[or-roots] Browsing Old Cemeteries

[Kith-n-Kin]

Hmmm – source of the source???? 

 

Not to say that there wasn’t more than one Lester Moore, but here’s the way it currently reads on his Boothill, Tombstone, Arizona marker:

 

HERE LIES 

LESTER MOORE 

FOUR SLUGS 

FROM A 44 

NO LES 

NO MORE

 

http://www.clantongang.com/oldwest/boothillgraveyard_graves.html <http://www.clantongang.com/oldwest/boothillgraveyard_graves.htmlL> L

 

“Lester Moore was employed as a Wells, Fargo Co. station agent in the border town of Naco. Hank Dunstan showed up to claim a package one afternoon. He received it, but it was thoroughly mangled. An argument ensued, and both Moore and Dunstan reached for their six shooters. When the smoke cleared, Les Moore lay dead behind his window with four .44 slugs in his chest. Dunstan, too, lay dying, a hole blasted through his ribs by the one shot Moore had been able to get off before he collapsed. Les Moore was given a space in Boothill and an epitaph that has made him famous: ‘HERE LIES LESTER MOORE, FOUR SLUGS FROM A 44, NO LES NO MORE.’ There is no evidence to indicate where Dunstan was buried.” 

http://www.historynet.com/tombstones-cemetery-boothill.htm#high_1

Interestingly, Les does not appear in the 1880 census (well, Naco isn’t there at all, so who knows what district that was) for Pima county.  Nothing about him appeared in the Tombstone Epitaph Prospector from 1880 -1890 or thereabouts.

I believe the grave marker has been changed more than once, so there may have been something lost (or gained) in the translation. Here are some pictures, which may or may not survive the server:

 

 <http://www.carlmadsen.com/uploaded_images/tomb-lestermoore-750382-750613.jpg> http://www.carlmadsen.com/uploaded_images/tomb-lestermoore-750382-750589.jpghttp://farm3.static.flickr.com/2651/4140163436_f21a49c346_t.jpg

I do have a postcard of the marker from the early fifties, I think. From a trip my grandparents took to Tombstone.

Probably like this one:

http://www.thepostcard.com/walt/state/az/azn82.gif

The 1880 census doesn’t have Lester, but does have Lewis Moore, Tombstone Village, Pima County, AT, b Illinois, 1828. ester Moore  

 

Anyhow – here’s another from the same era:

 

Here lies

George Johnson

Hanged by Mistake

1882

He was right

We was Wrong

But We strung him up

And now he’s gone

 

What do you expect from a town that had Mark Twain as a contributor (and maybe editor) of the newspaper, the Tombstone Epitaph?  I’ve always suspected his hand in these grave markers.

 

Pat

 

 

From: or-roots-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us [mailto:or-roots-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us] On Behalf Of Chris & Bill Strickland
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 10:55 PM
To: or-roots mail list
Subject: Re: [or-roots] Browsing Old Cemeteries

 

Beth Perry Johnston wrote:



Isn't it customary to give attribution to the source?


In this day and age, there are some items on the internet that defy attribution -- this would appear to be one of them.  I suspect it could be said to be in the public domain, whether or not it is, technically, is of little importance, as factually, it is.  Google has about 30,000 hits for this poem -- possibly you could find time to research this?   ;-) 

Perhaps one of the more factual entries could be found at the Clark County, Wisconsin, ALHN & AHGP Internet Library, Hosted by the WI Valley Libraries, as it is a library --  http://wvls.lib.wi.us/ClarkCounty/cemeteries/humor.htm, submitted by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon <mailto:eldolken at potc.net> 
 <mailto:eldolken at potc.net> <eldolken at potc.net>

I immediately recognized this as an accurate source, as it included the last stanza:

Here lies Lester Moore 

Shot to death with a 44 

                   Alas! No Les, No Moore


Bill Strickland



 

 





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