b'MARSHAL TRACKS DOWN PRESCOTT POSTMASTER WHO FLED WITH TILLBy Bill Roberts Reprinted from The TravelerI N AUGUST OF 1875, Deputy U.S. Marshal Parker and John Behan set out from Prescott to hunt down Prescott Postmaster James S. Giles. Giles had abandoned the post office and set out for parts unknown with the postal till. At first, it had been thought that Giles had taken leave of the Prescott post office with two accomplices ofJohn Behanquestionable character, Mike Mehan, alias Mike McCool, and one Fatty Smith. Seems they had been seen traveling on the Mohave Road out of town together. As it turned out, however, Fatty, a former sheriff of Mohave County, was not with Giles and McCool when the pair were spotted in Williamson Valley on their way out of town, but was traveling alone, apparently headed for Cerbat.The first inkling that Giles was fleeing the postal nesta knowing miner agreed that Giless downfall hadAt another cattle camp down the trail, Parker learned with the till came about the 15th of August whenbeen his constant drunken stupor while trying tothat McCool had introduced himself as Mr. Williams. Giles, alone on a horse he had recently purchased,conduct postal affairs. Former postmaster Allen soonGiles, however, had used his real name and talked stopped at William Simmons place in Williamsonlearned that Giles had not registered any foreignlittle at both cattle camps. But Giles had a strange Valley and bought a bottle of whiskey at two in themoney orders sold for months although numeroustransformation at Stones Ferry on the Colorado morning. At the time, Giles said he was in a hurry toPrescott miners and others from foreign countriesRiver. He became Judge James. McCool at the same catch up with McCool as he had business with him. had sent money home. Allen further noticed nospot became Mr. Wilson. Arriving at St. Thomas, the domestic money orders had been registered sincepair retained these names when they met Mr. and Later in the day, Gideon Cornell heard of Gilessmid-July although applications were there for 106Mrs. Jennings. Mr. Wilson had been talking to the strange stop. Cornell was a resident of Williamsonmoney orders since that time amounting to moreJennings about his mining interests and kept referring Valley as well as one of the local bondsmen holdingthan $3000. to Judge James as proof of his mining wealth.a $20,000 bond on the postmaster. The other bondsmen were John Raible, Dan Hatz, GideonIt was also learned that McCool had bought a new,A Colonel Ike, the Jennings, and others around them Brooke, J.H. Pearson, and the estate of James Grant.light wagon, a span of horses, and outfitted it withwho were listening began to conclude that they had Cornell sent a courier to Prescott to inform Marshalprovisions for travel the day before he and Giles beatamongst them guests of great wealth and high caliber. Parker that he suspected Giles was fleeing his post. it out of town. This rig apparently was paid for withThey realized that the presence of two such men in absconded postal funds. Allen then found otherthat secluded country was at least an indication that GILES AN EARLY PIONEER evidence that money was missing. Postcards andthere was an awakening to Southern Nevada affairs by Giles had come into Arizona Territory in 1864 fromother letters to the Prescott post office from aroundmen of wealth. It was then that Marshal Parker and Missouri, a few months after the territory was formed,the country inquiring about what had become ofhis posse arrived on the scene and arrested Giles and and was one of the first settlers in the Prescott area.money sent from Prescott that never arrived. McCool. When arrested, Giles, who had been drinking He farmed in the Granite Creek area, then went eastmuch more than McCool had nothing to say.in 1869, having accumulated several thousand dollars.The former postmaster also found that several He went first to Tennessee, then Mississippi, and thenregistered letters that should have gone out theMcCool, however, felt obliged to apologize to the to Texas before returning to Prescott in 1874, broke.previous two mails did not and were still in thefolks in St. Thomas for his sudden change of affairs. Somehow, he secured the appointment as postmasteroffice. These had not been tampered with althoughHe assured the bystanders that he was entirely in November of 1874. It was some four months laterthey contained several hundred dollars in gold notes,innocent, that Giles, on horseback, had overtaken that the local citizens began complaining aboutchecks, and greenbacks. The fact that Giles hadhim on the road, and that he had taken Giles into the the sloppy way the mail was being handled and theoverlooked the contents of these letters before fleeingcomfort of his wagon merely to be accommodating, general lax operation of the post office. indicated to the boys in the saloons along Whiskeyhaving no idea Giles was an embezzler. Apparently, Row that his perpetual drunken stupor had causedMarshal Parker and his posse felt there would be Giles was in his 40s, of slight build, about six feethim to foul up his theft as he had the mails in generalsome difficulty proving McCool had been involved in tall, freckle-faced with sandy hair and beard, a slowwhile he was postmaster. Giless theft of postal funds, although they were aware speaker with a husky voice, solemn, and well-knownthat the traveling rig McCool had bought was bought for his excessive drinking. While the marshal wasA SHORT CHASE with postal funds. They confiscated what money hunting down Giles and McCool, the bondsmenGiles was not much better at escaping with his lootMcCool had, the new traveling rig, and provisions, managed to enlist former postmaster Charles Allen tothan he was at handling the mail. Marshal Parker andand sent Mike McCool Mehan on his way, afoot. go over the records in the post office in an attempt tohis deputy tracked Giles and McCool to a cattle campMarshal Parker and John Behan started the trip back determine how much money Giles had made off with. after following them through Williamson Valley.to Prescott with Giles in custody.There, McCool did all the talking. He introduced NO SMALL CHANGE himself as Mr. Prichard, saying he was hurryingSTAGE DRIVER BRINGS WORDSpeculation in the saloons and stores and on the dirthome to San Francisco after receiving a telegramWord of the arrest came into Prescott via stage driver streets of frontier Prescott was rampant. It was thenotifying him of important business. Samuel McClemmons, who drove his stage into town talk of the town of the day, and in the saloons, manytwo days later. He told of the arrest of Giles at St. 52 December 2023'