If you are a fan of the Old West—and I figure you are—you’re probably familiar with lawmen like James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok, Bartholomew “Bat” Masterson and Wyatt Earp. You might even have heard of Pat Garrett, Heck Thomas, or Bill Tilghman. Then there are famous Texas Ranger Captains such as Rip Ford and Jack Hays. But there were a whole host of other Old West peace officers out there who aren’t as well known today. Such as Fred Lambert.
Frontier Lawman Fred Lambert
Raise your hand if you’ve heard of Elfego Baca, Dallas Stoudenmire or Jeff Milton. If your hand is up, go to the head of the class. Now here’s a real doozy: Charles “Fred” Lambert. Well, my friends, there are a lot more distinguished old “law dogs” out there than you generally read about. And Fred Lambert is one of them.
Cimarron, New Mexico Territory
Henri “Henry” Lambert was born in France in 1838. He immigrated to the United States and was a chef by vocation. Allegedly, during the early years of the Civil War, he cooked for Ulysses S. Grant and later Abraham Lincoln.
In 1863 Lambert headed west after hearing of a gold strike in the New Mexico Territory. He ended up in Elizabethtown, and having no luck as a prospector, opened a saloon and restaurant for local miners in E-town. He relocated to nearby Cimarron in 1871, where he opened a saloon that he called Lambert’s Place.
During the ensuing years his operation expanded, and in 1882 a restaurant and then hotel rooms for guests were added. Eventually the name of the place was changed to the St. James Hotel. It was the center of the town’s social life, and the list of patrons reportedly included Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, Jesse James and even Bob Ford.
The bar at the hotel was quite lively, and between 1872 and 1884 some 26 men were shot and/or killed there. Bad man Clay Allison alone accounted for 10 of these shootings. To this day, you can go into the bar and still see bullet holes in the decorative molded tin ceiling.
Fred Lambert – The Early Years
In this wild and woolly environment, Henry fathered a son, Charles “Fred” Lambert, on January 23, 1887. At the time of Fred’s birth, Buffalo Bill Cody and his troupe were staying at the St. James, and Buffalo Bill was fond of children. He became Fred’s godfather, and as the boy grew older Buffalo Bill taught the boy to shoot during his frequent visits to Cimarron.
Fred grew up to be somewhat short in stature, but he was wiry and “whipcord tough.” He was 16 years old when Caldwell County Sheriff Marion Littrell asked him to locate one of deputies and tell him to arrest some outlaws who were heading into the area.
Fred decided to do the job himself and strapped on his gun. He brought in the outlaws single-handedly and started what was to become a 40-year career in law enforcement.
In the Old West, lawmen were few and far between. So, quite often they would hold commissions with several different agencies all at the same time. Fred kept his Colfax County Deputy Sheriff commission for the rest of his life.
Another one of Fred’s early ventures into law enforcement was as the Cimarron town marshal. He patrolled the streets for some six years, but by the early 1900s the town had become a lot tamer.
Early Taxi(ish)
One story from that time has Fred responding to a local tavern whenever the barkeep would hang a red lantern by the door. The mayor of Cimarron was known for his drunken binges. And after he passed out in a chair, Marshal Fred would load him into a wheelbarrow and dump him in front of “His Honor’s” house.
Another position Fred held was Constable of Precinct 3 in Colfax County. His commission was dated August 1, 1910. How long he held that position, I haven’t been able to determine. In most areas, the constable handles processes for the court. As such, he is paid according to the process served and actions taken.
Thin Gray Line
As the population grew in New Mexico, the citizens—for the most part—wanted statehood for the Land of Enchantment. The Territory, however, was still a hotbed of criminal activity. After a series of outlaw depredations, Territorial Governor Miguel Otero signed a bill on February 15, 1905, authorizing a company of territorial “rangers” that became known as the New Mexico Mounted Police (NMMP).
Outfitted in gray uniforms modeled after those of the Canadian North West Mounted Police, the small force was led by a captain, who commanded a lieutenant, a sergeant, and eight privates.
The pay wasn’t the best, but it was a steady job. The cost of the uniforms, an issue Model 95 Winchester in .30-40 Krag, and a Colt SAA revolver in .45 Colt were subtracted from each officer’s salary. To help augment the “short pay,” the men were also commissioned as deputy New Mexico game wardens. As such, they collected fees for enforcement actions.
A prominent rancher named John Fullerton was the first captain. He assigned his privates in three- or four-man squads around the territory. In April 1906, after President Theodore Roosevelt appointed a new territorial governor with a mandate to “clean up the Territory,” Fullerton was replaced by Fred Fornoff.
This worthy was one of Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, Albuquerque City Marshal, a Secret Service agent, and a deputy U.S. Marshal. Fornoff did away with the squad concept and spread out his small force to patrol individually, covering more ground.
He also did away with the uniform requirement—the personnel would wear their silver five-pointed stars as identification. He also looked the other way if his men decided to carry firearms other than NMMP issue.
Lambert Appointed as Mounted Policeman
Fred Lambert was appointed as a full-time New Mexico Mounted Policeman in 1911. The tough little lawman was the youngest of the territorial officers, and apparently did an outstanding job. Interestingly, Lambert elected to carry a Model 1894 Winchester instead of the official-issue Model 1895.
His rifle was chambered for the .25-35 WCF, which was developed by Winchester in 1895. It joined the .30-30 as one of the first American smokeless powder cartridges. Likewise, it was known as a highly accurate cartridge in lever-action rifles but wasn’t noted for its long-range killing power. The factory round carried a 117-grain jacketed soft-point bullet moving at 2,230 feet per second (fps).
Maybe this rifle better suited the small-statured Lambert, but the why and wherefore of this choice is lost to history. He decorated the buttstock “Indian style” with brass tacks, and a crack in the wrist of the stock was repaired with a wrapping of tape.
According to a report, Lambert lost his revolver chasing rustlers. A fellow mounted policeman named Rusk gave him his backup gun, a Colt SAA with a 5.5-inch barrel in .38-40.
Fred was also known to carry a nickel-finished Colt with pearl grips in .32-20. A full-length portrait of the lawman shows this gun in his holster. Lambert was also known to use a blackjack and a “nipper” come-along device, helping even the odds during an arrest.
Deputy Special Officer Commission
In October 1913, the Interior Department commissioned Lambert as a “deputy special officer” with the U.S. Indian Police. His main responsibility was to suppress the liquor traffic among the Native Americans.
A story has been passed down about Lambert from this period in his career. During a stakeout for moonshiners near Taos Pueblo, Fred and two other deputies spotted a mule train with six men coming down the trail.
Suspecting them of carrying a load of whiskey, Fred approached the apparent leader, a man named Juan Gallegos. The whiskey runner drew his gun, but Fred was too fast for him and grabbed Gallegos’s gun around the cylinder. At the same instant, the hammer dropped and smashed into the web of his hand.
With his other hand, Fred pulled his own gun and struck Gallegos right between the eyes. Now having the advantage, the three officers took the entire gang into custody. Fred would carry the scar from this fight on his hand for the rest of his life. Lambert performed these duties until the end of June 1916.
End of an Era
The New Mexico legislature failed to pass a budget for the NMMP in 1913, effectively eliminating the agency. With World War I raging in Europe and a revolution boiling in Mexico, a few men kept working as a “phantom force.”
The three counties that bordered Mexico were authorized to order a “volunteer corps” with state police powers to be called out as needed.
Fred Lambert held New Mexico Ranger badge No. 2. From 1913 to 1917. Likewise, Lambert was allowed to keep his NMMP badge and was paid from the governor’s contingency fund. Fred seemingly appeared when the bad guys least expected him and performed special investigations for the governor.
After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the NMMP was back in business. However, it was again dissolved after the Armistice.
It is known that Fred Lambert retained his status as a Colfax County deputy sheriff. He worked for five years as an inspector for the New Mexico Cattle Sanitary Board. And in 1930, he was given a year’s commission as a deputy warden with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. At some point, he also held a commission as a deputy U.S. Marshal.
Lambert’s obituary states that during World War II he went to Kansas City to work as a policeman at a “defense plant.” Lambert was also a ranch manager and developer during his lifetime.
He returned to New Mexico after the war, living in Raton and then Albuquerque before returning to Cimarron. Fred spent the last years of his life as curator and “guide” in a museum established in an old stone grist mill not far from the St. James Hotel.
Lambert’s Final Days
In his spare time, he drew and painted pictures, wrote stories and poems, and, in 1948, published a book entitled Bygone Days of the Old West. It includes more than 1,300 of his pen-and-ink illustrations along with his poems. A lawman to the end, Fred Lambert passed away on February 3, 1971.
It was the end of an era.
This article was originally published in the Guns of the Old West Winter 2022 issue. Subscription is available in print and digital editions at OutdoorGroupStore.com. Or call 1-800-284-5668, or email subscriptions@athlonmediagroup.com.
