ED SCHIEFFLIN May 22, 1897 The body of Ed Schiefflin is expected to arrive at Tombstone some time this week. The following instructions regarding its disposition were received there from his brother. San Francisco, May 17, 1897, William Harwood, Tombstone--Ed died at Canyonville, Oregon. His request is to be buried three miles westerly from Tombstone on top of those granite hills. See that the grave is dug. I will be there the last of thte week. Charles L. Schiefflin. May 23, 1897 Schiefflin Hall at Tombstone is being draped in mourning in deference and respect to Ed Schiefflin after whom the famous hall is named. The decorations are artistically arranged by Peter Bute and will, when finished, present a very attractive and appropriate appearance. Over 1000 yards of crepe will be used. June 1, 1897 The death and burial of Ed Schieffelin has recalled the founding of Tombstone and revived the discussion regarding the origin of its gruesome name. A Bisbee cattle and mining man en route west last Sunday moring related to Mr. J.N. Zeigenfuse the story of the growth and decay of Tombstone. The writer himself was a part owner of the Tough Nut and the Lucky Cuss and was a resident of Tombsotone through its incipeint and lurid periods. He said that some time before 1878 Ed Schieffelin, his brothers, Al, Dick, Grid and another man whose name he had forgotten were unprofitably engaged in mining at Signal. Ed Schieffelin who was not a miner of any skill or a success in any direction left the the partner whose name is forgotten for Globe and Lake Valley N.M. They went up the Gila River where they had a dispute. Schieffelin followed up the Santa Cruz and finally brought up at a mining camp not far from Hanshaw. He remianed there a short time and then went to the Bronco, a disputed mine above Charleston, in the struggle for the possession of whch eight lives had already been lost. The apaches were overrunning the country, making existance uncertain. Schieffelin was hired at $2 a day to to watch for Indians. One day his horse strayed out from camp, wondered into what was afterwards called Tombstone Gulch. On that place he found some copper stained rock, later called the Tough nut. Schieffelin sent samples of the rock to Gird who was still at Signal. The result of an assay was not encouraging. He afterward found some Lucky Cuss ore and it was very rich. So fich in fact, that Girl and Al Schieffelin came on. They explored the region and sent a quantity of ore to Ehrenberg to be assayed. They had so little faith in the locality that htey soon after abandoned it and scattered over the country,Ed Schieffelin going to Globe and Lake Valley whither he had set out from Signal a year before. Returns from the rock sent to Ehrenberg were not received for five months. They were so surprising that Gird, and others gathered near the present site of Tombstone which then began to be built. The name by the way, was bestowed as follows: a thin unpromising vein in a granite formation was folowe d until it widened and threatened opulence amid a kind of rock whihc projected from the surface roughly resembling the headstone of a grave. July 17, 1897 "I know his whole history", said an old timer as he knocked ashes from his pipe. 'He came to the west a little feelow with his parents over fifty years ago and they settled in Oregon. Here he grew to sturdy boyhood and day by day to hardy manhood. Unitl he was 22 he lived along the banks of the Rogue. At that time an opportunity to visit Nevada was held out to him and he eagerly accepted. In the summer of 1877 or 78 he left Signal and started for southern Arizona. He carried his blankets upon his back and prospected alone in the wilderness. He liekd the simplest food best for said he, "there's no headache in cold water and no frescoes like the stars." So he slept with the sky for his canopy. He made the journey afoot, stopping when he pleased. In the fall of 1878 Scheffelin set out from Tucton on a prospecting tour in the Broken Hills. As he left his comrades jokingly said to him "If you are determined to go, take along a chisel with you and when you get lost among the hills and come to die, clip yoiur name on a stone and we'll stumble across it someday and put up a tombstone for you there." Scheffelin was not afraid. He knew the Apaches to be deceitful and he knew the hills to have many tereacherous passes but he know no such feeling as fear. "Of course," he said a few years late, "I wasn't looking for bullets but I felt if one happened my way it wouldnt make much difference to anyone but me and I could never figure out that to be dead would be unpleasant. Some people seem to know all about such things but i'm a bit stupid, I've been unable to learn the alphabet of birth and death." About last May the end came. In Oregon they found him alone one day, his great heart stilled forever. His will is as simple as the first Oregon letter: "I is my wish to be buried in the garb of a prospector, my old pick and cantteen with me on top of the granite hills about three miles westerly from the city of Tombstone and that a momument such as prospectors build when locating a ming claim be built over my grave and no other monument or slab erected. And I reuest that none of my friends wear crepe. Under no circumstances do I want to be buried in a cemetery or graveyard. USGenWeb Project NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. 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