484-5. Nolan's sources were: Haley, "Interview with Frank Coe," 3-20-1927; Santa Fe New Mexican, 5-15-1875; Haley, "Horse Thieves"; Rasch, Buckbee, and Klein, "Many Parts.")
ENEMIES:
Jesse Evans, Buck Morton, Jimmy Dolan, Lawrence Murphy, John Henry Riley, Tom Hill, Billy Mathews, Bob Olinger, Frank Baker, the Santa Fe Ring and the agents they controlled, including some of New Mexico's judges, lawmen, etc., Andy Boyle, Barney Mason, Joe Grant, John Hurley, Manuel Segovia, Buckshot Roberts, John A. Jones (once a friend but fought on Murphy-Dolan side), John Kinney, Jack Long, Col. Nathan Dudley, Jose Chaves y Baca, Windy Cahill, John Beckwith, Sheriff Pat Garrett, who killed Billy. This list is certainly not complete by any means. (An email came in 12 Feb 99 from an Eastern Canadian saying "maybe a dumb point, but how could Sheriff Brady possibly be left out of the list of Billy's enemies???") He is in this list now, but poor Brady had some good traits too!
We thank the many emailers that sent us names of Billy's enemies and friends.
If you have suggestions for additions to this page, would care to submit an article to be published here, or notice any misinformation that should be corrected, please feel free to E-Mail us.
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