Charles Alexander Shibell[1] was born on August 14, 1841, to George and Mary Agnes (Byrne) Shibbell in St. Louis, Missouri[2] where he attended public school.

In May 1865, he moved to the Sonoita River about 30 miles (48 km) south of Tubac, Arizona, participating in the cowboy business before operating his own cattle ranch.

He may have been a participant[8]: 221  in the Camp Grant Massacre on April 30, 1871, during which 144 Aravaipas and Pinal Indians were killed and mutilated, almost all of them women and children.

In January 1875, he was appointed a Pima County Deputy Sheriff by Tucson Mayor William S. Oury and held the office for two years.

He was responsible for enforcing the law for 3,000 citizens spread out over 12,000,000 acres (4,900,000 ha) on the extremely remote border with Mexico, a wide-open area on the edge of the American frontier.

On August 19, 1878, Shibell and a citizen posse tracked Arizona and New Mexico Territory road-agent William Whitney Brazelton, who was suspected of repeated stagecoach robberies in the Tucson area, to a meeting place where he expected to receive supplies from a confederate named David Nemitz.

"[11] Shibell gave orders to shoot on sight if needed, and Brazelton was killed during the confrontation in a mesquite bosque along the Santa Cruz River approximately three miles south of Tucson.

Shibell was supported in his reelection bid by a loosely organized federation of outlaw Cowboys, mostly Southerners, who strongly opposed Wyatt Earp and the Republicans generally.

[14]: 194 Elections were held on November 2, and it was expected that Democrat Shibell would be defeated by Republican Bob Paul, who Wyatt had supported during the campaign.

It was clear that there had been reckless counting at Tombstone, fraud at San Simon and a careless election board at Tres Alamos.

James Johnson later testified for Bud Paul in the election hearing and said that the ballots had been left in the care of Democrat Phin Clanton.

[1]: 221 It was during his second appointment as deputy sheriff that Shibell challenged an old friend, a former guide and scout for the U.S. Army named Albert Franklin Banta, the reputed discoverer of Meteor Crater, to track down a fugitive 900 miles into Old Mexico and back.