Customer Reviews

Arizona's Graham - Tewksbury Feud

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I am glad that you stated up front that it was hard for you to write the story until you took sides. It was obvious! When a Tewksbury was killed in your book it usually took less than a paragraph to tell. When a Graham was killed you wrote all the gory details. I for one would like to read a balanced, not bias account of this infamous account in Arizona's history.

This is the most complete account I have read. Was disturbed through much of the book by the assumptions he makes based on very little data.... his favoring the underdog, the Grahams, is obvious but he announces and tries to justify that fact up front. Irregardless he seems to have presented a more complete and accurate account of documented and meaningful facts than the other two accounts that I have read. The significant value of Lee's presentation in my opinion is the research he has done on the money trail...and the implications that result from his emphasis on the money influence The implication seems to be that both the Tewksburys and the Grahams became pawns of the Dags and their power influence; that both families played out their feelings and bitterness against each other, and in the case of the Tewksburys, those feelings and actions were fanned by the available money and political influence provided by the Dags.

Hanchett, forgot to include the many better books on the subject and from people who were there. The Blevins and Graham's were part of the rustler gangs who were stealing stock that much is sure. Read Will C. Barnes, Apaches and Longhorns. Barnes was well acquainted with these parties and was there at the time and can be relied on as an eyewitness to history, also Dedera's Book, Little War of Our Own, I highly recommend as a good read and accurate. Forrest's Book, Dark and Bloody Ground, is fair as well. It seems every time a Graham in Hanchett's book was shot, it was as if they were unarmed and not trying to resist arrest, very tiresome reading. Also his dismissal of C.P. Owens who about wiped out the Copper-Blevins gang in one shootout was laughable. This was a war on criminals and rustlers named Graham and Blevins and their associates. There were also parts that were a war over range as well. All in all this is a book that needed an editor familiar with local history.