Was It Retribution?

WAS IT RETRIBUTION? A THRILLING STORY OF PIONEER LIFE IN MEXICO. BY ANTHONY W. IVINS, GENERAL MANAGER MEXICAN COLONIZATION AND AGRICULTURAL COMPANY. Colonia Juarez is on the Piedras Verdes river, in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. Following the course of the river toward its source, in the Sierra Madre mountains, up the stream from Juarez, at the junction of Pratt creek with the river, is Pratt's ranch. One and onehalf miles in a south-westerly direction from Pratt's ranch, on a little creek which flows down from the Sierra and empties into the river, is Williams' ranch. One and one-half miles south-easterly, Thatcher's ranch is situated, on the river, and eight miles south, still up the river, we come to Colonia Pacheco. In the heart of the Sierra, the little valley surrounded by cliffs, with mountain peaks towering above, covered with timber, with a salubrious climate, productive soil, and fine grazing for flocks and herds, Pratt's ranch is an attractive place. That it attracted the civiliz ition of prehistoric ages, as well as our own, is made plain by the ruined buildings, and evidences of cultivation which are everywhere visible. The place was acquired by Helaman Pratt, who occupied it with his family until 1891, when he moved from the mountains to the valley below, leasing the ranch to Hans A. Thompson, a resi-

WAS IT RETRIBUTION* 519 dent of Colonia Juarez, who moved there with his family to follow his vocation of farming and stock raising. The family consisted of the father, his wife, and three children, Hyrum, a boy eighteen years old, Elmer, aged fourteen and a little grand-daughter, Annie, aged six years. In August, 1892, a small band of Apaches unexpectedly appeared on the bluffs which overlook Colonia Juarez, on the east of the town. They passed on, crossing the Piedras Verdes, near its junction with the San Miguel river, and went into the San Miguel mountains east of, and near, the Mexican town of Ancon Rusia. The alarm was given, and Mexican soldiers came with the intention of surrounding the Indians in the mountain, but the latter escaped, crossed the valley south of Colonia Juarez, passing in sight of Whipple's ranch, and going on west, into the fastnesses of the Sierra Madre, where for ages they had found safe retreat. Sunday, September 18, passed as usual at Pratt's ranch. In the evening, Hans A. Thompson did what he had often done before, left his family and drove to Colonia Pacheco, little dreaming that a dreadful tragedy was to be enacted th^ following day. On Monday morning, the two boys went out to work in the field, as usual, taking with them a pail of feed for the pigs. Annie went with them, and after the pigs had been fed, took the pail and started back to the house. As she turned, she screamed, and looking toward the house the boys saw an Indian standing at the corner with his gun leveled. He fired, the bullet taking effect in Hyrum's body. Elmer, thinking of his mother, started toward the house, when the Indian fired a second shot which struck him just below, and a little to the left of,the left nipple, and passed out of his back near the spine. The spot where he fell was overgrown with weeds, and, concealing himself in these, he called to Hyrum that the pistol was in the stable on his saddle. Hyrum started toward the stable, when an Indian came from behind a wheat stack, and fired a second shot through his body. The boy dodged down behind the pig pen, where he died. Annie ran to the house and entered. The Indians broke into the kitchen Mrs. Thompson and the little girl came out from an opposite door, and, as they did so, a shot was fired which passed through the woman's arm and body.

She sank down by a box which stood beside the house, and, putting the child behind her, covered her with an apron, in the hope that she might thus hide her from the Indians. While thus engaged an Indian crushed her skull with a rock from the effect of which she died. The Indians who were at the stacks, taking the saddles and other things from the stable, passed very near where Elmer was lying, but did not see him, and he then crept into a chicken coop which was near, and from where he could watch their operations. After rifling the house of its contents, the Indians started to where their horses were being held, a short distance away, one of them dragging the little girl, and seemingly greatly amused at her efforts to harm him, she constantly fighting him with her sunbonnet. When near the place where Elmer was concealed, an Indian who was with the horses called to the one with Annie, whereupon he left her and returned to the house. The child ran toward the spot where Hyrum had fallen, and in doing so passed near the chicken coop, which gave Elmer an opportunity to beckon her to him; this he did, and,concealing her, the boy took up a position at the door, armed with rocks, determined to defend her as best he could. The Indian who had gone into the house returned with a cheese,which he threw to one of his companions,then looking around where he had left the child, and apparently noticing that Elmer was not' where he had fallen, he hastily joined his companions, and they mounted their horses and rode away toward the North. The party consisted of five bucks, one squaw and one papoose. As soon as the Indians had disappeared, the two children crept from the chicken coop and started for Williams' ranch. Elmer so m feil from exhaustion, and the little girl, taking the dog with her, for she said if the dog would go too she wa- not afraid, went on through the timber alone. Before reaching the ranch, she met S. C. Richardson who returned with her, and a posse of five men was raised who hurried to Pratt's ranch where they found the mother and elder boy dead, and Elmer in a very precarious condition. Applying the simple remedies which were available, James Mortensen dressed the wound, and the boy is now a robust man.

; WAS IT RETRIBUTION? 521 An effort was made to follow the Indians, but they disappeared as mysteriously as they had come, leaving neither tracks nor signs behind them. WHO WERE THESE MARAUDING APACHES? From 1875 to 1886, there was almost constant war betweem the people of Arizona and the Government troops on one side, and the Apaches on the other. During this period Al Sieber was Chief of Scouts for the Government. This man Sieber had adopted an Apache boy, a son of chief Toga-de-chuz, whom he called The Kid. The boy was sent to school, where he acquired some education,and, when old enough, was enlisted as a scout, and later was promoted and made First Sergeant of Agency Scouts. In a drunken brawl, at an Indian dance on the Gila, the Kid's father, Toga-de-chuz was killed, it was said,by an Indian called Old Rip. According to the Apache code of honor, it became the duty of the Kid, who was the oldest son of Toga-de-chuz, to avenge his father's death. Sieber warned the Kid not to harm Rip, but the boy answered never a word. Shortly after the killing, Sieber and Captain Pierce, the agent at the San Carlos reservation, went up to Camp Apache, leaving the Kid in charge of the scouts to maintain order at the agency while they were away. No sooner were they gone than the boy took five of his men, went to the camp of Rip, and shot him, and then went to the part of the country where his own tribe was, instead of returning to the agency. When Sieber returned, he ordered the Kid to come to the agency, which he did, accompanied by eleven warriors. Sieber had them drawn up in line before his tent, and then told the Kid to take the guns and cartridge belts from the five who had government rifles. This he did. He then told him to take off his own belt and lay it on the ground with his rifle. The Kid compliedSieber then told him to take the five men and go to the guard house. At this, some of the Indians showed resistance, and Sieber, seizing his rifle shot and killed one of them. In th? fight which followed, Sieber was wounded, and the Indians escaped. They went on the war path, and committed several murders before they were finally run down by the troops. The Kid was tried for desertion, and sentenced to a long term in prison

but, after being confined for a short time, was pardoned by President Cleveland. After being released from jail, he was arrested by the civil authorities of Gila county, charged with murder committed while he was on the war path. In July, 1888, the Kid with five of his companions was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment at Yuma, for the crime of murder. The sheriff of Yuma county, whose name was Reynolds, and deputy Holmes, started with the Indians for Yuma by stage. The Indians were handcuffed together, three in each party. At a point on the road where the sand was heavy, the prisoners were asked to walk, to which request they readily assented, the sheriff and deputy walking with them. They suddenly assaulted their guards, killed Reynolds and Holmes, shot, and tried to kill, and supposed they had killed, the driver, and, taking the four stage horses, made their escape to Mexico. Since that time, The Apache Kid has been the one terror of the Sierra Madres. RETRIBUTION. The killing of the Thompson family at Pratt's ranch was almost forgotten. Settlements had been established in the Sierra Madre; people traveled the roads without precaution; cattle roamed over the hills, and cowboys attended to their herds, as indifferent to danger as though they were in Arizona or Utah. Occasionally a camp was robbed, a horse stolen, a beef killed, or a corn field or potato patch raided, by thieves who disappeared as mysteriously as they had come. From time to time, a prospector went into the Sierra, boasting of his courage, and contempt for Indians, to return without supplies or accoutrements, but with greatly increased respect for Indians in general, and the Apache Kid in particular. Lone prospectors went into the mountains who were never known to return; and, on one occasion, two men were attacked in the open, one of whom was killed; the other, reaching Colonia Chuichupa iu an exhausted condition, recounted how he and his partner had been attacked while preparing to break camp, after a mid-day meal, by men dressed in buckskin, and who, yelling like Indians, had killed his companion, and that he had barely escaped

WAS IT RETRIBUTION? 523 with his life. All of these acts were so mysteriously carried out that it was impossible to determine whether the perpetrators were Indians or renegade Mexicans. In 1900, Williams' ranch was rented to Martin Harris and Thomas Allen, who, with their families, lived there during the year. The crop had been good; the corn was cut and shocked; some of the potatoes were dug and piled in the field. On Sunday morning, November 11, they went out to the field to find that twelves shocks of corn had been husked, and the corn carried away, and that a part of the potatoes which had been dug were also gone. Further investigation revealed the fact that twelve yards of domestic, which had been hung out to bleach the day before, and a blanket, were also missing. The tracks indicated that the thieves entered from the west, cutting the wire fence, had loaded the plunder on the backs of horses, and had gone in a westerly direction into the Sierra. Supposing that the theft was the work of Mexicans from the Dos Cabezas mines, about fifty miles west, the two men took their — guns Allen, a double-barrel shotgun, and Harris, a Winchester — rifle and started in pursuit. The trail led up a ridge west of the ranch, which was followed for several miles, when it turned north, down to the bottom of the deep canyon into which the left hand fork of Pratt creek flows, crossed the creek, and went out to the north, up a steep ridge which terminated at the top of one of the highest peaks in that part of the Sierra. Instead of following the trail up this ridge, (they would almost certainly have been killed had they done so,) the two men followed up the creek until they reached a side canyon which led out to the north; this they followed, and it brought them to the top of the canyon on the north side of the peak toward which the trail led. The spot was comparatively clear from timber, and covered with a luxuriant growth of grass. Striking east, to determine whether the trail went on north, they ran right into a camp of Indians. The latter, after reaching a point near the top of the peak, and from which they could watch their back trail, had turned out their horses and prepared a meal. Fortunately tbey were so busily occupied, watching for pursuit from behind but not antic-

ipating danger from the north, that they did not see the two men, who quickly retreated until they were out of sight. On the east side of the peak, near the top, and protruding from comparatively clear ground, were two large rocks, about as large as a common cooking stove, and pushing around to that point, and taking refuge behind these rocks, the men could see the Indians as they saddled their horses and made preparations to break camp. What were they to do? They could not determine how many Indians were in the party, and it was difficult to either advance or retreat, without being seen. The trail which the Indians appeared to be following, and which was the logical road from the point where they were camped, led around the west side of the peak, entirely away from the point where the two men were concealed. They finally decided to remain where they were, thinking that if the Indians followed the trail on the west, they would not attack them, and if they came east,there was nothing to do but stand their ground. The Indians mounted, and, turning east from the trail, rode straight to the spot where the two men sat behind the rocks. Riding first was a young woman, and immediately behind her a man, then came two young men, both mounted on one horse. The two men were only a few yards away and in plain sight, when the woman saw them. She spoke to the Indian, and, as the latter drew his gun from the scabbard, both men fired on him. Without a tremor or change of countenance, he looked his enemies in the face and continued to work with his gun, which had evidently caught fast in some way, until, his strength failing,he fell forward from his horse to the ground. The woman, shouting the alarm, dashed back over the brow of the hill in the direction from which she had come, followed by the two young Indians. As she did so, another Indian appeared, coming up from the direction of the camp toward where the men sat. Both fired at this Indian, and then, backing off to the north, returned to Williams' ranch. In the afternoon of November 13,1900, A. 0. Woodruff, Helaman Pratt, Geo. W. Hardy and the writer, drove up to Thatcher's ranch for a visit with L. C. Farr and family, Mr. Farr being manager of the ranch. We met Thomas Allen there, who told of the theft from his field, the pursuit, and subsequent encounter. No one had

WAS IT RETRIBUTION? 525 been on the ground since, and the result was not definitely known. The following morning the persons referred to above went to Williams' ranch, where we were joined by Allen and Harris. We proceeded to Pratt's ranch, from there up Pratt creek to the forks, where we climbed out of the canyon, and went on about four miles up the creek from the ranch, to the scene of the encounter. Lying on the ground, where the first shots were fired, was the body of a man, and at the point where the second Indian had appeared we found the body of a woman. At the place where the young woman had jumped her horse over the rocks and disappeared, we found a quiver with a bow and forty arrows of elegant workmanship. The woman who had been killed was mapculine in appearance, armed to the teeth, rode astride, and, from the point where the shots had been fired, could not be distinguished from a man. The man wore a skull cap made from heavy buckskin,with strip under the chin, on each side of which, at the top, were small hornlike projections to which tufts of eagle feathers were attached. A silver crescent, which he had made himself, with a piece of polished turquoise in the center, adorned the front, while at the sides and behind were ornaments of polished stone and silver. Around his neck, attached to a string of beads, were a small Catholic cross and a Free Mason's cross. The latter had contained an inscription, but the letters had been carefully picked out until they were obliterated. He wore a tight-fitting shirt, underneath which, strapped to his body, were a pair of French field-glasses. Belt, knife case, pouches, moccasins and other accoutrements, were all Indian made, and showed excellent workmanship. He appeared to be about forty-five years old. Was it the Apache Kid? Were they the same party that killed the Thompson family? As I looked at them, I felt that they were, and that retribution had been visited upon them in this crime unexpected manner, upon the ground where their atrocious had been committed, years before. Colonia Juarez, Mexico.