Page 196 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

2 on detail at the hospital, and 1 as a teamster. With
at least 10 men mounted for guard duty each day,
and no mules left fit for escort duty, he asked higher
powers for relief from the requirement to escort the 110
mail.
Apparently a compromise was worked out on the
issue of escorting the mails. Moore wrote the con- tractor in Mesilla, John Davis, that if he furnished the transportation, Moore would furnish men from his command as an escort from Fort Cummings to
111
Texas, because a few members had unknowingly purchased some contraband army carbines. The men were not in serious trouble, but they did not get back either their money or the weapons.
Before continuing their journey, the Bunyards stopped briefly in El Paso on July 19 to purchase supplies. They camped for the night a few miles up the river at Hart’s confiscated El Molino mill. The mill was being operated by Eugene Van Patten, who made no attempt to inform the Bunyards that the mill did not belong to him. He was, however, very gracious and offered them wine. The following day the Bunyards purchased some of Van Patten’s wine before continuing on their way with three other families. On the night of July 24, they passed aban- doned Fort Fillmore, and Harriet remarked that some Mexicans were living there and that it ap-
Barney’s Station and return.
Somehow, in all the confusion at the post, two of
the three Apache children captured nearly a year earlier were still at Fort Cummings. One of the boys succumbed to smallpox on March 4, but as of July the other two were active enough to be causing problems within the garrison. Moore claimed that the four-year-old boy and seven-year-old girl caused inconvenience and that the girl was responsible for
112
“a good deal of mischief at the post.”
someone to be responsible for a disposition of the children.
Despite the military installations along the route
and the escorts provided, the southern road con-
tinued to be hazardous for those using it. In mid-
July, Post Office Department Special Agent Milton
B. Duffield noted that between Mesilla and Tucson,
the Apaches had recently captured two more mails.
This accounted for three in a period of eight days.
In his opinion, there was not a mile between the two •• 11O
communities that was safe from Apaches.
Agent Duffield’s apprehension notwithstanding,
emigrants and cattle herds still traveled the same
road as the mail. Nineteen-year-old Harriet
Bunyard, her parents, three brothers, and two sisters
left east Texas on May 1, 1869, in a train captained
by her uncle, Isaac Stewart. The family was in strong
sympathy with the South and was seeking more
pleasant surroundings in the wake of the Civil
114
War.
Several other emigrant outfits and trail herds were
in transit between Texas and California. Harriet noted that they saw several other emigrant trains and a few cattle herds between her home and El Paso. They changed the composition of their train at least three times before they arrived in El Paso. However, the number of men in the party was never less than 20normorethan45. Theyexperiencednotrouble during this part of their journey, with the exception of being temporarily detained near Fort Griffin,
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^
Indian Fighting and Post War Emigration
He wanted
peared very desolate.
The Bunyard train encountered another delay in
reaching Cooke’s Spring. On July 25, after they had reached Las Cruces, John Thomas, one of the young men on the train, accidentally shot himself while twirling his pistol. He died that evening, and the next day after his brother, who was traveling in a train behind the Bunyard’s, arrived John was buried in Las Cruces. During the delay, the Bunyards were joined by 5 other wagons, this brought the count to 25meninthetrain. OnJuly26theytraveledallnight and reached Slocum’s Ranch, where they watered their stock for 10 cents a head. On July 29 at two in the afternoon, they arrived at Fort Cummings and camped near there. Harriet noted that there was plenty of grass and water but only small brush to cook with. Two large cattle herds were also camped at the spring.
After experiencing a refreshing rain that night, the Bunyards laid over a full day until the following afternoon. They started through Cooke’s Canyon in the evening, and Harriet indicated that they were afraid because they had been told it was the most dangerous spot on the entire route. At the Mimbres River, Harriet noted that there was a small town and that another small train and a herd of 7,000 cattle had arrived there ahead of them. Between the Mimbres and Apache Pass she noted “two old forts” on which the roofs had been burned. These were, of course,theoldstagestations. Theyreachedtheir
117 California destination about November 1, 1869.
Throughout most of 1869, Captain Moore had been trying to resolve the issue of a private residence
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