Arizona's yesterday : $b Being the narrative of John H. Cady, pioneer — John Shaqi
Arizona's yesterday : $b Being the narrative of John H. Cady, pioneerCady, John H. (John Henry)
History
Arizona's yesterday : $b Being the narrative of John H. Cady, pioneer
Cady, John H. (John Henry)
Cady, John H. (John Henry), 1846-1927; Frontier and pioneer life -- Arizona; Pioneers -- Arizona -- Biography
In the seventies and early eighties the hostility of the various Apache
Indian tribes was at its height, and there was scarcely a man in the
Territory who had not at some time felt the dread of these implacable
enemies.
By frequent raids on emigrants' wagons and on freighting outfits, the
Indians had succeeded in arming themselves fairly successfully with the
rifle of the white man; and they kept themselves in ammunition by raids
on lonely ranches and by "jumping" or ambushing prospectors and lone
travelers. If a man was outnumbered by Apaches he often shot himself,
for he knew that if captured he would probably be tortured by one of the
fiendish methods made use of by these Indians. If he had a woman with
him it was an act of kindness to shoot her, too, for to her, also, even
if the element of torture were absent, captivity with the Indians would
invariably be an even sadder fate.
[Illustration: CADY'S SHEEP CAMP ON THE SONOITA, DECEMBER 8, 1914. BUILT
IN 1884]
Sometimes bands of whites would take the place of the soldiers and
revenge themselves on Apache raiders. There was the raid on the Wooster
ranch, for instance. This ranch was near Tubac. Wooster lived alone on
the ranch with his wife and one hired man. One morning Apaches swooped
down on the place, killed Wooster and carried off his wife. As she has
never been heard of since it has always been supposed that she was
killed. This outrage resulted in the famous "Camp Grant Massacre," the
tale of which echoed all over the world, together with indignant
protests from centers of culture in the East that the whites of Arizona
were "more savage" than the savages themselves. I leave it to the reader
to judge whether this was a fact.
The Wooster raid and slaughter was merely the culminating tragedy of a
series of murders, robberies and depredations carried on by the Apaches
for years. Soldiers would follow the raiders, kill a few of them in
retaliation, and a few days later another outrage would be perpetrated.
The Apaches were absolutely fearless in the warfare they carried on for
possession of what they, rightly or wrongly, considered their invaded
territory. The Apache with the greatest number of murders to his name
was most highly thought of by his tribe.
When the Wooster raid occurred I was in Tucson. Everybody in Tucson knew
Wooster and liked him. There was general mourning and a cry for instant
revenge when his murder was heard of. For a long time it had been
believed that the Indians wintering on the government reservation at
Camp Grant, at the expense of Uncle Sam, were the authors of the
numerous raids in the vicinity of Tucson, though until that time it had
been hard to convince the authorities that such was the case. This time,
however, it became obvious that something had to be done.
The white men of Tucson held a meeting, at which I was present. Sidney
R. De Long, first Mayor of Tucson, was also there. After the meeting had
been called to order De Long rose and said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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