Boot Hill Cemetery Tombstone, Arizona. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Boothill Cemetery Tombstone, Arizona

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Boothill Graveyard is a small graveyard of at least 250 interments located in Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona.[2] Also known as the "Old City Cemetery", the graveyard was used after 1883 only to bury outlaws and a few others. It had a separate Jewish cemetery, which is nearby. "Boot Hill" refers to the number of men who died with their boots on. Among a number of pioneer Boot Hill cemeteries in the Old West, Boothill in Tombstone is among the best-known, and it is one of the city's most popular tourist attractions. Originally called Boothill Cemetery, the graveyard was founded in 1878. Cowboys who "died with their boots on" lie next to housewives, business men and women, miners, gamblers, ladies of the "red-light district" and all the famous and not so famous occupants that contributed to Tombstone's early history. By the 1920s, Boothill had fallen into ruin with many grave markers lost or unreadable. A group of citizens in Tombstone and Cochise County began the task of researching old burial records, consulting with relatives, older residents, and using all means available to identify the occupants and mark the graves properly. The task took several years and the efforts of many to accomplish. This resulted in the graveyard being restored much as it was in the early years when it was the city cemetery.

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Notable interments and grave markers[

Boothill Graveyard in 1940, before it was fully restored

 Marshal Fred White, killed by Curly Bill Brocius on October 30, 1880. On the night of October 28, 1880, several Cowboys entered town and began drinking, with several of them firing their pistols in the air at different locations. Marshal White proceeded to confront each of them and disarm them. All of those confronted by him gave up their weapons voluntarily, without incident. Late that night, White encountered "Curly Bill" Brocius at the east end of town, on a dark street in a vacant lot where the Birdcage Theater now stands. Brocius was intoxicated and he (or his companions) were firing pistols into the air. White instructed Brocius to surrender his pistol. Brocius did this by pulling the weapon out of his pocket, handing it barrel-first to White. Wyatt Earp later claimed that he thought the pistol's hammer was "half-cocked" over a live round (it was later found to have contained six live rounds). When White grabbed the barrel and pulled, the weapon discharged, shooting White in the groin area. Wyatt Earp, who witnessed the shooting and flash but could not clearly see the action in the dark, pistol-whipped Brocius, knocking him unconscious, and arrested him. Wyatt told his biographer many years later that he thought Brocius was still armed at the time and did not notice that Brocius' pistol lay on the ground in the dark until Brocius was already down.[5] Brocius was arrested by Wyatt Earp and his brother Morgan, both of whom were working as Pima County sheriff's deputies at the time.

 Tom McLaury, [Frank McLaury]], and Billy Clanton, killed in the O.K. Corral shootout on October 26, 1881.

Tom McLaury (June 30, 1853 – October 26, 1881) was an American outlaw. He and his brother Frank owned a ranch outside Tombstone, Arizona, Arizona Territory during the 1880s. He was a member of a group of outlaws Cowboys and cattle rustlers that had ongoing conflicts with lawmen Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan Earp. The McLaury brothers repeatedly threatened the Earps because they interfered with the Cowboys' illegal activities. On October 26, 1881, Tom and Frank were both killed in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. The Tombstone shootout was his only gunfight.

 Dan "Big Dan" Dowd, Omer W. "Red" Sample, James "Tex" Howard, William E. "Billy" Delaney, and

Daniel "York" Kelly, perpetrators of the Bisbee massacre, legally hanged on March 28, 1884.[7] John

Heath, accused of organizing the robbery leading to the massacre, has a grave marker nearby but his body was actually returned to his hometown in Terrell, Texas.

March 8, 1884 - Tombstone, Arizona Territory- four men, members of the Heath gang, were lynched for their part in the infamous Bisbee massacre on Dec 8, 1883. One of those hung was Dan Kelly, AKA Yorky, had left his home in Cork County, Ireland in 1881 for a chance at a new life in the U.S. Kelly was living near Clifton, Arizona Territory, in December 1883 when a gang of outlaws raided the town of Bisbee and killed several people. Dan Kelly was one of the men suspected of holding up a store with two other hard cases, Red Sample and Tex Howard. He left town and headed north, where his movements were almost impossible to trace due to a blinding snowstorm that had hit the area. Kelly boarded a train at Bowie Station on Dec. 11, but was put off near Deming after claiming that he was an itinerant hobo. Kelly was eventually arrested and taken back to Tombstone, Arizona Territory, to stand trial for the Bisbee robbery. Kelly claimed he was innocent but was sentenced to hang on the gallows. He was not fearful of that moment and remained talkative and full of good spirit. Kelly signaled the executioner to proceed and shouted, "Let her loose." In an instant he was dead. Kelly's remains were transported to Boot hill cemetery.

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 Jack Dunlop aka "Three Fingered Jack"]died of wounds on February 24, 1900 after an attempted holdup.

Shot by Jeff Milton. Dunlap, one of a band of train robbers, attempted to rob an express car which Milton guarded. He was critically wounded and his friends left him to die. He was found and brought to Tombstone, where he lived long enough to inform on his friends.

China Mary a.k.a. Mrs. Ah Lum. According to True West Magazine China Mary managed a well-stocked general store where she dealt in both American and Chinese goods. Mary was also a money lender and she used her own judgment to determine borrower's credibility. When Mary died of heart failure in 1906, the town folks had a large turnout for her service. She was buried in Tombstone's Boothill Cemetery.

Boothill Graveyard was also a huge part of Tombstone. Founded in 1879, Boothill Graveyard was used until the new cemetery – New Tombstone City Cemetery – opened in 1884. After the new cemetery opened and began being used, Boothill Graveyard was called “The Old Cemetery.” The newer cemetery is still being used today. Stories say that Boothill received its name from the fact that the individuals there had died unexpectedly or violently and were buried boots intact. However, Boothill was in fact named after the pioneer cemetery in Dodge City hopefully helping tourism in the late 1920s. Many individuals from Tombstone are in this cemetery, including victims from a shootout that took place in 1881 between the Cowboys and Earps on Fremont Street. For years, though, the cemetery was neglected. It was taken over by the desert and gravestones were removed by vandals. Some began to clean up The Old Cemetery in the 1920s and doing research so that the grave markers could be properly replaced. The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is the most famous Tombstone event, although it happened in a Fremont Street vacant lot and not the O.K. Corral. The event took place on October26, 1881 when the Cowboys had a bit of a run-in with a few Earps – Morgan, Virgil and Wyatt. Not even 30 seconds and about 30 gun shots later, Frank and Tom McLaury and Billy Clanton were dead. For many, it is believed that it this sole event that has kept the city of Tombstone alive.

The Tombstone Epitaph offers us more insight to the town with it's December 29, 1881 article on the shooting of Virgil Earp. The article in part reports...

" At about 11:30 o'clock last night, U.S. Deputy Marshal Virgil Earp was proceeding from the Oriental Saloon, on the northwest corner of Allen and Fifth streets, to his room at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, and when he was about the middle of the crossing of Fifth Street, five shots were fired in rapid succession by unknown men, who were standing in the old Palace Saloon that is being rebuilt next door above Tasker and Pridham's store, on the southwest corner of the same street".