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Volume 11 !.SS OCIATION Number 2 June 2018 embership: In This Issue: nst:itutions 2 President's Message :.. i braries, Museums) 3 From the Editor ~ -year $60 ~- S. Members --dividual Features ~-year $75 2-year $125 5 The Mystery of Aurilla Earp, Late of Lamar, Missouri: 3-year $175 A Search for Truth ==am ily Members By Pete McArdle _, _ S. Only) 26 Samuel Washington Finley: Lawman in Arizona Territory ~ - year $90 By Carmen J. Finley 2-year $160 3-year $215 35 Edward Capehart O'Kelley: The Man Who Killed the Man :1ternational Members Who Killed Jesse James -.dividual By Sharon Cunningham ~ -year $1 00 38 A Little More on Texas Frank Whitfield: Details from his 2-year $175 Pension File 3-year $250 By Chris Penn Gunfighter Memberships _, _S. and International 41 Prostitution in the Wild West: A Primer ~ -year $250 By John Olexa 2-year $475 3-year $675 '• .'VHA membership Departments - ~u d es subscription to the 44 Around the Campfire: Brothers Grime ..:.oumal, mailed four times By Marshall Trimble _aGJiy and the pre- and ::.ost-Roundup Saddlebag 47 Collecting the Wild West ~ usletters. 52 Yellowed Pages :.a d address changes, 53 The Wild West in the News -smbership requests and By Preston Lewis :""ewals to: 56 Reading the West/Off the Press ~- :1 Woggon, Treasurer Roy B. Young, Editor ::.536 E. Foxtrotter Road -_cson, AZ 85739-8334 62 Wild West Legend & Lore: Fritz and the Bear By Mike Cox - ~ma/ backissues ::_ ished 2008-2016 are ~-a each subject to avail- :::.:::-=ty. Back issues from :..::. - 7 forward are $15. WWHA Journal June 2018 Sa~nuel Washington Finley: Law-~nan in A:rizona Te:r:rito:ry By Carmen J. Finley, Ph.D., CG ther than their blood tie and the same eastern county in the state. However, Sar::1 given name, Samuel Joseph Finley and listed in the Tucson, Pima County Director his son Samuel Washington Finley had 1899-1901 as a resident of that county.- something else in common: though sep- report on law and order in Tucson it was clcl Iarated by more than a quarter-century, both that "Mr. Finley has been a resident of T... men would end up getting shot to death. for fourteen years, placing him in Tucsor The younger Finley was born about 1855 in about 1883 to 1901 ."5 However, other ne . Bodega, Sonoma County, California, to Samuel per items bring this into question. Joseph and Prudence (Brians) Finley. 1 He was Sam cou ld not be found in the 1880 or the third oldest of the couple's ten children. His federal census but Arizona voter registrG mother died when he was about fifteen and his lists give a good idea of his whereabouts · father died in a shooting when he was about territory from 1886 to 1900.6 twenty-one years old. 2 As can be seen, he moved about f re q u ~ What was initially known about Samuel but was in Tucson more than any other p i a:~ Washington Finley came from a biographical The map below shows the most southec.= sketch of his brother, James Buchanan Finley. ly states in Arizona and where Sam was ~~ James served as a legislator in the Territory of between 1886 and 1900. Arizona and was the subject of a two-page biog- Prior to this time, Sam was found in onfj raphy in Portrait and Biographical Record of federal census record. In 1870. At fifteer. Arizona.3 Published in 1901 , the book noted that was still living with his parents in Boc ~ James' brother, Samuel W. , was then engaged Sonoma County, California.7 What hap pe n~ in freighting at Naco, Arizona. Sam between 1870 and his arrival in Arizo- Naco is in Cochise County, the most south- unknown. The first document regarding Year Precinct County 1886 Tan que Verde Pima r -3 L_ -.J' -~ -. 1888 Tanque Verde Pima -l~/ \.~\ tJ, .. 1890 Redington Pima P.Wf C()f'. ~ - j 1 r-- r \ 1890 Tucson Pima I r !'SAi \//1 ('.ItA tt.M 1892 Tempe Maricopa I ··- 1892 Tucson Pima P\ 11.~ ..I .._ ......... _ 1894 Nogales Pima - --- 1896 Tucson Pima 1898 Tucson Pima 1900 Naco Cochise Chart and map show Finley's whereabouts in Arizona, 1886-1900. 26 WWHA Journal June 2018 found in Arizona was a deed executed in 1886.8 Riggs, and George T. Finley, brother of Sam, Beginning in 1892, however, Sam's name fre- were married February 20, 1889 in Tucson. 17 quently appeared in Arizona newspapers, the coverage giving an interesting idea of the life he Sam in the News lived. In August 1892, referred to in a news account as the arresting officer, Sam Finley captured Sam Marries Lizzie Riggs Edwin Tewksbury near Tempe, Maricopa Sam married Lizzie Riggs on October 14, County.18The Tewksburys and the Grahams had 1887, in Tucson.9 It appears that he lived in been feuding for years, arguing over property Redington prior his marriage since he sold 160 lines and grazing and water rightS.19 Sam, at that acres in section 28 in Pinal County in February time, was said to be the bartender at the Tempe 1886. 10 In that deed, he was described as "of Hotel. 20 In December 1893, Sam testified at the Redington," which is in the extreme northeast Tewksbury trial in Tucson. corner of Pima County adjacent to the Pinal Sam Finley was sharply questioned as to County line. This property is just north of the whether he was not more interested in the Pima County boundary, lying along Redington matter than in the mere duties of a deputy Pass Road and the San Pedro River. sheriff. The witness claimed not. Finley also Unfortunately, the Pinal County Recorder's testified to being a night clerk in the Tempe office was unable to find a deed indicating when hotel at the time of the tragedy. 21 Sam purchased this property. It was not a patent when he bought it although Sam was granted In Don Dedera's book on the so-called two 160-acre patents in the same and adjoining Pleasant Valley War, A Little War of Our Own, sections of Pinal County in 1890 and 1892.11 He the author notes Sam's involvement in a number was listed as a Pima County resident at those of places. Perhaps the most revealing is the fol- times. Also, in the 1886 and 1888 voter registers lowing: of Pima County, Sam is found in the Tanque Another record insisting to be set was Verde precinct, also in the northeast corner of Deputy Sheriff Sam Finley's. To his embar- 12 Pima County. rassment, certain individuals and newspa- Lizzie was about nine years older than Sam pers had cast him as a Tewksbury sympa- and had at least four children by a previous mar- thizer-else how could he go alone into the riage.13 Her marriage to Sam did not last long. In redoubt and bring in Ed? "This is incorrect," February 1893, Lizzie brought suit against her went his press release. "I am a friend of no husband for desertion saying he walked out on 14 factor, but simply did my duty as an officer, her on May 13, 1891. She testified that Sam and a man friendly to good Government . .. had not contributed much of anything to her sup- Anyone who makes the statement that I am port; asked for a divorce and the restoration of a friend of any faction is mistaken, to put it her Riggs name. Her 20-year-old daughter into language fit for publication."22 Mattie, said, "Mr. Finley seldom ever worked, and was often rude to her in my presence, curs- ing her and using vile epithets towards her." Her Sam Marries Virginia Castro 18-year-old son, John, said, "I have heard him On April 1, 1893, less than two months after curse her several times, and call her mean Lizzie's suit for divorce was instituted, Sam mar- nameS.111 5 ried Virginia Castro.23 That fall he purchased a Lizzie D. Riggs, widow, appears in the 1900 home in Tucson.24 But his marriage to Virginia census as head of a household with daughters did not go well, either. Less than two years after Lizzie L. Riggs, age 24; Lulu K. Riggs, age 18; their marriage, Sam took Virginia to court accus- and a grandson, James A. Finley, age 9, born in ing her of adultery, of abandoning him in November 1890 in Arizona. His father was born January 1894, and seeking a divorce and cus- in California, and his mother was born in tody of their two-year-old son.25 Virginia denied Colorado. Further research showed that James the charges and claimed Sam "has been guilty Leslie Finley was born November 22, 1890 and of excesses, cruel treatment, outrages, and that he was the son of Mattie Riggs and George abusive language against said defendant." She Finley. 16 Mattie Riggs, daughter of Lizzie D. asked that the suit be dismissed and that he pay 27 WWHA Journal June 2018 her, as temporary alimony, $40 per month for marshal. 36 However, a week later, when the her support and that of their child.26 Final dispo- didates were announced: sition of the case was not given, but apparently Sam Finley and Adam Sanders, it is s they continued to live together, at least off and agreed not to run against each other. A on. Pima County records show the birth of two left for Nogales to get a position there.