Page 224 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

many of the^ang and eventually put the rustlers out
Perhaps the sharply reduced manpower con- tributed to the loss of the post trading establishment. At three in the morning on J uly 18, 1884, the building was discovered on fire and could not be saved. Be- cause of the garrison’s efforts the only government property damaged was to the bakery, even though the hay stacks, workshops, and stores were nearby. Carpenter’s house was not burned, and he would remain at Fort Cummings for several more years.
On August 14, 1884, the old Indian Wars fort was ordered abandoned again. By the following month only a caretaker party of 13 men remained. In January of 1885, the detachment was reduced to a lieutenant and six enlisted men. The detachment was rotated each month so that the monotonous duty was shared and was not a burden for any one group. The detachment, led by Second Lieutenant E. F. Wilcox, that left on February 19, 1885, removed the
110
flagpole and transported it to Fort Selden.
During the remainder of February through May 17 a mixed detachment of six enlisted men, alternately under Sixth Cavalry officers First Lieutenant Ed- ward Everett Dravo, and Second Lieutenants James Alfred Cole and George Henry Sands, managed the post. On May 18, 1885, the garrison was nearly at company strength again for one month when Lieutenant Dravo and 45 men, mostly of Company I Sixth Cavalry, augmented the small caretaker detachment.111 Although the post returns for this month indicate that the men were using the facility as a base camp while scouting for Indians, one’s suspicions are aroused because Dravo was intimate- ly involved a year later in setting up the heliograph network to use against Geronimo. Regardless of why Dravo and his men were at Fort Cummings, the post was completely abandoned by the military by
the end of May.
Development of the Cooke’s Peak Mining District
Despite the thousands of miners, emigrants, freighters, stage-hands, and soldiers, who stopped at Cooke’s Spring near the southern foot of the moun- tain, no record has been found of mineral discovery in the immediate vicinity prior to 1876. This is espe- cially interesting because Fort Cummings was manned entirely by California Column Volunteers
1"
It took the militia over a year, how-
of business.
ever, to accomplish the task.
With the rustler situation being handled by citizens, in September Forsyth launched an am- bitious building program at Fort Cummings to give the officers stationed there better winter protection. Under his supervision, adobe buildings were con-
structed with rock foundations, wood floors, sashed • irft
windows, and shingled roofs.
Health of the troops was also an issue at this time,
because in August typhoid struck the garrison. During September and October seven soldiers
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joined their comrades on Cemetery Ridge.
The following spring, Forsyth continued his plans for the fort. He had 24 men making adobe bricks for use in construction. He also planned an extensive garden with approximately 20 varieties of plants. In addition, he wanted to raise gladiolas, hollyhocks,
astors, and phlox to brighten up the post.
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With any luck, the garden survived some of the last
trail herds to use Cooke’s Spring in their drive west.
John H. Slaughter, after serving in the Texas
Rangers, had driven a herd of cattle to Arizona. He
and his first wife, Adeline, settled on the San Pedro
River near Tombstone where she died in 1878. In
1880, Slaughter married Cora Viola Howell, and in
1883 he purchased 40,000 acres of the old San Ber-
nardino Mexican land grant, near the border
southeast of Tucson, and prepared to stock it with 106
cattle.
Cora Slaughter accompanied her husband on their
first cattle drive after buying the new ranch. They brought the herd through Texas, and, before reach- ing the Rio Grande, she overheard three of the hands discussing quitting when they reached that point. Informed of this plan, Slaughter beat the cowboys to the punch and fired them before they could quit. The Slaughters held the cattle at the river until John could hire 10 Mexicans to help the herd cross the deepening water. Cora crossed the river aheadofthelastbatchofcattle. Therisingwater was so deep that the men had to tie logs to the sides of the wagons and float them across. The Slaughters returned to Arizona via Cooke’s Spring. 107
Meanwhile the garrison at Fort Cummings con- tinued to decline. In June 1884 the number of present and absent carried on the role dropped from
226 to 125. In July the garrison was again halved,
leaving 59 on the role.
10
Development of the Cooke’s Peak Mining District
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