Part 27 (2/2)

I.E. Solomon and his family had many experiences with the Indians, and in several cases narrowly escaped death. A number of Solomon's employees were killed in the open country toward Clifton.

An interesting chronicle is from Mrs. Elizabeth Hanks Curtis, who came with her family in April, 1881. Incidentally, she is a descendant of the Hanks family, tracing relations.h.i.+p to Abraham Lincoln. A mile above Eden they built a log fort. In September this had to be abandoned, word brought by a friendly Indian of the coming of a large band of Indians and of imminent danger. Will Ransom from Pima provided a raft to cross the river upon and the settlers concentrated at Pima. The settlers were driven into Pima again in April of the following year, after huddling for days in Moses Curtis' cabin. Protection came from Fort Thomas.

Murders by Indian Raiders

July 19, 1882, Jacob S. Ferrin of Pima was killed under circ.u.mstances of treachery. A freighting camp, of which he was a member, was entered by a number of Apaches, led by ”Dutchy,” escaped from custody at San Carlos.

Pretending amity, they seized the teamsters' guns and fired upon their hosts. Ferrin was shot down, one man was wounded and the others escaped.

On the morning of December 1, 1885, Lorenzo and Seth Wright were killed by Indians who had been combing the valley for horses. The Wrights had started, with members of a posse, from Layton, and were joined at Solomonville by Sheriff Stevens and two other men, after there had been recovered a number of the stolen horses, for the pursuers rode harder and faster than the fleeing thieves. There had been a.s.sumption that the thieves were Mexicans and so there was an element of recklessness in the pursuit that would have been missing had the truth been known, that they were Apaches. The four leading men of the posse were ambushed by the redskins, who had halted by the roadside. Seth Wright was shot from his horse. His brother immediately dismounted and opened fire upon the Indians. Lorenzo's right arm was broken by a bullet, and then, while he was running, he was shot in the back.

This same band had killed a man and a boy at Black Rock and a herdsman at Bear Springs Flat.

May 23, 1886, Frank Thurston of Pima, while starting a lime kiln, six miles from the town, was surprised by eight Apaches and killed. This band pa.s.sed by the Curtis settlement, driving off a number of horses.

Concerning the Indian situation, James H. Martineau, on June 1, 1886, wrote that the Apaches then were riding in many small bands, but were kept on the move constantly by the vigorous measures of General Miles, and he a.s.sumes that the Apache question would have been settled had his predecessor, General Crook, been less dilatory. The writer expressed his conclusion that in military skill, strategy and ability the Indians far excelled their opponents, and details that fifty or sixty Apaches the year before had killed more than 75 white settlers, all the while pursued by seventeen companies of United States troops, without losing a single Indian.

Outlawry Along the Gila

The Mormons of the Gila Valley maintained most amicable relations with their neighbors, but occasionally had to partic.i.p.ate in some of the ordinary frontier episodes. James R. Welker, an arrival in Safford in 1883, tells that, ”The cowboys had things about their own way for a few years. They would ride right into a town, go straight to the saloon and commence shooting the place up. They were expert with the pistol too. I have seen some very wonderful shots among those cowboys. They did not do much killing around here, but they were pretty wild and did about as they pleased.” W.T. Barney wrote, ”The rustlers gave us quite a bit of trouble, perhaps even more than the Indians.”

The peaceful Saints in the Gila Valley undoubtedly found much that was foreign to their habits of life. A tale of the frolicsome cowboy is told by Isaac P. Robinson of Thatcher, who was in Safford in 1884:

”There were but very few houses in Safford then. About the only business house was the Glasby building, which had a saloon and also a store. The cowboys had things about their own way. They would come into the store and take possession. Mr. Glasby would go out and leave it to them. They would shoot up the store, help themselves to what they wanted, pay for everything they had taken, shoot up the town and go on. But I don't want to see any more of it. You haven't the remotest idea what a lot of trouble they made. This was the main route from the north into Mexico and the princ.i.p.al rendezvous for a lot of those rough characters.”

In the way of outlawry, the valley had unwelcome notoriety, when from its rougher element was const.i.tuted a band which, May 11, 1889, ambushed Paymaster J.W. Wham of the United States army, on the road between Fort Grant and Fort Thomas, and stole about $28,000 in gold and silver, intended for the pay of the troops at the latter post. An escort of eleven colored infantrymen, led by a sergeant, apparently deserted by the Major, fought well, but was driven away after five of the soldiers had been wounded. Thirteen bandits were understood to have been implicated.

Eight individuals were arrested. There was trial at Tucson, where Wham and the soldiers were notably poor witnesses and where the defendants were acquitted.

A Gray Highway of Danger

Just as the Mormon settlements on the Little Colorado providentially were given a.s.sistance by the building of the Atlantic and Pacific railroad, just so the struggling pioneers on the Gila found benefit in the opening of the silver and copper mines at Globe. Freight teams were in demand for hauling c.o.ke and supplies from the railroad at Willc.o.x and Bowie and for hauling back from the mines the copper bullion. Much of this freighting was done with great teams of mules and horses, veritable caravans, owned by firms such as Tully & Ochoa or M.G. Samaniego of Tucson, but enough was left for the two and four-horse teams of the Mormons, who thus were enabled from the hauling of a few tons of c.o.ke to provide provisions for their families and implements for the tilling of their fields.

The road from the railroad to Globe ofttimes was a gray highway of danger. After leaving the Gila towns, it led through the length of the Apache Indian reservation. Usually the teams went in sort of military order. The larger ”outfits” had strict rules for defense, each driver with his pistol and rifle and each ”swamper” similarly armed. Every night the wagons were drawn into a circle, within which the horses were corralled or tied to the wagon poles, where they were fed. Pickets were kept out and care was incessant day and night.

But, sometimes, a freighter, eager to earn extra pay for a quick trip, or wis.h.i.+ng to drive ahead of the cloud of dust that enveloped each large convoy, would push along by himself. Possibly the next day, the train would come to the embers of what had been wagons and their contents.

Nearby would be the bodies of the tortured and murdered teamsters. So the careful ones united, remaining at the railroad until at least a score of wagons had acc.u.mulated, and then made their way northward, relatively safe through united vigilance.

In 1899 the Gila Valley, Globe & Northern railroad was completed from Bowie, through the Gila Valley towns, to Globe, a distance of 124 miles, though the loss to the freighters was more than balanced by the general good to the community of bettered transportation facilities. Right-of-way through the reservation was accorded by the Indians after a diplomatic distribution to them by a railroad agent of $8000, all in silver coin.

Chapter Twenty-three

Civic and Church Features

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