American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project
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Some Thoughts About History
By: George A. Brunson (Globe, Az.
2009)
In my
‘almost’ seventy years I have pretty much learned that, throughout time,
historical events are noted and recorded in specific ways!
(1) By the one it happened to,
(2)
By the one who saw it happen, and,
(3) By the one who heard about it
happening.
I then
followed that line of thinking and found that in (1) it depended on how severe
it was, how legal it was, and, pretty much, how moral it was for the times.
Then in (2) it depended on what they thought they saw, by how close they were
to the event (friend or not of the subject) and just how much they felt they
could share of what they thought they saw. Then in (3) it appears that this
persons account will depend on pretty much all of what is noted by (1) and (2)
as well as to the personal opinions of the person who heard what they thought
they heard about the incident.
It,
therefore, appears that the ‘history’ we read today is dependent upon all of
the above plus the new ‘political correctness’ requirements, the opinions and
personal thoughts of the writer, and, what they expect to gain from the
reporting/recording of it.
It brings
us to a point where we probably should always question what we read or hear as
‘historical fact’ and make up our own minds on just how much we can safely
depend on the various authors providing what we read and hear!
Case in
point: The ‘numbers’ involved in the ‘Camp Grant Massacre’ of 1871! The numbers
of the dead, the attackers, and, the plotters are pretty much all different
depending on who was telling or writing about who did what! If one was on the
side of the Indian – many many dead, wounded or stolen as captives! If on the
side of the Army reporting it there was a high number of women and children
killed but not much said about the males! If on the side of the public, not
many were killed and it was a needed deed at the time! If it is the government
it is a politically terrible thing and we ‘must’ do something about it! Even if
the Government had just recently burned Atlanta, scorched the earth and killed
many, many people and then said to each other “it was a good thing”! The
President at the time of Camp Grant was Grant, the same one who ordered the
destruction during the Civil War!
About the
only way we can get things right is to try to think as if we were there in that
time and place and be honest about what we see and hear! Then, even in that
case, since we know the writer will take certain liberties depending on what he
thinks or feels is ‘a good thing’ or ‘a bad thing’ we can’t really trust them
to put out ‘actual’ history!
I have,
therefore, decided to try to go over a historical subject and treat it as if it
were a crime then look for ‘evidence’ then present it as if it were a case to
you, as the jury, and see if common sense and logic could possibly prevail.
The
Pleasant Valley War
No, not
the entire war, just a couple parts of it. There has been a lot written by a
lot of authors who have done both very good and pretty bad in their research
but it seems they were all interested and involved in their subject to some
extent!
For
example, the Newton – Middleton Cabin and the Tewksbury Ranch where John
Tewksbury and his employee William Jakobs were killed are both shown as being
‘different’ cabins in ‘different’ locations with ‘different’ background
possibilities at both (or all three) of them!
The Newton
– Middleton Cabin was originally built by William Middleton in 1875!
On
September 6, 1881 it was attacked by Indians who had ‘jumped’ the Reservation
and they killed George Turner and Henry Moody during the fight at the cabin.
OK, this is true, it did happen! It even notes the ‘other cabins around it’!
In the
spring of 1882 it was again attacked by Indians and the Middleton's finally gave
up and moved out selling to George Newton and J.J. Vosburg. It can now be
referred to as the ‘Newton’ cabin or even the ‘Middleton/Newton Cabin’ if one
likes. But, what happened to J. J. Vosburg? Isn’t he the one who created the
‘Flying V Ranch” which is less than a mile from the Newton Cabin? He sort of
disappears from all the narratives!
On August
9, 1887, the Ranch was again attacked! John and Ed Tewksbury along with Jim
Roberts and W. B. Edmundson were in the cabin with George Wilson when Hamp
Blevins, John Payne, Thomas Carrington, Robert Glaspie and Tom Tucker (Per
various authors) rode up on the cabin. Note that these are ‘cowboys’ riding up
to a ‘cow ranch’ – or was it? Why didn’t they stop by the Flying V if they were
hungry and looking for ‘Old man Blevins’ who was allegedly killed in their corral?
Hamp Blevins and John Payne were killed during this fight!
On August
10, 1887, the ranch house was burned down (Per same authors) by Charlie
Blevins, Tom Carrington, Al and Ed Rose, Bill Voris, Miguel Apodaca and Lewis
Parker.
This
is the ‘Middleton/Newton Cabin’ photo per Dan Thrapp as received by him from
Leroy Middleton. In 1881 Leroy would have been seven years old – think he
really remembered the place?
(Note the
hillside directly behind the cabin)
The
following photo was taken by myself in 2009 and appears to be the only place
the cabin could have been on Cherry Creek!
This was
taken at the ‘upper Tewksbury Ranch site’ above Cherry Creek about one and one
half miles from the Graham Ranch property.
This is what it looks like if you put
the cabin in it!
This is where the Middleton Cabin
‘really’ was:
Just ahead
of and to his right (he is facing away from you) is the Monument to Hamp
Blevins and John Payne. The ruins of the house are farther to his right behind
the fence.
Note that there is NO HILL in the
background!
It follows
then that the cabin identified by Thrapp, Leroy Middleton, Arizona State
Historical Society, and, Clara Woody (et al) simply is not the ‘Middleton
Cabin’ but in reality the John Tewksbury Ranch Cabin considerably nearer to
Young. (Just north of where the James Dunning Tewksbury Ranch site was and
about a mile and a half from the Graham Ranch property)
This
picture was taken probably in the 30’s or 40’s and shows the house after it was
taken down and moved southwest, log by log, to the head of a field about one
half mile away due to flooding in the area where it ‘was’. Both of these
properties are currently owned by Frank Chapman of Young, Az.
Another
noteworthy comment was made by Jane Eppinga in her article for the ‘ARIZONA
SHERIFF’ Autumn 1991edition titled “The Pleasant Valley War was anything but”
on page 34 where she states Jim Tewksbury said, “No damned man can kill a
brother of mine and stand guard over him for the hogs to eat him and live
within a mile-and-a-half of me”! (Emphasis by myself) This is
interesting since James Tewksbury was a brother of John Tewksbury Jr., and,
James Tewksbury Sr. and John Jr’s cabins were within 500 yards of each other
before John’s was moved, and, James had pigs at his place!
Makes
one wonder just ‘who’ this marker is for.
Especially
when it is only about 200 yards from the ‘original’ location of the John
Tewksbury Cabin!!
It is in
an old Indian ruin where the dirt is easy to dig, and, within view of the ruin
of the old James Tewksbury Sr. Cabin which the next photo shows as well as some
of its ruins still under the trees.
Since
James Tewksbury Jr. built his ranch about six or seven miles farther down
Cherry Creek near Crouch creek it appears that we now have a ‘third’ cabin and
it appears to be the one that confuses everyone.
This
‘third’ cabin was a two story log cabin built low down on the creek bank.
There, however, aren’t any real hills around it that one could attack the cabin
as well as to see and shoot someone across the creek.
This is a couple of photos of this
‘third’ cabin!
Henry
Pullin was my Uncle by marriage; my Aunt was Lilly May Saunders Pullin!
Note the
lack of hillsides around this place!
I suppose
I would have to present the following questions:
John
Tewksbury and his hired hand went out to ‘tend ‘horses’? Why were they ‘tending
their horses’ at their brothers house?
If they
were both shot by the Blevins who were ‘up on a hill’ then where did the hill
go and how did they manage those shots at that distance?
If John’s
wife was also down at James House (lot of people down there that morning) how
could she have seen them fall at that distance and so far across the creek?
And,
lastly, after she saw them fall through the trees and across the creek she
managed to walk that distance and dig holes in the solid rock of the creek
bottom to bury them?
Somehow I
just don’t feel comfortable with this scenario!
Seems like
it would make more sense if the Blevins attacked from the hill side up by Johns
house and found him and his help gathering horses on his ‘own’ property, the
wife ‘seeing’ them fall from the window (or doorway of her house) and, finally,
actually walking out and digging in the soft dirt of an Indian ruin to temporarily
bury them so they could be found later when help showed up!
Another
minor point I would like to make – back in the 40’s and 50’s there was a road
that came up Cherry Creek right by that lower Tewksbury cabin that I actually
rode/drove on! That road today is closed due to someone’s has put a ‘grave
site’ in it!
Seems like
history got changed again!
From this 1977 gravesite photo
if you walk maybe a hundred yards north to the creek then look back across the
creek you would have seen the lower James Tewksbury Cabin. (Photos Courtesy
Dick Pierce)
As stated
earlier – I don’t claim to know what happened for sure, just curious about the
‘facts’!
You should
always make your own judgments!
Photos
contributed by: George Brunson, Richard Pierce, and all Black & White
Photos courtesy Gila County Historical Society.
American Pioneer
& Cemetery Research
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