Line Rider: A Book Review
Written By Arizona Ranger Joseph Pearce 1873-1958
This is the story of Joe Pearce, an Arizona Ranger at the turn of the 19th century.
Joe was born in Utah in 1873, the third of eventually 11 children. He moved to Taylor, Arizona, in the White Mountains, with his parents when he was four. Joe grew up as a farmer and a rancher, got a fair education and attended Brigham Young University for one year before contracting measles, diphtheria, and influenza, which interrupted his schooling. In 1897, at the age of 24, he taught school in Silver Creek and had 23 students, all Mexicans.
Over time, Joe became an expert tracker and at the age of 30, in 1903, he enlisted as one of the original Arizona Rangers. He resigned in 1906 after a distinguished career and spent the next 6 years as a Line Rider (a forest ranger), then became Chief of Apache Police at the Fort Apache Reservation.
He married Minnie Lund in 1906 and they raised 9 children together. They owned a ranch near Mt. Baldy in Eager, Apache County, Arizona that included a 9-room house, some cultivated acreage, and a hundred head of cattle.
