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J.C. Leaverton
J.C. Leaverton was one of the early pioneers of Mammoth. His life was a colorful part of Mammoth’s and the Copper Corridor’s history.
J.C. Leaverton was born in Morgan County, Texas on December 23, 1867. As a young cowboy, he was a trail driver herding XIT cattle from Texas to Montana. He came to Arizona around 1890 where he began working at the Dunlap Ranch near Klondyke. Somewhere along the line he picked up the nick name “Chapo” which is Spanish for “Shorty”.
He moved to the Mammoth area around 1895 where he worked at several ranches. One of these was the 7B Ranch owned by John Brown. The 7B is now the area where the mesquite bosque managed by the Nature Conservancy is located, across the San Pedro River by Mammoth. It was there that he shared a bunkhouse with the infamous Indian scout, cowboy and gunman Tom Horn. Before Tom Horn became a paid assassin in Wyoming, he worked ranches around Mammoth and in Aravaipa Canyon where he was a prospector and part owner of a mine.
Leaverton would later work for a man named Anderson who was working the tailings from the Mammoth mine stamp mill with a leaching process using cyanide to extract gold. He also worked at the stamp mill of the Mohawk mine. He became a teamster, hauling supplies by wagon from Tucson to Mammoth for E.W. Childs General Merchandise Company in Mammoth. One story he told about his days as a teamster involved him traveling the trail in a pouring rain which soaked him to the bone. He was cold and still had a ways to travel. He stopped and unloaded about 5,000 pounds of supplies to get to a bottle of whisky that helped him get through the night.
In 1913 he was hired as a deputy sheriff for Mammoth by Pinal County Sheriff Henry Hall. He would serve as a deputy under every sheriff from then on until his retirement in 1943. In 1914 he was named one of the election officers for the Mammoth precinct. The voting place was listed as the dance hall. In 1924 he was also the town marshal in Mammoth.
Arizona passed a law in 1914 prohibiting the possession or sale of alcoholic beverages. The law took effect in January of 1915 and would last until 1933. New Mexico was a “wet” state which gave rise to bootlegging and the smuggling of liquor. Liquor was also smuggled across the Mexican border. The bootleggers and still operators kept the lawmen of Arizona busy.
Percy Leaverton, the son of J.C. told the San Manuel Miner some stories handed down from his dad in an article about his father printed in 1961. “In 1916 he lived at his homestead across the river from Mammoth where Copper Creek Road crosses the river road. Arizona was dry but New Mexico was wet so bootleggers ran liquor down the San Pedro Valley Road to avoid Tucson area to get the liquor to Mammoth, Winkelman and Globe areas. “Chapo” would go out at night, flag them down with his flashlight and if he found liquor, marched them off to the old wooden jail in Mammoth.
“One night a car stopped and asked one of the boys directions to Winkelman. ‘Chapo’ was without his gun but went to investigate. He saw gunny sacks filled with bottles of whiskey so he called to the house for someone to bring him his hat and outfit to him. His wife got his gun, covered it with his hat and took it out to him.
“One bootlegger said he would never be taken alive but Chapo stopped him without any trouble.”
In 1918, Leaverton was in one of the posses trying to capture the Power brothers and Tom Sisson after the infamous Power shootout where three lawmen including the sheriff of Graham County were killed. It was the largest manhunt in Arizona history.
On February 23, 1920, Leaverton along with deputies Chester Magee and Eddie Thorpe busted a still on the Mesquite Ranch 10 miles east of Oracle. It was said to be a sophisticated 150 gallon still. They confiscated 10 gallons of corn whisky and three guns. No arrests were made.
In 1925, Leaverton transferred to Oracle, where he became the Pinal County deputy there. He and his wife Elma lived in the Masonic home until 1928 when they moved into a new home. The Masonic home is the old Steward house which still stands in Oracle. The Leavertons had three sons, Wilbur, Percy and Joseph.
J.C. Leaverton
On December 24, 1926 it was reported in the newspapers that Leaverton had organized a search party for a hunter lost near Oracle. E.J. Wilkinson, a sergeant in the National Guard and former Captain in the Army during World War I was reported missing by his hunting partners at 7 p.m. They had been hunting deer in the Catalinas. The hunters got separated and when snow began falling they became worried about Wilkinson. Around 10 p.m. the body of Wilkinson was found by the search party underneath a mesquite tree 5 miles north of Oracle about 20 feet from the Carlink Ranch road. He had died from exhaustion and exposure according to the coroner.
In 1929 Leaverton was called to Mammoth to investigate a “cutting affray” which occurred at the Bluebird Mine. One victim was severely knifed about the body and was taken to the hospital in Winkelman. No one pressed charges and witnesses could not or would not identify the assailant or assailants.
J.C. Leaverton was one of the founding members of the Oracle Historical and Archaeology Society in 1929. He was a board member along with his wife Elma and W.W. Huggett. Elizabeth Lambert Woods was President, L.C. Terry was Secretary and the Treasurer was H.L. Bowyer.
Leaverton joined a posse at Ray in 1930. The officers were attempting to arrest a hermit who had barricaded himself in a stone cabin. He held the posse off for 24 hours before surrendering. The lawmen and the hermit exchanged gunfire throughout the day and night. The hermit turned out to be Ed Mitchell a prospector wanted for cattle theft. He had been living in the cabin in the Steamboat Mountains, 12 miles north of Ray on the Howard Parks ranch. In the early morning officers were able to get close enough to the cabin to set a fire on one side as a diversion. An officer then tossed in a tear gas bomb through one of the windows. That is when the coughing and gasping Mitchell came out the door and surrendered.
The Arizona Daily Star on March 6, 1931 reported: “The activities of deputies J.C. Leaverton of Oracle and Cris Clark of Mammoth have resulted in the discovery and destruction of a number of well equipped distilling outfits in the past two weeks. All were located in the Copper Creek and Aravaipa Canyon districts. No arrests were made.”
J.C. Leaverton retired as a deputy in 1943. He and his wife moved to Coolidge in 1946.
Elma Leaverton passed away in 1956. J.C. Leaverton died at the age of 93 in August 1961.
John Hernandez lives in Oracle. He is retired and enjoys writing and traveling. He is active in the Oracle Historical Society. He covers numerous public events, researches historical features and writes business/artist profiles.
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