The Way West

The Dallas Herald posted a story Jan. 13, 1872, under the caption, “THE HILL COUNTY MURDERS.”

Three “cattle drivers” were killed the previous September near Hillsboro, Texas, on their return from Kansas to San Antonio. The men were identified as John D. Thien, William Wagner and Henry Borchers.

The murderers were believed to have been traveling with the victims. The assassins, thought to be from San Antonio, were not identified and no arrests had yet been made.

The account concluded,“It seems to have been a most brutal affair. The poor men were killed for their money, apparently with axes, while asleep.”

More information was given in the Feb. 22, 1872, edition of the Austin Weekly Standard Democratic. In that issue a notice recognized “Henry Borchers, one of the three men murdered in Hill County” as a member “in good standing” of the Hondo, Texas Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons.

“All brothers of the Order are requested to exert themselves to bring the murderers to justice.”

Each year since Abilene, Kan. had become a shipping center more and more cattle trailed north out of Texas. Thirty-five thousand head in 1867 increased to 600,000 wild and rangy longhorns on the trail in 1871.

Herds began filling the prairies south of Abilene by the later part of May 1871. Cow camps were established on the open range to hold the cattle and graze them for the summer. Interested buyers visited the camps to see the cattle before making purchases. Trail hands took turns going into town, leaving just enough men to oversee the herd.

Trail boss Jim Byler recalled,“When the boys reached Abilene ... they were usually long-haired and needing a barber’s attention, as there were no barbers on the trail.

Upon being asked how they got there, they would sing out: “Come the Chisholm trail with the buffalo wild and woolly.”

There was plenty of money to be made. Fivedollar cattle could bring $25 or $30 in Abilene. Seductive prices lured men to risk everything to “go up the trail.”

Thien, Wagner, and Borchers were from ranches west of San Antonio near Castroville. Castroville boasted a large colony of families from the Alsace region bordering Germany in eastern France. The settlers spoke an Alsatian dialect that had been spoken in Europe before standard German was prevalent.

Vaqueros, Emilio Martinez, and Juan Besa were hired to help drive the cattle north. If the “German” men hired any others they were not named. The multicultural band of drovers pointed the cattle up the old trail to Abilene.

Trail herds were in sight of one another all the way north. Good grass was hard to find unless the herd was driven off the trail, sometimes for miles. It was the same on the bed grounds surrounding Abilene. Some herds moved on to other shipping points along the railroad.

In spite of the crowded conditions the Thien, Wagner, and Borchers outfit settled into a cow camp near Abilene until the herd was sold in the early fall. With the cattle sold the men started home along the cattle trail.

The Chisholm Trail was a completely grazed out “beaten path ... Food for man and beast was dearer than on other routes.”

After three days on the trail, Martinez and Besa decided to turn away for “a road less traveled.” Martinez later recalled that on the way home he was hired by an American to go on a horse-buying mission to Santiago, Mexico. While in Mexico he was persuaded to join Gen. Julian Quiroga in a revolt against President Benito Juarez. The revolt failed and Martinez was arrested when he crossed the border to attend a dance in Laredo, Texas.

Twenty-three-year-old Martinez spoke very little English. In an interview with a reporter from the San Antonio Herald, Martinez nervously told an interpreter that he had seen the sale of the cattle at Abilene but did not see the money. Excited and trembling, Martinez claimed that the day before he and Besa left the ill-fated men three strangers joined them, two Americans and one Mexican.

The San Antonio reporter noted,“We believe there is circumstantial evidence enough against the man to convict him. He is shrewd, however, and has fixed up a very pretty story, but he will never be able to prove half he says, in our opinion. His look and actions tell fearfully against him.”

Unfortunately, that is where the story ends. The fate of the young Mexican could not be found, leaving us with a mystery of murder most foul on the Chisholm Trail. A mystery that may never be solved on The Way West.

“The Cowboy,” Jim Gray is author of the book Desperate Seed: Ellsworth Kansas on the Violent Frontier, Ellsworth, KS Contact Kansas Cowboy, 220 21st Road, Geneseo, Kan. Phone: (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.