Arizona School Yearbooks by County
Sheriff, scholar and gentleman--tall, dark and handsome. Typical western gambler, always chewing a long black cigar. Deep-set black eyes, gleaming ferociously, long snaky black mustache, and a wonderful gift of profanity that would make even the stoutest heart quail--Francis Joseph Wattron.
Excerpts from the address given by Lloyd C. Henning, a prominent Holbrook businessman, during the 63rd annual
Sheriff Frank Wattron
Pioneer Days Celebration in Snowflake on July 24 and 25, 1941, follow.
The man you are honoring here today as one of the colorful characters of Navajo County will be vividly remembered by few in this audience as he passed to that other world Aug. 2, 1905, just short of 38 years ago.
You are to be congratulated for honoring two generations ago, for it was they who made parts safe for us. Last year, it was Commodore Perry Owens, the celebrated sheriff of both Apache and Navajo counties.
This year, Wattron, another sheriff, the very first elected by the voters of Navajo County, Nov. 3, 1896. Owens was first appointed first sheriff of the new county of Navajo in 1895.
Sheriff Wattron and his wife, Estelle Hirstein Wattron
Born at Herman, Gasconado County, Mo., on Feb. 5, 1861, of parents of French (Alsace Lorraine vineyardists) and Swiss descent, orphaned at the early age of seven or eight, he was raised and educated by an uncle, Rev. Father Wattron, rector of Catholic parish of Fort Scott, Kan. His spirited nature could not stand the rigors of training for the priesthood, so at 13, he ran away. We know little of the 10 years before he arrived in Holbrook. Wattron never told of that decade. He made mention of wandering in New Mexico and Mexico. He could speak Spanish fluently. He doubtedly followed the life of many a youngster of those days, farmhand, ranchhand, cowboy and gambler. His first months in Holbrook, he undoubtedly followed gambling. It is told that he arrived with $5 and a deck of cards. In those days, gambling was a recognized "profession" and gentry of that class had to be "good" or they were beneath the dignity of the toughest cowhand. Wattron was never a "tin horn." He gave up professional gambling for more profitable and respectable pursuits. He never gambled in his own place of business, but loved roulette, always gambling elsewhere.
Now, let us first dispose of the "sheriff" angles of his many-sided life.
At St. Johns, July 31, 1885, the Board of Supervisors of Apache County appointed him constable of Holbrook. He resigned Feb. 20, 1886. No reason given. In less than three months, on April 5, 1885, the same Board of Supervisors appointed for the precinct of Holbrook, three justices of the peace and three constables. A most unusual proceeding, but those tough times of continuous "shooting up the town," the tenure of these officials was short and sometimes not sweet. It was a high compliment to young Wattron that these three men were selected to do his work. However, in less than a year, he was serving as a deputy under Commodore Perry Owens.
The F.J. Wattron Drug Store was located between the Bucket of Blood Saloon and Scorse Mercantile in Holbrook’s business district.
"The Apache County Critic" published in Holbrook, March 31, 1887, said:
"Deputy Sheriff Wattron has received a letter from Sheriff Owens that he could not afford to pay $25 per month for a deputy in Holbrook. Wattron takes off his badge and the shooters will hold a jubilee unless a vigilance committee calls a halt."
In 1889, he was justice of the peace and he held that position intermittently when unoccupied otherwise.
In a nutshell this expresses how Wattron helped subdue "the fighting men of the West."
Our "Beau Ideal" sheriff and ex-officio tax collector in 1896, received 268 votes as the Republican nominee for sheriff, to 261 for J.T. Jones, the Democrat. A majority of only seven. Re-elected Nov. 8, 1898, by vote of 363 to 273, for Joe Woods (another colorful sheriff--later--of this county). Majority 90.
Thus he served four years as sheriff, 1897-1900. His efficiency as a businessman, as well a peace officer, is testified to by the Argus of Holbrook for June 4, 1898:
"Sheriff Wattron reports that from the first day of May to the 28th, inclusive, he collected and turned into the county treasury $2,000, averaging $88 per day excluding legal holidays. This beats the record of any previous officer in the history of the country.
The highlight of his career was the "Weird Invitation:"
Mr. F.W. Nelson:
You are hereby cordially invited to attend the hanging of one: George Smiley, Murderer.
His soul will be swung into eternity on Dec. 8, 1899, at 2 o’clock p.m. sharp.
The latest improved methods in the art of scientific strangulation will be employed and everything possible will be done to make the surroundings cheerful and the execution a success.
F.J. Wattron
Sheriff of Navajo County
It was printed on white invitation cards and enclosed in white envelopes. Let C.O. Anderson, now a resident of Willcox, but at that time editor of the Holbrook Argus and school teacher, tell the story:
"Under the law in those days, the sheriff of the county had to perform the execution and the law required him to send invitations to all of the sheriffs in Arizona, as well as to certain territorial officials. Wattron ran a drugstore at Holbrook with a bar in the rear. It was the gathering place for the boys around town. They deviled Wattron about what kind of an invitation he would issue and he decided to issue a novel one. He brought it to me to be printed, but as I had no facilities for doing good jobwork, I sent it to the Albuquerque Citizen to be printed in their job department. A reporter got hold of it and wired it to the Associated Press. It was printed all over the United States, and even appeared in the London Times, the Berlin Tageblatt and Paris Fiarge, and they commented upon the brutality of one of the governors in one of the American provinces.
"The church people in Washington took it up with President McKinley, and he wired Govenor N.O. Murphy of Arizona and Gov. Murphy stayed the execution 30 days. I saw Wattron a few days after, and his comment was, ‘Well I got a hell of a lot of notoriety anyway.’
"The incident rankled in him and he prepared the second invitation, which was also printed, but he carefully did not mail it out until he was sure that it would not be received by the governor and other officials until after the execution had been performed."
The second hanging invitation was most lugubrious in its sorrow and slightly sarcastic. It read:
Revised Statutes of Arizona, Penal Code, Title X, Section 1849, Page 807, makes it obligatory on sheriff to issue invitations to executions, form (unfortunately) not prescribed.
Holbrook, Arizona
Jan. 7, 1900.
Mr. T.J. Hesser:
With feelings of profound sorrow and regret, I hereby invite you to attend and witness the private, decent and humane execution of a human being; name, George Smiley, crime, murder.
The said George Smiley will be executed on Jan. 8, 1900, at 2 o’clock p.m.
You are expected to deport yourself in a respectful manner, and any "flippant" or "unseemly" language or conduct on your part will not be allowed. Conduct, on anyone’s part, bordering on ribaldry and tending to mar the solemnity of the occasion will not be tolerated.
F.J. Wattron
Sheriff of Navajo County
Note:
I would suggest that a committee, consisting of Governor Murphy, Editors Dunbar, Randolph and Hull, wait on our next legislature and have a form of invitation to executions embodied in our laws.
This one was printed on white paper, black border, enclosed in white envelope, also edged in black, indicating deep mourning.
And so, Wattron had the last word and his own way (as usual) of doing things, but the only man ever legally executed in our county, in his last words, said:
"I have nothing to say except to thank the sheriff and his deputies for courtesies, and I die a Christian."
Wattron’s overdeveloped sense of humor, and he was a little ashamed of the invitations. Mrs. Wattron was shocked.
His early education for priesthood, hard though it was, gave the man a foundation to continue his education in the "University of Hard Knocks." He kept abreast of the times by reading and continuous study.
Certainly, folks, he was a "Scholar and Gentleman"--one who could so impress our school teachers.
But "FJ" was more than "Sheriff, Scholar and Gentleman." He was also a businessman of honesty, integrity, promptness, meticulous as to details, a politician in the best sense of the word, and last, but by no means least, a family man.
As to business, advertisements in June 1886, list T.P. Robinson and Co. dealers in drugs and medicines, Post Office Building, Dr. T.P. Robinson, M.D., F.J. Wattron. Even in those remote days, a drugstore was sort of a department store, never omitting a saloon and card game in the rear. The place was destroyed in the fire of June 16, 1888, that burned the entire frame business district. The story--true or not--is told that Jim Houch staked him to $5 in a game of seven-up, and that was the start of his interest in the store, of which he later became the sole proprietor and continued to operate until the end of his days.
But the records show he only owned a one-fourth interest in the lot and building of that famous and successful establishment. The other three-fourths was held by the Putney family of Albuquerque, N.M. He was a stockholder in the Navajo County Bank at Winslow. His name appeared as a builder and one-fourth owner of the Winslow Opera House. He had a yen for accumulating stocks--mostly mining in Mexico, and mostly worthless. As an avocation (probably profitable) he purchased and collected 2,981 pieces of Prehistoric Indian relics, selling the same to the Field Columbian Museum in Chicago.
Wattron was ever fond of good music. He was the first merchant in Holbrook to install a Regina Music Box and a Gramophone, later known as the phonograph. Many an hour he whiled away strumming his guitar, an investment always as handy as the necessary shooting irons to preserve the peace. Music was soothing to his soul.
From Nashville, Tenn., three arrived in Holbrook in the fall of 1886, to teach the 27 pupils, 12 girls and 15 boys--the most competent teacher over in the district (according to the newspaper of the day): Miss M. Estelle Herstein. This lady, one of her pupils (Mrs. Myrtle Zuck Hough) tells me, was very pretty and had lovely clothes. Love at first site--for she and Wattron were married Jan. 28, 1887, at 4 p.m. by Justice D.G. Harvey.
Of this union there were born six children, three boys and three girls. The family moved to Los Angeles, Calif., in January 1902, for better schooling. In those days, men who could afford it provided homes elsewhere for their families.
A will, written in his own hand, Feb. 2, 1902, gave his net appraised estate amounting to $7,576, to his good and faithful wife; no bond required. Listed therein was a note of $500 due in 1908 from the estate of his uncle, the Catholic priest. I do not believe that he ever intended to collect it.
Mrs. Wattron died in 1925.
Photos courtesy of the Holbrook Branch of the Navajo County Historical Society
