Historical Introduction
This is the story of a community of Episcopalians in the San Pedro
Valley of Southeastern Arizona. It is a story that stretches back into
the 19th Century when peace along the border was counted in days for
the rancher, miner, townsman, Apache, Mexican revolutionary, and
smuggler. In order to establish a modicum of peace, Camp (later Fort)
Huachuca was founded on March 3, 1877 at the mouth of Huachuca Canyon
by Captain Samuel Marmaduke Whitside who commanded "B" Troop, Sixth
United States Cavalry Regiment. He was ordered to put an end to the
raids by Apaches and Mexican bandits. Mrs. Whitside's Prayer Book can
be seen today in the Fort Huachuca Post Museum.
Within a month of the founding of Camp Huachuca, a foot loose
prospector born in Pennsylvania and named Ed Schieffelin arrived on the
scene and stated that he intended to prospect the hills on the eastern
side of the San Pedro River. The soldiers told him that the only thing
he would find in those hills would be his own tombstone. The following
year Ed and his backers "struck it rich" on a claim that assayed
$15,000.00 a ton in silver and almost as much in gold. They named the
claim the" Lucky Cuss" because that was what the assayer called them.
They called the mining camp that grew up around the claim Tombstone in
memory of the dire prediction Schieffelin received when he first
arrived.
Because of the perceived need for religion in Tombstone which like many
other mining camps had its generous share of bars and bordellos, a
young Episcopal seminarian, Endicott Peabody, came from Massachusetts
in 1881. He conducted services and collected money to build a church
which was to be St. Paul's. One story has it that Peabody was the only
person in town whom all would trust to umpire a baseball game fairly.
So, he would indeed umpire the Sunday afternoon
baseball game, but only after both teams had been to services in the
morning! He returned to his studies in June 1882. After
ordination, he founded the Groton School and was for years its
headmaster. One of his more famous students was Franklin Delano
Roosevelt. Although Roosevelt was derided as a traitor to his class in
later years, no one dared to defame him in Peabody's presence. As long
as Peabody lived, the "Rector", as he was known to students and
alumni, defended FDR.
The capture of Geronimo in 1888 and the ending of the Indian Wars did
not bring peace to the border as the lone traveler and isolated ranch
house sometimes learned to their sorrow. Anglo, Mexican, and Indian
outlaws and rustlers made the border a dangerous place to live.
Revolutions in Mexico added to the danger between 1910 and 1929.
Douglas, Naco, and Nogales were scenes of Mexican revolutionary
military action. Soldiers from Fort Huachuca were sent to all three to
protect American lives, property, and territorial integrity. Concurrent
with some of the revolutionary activity, smugglers from both sides of
the border were trying to make a few dishonest dollars from running
illegal liquor during Prohibition from 1918 to 1933. If you innocently
happened on a mule train of contraband liquor headed north, you would,
if caught, be just as dead as though you'd stopped a "stray" bullet
from a German supplied revolutionary rifle.
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