Neil Erickson

Neil Erickson
Born 1859
Sweden
Died 1937
Faraway Ranch, Cochise County, Arizona, USA
Nationality American
Occupation Forest ranger, soldier, rancher, farmer, carpenter
Known for Pioneer of Cochise County, Arizona

Neil Erickson (1859-1937) was a pioneer who lived in Cochise County, Arizona.[1]

Biography

Neil Erickson was born in Sweden in 1859 and emigrated to America when he was still a young man. He joined the United States Army in the early 1880s and traveled westward, serving five years in the 4th Cavalry Regiment battling Geronimo and his renegades. He met his future wife, Emma Sophia Peterson, in 1883 while he was stationed at Fort Bowie, where she was working as a maid for an army colonel. Shortly before her marriage to Erickson on January 24, 1887, Emma purchased a log cabin from a local pioneer named Ja Hu Stafford, and filed for a 160-acre homestead.[1]

The log cabin was located fourteen miles southeast of Fort Bowie in Bonita Canyon, a gorge in the Chiricahua Mountains. Erickson moved into the cabin first; his wife and newborn daughter Lillian, joined him in the latter half of 1888. Neil immediately began building improvements upon the property, and one of his first projects was to build a small fort to protect the homestead against Apache raids. The fort was a small one-room building made with thick stone walls, just a few yards from the cabin, although it was never used. Apart from an "Indian scare" in 1890, when the Apache warrior Massai stole a horse from the Ericksons' neighbor, Ja Hu Stafford, there were no encounters with hostile Indians in Bonita Canyon. The fort was later incorporated into the main ranch house as a cellar.[1]

The Ericksons had trouble raising crops and they needed money to improve the ranch, so Neil went to Bisbee to find work as a carpenter, leaving his wife and children alone at home in the ranch for months at a time. It wasn't until July 1903, when Neil became the first forest ranger for the new Chiricahua National Forest, that he could finally move back to the ranch. Erickson spent about half of the year working from home and the rest at various ranger stations or the district headquarters in Paradise; located on the other side of the Chiricahua Mountains.[1][2]

Between 1899 and 1915, Neil and his family built a two and a half-story ranch house with adobe and board-and-batten walls, which replaced the original log cabin.[2] However, after only two years of enjoying his newly completed home, the Forest Service transferred him to Flagstaff, in northern Arizona, in 1917. Neil and his wife moved out, leaving their daughter Lillian in charge of the ranch. Lillian turned the old homestead into a guest ranch business called the Faraway Ranch the same year. Neil remained in Flagstaff with his wife until his retirement in 1927. They moved back to the ranch and lived there for the rest of their lives, helping improve upon the property and assisting their daughter manage her guest ranch business.[1]

Neil died in 1937, followed by his wife in 1950. Both were buried in a small family cemetery not far from their home.[3][4] The Ericksons' ranch house survives and is now the centerpiece of the Faraway Ranch Historic District.[2]

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Chiricahua National Monument: A History of the Building and Structures of Faraway Ranch". National Park Service. Retrieved 2014-12-07.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Chiricahua National Monument: Faraway Ranch Historic District". National Park Service. Retrieved 2014-12-07.
  3. ↑ "Neil Erickson at Find A Grave". Retrieved 2014-12-07.
  4. ↑ "Emma Sophia Erickson at Find A Grave". Retrieved 2014-12-07.