Bill Seeley

Bill Seeley was living on Canyon Creek when we arrived in Arizona. Occasionally he would leave his place, ride down over the Naeglin Rim and stop by our place for a drink of water and to leave his guns while he went to the Post Office in Young. He would come in the house, unbuckle his cartridge belt and hang the two pearl handled forty-five caliber pistols on the deer horns above our fire place mantle. He would then ride to the Post Office to get his mail stopping by later to pick up his guns on his way home. We suspected that he had some trouble somewhere with guns and did not want to wear them to the Post Office.

There was much speculation about Bill Seeley. No one knew where he came from or who he really was. The gossip was that Seeley was not his real name. Finally we found out that Bill had killed a man in Montana and had come to Arizona to start over again. It was also rumored that the case against Bill, in Montana, was dropped. His former name was, Paulsen, but he never used that name in Arizona. He finally moved to Pleasant Valley, married a local girl and ultimately became Justice of the Peace.

I saw Bill Seeley in action once during a trial held in his home. When a brawl started those pearl handled forty-fives were suddenly in his hands and no one dared contest him. His "back-up" was Al Griffen, an old Texas Ranger who was no one to cross. They restored order very quickly and the trial resumed.

Later on I had a chance to examine Seeley's guns from close up when I was serving on a Coroners Jury. If you cocked one of those pistols, you did not need to squeeze the trigger to fire it. Just touch the trigger and it fired. Those old forty fives were not play things.