Legends of the Old West - PLEASANT VALLEY WAR Ep. 1 | “Safety In Numbers”

Episode Date: July 7, 2021

Pleasant Valley in Arizona Territory becomes an ideal place to raise cattle in the late 1870s. But when Apache raids sweep through the area in the early 1880s, neighbors do their best to survive. Two families, the Tewksburys and the Grahams, become friends during the peak of the raids. They help each other grow and prosper, but then their friendship falls apart and their mutual animosity sets the stage for the deadliest feud in the West. Join Black Barrel+ for bingeable seasons with no commercials: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. This show is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please visit AirwaveMedia.com to check out other great podcasts like Ben Franklin’s World, Once Upon A Crime, and many more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by Lego Fortnite. Lego Fortnite is the ultimate survival crafting game found within Fortnite. It's not just Fortnite Battle Royale with minifigures. It's an entirely new experience that combines the best of Lego play and

Fortnite created to give players of all ages, including kids and families, a safe digital space to play in. Download Fortnite on consoles, PC, cloud services, or Android and play Lego Fortnite for free. Rated ESRB E10+. It wasn't just a family feud like the Hatfields and McCoys. It wasn't just a

range war like the Johnson County conflict in Wyoming. And it wasn't just hostilities between homesteaders and indigenous peoples in the southwestern United States. The Pleasant Valley War was all of those things. From 1882 to 1892, two families and their allies bitterly fought each other. They used courts, slander, robbery, arson, and even murder. At least 18 settlers died, and many more were wounded.

Some men simply disappeared and were never seen again. In all likelihood, they were ambushed in some lonely spot and buried where they died, if they were buried at all. The number of Native Americans who were killed will never be known. The story of the Pleasant Valley War is one of survival and the forging of friendships out of necessity. It's also a tale of betrayal, greed, and chronic fear. And by the time it ended, there was only one man left in each of the feuding families. This is the story of the Tewksbury family and the Graham family. In the late 1800s, they each brought their hopes and dreams to a large chunk of land about 90 miles northeast of Phoenix. They united to protect themselves against the Apache raids that continuously

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From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer. And this is a six-part series about the bloodiest feud in the West, the Pleasant Valley War. This is Episode 1, Safety in Numbers. The area called Pleasant Valley in the 1880s is a little hard to define. Overall, it's a huge area, and it runs roughly 50 miles from north to south. The closest markers that will make it easy to identify on a map are that it was loosely anchored in the north by the tiny community of Young, Arizona, and in the south by the small town of Globe. If you draw a line between those two towns, you're in the right place. And if you do that exercise, you'll see that

Pleasant Valley is right next door to two Apache reservations, the Fort Apache Reservation and the San Carlos Reservation. And it was battles between U.S. Army soldiers and Apaches in 1881 that led to a meeting of two families who were friends in the beginning and then bitter enemies for years to come. In 1880, on the Fort Apache Reservation, a medicine man of the White Mountain Apache began to spread some news. He told his people that great changes lay ahead if they would unite and purify themselves. If they did, they could throw off their dependence on American goods, which had flooded their lands for 40 years since the end of the war between the U.S. and Mexico. The medicine man also told his people to return to

their traditional ways. If they did, their dead would return to avenge their losses to the white settlers and soldiers. By the end of summer 1881, the commander of Fort Apache, Colonel Eugene Asa Carr, decided the preaching of the Medicine Man needed to stop. Fort Apache was the Army outpost that supervised the Fort Apache Reservation, and Colonel Carr sensed trouble on the horizon. Carr was a battle-worn leader. He'd fought campaigns against Native Americans on the western frontier for nearly 10 years. On August 29th, he led 105 men out of the fort towards Sibicu Creek, where the medicine man was camped. With the army column were roughly 10 Apache scouts who were on the payroll of the U.S. government.

The group arrived at Sibicu Creek the next day at around 3 o'clock in the afternoon. They found about 600 people at the camp. They found about 600 people at the camp. According to Carr, he told his interpreter to assure the medicine man that he wished him no harm and wanted to talk in a neutral place. The Apache man smiled and nodded as though he understood. The soldiers took him into custody, and he gave no resistance. The detachment then rode a few miles up the creek and stopped to water the horses and repack their supplies. As they did, they spotted Apaches gathering at various places on some bluffs about 300 yards away.

The Apaches were armed, so Carr asked one of his captains to tell them to leave. At about that time, the scouts, who had been camping separately from the command, started arriving at the new gathering spot. What happened next is still disputed, but it boils down to two main stories. In the first, when the captain ordered the Apaches on the bluffs to go back to their camps, one of the scouts turned his rifle on the officer and fired, killing him instantly. The rest of the scouts followed the lead of the first and began firing on the soldiers. In the other main version of the story, some kind of fight broke out. During the fight, an officer shot the Apache medicine man three times in the head.

At that point, the enraged Apache scouts attacked the soldiers. Whatever the case, the medicine man was killed and the scouts turned against the army. The initial shot gave the scouts the upper hand, but the soldiers quickly recovered and formed a skirmish line. The Apaches on the bluffs joined the fight, and the two sides battled each other for nearly three hours. The gunshots spooked the pack animals, which stampeded through both sides. joined the fight, and the two sides battled each other for nearly three hours. The gunshots spooked the pack animals, which stampeded through both sides. The Apaches killed more than 50 horses and mules, and wounded several more, which deprived the army of its transportation.

As night started to fall and the shooting stopped, the soldiers decided they couldn't hold their position any longer. The only way out of the camp was through a place called Bad Canyon. The men hastily gathered their dead and put them in a large tent that belonged to Colonel Carr. Then they gathered ammunition and saddles and left everything else in plain view. They tried to make it look like they were planning to spend the night. Then they quietly crept away, a few at a time. Colonel Carr force-marched his troops, some of them badly wounded, back to Fort Apache. They finally reached the post at four in the afternoon the next day. They were beyond exhausted, scared, hungry, and thirsty.

Carr had badly misjudged the effect of silencing the medicine man. It didn't take long for news of the Battle of Sibicu Creek to move west to Pleasant Valley. White settlers were terrified of further retaliation by the Apaches, and they had reason to When news of the medicine man's death reached the San Carlos Reservation, Geronimo raised a party of about 50 warriors. They swept through Pleasant Valley, stealing horses, cattle, and ammunition. They cut telegraph wires and burned everything in their path. Then they arrived at Fort Apache. It isn't clear how Colonel Carr got the bodies of his dead soldiers back from Sibicu

Creek, but he did. And as the men at Fort Apache buried their comrades, the Apaches opened fire from the surrounding hills. Like most forts in the Southwest, there were no fences or barricades or high walls to protect the outpost. It was wide open. The soldiers ran for cover in the fort's buildings and returned fire as best they could. Long-range gunfire and sporadic attacks lasted for two days as the soldiers defended their position. erratic attacks lasted for two days as the soldiers defended their position. Finally, army reinforcements arrived from Fort Thomas on the San Carlos Reservation, and the Battle of Fort Apache ended. But that didn't mean the Apache attacks were done.

William Middleton lived near the town of Globe, on the southern end of the Greater Pleasant Valley area. He was a blacksmith who worked for the huge silver mine in the region, and he lived in a cabin with his wife and their eight children. On September 3, 1881, two days after the Battle of Fort Apache, two of Middleton's neighbors galloped up to his cabin. One of them was in the telegraph office in Globe when he heard the news of the battles. He knew Middleton was out here on his own, and he rode out to warn him. On the way, the neighbor stopped at a friend's house and convinced him to join the effort. When they arrived, Middleton listened to their story, but he didn't believe there was any imminent danger.

He hadn't seen or heard any sign of Apaches. imminent danger. He hadn't seen or heard any sign of Apaches. The blacksmith thanked his neighbors, and the family went about their usual Sunday chores. The neighbors stayed to rest and refresh themselves, and at around 2.30 in the afternoon, seven Apaches rode up to the Middleton Ranch. They appeared friendly and gave the impression that they were scouts for the army. They asked for food and water, which the Middletons gave them. Middleton and his wife asked if the news about Apache uprisings were true. The men assured them it was not. After lunch, the family continued their chores and the Apaches stayed on the property.

Mrs. Middleton took her young children into the milk house to make butter. One of the neighbors followed them to get a cup of buttermilk. Middleton and his 13-year-old son gathered wood and nails to make small crates to store the butter. Middleton's 16-year-old daughter, Hattie, sat on a box near the front door while she sewed and socialized with the other neighbor. And then one of the Apaches did something that was somewhat odd. He climbed on top of a wood pile outside the fence that surrounded the cabin. It gave him a commanding view of the area. Another Apache asked the family for a kettle, and Hattie retrieved one from the cabin. A couple more Apaches moved closer to the milk house.

One asked for a loaf of bread, and Mrs. Middleton sent her 10-year-old son to the cabin to get it. When the boy returned with the bread, she handed it to the Apache, and the group appeared to be ready to leave. But then, the Apache on the woodpile yelled something, and the men opened fire. Shots rained down on the Middletons from all directions.

A bullet clipped a lock of Maddie's hair and hit the neighbor next to her in the eye. His body pitched forward and tumbled into the box on which Hattie was sitting. The collision knocked her into the cabin on which Hattie was sitting. The collision knocked her into the cabin, which probably saved her life. Outside near the milk house, the other neighbor was shot dead while holding his cup of buttermilk. Both men who'd come to warn the Middletons were dead within seconds. William Middleton got very lucky. One bullet passed through his hat and another passed through his shirt, but neither hit him. He grabbed the only weapon the family had, a rifle. He fired at the scrambling

Apaches and wounded one who ran toward the milk house where Mrs. Middleton and the younger children were trapped. Mrs. Middleton reacted quickly. She shut the window of the milk house and barred the door to keep the Apaches out. William fired on the Apaches as he and a couple of his sons hurried toward the shelter of the cabin. As they ran inside, a bullet clipped William's shoulder. In the cabin, Hattie screamed in terror. Mrs. Middleton heard the scream from the milk house. She gathered up the children, threw open the door, and shoved everyone toward the cabin. Miraculously, they all made it without getting hurt.

Now the whole family was in the cabin. They pushed tables and chairs against the doors and then lay flat on the floor. Outside, the Apaches kept firing. Bullets tore through the cabin and lodged in the walls. For three seemingly endless hours, the Apaches unloaded on the cabin and the Middleton family lay huddled on the floor. Then at sunset, the guns fell silent.

And like in a modern horror movie, the silence was probably as unnerving as the gunfire. The Middletons remained on the floor, silent and still. They stayed that way for hours. Finally, at about one o'clock in the morning, they decided to move. They cracked open the door just a sliver and studied the darkness. They couldn't detect any sign of the Apaches. a sliver and studied the darkness. They couldn't detect any sign of the Apaches. Slowly, quietly, they crept out of the cabin. They scurried to a rocky outcropping and climbed high up into the hills. When the family was settled in a hiding spot, William Middleton worked his way back down to the cabin. The bodies of his neighbors lay where they had fallen. The Apaches were gone, and they'd taken all but one of his horses.

They'd left that one behind because it had been wounded in the gunfight. William climbed onto the wounded animal and rode through the night to get help. When the sun rose the next morning, Mrs. Middleton and her children anxiously watched for William. As the morning grew hotter, they thought they would never see him again. But then they heard his voice calling out from below. He had returned with a friend who had a rifle, but only one bullet left. For a day and a night, the Apaches had rampaged through Pleasant Valley, driving off horses and burning cabins, and they weren't done

yet. William had been fortunate to make it to his friend's house and recruit the man to help, but Apaches had harassed them during the night and forced them to take a longer, winding route back to the Middleton Ranch. William was reunited with his family, but he confided to his wife that the hills were full of Apaches. He didn't know how they would get out of the area alive. The Middletons couldn't go back down to their cabin for fear of Apaches, and they couldn't stay up in the hills because they had no food or water or shelter. Their only choice was to walk to Globe City on a path that was rarely used, and part of the reason it was rarely used

was that it added 20 miles to the trip. With a lot of luck and a lot of grit, the Middleton family made it to Globe. Mrs. Middleton put her foot down and swore she would never return to their cabin. The family sold their home and remaining livestock to businessmen and lived the rest of their lives in the city. But the attacks during the first couple days of September 1881 weren't the last. About ten days after the fight at the Middleton Ranch, warriors again attacked Fort Apache. And as fall gave way to winter,

attacks in Arizona died down, most likely because the warriors headed south to Mexico. But when 1882 arrived, the Apache returned to Pleasant Valley. In the spring of 1882, a diverse group of settlers gathered in the town of Holbrook to celebrate the arrival of the railroad. Holbrook was a relatively new town about 70 miles north of Pleasant Valley. The arrival of the railroad brought more people to the area, who gobbled up more land,

which pushed out more Apaches and members of the smaller tribes in the region. The next round of attacks was carried out by about 60 White Mountain Apache warriors. They hit the San Carlos Reservation first. They killed four Apache policemen, including the chief. They raided more ranches and killed eight Apaches who had served as scouts for the military. The group turned west and swept through the Tonto Basin, which is part of the greater Pleasant Valley area, and killed six more ranchers. With the exception of a failed attempt to take out a mining town, the warriors destroyed everything and everyone in their path, and they gained more warriors every time they successfully terrorized a home or a business. In the middle of July 1882, the Apache forces

again swept through Pleasant Valley. They stole horses from the Tewksbury family and from the Tewksbury's neighbor, Ed Rose. Those white settlers were lucky to suffer only the loss of animals. Two French residents were not so lucky. Their bodies were found days later after their horses returned home without them. They had been tortured in horrifying and gruesome ways before they were killed. Soldiers from H Troop, also known as Buffalo Soldiers, quickly mobilized and chased the Apaches out of Pleasant Valley. But within a few days, the warriors struck again, about 15 miles north of a town called Payson. They went to the ranch of the Meadows family and shot two of the family's sons in the groin, which killed them slowly. To make matters worse for one of the sons,

the warriors broke both his arms so that he died in even more agony. Their father disappeared and was never seen again. He was presumed dead. Dozens more white men and women were killed before the military rounded up most of the Apaches. All that remained was to capture their leader, which the army did during the Battle of Big Dry Wash. The charismatic leader and dozens of warriors were killed, and most of the survivors returned to the reservation. Though it was a relatively small battle, and it's probably unknown to most people today, four soldiers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their actions. Lieutenants Thomas Cruz, Frank West, and George H. Morgan, and First Sergeant Charles Taylor. The Army finally halted the attacks

in the middle of the summer of 1882, but the prolonged violence prompted many settlers to seek safety in numbers. Like the Middletons, they left their ranches and holed up in towns or cities. Ed Tewksbury was a person who'd taken up temporary residence in Globe City. That summer, he had a chance encounter at a hotel bar that changed the course of history for Pleasant Valley.

Ed started talking to a 31-year-old Irishman named Johnny Graham. They became fast friends, but years later, they probably wished they'd never met. The recent Apache assaults were likely the reason Ed Tewksbury left his ranch in Pleasant Valley to stay at a hotel in Globe City. It's not clear why his brothers didn't come along, but presumably they had to keep watch on the ranch and their growing herd of horses and other livestock. There were five kids in the Tewksbury family, four boys and a girl, and we'll hear more about them in the next episode. But right now, in the summer of 1882, Ed Tewksbury met Johnny Graham, and they quickly discovered they had a lot in common.

Both lost their mothers at young ages. Their fathers eventually remarried, and stepbrothers and stepsisters were added to the mix. For both families, it made for very crowded households. The Graham family was living in Iowa when Johnny and his two brothers decided to make the long journey to Alaska to strike it rich in the gold mines. When that didn't work, they went to California, and they missed the gold rush there too. They didn't know it at the time, of course, but that was another area of overlap with the Tewksbury clan. The Grahams and the Tewksburys were both living in Humboldt County in Northern California at the same time. For about 10 years, the Grams scratched out a living in the logging industry. But by 1880, it was time for another change, and Arizona was a

booming territory. Silver mines in the southeast corner were quickly turning the town of Tombstone into a melting pot of people of every description, including famous lawmen and notorious outlaws. The Grams gave the mining industry one last shot. They arrived in Arizona in 1880 and immediately staked out three claims. They put in two more years of back-breaking work before they gave it up for good. It was time to look for something different. So when Johnny Graham met Ed Tewksbury in the summer of 1882, Johnny mentioned that he was interested in a new venture.

He was curious about the cattle business that had emerged in central Arizona in the last few years. Johnny had heard that cattle could command as much as $40 a head at market. The Tewksbury family was in that very business, so Ed invited Johnny and his brother Tom to come to Pleasant Valley to take a look. Ed said there was work available on Jim Stinson's ranch. Stinson was the cattle baron of the area, similar to John Chisholm in New Mexico. Johnny Graham jumped at the invitation. He was obviously concerned about the Apache raids in the area, like everyone, but when Johnny and Tom saw the grasslands and flowing creeks and cattle herds in Pleasant Valley, they figured it was worth the risk.

Within a few months of meeting Ed Tewksbury, the Graham brothers moved to Pleasant Valley. And the Grahams were welcome additions for the Tewksbury brothers. Neighbors were spread out over a vast area, so it was nice to have friends in relatively close proximity. The Grahams set up on some land about five miles from the Tewksbury Ranch, and the Tewksbury brothers helped the Grams build a one-room log cabin to get them started. Jim Tewksbury, one of the middle brothers, helped the Grams move their new herd of cattle on a two-day cattle drive. So the Tewksburys and the Grams were helping each other and getting along well. And by hearing that sentence, and all the talk of friendship and camaraderie that came before it,

you've probably guessed that we're about to take a turn. And you'd be right. The good times weren't going to last very long. Next time on Legends of the Old West, cattle baron Jim Stinson believes the Tewksbury brothers are stealing his cattle. He sends men to confront the brothers, and the situation turns bloody. The Graham brothers support their friends, the Tewksberries, but it'll be the last time. That's next week on Legends of the Old West.

And members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week. They receive early access and the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships begin at just $5 per month. This series was researched by Julia Bricklin and written by Julia and myself.

Special thanks to historian Eduardo Pagan for his help during this production. Audio editing and sound design by Dave Harrison. Original music by Rob Valliere. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. Check out our website, blackbarrelmedia.com for more details and join us on social media. We're at Old West Podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This show is part of the Airwave Media Podcast Network.

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