What we know
'Two men were killed at Spring Valley, and two horses stolen; and two men were killed at Buzzard's station. One of those killed at Spring Valley was Jotham Lincoln … He was binding oats when the Indians rode up to him and shot him down. They ran off thirteen horses' (Rocky Mountain News, Sept. 5, 1868). The three raiders 'were riding along the stage road' (News, Sept. 11); the stage line's own horses were taken at Spring Valley (Weekly News, Sept. 9). No election was held at Spring Valley that month.
Where it was
Placed at GNIS's Lincoln Ranch (Locale), 0.7 mile north of the Spring Valley store site. The dispatch says only 'at Spring Valley'; that GNIS's Lincoln Ranch is Jotham Lincoln's field is a guess, so treat the point as 'Spring Valley, within about a mile'.
Placed from a written description, such as a land section, a distance from a landmark or an old survey note.
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.