Old Writings on our Tombstone
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April 26, 1928 Tombstone Epitaph Newspaper The First Press" By George C. Reeder
A history of the Prospector and Epitaph, brief as it must necessarily be, would not be complete without a reference to the first press every (ever) brought to Arizona and now stored in the Prospector press rooms. It is a Washington hand press, and it is the 25th, as its number shows, turned out of the Central Type Foundry of Cincinnati. This factory was established in 1851. The press came around the horn in 1858 and was brought from Guymas to Tubac, consigned to Sylvester Moury, who started the Arizonian, the pioneer paper of the territory. Moury continued the publication of the paper up to the breaking out of the civil war. He was succeeded by two printers, Jack Smith and George Smithson,, in 1861. After getting out half a dozen issues it is claimed the two latter were charged with stage robbery. Resisting arrest, Smithson was killed. Sims was afterward tried on the charge and was acquitted. He was defended by Granville Oury, subsequently delegate to Congress. Sims, by the way, was the first printer to arrive in Globe and while employed on the Silver Belt in 1878, was shot and killed in that town. The Arizonian suffered an eclipse from that time until 1867, when under the same name, W. S. Moury re-established it in Tucson. S'dney R. DeLong later secured control of the press and with it began the publication of the Tucson Citizen, the oldest surviving off spring of the famous piece of machinery, with John Wasson as editor. It was afterward owned by L.C. Hughes and the Star and Dos Republicas of the Old Pueblo utilized it for a time. In the fall of 1879 A.E. Fay and Thomas Tully, brought the old relic to Tombstone and the Nugget, the camp's first paper, was issued from it. With the introduction of modern machinery the press was placed on the superannuated list, and has enjoyed a rest for the past 30 years. Notwithstanding its long and turbulent career, the press today is in good state of preservation and with the expenditure of a little time and labor, could again be placed in a servicable condition. The press will be presented to the Arizona Pioneers Society (Tucson's Arizona Historical Society) to be preserved as an interesting relic of Arizona history.
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Melvin Jones of Tucson wrote the following in 1929...
Cowboys & Beef Contracts With The U.S. Government
"The cowboys were of all kind and employed by the government contractors who had contract to furnish thousands of head of cattle at San Carlos Indian agency to be fed to the Apache Indians. The contractor, had to have a lot of cowboys to drive cattle from New Mexico, Old Mexico, or wherever they could be got, and keep a herd of several hundred in five or six miles of the agency in small bunches and shot down, one head each for every five or six Indians. The Indians did their own butchering. The cattle were all driven in via San Simon, which was good grass country, where the cowboys would mostly all go for rest for themselves and horses after the hardships of a long drive to get a herd through to San Carlos agency. There were many good, honorable young men that worked with these outfits, though occasionally one chose to follow on the broad and crooked trail, and landed in Tombstone and Boothill Cemetery."
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December 7, 1881 Tombstone Daily Nugget Newspaper
A "Rustler" Comes To Grief. He Attends A Necktie Party And Remains
Deputy Sheriff Lance Perkins came in from Galeyville last evening and gives us the following particulars regarding the lynching of Joe M. Gauze, one of the most noted "Rustlers" in Southern Arizona. It appears that a number of horses and mules have been stolen lately in the vicinity of Galeyville, and last Sunday afternoon, when Gauze was coming down Pine canyon, and about three miles from major Downing's Old Saw Mill, he was stopped by three men, whom it is presumed were heavily armed, and while they prevented him from escaping, the three others pulled him off his horse, disarmed him, laid the cartridge belts beside the road, took him across the creek some 150 yards, and hanged him. His body was found a short time afterwards by some of Contractor Clute's men, who cut it down and sent word to Galeyville for the Justice of the Peace to take possession of it and hold an inquest.
The tracks in the road, where he was taken from the horse, show that there were six persons implicated in the tragedy, and that he resisted as long as possible. one of the bridle reins of the horse was broken, showing that someone had held the animal to prevent his escape. The saddle, although secured with double cinches, was turned on the side of the horse when the animal was found. gauze was of medium height and about thirty-two or thirty-three years of age, and said by some to be a very hard character. It is not known that he had ever killed anyone, nor had he been in many fights or difficulties in this section. But his memory regarding the ownership of horses and mules was peculiar for its brevity. He was known to many of our citizens, as he was at this place much of the time during the late Indian troubles, and carried a number of military dispatches to the troops while in pursuit of the hostiles after their retreat from the Dragoon Mountains.
Let his virtues be remembered-for he'll make no more...
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November 22, 1934--Editors Mailbag Tombstone Epitaph Newspaper--J.C. Hancock
H.W. Miller wrote that H.N. North, who was a collector of customs at San Francisco years ago, writing in the Oakland, Tribune, says "I attended the Sharkey/Fitzsimmons fight and had a seat at the ring-side and remember it very clearly. Before the fight began, with Earp as referee, Fitzsimmons in his fighting cloths with his hands on the ropes, addressed the crowd, saying that the fight was fixed and that the decision was to go to Sharkey regardless of who won. The crowd began to hoot and Fitzsimmons said, "Don't think I am trying to avoid this fight. I am going to be the victor: but nevertheless, I want you to know beforehand how it is going to be decided. " He did enter the ring and thoroughly bested Sharkey and finally knocked him out. While Sharkey was on the floor Earp gave him the decision and immediately left the ring. If he had a revolver on his person, I did not see it. Neither did he fix the crowd with his cold grey eye, as some biographers now claim. The impression remains in my mind that he sneaked from the ring. certainly all the cat-calls and cries from the crowd were directed at him. The next day all the bets were declared off. I am sure the crowd was with Fitzsimmons and that he was entitled to the decision."
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Wife of Wyatt Earp stated: "Most of the tales revolving around Mr. Earp (Wyatt) are romances."
In 1933 J.C. Hancock wrote the following about Wyatt Earp: "I have heard it stated that he would compel her (his wife) to go into places against her will and make money for him to gamble on.
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June 30, 1932 Tombstone Epitaph Newspaper "Along Memory Lane" Originally published in 1892
For the first time he (Bob Paul) makes public the facts connected with the attempted robbery (March 15, 1881) at which time Bud Philpot was killed. The names of the robbers was given by Mr. Paul were Doc Holliday, Bill Leonard, and Harry Head and one other, name unknown. It was known that Holliday had been in the scheme and yet he returned to Tombstone the same night and walked around unmolested and was never arrested for the crime.
In the 1930's Anton Mazzanovich wrote the following about Doc Holliday and Big Nose Kate...
"She was in Tombstone the time the stage was held up in which Bud Philpot was killed. After that holdup the writer was doing a little detective and pressed Mrs. Holliday for information. In her answer she said:
I can't write you any blood and thunder stories about Doc Holliday as there is no such things in his past career. All I know is just how Doc acted that afternoon before the stage was held up. Yes I knew Morgan Earp was the messanger on the stage. Now as much as I think of Doc I will tell you what happened. Doc came home in a hurry, changed his cloths. I asked him why he was in such a hurry he said that he had particular work on hand and that he would not be able to take me to supper. About half an hour after he left, Warren Earp came to me with a note from Doc to send him his rifle. I asked Warren why Doc wanted his rifle. He said that he did not know. Doc did not come home until late that night. He did not bring his rifle. It was four or five days after the holdup that he brought the rifle back. I thought that after the holdup, things looked very suspicious about the Earps and Doc. Something tells me that Doc was in with Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan in that affair. But if Doc was in it he did not get any of the spoils. One night after we had retired, Warren Earp came after Doc and said that Wyatt wanted to see him him at his house. He was gone one hour and a half. I could see that he was very much put out about something. He kept saying the damned fool. I did not think that of him. Then he said "I have to get up early in the morning, but I will think about it." This was after the stage holdup. He did not get up till 9;00 a.m. when we went to breakfast. "Well, I don't know what I'm going to stack up against today. I am getting tired of it all."
November 22, 1934 J.C. Hancock wrote...
"It is my opinion that Doc Holliday shot Bud Philpot by mistake, thinking he was shooting at Bob Paul. The outfit was afraid Paul would uncover something and they wanted him out of the way and poor Bud was the victim."
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April 27, 1944 Tombstone Epitaph Newspaper
Shooting Up The Epitaph
In the beginning the Epitaph was published in a tent. Everything started in a tents in those border towns. It censured the practice then in vogue of shooting up the town. Curly Bill, Buckskin Sam, Jack Mitchell and some more of these proud men of the open spaces considered themselves deeply affronted by that unkind comment, and from then on the Epitaph boys were plumb out of luck in that tent when the rustlers would ride up Fremont Street letting daylight through the newspaper plant. Soon as the blasting began the entire force, editorial and printorial, would dive for the floor, get behind the presses , and and otherwise protect themselves from the bombardment. But as soon as the fireworks were over, the gang would roll another smoke and get back on the job grinding out news and molding public opinion.
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In 1944 Tom Bailey, True Magazine writer wrote:
Bailey, who was a newspaper man, met Wyatt Earp in Oakland, Calif., in 1926, and became well acquainted with him. From Earp he obtained much of the data for the article he is preparing. The fight between the Earps and Curly Bill's gang took place at a spring some miles from Tombstone while Earp, Doc Holliday and the remnants of the Earp crowd were making their departure from Tombstone. There has always been conjecture as to whether or not Wyatt Earp actually killed Curly Bill. Bailey says, he is positive that Earp did kill the outlaw in his last gun fight at the springs. "Earp told me himself that he killed Curly and described in detail to me the complete fight, how he stood off Curly Bill's gang lone-handed while Doc Holliday and the others ran away on their horses. The gang was well entrenched and the Earps were out in the open. Wyatt leaped off his horse and found cover, but the others didn't and were forced to flee.
"Earp told me he saw Curly Bill fall and that he knew his bullets had found a vital spot."
Tom Baily also wrote "It is true, " Bailey said, that Buckskin Leslie (of Tombstone) killed John Ringo. Leslie told me himself that he did, and he told me why. It was because of Ringo's participation in the slaying of a pretty Mexican girl. In most of the histories I have read about Tombstone, Ringo is held up as an admirer of women-kind, and it was said that he would fight at the drop of a hat if a woman's name was maligned. That might have been, but Ringo was roaring drunk when the Mexican girl was slain, and that of course may have accounted for his actions.
Buckskin Image courtesy theoutlaws.com Unconfirmed Ringo Image courtesy Wikimedia.org
At any rate, he paid for his crime at Leslie's hands. Leslie got him drunk and they were on a wild spree for about two weeks, at the end of which time Ringo was slain and his body left against a tree with his own revolver dangling from a huge gold watch chain. Leslie himself arranged the revolver so it would look like a suicide." Buckskin Image courtesy theoutlaws.com...Unconfirmed Ringo Image courtesy Wikimedia.org
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In the 1920s Hal Lamar Hayhurst wrote...
"Concerning the Tombstone Nugget, of which the veteran cowboy journalist, Frank M. King, wrote in the Epitaph of June 24, there is much which could be told--about a parent's grief, and gun-fights of blood and bullets, a woman's love, and sorrow, success and failure.
The Nugget was founded as a weekly paper in October, 1879 by A.E. Fay and associates, and after a few experimental weeks it became a daily--a six-day publication--Tombstone's first newspaper.
With all due respect to my fellow-scribe, Mr. King, who says that Harry M. Woods was editor of the Nugget when Johnny Behan was made Sheriff of Cochise County. I am constrained to point out that whereas Behan became sheriff in Feb. of 1881. Woods did not mount the editorial tripod until the following April, after he and his associates had purchased the paper from Fay.
Editor Fay's head was bowed in sorrow over the waywardness of his son, who was known about town as Kid Fay, a swaggering, gun-toting tough. After the sale of the Nugget, the Fays moved to Peach Springs, in Northern Arizona. near where the Atlantic and Pacific railroads was being built, where the father started the Weekly Champion, and may have thought his son might reform in less turbulent surroundings.
But reformation was not in the cards. One night a shot shattered the stillness of the new little town. A burly railroad construction hand lay withering in death throes at the feet of a beautiful young woman. Kid Fay was arrested and charged with murder.
At the trial, the gist of the defense was that the deceased had persisted to making advances toward the girl, young Fay's fiancée; that he was threatening her with violence just as the Kid came into her quarters and Fay fired the shots in the belief that his sweetheart's life was in danger. But the Kid's bad reputation as a brawler and card sharp had followed him from Tombstone, so the trial was not proceeding so well for the defense.
Then unexpectedly, the girl jumped up and said, "Your honor, Mr. Fay is innocent of this charge. He didn't kill Spike, I done it. He was going to hit me because I wouldn't be his girl. I was afraid for my life, so I grabbed the gun and shot."
"How does Mr. Fay come into this, then?" she was asked. "He's just trying to protect me from being on trial." she demurely replied. "But how do you explain the fact that Spike was shot with what has been identified as the defendant's own large caliber Colt's revolver" the prosecutor asked.
Her eyes filled with tears "Sure it's his gun," she replied. Her voice broke and through her sobs she said, "He left it with me for me to protect myself against Spike," She was having a telling effect on the jury. The prosecutor scoffed and protested. "The clever defense attorney no doubt taught this girl to speak this touching little piece of hers, when they saw that a guilty man was about to be convicted of murder," he declared.` "There are those," he went on to say, "who know that Fay never left his gun anywhere; there are some who believe he takes it to bed with him; and there are some who suspect, that he the deceased Spike was murdered for starting a fight over having been trimmed in Fay's card game, where the girl was probably used as a come-on."
A pretty girl's tears were melting the hearts of twelve rugged frontier jurors and diluting their judgement. The prosocutor continued to appeal to what he termed their horse sense. But he saw it was futile for him to compete with lovely feminine wiles.
Young Fay did not deny his fiancée's startling admission. So, even though the jury must have had its tongue in its cheek. It could do little else but free him. At this, the disgruntled prosecutor, with a last ironical fling with the jury, said, "I dare say it would be expecting too much of you gentlemen to believe that a lady can be a liar? Or that she should be charged with this slaying?"
It was expecting too much. The jurors did not wish to believe that such beauty in tears could tell these fibs. And, of course, there was no thought of her being charged with the crime. Frontier chivalry gave ladies all benefits or any doubt. So the case ended there and then. Sometime later, Kid Fay again broke into the newspapers in connection with an extortion and robbery case in the El Paso underworld. But that is another story.
As I show in my forthcoming coming book, "The Tombstone Sheriff," Harry Woods left the sheriff's office somewhat in chagrin, for having allowed Luther King to escape from under his very nose. King had been brought in by the Earps as a suspect in the murder of Bud Philpot and Peter Roehrig, in which, as everyone knew, the Earp ally, Doc Holliday, was implicated.
So Harry Woods became the second editor of the first newspaper. The SECOND paper in the old grand camp was the Daily Tombstone, which was short-lived. The third paper, the Epitaph, which was started as a weekly in May, 1880, by John Clum, Charles D. Reppy and Thomas R. Sorrin, in a tent, on a lot where the two story Epitaph building was subsequently erected. That was at 326 Fremont St., opposite the Nugget, which was housed in a building about where the City Hall has stood the past 55 years.
Mr. Clum, prosperous from his lately terminated job of Indian agent at the San Carlos Apache Reservation expanded the Epitaph to a daily about two months after it was founded and employed a competent editor named O. F. Thornton, while he devoted most of his own time to the post office.
Clum had previously bought the Citizen, at Tucson, moved it to Florence for a short time, then back to Tucson where he sold it and joined the stampede to Tombstone. There he looked around and saw that the place needed a Republican paper and a post office---it was still getting its mail through the Tucson post office, 75 miles away, although the new locality had been growing for nearly two years. So he went East, arranged for the postmastership and bought print shop equipment and returned to Tombstone as postmaster and publisher.
He is reputed even to have gone down into his well-filled purse and paid out one thousand Indian dollars to furnish the post office for which generous, though unauthorized expenditures. Uncle Sam did not reimburse him.
Partisan politics were violent on that faraway frontier. It was logical that Mr. Clum should ally himself with the Republican faction of the town, which was then being dominated by the Earps. But when the Earps had finally been besmirched with suspicion of stage robbery and even murder, Clum with the sagacity of Nebuchadnezzar, road the handwriting on the wall and decided to get out. He sold the Epitaph to a group which included Harry M. Woods, and the tough old town was at the mercy of two democratic newspapers, until a journalist named W.D. Crowe came along and started the Tombstone Republican.
As there was an insufficient field for two Democratic newspapers, the Nugget began began to assay less and less pay dirt and finally quit all together. In the summer of 1882, with Pat Hamilton as editor, the ephemeral Tombstone Independent was started. In the same year, a lawyer named Sam Purdy came up from Yuma to edit the Epitaph. He was succeeded by Dick Rule, formerly of the Nugget, and followed successfully by John O. Dunbar, Charles D. Reppy, George Peck, Stanley Bagg, William (Tarantula Bill) Hattich, and various others of a grand host of other scribes, who ably edited Tombstone's newspapers. Of the group, only the good old Epitaph survives, in the competent hands of Walter H. Cole."
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