Tucson Browns team photo around 1907-08
Arizona Lawmen – Gun Carrying Athletes
by Steven “Pacheco” McCann
Arizona Law enforcement officials in the very early 1900’s were comprised of a different breed of the tried and tested. Many of these young men had just returned from fighting in the Spanish-American War, where they fought with Teddy Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders“. Others were sun-baked, work-hardened ranchers, farmers, and their children who were called into duty to help squelch the violent crime that was running rampant throughout their local communities. But one of the things they held in common was that many of them were passionate, natural-born athletes excelling in America’s favorite pastime, baseball.
Lawmen/baseball players Nabor Pacheco Jr. on the left and Henry “Babe”’Pacheco on the right as members of the Tucson Brown Baseball Club around 1907-08
Three such talented ballplayers were Arizona Ranger Captain Harry C. Wheeler and two of the sons of renowned Pima County Sheriff Nabor Pacheco, Nabor Jr. and Henry. Nabor Jr. was a jailor and guard under his father, and Henry served as a Deputy Sheriff, carrying out various assignments when not on the field of play. Nabor Jr. and Henry were teammates on the Tucson Brown Baseball Club during 1907-1908, while Henry was a standout performing as a first baseman with his team that won the 1910 City Baseball Championship.
Nabor Pacheco Jr. was ten years younger than Captain Harry Wheeler with Henry being twelve years younger, but I am sure they faced in other several times in the rival city vs. city matchups. Both Harry and Henry certainly could have been pro ballers as they often played against and beat teams with big league players in many of their baseball battles throughout Arizona. Henry Pacheco was the stronger and more skilled of the two brothers with some of his accomplishments mentioned in the following Tucson newspaper articles.
Tucson Daily Citizen, May 20, 1907
It was the home run swat of Henry Pacheco, far over the left fielder’s head the ball sailed and Pacheco navigated the bases without interruption. He had previously complained that he had a headache. The Armstrongs’ team should have had more of these headaches.
Tucson Daily Citizen, May 22, 1908
Will Go to Prescott
Henry Pacheco, son of Sheriff Pacheco, expects to leave next week for Precott where he will spend the summer. He will again be a member of the strong Prescott ball team and will play first base. He made a great hit last year in this metropolis of Northern Arizona.
Tucson Daily Citizen February 26, 1909
With Yuma Team
Henry Pacheco is playing ball with the Reclamation Service team in Yuma. This nine is made up of college stars and professionals.
Tucson Daily Citizen January 10, 1910
FROM CACTUS TO BIG LEAGUE
Chick Arnold Is to Play With the Chicago White Sox
ARIZONA BASEBALL
Henry Pacheco Say Yuma Has Been Getting Real Article
Henry Pacheco, the star first baseman of Tucson, returned this morning from the coast and will remain here for some time. Mr. Pacheco has spent several months in Yuma in the employ of the Southern Pacific Company and has had an opportunity to mix it up with the professional ball players who have wandered into that town. Speaking of baseball, Pacheco said there are eight clubs in the league, which include clubs representing the Imperial Valley towns and Yuma. He stated that the players in the league had been members of Los Angeles, Veruca, San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York and Chicago teams during the past season, among others Chick Arnold of last year’s Cananen and Indian Myers with the New Yorks.
Chick Arnold, Pacheco stated, will join the Chicago White Sox next season.
When not playing his favorite sport and trying to make a name for himself in the world of baseball, Henry Pacheco still needed to perform his duties as a Deputy Sheriff as highlighted in this article in the local paper.
Tucson Daily Citizen December 23, 1908
FOUND GOODS IN A TUNNEL
Helvetia Burglars Took Almost Wagonload of Supplies From Store
Suspects Put in Jail
Two Mexicans, Charged With Having Committed the Robbery
Hidden 300 feet in one of the tunnels in the Tip Top mines in the Helvetia district, a portion of the goods stolen from the company store was found yesterday afternoon by Deputy Sheriff Henry Pacheco.
Pacheco returned to Tucson last evening from Helvetia bringing with him Aurelio Zumega and Jose de la Cruz, who have been formally charged with burglary. They were arrested yesterday near the Tip Top mine which is located about three miles from the town of Helvetia. The Helvetia burglars had evidently planned on hiding their plunder until they could secure a wagon and safely get away with it without being detected. They stole hats, shoes, suits of clothing and under garments as well as four watches with chains. They entered the store by forcing open a window. The suspects who are now in the county jail, will have preliminary hearing in this city.
Warren Ballpark in Bisbee, Arizona, in the early 1900’s.
Officer Harry C. Wheeler was also highly efficient on the baseball diamond as reported and told in the following pieces.
The Bisbee Daily Review August 4, 1908
WHEELER’S TEAM WON FROM BISBEE
Capt. Wheeler, Ranger Chase and Jack Neylan Were the Stars at Naco
Captain Harry Wheeler’s Naco Baseball team made a hand picked team from Bisbee walk the plank Sunday afternoon at Naco and the splash was long and pronounced – 6 to 5 in ten innings. Word comes from Naco that it was a swell game. Chase, an Arizona Ranger who got in from a long scouting trip just before the game started, was Captain Wheelers’s selection for slab duty.
The Bisbee team struck out- that is 23 of them did. Despite the fact the Bisbee boys were persistently punching holes in the ozone, however, they managed to get a runner on first once in a while, and once there, they kept right on going. Naco was swatting the ball with solid thumps, so the report comes from Naco, and no one in Bisbee would admit yesterday they were in the game. It was see-saw down to the ninth, when Bisbee tied the score. But the tenth! It was about as dreamy a waltz as had been ripped off hereabouts in many a day.
Big Jack Neylan strode from the bench in the shade of a cactus with a Mike Dolin swagger. The first ball pitched he planted under a sage bush out in the desert and was anchored on second when the ball was relayed to the field. Captain Wheeler was next up. He shot a long single over second base and Neylan came steaming over the pentacon with the winning run. The feature of the game in Bisbee’s half was a dazzling play by Wheeler in stopping a line drive ticketed for the interior of Sonora.
The Bisbee players claim the Rangers all wore six-shooters and had the umpire calling strikes that were a mile over the heads and outside of the plate.
After the ball game had been concluded and with the enthusiasm of the spectators still at a high pitch, a quarter mile mule race was pulled off. The jockeys in the race were Constable E. P. Ells and Bob Frasier, both of corpulent build, in which Mr. Ells was the winner. A bet of the outcome of the race was made between G.C. Barry, proprietor of the Cow Ranch Saloon, and Ed Brown, who owns the Big Adobe. The loser of the bet had to buy 24 bottles of beer from his rival establishment. Barry bought the beer.
Eleven days later, Captain Wheeler would be seen back at work while attending the hanging of convicted murder Edwin Hawkins in Tucson, Arizona via invitation by Pima County Sheriff Nabor Pacheco.
Harry C. Wheeler’s Cue Ball Strike
There is a very credible story out there that has been passed down through the generations by those with direct Wheeler knowledge about an unusual confrontation involving the famed lawman. As it was told to me, Harry was in a Benson, Arizona establishment enjoying a friendly game of pool well on his way towards winning the game. A gun carrying patron got angry about hia impending unfavorable result and suddenly went to draw his gun to end the matchup early. But before his revolver could even clear leather, Wheeler had picked up the cue ball and threw it with the velocity of a speeding fast ball hitting the would be killer right between the eyes. The impact from his perfect strike sent the ill-advised gunman to the ground, knocking him out like an just extinguished candle. The fallen cowboy was carried out of the building to the doctor’s office and word was passed on that the head-beaned man was not faring too well!
Allyn Wheeler, son of famed Arizona Ranger Harry C. Wheeler, was also a talented baseball player.
Renowned historian and western history author Bill O’Neal also mentions the baseball accomplishments of Wheeler and those of Harry’s son, Allyn, in his beautifully written book “Captain Harry Wheeler – Arizona Lawman”. There are accounts of Harry and his son facing off against each other in numerous contests in 1913 and 1914. Thirty-seven year old Harry adeptly played shortstop and pitched masterfully when Allyn was very efficient at second base as well as with the bat. They younger Wheeler’s team won most of the games including several double-headers while vying for the winner’s bragging rights. Harry’s team never gave up and came back to win a few games of their own over the much more youthful opponents. It amazes me how Harry Wheeler could still be playing great baseball at his age after being severely wounded and the long recovery from his famous deadly 1907 gunfight in Benson, Arizona.
Bill loved talking baseball and wrote several books about minor league teams in the Pacific Coast League.
There is an old adage “It’s better to be lucky than good” and it applies in part to the exploits of Harry C. Wheeler. Not only was he so lucky to survive his many gun battles but he surely made it through them alive because he was extremely good in the handling his firearms while performing his lawman duties.
In both law enforcement and in baseball, you do definitley need to be lucky but you also need to be very good to come out as the ultimate winner. And winners they were these gun toting law officers and baseball loving athletes!
So let’s play ball!
©Steven “Pacheco” McCann, Great Nephew of Enrique “Babe” Pacheco, for Legends of America, July 2026.
Author Steven McCann.
About the Author: Steven “Pacheco” McCann is an Arizona native with a family history on his mother’s side dating back to the 1700s when the family patriarchs were ranching and farming on lands in southern Arizona. They used the state’s oldest recorded cattle brand, the Diamond Bell, granted to them by the King of Spain in 1888.
Steve grew up spending quality cowboy time with his grandfather on Ricardo’s ranches located around Tucson, where his love of western life and its historical significance was born. During his youth, he branded numerous cattle with his grandfather’s A Triangle Bar and Box 3 branding irons and learned to ride and rope right beside this giant of a man whom he idolized.
With some knowledge of his great-grandfather Nabor Pacheco’s decade-plus time as an Arizona law enforcement officer, Steve’s interest in the history of early Arizona law enforcement has grown into a deep, sincere passion. Reading several books on the Arizona Rangers by renowned author Bill O’Neal lit a fire in Steve, sparked by Bill’s detailed accounts of several of Sheriff Nabor Pacheco’s co-captained posses with the Arizona Rangers. Captain Harry Wheeler, Captain Thomas Rynning, Sargent Jeff Kidder, Billy Old, and many more of the Rangers’ best, to mention a few. Steve has enjoyed the pleasure of talking with and becoming friends with the late Bill O’Neal and grew to share Bill’s fervor for these never-to-be-forgotten heroes, especially their mutual love of Captain Harry Wheeler.
Photos of the family’s 1907 Colt Bisley, a fully engraved & nickel-plated .45-caliber revolver, a favorite gun of Lawman Nabor Pacheco.
The multiple assignments Pacheco and Wheeler worked on together, and their deep friendship, have become one of Steve’s areas of focus. They shared so much in common, as both men were shot and wounded during gunfights in the line of duty, both men served as Arizona Sheriffs (Pima and Cochise Counties, respectively), and both men wore the badge of Deputy U.S. Marshal. They both possessed strong convictions of righting the many wrongs they encountered during their time of service; both men were extremely proficient in handling their high-caliber Colt 45 revolvers and lever-action rifles, and unfortunately, both men died of natural causes much too early. Steve enjoys participating in local Cowboy Fast Draw competitions with his own Colt Bisley 45 Caliber revolvers when not researching and writing about Arizona’s Old West History in hopes his two sons will develop the “interest” as well.
Also See:
Nabor Pacheco – Pima County Lawman
Bound by Duty – United in Friendship (the Nabor Pacheco/Harry Wheeler Story)
Nabor Pacheco’s Three Draws: The Grit and Gun of An Arizona Lawman
The Original “Dirty Harry” (Harry Wheeler)
Marshal Virgil Earp’s “What If” Could Have Changed History Forever