First Murder in Dickens County
There is a grave about 200 yards southeast of the present graveyard at Espuela, with many rocks piled up and around it. In it are the remains of a man by the name of Combs. He was killed in 1877 and was the first white man that there is any record of to be killed by another white man in this The Spur Country. My recollection of the tale told me long ago is, that the man Combs was a freighter coming with a load of freight to Old Dickens City (now known as Espuela). With him was a boy with shome he had a difference that caused the kid to pull out and leave him while he was camped on the road near Red Mud.
After leaving the wagon the kid met some one on the road to whom he told his trouble, and asked the party what he owuld do were he in his place. The answer he received was "I'd kill the so and so." The kid returned to the wagon. Combs had been horse hunting when the kid left, and was hitching up his horses when the kid returned. Without a word to Combs he shot and killed him. Combs' body was put on the wagon with the freight, and brought on to Dickens City. That was how he came to be buried there.
The Spurs, by W.J. "Scotch Bill" Elliott, page 208
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