I have thought since you started this thread that it might be interesting to try and locate the exact spot of his death.Maybe get up a "24 hour campfire " party!
A friend of mine owns the Turtle Hole,and I can get permission to go anywhere we would need to from the landownwers involved.
Sir,
While I'll allow that the times I have been through that country was when I was hurrying to somewhere else
I for one would go far out of my way to participate in such an endeavor. I can think of few finer things that going out there and carefully reading the terrain with an eye to past events.
And speaking of the High Plains, and complex relations with slaves, naturally its time to speak of another Texas legend, interestingly enough, also the inspiration for a John Wayne movie; John Simpson Chisum....
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fch33 Chisum was a major figure in the southwestern cattle industry for nearly thirty years, eighteen of which (1854�72) were in Texas. He located immense herds on the open range near running water and controlled surrounding pastures by right of occupancy.
He never claimed to be a traildriver, nor did he spend much time at the ranch or on the range. Personable and shrewd, he primarily was a cattle dealer who traveled in search of markets. His colorful and eccentric life epitomized the adventurous world of open-range cattle operations that set the tone for the industry after the Civil War.
Chisum was reared in the Cumberland Presbyterian faith, took no interest in politics, and never married�although it is widely believed that he fathered two daughters by one of his slaves, a woman named Jensie. More here...
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-johnchisum.html In 1854, Chisum moved to Denton County where he settled on Clear Creek, three miles above the town of Bolivar. He soon went to work for a large rancher as a cowboy and started to develop his own herd. It was during this time that Chisum purchased a mulatto slave girl named Jensie from some emigrants bound for California. The girl was just 15 years old and beautiful and Chisum began a love affair with her. The couple had two daughters.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Chisum freed all his slaves, including Jensie. He would later provide Jensie and his daughters with a home in Bonham, Texas as well as financial support for their needs. Chisum reportedly paid $1,400 for Jensie, maybe it was love at first sight I dunno. Accounts suggest that Chisum did right by her as much as the practicalities of the era allowed, and that he was regarded fondly by her two daughters even after his death.
Chisum partnered with Charles Goodnight, and knew the principals in the Lincoln COunty War, in short, he was in the middle of it all in that era of Texas history.
In addition to Jensie, he was also particularly close to one Frank Chisum, almost certainly a former family slave, who stuck with him even through smallpox. A good account of Chisum's life and that incident here....
http://southernnewmexico.com/Articles/People/JohnChisum-CattleKingofth.html Shortly thereafter Chisum came down with small pox. His men put him in a tent in the camp south of the Pecos, assigning men to nurse him day and night. A black cowboy, Frank Chisum, his friend, and almost considered a son, rode to Fort Stanton to bring him medical help. Frank stayed with Chisum until he was well, then came down with the disease himself but also survived. Chisum's roots were in Tennessee and early Texas both, interesting to speculate on how it was for guys like that, raised in close proximity to slaves from earliest childhood. Likely too that for many, their earliest dalliances with women would have been with slave girls.
Though he never married, Chisum's household was reportedly a busy place, full of his extended (White) family and others. If I could get to meet famous Texas historical figures, him and Charles Goodnight both would be on my short list
Birdwatcher
