| Gleeson Jail | |
|---|---|
 The Gleeson Jail in 2015. | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Address | 11250 North High Lonesome Road [1] |
| Town or city | Gleeson, Arizona |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 31°43′56″N109°49′46″W / 31.73222°N 109.82944°W |
| Opened | 1910 |
The Gleeson Jail is a former jail located in the ghost town of Gleeson, Arizona. It was built in 1910 and restored in 2008. [2]
Gleeson was founded as a mining town in the 1870s and quickly transformed into a usual frontier settlement, filled with rowdy miners and cowboys. The town jail, however, wasn't built until after the turn of the century. Before the jail was constructed, the constable of Gleeson chained his prisoners up to the "jail tree", a large oak located in a nearby wash with a metal cable wrapped around it. The prisoner's right hand would be attached to the cable and he would remain there for however long, rain or shine. When it rained, water would fill up the wash and "clean out the jail." [3] [4]
Perhaps the most famous lawman to serve as Gleeson's constable was Deputy Wesley Wooten Cates. Born in Texas, at the age of sixteen Cates joined the Texas Rangers and served under Captain Bill McDonald. After a year, in January 1894, Cates became the first and youngest city marshal of Amarillo, Texas. He later settled down with his wife in Cochise County and became constable of Gleeson in 1904. A few years after his appointment, Cates convinced the county to build a new wooden jail to replace the old oak tree. [4]
The wooden jail originally stood immediately in front of the current concrete jail. It didn't last long though. After some inmates attempted to escape by raising the building's tin roof, the jail was replaced by a reinforced concrete structure. The new jail cost the county $1,778 and was completed in late April 1910. It was built in the same style as the jail at Courtland; two cells, connected by a "cage" in the center. The wooden jail was sold at auction for $25 and hauled away in May. [4] [5] [6]
In 1938, the Gleeson Jail was featured in the Western film The Mysterious Rider , starring Douglass Dumbrille. [7]
Several notable prisoners were held in the Gleeson Jail, the first was a Mexican outlaw named Francisco Chavez. On the morning of September 5, 1912, Cates and the constable of Courtland, John Henry Bright, attempted to arrest Chavez after he assaulted another man, Gregorio Barela. Chavez resisted the deputies, armed himself with a rifle, and a minor gunfight ensued. Over thirty shots were fired and the spectacle lasted long enough for curious townsfolk to take up positions and watch from a nearby hill, but nobody was hurt that day and Chavez was detained. [8]
Not long after the shootout, Cates moved to Casa Grande and was replaced by Deputy Robert "Lafe" Gibson. Gibson was an interesting character as well. In 1902, Gibson was sent to the Yuma Territorial Prison for killing a wagon driver who he had gotten into an argument with. He remained in prison until 1906 when he was released for good behavior. Sometime later, Gibson developed a relationship with Sheriff Harry C. Wheeler, who made him the deputy and constable of Courtland in 1912. [4] [8] [9]
Over the next five years, Sheriff Wheeler and Deputy Gibson spent their time pursuing outlaws through the nearby mountains. Alcohol was banned in Arizona in 1915 so the exchange of illegal spirits from both New Mexico and Sonora quickly became a serious problem for Cochise County law enforcement. On the night of March 5, 1917, Sheriff Wheeler and Deputy Gibson were ambushed by some Mexican smugglers at a point about two miles west of Gleeson. The two lawmen were driving back to town from the Chiricahua Mountains, but had to stop and camp for the night because it was unsafe to drive in the dark. Not long after they had laid down, however, they were fired on by at least three Mexicans concealed behind some rocks. A lengthy shootout followed, during which, Sheriff Wheeler managed to wound one of the Mexicans. A few days later, a posse captured two of the outlaws in Apache Pass and put them in the Gleeson Jail. [9] [10]
Gibson had his own encounter with the law soon after. In January 1917, Gibson surprised a bootlegger who was transporting four barrels of fine whiskey across the border from New Mexico. The bootlegger abandoned his car and fled into the desert, but the whiskey was captured and taken to Gleeson, where it was stored in the Southern Pacific Railroad depot. During the night, a group of thirsty citizens attempted to hijack the whiskey by crawling under the depot and drilling a hole through the wooden floor. They hoped to drill into the bottom of one of the barrels and empty it, but they were caught when the drill bit came up about six inches away from the container. The whiskey was then moved into the Gleeson Jail, under Gibson's control. [9]
Knowing that the whiskey barrels would be dumped into the sand on the following morning, Gibson siphoned most of the whiskey out and replaced it with water. He then began selling it to locals such as Joe Bono, the owner of a general store in town. It was not the first time he had sold confiscated whiskey, but it was his last. Later that year, after the Gleeson Gunfight, Gibson was arrested and confined to the Cochise County jail in Tombstone. The sentence handed down by Judge Alfred C. Lockwood was "that the defendant be confined in the County Jail and at hard labor for a period of two years, commencing from June 8, 1918, and that he pay a fine of $300.00." According to Glenn Snow, Gibson never spent a day in jail and he was allowed to leave the state. The last time Gibson was heard from was in September 1918, three months after he was supposed to have been jailed, when he filed his draft card in the town of Higbee, Colorado. [9]
Another notable prisoner who stayed in the Gleeson Jail was a young man named Luther Price. On June 16, 1913, Price murdered his friend "Tol" Wilson while they were camping in Cottonwood Canyon. Price struck Wilson over the head with a revolver and then threw him down a 150-foot-deep well. He was later arrested and sent to the prison at Florence, but he and two prisoners escaped from a work-crew on May 23, 1917. The fugitives fled into Mexico, however, Price contracted smallpox and returned to his mother's ranch in the Chiricahuas soon after. In need of a doctor, Price felt his only chance for survival would be to surrender to the police so he sent a messenger to inform Deputy Gibson. Gibson made the arrest without incident and Price was put in the Gleeson Jail overnight on July 10, 1917. He was sent to Tombstone the next day and then back to Florence. [11]
In the summer of 2008, the Gleeson Jail and the surrounding ten acres was purchased by Tina Miller and John Wiest, who also bought an old house in town. By that time, the jail was in a deteriorated state and had been heavily vandalized. Also, in the 1940s, the county removed the metal gates and windows for use in the new jail at Benson, which left the front of the building exposed. Had it been built of anything other than steel and concrete, the Gleeson Jail would have likely collapsed long ago. The building was found to be structurally sound, however, and has been restored almost to its original condition. [2] [12]
Originally, the jail had a wall in front with two windows and a door, instead of what is now a porch. At some point, an old photograph was found in Texas that showed the jail when it was first completed in 1910. The photo showed that the jail once had a "Jail" sign and a "1910" date so both were duplicated and mounted in their original positions. Finally, the area around the jail was fenced in and the rest was leveled for parking space. [2]
The Gleeson Jail now accommodates tourists and also serves as a museum and town center. There are remains of other buildings in Gleeson as well, including the Joe Bone Store, but they have not been completely restored. [6] [7]
In 2006, the old Benson Jail was demolished so the metal gates and windows that were once part of the Gleeson Jail are now on display at the Benson Museum. [12] [13]
Cochise County is a county in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is named after Cochise, a Chiricahua Apache who was a key war leader during the Apache Wars.
The Lincoln County War was an Old West conflict between rival factions which began in 1878 in Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory, the predecessor of the state of New Mexico, and continued until 1881. The feud became famous because of the participation of William H. Bonney. Other notable participants included Sheriff William J. Brady, cattle rancher John Chisum, lawyer and businessmen Alexander McSween, James Dolan and Lawrence Murphy.
Morgan Seth Earp was an American sheriff and lawman. He served as Tombstone, Arizona's Special Policeman when he helped his brothers Virgil and Wyatt, as well as Doc Holliday, confront the outlaw Cochise County Cowboys in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881. All three Earp brothers had been the target of repeated death threats made by the Cowboys who were upset by the Earps' interference in their illegal activities. The lawmen killed Cowboys Tom and Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton. All four lawmen were charged with murder by Billy's older brother, Ike Clanton, who had run from the gunfight. During a month-long preliminary hearing, Judge Wells Spicer exonerated the men, concluding they had been performing their duty.
John Peters Ringo, known as Johnny Ringo, was an American Old West outlaw loosely associated with the Cochise County Cowboys in frontier boomtown Tombstone, Arizona Territory. He took part in the Mason County War in Texas during which he committed his first murder. He was arrested and charged with murder. He was affiliated with Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan, Ike Clanton, and Frank Stilwell during 1881–1882. He got into a confrontation in Tombstone with Doc Holliday and was suspected by Wyatt Earp of having taken part in the attempted murder of Virgil Earp and the ambush and death of Morgan Earp. Ringo was found dead with a bullet wound to his temple which was ruled a suicide. Modern writers have advanced various theories attributing his death to Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Frank Leslie or Michael O'Rourke.
Albert "Burt" Alvord was an American lawman and later outlaw of the Old West. Alvord began his career in law enforcement in 1886 as a deputy under Sheriff John Slaughter in Cochise County, Arizona, but turned to train robbery by the beginning of the 20th century.
Joseph Isaac Clanton was a member of a loose association of outlaws known as The Cowboys who clashed with lawmen Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp as well as Doc Holliday. On October 26, 1881, Clanton was present at the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in the boomtown of Tombstone, Arizona Territory but was unarmed and ran from the gunfight, in which his 19-year-old brother Billy was killed.
Gleeson is a ghost town situated in southeastern Cochise County, Arizona, United States. It has an estimated elevation of 4,924 feet (1,501 m) above sea level. The town was first settled as Turquoise in the 1870s in what was then the Arizona Territory, then later re-established as Gleeson in 1900.
Michael O'Rourke, aka "Johnny O'Rourke" or "Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce", was a professional gambler of the Old West. While living in Charleston, Arizona, he killed Henry Schneider, a popular mine engineer, in what O'Rourke said was self-defense. But citizens were aroused and threatened to lynch O'Rourke. Constable George McKelvey took O'Rourke to Tombstone, chased by the angry mob. Once there, Deputy U.S. Marshal and Tombstone Police Chief Virgil Earp, his brother Wyatt, Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan, and others saved him from the crowd.
Harry Cornwall Wheeler was an Arizona lawman who was the third captain of the Arizona Rangers, as well as the sheriff of Cochise County, serving from 1912 into 1918. He is known as the lead figure in the illegal mass kidnapping and deportation of some 1200 miners and family members, many of them immigrants, from Bisbee, Arizona to New Mexico in 1917. Beginning on July 12, 1917, he took total control of the town of Bisbee, controlling access and running kangaroo courts that deported numerous people.
The Cochise County Cowboys is the modern name for a loosely associated group of outlaws living in Pima and Cochise County, Arizona in the late 19th century. The term "cowboy", as opposed to "cowhand," had only begun to come into wider usage during the 1870s. In that place and time, "cowboy" was synonymous with "cattle rustler". Such thieves frequently rode across the border into Mexico and stole cattle from Mexican ranches that they then drove back across the border to sell in the United States. Some modern writers consider them to be an early form of organized crime in America.
Cochise County in southeastern Arizona was the scene of a number of violent conflicts in the 19th-century and early 20th-century American Old West, including between white settlers and Apache Indians, between opposing political and economic factions, and between outlaw gangs and local law enforcement. Cochise County was carved off in 1881 from the easternmost portion of Pima County during a formative period in the American Southwest. The era was characterized by rapidly growing boomtowns, the emergence of large-scale farming and ranching interests, lucrative mining operations, and the development of new technologies in railroading and telecommunications. Complicating the situation was staunch resistance to white settlement from local Native American groups, most notably during the Apache Wars, as well as Cochise County's location on the border with Mexico, which not only threatened international conflict but also presented opportunities for criminal smugglers and cattle rustlers.
Robert Havlin Paul, commonly known as Bob Paul, was a law enforcement officer in the American Southwest for more than 30 years. He was sheriff of Pima County, Arizona Territory, from April 1881 to 1886. He was also a friend of Deputy U.S. Marshall Virgil Earp and his brother Wyatt Earp. At 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) and 240 pounds (110 kg), he was described as "larger than life". Others described him as "powerful, fearless and very lucky".
The Bisbee massacre occurred in Bisbee, Arizona, on December 8, 1883, when six outlaws who were part of the Cochise County Cowboys robbed a general store. Believing the general store's safe contained a mining payroll of $7,000, they timed the robbery incorrectly and were only able to steal between $800 and $3,000, along with a gold watch and jewelry. During the robbery, members of the gang killed five people, including a lawman and a pregnant woman. Six men were convicted of the robbery and murders. John Heath, who was accused of organizing the robbery, was tried separately and sentenced to life in prison. The other five men were convicted of murder and sentenced to hang.
The Shootout at Wilson Ranch resulted in the final and most famous hanging in the history of Tombstone, Arizona. On April 7, 1899, the brothers William and Thomas Lee Halderman were confronted by two lawmen at a ranch located in the Chiricahua Mountains. A brief gunfight ensued, during which Constable Chester L. Ainsworth was killed and his deputy, Teddy Moore, was mortally wounded. The Halderman brothers then fled to New Mexico, but they were captured shortly thereafter and executed on November 16, 1900, following a hasty trial in Tombstone.
The Gleeson gunfight, or the Gleeson shootout, was one of the last gunfights in the Old West, having occurred during the transition period between the "Old" and the "New." On March 5, 1917, the sheriff of Cochise County, Harry C. Wheeler, and his deputy, Lafe Gibson, were ambushed by a gang of Mexican alcohol smugglers near the town of Gleeson, Arizona. During the battle that followed, Wheeler and Gibson fought off the attackers and confiscated their alcohol, wounding at least one man in the process.
Ed Drew was an Arizona rancher, miner, and lawman in the final years of the Old West. He is most remembered for his family of pioneers and his death during a shootout near Ray.
The Fairbank train robbery occurred on the night of February 15, 1900, when some bandits attempted to hold up a Wells Fargo express car at the town of Fairbank, Arizona. Although it was thwarted by Jeff Milton, who managed to kill "Three Fingered Jack" Dunlop in an exchange of gunfire, the train robbery was unique for being one of the few to have occurred in a public place and was also one of the last during the Old West period.
Courtland is a ghost town in Cochise County, Arizona, that was founded in 1909 due to a copper boom. The town is located at the foot of the Dragoon Mountains, about fifteen miles northeast of Tombstone, and was named after Courtland Young, one of the owners of the Great Western Mining Company.
Bill Downing a.k.a. William F. Downing was a notorious outlaw during the Wild West era in Arizona. Downing had fled from the Texas Rangers posse who was after him when he came to Arizona. In Arizona, he was involved in the killing of William S. “Slim” Traynor and in various train robberies including the robbery of the Train Depot in the town of Cochise. Downing was so unpopular that even members of his gang couldn't stand him.
