This is for anyone interested in the firsthand history of the QCU and other ranches in the Superstition, Tonto Basin areas. I wrote this several years ago for an Arizona cattlemans magazine.
The history of ranching and the pioneer ranchers who settled the Superstition Mountain cattle range, the Tonto Basin, Globe, Payson and the southern Mazatzal range has been mostly lost to the ages.
Bits and pieces are found in history books, articles and dime paperbacks but the names and places and the faces for the most part are gone, faded into the ages. Even some of the old ranches themselves are gone forever, buried underwater by the great dams that created Roosevelt, Apache, Canyon and Saguaro Lakes.
In 1992 I was able to copy from the memoirs and papers of Maude B. Clarke. I visited with her at her home in California. Maude was the daughter of Matt Cavaness, the first man to run cattle in the Superstition Mountains. The Matt Cavaness ?River Ranch? at the south end of Superstition Mountain later became the Bark-Criswell Ranch and later on the Tex Barkley ?Quarter Circle U Ranch? on Peralta Road.
Maude Cavaness married Wescott Bailey Clarke a Hollywood actor who in the 1920?s and 1930?s made several very successful films with producer/director Hal Roach. The Clarke?s lived in Los Angeles and later San Diego but Maude never forgot or lost her love for Arizona, the people and the remote ranches she grew up on.
Maude Bertha Cavaness-Clarke who everyone called, ?Bertie?, lived to be 101 years old. She passed away at her central California home in December 1996. Mrs. Clarke collected and carefully kept all the Cavaness family heirlooms and remembrances including things she inherited from her aunt Rebecca Ann Peeples, (Mrs. Abraham H. Peeples). The Cavaness and Peeples were two of Arizona?s oldest pioneer families.
Among the many possessions and papers she kept were remembrances of the ranches her father Matt Cavaness and brother Daniel Cavaness owned and worked. There was no particular order to these records and they were not written as diaries or journals or books, rather as hundreds of lines with the names, ranches and events. The people represented in those written lines are now long since passed and lost to memory except in those short sentences.
When I copied the things that day from Maude?s papers, one thing she asked was to promise that one day I would put all those people?s names down somewhere and preserve them in some way. Maude had known all of the people, knew their families, knew the ranches they lived on and their trials and tribulations and it was important to her that her father?s and her family?s lives not be forgotten.
Jess Ellison, one of Maude?s dearest friends in Arizona told this story of the day he met Maude and lost his ranch but made a friendship that would last his lifetime. The rest of the things written here are simply one or two line remembrances by Maude of what was the Superstition and Tonto ranches in the final days of the 1800?s and early 1900?s.
Jess Ellison writes:
?One day a man with a grey beard drove up to our ranch on the Tonto. With him in the wagon was a woman, a grown man, a 14 year-old boy and three girls. One of the girls was Maudie. The man driving the wagon said, ?I?m Matt Cavaness, this here is my wife and family. We?re from Phoenix. Your neighbor Bill Neal is my brother in law. We like it up here. I got some cash and I?m wondering if you would sell me this place??
My father?s eyes got a real glassy look and he said, ?I?ve been a wanting to.? ?Maybe we can trade.?
My mother came out and asked the women folks to come in the house. The young man strolled out into the orchard. My father and Matt Cavaness talked and the trade was made in 15 minutes without father asking mama what she thought of it. Thirty acres of irrigated land, a water right, 300 fruit trees, a barn full of hay, two haystacks, 20 head of cattle, a wagon, mowing machine, hay rake and some other things ? all for the great big sum of $1,250.00 dollars cash.
Father moved us into some tents down by the creek and the Cavaness family moved into our ranch house. The Cavaness were nice to us. Dan Cavaness and I fished, swam and prowled the creek bottoms together. Maude was one of my best friends growing up.
The Superstition, Tonto, Mazatzal, Globe and Payson ranches as they were in 1891-1910 from the papers of Maude Cavaness-Clarke.
My father, Matthew Cavaness always used the River brand on all his stock, cattle and horses. It was a meandering line like a river on the left side of the cattle and on the left thigh of the horses. Father taught me he always branded on the left side because he was right handed and at roundup it was easier for a cowboy to see the brand and rope the stock from that side.
George Marlow and Alfred Charleboise bought my father?s old ranch at Superstition Mountain and branded their stock with the ML brand.
Later Jim Bark and Frank Criswell bought that ranch and used the JL brand.
William Augustus Barkley later bought the ranch and over the years used the D Bar D, the Quarter Circle W, the 50, the TB, the Quarter Circle U and the 3R-1/4OU brands.
Jack Fraser started the JF Ranch in the Superstition Mountains and later Billy Martin took it up. Fraser branded his stock with the JF brand and Martin used the JF, 2E and J/A brands on his stock.
The old Reavis Ranch in the Superstitions was taken up by Will Clemans. He branded with the 5 Bar, Bar W, 4J, UU, E/T and OO brands. Will Knight was the ramrod for Clemans. Herman Petrasch was the handyman at that ranch.
Perl Grafton Ellison was the owner of the famous Q Ranch in the Tonto Basin.
Harvey Colcord, Bill Beard, Claude Delbridge, Ben Nail, Roy Tucker, George Parr, Charley Brewer, Jim Girdner, George Parr and Pete Stricklin were all cowboys for the Q Ranch.
Hi Perry was the ramrod for the Q Ranch. A real live rodeo star.
Bill Carrol was the cook for the Q Ranch. He was 85 in 1910.
On the Q ranch the brand PEQ was Perl Ellison?s cattle, JEQ was Jesse Ellison?s cattle, SEQ was Buss Ellison?s cattle and the TEQ brand was Tom Ellison?s cattle.
Glen Ellison bought the Buzzard X Ranch from Tex Connor and Bill Goswick was the ramrod for Ellison.
Bud Fisher ran the HI Ranch up on Rye Creek.
Al Rose started the ER Ranch and later Bob Samuel took it up after Rose was killed in the Pleasant Valley range war. Samuels had come to Arizona with Perl Ellison of the Q Ranch.
Alf Devore and his son Bob ran the R Cross Ranch. They branded their stock with the T4E and Rocking K brands.
Boyd Thompson started the Circle Y Ranch and branded his stock with the 3 spoke wagon hub brand.
Doc Ketcherside owned the UK ranch near Roosevelt.
Andy Wilbanks ran the Flying W Ranch and branded with the Flying W brand. Charley Morrow and Pecos McFadden were cowboys for Wilbanks. Pecos was wanted for rustling cows in Texas.
The MO Bar brand was the George Hubbard Ranch.
Cattle thieves and rustlers from the Tonto Basin to Payson used the Lazy VP brand on their stolen stock. They used an abandoned ranch as their headquarters but mostly did their work out of camps. It took the law almost a decade to finally catch them and put an end to their rustling.
Apache Indians used the V Bar 20 brand off the San Carlos Reservation near Globe and Roosevelt.
The Sexton Ranch ran the Bar L Bar brand. Old man Sexton sold out his operation to Ed Gilliland.
Ed Gilliland took up the 4 Cross L brand on the old Sexton Ranch.
Louis Naeglin ran the Diamond Bar Ranch and branded his stock with the Bow and Arrow brand.
Jim Hazelwood had the E Spear ranch and branded with the E Spear brand.
The Young ranch was run by Sam Young near Cherry Creek and he ran the VT brand on his stock.
The Jeff Paulson Ranch branded with the Z Bar brand.
Bill Young had the Bar X ranch and Johnny Jackson was his ramrod. Young, Arizona is named for Bill Young.
Ben Nail and his sons, Bill, Pete, and George partnered with Jess Ellison on the Q Ranch and used the brands Cross S and 7 Bar on their cattle and horses.
Burrell Lann and his father ran the Butcher Hook ranch in Tonto Basin. Lann sold out and moved with Johnny Cline to the TT Ranch over at New River. The Butcher Hook brand was one of the most famous in Tonto Basin.
Alf Devore, Will Lee, Tom Lee, Chet Cooper and Neil Lyle partnered to run the Shute Springs Ranch and used the SS brand on their stock.
Art Powell started the Flying H ranch but was killed in a range accident and John Loveless took over the operation. Loveless kept the Flying H brand.
Daniel Marley owned and branded with the DV brand. He had an Apache Indian named Henry as a cowboy who had fought the cavalry in the Apache wars.
Bob Samuel ran the ZT ranch and brand. Flos Dunbar was his ramrod and an all around cowboy and rodeo star.
The MO Ranch and brand was also known as the old Hubbard Ranch.
Jim Ramer had the Saddle Knife and OW Ranches.
Bill Vories ran the R Bar Ranch and Tommy Chilton was his head wrangler.
The TG brand was used by the Pinal Creek ranch. Apache Indians were part owners in that ranch.
Supple Hicks branded with the Double Circle brand. Lester Jenkins was the ramrod on the Hicks spread.
Boog McFadden started a little ranch in Mud Springs wash, ran horses and branded them with the LIT brand. Rustlers took most of his stock.
The old Hockers Ranch at Pinto Creek and the Salt River was always roundup headquarters because of its central location. As many as 12 ranches would use the ranch for spring and fall roundups. Old man Hocker ran the Bar HH Bar brand on all his stock.
A former rustler from Texas started up a ranch in Tonto Basin in the early days and branded stock with the RL and R Arrow brands. He was suspected of rustling Tonto Basin cattle and one day he just disappeared. No one knew if he had been driven out or he was lying dead somewhere out on the range. His name is forgotten but my brother Daniel thinks it was Riley Latimer.
Alf Devore at one time or another branded stock with the R+ brand and the R Cross brand.
Fred Haught from around Payson was a good friend of my father. He was a bear and lion hunter.
Zack Booth was a cowboy who bounced around from ranch to ranch. He was handy with a rope and a gun and he was hung in Globe for killing two sheep men employed by the Daggs brothers.
Ed Bouncer owned a General Store at Payson and we would go there twice a year. A real treat. It took us 5 days to go and come back.
My father (Matt Cavaness) would always stop at the Red Top Saloon in Payson, he was great friends with August Piper who owned the place.
There was another saloon in Payson called the 16 to 1 and mother wouldn?t let father go in there. There was fights and killings in there on a regular basis.
Boardman?s General store in Payson was my next favorite place to stop.
In Globe father always did business at Ike Lowthian?s Livery Stable and Blacksmith shop. Father and Ike were old friends.
Our House Saloon in Globe was a regular stop for my father. Will Rowland owned the saloon, he was another of fathers old friends.
Old Mr. Ryan ran the Supply Store in Globe, he was a nice old man and always gave us kids treats. Later he sold out to a mean man named Evans.
The Pacific Saloon in Globe was another wild place my father had to stay out of. John Mankin ran the saloon and he was said to have killed several men.
In the early 1900?s up through 1920?s Clara Allen ran Clara?s Red Light parlor in Globe. Mother wouldn?t let me even walk on the same side of the street as Clara?s.
Billy Lee was a cowboy who bought his own ranch, the Box Bar Ranch at Coon Creek. Bill was a good friend of mine growing up and an expert roper.
Ola Young was Bill Young?s daughter at Young, Arizona. She ran the post office at Young and worked in the General Store. She and I were good friends and I loved to go to Young in the springtime and fall.
?All these ranches and people are gone today, they?re just a fleeting memory.?
Maude Bertha Cavaness-Clarke Nov. 5, 1895 ? Dec. 8, 1996
