Return to Boyett DNA Surname Project: http://pbase.com/daveb/boyett
. http://www.jcs-group.com/oldwest/tombstone/warren.html
Link: http://www.hanksville.org/voyage/misc/BassCanyon.html
A Brief History of the Bass Canyon Addition
The Arizona Nature Conservancy
On August 22, 1884, Colonel A. Deland of the California Cavalry, two brothers, Fred and Jack Russell and George Baily, their black cook, were prospecting in the Gailuro Mountains when their camp was hit by a massive bolt of lightning. Fred Russell was killed outright, the other three seriously burned. After burying Fred, the three slowly made their way 65 miles overland to the "curative" hot springs now known as Hooker's.

They staggered in on August 29, but the restful little resort they so badly needed was the scene of another tragedy. Dr. King, the owner of the springs and much of the surrounding countryside, had been gunned down the day before their arrival by two neighbors, Melvin Jones and Ed Drew, during a dispute over property rights.

Jones and Drew held the position that they were the legitimate title holders to a certain piece of land. King felt that they simply annexed a portion of his already established ranch.

The piece of land in question on that summer day in 1884 brought about the death of the first man to own what was later to be come known as the Muleshoe Ranch. We refer to that particular disputed tract as the Bass Canyon Addition, and the outline of its 100 year journey from acquisition in a dusty gunfight to Conservancy preserve has some interesting highlights.

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Ed Drew moved to Arizona from Montana in 1873 with his parents, his three brothers, and his sister, Cora. Seven years later Ed's father died in Tombstone and the Drew brothers went to work in the mines. It was while working as a miner in Russellville that Ed Drew struck up a friendship with Melvin Jones. Together, in Bass Canyon, just north of the hot springs, they established the "homestead" that so enraged Glendy King.

Ed put up a small one room house and sent for his family. they began adding rooms, acquiring cattle, and building up their operation. Ed left soon after on a three month horse buying trip to Mexico and, discovering upon his return that Melvin Jones has made no improvements in his absence, dissolved the partnership.

These first Bass Canyon settlers, the Drews, appear to have been a talented and respected family. the oldest brother, Harrison, and Charles, the youngest, ran the ranch with Ed. The fourth brother, David, established a meat market in Willcox, supplied by the family ranch.

Ed Drew was the champion rodeo cowboy of Arizona for many years. His sister in 1888, at the age of 16, won an Arizona-New Mexico riding contest and was urged by Buffalo Bill Cody to join his Wild West show. Cora's mother overruled the glamorous possibilities, but four years later she did get to see the show in Chicago.

In her memoirs, "My Life in the Early West," Cora writes of the family watching while maurading Apaches butchered yearling cows within sight of the house and of an Apache band attacking, in 1886, the ranch of Melvin Jones, her brother's ex-partner, just over the hills from the Drew place in Bass Canyon. The Drews were living through these incidents in real life, at the same time that Cody was caricaturing them in his Wild West Show. It must have been an interesting experience for Cora.

After its murderous acquisition by Ed Drew and Melvin Jones, Glendy King's property (minus the Drew Ranch) was purchased at an auction in 1885 by Colonel Hooker and added to his legendary Sierra Bonita holdings. By the late 1800's the remote West, no doubt due in part to its popularization by events like Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, was attracting a number of distinguished visitors from Eastern cities. Many of them made Hooker's Sierra Bonita Ranch a stopover on their journeys.

In 1888 Augustus Thomas, then the dean of American playwrights, spent the night in Willcox with Colonel Hooker and Forrestine, his daughter-in-law, and subsequently made them models for the leading characters of a play he wrote soon after returning to the East. It appeared on Broadway in 1889 as the stage play Arizona. A smash hit, the play was later rewritten into a novel and in 1934 was made into the motion picture "Neath Arizona Skies" starring John Wayne.

The Drews followed the publicity surrounding the play's opening with great interest. A minor role in Arizona had been won by a cousin of Ed and Cora Drew and from their remote homestead in the Galiuros they watched the cousin forge a brilliant career. his name was Lionel Barrymore.

In 1898 the Drew Ranch was sold to Sam and Johnny Boyett, brothers who had been working for Hooker on the Sierra Bonita for the previous eight years. Ed Drew became the foreman of the Sierra Bonita and later was elected Sheriff of Graham County. He was shot to death in 1911 during a saloon holdup.

In 1899, a year after purchasing the Drew Ranch, Johnny Boyett took over as foreman of Hooker's operations at the Hot Springs. While at Sierra Bonita, Johnny Boyett had worked with Warren Earp, another of Hooker's cowboys and the youngest of the Earp brothers of Tombstone fame. Their relationship was a poor one. Boyett has a quiet and reserved reputation and was respected by most of those who knew him. Earp has been described as "quarrelsome, especially when drunk, and sobriety was not one of his virtues."

In 1900, on the 4th of July, all the cowboys from the Sierra Bonita Ranch and the Hooker's Hot Springs ranches came into Willcox for the celebration. The following evening, in the Headquarters Saloon, Johnny Boyett killed Warren Earp in a gunfight, ending the infamous history of the Earp brothers in Arizona. Charges were filed, almost immediately dismissed, and Warren Earp was buried the next day in the Willcox cemetary. Boyett returned to Bass Canyon and held the ranch for another decade.

By 1930 the Drew/Boyett Ranch and several adjacent properties had been annexed to Colonel Hooker's original holdings from Glendy King and renamed the Muleshoe. In 1935 the Muleshoe was purchased by Mrs. Jessica MacMurray, recently separated from her husband and looking for seclusion.

Several years later, while Mrs. MacMurray was touring Italy one summer, she received a request from her friend, Mrs. Patterson, to build a small cottage on the property. When she returned she was horrified to find the massive, multi-level stone lodge of 10 rooms now dominating the hillside adjacent to the headquarters. Private hot tubs on the lower level opened out onto an enormous concrete swimming pool, complete with diving board.

Obviously appalled at what she must have considered a serious breach of their friendship, Mrs. MacMurray ordered Mrs. Patterson off the ranch. She compensated her long-time companion for this "unwanted" building by deeding her the adjacent property originally owned by the Drew family. Ironically, as in the King incident, the piece of land inclusive of and surrounding Bass Canyon was again removed from the "home" ranch in another dispute over property rights.

Mrs. Patterson never lived on the property in Bass Canyon, but she held onto it and in 1984 The Nature Conservancy purchased 3,340 acres of it from her son in Chicago.

It was an important purchase for us. The Bass Canyon waters are perennial and run beneath a beautiful cottonwood-sycamore gallery forest. The canyon bottomland is a lush world of native fish and rare plants; an oasis of steep canyon walls draped with yellow columbine and red monkey flower, a concentration of zone-tailed hawks.

Not unlike the other holdings that were consolidated into the Muleshoe, this relatively small tract of land has an ecological value and an historic interest far out of proportion to its size. It is a property worthy, in every way, of the preservation we have given it.

Ken Wiley

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Most may recall my postings in 2006 concerning the argument in the Headquarters Saloon between Johnny Boyett and Warren Earp.

UPDATE, July 2009: Tucson Daily Citizen (Tucson, AX) Aug 7, 1958 ran a story and photo of Jim Kennedy with the gun that Johnny Boyett used. Kennedy reported that he was staying at the Wilcox House with his father that night and that Johnny had taken his gun to shoot Earp.

When I was researching this line of John Boyett and his brother Sam from Texas, I was contacted by Robert N. (Bob) Cash of Austin. Mr. Cash researched the Boyett brothers for a book published in 2000.

For anyone with an interest in this Boyett line (AZ, TX, TN, NC) of John Nathan Boyett and his brother Samuel Houston Boyett should get a copy of this excellent book.

"The Death of Warren Baxter Earp, A Closer Look" by Michael M. Hickey. I found my copy at Amazon.com and you can search the index and some of the pages on Amazon. Let me know if you are unable to find the book and I will send you the preview link.

The Boyett brothers (John Nathan Boyett and Samuel Houston Boyett) along with Sam's wife Edna and their son Fred are buried near the old homestead at the Fischer Cemetery in Comal Co TX. The homestead was just across the county line in Hays Co TX.

Link to the cemetery records:
Find A Grave: Fischer: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gsr&GScid=2165175

Fischer Store Cemetery Burial Records
. http://www.txgenweb2.org/txcomal/fischerburial.html
Buried Birth
Boyett Edna J. 31 Oct 1959 1877
Boyett Fredrick Owen 27 Jun 1964 1901
Boyett John Nathan 18 Dec 1919 29 Feb 1862
Boyett Sam Houston 24 Jan 1920 12 Dec 1866

Texas State Board of Health, Standard Certificate of Death:
Source: "The Death of Warren Baxter Earp, A Closer Look" by Michael M. Hickey
Source: State of Texas, Death Index: Johnnie Boyett, died Hays Co TX, Dec 1919 #35635

Sam Boyett, born in Burleson Co TX
Place of Death, Hays Co TX, near Hugo, TX
Mother, Martha Carson, MS
Father, N.L. Boyett, TN
Informant, Edna Boyett, San Marcos, TX

Census Records:

1920 San Marcos, Hays Co TX
Samuel H., Edna, Fred O. Boyett (Farm & Ranch)

1910 Comal Co TX (near Hays Co Line, on the Blanco to San Marcos Rd)
Samuel, Edna, Fred Boyett

1900 San Marcos, Hays Co TX
Samuel H. and Edna J. Boyett (Farm Manager, Boarders with Fredrick S. Scott, born New York)

1900 Unservgore Grant Land, Cochise, Arizona Territory
Jno N Boyett (Single, Range Foreman) b. Feb 1862 TX Father b. TN Mother b. TN

1880 Precinct 1, Blanco, Texas
Martha A. Carson and another household, cousin Silas Carson
Another household Martha Boyett, Widow along with John, Lucinda and Samuel Boyett

The 1870 Census, Burleson, TX
Nathan (head of houshold), age 47, NC
Martha, Wife, age 46, MS
Mary J., Dau, age 12, TX
Lucy, Dau, age 10, TX
John, Son, age 8, TX
Lucinda, Dau, age 6, TX
Samuel, Son, age 4, TX
Ellen, Dau, age 7/12, TX

1860 Census, Burleson, TX (Brazos Bottom)
N. Boyett, age 28, head , born in TN b abt 1832 (Nathan)
M. Boyett, age 30, wife, MS abt 1830 (Martha)
Frances, age 6, dau, TX abt 1854
Mary, age 3, dau, TX abt 1857
Lecy, age 1, dau, TX abt 1859

NOTE: also a C.H. Boyett (age 34) & Family in Burleson Co (Bar Keeper, Post Office Evergreen, Washington Co)

Data Source: 1850 United States Federal Census
Name Home in 1850 (County,State) Estimated birth year Birth Place
James C Boyett Tyler, TX abt 1815 North Carolina
Frances Boyett Tyler, TX abt 1827 MS(Frances Carson)
John R Boyett Tyler, TX abt 1840 Texas
Thomas P Boyett Tyler, TX abt 1842 Texas
Martha S Boyett Tyler, TX abt 1843 Texas
Nathaniel Boyett Tyler, TX abt 1847 Texas
Frances E Boyett Tyler, TX abt 1850 Texas
Martha Carson Tyler, TX abt TX, age 21 MS (Sister of Frances)

Data Source: 1850 U.S. Federal Census,Gibson Co. TN
2266 Lecia BOYETT 55 F Farmer NC
Nathan BOYETT 21 M NC
John BOYETT 18 M TN
Lucinda BOYETT 24 F NC
Indexed under Greer? (alternate surname submitted to ancestry.com)

Source: From Boyte to Boyette
Thomas Boyte b. abt 1665 Nansemond Co VA
Thomas Boyt b. abt 1710 Nansemond Co VA > Johnson/Dobbs NC
Thomas Boyet b. abt 1735 Dobbs/Wayne Co NC
Moses Boyet b. abt 1757 m. Delilah Wayne Co NC
Nathan Boyet b. abt 1777 m. Lecia lived in Gibson Co TN d. abt 1845

Carson/Boyett Family Research
Link: http://www.carsonsofbrazoscounty.com/Chapters.htm
(See chapters 11 and 19)

THE BOYETT FAMILY (Chapter 11)

SEVENTH GENERATION (Synchronized with Nathan Carson line)

139 James C. BOYETT was born in Tennessee in 1811 and died on 13 April, 1874. The Brazos County Deed Book B, page 418 - 419, for 18 Aug., 1855, lists the sale of a slave Isaac, age 23 or 24, to William C. Greer for $1050 to satisfy a debt. He was married to (82) Frances (Carson) BOYETT, who was born in Mississippi on 26 Nov., 1823 and died in Bryan, Texas on 20 Aug., 1887. They are both buried in the Bryan City Cemetery. (Frances was the daughter of John CARSON of Blanco County, who is believed to be a descendent of Thomas Gibson Carson). Their children were:
+140 Thomas Pinckney BOYETT
952 John Robert BOYETT was born in 1841, served in the Confederate Army and died on 17 Dec., 1869. He is buried in the Bryan City Cemetery, Brazos Co., Texas
+953 Martha Lucy (Boyett) GRAY
954 Phoebe HEARNE was born on 25 April, 1856 and lived in Bryan, Texas
+955 James Cobb BOYETT
+956 William Carson BOYETT
+975 Nathaniel L. BOYETT
989 Nancy (Boyett) COOK was born on 2 July, 1854, and married (994) R. A. COOK

Nathan L. BOYETT was the brother of James C. Boyett. He married Martha (Carson) BOYETT , who was the sister of Frances (Carson) BOYETT, who married James C. BOYETT. Frances was the daughter of John CARSON of Blanco County. They had one known son:
John BOYETT moved to Arizona with his cousin on his mother's side, Silas Green Unknown. Silas died of rabies from a skunk. [see chapter 20]

John BOYETT was born about 1862 in Texas, and was living in Burleson County, Texas in 1870. He moved to Arizona with his cousin on his mother's side, Silas Green CARSON.

Silas Green CARSON was born 7 May, 1874 in Blanco County, Texas, and died 4 Nov, 1900 in El Paso, Texas. He had moved to Bisbee, Arizona, and while there was bitten by a rabid skunk while sleeping on the ground. He subsequently died of rabies in El Paso.

NAME OF ORIGINAL GRANTEE: Nathan L. BOYETT File # Milam-S-592:
1. Settler's Affidavit $5.00 (4 June 1860 Burleson Co. Nathan L. BOYETT, settler on and improving vacant land; shows his mark.)
2. Survey Application $5.00 (4 June 1860 Burleson Co. applies for survey by virtue of his settlement, shows mark of N. L. BOYETT.)
3. Field Notes $5.00 (Description of the metes and bounds of 160 acres in Burleson Co., surveyed 4 June 1860.)
4. Patent $5.00 (Final title issued 8 July 1862 Patent 585 Vol 7)


As with many sources of information, all of the census and Carson family information does not match. For instance, a birth date/age difference between the 1860 and 1870 census in Burleson Co TX.

Another example is the Carson research that indicates that James C. Boyett and his brother Natham L. Boyett are the last known Boyett's in the Carson line. This information is not confirmed in the Gibson Co census records of 1850. Hopefully this posting will result in additional information at some point in the future.

Data Source: 1850 United States Federal Census, Tyler Co TX
James C Boyett Tyler, TX abt 1815 North Carolina
Frances Boyett Tyler, TX abt 1827 MS (Frances Carson)
John R Boyett Tyler, TX abt 1840 Texas
Thomas P Boyett Tyler, TX abt 1842 Texas
Martha S Boyett Tyler, TX abt 1843 Texas
Nathaniel Boyett Tyler, TX abt 1847 Texas
Frances E Boyett Tyler, TX abt 1850 Texas
Martha Carson Tyler, TX abt TX, age 21 MS (Sister of Frances)