MILO BURLINGAME
By Dale Tracy
Another of the colorful characters who comprised the early town
of Cheyenne was Milo Burlingame.
Milo was born about 1872 in Illinois.
His father was E. S. Burlingame who was born in 1828 in New York.
Little is known about his mother.
We do know that his mother had died or his mother and father had
divorced prior to 1893 because in that year E. S. married Mrs. M. B.
Adams at Canadian, Texas.
E. S. died on Nov. 13, 1907 and was buried in the Canadian,
Texas
Cemetery.
E. S. was survived by Milo, and a daughter, Mrs. Travis of
Montana. Apparently their
mother was also living there
because according to an April 1907 report in the Cheyenne Star that Milo had gone to Miles City, Montana due to the serious
illness of his mother.
It is possible that E. S. Burlingame, his wife and any family
they might have had, were living in South Haven,
Michigan
in 1866 as there are IRS records showing a Mrs. E. S. Burlingame holding
a liquor license at that place that year.
Upon reflection of this fact and from the results of other facts
learned from sources on the internet, I believe there is no close
relation of these Burlingames and Milo, the
subject of this article. I
leave this information in place for future researchers to decide.
If his parents were in the retail liquor business,
Milo probably grew up learning this business and followed
his parents in vocations.
His parents would have moved to Illinois
before Milo was born there in 1872.
This is all purely conjecture, but it fits.
The 1900 census states that the father of Milo was born in
Pennsylvania
and his mother was born in New
York.
Milo’s wife, Minnie, was born in Texas.
Milo
married Minnie Milligan and they had a daughter who died in 1899 at
Canadian, Texas
at the age of 2 ½ years.
Her body was returned to Cheyenne and she
was buried at the Cheyenne Cemetery.
They had a son, Paul who was born in Cheyenne in 1899 and lived in
California
for a period of time before dying and being buried at Santa Fe National
Cemetery in 1969.
They also had a daughter Lily
Belle who attended the 1957 Old Settlers Reunion with her family.
Little more is known about her.
The E. S. Burlingame family moved to the Clarendon
area of the Texas
panhandle in 1877. It is
recorded that E. S. was a well digger.
It is not certain when Milo first moved to
Cheyenne from Mobeetie, Texas, but it
was prior to March of 1895, as that is the first time
Milo
is mentioned in the Cheyenne Sunbeam newspaper.
He and Minnie Milligan married about one year later, in February
of 1896. Minnie had two
sisters who married well known men of
Cheyenne.
Lydia married W. S. “Stoney” Duke in
1896 and Callie married Hugh Colburn in 1899.
According to the 1920 census reports, Milo and Minnie were living
at Magdalena, New Mexico.
Minnie’s mother, Eudora [Nora?], age 79 years was living with
them then. Ten years later,
in the 1930 census report, the Burlingames
were living at Albuquerque
and Eudora was still with
them. Milo and Minnie would return to their old home of Cheyenne for
every Old Settlers Reunion from
the time they moved away until 1957, and had plans to attend the
reunion in 1962 but he died in Albuquerque at age 90 on April 14, 1962,
just before the reunion was held.
From an oral interview with author Laura V. Hamner,
we have this story concerning Milo as a young boy and the telegraph
office at Fort Elliot, which was located just northwest of Old Mobeetie, Texas.
This story was recorded in the 1959 edition of the
Panhandle-Plains Historical Review, the annual journal of the
Panhandle-Plains Historical Society.
“Telegrams were primarily of a military nature but because of the
isolation of Ft.
Elliott
and the fact that there was not a line for public use, telegrams with
civilian messages were sometimes transmitted.
As a service to the surrounding territory, civilian as well as
military, messages were delivered by military personnel at considerable
costs to the government.”
“A boy named Milo Burlingame who lived near the post, where his
father was employed as a clerk in the sutler’s
store, frequently delivered civilian messages.
Milo admired the telegraph operator and spent most of his
spare time around the telegraph office.
When President Grover Cleveland issued an ultimatum in 1885
ordering Texas cattlemen to vacate Indian Territory lands in the
future State of Oklahoma, Milo
Burlingame delivered telegrams to Indian Territory
authorities. [Milo would have been 13
years old at the time. The
points where he delivered the telegrams might have been 70 miles away.
Milo would need to have been a
good rider and a good horseman to carry out this task.] The operator
also allowed Milo to deliver telegrams
addressed to Mobeetie residents.
Later he delivered telegrams to the distant ranches in the Texas panhandle.
Judge Frank Willis once gave a boy, most likely Milo Burlingame,
fifty dollars for bringing a telegram to him when he was far from
Fort
Elliott.
Searching from ranch to ranch the boy finally found Judge Willis
and was rewarded handsomely for his diligence.”
The book, ”The Frontier
Army in the Settlement of the West” states that it was indeed
Milo who received the $50 for delivery of the message.
For a period of time around 1884-1885, Milo attended the private school of Miss Lucy Beach
at Mobeetie.
In her book titled “Put Up or Shut Up” Millie Jones Porter prints
a letter she received from Milo Burlingame dated Oct. 15, 1946.
This was several years following the printing of her first book
“Memory Cups” when she thought she did not have enough historical
material to fill a second book.
In the letter Milo states that it is a pity she did not consult him
before she wrote her books.
He said there was but one party that she mentioned that was in the Texas
Panhandle ahead of his folks.
Milo mentioned an Indian uprising near
Wellington
that started on the Rocking Chair Ranch where he was located at the
time. He sent Mrs. Porter a
photo that was taken following a riding tournament at Mobeetie in 1884.
The picture is reprinted for this journal.
Milo
was 12 years old at the time the picture was made.
Milo says in his letter that “his father hauled the first
foot of lumber from Mobeetie to Canadian and it was used to build a
saloon for old Henry Hamburg”.
He states that he wishes that he “had someone to do the writing
for him as he had a lot of information.”
Milo writes, “As you know, I used to ride races for years and met
lots of people and as I, by chance in 1893, went east with Uncle Bill
Miller’s famous Nellie Miller mare. When
I reached St. Louis, the horsemen soon seen that I had all those Eastern
riders beat when it came to getting away from the post and the trainer
of that famous old horse, Peter McCue, came to me and engaged me to ride
him, and I was proud to get the chance to ride him.
If he would have known it, I would have rode him for nothing.
I rode him every race he run until I turned that fall for good
old Texas.”
“They asked me how I learned to get away from the post so well.
I told them that if they had run as many matched cowpony races as
I had at Old Mobeetie they would learn to leave in the lead or no go.”
“I said when I was riding Peter McCue that some time, if I ever
got enough money I would own him.
After a few years, when he was sixteen years old and had a broken
leg, I gave $10,000 [at the turn of the century $10,000 was a lot of
money] for him and when he was 21years old, I sold him to that famous
old horseman, Coke Robards, of Hoden, Colorado.”
Some reports state that Milo
only paid $5,000 for Peter McCue.
Was Milo one to embellish his story?
Milo then tells of his
days of working for the Rocking Chair Ranch in
Collingsworth
County, hired more to ride
races for them than to work.
Milo was small of stature and a splendid rider.
Both of Milo’s parents were
small people, having been described that it would take the two of them
to make one normal person.
Milo tells of his early days in the panhandle, dating back to 1879 or
1880, first at old Clarendon, then to
Fort
Elliott and Mobeetie, race
riding and experiences with quarter horses.
His letter informs the reader of Milo’s
activities during his later years. “As
I have said, I rode old Peter McCue, the greatest quarter horse that
ever lived. After owning him and
scattering some famous colts from him, I got invitations from all over
the western states to attend the quarter horse shows.
All I am doing now [1946] is buying cattle on a commission for
other people and selling cattle and sheep ranches.”
In her book “Put up or Shut Up”, Mrs. Porter includes writings by
many other individuals who pioneered in the
Texas
panhandle. W. S. [Billie]
Carter relates this story about Milo Burlingame.
It seems that Milo had been
working on the Turkey Track Ranch for Cape
Willingham, the foreman.
Cape
had a string of race horses on the ranch and took them to Mobeetie for
the Fourth of July celebration.
Willingham had one he called Grover that he wanted to win the
sweepstakes and one he called Clan.
Clan had never been run in a sweepstakes but had been trained
some on the ranch. No one
thought Clan could outrun Grover, so the race was fixed for Grover to
win the race. When
Milo saw some of the other horses in the race he decided to
ride Clan and try to win the race.
He lit into old Clan pretty hard and won the race.
Willingham lost money on the race and it broke some of the Turkey
Track cowboys.
Milo was in bad with the Turkey Track outfit and had to quit
them.
In an early edition of the Cheyenne Star, the editor wrote short
biographies of the local business leaders and county office holders.
Following is the piece written about Milo.
“Milo Burlingame is the proprietor of the ‘Palace Bar’, and is
one of the old timers of this part of the country.
Milo is an old cowman and was raised in the saddle and knows more
about horses than anyone in this part of
Roger
Mills County.
He is a good businessman, and is always ready to devote his time
and money to the upbuilding of Cheyenne.
He has a nice, clean place, and his liquors are the best to be
had. He tries to please his
customers, and with the help of his able assistant, Charley McClain, he
conducts one of the most quiet and pleasant resorts in
Western Oklahoma”.
The saloon that Milo
owned and operated was located on property now occupied by the Security
State Bank.
Probably the most noted accomplishment for Milo around
Cheyenne
was that in 1910 he purchased and brought to Cheyenne one of the most famous Quarter-horses
of all time. Price was $5,000.
This was the stallion Peter McQue, which Milo had earlier ridden
to a World Record for the quarter mile while they were in
St. Louis.
Peter McQue was timed by five separate stopwatches at 21 seconds
flat in the quarter mile.
The May 19, 1910 issue of the Cheyenne Star records that Milo Burlingame
and Sam Bowman have just shipped in a thoroughbred race stallion—Peter
McCue. He could be seen at
the Tom Caudle barns in
Cheyenne. Milo stood the horse for breeding during the period of
1910-1915 seasons. One
report states that Milo sold Peter McCue from
Cheyenne
in 1915.
From this
foundation, many notable racehorses have been sired in western
Oklahoma and millions of dollars were later won in races
throughout the United States
featuring the progeny of Peter McQue. This later led one writer to name Roger
Mills
County “The Cradle of the
American Quarter Horse”. Several
references to Milo Burlingame can be found on the inter-net but they all
refer to him as an owner of Peter McCue.
Milo was a supporter of the community of
Cheyenne.
From the old issues of the Cheyenne Star we find that
Milo would contribute prizes to the winners of various
contests at the county fair.
These prizes were most often a box of cigars and a ½ gallon of
whiskey. He also served on a committee to explore the feasibility of
attracting a railroad to build to
Cheyenne.
Other issues of the Cheyenne
newspapers contain stories that indicate that Milo
led somewhat of a charmed life.
There are two incidents that almost took
Milo’s life.
The first, published on June 14, 1907 reads as follows.
“Milo Burlingame investigated his acetylene tank on Sunday
afternoon last and while making the investigation, struck a match,
resulting in quite an explosion, burning him quite seriously.
The burns, while severe and painful, are not quite dangerous, but
you can bet the last cent you have that in the future
Milo will not investigate his gas tanks with a lighted match
in his hand.” It was quite
common for the more up to date people at that time to have an acetylene
generating system in or near their home or business building for the
purpose of supplying fuel for gas lamps in those structures.
The other, perhaps more interesting event, took place about one
and a half years earlier, at the end of February 1906.
The Cheyenne Sunbeam recorded the following.
“The storm last week will long be remembered by three citizens of
our county. On Thursday,
while the snow was pelting down in sheets, Louis Bowman, Milo Burlingame
and Frank Trammell left Canadian, Texas in a buggy to
return to their homes here. There
was a heavy snow on the ground when they started and when they reached
about half-way, the snow was between 2 and 3 feet deep and still falling
in such abundance as to make travel almost impossible.
About a mile and one-half from the line dividing
Texas
and Oklahoma,
it became impossible to distinguish the road from the surrounding
country and the travelers had to go “by guess”.
They had not gone far in this way, when a strange thing happened.
Each of the three was intent on looking around for landmarks that
would indicate their whereabouts, when suddenly the buggy stopped.
All eyes were immediately directed to where the team had been an
instant before, but the horses had disappeared.
On the spur of the moment, Mr. Bowman jumped over the dashboard
and he disappeared also.
Jumping out as soon as they could gather their wits,
Burlingame
and Trammell saw Mr. Bowman’s head above a log on which his overcoat had
caught, and they proceeded to help him from his perilous position.
For surely he was in the greatest danger, hanging by his overcoat
over a well, said to be 140 feet deep.
After Mr. Bowman had been rescued, the party investigated and
found that they had driven into a well on the Bee Hopkins Ranch. Owing
to the fact that a few logs and trash had been put over the top, the
snow had accumulated and completely hidden this death trap.
Peering into the well and listening for some indication as to
what had become of the team, nothing could be heard.
All was as still as death which was not to be wondered at, when
it is known that the well was 10 feet across and 140 feet deep.
The escape of the buggy and its occupants is truly wonderful, the
well being large enough to swallow them all, burying them where no one
would have thought to look for their remains.
Mr. Trammell knew the well and from it was able to locate their
whereabouts. He knew that
the Hopkins
ranch house was a mile and one-half distant, but the snow would be
beating full in their faces if they attempted to go that way, so it was
concluded to strike out for Mr. Trammell’s ranch, some six miles in
another direction. They
walked for hours in the heavy snow and were many times compelled to sit
down, but finally arrived safely at the ranch.
The next day it was decided to send a team to investigate the
fate of the horses, but the snow was so deep that this had to be given
up. The team, which
belonged to Mr. Bowman, was a fine one, $300 having been refused for
them recently.
Below are some tid-bits of information taken from
Cheyenne’ newspapers.
March 22, 1895
First mention of Milo in Cheyenne newspapers.
He attended a masquerade ball as well as his future wife, Minnie
Milligan.
July 5, 1895
Milo took part in
a Fourth of July riding tournament along with future brother-in-law
Stoney Duke.
Milo won one of the horse races held that day with a bay
mare.
Feb. 14, 1896
Report that Milo
and Minnie Milligan were married at the home of the bride’s parents on
Wed. last.
Milo was 24 years old and Minnie was 20.
Milo would have been born in 1872 and Minnie born in 1876.
Sept. 4, 1896
Milo and Minnie were living at Canadian, Texas.
They lived there until the first of June of 1899.
May 12, 1899
Notice that on Sunday morning last, the body of
Ona, the two year old child of Milo and Minnie, was brought from
Canadian and was interred in the
Cheyenne Cemetery.
June 2, 1899
Milo and Minnie moved to Cheyenne where he opened a saloon with Hoefle.
November 1899
Birth of son, Paul at
Cheyenne
Aug. 15, 1902
Milo was one of several men in town who formed a stock
company to put in a cotton gin.
Sep. 1902
Milo and Minnie buy the residence of A. L. Thurmond
Jan. 1903
Milo purchases the adjoining lot to the west of his place
of business. That lot
previously had been occupied by John the Blacksmith.
[These lots were where today’s Security State Bank is located.]
March 1903
Milo was instrumental in trying to get a railroad to locate in Cheyenne.
May 1903
Prof Johnson has quit teaching and has gone to farming for Mrs.
Burlingame. [Could this
have been Milo’s mother since she
perhaps was a divorcee at that time?]
June 1903
Stockholders of the Cheyenne Townsite Co. meet.
Milo was a stockholder.
Jan. 1905
Milo, along with John Hendricks and James Richards buy the
City Drug Store from H. D. Cox for $2100.
Jan 1905
Milo Burlingame has his icehouse full of ice for use at the
saloon next summer.
June 1905
Milo is to be in charge of the horse races when
Cheyenne
celebrates July 4th.
1905
Milo is involved in a law suit in Roger Mills
County.
Jan 1907
Milo is among four men to attend the Constitutional Convention at
Guthrie for the new State of
Oklahoma.
Jan 1907
Milo is elected Worthy Treasurer of the Washita Aerie of Eagles
in Cheyenne.
Dec.1906-Feb. 1907
Milo spends two weeks in December and several days in Feb.
in Shattuck where he has a profitable business.
April 1907
Milo and Minnie travel to Miles City, Montana to attend the
serious illness of Milo’s mother.
Mrs. Burlingame and the kids return home later in the month.
Sept. 1907
Milo has begun selling out his stock of goods at the
Palace Royal Saloon. His liquor license is expiring and he does not
intend to renew it.
[Evidently it was at this time that Milo
determined to make his livelihood from breeding and raising racehorses.]
In actuality, Oklahoma was about
to become a state and the new State Constitution was written to provide
that Oklahoma be a “dry”
state. This fact precluded Milo operating his establishment as a saloon.
Milo didn’t think the pool
tables and selling “sasporilla” would make a living for him and his
family.
In later years, when the old saloon building was being replaced,
it was sold to the Shotwell family and moved to their farm one mile
north of town. It was used
to store hay until it was accidentally burned to the ground.
May 12, 1910
Milo purchases Peter McCue and brings him to
Cheyenne.
April 14, 1962
Death of Milo
Burlingame
In 1933, many years after the Burlingames
had left Cheyenne, a landmark from
the streets of the town was removed to make room for the hands of
progress. This landmark was
a Black Locust tree that had stood in front of the Breckenridge Drug
Store and had offered shade to many an old timer.
The citizens of the town had cared for the tree by building a
small fence around it to prevent horses and other stock from damaging
its tender growth. When
concrete sidewalks were built in town in 1909, much care was taken to
build around the massive tree.
Following the removal of the tree it was determined that it was
more than thirty years old and the old timers stated that it had been
planted by Milo Burlingame in front of his saloon in 1900.
He had hauled it from Canadian, Texas and it was the first Black Locust tree planted in Cheyenne.
The exact date the
Burlingames
left Cheyenne is difficult to determine
but it is known they moved to
New Mexico
sometime between 1911 and 1920, probably before or during 1914.
They first settled in Magdalena
and later moved to Albuquerque
before 1930. A review of IRS tax
records shows the there was a Burlingame and King partnership running a
pool room, tobacco and liquor establishment in Magdelena during the
years 1914 to 1916. I feel
that this was Milo in that he had experience in that business while he
lived in Cheyenne and we know he was living in
Magdelena in 1920.
The 1920 census shows Milo living at
Magdalena, in Socorro County, New Mexico, along with his
wife Minnie and her mother, Nora Milligan.
Milo
was listed as 50 years old and Minnie as 46.
Nora was listed as 79 years old.
Milo states that he was a stock dealer in 1920.
By 1930, the census shows that Milo and Minnie, along with her
mother, listed as Eudora, were all living in
Albuquerque.
Milo listed his occupation as a
cattle buyer and working in the livestock and ranch industry.
The California
census for the same year lists
Paul James Burlingame and wife to be living in
Los Angeles.
An earlier draft registration card list the birth date of Paul
as 18 Oct 1899.
The Corona Maverick newspaper in May 12, 1922 had a short one
liner that Milo Burlingame, Colorado cattle buyer, shipped eight
carloads of cattle. Had the
Burlingames
moved to Colorado after the 1920 census
and then back to Albuquerque
prior to the 1930 census or was the newspaper mistaken in their report?
Perhaps he was just buying cattle in Colorado.
To add to the confusion about Milo Burlingame, there were at
least two other Milo Burlingames found through inter-net searches, one
of them with a wife named Minnie, however there was a 10 year difference
in the ages of the two couples.
The October 5, 1962 issue of the Albuquerque Journal contains an
article stating that Lily-Belle Burlingame Crawford attended a meeting
of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Another article in December of 1969 states that Mrs. Paul
Burlingame is expecting two sons to be with her for Christmas, Mr. and
Mrs. Richard Burlingame and Pfc. Paul J Burlingame Jr.
Also joining them would be Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Duke [ a relative
of Paul Burlingame] of Truth or Consequences NM.
Paul had died on 6 April 1969 and was buried in the
Santa Fe
National
Cemetery
in Santa Fe.
He had obtained the rank of 2nd Lieutenant during WWI.
A Texas birth index gives
the date of birth of a son of Paul James Burlingame, Richard Ronald, to
be 3 Jan 1928. Richard
married Vera Yvonne Arrant.
A story is told by Philip Bisson, an internet researcher, that in
1889, when Milo was 17 years old and living in
Collingsworth County, Texas,
he was working for the Rocking Chair Ranch. The ranch contracted for
1000 longhorn steers to be delivered to the Indians in
Montana
and Milo was hired as a trail driver
for the trip. Supposedly,
Milo kept a set of horns off one of these steers and passed them down to
his niece, Mrs. Bill Harris [Lavene] of Camas, Washington, who in turn
gave the horns to the father of Philip Bisson before she died.
Philip’s dad, before he died, then gave the horns and the story
to Philip. One of the questions
about this story that comes to mind is “were cattle still being driven
in herds to Montana in 1889?”
Could it be that the horns were used as adornment for one of the
saloons that Milo
operated?