Edwin Tewksbury in the 1890s, the last surviving Tewksbury to be involved in the feud.
Commodore Perry Owens, as Sheriff of Apache County, Arizona, 1886–1888
John Fletcher Fairchild, member of sheriff Mulvenon's posse and later sheriff of Coconino County
Frederick Russell Burnham in Arizona Territory during 1881
An unidentified member of Sheriff Munvenon's posse[1]
Date
1882–1892
Location
Tonto Basin, Arizona Territory, United States
Caused by
Family feud and introduction of sheep into the valley
Resulted in
Annihilation of the Graham faction.
Parties
Graham Family
Blevins Family
Hashknife Outfit
Tewksbury Family and allies
Daggs Outfit
Arizona lawmen
Lead figures
Samuel Graham †
Tom Graham †
Andy Blevins †
John D. Tewksbury †
Edwin Tewksbury
Casualties and losses
35–50 killed
The Pleasant Valley War, sometimes called the Tonto Basin Feud, or Tonto Basin War, or Tewksbury-Graham Feud, was a range war fought in Pleasant Valley, Arizona in the years 1882–1892. The conflict involved two feuding families, the Grahams and the Tewksburys. The Grahams were ranchers, while the Tewksburys, who were part Native American, started their operations as cattle ranchers before branching out to sheep.[2]
Pleasant Valley is located in Gila County, Arizona, but many of the events related to this feud took place in neighboring Apache and Navajo counties. Other neighborhood Arizona parts, such as Holbrook and Globe, were the setting of its bloodiest battles. Although the feud was originally fought between the Tewksburys and the Grahams against the well-established cattleman James Stinson, it soon involved other cattlemen associations, sheepmen, hired guns, cowboys and Arizona lawmen. The feud lasted for about a decade, with its most deadly incidents between 1886 and 1887; the last-known killing took place in 1892.[3]
The Pleasant Valley War had the highest number of fatalities of such range conflicts in United States history, with an estimated total of 35 to 50 deaths, and the near annihilation of the males of the two feuding families. The Pleasant Valley War gave Arizona Territory a reputation for not being ready for statehood, which would not occur until 1912. Years after its end, many books and articles were written about the feud.
^"Posse Bushwack" by Maurice Kildare, Great West Magazine, Vol 2 No. 4 July 1968 p. 40. Maurice Kildare was a pseudonym for Gladwell "Toney" Richardson, who wrote many historical articles and many dime novels, many of them using various pseudonyms. Arizona Archives Online, Gladwell Richardson Collection, c. 1925–1980Tony Gladwell Richardson Collection, 1936, 1947, 1965–1966
^Coppock, Mike (August 12, 2014). "Scout for Two Continents: The little-known story of a Pleasant Valley War survivor whose Arizona adventures led him to Africa". True West Magazine. ISSN 0041-3615. OCLC 1585787. Archived from the original on August 19, 2014. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
^"Pleasant Valley History". Pleasant Valley Community Council. Retrieved 2007-07-07.[permanent dead link]
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