Edward L. Schieffelin was a prospector born in 1847 in Pennsylvania. He was responsible for the town of Tombstone Arizona being established. Ed was employed by the U.S. government as an Indian scout. Tombstone Arizona received its name from him. In 1877 he was sent to Apache territory and among the Apache Indians was Cochise. Ed Schieffelin was headquartered at the Camp Huachuca. Ed would also prospect looking for his gold mine out in the desert. The soldiers would tell him the only thing he would find out there would be his Tombstone. At the time Ed was only 29 years old. Well Ed found his claim. It was silver he found not gold. He called this claim "tombstone". He later discovered several other claims, the "lucky cuss" and the "toughnut". March 5, 1879 an official town site was laid out. The town site to be called Tombstone. Ed Schieffelin was a rich man from his strike in the desert. With his wealth he headed out and through his travels met Mary Brown in San Francisco and later married her. They then settled in Los Angeles. He later headed out to Oregon to prospect again. He was found in his cabin at the table dead. They found some gold ore that tested at more than $2,000.00 per ton. No one knew where he found the ore and there was no map found. In his will he asked to be buried near Tombstone in his miner clothing with his pick and canteen. His body was sent to Tombstone Arizona where they buried him in his miner clothing, the pick and canteen. He is buried just outside Tombstone and on the monument it says:

Died May 12, 1897
Aged 49 years 8 months
A dutiful son
A faithful husband
A kind brother
A true friend∼Ed Scheiffelin left Tuscon, AZ alone with a mule and the dream of achieving impossible wealth. The Sonora Desert was alive with marauding Apache Indians, led by Cochise, Geronimo and Victorio. Here in the Dragoon Mountains he founded the richest silver strike in the US. Ore from mines in the area were being assayed at $15,000 a ton.

He met Mrs. Mary E Brown in San Francisco in 1883, married her in La Junta, CO and settled in Alameda, CA.

In 1897 he bought a ranch near his brothers in Oregon. He died in Oregon slumped over samples of gold from his latest strike, but is buried near the site of his original mining claim, "Tombstone", about three miles east of Tombstone, AZ. A 25 foot tall cairn marks the spot. He is the founder of Tombstone, AZ.


His great-grandfather was Jacob Schieffelin, Sr. He was secretary for Henry Hamilton during the Revolutionary War. He was a prisoner of war for a time, escaping to Canada. After the war he started a drug company still in operation today importing liquor(Schieffelin & Somerset).

His father was Clinton Emanuel Del Pela Schieffelin who had settled in the Rogue Valley, Oregon Territory in the 1850s. He raised cattle and grain.

Source: Wikipedia.org