The sun., 1902-03-09
SHEEP WAR OVER IN ARIZONA.
A Confict That Cost Many Lives Ended
by a Government Order.

PHOENIX. Ariz, Feb. 27.--The decision
! of the Department Of the Interior to allow
| no sheep to Craze In the forest reserves
| has given the finishing blow to one OF the
| greatest industries In Arizona and will
| drive from the Territory more than ,Ooo, ,9oo
sheep. Il will also end the fierce war
| between the sheep men on one side and
| the cattle owners and other ranchers on
the other
Ever since the white settlers began the
irrigation Of the Salt River Valley, there
has been constant friction between the
valley ranchers and the sheep owners.
The valley people contend that the sheep
have gradually destroyed the timber on
the water sheds and have thus prevented
the natural storage of water in the forests.
For a uuarter-century the matter has
been burning political issue in the Terri
tory. II has also been the cause of great
loss Of life.
The cattle men resisted with arms the
intrusion of the sheep on the cattle ranges.
hord Of sheep sweeps a clean path as II
feeds and when it goes over cattle range
every particle of food is devoured lea wing
nothing for the cattle.
Time and again in the upper country.
the cowboys, angered by the intrusion
of the sheep, have ridden into shot up
and stampeded the sheep and then fought
the herders. Naturally the sheep owners
retaliated and shot or poisoned cattle
and picked of an occasional cowpuncher
This sheep war included az one OF its
chapters the Tewksbury Graham feud.
which is declared TO eclipse any other
family fight that has ever occurred in the
United States, even the Hatfield Mccoy
feud Of Kentucky II grew out OF an at
tempt to Craze sheep in Pleasant Valley,
in the upper Tonto Basin. Ariz.
The Tewksbury brothers undertook 10
Craze their sheep there. They succeeded.
but at the cost of thirty-two lives. The
fight continued for year or longer in the
late sos.
Ii was done in Kentucky vendetta style
Most OF the men killed we're ambushed on
mountain trails and shot i'm the back.
Once "a Tewksbury household was be-
sieged by a dozen members of the Graham
faction When an old man. Al Rose. went
shot and killed Within fifty feet of the door
step. And there the corpse lay unburied
for three days in the full glare of the sum
mer sun.
The men within the house appealed for
permission to bury their dead, IL WAS
denied them. This is a sample of the fight
ing that marked the progress Of the feud.
The Pleasant Valley war ended only
when all the surviving combatants, to-
gether with most Of their neighbors, were
gathered up and taken to Prescott by a
squadron Of Yayapai county officers headed
by Sheriff William O'Nell, the same
buckley" O'Seill, who was killed on San
Juan Hill, leading his troop of Rough
Riders.
A soothing influence was also exerted
by Sheriff Commodore Owens of Apache
county. who, single-handed, caught four
of the sheep faction In house at Holbrook
The four broke from the house in four
different directions, through doors and
windows. hoping to ;,!SS escape {; s the Sheriff
All alone the Sheriff started To pump his
Winchester rife. apparently needless of
the rain of lead about him. When he had
finished the four were dead. and the cool
little Sheriff had not a scratch.
At the last, only a single male of the
Graham family remained in the Salt River
Valley. He married and settled down to a
quiet farm life. While marketing his first
crop of grain, he was shot from ambush on
the Tempe road.
The deed was done by two unmasked
horsemen. identified by two young women
as Ed Tewksbury and his right hand man.
John Rhodes The latter was rather sum-
marily discharged from custody by a jus
tice Of tho Peace after having a narrow
escape from death by the hand of Grahams
young widow, who had brought her hus-
band ) revolver TO the court room.
Tewksbury was found guilty of murder in
the first degree. but a sharp lawyer found
that the clerk Of the court had failed to enter
the plea of mot guilty" though the notes
of the court stenographer showed that the
plea had been made in the proper form.
The case was twice retired with hung juries
and finally the prisoner was turned loose.
He is at present a constable at Globe Camp.