User:Viriditas/sandbox47: Difference between revisions – Wikipedia

 

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The [[Aztec Land & Cattle Company]], also known as the the Hashknife Outift brand, began in 1884 and was grazing more than 30,000 head of cattle on a million acres in the Northern Arizona territory by the late 1880s, expanding to two million acres in the mid-1890s. It was was one of five large-scale cattle operations under that brand name at the time, including three in Texas, one in Montana, and one in Arizona. Some of the cowboys who worked for the Hashknife Outfit had a reputation for lawlessness. Some were fugitives, even professional gunfighters.<ref name=”tin47″>[[#tin|Tinsley 1993]], pp. 47-50.</ref>

The [[Aztec Land & Cattle Company]], also known as the the Hashknife Outift brand, began in 1884 and was grazing more than 30,000 head of cattle on a million acres in the Northern Arizona territory by the late 1880s, expanding to two million acres in the mid-1890s. It was was one of five large-scale cattle operations under that brand name at the time, including three in Texas, one in Montana, and one in Arizona. Some of the cowboys who worked for the Hashknife Outfit had a reputation for lawlessness. Some were fugitives, even professional gunfighters.<ref name=”tin47″>[[#tin|Tinsley 1993]], pp. 47-50.</ref>

There were also claims that the Outfit made death threats against anyone who claimed the land near or within their exclusive grazing rights. Cowboys working for the Outfit became known for their violence.<ref name=”tin47″/> By 1889, the behavior of the Hashknife Outfit had led to ongoing skirmishes between ruslters, Mormon settlers, and the company, led to significant [[Earnings before interest and taxes|losses]]. According to Mormon settler Jim D. Pierce, complaints to the United States Secretary of the Interior led to a brief federal investigation, with the feds giving the company an ultimatum to get rid of the violent “renegades” in the Outfit causing the ruckus.<ref>[[#tin|Tinsley 1993]], pp. 67-75.</ref>

There were also claims that the Outfit made death threats against anyone who claimed the land near or within their exclusive grazing rights. Cowboys working for the Outfit became known for their violence.<ref name=”tin47″/> By 1889, the behavior of the Hashknife Outfit had led to ongoing skirmishes between ruslters, Mormon settlers, and the company, to significant [[Earnings before interest and taxes|losses]]. According to Mormon settler Jim D. Pierce, complaints to the United States Secretary of the Interior led to a brief federal investigation, with the feds giving the company an ultimatum to get rid of the violent “renegades” in the Outfit causing the ruckus.<ref>[[#tin|Tinsley 1993]], pp. 67-75.</ref>

==Train robbery==

==Train robbery==

1889 crime in Arizona

Canyon Diablo train robbery

Canyon Diablo posse (1889)[1]
Date	March 20, 1889
Location	Canyon Diablo, Arizona Territory, United States
Participants	John Halford, William Stiren, Daniel Harvick, and J. J. Smith
Deaths	0
Non-fatal injuries	2

The Canyon Diablo train robbery occurred on the snowy night of Wednesday, March 20, 1889, when four cowboys and drifters from the Hashknife Outfit held up an Atlantic and Pacific Railroad express car at the Canyon Diablo station, in what was then the Arizona Territory. After attacking and injuring the Wells Fargo messenger guarding the strongbox, the bandits made off with an unknown amount of loot and jewelry estimated at around $1,300 ($45,495 in ) and hightailed it to Utah territory in their attempt to escape from the law.

Newly elected Yavapai County sheriff Buckey O’Neill formed a posse in Flagstaff and tracked the outlaws in snowy terrain over the course of a 23 day manhunt through the desert and the mountains of Arizona and Utah for 300 miles. After several skirmishes and a major gunfight in Utah, the bandits were finally captured and extradited to face trial at the Yavapai County Courthouse back in Prescott. All four of the outlaws escaped the death penalty for train robbery while pleading guilty to a lesser charge of highway robbery. Sentenced to 25 to 30 years for their crimes, they served reduced sentences and were released early after a series of pardons.

The train robbery at Canyon Diablo was one of the most famous of the Old West period in the Arizona Territory and cemented the celebrity reputation of Sheriff O’Neill. The exact amount of loot stolen and recovered was never entirely accounted for, with different amounts claimed to have been stolen and recovered over the years. The factual details of the case remain fleeting more than a century after it was closed, with the Wells Fargo messenger the only known witness to the original crime.

The development of railroads drove settlement in the Old West. In 1866, the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad (A&P) was created to connect Springfield, Missouri, to the Pacific Coast along a southern route through the Arizona and New Mexico Territories.^[2] The project faced financial problems and was slow to advance. By the late 1870s, the A&P was unable to complete its western segment. At the same time, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF), a transcontinental railroad, was expanding westward and seeking a similar route to the Pacific. In 1880, the AT&SF acquired control of the A&P’s western division from Albuquerque, New Mexico, westward toward the Colorado River and the Arizona Territory. This gave AT&SF access to the key corridor through northern Arizona and positioned it to dominate traffic toward California.

Engineers first identified Canyon Diablo, a 225 feet (69 m) deep and more than 500 feet (150 m) wide canyon, as an obstacle to the completion of the railroad. In 1881, the Atlantic and Pacific train station was built out to Canyon Diablo. A small town was created at the rim of the canyon, with the primitive settlement developing around the canyon to supply workers to help lay track and complete a bridge across the canyon. Work on the bridge began on January 18, 1882, and was completed on July 1. Located about fifty miles east of Flagstaff and 24 miles west of Winslow, the town itself would eventually disappear by the end of the century, relegated to a ghost town, as the people moved along the route of railroad development to service the railroad workers.

Stagecoach robberies were already on the decline in the 1880s as train robberies began to replace them. Thieves migrated to where the loot was kept, and by the 1880s, most financial entities had stopped shipping money by stage and used trains instead. For a decade, train robberies became a major phenomenon on the American frontier. One theory tries to explain the rise in criminality as a financial consequence of a major drought that impacted farmers during the same time frame. “It may have been only a coincidence”, writes Richard M. Patterson, “but the drought years of 1887 to 1897 corresponded directly with the resurgence of train robberies.”^[3]

Several notable train robberies occurred in the 1880s near Tucson and Flagstaff. In Pima County, the Southern Pacific Railroad was robbed at Papago on May 27, 1887.^[4] Due to the trending nature of railroad heists throughout the United States and its territories, lawmakers began to address the problem with harsh laws. New Mexico Territory was one of the first to make train robberies punishable by death in early 1887.^[5][α] The 15th Arizona Territorial Legislature followed soon after, passing their own capital punishment law for train robberies on February 28, 1889.^[7] In addition to this new law, the railroad company and Wells Fargo both offered additional monetary rewards for the capture of anyone engaging in the act of train robbery.

The Aztec Land & Cattle Company, also known as the the Hashknife Outift brand, began in 1884 and was grazing more than 30,000 head of cattle on a million acres in the Northern Arizona territory by the late 1880s, expanding to two million acres in the mid-1890s. It was was one of five large-scale cattle operations under that brand name at the time, including three in Texas, one in Montana, and one in Arizona. Some of the cowboys who worked for the Hashknife Outfit had a reputation for lawlessness. Some were fugitives, even professional gunfighters.^[8]

There were also claims that the Outfit made death threats against anyone who claimed the land near or within their exclusive grazing rights. Cowboys working for the Outfit became known for their violence.^[8] By 1889, the behavior of the Hashknife Outfit had led to ongoing skirmishes between ruslters, Mormon settlers, and the company, leading to significant losses. According to Mormon settler Jim D. Pierce, complaints to the United States Secretary of the Interior led to a brief federal investigation, with the feds giving the company an ultimatum to get rid of the violent “renegades” in the Outfit causing the ruckus.^[9]

Sometime around March 19, 1889, a group of four Hashknife Outfit cowboys broke into and robbed a ranch owned by Will C. Barnes near the Box Canon of Chevellons fork of the Little Colorado River. The robbery was discovered by the owner and his cowboy hand William Broadbent, who began a manhunt for the desperados earlier that day, only stopping at night during a snowstorm in Winslow, Arizona, hot on their trail.^[10]

On the night of Wednesday, March 20, 1889,^[11] snow was falling outside the Canyon Diablo station. Approximately ten minutes before the eastbound Atlantic and Pacific Santa Fe train number 2 arrived, a young station operator discovered that the telegraph lines had been cut. The train came to a rest for refueling at the station at approximately 10:20 p.m. followed by a bullet shot into the office above the telegraph operator’s head. The A&P train stopped at the station to replenish its wood fuel needed for its steam locomotive engine. The bandits held the fireman and engineer off to the side with their hands held high in a stickup while pursuing the purported valuables in the express car.^[12]

The operator grabbed his Winchester rifle and prepared to claim his reward for capturing the bandits when several shots rang out in his direction. He abandoned his plan to save the day and proceeded to hide behind a pile of railway ties and wait instead. From a safe vantage point, the witness saw the bandits make out with bags of loot containing an unknown amount of cash and jewelry and hightail it into the night. After their departure, the boy came out of hiding and made his way over to the express car and opened the door. E. G. Knickerbocker, the Wells Fargo messenger, was found tied up and half conscious suffering from a pistol whipping to the head. The masked outlaws had tricked Knickerbocker, hitting him on the head with his pistol when he opened the door.^[12]

Leaving the passengers unharmed, the bandits stole whatever valuables they could carry and then departed, making use of horses they had stashed nearby to make their getaway. Initial media reports said they had made off with upwards of $800 ($27,997 in ) while leaving behind $150,000 ($5.25 million in ) in the main safe. They managed to get two days ride ahead of the authorities before a posse was formed and a manhunt was underway to bring them to justice. Shortly after the train robbery, the Arizona Weekly Journal-Miner announced that the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad company was offering a $400 reward ($13,999 in ) for the arrest and conviction of each of the thieves.^[13]

On the heels of the train robbery, newly elected Yavapai County Sheriff Buckey O’Neill quickly formed a posse with Wells Fargo special agent Carl Holton, deputy sheriff James Black, and special deputy and photographer Edward St. Clair.^[11] By March 22, a special train car was sent from Seligman to Flagstaff for the exclusive use of the posse.^[14] Freshly fallen snow helped the posse track the outlaws across the rugged deserts and mountains of the Arizona and Utah territories in a manhunt lasting for three weeks over a distance of about 300 miles (480 km).^[15] Following the outlaws, the posse made their way across the Navajo Reservation on through Lees Ferry, a major crossing point on the Colorado River between the two territories.

Meanwhile, the four bandits had entered the Utah wilderness. The outlaws attempted to ambush the posse near the border between Utah and Colorado, but were unsuccessful. Later, the posse headed them off in Beaver, Utah, surprising the outlaws on April 1, leading to a major gun battle. The warring sides exchanged approximately forty shots and an outlaw’s horse was killed before being the bandits were finally captured at Wahweap Canyon (now mostly submerged due to Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell). Historian Larry D. Ball, who specializes in studies related to frontier justice, notes that the discrepancy between the lawmen carrying rifles and the outlaws carrying only pistols led to their imminent defeat. It was later revealed that the train robbers made a conscious decision not to carry rifles so as to not attract undue attention, a choice which led to their downfall and capture.^[16]

The posse attempted to take the four suspects into custody: John Halford, William Stiren, Daniel Harvick, and J. J. Smith. None of the train robbers were hardened criminals; all were young, unmarried men, former cowhands employed by the Hashknife Outfit. The posse traveled with their prisoners to Salt Lake City to facilitate their extradition back to Prescott, reaching Salt Lake on April 10. The journey home proved more difficult than they thought. During their transport home aboard a train in New Mexico, prisoner J. J. Smith was able to loosen his chains and jumped out of a train window and escaped somewhere along the Raton mountain pass on the Colorado–New Mexico border at an elevation of approximately 7,800 ft (2,400 m), without anyone noticing.

The posse was welcomed home as heroes upon their return. The three prisoners were booked into the Prescott county jail on April 15.^[17] Smith was later involved in a shootout and recaptured several weeks later near Vernon, Texas. According to the story, he was caught because he played the role of a Good Samaritan, having rescued a lost Boston schoolteacher who was wandering in the desert. After returning her to safety, it was said that his act of kindness was reported, leading the authorities to his trail. Due to Smith’s abscondment, it was not until late summer that O’Neill was able to bring him back into the custody of the court.^[18] As it turns out, the Boston schoolteacher was so taken with Smith’s act of kindness, that she later petitioned the court for his release.

Court records at the time show that as much as $1,300 ($45,495 in ) may have been stolen during the initial robbery.^[19] To avoid the death penalty for train robbery, Halford, Stiren, and Harvick struck a deal with the prosecution and pled guilty to the lesser charge of highway robbery. Smith did not take the original deal and continued to argue his case with the help of his attorney Robert Brown.^[20] James Henry Wright, Chief Justice of the Arizona Territorial Supreme Court, sentenced the three men in district court on June 21, where they received 25 years at Yuma Territorial Prison.^[21] Smith later received a 30 year sentence from Chief Justice Wright on November 22.^[22] The extra five years was added to his sentence as a consequence of his previous escape attempt.

• Mugshots
• 
  Dan Harvick (No. 590, July 22, 1889 – December 25, 1896)^[23]
• 
  John Halford (No. 592, July 22, 1889 – November 1, 1897)^[23]
• 
  William Stiren (No. 594, July 22, 1889 – November 1, 1897)^[23]
• 
  J. J. Smith (No. 621, Nocember 24, 1889 – August 13, 1893)^[23]

Smith eventually petitioned territorial Governor L. C. Hughes for clemency in 1893 after coming down with tuberculosis. Halford, Stiren, and Harvick testified that Smith was not involved in the holdup.^[24] Smith received a pardon and was released on August 13, 1893 from Governor Hughes after serving only four years. Contributing circumstances to Smith’s pardon include the testimony of a lost Boston schoolteacher who Smith saved from certain death while wandering in the Texas desert during his escape from the law.^[23] Governor Franklin pardoned Harvick on Christmas 1896. A year later, Halford and Sterin both received unconditional pardons on November 1, 1897.^[23] After his release, Halford died from tuberculosis, presumably caught as a prisoner within Yuma.^[24] In spite of the law, no prisoner was ever executed for train robbery in Arizona.

O’Neill had covered the expenses of the posse which he had totaled up over $8000 ($279,970 in ). The Prescott Board of Supervisors agreed to cover $5800 ($202,979 in ) of the total amount, arguing that O’Neill’s manhunt had exceeded Arizona territorial jurisdiction. O’Neill sued for reimbursement, and a judge ruled that O’Neill was due the full amount. However, the ruling was soon overturned by a higher court and O’Neill was stuck with the remaining bill.^[25]

In spite of that small setback, the train robbery and capture of the desperadoes made O’Neill a celebrity.^[26] O’Neill did well for himself after the incident, becoming a successful businessman, developer, and civic leader. He ran for mayor of Prescott in 1897 and won. With the outbreak of the Spanish–American War the next year, O’Neill volunteered and joined the Rough Riders, but was killed in action at San Juan Hill, Cuba, on July 1, 1898. Speaking of O’Neill, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt described him as “…a born soldier, a born leader of men. He was a wild, reckless fellow, soft-spoken, and of dauntless courage and boundless ambition; he was staunchly loyal to his friends, and cared for his men in every way.”^[27]

Writing about the Canyon Diablo train robbery in 2006, just 117 years after the initial event, historian Paul T. Hietter notes that the case is sill perplexing in its lack of evidence and facts. “[These] accounts contain so many inaccuracies and out-right falsehoods”, writes Hietter, “that they must be viewed with extreme suspicion.”^[28] The only real witness to the crime, writes Hietter, was Wells Fargo express messenger E. G. Knickerbocker, whose own testimony was problematic.^[28] Barnes had, after all, reported in 1930, which was 41 years after the train robbery, that according to the testimony of the telegraph operator working at Canyon Diablo station, Knickerbocker was the victim of a pistol whipping and had suffered a head injury.^[29]