NEW MEXICO’S OLD TIMES & OLD TIMERS by Don Bullis, New Mexico Author DonBullis.biz
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Frank W. Angel
Famed for his short visit to New Mexico
ome incidents of violence in territorial County; Governor Samuel B. Axtell and New Mexico were parochial and the United States District Attorney Thomas B. importance of them did not extend Catron were both accused of corruption; beyond jurisdiction in which they occurred. and then a British subject was wantonly Some, though, had international conse- murdered in Lincoln County! quences and that was the case in the Sir Edward Thornton, British minister to murder of John Henry Tunstall on February the United States was distressed. Some18, 1878 in Lincoln County. thing had to be done! Young Tunstall—he was 24 years of age President Rutherford B. Hayes underwhen he was killed—was a British subject took to learn the facts of the situation in who had arrived in New Mexico in 1876. He New Mexico, and he had just the man for intended to make his fortune in Lincoln the job: a young New York attorney, Frank County, with the help of his father’s money. Warner Angel (1845-1906).* Angel had been His problem was that he went into compe- a strong Hayes supporter and he’d worked tition with the local Murphy-Dolan-Riley diligently in the presidential campaign of mercantile interests, and those gentlemen 1876. After Hayes was elected, Angel made were associated with the famed Santa Fe it known to the president that he desired Ring, which had considerable influence on appointment to a government post in the the territory’s economy at the time. For West. Officially, both the Department of some of the shorter-sighted members of Justice and the Department of the Interior Murphy’s group, killing Tunstall seemed the appointed Angel and designated him as easiest way to eliminate a competitor who “special agent.” He was instructed to look had become a thorny, and costly, problem. into all the troubles mentioned above. Big mistake. Angel arrived in Santa Fe in early May The federal government in Washington, 1878. He conferred with Axtell and Catron, D. C. had been hearing bad things about both of whom were reported to have been New Mexico for some time. There was a uncooperative, probably because, as land-ownership dispute going on in Colfax Republicans, they resented being hectored
by the minion of a Republican president. Angel was said to have been angry at his treatment when he set out for Lincoln County on the 10th of the same month. It is important to put Angel’s visit in perspective. When he arrived in Lincoln, Billy the Kid, in the company of several other men, had already killed Buck Morton, Frank Baker, William McCloskey, Sheriff William Brady, Deputy George Hindman, and Andrew “Buckshot” Roberts, all in revenge for Tunstall’s murder. And the climax of the Lincoln County War—the so-called Five Days Battle of July 15-19, 1878—had not yet occurred when Angel left the county. It should not be supposed that Angel left Lincoln to avoid the conflict. He perceived that his investigative work there was done; that he had all of the information he required from Lincoln County and he needed to visit Colfax County before he headed east. Angel returned to Washington after spending about four months in New Mexico. He set about writing his reports but by the time he personally briefed President Hayes, Axtell had been suspended as governor and General Lew Wallace had been appointed to that office. Tom Catron had also resigned as United States District Attorney for the territory. Not everyone was happy with Angel’s work or the changes he seemed to have recommended. The Las Vegas Gazette for September 14, 1878 declaimed thus: “We infer from the action of the president directly after the return of Frank Warren [sic] Angel to the capital that the quarrel between him and Gov. Axtell had more to do with the latter’s removal than any misdemeanors in office. Mr. Angel is a satrap of Carl Schurz [Secretary of the Interior] sent out [with] instructions that if any one presumed to differ with you, ‘refer them to me.’ Angel got mad, went off huffy, reported Axtell, and Schurz at once recommended removal. This remarkable power was vested
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