HOME | BOOSTER | CEMETERIES | EDUCATION
| GHOST TOWNS
| HEADSTONE
MINOTTO | PICTURES | ROADS | JACK SWILLING | TEN DAY TRAMPS
By: Richard Pierce
Internet Edition 112908
One famous Arizona
Pioneer grave site (Cemetery) is the Scott, Stott and
Figure 1.
The
Figure 2
James Warren “Jamie” Stott Jr., Killed August 4, 1888
Photograph Courtesy: National Archives
Jamie Stott grave
Photo courtesy Richard Pierce
Jamie Stott was a young man from back east and about to
claim the homestead rights for his ranch.
Figure 4
Billy Wilson Killed August 4, 1888
Photo Courtesy; National Archives
Billy Wilson, was sometimes called Jeff Wilson. I would bet a bunch that he was named William Jefferson Wilson. Another cowboy/cook that worked around a bunch. Again a likable fellow according to those who knew him.
Figure 5
Courtesy; Richard Pierce
Figure 6
James Scott, Killed August 4, 1888
Photograph courtesy: Richard Pierce
James Scott was a drifting cowboy working at first one place then the other but liked by those who knew him.
According to Will Croft Barnes, Jamie Stott was "well known to have stolen horses" and normally that diatribe was about stealing from the north, selling to the south!
A group of deputies lead by James Dennis Houck waited for Jamie to come out at sunup for firewood and arrested all in the Stott cabin . . . except Motte Clymer, who had TB and worked for Stott. The deputies ate breakfast with the arrestees then took them off to jail . . . looked a bit strange to Motte since the left the Stott ranch to the west to take them to Holbrook which was North-Northeast from the ranch. It bothered Motte to the point that he walked to Holbrook to tell what he knew.
A few days later one of Will Croft Barnes' cowboys was chasing strays and looked up and saw three bodies swinging from the branch of a large Ponderosa Pine tree. Scared him so, that he flew back to the ranch to get the boss and some more hands. They looked the situation over and went to Holbrook where a group formed and went to the site to cut down and bury the dead.
Figure 7
Photograph Courtesy; National Archives
Figure 8
Photograph Courtesy; National Archives
The “LUNGER” reference in (Figure 8) was a reference to Floyd Lamotte “Motte” Clymer who had TB or some type lung disorder and lived in the small cabin near Jamie Stott's cabin. Motte did odd jobs for Jamie, and when they took Jamie. The day they took the boys away, Motte walked all the way to Holbrook to tell what had happened. I make that a 47 mile walk, maybe a greater distance by the trails of the day.
No one has ever seen the warrant that Houck claimed he had when he arrested the three boys. It is possible that some misfiled document may exist deep in the bowels of the courthouse. But even if there is a warrant, that warrant doesn't make you guilty.
All who researched the issue have come up short of anything close to pinning something illegal on these boys. No warrant for their arrest has ever been documented or produced.
J. D. Houck was a killer with a badge - who claimed that a group of thirty masked men took the prisoners and he didn't know what happened after that. Houck had been overheard saying that Stott would never get that land homesteaded, he, Houck, wanted the graze in that area . . . to make matters worse, they hung those guys just a few miles from Houck's Ranch. Most people lump these murders in with the Graham/Tewksbury feud killings.
According to Will Croft Barnes he (Stott) was "well known to have stolen horses" and normally that diatribe was about stealing form the north, selling to the south! Ben Irby was a friend of Jamie Stott and he cornered J. D. Houck in Holbrook and accused him of killing those boys, trying to provoke Houck into a gunfight . . . it didn't happen. Houck weaseled out of a direct confrontation. Houck was a back-shooter and ambusher, right up to his death. Then he finally killed someone who needed killing . . . himself . . . he drank some Strychnine Poison.
Strychnine is used in raising chicken’s, J.D. Houck one day went to feed the chickens, drank the poison and came into the house and told the family what he had done, laid down on the bed, ask that his boots be removed and he died. He was living in Cave Creek at the time and owned a good bit of land there.
Some of the killers were the same but my take is that they are two are independent events. The soothsayers that lived on had a pat set of phrases when talking of the Stott ranch or the Blevins ranch (OW today). They said they stole from the north and sold to the south, then stole from the south and sold to the north . . . never east or west always north and south. But after the hangings one William Jordan Flake, Mormon settler on Snowflake, with the help of Erastus Snow. Seems Flake was renowned for being person who could spot a horse after seeing it just once. I guess you would call that a horse-o-graphic memory? Anyway, seems he somehow was presented with Stott's herd and not one record shows an owner claiming any of these animals . . . amazing . . . those three boys were just murdered.
Figure 9
Hashknife - Photograph Courtesy; National Archives
The dude on horseback (Figure
9) on the left is Henry Kinsley, one of the "young gentlemen;" then
three unidentified cowboys. On Pickett's left is Buck Lancaster, a foreman from
Hashknife;
Billy Wilson was a cook at the ranch headquarters, shown in (Figure 9) holding
the “dowg”. Hashknife was the brand brought from
I am pretty sure that Wilson and Scott both worked for the
Hashknife at one time or another, Stott tried to get hired there when he came
form
pages 80-82 in Carlock, Robert H., THE HASHKNIFE: The Early
Days of the
(Westernlore Press, Tucson, Arizona, 1994 Great West and Indian Series, Volume Sixty)
The photo appears on page 81, it is without the signature of Frank Ames, and Carlock comments:
E. W. Kinsley (he was pres. or CEO of
the company) was on the job, though, and made a trip to
That is the best I have as to who is in the photo. Ben Irby was president of the cattlemen's association in that area and Will Croft Barnes was the secretary. That group planned the roundups and posted where they would start and when and also the path they would take. Don Dedera wrote a book:
Dedera, Don, A Little War of Our Own: The Pleasant Valley Feud Revisited.
Northland Press, Copyright © 1988 Don Dedera
The title should be a lesson to those who don't properly
research, especially when taking info from such stalwarts as Will Croft
Barnes who coined the phrase "A Little War of Our Own" when in his book.
Barnes, Will Croft, Apaches and Longhorns
Reprint: The
He talked about the Blevins boys and John Payne coming
into a roundup camp at
The
Oakes Ames, b. in
Carlock wrote p 42:
Frank A's grandfather and a respected member of congress
before he got into trouble by selling fellow congressmen stock in the Credit
Mobilier, the outfit that was building the Union Pacific and buying the family
(
Children:
Oliver Ames, b. in
Brother of Frank M. Ames, uncle of Frank A. Ames. Lived in
the same area as, and knew, James Warren Stott, father of the young Jamie Stott
hanged by J. D. Houck and associates. His home was in
Frank M. Ames, b. at
Stockholder of
Director of
Brother of Oliver Ames, govenor of
Children of Frank M. Ames:
Frank A. Ames, b. at
Same wealthy
Worked for Hashknife ,1888 at Hashknife Ranch, Holbrook,
Apache Co,
Member of the Coroners jury that buried the bodies of Scott, Stott and Wilson.
One of the "young
gentlemen" as Kinsley called them. Tenderfeet from back east whose
families had a financial interest in the Hashknife. At one time he had four or
five of them underfoot, some worked out some didn't.
I haven't been to the graves for several years (written in 2007), last time up they had both ends of the trail blocked so the only way in was to walk. I don't walk very well, so I have not seen them for a long time. But these men deserve being remembered!
November 2008 - UPDATE
By: Neal Du Shane
Photo by: Neal Du Shane - all rights reserved
November 2008, Lee Hanchett Jr. researched the cemetery containing three headstone of Scott - Stott - Wilson. In an attempt to verify his findings, Lee asked me to accompany he and Susanne to the small cemetery containing the three headstone. True to Lee's research it was verified Scott's remains are under the headstone marked Scott. Wilson is actually buried under the headstone of Stott and there is no one interred under the headstone for Wilson.
Susanne & Lee Hanchett Jr. at grave of Jamie Stott
What happened to the grave of Jamie Stott? Extensive research by Lee, Susanne and myself led us to Stott Canyon approximately 3/4 mile from the main road. There in the fallen timber is the lone grave of Jamie Stott, no headstone or marker other than a pile of rocks outlining the grave. Jamie's grave is approximately 3/4 mile (in a direct line) from the other two graves. One and 3/4 miles if you follow the existing roads.
At this time there is no logical explanation as to why Jamie was interred in a separate location from the other two who were all hanged together on the same day. Our research continues for a possible explanation. We will post information as it becomes available.
Approximately 250' Northwest the grave of Jamie Stott was found a grave of an adult male sheepherder. Little else in known regarding this person.
Edited: Neal Du Shane
APCRP Internet
Presentation
Edition 082807
All Rights Reserved © APCRP
WebMaster; Neal Du Shane
All rights reserved. Information contained within this website may be
used
for personal family history purposes, but not for financial profit.
All contents of this website are willed to the American Pioneer &
Cemetery Research Project (APCRP).
HOME | BOOSTER | CEMETERIES | EDUCATION
| GHOST TOWNS
| HEADSTONE
MINOTTO
| PICTURES
| ROADS
| JACK SWILLING
| TEN DAY TRAMPS