By Parker Anderson

Even before the Territory of Arizona was officially declared in 1863, miners were in the area and had discovered gold in the southern part of what is now Yavapai County. The biggest strikes were located on a mountainside that would come to be known as Rich Hill. After Arizona became a Territory, several mining towns sprouted up in the vicinity of Rich Hill including Octave, Weaver, Congress and Antelope Station (by Antelope Creek). The area is located at the bottom of the hill south of Yarnell and between 10-15 miles east of State Route 89. Except for Congress, these towns do not exist anymore (aside from ruins) although in the past few years much new development has been appearing in the region.

Around 1872, an Irish immigrant named Charles P. Stanton moved to Antelope Station and somehow managed to gain control of much of the area. He re-named the town "Stanton" after himself when it had grown large enough to establish a post office. He was first postmaster for Stanton, established March 5, 1875. History does not look kindly upon Charles Stanton and he is said to have been involved in various dastardly deeds.

The Weaver Mining District, where Rich Hill and these towns were located, developed very bad reputations in the ensuing years. Although the stage line between Wickenburg and Prescott ran through Stanton, most travelers tried to avoid the area which had become a haven for thieves, bandits, and other undesirables. Even as late as 1892, the reputation remained and the Prescott newspaper reported that the residents of Stanton liked to "drink blood, eat fried rattlesnakes and fight mountain lions."

Still, there were legitimate business owners in these towns trying to make a living while mining their claims. The stagecoach stop in Stanton was owned by George H. "Yaqui" Wilson, his nickname having come from the fact that he had once befriended a tribe of Yaqui Indians of northern Mexico.

Over several years, Wilson had been in conflict with another local miner and businessman named William Partridge. On the morning of August 9, 1877, the citizens of Stanton were startled by the sound of gunfire. Witnesses claimed they had seen Partridge chasing Wilson with a rifle down an embankment to Antelope Creek. There, Partridge shot and killed Wilson out of view of the citizens.

George Wilson’s business assistant, John Timmerman, telegraphed Yavapai County Sheriff Ed Bowers and when Bowers arrived on the scene, Partridge surrendered to him and was taken to jail in Prescott to await trial.

As the trial of William Partridge neared, several subpoenaed witnesses tried to get out of testifying by claiming they were out of the court’s jurisdiction. The trial of William Partridge opened in Prescott in late August of 1877, mere weeks after the incident, before Judge Charles A. Tweed.

Partridge claimed in court that Wilson repeatedly let his hogs run wild all over town and that he had sent a warning to Wilson and Timmerman to keep their hogs away from his land. According to Partridge, Wilson then came up to his house and started clubbing him with a sledgehammer handle. Partridge then ran into his house, grabbed his rifle and, in the heat of anger and passion, shot and killed Wilson.

Sheriff Bowers subpoenaed Charles P. Stanton to come to court and to bring the sledgehammer handle with which Wilson was allegedly armed. Although William Partridge admitted to killing George "Yaqui" Wilson, he pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the charge of murder since he claimed he had not planned the killing in advance.

Prosecutor Paul Weber called a number of witnesses who heard the ruckus that fateful morning. Partridge’s Defense Attorney, Benjamin Morgan, tried to call several witnesses (including Charles P. Stanton himself, the town "boss") to testify as to the deteriorating relations between Partridge and Wilson which culminated in the murder. But under repeated objections from Weber, Judge Tweed ruled any such testimony inadmissible, stating that the only question was: did William Partridge kill George Wilson? The answer was yes.

With his entire line of defense prohibited by the Court, Partridge didn’t stand a chance. The jury found him guilty of second degree murder and Judge Tweed sentenced him to life in Yuma Territorial Prison. The harshness of the sentence surprised many; inasmuch as Partridge was getting old and that he killed Wilson only after first being assaulted with a sledgehammer handle. He was one of the first prisoners from Yavapai County to go to Yuma.

William Partridge had friends and a lot of public sympathy, so when his appeal to the Territorial Supreme Court failed, his friends started lobbying heavily for a pardon. On January 19, 1880, William Partridge was pardoned by Arizona Territorial Governor John Charles Fremont and released from prison less than three years into his life sentence. He moved to Prescott where he lived quietly until his death in 1899. His obituaries made no mention of his record. The AZ Journal Miner of September 13, 1899 reads, "Wm. Partridge, an old time resident of Stanton, died in the county hospital yesterday morning and was buried yesterday evening. Deceased had lived in and around Stanton since the early sixties, occupying a cabin most of the time which he built in 1864. He was engaged in mining and was upwards of 70 years." He is buried in Citizen’s Cemetery on Sheldon Street under a tombstone that misspells his name, ‘Patridge.’

Like so many cases from the frontier era, the story of William Partridge has fallen into folklore which relays it differently. The folklore version contends that Partridge was somehow tricked into killing Wilson by Charles Stanton, who legends state was responsible for numerous crimes and killings in the Antelope Station area. According to folklore, Stanton figured if he could get rid of both men, he could take over their businesses. But, after reading Partridge’s court papers and his own testimony, it is difficult to see how Stanton could have been involved.

After Wilson’s murder, his assistant, John Timmerman, took over his stage stop. Within two years, 1879, Timmerman himself was found murdered in a case that was never solved. The townsfolk believed he had fallen victim to bandits because he always carried large amounts of money; folklore has attributed responsibility for his murder to Charles Stanton.

As for Charles Stanton, his hold on the town ended in 1886 when he was shot to death in his own store by three Mexican men claiming that he had insulted a relative. Never proven, no one was ever prosecuted for his murder. The town, by the 1890s had a hotel and boarding house, a stamp mill and general store and was bustling with miners and their families. With Charles Stanton gone, the crime rate went down! Eventually, when the gold ran out, Stanton became a ghost town.

Today, Stanton is a modern-day ghost town located along Antelope Creek at the base of Rich Hill, 15 miles east of Congress. It is owned by the Lost Dutchman Mining Association and is used as an RV park for its members for recreational mining. A few of the town’s original structures remain and are used by the guests: the stage stop of the 1880s is now the camp office, the hotel is a library, kitchen and game area and the old saloon is the recreation hall. Visitors must be granted permission to walk the grounds by checking in at the office.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(bub8097p) Reuse only by permission.
Charles P. Stanton, shown in front of his store in the mining town named for him, c.1880. He was known for his cruelty, vice and corruption in the little community and folklore abounds with stories of his reputed activities, including an accusation that he was involved somehow in the tiff between Wilson and Partridge.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(courtesy Kathy Krause) Reuse only by permission.
Shown here in 2009, the old hotel at Antelope Station (re-named Stanton in 1875) is still standing and is in use by the Lost Dutchman Mining Association. The modern-day ghost town is an RV park used for recreational mining by the association members.