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 Born
July 29, 1852, Commodore Perry Owens was named after naval hero Commodore
Oliver Perry. He left his Tennesse home at an early age and spent some
time in Indiana before following the cattle trails west in his late teens.
With his long blond hair, hand-tooled chaps, sombrero, and a long barreled
Colt .45 with a double row of ammunition on his gun belt, Perry was a site
to be seen, even in the Wild West. In 1882, he rode into Arizona and he
became a foreman in Navajo Springs. During this time, he chased and killed
several rustlers and his reputation as a fast draw and deadly gunman
started.
In 1887, Owens was elected sheriff for Apache County,
Arizona. His reputation had proceeded him and the county was full of
rustlers and rowdy cowboys. Owens kept both elements under some control.
During the previous five years, there had been a range war
between three different families in and around Pleasant Valley, Arizona.
The three families; Grahams, Tewksbury, and Blevins had been fighting over
wether sheep should be allowed on the local range. On September 2, 1887,
deputy sheriff Jim Houck killed Bill Graham in shootout and range war
esculated. The Graham-Blevins men, determined to wipe out their enemies,
surrounded the Tewksburys' ranch cabin and blocked every means of escape
during a long siege. John Tewksbury and a man named William Jacobs were
killed in front of the Tewksbury house. The battle went on for hours while
the two bodies lay on the ground in front of the house. Then a woman ran
out, white-faced and screaming, carrying a shovel and the shooting
stopped. "I have to bury them!" she cried. "The only way to
stop me is to kill me!"
She was the widow of John Tewksbury. The hogs in the
farmyard had started to root around the bodies of her husband and Jacobs.
She worked there alone, with Graham-Blevin rifles pointed at her from
ambush and Tewksbury rifles covering her from the cabin, until she had dug
shallow graves and covered the bodies. Then she returned to the cabin and
the firing began again. But no one else was killed that day.
Two days later, Andy Blevins, alias Andy Cooper, rode into
the town of Holbrook, about seventy miles northeast of Pleasant Valley.
His stepmother lived in the town. He went first to a saloon and boasted
about the killing of John Tewksbury and William Jacobs. There was a
warrant out for his arrest, not for these killings, but for stealing
horses. He wasn’t too concerned about the warrant, he figured that there
wasn’t anyone in Holbrook who would dare serve it.Commodore Perry Owens
rode into Holbrrok the same day. He had two things to do that day, one was
to inform some local men that they had serve on a jury and the other was a
warrant for Andy Blevins.
Owens swung off his horse at a livery stable and asked the
local blacksmith "Is Andy Cooper, or Andy Blevins, in town?" he
asked.
"He's here," the blacksmith responded.
"I have a warrant for his arrest" the sheriff
announced.
At that moment, Andy’s brother John was walking Andy’s
horse down the street. "Hey, there goes Andy’s horse," said
the Blacksmith, "with his brother John leading it."
Sheriff Owens followed the horse and Andy’s brother to
Mrs. Blevins house. Andy Blevin was watching the whole affair from inside
the house. He went outside to get onto the horse and make a quick getaway,
but the Sheriff was to close for comfort, so he went back into the house.
Also in the house were Mrs. Mary Blevins, widow of old Mart and mother of
two of the men who had been killed; Eva, wife of one of the sons; Mrs.
Amanda Gladden, a friend of the family, and her little daughter; and John
and Sam Houston Blevins and Mose Roberts. All that Sheriff Owens knew for
sure was that Andy had gone into the house. Owens went up to the front
porch and glimpsed a man watching him from one of the two doorways. That
door slammed shut and Owens saw Cooper and three other men through a
window.
"Andy Cooper, I want you," he announced.Cooper
cautiously opened the door with his left hand. His right hand held his
six-shooter.
In the second doorway open ing off the porch stood John
Blevins with his own gun ready for action. Sheriff Owens was caught
between the two armed brothers. Andy and John Cooper had the drop on
Owens, but instead of shooting, he asked, "What do you want?"
"I want you," Sheriff Owens answered.
"What for?" Cooper demanded.
"On a warrant for horse stealing from the Navajos.
You know that."
"I'll see about it later," Cooper answered.
"I won't wait. Come out right now," ordered
Owens.
"I won't go," said the rustler.
At that moment, Andy Blevins cocked his gun and fired at
Owens. As Andy was cocking his gun, Owens was drawing his pistol and
firing at Andy in the doorway. The sheriff's bullet hit Andy Blevins, but
Andy’s shot missed Owens. Cooper staggered back into the house. Almost
instantly another shot sounded as John Blevins fired at the sheriff from
the other doorway. He missed Sheriff Owens, but hit Andy's horse that was
tied up in the front of the house. Owens whirled around and fired at John.
Owens bullet struck John in the shoulder. Owens then backed into the
street to get a better view of the windows. He glimpsed Cooper moving past
one of them and fired again. At that moment, Mose Roberts jumped out
through another window with his revolver ready. Sheriff Owens leaped
behind a wagon for protection and sent a bullet into the head of Roberts.
Then Sam Houston Blevins, only sixteen, grabbed Andy Cooper's pistol and,
while his mother screamed and tried to hold him back, leaped out to the
porch, trying to cock the pistol. Owens fired, and Sam fell back into the
house with a bullet through his heart. In less than sixty seconds of
action, Commodore Perry, one man alone against four, had shot all of them.
John Blevins was the only one to survive.
A friend of the Blevins men tried and failed to get a mob
together to lynch Owens, but the citizens of Holbrook were well satisfied
with the sheriff's actions. A coroner's jury agreed that Sheriff Owens had
been justified in defending himself in the Holbrook shooting. A year
later, John Blevins, who had recovered slowly from his serious wound, was
tried for assault to murder. He was sentenced to five years in the
territorial prison in Yuma, but the governor pardoned him and he did not
serve any of this time. John Blevins was the only man in his family who
lived through the Pleasant Valley War.
Owens did not run for re-election as sheriff, but he did
serve as a special officer for the railroad. He later served as express
messenger for Wells Fargo and for several years as a deputy U.S. Marshall.
In 1902, he married Elizabeth Barret, who was twenty
three, and he became a successful business man. He died in 1919.
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