In Memory of Charley McComas
Little six year old Charley McComas was kidnapped when his parents, Judge H. C. McComas and his wife, Juniata, were brutally murdered, March 28, 1883, by Chato and his band of Apache Indians.
The incident occurred in the Burro Mountains on the wagon road between Silver City and Lordsburg, New Mexico. The parents' bodies were found near the wagon and a dead horse, but Charley was not there. A massive search was launched, but there was no trace of the child.
It was presumed that he was taken to Mexico with the Indians. There were rumors that the child was alive, but no white man ever saw him again. Another rumor said he was killed when the army invaded the Indian camp in Mexico.
The best account of what happened to Charley can be found in the book written by Marc Simmons and published in 1997, "Massacre on the Lordsburg Road – A Tragedy of the Apache Wars." Marc spent years researching the topic of the McComas massacre. The following information is taken from his book.
In March of 1883 Geronimo and Chato with their warriors left the Apache base camp in the Sierra Madre Mountains in Sonora, Mexico. They split up, Geronimo and his band of warriors headed into Sonora and Chato with his warriors headed towards the United States border, raiding and killing on the way. Once Chato reached the border, he and his band left a bloody swarth through Arizona and New Mexico.
The McComas family was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just a little earlier before their demise, they had passed a stage coach exiting Thompson Canyon, that had been unmolested by the Apaches. After exiting the west side of Thompson Canyon, the family stopped at a walnut tree to have a picnic lunch. That was when Chato and his band attacked and killed Hamilton and his wife Juniata and abducted little Charley on March 28, 1883.
Chato and his raiding party headed back to their base camp in the Sierra Madre Mountains with Charley. The Apache camp was surprised on May 15th by a group of advanced scouts under Gen. George Crook that were searching for Chato. Most of the Apache warriors were not at the camp and the women and children who were not captured, scattered into the mountainous terrain. As the Apaches slowly came down the mountain and surrendered to the Army, Charley was not among them. From several accounts told by the Apaches who lived into the 1940s and 1950s, the following account of Charley's death can be pieced together.
During the May 15th attack on the Apache camp, an old woman was killed and her warrior son Speedy, in grief and anger, picked up a stone and beat Charley on the head, injuring him, but not killing him. Charley fled into the bushes. The next day as two women made their way down the mountainside through rocks and brush towards the Army camp to surrender, they happened upon the gravely injured Charley. The one woman wanted to take Charley with them, but the other feared they would be blamed, so they left him lying there unconscious and bloody. Charley, most likely in that condition, succumbed to a combination of exposure and his head wound.
His body was never recovered.
Only God knows what happened to little Charley. May God rest his soul.
(Picture from 1883 Newspaper article)
Little six year old Charley McComas was kidnapped when his parents, Judge H. C. McComas and his wife, Juniata, were brutally murdered, March 28, 1883, by Chato and his band of Apache Indians.
The incident occurred in the Burro Mountains on the wagon road between Silver City and Lordsburg, New Mexico. The parents' bodies were found near the wagon and a dead horse, but Charley was not there. A massive search was launched, but there was no trace of the child.
It was presumed that he was taken to Mexico with the Indians. There were rumors that the child was alive, but no white man ever saw him again. Another rumor said he was killed when the army invaded the Indian camp in Mexico.
The best account of what happened to Charley can be found in the book written by Marc Simmons and published in 1997, "Massacre on the Lordsburg Road – A Tragedy of the Apache Wars." Marc spent years researching the topic of the McComas massacre. The following information is taken from his book.
In March of 1883 Geronimo and Chato with their warriors left the Apache base camp in the Sierra Madre Mountains in Sonora, Mexico. They split up, Geronimo and his band of warriors headed into Sonora and Chato with his warriors headed towards the United States border, raiding and killing on the way. Once Chato reached the border, he and his band left a bloody swarth through Arizona and New Mexico.
The McComas family was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just a little earlier before their demise, they had passed a stage coach exiting Thompson Canyon, that had been unmolested by the Apaches. After exiting the west side of Thompson Canyon, the family stopped at a walnut tree to have a picnic lunch. That was when Chato and his band attacked and killed Hamilton and his wife Juniata and abducted little Charley on March 28, 1883.
Chato and his raiding party headed back to their base camp in the Sierra Madre Mountains with Charley. The Apache camp was surprised on May 15th by a group of advanced scouts under Gen. George Crook that were searching for Chato. Most of the Apache warriors were not at the camp and the women and children who were not captured, scattered into the mountainous terrain. As the Apaches slowly came down the mountain and surrendered to the Army, Charley was not among them. From several accounts told by the Apaches who lived into the 1940s and 1950s, the following account of Charley's death can be pieced together.
During the May 15th attack on the Apache camp, an old woman was killed and her warrior son Speedy, in grief and anger, picked up a stone and beat Charley on the head, injuring him, but not killing him. Charley fled into the bushes. The next day as two women made their way down the mountainside through rocks and brush towards the Army camp to surrender, they happened upon the gravely injured Charley. The one woman wanted to take Charley with them, but the other feared they would be blamed, so they left him lying there unconscious and bloody. Charley, most likely in that condition, succumbed to a combination of exposure and his head wound.
His body was never recovered.
Only God knows what happened to little Charley. May God rest his soul.
(Picture from 1883 Newspaper article)
In Memory of Charley McComas
Little six year old Charley McComas was kidnapped when his parents, Judge H. C. McComas and his wife, Juniata, were brutally murdered, March 28, 1883, by Chato and his band of Apache Indians.
The incident occurred in the Burro Mountains on the wagon road between Silver City and Lordsburg, New Mexico. The parents' bodies were found near the wagon and a dead horse, but Charley was not there. A massive search was launched, but there was no trace of the child.
It was presumed that he was taken to Mexico with the Indians. There were rumors that the child was alive, but no white man ever saw him again. Another rumor said he was killed when the army invaded the Indian camp in Mexico.
The best account of what happened to Charley can be found in the book written by Marc Simmons and published in 1997, "Massacre on the Lordsburg Road – A Tragedy of the Apache Wars." Marc spent years researching the topic of the McComas massacre. The following information is taken from his book.
In March of 1883 Geronimo and Chato with their warriors left the Apache base camp in the Sierra Madre Mountains in Sonora, Mexico. They split up, Geronimo and his band of warriors headed into Sonora and Chato with his warriors headed towards the United States border, raiding and killing on the way. Once Chato reached the border, he and his band left a bloody swarth through Arizona and New Mexico.
The McComas family was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just a little earlier before their demise, they had passed a stage coach exiting Thompson Canyon, that had been unmolested by the Apaches. After exiting the west side of Thompson Canyon, the family stopped at a walnut tree to have a picnic lunch. That was when Chato and his band attacked and killed Hamilton and his wife Juniata and abducted little Charley on March 28, 1883.
Chato and his raiding party headed back to their base camp in the Sierra Madre Mountains with Charley. The Apache camp was surprised on May 15th by a group of advanced scouts under Gen. George Crook that were searching for Chato. Most of the Apache warriors were not at the camp and the women and children who were not captured, scattered into the mountainous terrain. As the Apaches slowly came down the mountain and surrendered to the Army, Charley was not among them. From several accounts told by the Apaches who lived into the 1940s and 1950s, the following account of Charley's death can be pieced together.
During the May 15th attack on the Apache camp, an old woman was killed and her warrior son Speedy, in grief and anger, picked up a stone and beat Charley on the head, injuring him, but not killing him. Charley fled into the bushes. The next day as two women made their way down the mountainside through rocks and brush towards the Army camp to surrender, they happened upon the gravely injured Charley. The one woman wanted to take Charley with them, but the other feared they would be blamed, so they left him lying there unconscious and bloody. Charley, most likely in that condition, succumbed to a combination of exposure and his head wound.
His body was never recovered.
Only God knows what happened to little Charley. May God rest his soul.
(Picture from 1883 Newspaper article)
Little six year old Charley McComas was kidnapped when his parents, Judge H. C. McComas and his wife, Juniata, were brutally murdered, March 28, 1883, by Chato and his band of Apache Indians.
The incident occurred in the Burro Mountains on the wagon road between Silver City and Lordsburg, New Mexico. The parents' bodies were found near the wagon and a dead horse, but Charley was not there. A massive search was launched, but there was no trace of the child.
It was presumed that he was taken to Mexico with the Indians. There were rumors that the child was alive, but no white man ever saw him again. Another rumor said he was killed when the army invaded the Indian camp in Mexico.
The best account of what happened to Charley can be found in the book written by Marc Simmons and published in 1997, "Massacre on the Lordsburg Road – A Tragedy of the Apache Wars." Marc spent years researching the topic of the McComas massacre. The following information is taken from his book.
In March of 1883 Geronimo and Chato with their warriors left the Apache base camp in the Sierra Madre Mountains in Sonora, Mexico. They split up, Geronimo and his band of warriors headed into Sonora and Chato with his warriors headed towards the United States border, raiding and killing on the way. Once Chato reached the border, he and his band left a bloody swarth through Arizona and New Mexico.
The McComas family was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just a little earlier before their demise, they had passed a stage coach exiting Thompson Canyon, that had been unmolested by the Apaches. After exiting the west side of Thompson Canyon, the family stopped at a walnut tree to have a picnic lunch. That was when Chato and his band attacked and killed Hamilton and his wife Juniata and abducted little Charley on March 28, 1883.
Chato and his raiding party headed back to their base camp in the Sierra Madre Mountains with Charley. The Apache camp was surprised on May 15th by a group of advanced scouts under Gen. George Crook that were searching for Chato. Most of the Apache warriors were not at the camp and the women and children who were not captured, scattered into the mountainous terrain. As the Apaches slowly came down the mountain and surrendered to the Army, Charley was not among them. From several accounts told by the Apaches who lived into the 1940s and 1950s, the following account of Charley's death can be pieced together.
During the May 15th attack on the Apache camp, an old woman was killed and her warrior son Speedy, in grief and anger, picked up a stone and beat Charley on the head, injuring him, but not killing him. Charley fled into the bushes. The next day as two women made their way down the mountainside through rocks and brush towards the Army camp to surrender, they happened upon the gravely injured Charley. The one woman wanted to take Charley with them, but the other feared they would be blamed, so they left him lying there unconscious and bloody. Charley, most likely in that condition, succumbed to a combination of exposure and his head wound.
His body was never recovered.
Only God knows what happened to little Charley. May God rest his soul.
(Picture from 1883 Newspaper article)
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