Clan William: Judge Warren Bristol & Billy the Kid

Judge Warren H Bristol

Today, our subject is a Munson descendant who went West - twice. First to Red Wing, Minnesota and then to Mesilla and Deming, New Mexico: Judge Warren Bristol.

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Peter Munson > Lydia Munson > Burrage Bristol > Warren Bristol m. Louisa C Armstrong

Warren Henry Bristol was born in Stafford, Genesee County, New York on 19 Mar 1823 to Dr. Burrage Bristol and Sally Benham. The Bristol family were some of the early settlers to New England. Burrage was originally from Cheshire, Connecticut. After Burrage fought as a captain of the cavalry for three months in the War of 1812, his family settled further west in New York.  

Warren was educated in a number of institutions including Yates Academy, Lima Seminary, and Wilson Collegiate Institute. He then decided to study law and attended Fowler's Law School in Saratoga County, New York. After completing Fowler's, he studied in Lockport, NY,  under Edward J. Chase, brother of Chief Justice Chase. To support himself while he studied, he taught at Union School of Lockport.

Bristol's Partner in Firm, 1856
Red Wing Sentinel

After he passed the bar, he decided to head west. He jumped aboard a ship bound for Quincy, IL, but overslept and did not get off at his stop. He was then waiting in Keokuk, IA, waiting for a return trip when he heard soldiers speaking about the great land of Minnesota. He decided to go north and in Minnesota he landed on what turned out to be the last trip before Winter of 1850. He wasn't impressed. The harsh winter was upon him and he was nearly out of funds. As he had since he was 16 and on his own, he searched for a living as there was no way he could open a law office at the time. A kindly landlord found him a job taking mail from St Paul and the Falls of St Croix by way of Stillwater. 

Bristol recalled he had no form of amusement or mental stimulation, so he joined a debate club in St Paul which gave him some great connections, including a future US Senator, M. S. Wilkinson. It was from that point that Bristol decided to open his practice in Hennepin County, where Minneapolis would spring up (Bristol was part of the committee that named said city). He became the city's first county attorney, but resigned to move to Red Wing in Goodhue County. 

He began practice with J. N. Murdock. At about this time, he married Louisa Armstrong, an old friend from Lockport, NY (20 Apr 1854). He was elected as District Attorney for Goodhue County and afterwards was a probate judge. In 1855, he was in charge of the first Republican State convention, where the party organized. Then, he sat in the lower house of the legislature for one term and two as State Senator.  In 1864, he was a member of the Republic national convention in Baltimore, which renominated Abraham Lincoln. 

In 1872, President Ulysses Grant nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Mexico. This was a huge and cumbersome move for he and Louisa. He arrived at Mesilla, then Dona Ana's county seat where they sat up their first New Mexcio home. Almost immediately, he opened his first term of court in Grant County. He was reappointed by three different presidents in the coming years. But, not easily. Rutherford B. Hayes did not want to reappoint Bristol in 1880. He nominated three other inviduals, each failing to get through the confirmation process. Hayes finally gave up and reappointed Bristol. 

Serving three counties as circuit judge (Dona Ana, Lincoln, and Grant), he saw a lot of judicial action. He was on the bench during the "Lincoln County War," and the trials that were an outcropping of same, and the trial of "Billy the Kid."

Mrs. Bristol provided accounts of two incidents during those wild days:

Sheriff Brady

The first occurred during the spring term of court in the midst of the war. "The clerk by mistake had given notice of it a week earlier than the correct time, and Sheriff Brady, while on his way to Lincoln to notify the people court would not open until a week from that day, was shot and killed by persons concealed behind a high fence or wall."

"The judge with the clerk and lawyers going from Mesilla and Las Cruces were designated 'the court party,' and it was inferred that the concealed assasins were expecting this party to follow the sheriff, when the same fate would be dealt to them. At the regular time, the judge, clerk and others, among whom I think were Judge Newcomb, of Las Cruces, and Col Fountain, of Mesilla, started for Lincoln county. Reaching Tularosa, about half way to the county seat, they heard of the condition of affairs at Lincoln, and the killing of the sheriff. While deliberating upon what they had better do, wheather to proceed or return, a detachment of soldiers under command of a lieutenant from the military post of Fort Stanton, came up. The lieutenant gave the judge a letter from Col Dudley, the commander at Lincoln, and tendering the military as an escort. The judge and party then proceeded to Fort Stanton. The judge was quartered there, and every day went to the county seat, nine miles distant, under a military guard, which was stationed round the bilding while he held court, and took him back at night. The guard also accompanied the party back to Las Cruces upon adjournment of court."

Billy the Kid

The second was: "In the trial of William Bonney, AKA Billy the Kid:" the judge afterwards related that knowing Billy's desperate nature and what he might do if the bailiffs with their weapons came within 'snatching' distance of him, he, the judge, never lost sight of the criminal during the entire trial. Billy afterwards said that if he could have got hold of one of those pistols there would have been lively times for a while. The judge in passing sentence always did it as briefly and in as few words as possible. Billy evidently expected that his evil deeds would be emphasized and he would be exhorted to repent. Upon hearing neither, he turned to a bailiff and said, 'That's business; the judge means business.'"

According to another source, the Billy the Kid Story, and the Judge himself, look a little differently. 

"A former assistant attorney general for New Mexico and author, Joel Jacobson, has written: "Like many other judges both before and after him, Bristol would sooner do something dishonest than something illegal." Before Billy the Kid faced Judge Bristol on charges of killing Lincoln County sheriff William Brady and deputy George Hindman, his friend Alexander McSween had been shot down by enemies in Lincoln town. 

In late 1880, Sheriff Pat Garrett captured Billy and several of his fellow outlaws east of Fort Sumner. After languishing in the Santa Fe County jail for three months, the Kid was sent downriver on the railroad for trial in Mesilla. It is clear from the beginning that the partisan judge intended to convict the accused. 

Billy's two-day trial before an all-Hispano (ed. note. non-English speaking) jury got under way on the morning of April 8, 1881. The cramped courtroom was in a narrow adobe building on one corner of the Mesilla Plaza. At the far end, the judge was seated behind a desk on an elevated platform, while the defendant sat to one side of him, handcuffed and attended by armed guards. 

Lincoln Co Jail & Courthouse

 

Bristol appeared to be a small, timid man "with a full gray beard and a cadaverous look about his eyes." In spite of his hopeless situation, Billy seemed defiant. The record of witness testimony and legal arguments has not been discovered. 

However, we know that Judge Bristol's lengthy instruction to the jury indicated that a guilty verdict was the only one possible. Thus, Billy the Kid was found guilty of first-degree murder and was ordered sent to Lincoln to await his execution by hanging. 

His subsequent escape, pursuit by Sheriff Garrett and killing at Fort Sumner is well known. The Mesilla trial stands as the high point in Warren Bristol's life. His irregularities in the proceedings failed to tarnish his reputation at the time. In other instances, though, he was accused of legal improprieties that cast a shadow over his career." Santa Fe New Mexican, 10/8/2010

Self-Assessment

Bristol was also mocked, when after not paying taxes for five years, he was forced to assess his belongings. He presented said, signed under oath, to the county. As it was then public record unidentified columnist "69" made sure to share it with the community in the Las Cruces Sun-News on 08 Jul 1882. It's pretty funny, and clearly not a fair assessment. I get how Bristol caught a hard time!

After the creation of the town of Deming, the Bristol's moved there in 1882. It had a railroad connection and was more convenient for his travels as a judge. His new home was gorgeous. He built the first wind-mill for irrigation in the area and created functional orchards.

Suddenly, he quit as Judge in 1884. Bristol helped develop law in a lawless land, allowing for safe settlement into the coming decades. His entire life had been given over to public service. His last service was to attend the constitutional convention in 1889. The people of the county of Grant selected him to represent them by vote. 

Historians have a really hard time with Bristol. Particularly in the way he handled the Billy the Kidd trial, but also on a more general level. He also was a bit of a quitter. He quit as county attorney, he quit as a state legislator, and he quit his judgeship. 

After the Judge's death on 12 Jan 1890, his wife Louisa returned to Lockport, NY and lasted another 24 years. She died on 18 Mar 1914. They had no children.