James William Cart was born on 9. Feb. 1845 at Virginia. He was the son of
Sylvester Cart and
Nancy Jane Nevius. James William Cart married
Alferata (Unknown) in 1881. James William Cart married
Louise Hendrix on 6. Nov. 1891 at Winslow, Apache County, Arizona. James William Cart died in 1920 at Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California. He was buried at Mt. Pisgah Cemetery, Cripple Creek, Teller County, Colorado. From Colorado Magazine, Vol XXVII, p41, 42.
"On 5 Dec 1879, the 1st municipal election (in Rico) was held....Jim Cart (elected) city marshal. Cart was a man of great courage & nerve, respected and feared by the lawless element...On 5 Mar 1880, Cushing with Jim Cart, now a deputy sheriff and a posse of 75, ousted claim jumpers from the Johnny Bull Mine.
Article from the Apache County Critic newspaper, February 24, 1887
A TERRIBLE FATE
Mrs. James Cart and Her Two Children Get LostðVìŒ71 on Their Way Home from Carrizo Station, and are Found Dead Near the Petrified Forest.
One of the most appalling calamities that we have ever been called upon to record has fallen upon our neighbor, Mr. James Cart, whose home was situated someðVìŒ71 six miles east from Carrizo station, on the Atlantic and Pacific railroad, and from which he was absent, being engaged in looking after his stock to the western part of the county. Messengers reached him and he departed Holbrook on Sunday lasðVìŒ71t.
It appears that Mrs. Cart, with her two infant children, respectively a boy about 2 years and a girl 5 years of age had left her home on Friday last with a wagon and team to visit some friends at Carrizo station, at which place she made herðVìŒ71 visit, tarrying till between 4 and 5 ouclock, p.m., when she started with her two little ones, by the same conveyance, for her own residence - for a place, alas, it must be written, that mother nor her little ones were ever to again to behold.ðVìŒ71
On Saturday afternoon, couriers from Carrizo station reached Holbrook with the startling information that Mrs. Cart and the children, when nigh their home, had missed or left the road leading to the home and had taken one leading to the petriðVìŒ71fied forest; that a search that morning had shown that when about four miles from the place of divergence, the lost woman had taken from the wagon one of the horses and made the remaining one fast to the wagon wheel. It appears that with her cðVìŒ71hildren she then mounted and rode on until the trail was lost by the searchers.
The citizens of Holbrook were at once aroused to a degree of the most intense feeling. The relation of this dire disaster spread with the rapidity of an electric ðVìŒ71current, and volunteers from among all classes of citizens - merchants, (unreadable), and rangemen everywhere presented themselves to search the country for the recovery of the lost ones. Men, determined and energetic started without delay, soðVìŒ71me mounted and other in vehicles. The towns of Woodruff and Navajo contributed from her people men who knew the country and all that forethought, energy and duty could devise was done to rescue the wanderer and the little ones.
On Sunday the ðVìŒ71field was covered by the anxious party; every acre of plain to valley and mesa, were explored; every canon and rocky cave within reach was searched, and the day passed with only the discovery that the object had passed over the ground. Little ðVìŒ71articles of wearing apparel was found; a little shoe in one place, a childus stocking hung upon a bush in another; a garment of her own thrown out as if to guide the searchers and direct their course.
The party scattered in all directions and ðVìŒ71were encouraged by the evidence continually opening up that they must soon fall in with the sufferers or discover the place where an eternal sleep had given them rest from their wonderings. At nightfall on Sunday the horse upon which the motheðVìŒ71r had taken her little ones was found at the edge of a rocky cliff overlooking the valley of the Puerea, and from which place the section house at Carrizo station was plainly visible.
This point must have been reached by Mrs. Cart on Saturday ðVìŒ71afternoon and the sight of a human habitation determined her to made the descent, even among those rocks, with the hope of finding succor. Worn, weary, hungry and cold, she abandoned the animal that had brought her to this the first sight of pðVìŒ71rospective relief during the forty-eight hours she had wandered. Down this terrible steppe she made her way, guiding or carrying the children, until the plain below was nearly reached. Arriving, terribly bruised in body, at a large flat rock,ðVìŒ71 she sat down to rest and to rest her infants. The little boy was placed to her breast, while the little girl sat down close to the side of her mother. Here tired nature gave way and death came to their relief.