The morning call., 1893-03-20
A DESERT GRAVE.
A Belief That Thornton
Found One.
Crittenden Thornton Goes to Search
Lonely Arizona Trails for His
Lost Brother Harry.

Crittenden Thornton left for. Fresno last
evening with job on his hands of far more
interest and Importance to himself than the
McWhirter murder case, which calls him
again to the Raisin City.
He will get away from there in two days
and will then hasten to lonely region in
Arizona to employ Indian trailers and
frontiersmen expert with desert wastes and
his lost brother Harry |. Thornton.
He goes with the expectation of finding
the young mans bones bleaching in the sun
or buried by some lonely trail and the
search will be a fficult and doubtful one.
The lost boy is son of ex-Supreme
Justice James d. Thornton and all trace of
him has been lost since the receipt of his
last letter in November Young Thornton
went to Arizona ten months ago to engage
in cattle speculation aud wrote home weekly
until the time mentioned. He was in the
ghbOrhood of Wilcox, A. T.. and when
last heard of by anybody had left Myers
ranch on a lonely trail for Hnoker's hot
springs, fifteen miles away, He had con-
siderable money ard band of cattle.
The first word or clew since then came a
few days ago in report that some official
had found his cattle abandoned and stray
ing at large over the mount ainsides.
NOIHiuI else whatever has ueSn 0eaTQ
Of him," said Crittenden Thornton yester-
day. land our fears for his safety have
developed, at least with me. into something
ike a certainty Of feeling that he is dead.
AS soon as l can get away from Fresno |
shall start at once for Wilcox, Thirty miles
from where my brother was last seen, and
then begin an exhaustive search for him."
81 shall begin the search from Myers
ranch, and employ MS many thoroughly
trained scouts or iroDtersmen as necessary,
and perhaps some Indian trailers, and start
them on the trail over which Harry started,
according to latest reports, on foot. 1t is
only seventeen from Myers ranch to
HOOkers hot springs, but the trail lies
through country so Wild and rough that It
is considered dangerous to travel even on
h0rseba | shall parallel the trail and
have the searchers travel four or five hun
dred yards apart on both sides, and unless
he has PASSED IN safety or been murdered
and his remains secreted or removed shall
find him.
Il think that he has met with an accident,
such as spraining an ankle or something of
that kind, and owing to the rouGhness OF
the country and his disabled condition lie
has been unable to reach place of shelter,
and died from exposure or starvation. l
Incline more to that belief from the fact
that l know more men to have persisted in
the mountains in that way than have been
killed by being foully dealt with. Still,
Harry had several hundred dollars with him
III money, ana as ne was well known in tnRt
country as q man " no always had money, IL
is not unlikely that this knowledge excited
the cupdity of some of the GreaSer vaqueros,
and they might have killed him from AMI
bush and afterward secreted his re-
mains. In that case / hardly think
the assassius would have run sthe
risk of taking his cattle, as they would
have left too broad a trail. They would
have taken his money, iewelry and horses,
bat nothing more. If he was killed in that
way he came 10 his death by hidden foes,
IS he was q match for any two or three
Greasers who ever lived, and was an eX-
pert with the revolver"
Should the remains of young Thornton
be found they can be identified, il neces-
sRry, by the bones Of a thumb that was
crushed once, and by his teeth.
The boy was q years old, a lawyer. and
has held depuIyshipS in the United States
sub-treasuiy here and In the Internal Rcve-
nue. Department. His family is quite pros
trated over their loss.