The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 31, July 1927 - April, 1928 Page: 343
390 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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A History of the J A Ranch
When I reached the settlements in Colorado, I had published, in
as minute detail as possible, an account of the killing of the two
sheep herders and the Navajo boy, requesting all western papers to
copy the account. We had no knowledge of the men's names, but
they were supposed to be Californians, which was not correct. It
happened that the Casners had brothers who were mining some-
where in Arizona, neither of whom could read or write. The older
brother went into some small town for supplies, and it happened
that the merchant wrapped the articles bought in one of the news-
papers which contained the account just mentioned. After his
arrival at the camp, one of Casner's men read the article. The
Casners came to Texas immediately and identified themselves suffi-
ciently for Dyer to turn over to them the property, for which they
settled the cost of the care. As a matter of fact, these two Casners
who claimed the property were at least partial outlaws themselves
and wanted revenge; so they got a scalawag fellow from the Chris-
tian Colony, then on Salt Fork, and the three went over to Tascosa
and murdered Martinez, who had killed Salazar, the murderer of
their brothers. They claimed they got back a part of the gold
stolen by Salazar when their brothers were killed from Mexican
friends of Martinez who lived in Tascosa, and I think it was true.
Prior to this incident, however, the Casners had placed their prop-
erty on McClellan Creek, where they had a ranch for a year or two.
These men posed as brothers when, as a matter of fact, they were
father and son. After killing Martinez they went over to Fort
Elliott and managed to get a warrant for this head murderer, whose
name I cannot recall, pretending to take him to Gainesville, the
nearest place of law. As soon as they got clear of the fort and
little settlement, at old Sweet Water, they hung this boss robber
to a cottonwood.
This wound up the "robbers' roost" on the Canadian, but when
their camp was cleared up, it was found that all the tents and
property which the robbers had been using belonged to the govern-
ment. This proved conclusively that the officer previously men-
tioned was in some way connected with the outlaws.
Shortly after this occurrence, there was an old Mexican, who had
been freighting all summer for Lee and Reynolds, the post con-
tractors for Fort Elliott, and when he received his money for the
summer's work some of the robbers of the country persuaded him
to come down to the Palo Duro, where the buffalo were thick.
They promised to go partners with him and kill and dry enough
buffalo meat to make a freight load. Just east of the head of
Dry Creek an opposite the head of Bull Run, on the J A Ranch,
they seemed to have camped for the night. Here the robbers killed
him, took his money and other valuables and left the cattle and
wagons. Other Mexican buffalo hunters and meat dryers got the
yokes, chains and wagons and were supposed to have taken them
to the Mexican's family. The oxen, for the want of water, got343
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 31, July 1927 - April, 1928, periodical, 1928; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101088/m1/367/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.