The Legend Begins......

The Tombstone Daily Epitaph, December 30, 1881

THE BEGINNING OF TROUBLES

A BRIEF REVIEW, FROM THE KILLING OF BUD PHILPOT TO THE PRESENT TIME

It will be remembered that about the middle of March, last, an attempt was made to stop and rob the down stage to Benson near Drew's Station, and the murdering fiends shot and killed the driver, Bud Philpot. That event created a great sensation in Tombstone, and the sheriff, with a posse of men, among whom were Marshal Williams, Virgil Earp, Morgan and Wyatt Earp, started in pursuit. Marshal Williams remaining with the party for five days and returning with King, one of the gang, whom they captured somewhere down the San Pedro, the remainder of the party being absent for eighteen days, following the trail into New Mexico, but failing to capture more of the outlaws. It will also be remembered that King, while in custody of the under sheriff here in Tombstone, was permitted to escape and was never captured. 

THREATS OF VENGEANCE

But a few weeks elapsed after this event before word was brought to the Earps and Marshall Williams by friends on whose integrity they could rely, that the gang had sworn vengeance on them and would kill them on the first opportunity. Some time in April Mrs. Williams had arranged for a visit to her relatives in the East, also, these gentlemen decided to take a private carriage, and in company go with their wives to Benson. At the last moment Mr. Williams with his wife took the stage, leaving Mr. Fickas and his wife the sole occupants of the carriage. When about two and a half or three miles this side of Benson, five horsemen, armed with rifles and revolvers, dashed past the carriage, wheeled around and opened ranks for the carriage to pass. The side curtains being down, they leaned over upon their horses to get a view of the back seat, and seeing no one thereon, rode off with a shower of curses. This startled Mr. Fickas, who could not account for the rudeness of the party. When this event was related to Mr. Williams by Mr. Fickas he very naturally drew inference that the party were looking for him. So long ago as June last, Virgil Earp told a friend that he and his brothers had received repeated warnings by those who came in contact with the gang that they were planning to come to town to clean out the Earp crowd, and further said they did not know at what moment they would be shot in the back as they were going home of a night.

THE BISBEE STAGE  ROBBERY

It will also be remembered that when the Bisbee stage was robbed, on the 8th day of September, that Morgan Earp, Wyatt Earp and Marshal Williams accompanied the sheriff and helped to make the arrest of Stilwell, who is now under bonds awaiting the action of the United States grand jury for robbing the United States mail. This naturally further aggravated the cow-boy gang, and the threats became still more plentiful and open. Matters rapidly culminated, the rupture being made by Ike Clanton coming into town and walking the streets with revolver and Winchester rifle hunting for Virgil Earp, threatening to shoot him on sight. What followed is all too fresh in the minds of the people to need recapitulation here.

MRS. COYLER'S STATEMENT 

We now wish to call the reader's attention to the statement of a most estimable lady, reprinted from the columns of the Kansas City Daily Star, which will throw light upon several points heretofore obscured in mystery, and that is as to the shots alleged to have been fired at the officers from behind a horse. She also says in the most emphatic manner, and without the fear of intimidation brought to bear upon her, that the Clanton party opened fire the moment the marshal called upon them to throw up their hands. Another feature of this lady's statement we wish to call attention to, and that is, that two separate raids, deliberately planned for murder and plunder, were providentially frustrated by alarms of fire, at which many of the Citizens' protective league turned out with their rifles, prepared for any emergency. This fact was known to many of our citizens at the time, but the inside history was not so clear as since her statement appeared.

THE MYSTERIOUS ROOM

During the examination of the Earp-Holliday case before Judge Spicer there was a certain room in the Grand hotel occupied by Clanton and his friends, the shutters of which were never opened like the others on that floor, which was a matter of frequent comment. The examination before Judge Spicer was one of the most searching and thorough in the annals of justice's court, lasting as it did for nearly four weeks, with able counsel on both sides. The judge, in a most clear and concise review of the evidence, held that the marshal and his party were acting in the discharge of their legal duty, therefore very justly, discharged them. This event only the more intensified cow-boy element, who now added to their list of proscription and death, judge Spicer, Tom Fitch, and Mayor Clum. The blinds of the mysterious room still remained closed. About two or three days previous to the departure of Mayor Clum, a man, whose name can be given if necessary, happened to go to his den and found a man standing at the window with a Winchester rifle, full cocked, at his shoulder, drawing a bead upon some one on the opposite side of the street. (We should have before stated that for convenience of observation and other purposes a slat in one of the blinds had been removed.) The new-comer sung out to the gunner, "What in h__l are you doing there?" he replied, "I'm going to shoot that d__d son of a B____, Rickabaugh!" It was Mr. Rickabaugh, partner of Wyatt Earp in the Oriental saloon, who was, unconscious of danger, walking down the opposite side of the street. The new-comer forbid the deed to be done, saying, as reported to Mr. Rickabough, "Don't you do that; he has never injured us. He has only spent his money for his friends, the Earps, and that is what either you or I would do for our friends." It was in this room that it is reported that Milt Hicks, Ringo and four other men were closeted the night and day previous to the fire in the rear of the hotel, which fact forms a link in the chain of circumstantial evidence corroborating the statement of Mrs. Colyer, above referred to, it being stated upon good authority that they made their escape from the room about the breaking out of the fire.

THE ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE MAYOR CLUM

On the night of the 14th instant, John P. Clum, mayor of Tombstone, took the stage for Benson on his way to Tucson. When about four miles below town, it was attacked by armed men, whose shots frightened the team so that the driver could not hold them, and they ran a quarter of a mile or more, when one of the leaders which had been struck in the neck fell from loss of blood, and soon expired. It was well known fact that this stage carried neither mail nor treasure: therefore robbery could not have been the object of the band of highwaymen who attempted to stop it. Knowing the deep and murderous threats of the gang against his life, but one logical inference could be drawn, and that was, the party only wanted the life of Mr. Clum. 

THE LAST ACT

The events of the last twenty-four hours prove conclusively that the information briefly given in the above narration of facts was true in every particular. having miscarried in every one of their hellish plots against lives of those whom they hated or feared, three of the gang crept into the town under the cover of darkness, last night, and like the midnight assassins that they are, shot in the back United States Deputy Marshal Virgil Earp, thinking, no doubt, that from the five loads of buckshot they poured at him that he was dead beyond all recovery. Here again the hand of God is manifest in frustrating the damnable actions of these vicious murderers: for, though dangerously wounded, he will not die.

THE SADDEST OF ALL

The recitation of the foregoing facts has not been a pleasant task; for we are aware that many honest citizens of Tombstone will say that it were better that these things should be kept from the public, that they are ruinous to the business interests of the town, and that by reminding the public of them it will deter immigration. It is not the province of a respectable journal to delude the public by a cry of peace, nor to ridicule or make light of the public danger when the people are daily treading upon a slumbering volcano. There are three things in this community as dangerous to the permanent peace and prosperity of our city as the cow-boys themselves. These are-first, the apathy, or the inability of our public officials to cope with with the evil complained of; second, the general indifference of the better class of society to the present state of things; and third, the openly expressed sympathy of a certain class with those outlaws from society, giving them aid and comfort in various ways, thereby emboldening them to make this city their headquarters. The cure for this state of things can be speedily and surely worked if our people will lay aside personal jealousies and antagonisms and stand more fully by the legally constituted authorities in the enforcement of the laws against this organized band of outlaws. An active, manful spirit on the part of our citizens will inspire confidence in the officers that they have a substantial backing in their efforts to rid the country of this overshadowing evil. There need be no violation of law on the part of citizens or officers, if public spirit is properly aroused. There are those, who will, no doubt, ridicule what we are writing for the public good, as they have ridiculed in the past the danger of those who have for months been walking in the shadow of death from the bullets of midnight assassins.

1882

Tombstone Daily Epitaph, January 1, 1882

The Public Health

The Garnerings of the Rider of the Pale Horse Whose Name is Death

Messrs Ritter and Ream, undertakers, have submitted the following mortuary statistics of the death rate in Tombstone for the year 1881. They say: The death rate of Tombstone is less than that of any other city. The population of Tombstone is 5,956, taking as a base that there are four inhabitants to one voter-and in all other communities except mining camps, there would be five. The number of deaths since March last is 55 all told-less than nine and a half per thousand: of children there have been eight deaths, rating the children at three hundred, that is less than 27 to one thousand: of adult men there have been 39--of females, eight. There have died of pneumonia 8, mania a potu 2, heart disease 4, shot and robbed 1, falling down mine shaft 3, gun shot wounds 5, congestion of brain 1, congestion of stomach 1, Bright's disease of the kidneys 1, small pox 1, run over by wagons 2, suicides 5, congestion of the lungs 2, inflammation of the bowels 1, typhoid malarial fever 1, child birth 2, unknown cause 4, general debility 1, blood poison 1, consumption 1. Causes of deaths of children are whooping cough, gastric fever, etc. 

Take the city of San Francisco, the resort of people to regain health, and the death rate 41 to one thousand. The above is certainly a remarkable showing a compared with the so-called health resorts.

Tombstone Daily Epitaph, Jan 25, 1882

Local Splinters

The Literary and Debating Club met last evening at the office of Judge Lucas, and had a lengthy and interesting session. After considerable argument it was unanimously decided that woman has a much greater influence over man than money, even in Tombstone. The meetings of the club are instructive in parliamentary law, and well attended.

District Court, January 25, 1882

W. H. Stilwell, Judge

Court convened at 10 o'clock, a. m., pursuant to adjournment.

In the matter of the Territory of Arizona vs. John Ringo, the court decided the bond on which the defendant was heretofore admitted to bail to be insufficient, and the sheriff is directed to re-arrest said Ringo if he is not now in custody of the sheriff, and when he is arrested, to committ him to the county jail and keep him in custody until further order of this court.

Tombstone Daily Epitaph. January 25, 1882

The Official Scandal.

Up to the time of going to press nothing has been heard from the posse that went out with Marshal Earp (Wyatt).  After the escape of Ringo it was decided to send out another posse to bring him in, as the marshal of course had no warrant for his arrest. Accordingly, yesterday morning about 4 o'clock a posse of eight, led by Mr. J. Jackson, left town with a warrant for his arrest.  Arriving at Charleston at daybreak they put their horses in a corral to grain and after leaving their arms at a Occidental hotel to get their breakfast. Upon passing the threshhold they were intercepted by Issac Clanton and another man with drawn weapons, while the barrels of other Winchesters suddenly gleamed over the adobe wall. Mr. Jackson stated his errand. After a few words by some of the party that nobody would be arrested unless they wanted to be, Clanton stated that Johnny had always acted the gentleman toward him and he would see what could be done, the result of his efforts being that it was arranged that Ringo should return with the posse to Tombstone. A little while afterward Mr. Goodrich rode up and took Ringo one side for conversation.  A few moments afterward Clanton informed Mr. Jackson that Ringo had left but would be in Tombstone within an hour or an hour and twenty minutes at most, and in just about the allotted time he appeared, gave himself up and was placed in the county jail. The posse returned to town about four o'clock, the intent of their mission having been achieved by the voluntary act of Ringo. They report about twenty-five cow-boys congregated at Charleston, and from a gentleman who came in late from the southern country we learn that he was passed by a quartet about four miles above Charleston, who were making excellent time in the direction of Hereford.

Tombstone Daily Epitaph, January 28, 1882

"A Pestiferous Posse," and the Daily Rustleferous.

Under the above quotation the Nugget (newspaper) of yesterday morning published a mass of falsehood concerning the condition of affairs in Charleston on the day and night of the 26th inst., the conclusion of the article being as follows:

Charleston is represented as being in a state of complete terrorism. Some idea of the condition of affairs there may be gathered from the annexed telegram, received by Sheriff Behan last night. We supppress the name of the sender, as he does not wish to incur the vengeance of the Earp crowd. Following is the telegram:

Charleston, A. T., January 25.-To J. H. Behan, Sheriff of Cochise county-Dear Sir: Doc Holliday, the Earps, and about forty or fifty more of the filth of Tombstone, are here, armed with Winchester rifles and revolvers, and patrolling our streets, as we believe, for no good purpose. Last night and to-day they have been stopping good, peaceable citizens on all roads leading to our town, nearly paralyzing the business of our place. We know of no authority under which they are acting. Some of them, we have reason to believe, are theives, robbers and murderers. Please come here and take them where they belong.

    The Death of Morgan Earp    

Tombstone Epitaph, March 20, 1882

The Deadly Bullet

The Assassin at last Successful in His Devilish Mission.  Morgan Earp Shot Down and Killed While Playing Billiards

At 10:00 Saturday night while engaged in playing a game of billiards in Campbell & Hatch's Billiard parlor, on Allen between Fourth and Fifth, Morgan Earp was shot through the body by an unknown assassin. At the time the shot was fired he was playing a game with Bob Hatch, one of the proprietors of the house was standing with his back to the glass door in the rear of the room that opens out upon the alley that leads straight through the block along the west side of A. D. Otis & Co.'s store to Fremont Street. This door is the ordinary glass door with four panes in the top in place of panels. The two lower panes are painted. the upper ones being clear. Anyone standing outside can look over the painted glass and see everything going on in the room just as well as though standing in the open door. At the time the shot was fired, the deceased must have standing within ten feet of the door, and the assassin standing near enough to see his position, took aim for the middle of his person, shooting through the upper portion of the whitened glass. The bullet entered the right side of the abdomen, passing through the spinal column, completely shattering it, emerging on the left side, passing the length of the room and lodging in the thigh of Geo. A. B. Berry, who was standing by the stove, inflicting a painful flesh wound. Instantly after the first shot a second was fired through the top of the upper glass which passed across the room and lodged in the wall near the ceiling over the head of Wyatt Earp, who was sitting as a spectator of the game. Morgan fell instantly upon the first fire and lived only one hour. His brother His brother Wyatt, Tipton, and McMasters rushed to the side of the wounded man and tenderly picked him up and moved him some ten feet away near the door of the card room, where Drs. Matthews, Goodfellow and Millar, who were called, examined him and, after a brief consultation, pronounced the wound mortal. He was then moved into the card room and placed on the lounge where in a few brief moments he breathed his last, surrounded by his brothers, Wyatt, Virgil, James and Warren with the wives Virgil and James and a few of his most intimate friends. Notwithstanding the intensity of his mortal agony, not a word of complaint escaped his lips, and all that were heard, except those whispered into the ear of his brother and known only to him were, "Don't, I can't stand it. This is the last game of pool I'll ever play." The first part of the sentence being wrung from him by an attempt to place him upon his feet.

The funeral cortege started away from the Cosmopolitan hotel about 12:30 yesterday with the fire bell tolling its solemn peals of 

"Earth to earth, dust to dust."

More on the death of Morgan Earp from Casey Tefertiller's Wyatt Earp, The Life Behind The Legend

  Page 201

At the front door of the saloon stood a hound raised by the brothers who with the instinct peculiar to animals seemed to know that his master had been struck down, and despite entreaties remained whining and moaning," reported the Nugget." And when the body was taken to the hotel, no sadder heart followed than that of the faithful dog."  

Morgan's last whispered words were the subject of much speculation and many stories. by one source, Morgan said, " Do you know who did it?" and Wyatt responded, "Yes, and I'll get them."     "Thats all I ask," Morgan whispered. "But Wyatt, be careful."

Two months later, Wyatt would say: "I promised my brother to get even, and I've kept my word so far. When they shot him he said the only thing he regretted was that he wouldn't have a chance to get even. I told him I'll attend to it for him."

  Tombstone Epitaph, March 24, 1882 

Local Personals

Mrs. James Earp and Mrs. Wyatt Earp left to-day for Colton, California, the residence of their husbands parents. These ladies have the sympathy of all who know them, and for that matter the entire community. Their trials for the last six months have been of the most severe nature.

   The Vendetta

Tombstone Epitaph, March 27, 1882

Battle of Burleigh  (Iron Springs)

    The Earp Party Ambushed by Curly Bill and Eight Cow-boys.    

The town has been full of reports for the last two or three days as to the whereabouts of the Earp party, and their probable movements. No sooner had one report got well under way before another was started that contradicted it. There has been marching and countermarching by the sheriff and his posse until the community has become so used to the ring of spurs and clank of steel that comparatively little attention is paid to the appearance of large bodies of horsemen in the streets. Yesterday afternoon the sheriff with a large force started down the road toward contention, possibly to follow up the report that the party had been seen in the Whetstone mountains, west of the San Pedro river, with their horses completely fagged out and men badly demoralized. This, like the many other reports, was as baseless as the fabric of a dream.  

The Battle of Burleigh Springs

Yesterday afternoon, as the sun was descending low down the western horizon, had a person been traveling on the Crystal or Lewis Spring road toward the Burleigh Spring, as our informant was, he would have seen one of the most desperate fights between six men of the Earp party and nine fierce cowboys, led by the daring and notorious Curly Bill, that ever took place between opposing forces on Arizona soil. Burleigh Spring is about eight miles south of Tombstone, and some four miles east of Charleston, near the mine of that name, and near the short road from Tombstone to Hereford. As our informant, who was traveling on horseback leisurely along toward the Burleigh, and rose a slight elevation in the road about a half mile south thereof, he observed a party of six men ride down to the spring from the east, where they all dismounted. They had not much more than got well upon their feet when there rose up at a short distance away, 

Nine Armed Men

who took deadly aim and fired simultaneously at the Earp party, for such the six men proved to be. Horrified at the sight, that like a lightning stroke flashed upon his vision, he instinctively stopped and watched for what was to follow. Not a man went down under the murderous fire, but like a thunderbolt shot from the hand of Jove the six desperate men charged upon their assailants like the light brigade at Balaklava, and when within easy reach returned the fire under which one man went down never more to rise again. The remaining eight fled to the bush and regained their horses when they rode away toward Charleston as if the King of Terrors was at their heels in hot pursuit. The six men fired but one volley and from the close range it is supposed that several of the ambushed cowboys were seriously if not fatally wounded.

The Six Men

returned to their horses where one was found to be in agony of death, he having received one of the leaden messengers intended for his rider. The party remained at the spring for some time refreshing themselves and their animals when they leisurely departed, going southerly as if they were making for Sonora.

The Dead Man Curly Bill

After the road was clear our informant rode on and came upon the dead man, who, from the description given, was none other than Curly Bill, the man who killed Marshal White in the streets of Tombstone, one year ago last September. Since the above information was obtained it has been learned that during the night the friends of Curly Bill went out with a wagon and took the body back to Charleston where the whole affair has bee kept a profound secret, so far as the general public is concerned.

to be continued...

    DEATH OF ONCE GREAT CITY IS NOTED IN STORY 

What happened to the city of Charleston, A.T. ? 

Tombstone Prospector, June 14, 1889

Charleston, a city on the San Pedro River, which at one time was the liveliest place in Cochise County , possesses none of its old time appearance now. It has been given over to the Mexican population who lives in tents and houses claimed by no one. The sidewalks, awnings, roofs, doors, and partitions in the large, spacious stores that were once filled with thousands of dollars worth of goods, have been taken down and used for firewood. Not a store exists there now there now, whereas several years since several establishments, among them Sam  Katzenstein, Springer & Hackes, Herrera & McClure, carried stocks valued at from $50,000 to $100,000. At the time the town was supported by a brisk and profitable Mexican trade besides a local trade which supplied by the large number of men working at the smelters and mills on the river. Stages ran daily to and from this town, carrying express matter, mail and passengers. The stage line was abandoned, the express company and post office soon followed suit, and the only news that comes from some of the ranches in the Huachuca mountains. The causes of the abandonment of the town by the American were many, the principal one being the building of the town of Nogalas and the Mexican trade being diverted that way. The closing down of the smelter and mills also added to its downfall. The time may be come when it will be a rich and well populated city, but it will be when the resources of Cochise county have become known to the outside world, and the rich agricultural region of which Charleston is the center shall be thickly populated by thrifty, energetic emigrants from the old world. 

To be continued.....

Wyatt Earp Flees Arizona

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