Gila-Apache-Maricopa County AZ Archives Biographies.....Shanley, Patrick 1837 - April 30, 1894
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Cleon Roberts amberquill@go-herd.com April 21, 2007, 4:57 pm

Author: Cleon Roberts

Patrick S. Shanley was born in Ireland in about 1837.  He married Anna by 1864 
and they had a daughter named Sarah, born in St Louis in 1865. Their son 
Edward Patrick was born there in 1869. Son George J. Shanley was born in old 
Kit Carson, Colorado, August 3, 1871, followed by Mollie in 1874 and William 
G. in 1876. Maude was born at McMillianville, Arizona, in 1879. Any other 
children born in Arizona are unknown. Patrick, Anna, Edward and George were 
all buried in the cemetery at Globe, Arizona.

I believe that Patrick had followed railroad building westward from St. 
Louis.  At Sheridan, Kansas, he entered into a partnership with a man named 
Logan and one named John F. Buttles, in 1869, to grade the Kansas Pacific 
Railway from there to Kit Carson, Colorado. Buttles' sister-in-law, Clara 
Blinn, had been captured by Cheyennes near Fort Lyon, Colorado, the year 
before, and was mistakenly shot and killed by General Custer's Seventh Cavalry 
in the Battle of the Washita.  Jack's wife, Sarah (Blinn) Buttles had 
convinced her husband to sell their stagecoach station near Bent's Old Fort 
and move closer to civilization. Sheridan was no improvement, and neither was 
Kit Carson. When the railroad grade reached Carson, the town was made up of 
tents, dugouts, and a few saloons, gambling houses, restaurants and dance 
halls. 

Buttles and Logan began constructing buildings to sell or rent, while Shanley 
continued grading the road west of town. In May of 1870, Cheyenne Dog Soldiers 
killed and scalped 16 unarmed Irish railroad workers between Kit Carson and 
Denver.  Shanley picked up the bodies of three of the men in his wagon, near 
Wild Horse, and carried them into Carson.

Determined to stay put, Shanley left the railroad to start a short-haul 
freighting service in town with his wagons and mule teams.  He hauled for the 
army, for cattlemen, and primarily for the buffalo hunters, bringing in their 
meat and hides to the railroad from as far out as 100 miles.

When the Santa Fe built their railroad south of there in the last part of 
1873, most of the residents abandoned Kit Carson. But Shanley refused to do 
so.  He got a contract to haul silver and copper from Silver City, New Mexico 
to the railroad at Kit Carson.  For guards he hired some gun slingers. At 
Carson, he deputized some of them, and they began to hang around, whether he 
was in town or not. He had a hotel, a saloon, a cattle ranch, a general 
merchadise store and the freighting service.  He opened stores along the 
Arkansas River and in western Colorado and New Mexico.

While he was away, his "private police force" acted as vigilantes, hanging 
three men from the railroad bridge. Then they began stealing from the railroad 
cars that were left on the sidetracks.  The Rocky Mountain Detective agency 
raided the town in January of 1877 and arrested all the men who were left in 
town. 

Shanley was found innocent, but his business was ruined there. He ran a 
sporting goods store in West Las Animas the rest of that year, then won a 
contract to do grading for the AT&SF Railway in northern New Mexico. There a 
group of Mormons bought four wagons and a bunch of mules from him, and 
convinced Shanley of the oportunities in Arizona Territory.

He then moved his family to McMillanville, Arizona, where he was farming at 
the time of the census of 1880. Maude was born there in 1879. Tricko was born 
in Arizona in 1882. Later they moved to Gila County, to go into the cattle 
business. 

George Shanley married Ida Horrell there January 27, 1896. Edward Shanley 
married Cecilia Rose Haley there on May 6, 1906. William G. married Lillie 
Wright in Graham County, January 17, 1901. Clara married a man named Moore.

According to the Globe Cemetery records, Patrick S. Shanley died in 1894. 
Edward, George, their wives, Tricko and several of Patrick's grandchildren are 
buried there.

Source: Research Material, Manuscript of Praire Dog Town: A Frontier History 
of Kit Carson, Colorado 1869-1876, by Cleon Roberts



Additional Comments:
By chance, does anyone know if Patrick Shanley's papers still exist? I would 
also like pictures of the Shanley's for the Railroad Depot Museum in Kit 
Carson, Colorado.
Thank you,
Cleon Roberts, 828 West Park Avenue, Hereford, TX 79045-4002, (806) 364-2152.


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