Shakespeare Cemetery
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NMG, Vol. 8, No. 2, Jun 1969, page 22; Project is based on the cemetery surveys published in the New Mexico Genealogist, The Journal of the New Mexico Genealogical Society. P.O. Box 8283; Albuquerque, NM 87198-8283. The magazine's volume, date, and and page number is displayed under the cemetery's name. Our appreciation to the New Mexico Genealogical Society and the survey compliers. This material may not be reproduced or copied from this website nor be used for commercial purposes, resale, re-distribution, or used for profit. The copyright remains with the New Mexico Genealogical Society. Some formatting and editing were made to the original presentation to fit this web site format. Some cemetery surveys were continued on following magazine issues. This website presentation may not be copied in any manner for any reason.

Shakespeare Cemetery is located two miles south of Lordsburg in Hidalgo County. Many graves are unmarked. The cemetery dates to about 1850. Credit source: Compiler Rita and Janaloo Hill, 1969

GRAVES

Ransom Plot: Captain Sam Ransom, his first and second wives and Infant son. Captain Sam, 1847-1891, was a Civil and Indian War veteran. He came to Shakespeare In the second boom (1879) and was blacksmith and horseshoe r for the stage line. His wife, Matilda, and Infant son died In 1884. Be then married Nancy J. McClure, who died In 1889. There are others of the McClure family burled In this cemetery.

1 and 2. Joseph Young and wife Sara (small, unlettered stones). No Information has been found on these people.
3. Minnie Ida Mae Liman (concrete fence and marker) 1892-1900.
Nothing Is known about this child or her family, except the fact that George Hughes, a half brother of the famous Jim Hughes, married her sister.
4. Unknown
5. Unknown
6. Corp. Eli Wright, Co. 4, 8 Texas Infantry, C.S.A. He was born March 8, 1844 and died In 1902. He cams to New Mexico with his wife In 1898 and lived In and around Lordsburg. He was a distant cousin of Edmund Wright. There is a marker beside Eli Wright's for two children of the Samuel J. Wright family, Nettie C. Wright 1904-06 (actually burled at the foot of the large grave) and Roy R. Wright, 1902-03, who is burled in the Gold Hill cemetery. Another Wright child may be buried beside Nettle Wright.
7. Unknown
8. Unknown grave mostly obliterated by road.
9. Thelma Strange 1888-99 (small heart-shaped marker). The Strange family is one of the early ones in this vicinity. An unknown child is buried below Thelma Strange. From 1879 on, families began to come into the Southwest and the many small graves show the results of the hardships of the country.
Dunagan Plot - Captain Stephen Reed Dunagan. Born Sept. 25, 1827 in Alabama. He resided in Marshal County and married Eliza Ann Wood. When the Civil War started he enlisted in Hampton Brigade, Co. G, Alabama Cavalry. Be had evidently had military training, for he was made Captain and served with distinction. Be was probably wounded because he later returned home to serve as recruiting officer. Captain Dunagan came to New Mexico with his wife and family in 1883. They traveled in ox carts, driving a herd of sheep. The family came by way of Silver City and first settled on the San Simon. This was the time of bad Indian troubles and the family lived in fear. They built a small, flat-roofed house and the family felt safer sleeping on this roof where they could see any savages approaching. Soon the Indian troubles drove the Dunagan family back to civilization and they moved to Leitendorf or Pyramid, a few miles from Shakespeare. Captain Ounagan was a surveyor and did the first surveys on much of southwestern New Mexico. Be also ran a store in Lordsburg for a few years and in 1892 he moved to the Animas Valley, where he and his son, Stephen R. Jr. started a ranch. Captain Dunagan died in 1894 after a long illness. Buried in this same plot are his wife and a son, Ezekial, who preceded him in death. Be has numerous descendants in this vicinity, including Mrs. Mary B. Tyler, his granddaughter, Walter Dunagan, a grandson, and Mr. R. B. Wamel, great-grandson and former State Senator from this district.
10. Mathew Doyle, one of Shakespeare's later, but most important citizens, is buried in this cemetery and may be in this plot. When the last of the old families left Shakespeare, at the end of the second boom (1893), Mat Doyle acquired moat of the remaining buildings and stayed on in the old town. When the 85 Mine started working in 1908, houses for workmen and businesses were scarce, so Mat rented some of his old buildings. The old store was again open, first as a store and later as a saloon. The Stratford Hotel became a boarding place for miners and the other houses were used as dwellings. Mat Doyle seems to have been very kind to the children of his tenants, for many adults today remember him with affection. Mat Doyle died around 1917, willing his property to R. M. Reynolds. His date and place of birth have not been found up to this time.
11. Janie Hughes, aged about 8 years, daughter of Nicholas Hughes and his second wife. Janie died of mountain fever in the late 1880's. She died holding Emma Marble Muir's doll in her arms and she is buried with it still in her arms.
NMG, Vol. 8, Mb. 2, Jan 1969, page 31
12. Winnie Mackenzie Hughes. First wife of Jim Hughes and sister to famous Milt (or Jack) Mackenzie. She died about 1884 after the birth of her son Willie. James Hughes. He was the eldest child of Nicholas Hughes and Josef a Armijo Hughes, born in 1864. He became famous as one of the "San Simon Cowboys". Many stories of his exploits are written in western magazines and books, mostly exaggerated and untrue. He was a good friend of John Ringo, Curly Bill, Pete Spence, etc. He died in 1898.
14. Annie Tipkosh. She was a maid to the 0. R. Smyth Family and died of mountain fever in the 1880's or early 1890's.
15. Moliter, Died in 1880. He was a tubercular who had come to Shakespeare for his health about 1878. He would often sleep in the sunshine and while he was lying asleep on the porch of the Roxy Jay Saloon he was knifed for no apparent reason by Charlie Williams, a prospector. (Approximate location of grave.)
16. Russian Bill and Sandy King, hanged in 1881. Russian Bill, son of a Russian Countess, came to Shakespeare, in 1878 from St. Louis, according to old timers. He was probably attracted to this camp by the flamboyant advertising of Gen. John Boyle and Col. William Boyle, organizers of the Shakespeare Gold and Silver Mining and Milling Co. Since the San Simon Cowboys did their shopping at Shakespeare (or Ralston City) Russian Bill met and became friends with Curly Bill. They rode together for nearly three years before Curly disappeared (Wyatt Earp claimed to have killed him.) After a fight of some sort Russian Bill was hanged in the Grant House. (The letter to Bill's mother, written by the Shakespeare postmaster, stated he had died of throat trouble.)
Sandy King, said to have been related to the famous gunman. King Fisher of Texas where Sandy was known as Red Curly, was one of the famous San Simon Cowboys. He was hanged along with Russian Bill because, "He was a damned nuisance", according to the Stage Keeper. Sandy left a wife and two children. (Marker for these two men erected by the John T. Muir Ranch.)
17. One or two Pony Express Riders killed by Indians. (Approximate loca­tion of grave. Marker erected by John T. Muir Ranch.)
18, 19, 20. Three unknown graves.
21, 22, Unknown men, killed by Indiana.
23. Unknown.
24. Unknown adult grave and unknown child's grave, circled with rocks. Probably a mother and child.
25. Bookkeeper at General Store at Shakespeare. He died in the 1880's, possibly of poison, not self-administered.
26. Old man found dead by Emma and Ella Marble. Death probably from natural causes.
Leahy Plot. Approximate location of the grave of Christina Johnson, wife of the Hostler at Shakespeare, who died in 1881 soon after the birth of her daughter, Mattie. The Barker was erected by Mattie Johnson Leahy. Mrs. Leahy also had erected markers for her own daughter, M. Christina Leahy, 1898-1947 (whose body she planned to move to this cemetery) and for herself.
When Mattie Johnson was a child, the first milk cow in Shakespeare was purchased for her. The story is told that a rustler stole this cow and that Curly Bill, one of the most famous characters in the Southwest made the rustler walk back to Shakespeare, and return the cow, because Curly said that men did not steal from babies.
Woods Plot. Boss Woods, born in Canada, February 14, 1850, came to Shakespeare in 1878, and died Dec. 23, 1879. Be was killed at the Stratford Hotel by Bean Belly Smith in a fight over an egg. Beside Ross is his sister Lizzie A. Hill. She was also born in Canada July 10, 1852 and came to Shakespeare with others of her family. She died April 29, 1888 of pneumonia.
27 and 28. Unknown graves with unknown child's grave above.
29. Unknown child, wooden marker.
30. Ownby plot. Some members of the Ownby family who were the first rest" dents of Lordsburg were buried here but the bodies were moved to the newer cemetery.
31. Unknown
32. Unknown
33. Unknown
34. Mathew Otis, aged nine. Be was the son of the Christian minister in early Lordsburg, and died of malaria. Be has a wooden fence and stone marker.
35. Unknown plot, enclosed by large posts.
36. Unknown plot which was enclosed by a fence, but fence has been torn down.
37. Unknown
38 and 39. Unknown
40. Unknown
41. Gambler killed and robbed behind Stratford Hotel. Name forgotten.
42 and 43. Two men murdered in 1880 in a house on Poverty Flat in Shakespeare. Approximate location of graves.
44 and 45. Two men hanged in Shakespeare in the middle 1870's.
46. Unknown small grave.
47. Unknown
48. Unknown grave, obliterated by road.
49. Unknown grave, obliterated by road.
50 and 51.Two unknown graves, obliterated by road.
52. Unknown grave, obliterated by road.
53 through 61. Unknown graves now mostly obliterated by road.
62 and 63. Two unknown with unknown child to left.
64. Unknown
65. Unknown, and unknown child.
66. Unknown
67. J. M. Adams, died May 17, 1897. He was survived by his wife and two children. Fanny (or Bessie) and Buddy, who lived in Lordsburg for about ten years after his death.
68. Unknown child.
Smyth Plot. Orlando R. Smyth, Co. F, 15 N.Y.H.A. He was born in Hempstead, New York, and after fighting in the Civil War he came west, arriving at Pueblo, Colorado on the second train to reach there. He had married Miss Mary Lawson, a niece of the President of the Union Pacific Railroad. They arrived in Santa Fe in 1876. Mr. Smyth was Superintendent of the National Mail and Transportation Co. and was first stationed in Silver City. He soon transferred to Shakespeare, where he lived with his family until the depression of the early 1890's. when they moved to Lordsburg. Mr. Smyth died Oct. 2, 1908. Also burled in the plot are his wife, Mary L. Smyth and one son, Ralph W. Smyth.
69, 70, 71 and 72. These small graves are the daughters of 0. R. and Mary L. Smyth, all of whom died in early infancy.
73. Captain Horace Ambler. 1st Sgt. 6th U.S. Cavalry. Died March 30, 1897. Unknown child's grave to right.
74. Unknown.
75. Mike Ayoub. This man is buried among newer graves and is not really a pioneer, but is connected with an interesting story of the time when he kept a store at Valedon (85 Mine). Mike Ayoub's cousin, also named Ayoub, was staying with Mike and one night the cousin walked down to Shakespeare and got in a poker game. The stakes were high and Ayoub won the pot, only to lose his life. He started to walk back home but was found the next morning, dead, and the $6,000 he had won was missing. He is undoubtedly buried in this cemetery but no one knows where his grave is located.
NMG, Vol.8, No. 3, Sep 1969, page 36.
76. Bob Fambro, shot and killed in Shakespeare in 1879. Known as Happy Bob, he was a member of the Shakespeare Guards and is said to have been killed by a bartender named Malone. (Approximate location of grave.)
77 and 78. Two unmarked graves with iron fences. These may be the graves of two of the little McClure girls. The McClure family lived in Lordsburg and three of their small daughters succumbed to the hardships of life. Elsie died at 4 years, Ethel at 2 years, and Helen at 7 months. The grandfather of these three little girls is also buried in this cemetery.
79 and 80. George and Donna Hutchinson. Much beloved pioneers, George was a freighter and prospector and also a government hunter. He was a member of the Doming Militia in 1885. They had Come to Hew Mexico from Texas and came to Lordsburg about 1906. As they grew old and helpless the good people of Lordsburg cared for them. The Hutchinson's had no children. (Marker erected by the John T. Muir Ranch.)
81. Sarah J. Mitchell. 1826-1913. Born in Ohio. April 16, 1826. She was one of the early pioneers and lived through many hardships of the times. She and her husband were first at San Simon on a small ranch. Mr. Mitchell was one of the early cowboys employed by the San Simon Cattle Co. When he died, Mrs. Mitchell moved to the Lordsburg area and took up a homestead near the Muir ranch. She died Jan. 4, 1913.
82. John N. Evensen, died 1887. He was born in Norway about 1812 and was a sailor for over 20 years, traveling the seas of the world. In 1849 or 1850, his ship was docked in San Francisco. The call of the gold rush was too much so he and several other sailors jumped ship to join the gold seekers. He found that it wasn't easy to get rich and in 1865 he got a job as Station Keeper for a new stage line to be operated over the Butterfield route. He kept the Stage station while the names changed from Mexican Spring to Grant to Ralston City and to Shakespeare. He knew the mad days of the silver boom and the diamond swindle. He managed during the depression of the middle 70's and was here at the second boom that came with the railroad and beginning of Lordsburg. He died in the Stratford Hotel in 1887.
83. Thomas Kennedy, born in Erie, Penn. in 1837. An early miner in Shakes­peare, he later started a ranch about 3 miles south of Lordsburg. Here he became well known for the good horses he raised. He died in 1913.
84. Late Tucker, 1870-1946. Because of trouble in Texas he came to New Mexico and worked as a cowboy for the Bar T Ranch. He was a top hand until his death in a grass fire accident. (Marker erected by the John Bar T, Muir Ranch.)
85. Feliciano Placencia 1889-1937. He was not an early pioneer but a man closely associated with the pioneer Marble-Muir family. Peliciano was of Spanish-German descent and came to the U.S. from Zacatocas, Mexico in 1906. He worked for John Muir's Bar T Ranch many years, being regarded by his employer as a most efficient man and praised by man as a top cowboy. He was also a businessman and a property owner. He was shot and killed during the trouble caused by the division of range lands in 1937. The Muir Ranch erected the stone in memory of this brave and loyal vaquero. Feliciano's small granddaughter is buried beside him.
86. Peter B. Greaves, 1st Sergeant, Co. F. Iowa Cavalry. He lived in Pinos Altos and Silver City in the 1870's and Shakespeare in the 1880's. He held public office in Silver City and was a Justice of the Peace in Shakespeare.
87. Sarah Anderson Hayes. Born July 6, 1840 in Henderson, Texas, she grew up and was married in Texas, at Ft. Sam Houston. She and her husband were truly pioneers, working for the stage lines at different stations, gradually working west. They last worked for the National Mail and Transportation Company, keeping the San Simon Station. Mrs. Hayes was Station Keeper and Mr. Hayes was Hostler. They saw the first train roll over the newly completed Southern Pacific tracks and then they were out of a job. Later they lived in various places in this area, Deming, Silver City, Mogollon, Hachita, Shakespeare, and finally Lordsburg. Mrs. Hayes was known as one of the most industrious, honorable and finest women ever to live in this community. She died April 29, 1937. She was survived by her four children. Albert Hill of. Lordsburg is a grandson.
88. E. Colby, died 1889, age 49 years. Marker and iron fence.
89. Lonnie Kelly. Iron fence and old wooden marker.
90. W. J. Sapp is buried in this area, perhaps in this iron fence, but exact location is not known for sure. Mr. Sapp was a chemist, originally from England, but he came to Silver City from Maryland. In Silver City he married and soon moved to Lordsburg where be supervised the building of the Concentrator. Be died in 1911 and is survived by at least two daughters.
91. Roman Gallardo, born in Tucson, Arizona Feb. 28, 1863. He came from a farming family who had resided in the Tucson area for many years. He came to Shakespeare and Lordsburg as a young man, probably in the 1880's, to work. He died March 18, 1895.
McCabe Plot. James McCabe was born in French Lick Springs, a noted resort town in Indiana, in 1860. He came to Lordsburg in 1884 with his brothers. John T. McCabe and Ves Chase. The railroad had just been completed two years before so the Lordsburg area was full of opportunities for energetic men and the three brothers engaged in many successful business enterprises. They had various properties in Lordsburg and John McCabe operated the XT ranch with headquarters south of Animas. James McCabe died in 1907 and left no survivors.
McNair Plot. Maude Marshall McMair, her husband and child. Mrs. McNair was a sister to Mrs. S. M. Chase of Lordsburg.
92. According to Mrs. Muir's memory there la a Rufus Wamel, died in the 1880's, buried in this fence. It would seem that he was related to the W. J. Wamel family, since they were living in Shakespeare at this time, but they can find no record of this man.
93. Burnice Hill, born April 3, 1911, died March 17, 1915, Jack Hill. Born May 8, 1917, died same day, and Geneva Hill. born March 2. 1916 and died same day. These three little ones were the children of John Edward Hill and Mary Alice Hayes Hill, who was the daughter of Sarah Hayes. Mr. Albert Hill, prominent citizen of Lordsburg, is the brother of the three little children buried here.
94. Unknown child.
95. Nestor Hernandez, born about 1860. One of the true pioneers, he was born in Mexico but came north in the 1870's when he was 17 years old. He went first to Silver City and then walked from there to Shakespeare with another man. The Indians were so bad that the two men did not dare travel by day for fear of being seen. They would walk all night and then hide and rest during the daylight hours. Hernandez was a carpenter and he was kept busy in Shakespeare and Lordsburg for many years. He was married and two of his daughters, Mrs. Joe Esquivel and Mrs. Hazel Moza, still live in Lordsburg. In the same plot are the graves of Alvina Acuna, Nestor Hernandez's mother, who came here a few months after her son arrived and several of his sisters and brothers.
96. Unknown.
97 and 98. Two unknown.
99. Unknown child.
100. Infant daughter of John T. McCabe and Ida Wilson McCabe. Iron fence and stone.
101, 102, 103, 104 and 105. Unknown.
106. C. B. Schultz, died May 11, 1893. He had been a butcher in Shakespeare and Lordsburg. At the time he was killed he was a deputy sheriff and was taking some prisoners to Silver City. One of them managed Co strike Mr. Schultz over the head with the handcuffs. The prisoners dumped the Deputy's body out after killing him, and escaped with the wagon, only to be caught later.
107. Dr. E. L. Cassels, 1846-1906. One of Lordsburg's early physicians, he had an office where the old Palace Theater now stands. At his death he left a wife and at least one child, a daughter named Grace.
108. Kathleen Leahy, age 13 days. She was the child of Will Leahy and died about 1900. The Leahy brothers operated one of the oldest and largest stores in Lordsburg.
109. McGuire, killed in 1858 by Indians. He had come to Mexican Spring (Shakespeare) to ranch. (Approximate location of grave.)
110. Unknown in iron fence.
111. Marion Olden, born July 6, 1904 and died June 7, 1905. Daughter of W. S. and Mable Olden. There was a large funeral for this tiny, beloved child. Six little girls, about 9 years old, acted as pall bearers. They were all dressed in white and wore flower trimmed hats. Mrs. Sam Gass of Lordsburg remembers this funeral well since she was one of the pall bearers. There is a marble marker on the grave.
112. Isabel Hughes. Dec. 11, 1903 - Dec. 1, 1915.
113 and 114. Two unknown which were marked with rough rocks, but rocks have been moved.
115. Small unknown grave with old iron fence.
Somewhere in this area is buried one other man hanged in Shakespeare in the middle 1870's. Billy Blackburn, one of the famous blacksmiths of Shakespeare, is somewhere near, as is also the man found hanging from a tree by Joe Woods'  father. Mr. Woods stated the man had been murdered since it was not possible for him to have hanged himself in that manner.

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