Forgotten Gunfighters: The Pleasant Valley War

Oh looking at this peaceful valley it's hard to fathom that a war bloodier than the hatfield-mccoy feud and more violent than the okay Corral shootout was fought here what occurred in this location delayed Arizona's statehood for nearly 30 years and it all started with two friends this distinction belongs to the Pleasant Valley war often called the Graham Tewksbury feud named for those two friends max Lerner once noted the so-called lessons of history are for the most part the rationalizations of the victors history is written by the survivors this theory was never more evident than in the bloody history of the Pleasant Valley war each event has multiple versions of what really happened the viewer must weigh the evidence in America of course the hatfield-mccoy feud is probably the most widely known but that was sort of a schoolyard fight when compared to the Pleasant Valley war in Arizona I mean a few people got into a quarrel over a missing hog back in the hatfield-mccoy country and eventually some people were hurt and killed but out here 50 men probably died in the real war that lasted over 15 years Arizona had been trying to become a state when this lawlessness started and made headlines all over the country at that time it really set back the statehood about 30 years they figured that any territory that lawless was not ready for statehood yet the very idea of giving two senators to a state that had fewer residents than a borough of Boston was unthinkable and so as this violence went along for 15 years it helped to delay statehood I think certainly it was a wonderful place being a beautiful valley and being with lush grass knee-high to to go and escape whatever your past might have been and certainly a lot of young men took advantage of that some had been outlaws before some had been in prison before prison escapees before it was a good place simply to get away from the world but it probably didn't work any better in those days than it does today for people coming to Arizona to escape their past in 1881 John Tewksbury senior brought his family of four sons and a new wife to the Pleasant Valley area in the Arizona Territory the boys were named John jr. Frank Jim and Edwin the boys deceased mother wasn't Indian making them half-breeds whether or not hatred along racial lines played any part in the brutality of the followed is open to debate Edwin Tewksbury would become a central figure of the feud and came to be known as the last man well Edwin Tewksbury what kind of a person was he he was a guy not to mess with there was ample accounting of how good he was with a gun and how he he wasn't to be trifled with he was a a man of impeccable personal courage and behavior I think toward the end of his life he probably drank more than he should have but he also never wavered in his loyalty toward those he deemed to be his friends the tewkesbury's were known for their tremendous string of excellent horses and the Pleasant Valley Rangers were choice lands for their enterprise in addition to their prized blooded horses the Tewksbury's also held interests in cattle pigs and sheep in the tanto basin ranges it is their ownership of some sheep which often leads to their being classified as leaning toward the Sheep interests in the cattle versus sheep factions of the few when sheep graze a land they eat every scrap of feed and leave it virtually barren whereas a cow will only eat the very top portion of the feed leaving the plant free to grow feed again cattlemen see the Sheep foxes raping the Lambs are feared for their cash crop which is cattle thus the two sides are enemies the main holder of sheep interests in Pleasant Valley were the DAGs their ranges bordered the tewkesbury's they were business partners for this reason the Tewksbury's sided with the Sheep interests in the range Wars well the DAGs brothers were about the largest sheep men in Arizona at that time they raised their sheep on top of the Mogollon Rim they had evidently contacted the Tewksbury's and arranged some sort of a share type deal with them wherever they the Tewksbury's would bring the Sheep in on their range on shares so the Tewksbury's had at least three or four thousand sheep on their range at least that's what they declared on their tax notices this story begins in 1882 when Edwin Tewkesbury met a young cowboy named Tom Graham the two became fast friends tom was a cattle man and he told Edwin that he was looking for a place to raise cattle Edwin suggested an area in Pleasant Valley not far from his own ranges Tom seemed to be a very slow plodding man not terribly clever at business caught up on many occasions and kind of left hanging with people who owed him money that he couldn't collect but he certainly seemed to be a very serious but he's but easygoing man man Tom Graham met Edwin Tewksbury in a bar and globe and Edwin told Tom how great Pleasant Valley was as far as raising cattle and what a beautiful place it was and Tom Graham told Adalind Tewksbury that he was interested in starting his own cattle business and he and his brother John Graham we're looking for a place to set up a spread so to speak Edwin took Tom Graham to Pleasant Valley and showed him around Tom was pretty impressed with a place and he eventually brought his brother John and their half-brother Billy and to Pleasant Valley and they tewkesbury's actually help them build a cabin later on the bad blood occurred for two years the grams and tewkesbury's worked together and considered each other to be friends they often teamed up on ventures one of those proved to be rustling cattle to fatten their own herds in the West cattle and horses were often the targets of rustlers who were quick to slap a brand on an unbranded animal well everybody was rustling from everybody else there's an old saying in the West that you never eat your own beef and there's another saying in the West that some years we had phenomenal calf crops some of our cows had four or five calves which is genetically unheard of the outlaws from Texas and New Mexico had come into here they would steal horses from the north bring them through Pleasant Valley and rest and then they would go on to the Phoenix area they would steal horses down there bringing them back through Pleasant Valley and take them up as far north as Colorado to South another favorite trick was to alter a brand by using a running iron which is a bent piece of steel that rustlers used to make either curved or straight lines depending on which way the hot metal branding implement touched the hide I've seen somewhere that an old Arizona cow man said that he was incapable of writing his own name but he could you that draw the US Constitution on a side of a cow with a running iron branding was the chief identifying mark for claiming ownership of stock if a cow or horse was unbranded or another brand could be developed out of the existing brand then ownership of the animal was simply transferred to the Rustler I think that probably always the big herder area would assume that a certain amount of shrinkage would occur and many a small rancher in Arizona got his start by by appropriating a few head of cattle from the big one it is ironic at this rustling Enterprise was brought them together is also the one which would they went in together and stole James Stinson's cattle he he was a large Rancher here and after a time they started quarreling a bit the Grahams went to the county seat registered the brand in their own name obviously leaving the tewkesbury's out in the cold so when the tewkesbury's found this out that was the real that was one of the reasons that they started their hatred for each other On January 12 1884 some Cowboys from the James Stinson cattle outfit the very first in Pleasant Valley Road up to the Tewksbury ranches Stinson had been losing huge numbers of cattle and his men were looking for missing stock their search brought them right to the Tewksbury's door present that day with the Tewksbury's were both Graham brothers Edwin Tewksbury asked them who they were hunting and the answer given in return was you you sob tempers flare hot Headz drew guns and shots were exchanged Edwyn Tewksbury shop sixty-year-old that like [ __ ] in the back as it was they're shooting of Gillan was the first blood what would soon become a fairy at the trial John Graham testified that Gilliland drew first even had a bullet hole in his hat to show the court this gunfight was the last time the grams and the Tewksbury's were on the same side soon after the gunfight trial and acquittals James Stinson approached the Graham brothers with a proposition he asked them to help protect his cattle interests in order to do this they would have to turn on their friends and neighbors the Tewksbury's the contract that James Stenson and the Graham brothers entered into was actually recorded as a official document in the courthouse in Prescott Arizona this is not legend it's not a myth it actually happened and within six months this happened in 1884 the Grahams had satisfied themselves that they had enough evidence to accuse the tewkesbury's of cattle rustling maybe the Tewksbury's interest in sheep facilitated this mutiny by their close friends but since the Grahams had thinned Stinson's herds themselves this was a very strange partnership for each conviction that the Grahams as range detectives could bring they were going to get in twenty head of cattle as their reward they went about their business pretty efficiently and what this precipitated was one that upon the Tewksbury's was a necessity to travel these huge distances to appear in court for various kinds of charges and they had ample time to be angry about that and eventually probably seek revenge as evidence to the Tewksbury's rustling the Grahams confessed to taking part in it with him the judge awarded an acquittal for all defendants and cited the Grahams for perjury what had been a close friendship quickly turned in in late 1884 or early 1885 the Blevins family acquired the ranch at Canyon Creek some accounts say that Andrew Arnold Blevins more widely known as Andy Cooper the oldest Blevins boy moved into the ranch house of a Mormon family while they were away in Salt Lake City another version had Andy Cooper forcing the family off the land at gunpoint and allowing them to take only what they could carry whatever the truth is Canyon Creek Ranch became the central location for Andy's cattlemen horse-stealing ventures Andy Cooper was he was a hotshot he liked to brag he liked to drink he was totally lawless as far as I can tell he had no no sense of justice no respect for anybody lowlife nasty mean opportunistic a guy without any real moral restraints whatsoever and he went by the alias of Cooper because he was on the run from the law in Texas where there was a warrant for his arrest on the charge of murder when he settled on Canyon Creek Ranch he sent for his family to follow him west from Texas considered soft-spoken and honest by friends and family and he was considered ruthless and without moral conviction by everyone else and his father Martin Evans more widely known as old man levin's had four other sons whom a newspaper of the day called chips off the old block in addition to Andy there was a HAMP Charlie John and Sam Houston Blevins together the Blevins gang led horse and cattle stealing raids on the areas surrounding their ranch avid haters of sheep and sheep interests the Blevins gang soon came to be associated with the Grahams and the cattle interests in feud and the Cooper's involvement in the brutality would become a stuff of infamy in February of 1887 the bloodiest year the feud began with a discovery of the body of a cheaper reporters said that this body was riddled with woods and that most grisly of all his head was missing the main suspect in the killing was John Blevins the chasm between the two factions was ever widening in early August 1887 old man Blevins set out on a journey reportedly to find some missing horses he found evidence of their theft and setup to recover them he was never seen again his horse and his rifle were recovered near the Tewksbury ranges on August 9th a small search party was assembled a search for old man Blevins the group consisting mostly of those associated with the Graham faction including the Blevins came to the Middleton ranch owned by Tewksbury sympathizer George Newton they were met at the door by Jim Tewksbury according to different testimonies Johnny Paine knocked on the door with either his knuckles or the but it was pistol and at that time Jim toots burry reportedly asked him what do you want I said we're hungry we want something to eat Jim to experi played this ain't no damn boardinghouse and from their different testimonies as to what happened but the shooting started right after that Johnny Payne Hampton Blevins were killed and Tom Tucker and Bob glaspie were wounded the thing is that the Tewksbury's of course wanted to place the blame on the affray and squarely on the shoulders of the camp Blevins Hampton from his photograph appeared to only have one arm and they claimed that while on horseback HAMP started to draw his gun and fire upon them and it seems like it would be a little bit difficult task for one more man to do that on horseback inside the cabin was almost the entire Tewksbury faction of marksmen with guns trained on the riders hemp was the second leavens to be killed in less than two weeks when the Grahams returned a couple of days later to retrieve and bury their dead they found the Middleton cabin abandoned by the Tewksbury's before leaving they burned it to the ground on August 17 William Graham the younger brother of John and Tom was rounding up horses near the Graham ranches according to one version he came across Apache County deputy Jim Hulk what happened and who drew first is still disputed Billy or William Graham murder was was one of the most despicable things that happened during the Pleasant Valley war the young man was fairly fresh from the Midwest had not been involved in any way shape or form and I think he was used as a tool primarily about the Tewksbury's in order to to convince the Grahams that they really meant business Houck story was he thought that William Graham was his older brother John upon realizing that he wasn't Hawk said he had shouted to William I'm not hunting you how claim that William responded by saying that he was hunting him then drew his gun William Graham was got [ __ ] but still alive the wound was so severe by the time he reached the ranch his intestines were hanging who was suffering many miles from home and the wound was gruesome his inside spilled out he was a he said I'd have died there but I was afraid that then I would have been the reason for my brother's to come out looking for me so he gathered himself up and rode home and arrived and fainted in their arms we don't know for sure if he was intentionally ambushed or if it was just a chance meeting on the trail but the coroner's inquest clearly indicates that ed Tewksbury was indeed the murderer and in fact Billy Gramps gave that as his dying declaration inside the Graham ranch William's intestines were washed stuffed back in his abdomen and he was sewn up with needle and thread badly wounded and suffering the daughter of Tom Graham said that's when they went to war to gain revenge for Billy's death enraged Tom Graham the group of gunmen including the callused Andy Cooper went to the Tewksbury ranch where they intended to put an end to the Tewksbury's they conceived themselves September 2nd 1887 the Tewksbury ranch came under attack from the grams and the Blevins I believe John Graham and Tom Graham were there possibly Andy Cooper maybe some of the other Blevins boys John Tewksbury and bill Jacobs were killed they were out gathering horses in the morning and were ambushed in what's known as dead man's Canyon in the early morning hours of September 2nd John Tewksbury jr. and William Jacobs left the Tewksbury cabin to round up horses what happened next is without a doubt one of the most gruesome moments of a Pleasant Valley war the only man to ever lay claim to the killings was Andy Cooley the Tewksbury's alerted by the gunfire barricaded themselves in their cabin the Graham forces then began a gunfight with the Tewksbury's that reports say lasted 10 days meanwhile the bodies of John and William lay where they fell wild hogs came upon the bodies and began a grisly feast one version of the story had Mary and John's wife defiantly going out and driving away the Hogs digging the shallow grave and burying her husband the Cowboys who had just ambushed her husband allowed her to carry out his task when she returned to the cabin the gunfight began anew the story about the Hogs devouring the bodies is partially true the the Hogs did eat the bodies however the part about John tewkesbury's Widow Mary Ann stopping the gunfight in front of the cabin and going out and burying the bodies with the baby tota Don on her hip and the shovel in the other hand is pure hogwash she was eight and a half months pregnant at the time close to a hundred miles away on the morning of September 4th witnesses stated that Andy Cooper was in the bucket of blood saloon in Holbrook he was bragging about killing Tewksbury in a man he did not know soon this small town will be rocked to his foundations with its own bloody testament to the times in 1887 Holbrook Arizona had less than 300 citizens the town had the Atlantic and Pacific railroads coming through drunken Cowboys and Rattlers reportedly shot up the town on a regular basis one report as to how the bucket of blood saloons on its name was that a member of the infamous Dalton Gang killed two Mexicans right in the doorway by the time the law arrived they had bled a bucket of blood Commodore Owens drifted into Arizona Territory around 1881 and quickly made a name for himself with his gun Commodore Owens was I think if I had lived at that time he would have been my hero he was honest and all his dealings when he kept his sheriff's records down to the postage stamps I mean he he kept track of every penny he spent he was quiet mild-mannered but he was also probably the best shot in the whole West his contemporaries said that no one was as good marksman as he was will Barnes a grassroots historian claimed to have seen Commodore Owens display his expertise with a pistol on many occasions Owens nearly always carried two revolvers and could draw either with his right or left hand with wonderful speed several times on the roundups I had seen him stand 20 feet from an empty tomato can and keep it rolling and jumping with alternate shots in these two guns until the can was torn to pieces during his tenure as sheriff a mob assembled to take a prisoner from him a Mexican who had killed a card dealer the mob assembled at the jailhouse Oden stepped out and said before you take him you'll have to kill me and there ain't enough of you the mob is alleged to have taken the high ground rather than face always go Indians feared Owens at first they called him long hair but later he became known as iron man or ghost man with regard to these monikers little chief a navajo chief supposedly claimed that they had killed Owens many times but he either would not die or by some magic the bullets bounced off him harmlessly it is told in legend that whenever Owens spotted a party of Indians he would shake his hair and charge them upon seeing the ghost man they was scared rustling and theft's continued creating great pressures on Owens to do something he was also criticized by the Indian agents in the area because of his zeal to go into reservations to arrest Indian rustlers Commodore Owens shot a young Navajo and the young Navajos dying words were I was shot and killed by Commodore Owens and I don't know why some had supposed that his hatred of the Indians was clouding his judgment so the Navajos would go in at night and steal 2030 horses and this was hurting the stage company so they hired Owens to get rid of the Navajos who were stealing horses well he did in short order and I think that's where all the business of him being Indian hater arose I don't really think he was I think he just hated people who stole things he hated horse thieves and kathy's Owens had a hard time keeping bonded by the wealthy citizens whose interests he was supposed to be protecting citizens wanted Andy Cooper will Barnes theorized that Owens knew if he went after Cooper one or the other was bound to die even the newspapers printed theories that Owens feared facing Cooper Commodore Owens was having trouble with the Board of Supervisors they came down really hard on him because and brought Andy Cooper in and they actually threatened to fire him they you know they said you lose your job if you don't bring him in you've had this warrant for a long time now just do it whether by fate or by prior knowledge September 4th found Commodore Perry Owens and Andy Cooper in the same town the unfolding of the gunfight and the testimonies that followed it are disputed to this day Commodore Owens arrived in an old brook in the afternoon and wrote directly to the brown and kinder livery stable as Commodore Owens contemplated what to do he started to clean his guns he was met by druggist and sometimes deputy Frank Warren Cooper's getting ready to leave Owens promptly finished his cleaning Warren reportedly offered to round up a posse to help him but Owens declined thinking that innocent men might die the Lone Gunmen almost scripted by Hollywood if they if Hollywood have existed at that time all alone no one backing him up going on supported to a house and knocking on the door with the intention of arresting somebody inside I really believe in the beginning that Commodore Owens hoped he would get Andy at home with his family thinking that he would not resist arrest if he had the women and children there I think that was he was hoping against hope that's what would happen as all one's walked up to the front porch of the Blevins residence he saw Andy Cooper John Blevins and a third person in the West front room standing out front on Jill Cooper Commodore Owens we feel certain was was very much aware that John Blevins and Andy Cooper had both been in Pleasant Valley and may well have been involved in the to experience Jacobs murder just a few days before he may have been in Pleasant Valley himself almost at the same time he may have nearly tracked Andy and John back to Holbrook we feel that he was not quite lying and wait for them but he was in Holbrook the day after Andy Cooper arrived Commodore oh and approached the house and knocked on the front door we think Andy was no doubt the one that received him commodore insisted that Andy submit himself to arrest Andy declined quite noisily and with that Commodore Owens leveled his rifle and shot I got a warrant for you Andy yeah what about about what we talked about before so I'll see about it wait come now welcome Owens waited a moment when no other gunman came out he put the Winchester in the cradle of his left arm and turned his back on the house Samuel Houston Blevins stepped out on the porch with a gun pointed at öhlins and his mother was trying to hold him back but Sam Houston had the gun pointed toward Owens and Owens shot him killed him dead on the spot his testimony at the inquest for example reveal a man who was not given to very many words I walked up I said Cooper I want you Cooper said wait he said I don't wait I shot him that's what the testimony says quite a guy as Owens walked away from the bloody scene Frank Warren approached him and said do you think you got them I know I have no one said when I draw a bead I know I've got something in all the wild events of Arizona's wildest days there is nothing to surpass this affair for reckless bravery on the part of a peace officer Owens mounted his horse and left town while the commotion died down he had stared death square in the face in the image of Andy Cooper and had not blinked Owens returned to st. John's with the warrant for Cooper's arrest that he had gone to serve will Barnes reported that across the face of it Owens had written party against whom this warrant was issued was killed while resisting arrest Owens testimony at the inquest into the shooting had him simply saying I shot him when Cooper refused to submit to arrest an inquest was ordered into the shootings especially in the death of the boy many testified that over the years Commodore Owens admitted regret in the killing of Sam Houston Blevins but he theorized that a boy could pull a trick just as easily as a man Commodore Owens stayed in office from the one term his era was over you know he was definitely a frontiersman he was he was a guy who shot first and ask questions later people didn't want that kind of law enforcement anymore if they didn't need it anymore he'd gotten rid of all the bad guys he'd either sent him off to prison or he'd killed him on May 10th 1919 he died and was buried in Flagstaff in late September shortly after the shootout in Holbrook Sheriff Billy Mulvey Ninh and a posse of men wrote in to Pleasant Valley determined to bring all combatants in the killings to justice they hid themselves behind some stone walls near Perkins store when John Graham and Charley Blevins approached the store on horseback sheriff Melvin and ordered them to put up their hands when Graham and Blevins went for their guns the posses gums roared both men were killed Charlie Blevins was lying in the ground writhing in pain how gran over thinking that he was still alive somewhat and was going to shoot him to finish him off Houck was a very close ally of the Tewksbury's so the posse certainly had an ulterior motive in trying to do in the Grahams ranchers along the Pleasant Valley territory were tired of the bloodshed and rustling many of them reportedly led by Colonel Jesse W Ellison organized a committee of 50 to clear the bad element out of the country there were some very large Texas herds and that were wanting to come into the grass of Pleasant Valley they couldn't come in here because their herds would be stolen one of the largest ones had brought a big herd in just the previous year and by spring when he came back to ground them up almost every one of them was gone so these ranchers and the man who worked for them who were by the way mostly very sturdy West Texas cowboy types got together and decided they were going to clean out the valley once the wrestlers and the horse thieves were all gone then they could bring their herds in on August the 11th 1888 the vigilante mobs hung three suspected cattle and horse thieves stopped scotch and will it seems the stock was the target of the lynching and a groove on the tree branch served as evidence he may have been raised and lowered several times perhaps this was done in an effort to get it or more names whatever the reason it shows the cruelty of the the vigilantes always seemed to consist of a good contingency of the Tewkesbury faction so we really don't know if the vigilantes enlisted enlisted the to experience to help them or the Tewksbury's enlisted the so-called vigilantes to give them a hand the vigilante force didn't really seem to do much except to do in a few of the Gramm sympathizers if they had it had really been a vigilante force trying to clean up the area of horse thieves as they had claimed they probably would have gone after a lot of other men conceivably even the tewkesbury's because as the Mormons always reported the they felt in the early days at least that the tewkesbury's were the biggest horse thieves in Pleasant Valley well today's people especially the descendants of these men who lived in this time in this area should realize that times were different then men were different in life was very harsh and especially in a frontier like doesn't matter it was there were no there was no such thing as the Miranda rights no 911 all of the appeals that go on for 20 or 30 years after a conviction there was no law no judgment anywhere around when they came across something somebody stealing their cattle and that was to take care of it themselves people today have no idea what life was like back then they don't think it's possible that their great-great grandfather did something like this they did but they had to and I don't think that any of us should judge those people whether it was because of the killing of his brother John by a posse or the threats of vigilante groups Tom Graham left the Pleasant Valley area and move his operations to Tempe Arizona there he began life anew and full of promise Thom married Annie Milton and they soon had a child he became respected and liked all around the Tampa area where his new ranch was established for almost five years Edwin Tewksbury stood the vicious murder of his brother John it was reported that Tom Graham wrote letters to Edwin Tewksbury threatening to return and kill him Mary Ann Tewksbury John's Widow had remarried John Rhodes a friend of her murdered husband many believe that she wanted revenge Edwin Tewksbury decided that Mary Ann had suffered long enough if Tom Graham must die for his actions in the Pleasant Valley war then it was his duty to see it was taken care of because he had brought Tom to the valley in the early morning hours of August 2nd 1892 Tom gray was loading his wagon in Tempe Edwyn Tewksbury rode up and shot the unarmed Tom Green Oh late July Edwin made the trip from Pleasant Valley to Tempe to settle his hash Tom Graham's hash supposedly and and that's what he did in August 2nd 1892 he's shot him off the hay wagon in Tempe and he shot him in the back it's true he shot him in the back but he called out to him he wanted him to know who was shooting him and he said it's your turn Tom it's your time and he wanted Tom Graham to know who was shooting him Tom Graham stood up on the hay wagon to turn around looked back over his shoulder so he saw who was shooting him I know that's the fact because my grandmother Bertha Tewksbury told me that and this is this is the rifle that Tom Graham was killed with this is this was the rifle shot by the last man or Gladwin to carry thus ended the bloodiest feud and range war ever fought on American soil it has been virtually forgotten in history an old Western folklore heirs and survivors of the feud along with historians and authors differ dramatically on their interpretations of what really transpired these preceding events have become virtually forgotten if range Wars feuds and gunfights are going to be remembered for the lessons of history then the events of Pleasant Valley in Holbrook Arizona are as vital as any to show them a touristy of a state and even a nation for this range war was the biggest and bloodiest in American history the importance of our history cannot be denied nor the lessons forgotten if we want to bridge the gap to our not too distant past

Channel: Crozzovers

Views: 1,108,918

Keywords: Gunfighter, Old West, Arizona, Commodore Owens, Family Feud, Sheriff, Tewksbury, Graham, Hatfield, McCoy

Id: hekALWtiWm0

Length: 48min 56sec (2936 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 30 2011