In April 1876, James was enumerated as a resident of Springerville, Yavapai Co., Arizona Territory on a Voter Registration. In the same year his name appeared on the Territorial Census record for Clear Creek, Yavapai Co., Arizona. James Richmond also had an account at the Becker Bros. Store in Springerville, where his name was in the ledger books for purchases on credit in March 1876. (He liked to buy oysters!) On 17 Oct 1878, James's name was again listed on the Voter Registration for Pima County, which had been split off from Yavapai Co. By 1880, Springerville had a population of 364. James would have been well-acquainted with the Creaghe brothers, fellow ranchers. 

St. George and his brother Gerald "Paddy" Creaghe were born in Tipperary County, Ireland, in 1852 and 1855. Together they started a small cattle ranch near Springerville called Coyote Springs in 1874. On June 2, 1879, the newly-elected Apache County Sheriff Luther Martin appointed Gerald as under-sheriff. And Gerald enlisted James as his assistant deputy sheriff.

From the Creaghe Family Historical Society: "In those days, the county sheriff was responsible for tax collection. In the spring of 1880, Sheriff Martin sent Gerald and another deputy, James A. Richmond, deep into southern Apache County to collect or assess taxes. This was a time of significant unrest in that part of the Southwest in that Victorio’s War had been going on since September 1879. In brief summary, Victorio was a sixty-year-old Eastern Chiricahua Apache who was either a freedom fighter, renegade, insurgent, or terrorist, depending on one’s point of view. Actually, he was all of these things, as well as an effective, experienced, charismatic leader who inspired fanatical loyalty in his followers. He used his intimate knowledge of the environment in hit and run guerrilla tactics, moving quickly over formidable terrain and using international borders to discourage pursuit. This should sound familiar to an early 21st Century reader.

The Apaches were raiding for livestock, food, supplies and killing civilians to discourage (terrorize) the population. However, Springerville was no more than forty miles from the northwest corner of the San Carlos Apache Reservation. The most direct path the two deputies could have taken south was as close as fifteen miles from the reservation. Victorio was not on the reservation then, but he had been. He and his band hated it and left. He felt the U.S. government wanted to force them back. There were young Apache men there who agreed with Victorio’s thinking. The further south Gerald and James traveled, the closer they got to where the war was actively taking place.

Granted, news traveled slowly in those days, but there must have been some sense of danger in the region. Was there some conversation around sending two men on horseback that far south alone? We will never know. Gerald and James were killed…on this mission in early May, 1880. Their bodies were found on Ash Creek upstream from where it flows into the Gila River… [the "family legend" related to Steve Creaghe by his grandmother said the men were killed by gunshots and/or possibly scalped, while my own family legend said they were killed by arrows.]

All accounts attribute the deaths to Apache Indians; either one of Victorio’s bands, or, simply, Victorio….his band was not seen again until May 13th, just before he attacked Fort Tularosa (near Aragon, New Mexico). After that the group continued raiding in southern New Mexico Territory and into Mexico. In October, they were finally fixed in position by a unit of the Mexican Army in Chihuahua. Victorio and virtually all of his warriors were killed…" - Stephen B. Creaghe, July 8, 2015

 [all newspaper clippings courtesy of Arizona Memory Project ]

On 2 June 1880, the following article was printed in the LOWELL JOURNAL, Lowell, Michigan: --"We presume that few of the readers of the Journal, in reading the item in the issue of May 19, of a telegraph dispatch from Tucson, stating that ‘P.S. Craig, deputy assessor of Apache county, and James Richmond, his assistant, were killed by Victoria’s band at Stevens Ranche,’ were aware that the said James Richmond was formerly a citizen of this vicinity, but such is the case. Our community was greatly shocked by learning that last Thursday's mail brought a letter from George Hiller, of Camp Thomas, Arizona, to the family of our well-known citizen M.S. Richmond announcing the death of his eldest son, ~ killed by Indians. It would seem that he was out with the deputy assessor on official duty and while camped for dinner were surprised and killed by Victoria's band, numbering about 60 warriors. James Richmond served in the U.S. Army during the war of the rebellion, after which he returned to his father's home near this place. He spent one or two years in this and neighboring states; since which time he has been in the States and Territories of the far west. In common with many others out there his fortune has been as varied as the country itself. Has been engaged in different pursuits with varied success. He had recently started a cattle ranch. We would assure the family that they have the sincere sympathy of this community in their terrible affliction."

The arrow shaft was sent home with his personal effects to his parents. 

Thomas Edwin Farish in his "History of Arizona," Vol. 6, 1918, quotes E.C. Bunch, former Justice of the Peace, Springerville, reminiscing of his early days in Arizona: "Of the many who were killed by the Apaches, I can recall but a few names, though they were well known at the time. Of those whose loss I keenly felt, owing to close associations, were Paddy Creaghe, Deputy Sheriff and James Richmond, who were killed on Eagle Creek while returning from Clifton and the Gila Valley where they had been to assess the property which then belonged in Apache County."

We have not been able to determine exactly where James and Gerald are buried; we presume they were buried where they were found by the troops of the 5th Cavalry, and nothing marks their graves today. However, they are remembered by more than just their great-nieces and -nephews. Their "monuments" are larger than life, their names engraved on marble plaques and virtual walls. Both men, Gerald and James, are memorialized on the Arizona Peace Officer’s Memorial which was dedicated in 1988 on the grounds of the Arizona State Capitol. They are the sixth and seventh names listed (see “Historic Sites”).

(Close up of the 1st panel. Due to a transcription error related to the appearance of his signature, Gerald is listed as "David" Creaghe. The board charged with managing the memorial has been twice informed, and perhaps that can be corrected in the future. - Stephen B. Creaghe)

Both James and Gerald have also been honored by the Officer Down Memorial Page, "dedicated to remembering all of law enforcement's heroes." And the name of James Richmond is engraved with the Honored Veterans that are listed on the Tablet Walls of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Cleveland, Ohio

ADDITIONAL SOURCES: County and Township Map of Arizona and New Mexico 1880; Round Valley AZ dot com; Personal Reminiscences and Experiences: Campaign Life in the 103rd Ohio; wikipedia; Ancestry dot com for all Federal Census Mortality Schedules; The Civil War Letters of Lyman Beecher Hannaford; Ohio Civil War Central; Shelby Foote “The Civil War”; Time-Life “The Civil War”

GRAVESITE:  unknown, presumed buried where body was found.  Died 07 May 1880, near Stevens Ranch, Apache Co., AZ (now Greenlee County, just east of the Safford Valley on the New Mexico border)

Written by Dorotha Simmons Piechocki, May 2001

Updated August 2020 by Gerald and Dorotha Piechocki with grateful acknowledgment to Steven B. Creaghe for his invaluable contributions and the use of his resources.