Arizona republican., 1921-04-13

member of his family, living, or dead, for that matter.
 Finally Harry Cowell became ser iously alarmed-not so much that he had any reason to believe that vio- lence had been done to Martin and his family, but that an accident might have happened, and they might have perished for want of water, and he sent word to Phoenix that Barney Martin and his family had left his place more than a week before that time and no one had met them, and he desired to know if the Martin family had reached Phoenix. Billy Blankenship and others immediately made inquiries from all the corrals where, of course, Martin must have put up, with no results. Then rescue parties were organized, and the desert searched. When finally mur- der was suspected, the dry wells were examined with looking glasses for dead bodies.
 At this point it may be well to ex- plain that there were in the very early days two wells attempted to be dug upon the desert between the Agua F'ria and the Hassayampa- one known as Desert Well, and the other Nigger Well, and the names have frequently been confounded. Of course, neither one of them was well in any true sense but simply a deep hole dug in the ground in the vain attempt to procure water. The Desert Well is located about 12 miles from the Upper Crossing of the Agua Fria and almost at the junction of the road from the lower Agua Fria cross ing; and close to that well there should now be a hole in the ground about the size of a large washtub, created when Frenchy Debaud ex- pended 2600 pounds of giant powder in the killing of one coyote-which is another story, that was well told by Editor Spear in the Arizona Repub- lican nearly twenty years ago. De- baud died for his country in Cuba during the Spanish war. And, with apologies to Coleridge:
 The scouts bones are dust,
 And his good rifle is rust;
 His soul is with the saints, I trust.
 Nigger Well is so called because tradition says that in the digging of the well one of the owners of the ven- ture, a colored man, was murdered down in the well about one hundred feet or whereabouts by his partner piling rocks on top of him. That well is located in the depression in the desert, hereinafter described. where the Martin and Gribble murders were perpetrated.
 No bodies were found in either well, but in the same depression in the desert where the Nigger Well is sit uated, there was found the tracks of d wagon that had turned out of the road and followed northeasterly course towards the mountains that bound the desert on the north; then usually called the Castle Creek mountains. Those tracks were fol- lowed by some pioneers, whose names escape me, to the foothills where they found that the wagon had been destroyed by fire, except the tires and such portions as were not com bustible, and in the ashes and cin- l ders were found the remnants of the i bones of Barney Martin, his wife ! four children, and an unborn babe l all foully murdered and burned with | the wagon. The Martin mules were turned loose at that point. Imme- diately after the murders there was g 1 heavy summer shower which de- stroyed the trail. and it was impos- sible to determine which way tht murderers had gone from the scene of their revolting crime. Martin was held up by some horsemen or | the main road, compelled to drive his team out of the road and to the point where the killing and burning tool place. It was not known to tht general public, and perhaps to nc | one but the murdererS and their i'm mediate confederates. what amount | of money, if any, over and above the insignificant sum necessary to defra, the expenses of the trip from Stantor | to Phoenix, that Martin may hav' | had with him. It is not known fol certain to this day, who actually perpetrated the Barney Martin mur. ders, or if it is known, those wh'
 know are not willing to tell, for mos obvious reasonable statute of limi | tation does not run against murde | in Arizona.
 ! But while no one knew for certain
 rumor was very busy indeed wit
 certain names- 1t was said that on Francisco Vega was the chief crim
 inal, acting under the directions Stanton: and that the motive for tn
 murder was combined revenge an
 cupidity. to punish Martin for lon
 series of petty offenses against Stan ton, and to secure the money TO which he had sold out. Proceedin
 upon that theory Tom Bryant (cor rect name Thomas J. Bryan) an some of his friends one night a
 Phoenix, out on the banks of tn : Town Ditch, took a Mexican from tn : region of Stanton or Weaver, an : hung him by the neck to a tree 10
 an extended period in vain at
 tempt to compel him to disclos
 something tending to incriminat
 Stanton, Vega and others But tha
 attempt, and all other attempts. t trace the murderers of the Marti family, failed: and no one has eve
 been brought to justice for thos
 diabolical crimes-that is, not in
 court.
 But there is a sequel to the Martil
 murders: that is, if Stanton was |
 any way implicated in the crime
 The following winter. on one Satur