“Last Saturday, John Laubly, who resides on Eleventh street, received the sad intelligence of the death of his son, Fred Laubly, which occurred at Pinery Canyon, in the Chiricahua Mountains, sixty-five miles west of Tombstone, Arizona, on the 25th ult1. Laubly was out on the mountains with a party of men, securing timber for the mines in that vicinity, when they were surrounded by a band of Apache Indians, and the red devils left no one to tell the tale of their massacre.”
“The deceased was 39 years of age, a tuner by profession, and for some time was employed by JH Wait & Son. He had served two terms of enlistment in the Regular Army, leaving Portsmouth in 1867, but for several years he had been engaged in mining operations, and had recently been reported as doing well. he was a brother of Jacob Laubly, formerly Chief of the Portsmouth Fire Department, and had many friends in Portsmouth.”2
“On April 4, 1883, prospectors Tom Frenoy, Fred Lobley and Jack Fife were travelling through Pinery Canyon in a wagon, near the intersection with Pine Canyon, when they were attacked by Apaches. Although they saw the Indians before they began shooting, the miners were still at a disadvantage. The three jumped from the wagon and ran in different directions. Lobley was killed first, shot down and then beset upon by his assailant who beat in his head with a rock. Next killed was Frenoy, his body stripped by his attackers.Fife was the only one of the three men who returned fire. After receiving a bullet in the arm, nineteen year old Fife shot and killed one of the Apaches, then found himself out of ammunition. He crawled into a thicket and attempted to hide, but the Indians set fire to the brush. He was able to escape from his place of concealment and run up the canyon to safety under the cover of the smoke. Later, when the scene was examined, the dead Apache was found wearing Tom Frenoy’s coat.”34
- Last month or April 1882
- Killed by Apache indians. (1882, May 20). Portsmouth Times, p. 2.
- Hayes, A Portal to Paradise p. 145
- https://www.cochisecountyhistoricalsociety.org/journals/cchs-vol-43-no-02-fall-winter-2013.pdf
