Mystery Man Identified

- William A.Mills

The mystery of an “unidentified” man wearing “Buckskin Frank” Leslie’s gun belt has been solved.

Among the Arizona Historical Society’s images is the same studio portrait. The caption reads: “Capt. Tevis, Confederate officer, who located in Arizona just after Civil War. (Photo 1886.)”

Born on July 11, 1837, in Wheeling, West Virginia, the son of John and Elizabeth (McNamee) Tevis, James left home in 1849, aged 12, and joined a steamboat crew as a cabin boy. The mighty Mississippi River took him all the way to New Orleans, Louisiana.

James migrated to Arizona Territory, where he worked for Butterfield Overland Mail during the late 1850s and helped construct the stage station at Apache Pass. In 1857, after arriving in Tucson, James befriended Moses Carson, the older brother of famous frontiersman Kit. Moses taught James wilderness survival skills.