THE STORY OF A FAMOUS FEUD
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
PEAK of a feud and one naturally thinks of one of those
ft fierce famfly vendettas that have made notorious certain
^sections of the mountain country in West Virginia, Ten
? nessee or Kentucky. Yet the soil of the trans-Missouri
IWest as well as that of the East in times past has been
*dyed red with some of the bitterest feuds in American
'history.
In the West most of these feuds were "range wars" ? fights be
tween two factions for control of desirable grazing country for their
herds or flocks ? rather than internecine family conflicts. Outstand
ing among them were the Lincoln County war in New Mexico in
the early v eighties, and the Johnson County war, or so-called "Rustler
war." in \Vyoming in 1892. But to Arizona goes the distinction of
having axivil conflict in which was combined both a family vendetta
as fierce as any ever carried on among the mountaineers of the East
and a "range war" as bloody as any ever staged on the plains or in
the mountains of the West. And, of all places, this feud was carried
on in a locality known as Pleasant Valley!
If you have ever read Zane <
Grey's "To the Last Man" or
Dane Coolidge's "The Man Kill
ers," you have caught glimpses
ol the Pleasant Valley war even
though neither novel follows the
feud in detail nor pretends to
give an historically accurate ac
count of it. But the war has its
historian ? Earle R. Forrest,
whose book "Arizona's Dark and
Bloody Ground," published re
COMMODORE P. OWENS
cently by the Caxton Printers,
Ltd. of Caldwell, Idaho, is the
first attempt to tell the whole
story of that dark page in the
annals of the Southwest. In the
preface Mr. Forrest says:
"The Pleasant Valley vendetta
that swept through the Tonto
Basin country in Central Ari
zona during the latter 1880's
was one of the most san
guinary and bitter range
feuds the old West ever
knew. Its ferocity and hatreds
were rivaled only by the bloody
battles and assassinations of
the Lincoln county war in New
Mexico ten years before, but
it is doubtful, even with all its
terrorism, if the number of
killed there equaled the casu
alties in Pleasant Valley. Both
were born of blood feuds, and
both were fought in defiance of
the law of the land until they
burned themselves out after
most of the participants had
either been killed or had grown
weary of strife. Even the well
known Hatfield - McCoy feud
that held the West Virginia and
Kentucky mountains under a
reign of terror for almost twen
ty years did not surpass the
lifelong hatreds born of the
Pleasant VaUey war."
The family element in this feud
was furnished by the Tewksburys
and the Grahams, the chief op
ponents in the war. But others
were drawn into it, some by
choice and some by force of cir
cumstances over which they
had no control. For in this
conflict there were no neu
trals
Among the others who were
dragged into it or voluntarily
took up arms were several men
already noted, or soon to be no
torious, in the annals of the Wild
West. There was Tom Pickett,
who had been a "warrior" with
Billy the Kid in the Lincoln
County war in New Mexico but
who was then a cowboy for the
famous Hash Knife outfit. There
was Charley Duchet, frontiers
man and a gunfighter in the wild
days of Dodge City, Kan.
And there was the famous Tom
Horn, scout and packer in the
Apache campaigns, later a stock
detective on the Wyoming ranges
and destined to be the central
figure in one of the most baffling
murder mysteries in the history
of the West.
A Wild West Sheriff.
Among the law officers who
tried unsuccessfully to quell the
feud was the famous Commodore
Perry Owens, the long - haired
sheriff of Apache county, a
bizarre figure who might have
stepped out of the pages of a
dime novel "thriller" and who,
during the course of the feud,
was the survivor of one of the
most amazing gunfights in the
history of the Old West.
And these were only a few of
the antagonists in a war waged
with a ferocity and ruthlessness
almost unparalleled in the his
tory of the West. Before it was
ended one family, the Grahams,
was completely wiped out and of
their allies, the Blevans, there
was only one survivor among the
father and five sons. OiVhe three
Tewksbury brothers, one was
killed during the war, one died
a natural death and the third,
who stood trial for the murder of
the last Graham, lived on to
become known as the hero of
Zane Grey's novel and the "last
man of the Pleasant Valley war."
Three Half-Breed Sons.
The fierceness of the vendetta
may be attributed in part to the
character of one of the families
involved in it. For the Tewks
burys were half-white and half
Indian, the sons of John D.
Tewksbury, Sr., a native of Bos
ton who went to California in the
days of the gold rushes, settled
in Humboldt county and there
married an Indian woman. She
became the mother of three sons.
John, James and Edwin, who
had grown to young manhood
when the elder Tewksbury set
tled in Pleasant Valley in 1880.
As for the other proponents in
this bloody conflict, Tom and
John Graham, they were born on
a farm near Boone, Iowa, went
to California in the seventies and
in 1882 located in Pleasant Val
ley. "Tom was the oldest and
because of the personal enmity
that later developed between the
Grahams and the Tewksburys,
he became the acknowledged
leader around whom the cattle
men rallied when sheep invaded
the valley. Tom Graham is pic
tured in fiction of the vendetta
as the leader of the rustlers that
swarmed through the mountains,
a ruffian and killer of the worst
type. Nothing could be further
from the truth; for he was
a quiet, peaceful man and honest
in all his dealings. Even after
the invasion of sheep made war
certain he refused to take human
life ; and his restraining hand
held his followers in check until
the first blood spilled by the
Tewksbury forces made further
MRS. THOMAS H. GRAHAM
restraint impossible. But he has
been held responsible all these
years for the acts of others."
A "Short Trigger Man."
Chief among these others were
the allies of the Grahams, the
Blevans, who was known in Ari
zona as Andy Cooper, mainly
because a sheriff back in Texas,
where " the Blevans came from,
was looking for him. Cooper, or
Blevans, was noted as a "short
trigger man," a killer by in
stinct, and he soon became the
leader of the rustlers -who preyed
upon the cattle herds in that part
of Arizona.
The origins of the fend are
wrapped in mystery. Various
reasons have been given for
the hatred which existed be
tween the Tewksburys and the
Grahams bat none of them can
be folly substantiated. One
story says that a woman was
at the bottom of it, that the
attentions of a man in one of
the factions for the wife of*a
man in the other faction
started it. Another says that
the Grahams and the Tewk?
Some of the Hash Knife Cowboy* Who Took Part in the Feud.
burys were partners in rustling
operations, then (ell out over
the division of the spoils. There
may be some element of truth
in both stories but the fact re
mains that the hostility be
tween the two factions which
slowly developed might not
have burst into the flame of
open warfare if it had not been
for an event which took place
just 50 years ago this autumn.
Forrest records it thus:
"The Tewksburys are driving
sheep over the rim of the Mogol
lons!"
"From mouth to mouth, from
ranch to ranch throughout all
Pleasant Valley this message
was carried by dashing young
cowboys in Paul Revere style.
The effect was like an electric
shock and more dangerous than
a charge of dynamite. For years
the cattlemen of this little valley
in the wilderness of central Ari
zona had successfully held their
range against the encroachments
of sheepmen from the north who
were only too eager to scatter
EDWIN TEWKSBURT
their flocks over the luxuriant
grass of this beautiful land.
"Hastily those cattlemen and
their cowboys saddled their
horses and rode out to investi
gate. Perhaps it was only a ru
mor after all; but with their own
eyes they could see them in the
distance like a great mass of
maggots rolling down over the
trail from the rim and swarming
out over the valley at the foot
of the Mogollons like a plague
of locusts, greedily devouring the
?grass, tearing it out by the roots;
and already a cloud of dust
drifted up in the lazy morning
air from the desert ;hey left
behind.
"The die was cast. The Tewks
burys wanted war. Well, they
would get it; all they wanted
.and more than they had bar
gained for."
Cattlemen vs. Sheepmen.
So the cattlemen and rustlers
forgot their own differences and
joined forces to resist the in
vasion of their common enemy,
the sheepmen. Daggs Brothers
of Flagstaff, at that time the
leading sheep men in northern
Arizona, needed new range for
their "woolies." They had heard
of the trouble between the Gra
hams and the Tewksburys and
decided to turn it to their ad
vantage by breaking the united
ranks of the cattlemen in Plea
sant Valley and open that rich
grazing land for their sheep. So
they made a deal with the
Tewksburys to send a band of
sheep into Pleasant Valley under
the protection of the Tewksbury
guns and share profits with them.
The cattlemen immediately
rallied to defend their grazing
lands and Andy Cooper, the
"short trigger man," proposed
to lead a party of armed men to
wipe out the sheep and their
herders. But Tom Graham held
him in check, hoping to be able
to scare off the sheep men with
out loss of life or destruction of
property. However, the reckless
cowboys soon got out of hand and
in February, 1887, they drew
first blood by killing a Navajo
Indian sheepherder. Soon after
wards the sheep were withdrawn
from the valley but the peace
which came to Pleasant Valley
was a short-lived one. '
Then "Old Man" Blevans,
father of the Blevans boys, al
lies at the Grahams, disappeared
and was never again heard from.
In August his son, Hampton
Blevans, accompanied by four
Hash Knife cowboys and three
from the Graham ranch started
in search for him. They stopped
at the Middleton ranch where
they found Jim and Ed Tewks
bury and some of their adher
ents. Hot words between the two
parties were followed immedi
ately by blazing six-shooters and
when the fighting was over
Hampton Blevans and another
cowboy were dead and two others
of their party wounded. This was
the first white man's blood spilled
in the Pleasant Valley war but
it was only the beginning.
Next Jim Houck, a Tewksbury
man, killed young Billy Graham
and in revenge for that Tom
Graham led a party of cattlemen
to attack the Tewksbury ranch.
In the siege and battle which
followed John Tewksbury, Jr.,
and one of his followers was
killed before the attack of the
cowboys was beaten off. From
that time on it was a war to the
death.
Forrest's book is filled with the
details of the various gunfights,
ambushes, lynchings, and assas
sinations which marked the prog
ress of the war during the next
two years. It is a record of al
most unbelievable ferocity and
cruelty, yet iti dark pages are
relieved at times by the chronicle
of deeds of high courage and
loyal devotion on the part of both
men and women. For the wives
of some of the clansmen played
a prominent part in the war.
By the end of 1888 the war was
virtually over. Jim Tewksbury
had died of tuberculosis. John
Graham and Charley Blevans
had been killed in a fight with a
posse headed by Sheriff Mul
venon of Yavapai county. Sheriff
Commodore Owens of Apache
county had had his famous gun
duel in Holbrook in which Andy
Cooper (Blevans), Sam Houston
Blevans and their brother-in-law,
Mose Roberts, had been killed
and John Blevans was in jail.
Triumph of tbe Tewksburys.
In the meantime Tom Graham
had married and his young bride
had at last prevailed upon him
to take up farming near Tempe.
Ed Tewksbury and a few fol
lowers were left to enjoy their
hollow triumph as winners of the
war. But they had learned their
lesson and they made no further
attempts to bring sheep over the
rim of the Mogollons. Apparently
the feud was over. Then as sud
denly it burst into flame again.
On August 2, 1892 Tom Gra
ham, while hauling grain from
his ranch, was shot from ambush
near the Double Butte school
house. Ed Tewksbury and John
Rhodes were accused of the mur
der and placed under arrest. Dur
ing the preliminary hearing of
the accusation against Rhodes
in justice court the old feud
spirit flared up again when Mrs.
Tom Graham tried to shoot
Rhodes down in the courtroom
but failed in the attempt. Rhodes
was discharged from custody.
THOMAS H. GRAHAM
Then the long battle to convict
Tewksbury began. Found guilty
of the murder, Tewksbury ob
tained a new trial on a technical
ity and in the second trial in
1895 the jury disagreed. "Alter
the passing of another year, the
prosecution, evidently believing
that a conviction would now be
impossible, filed a motion to dis
miss the charge. When this was
granted on March 16, 1896, the
curtain fell on the last act of the
bitterest blood -feud in the his
tory of the old West ? a story
that has become a legend of old
Arizona's cattleland."
? Western NlVM a- tr (,'nion.
' TheJttanWhoOO
fob ^ <(/} Tales and
?s H) ? Tradition*
FRANK HAGCM
HMO KOTT WATSON
THE DEMOCRATIC DONKEY
A LTHOUGH Thomas Nast is usu
** ally credited with being the
man who made the donkey one of
the emblems of the Democratic
party, the fact is that some other
cartoonist, whose name is unknown,
used the same symbol fully three
decades before the famous Har
per's Weekly artist did.
When Andrew Jackson retired
from the presidency in 1837 he
dumped in the lap of his successor,
Martin Van Buren, a flood of "wild
cat currency" and wild speculation
caused by his destruction of the
United States bank and the distri
bution of the treasury surplus in
private banks. So a cartoonist of
that period drew a picture entitled
"The Modern Balaam and His Ass"
which showed Jackson mounted on
a donkey, across whose withers
hung a bag labeled "Specie Cur
rency ? Circulating Medium." A
ghost, labeled "Bankrupts of 1836,"
was causing the donkey to balk
and its rider was belaboring it
with a cane labeled "Veto. Be
hind the rider and his mount
walked Van Buren saying "I shall
tread in the footsteps of my illustri
ous predecessor."
From that time on, during the
disputes over the money question,
the donkey frequently appeared in
the cartoons and became the ac
cepted symbol of the Democratic
party. But it was the genius of
Thomas Nast which made this
symbol familiar to millions of
Americans.
During the feud between Presi
dent Andrew Johnson and Edwin M.
Stanton, secretary of war, Nast
was a strong ally of the latter.
When Stanton died soon after Presi
dent Grant had made him a justice
of the Supreme Court, the southern
Democratic papers, continuing the
feud, attacked Stanton even in their
obituary notices of him.
On January 15, 1870 Nast drew
his first donkey cartoon. It pic
tured Stanton as a dead lion being
kicked by a donkey labeled "Cop
perhead press." Underneath it were |
the lines: "A Live Jackass kicking
a dead Lion and such a Lion! and
such a Jackass." In later cartoons
he also depicted the Democratic
papers, especially James Gordon
Bennett's New York Herald, as a
donkey and after a while began
applying the symbol to the Demo
cratic party as wel< as its press.
HEADGEAR
"IF YOU lose your standards,
*? rally to my white plume 1"
cried Henry of Navarre before the
Battle of Ivry and so the helmet of
Navarre with its snowy decora
tion became the sign and symbol of
a cause which won and made him
king of France.
In American politics, too, voters
have rallied behind candidates
whose headgear or some other bit
of apparel have been characteristic
of the man. In the days of Andrew
Jackson, loyal Democrats bran
dished hickory canes in imitation
of the one which "Old Hickory"
carried. In 1840 the Whigs clapped
coonskin caps on their heads and
went out to sing and cheer "Old
Tippecanoe," the Indiana frontiers
man, into the White House.
On the streets of New York the
white beaver hat worn by Horace
Greeley, editor of the Tribune, was
a familiar sight. But perhaps even
in those days the "peepul" were
suspicious of a "high hat" candi
date, so Greeley's supporters,
wearing "white plugs," failed to
elect him. Ulysses S. Grant once
worked in a tannery, therefore pa
rades in his honor were marked by
men wearing shaggy and obvious
ly un tanned fur coats and bearing
signs which declared "Bring on the
enemy and we'll tan his hide."
In the Cleveland campaign of
1888 his running mate was Senator
Thurman, the last member of the
upper house to use snulT. After do
ing so he would sweep a red ban
danna handkerchief out of his pock
et with a grand gesture. So Demo
crats that year had whole suits
made of bandannas and women
wore bandanna dresses.
Another vice-presidential candi
date who furnished a striking head
gear symbol for his party was The
odore Roosevelt. Thousands wore
Rough Rider hats in the campaign
of 1900 and it was still a potent
emblem in 1904 wher. T. R. was
candidate for President.
But another quarter of a century
was to elapse before a bit of head
gear would be a feature of the
campaign. In 1928 Alfred E. Smith
made the brown derby famous
from one end of tho land to the oth
er but it became a symbol of de
feat instead of victory.
C Western Newspaper Union.
Terminal of Gota Canal
Gothenburg is one of the termi
nals of the Gota canal, which winds
over 240 miles through the heart
of Sweden, sometimes following
lakes, sometimes rivers, some
times a canal so narrow that trees :
at the sides of the banks brush
the small steamers on the water.
All in all 56 miles of canal supple
ment the natural waterway. These
various links were completed more
than 300 years after the project
was first conceived and undertak
en.
The Mind *
LOWELL
Meter ? HF-NUERSON
C B?ii srnaictu? wnu s?rvic?
The Completion Test
In this test there are four words I
given in each problem. Three ol
the (our in each case bear a de- 1
finite relationship to one another;
for example, they may be the '
names of animals or the names
of state capitals, or perhaps
synonyms. Cross out the one word
that does not belong in each prob
lem.
1. Gay, merry, dejected, frivo
lous.
2. Edison, Whistler, Fulton,
Morse.
3. Build, erect, raze, construct.
4. Phoenix, Salem, Raleigh,
Macon.
5. Arrow, bullet, cartridge, shell.
0. Inaugurate, start, introduce,
continue.
7. Donate, pilfer, steal, embezzle.
8. Puma, leopard, tiger, rail.
9. Candor, duplicity, openness,
sincerity.
10. Bat, mallet, racquet, gun.
Answers
1. Dejected. 6. Continue.
2. Whistler. 7. Donate.
3. Raze. 8. Rail.
4. Macon. 9. Duplicity.
5. Arrow. 10. Gun.
Never Satisfied
Prisoners continue to plot for
escape in spite of the fact that
they have been living rent free
and meeting no bills for food or
medicine. Wild animals often ap
preciate the care they find in cap
tivity and if they wander away re
turn gladly to their cages. As
evolution continues it reveals the
human being as showing the high
est form of discontent. ? Washing
ton Star.
Who Know Better
When a man says, "All women
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