John William & Virginia Pearl Coffee Voris

John William Voris
All Photos are courtesy of
Jennifer Hoy Orton

John William Voris was born in Kentucky on Apr. 14, 1868.  His parents have not yet been identified.

He left Kentucky sometime before Dec. 23, 1898 when he was married to Virginia Pearl Coffee in Albany, Shackelford Co., TX.

"J. W. Voris and bride, nee Pearl Coffey, who were married December 23, at Albany, Texas, are expected to arrive tomorrow night.  Mr. Voris, who is a well known resident of Globe, will receive hearty congratulations from his many friends.  Mr. Voris will serve as deputy to Sheriff-elect W. T. Armstron."¹[sic]

He and Virginia appeared in the 1900 census in the Globe Pct., Globe, Gila Co., Arizona Territory. In March of that year he was a deputy sheriff in Gila Co. and covered the county collecting taxes on, among other things, sheep and cattle.²

Virginia Pearl Coffee Voris

John, or William as he was apparently called by friends, was one of the lawmen who attempted to arrest a pair of Apache warriors for trial in 1895.  The two Indians had been earlier indicted for robbery.  The particular band of Apaches were part of the White Mountain Apaches and lived on the San Carlos reservation - sometimes called the Fort Apache reservation - along the Cibecue creek.  According to local news stories, they were known to be cattle thieves and said to have robbed and murdered a number of ranchers in the area.

When Voris and other deputies appeared at the camp to take the Indians into custody a skirmish broke out and Voris ended up killing one of the Indians known as Nock-ay-det-Klinne and referred to in local newspaper articles as Nan-tan-go-Tayz.  He was acting chief in place of his brother Cooley who was apparently away at the time.  According to newspaper reports, the lawmen had given up on arresting the two Indians and were attempting to leave the encampment in peace.  They were set upon and in the course of defending himself, Voris shot and killed the acting chief.

John William Voris continued to work as a lawman from time to time but spent more time raising cattle.  He quit law enforcement in 1905 and went to work in Pinal Co., AZ Terr. for the A. C. Sieboth mines.  In 1910 he and Virginia were raising cattle on their ranch in the Tonto National Forest near Gila.  He died on Jun. 18, 1917 of an apparent heart attack while driving in an automobile near Globe, AZ.  He was buried on the 21st at the Globe Cemetery.³

Kentucky Mildred Voris

Virginia Pearl Coffee was a daughter of Robert Marion and Emma Gaines Reynolds.  She was born on Jun. 12, 1871 in Lavaca Co., TX and died on March 9, 1966 in Globe, Gila Co.  She and John William were parents of four children:

Kentucky Mildred was born Oct. 28, 1899 in Globe  According to her death certificate, she died of Typhoid Fever on Apr. 29, 1918 in Tucson, Pima Co., AZ.  Descendants say she died of "Spanish Flu" and was never married.  She is buried at the Globe Cemetery in Gila Co.

Robert Edward Voris

Robert Edward, born 1902 in AZ and died there in 1981. He too is buried at Globe.  Robert married a widow (apparently) with three children and a tad older than him.  She was Zella Ruth Kinsey, born Nov. 11, 1901 in Bartlesville, Osage Co., OK and died in Los Angeles Co., CA on Sep. 21, 1945. She had been previously married to Chester Lester Ferguson with whom she had three children:  Cline Elizabeth, Clemmie Beatrice and Winifred Fay. She and Robert apparently had no children together. The burial place of Zella Ruth is not known to me.

Emma Marie, born c1905 in AZ, died unknown.  She married Oscar Elihu Clendennen [sic] who was born in Haskell Co., TX on Oct. 24, 1900.  He died in Jan., 1964 at Midland, Midland Co., TX and was buried at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Odessa, Ector Co., TX.  I have not yet found Emma's death date or place of burial.  There were at least three children born to this union:  Marion Bradford, born 1925; Melba Marie, born 1926; and Minnie Charlotte, born 1927.

Georgia Virginia Voris

The last child born to John William and Virginia was Georgia Virginia on Jan. 6, 1911 in Gila Co., died May 5, 2000 in Kansas.  In c1929 she married Richard Toliver, sometimes Tolliver, Underwood.  To that union was born two daughters, Mildred Elizabeth in 1931 at Flagstaff in Coconino Co., AZ and Margaret Voris in Gila Co. in 1933.  Mr. Underwood appears to have married and divorced a number of times and finally passed away in Arizona on Aug. 5, 1987.  He was buried at the Hall Cemetery in Howe, Grayson Co., TX.  Georgia later remarried to Louis Lieber Weinstein. born 1910, died 2001.  They apparently had no children together.  Both she and Louis are buried at the Meriden cemetery in Meriden, Jefferson Co., KS.




Additions and corrections are welcomed!

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Sources:

¹The Daily Arizona Silver Belt, Globe City, Pinal Co., AZ, Dec. 22 [sic], 1898, Page 2, Col. 3.
² The Oasis - Arizola, Pinal Co., AZ 1893-1920, Mar. 10, 1900, Page 10, Col. 2; citing the Globe Silver Belt newspaper,
³ William Voris, death certificate No. 527 (18 June 1917), Arizona Department of Health Services, Health Services, Phoenix, Maricopa Co., AZ. http://tinyurl.com/o5fyv2c

For context see: http://tinyurl.com/oepozyg, ttp://tinyurl.com/muenm47, and http://tinyurl.com/nyaofb6

“Troops from Apache.”

“Lieut. Fenton Investigates the Cibieu Affair”

 “Gila County Officers in the Right.”

“Lieutenant Fenton, Seventh cavalry, and detachment of twenty soldiers, sent out from Fort Apache to investigate the killing of the Indian on Cibieu creek, Dec. 5, arrived in Globe on Wednesday last.  They were accompanied by William Voris, Frank Ketcherside and Huse Kyle, members of the sheriff’s posse that had the fight with Cooley’s band of Indians.  They were not under arrest, but came to Globe with Lieutenant Fenton, voluntarily, as a matter of prudence, to show their good faith and to pacify the Cibieu Indians, who supposed they were to be brought to Globe under arrest.

“Lieutenant’s [sic] Fenton’s investigation of the trouble at Cibieu corroborates the statements of the Gila county officers engaged in the affray, published elsewhere, and leaves no ground for action against the officers.

“Colonel Powell, commanding at Fort Apache, was notified of the Cibieu fight on Friday, the 7^th inst., and Lieutenant Fenton and detachment left the same night for Cooley’s camp.  Upon their arrival there they found the Indians in a state of great excitement, and their demeanor was so threatening that for a time it looked as though they might attack the troops.  The Lieutenant found that the Indian killed by Voris was Nan-tan-go-tayz, tag V 7, a brother of Cooley, chief of the band.  He was shot in the right breast, four inches below the neck, and the bullet ranged downward, diagonally through the body and came out in the region of the left kidney.

“The Indians expressed displeasure at the presence of the troops and informed Lieutenant Fenton, through an interpreter, that [sic] they wanted to settle their difficulties themselves.  Cooley and two other Indians accompanied the command to Vosburg’s and Ellison’s ranches.  At Vosburg’s the lying interpreter pointed out Frank Ketcherside as the man who killed Nan-tan-go-tayz, whereupon old Chief, trembling with excitement, and with gun in hand, assumed a threatening attitude as though about to shoot Ketcherside.  A soldier, observing the move, threw a cartridge into his gun and Cooley subsided.  When the soldiers reached Canyon creek, on their way to Pleasant [V]alley, they were met by John Dazin and band of Indians, armed and mounted, who asked permission of Lieutenant Fenton to accompany them to fight the whites.  The Lieutenant informed Dazin that he was not out for the purpose of fighting the whites, and told the Indians to return to their camp.

“Lieutenant Fenton and detachment left Globe Thursday morning for San Carlos and expected to proceed to Fort Apache the next day.”

Next:  Military report to Washington

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Note: John William Voris was husband to Virginia Pearl Coffee, daughter of Robert Marion and Emma Gaines Reynolds Coffee. Cibieu is Cibecue creek where these particular Apaches lived.  It was some 45 miles or so NE of  Fort Apache AZ.  It is in what is known as the San Carlos Reservation.  I have also seen references to it being in the Fort Apache Reservation.  See http://tinyurl.com/oepozyg for context.

Source:  Arizona Silver Belt. (Globe City, Pinal County, Ariz.), 14 Dec. 1895, Page 3, Col. 4-5. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84021913/1895-12-14/ed-1/seq-3/>