Palmer Divide Research

Hand ranch

Also: site of the Kearney-Hand murders, 1888

Murders, lynchings and killingsHistoric or vanishedEl Paso County

What we know

Mary Jane Kearney and her grandson Jamie Hand were killed here about March 30, 1888; the ranch lay 'a mile and a half northwest of Edgerton station' (newspapers, 1888). Ida M. Hand was probably the boy's mother (an inference: the papers name her only as Mrs. Hand).

Where it was

Ida M. Hand's patented land (Oct. 10, 1882), the central 160 acres of Sec. 35, T12S R67W (E1/2 NW, SW NE, NE SW). Center of those parcels; good to about half a mile.

A street address, located with the county's address points.

See it on the map

Sources

Sources are named in the text above. Numbers such as S-0080 refer to our source list. Most newspaper quotations were read in the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. Long quotations from recent books are shortened here.

Know more about Hand ranch?

Corrections, family stories, photographs, deeds, letters and maps are all welcome. Messages and files come to Michael Christensen privately; nothing appears on the site until it has been checked, and you'll be credited the way you ask.