When the West Was Young   By: Frederick R. (Frederick Ritchie) Bechdolt (1874-1950)

[Illustration: John Slaughter was gathering a great herd]

WHEN THE WEST WAS YOUNG

BY

FREDERICK R. BECHDOLT

D. APPLETON CENTURY COMPANY

INCORPORATED

NEW YORK LONDON

1938

Copyright, 1922, by

The Century Co.

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission of the publisher.

To My Father

Dr. A. F. BECHDOLT

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The writer is indebted for the material in this book to a goodly number of the old timers, from whose lips came much of which is written in the following pages, and to numerous printed works which he consulted, sometimes to authenticate data and sometimes to get additional facts.

Among the former to whom he wishes to make acknowledgment are: Former Sheriff John Ralphs, San Bernardino, California; Captain Harry C. Wheeler, Douglas, Arizona; A. M. Franklin, Tucson, Arizona; Colonel William Breckenbridge, Tucson, Arizona; Dr. D. T. MacDougal, Carnegie Institution; William Lutley, Tombstone, Arizona; Judge Duncan, Tombstone, Arizona; A. H. Gardner, Tombstone, Arizona; C. M. Cummings, Tombstone, Arizona; Andy Smith, Tucson, Arizona; Guy C. Welch, Tombstone, Arizona; Mr. and Mrs. John Slaughter, Douglas, Arizona; James East, Douglas, Arizona; Horace Stillman, Douglas, Arizona; D. F. McCarthy, Lipscomb, Texas; and the Arizona Pioneers' Association.

Among the latter are old files of the "Tombstone Epitaph" and other Arizona newspapers; Manley's "Death Valley in '49"; Upton's "Pioneers of Eldorado"; Ridge's "Life of Joaquin Murieta"; Dukes' "Famous Criminal Cases"; Farish's "History of Arizona"; McClintock's "History of Arizona"; Hittel's "History of California"; Bancroft's Works; Visscher's "Pony Express"; G. D. Bradley's "Story of the Pony Express"; "Overland Stage to California," by F. A. Root and W. E. Connely; Inman's "Santa Fé Trail"; Humphreyville's "Twenty Years Among Our Hostile Indians"; Richardson's "Beyond the Mississippi"; Bourke's "On the Border With Crook"; J. Ross Brown's "Adventures in the Apache Country"; Charles Siringo's "History of Billy the Kid"; Bard's "Life of Billy Dixon, Scout and Plainsman"; Brown's "History of Texas."

CONTENTS

PAGE HOW DEATH VALLEY WAS NAMED 3 JOAQUIN MURIETA 25 TOMBSTONE 54 TOMBSTONE'S WILD OATS 80 THE SHOW DOWN 105 THE PASSING OF JOHN RINGO 132 JOHN SLAUGHTER'S WAY 160 COCHISE 190 ONE AGAINST MANY 218 THE OVERLAND MAIL 248 BOOT HILL 277

WHEN THE WEST WAS YOUNG

HOW DEATH VALLEY WAS NAMED

There were three of us sitting on a pile of lumber in a sun baked little mining town down near the Arizona border. One of my companions was the sheriff of the county and the other was an old man with snowy beard and sky blue eyes whom every one called "Mac." To look at him was to behold a vision of the past.

As we were whiling away the time with idle talk something was said which aroused the spirit of reminiscence within this survivor of the unfenced West. He closed his jack knife with a snap, threw away a pine stick from which he had been peeling shavings, and turning his sky blue eyes on the sheriff, "I remember " he began.