Hattie Morgan
Joe Miller
Arizona Silver Belt
January 16, 1892

A Tucson telegram of the 13th to the Herald says a man and 
woman found murdered near Duncan were both shot twice and 
their heads had been crushed in.  When found a two year old 
child was sitting beside its dead mother with its head badly 
bruised.  The intense cold would soon have killed the child 
too had not the discovery been made as it was.  The mother is 
supposed to have been Hattie Morgan, en route to join her 
husband at Globe. Her trunks had been broken open and 
plundered.

Jan. 23, 1892

A Solomonville dispatch of the 13th to the S.F. chronicle says:

About noon on Sunday last, about eighteen miles from this 
place, a man named Miller from near Silver City, N.M. and a 
woman named Morgan were murdered by Indians or Mexicans. 
Miller was taking Mrs. Morgan and a child, 2 years old, to 
her husband at Globe.  They were traveling in a four-horse 
wagon.  They were attacked at a point of rocks in the road 
and the wagon tracks show that they ran about 100 yards 
out of the road to where the bodies were found.  The child 
was badly bruised but alive when a posse from Solonomville 
arrived at 11 o'clock Sunday night.

The man and woman were each shot three times and a trunk had 
been opened with an ax.  The lid was not knocked off in the 
usual way, but had been chopped into from the top.  A feather 
bed was chopped open showing that the murderers had made a 
search for money which the deceased were known to possess.  
The empty feather bed tick was carried off tby the murderers 
for a quarter of a mile, making a plain trail by feathers on 
the bushes and ground.

Here a stop was made.  Mary articles of Indian use were found 
and a moccasin leg, some jerked strips of rawhide and a 
quantity of mescal was found.

The crime was discovered by a piano tuner named Bailey who 
was riding horseback from Duncan to Solomonville.  Steve 
Nixon of the Gebbhardt Cattle Compnay, John Parks of this 
place, Deputy Sheriff D. Olney and Sam Patch found the 
trail and followed it all day Sunday. It went straight 
toward Mexico.  There were evidently three murderers.  
After going some distance there were but two tracks.

The bodies of the murdered man and woman were brought here 
today.  The military have not yet been heard from.

January 16, 1892

The finding of the bodies of Joe Miller and Hattie Morgan, 
about seven miles west of Ash Springs in Graham County, Jan 
10, caused much excitement at Solomonville where the inquest 
was held and the bodies buried.  Charles A. Bailey of Los 
Angeles, Cal. discovered the bodies about 2 o'clock on Sunday 
afternoon and without examining the bodies, he rode post 
haste to Solomonville and informed the authorities.

John Parks and others who preceded the Coroner's party, 
reached the scene about 11 o'clock pm.  On either side of 
the wagon lay the dead bodies of the man and woman while 
under the wagon, sitting on the frozen ground was a little 
child, 19th months old, unharmed but benumbed with cold.  
Two shephard dogs were near by faithfully guarding the 
little one.  An examination of the bodies disclosed two 
bullet holes on the woman, one entered the back and came 
out on the left side below the heart and the other entered 
the right side of her face near the jaw and emerged from 
the head on the opposite side.  The man had been shot three 
times, once on the left side of the face, again on the left 
side in the region of the heart and a third on the right 
side near the hip.


A small satchel found contained a photograph and some letters 
dated Globe in December last and written by Lee Morgan to his 
wife; also an envelope addressed to Joe Miller, registered at 
Globe by Lee Morgan.

After the bodies had been taken to Solomonville, they were 
identified by a man giving his name as J.H. King and residence 
at Rosalia, NM. The motherless baby was cared for by Mrs. 
W.J. Parks of Solomonville.

To add to Lee Morgan's distress visited upon him by the awful 
death of his wife, a telegram was received by Sheriff Thompson 
last week from the sheriff of Grant County, New Mexico 
requesting the arrest and detention of Morgan on a charge 
of grand larceny, alleged to have been comitted in Grant 
County and he was arrested on Monday last and is now in 
the Globe jail awaiting the arrival of an officer from 
Silver City.  Morgan has been in this vicinity about two 
months and a half, engaged in hunting in the Pinal 
mountains and his conduct here has been irreprochable.  
Interviewed in regard to the murder in Graham County, he 
stated that the victims were undoubtedly his wife and Joe 
Miller en route to join him here. He says they had several 
hundred dollars in their possesion, proceeds from the sale 
of their crop of grain, raised on their ranch on the Gila 
River in Grant County, NM.

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