An Unusual Background Lincoln County warrior Robert Widenmann wasn’t the typical westerner.

Of all the participants in the Lincoln County War, Robert Widenmann may have had the most interesting backstory. His father was the German consul in Ann Arbor, Michigan. When he was a teenager, young Widenmann was sent to Germany to continue his schooling. When he finished, he lived in New York for a couple of years before moving west in the mid 1870s.

After the Lincoln County War ended in 1878, he went to England before returning to New York City. He ran unsuccessfully for congress in 1896. Fearing for his life, Widenmann never returned to the West.