Moving west

I thought I post this list of what a husband and wife were suggested to take along when going to settle in the west.

1 3-1/2" (tire width) wagon with cover
2 yoke of oxen or teams of horses or mules
1 plow, harrow, or good scraper
2 extra chains
2 axes
1 shovel
2 hoes
1 rake
1 pick or crowbar
1 scythe or snath
1 hand saw
1 jack plane
1-1/4 and 1-1/2-inch augers
Brace and bits
1 hatchet
2 guns and ammunition
20# 8s and 10s nails
12 lights (8x10" glass)
Wash tub and washboard
Buckets, breadpan
Wash basin, milk pans
Milk strainer, lantern
Bake over, camp kettle, fry pan, tin plates
Cups, knives, forks, spoons
Bedding, blankets, clothing
Socks, boots and shoes
Thread, needles, pins
Upper and sole leather
1 cow, beef, steer
Shoe pegs and lasts
600# flour
100# bacon
30# dried apples
5 gal. molasses
40# sugar
10# butter
6# rice
5# candles
1# mustard
1# black pepper
Some spices
1/2# ginger
2# yeast powder
4# bicarbonate of soda
20# fine salt
20# soap
1/2# composition
12 boxes of matches
3 boxes of pills
1 bottle of sweet oil
1 bottle of castor oil
1 bottle of turpentine
1 bottle of pain killer
1 bottle of Jamaica ginger
2 oz of indigo
1 gallon of alcohol
40 feet of rope
Whip saw
Water barrel
4 bushels of seed wheat
1/2 bushel of seed corn
2 bushels of seed potatoes
Garden seeds: carrots, beets, turnips, squash
cabbage. onions, tomatoes, peas, beans, radishes. etc.

THIS OUTFIT IS FOR TWO PERSONS

Meet the Clantons -- VI

The inquest into the shootings concluded that the three cowboys met their deaths by gunshot wounds.

Duh.

The Tombstone Nugget recorded this sarcastic article.

Glad to Know

The people of the community are deeply indebtyed to the twelcve intelligent men who composed the coroners (sic) jury for the valuable information that the three persons who were killed last Wednesday were shot. Some thirty or forty shots were fired, and the whole affair was witnessed by perhaps a dozen people, and we have a faint recollection of hearing someone say the dead men were shot, but people are liable to be mistaken and the verdict reassures us. We might have thought they had been struck by lightning or stung to death by hornets and we never could have told whether they were in the way of the lightning or the lightning was in their way.

Now listen to this.


Warrants were issued for the arrest of the Earps and Doc Holliday on the charge of murder. A hearing was held before Justice of the Peace Wells Spicer. It lasted for a month, and several witnesses testified that Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury were unarmed and that Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury were mortally wounded before they drew their pistols.




Wells Spicer

Still, Justice Spicer’s “opinion” was that the Earps acted in self defense. He sent on to say, however, that Virgil Earp “committed an injudicious and censurable act” in calling upon Wyatt Earp and J. H. Holliday to assist him in arresting and disarming the Clantons and McLaurys.

Then, Virgil Earp was wounded from ambush, and Wyatt went on a rampage in January 1882.

Meet the Clantons -- V

The Tombstone Nugget reported the funeral of the slain cowboys.

The Burial of the Dead Cowboys – An Immense Procession, Etc.

While it was not entirely expected, the funeral of Billy Clanton and Thomas and Frank McLowry (sic), yesterday, was the largest ever witnessed in Tombstone. It was advertised to take place at 3 o’clock, but it was about 4 o’clock before the cortege moved, yet a large number had gathered at the undertaker’s long before the first time mentioned. The bodies of the three men, neatly and tastefully dressed, were placed in handsome caskets with heavy silver trimmings. Upon each was a silver plate bearing the name, age, birthplace and date of the death of each. A short time before the funeral, photographs were taken of the dead. The procession was headed by the Tombstone brass band playing the solemn and touching march of the dead. The first wagon containd the body of Billy Clanton, followed by those of the McLowry (sic) boys. A few carriages came next in which were near friends and relatives of the deceased, among whom were Ike and Finn Clanton. After these were about three hundred people on foot, twenty-two carriages and buggies and one four-horse stage, and the horsemen, making a line of nearly rtwo blocks in length. The two brothers were buried in one grave, and young Clanton close by those who were his friends in life and companions in death. The inscrip@tion upon the plates of the caskets stated that Thomas McLowry was 25 years of age, Frank McLowry 29 years of age, both natives of Mississippi, and that William H. Clanton was 19 years of age and a native of Texas.

It seems newspapers of the day did not believe in paragraphs.

One interesting sidelight. Originally, Billy Clanton’s headstone read: Sacred to the Memory of William Clanton Who Was Murdered October 26, 1881. Age 19 years. Now there is only a small marker that reads: Billy Clanton killed Oct. 26, 1881.

Meet the Clantons -- IV

The Earps and the Clantons were like oil and water. Or, as they say in Japan, like monkeys and dogs.

The Arizona Daily Star, a Tucson newspaper, had this to say about the Clantons.

The Clanton brothers numbered three – Ike, Phineas (Phin), and Billy. They lived on a cattle ranch on the San Pedro River, about twelve miles from Tombstone, with their father. Old man Clanton was murdered in August by Mexicans with five others. The Clantons then fell heir to all of the old man’s cattle, and were pretty well fixed. They were fine specimens of the frontier cattleman. Billy, although only 17 years old (sic) was over six feet in height, and built in proportion, while Isaac and Phineas are wiry, determined-looking men, without a pound of surplus flesh. They lived on horse-back, and led a life of hardship.

From the deposition of Ike Clanton, taken by the court, this is how things started.

On the morning of October 25, 1881, Billy and Ike Clanton and the McLaury brothers ate breakfast at Chandler’s milk ranch. They then separated, with Ike and Tom McLaury riding for Tombstone and Billy and Frank heading off to round up some stock at the McLaury ranch.

Almost from the moment Ike and Tom arrived in Tombstone, the Earps and Doc Holiday seemed out to pick a fight. Doc Holliday roundly abused Ike verbally, and as Ike was unarmed, Morgan Earp told him to “heel” himself and stay that way.

Next morning, when Ike was standing on a street corner with a rifle in one hand, City Marshal Virgil Earp snuck up behind him and hit him with the barrel of his pistol, disarmed him, and took him to court. There, Justice Wallace fined Ike twenty-five dollars. In the courtroom, Morgan Earp taunted Ike again, and tried to force a pistol on him.


A. Bauer, in a deposition, outlined the next actions.

Wyatt Earp met Tom McLaury on the street and, for no apparent reason, pistol-whipped him. McLaury was unarmed.

About this time, Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury rode into town. A neighbor, Major Fink, accompanied them. They’d just settled down for a drink in a saloon when they heard what had happened to Ike and Tom. Frank said, “We won’t drink,” and they separated to search for their brothers.

Billy Clanton is the tall man in the back row

Billy Clanton ran into Billy Claiborne, and they went around to several livery corrals looking for Ike’s horse. In his deposition, Clairborne said Billy told him that he wanted Ike to go home. “I don’t want to fight anyone,” Billy said, “and nobody wants to fight me.”

The Gunfight at OK Corral

The two sets of brothers, Clantons and McLaurys, stood with Sheriff John H. Behan (they say Behan was trying very hard to avert a gun fight) in a vacant lot next to Fly’s Photography Gallery.

Here’s Ike Clanton’s version of the action, according to his deposition.

The Earps and Doc Holliday approached. Virgil said, “Throw up your hands!” The someone else, probably Wyatt, said, “You sons of bitches have been looking for a fight and now you can have one!”

Billy Clanton put his hands in the air and cried out, “Don’t shoot me” I don’t want to fight!”

Morgan Earp shot him, and he fell against the house behind him. Before he could draw his pistol, he was shot through the right wrist.

Seeing Wyatt’s pistol pointed at him, Ike Clanton grabbed Wyatt’s arm and held it a few seconds. While he was doing this, Wyatt fired. Ike released his arm and ran for the cover of Fly’s gallery. Several shots followed him.

Billy managed to draw his pistol with his left hand. He fought back, wounding Virgil and Morgan Earp. He tried to cock the pistol for another show, but lacked the strength.

Fly came from his gallery with a rifle. “Someone take that pistol away from that man or I will kill him,” he said, referring to Billy. He was told to do it himself. Fly wrenched the pistol from Billy’s weakened grasp. Billy said, “Give me some more cartridges.”

According to his deposition, Wesley Fuller saw the Earps and Holliday going down Fremont Street and tried to reach Billy Clanton to warn him of the impending trouble. He arrived too late, but was able to watch the gunfight from the shelter of an alley. Seeing Billy rolling on the ground in agony, Fuller picked him up and carried him into a small house on the corner of Fremont and Third streets.

“Look and see where I’m shot,” Billy said. Fuller found one wound in the left breast from which the lung was oozing, and one in the right side of the belly beneath the twelfth rib. Fuller told Billy he would live. “Get the doctor and give me something to put me to sleep,” Billy pleaded.

Dr. Giberson, who was there, said, “It’s no use to give him anything.”

About that time, Thomas Keefe, a carpenter, helped carry the dying Tom McLaury into the same house. He said he heard Billy screaming in pain. “They have murdered me!” he said. As curious onlookers crowded in, he again said, “I’ve been murdered. Go away. Give me some air.”

Keefe said Billy “turned and kicked and twisted in every manner with pain.” Dr. Millar arrived and Keefe held Billy while he injected two syringes of morphine near his stomach wound. Billy died about 15 minutes later.

An article in the Tombstone Nugget had this to say about the incident:

The firing altogether didn’t occupy more than 25 seconds, during which time fully 30 shots were fired. After the fight was over, Billy Clanton, who, with wonderful vitality, survived his wounds for fully an hour, was carried into a house where he lay, and everything possible was done to make his last moments easy. He was game to the last, never uttering a word of complaint, and just before breathing his last, he said, “Goodbye boys; go away and let me die.”

That evening Finn Clanton, brother of Billy and Ike, came into town, and placing himself under the guard of the Sheriff, visited the morgue to see the remains of his brother, and then passed the night in jail in the company of the other brother . . . .

. . . At the morgue the bodies of the three slain cowboys lay side by side, covered with a sheet. Very little blood appeared on their clothing, and only on the face of young Billy Clanton was there any distortion of the features or evidence of pain in dying. The features of the Two McLowery (sic) boys looked as calm and placid in death as if they had died peaceably. No unkind remarks were made by anyone, but a feeling of unusual sorrow seemed to prevail . . . .


The next day, a funeral was held for Billy and the McLaury brothers. We’ll talk about that next.

I’ll add the photos tomorrow.

Meet the Clantons -- III

Last instalment, the year was 1877 and the Clantons had moved to a ranch 14 miles from Tombstone. About this time, oldest son John Wesley Clanton and his family went back to California.

In those days, the cattle business was good in southern Arizona, and the Clantons prospered. They soon met the McLaury brothers, Frank and Tom, young men who had a ranch in the Sulphur Springs Valley. The Clantons and the McLaurys became close friends and occasionally did business together.












Tom & Frank McLaury



This time frame was also the one in which the Clantons and McLaurys somehow made enemies of the Earp brothers, who were Tombstone gamblers and part-time lawmen. The enmity also included Doc Holiday, the dentist gunman.

No one really knows what started the feud, but a story often told says it stemmed from a robbery of the Benson stage on March 15, 1881. Apparently Billy Clanton saw Doc Holiday kill stage driver Budd Philpot. Also, some of the robbers were acquaintances of Ike Clanton. And, the story has it that Wyatt Earp, then running for Sheriff of Cochise County, approached Ike Clanton, asked him to set up those “acquaintances,” and offered Ike the reward money if Wyatt could kill them and “get the glory.”

The plot got curiouser and curiouser and ended up creating a burning hatred between the two factions.

Old Man Newton Clanton was ambushed and killed in Guadalupe Canyon, New Mexico, in August 1881, along with four other men. He had freighted supplies in his wagon to ranchers in Animas Valley, and was returning with a herd of cattle. The men were attacked at dawn, and some were still in their bedrolls. Two men escaped. The attackers were Mexicans, and the newspaper called it murder.

In the next instalment, we’ll get into the Gunfight at OK Corral.