"When the West Was Young"

Reminiscences of an Old Timer: "When the Nest Was Young"

LATE in 1903, I was awakened early one morning by Del Lewis who was then sheriff of Cochise County. Burt Alvord and Billy Stiles had broken jail in Tombstone and Lewis was hot on their trail which lead straight to Charleston, where it was temporarily lost, and he wanted me to help find them as they were undoubtedly heading for Mexico and I knew the adjoining country quite well.

Now, if there is any one thing I did not want to do, it was to go out into the chaparral and mesquite and engage in a controversy with either one, let alone both, of those gentlemen. I knew them too well. Both of them were fast snap shots, fearless, cold blooded, tricky and expert trailers. They would only have laughed at any ordinary posse that by any strange quirk of fate might have caught up with them. If irked, they were apt to turn that posse into a coyote feast suddenly.

These two men had been deputy-sheriffs for years. While still deputies they had organized a gang of train robbers, horse thieves, murderers and cattle rustlers around Pearce and Willcox. The principal charge they were being held on was for holding up an S. P. train near Cochise and robbing the Wells Fargo Express Company. They were about the two craftiest men ever held in the Tombstone calaboose at any one time. They had been jailers there on and off for years and knew every brick in the building. Lewis explained they had evidently been removing the mortar from between the bricks and secretly mixing it with the dirt of the floor of the jail or throwing it outside through the barred windows. Finally the night came when they had enough bricks loose to let a man crawl through the opening. The several rewards offered for

By James &. Wolf

As Told To EDWARD J. KELLEY Arizona Writers Project W. P. A.

Them had read "dead or alive." Knowing the other deputies and jailers as they did, they realized what a fine easy mark they would make when about half way out of the aperture. Along the border it was not unusual for some American officers to borrow the old "fue del ley" trick of leaving a cell door unlocked and apparently unguarded when they wanted to get rid of a dangerous prisoner. Then they would pot him when all the evidence showed he was escaping jail.

Alvord argued with Stiles and Stiles argued with Alvord as to which should be first out, but neither got anywhere as both knew all the answers equally well. Stiles had solved the difficulty by grabbing a Mexican who was being held as a material witness in another case and shoving him through the gap. Nothing happened, so the two desperadoes followed and made their escape after ordering the Mexican to fly. The Mexican left there, but it was a cold morning and he soon missed the warm jail. Then he remembered the free meals and the many days of witness fees owed him by the county at $3.50 per diem, so the first the sheriff's office knew they were shy two very important prisoners was when the Mexican appeared at the front door of the jail demanding to be readmitted.

Undoubtedly guns and ammunition had been cached in several places around Tombstone for them by other members of their gang on the very first day they were surprised and put in jail in the mere hope they might be able to make a get-a-way at some time. Anyhow, the sheriff had learned they obtained saddles and horses and had tracked them to Charleston.

"When John L. Sullivan came to town... we started out plenty early . . . with a good supply of the The instant I saw their track from Tombstone I put up an awful howl to Sheriff Lewis. I did not want any of their game at all. I could easily see that these men had hardly bothered to even get off the main road. Their horses' steps were short and unhurried. As they knew all the ropes they must have known that officers in Charleston had been telegraphed concerning them, yet every sign showed they rode openly and easily. They were absolutely unafraid and confident of themselves so I knew they were well armed. Any posse overtaking them would only get well ventilated. Besides, I had not lost any bars of gold. If the Wells Fargo wanted their $60,000 back, let them go to it. I was willing to be strictly neutral. No one knew better than I what a long way one had to go to find a doctor when wounded out in the brush in those horseback days. So I kicked and protested and swore I did not own a rifle and therefore could not be expected to go. I thought I was safe from being deputized when I sprung this not owning a rifle tale, but Lewis fooled me. Knowing Cochise County as he did, he had purchased several cases of the latest model 30-30 carbines and cached them handy to the trouble spots of his bailiwick in case he was ever surprised and disarmed. We rode the outlaws' trail a little way and then he ordered me to stop and await his return. After but a short time he returned with one of these carbines and his pockets full of cartridges which he divided with me. I still have that rifle. So, in spite of myself, I was deputized to assist him.

We circled Charleston and picked up the fresh trail across the river. It would innocently appear to be going in a straight line for a long distance but when a hard rocky ledge or outcropping occurred, it would promptly disappear. Unshod horses leave almost no evidence on such rocky ground. At such places they had turned, doubled back and then turned a different way again. They knew all the tricks. However, we were certain they were making for the border, although we did not know at just what part of the Internationalline they would cross, so we tried to put ourselves in the same frame of mind we believed the fugtitives to be in and so were able to pick up the trail and follow quite rapidly.

The general direction was toward the Huachucas. Then it circled around those mountains and by afternoon we were on the southwest slope of the Huachucas close to the Mexican line. In those days it was wild and practically uninhabited. Snorting cattle, probably the descendants of Father Kino's original herd, roamed untamed and unbranded. Mostly smugglers and outlaws hung out there. There was no place handy for us to get fresh horses. We could tell by the sign we were nearing the fugitives when suddenly we came upon a fresh camp fire. Examination showed it had been occupied by about ten or a dozen Mexicans, presumably smugglers' less than a half hour before.

Stiles and Alvord had met them first and it is likely the smugglers' outposts had spotted us also. Anyhow, they had but just gone toward Mexico and with them our trail, for the Mexican horses had obliterated all trace of the AlvordStiles mounts. Lewis was sure our fugitives had thrown in with the smugglers, and gone to Mexico as they were heading that way anyhow. I strongly disagreed with him, for that did not make sense to me. Here was a bunch of petty larceny smugglers who were sure to be sooner or later picked up by Kosterlitzsky and wiped out. I reasoned that if our two fugitives stayed with this bunch, even if it were for only a day, at least one or more of them

Drawings

would steal away and try to secure Koster-litzsky's pardon and favor by informing him of the whereabouts of these two Ameri-cans just as soon as they neared the first Mexican town that had a telegraph line by which the Coronel de Rurales could be reached. Alvord and Stiles had been dep-uty sheriffs under John Slaughter and Scott White for many years. Whenever renegade Mexicans could get into Kosterlitzsky's favor they did so. He had an abrupt way of deal-ing with his enemies. He made them dig their own graves before he had them shot. So I figured the Mexicans would have turned Alvord and Stiles in as soon as they could. I was sure Alvord and Stiles knew all this just as well as I did, probably better and so told Lewis our quarry would be sure to drop out at the first opportunity. Lewis was positive I was wrong. He argued they were all crooks and, as there was safety in numbers, the two Americans and a dozen Mexicans might band together for a long time. Therefore we took up the big trail on the run, but when we came to another rocky ledge, a little further along, I again tried to persuade Lewis to stop and examine it as it led up a rocky ravine, feeling sure our fugitives would be there. Lewis would not pause, he was so sure our men were with the smugglers.

We followed the smuggler trail until long after dark and then had to give it up for the Mexicans' horses traveled two miles to one for our tired nags.

I think now there is a reason for every little movement we make. At least I am certainly delighted Lewis did not follow my advice and ascend that ravine. Many months later, Lewis did surprise and recapture Alvord. I met them on the way to Tombstone and had a talk with the prisoner. We had been great friends. He was sore with me at first. "I saw you trying to put Lewis on our trail at the line that afternoon on our first day out. I had you covered and Stiles had Lewis covered all the time you were talking. One step up that ravine and I would have shot your heart out," he said and he meant it.

Elixir of life, but had to replenish it at the First Chance Saloon when we reached the edge of Tombstone."

"Well, how many times have you been deputized before you joined the wild gang," I replied. "How many men who had once been your friends have you killed or jailed while doing just as I did that day?" He had not thought of the affair in that light before and we finally parted good friends again. He was soon tried and convicted and served out his time.

"What did we do to pass the time in the early days of Charleston? We worked pretty hard ten hours daily, all of us. For diversion, many of us usually drank whiskey, gambled and danced with the saloon girls. When a new school teacher, or a new family having one or more daughters moved here, a few of the softest galoots were apt to mop up, slick down their hair with soap and thenof money. Banks here were, to say the least, somewhat sketchy and unstable. Yet, to have any large amount of money around was decidedly dangerous. Jack Schwartz wanted to open a saloon so I staked him to six hundred dollars to make a start. As interest on this money, I received all the drinks I wanted and a pint to take home every night. Soon afterward, in a poker game, I won a large frame building that was used as a combined saloon, gambling house and dance hall with a number of furnished rooms at one end. It was the center of activities on soldier paydays and the rendezvous of the wild bunch. Though the income from it was immense. it was still an unlovely place.

of money. Banks here were, to say the least, somewhat sketchy and unstable. Yet, to have any large amount of money around was decidedly dangerous. Jack Schwartz wanted to open a saloon so I staked him to six hundred dollars to make a start. As interest on this money, I received all the drinks I wanted and a pint to take home every night. Soon afterward, in a poker game, I won a large frame building that was used as a combined saloon, gambling house and dance hall with a number of furnished rooms at one end. It was the center of activities on soldier paydays and the rendezvous of the wild bunch. Though the income from it was immense. it was still an unlovely place.

Ed Hughes' father, a hard-working and serious Christian, considered I was going to the dogs. He prevailed on me to attend church to secure an introduction to the fair maids. Then, if they secured but a fleeting smile, they would immediately invest in an outfit of store clothes. Those who were confident of their ability to handle Mr. Colt's hardware properly might even buy a derby hat. Otherwise, they used discretion. With every corn aching and all dressed up in a stiff collar like a government mule, they would attend the next church bazaar where they would be mulcted of all their money buying raffle tickets, all for the sake of a new face and the opportunity to learn to curl their finger around a tea cup in the toniest manner of the day, when straight whiskey and the Bird Cage was really their calibre.

The next morning Constable Sam Starr and Judge Burnett were on the job, but the church one Sunday night when the minister made his monthly visit from Tombstone. I went with the Hughes. The little hall was well filled with local residents when we were surprised to see a large gang of men whom I knew to be cattle thieves, horse rustlers, road agents and worse, enter and sit down. A few of them were local tough-nuts and the rest were from Galeyville and border points. All wore guns and belts of cartridges. It was a delicate situation. Every so often incidents like this were apt to occur. Sometimes they would sit out the services with real respect. Again they might argue with the preacher and cause a row.

I worked every day regularly and in addition got in lots of overtime, so began to accumulate what was, for me, a large sum Knowing how easy it would be to start the shooting, the better element, being unarmed, commenced leaving unobtrusively one by one to avoid friction. The collection plate was passed around and the outlaws contributed in grand style. The minister sensed the situation and tactfully cut short the sermon and was bringing the meeting to a close when he was interrupted. It was perhaps the first time any of this gang had been to a religious meeting, but they had caught onto the fact it was being made very brief. "We have paid our money and are entitled to a full length sermon," they said. Their guns were in full view, so the minister prayed earnestly for a couple of hours longer. Then they pointed to the little organ. "How about a little music and some singing?" The minister hesitated, it was getting very late. "Or perhaps you would prefer to dance for us." The minister quickly played. In fact he played and sang hymns for several hours and the services were over.

The Gayleyville gang was too much for one little officer. It really would have required a whole regiment to get that gang so Starr showed some good sense in not trying. However, Jim Burnett had to live and he believed a good start Monday morning insured a prosperous week. Down the road came Jaw Bone Clark, a local ne'er do well whose name but faintly describes him. He had been present at the religious services the night before. "Stick 'em up," said Starr. "I hereby fine you fifty dollars for disturbing a religious meeting," said Burnett. "I did no such thing," howled Jaw Bone. "I stayed with that gang so as to use my influence and try to restrain them somewhat." For a second, Judge Burnett was stumped, but he was equal to the occasion. "Then I fine you fifty dollars for being in bad company on Sunday," said the Judge. That dazed Jaw Bone. He paid the fine before he came out of his trance. The whole town had been else immediately. I felt exactly the same guilty of the same offense for years. way myself.

I was over in the Huachuca mountains on No, I was not scared. Well, perhaps I May 2nd, 1887, when suddenly all the did feel somewhat lonely out there. I sudground around me commenced to ripple and denly remembered there was some business wave. It rose in billows to a height of two I had forgotten to attend to in Charleston. or three feet and would then drop almost in Besides, as I just stated, I was all out of its old place, but leaving pronounced cracks. rattlesnake cure. I felt the need of some right then. They told me that the quake The suddenness of it dazed me for one was about twenty minutes in duration, but wild minute and I wondered if what I was you could not prove it by me. I was well seeing was actually occurring. I was panon my way long before that. icked, but finally managed to calm down enough to figure out exactly what I had to No. I did not wait to gather up my camp eat and drink the previous few days. In equipment. The way the world was acting, that way I calculated for sure I had been all I had big doubts as to whether I would ever out of snakebite preventive for many days, need it again. and thus I knew an earthquake was quaking. Yes. I made fast time, but that was beThe rocky ledges along the sides of the cause my horse was frightened like the other Huachucas rose up and fell outward, breakanimals. I, myself, was very cool. You ing into all sizes of boulders that rolled should have seen how calmly and carefully a month and a very few longer than that. However, there were so many of them, they eventually drained all the upper country of its reservoirs of stored water.

Every day and at the same hour for about a month, the earth's tremblings recurred, but with gradually lessened force and for a shorter duration each time, until finally they faded away to nothing. We humans could tell when the shock was due on the succeeding days by the action of the cattle. Mules, cows and horses would stop and brace their legs. Their eyes would become round and glassy in appearance. A gentle hush would come over them. Then the tremblor would come. Since then, I have talked with many cattlemen from all over the earthquake zone and find that all their cattle acted just the same way as mine did. The territory of Arizona was a whole lot different then from what it is now. When you got away from the rivers in the dry season, good water was a scarce and valuable article. You never knew when a previously reliable water hole might go dry. It was no rare event for a party of travelers, or a freighting outfit, after desperately toiling through the sand and heat for twenty or more miles to arrive at a supposedly good watering place by nightfall and find it dry. To go back was usually as hazardous as going forward in such cases. Everybody carried a canteen and the wagons always had a keg of water. This would be doled out sparingly and the outfit would push on next day to the next water only to find it dry also. Then they were simply compelled to push forward, still uncertain as to whether they would find the precious water ahead. Occasionally an entire outfit perished from thrist. down the mountain sides, snapping off all I held onto the horn of that saddle with both trees and brush that were in their path. The hands. The horse did the rest. friction of the rocks set fire to the grass How did the other citizens of Charleston and pretty soon, not only Huachucas, but react to the earthquake? How do I know? the Dragoon and San Jose mountains, which Why should I be inquisitive? I was busy I could see from where I was, burst into taking a course of treatment guaranteed flames. to fully inoculate anyone, at least temporarily, against further shock. I do remember I could see deer, coyotes and rabbits runsome one told me the attendance at the local ning from the hills. The wild cattle from churches noticeably increased the following along the San Pedro, who had never known Sunday. what fear was before and only one generaOn my way to Charleston from the Huation back had scattered the Mormon Batchucas, I saw sheets of water spurting into talion, just stuck their tails straight into the air at many places as I neared the river. the air and, with eyes popping out, beat Later I learned from others, this had occurit for elsewhere, no two of them in the same red in hundreds of places on both sides of direction. the river and for its entire length. The quake had shattered rock strata and this The ground was heaving all around and underground water escaped through the fisthere was nothing to indicate where a really sures thus made. Some of these new springs safe refuge was to be found, but you could flowed only a short time. A few flowed for see their main idea was to be somewhere Up to the time of Geronimo's capture in 1886, and for a year or two afterward, Indians were always a factor to be reckoned with whenever one left a town to go anywhere. With Geronimo the military caught most of the really bad hostiles, but a few others escaped capture around this time and were a nuisance for a few years. These latter were gradually rounded up and the others soon seeing they were doomed to extinction, if they persisted in their old habits slowly came in and settled down, more or less peacefully on the San Carlos reservation.

It was no rare thing to have a fellow worker wave his hand to you and say he was leaving for some other camp where wages or conditions were better. Then you never heard from him again until some time later word would come that a part of his outfit had been found in the possession of some captured Apache. Or perhaps his decomposed body would be found somewhere. Others you never heard from at all. It was so common that no one became very much excited about such incidents. It was simply accepted as something to be expected any time in ordinary Arizona life.

There was always a strong military force at Fort Huachuca, only fifteen miles west of Charleston. In fact, the soldiers could look right down into this town, yet, it occasionally happened bullets would spatter against adobe walls or kick up spurts of dust in the street. A look around would reveal one or more Indians on some nearby hill. A squad of citizens would be hastily organized to take after them, but the Apaches nearly always escaped. It was simply a gesture of defiance for they seldom did any real damage. It seemed to give them great pleasure to stir us up.

At times our boys would not beat the hostiles into town and a few of us would have to go out and bury what the Indians had left of the remains. One such case I particularly remember, because young Jack Schwartz, the son of my saloon partner, Jack Schwartz, was the victim.

Along about 1885, young Jack and two friends, whose names I do not remember just now, left here and went to the Huachucas on a prospecting trip. They locat ed a little water and put up a tent not very far from the Fort. Early one morning they were suddenly jumped by a bunch of Apaches.

The Indian rush was so unexpected, young Jack and one of the partners took to the brush, which was just what the hostiles wanted. Part of them took after the two white men, flushed them out as you would quail and butchered them.

One thing that helped a great deal was the law against selling guns or ammunition to Indians. The only weapons the hostiles ever got were generally of a cheap or obsolete kind sold them by some rascally trad er, or those which they took after killing some white man. They seldom had ammuni tion enough with which to practice when they got a gun, so very few Indians were really good shots. Nearly all rifles in those days were equipped with a cleaning outfit, usually carried in a little compartment hollowed in the butt. White men were careful to keep their guns well oiled and cleaned. They knew a foul gun would be incapable of straight shooting, but the Indians were careless or ignorant about such things, which saved the life of many an American.

So sensational was the growth of this part of Arizona following the mineral discoveries of Dick Gird and the Schieffelin brothers, that people from all over the world were attracted. Some came to settle down and grow up with the country. Others came for a visit or to spend a vacation, so they could have something to tell about later when they returned home.

Young and old mining engineers from all the continents came to study the geology of the district and get acquainted with the latest mine methods. For instance, when water was finally struck in the Tombstone mines, it came with such a rush it almost drowned them out and seriously slowed down the sinking in the rich ore. The cost of pumping equipment, fuel and labor was enormous. Owing to the fissural character of the underground rock in the entire district, if one company pumped, it thereby lowered the water level in all the mines and thus permitted these others to mine more profitably by escaping the pumping costs. For a while mining operations were slowed up as there was an inclination among all the companies to dawdle until some one pumped and thus permitted the others to save this expense.

Finally the volume of water increased so heavily with depth that it became financially impossible for any one company to work profitably. Then all the companies joined together and installed an immense Cornish type pump that threw out millions of gallons of water daily and unwatered the entire mineral belt of the camp. It was by far the biggest pump in the world.

As I have related before, many famous European princes and other celebrities came to see the camp, but none of these visitors created any particular stir. I don't think one of our citizens even walked across the street to get a look at any of them.

It was decidedly different, however, when John L. Sullivan, champion of the world, came to town. Every man in Charleston found he had imperative business in Tombstone that day. All the mines and mills had to practically shut down.

Every available rig in Charleston left here loaded to capacity while others went horseback. We started out plenty early with a good supply of the elixir of life, but had to replenish it at the First Chance saloon when we reached the edge of Tombstone. There we joined a long cavalcade of buggies, wagons and riders and went down the Fairbanks road some miles to greet the great man.

When John L. Sullivan unloaded from his conveyance, all the men formed a line to shake his hand and say a few words of welcome. For many a year afterward, you could have heard and seen our citizens on state occasions exhibit their right hand and proudly announce you were gazing at a hand that had clasped that of the great champion. Even today, when I hear some young spriggins boast about some athletic celebrity they had seen, I effectually squelch them all by exhibiting my right and inform them of its place in the hall of fame.

A self appointed reception committee surrounded him all the time as it was feared some ignorant rascal might try to make the front pages and win world-wide notice by merely plugging our guest with a forty-five. Such a fiend would have been torn apart by bare hands before he covered a block, but we knew that would not have brought John L. back to life.

I do not remember whether the champion had been engaged as a stage actor for the Bird Cage or not. I never saw him on the stage. He simply stood inside the door, but his mere presence packed the house, and the proprietor put on many extra bartenders.

We had a local fly weight champion of about a hundred and fifteen pounds who caused the only disturbance created by Sullivan's visit. While the champ talked to one of the committee, this mosquito suddenly squared off, tapped John L. on the chin, then stepped away but quickly followed up with several more punches and side steps, meanwhile daring the big boy to battle.

Sullivan good naturedly grinned at the committee, then at the little braggart and the surrounding fans pulled the latter away. One swipe from those big paws of John L. and our local favorite would have been plumb ruined for life.

The champ stayed some days in Tombstone. He went underground and saw how the boys mined the ore. Then he came to Charleston and saw how the values were recovered from the same ore by the mills. He was a favorite with all. If any of our citizens became tongue-tied on meeting our distinguished guest, he would nicely put him at ease by inquiring what the lad would have to drink. During his stay his popularity increased, if such a thing was possible. We never heard him use the capital "I" once. He acted like a big good natured boy who was out to enjoy the pleasure of being with us.

I think all us Cochise Countyites liked hard hitting scrappers, and we knew when John L. socked an opponent that opponent usually stayed socked for some time. He was the most wonderfully built man I ever saw. Small feet for such a big man, but beautifully muscled arms and shoulders with hands like hams that could knock a horse down. When he left, the whole town urged him to come again, an invitation that many more highly educated and polished visitors, before and since, never received.

Thus ended the visit of our Greatest Guest.