El Paso’s First Fallen Officer Finally Gets His Monument at Concordia Cemetery

For 140 years, Thomas P. Moad has been little more than a name on a plaque.

The first El Paso police officer ever killed in the line of duty, Moad was a former Texas Ranger who died in a gunfight on July 11, 1883. His killer fled to Mexico. His story faded into the archives. And for generations, the only people who remembered him were the ones who happened to glance at a list of the fallen on a police station wall.

That's about to change. This Saturday, May 16, the Concordia Heritage Association is unveiling a dedicated stone monument for Thomas P. Moad at Concordia Cemetery, finally giving El Paso's first fallen officer the marker he never had. The ceremony begins at 9 a.m.

A Young Deputy, A Small Plaque, and a Question That Took Decades to Answer

The man who dug Moad's story out of the archives is retired police officer, writer, and historian Harry Kirk.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Concordia Heritage Assn (@concordiaheritage)

Kirk has been involved with the Concordia Heritage Association's Stories from the Stones series, a living history program where researchers bring forgotten El Pasoans back to life through first-person storytelling. He was the second historian to ever take the stage for the series. But his connection to Thomas Moad goes back much further than that, to when he was still a young deputy and noticed something on the wall of the station where he worked.

It was a small plaque. A list of fallen officers. And at the very top, the very first name on it, was Thomas P. Moad.

Kirk wanted to know more. Who was this man? How did he die? Why had nobody ever really told his story?

Years of research later, Kirk not only found the answers but brought Moad's story to life for an audience at Concordia. Now, that work has grown into something even bigger: a full monument dedication, complete with a carved stone and the blessing of an institution Moad himself once served.

From the Texas Rangers to the Streets of El Paso

Before joining the El Paso Police Department, Thomas P. Moad served as a private in Company C of the Frontier Battalion of the Texas Rangers. He was the kind of lawman the frontier West demanded, someone who had already seen what the territory could throw at a badge before he ever pinned one on in El Paso. odmp

His resume included helping capture William "Curly Bill" Brocious, one of the most notorious outlaw figures of the era. By the time Moad became El Paso's Assistant City Marshal, he had more frontier experience than most men twice his age. City of El Paso

But El Paso in 1883 was still a rough and unpredictable town, and on the night of July 11, a call came in from the Mansion House, a local brothel, where a group of drunken cowboys were causing a disturbance.

According to the local paper, 25-year-old Howard H. Doughty and a friend had arrived in town from Chihuahua and joined the chaos already unfolding inside. Doughty was a wealthy farmer, the kind of man whose money and land gave him a sense of untouchability, and when Moad walked in to restore order, Doughty gunned him down. Find a Grave

After the shooting, Doughty fled across the border into Mexico. A reward notice printed in the El Paso Herald described him as having his mustachios shaved off, his hair clipped closely, and dressed in light jeans pants with a buckskin jacket cut after the Mexican fashion. He was eventually captured, though no clear record survives of what charges, if any, were ever fully prosecuted. Find a Grave

Nobody Knows Where He Is Buried

Despite the ceremony happening at Concordia Cemetery this Saturday, nobody actually knows where Thomas P. Moad was buried. The history on that point has never been clean. One early account placed his burial near the old Fort Bliss barracks by the border. Another account pointed to Concordia. But after 140 years, no confirmed grave site has ever been located.

What the Concordia Heritage Association does know is that a man this important deserves to be remembered somewhere. Whether or not his remains ever surface, Moad's place in El Paso history is undeniable. He was the city's first lawman killed in the line of duty, and for too long, that story existed only in dusty archives and on a small plaque that most people walked right past. The monument being unveiled Saturday is Concordia's way of saying that is no longer good enough.

140 Years Later, the Rangers Are Coming Back for One of Their Own

The Texas Rangers, the same organization Moad served before becoming El Paso's first police officer, have agreed to allow the use of the Texas Rangers cross to be incorporated into his memorial. It's a rare gesture, and it closes a loop that has been open for a century and a half.

Harry Kirk, whose curiosity started all of this, is also the man who made the monument physically possible. Kirk personally donated the stone for the dedication. He researched the story, he told the story on stage at Stories from the Stones, and then he made sure there would be something permanent left behind when the lights went down.

Be There Saturday Morning

The unveiling of Thomas P. Moad's monument is open to the public, and it's worth showing up for. Concordia Cemetery is one of the most historically layered places in the entire Southwest, home to gunslingers and civic leaders, soldiers and outlaws, Chinese immigrants and Mexican revolutionaries. By the 1880s, the cemetery had already earned a regional reputation for providing eternal residence to settlers, civic leaders, ranchers, and politicians, as well as outlaws and gunfighters, earning the nickname El Paso's Boot Hill.

On Saturday, the man who helped bring order to that era finally gets his name in stone.

• What: Thomas P. Moad Monument Dedication
• When: Saturday, May 16 at 9 a.m.
• Where: Concordia Cemetery, 3700 E Yandell Dr, El Paso, TX 79903
• Admission: Free and open to the public