EDDY COUNTY, NEW MEXICO

Beckwith/Boyle CEMETERY RECORDS

Records extracted by Richard Wilkinson
Typing by Richard Wilkinson June 2001
Submittal by Richard Wilkinson June 2001

My special thanks to Harold and Beth McDonald of Malaga, NM for their help in
locating this site. Without Harold's eye witness account of this site, I fear that
this record would have been lost forever.

In my attempts to identify this site, I first was shown an extract of some early
Eddy County burial sites. One of them was a photograph dated 1929. In the photo
was a man kneeling next to and reading one of two head stones. The stone read
John M. Beckwith Born Jan 1, 1855 Died August 23, 1879. The other stone was of
Andy Boyle. The carving could not be seen well in this photo. The photo I was
looking at was a copy of a copy. Possibly born August 22 and I could see the
word "Sunday" above his date of death at the end of some other words. The date of
death appeared to be March 11, 188?. I could clearly see at the top of the stone
was the symbol for the Masonic Lodge.

Part of the Terrain was visible in the background. The caption under the photo
gave the date and stated that the location was at the mouth of Pierce Canyon.
Other information in the article with the photo said that the site was located
about 50 yards from the Pecos River.

On June 23, 2001 Harold McDonald took me to a location that he knew of where two
graves were. He had always believed that this was the burial of two unknown
Mexican Nationals. Since at least 1948 there has been no head stones on the
graves. In about 1970, the site was graded over and a road was put in that went
right over the graves. As we were traveling down this road, Harold stopped his
truck and walked to a spot in the roadway and with his cane, he marked two spots.
He looked to his left and commented on a dirt burn saying that 20 years ago before
this road was there, that dirt burn extended to where this road is now. There
were two graves marked only with a wooden stick on each. Then land owner,
Moutray, had directed that an employee grade over the graves to make way for a
road and corrals. The graves were then lost forever.

I held the photo of the Beckwith and Boyle graves and scanned the landscape. I
was standing right in the middle of the mouth of Pierce Canyon and I was about 50
yards from the Pecos River. As I looked at the surrounding landscape, it became
clear to me that this was the same place that the photo had been taken from in
about 1929. Because the head stones are no longer there, no one can say with 100%
accuracy that this was the Beckwith/Boyle site, however, given the evidence I had
before me coupled with a living witness to two graves, I feel very comfortable
that this is it.

The coordinates for this site are:

32 deg. 11 min. 29 sec. North
103 deg. 58 min. 39 sec. West

My GPS margin of error was -0- (zero).

I have seen an original photo of the Beckwith head stone (not dated) taken in the
old Seven Rivers Cemetery. The stone was moved, however, the body was believed to
not have been moved. I have not found anything on the location of the Boyle
headstone. This photo is on file in the Family History Center in Carlsbad, NM.

There are at least two old newspaper articles about the death of Beckwith, I
looked at one of them at the Family History Center in Carlsbad, NM, it tells a
story of how John Beckwith and John Jones (same Jones family found in the Rocky
Arroyo) were cattle partners and had an angry disagreement over some cattle.
Jones claimed that Beckwith owed him money. John Jones went to Milo Pierce, who
had a rock house at Pierce Canyon, and threatened to kill Beckwith. Milo Pierce
was friends with Beckwith and told Jones that he if Jones killed Beckwith, Jones
would also have to kill him (Pierce). Soon after, John Jones and John Beckwith
were together and argued over the alleged owed money and the argument turned to a
gun fight. John Jones killed John Beckwith. Three days later, John Jones was on
his way to a Justice of the Peace and stopped at the Rock house of Milo Pierce.
Milo Pierce was in the company of his friend, Bob Olinger and when Pierce saw
Jones coming, he told Olinger that Jones was coming to kill him. Bob Olinger
stated that he would take care of it. When John Jones arrived there was a fight
and a rifle went off wounding Milo Pierce in the hip or leg. Bob Olinger then
fired at John Jones and killed him. Olinger took Pierce in a wagon to Ft.
Stockton, TX for medical treatment. Bob Olinger was later killed by William Bonnie
(Billy the Kid).