mn mm i vuui i ujivot ri .4 VK. v.'MHHua, t aujr i i uuuvi icoci vcs ail Vlli
Graham-Tewksbury Glans Wage Grim War
Old Rock Score in Pleasant
, Valley Where Feudists
Fought Is Still Standing.
Left: Rev. Hamiicar Pool,
Going Into Action.
i Uz
A:
Dan O'CarrolI, Now Dead, Was a Partici
pant in the Bloody Pleasant Valley War
Between Sheep Owners and Cattlemen,
THIS It the second and final chapter In
the vindictive "Vengeance Valley" feud,
fought between cattlemen and sheep owner
two famlllea sworn to detroy each other,
and who ucceeded o well that only one
member was left alive. Mr. Arnold tell the
tory in full detail for the first time. Edl
tor" note.
Part 2.
By Oren Arnold
UP TO this point in the Pleasant Valley War,
the Graham and the Tewksbury families
had been fighting each other for four or five
years engaged in the bloodiest, most vindictive
feud western America ever knew. Theirs was
an enmity so fierce that the law Itself could
not halt the fighting, and vivid recollections of
it are still heard about northern Arizona, scene
of the trouble, to this day. This despite the
fact that "the last man" of the losing side was
killed more than 30 years ago.
The trouble started, as I have told, in an
argument over rich green pasturage In Pleas- ,
ant Valley. Cattlemen who first settled there
claimed a monopoly, and established the pic
turesque Mogollon Rim, a cliff formation 150
miles long, as the "dead line" below which
sheep raisers might not bring their animals.
When sheep herds did come down, the fighting
began.
The Grahams were cattlemen, the Tewks
burys were defending sheep. Actually there
was grass in abundance for all, but the "prin
ciple" of the thing (as in most fights!) caused
the trouble. Big Tom Graham, leader of his
family and their friends, was a hard and vin
dictive man. And the Tcwksburys were half
Indian by breeding, which made tljem a fierce
group, too.
After the horrible Incident In which the hogs
partly devoured two human bodies, under cover
of rifle fire, and widows of the slain men braved
bullets to bury -their dead, a lull came In the
fighting. This cessation of hostilities extended
over several months. Then some foolish Tewks
bury partisan again brought a herd of sheep
below the Rim.
IN THE dead of night, while the woolics were
all bedded down In tranquil sleep, several
Graham horsemen rode up.
"Whoo-o-o-p eeya-a-a-ah!" they shouted and
screamed, and so stampeded the animals with
their noise. They had planned It so a to drive .
the valuable beasts toward a rock cliff some
600 feet high. '
There in the dead of night they rove the
sheep right to this cliff rim (not Mogollon Rim,
which was much higher and longer) with such
stampeding speed and fright that the animals
Just plunged over by the hundreds and piled up
dead below. Then the horsemen concealed
themselves to wait
In a short time the expected happened.
Two of the Tewksburys, awakened by the
stampede, had grabbed their rifles and followed
the herd. They easily tracked the beasts right
to the cliff.
"By God. I believe they went over!" one of
the men exclaimed, cursing In anger.
Together the two Tewksburys went to the
rim and peered down, leaning away out over
the edge In their anger and anxiety, to see
their sheep.
Crack! Crack! From the darkness came two
quick rifle shot. And the two Tewksburys
joined their sheep In death below!
NEWS of this dramatic and tragic event
spread like a forest fire and in a day or
two all of Pleasant Valley was in arms again,
swearing to kill enemies on sight. In spite of
themselves, many disinterested persons were
drawn Into the family feud. That was" the trag
edy of this war in Isolated Pleasant Valley,
away up in the mountains of northern Arizona.
The Grahams and the Tewksburys might have
fought It out In a few months and been done
with it, but all their friends and many casual
acquaintance were dragged into It a well.
A Tewksbury was accused of poisoning some
of the Graham cattle one day. and forthwith a
search was started for him. The man was nit
off from his friends bv some ruse, and had to
One Family Raised Cattle, The Other Brought In
Sheep, And Because The Tewksburys Were Partly
Indian, The Fued Ended When Only One Man. Lived
flee alone with a half dozen or so mounted
Gr aha mi tea - pursuing.
But, as we know, the Tewksburys were half
Indian of blood, and had been reared in the
wilda anyway. They were therefore .skilled
trailers, and skilled at concealing their own
trails when necessity arose. This fellow led his
pursuers a merry chase, knowing that his life
depended on it, but he was on foot and the
Grahamites were on horsea.
John Henry Blcvin, so I was told, headed
this pursuing party, but I am not sure. I talked
with Mr. Blevins and photographed him a short
time ago, for he is one of the few living men
who were actually combatants in that feud, but
he is a fierce and stern old man and I learned
nothing from him dire. I was a little bit awed
by his manner, and other residents in Pleasant
Valley warned me that he was a dangerous man
even today.
AT ANY rate, the fleeing Tewksbury was
brought home by a horse, a few hours
lalr, or a part of him was! The horse was -tied
to one end of a rope, and the man's body
to the other! Yes, it's a grewsome picture, but
this was a terrible feud.
Still the Tewksburys got even, got revenge.
They did so not by a counter-attack them
selves, but by a peculiar and bloody circum
stance which they themselves did not control,
but which must have given them immense satis
faction. The law, in the person of Sheriff Com
modore Owens, one of their faction, stepped in
dramatically to set another high mark in west
ern violence. ,
A tough member of the Graham army named
Andy Cooper had been stealing, and people
complained to the sheriff about it. This sheriff
Owens had headquarters at Holbrook, in Apache
County, Arlzqna. He was a strong and fearless
man, with a certain sense .of justice, even if he
were allied with the Tewksburys.
Owens' plan, as he himself explained it later,
was to "lay low" for a time until he could
actually get evidence of Cooper's thievery, then
pounce onto him for the arrest. As matters
stood at first, he had a warrant but no proof of
guilt, and it was likely that any Jury would
free him. Sure of his guilt, Sheriff Owens did
not want him to go free.
And so Owens waited, and watched. He
appeared to be disinterested. So much so, in
fact, that loafers and hangers-on about the
saloons In Holbrook began to taunt him and
bait him unmercifully.
"Wa'al, too bad we got a sheriff who's
ascairt of a rustler," one loafer would remark
to another, in the sheriff's hearing.
"Ya'ap, too bad. Reckon's he's been milk fed.
He'd oughter have raw meat fed to him, haw-haw-haw!"
was the answer, usually.
One rough wag even composed a little ditty
which he sang to music:
"We got a sheriff with plenty of brains,
But he ain't got nerve to back 'em;
We got rustlers on dur plains,
But sheriff's afeared to track 'em!"
SHERIFF OWENS heard several of the other
Insults and was aloof and contemptuous of
them. But after awhile a man's pride will
weaken in the face of ridicule, deserved or not.
When Owens first heard that silly little ditty,
he saw red.
"By th' eternal I'll show you scum who's
afraid!" he roared at the men baiting him, with
an oath. They laughed, as he mounted his horse
and rode away.
Andy Cooper, the outlaw in question, was
known to be staying in a cabin with his mother,
Mrs. John Blevins (a relative of the John Henry
Blevins now living, mentioned herein), located
a short distance from the village of Holbrook.
Sheriff Owens didn't know whether anybody
else would be in the cabin or not and didn'l
care. He just rode out
In the front yard he dismounted, dropped his
horse's reins, and took his repeating rifle from
Its saddle holster. Nobody was In sight He
went to the front door and knocked. Presently
Cooper himself stuck his head out the door.
"Whatta you want here?" Cooper snarled.
"I've got a warrant for your arrest" said
Mr. Owens. "You'll have to come with me."
Cooper glared at him a moment then finally
said, "AH right let me get my hat"
He went back inside and closed the door.
After a few seconds Owens backed away, hold
ing his rifle at his hip.
In a flash the door was jerked open and a
pistol shot fired from within. Owens safely
ducked, and the bullet killed his horse behind
him.
But in the same breath he also fired his own
gun, striking his would be assassin in the chest,
causing a mortal wound.
A moment later, so Owens told, his alert eye
caught slight motion of a curtain or something
at a window to the left Instantly the rifle
swung over and put a bullet just 'below the
window sill, through the cabin boards. That
shot struck Andy Cooper himself in the ab
domen and killed him.
BEFORE the clock could have ticked twice
more, a man named Mose Roberts suddenly
appeared around ah outside comer of the cabin,
to Owens' right. Roberts carried a big pistol,
already leveled and drawing a bead on the
sheriff's head.
Roberts never pulled his pistol trigger. With
his rifle still at bis hip, Owens shot through
the man's brain.
Thus were three attackers slain In almost as
few seconds. Sheriff Owens had no Idea how
many others were in the cabin. He could hear
sundry wails and groaning and a commotion of
some sort Then the front door popped open
again and a boy ran out. Clinging to him and
pleading tearfully was Mrs. Blevins, the boy's
mother.
The lad was not more than 16 years of age.
He had seen the other three men shot down
when they would have killed the sheriff. He
was a Blevin, and his family was allied with
the Grahams, whereas the sheriff was a Tewks
bury partisan. He was blind with fury.
Mrs. Blevins evidently knew that death
threatened her son, so she begged htm and
tried to hold him in. He carried a pistol, and
he fought to free his arm.
This little drama continued there for almost
a minute, with Sheriff Owens tense and alert,
holding his rifle in readiness for anything. Sud
denly he fired, again from the hip position.
"I shore hated to kill that boy, he was such
a youngster," the sheriff told later, "But still
It was my life or his'n. With a pistol he could
shoot like a man. He jerked away from his
mammy and aimed at me. There wasn't noth
ing else I could do."
NOBODY else came out, and after a bit
Mr. Owens backed awsy then walked on
back to town.
"Wa'al. sheriff, whar's yore prisoner? Did
he scare you off ag'ln? Haw-haw-haw!" the
" loafers resumed their taunts.
The sheriff remained calm.
"Some qf you men better go out there and
clean up" he suggested. "It's a mite messy
in that cabin."
And messy it was!
The place was a shambles. Four dead and
bloody men, blood on the bed, the floor, the
walls, even on the ceiling, the worst sight
ever they had beheld, said those townsmen (
with the woman squatting in the midst of it
hysterical -and practically insane, crying and
sobbing wildly.
Loss of those four men weakened the Gra
ham forces materially. All had been desperate
fighters, thus valuable partisans In any feud.
Tom Graham, their leader, was naturally infuri-
ated, but there seemed little he could do. He
dared not ride In and shoot down the sheriff.
First of all, the sheriff had demonstrated an
Uncanny ability to protect his own life, and
certainly Tom Graham could not hope to catch
him napping now. Second, he was the sheriff,
- an authorized arm of the law, and to murder
him would bring more than normal resentment
probably outside militia and so great trouble
Indeed. Tom therefore bided his time.
TOM didn't have long to lay his plans for
revenge, however. News of this and other
exciting and bloody episodes of the feud had
spread, and there was a growing demand for
putting a stop to It The reader will under
stand, of course, that these events occurred in
the 1890 s, when very few white people lived In
all of Arizona, and the established courts and'
machinery of civilization were only In their
Infancy. Distances were very great, communi
cation was limited to horse travel, and Pleasants
Valley, scene of the feud, was very Isolated any
way. In fact It still is far from anywhere, so
to speak. The postofnee there, now cnlled
Young, Is 75 miles from any rniltoad. The
villagers around It get snowed In each winter
snow blocking the trails and roads nnd break
ing telephone lines so that they are cut off
from the rest of the world, save for radio recep
tion, for weeks at a time. About them is a
beautiful, wild, virgin forest, little changed, like
the people themselves, since the days of the
feud.
Nevertheless, resentment against so much
bloodshed was spreading. Hence Sheriff William
Mulvernon of Yavapai County, Arizona, one
week led a posse of determined men across the
mountain trails Into Pleasant Valley to bring
whatever force was necessary Into play to stop
the feud.
Sheriff Mulvernon learned that two Graham
ites, Charlie Blevins and John Graham himself,
were hiding from the posse In a cabin. The
cabin was situated near a store. So the sheriff
concocted a little ruse.
OSTENTATIOUSLY he and his posse gal
loped up to the store. Inquired loudly for
Blevins and Graham Told that the two men
were not there, the horsemen rode noisily away.
But - instead of riding off. they halted a
short distance down the trail and all crept back.
j f Jfe ftrar scif Jfe' I
. , - ' "
.ft
'Tiff V;C:''-;-r'T;
"if. m1:
The Old Tewksbury Cabin Is Little Changed Since the Day It X'a Attacked by the
Grahams, and Hogs Partly Devoured the Bodies of 2 Men Killed in Gun Battle.
Edward Tewksbury, Who Escaped. Punish
- mcnt in the Murder Trial, Was the Last
' Man Left Alive in Long Feud.
very quietly. Each man concealed himself be
hind a rock, part of an old wall, or other con
venient breastwork, and settled down to wait.
The trickery worked. Presently Graham and
Blevins came from their cabin, mounted and
rode out to the store. Each was heavily armed,
but evidently suspicious of no immediate
danger. They rode right into the line of the
possemen's Are. ,
In a flash each man ducked low on his horse,
drew his pistol and fired in the direction from
which the sheriff's command had come, and
spurred their mount into a dash meanwhile.
But it didn't save them. A number of rifles
barked, and both Graham and Blevins toppled
off dead. Quietly the posse returned to its
horses and rode away, leaving the dead where
they lay.
Nor did the sheriff and his men accomplish
anything more. After a few days of hunting
around, they went on back to Prescott, whence
they had come. The feud then settled Into an
other spell of ambushing and sniping and mur
dering and such, until only two Grahams were
left alive. One of these, James, died from
natural cause.
That left only' big Tom, the leader, who
miraculously had been through most of the
fighting and had escaped any injury at all.
But he wbs licked, now. Fed up with scrap
ping. Disgusted at the terrible toll. Getting
along in years also. Therefore, ho announced
publicly that he wa done that he would give
up the feuding and hating and lay down his
gun. He swore he would never go armed again.
And he kept hi word.
HE MARRIED a young woman, and moved
entirely away from the Pleasant Valley
community, dropped his old profession of cattle
raising and settled 175 miles to the southward
near the town of Tempe, Arizona, 10 miles from
the present state capita city of Phoenix. There
he began farming. He lived peacefully for al
most a year, and Arizona citizens thought the
old blood feud was ended for good. But Fate
decreed that it must thrust Its ugly head up
one more time.
Tom Graham was riding on a wagon of hay
one morning, from his farm toward the market
in Phoenix. Ho was nearing the Twin Butte
school, when a shot from ambush suddenly
struck him between the shoulders, and he fell
backward, dead.
Two little school children had witnessed the
dastardly act. They said that John Rhodes and
Edward Tewksbury had been hiding in the
bushes whence the fatal shot had come, and
they believed Rhodes did tho actual firing.
Horsemen formed a posse, and In a few hours
both men were In custody. They were hailed
before a Justice, and the sobbing young widow
of Tom Graham faced them there nt the official
hearing.
Testimony was being taken, and the Justice
was making a little talk on the legnl procedure.
Nobody observed Mrs. Graham as she quietly
edged over toward Rhodes.
Suddenly she Jerked a pistol from her shawl,
stuck Its muzzle In Rhodes' ribs and pulled tha
trigger.
SOMK sort of a miracle must have saved him.
Rome spectators to that event declare that
ilstol hammer was fouled In the woman'
rh- I Others Insist that the cartridge Just
il'd-i'l fire.
At any rate Rhodes' life was saved, and Mr,
'irahnm was taken away, hysterical.
Excitement about this murder and about tha
episode in the Justice' room spread all over
the southwest. Nobody wanted to see the old
Graham-Tewksbury feud revived, but everybody
wanted to see Justice done. Rhodes and Tewk
nury were tried, then giving a change of venue
'or a accond trial. A prolonged legal battle en
siled, ending finally with both racs, going scot
free. Rhodes died later of tuberculosis.
Thus, with Tom Graham murdered, the Gra
ham family was wiped out. Some of their henrh
, men remained, among them John Henry Blcv
in who still lives, but' no actual member of
the family.
And it happened also that Edward Tewks
bury, who escaped punishment In these last
trials, was the last of hi family clan.
The last man therefore victorious! If vic
tory can be called uch, at o tremendous a
price.
PAGE THHEE-B