Old Naco graves may be in danger

l Miles Gibbons, 50, a well-known and experienced miner who died with his partner Robert Elwyn in a mine explosion in Cananea, Mexico. Because Mexican law at the time prohibited the removal of a body from the country, his family had to sneak his remains back into the United States. He was buried June 4, 1904.

● George F. Sheldon, a corporal with the 21st New Jersey Infantry during the Civil War. He served from August 1862 to June 19, 1863. He probably saw battle at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and several other significant engagements. After his service, Sheldon moved to Chicago, and later to Arizona and California. He died in Naco in November 1907 at age 74. He is buried with his grandson Louis, who drowned in Greenbush draw at age 3.

l John R. Hall, a veteran of both the Mexican War and the Civil War. He was described in his obituary as a frontiersman and was reported to have been one of the first to enter gold fields in what is now Colorado. He died in November 1908 at age 77 of the "effects of asthma and old age." In Naco, he was a successful saloon keeper and rancher.

● James Quinlan, who was born in Maine in 1839 and wound up in Tucson in 1864. He worked as a blacksmith, wagon maker and a freight hauler who moved supplies between Tucson and Yuma. He eventually settled in Naco and was a rancher until he died at 61 in January 1901 while eating at a Chinese restaurant in Naco, Sonora.

● Josephine Quarles, 45, who died in March 1930 from burns she suffered when a gasoline stove exploded in her home. Her husband, Richard, 66, died in May 1931 and was also buried at the cemetery.

Source: Cochise County historian Robert Silas Griffin.