Page 112 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

Company service was changed from semimonthly to weekly and the postal subsidy increased to $191,488
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a stage was in. First an Apache named Dirty Shirt and then Cochise himself decided to test Tevis on
The newspaper advertisements also claimed that passengers would be hauled in new 6-mule coaches, except for the 100 mile stretch west ofYuma.69 OneofthemenwhoworkedfortheSan Antonio-San Diego Mail Company, James Henry Tevis, would figure significantly in the developing sagas of the Southwest. If Tevis’s memoirs are reasonably accurate, he was a real “hell-bent-for- leather” type whose earlier escapades included filibustering in Central America with “General”
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William Walker the previous year.
Following Tevis’s return to the United States in
1857, he and several companions ventured to ArizonabywayofFranklinandMesilla. While pausing at Mesilla, Tevis claimed to have pistol whipped a notorious badman known locally as Black Bill and participated in shooting up a dance hall, killing two and wounding several of the opposing Mexicans. As a result of the row, the Americans were besieged in the hotel and were rescued by the Dragoons out of Fort Fillmore led by Second
Lieutenant Richard S. C. Lord. The group proceeded to Tucson by way of Cooke’s Spring
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without further incident.
During the remainder of 1857 and the first part of
1858, Tevis went on hunting expeditions out of Tuc- son with notables such as “Mose” Carson, brother of Christopher “Kit” Carson. During this period, according to Tevis, he was involved in two serious battles with Apaches, including some identified by Carson as belonging to Mangas Coloradas’s band. Following the second close escape from death, he accepted an offer from Anthony Elder and became part of the 10-man crew supporting the San Antonio- San Diego Mail Line operations at Apache Pass. A short time later, Elder infuriated the Indians who hung around the station by driving them off with a whip.
Division agent McNeice, acting on the advice of a friendly Apache sub-chief, Esconolea, transferred Elder farther east in charge of the supply train and
“
putTevisincommandoftheApachePassfacility. Tevis ran the isolated station with a firm hand, ini- tially winning the grudging respect of Cochise and earning the life-long friendship of Esconolea. Tevis aided the Indians with corn and other supplies when times were tough for the Apaches, but would not permit any of them to remain inside the station when
this issue. According to Tevis,
he pitched both out
annually.
The San Antonio-San Diego Mail Company
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the station door by the hair and the seat of their 73
breechclouts.
At the time of the second incident, the westbound
stage, driven by Brad Daily with Louis O’Shea as conductor, was at the station with a full load of passengers. Daily feared instant retaliation by Cochise and demanded the fresh team be hitched and the passengers reloaded immediately. Tevis grudgingly complied but made the passengers pay for their unfinished meal. According to Tevis, Daily made the Dragoon Station, 40 miles west of Apache Pass, in record time and continued to Tucson, plead- ing urgent personal business rather than returning with the next eastbound coach through Apache Pass
as would have been the normal procedure. Following Tevis’s refusal to face Cochise in a horseback duel of lance against pistol, unless the Apache precipitated the fight, his relationship to Cochise entered a period that cycled between al- leged friendship and threats to burn Tevis and his
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the developing enmity between him and Tevis.
In the winter of 1858, Indian Agent Dr. Michael Steck had brought presents to the Apaches staying near the pass. Tevis indicated that Cochise became angry with Steck over the quantity and quality of the offered goods and forced Steck to leave abruptly, much to Tevis’s amusement. Agent Steck made a second sojourn to Apache Pass, again with gifts, under the protective cloak of Captain Richard Stod- dert Ewell and two companies of First Dragoons. During Steck’s visit he expressed a desire to obtain
Chivero who was also Cochise’s interpreter. Oddly enough, especially considering Tevis’s low opinion of Steck, the station manager put the boy on a stage for Mesilla a few days later.
It is not known if that act had anything to do with Cochise’sactionsshortlythereafter. TheApache Chief gave the other boy, Jose, a pistol and urged him to settle “American style” with John Wilson, one of Tevis’s men from Missouri. Jose waited for Wil- son outside the station, and when he came out the door, the boy cocked the pistol and fired. He missed, and his second shot was also wide of the
A series of events would soon seeCochiseacommittedenemyofTevis. Cochise held two captive Mexican boys, Jose and Chivero (later called Mirajida Grijalba), who would figure in
men at the stake.