USA > Arizona > History of Arizona, Vol. VIII > Part 19
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" 'Editor of the 'Miner' : In looking over the last issue of your paper, Nov. 11th, and a report giving details concerning the late tragedy which occurred near our place, we wish to correct one error-the murderers were not mounted on horses, but were all on foot, and wearing the Apache mocassins, leaving on their trail many Indian articles, (among others, bone dust used by the Indians as a medicine), which were brought in by George Munroe. As the affair is a serious one and unprecedentedly bold, our citi- zens, wishing to have the blame attached to none but the guilty ones, have spared no trouble or ex- pense in thoroughly satisfying themselves as to the identity of the murderers.
"'As soon in the morning as it became light enough to see a footprint, a party of our citizens was on the spot, and took the trail. Judging from the indications, after killing the passen- gers, something scared the Indians, causing them to leave in hot haste, scattering in different di- rections. After following up their different trails a distance of four or five miles, they all united, forming one large trail and leading toward the Date Creek Reservation. The trail
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showed them to be a large party of Indians, some forty or fifty in number. It was useless for the few citizens then on the trail to follow them far- ther, the Indians having some twenty hours the start.
" 'They returned to Wickenburg, where they met Captain Meinholdt, with a detachment of troops from Camp Date Creek, and orders to use all efforts to find out who the murderers were. Thereupon Mr. Munroe and Mr. Frink immedi- ately returned with Captain Meinholdt and his command, again took up the trail, and followed it until citizens and soldiers were all thoroughly satisfied that the perpetrators of the horrible deed were Indians.
"'We, being of the scouting party, subscribe to the above as being a true report, having been the first upon the ground after the massacre and of the last to leave the trail.
""'W. J. Barclay, George Munroe,
Edward Prentiss, George Bryan, Jose Maria Salallo.'
"The public mind, however, continued to be divided, certain interests harping upon the mat- ter until they succeeded in schooling a portion of the Eastern public into the belief that white Ari- zonans had committed the crime for the sake of plundering the passengers and to make sure of the continuance of the war with the Apaches. These were, of course, base slanders and through the untiring efforts of General Crook were later disproved and the guilt fastened-beyond any reasonable doubt-upon Apache-Mohave In- dians.
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"The best known and most prominent victim of this deplorable tragedy was Fred W. Loring, who was twenty-two years of age and a native of Boston, Massachusetts. He had graduated from Harvard in 1870, and immediately engaged in the business of journalism in his native city. Early in 1871 he had joined the 'Wheeler Expe- dition,' which he accompanied throughout all its rambles, finally reaching Prescott on his way home. Although a boy in years, Mr. Loring was a mature man in mind, whose name had already become familiar throughout the nation as an au- thor and 'contributor' of rare merit. His un- timely death created a great sensation in the East, and at once the press of New York and New England wheeled into line, and concluded that 'the Apache must be treated with less Bible, and more sword.'
"Messrs. Hamel and Salmon were likewise members of the 'Wheeler Expedition.' Both gentlemen were residents of San Francisco, where the latter left a wife and two small chil- dren who were dependent upon his efforts for support.
"Mr. Shoholm was on his way to his home in Philadelphia after an absence of many years, part of which time he had been a member of the firm of Jewell & Co., of Prescott.
".C. S. Adams had a wife and three small chil- dren in San Francisco and was on his way to join them when overtaken by death. For ten months preceding his departure from Prescott, he had been in charge of the flour depot of W. Bichard & Co., at that place.
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"John Lanz, the driver, who was better known as 'Dutch John,' came from San Bernardino, California, about four weeks before his death, and had obtained a situation as driver on the Ehrenberg-Wickenburg stage, the fatal trip be- ing his second one over the route, and the first one from the Wickenburg end of the line.
"Miss Sheppard, who had been quite seriously wounded in the attack, was later taken to Camp Date Creek for medical attention, going from there to Southern California in company with Mr. Kruger. Not many years later Kruger re- ported her death in that State from the effects of the wounds she had received, which left him as the last survivor of the most atrocious killing of whites by savages in Arizona."
Miss Sheppard was a member of the demi- monde, a beautiful woman who dressed in the height of extreme fashion; adventurous, as is fully demonstrated by her being in Arizona at this time, and said to be quite fascinating, whose charms found a ready market. She was kind and generous, dividing with the unfortunate, nursing the sick with motherly care; she had a warm place in the hearts of her male acquaint- ances.
At first, as before stated, this was supposed to have been the work of Mexicans, disguised as In- dians. C. B. Genung, to the day of his death, believed that Mexicans committed this atrocity, and makes the following statement in regard to it:
"In the fall of 1871 a man named J. M. Bryan, commonly called 'Crete' by his acquaintances, had the contract to haul government freight
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from Ehrenberg, on the Colorado River, to Ft. Whipple, Camps Wood, Verde, Apache, and Ft. McDowell. His business called him to different posts and he generally travelled by stage from one post to another. When there was no stage route he generally used a saddle horse or mule, of which he had several good ones. Bryan had an acquaintance with whom he generally took his meals when in Wickenburg, which was a central point for his teams. One day Donna Tomase, as the woman was called, (she was a California Spaniard. Her right name was Mrs. Bouns), called Bryan into her house, and told him not to ride in the Wickenburg and Ehrenberg stage any more. When questioned she told him that there was a plan laid to rob the stage; that she had overheard some Mexicans talking in a brush shack behind a saloon nearby where she lived, and cautioned him again about going by stage. He took the advice and did his travelling in the saddle from that on. It was not long before the woman's story was confirmed. The stage left Prescott at night on account of Indians, arriv- ing at Wickenburg before daylight on the fol- lowing morning. * * * At a point about nine miles from Wickenburg toward Ehrenberg, the road crossed a small sandwash which had scrub oak brush growing on either side. In this wash, hidden by the banks and brush, lay the Mexicans. When the stage was well into the wash, the horses were stopped and the stage riddled with bullets. * *
"Of course this was supposed by most people to be the work of the Indians, quite a number of whom were at that time at Camp Date Creek
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about twenty-five miles northwest of Wicken- burg. The Mexicans had worn moccasins and scalped Adams in order to mislead the public. At the time I was working from twenty-five to thirty of the Date Creek Indians, gathering my crop of corn, beans and potatoes on my ranch in Peeples Valley, twenty-seven miles north of Wickenburg, and I had some men among them that I knew I could trust. As soon as I heard the news I sent two Indians across to Date Creek to learn if these Indians knew anything about the matter. They returned the same day and assured me their people knew nothing about the massacre, but that it must be Tonto Apaches from the eastern country.
"In a very few days Bryan came by my place, on his way from Wickenburg to Prescott, and told me the story. Among this band of fifteen Mexicans was one who Mrs. Bouns was slightly acquainted with, and whom she called Parenta; his name being the same as her family name. She got him into her house, filled him up with wine and he told her the whole story; how these men had all stayed at a house out on the road a little west of the town the night before the mas- sacre, and went out to the place before daybreak. The place had been picked out some days before. This young Mexican claimed that he was sick that night and did not accompany the crowd that did the work, but told of Adams shooting one of the party ; that they had taken the wounded man to the Agua Caliente springs on the Gila River to get well. The officers went from Phoenix and got the fellow with the hole in his shoulder, brought him to Phoenix, and he was killed in
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the jail by a man who still lives in Phoenix. John Burger killed one of them in a corral at the lower station on the Agua Fria near where the S. F. P. & P. R. crosses that stream. The ringleader, a redheaded native of Gibraltar. named Joaquin Barbe, with another of the band, got on the warpath and run amuck in Phoenix, and Joe Fye and Milt Ward, deputy sheriffs, chased them out of town and killed both of them, and they all got what was coming to them, but one. He got wise and left the country. Bryan was very careful who he told the story to, and it was passed among the right men to attend to such matters. The scalping of Adams was all right to fool a tenderfoot, but we oldtimers knew that Apaches never scalped, although they fre- quently mutilated otherwise."
If this massacre had been committed by In- dians, it is strange that Mike Burns knows noth- ing of it, because he has been collecting Indian history and Indian stories, and recording them carefully, no matter whether to the credit of his race or not, and if the Indians had been the cul- prits, some of the Indians, the Yavapais or Apache-Mohaves, with whom he has been asso- ciated since his early youth and manhood, would certainly have given him an account of it. On the contrary he professes to know nothing of this massacre, and never heard of any attempt to as- sassinate General Crook, although he says this might have happened and he never know of it; so I give all the evidence tending to show that it was committed by the Indians, and also the evi- dence of Mr. Genung going to show that it was committed by Mexicans. It will always remain
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a mystery as to who were really the murderers. General Crook, as we shall see, at first believed that it was committed by the Indians, and, ac- cording to Captain Bourke, spent a long time in ferreting out the perpetrators, but from the fact that a month later, or thereabouts, he employed these same Indians, whom he tried to capture or kill at Date Creek, as scouts to run down the renegade Apaches, it would seem that he might have changed his mind, although there is no rec- ord of that extant.
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CHAPTER XVI.
THE WICKENBURG MASSACRE (Continued).
GENERAL CROOK TAKES UP HUNT FOR MURDERERS -INVESTIGATION STOPPED BY PEACE COM- MISSION-INVESTIGATION BY GENERAL CROOK RESUMED-MEETING WITH INDIANS
AT CAMP DATE CREEK-SELECTION OF MURDER- ERS BY MOHAVE INDIANS-ATTEMPTED AR- REST BRINGS ON FIGHT-C. B. GENUNG'S ACCOUNT OF HAPPENING-CAPTAIN JOHN G. BOURKE'S ACCOUNT OF ATTEMPT ON GEN- ERAL CROOK'S LIFE-DEATH AND BURIAL OF CAPTAIN PHILIP DWYER-FIGHT WITH INDIANS.
William Gilson, at that time a prominent citizen of Date Creek, and afterwards one of the early settlers of the Salt River Valley, during the latter part of January, 1872, informed Gen- eral Crook that he believed the Date Creek Indians committed the Wickenburg Massacre. Mr. Gilson was friendly to these Indians, and this opinion was given only upon well grounded suspicions. General Crook took the matter in hand, determined to ferret out the murderers, arrest them, and turn them over to the civil au- thorities for trial. He set spies, both Indians and whites, at work to hunt up the testimony, plenty of which was soon after forthcoming, and what was at first a mystery, was soon cleared up by a strong chain of evidence. First came an Apache-Mohave Indian boy, who had been raised by Dan O'Leary, the well-known
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scout, whom the robbers and murderers had sent for that he might tell them the denominations of the greenbacks which they had secured at the time of the massacre. Some of these green- backs had been left by the Indians, they not knowing their value. Next came Irataba, chief of the Mohave Indians, and one or two of his captains, and several of his warriors, who testi- fied that the murderers, after going to Date Creek, went upon the Colorado River Indian Reservation, and boasted of the deed they had done, spent their stolen greenbacks and dis- played other plunder. These actions were brought to the notice of other white men besides General Crook, among whom were Dr. Tonner, then Indian Agent at the Colorado River Reser- vation, who assisted in procuring these facts. Wallapai Indians also substantiated the ac- counts given by Irataba and his friends. The murderers repeatedly stated that fifteen of their number had made the attack, while fifteen more were within hailing distance ready to give aid; that they had taken very little clothing, trinkets, or articles of that nature, for fear that their pos- session might some day lead to their detection.
Continuing, J. M. Barney says : "In March of 1872, General Crook, accompanied by Lieuten- ants Bourke and Ross, started from Fort Whipple, along the Mohave road, towards the Colorado River. He reached Beale Springs where he succeeded in getting some Wallapai Indians to agree to go out and help him per- suade the Apache-Mohaves to come into Camp Date Creek, where they were to be fed and taken care of by the Government. This was merely a
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ruse upon the part of General Crook whose main object was to get hold of the robbers and mur- derers belonging to that tribe, and, knowing that the two tribes-the Apache-Mohaves and Walla- pais-were more or less friendly, realized at once that it would not do to trust the latter with General the real secret of the expedition. Crook, with his two lieutenants and Wallapai Indian allies, trudged on foot through snow and slush towards a rendezvous, where, by previous arrangement, two companies of cavalry were to go under the guidance of Dan O'Leary and some Wallapai scouts for the purpose of taking in hand the murderous Apache-Mohaves. Just at this time an express came to General Crook with orders to cease hostilities and to let the Indians and 'Peace Commissioners'-who were about to arrive in Arizona-settle the question. General Crook obeyed the orders and returned to Fort Whipple. Later on in that same year-about the month of August-having been granted au- thority to chastise bad Indians, General Crook, with Lieutenant Ross, Henry Hewitt, and a few other persons, soon after started for Camp Date Creek to carry out his old object of arresting the murderers who had taken part in the Wick- enburg Massacre. Before leaving his headquar- ters the General had sent couriers to the Apache- Mohaves and Apache-Yumas, asking them to meet him in conference at Date Creek, which they agreed to do.
"The General and his party reached the post on the 7th of September, but found that no Indians had vet come in to meet him, as had been VIII-20
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promised. The following day, however, some fifty Indians, led by their Chief, Ochocama, made their appearance, armed and painted, and apparently ready for war. In the meantime Dr. Herman Bendell, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Arizona, and Col. James M. Barney, of Ehrenberg and Yuma, had arrived from the Colorado River; Captain Byrne, D. H. Smith, Irataba, the Mohave chieftain, Irataba's son, and another Mohave Indian, had come in from Camp Beale Springs ; while Charley B. Genung, William Gilson, and other citizens from the neighboring valleys were also present. It was then arranged by General Crook that the Mo- haves should be kept out of sight of the Apache-Mohaves until everything should be ready for arresting the murderers. The time for the council came and the parties to the con- ference assembled on the parade ground adja- cent to the post. Three or four of the stage rob- bers were present among the crowd of Indians, while one, known as 'Chimihueva Jim'-a very bad Indian, who spoke English quite well- could not be induced under any circumstances to come to the post, but remained in the nearby mountains. General Crook, together with the other citizens mentioned above, as well as Lieu- tenant Volkmar, who commanded the post, were seated on benches opposite Chief Ochocama and his braves, when Chief Irataba and his Mohave followers made their appearance and shook hands with their red brethren. There being but about fifty Apache-Mohaves present, General Crook asked for information regarding the five or six hundred Apache-Mohaves and Apache-
COL. JAMES M. BARNEY.
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Yumas, who, a short time previously, had drawn rations at the post. He could gain but little knowledge about this matter from Chief Ocho- cama, whose brother was, at the time, a prisoner in the guardhouse for having attempted to smuggle arms from the post, and for having dis- obeyed an order of Dr. Williams then Indian agent at Date Creek.
"It had previously been understood by the white citizens and Mohaves that one of the lat- ter was to hand to each one of the murderers of the stage passengers, a piece of tobacco. One of the Mohaves immediately proceeded to carry out this part of the program, offering the first piece to the chief, Ochocama, who hung his head and did not let on that he understood what the Mo- have meant. He was finally persuaded to take hold of the tobacco, while his countenance rapidly changed from one blue color to another, his discomfiture ending by dropping his piece of tobacco to the ground as soon as he could. Another and another Indian was given his piece of tobacco, and the last murderer had just clutched his when, agreeably to previous under- standing, a soldier attempted to arrest him. Quick as thought, another savage stabbed the soldier with a knife. The soldier pulled his pistol and shot. General Crook rushed in and tried to stop the fracas, but it was too late, as the Indians and soldiers were cross-firing upon one another. Three soldiers caught hold of the chief, Ochocama, who would have gotten away from all three had it not been for Dan O'Leary who, winding his fingers in the chief's long hair, threw and secured him, whence he was led to the
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guardhouse. During the disturbance Ocho- cama's brother who, as has been stated, was a prisoner in the guardhouse, made two attempts to escape through the roof and was shot by a guard. Lieutenant Ross, observing an Indian taking a deadly aim at General Crook, pushed that officer out of range of the gun just in time, the bullet that was intended for him hitting and killing an Indian. Most of the Indians ran away when the firing commenced, but the chief and those who had to remain fought like demons. The bloody ending of this gathering, although regrettable, was inevitable, as the Indians would have resisted arrest under any circumstances. Ochocama, the chief, did not much relish his in- carceration in the guardhouse, and finally made his escape through the roof, when he was shot at twice, pierced with a bayonet once but even- tually succeeded in getting away to the hills, where, according to the story of some Apache- Yumas, who later came into Mr. Gilson's place, he died of his wounds. This chief was one of the worst Indians infesting the Territory at that time, and, according to his own confession, had murdered Mr. Leihy and Mr. Evarts in Bell's Canyon, on November 10th, 1866, for no other reason than that he had been told that Mr. Leihy had stolen some goods intended for his tribe. Mr. Leihy was Superintendent of Indian Affairs at the time, having succeeded Charles D. Poston in that position, and Mr. Evarts was his clerk. His murderers tried to lay the blame of the crime on the Pimas, just as they afterwards en- deavored to make the Tonto Apaches shoulder all their other evil deeds. This treacherous
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chief and his brother had also murdered a man by the name of Taylor on the Colorado River, in August of 1869.
"After the row Mr. Gilson went back to his ranch and stayed there alone, while Mr. Genung, having Indians working for him on the road over the Antelope Mountains, was furnished with a small escort of soldiers, went home, and told his Indians what had taken place. Upon receiving this information they all left.
"Some seven Apache-Mohaves, including the chief, Ochocama, who died of his wounds, and his brother, were killed in this fight, while no doubt many others were wounded. Many more would have been killed but for the earnest efforts of General Crook and Dr. Bendell to put a stop to the firing. The soldier who was stabbed by the savage who commenced the trouble had been severely wounded and soon after passed away."
Mr. Genung's account of the attempt of Gen- eral Crook to capture or kill these Indians who were supposed to be the murderers, follows :
"In July, 1871, I concluded to build a wagon road from Wickenburg, via Antelope Creek and Peeples Valley to connect with the road leading from the Colorado River at Ehrenberg to Pres- cott. There was a road that could be travelled by light rigs and empty teams but no load could be handled over it. My neighbors agreed to. help me, as Wickenburg and Phoenix were our best markets and to haul a load to either of these places we had to travel about sixty miles, whereas it was only twenty-seven miles by the road that I proposed to build from Peeples Val-
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ley to Wickenburg which was on the Phoenix road. I employed a few white men at $75.00 per month, a few Mexicans at $65.00 and board, and started to work. There was quite a number of Yavapai Indians in and around Peeples Valley at the time, and when they learned what I was doing they asked for work; and, as they were willing to work for fifty cents per day, the same as I had paid them when they worked for me on the Colorado River Reservation, I put a lot of them to work. My neighbors did not approve of my working Indians, but, as the Indians would do about as much work with pick and shovel as the average white man or Mexican, I put them on; gave them flour, beans, sugar, and coffee and venison. I gave one of the Indians fifty cents per day and furnished him with car- tridges, and he kept the camps well supplied with fresh meat and his squaw dressed the skins, which made it a good job for the hunter. I thought it better to work the Indians and have them where I could watch them, than to be un- certain of their whereabouts. Then again, the white man had occupied their lands and hunting grounds, crowded them back so that they were. too glad to go onto the reservation. Then after they were all on the reservation the agent starved them until they had to go back to the mountains to get something to eat.
"I built the road from Wickenburg to Kirk- land Valley for $4765, and without the Indian labor I could not have built it for less than seven or eight thousand dollars.
"When I started work on the road a man named George H. Wilson, commonly called
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Yackey Wilson, moved from his ranch three and a half miles below Wickenburg up to Antelope Creek and put up a seven room house and started a station. Wilson was a good station keeper and did a good business with the placer miners as well as with the travel that came that way as soon as the road was possible for teams. While I was working on the road I received one day a letter from General Crook who had been at Fort Whipple but a short time ; he having ar- rived in the Territory in June of the same year. In the letter Crook asked me if I could go with some of the head men of the Yavapais and see him at Whipple. I wrote to Crook that I would try to locate some of the captains and go with them as soon as I could. Crook did not tell me in his letter what he wanted, but from the talk that I had with the three soldiers that brought me the letter, I inferred that he wanted to enlist some of the Yavapais to help fight the Hualapais and Tonto Apaches. I sent an Indian to Camp Date Creek to talk with some of the Indians which I supposed were there, but my Indian re- turned that night and told me that nearly all the Indians had gone out into the mountains and only came into the post once a week to draw ra- tions. The doctor at the post had advised this move as the Indians were having chills and fever at their camp near the post. As I was very busy I concluded to take one Indian and go and see Crook, knowing that I could induce the Indians to do anything that I thought was for their good. The next day I took an Indian that I knew well, and with two white men drove to Prescott. It took five days the way the road ran at that time
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