THOMAS BOGGS
Yavapai County Az
Arizona Republican Newspaper
September 5, 1897

One of the most interesting conversationalists in Arizona is the 
veteran prospector and mine discoverer Mrs. Thomas W. Boggs of 
Big Bug, Yavapai County.  The life of Mr. Boggs has been a most 
eventful one. He was born in the state of Missouri, a grandson 
of the celebrated Daniel Boone of Kentucky. His father, Hon. 
L.W. Boggs was governor of the state of Missouri and it was 
through his efforts and in his administration that the Mormons,
under Brigham Young, were expelled from Missouri.  Later Governor 
Boggs was the guardian of the noted scout Kit Carson.  In 1846 
Governor Boggs with his family emigrated to the state of 
California. There were in the company of emigrants about 
eight hundred persons, one hundred and eighty of them being 
armed men.  The Mormon caravan, also about eight hundred 
strong, left Missouri at the same time and traveled toward 
Salt Lake on a parallel line.  The Boggs party was divided 
into two camps before they reached California and one of the 
companies was for a time lost in the mountains.

When T.W. Boggs was 12 years old he left his home in Sonoma County 
with a cousin and other friends to locate ranches. One day out 
in the brush near Humboldt an old hunter named Briggs met him.  
The boy was anxious for a fight.  There were two trails leading 
out of the brush; Mr. Briggs took one, and Mr. Boggs the other.  
They were armed with old United States muskets which were fired 
with large percussion caps. They had run out of large caps and 
were compelled to use small ones, splitting them and fitting 
them on very carefully.  The path taken by Mr. Boggs led out 
of the thicket but Mr. Briggs met two grizzly bears and called 
the boy to come and shoot.  Mr. Boggs ran toward his friend, 
leveled his gun and pulled the trigger, but in his hurry 
caused the split cap to drop off so the gun was not 
discharged.  The two bears at once turned on Mr. Boggs, 
struck down his gun and seized him, the one by his head and 
the other by the calf of his legs, it seeming to him as if 
they would pull him apart.  Leaving Mr. Boggs covered with 
blood and maybe dead, the bears made a rush for his 
companion who had climbed a small tree. He climbed too 
high and the top of the tree bent over so that the bears 
could reach him.  One of them bit off one of the hunter's 
little toes then they caught him by the clothing and 
pulled him from the tree.  Just at this time a band of 
Indians, hearing the outcry cam up and by their yells 
frightened the bears so that they ran into the brush.  
Mr. Brigg's shoulder was bitten but he was not seriously 
injured. Mr. Bogg's jaws were crushed and his nose was 
broken. It was two years before he recovered and his 
father paid thousands of dollars to the physicians who 
attended him.  A handful of pieces of bone worked their 
way out and his cheeks and nose will always bear evidence 
of the terrible struggle.

After the encounter, Mr. Boggs walked to the camp a mile away 
where he met his cousin.  By this time he was unable to talk. 
His parents were three hundred miles further down the coast and 
he did not see them until six months later, when at first his 
mother would not believe that he was her boy, but declared that 
he was an imposter.

Mr. Boggs spent years mining and prospecting in California and 
in 1859 attracted by the reports of rich gold discoveries went 
to Nevada and was there when some of the most noted mines were 
discovered. One of his Nevada friends was the humorist Mark 
Twain.

In 1863 he came to Arizona still hunting for gold and has been 
prospecting and mining since that time.  The great gold nugget 
in a bank at Prescott, valued at $600, was purchased by Mr. Boggs 
of the Mexican who discovered it and by him was sold to the bank.

In 1863 his nearest neighbors were at Prescott, twenty five miles 
away. He did the first mining in the Big Bug district in 1863-64.  
Many of the most important mines in the Big Bug country were 
discovered or owned by Mr. Boggs and he owns several promising 
ones.

On the 5th of July 1865 Mr. Boggs with seven companions was at 
work in a mine just up the hill from Bogg's Station.  Six of the 
men slept in a stone hut at the mouth of the mine.  Mr. Boggs and 
a companion named Goodman slept in a tent near by the stone 
structure.  The two men were awakened by the rattle of bullets 
upon their tent.  They sprang up and made a rush for the rock 
hut which they gained just in time for a moment later the door 
was stuck full of arrow heads.  The miners now found that they 
were surrounded by a band of about two hundred Apaches who 
seemed in no special haste to capture them for they supposed 
that they could by no possibility escape.  The Indians climbed 
above them and danced on the roof of their cabin, shouting that 
they would soon break it in but when one of the white men made a 
hole up through the earth so that he could send a shot among them 
they left the roof in a hurry.  They then carried rocks up the 
mountain and rolled them down upon the roof hoping to break it 
in.  The miners put up their cots as braces to stay the roof. 
The Indians had placed warriors along the trail leading down the 
valley, hoping that the whites would endeavor to escape. A miner 
who was approaching the camp discovered the Indians and hurrying 
back to Lynch Creek brought a rescue party of between twenty and 
thirty riflemen who quickly put the Indians to flight.

The Indian chief soon returned with a larger band of warriors and 
burned all the dwellings in the valley including a large log house 
owned by Mr. Boggs.

During his residence in California and Arizona Mr. Boggs made the 
acquaintance of many officers who later became famous in the U.S. 
Service.

His present home is near the Little, the Providence, the Little 
Jessie and other well known mines and Mr. Boggs is as earnest and 
as successful a prospector as ever.  He has a large ranch, a 
pleasant home, a fine orchard of peaches, applies and plums and 
has never taken a ride on a railroad train and never saw steam 
cars until the road was built to Prescott.

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