Miller Valley Founders Arrested & Bankrupt

 

To most people in Yavapai County and even the entire Arizona territory, the news produced a shock as great as an earthquake. 

On March 1, 1878, Samuel C (“SC”) Miller, along with his brother Jacob (“Jake,”) was arrested, causing “great excitement here in financial circles,” the Phoenix Weekly Herald reported. “They are charged with endeavoring to put property out of their hands with intent to defraud creditors. Much of their business seems to have been transacted in a loose way.” Those who were owed money by the brothers rushed to court, and the pair were declared insolvent and bankrupt.

Cowboys Deliver Instant Justice to Bandits

Paul and Jack Fodge were two brothers with dubious reputations. Aged 26 and 23 respectively, both had already spent time in prison. They didn’t exactly exhibit criminal mastermind-ship either when they decided to hold up a large group of cowboys and their companions at an early, holiday-season dance on November 14-15th, 1931.

The Great Flood of 1891

One year after the terrible storm that caused the Walnut Grove dam disaster, an even worse, two-part storm flooded Yavapai County.

Dan (Granville) Fain Nearly Murdered!

Dan Fain around the time
of the incident.

It was seven years before the Rafter 11 would brand its first bovine; when Norman Fain was just a lil’ cowpoke, at the mere age of 3. “Dan Fain was assaulted at Humboldt [May 31, 1910,] and escaped death solely through good fortune,” the Weekly Journal-Miner exclaimed.

Two Train Wrecks in Two Weeks

It was the height of summer, late July 1912, when two railroad accidents occurred on the Santa Fe, Prescott, and Phoenix railway.

The Forgotten Mining Town of White Horse City

The genesis of White Horse City was the locating of three mines in the Walker district in the Spring of 1899. The original owners, GM Wright, CW VonWolfe, and R Horsecroft, founded the Lone Pine, Hammer, and White Horse mines. “The property is located only seven miles from [Prescott] in the mountains just east of Lynx creek and to the right of the McCabe road,” the Weekly Journal Miner described. These mines were located between the highly successful McCabe and Mudhole mines in the Walker district.