"Cliff" Griffin, as everyone called him. was a tenderfoot who loved Arizona and the life of a cowman from the time he arrived  here in 1884.
Born in Washington. D. C, February 14, I860, he rejected his father's plan to make him a minister, saying he wanted to be a cowboy. As a result he came to Globe at eighteen and for a time worked for Jim Hazard's outfit on Salt River.
Two years later he bought a small ranch near the mouth of Pinto Creek (now under Roosevelt Lake) and in 1888 married Laura Bell Hooker. In 1906, after selling his land to the government as a part of the Roosevelt reservoir site. Cliff bought the Samuels' ranch in Pleasant Valley and moved the family there. The house in which the family lived was built by Al Rose, a Graham partisan in the Pleasant Valley War, who was killed during the feud.
In 1909 Cliff sold the Rose ranch to Zee Hayes and moved to Tempe in order that his daughters might receive good schooling. City life was too much for him. however, and in 1912 he bought the 76 outfit on Rye Creek and moved there. In a short time he resold it but bought it back again in 1920. When he died in Globe on October 23, 1943 , he still owned the 76.
His daughter Margaret, Mrs. John Armer. now looks after it for her mother who lives in Globe.
Cliff Griffin was one of the few ranchers in the Tonto country who, during the first year or two after the Firest was created in 1905, would allow a Forest Ranger to stay at his place overnight. Like most stockmen, he did not relish government control of grazing, but with most of the rest, gradually accepted it as the Forest Administration improved.
Handicapped by deafness from early youth. Cliff Griffin was one of the best liked cattlemen of Gila county.
He is survived by his wife. Mrs. Griffin of Globe, and daughters, Mrs. John Armer and Mrs. Fred Armer. Globe, and Mrs. A. B. Cox, Burlingame. California.
Source: Pioneers and Well Know Cattlemen of Arizona by Roscoe G. Willson volume 2


"Pecos" McFadden, as he has been known since childhood, was born in Throckmorton. Texas. February 11, 1885. In the spring of 1887, his father, William McFadden, brought a shipment of cattle to Holbrook and located them in Pleasant Valley just a few months before the Graham-Tewkshury feud broke out.
The elder McFadden was accompanied by Glenn Reynolds who located in the Sierra Anchas on what is now known as Reynolds Creek. This was the Glenn Reynolds who, two years later as sheriff of Gila County, was killed by the Apache Kid's accomplices as they were being taken to the Yuma Penitentiary.
Fed up with dodging bullets, the elder McFadden moved to a range adjoining Glenn Reynold's, in 1888. It was here that Pecos was raised. When Pecos was ten years old, he had a brand of his own, J. L. , and was a regular range hand. Seven years later, in 1902, he bought the Jim Sturgeon brand in Pleasant Valley and moved it to the Salt River near Livingston.
During that same year, he became a partner of George and John Armer. But in toil, this partnership was dissolved, and Pecos purchased the Flying H spread, then managed by "Ribs" Henderson. He sold the Flying H to the Armers in 1913, and two years later bought the Col. Jesse Ellison's Q outfit near Pleasant Valley. A year later he bought the Zee Hays holdings in Pleasant Valley and ran the two spreads as a unit.
Then came a turn for the worse, which every old cowman has experienced. The bottom fell out of the market in 1919 and broke Pecos. For a time he drove a truck.
However, a year later, the bank that held the paper -knowing Pecos was a thorough cowman—turned the outfit back to him to do what he could with it. In 1923 George Wilson came in with him. and they bought the bankrupt Flying V's and the old Medlar HZ's which, with the Q's, gave them one of the largest spreads in the area.
Pecos and Wilson divided the range in 1030, with Pecos keeping the
Flying H and HZ's. Later, he sold the Fying H to his sons, Lonnie, Gordon and Arden.
In 1913, Pecos sold the HZ to Roy Rucker and retired to Phoenix where he now lives with his wife, the former Marian Sanders, whom he married in 1907.
Source: Pioneers and Well Know Cattlemen of Arizona by Roscoe G. Willson volume 2


James Newton Porter, born in Kentuckytown. Texas. December 20, 1853, brought a large herd of cattle to Arizona in 1881, which be first located in Cochise County.
In 1888. Porter moved his livestock to Graham County where, using the Flying X and Pitchfork brands, he located them near Fort Thomas. Here for a number of vears he furnished beef to the soldiers for allotment to the Apaches.
An energetic businessman. Porter operated stores at Fort Thomas and Geronimo for a time and became interested in banking in Safford in 1890, and in Globe in 1900. lie was also interested in the stage line from Bowie to Globe.
Establishing a home in Globe where be brought his wife, formerly Ella Caruthers of Texas, and his daughters Stella and Lillian, he became active in livestock and ranches in Gila County.
At one period of the early 1900's. he became very wealthy, owning property all over the county. It was during this time that he purchased a vast mahogany tract in southern Mexico which he later lost through confiscation. Also in these years he owned stock in Texas banks and had other widely scattered investments. Among his properties was a ranch on the present site of Roosevelt Lake, which he sold to the Government.
He sent his family east to have his daughters educated there and furnished them with funds with which they traveled extensively in England and Europe. For years they spent only their summers in Globe.
The panic of 1907 threw Porter into financial difficulties from which he never fully recovered. Cattle prices dropped and his ventures in live-stock caused him such a loss that he gave up all his property and about 1918 went to Los Angeles to live.
In Los Angeles he engaged in the real estate business but never regained his wealth. He died there in May of 1921.
For many years J. N. Porter probably had more influence in the Gila County livestock business than any other single person.
Two daughters. Mrs. Stella Russell and Mrs. Lillian Butler, of Dallas. Texas, are the only survivors.
Source: Pioneers and Well Know Cattlemen of Arizona by Roscoe G. Willson volume 2

From about 1908 until his untimely killing in a gun battle in 1932, Zee Hayes was one of the most active and aggressive cattlemen in Gila county.
His operations extend from the San Carlos Apache reservation on the south to the Mogollon Rim on the north, including holdings in Pleasant Valley and in Globe and Salt River areas.
Born in Hillsboro, Texas, in 1884, Zee came to the San Carlos reservation with his parents in 1891, where his father located their cattle brought in from Texas.
Raised in the rough life of the cow camps and mining communities Zee soon developed a spirit of enterprise and aggressiveness that started him out as a cowman in his own right while still in his teens.
This he accomplished by going after mavericks in country so rough that few cowboys cared to gather them out.
One time in this work a big maverick steer gored his horse and tossed it and Zee over a cliff, where Zee lay unconscious for several days before being found. The insertion of a silver plate in his skull saved his life. In spite of this handicap Zee became a top rodeo performer.
It was in 1908 that Zee and Blake Lewis of Copper Hill were married and soon thereafter he began buying cow outfits in Pleasant Valley until he was the largest owner in the area.
About 1916 he disposed of bis holdings in Pleasant Valley and bought his father's outfit in the Apache reservation.
After Zee was killed in 1932 his widow carried on the operation for several years until the range was turned over to the Indians in 1938. Over 1,000 5L (sic) cattle were then gathered out and disposed of.
His widow remarried after his death and is now Mrs. Hugh Chipman of Coolidge. His daughter. Mrs. Evelyn Ryder, lives in San Francisco.
A brother. Jess Hayes, is School Sup't. of Gila County and the author of "Apache Vengeance." and other historical tales.
Source: Pioneers and Well Know Cattlemen of Arizona by Roscoe G. Willson volume 2

Willys Darwin Fuller, best known as “Wid”, certainly was entitled to be known as a “cowman”. In 1847, at the age of 12 he drove a cow all the way from Council Bluffs to Salt Lake Valley.
“Wid” was born in New York, Nov. 10,1835. His family moved to Nanvoo, Illinois in 1844; and in 1847 made the long trek to Salt Lake.
His father, Elijah Fuller, joined the Perrigreen Sessions company  for the overland trip, carrying all the family’s possessions in a wagon pulled by 2 yoke of oxen. Young Wid, on foot, drove the family cow.
In later years he was given to saying that he knew every foot of the 1,000 miles from Council Bluffs to Salt Lake because he has stepped off the entire distance.
Arriving in the great Salt Lake Valley, the family found it difficult to eke out a living. During the first years the bulbs of the sego lilies, dug with a sharpened stake, often constituted the main part of their fare.
As he grew up Wid began freighting from Council Bluffs & San  Pedro to Salt Lake and soon owned three 8 horse teams and 6 wagons
In 1867 he married Annie Campkin and settled in Dixie, in Southern Utah, where he lived until 1880.
His wife had died in 1878, so in 1881 he pioneered Pine County, under the Mogollon rim, with his 4 sons and 2 daughters and the cattle and horses from his Dixie ranch.,
Here in the little settlement of Pine, “Wid” fuller helped dig out the first irrigation ditches and became one of the best cattlemen in the region, as well as a community leader.
In 1910 he turned his interests over to his son, Alfred, and retired.
He died on June 10,1920.
Two sons, Frank Fuller, now 85 and Alfred Fuller , 83, and many other descendents survive this hardy pioneer, Willys Darwin Fuller.
(A grandson ,also know as “Wid” lives at Camp Verde)
Source: Pioneers and Well Know Cattlemen of Arizona by Roscoe G. Willson volume 2