El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-10
Fight With Apache Indians
Written Especially for the HERALD.

encounter with a murderous band OF
Apache Indians was given the writer
by Mr.. Gilbert an old time frontiers
man and at present the owner OF
beautiful home on Seven Rivers In
Eddy county, New Mexico, where he
has fine orchard of choice fruit trees,
enjoying quiet life after many hair
breadth escaped in encounters with
Indians.
Mr.. Gilbert was born in Jackson
county Tennessee, Nov. 7tb, 1928. and
came to Texas in 1887, too late to be
hero of San Jacinto, but in plenty of
time TO see much of the stirring events
after that. The family mum bered just
an even dozen, the father, mother,
seven sops and three daughters, and
settled near Bepham in Fannin county,
at that time a comparative wilderness,
filled with buffalo, deer, turk1es and
many "varmints,'' besides too many
Indians to agree with the idea of safety
among even the hardy pioneers of that
day. Although those who came from
Tennessee and the dark and bloody
ground had heard of the struggles of
their fathers with the Indians, still
they we're willing to risk all dangers
in order to have ample elbow room,
and enjoy the pleasure OF q wild life
in a rev country teemfDg with game
and literally flowing with milk and
honey.
Mr.. Gilbert remained In Texas until
1849, when the discovery of glittering
gold in the mill race of Sutor caused a
general stampede for California. He
got the fever and joined an emigrant
train bound for the new Ell Dorado. but
he found, as many poor devil did,
that il was ''all work and no play-Or
pay" and the broad beautiful prsiries
of Texas seemed good. So he returned
a II HI hau
bumped themselves up over a rocker,
or watched the water run through
leaving a small nugget now and then in
the rifle box, he could not be content
and again pulled out for California to
again WOO the tickle goddess, Fortune.
1t was the same old story, however,
and the writer can deeply sympathize
with him as he is one of the original
greenhorns of Greenhorn Gulch, on
Kern River. Very few people at that
time who passed over the hills and
dales of Arizona, looking forward
eagerly to the golden sands of Califor-
mia being under their feet, ever
thought of looking for the precious
metal there, and young Gilbert was
seized with an Irresistible impulse to
go back and take look. AS all his
former trips back and forth had been
in wagons, he decided to try it on
horse back; and, buying q good animal
at Bakersfield, on April Bird, 1871, he
started for Arizona.
Arriving in due course of time a:
Prescott he found q large party OF
miners gathered there, who believed
as he did, that gold in abundance
were two hundred and nine men who
organized, armed and provisioned
themselves, and felt no uneasiness
about holding their own with the en-
tire Apache nation. In fact they
would have enjoyed q brush with them.
Gov. Stafford was appointed as leader
of'the expedition, and they set out full
of hope and prospected the country
north of the ella river, and then turn
ed up Salt river and went to its head
waters. but found nothing worthy of
note. Not even the settlement of dis
appointed Office seekers, whose head
quarters are supposed to be thar
abouts," we're to be found.
Gilbert now thought he would try
New Mexico, for rumOr was in the
air that party of returning Califor-
mans had discovered rich placer dig
gings in the Guadalupe N ountains, but
the Indians were so bad they could not
work them. This rumor caused "Old
Gotch," alias Gen. VIM. Hardeman, of
Texas, to head an expedition up there,
but the placerS are still quietly sleep
ing, waiting for some cowboy or ten
derfoot TO stumble on them, ss at Lead
vile or Cripple Creek.
Gilbert and young man named Il.
Barnes then started out for Seven
Rivers, New Mexico. You will OBJ
serve these two men started out with
no more hesitation than an old farmer
would feel in Kentucky in visiting his
nearest neig Dor. Gilbert had been
over the road so often thai ne was
81 "a
danger, as one will become who lives
long on the frontier, constant exposure
to death robbing it OF its horrors, or
rather dread.
When they reached Sam Simon val
ley, now noted and prosperous cattle
ranch, they found an Irishman had
settled there, without asking permits
sion of the Apaches who were the or
iginsl owners OF the country, and had
had several tnUimations that he had
better more on If he valued his scalp.
But with the we'll known lack of fear
and delight in scrapping, he had
determined to stop there and make a
fortune raising ''spuds'' and other
truck for the soldiers at Camp Bowie,
and for the travelling public.
The San Simon valley was such q
beautiful valley lying like an emerald
in the waste, and the grass and game
and everything suitfng Gilbert's fancy,
he determined to buy the place and
give up rowing and mining. After a
good deal OF talk the Irishman, whose
name was Hugh O'Neal, agreed to sell
to Gilbert: giving a quit claim to his
little improvements, consisting CT
about ten acres of irrigable land, an
adobe house matched with tule, and
incidentally his prospect of being
scalped. Gilbert took Barnes in as a
partner. Poor fellow, It fell to his
lot to furnish the scalp.
The partners worked on for about a
month, when Gilbert suggested that
the tule swamp was q good place in