The Clarkes in Ruby
February 4, 2009
Phil and Gipsy Clarke lived in Arivaca for the first few years of their marriage and worked for the Arivaca Land and Cattle Company–he as storekeeper and she as teacher. Soon, though, they began to dream of a life of their own. Phil wanted a homestead and cattle, but when he proposed this, Johnny Bogan called him a traitor. He said, “That’s our range.” “I know,” said Phil, “but it’s open for homesteading, and the rest of you have used your homestead rights. Somebody will get it, and I thought as how I’d worked for you six years, you’d rather have me on it than an outsider.” It seems the ALCC thought they owned him. Phil began to look for a way out. In 1914, freedom came in the form of the Ruby store.
Julius Andrews had been the first successful owner of the store at Montana Camp. It was his wife’s maiden name, Ruby, that became attached to the Post Office and town that grew up around the mine. From the late 1800s to 1914 Andrews and his wife provided everything from food to dynamite. Early on, the store was a target for robbers. Close to the border with Mexico and relatively unprotected, it was to see a number of unhappy incidents over the years. As early as 1897, U. S. troops were called upon to protect the border south of Ruby.
By 1913 the Andrews had decided to sell. For Phil Clarke, it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. Everything they had, including the chickens, went into the purchase of the Ruby store. It was a risk, for mining and the businesses that accompany it always are, but the Clarkes succeeded. When mining activity and the population increased in 1916 Phil built a large new adobe building farther up the hill from the original site and included living quarters for his growing family. Gipsy taught school and raised her family, which was to include three boys and three girls. Daughter-in-law Carol Clarke wrote, “His store was thriving likewise. Customers came from Mexico to the south and Arivaca, a town of 500 people, to the north. He provided free whisky for the men and set up two pool tables in the spacious adobe building. He would say with great pride that no customer ever had to ask twice for any item not on the shelves. Much of his business was carried on by trading. He traded foodstuffs, clothing and hardware for hides, corn, beans and gold dust. He took cattle as payment for debts and his herd increased rapidly.” Wary and tough from an uneasy upbringing in New York, Phil kept guns in every corner and drawer. He understood that the threat of violence was very real, particularly because the Mexican Revolution was going on during the time they lived at Ruby. The Clarkes developed a reputation for toughness. When it was all over, there were lots of stories to tell about the close calls they had had. Phil had set up a large rain gauge behind the store. Teasingly, he told a customer that it was a machine that sprayed poison gas and was wired to his bedroom. The old man, convinced he was telling the truth, spread the word down at the border and certain would-be robbers believed that the store was too dangerous to take!
Gipsy and the children were alone much of the time, but she had help in the form of a maid named Francisca. Her boyfriend was one Ezequiel Lara. Gipsy recounted: “Phil was away on the roundup and about 11 o’clock when Lara left Francisca’s house, he passed my sleeping porch and went out the front past the store. Soon two lady guests who were sleeping in the house came and told me someone was trying the windows and doors of the store. All of us armed ourselves and crawled out of the house along the wall in the shadow of the vines and I shot twice past the Post Office window to frighten him and probably I did, or he made up his mind there was too much evidence, so he would wait.”
By 1920 Phil had acquired enough cattle for his true love, ranching, and moved the family down near Oro Blanco. He leased the store to the Frasier brothers. Less than two months later they were dead, shot in the store by bandits. The same Lara and another man named Garcia were implicated in the robbery. Despite the efforts of troops from Arivaca, they got away into Mexico. Garcia was caught but Lara was never captured. Soon after this, Phil sold the store to Frank Pearson. Pearson thought that the worst period was over. He brought his family to Ruby in August, 1921. But tragedy struck again. Bandits killed Pearson and his wife in a robbery on August 26.
It was probably their reputation that protected the Clarkes during their stay at Ruby. They went on to homestead near Arivaca Lake and expanded their ranch by buying William “Billy” Marteny’s Ranch when it came up for sale in 1919. Over about a 20 year period, Billy had bought up the Caviglia, Perry, Lyle, Tonkin and Moloney homesteads as well as filing on his own, so this was a sizeable ranch. Later the Clarkes moved to Tucson where Phil went into banking. Although there were some ups and downs over the years, they kept the ranch in the family until the 1970s. For a long time son Mike ran it. In time, most of it was sold, but Phil’s great-grandchildren still retain part of the old family land which was the Perry homestead. The remainder of the ranch is now owned by the Chilton family and the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. Chiltons run their cattle on the Montana Ranch’s Forest Service allotment.
Gipsy raised her family and wrote, publishing a book in the 1930s entitled “Out Yonder.” It is a novel based on her life on the ranch. It seems that life with Phil was not easy, as he had certain ideas about what a wife should be doing, which conflicted with what Gipsy believed. It gave her fodder for a great many stories.
Thanks to Chris Clarke for his family stories. Also, “The Rise and Fall of Ruby,” by Carol Clarke Meyer, Journal of Arizona History, and the William Marteny journals in the Arizona Historical Society Library archives. This story was first published in the Connection in 1996.
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