Viola Slaughter
Encyclopedia
Cora Viola Howell later to become Viola Slaughter, was a famous Arizona
rancher and the wife of sheriff John Slaughter.
to Amazon and Mary Ann Howell. She was the great great granddaughter of Daniel Boone
.
By the time Viola was eighteen, the Howell family had moved to a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico
. It was while living there that Viola met John, and they quickly fell in love
. Viola would confess herself that "it was love at first sight" to a writer. John was thirty seven and Viola only eighteen when they met. John had two small children, which were with him since his first wife died
in 1877.
and, on April 16, they got married...
baby girl found by John in Mexico
. Apache May
had been abandoned there.
to live with his brother, Viola convinced him not to do so, because she was already feeling love for the children.
The Slaughters opened a supermarket near Tombstone
in 1880. In order to get supplies, such as meat
, the Slaughters had to travel through Apache territory, and Viola was scared of the Apaches. In 1881, the Slaughters returned to New Mexico, by train
. John needed more cattle
for his ranch. During the return trip, the Slaughters faced a blizzard
, and 16 of the seventeen travellers in the Slaughter group suffered from parts of their bodies becoming frozen. Only Addie Slaughter was able to escape unharmed. She was attached to a buffalo
robe and this protected her from being harmed.
Starting in the spring of 1883, John took his family on a trip that he thought would land him in Oregon
, where he dreamed of having a ranch by Snake river
. His plans were ruined, however, when he began hemorrhaging from an old condition of tuberculosis
in Idaho
, and the Slaughters had to return immediately to Arizona. Soon, they purchased the San Bernardino Mexican land grant. Their new home was large enough to be located in two countries: half of the ranch was in the United States
, the other half in Mexico
. The San Bernardino Ranch
had 65,000 acre
s (260 km²), which John had bought for one dollar and twenty five cents each.
In 1887, one of the few earthquake
s in the history of Arizona hit their ranch, destroying a large part of it. John felt quite disappointed about his life as a rancher and he had decided to retire from being a working rancher once his days as sheriff were over. Viola, however, convinced him otherwise. She offered to help him with his ranching, going as far as saying "just give me a plain house with wide board floors, muslin
ceilings and board finish around the adobe
s. That's all I want".
In 1892, the Slaughters, having remodeled their ranch, moved there permanently. Viola Slaughter also became famous across the west for her curing abilities, and cowboys would come from as far as New Mexico to get treatment from her. She would also join John on his frequent trips to Mexico; they helped catch a killer there, and usually brought cattle from as far as Hermosillo
. Viola Slaughter would later tell the famed writer Charles Morgan Wood that she heard one time that John had been killed in Mexico by Apaches, and she got on a wagon
and headed towards the frontier. Three days later, she saw her husband from afar. Viola was so happy that she felt ill, but she faked her weak feeling when her husband got to her, and he did not notice that she was not feeling good.
In 1896, John went on the attack, following Apaches to Mexico. Instead, he found the abandoned baby, Apache May.
s, jam, cream and other exquisite ingredients of the era.
The Slaughters were known for being an affable family, and the San Bernandino ranch later became a hang-out place for rich, poor, neighbors passersby, friends and anyone who happened to cross in front of it and felt like talking to someone. One frequent visitor was Billy the Kid
, who became friends with the Slaughters.
ed in the ranch by robbers. John supposedly felt the danger near him, so he decided to ask Fisher to check on John's horse
s, and then, John moved into a bedroom without windows. Seconds later, Fisher was murdered.
One of the killers turned out to be one of the Slaughters' adopted children, a fact which left John and Viola distraught. Convinced that they needed to get away as quick as possible, the Slaughters moved to Douglas
, where John died in 1922.
Viola remained active, although she stayed in Douglas for the remainder of her life. She would travel to do interviews, and she became grand marshal of Douglas' town rodeo
parade in 1939, riding a horse through the streets of the border city.
In 1941, Addie Slaughter suffered a fatal heart attack
on February 27, while visiting her surrogate mother Viola. Viola became depressed after Addie's death, and she was not able to cope with it, dying herself one month later, towards the end of March of that year.
http://www.AddieSlaughterBook.com
'Addie Slaughter' Lassoes Young Readers
With True-Life Wild West Adventure
Indian attacks, outlaws, rattlesnakes, smallpox and blizzards are a few of the true-to-life dangers experienced by Addie Slaughter, daughter of the famous John Horton Slaughter, a Texas Ranger, famed Cochise County Sheriff and an early settler of the San Bernardino Valley in the late 1800s.
In first-person narrative, author Susan Krueger, Ed.D., expertly speaks for Addie, who tells her adventurous, sometimes heartbreaking, story of traveling across the wild west from Texas to Arizona to Oregon, and then eventually settling on the Slaughter Ranch near the Arizona-Mexico border.
Along the way, Addie's mother dies; her family narrowly escapes a stagecoach robbery; her grandfather is rescued when their adobe ranch buildings collapse in a terrible earthquake; when pursuing a member of the Jack Taylor Gang, her father's earlobe is shot off; and Addie meets the powerful warrior, Geronimo.
Based on actual stories told to Adeline Greene Parks by her mother, Addie Slaughter, and in-depth interviews with Arizona Culturekeeper Dr. Reba Wells Grandrud, the John H. Slaughter ranch historian, Addie Slaughter: The Girl Who Met Geronimo, succeeds in capturing the interest and imagination of young readers due to its youthful voice, colorful descriptions and exciting recount of actual events. most of the book's photographs come from Slaughter family albums and the collection of Dr. Grandrud.
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
rancher and the wife of sheriff John Slaughter.
Early years
Viola Slaughter was born in MissouriMissouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
to Amazon and Mary Ann Howell. She was the great great granddaughter of Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits mad']'e him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of...
.
By the time Viola was eighteen, the Howell family had moved to a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico
Roswell, New Mexico
Roswell is a city in and the county seat of Chaves County in the southeastern quarter of the state of New Mexico, United States. The population was 48,366 at the 2010 census. It is a center for irrigation farming, dairying, ranching, manufacturing, distribution, and petroleum production. It is also...
. It was while living there that Viola met John, and they quickly fell in love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
. Viola would confess herself that "it was love at first sight" to a writer. John was thirty seven and Viola only eighteen when they met. John had two small children, which were with him since his first wife died
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
in 1877.
Marriage
Viola's mother opposed to the relationship vehemently. Her father, however, thought more positively about the relationship. By April 1879, Viola told her mother that she was getting married to John in about two weeks. Her mother screamed at her. With her father's blessing, the couple parted the next morning to TularosaTularosa, New Mexico
Tularosa is a village in Otero County, New Mexico, United States. It shares its name with the Tularosa Basin, in which the town is located. To the east, Tularosa is flanked by the western edge of the Sacramento Mountains. The population was 2,864 at the 2000 census...
and, on April 16, they got married...
Motherly devotion
Viola Slaughter wanted to be a mother all of her life; because of this, she admittedly took a motherly love towards John's two children. Slaughter would never become a natural mother, but she and John adopted several children, among them, an ApacheApache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
baby girl found by John in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Apache May
Apache May Slaughter
Apache May Slaughter was the daughter of Tombstone, Arizona sheriff John Slaughter and his wife Viola.Apache May was found by John Slaughter as he was following a group of Apaches in Mexico. She had been abandoned to her luck by her natural parents. John Slaughter returned to Arizona with Apache May...
had been abandoned there.
From Arizona and Back
Soon after marrying, the Slaughters arrived at Sulphur Springs, Arizona, where they lived in a two room house. This would mark the beginning of the relationship between her and John's two children, Addie and Willie. John told her that he would send them to TexasTexas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
to live with his brother, Viola convinced him not to do so, because she was already feeling love for the children.
The Slaughters opened a supermarket near Tombstone
Tombstone, Arizona
Tombstone is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, founded in 1879 by Ed Schieffelin in what was then Pima County, Arizona Territory. It was one of the last wide-open frontier boomtowns in the American Old West. From about 1877 to 1890, the town's mines produced USD $40 to $85 million...
in 1880. In order to get supplies, such as meat
Meat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
, the Slaughters had to travel through Apache territory, and Viola was scared of the Apaches. In 1881, the Slaughters returned to New Mexico, by train
Train
A train is a connected series of vehicles for rail transport that move along a track to transport cargo or passengers from one place to another place. The track usually consists of two rails, but might also be a monorail or maglev guideway.Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate...
. John needed more cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
for his ranch. During the return trip, the Slaughters faced a blizzard
Blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or...
, and 16 of the seventeen travellers in the Slaughter group suffered from parts of their bodies becoming frozen. Only Addie Slaughter was able to escape unharmed. She was attached to a buffalo
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...
robe and this protected her from being harmed.
Starting in the spring of 1883, John took his family on a trip that he thought would land him in Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, where he dreamed of having a ranch by Snake river
Snake River
The Snake is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean...
. His plans were ruined, however, when he began hemorrhaging from an old condition of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
in Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
, and the Slaughters had to return immediately to Arizona. Soon, they purchased the San Bernardino Mexican land grant. Their new home was large enough to be located in two countries: half of the ranch was in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the other half in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. The San Bernardino Ranch
San Bernardino Ranch
San Bernardino Ranch is a site in the southern San Bernardino Valley in the region of the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge in extreme southeast Cochise County, Arizona that is significant for its association with the beginning of cattle ranching in southern Arizona and northern Mexico. The...
had 65,000 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s (260 km²), which John had bought for one dollar and twenty five cents each.
Wife of the Sheriff
Although the house had been abandoned, and deteriorating, for fifty years, Viola Slaughter was very happy with her new house. She marveled at the views nearby and the fact that, just by walking from one side of the house to the other, she would be crossing countries every time. From 1886 to 1890, John worked as sheriff in Tombstone, so the Slaughters made Tombstone their new hometown. They decided, however, to keep the ranch after John was elected.In 1887, one of the few earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
s in the history of Arizona hit their ranch, destroying a large part of it. John felt quite disappointed about his life as a rancher and he had decided to retire from being a working rancher once his days as sheriff were over. Viola, however, convinced him otherwise. She offered to help him with his ranching, going as far as saying "just give me a plain house with wide board floors, muslin
Muslin
Muslin |sewing patterns]], such as for clothing, curtains, or upholstery. Because air moves easily through muslin, muslin clothing is suitable for hot, dry climates.- Etymology and history :...
ceilings and board finish around the adobe
Adobe
Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...
s. That's all I want".
In 1892, the Slaughters, having remodeled their ranch, moved there permanently. Viola Slaughter also became famous across the west for her curing abilities, and cowboys would come from as far as New Mexico to get treatment from her. She would also join John on his frequent trips to Mexico; they helped catch a killer there, and usually brought cattle from as far as Hermosillo
Hermosillo
Hermosillo is a city and municipality located centrally in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. It is the capital and main economic center for the state and region. It contains almost all of the state's manufacturing and has thirty percent of its population...
. Viola Slaughter would later tell the famed writer Charles Morgan Wood that she heard one time that John had been killed in Mexico by Apaches, and she got on a wagon
Wagon
A wagon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals; it was formerly often called a wain, and if low and sideless may be called a dray, trolley or float....
and headed towards the frontier. Three days later, she saw her husband from afar. Viola was so happy that she felt ill, but she faked her weak feeling when her husband got to her, and he did not notice that she was not feeling good.
In 1896, John went on the attack, following Apaches to Mexico. Instead, he found the abandoned baby, Apache May.
Wealth
The Slaughters became very rich as time went by, and Viola became known for enjoying things that women at that time were not used to, such as using expensive dresses for dinner. The family dinners were equally known in Arizona society circles, as these usually included fresh vegetableVegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
s, jam, cream and other exquisite ingredients of the era.
The Slaughters were known for being an affable family, and the San Bernandino ranch later became a hang-out place for rich, poor, neighbors passersby, friends and anyone who happened to cross in front of it and felt like talking to someone. One frequent visitor was Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid
William H. Bonney William H. Bonney William H. Bonney (born William Henry McCarty, Jr. est. November 23, 1859 – c. July 14, 1881, better known as Billy the Kid but also known as Henry Antrim, was a 19th-century American gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War and became a frontier...
, who became friends with the Slaughters.
Murder, death
On May 4 of 1921, a foreman, Jesse Fisher, was murderMurder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ed in the ranch by robbers. John supposedly felt the danger near him, so he decided to ask Fisher to check on John's horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s, and then, John moved into a bedroom without windows. Seconds later, Fisher was murdered.
One of the killers turned out to be one of the Slaughters' adopted children, a fact which left John and Viola distraught. Convinced that they needed to get away as quick as possible, the Slaughters moved to Douglas
Douglas, Arizona
Douglas is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. Douglas has a border crossing with Mexico and a history of mining.The population was 14,312 at the 2000 census...
, where John died in 1922.
Viola remained active, although she stayed in Douglas for the remainder of her life. She would travel to do interviews, and she became grand marshal of Douglas' town rodeo
Rodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...
parade in 1939, riding a horse through the streets of the border city.
In 1941, Addie Slaughter suffered a fatal heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
on February 27, while visiting her surrogate mother Viola. Viola became depressed after Addie's death, and she was not able to cope with it, dying herself one month later, towards the end of March of that year.
See Also
- Theodore BoggsBig Bug, ArizonaBig Bug is a ghost town in Yavapai County, Arizona. The former settlement is located twelve miles southeast of Prescott and was established in 1862.-History:...
http://www.AddieSlaughterBook.com
'Addie Slaughter' Lassoes Young Readers
With True-Life Wild West Adventure
Indian attacks, outlaws, rattlesnakes, smallpox and blizzards are a few of the true-to-life dangers experienced by Addie Slaughter, daughter of the famous John Horton Slaughter, a Texas Ranger, famed Cochise County Sheriff and an early settler of the San Bernardino Valley in the late 1800s.
In first-person narrative, author Susan Krueger, Ed.D., expertly speaks for Addie, who tells her adventurous, sometimes heartbreaking, story of traveling across the wild west from Texas to Arizona to Oregon, and then eventually settling on the Slaughter Ranch near the Arizona-Mexico border.
Along the way, Addie's mother dies; her family narrowly escapes a stagecoach robbery; her grandfather is rescued when their adobe ranch buildings collapse in a terrible earthquake; when pursuing a member of the Jack Taylor Gang, her father's earlobe is shot off; and Addie meets the powerful warrior, Geronimo.
Based on actual stories told to Adeline Greene Parks by her mother, Addie Slaughter, and in-depth interviews with Arizona Culturekeeper Dr. Reba Wells Grandrud, the John H. Slaughter ranch historian, Addie Slaughter: The Girl Who Met Geronimo, succeeds in capturing the interest and imagination of young readers due to its youthful voice, colorful descriptions and exciting recount of actual events. most of the book's photographs come from Slaughter family albums and the collection of Dr. Grandrud.