The 30 Minute Rule begins May 21 at 7:00 PM EDT. An Initial Bid Must Be Placed By May 21 at 6:00 PM EDT To Participate After 6:00 PM EDT
Partly-printed DS, signed “Frank H. Lea,” one page, 8.5 x 7, July 17, 1882. Arrest warrant from “The Territory of New Mexico,” issued to the constable of Lincoln: “You are hereby commanded to arrest and take the body of Bill Johnson (colored), and him safely keep, so that you have his body before the undersigned, a Justice of the Peace, within and for, Precinct No. 8, County of Lincoln, at my office in White Oaks, in said County forthwith then and there to answer unto the Territory of New Mexico on a charge or murder.” Signed at the conclusion by Lea as justice of the peace. Lea signs again on the reverse after a handwritten statement: “Wm. R. Rexford is hereby appointed special constable to serve the within unit.” In fine condition. A notable arrest warrant related to an infamous New Mexico county and the site of the ‘Lincoln County War,’ a violent Old West conflict between rival factions that began in 1878 and continued into 1881, which became legendary for the involvement of William H. Bonney, aka Billy the Kid.
Frank Lea was an influential early settler and civic leader in late 19th-century New Mexico, serving as Justice of the Peace, treasurer, and founder of a prominent cattle company in White Oaks. Among the earliest settlers of the Pecos Valley, he is credited as the original founder of White Oaks, laying out the town himself, and later arrived at the site of present-day Roswell in 1881, where he built one of its first homes.
The Western Americana auction of Jochen Zeitz.
