File:Fletcher Fairchild.jpg

English: Family portrait. Photographer unknown. Believed to have been taken in Flagstaff, Arizona in 1898. Not copyrighted and the copyright would be long expired anyway.

John Fletcher Fairchild (who went by the name Fletcher) was born in Illinois in 1850. He lied about his age so he could serve as a drummer boy with the Illinois regiment in the Civil War with his father Daniel Percy Fairchild and his brothers. Two of his brothers were killed and Percy was shot in the foot and crippled. After the war Fletcher moved to Fort Davis, Texas where he had a saloon and worked as a jailer. He traveled to Dodge City, Kansas where he got in a fist fight with Wyatt Earp. Earp broke his nose badly and he suffered from sinus headaches for the rest of his life. After this he was the deputy sheriff in Georgetown, New Mexico until 1877. In 1877 he moved to Arizona where he started a ranch on the Mogollon Rim and signed up as the deputy sheriff in the area. He was one of the posse members sent with sheriff Mulvenon to quell the Pleasant Valley War twice during that year. When his wife died he moved to Flagstaff where he had a saloon and was the deputy sheriff. In 1898 he was elected as sheriff of Coconino county but he suffered from some accident and was unable to serve. There are two stories about this: That he was a victim of a botched surgery in California to correct his sinus problem and that he was hit in the head with a pistol butt while breaking up a fight in his saloon. Either way he declined mentally and died in Phoenix, Arizona in 1900.

''''''''''''''''''''''Corrections: There is a family story that he lied about his age so he could serve as a drummer boy with the Illinois regiment in the Civil War with his father Daniel Perry Fairchild and his brothers. However his father Daniel "Perry" Fairchild is listed in an 1863 draft registration, but there is no service record or veterans pension records for him or his son Fletcher to prove they ever served. As for his two brother's dying in the civil war; He only had two brothers: William Fairchild was a year older than Fletcher and he died in 1900, the other brother Francis Fairchild died in 1879 in New Mexico. After the war we have no documentation to show what he did, he would have only been 15 years old, but five years later on the 1870 census he is still in Danville, Illinois and listed as unemployed. By the 1880 census he was employed as a deputy sheriff in Fort Davis, Texas. His oldest son Frank Perry Fairchild was born in 1884 in Fort Davis, Texas. Fletcher was employed as a civil officer in Georgetown, New Mexico when the 1885 state census was taken. He was in Silver City, New Mexico in 1886 when his daughter Anna Pearl Fairchild was born, and in Flagstaff, Arizona by the time he married his second wife Mary in 1889. In Arizona he continued his work as a deputy, while running a sheep ranch, and building a saloon with a partner. His life is well documented by the newspapers of the day which covered a fire which burned his saloon down, his trips to the gold fields, and his work as a law man. In September of 1898 he was elected sheriff of Flagstaff, Arizona, and in Nov 1898 the newspaper reported he had gone to Los Angeles to spend several weeks for his health and would return in time to qualify as sheriff on January 1st. He returned from California in December, but by August 1899 he was forced to resign due to illness. On 24,August 1899 it was reported in the Flagstaff newspaper that he had been declared insane, and he died on 22,October 1899 at the state mental hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. The story told by his son (and backed up by his obituary in a New Mexico newspaper) was that his father had his nose broken during a brawl (No mention or proof that Wyatt Earp was the one who broke his nose),and he suffered from headaches for years. By the time he was elected sheriff, he was financially secure and could afford to go to Los Angeles to see a nose specialist. He had some surgery done and something went wrong, he was never the same. He was about 48 years old when he died and left a widow and six children. '''''''''' ''''

John C. H. Grabill's iconic photograph, "the Cow Boy" may be a picture of Fletcher Fairchild. http://www.sharlot.org/archives/history/dayspast/old-west-co wboy-detectives/ http://www.sharlot.org/archives/history/dayspast/the-lawman- and-the-outlaw/ http://www.sharlot.org/archives/history/dayspast/two-sides-t o-the-story-of-louis-c-millers-double-life/ http://www.sharlot.org/archives/history/dayspast/family-loya lty-helps-save-escapee-from-hanging