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PANCHO VILLA AND ME -- 1913 |
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by Ben Williams Pancho Villa's Skull Table of Contents
The name Pancho Villa was well-known to the Williams family in the second decade of the twentieth century. His true name was Doroteo Arango Arambula. He was born in San Juan del Rio, Durango, on June 5, 1877. Three years before his death at the age of 40, the Mexican government gave Villa the 24,000-acre Canutillo Ranch and unlimited funds for farm equipment, building materials and tools; and large pensions for his men. The bandit -- now country-squire -- built roads, farmed, and educated dozens of children. It seemed the murderous thug -- Robin Hood had found peace at last. Then on a small bridge in bright sunshine on Friday, July 20, 1923, Villa and three loyal bodyguards were executed. The seven heavily-armed assassins who ambushed Villa's Dodge touring car were charged, tried and released for lack of evidence. When he was 18, Villa's favorite sister, 16-year old Mariana, was raped and impregnated by the son of the vicious patron, Don Lopez Negrete. Villa took revenge, riddling the body of the unarmed youth with bullets before leaving home to join an outlaw band. Thus began the 22-year saga of Pancho Villa as he crossed four southwestern states and northern Mexico, as well as the path of the Williams family. Early one Tuesday morning, on September 1, 1914, Ben Williams (Sr.) was washing his father, Marion's, new Franklin air-cooled touring car on the front lawn of their home on Seventh Street. Ben, 13, an eighth grader, was surprised when the next-door neighbor, Francisco E\lias, approached, asking, "Ben, do you know how to drive this car?" Wealthy and influential, Mr. Elias owned a ranch in Sonora as well as the home on Seventh Street. He would become Governor of Sonora, then Secretary of Agriculture under Presidente Elias Calles from 1924 to 1928. "Yes, Mr. Elias, I can drive this car. " "Good. I have to go to the depot to meet the Golden State Limited at 10, and my car won't start. Pancho Villa and his staff are coming from El Paso and are expecting me to drive them around town. Can you do it?" "Of course." They arrived just as the train pulled in, and Villa and nine of his pistoleros (body guards) climbed into and onto the car with Villa, Elias and Ben in the front seat. Three body guards rode in the back seat, and three on each running board, their weight causing the vehicle to ride on its axles. Ben chauffeured the group around Douglas, and then took them to the Douglas Chamber of Commerce luncheon honoring Villa, who had recently declared himself governor of Chihuahua. Ben's father, Marion, attended the luncheon, and reported that Villa didn't bother with silverware, eating with his fingers like an animal and spilling food on his clothing. Marion owned and operated the Santa Rosa Ranch in Sonora. The ranch was well-stocked with more than 1,500 head of cattle. One day in 1915, one of Marion's cowboys came riding in to inform him that Pancho Villa had sent a military detachment to his ranch to "rustle" 300 head to take back to camp to feed Villa's troops, whereupon Marion saddled his horse and rode out to meet the detachment. "You know those cattle are mine. If you take them, I will have no choice but to resist. Why don't you go to my neighbor's ranch? He's an American by the name of Sherman and he has left the country. Take his herd ... and we won't have to fight." Villa had fallen in and out of favor with various leaders of the Republic of Mexico between 1910 and 1915, as well as fighting Carranza for the presidency. He was friendly with our President Woodrow Wilson, until Wilson recognized Venustiano Carranza as the president of Mexico on October 2, 1915. Infuriated, Villa gathered his forces and set out to destroy Carranza. His plan was to capture Agua Prieta across the line from Douglas, as well as the Mexican Customs House with its known cache of money from collected duties. Villa brought his troops out of Chihuahua into Sonora, and after a perilous march through the mountains, assembled them south of Agua Prieta to fight Carranza's army. In the meantime, our government permitted Carranza's forces to move by rail from Eagle Pass, Texas, to Douglas, where they crossed our border into Agua Prieta to reinforce their own garrison. Once there, they dug deep trenches, strung barbed wire, and, using high-powered electric lights borrowed from our military, they made it impossible for Villa to take Agua Prieta. The illumination of the town made it possible for Carranza's troops to see Villa's troops, while blinding them as they attacked. The United States military had positioned artillery units in the foothills northeast of Douglas overlooking Agua Prieta. Their commanding officer sent word to the Mexicans, that if there was any fighting or shelling by Mexicans on American soil, his artillery -- already in position -- would decimate Agua Prieta in a barrage that would leave not one adobe brick on top of another. Even so, artillery shells and rifle bullets found their way into and around Douglas. The residents, including youngsters, often climbed atop railroad cars sitting on the sidings at the depot and watched the battle. "Rawhide Jimmy" Douglas owned the home at the corner of Tenth Street and D Avenue at the time. Mr. Douglas sold the house to Dad and moved to Montreal, Canada, and in June, 1943, he wrote a letter to Dad saying that during the battle on October 29 and 30, 1915, a bullet had come through the roof and fallen on the bed in their master bedroom. He and Mrs. Douglas went downstairs for several hours until the battle subsided, and then went back to bed. The Williams home is now a museum and houses the Douglas Historical Society. Dad watched the two-day battle with friends from the roof of the Gadsden Hotel which he owned at one time with Ezra J. "Bud" Warner. "We watched both sides firing at each other," Dad said. "At one point, Villa and his men decided to besiege the city with cannon fire. They strapped a small cannon on the back of a horse with the barrel aimed out over the horse's rear. Two men led the horse to the front lines, turned it around, loaded the cannon, and lit the fuse. There was a terrific explosion and the horse went flying heels over head. They didn't try that tactic again." After several defeats, Villa and his troops headed back east to Chihuahua. On their way, they killed an American on the Palomas Ranch out of pure hatred for gringos. The next day, at Columbus, New Mexico, 500 of his men attacked at 4:12 a.m. on March 9, 1916. They caused great damage, burned buildings and killed 22 Americans, eight soldiers, and nine civilians, including one woman. When Dad and his partners bought the Palomas Ranch in 1941, one of the assets was a home in Columbus used as the American ranch headquarters. A great number of pock marks in the plaster of the exterior walls from Villa's bullets were still in evidence in 1943 when I stayed in the house. Following the Columbus event, President Woodrow Wilson ordered General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing, who was stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, to assemble his troops and pursue Villa into Mexico. For eleven months, 10,000 troops under his command pursued the Villistas. During the same period of unrest, Camp Harry J. Jones was built, and staffed with 25,000 American soldiers. Until recently, trolley car tracks ran the length of Tenth Street from the camp into the center of Douglas, and on to the Mexican border. When Daisy and I built our home in 1962, it was on the site of the old military camp. While digging the footings, we unearthed military brass buttons, buckles and one old whiskey bottle. When I was a freshman at Douglas High School in 1944, I found an unexploded artillery shell on the side of Saddlegap Mountain east of Douglas. I placed it in the compartment on the back of my motor scooter and drove home, bouncing all the way. I mentioned my "find" during supper that evening; Dad wanted to see it immediately. I took him to the carriage house behind our home, and when he saw it, he called the Douglas police department, and they called Fort Huachuca, who sent a bomb squad to retrieve my deadly treasure. I was indeed fortunate the bomb didn't explode during its rough trip home in the compartment in the motor scooter. At the time, I was just two years younger than Doroteo Arango Arambula was when he began his historic ride through southwestern history in 1895.
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