Part I: Pages 1-20

I was born May 22, 1863 in Ogden, Utah, the son of Captain James Brown, the founder of the City of Ogden, and of Phebe Abbott Brown.

My first early impressions were of my mother having me kneel at her side and teaching me to pray.  The sincerity of her expressions made me feel that we were talking to the Father in Heaven who was hearing our humble supplications.

As a child, she used to take me to Relief Society meetings, where I have had the privilege of hearing the testimonies of those wonderful pioneer women such as Eliza R. Snow, my grandmother Abigail Smith Abbott Brown and many others.  They impressed me with a feeling that they were testifying of the truth of the Gospel of the Master, and that Joseph Smith was in truth a Prophet of the living God. Later on I had the privilege of hearing the testimonies of President Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff in the Ogden Tabernacle.  These impressions never have left me.

I also remember an incident that impressed me very much. It was the testimony of Martin Harris, who bore testimony to the to the fact that Joseph Smith was a prophet of the Lord. That an angel from heaven brought the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated and showed them to him, Oliver Cowdery, and David Whitmer, turning the leaves over which appeared to be of gold and declaring unto them that this was a history of the Nephites and Lamanites and that it contained the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

1875 Orson Receives the Aaronic Priesthood

There wasn't much of any great consequence from this my early childhood until I was 12 years of age (May 1875).  When I received the priesthood of a Deacon I remember that the three wards in Ogden City then were the 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and as on that Sabbath day the Sunday meetings were held in the Tabernacle and it became the turn of our ward to be doorkeepers. How happy it made me feel when my turn came to be doorkeeper!

1880 Brown - Fife Family Move to Arizona

Then in the month of October of 1880, my stepfather William Nicol Fife, his two sons Walter and John and my mother, sister Cynthia and myself started on a trip to Arizona. We had one team of horses, two mule teams and three wagons as we traveled down through the settlements of Southern Utah. We arrived at Johnson, the most southern settlement in Utah, about the 20^th of December we got on top of the Buckskin Mountains now known as Kiabab forest. There it snowed about six feet deep that night and one pair of our mules left us. We hunted them all day, but the snow had obliterated their tracks, so we had no success. I put a quilt over the back of one of the mules and went to Johnson, thinking they had gone there. I reached Johnson about two o'clock in the morning nearly frozen to death, but I was too shy to awaken anyone and crawled into a haystack beside some hogs and waited until daylight. The mules were not there, but I found a man with a bunch of horses coming from Montana and going to Arizona, so I arranged with him to borrow a pair of his horses to continue our journey to Arizona.

We came down off the Buckskin Mountains and arrived at Lees Ferry. There we met a company of men with teams and equipment going to work

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on the Santa Fe Railroad that was just being built. They told us that a man by the name of Johnson had found our mules and had taken them to a little town about 60 miles north east of Lees Ferry. My stepfather arranged with the Montana Man to let me have a horse and saddle to go after them. I left Lees Ferry in a snow storm and arrived at a little town called Peoria (79 T4) about four o'clock in the next afternoon, wet and cold. There I learned that Johnson had taken the mules to Hillsdale, 125 miles north east of Peoria. Instead of going to Hillsdale I returned to the town of Johnson where the father of the mule thief lived. Joel Johnson wrote his son in Hillsdale asking him to return the mules to Johnson. After waiting about ten days, Joel Johnson received word that his son had sent the mules with the mail carrier to a town of Kanab which was sixteen miles west of Johnson. I immediately went to Kanab and saw the mules in a corral. When the lady who answered the door of the house nearby told me that there was a $20.00 bill against the mules, I was sunk. Then she asked me to come in and wait for her husband who was the sheriff. She asked who I was and where I had come from. When I told her tears came to her eyes and she embraced me and said over and over again—"Can it be true? Is it possible? Why your father saved the lives of my father and mother and my husband's father and mother together with their children. He saved then from starving to death!"

When the sheriff came in he said—"Look who is here—it is the son of Captain James Brown and Phebe, from Ogden." The sheriff then embraced me and cried with joy.

1879  Christmas Dinner While Searching For Lost Mules

It was Christmas day (c1879) and of course I (16) joined them in a big turkey dinner. When the meal was over, the sheriff went to the corral with me to catch the mules. He helped me saddle one of them, and he bucked and bucked all around the corral. "Young man", said the sheriff "Do you think you can ride him? Why he's never been broke yet." "Yes, I can" I said "I have to this pony I'm riding is too weak to make the trip." So he held him and I got on. He bucked around and around again, and then I got him under control. The sheriff's wife brought me a great bag of food, enough to last several days. I told the sheriff I didn't have the money to pay him for the mules and he said, "You don't owe me anything, and when I catch that damn rascal who stole your mules I'll put him in jail."

I arrived at Johnson Town about sundown and spent the night there. The next morning it was snowing and sleeting and I arrived at the sheep camp about noon. The boys invited me to stay there, and it snowed the rest of the afternoon and all night. The next morning I started again. The snowing had stopped and it had turned cold and clear. That night I dug a hole in the side of the hill, but I had neither bedding nor any wood with which to make a fire, I very nearly froze.

The next evening I arrived at Lees Ferry and the next morning ferried across the big Colorado River. About noon of that day I saw a team of mules grazing. Imagine my joy at finding that it was my stepfather William Fife and his son Walter. We remained there that night and the next morning went to Willow Springs where mother and sister Cynthia and John Fife were waiting our arrival.

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That was indeed a time of rejoicing. Mother said that she knew we were coming for she had dreamed that she saw me come in with the mules.

The next morning we started out again. And after two or three days we arrived at the new colony Sunset, where President Lott Smith had established the United Order. It was a new experience for me to see all of the people of the colony sit at the long tables in the big hall and eat together. We remained there two or three days, and President Smith invited is to join the colony. They treated us nicely and it was some regret that we pushed on.

1880 Through Snowflake, Stories of Chief Victoria

We kept going south arriving at the Mormon colonies of H. Joseph Woodruff t Snowflake and to Fort Apache, where we were advised by the Colonel in command that the notorious Indian Chief Victoria had gone on the par path and had attached a government ambulance, killing some of the soldiers and mules. We stayed at Fort Apache for two days and then started south again until we reached Camp Tomas on the Gila River. On we went again for three or four days until we came to Pima, which was a new Mormon settlement.

1880  Beginning Work Hauling Lumber

We needed to go to work, so we made our camp and began hauling lumber to Tombstone. After a few months when I was seventeen (c. July 1880), I went up into the canyon to work at the logging camp. My job was the care of oxen. I had to take them up on the mountain at night and get up early enough to get them back down the next morning in time for the days work to begin.

 We had been there a few days when a man by the name of Webbsfoot Smith arrived. He was a ferocious looking man, a typical mountaineer about 5 ft.6 inches tall, broad shoulders, large hands and $12 shoes. He had a heavy head of hair, black beard and little beady black eyes and weighed about 175 pounds.

We were having supper one night when he started to bait me. By some means he had discovered that I was a Mormon, and he began talking about them. He said he was from Missouri and Mormons were a bunch of thieves and murderers. He cited the Mountain Meadow Massacre, and said Brigham Young and the rest of the Mormons in Utah were a bunch of murdering thieves. At that, Samuel Ellsworth the boss said to me, "What about it kid?" and I replied, "I don't know who this man is, but he is a lying damn son of a bitch." Smith jumped up and so did I. He said "I won't take that from any man. No one calls me that and lives." I said "You'll take that from me and swallow it!" Then I challenged him to a fight with a choice of any arms he wanted. He chose pistols and to fight it out the next morning.

After breakfast the men all gathered around to watch the fight. He asked me what my distance was. I took a red handkerchief from around my neck, took hold of one end of it and said "you take hold of the other end for this is my distance." He had said to my boss "I don't like to murder a damn kid." When I offered him the other end of the handkerchief, he took his hand from his gun and turning pale said "My God, I don't want to kill a kid." Then I said "Then swallow what you told me last night," and he replied, "Well, I guess I was mistaken, I beg your pardon."

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After that he did everything possible to become friends with me. Two or three months later he came to me in camp and told me that he was in serious trouble. He said that he had been hunting and upon looking up had seen an Indian in the brush. He had shot him, another appeared. He had thought they were renegade Indians, but upon examination of them, found they were Indian Scouts of the Government. He dragged them into a small arroyo, covered them up and hid their guns. He asked me if I wouldn't go with him. He said, "You know that all good Indians are dead one." I told him that he had better get out of the country, that if he didn't they would get him for sure. He took his jenny and left. About a week later there arrived a Lieutenant and five soldiers together with ten Indian Scouts. They had found the three Indians and tracked Smith to our camp. They went on, taking up his trail, and about a month later some prospectors found Smith's jenny, so it was a foregone conclusion that they had indeed found Smith and killed him as he was never heard from again.

The sawmill and logging equipment belonged to Major Dawning, a fine specimen of manhood, standing 6 feet tall and weighing 200 lbs. He wore a gray mustache and goatee, looking very much the southern gentleman. He had come from California bringing about a hundred head of fine cattle, keeping them in Pioneer Canyon where his sawmill was then located. He had a California Mexican man in charge of his ranch. One time while he was in California two murdering bandits went to the ranch chopped the head off the Mexican and stole his cattle. When Major Dawning returned to the ranch he discovered that the cattle had been sold to some people in the Animas Valley by two men, Joe Goss and Dave Estes.

Ed Elwood, one of the logging contractors, had been following the outlaw and murderer by the name of Ben Taxer, and had camped one night in the San Solomon Valley when he was approached by three men who asked to be invited to supper. He complied and after the meal was over the men took all of his equipment, his horse, pack mule, guns, and provisions and drove him out of his camp afoot. This occurred some months after the stealing of Major Dawning's cattle.

Elwood came to camp and became a partner of Sam Elsworth. Several months later, Elwood and Elsworth had gone to Tombstone with loads of lumber and to get provisions. They left me at the camp which had been temporarily closed because of bad weather. While they were gone Buckskin Joe Goss came to camp and stayed overnight. He bragged about his valor and his courage and his meanness and said, "I may die with my boots on, but I will never surrender."

When Elwood and Elsworth returned I told them about Goss. We three went over to the sawmill and talked with Major Dawning. Elwood said, "He is the man that held me up, stole my outfit and forced me from my camp afoot." Major Dawning said, "He is one of the men that killed my foreman and stole my cattle. Let's do something about it." And thus was born the vigilante committee that was to end the reign of outlaws and murderers in that valley.

They appointed me as scout and lookout man. A few days later I was on top of the mountain with my long spyglass when I recognized a lone rider coming up the trail as Joe Goss. I hurried to inform the men and they instructed me to lead him to Pioneer Canyon where he had murdered the Mexican cowboy.

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I went down the trail, met Goss, and started conversation with him. He asked if I had seen a hobbled bay horse. I directed him towards Pioneer Canyon where we found the horse, unhobbled it and then Goss offered to sell it to me. "I don't want a horse," I said. "Mules are much better for mountain work." "Well, then let me sell you four mules. You can pay me $200. down and $200.00 in three months. Or, let me sell you this horse. You could take him to Tombstone, but don't show him much around the street." I told him that I didn't want to do any of that kind of business, and we rode on down the canyon. About two or three miles up the canyon from the camp we met two men who knew me. I was afraid that they would give the play away, but they asked the time of day and went on. A little later Goss said, "There's some honey hives, I'll tip them hives over, and when we get farther down I'm going to kill old Major Dawning on sight."

When we got in front of the cabin I saw no signs of my friends so I jumped off my mule with my gun in my hands. The horse he was leading hung back, and as he was busy trying to get it loose, I got the bead on him, and told him to throw up his hands. He thought it was a joke and smiled. I told him to put them up and keep them up or I'd shoot him sure. Then I called and called for my friends. They came up out of the place on a run. We disarmed him, led him over a little creek and there under a juniper tree we put a rope around his neck. He cursed me roundly, swearing that if I hadn't held him up he would have killed the whole lot of them.

We hanged him there and before his spurs quit jingling we heard hoof beats of horses. We hid in the brush and the two men who rode up took one look at the outlaw and wheeled off as fast as they could ride. We took a board from the fence, nailed it to the tree and wrote "The End of Buckskin Joe Goss, the Bandit and Murderer. Any Other Of His Kind Coming Through This Way Will Suffer the Same Fate" and signed it…Vigilantes.

This was the beginning of the end of this class of people in the valley.

Some two months later there was a miners strike in Tombstone. Silver fell from $1.00 an ounce to 60 cents. The strikers burned the Grand Central Mining Plant and the smaller plants ceased operating. Major Dawning shut down his sawmill and returned to California, and the whole section of country was plunged into a depression.

I went to work with a man named Chris Grower building a concrete house. Shortly afterward Tom Kief came to Grower with a letter and said he was a carpenter and wanted a job. Grower hired him and he stayed about a month. Every once in a while he would mention Joe Goss and his hanging and intimated that I knew all about it. But when he asked me questions I evaded them and pretended that I knew nothing. We were living in a big tent and I overheard him and Grower talking. Kief said that he was a detective from San Francisco and bragged about his many exploits and talked of running down criminals. Among other things, he said he was in the party that ran down John D. Lee, the author of the Mountain Meadow Massacre. I heard him tell Grower that he was going to take me to Tombstone. Grower hired a light spring wagon from his neighbor in which to make the trip.

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I went to the pasture and saddled my horse to be ready for anything that might happen. We had just finished supper that night. Kief was sitting at the head of the table and I was at the foot. He pulled out his British Bulldog pistol and said to me, "Kid, you're under arrest, and you're going to Tombstone with me tonight." I said, "Alright, I like Tombstone pretty well, anyway." Just then Grower called from the outside that all was ready. Kief turned his head in the direction of the door and I pulled my pistol on him, covered, and I made him drop his gun, walked over and picked it up and then herded him out to the wagon with Grower and drove off. When they had gone a little ways I got on my horse, followed them and told Tom Kief that if he ever came up there again that the same Vigilantes that hung Joe Goss would serve him with the same kind of medicine. He never came back.

Footloose and More Indian Trouble

Since there was no work in that section of the country I left with two companions, Mike Brown and John Sponseller, starting for Phoenix. We made camp in a valley where the San Pedro River enters the Gila River. About ten o'clock in the morning we had a visit from five young Indians who wanted to buy cartridges from us. W refused t let them have any and they wanted to have a shooting match. Sponseller shot with their best man and won three times at a dollar a hot. Then during the night we heard their war dance and their singing.  Sponseller and I crawled close to their camp and after watching them for a time decided to break camp and leave.

We followed the Gila River until we came to Globe where we had breakfast and then went on. We hadn't gotten very far when we heard riding fast. Looking back we saw the mail carrier coming full speed. When he reached us he said that the Indians were on our trail, and that they had already killed two brothers who had operated the trading post farther back, and the squaws were carrying the merchandise away. He said he had taken a cut-off and had seen the Indians coming this way as fast as their horses would run.

We rode into a little arroyo, got off our horses and climbed up the brow of the hill. One of the Indians was about 160 yards in front of the others. I said to John, "You shoot the horse and I will shoot the Indian." We shot together, and as the other Indians saw what happened they turned and ran. We went on, arriving at a little mining camp that evening and found that all was excitement for not only were the San Pedro Apaches on the warpath, but the Tonto Basin Indians had joined them and had killed a number of families.

We returned to Globe where the whole community was churning with fear of the impending Indian raid. Later that night word came that the sheriff and his posse of twenty-five men that had gone up the valley to rescue the families in Tonto Basin had had their horses stolen by Indians and asked for teams and wagons to bring them out. We went with the rescue party and helped bring families and posse back to Globe.

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After the scare had subsided we went our way making our first stop in Mesa where I found my mother's sister and family Edward and Emily Bunker. I stayed in Mesa three or four months then we all moved to Saint David on the San Pedro River. After a time in Saint David I had the urge to see my mother and sister who were still in the Sulphur Spring Valley.

Six o'clock on Christmas morning found me on my way. I had been to a dance the night before and before long became very drowsy. I unsaddled my horse, laid down and went to sleep. About sundown my dog Jeff began to whine and nudge and paw me. I jumped up to discover that my horse Whirlwind was snorting and raring. Then I knew there was something serious afoot. I saddled as quickly as possible and as I got onto the road discovered there were six horsemen closing in on me, three in the front and three in the back. I recognized them as Indians and I jerked my pistol and rode straight towards those that were coming to me from the east. The thought came to me quick as a flash that they wouldn't shoot for fear of hitting those behind me and those behind wouldn't shoot for fear of hitting those in front. They were going to try to take me alive. When I got within fifty yards of those in front I shot the horse from under the middle Indian and as he fell the other two in front ran off into the brush. As I came abreast of the fallen Indian he tried to get me with his rifle but I shot him before he could use it.  Then I lay down on one side of my horse and let him run hard for a half mile until I reached a little ridge where I jumped off to rest both horse and dog and hid behind a big soap weed. The Indians had been chasing me all this time and now I kept shooting at them from behind this ridge. Suddenly they turned and ran off in the other direction.

When they were completely out of sight I started toward home, arriving late at night. The dogs at the ranch made an awful racket, waking my mother who recognized the dog first.  "Oh,  It's Orson"' she said,  "I dreamed that you were coming, and I saw you have lots of trouble, but would arrive safely."

The Hunt Brothers Meet the Indians

Three or four days later we discovered that this band that had attacked belonged to a kid band of renegades and that they had attacked three American men the day before while the men were working in a hay field. They had surrounded me, killed them and burned them on a load of hay and made off with their horses and equipment. The day after they attacked me they had gone south to Rooker Canyon in the Chiricahua Mountains. There they came upon the camp of two Hunt brothers. One of the brothers was out looking for the horses and the other was lying wounded in the tent. The Indians surrounded the tent and as one came in the door the wounded man shot him and then one of the Indians shot Hunt.

The wounded Hunt brother had been a bandit in Tombstone and had been wounded in a gun fight with the sheriff's and had been in the hospital in Tombstone until his brother came from Texas to take him home.

After hearing the shots from the Indians the other brother rode to Camp Price about fifteen miles away where he spread the alarm. The colonel in command sent Lt. Glass with 25 soldiers and 10 Indians after the renegades. They surrounded them at Hunt's camp killed the four remaining Indians. It was the first time in

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many years that the United States had made a clean up of renegade Apaches.

1881  In Bisbee Hauling Lumber
Dan Dawd and the Hall-Buckles Ranch

Shortly after this occurrence I went to work for Morris & Cheers, hauling lumber from the Chiricahua Mountains to Bisbee, Arizona. I stayed at this work for about a year. It was during this time that I met Dan Dawd. He was a huge man about 25 years old, over 6 feet tall and weighed about 180 lbs. Dan Dawd was one of the drivers for the mine as I was, and we made several trips together through the mountains. We had to pass a little ranch on the White Water Creek located between the sawmill and tombstone owned by a half breed named Milt Hall and his partner Frank Buckles.  Another driver, Delaney and Dawd became very good friends and often they would stop at this little ranch for house while on the road.

One day Dan Dowd declared himself. He said the world owed him a living and he'd be damned if he was going to work so hard any more. Then he quit his job and went away for about two weeks. When he returned to the Hall-Buckles Ranch he was accompanied by a chap named Johnny Heath, a dandy looking man who was well-dressed and riding a fine looking horse. He had two white-handled six shooters, a Winchester rifle and two belts of cartridges. Heath stayed at the ranch for a couple of days and then went off to Bisbee while Dowd went north.  When Dowd returned to the ranch a few days later he brought with him three hard looking men, Red, Tex, and Kelly. And soon after when Hall and I came to the ranch with our oxen and loads of lumber we found five men there. Dan Dowd, Red Sample, Tex Howard , Dan Kelly, and Bill DeLaney. I asked Hall what they were doing there and he said they were looking for a ranch.

 We traveled on and about sundown the next day we saw three horsemen off the east of us. We didn't recognize them but I knew two of the horses were from the Hall-Buckles Ranch. We made camp at the south of the Bisbee Canyon and the next morning as we were getting breakfast two men rode into camp. One was Heith. They drank a cup of coffee with us and told us there had been a hold up in Bisbee the night before. The bandits had robbed the Copper Queen Store and they had murdered two men and a woman. They said they were on their trail and that they had headed toward Tombstone.

 My partner Walt was out rounding up the oxen and about an hour later five men approached. They had seen the smoke from our campfire and came over. It was Sheriff Daniels and his posse who had been following the trail of the bandits. They asked me whether I had seem any of them and I took Sheriff Daniels over to one side and told him what I knew.

I said that I had recognized two horses as being from the Hall-Buckles Ranch among the five horsemen that we had seen the day before. And that I suspected that Buckles himself knew something about it since these hard looking men in company with Dan Dowd had been at the Hall-Buckles Ranch the week before. I also told him of the two horsemen who had just gone by. The sheriff thanked me and sent two men after the horsemen. He and the others went immediately to the Hall-Buckles Ranch and arrested Buckles. Buckles turned states evidence and they took him to jail in Tombstone…

[Missing are pages 9, 10, 11]
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Five Simultaneous Hangings in Tombstone, Arizona

March 28, 1884; Tombstone, Arizona. Five men; Dan Dowd, Red Sample, Tex Howard, Bill DeLaney, and Dan Kelly are hanged for their part in the December 8, 1883 robbery/murder in Bisbee.

The purported leader of the gang, John Heath, was lynched by Tombstone residents over a month earlier, on February 22, 1884.

The crime was considered particularly heinous, even for those times in Arizona Territory, as four innocent bystanders (including a woman) were killed during the robbery.

On December 8, 1883, the outlaws rode into the booming mining town of Bisbee, Arizona. They had heard that the $7,000 payroll of the Copper Queen Mine would be in the vault at the Bisbee General Store. The outlaws charged into the General Store with their guns drawn and demanded the payroll. To their disappointment, they discovered they were much too early--the payroll had not yet arrived. The outlaws quickly gathered up what money there was (reports vary that the take was anywhere from $900 to $3,000), and took valuable rings and watches from the customers unlucky enough to have been in the store at the time.

For reasons that are totally unclear, the robbery then turned into a murder spree. When the desperadoes rode away, they left behind four dead or dying people, including Deputy Sheriff Tom Smith and a Bisbee woman named Anna Roberts.

It didn't take long for law enforcement officers to apprehend the gang members. All were to be tried for the murder/robbery - however, Heath was lynched before being brought to trial. The other five were found guilty, and sentenced to hang in a public execution.

The event soon took on a 'circus' air, with one enterprising businessman building bleachers around the gallows and selling tickets for the standing-room-only event. Famous western entrepreneur Nellie Cashman disapproved of the 'festivities' - she and compatriots demolished the grandstand the night before the execution. Although there was nothing that Nellie could do to prevent the legal hangings, she and friends were determined to make the outlaws' executions a 'dignified' affair.

One of the condemned, possibly Dowd, remarked that the multi-gallows was "a regular choking machine." His analysis was quite correct. Of the five, only one died of a broken neck - the other four died by strangulation, with death taking as long as ten minutes for one of the men.
http://www.wyomerc.com/bookranch/news/BR_Roundup_6.htm

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Turned his horse and shot Hall killing him instantly thus ending two more of the would-be bad men.

1883  Chief Loco Leaves the Reservation

When I arrived at the sawmill after the trip from Bisbee and the Bisbee murderer. I went home to the Fife Ranch and then shortly afterwards the bandit subchief Loco broken away from his Chief Geronimo from the San Carlos reservation with about 75 young warriors. They came down through the Sulphur Spring Valley and then crossed into the San Salmon county north of Fort Vuhi(sp) and when they got opposite of little town of Gayly(sp) Bill thirteen of them crossed over the mountain and into the Pionery(sp) Canyon. My step brother John Fife and two men one by the name of Tom Fornoy and the other John Lobby went up the canyon with four mules and two wagons after mining timber. When they had just crossed the Pionery(sp) Creek they were attacked. Tom Fornoy was shot through the head and killed instantly. John Lobby as he ran down the road was shot 7 times in the back and killed. John Fife was shot through the left forearm and in the right leg. Just about the wrist. He kept to the bottom of the canyon running as fast as he could arriving at the little mining camp by the home of Tip Top. He arrived at the little mining camp about three and one half miles from the place where he had been wounded.

A runner came to the ranch about midnight advising us of what had happened as we had had previous arrangement that in case of serious Indian troubles. We were to congregate at the Riggs Ranch about six miles north of our place. We had no wagons nor teams available. There were three of us men, John Sponseller, a man by the name of Stevens, and myself. We all got up and dressed. Also there was my mother, my sister Cynthia, Aunt Diana Fife, and her daughter Agnes. We all went over the trail on foot.  I was taking the trail on foot ahead and the other two men coming behind the women folks. We arrived at the Riggs Ranch about three o'clock in the morning. About five o'clock Thomas Riggs hitched up his mules on his team wagon and went up the Tip Top to get Hon Fife. There was a man by the name of Colonel Clutt who was general superintendent of the Tip Top and mining and smelting company. When we got there up in the canyon a little ways we men, Colonel Clutt on horseback, a Lieutenant of the U.S. Army, and about twenty- five soldiers. Stringing along behind them was about seventy-five miners and other men from the camp. They had become stampeded, they were scared half to death, as we got up to the camp.  John my brother was lying under a tree with five soldiers guarding him. They said, "If you hadn't arrived they were going to tie him on a mule and bring him out." We lifted him into the spring wagon where we had a mattress springs and started down the canyon.

Mr. Tom Riggs said to the sergeant in charge of the soldiers, "if we are attacked by the Apaches, what shall we do?" He said, "We'll run like hell."

And I said, "The first one that runs I'll shoot him. First you fellows stand hitch or there will be serious trouble."

We arrived a the Riggs Ranch about ten o'clock in the morning where there was a captain with 5 American soldiers and a doctor who dressed John's wound. There was a party of five of us went up the canyon to bury the bodies of Tom Furnoy and John Lobby. Before we got to where the bodies were we saw where some Indians had crossed the road, they were wearing moccasins. Two of us stood guard. One on each side of the canyon while the other three men went up and brought Tom Furnoy's

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body to where John Lobby's body was then they dug a hole and laid both bodies in it having wrapped them in a blanket.

Instead of going back down that canyon, the way we had come up, we decided on going into the Pine Canyon which was west of the Canyon where we buried the two men. I was asked to take the lead. As I came up a little divide between the two canyons I saw the fresh Indian track. I said to the two men behind, "Look out for I believe they're right here."

I had my pistol in my right hand ready for action. When the two shots being almost together. This Indian fell over backward and I shot, he jumped in the air and yelled like a wild animal throwing his gun over his head and falling dead. I emptied my pistol in the direction that I saw other movements and yelled to my companion to come on. As we rode around the bend of the canyon I stopped and waited for my companions to come up. The first one to arrive looked at me and went pale, he had seen a bullet hole in my jumper. I stuck my hand into the gusam of my shirt and pulled out the bullet, it was all flattened out. I didn't know that I had been wounded til I felt the blood running down my breast.

 We rode on down to the ranch, staying there over night. The Doctor dressed my wound we were a pretty blood thirsty bunch of men, determined on revenge.  We got two more men with us and the next morning we started up into the canyon where we had had the fight with the Indians, the evening before. On examining the ground where the first Indian had wounded me we found out that the bullet had hit a little limb which flattened it thus saving my life. We found also that the Indians had taken the two bodies of their dead companions, put them on one of the mules and had taken them up on a side of the mountain and put the bodies in a small cave that was there.  Filling the mouth of the cave with brush and rock. After dragging the bodies out of the cave, we found out that one of the Indians had been shot at the left eye, the bullet coming out of the back of his head, and the other one was shot under the left arm the bullet coming out just about the right hip bone.

We followed the Indian trail and we found that they had gone up the top of the mountain, we went over to the Morris Sawmill and there got seven more men and we climbed the mountains in the night, leaving our horses under guard at the sawmill. When we got on top of the mountain as it was coming day light we saw to the sought of us, the mountain was on fire, we went over there and found that the Indians had left going south towards the Mexican border. They crossed into Mexico near the "Sierra Enmedio", going up the arroyo de Alisos, there was about 300 American soldiers following behind them, there was a ridgement of Mexican soldiers coming from the Yaki country in Sonora, being about five or six hundred of them. They were encamped in a bend of the canyon when the Apache Indians ran into them, neither of them knowing that the other was there. The Mexican soldiers immediately attacked the Indians surrounding them.  Killing all of them but about 6 or 8 got away. After the battle was over the Mexican soldiers saw the American troops coming in sight, the American doctors attended to the Mexican wounded soldiers, and after a while, the Mexican General demanded the surrender of the American troops. The American Colonel refused and there came pretty near being a fight  which was averted by the Mexican General rescinding his demand and allowing the American

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to return to the U.S.A. thus terminating another Indian raid by the Chiricahua Indians.

Incident at the Fife's Oak Grove Ranch

I went to work building a little ranch about five miles to the east of the home ranch [Oak Grove Ranch, Cochise County, Arizona Territory], when one night my brother Charles Fife and William Nilson, who were living at the Fife Ranch, came to my camp and said that Aunt Diana Davis Fife had been murdered by a Mexican. I got my horse and started out, I found out that the murderer had gone to a ranch about seven miles north from the Fife Ranch and had gotten some supper that night at a small ranch belonging to Italian Joe. We called him and spent the rest of the night looking for this man at a little mining camp called "Dos Cabezaz"?  We met Deputy Sheriff who had been advised of the killing and were on their way to the Fife Ranch.  My brother Charly and Billy Nelson accompanied the two deputy sheriffs and I went by the Riggs Ranch to see if they had found out anything, one of the Riggs boys said to me, "YES, THEY FOUND HIM." and that was all he would say, as I came near to the Fife Ranch I looked at a big oak tree and there sure enough was the Mexican hanging with a rope around his neck.

I caught up with the deputy sheriff before they got to the ranch. They asked me if I had heard anything and I said "No, I haven't heard much, but I've seen the biggest acorn that I ever saw hanging to a black jack oak tree." One of them smiled and said "then they got him did they?" and I said, "Yes."

A posse of settler's had captured him.

We went back to the ranch where they were getting ready to bury Aunt Diana Fife, the ranchers from all around the country that had heard of it were there. It was a very sad, sad funeral, this Mexican murderer tried to grab little Agnes who was 12 years old, and had made a proposal to the Mexican who was working on the Ranch that they burn the ranch, steal the horses, and take the girl, but the Mexican fought him and ran him off and went to the nearest ranch for help.

We buried the Mexican at the side of the hill and the coyotes in three days dug him up and ate him.

Fall 1884 Working the Chiricahua Cattle Co.  Sheriff Daniels Killed

Just after this incident while working there the Chiricahua Apache Indian, Geronimo, and the balance of his renegade Indians came down through this country killing and murdering ranchers and stealing their stock. When they got near, where now is Douglas, Arizona on the American Mexican border, Sheriff Daniels and a companion hearing of the Indians murdering some ranchers down in the Sulphur Spring Valley went ahead expecting a posse of volunteers to follow immediately. The posse, for some reason or other, was delayed. The Indians, seeing Sheriff Daniel and his companion, laid an ambush, murdering both of them. When the posse arrived from Bisbee they found the sheriff and his companions dead bodies and that the Indians had crossed the border into Mexico.

This so infuriated the ranchers and people of this section of country that they demanded from the Government in Washington some protection or they would take the matter of their own protection in their own hands.  General Miles, commander and chief of the U.S. army began a vigorous campaign against the renegade Apache Indians. And in 1886 having

[Pages 15 and 16 are missing from manuscript.]

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…his hands on my head and gave me a blessing and promised me, that I would be blessed beyond all of my expectations and that I should have the privilege of many blessings that would be impossible to receive if I'd remain where I was.

1887  Orson Prepares to Leave Safford for Mission to the Mexican Mormon Colonies

So I began to arrange my affairs [and obtain my passport] and on the first of May 1887 I started on my journey towards Mexico. Apostle Thure (sp) on returning to Mexico had stopped at the Fife Ranch and there advised my Mother to go to Mexico. So I went to the Fife Ranch and from there to Ththur (sp) and on arriving there my stepfather who had brought his last wife and children from Ogden, was to have sold out his ranch and come to Mexico also. But instead of him coming to Mexico he sold out his ranch and went back to Utah. On arriving at Colonia Juárez, on the first day of June 1887 with my mother, I took down with the chills and fever that I had acquired while I was on the Gila River. We pitched our tent down by the side of the river and the people were very kind to us. I remember very well one incident that happened.

My mother had gone to get Pres. A.F. Macdonald to come and administer to me. He brought with him a man by the name of Doctor Metts. After they had administered to me I heard Pres. Macdonald ask Doctor Metts what he thought about me and he replied, "Poor woman, she is going to be left alone, he can't live till morning, I called Pres. Macdonald back and she he came back to my bedside Doctor Metts coming to the door of the tent, I said to Pres. Macdonald, "Dr. Metts don't know what he is talking about, I will live to see him buried and many of his kind. Don't bring him back again to administer to me and I began to get better because I depended upon the Lord. I know I had a mission to perform, as soon as I could walk around I went and presented my letter to President Teasdale and he sent me to Bishop Seavey and Bishop Seavey asked me if I could make some adobes they wanted to build the schoolhouse and not withstanding my weakened condition I told him, yes, that I had never made any adobes but that I could and would make them.

Just as soon as I got a little more strength I went to the mountains and began to haul a little lumber and gradually got my strength back. I built an adobe mill and began to make adobes. Later I went with President [Alexander Findlay] Macdonald to Galeana where we built a reservoir for men who had a flour mill. There I earned a little money.  I courted a nice young lady by the name of Martha Diana Romney and in November we were married. Which made me very happy for she was a beautiful girl.

In May of 1885, 400 Latter-day Saint families were on the banks of the Casas Grandes River waiting for the negotiations to purchase land. On December 7, 1885 Mormon colonists set up their first camp in what would later become Colonia Juárez…

Many of the Mormons who moved to Mexico at this time were polygamists seeking refuge from the law, but the Nelsons and Romneys were not polygamists. They came to Mexico because the Mexican government had issued grants of land to the Mormons for colonization.]

They questioned me very severely and put me under some very strict covenants. One of them was that I would not introduce Mormon girls to outsiders and that I would do everything in my power to serve the Lord and keep all of his commandments including specifically the entering in and obeying the law of plural marriage.

On September 2, 1886, Orson's only sister from Phebe and William Fife, Cynthia Abigail Fife married Joseph Layton in Safford, Graham, Arizona.

1888  Orson Begins Career as Rural Police Officer

The next spring some of the colonies were losing some of their cattle and horses being stolen and in a priesthood meeting the question came up about what we could do about it. We had been complaining to the authorities in Casas Grandes but could get no protection. During the discussion in the priesthood meeting I suggested that we should stop them.  After the meeting Apostle George Teasdale and his two counselors, Pres. [A.F.] Macdonald and [A.W.] Ivins, together with Bishop Seavey and his counselors Miles P. Romney and Ernest L. Taylor called me into council and gave me a mission to stop the stealing of the colonists horses and cattle. So after having made the adobes for the school house and helped Brother Philip Cardon lay them in the walls of the school house I graduated from adobe maker and mud carrier to a rural police officer of the colony.

The stealing of the cattle and horses stopped after

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arresting a number of thieves and taking them to Casas Grandes and suffering the inconvenience with Brigham Stowell, David Stevens and David Hawkins of being put in the Cases Grandes Jail for catching a bunch of horse and cattle thieves. We were finally released after 18 days. The judge in turn being given one year in prison for false imprisonment and the turning loose of the real thieves.

1888  Orson and Mattie's First Child Born

The next October [9-30-1888] our little daughter Carrie was born, which made us very happy. But to our sorrow, she passed on when she was eight months old [5-20-1890].  The in a few months [8-28-1890] a boy was born [Orson Pratt Brown II] and then to our sorrow again passed on at eighteen months old [4-10-1892], both dying with that terrible infantile disease paralyzes [polio].  Then we were made happy again [10-4-1892] by another boy, Ray, and after followed seven more, Clyde, Miles, Dewey, Vera, Anthony "Tony", Phoebe and Juárez Orson.

1893  Tomoche Indian Rebellion

It was in the year of 1893. The Tomoche Indians, intermixed with a few Mexicans, lived in a little town, in western Chihuahua, by the name of Tomoche.

Some two or three years before there had been a girl named Terecita de Cabora of Sinaloa, who claimed to have visitations of spiritual instructions. The spiritual messenger visiting her, had told her that the Catholic priests were not suppose to sell to the church the sacraments nor charge the people for sermons pertaining to the church. That they had through this sin lost contact with the Church of the Master.

These people at Tomoche, together with the people from the surrounding towns, as well as those scattered in the mountains, believing what they had heard of her, visited her at her home in her little mountain village of Cabora in northeastern Sinaloa. Among them went the President of Tomoche, Cruz Chavez, with several of the townspeople.

 They returned to the homes very much impressed with the things they had heard and seen at Cabora with regard to the manifestations given to Teresita, Santa de Cabora.

 When the priest from Guerrero came down to visit them in Tomoche, and was holding services in the church the people instead of going to these services went to the house of the President Cruz Chavez.

He had erected in his home and altar in his humble little parlor where the people of Tomoche were holding the Sunday services. This infuriated the priest of Guerrero and he forthwith went to the house of Cruz Chavez and started to tear down the altar and destroy the images that had been erected there.

Cruz Chavez in return entered and drove the priest out of his house and told him to leave his house and the town also.

The priest immediately went to Guerrero and informed his brother who was Jefe Politico, that he had be abused and driven out of the town.

The Jefe Politico sent an escort of seventy-five men to Tomoche with instructions to arrest all of the men and bring them to Guerrero.

Cruz Chavez anticipated this and made preparations for the

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reception of the armed men from Guerrero.

They sent out a messenger to meet the escort and tell them not to come into Tomoche or there would be bloodshed.

The soldiers instead of heeding Chavez's announcement kept on coming into the town.

Chavez and his men met them with a battle cry of freedom. In defense of their homes and their lives they opened fire and killed about thirty of the soldiers sent to capture them. The balance returned to Guerrero and reported conditions.

The Mexican Federal Government then sent three hundred soldiers to Tomoche to subdue the Tomoches. And in like manner they were received. Cruz Chavez and his men scattering in bunches of five hid in the brush around the village and as the soldiers advanced they shot down their officers first then played havoc with the soldiers killing over one hundred during the first battle.

Cruz Chavez and his men numbered only thirty-seven.  Then the Federal Government sent down to Tomoche five hundred soldiers and the same thing occurred. The Tomoche killed the officers first, then the soldiers who happened to linger. Conditions became intolerable.

Next the Federal Government sent fifteen hundred soldiers to capture the Tomoches, dead or alive. The General in command formed an attacking party, sending five hundred soldiers around to the west to come down the canyon thus surrounding the town completely.

The men from the west who were coming down the canyon were the first to come near to the village. The Tomoches shot down their officers and disarmed the soldiers and drove them into the church.  When the General on top of the mountain demanded that they surrender he was shot and instantly killed by a Tomoche.

The battle had raged for some hours when the Federal army fired some incendiary explosives into the church from a cannon, thinking the Tomoches had taken refuge in the church. The roof of the church was of lumber and immediately began to burn. The Federal soldiers locked in that church were cremated.

The Tomoches left, escaped to the mountains through the entrance left in the west where the soldiers had come down. The army followed them into the mountains and the death rate to the soldiers was terrible.

It was estimated that before these Tomoches left the country they had caused two thousand soldiers to lose their lives during a campaign of over two years.

c1895 Tomoche Indians Exiled to U.S. Return and Begin to Raid Colonies.
Orson & Posse Outwit Tomoche Band

The remainder of these Tomoche Indians then went to the United States. They remained there for a couple of years. Then they wanted to return to their homes and families. They came by appointment to the border at Palomas. In the early morning they assaulted the customs house guards, wounding some of the guards and capturing the Customs House. They gave the Customs Administrator a receipt for the money and other things they took. They then started on their way south with the six horses and saddles from the customs guards.

At Colonia Diaz they stole four horses belonging to W.D. [William Derby] Johnson out of a pasture. Johnson immediately sent a runner to tell us, and

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