Did Billy the Kid Have A Nephew?

Did Billy the Kid Have a Nephew?

by Susan Stevenson and James Townsend

By most accounts, Joseph McCarty was the younger brother or half-brother of Henry McCarty, alias Billy the Kid. All available census records place his birth in New York in the year 1863.

By the time Pat Garrett shot Billy the Kid in Fort Sumner on July 14th, 1881, Joe was living in Colorado, and was supporting himself through a number of occupations, the most consistent one being gambling.

In 1891, Joe married a woman by the name of Jennie Stone, in Pueblo, Colorado. Three years after this, in April of 1894, the Pueblo Chieftan reported that:

“A warrant was sworn out in Justice Pickens’ court yesterday by Jennie Antrim, charging Joe Antrim with kidnapping her child, Claudie Stone. She says he stole the child from her in Pueblo, February 25. Antrim says that word was sent to him from Pueblo, saying that unless the child was taken care of by his parents, it would be given over to the State. He went to Pueblo, found that the boy had been neglected by his mother, and removed him to Denver, and sent him to a private school. Antrim says his wife has refused to reform and is not a proper person to have the custody of the boy.”

Joseph M. Antrim, around 1929

It is clear from the short article above that Jennie Stone Antrim had a son, and that Joe Antrim was either either biological father or stepfather. For “Claudie” to be old enough to be sent to a private school, the age of the child in 1894 would be about 5 or 6 at the earliest, setting the estimated birth year around 1888.

A search of records for a “Claude Stone” through the subsequent years did not yield any strong results. Furthermore, Jennie Stone cannot be traced after this date with any real success.

However, searching for a Claude Antrim in the Colorado area returns many results, most of which center in Denver, Colorado, in city directories that parallel Joe Antrim’s residence in that same city.

In 1911, the Denver city directory shows an L. Claude Antrim, circulation manager at a publishing house, living at 621 Colfax avenue, while Joe (“John” in this year’s directory) is at 1530 Market. In 1913, Louis Claude Antrim is living at 1771 Pennsylvania, and working as an assistant manager for Western Wheeled Scraper Co. He lives with his wife, Mrs. Anna Antrim, who is a clerk at Joslin Dry Goods. In 1914, there is an L. Claude Antrim and Anna E. Antrim, both of 1540 Grant, while Joseph Antrim is a clerk living at 1928 Lawrence.

Seeing that a Louis Claude Antrim, resident of Denver, was often in proximity to Joe Antrim and married to an Anna E. Antrim, a search for this husband and wife, Claude and Anna Antrim, uncovers an intriguing wedding announcement from the Chicago Daily Tribune on Thursday, November 4th, 1908.

In this announcement, titled “Child Romance Leads to Altar,” we are told that:

“The engagement of Miss Anna Elizabeth Hughes, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edgar E. Hughes, 666 Roscoe street, and Louis Claude Antrim, announced yesterday, is the culmination of a childhood romance that began in a private school in Neosho in 1899. At the close of the school term Miss Hughes returned to Chicago. They did not meet again until two years ago. That was in Brookville, PA, where Miss Hughes was studying music. Her childhood sweetheart had just reached his majority. The next meeting occurred in Chicago in October, 1907. Antrim then moved here and since has been in the real estate business here…”

Here we have a Louis Claude Antrim, born in 1888 (from later census records), who in 1899 can be traced to a private school in Neosho, Missouri, who marries an Anna Elizabeth Hughes, and is often found in the vicinity of Joe Antrim in Denver, Colorado.

Like Joe Antrim, Claude seemed to be a man on the move. Between 1906 and his death in 1965, he can be found in Missouri, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Colorado, New York, Texas, New Mexico, Florida, and Michigan. After the death of his first wife Anna around 1915, he married a second time, to an Isabela Ackerson. They primarily made their home in Queens, New York, and Ludington, Michigan.

Newspaper articles and anecdotes from friends of Joe Antrim, and Antrim himself, place him in many places in which Louis Claude Antrim also shows up, like Chicago, where Joe dealt faro in a notorious gambling house. Being an itinerant gambler and dealer, Joe could easily have accompanied his son and daughter-in-law to these various cities.

Given the research thus far into one “Claudie Stone,” born around 1888, and sent to a private school in 1894, legal child of Joe Antrim and Jennie Stone, the findings warrant further research.

Louis Claude Antrim, possible nephew of Billy the Kid

Certainly, there are some questions that arise:

Joe Antrim and Jennie Stone married in 1891. For Joe Antrim to be Claude Antrim’s biological father, Claude would have had to have been born out of wedlock in the years prior to the Antrims’ marriage.

Further, Claude shows up in 1900 at the age of 12, living in the household of Henry Milton Antrim and Elizabeth Antrim in Neosho, Missouri, who perhaps became de facto foster parents to the young boy while he attended private school. By the time of this census, this was Elizabeth Antrim's second marriage. Her first husband, George Antrim, was a cousin of her second husband. After her divorce, George moved to Pueblo, Colorado. He later died in Chicago, Illinois.

All of the evidence in support of this Louis Claude Antrim being the “Claudie Stone” of the 1894 article, and possibly the son of Joe Antrim, is convincing enough to justify continuing down this trail.

Later in life, Louis Claude Antrim and Isabela Ackerson Antrim had two children, Louis Claude Antrim, Jr., and Richard G. Antrim. Attempts on the part of the authors to reach out to the descendants of these children have proven unsuccessful.

A grandson of Claude Antrim (ancestry.com)