Tombstone Story pt. I |
The Trail to Texas |
Nothing was ever recorded about how and when Frank and Tom reached Fort Worth. The general explanation goes that they traveled directly to Fort Worth from Hazleton about 1878 and met their older brother Will there. But the timing of events at the time lead me to hypothesize they may have traveled to Dakota Territory first, then rode to Texas with Will and his family. In early 1876, Will was preparing to pull stakes in his home in S.E. Dakota Territory and move to Fort Worth, Texas. Having a brand new daughter (Elona, born 4 Oct. 1875 in Sioux Falls), the family probably would have not left for Texas until at least spring 1876. The Fort Worth Democrat notes his arrival in Fort Worth in June, 1876. And with Robert Houston's new family uprooting the old in 1876, Frank and Tom must have felt very uncomfortable living under the same roof a couple more months, let alone 2 years. It's noted that Frank and Tom first shows up in Arizona in early 187811, which would have put the brother's going to Fort Worth at least early 1877. With both William's party and his brothers planning to be on the trail to Fort Worth close to the same time, it's possible Frank and Tom might have gone the 300 miles across Iowa to Will at Sioux Falls in early 1876, and help their brother, Will, get his family the nearly 1000 miles to Fort Worth. |
West to Arizona |
Regardless of how Frank and Tom actually traveled to Texas, They stayed with their brother, Will in Fort Worth for sometime after 1876. Their suspected intention was to further their education in law. Considering Frank was 28 years old and Tom, 23, it stands to reason their schooling days were past them. Why they chose to go to the Arizona Territory has never been revealed. One story has it they rode on one of the Chisum or Slaughter cattle drives from Texas to Arizona in. But by early 1878, Frank and Tom were looking for work around Camp Thomas near the Gila River in the Arizona Territory.11 Chronologically, the Melvin Jones manuscript is the earliest account (known to me) of the Mclaury brothers in the Arizona Territory. In 1877, a man named Jones bought a ranch along the Gila River owned by none other than Newman Haynes Clanton. Jones' son, Melvin recounted in his latter years of having known many of the San Pedro "Cowboys", including the McLaury's, the Clantons, Curly Bill, John Ringo and Joe Hill. It was on the old Clanton ranch that Frank McLaury first met Billy Clanton. Billy, about 16 or 17 at the time, seemed to miss his old home and stayed there quite a bit. During one of Billy's stays in early 1878, Frank rode up to the Jones ranch asking to stay overnight and looking for work. Frank worked for the Jones with Melvin and Billy to build some corral fences. He "batched" (befriended and stayed) with Melvin and Billy until he found work with local butcher, George Haller, as a cattle buyer for his shop. During this time, Frank even had occasion to assist the local law in chasing thieves. Melvin Jones recounted this episode about a time when he was acting as a constable at Camp Thomas in 1879. Three discharged soldiers took government property (harnesses) when they left and Jones was dispatched by the local Justice of the Peace to bring the men back. "He (the Judge) said that last night the discharged soldiers was in the fort, there was several sets of harness stolen from the Government Corral. That those three discharged soldiers must be brought back, and told me to take one good man with me, and Frank McLowery was the good man I took with me.11 The two rode out on the trail of the soldiers that led them north past Camp Apache. After a hard ride and no sleep, they caught up to the soldiers about noon the next day. Jones read the warrant, which brought loud protests from the soldiers. They said the warrant was made in Pima County and when they crossed the Gila River, they were in Yapavai County. They threatened that they would use their guns on Melvin and Frank if any attempt were made to take them into custody. "I told them if they refused to go with us peaceably, that we would go on in to Fort Apache which was only about 20 miles and I would tell the whole story to the Commanding Officer and ask for a detachment of soldiers to help take them back to Camp Thomas. That made them nervous. The one that had been a Sargent and doing most of the talking said he would like to have a private talk with his two pals. That they would go off a short distance and talk the matter over among themselves."11 When the soldiers returned, a bribe of Twenty five dollars from each of the soldiers was offered if Jones and McLaury would leave and say they never found them. "Frank McLowery had been quiet and talked very little, up to then. He immediately swore that he was not out to accept bribes from anybody. The ex-Sargent soldier lost his temper worse than ever, swearing by every thing that he would rather turn it into a shooting match than go back to Camp Thomas." At this impasse, Melvin and Frank went to where they had hobbled their horses. Jones decided that if they were to set out for Camp Apache, that the soldiers would reconsider and agree to return to Camp Thomas. The bluff worked and the soldiers worked out a bargain where they would return to Camp Thomas with the posse. But they would skirt the fort and instead allowed to be taken into custody by the Judge of the civilian encampment next to Camp Thomas. Jones and McLaury delivered their prisoners to the Judge that night without any trouble. They next day they discovered the judge had been a former comrade of the Sargent and had been able to settle the stolen harness issue out of court. Although Melvin Jones said he knew both of the McLaury's, he mentions Tom only in passing when speaking of both brothers.11 |
A New Ranch for the McLaurys |
With the exploding growth rate of Tombstone came the need to feed the masses. The Sulphur Spring Valley had long been a land where the white man feared to tread. Cochise and the Chiricahua Apaches had held a decade-long dominion over the Valley during and just after the Civil War. In 1872, Cochise finally signed treaties that set aside about what is presently Cochise County as the Apache reservation and peace between the Apache and the whites prevailed for a time. About the same time, one of the first white rancher to try to set up a ranch, Henry Clay Hooker, settled near Camp Grant at the northern mouth of the Sulphur Spring Valley. The Sierra Bonita Ranch, built like a fortified military outpost, is a major tourist attraction today. Hooker's success then is attributed to his fair treatment and generosity to Cochise and his people. But, in 1874, Cochise fell ill and died and tensions again began to rise. Two years later a murder of a white man and subsequent Apache raiding parties along the San Pedro broke the peace. The marauding Apaches were subdued and the entire tribe was sent to the San Carlos reservation to the north. The homeland of the Chiricahua's was now open to white settlement and on Oct. 30, 1876, President U.S. Grant signed an executive order transferring the Chiricahua reservation to public domain. Although the Apache were corralled up in San Carlos, they never gave up their desire for freedom from white oppression. From the young warriors of Cochise came some of the last of the great war chiefs of the Apache. Names like Naiche, Victorio and Geronimo struck fear into the new owners of the old lands as outlaw bands of Apache warriors sporadically carved swathes of destruction through Arizona and Mexico. After the removal of the Indian threat, a small, but steady stream of ranchmen began to claim the lands in the Valley. Among the first was cattle baron John Chisum, fresh from the Lincoln County War in neighboring New Mexico and John Slaughter of Texas, who built his empire along the Mexican border. Both cattle barons were attributed to have brought most of the "cowboy element" into Arizona.12 Some claim that Frank and Tom came to Arizona by way of one of Chisum's or Slaughter's drives between the years of 1876 and 1878. I have never heard of why Frank and Tom left the ranch on the Babocomari or exactly when they staked out the new ranch on the White River at the southern end of the Sulphur Spring Valley. Most place the move in late 1880. They were noted as being of the first to harvest the local grasses for feed and may have been the first to grow alfalfa in Southwestern Arizona.12 The general reason given was to position the McLaury ranch in order to intercept and filter rustled Mexican cattle driven into various butchers of Tombstone and surrounding towns. With the McLaurys at the southern mouth of the Sulphur Spring Valley and the Clanton ranch at the mouth of the San Pedro Valley the rancher stood to make lots of money. That's the general reason. And a valid one if the McLaury brothers were, at the very least, fencing stolen livestock for cowboy rustlers. But the big question is, just how deep were the McLaurys in on the "cowboy depredations"? Aside from the multitude of implications by various authors, that the McLaury's were involved in almost every dirty deed pinned on the cowboys, only the stolen mules charge (accusing them in a newspaper letter by Capt. Hurst and not through any legal channels) and circumstantial evidence of dealing in rustled cattle (Wyatt made such a statement during the trial), were crimes that were ever directly blamed on Frank or Tom. In all the goings on, in and around Tombstone, that the McLaurys had supposedly been involved, it's a wonder they had any spare time to ranch. What did it take to be a ranchman in 1881 Sulphur Spring Valley? I expect the care and maintenance of livestock and land would be a full-time job. The elements would be the ranchers first and foremost enemy. A few days under the Arizona sun could spell disaster to an unattended herd. Apache outbreaks from the reservation to the north was an ever-present danger, and escape to Mexico put the McLaury ranch directly in their path. |
Early McLaury History and The McLaury Brother's Tombstone Story by Clay Parker |