James Houck is another in a breed who drifted west in the late 1800’s to Arizona Territory—a man who was a walking contradiction. He fought in the Civil War with a Wisconsin regiment and prospected in Wyoming and Colorado before settling in Arizona at the age of 23.
The Early Life – Ambitious and Optimistic
At twenty-three, Houck settled in Arizona Territory relying on his Civil War experience and some failed prospecting ventures. Like my main character, Nora, from my current The Rim Country series, he came west with all his belongings packed on a mule or burro. Both of them came west with little margin searching for a new life. Nora sought a business that would be important to her community; Houck seems to have sought quick wealth.
Early on, he got a contract with the Army to carry mail between Fort Whipple and Fort Wingate—dangerous work due to the dry, waterless terrain and the ever-present risk of attacks by the natives. He held this contract three years, then used what he’d learned of the country and its people to establish a trading post on the Puerco River, betting correctly that the railroad would come through and make his fortune. It is likely that his Navajo neighbors taught him the sheep business here.
The bet paid off. When the railroad arrived, Houck had already built water tanks for the steam engines to be topped off—his trading post became a scheduled stop. A settlement grew up around it taking his name: “Houck’s Tank”.
From there Houck again moved on, up into the higher country around Springerville and Heber, where he established a ranch and raised both cattle and sheep and was elected to represent Apache County as a state legislator. It was an uncomfortable position to hold two ways at once—a sheepman caught between the wealthy Flagstaff sheep interests, the Aztec Land and Cattle Company’s holdings around Holbrook, and the growing cattle business taking shape in Pleasant Valley below the Rim, all of it held in an uneasy truce that kept sheep from crossing into cattle country at the boundary of the Rim itself.
Deputy Sheriff Houck Complicates the Pleasant Valley war
In his early forties, Houck was recruited or volunteered to serve under the well-known lawman Sheriff Commodore Perry Owens of Apache County. It’s unclear why he chose this thankless job, but in time he was embedded down in Pleasant Valley advertising that he was officially sent to help curtail the range war between the cattlemen and the sheepmen. Since he was a sheepman himself, there was much suspicion that he was aligned on one side of the battle. The record shows that he was involved in extrajudicial killings of multiple men solely connected to the cattle ranching side of the war—and that most likely he lied repeatedly to cover it up. There’s no evidence that he ever had warrants for these men. The record indicates he was operating more as a mercenary but with a badge.
In 1900, thirteen years after the Pleasant Valley war, Houck bought Cave Creek station, north of Phoenix, and developed it as a shearing camp for sheepmen. His general store was built of rock, solid and a local reference point. He filled his time by jumping back into enforcing the law in Maricopa County and getting some mail routes. Eventually Cave Creek—and the Houck Ranch—became sought after by tuberculars looking for better weather.
Houck saw a downturn in his fortune as a drought and persistent overgrazing brought Cave Creek down to a trickle and many of the folks moved away. Houck got divorced, remarried, and eventually closed his store. The King of Cave Creek was broken and took a fatal dose of strychnine at age 75.
Houck in “The Rim Country” Book Two
In the second book of the Rim Country series, Houck makes an appearance. Consistent with the best analysis (Arizona’s Dark and Bloody Ground, by Earle R. Forrest) that sifted through the oft-contradictory primary sources, Houck was aligned with the Tewksbury family and may have used his badge in the valley without the knowledge of Sheriff Owens in St. Johns. This is how I write him. He made claims to have warrants that history is fairly clear that he didn’t have—Owens had a hard time getting warrants even for the Blevins boys himself. Doubtful the judge ever gave him a warrant for the Grahams.
I show Houck going through the valley looking for information—something it seems likely he would have done for a while. When William Graham—John’s little brother—is murdered, I write the story of Houck taking credit for it, knowing that the lawless conditions in the valley plus his official position will protect him. I also speculate in the book, due to some reports that William Graham indicated he was shot by a Tewksbury, that Houck was covering for one of his Tewksbury friends—possibly Ed. We’ll never know for sure, but what we do know is that Houck’s time in Pleasant Valley created undue chaos. I attempt to show this confusion through the eyes of multiple characters.
How was the valley confused? Houck was hunting Grahams at the same time a different county sheriff was attempting to serve warrants to the Tewksbury men for the murder of Hamp Blevins. There was also known to be a marauding band of Chiricahua Apache in the valley pillaging ranches while resisting being sent west to Florida by the U.S. Army.
It seems clear that Houck was involved in five or six murders, including a lynching in the valley. The lynching, especially, seemed very useful to Houck’s career ambitions. Houck was found grazing sheep on the ranch of one of the victims afterwards and indicated to the victim’s mother that nothing would ever be done about the lynching. This is what the best analysis of the historical record indicates; in my novel I fill in the gaps to try to explain Houck’s motivations.
Conclusion – How I Treat Houck in The RIm Country
In The Rim Country: The War (1887), I work to capture all of this ambiguity about Houck. Someone who fought in the war, served the government, traded with the Navajo, and desired to be a deputy sheriff must have some redeeming qualities. But a deeper look into his life reveals a man who was inconsistent and was always looking for greener grass on the other side of the range.
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