By Stan Brown
Our three children bounced eagerly from window to window in our camper as we went through the iron gate and completed the last mile on a well used gravel road. Our Chevy pickup truck rumbled along the western reaches of the Deep Well Ranch outside of Prescott, Arizona, heading for the 21st Annual Cowboy Camp Meeting in this area.
The year was 1960, and the date was Wednesday, August 10th, the day before the meetings were to begin. I had been invited from my Methodist parish in Phoenix to be the evangelist during the four-day affair.
The Presbyterian missionary, Tom Myers, met us. He orchestrated these summer camp meetings in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado and had told us to arrive a day early to get acquainted. Furthermore, he said, those who were early got to eat T-bone steaks. Local ranchers contributed about three beeves each year. As the days went by, the attendance grew to several hundred and everyone worked their way through the various cuts of meat. The cooks, who had been attached to the Camp Meeting circuit for years, prepared a delicious barbeque on the final day.
We leveled our camp-truck under the shade of an old alligator juniper as our nine-year-old Cathy and seven-year-old Tommy ventured out on exploratory missions. Two-year-old Beth toddled close to our camp as we made ourselves at home. Tom Myers soon had me in tow, and I met the local committee. Austin Nunn chaired the beef committee and told me, in addition to the steer furnished by Harold James, the owner of the Deep Well Ranch, that Frank Campbell and Norman Fain donated two others. "Plenty of Chino Valley beans, too," smiled Ethel Lytle, in charge of publicity as she had been doing for years. Her press release announced, "The music committee was composed (a fitting term) of Mrs. Norman Fain, Mrs. Dick Martin and Mrs. Harold James. Thursday evening Mrs. Frank Ogden from the Verde Valley will be the soloist; Mrs. Wood and her daughters, June and Dale, will furnish special music Friday evening. The choir from St. Luke's Episcopal Church will sing Saturday evening and Sunday music will be furnished by the choir of the Chino Valley Community Church."
I was beginning to sense this camp meeting was more sophisticated than I had expected out here where the antelope graze with cattle and ranchers hail from settler families. As the meetings progressed that week and scores of people from the county seat of Prescott converged for the suppers, I realized that this was not exactly what cowboy camp meetings had originally been designed to do. The stated purpose was to provide an annual gathering of ranchers and cowboys whose great distances from town and long weeks on the range prevented them from attending worship services. It was a time of spiritual renewal, conversion to faith in Christ, and much needed socializing among the isolated families. Over the next fifteen years, I would be the preacher at Cowboy Camp Meetings in New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming, set on ranches where vast distances continued to prevent the much needed social mixing. Here at Prescott, however, the site was only a dozen miles from town and the pavement came to within a mile of the campground.
Tom Myers continued to show me around and we encountered the owner of the ranch, Harold James, chairperson for that years' meeting. He quickly introduced me to Marion Perkins, who with Billy Wells, headed up the grounds committee. Bill and Betty Wells had settled near there in 1952 when they bought the V7 Ranch in Chino Valley from Austin and Anne Nunn after the Nunn's had retired. Suddenly I was swept up in the history of these families. They explained how Austin had come to Arizona from Texas to work for Marion Perkins on the 76 Ranch. He then purchased several sections of grazing permits from the Perkins family as well as their V7 brand.
As we walked along, my head was swimming with names and brands and years, when suddenly, Tom Myers stopped me in front of a little man with a thin, weathered face and said, "This is Joe Evans, the patriarch of the Cowboy Camp Meetings."
Joe's face lit up as he shook my hand and his gentle, sweet voice communicated the warmest of welcomes. I was about to be told a story that seemed nothing short of a miracle. Later I would do the research to fill in the blanks.
Back in 1880, Marion Alexander Perkins and his wife, Annie, had migrated from Mississippi to Colorado City near Sweetwater in southwestern Texas. That same year, a son was born, Robert Elisha Perkins. Those were days when the Indian wars were coming to a close and the campaign against the Apache warrior, Victorio, had ended. More peaceful times had settled over west Texas and the newly constructed railroads were bringing settlers and cattlemen in increasing numbers. In fact, the area soon became too populated for Marion Perkins, and he packed his belongings and family in the wagon to head for Davis County. There, just twenty miles from Fort Davis and the safety of its infantry troops, Marion Perkins took a job managing a ranch for its absentee owner. Over the next fifteen years, the owners' herds flourished, as did Perkins' own herd. By this time there were six children: Rob, Marion Nicholas (called Nick), Benjamin, Kate Annie, Valeria and Fannie.
Two neighboring ranch families became close friends with the Perkins family, those of John Means and George Evans. The boys of these families became good friends, riding the range together in community roundups and hunting bear. They even caught and tamed a bear cub, as ranchers often did in those days. During these years, a missionary of the Presbyterian denomination, William Benjamin Bloys, was the pastor at Fort Davis. He rode as often as he could to the outlying ranches, where he would hold Bible studies and worship services, as well as baptize the children. In consulting with three of the ranchers, George Evans, John Means and Marion Perkins, the missionary planned to bring the local families together annually for an old style camp meeting. The cattlemen agreed it was a good idea, and on October 10, 1890, forty-three folks gathered in Skillman's Grove under a brush arbor. It was the first Cowboy Camp Meeting in the southwest, and for several days the three families and their hired hands enjoyed fellowship and spiritual revival. The pulpit was made of Arbuckle Coffee boxes; there were no tents, only covered wagons and most folks slept under the stars.
The following year, Fort Davis was decommissioned since the threat of Indian raids was over. Civilian families began to occupy and maintain the government buildings, and each summer when the Camp Meeting was held, a number of them came out and camped on the grounds. The meetings grew in popularity, more ranches joined the annual gathering and various sponsoring denominations sent their preachers. The stated goal of the Camp Meetings was "to urge upon all the claim of Christ for all of life; to study the Bible as the Word of God and the guide for living; to strengthen the vows of loyalty for these troubled times; to provide a rich Christian fellowship in an inspiring atmosphere."
As the years passed, the friendship between the teenage sons of George Evans and Marion Perkins, Joe and Rob, grew strong. By 1899 local rumor said that the Texas legislature was going to enact a homestead law that would allow settlers to claim eight sections of land. The very idea of cowmen and their cattle crowding in that close gave Marion and Annie Perkins the urge to push further west in a quest for their own spread. On that journey, the boys rode horseback, the girls and their mother rode in a horse-drawn buggy and fifty-one year old Marion drove the four-mule-team wagon with all their possessions and camping equipment. Perkins had heard about a ranch for sale in Arizona where 10,000 head of cattle had ranged with plenty of room. A year-around stream ran through the open range, and the gramma grass was abundant. It was owned by Jim Baker.
Jim Baker had come to Chino in 1864 as an Army physician and traded a horse and saddle to a squatter for land along the upper Verde River. He registered the 76 brand and began ranching. Soon he went into financial partnership with two of Prescott's early residents, James Campbell and William Buffum. This enabled him to expand his land holdings and livestock interests. In fact, the expansion was so successful that the Arizona Miner reported on June 9, 1882, "James M. Baker, the largest cattle and horse owner in Northern Arizona, is in from his herds which range along the head waters of the Verde and in the foothills of the Bill Williams Mountains. He tells us that the country is quite dry, nevertheless grazing is very good. A rain would be of much benefit just now."
In the 1890s, Baker and his partner, John Campbell, had gone deep into debt over gambling losses and the two men parted ways. In an 1898 lawsuit, Baker was finally awarded all of Campbell's share of their holdings, but at the same time, central Arizona was in the grip of a prolonged drought. After very wet years in the late 1880s, 1891 had ended in severe drought, and by the spring of 1892 most of the stock on Arizona ranches had died for want of grass and water. Some snow came in January of 1893, but this was followed by a second spring without rain. A dry summer in which more cattle perished was exacerbated by a financial panic back East. In the summer of 1895, the drought got even worse and the bottom dropped out of the cattle market. In spite of sporadic rain and snow over the next few years, the drought continued into the new century. Jim Baker was forced to put his ranch holdings up for sale and that word had reached Marion Perkins.
It was 1898 when the Perkins family reached Holbrook, Arizona. Leaving his family in their camp, Marion continued on to Williams and then south to the Baker Ranch, twenty-five miles below the head of the Verde River. Perhaps the name Marion, which was also James Baker's middle name, helped the two men to hit it off, and Perkins began the process of buying the 76 Ranch. He returned to Holbrook and took his family back to New Mexico where they leased a range in Luna Valley that could accommodate their large herd while it was in transition from Texas. For the next several months the Perkins cowboys trailed their herd 400 miles from Texas to Luna Valley. With them were the families of Tom and George Grubbs, whom the Perkins had known since they first migrated to Texas. Also with them, riding point on the cattle drive was Jim Nunn.
Marion Perkins continued communication with Jim Baker, using the postal and telegraph of the day. The deal almost fell through when Baker tried to keep the grazing and water rights in his name. This was settled when they agreed Baker could sell two parcels to the town of Prescott on which wells were located. By November 1, 1900, when the Perkins family arrived on the upper Verde River, the ranch was theirs. Cowboy Jim Nunn returned to Texas, but his nephew, Austin Nunn, arrived in 1915 to work for the Perkins and establish his own ranch. He would later be active in establishing the Prescott Camp Meeting.
In less than two years after the Perkins had settled at the 76, tragedy struck the family. It was 1902 when two of their girls, Annie and Valeria, came down with scarlet fever and died less than one month apart.
Check back next week for the conclusion of the history of the Perkins Family and the Cowboy Camp Meetings.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(Stan preaching) Reuse only by permission.
The author, Stan Brown, preaching at the 1960 Cowboy Camp Meeting. Photo courtesy of Stan Brown.