Sam Houston Kincade

The setting: Lincoln County, New Mexico in the 1875-1885 timeframe; the period of the Lincoln County War. The historical events of that period are accurately portrayed and the historical characters come alive in Marv Mercer’s 61,000 word novel.

Sam Houston Kincade, named by his father after the hero of Texas’ war for independence was orphaned at the age of fifteen by Apache arrows. Sam drifted from one ranch to another. He signed on with John Chisum’s cattle drive, relocating cattle from Chisum’s ranch in West Texas to his spread in Lincoln County, New Mexico and found himself in the midst of the Lincoln County war: John Chisum and his faction is pitted against John Dolan and Larry Murphy’s gang of hired gunslingers; one of which is Billy-the-Kid. Sam meets and falls in love with Martha, a girl friend of John Chisum’s niece. But much to his surprise, he learns that Martha and Billy were childhood friends in Indiana. When Martha learns that Sam plans to confront the hired gunslingers by himself, she pleads with Billy to intercede in Sam’s behalf. Billy does that by preventing Sam from being shot in the back. The novel ends with Sam returning the favor.