Surviving the aftermath ranch5/30/2023 ![]() ![]() Cora further added: “My brother Ed went down to the stage and found Bud dead on top. “At Drew’s Station the firing and rapid whirling by of the coach sent the men of the station to the scene of the tragedy, when they found poor ‘Budd’ dead lying in the road, and by the bright moonlight saw the murderers fleeing rapidly from the place.” Interestingly, the Epitaph notes that the telegraph from Benson telling of the event didn’t reach Marshall Williams in Tombstone until 11 o’clock that evening, and Cora refers to the Stage in the area of Drew’s at 9pm, and the stage had passed through Contention at 8pm.Īs Bob Paul struggled to get control of the horses they “immediately sprang into a dead run.” Paul’s struggle with the horses as they raced from the scene would have taken the stage close enough to Drew’s Station that they could well have seen a portion of the aftermath. ![]() But they did see a portion of the event just afterward, as the Epitaph noted. The bright Arizona moonlight made it possible for Mama and us children to see the whole thing and we saw the holdup men ride around the hill and off into the distance.” Given the distance from Drew’s Station/home to the location where Philpot was shot, (see map on our Drew’s Station page #1) it is unlikely that they would have seen the entire event given the distance, no matter how bright the moon that evening may have been. ![]() Hardly had we said goodnight to Bud when we heard a shot ring out, and then the shooting sounded as if a bunch of firecrackers were going off. The nine o’clock left our place, with Bud Philpot driving, loaded with silver bullion from Tombstone. Of the shooting death of Philpot she added: “Once the stage was robbed but a short distance from us. ![]() Bud Philpot was the driver of the first class stage, and we children always got up and waved goodbye when he left late at night.” Tombstone ran two stages daily, one second class four-horse stage and one first class six-horse stage. We also had the Tombstone stages to change. The four horses were changed at our place and Mama would give the passengers breakfast for a dollar a piece. “We were able to secure the stage stop between Benson and Contention. We saw him many times afterwards both at our ranch and in Tombstone but in time he forgot those who had been a friend to him.” Schieffelin’s discoveries clearly took place long before any mills were built to refine the very ore that he discovered. That man was Ed Schiefflin, and he went from our house and discovered the fabulous Tombstone lode around which grew the fabled mining town. He begged his supper and breakfast and we bedded him down for the night in our stables. “That spring a man came to our ranch on foot. Using is as a doll, and it being my only plaything I was heartbroken when I accidently broke it on a rock one day.”Ĭora also recalled a visitor at their ranch though the timing of this visit based on her account leaves this information in question. To me it was the most beautiful thing a child could have and I kept it for many months. For Christmas of 1880 the only thing that Santa left me was a plain dark blue bottle. “I am not sure but I think at this time we were very poor people. He hired Mexicans to cut the wood from the Chiricahua Mountains. Soon afterwards, my brother Ed was able to secure the contract to deliver wood for the smelter. Before the smelter was completed my father passed away in November of 1880. A smelter was built and material was brought in by mule teams. “During this period the Contention Mine was opened up about ten miles north of what was to become the town of Tombstone. That year we had a nice garden and a good crop of corn. It had dirt floors and doors made of logs with thick canvass covering the window openings. Father and my oldest brother, Harrison-who was around eighteen-with the help of two Mexicans, built a three-room adobe house. “From Signal we moved to a spot on the San Pedro River about eighty miles north of Tucson which was our closest trading post. Cora Drew Reynolds wrote of her families moving to Arizona, and the little adobe building which would become a memorable part of the Tombstone and Earp story, known as Drew’s Station. But such accounts offer at least a glimpse of a time and place that otherwise we would know very little about. And the first publication to conclusively prove the exact location of Drew's Station was "On the Road to Tombstone: Drew's Station, Contention City, and Fairbank," by John D. It would be a challenge for any of us, late in life, to recall with accuracy, the days of our youth. A member of the Drew family, who lived atĭrew’s Station, wrote an account of those times. ![]()
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