The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-09

Terror TO Honest Men For Years
They Made Big Hauls From Ex-
press BoSes-Then Apnche Indians
Ran Down the Bold Offenders and
shot Them to Death.
From the Chicago Inter-Ocean.
The death of Ezra A Davidson at his
ranch home near Fl Monte, Cal, the other
day has revived the memories Of people
who lived in Arizona ana New Mexico
and Southern California eighteen years
ago, concerning the famous gang of des-
peradoes, of which George Wilbur Dan
Elkins. and Bill Howard were leaders for
several years, at the time of the Tomb
stone mining excitement in Southeastern
Arizona. Mr.. Davidson was the officer who
laid out the plan of capture of Elkins and
Wilbur, and he was paid by subscriptions
$1,000 for his share in Kidding the terri
tory Of two of the most reckless, dare
devil, and murderous men known in Ari-
zona.
In 1878 and 1879, when the Tombstone
mines were furnishing thousands Of dol
lars in bullion every day and the whole
of the Southwest was wild with excitement
every desperate, cowboy, miner, and from
uersman in the territories who could get
to Tombstone went there. An the bad men
from Texas, Western Kansas, and Indian
Territory poured into Tombstone as soon
as the news went abroad that the Billy
and the Morning mines were the richest
strikes since the Comstock mining days in
Nevada.
Among the men who went to Tombstone
In the summer Of 1878 were Dan Elkins,
Bill Howard, and George Wilbur. They
came from the vicinity of Boston original
", and had lived in the mining camps of
Colorado and Idaho for Twelve or fifteen
years. They were wonderfully expert
shots, and they soon had a following. What
ever reputation they had on the plains and
in the mining camps, it did not follow
them TO Tombstone and for few months
the three spent quiet life compared with
that of most of the men about them.
Bill Howard became the night city
marshal in Tombstone along in the fan
of 1873. For six or seven months he con-
Quoted himself with tolerable propriety.
Then he killed Hank Gleason, a gambler,
In saloon duel, and from then on had
plenty of fights. He would enter a gamb-
ling house, seat himself at a table and APP
propriate chips from the stacks of the
players, and apply himself unmolested to
the game Such a state of affairs finally
became uncomfortable to the sporting fra
ternity, and it was resolved to put him out
of the way.
One night while he was sitting at a wing
et-un table in the back part of the Apache
saloon on Ming street, three men, with
records as black as his own, but not pos
sessed of his strength and fearlesSneSS,
shook the dice at the bar in front TO de-
eide which of them should kill him. The lot
fell 10 Dan West
The arrangements were quickly made.
West withdrew and provided himself with
a double barreled shotgun. When he was
prepared and had stationed himself out
side the rear door of the saloon, one of his
confederates fired pistol in front. But
Howard had friends, and he was informed
of the plan to assassinate him. He was
therefore on his guard. During the general
rush of men in the saloon to the front
door to ascertain what was the occasion
of the shot. West opened the back door
little, thrust his shotgun through, and fired
at the place where he had seen Howard
sitting a moment before. Howard had, how
ever shifted his seat and so escaped a
heavy charge of buckshot. In a moment he
leaped from his concealment behind the
bar. and, revolver in hand, ran out of the
rear door in the darkness. West, who no
doubt thought he had killed Howard, was
caught on the run block away. Howard
ran plump up against him, wrenched the
smoking shotgun from his hands, and,
throwing him to the ground, held him
there with one foot while he emptied two
revolvers into his head and chest.
That night Howard fled to the noun
!
was never seen again in Tombstone. In 1881
ne returned to Arizona, and having been
| caught in an attempted robbery at Mari
copa, was sent TO Yuma prison for life.
Dan Elkins and George Wilbur, VINO
went 10 Tombstone with Howard had be-
come the boldest highway robbers ever
known in Arizona Gambling and mining
were too slow for them as ways of max
ing money. When Howard became the
tough man of the mining town and risked
his life daily merely because he wanted to
be feared by the population, Elkins and
Wilbur told him he was a fool, because
a man who risks his life ought TO get
something worth having. They limited
that the contents of only one of the strong
boxes of gold bullion that went away
every week or ten days from the gold
mines in Tombstone to California and Ell
| Paso would make man Independently
rich Howard, however, had personal
grudges to settle, and his reputation as
a tough to sustain in Tombstone and
the trio of young men from New England
broke up.
Elkins and Wilbur went from the mining
town to Tucson in the spring of 1879 and
engaged themselves as workers about the
livery stables, where the teams that drew
the coaches from the mines across the
aIkal deserts to Los Rngeles, In Southern
California. rested AS time went on they
gave out that they had by chance come
upon rich-looking ore in the Santa Rita
mountain canyons, some fifty miles south
west from Tucson, and across the sandy
waste. Once every week or two the two
men rode away from the lazy old Mexican
town, apparently for a visit of few days
to their newly found mining claims.
In the fan of 1879 highway robberies be-
gan to occur along the lines of the stages
from Tombstone to Yuma and Ell Paso
They were always done by two men who
wore white masks. They stopped the
stage to California three times near Flor
ence. and then the next week the Ell Paso
stage was robbed $50 miles away in an
other direction. The driver was killed in
two instances, and another time a miner
from Tombstone, who was slow in getting
out of the coach with his bags of gold
dust. was shot dead. One attack was
made in the night, and the others at diff
ferent times at daylight.
The government officers watched EIkins
ord Ut0hnr and were satisfied that they