Sheepshead & The murder of Ed Laird

A lone grave marks the dusty Smoke Creek Desert north of Sheepshead. It reads: Ed Laird Murdered at this Site.

Who was Ed Laird, how did he end up in this desolate location, and who murdered him? Woven with this story are tales of the attempted strychnine poisoning of five men, a double murder, and reports of cattle rustling and horse thievery. The final mystery is the headstone itself; who placed the marker, and why is it incorrect?

Sheepshead

In the 1870s, Sheepshead started as a stage station on the road from the Humbldt River to Susanville. The station was named after a big horn sheep head, which was nailed to a tree for many years. The spring was known as the only good water in the desert.

Sheepshead became the activity center along Smoke Creek with the spring and trees. A post office operated from 1879 to 1883 under Roop County, then under Washoe County until 1926, when service was transferred to Flannigan.

Ed Laird

Early Life

Ed Laird was the oldest of three, with sister Margaret, born in 1863 and brother Warren in 1864. The siblings grew up in the Carson City Orphanage.

After entering adulthood, Ed and Warren worked on multiple ranches in Northeast California.

In the late 1890s, Ed and Warren settled in North Warner Valley, outside of Lakeview, Oregon. Warren remained in Oregon and died in Lakeview in 1959.

Bronco Busting

Ed became a well-known bronc buster. Newspapers contain multiple articles about his exploits.

Poisoning

In October of 1895, Laird traveled to Reno to file a claim that A.A. Smith had attempted to murder himself, Amonaco Echeverria and three Native Americans with strychnine in their salt. Laird and his group had been hunting and rounding up stock. Eating dinner, they noticed a bitter taste. Investigating, they discovered crystals in the salt they believed was strychnine. (Authors note: each newspaper article spells Amonaco Echeverria differently.)

They gathered as many crystals as possible, placed them in meat and fed it to a cat. The men consumed as much grease and lard as possible to induce vomiting. The cat soon died; the paper later reported the men would have died if they had not expelled the poison.

A warrant was issued from A.A. Smith. Deputy Constable Branton arrested Smith in Long Valley, California. Justice Linn held the preliminary hearing and held Smith for the Grand Jury with a bond of $1500. On December 13, the Reno Gazette-Journal published that Smith was incarcerated in the Washoe County jail. Smith said the accusation was a grudge against him and that he would make his “prosecutors suffer for it.”

Ed is as tough as a pine knot, and anyone who wants to put him under the sod, has got to go at him with something harder than strychnine.

Reno Gazette-Journal Oct 21, 1895

“Mysterious Double Murder”

On November 27, 1895, The Wadsworth Dispatch reported a “Mysterious Double Murder.” Jim Ewing arrived in Wadsworth to report the accidental death of Frank Messer, better known as “Spanish Frank,” and Frank Jones, a Native American. The men had been working with him on the Limbo Ranch ranch owned by R.H. Cowles. When the pair did not return as expected, Ewing looked for them. Ewing found the pair dead in an apparent accident with a runaway wagon. Upon medical examination, the coroner found that both had been shot, likely with a rifle. “For the purposes of deception, cedar wood had been driven into the wounds.”

Trackers from the reservation investigated and found tracks that they believed were made by Echeverria and felt he committed the murder. Echeverria showed up in Wadsworth, telling a friend about the murders. He knew details, such as the wood shoved through the bullet holes, so officers arrested him for further investigation.

Echeverria pointed the finger at Ewing. Most assumed if Ewing had committed the murders,”if he had, he would have allowed the coyotes to pick the meat from the bodies of the murdered men and thereby cover all traces of the cause of death.”

To muddy the water even more; Ewing claimed that Echeverria told the victim, Spanish Frank, who then told Ewing that Echeverria was involved in a “put up job” to frame A.A. Smith for attempting to poison Laird. Echeverria cut was to be $100 for the scheme. Spanish Frank told Echeverria, “The best thing he could do was to keep his big mouth shut to the poisoning case, or he would give himself away.” Eyes also turned to Ed Laird as a possible suspect. A few days before the murder, Ed Larid had a “row” with Frank Jones over a horse. One witness had never seen Echeverria with a firearm, and Laird had previously used one of the victim’s pistols, had ammo for it and that “Larid was a good shot with a revolver.”

For all the finger-pointing, the murder was none of these men. In 1896, Johnny Bust admitted to the murders.

Smoke Creek Desert

In the early 1900s, Ed Laird worked as a ranch hand at Bonham Ranch at Round Hole in the Smoke Creek Desert.

Bonman owned and operated several stage stops. He purchased Round Hole Station on the north shore of Pyramid Lake in 1887 and expanded operations to a cattle ranch. Bonham married Florence Drew, a Sand Pass telegraph operator.

The Bonhams were in-laws to Laird’s sister, Margaret Sutcliffe. Margaret and James Sutfciffe started a stage station on the west shore of Pyramid Lake, “The Willows.” In 1912, the Southern Pacific Railroad constructed the Fernley & Lassen Railway, and Sutcliffe became the site of a station and water stop. Eventually, Sutcliffe’s station evolved into a popular resort.

Laird Springs

Ed decided to settle in Smoke Creek between Sheepshead and Round Hole Spring. After 1910, he filed a “squatter’s claim” next to a spring and built a cabin next to what became Laird Spring. That year’s census lists Ed as 46 and working as a “buckaroo.” At least the winter of 1914, Laird headed to Reno for the winter. A 1917 Washoe County Directory listed Laird as a horse dealer in Sheepshead.

Cattle rustler?

Newspapers also had multiple reports of Laird’s other alleged activities, including cattle rustling and horse thievery.

In 1907, famed Nevada Lawman Sheriff Lamb apprehended Laird in Bradford’s Saloon in Paradise Valley. Cedearville had notified him that Laird and his accomplices were headed his way and to be on the lookout. The charge alleged that Laird stood horses from California and Oregon Stock Association members.

Sheriff Lamb released Laird several days after the arrest due to lack of evidence.

The Nevada State Journal describes Sherrif Lamb as “One of the most famous peace officers of the West.” He was known as a tough but fair lawman who served as the Humboldt County sheriff for over 20 years. Tragically, in 1933, Glenn Hibbs murdered Sheriff Lamb at Preble, Nevada.

The Unsolved Murder of Ed Laird

In late August 1917, Larid was found murdered at his cabin on Laird Springs. His previous employers, the Bonhams, had been worried they hadn’t seen Laird in some time. They sent their son, William, to check on him. William found Laird deceased, lying just inside his door with a spent shotgun next to him. Examination showed Laird was shot twice, once at 6 to 8 feet and a second time through his heart at contact distance.

Ed’s brother Warren offered a $500 reward for information. Soon, the County added an additional $300. No leads came.

The sheriff sent off part of the doorframe, believing fingerprints could lead to the culprit. Fingerprinting was a relatively new technology, first used for conviction for conviction in 1892.

Larid’s murder was thought to be revenge or range issues. Due to his financial situation, the sheriff did not believe robbery was a motive.

The final mystery

A simple wood cross and fence marked Ed’s grave for almost a century. Sometime after 2004, a stone marker appeared. Who placed the headstone, Ed’s family or a community member?

According to the 1910 census, Ed would have been born in 1863 or 1864. The murder, widely reported in newspapers, occurred in 1917, five years after the headstone’s engraved date of death.

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References

• Around Carson: Nevada State Children’s Home Then and Now
• Daily Independent  Oct 23, 1895
• Daily Independent Oct 26, 1895
• Daily Independent Nov 2, 1895 
• Exploring Lassen Counties Past: The Saga of Edward Laird
• Exploring Lassen Counties Past: Where are we? Sheephead, Nevada
• The Lassen Mail Sep 21, 1917
• Nevada State Journal Sep 26, 1890
• Nevada State Journal Oct 22, 1895
• Nevada State Journal Oct 31, 1895
• Nevada State Journal Aug 29, 1917
• Reno Gazette-Journal Jan 14, 1889
• Reno Gazette-Journal Sep 23, 1890
• Reno Gazette-Journal Sep 26, 1890
• Reno Gazette-Journal Oct 21, 1895
• Reno Gazette-Journal Dec 13, 1895
• Reno Gazette-Journal Dec 14, 1895
• Reno Gazette-Journal Aug, 29, 1917
• Reno Gazette-Journal Thu, Sep 20, 1917
• The Silver State Dec 12, 1895
• The Silver State Feb 4, 1907
• The Silver State Feb 7, 1907
• The Silver State Feb 11, 1907
• The Wadsworth Dispatch Nov 27, 18
• The Weekly Gazette And Stockman Oct 24, 1895
• The Weekly Gazette And Stockman Jan 23, 1896
• The Weekly Gazette And Stockman Jan 17, 1889 
• The Weekly Gazette And Stockman Aug 30, 1900

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