In Lincoln, the office of the Justice of the Peace barely qualified as an office.

It was a one-room Adobe building that was also a public meeting space, a dance hall, and

the courthouse when a judge showed up twice a year.

The building belonged to J.B. Wilson, the Justice of the Peace.

On this day, a strong, tough young man stood before him ready to swear in oath as a deputy

constable.

The young man would then turn around and swear in his friends and colleagues.

Tension in Lincoln County had been building steadily over the last year, and it had escalated

sharply in the last two months.

Since then, two weeks ago, it had finally spilled over into murder.

The first shots of the Lincoln County War had been fired, and a man had been killed.

Now, his friends and supporters banded together to avenge his murder, and the killing would

not stop for three years.

Some of these men would be forgotten.

Some would be minor players in written works that followed, and one would become a folk

lore hero and a legendary character in American history.

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