Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1884-03-20
An Arizona Incident

It was nearly 0 o'clock in the fore
noon. Work was going on as usual in
the quartz mill, and the heavy crunch
of the stamps, crushing up ore, drowned
out every other sound.
Ransom Flint and I were at this hour
the only two workmen in the mill. Carter,
the engineer, was in the engine house,
and the foreman, Mr.. Crocker was taking
nap, / think for he had had trouble
with the ''amalgam'' Quicksilver pro
cess the afternoon before, and had been
on duty the most of the night We
were running night and day then. But
the night hands had left work at 6
o'clock in the morning, and were sound
asleep in their shanties, fifty or sixty rods
down the bank.
The 'lead," or ledge from which we
took our ore, was now almost as far up
the canon the other way A railway
track took the cars with the quartz down
to the mill. There were four miner
at work in the '.lead," Zeff Whittle,
James Bates, Raphael Covelo and Carl
Hanson-thirteen of us in all at the mine !;
but so separated that we were in no
plight for defence, though each was pro-
yided with carbine.
The mine was the one formerly known
in the stock market as ssThe Candidate, .
but afterwards as the fsLos Nogales.n
While we were in this condition we
were surprised by the sudden appear
ance of a band of hostile Apaches, that
began an attack.
There were but nine of the Apaches, at
east I only saw nine. But they had
been reconnoitring US no doubt all the
morning, and knew that there were but
few men at work, and so concluded it
was safe to attack us. They were part
of a band of Tonto renegades that had
been down into Sonora, on numbering
and scalping raid.
The first that Ranse and l knew of
the attack was the sound of three or
four rife shots in the direction of the
'lead." We had barely heard the re-
ports above the noise.
'1ndians'' Ranse exclaimed; and we
both turned from the "shute," where we
were feeding ore, to look out at the open
end of the mill, where the track came in
suppose that some of the Indians had
crept in and were behind the large pile
of ore. For the moment we turned. 1
recollect hearing an explosion behind
me and had the sense of tremendous
shock
1 also recall the feeling that was sent
headlong over heap of picks and old
drills. That was the last / knew for
some minutes, think. Later found
that ball had struck me on the back of
the head, and without quite fracturing
my skull, had plowed furrow along my
scalp. The Indians probably thought
that l was safely disposed Of, or they
would have followed up the shot by
killing me.
Ranse was shot at by another redskin
at the same time, but only slightly wound
ed. He leaped out of the mill on the
side next the engine-house, and ran
few yards down the bank, when another
of the Apaches shot him dead.
The engineer, Carter, was the only
man who made anything like an effective
resistance. Hearing the firing he seized
his carbine, and coming out, shot one of
the Indians. Then seeing four of them
aiming their rifles at him, he ran through
the engine-house and down the bank
three balls whistling past his head
The men asleep in the shanties showed
the white feather; Bdwell. Marsten,
Rothrock, every one of them did the best
he could for his own safety. They were
in separate shanties. When the firing
awoke them, thinking the mill was taken,
each slipped out of his shanty and ran
down the bank into the arroyo. Bidwell
and Rothrock did not come in for two
days.
Whittle was easing car of ore down
the track when the first shots were fired
at the mill. He let 60 the car and ran
back. That car came near killing me. l
lay senseless, with my head within six
inches of the track, when it came into
the mill with crash--judging by the