Tom Jeffords

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Thomas Jonathan Jeffords

Thomas Jonathan Jeffords (born January 1, 1832 in Chautauqua County, New York , † February 19, 1914 in Tucson , Pima County , Arizona ) was a scout , Indian agent , agent for the US Army , deputy sheriff of Tombstone , prospector and stagecoach driver . He was also the owner of a small relay station for the Pony Express , located near the so-called Apache Pass at the foot of the Chiricahua Mountains .

family

Thomas Jeffords was born the fourth of 13 children of Eben Rockwood Jeffords and Amira Wood in Chautauqua County, New York. He himself remained unmarried. His grave is in Evergreen Memorial Park in Tucson.

life and career

As a young man he drove steamers on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers . As a laborer, he earned his living in 1858 building roads from Leavenworth, Kansas to Denver, Colorado. He then came to Taos (New Mexico) in the spring of 1858 . In the fall of 1859 he took part in a prospecting in the San Juan Mountains . During the Civil War he took part in the Battle of Valverde in Val Verde County (February 20-21, 1862) and the Battle of Glorieta Pass (March 26-28, 1862). In the summer of 1862 he was on his way to Colonel JH Carleton in Tucson with dispatches from General ERS Canby from Fort Thorn . After the Civil War, Apache trade began in New Mexico. He became the driver and later the superintendent of the postal line between Fort Bowie and Tucson. Due to the historical circumstances that led to clashes between immigrants and Apaches , absenteeism of mail riders in Jefford's service increased. From 1871, 14 stagecoach drivers were wounded or shot by arrows from ambush by the Apaches within 16 months. Jeffords began to learn the Apache language as a scout. When he was on the verge of ruin, he decided to have a conversation with Chief Cochise . He mounted his horse and rode alone into the impassable gorges and valleys of the Dragoon Mountains . At that time, Cochise was fighting the European invaders. In the eyes of most contemporaries, whether Indian or white, Jefford's ride resembled a suicide and, since the Apaches were said to have committed the most extreme atrocities against captured whites, a ride to a cruel death. It took Jeffords several days to come across scouts from Cochise, who were assigned to bring the lonely "madman" to their chief. Arrived at the camp of Cochise and his people, Jeffords went to the chief's fire without hesitation and without a single sign of fear and spoke to him directly. He described to the astonished chief of the Chiricahua the distress caused by the failures of his riders and the mail they carried. He asked the chief to spare his pony riders in the future. In return, Tom Jeffords offered the chief his lifelong friendship. Cochise, who admired nothing more than the courage of a brave man, promised Jeffords that not only would his warriors spare the riders of the Pony Express, the Chiricahua would also take action against other enemies of the mail riders. And he kept his word. From then on, Jefford's riders rode through the Apache region under the protective hand of Cochise. Jeffords also kept his word. Until the death of Cochise († June 8, 1874) he remained true to the friendship and even became his blood brother . Among other things, he mediated between Cochise and the US Army for peace after long years of the Apache War. In Tombstone he worked as deputy sheriff in November 1882. In the search for Geronimo during the "Geronimo Campaign" he served as a scout under the command of General Miles until 1886.


End of life

Jeffords in front of his house

He spent the last 22 years of his life on his ranch near his mine on Owl Head Buttes in the Tortolita Mountains north of Tucson. He died there lonely in his home on February 19, 1914. He was buried in the Tucson Evergreen Cemetery . The National Society Daughters of the American Colonists Association donated a new tombstone to him in 1964.

Trivia

The story of Tom Jeffords, General Oliver Otis Howard , Cochise, and the Apache Wars was told in the historical fact-based book Blood brother by Elliott Arnold in 1947 , which was adapted for the 1950 film The Broken Arrow . In 1956 the story came on television as a 72-episode series.
The importance that Jeffords had as a scout and mediator for the army can be seen in his salary of 50,000 dollars, since other scouts / mediators (Indian agent) were only hired for 10,000 dollars for the same period.

literature

  • Dan L. Thrapp: Al Sieber: Chief of Scouts . University of Oklahoma Press, Norman 1964, ISBN 0-8061-2770-8
  • Dan L. Thrapp: The Conquest of Apacheria. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman 1967, ISBN 0-8061-1286-7
  • Dan L. Thrapp: Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography University of Nebraska Press, 1991, ISBN 0-8032-9419-0
  • Harry G. Cramer III: Tom Jeffords: Indian Agent , Tucson: Journal of Arizona History, 1976, pp. 265-300
  • Denis McLoughlin: The encyclopedia of the old West , Taylor & Francis, 1977, pages 256-257, ISBN 978-0-7100-0963-0
  • Edgar Wyatt: Cochise, Apache warrior and statesman , McGraw-Hill, 1961, pp. 118-123, ISBN 0-07-072157-2
  • Benjamin Capps in "Timelife": The great chiefs , 1978, pages 78,81,93.
  • Donald E. Worcester: The Apaches - 'Eagles of the Southwest', Econ Verlag 1982, ISBN 3-430-19854-2
  • Pete Hackett: The Cochise Saga , Anthology (Volume 1–4), BookRix, 2016, ISBN 3-7309-9059-4 , (Kindle Edition)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A: Dan L. Thrapp: Al Sieber Chief of Scouts , page 218
    B: Ditto: The Conquest of Apacheria , page 145
    C: Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, February 20, 1914
    D: This biography also shows February 19, 1914 as the day of death
  2. ^ Dan L. Thrapp: The Conquest of Apacheria. Page 145
  3. ↑ In 1880 he sells a mine for $ 60,000
  4. ↑ Eben Rockwood was born in Massachusetts around 1803 and died on October 27, 1862 in Nashville , Tennessee .
  5. ↑ Amira Wood was born in Chautauqua around 1808 and died on February 9, 1887 in Morgan Ashtabula, Ohio
  6. ^ Evergreen Memorial Park
  7. ^ Probate Court, Pinal County, Docket No. 320
    Farish, TE, History of Arizona, Vol 2, pp. 227-240; Vol 5. pp. 330; Vol 7. pp. 25, vol pp. 8, 15.
    Barnes, WC, Arizona Place Names, p. 224.
    McClintock, JH Arizona the Youngest State, pp. 216-217, 228.
    Arizona Daily Citizen, Tucson, February 21-22, 1914, and January 11, 1873, Quartermaster General, Old Files, Fort Myer, Virginia.
    Lockwood, FC, Pioneer Days in Arizona, New York, 1932, pp. 163-64, 170-172
    Clum, W., Apache Agent, New York, 1936, pp. 90-92, 170, 180, 230, 232.
    Lockwood, FC, The Apache Indians, New York 1938 pp. 110-130, 214, 218, 243
    US Court of Claims, Indian Depredation Docket No. 9695.
  8. ^ Dan L. Thrapp: Al Sieber: Chief of Scouts. Page 218 , 355, 407
  9. ^ Dan L. Thrapp: The Conquest of Apacheria. Pages 145-146, 168-170, 189, 190
  10. ^ Image of the Cochise memorial stone with the naming of the blood brother "Thomas J. Jeffords"
  11. ^ Dan L. Thrapp: Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography ; Volume II G-O, pp. 723,724. Ditto Thrapp: Victorio and the Mimbres Apaches .
  12. ↑ Jefford's "Apache Mine No. 7" at Owl Head Buttes
  13. ↑ Arizona Star (June 14, 2015): In 1892, former Indian agent Thomas Jeffords, renowned for his part in pacifying the Apache Indian Wars, settled in the Tortolita Mountains.
  14. ↑ NSDAC
  15. ↑ Inscription on the tombstone ( Memento of the original from January 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : THOMAS J. JEFFORDS, 1832–1914, FRIEND AND BLOOD-BROTHER OF COCHISE, PEACE-MAKER WITH HOSTILLE APACHES, ~ 1872 ~, ERECTED IN 1964 BY, DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN COLONISTS @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / image2.findagrave.com
  16. ↑ The series began 9/25/56 and ran for two seasons, 72 episodes, to 6/24/58.
  17. ↑ Thrapp: "The Conquest of Apacheria", p. 168: "Jeffords was bonded for $ 50,000, while most Indian agents were bonded only for $ 10,000 ..."

Remarks

  1. ↑ different sources state February 18th, 19th and others February 21st, 1914 as the date of death
  2. ↑ Selling a mine claim in Tombstone with his brother John Jeffords made him $ 60,000. The starting capital for the Pony Express relay station was thus available. The sale was celebrated with his longtime scout friend Al Sieber in an extraordinary drinking bout . He had champagne delivered from Tucson in an ice-cold trolley especially for this purpose .
    Said claim was at the Brunckow mine Jeffords Arrested by Billy the Kid Near the Brunckow Mine Arizona Murder House and is said to have been in his possession as     early as 1881. See also Die Brunckow Cabin
  3. ↑ Land of Cochise report with picture of the rock on which peace was made. ... big rock on which peace was made
  4. ^ Dan L. Thrapp in The New York Times (report of May 4, 1994)
personal data
SURNAME Jeffords, Tom
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jeffords, Thomas Jonathan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American owner of a small Pony Express relay station
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1832
PLACE OF BIRTH Chautauqua County, New York
DATE OF DEATH February 19, 1914
Place of death Tucson , Pima County, Arizona