The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1903-08-27

deft fingers were busily plying the needle
upon some snowwhitel material cut into
sundry diminutve patterns.
She was somewhat astonished at my
visit at this unusual hour, and l explain
ed to her my really -inexplicable uneasiness
and anxiety. She knew the story of my
telepathic warning at Crittenden, and al
though she certainly could not under
stand the ethics of the mysticism, she was
far too sensible to ridicule the matter or
doubt its possibility. After some refiec-
ton she said: You know, my dear, you
have not heard any news for a long time
from your dear good friend Wooster upon
the PalO Parade Ranch, nor from or OF
your many other friends and pioneer COM
rades all along the Santa Cruz River.
There was a man here yesterday from
Calabazas. and he told Don Manuel Jour
landlorD that the Apaches up that way
had already put in an appearance in the
valley, and bloody doings might be expect
ed almost any day. Perhaps your friend
Wooster is in danger at this moment,
thinking of you, and wishing your presence
with all his mind power"
My sweet little, untaught, almost illit-
crate wife had guessed right. l knew then
that Wooster's life was in danger, that
is l felt it with such absolute certainty
that when towards noon my feeling of
that Wooster was dead-for in his isolated
situation, if he was attacked at all, there
was no help. i knew the Apaches, knew
their ways, and from that moment on l
gave up all hope of ever seeing Wooster
again.
About week after these occurrences
there came to Florence Mr.. Hiram Ste
vens, of Tuscon, and my old friend j. w.
Hopkins. late First Lieutenant, LIST U. 5.
n D,AA I,n
Army, and was then farming at the
Aqua Fria Ranch. iii the Santa Cruz
Valley, as before related. The two had
come to Florence to seek some farming
lands upon which they might pursue their
agricultural enterprises in peace and quiet,
protected by the Pimas and Maricopas.
Mr.. Hopkins looked me up at once at the
brewery, and shaking hands with me
mime was tremblngl he said: Dear boy,
are you prepared to hear sad news!' Il
am" was my answer; .'yon have come to
tell me that Wooster, my friend and
brother, is no more"
MURDER OF WOOSTER AND WIFE.
"And his wife Also" continued he; they
are buried together under the tall cotton
wood tree that stands i'll the middle of the
corral 1t happened thus: On the 21st of
this month, about o'clock in the morn
ing Che identical hour and date of my pre-
sentiment experienced about 40 miles
Distant Wooster was feeding his hogs in
| the corral. Since you left there he had
built an adobe wall incos:ug space of
about 40x3O feet. As he was unable to OBJ
tain a decent price for the corn you and he
| planted together, owing to the lew CON
| tract rates, he bought about 30 hogs and
was turning them into bacon and ham,
while his wife tried out the lard, for the
Tucson market The wall surrounding
the corral was only about five feet high
and over the wall he must have received
the first shot, which struck him i'll the
thigh. The bloody tracks leading from
the corn pile into the house led to the sur
mise that he went into the latter III order
| to procure Il rifle or carbine, both of which
were standing i'll n corner of the rooGa adj,
/ joining the kitchen. He must have taken
the carbne and hurried with it to the
window opening upon the corral, when q
bullet struck him in the right eye and
penetrated the brain, causing him TO drop
dead. The carbine was missing, but the
rifle was found standing in its accustomed
corner. AS soon as the Indians saw
Wooster drop, and had made sure of his
death. they penetrated into the house
through the same window, as their moe
casin tracks upon the window sill proved
and dragged forth his wife Trinidad
They partly dragged and partly carried
! her about q half mile from the house il
! the direction of the neighboring San Cay.
etan Mountains. She must have fought
them tooth and nail, as her condition
showed when her body was found. This
and the further fact that her brother, who
was blowing in n field about 500 yards
from the house, had heard the shots and
trIr In
dams to abandon the idea of taking hel
captive. They killed her with lances al
the beginning of steep path over the foot
| hills, and made good their escape. They
drove off all the animals except the hogs
which were nearly all roasted by the fire
the Indians started in the corral by ig
hitting the hay stack and big pile of corn
fodder"
Thus ended my brave, good and true
friend. Since my departure from the
ranch he had from time to time made mt
such remittances as his limited income
permitted in payment of my outlays fol
the establishment of the ranch, surveying
and making the irrigating ditch and the
purchase of stock. Had his life not beer
cut short when it was he would undoubt
eddy have liguidated the whole debt Will
the proceeds of the ham, bacon and lar(
enterprise, for he was a perfectly honest
and exceedingly Industrious man.
The Indians had indeed begun blood!
raid. On March IS they killed William
Cook, of Lieut.. Rosss company, a
Hughes's Ranch, in the Sonoita. We hav,
seen how three days later L. b. Wooster
and wife succumbed to their bullets ant
lances. The same bands swept down oil
the San Pedro settlements, killing Alex
Mckenzie, II. C. Long, Walter and Owr!
Chaplin on April 1S, 1871. On May 6 Of
the same year Lieut.. II. B.. Gushing, 81
U. S. Cav, citizen VIM. II. Simpson ant
Private Gurn, Sd U. S. Cav, were killet
in an ambuscade in tie MILESTONE Noun
tains; on May % two Mexicans wer,
killed on the Upper Sata Cruz River, nea
the Mexican boundary. On May q ]. p
blanchard and George Saunders wer,
killed near Calabasas. June II Chas
Mckinney was killed by the Es-ki-men
sin gang; on July II son of Pete
Kitchen, aged II years, was killed at til,
Potrero, four miles west of Calabasas
w. II. Harris was killed July IS nea
Cicnega, about Is miles distant from For
Crittenden.
But why make long detailed enumer
alton? l have before me list of tn,
number of people killed in the years 1856
to 1862, made according to a record KEEP
by Hermann Gutenberg, a civil and min
ing engineer, which ennmerates 425 per