Page 211 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

replaced by another, albeit usually less violent, travel hazard. The road agent, later depicted so frequently on the silver screen, finally made his debut 9
Chisum, in one of his many trips to and from Arizona, had the dubious honor of being involved in the first recorded holdup in Cooke’s Canyon. On January 12, 1876, Chisum was returning from Tuc- sonwithhisattorney,ThomasF. Conway,andsome other passengers. As the coach progressed slowly up a rocky hill, probably at the foot of Massacre Peak, three masked men ordered the driver, a man named Lancaster, to stop and disembark. guard, Fred Kaiser, and the passengers were also made to dismount. Chisum supposedly shoved most of the $1,000 he was carrying in his boot and handed over only a small sum. The bandits were probably not too disappointed, however, because they made off with $4,000 worth of silver bullion shipped by Joseph F. Bennett and H. M. Porter. 10
The coach continued to Mesilla without further incident. SamuelJ. Lyonsmusthavebeeninvolved in some manner because he signed in at the Corn Exchange Hotel in Mesilla the following day and noted in the register that a reward of $3,000 was
11
be robbed. On May 9, near the east end of the canyon, where the road runs through a rocky stream bed and makes a sharp turn between two walls, the bandits struck again. The passengers and crew, John D. Morrell, F. B. Cox, Joe Kier, and a Miss Maggie Wilson, were robbed, but the mail was not taken. The outlaws did not net much for their efforts, only $4.50 cents in cash and a revolver, because the men
had hidden their watches.
Justice finally prevailed, however, and the bandits,
or at least some of them, were apprehended. Joe Hubert, alias Dutch Joe, was tried and convicted of having twice robbed the stage in Cooke’s Canyon. The first time he had been aided by Roscoe Burrell, a man named Henry, and another who was not iden- tified. They buried the silver bars near the site and came back four or five days later to retrieve them. In the second robbery Hubert was aided by Robert Martin. Hubert was also convicted of “retarding the United States Mail,” but no sentence was reported
13
on any of the counts.
The nine would-be thieves who stopped the stage
seven miles east of Fort Cummings during the first week of October 1877 were much more congenial.
They asked the driver, a man named Moorehead, if he had anything on the stage, and he indicated that he did not. After requiring him to have a drink with them, the bandits remarked that they were leaving
14 thecountryandletMooreheadproceed. Thiswas
the same bunch that Samuel Carpenter met earlier in Cooke’s Canyon; Carpenter reported that Henry “Billy the Kid” Antrim was one of the group. The same gang apparently had shot at George Williams at the Warm Springs Ranch, but left quickly when he
15
returned
The stage line operating between Mesilla and Tuc-
son changed in mid-1878. The National Mail and Transportation Company took over several routes, including the one through Cooke’s Canyon, and the holdups continued. During May and June of 1878 the stages were harassed by a lone bandit. The first incident took place in Cooke’s Canyon, again near Massacre Peak, when he held up the eastbound stage driven by Sam Eckstein and carrying several passengers. The bandit took about $30 from Colonel John Paine Williard, the United States Paymaster, and First Lieutenant Frank West. A Mr. Hathaway, Williard’s clerk, had only a dime on him, which the robber refused, telling Hathaway he should something 16
offered for the capture of the three road agents. Coaches using the old road continued to
use it to get to eat.
A lone robber, probably the same man, struck
The
Chapter 7
197
their fire.
twice in June before disappearing from the scene. The bandit stopped the westbound coach a few miles east of Fort Cummings, but, since no passengers were aboard, the bandit had to be satisfied with the mail and three express packages. About a week later, a lone road agent struck north of Silver City, and after examining the mail, gave it back and departed. The robber was probably Brazelon, killed later that year near Tucson. Silver City resident Max Shultz’s watch, taken in the Cooke’s Canyon holdup,
17
was found on the bandit’s body.
The negative impact of the road agents was partial-
ly offset by the establishment of a new communica- tion system that could be used to alert officials of holdups or other problems along the road. By 1873 the military telegraph line from San Diego had reached Tucson and branched out to other army posts in Arizona. In New Mexico, the line from Missouri had been extended to Santa Fe. On March 3, 1875, Congress authorized $30,000 to connect Santa Fe and Tucson. In July, Third Infantry Second Lieutenant Philip Reade, using military labor, began construction of the connecting line. Despite using