The Mormons of the Gila Valley maintained most amicable relations with
their neighbors, but occasionally had to participate in some of the
ordinary frontier episodes. James R. Welker, an arrival in Safford in
1883, tells that, "The cowboys had things about their own way for a few
years. They would ride right into a town, go straight to the saloon and
commence shooting the place up. They were expert with the pistol too. I
have seen some very wonderful shots among those cowboys. They did not do
much killing around here, but they were pretty wild and did about as they
pleased." W.T. Barney wrote, "The rustlers gave us quite a bit of
trouble, perhaps even more than the Indians."
The peaceful Saints in the Gila Valley undoubtedly found much that was
foreign to their habits of life. A tale of the frolicsome cowboy is told
by Isaac P. Robinson of Thatcher, who was in Safford in 1884:
"There were but very few houses in Safford then. About the only business
house was the Glasby building, which had a saloon and also a store. The
cowboys had things about their own way. They would come into the store
and take possession. Mr. Glasby would go out and leave it to them. They
would shoot up the store, help themselves to what they wanted, pay for
everything they had taken, shoot up the town and go on. But I don't want
to see any more of it. You haven't the remotest idea what a lot of
trouble they made. This was the main route from the north into Mexico and
the principal rendezvous for a lot of those rough characters."
In the way of outlawry, the valley had unwelcome notoriety, when from its
rougher element was constituted a band which, May 11, 1889, ambushed
Paymaster J.W. Wham of the United States army, on the road between
Fort Grant and Fort Thomas, and stole about $28,000 in gold and silver,
intended for the pay of the troops at the latter post. An escort of
eleven colored infantrymen, led by a sergeant, apparently deserted by the
Major, fought well, but was driven away after five of the soldiers had
been wounded. Thirteen bandits were understood to have been implicated.
Eight individuals were arrested. There was trial at Tucson, where Wham
and the soldiers were notably poor witnesses and where the defendants
were acquitted.