Cordelia watched as the Apache women gathered under a tree near the creek. Most carried their children, some in baskets strapped to their backs, others in their arms. They looked anxiously at the house and Cordelia rushed to finish cooking the meal she had prepared, never knowing how many might show up. She steeped herbal tea, and gathered bandages and splints she would need to tend to their illnesses and injuries before heading down the hill to her waiting guests.
The women watched patiently as Cordelia went from child to child administering whatever remedy she thought might work to break a fever, ease the pain of a broken bone or a bullet wound. When she finished her “rounds,” she picked up one child and headed back to the house. As the women gathered their children and left, the woman whose child Cordelia held sat and waited. She would remain under the tree until her child was returned to her, no matter how many days might pass.
The White Mountain Apaches were still ransacking nearby farms and ranches in the early 1880s. But because Cordelia befriended the women who came through her property seeking aid for their children, her family was left alone. The people knew she was their friend.
Cordelia Adams was born at Willow Creek near Lampasas, Texas, on Feb. 17, 1865, to Emily and John Quincy Adams. In 1867, Cordelia and her family joined a wagon train headed for California. As they passed through a small Arizona settlement not yet named, John Adams opted to stay for a while and work on a new irrigation system that was being built by Jack Swilling, considered one of the founders of the town that was later called Phoenix.
The family lived in a brush tent for about two years raising crops of barley, corn and pumpkins before resuming their trip to California.
In 1877, the Adams family returned to Arizona and settled near Tonto Basin. They started the 76 Ranch, so named because the property was 76 miles from the newly established community of Globe. Tonto Basin was a refuge for White Mountain Apaches.
Cordelia Adams Crawford, circa 1897.
Another rancher in the area was Bushrod (B.F.) Folby Crawford. On Aug. 8, 1880, 29-year-old B.F. married 15-year-old-Cordelia Adams. One of the witnesses to the marriage, Crawford’s good friend Indian scout Al Sieber, presented Cordelia an Apache basket as a wedding gift.
Cordelia was no stranger to hard work. As a newlywed, she cooked over an open fire, or a fireplace during the winter months, with meals consisting mainly of beef, jerky, beans and biscuits. Before long she had vegetables and fruits growing in her garden to supplement these monotonous repasts. To wash clothes, she toted water from the nearby creek and hauled wood to start a fire under a huge caldron. After scrubbing the clothes with a washboard, she rinsed them in the creek and spread them out on bushes to dry.
B.F. was often gone for months on cattle drives, leaving Cordelia to cope with the ranch and all its responsibilities. With few neighbors, she looked forward to the Apache women who came through her property. Before long, the women brought their sick and wounded children to Cordelia, hoping she could cure what their own medicine could not.
The summer after her marriage, 16-year-old Cordelia was heavily pregnant with her first child when the Apaches were riled by the warrior Noch-ay-del-Klinne, who claimed he could bring warriors back from the dead if all the white people were driven out. B.F. had been gone since March; Cordelia was alone except for a few ranch hands. Knowing she was about to give birth, she sent one of the hands to fetch the midwife but Cordelia soon knew the woman would not arrive in time. Unaided, she gave birth to baby Nona on Aug. 4, 1881.
Cordelia would have two more children: Oran was born in 1884 but died at age 11. Emily arrived in 1886.
By the end of August, the Apaches were sequestered at Cibicue Creek, about 20 miles from the Crawford ranch. Soldiers rode out to arrest Noch-ay-del-Klinne and his followers. Noch-ay-del-Klinne was killed and the ensuing battle put the ranch right in the path of warring Apaches.
But the Apaches never bothered Cordelia or the ranch. Folks assumed it was because she had befriended the Apache women and saved many of their children from death.
The following year, Cordelia and little Nona were in the mining community of McMillen near Globe when a band of Apaches ransacked the San Carlos Reservation, took several women captive, and headed for McMillan. Women and children were taken into a mine for safekeeping. Townsmen held off the attack and the warriors headed for Tonto Basin where they left a wide swath of destruction. Again, the Crawford ranch remained intact.
In 1887, the family moved to the stage stop of Tonto. Cordelia was in charge of cooking meals, feeding,’; {P:and lodging travelers. During the Pleasant Valley War, a range conflict between two feuding families in the area, Cordelia devised a plan that allowed her to take care of travelers without knowing who was at her door as it was dangerous to favor one faction over the other.
Men arrived at the stage station after dark so they would not be recognized. They told Cordelia how many meals to make and how many beds they needed for the night. Cordelia prepared the food and left the kitchen before they entered. After supper, they went to their rooms, unseen. Breakfast was served before daylight. The travelers dutifully left money for their bed and board under a stone and departed. Cordelia had no way of knowing which side of the war she was serving, leaving her innocent of taking sides.
The Crawfords moved to Globe in 1893. But their troubles were not over.
In 1897, B.F. shot and killed a man. He was tried, convicted, and sent to Yuma Prison. Cordelia, with three children to support, worked in the local hospital until B.F.’s release.
Cordelia died on Jan. 11, 1943. She led a difficult life but not much different than many women on the early Arizona frontier. Friends called her “a remarkable woman of courage, tall and straight as an arrow, who was as easy on her horse as she was in a rocking chair.”
How well do you know Arizona? Here is another quiz to test your knowledge on Arizona history and facts. Video by Pascal Albright / Arizona Daily Star
