Phillips County Museum News for Wednesday, November 10, 2021

An “Unsolved Murder / Disappearance” of Abe Gill was on our minds this week. This mystery involves some well-known Phillips County names such as the Coburn Ranch and Kid Curry.

The story involves land disputes, water rights, and women! Background of the story varies with which author you read but here is my condensed version!

It begins with Dan Tressler and his wife Lucy and six children. For what ever reason Lucy seems to have taken up with Johnny Curry and Dan decided to sell his holdings in the Little Rockies and move to Harlem with the children. Dan Tressler sold his ranch to John Winters and Abe Gill. Now the Curry Brothers had hoped to buy the ranch or have Lucy claim ownership.

Verbal threats were made to Winters. This eventually ended up in a gun fight and Johnny Curry was killed. Death also came to Winters causing Abe Gill to decide to sell the ranch. He sold to the Coburns and headed out with his check. That was the last anyone saw or heard from Abe Gill and his white horse!

Abe Gill’s great nephew was here from Hawaii and stopped in to learn what we knew of the story. Our archives produced pictures of Abe and the ranch buildings. The Hawaii family were happy with what we found but the mystery/murder is still open in the law books.

Does anyone have more information on the murder? The Museum would love to hear from you. Museum hours are 10-5 Monday through Saturday.