By Carolyn Bradshaw

(This is the second part of a two-part article regarding Jerome Union Stage War.) 

The real fireworks would not start until the Jerome Union Stage Line was awarded a contract for postal service between Jerome and Prescott in 1923. In the mail contract, the government asked the bidders to take into account the revenues that might accrue from carrying passengers. Elijah Flummerfelt's Jerome Union bid of $6,700 vs. the Arizona Bus Company's bid of $21,000 was clearly designed to get Flumerfelt the contract.

Under this federal contract, they would be carrying mail and adding passengers, traveling the same route that the state corporation commission had prohibited them from using. Enter County Attorney and Sheriff... 

If the legislature wouldn't act to change the authority of the commission, rumor had it that Flumerfelt was deliberately playing to get himself arrested to arouse local sympathy and bring the United States government into the fight. 

Earlier, the attorneys for the Jerome Union Stage Company declared their right to take the ruling of the court upholding the Arizona Bus Company contract for the Jerome-Prescott highway route to the State Supreme Court. And, if necessary to the federal courts suggesting that they could be heard in the federal courts because seventeen miles of the new Jerome-Prescott highway was within the Prescott National Forest. They did not believe that the federal government would uphold the corporation commission in granting an exclusive franchise to any bus line to operate over a road crossing federal territory. Now, that strategy would be unnecessary because with the United States mail on board, a simple arrest would suffice. 

Disregarding the federal contract, the corporation commission quickly applied for an injunction to restrain the Jerome Union from carrying passengers under any circumstance. 

The injunction hearing did not come off as scheduled because in a twist of events, on the day the injunction was to be heard, the chief counsel for the Jerome Union was charged with murdering a man who had nothing to do with this situation. 

In the meantime, Flumerfelt was still in contempt of court for carrying passengers on his mail route and County Attorney McMurchie declared Flumerfelt an "outlaw" who should be boarding for a while at the "Hotel Ruffner." 

Jerome's Verde Copper News called Flumerfelt's arrest, "one of the most astounding incidents believed to be absolutely unique and which may lead to Uncle Sam taking a hand in the Yavapai Stage war." The editorial pointed out that the actions "will hardly meet with public approval," and, "There is a lot of mystery connected to the entire proceeding." 

Federal government officials were not interested in a stage war and reiterated that all men in the postal service must comply with state laws. However, they declared that Flumerfelt was right to ask to stay with the mail car and drive it to Prescott. 

The postmaster threatened that stage service be discontinued due to the interference by the Sheriff, and on the Verde side of Mingus Mountain the blame was clearly on the corporation commission for creating an inconvenience which affected timely mail delivery. 

The postmaster threatened that the mails might be handled by the Santa Fe Railroad which meant delays from 12 to 24 hours. Parcel post shipments and auto repair parts would be delayed, and butter and eggs from the Salt River Valley would not be available. The Verde district stood to lose everything it had gained in the way of better service and the commission was to blame. Not liking the idea of using the railroad, the commission allowed the Jerome Union Stage to operate under a strict interpretation of the federal contract, meaning Flumerfelt could carry mail only, until the commission could get to court with its injunction. 

A group of Verde district businessmen and women known as the Commercial Club conducted their own investigation of Flumerfelt's arrest. Suspicions grew when it was discovered that County Attorney McMurchie had been doing legal business for the Arizona Bus Company, Flumerfelt's competitor. 

A federal grand jury at Prescott indicted Ruffner and McMurchie on charges of conspiracy and interference with the transport and delivery of United States mails. These various legal entanglements continued for quite some time. However, research has not yet revealed the results of these charges. 

On April 12, 1924, Elijah Flumerfelt was convicted of a misdemeanor and ordered to be imprisoned in the Yavapai County jail under the following terms: that he pay a fine of $100 and serve one day's imprisonment for every dollar of said fine and, that he further be confined in the county jail for a period of thirty days. 

His wife and two young daughters were forced to leave their Clarkdale home and rent a house on Carleton St. in Prescott, not far from the home where Mary Averyt Flumerfelt lived prior to being widowed. The girls attended Washington School on Gurley Street and made daily visits to the jail located in the courthouse. The jail was in the basement at the Cortez and Goodwin St. corner, and they could visit their father through the jailhouse bars. 

In early 1925, the family left for Phoenix, where Elijah, who was now broke and in poor health, operated a small store at 30th St. and Van Buren, near the Joyland Amusement Park. He died in 1938. 

One of those young girls talking to her father, Elijah, through the jailhouse bars is my 88-year-old-aunt, Ruth Flumerfelt McManus. We often sit and talk about this story in her apartment on Alarcon Street. 

(Note: In recent years the Arizona Republic has called for Arizona Corporation Commission reforms.) 

(Carolyn Bradshaw is a principal of Bradshaw Public Relations LLC) 
 

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