Charles Solomon Gilpin

  General Notes:

Born in Indiana while his father was fighting in the Civil War with the Indiana Volunteers, Charles and his younger brother, William, left Indiana with their mother, Ruth Ann Loffer Gilpin, and her brother Solomon's family, who all relocated to Holt County, Missouri after the Civil War. Ruth remarried, and the boys were out on their own at an early age. Charles became a cowboy, punching cattle in Indian Territory that became part of Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.

He was in Silver City, New Mexico by 1888, when he married Nettie Walton, stepdaughter of mine superintendent Frank Milstead. They were in Mogollon, Socorro Co., New Mexico by 1893, when their third child was born, and Charles worked as an amalgamator of mined metals. He went on to build several silver mines and was superintendent of mines in New Mexico and Arizona.

He had settled in Wilcox, Cochise Co., Arizona by 1909, where he was a farmer. By 1920, he and Nettie and their youngest son were living in Pecos, Texas, where he was again working at a mine. By 1922, they were back in Arizona, where Nettie died in 1922, and where he lived for the rest of his life.

Photos of him in the 1930s show a dapper, slender man wearing well-pressed jodhpurs, shined leather riding boots, and a felt hat.

Charles married Nettie Jane Walton in 1889 in Silver City, Grant Co., New Mexico. (Nettie Jane Walton was born on 8 Apr 1872 in Brentwood, Contra Costa Co., California, died on 18 Aug 1922 in Hatch, Dona Ana Co., New Mexico and was buried on 22 Aug 1922 in Safford, Graham County, Arizona.)