There was a wild time in St. Johns on the day of the Mexican population's
patron saint, San Juan, June 24, 1882, when Nat Greer and a band of Texas
cowboys entered the Mexican town. The Greers had been unpopular with the
Mexicans since they had marked a Mexican with an ear "underslope," as
cattle are marked, this after a charge that their victim had been found
in the act of stealing a Greer colt. The fight that followed the Greer
entry had nothing at its initiation to do with the Mormon settlers.
Assaulted by the Mexican police and populace, eight of the band rode
away and four were penned into an uncompleted adobe house. Jim Vaughn of
the raiders was killed and Harris Greer was wounded. On the attacking
side was wounded Francisco Tafolla, whose son in later years was killed
while serving in the Arizona Rangers. It was declared that several
thousand shots had been fired, but there was a lull, in which the part of
peacemaker was taken up by "Father" Nathan C. Tenney, a pioneer of
Woodruff and father of Ammon M. Tenney. He walked to the house and
induced the Greers to surrender. The Sheriff, E.S. Stover, was summoned
and was in the act of taking the men to jail when a shot was fired from a
loft of the Barth house, where a number of Mexicans had established
themselves. The bullet, possibly intended for a Greer, passed through the
patriarch's head and neck, killing him instantly. The Greers were
threatened with lynching, but were saved by the sheriff's determination.
Their case was taken to Prescott and they escaped with light punishment.
[Illustration: FIRST MORMON SCHOOL, CHURCH AND BOWERY AT ST. JOHNS]
[Illustration: DAVID K. UDALL AND HIS FIRST RESIDENCE AT ST. JOHNS]
[Illustration: ST. JOHNS IN 1887. Sol Barth's House with the Tower]
[Illustration: THE STAKE ACADEMY AT ST. JOHNS]
In the fall of 1881 the community knew a summary execution of two men and
there were other deeds of disorder, but in no wise did they affect the
Mormon people, save that the lawless actions unsettled the usual peaceful
conditions.