S. B. Sealy
Personal
Gender: Male
Date of Death: June 28, 1910
Death Place: Cibola Valley, AZ
S.B. Sealy
S.B. Sealy Shot To Death
S.B. Sealy, one of the best known and wealthiest citizens of Yuma county, was shot and killed at his ranch home in Cibola valley Tuesday night. Sealy has been in domestic and financial difficulties for years; he has long been regarded as a man of unbalanced mind, and from the meager details at hand, his tragic death seems to have been due to an insane act.
Sealy believed that his wife and other members of his family were conspiring with others to defraud and rob him. With this idea predominant he last week imprisoned one of his sons in a room and with a rifle went hunting for another son, Toney, who in company with Carl Bishop and Leo Frankenburg, was trying to elude his father’s mad vengeance, and the three had combined also to release the imprisoned son and disarm the crazed father. On the way to the Sealy home they encountered the elder Sealy, who from ambush opened fire upon the party without warning. The men returned the fire and Sealy fell, mortally wounded. He was shot through the neck and expired in a few moments.
The news of the tragedy was brought to Picacho by Ralph Sealy and thence to Yuma by Billy Horan. A sheriff’s posse left at once for Cibola, the party including Justice J.C. Jones, District Attorney Timmons, Constable Martinez, Deputy Kinney, Dick Stanton, W.R. Inghram and Tom English.
Mr. Sealy with his family came to Yuma county from Oxnard, Cal., fourteen years ago. He possessed considerable wealth and invested his capital in the lands of the Cibola valley, on the Colorado river 75 miles north of Yuma, and owned most of the district as well as the canal from which it was irrigated.
During the greater part of his residence in this county he has been involved in litigation and in family difficulties, which preyed upon the unbalanced his mind, undoubtedly. A few years ago he was committed to the asylum, but we believe was never closely confined, and was soon released. He attributed many of his troubles to his own family and affairs finally led to his wife securing a divorce.
With all his vagaries and troubles, Mr. Sealy was looked upon as a progressive citizen, a square man in business, and in fact did a great deal in the development of Yuma county.
Published in The Arizona Sentinel (Yuma, Arizona) Thursday June 30, 1910
