ARIZONA PIONEERS

 

 

This page is Dedicated to all Pioneers and Descendants of Arizona .

This site is not a commercial enterprise. Some information on our pages bear the personal copyright of individuals. Please respect their copyright. No information found on any page's within this site may be used for commercial purposes without the express permission of the copyright owner's .Jan 26,2000.

© Copyright 2000 Sandra Beagles

   New - Email : azst@usgennet.org

 

guest book by : http://www.dreambook.com

 

Rancher's and Cowboy's of Gila County, Arizona.

A book called The History of Tonto, A Bicentennial project by The Punkin Center Homemakers, and Dedicated during the preparation of this book one of the oldest and best known Pioneers passed away. This was George T. Cline. who died June 19,1976. born in Tonto on Apr 30,1886, and Ranched his entire life. it has a lot of detailed information on the lives of Pioneers and Ranchers of Tonto Basin:  For more information on the book Email me at New - Email : azst@usgennet.org

The names and only a fraction of the history of Tonto are listed below,

ANDERSON KENNETH-

ARMER JOHN 

ASKINS PHIL-1882-listed on the list for 1882 Great Register-Gila County

ARNOLD F.B.-1882-listed on the list for 1882 Great Register-Gila County

BAKER HENRY-

BACON PETE-

BACON EARL. E-1874, came to Tonto Basin area, with his father Pete , and mother, and three brothers, Arnold, William, and Fred. They brought cattle and horses with them and branded the Bar Pigpen. When they started to burn brands they cancelled out the Bar Pigpen and registered the Two Bar on both sides of the animal. Earl helped his father, Pete, pack supplies into Young during the Pleasant Valley War. They were warned not to pack guns and ammunition. One moonlight night their pack trian was stopped by one of the sides and searched. If they had been carrying guns they certainly would have been killed.

BACON ARNOLD-listed below under miners

BACON FRED-listed below under miners

BASSETT JOE-was born in Mayer in 1911, and spent his childhood in Mayer, Payson and Phoenix areas coming to Gisela in 1934. He was by this already a well known professional cowboy. During his rodeo career he won the all around championship title at every major rodeo in Arizona. The highlight of his career came when he won the world Championship Team Roper title at Madison Square Garden in New York in 1942.He was in the top ten in the Rodeo Cowboy Association team roping standings from 1945 until 1952.During this time he also owned and operated his ranch in Gisela, later owning and operating the H4 ranch in Tonto Basin until 1947. then he sold out and bought the 5 slash ranch north of Globe, which he owned and operated raising cattle and quarter horses, until 1960,at which time he sold out and bought the HZ ranch and Bar 11 ranches at Pinto Creek, near Roosevelt. he operated these ranches until 1972,whenhe sold out and concentrated on his talents on racing and raising quarter horses. he had five children, all children and spouses live in Arizona with a total of fifteen grandchildren. Since his death in 1973.and the Bassett tradition if raising quarter horses is carried on my his son John.

BENNETT F.-1882-listed on the list for 1882 Great Register-Gila County

BLAKE ANDREW "ANDY"-listed on the list for 1882 Great Register-Gila County

BLAKE WILLIAM GARFIELD-b: Oct 4,1880, in Tonto Basin," Garfield" was two when his parents died in 1887.He went to live in Greenback Valley with his uncle Ed and aunt Alice Conway. He helped Ed with the cattle and farm, and attended school in Greenback. As a young man he worked as a cowboy on the C/Y Ranch, and most ranches around Tonto Basin, Gisela and Payson area. In 1913 Garfield married Lillie Emily Toby in Globe.

BROWN JIM

BRUNSON JAMES-was born in 1819 in Alabama and married Haerriet Matilda Greer, born in 1826 in Mississippi . They were married somewhere in the deep south and began raising a family before the Civil War . After the end of the war they joined the western migration that peopled the west with families from the confederacy. Jim and his family moved from Texas into the Arizona Territory in the 1880's , settling in Tonto Basin on a homestead of 160 acres near the mouth of Slate Creek. The homestead, known as the Shadeland Ranch and later as the H4 Ranch, was carved out of the wilderness by Jim and his four sons. Jim and Harriet divided the Shadeland Ranch between their sons and moved to Wheatfield's where they lived on a ranch eight miles north of Globe on Pinal Creek. Jim farmed 160 acres, known as the" Old Man Hicks Place" until shortly before his death on Aug 5,1904. Harriet survived her husband, living south of the old County Hospital in a little house until her death on Jan 31, 1913 . They are both buried in the Old Globe Cemetery .Jim and Harriet had nine children, five of whom settled and lived in Tonto Basin.

BRUNSON JOHN WESTLY -lived in Tonto Basin for many years. He suffered a stroke and in failing health, he returned to Texas to live with his older sisters, He died and is buried in near Kerrville, Texas.

BRUNSON GEORGE WASHINGTON-was born in Burnett County Texas, in 1868.He married Jennie Henderson. He homesteaded the " George Brunson Place ", near the box of the Tonto on the west side of the creek in 1905.George is buried in the Old Globe Cemetery.

BRUNSON WILLIAM M.-bought his brothers' interests in the Shadeland Ranch and then sold it to interests in Globe in 1897.

BRUNSON BILL- married Elizabeth O'Dell who died in 1915.They had no children, Bill owned and operated the only Hotel in Payson for many years until his death at the age of 90 years on Mar 31,1945. He is buried, along with his parents, in the Old Globe Cemetery.

BRUNSON JAMES NATHAN-was born in Louisiana on July 8,1855. He married Susan Emily Byas in Kerrville, Texas. (Susan was born in Texas on Jan. 22,1858,the great granddaughter of Alamo hero, Andrew Jackson Kent). Their five children were all born in Texas. but moved with them to Arizona. They arrived for a short visit in Tonto Basin and then went on to Douglas County, Oregon, but returning to Tonto where James Nathan Filed a claim for homestead of a 150 acres on June 17,1919, claiming the east bank of the Tonto Creek opposite the Packard store and south if the road to Greenback. On July 3,1923, Jim and Susan divided the homestead between their sons , keeping a small portion for themselves.

BIXBY FRED-

BUREAU JOHN-was born in France and came to live with his Uncle in Tempe in the early 1900's.While he was in Tempe he met some of the Packard boy's from Tonto, and they told him about Greenback Valley. John came to live in Greenback and worked and trapped for awhile. when Florence Packard started the Packard store. now Punkin Center, Florence and John went into the bee business. and lived for many years up Sycamore Creek . John never married and died on Tonto about 1963.

BOUQUET CHARLES-1882-listed on the list for 1882 Great Register-Gila County

CARPENTER JAMES "JIM"- married Callie Reed in Sept 7,1873,at Modesto, California .They moved to Uvalde ,Texas and bought a ranch. a daughter was born to them on May 20, 1880. Jim named her Jimmie. They sold their ranch in later years, because of Jims and Callies health . They traveled in California. That didn't suite them so they came to Phoenix, Arizona. Jim started looking for a ranch and found what he wanted in Tonto Basin. He went back to Phoenix bought a wagon, and some work horses, loaded their belongings, which had been shipped from Texas. Jimmie was 16 years old when they got to Tonto. It was the year 1896, The first year Jim and family got to Tonto he put up stacks of filaree hay for the milk cows and horses. He built two log houses with a breezeway. Jim started buying cattle, branding Railroad on the left side: a straight line from shoulder down ribs to flanks.

 

CONWAY EDWARD CHARLES-was born in Maine in 1848 and was the son of Edward and Elizabeth Conway, the former miller in Milltown, Maine, until his death in 1882,when he was 92 years old. His wife survived him only a few years, dying in 1887. To them born were three children. William Irl , Edward Franklin, and David.

CONWAY EDWARD FRANKLIN- was born in Greenback Valley on Sept. 5,1888, and ranch there all his life, He was the son of Edward Charlies Conway. who had drifted west from his native Maine and reached Prescott in 1874. The senior Conway had worked his way west as a logger but got a job in the famed Sliver King Mine when he reached Prescott. Then he moved to the Sierra Acha country where Greenback Valley is today.

Edward Franklin's mother was Alice Harer, daughter of (David Harer, a Californian, who had received an enthusiastic description from his returning Indian fighter friend, General Hancock, of the "most beautiful valley in all the country) . Ed shipped his cattle by truck in his later days, but in the early days his cattle were driven out through the Tonto Basin and over the Mazatzals through Reno Pass, and then to the Salt River Valley. Ten cowboys would drive the 1,000-head herds. These were community drives and would take 10 to 12 days. In 1916,Ed married Lula Jean Grantham, They had three children : two sons ,Edward Charles ( "E.C."), and Clarence Woodrow, and a daughter Opal.

CLANTON, J-1882-listed on the list for 1882 Great Register-Gila County

CLINE CHRISTIAN CRISTOPHER -In 1876, Christian Cline sold all his San Diego County holdings. Together with his sons: Leck, James, Tobe, Tom, Frank, and John , They drove their heard of 1,600 head of cattle and horses into Tonto, As soon as the Indian were cleaned out of Tonto Basin, The whole family moved down along the river. Christian continued to ranch in Tonto until 1892 when he moved to Phoenix, His youngest son John L. Cline took over the family ranch in Tonto and ranched there all his life.

CLINE THOMAS JEFFERSON-was born in Dec 25,1852 Santa Clara, Calif. Dec 25,1852. He was the son of Christian and Margaret Cline. As a child he traveled with their family through southern Calif , Mexico and Arizona searching for a suitable place to settle and raise their families. They finally settled in Tonto Basin. Tom married Annie leah Garner, a member of the Hook family, in 1879. Leah was born in Yuma in 1863 as the family was crossing the Colorado River. The family made their home in Tonto for many years, They had nine children, and they were :Christopher Howard b: in Tonto on Feb 16, 1881 d: March 9,19

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