Harvey Whitehill.
Harvey Whitehill was a miner, rancher, lawman, and politician in the American West.
Harvey Howard Whitehill was born in Wayne County, Ohio, on September 2, 1837. As he grew up, he made his way to Leadville, Colorado, and was one of the first to discover gold in California Gulch. By 1860, he had taken about $15,000 in ore from his claim, and the following year, he moved to New Mexico.
There, he worked as a freighter and a miner and, by 1870, had settled in Silver City. He built one of the town’s first houses and mined for silver for several years. Somewhere along the line, he married a woman named Harriet Stevens, and the couple would eventually have nine children.
In 1874, he was elected Grant County Sheriff when the town and the area were extremely wild. One of his first “claims to fame” was arresting Billy the Kid. When Billy, known as Henry McCarty at the time, was just 15 years old, Whitehill arrested him for stealing several pounds of cheese, but after Billy apologized and promised never to break the law again, Whitehill, who had only arrested the boy to ”scare him straight,” released him. But Whitehill’s tactics didn’t work, as he arrested the “Kid” again in September on a charge of stealing clothing from a local Chinese laundry. However, the young man wasn’t placed in a cell and escaped the next day.
The following year, Whitehall hired Dan Tucker, who would go on to make a “name” for himself as a lawman, most notably, “Dangerous Dan.” Many people disagreed with his hiring, as Tucker had previously ridden with the outlaw John Kinney. However, the two were effective in taming the small town and took part in numerous shootouts with outlaws and troublemaking miners. They also conducted several legal hangings following court convictions.
Whitehall held office until 1882, when he was elected to the territorial Legislature. However, by 1884, he was once again working as a lawman and helped capture the Kit Joy band of train robbers.
In 1891, he was indicted for allowing a prisoner to escape and embezzlement, ending his lawman career. He then turned to farming and cattle ranching. He died on September 7, 1906, in Deming, New Mexico, and was buried at Silver City.
Silver City, New Mexico.
Although lesser known than many other lawmen of the Old West, Whitehill is credited by many historians as having been more effective than many of the others and was called “one of the twelve most underrated gunmen of the Old West” by one author.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated October 2026.
Also See:
Adventures in the American West
Lawmen & Gunfighters Photo Gallery
New Mexico – Land of Enchantment
See Sources.